In celebration of KMK’s new album KROWN POWER, the band is giving 5 lucky winners an autographed Kronitron Mega Pack Pre-Order Package, which includes the Deluxe Green Edition of Krown Power.
Presenting DX’s picks for the 30 best underground Hip Hop albums dropped since the year 2000.
First things first, we’ll start with what we disqualified. No mixtapes. No major label stuff. No albums by the artist after they went mainstream. We know that many people hate the moniker “underground,” and that it sometimes feels demeaning to artists. And we know that, for some people, there will be a difference between “underground” and “alternative” Hip Hop. We know that more still will find a difference between those two and “indie.” And we know that can go on ad-nauseum because the “underground” is something different, maybe, to everyone. Of course, also, we are only considering albums made since the Y2K scare.
We also know that people will feel as though we left some of their favorite albums off this list, and for that we’d like to say to feel free to drop your own list in the comment section. But, for us, these were the albums that set themselves apart. In the early 2000s, it was about hitting the record shops and being part of the scene, supporting your favorite artists that didn’t have a major label machine behind them. Later on it became about blogspots and now defunct forums where people shared music and thumbed their noses at those who weren’t in the know. All the while crate digging and hitting shows outside of the know of many.
More importantly, the “underground” lives forever, because it represented artists who weren’t afraid of topics and structures and sounds normally left off the table at A&R meetings. Those who didn’t clamor for radio play or acceptance. Those that you had to find.
Busdriver – Temporary Forever
The Project Blowed member’s debut was full of the most humorous and mind numbing free-associative rhymes one will ever hear. Looking deeper into Busdriver’s mind, themes on gun violence and major labels complications among others give a feeling of something deeper.
Quasimoto – The Unseen
Madness is the pleasure of the unseen, and Madlib’s pig-nosed hippo with the brick is everyone’s unseen. The lost thoughts of a rambling stairwell dweller, or the undine styled under-thoughts of a producer living in a basement studio, Lord Quas was our one and only pleasure of pure id. A bit of jazzy ultra-violence in a squeaky ass voice never felt so good.
Little Brother – The Listening
For many, The Listening could be considered one of the most groundbreaking underground Hip Hop records of the modern era. Before their more commercially successful sophomore follow-up The Minstrel Show, the North Carolina trio felt like a polished major label act with a level of creativity that could only come from within the underground. Phonte and Big Pooh’s chemistry was undeniable while 9th Wonder held everything together effortlessly production wise.
Brother Ali – Shadows On The Sun
Mr. Ali Newman really hit his stride on his sophomore album Shadows On The Sun. Besides Brother Ali’s way better than average beat selection, the album proved how lyrically far the Rhymesayers Entertainment emcee. Though he’s improved with every release,Shadows Of The Sun could be considered his best.
Blackalicious – Blazing Arrow
Blazing Arrow wasn’t appreciated when released in 2002. However, it’s only gotten better with age thanks to Gift of Gab and producer Chief Xcel. There wasn’t a topic the duo wouldn’t touch. For example, how many people did “Chemical Calisthenics” help through high school Chemistry?
Z- Ro – Let The Truth Be Told
Former Gorilla Mob member Z-Ro has a storied history in Houston Hip Hop. Several albums in, he dropped a bonafide classic in Let The Truth Be Told. For the first time in his career, he made an album that felt more than something local. From the intro “Mo City Don” to “Respect My Mind,” Let The Truth Be Told is an honest Southern tale.
Edan – Beauty & The Beat
Beauty & The Beat was an unlikely critical smash in 2004, garnering the dark-dust-feather topped Edan Portnoy (not to be confused with Portnoy, the ballsy, corrupt main character of Portnoy’s Complaint by Phillip Roth) an 85% Metacritic score and cementing him as a dim forefather in the realm of middle-class rap. Think American Beauty, but no dads, no beauty, and mostly zaniness refined into a brainy, cathartic lilt.
J – Live – The Best Part
Like forward, free-thinking Gods-among-men, DX gave this album the 4.5 it deserved in 2001 just months before the towers fell and everything changed forever. Looking at it through a lens of xenophobia, groupthink and recklessness, J-Live’s The Best Part reads like a tome from another world lamenting the lack of intellectual rigor that would inevitably follow.
Murs & 9th Wonder – Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition
Murs has been, and been quite well, an everyman with an edge. On Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition he found his very capable footing on Def Jux by ditching the skateboard and sliding into a kind of existential angst.
Ka – Grief Pedigree
One of the hardest (that’s right, hardest) NYC Hip Hop albums ever released, Ka’s foray into the depths of Brownsville proved a bit too much for the tastes of the Internet intelligentsia, but that doesn’t mean the sheer propensity for verse and meanness on this album should be overlooked.
Madvillain – Madvillainy
Madlib and MF Doom joining forces were something that only could’ve happened under the Stones Throw umbrella. For it’s time, Madvillainy became the super rap album, reaching unforeseen creative heights. Since then, both esteemed producer and emcee have elevated themselves into Gods for many core Hip Hop heads. It’s an album so good, some doubt its brilliance out of the right to be contrarian. A bonafide classic, either way.
Blu & Exile – Below The Heavens
Blu & Exile’s classic LP barely found an audience in 2007 when it was released. What a shame. This deeply visceral, almost perfectly executed album featured two amazing artists surpassing themselves to create this piece lightening in a bottle. Just the first 16 bars on “Greater Love” make it one of the best rap love songs of all-time, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Blu rollicked through a lush field of production, and it stands a testament to how good Hip Hop can be.
El-P – Fantastic Damage
El-P’s debut Fantastic Damage was an unrelenting kick to the rap nuts of fuckboys everywhere before there was even a term for that level of human soap scum. What a year that was! Production for Cannibal Ox’s classic Cold Vein and then an abstract turn at lighting a molotov cocktail and calling it music. It blew almost everyone away, and it still does.
Aesop Rock – Labor Days
Def Jux tumbled out of the lost days at Rawkus ready to incite, well intelligent shit into the Hip Hop meta-sphere. Who better than Aesop Rock to do just that? Surgical is the only term you need for this album, as it tackles the topic of labor of all forms in concentrated bursts of brilliance. Produced mostly by Blockhead with a few self-produced cuts, Labor Days serves as a companion piece to The Cold Vein’s concentrated fury at the state of rap.
Cunninlynguists – A Piece Of Strange
A Piece Of Strange is when Cunninlynguists got serious. Kno hung up the mic for all but one verse, but what he dragged to the grave with him in the way of humor he more than made up for behind the boards. Deacon lit the intricate production ablaze with Natty this time, as Mr. S.O.S went back to his solo career. No one missed a single, solitary beat, and the album suffers from little to no real flaws. The emceeing is superb, and the high concept is done so well that it melts away and deeply lodges itself into your veins.
Oddisee – The Good Fight
Oddisee came all golden skinned out of his last record and created The Good Fight. The album almost completely avoided the status quo, bringing to light a rap realism that hadn’t been really traversed since The College Dropout. His is the other side of the coin, though, having graduated into how a dream takes hold only after wild efforts. The Good Fight, then, is a manual on how to join your luminescence with reality in a way that gets you closer to your dreams.
Atmosphere – God Loves Ugly
Unrelentingly angry, God Loves Ugly is a journey into the deep unconscious mind of Slug and all his issues with women and with people in general. It defined the angsty tug-of-war many people feel with the opposite sex, and then it lit a cold blue flame of despair to your mind as you listened.
Jedi Mind Tricks – Servants In Heaven, Kings In hell
If the mainstream bet its money on longing as the way to people’s wallets, then the Jedi Mind Tricks truly could not have cared less. Although this was their first album to chart on the Billboard 200, JMT had already secured a cult following at this point due to their ability to explore topics normally shoved under the rug. A masterpiece of pacing, lyrical variety, and fervor, Servants In Heaven, Kings In Hell stands as one of the group’s most mercurial pieces of work.
Cannibal Ox – The Cold Vein
Easily one of the best Hip Hop albums of all time, The Cold Vein is full of the stuff everyone was trying to avoid. You’ll hear all manner of sounds flood your consciousness and you’ll miss them when they fade away into a kind of mechanical abyss. It is the Ghost In The Shell of Hip Hop, contorting and examining just long enough to force you to understand the stark reality of your universe.
Zion I – Mind Over Matter
The Source gave this album three stars out of five when it dropped in May of 2000. Baba Zumbi and Amp Live melted down eclectic production and socially conscious lyrics into a maelstrom of sonic variability. Oh, and then The Source nominated them for independent album of the year. Too late.
Eyedea & Abilities – First Born
One of the most obscure records out of Rhymesayers Entertainment’s catalog is probably Eyedea & Abilities’ First Born. Production is an interesting blend of contemporary boom bap and experimental. Thankfully, there are some great conceptual tracks including “Color My World” and fan favorite “Big Shot.”
Roc Marciano – Marcberg
Phenomenal debut albums from rappers/producers are rare. Roc Marciano managed to accomplish that and more for his first go-around Marcberg. The Fat Beats release featured stellar tracks ranging from “We Do It” and “Thugs Prayer,” all doing a pretty great job of displaying vibes of dread.
Masta Ace – Disposable Arts
Brooklyn’s own Masta Ace could be considered one of the most underrated emcees out of New York. Disposable Arts is an unfortunate reminder that sometimes, great conceptual bodies of work and lyrical excellence didn’t earn mainstream acceptance. Doesn’t stop the album from featuring some dope guest features from Jean Grae and Greg Nice.
Sean Price – Jesus Price Supastar
There’s a reason why Jesus Price Supastar was the first album from DuckDown Records to chart in years. His solo debut Monkey Barz felt more than a proper debut. However, Jesus Price Supastar couldn’t have been grander on all aspects. Beat selection and bars were better than ever. Plus, the usage of Reverend X samples put things over the top.
Homeboy Sandman – The Good Sun
Five years ago it was impossible to find an emcee who approached a track with the same style as Homeboy Sandman. The Queens native flossed an uncanny, beat embedded, often-rapid-fire-but-just-as-effective-when-slowed flow that came impossibly close to singing without actually singing. It was singular and absolutely appreciated, especially when merged with a range of concepts and production. The Good Sun tackled homelessness, heartbreak, mean mugs, environmental sustainability and the art of emceeing like a lyrical J.J. Watt—and he did it while leaving all profanity on the cutting room floor.
dead prez – Let’s Get Free
Let’s Get Free became the wake up call Hip Hop needed at the turn of the millennium. Especially with tracks ranging from the now standard revolutionary cut “Hip Hop” and black nationalist themed “I’m a African.” It’s not all fist pumps and activists sonics thanks to sinsual cuts like “Mind Sex.”
J. Dilla – Welcome 2 Detroit
While many count Donuts and The Shining as seminal works from J.Dilla, his debutWelcome 2 Detroit is the perfect display of the Motor City’s crowned jewel. While later acclaimed projects felt more like showcases of his production skills, Welcome 2 Detroitinclude some of Dilla’s best bars as an emcee. This meant something more in line of a “from scratch” album than incredible unfinished material.
¡MayDay! – Take Me To Your Leader
Strange Music’s resident band reached rarefied air with Take Me To Your Leader. Rap/Rock hybrids usually buckle before finding a balance between dope rhymes and dope live percussion. Either the rhymes are awesome or the music’s awesome, almost never both at the same time. Three years since TMTYL’s release and ¡MayDay! still resonates righteously on-all-fronts. The Miami natives’ witty social commentary viscerally captures American plight post-Great Recession, all over production rich enough to be described as wealthy.
Reflection Eternal – Train Of Thought
Considered by some as one of the best album Rawkus Records produced during their heyday, Reflection Eternal: Train of Thought featured everything that Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek such a fierce Hip Hop duo. Kweli’s smart aggression matched Tek moody production. While the follow-up Revolutions Per Minute didn’t match their debut, their introduction as aged pretty well.
Jaylib – Champion Sound
Half the album was Jay Dee rapping on Madlib beats and the other half was Madlib rapping on Dilla beats and never was there a concept more arduously loved. The rhymes and beats, of course, are stellar, but they transcend themselves in little genius ways that redefine the way you look at production.
Funk Volume is something of an anomaly within the hip-hop world. An independent record label started by Damien “Dame” Ritter and Hopsin in 2008, FV has thrived in the past half-decade as the home for a crew of rappers—SwizZz, Dizzy Wright, Jarren Benton and DJ Hoppa have all signed on alongside Hopsin—that are dedicated to their own individuality and built a fan base that’s as diverse and fervent as any in the business. They’re a crew that records together, tours together and works together in a way that many hip-hop crews, despite what they may say in public, just don’t. And after seven years in the game, the only way is up.
The label was born while Hopsin was stuck in a rut, signed to the ghost of Eazy-E’s Ruthless Records and searching for a way to transition out. Hopsin’s brand of hip-hop didn’t endear him to the mainstream by any means, but through a clever and dedicated use of Facebook and YouTube, the L.A.-based MC had cultivated a rabid fan base online, made up largely of teenagers in middle America who were attracted to his high-level lyricism and relatable personality. His high school classmate SwizZz and Dizzy Wright also came aboard early on, along with DJ Hoppa and, later, Jarren Benton, cementing a roster that stretches across sub genres and locations with a focus on MCs who, as Hopsin so eloquently put it, are “actually able to rap.”
The dedication to touring—Hopsin, Dizzy, Jarren and Hoppa are heading out on their Funk Volume 2015 Tour this fall, one of many joint tours they’ve charted—and cross-label collaborations has built up their fan base to a feverish level; three years in a row, Hopsin (2012), Dizzy Wright (2013) and Jarren Benton (2014) all became XXL Freshmen, with the latter two riding the fan-voted 10th spot to land on the cover. As they get ready to head out on their tour next month, XXL sat down with Hopsin, Dizzy Wright and Jarren Benton to talk about the beginnings, evolution and future of Funk Volume.
On The Current State of Funk Volume
Dizzy Wright: The label’s good, man. We about to go on tour. Funk Volume 2015 tour. Fifty-two shows in 61 days. I just dropped my album [The Growing Process], Hop dropped his album [Pound Syndrome], Jarren dropped his EP [Slow Motion Vol. 1]. There’s a lot going on. We’re all working on new music still, but yeah, we’re just gearing up for this tour, man. As far as stage-wise, we’re bringing lights and we shot like a little movie for a project on like a, what’s it called, an LED wall? Yeah, like a video wall.
Jarren Benton: It’s some next level shit. You know how Drake got the smoke and the projections when he come out? Similar to that.
DW: Jarren said it best yesterday: we all have our own individual lanes. None of us kind of duplicate each other. We each got our own specific lane when we come around. There’s no clones in Funk Volume and I think because everybody’s original and their own person, it’s just easy to be ourselves and do your thing. I mean, we tour with a lot of people. We went on tour with Tech [N9ne]. I did a few tours with Kottonmouth Kings and different types of artists. We like to just link up and make a dope experience, so whatever way we do that, that’s kind of what we do.
On The Initial Idea of Funk Volume
Hopsin: Just to make a label with dope rappers and we don’t do commercial swag stuff. Yeah. I just wanted a label of real MCs and that’s what it has right now, just real MCs. Like, that’s the foundation, you have to actually be able to rap.
[I found Dizzy and Jarren on] Craigslist. [Laughs] Nah, just online. They already had buzz and everything, so we just saw them online and stuff. Well, somebody showed me Jarren and one of the links to his videos and I thought it was dope. And I told Dame about it. We just had to find him and hit him up and just slowly start to show him what we had going on. And we were following Dizzy. Dizzy we signed first before Jarren and we just found him online. We would always just see his stuff everywhere on Facebook and people were saying, “This dude’s dope.” And we were just fans of his work.
DW: I was signed before you.
H: [To Dame] He was, huh?
DW: I was the first one signed. Nah, [Hopsin] started the label but the label wasn’t a legit label until they made it a legit label and contracts started coming in. There was no contracts until Dizzy got involved. You know what I mean? [Laughs] Yeah, so I was the first one to actually sign the contracts. So, I’m the first.
H: I’m the second artist then. When I first made Funk Volume I was still on Ruthless Records. We had planned to just transition out of that anyways, but we just had to play the game and not fully promote ourselves as a label. We were more like…
Dame Ritter: What were we promoting? It was more like a label.
H: We didn’t go really, really hard and say it was a record label.
DR: We didn’t have the paperwork because it was me, Hop and my brother. When we wanted to sign Dizzy, that’s when we actually had our paperwork in place. So before that, the important thing was to just grow our fan base and promote what we had going on. So then we could go back and… But everything’s legit now, we got the paperwork. [Laughs]
DW: I just like the cool, fun fact that I was the first to get a contract. I’m in this contract for life. I didn’t even read it. [Laughs]
On Signing to Funk Volume
JB: For me, it was them. I was talking to Dame. Dame reached out to me on email, and being the irresponsible dickhead I am sometimes, I don’t check my email sometimes. For like…months. And when I finally checked it, I saw Dame reached out. And I hit him back and we was kinda talking on the phone and shit and we both had a show at SXSW. And once I saw them niggas do their show, I was like, “Yo, that shit…” Him, Dizzy, SwizZz and DJ Hoppa, the energy was just fucking dope. It was dope as fuck. And it was the same energy that I bring to my shows. I was like, “Yo, these niggas dope.” So really, they sold me, man. When I saw these niggas live and I started listening to they shit and going online, I was like, “Hell yeah.” It was just like a dope squad.
DW: Yeah, pretty much the same thing. Dame really played a big part in why I got on the label. He was like, “Yo man, we just trying to create something dope.” I wanted to be apart of something that I could be myself. I knew I had a lot of shaping to do around me as an artist. I had to learn a little bit as far as performing and just the whole musical side of things and Funk Volume just had that platform. Seeing Hop and SwizZz perform, it was a wrap. I was like, “Them niggas are so next level.” Crowd surfing, you know what I mean? I didn’t pull out not one crowd when I fucking opened up for this nigga. It wasn’t a soul that knew about me outside of Vegas, you know what I mean? But I was doing my thing and I liked what they had going on.
H: We started growing really fast, too. Niggas start fucking with you, dog. [Laughs] First he had a thousand haters, second week…
DW: Yo, when I signed to Funk Volume though, they hated me. I think I got it worse than Jarren, I’m telling you. Funk Volume, they had created a fan base, a certain type of fan base and that’s why I kind of fucked with Dame, because Dame had the vision of adding something a little different, not the same. Because he could’ve easily signed little Hopsins, you know what I mean? And just had a group of little Hopsins. But he wanted something different to make the label seem dynamic, and I got hate. Them niggas was… They tore me apart online.
H: On our pages, on social media, they was like, Dizzy? They was bashing him. They were acting like we signed Soulja Boy. But that’s what they was making it seem like.
DW: Forreal, but it was crazy. I was like, “I got some real shit out there. Alright, so fuck these niggas, I got some work to do.”
H: He won ’em over though. Yeah, he got his own fan base now.
JB: Oh, they hated me too. At first I got love because I think they was all going off of “Skitzo” and you know, my shit is a mixture of outlandish shit and turn up shit, too. So you still get a Southern element in my music. There’s always been a stigma about the South. I think when people think of the music, the beats are dope but I think a lot of rappers that are on the beats, they’re really not that lyrical. So I think I just really got the South backlash when they heard me rapping over those beats. They was like, “Aww, this another turn up record.”
DW: At least you fit, though. They didn’t think I fit Funk Volume at all. That was so left field for them. They was like… Dame was posting my shit, all the slow shit and they was like, “What the fuck is this?” Like, that’s poetry, nigga, what you mean?
JB: They was calling me a trap rapper. That’s what it was. Trap rapper.
H: They were only saying that because my fans started out as like weird, midwest kids who like weird music and they like me yelling and being crazy and hating life and all that stuff. So then, when Dizzy came in it was not that at all.
DW: I brought the love. [Laughs]
H: Yeah, he brought the love.
DW: And they was like, “We don’t want love, nigga! We want to kill!”
H: And then Jarren brought a bouncier flow with the whole trap style beats from Atlanta and then they automatically identified that with commercialized music. But he doesn’t rap like that at all, but they just instantly, when they heard that… Yeah. But they love Jarren now because they started listening.
On Building a Dedicated Fan Base
DW: That’s real fan interaction. Just getting out there just shaking hands making fans. Putting on a good show. Doing meet and greets. Lately, in-stores. Just like, being about the fans. I mean, Hop at his shows, he was selling out shows and he was skating outside the show with his fans in front of his sold out show. Most rappers are hiding in the back. I’m getting drunk in the back, smoking weed, I’m not skating. We all got different ways of interacting with the fans, but that’s a huge fucking part.
H: Yeah, it’s the fans for sure. Because they feel like we’re accessible to them more than the average artist to where it’s very possible to meet us. I mean, like it’ll be sometimes on Twitter, Dizzy gets messages on Twitter or Jarren where they’re like, “Oh, I can’t wait to see you when you come here,” and then you actually do see them and it’s like, “Oh shit, I saw you on Twitter.” Like, I remember you from Twitter, you was tweeting at me. And I think that, really, well I’m sure that does happen to other artists, but it doesn’t seem like it happens that often. They’re not accessible to where they got that wall up like, “I’m a celebrity, you’ll never see me unless you come to my shows or you see my interviews. You see shit on Instagram but you don’t know where I’m at.” You don’t even be taking no normal pictures. You not eating no noodles or drinking no soda. “I’m over here doing club stuff but you don’t know what club I’m at.” They put up that type of wall, you know? So we just be chillin’.
JB: I think another thing is that when they meet us and stuff, we don’t come across like typical rappers. I mean, sometimes they can get on your nerves. I mean like, Dizzy be smoking with fans. I used to, I stopped. Dizzy stay smoking with muthafuckas. He’s skating with people. We just looking at them like they real people, even though they fans. Shit, I know how it is when you meet somebody you like. Shit, I remember when I met someone I liked. Some of my favorite people shitted on me and I understand they might not be in the element to be friendly, but I think the interaction with all of us comes across as real genuine fuckin’ people. We not trying to shit on anybody.
DW: We not trying to shit on nobody. [Everybody laughs]
JB: Don’t get me wrong, sometimes they can get a little… There’s some weirdos that make you shut the fuck down.
DW: Nah, I let them know. I’m very vocal with how I feel. Don’t make me feel weird, I won’t make you feel weird, and if you do I’ma let you know. I’m very vocal with my emotions. I fuck with the fans, but if they doing too much, nigga, I be like turn down home boy, nah mean? And it’s usually the niggas more than the girls.
JB: Yeah, that is true.
DW: The dudes be acting like, “Let me get on the bus.” Like, hold on, fuck you mean?
JB: And it be older niggas, like I couldn’t imagine me at like, 19, I don’t want to get on a nigga’s bus. I just wanted to meet you. I didn’t want to get on your bus.
DW: Yeah, I just want to shake your hand. They all like, “What you doing later?”
H: That’s what happens. Like, they don’t really know, especially if they younger, they don’t know that we are mature in our real lives. They just think we’re wild rappers, like, “Ahh, Dizzy Wright, Jarren Benton”—
JB: I give the young ones a pass, the young ones. But the old heads—c’mon, man.
H: Yeah, you know what time it is. Cut that off. When they keep pushing, that’s when you gotta say, “Look, I’m a 30-year-old grown man telling you if you do this one more time, there will be problems. I’m a real human being. If you do this one more time after I’ve told you no two times, there will be problems amongst us.”
DW: And what do problems lead to, Hop?
H: Those lead to pullin’ up at yo’ momma’s house. Llama out. Now the drama’s out. [Laughs] Caskets. Baskets. Ass kicked. Click clackin’. All that.
JB: Yeah, so don’t come runnin’ up on Funk Volume. [Laughs]
On What They’ve Learned From Touring
DW: I definitely learned that I don’t want no weed problems, at all, ever. Give the weed to me, I’ll take care of it. That’s how I be feelin’.
H: Oh, so you know how to do it? Everywhere?
DW: I know exactly how to do it. I don’t want know weed problems. ‘Cause I smoke weed, everybody knows, so to get in trouble for weed just seems ridiculous to me. I got kids, I need to be safe, I can’t get that kind of rep, you know? So I just learned to be as safe as possible and not take weed through the checkpoints, ’cause one time I did and they pulled us off the bus. It was in Texas, that one stop in Texas. It was crazy, ’cause I had a little nuggy and it was hard to find weed, bro. At the time I was a little artist, nobody knew me, nobody knew I smoked weed, just running around with Hopsin trying to get my name out there. It was hard to find weed and I didn’t wanna give it up. I put it in a chip bag and got it through. [Laughs] But I was scared ’cause they pulled everybody out, Hop and Dame was all out sittin’ there, lookin’ at me. ‘Cause none of them smoke and I was like, “Ah, man, I can’t bring all these problems to Funk Volume…”
H: ‘Cause when stuff like that happens we all know it’s Dizzy. We know it’s him and it’s like, everything’s shut down now and we’re just like, “Man, this muthafucka, man, he got a nugget somewhere hiding it.” [Laughs]
DW: Yo, but they didn’t find that bitch though and we got through scot-free and I had my bud still. [Laughs] No, but I don’t condone that. Kids if you’re listening, weed smokers if you’re listening, be safe. I try to be as safe as possible. But also on tour, you gotta be comfortable. You could go out there and you by yourself and you don’t really have homies to hang out with and talk to, make things go a little bit smoother, it can get weird out there. You find yourself getting a little homesick, find yourself missing the little things from home while you’re on the road. And then everything is redundant. The fans are the same type of energy every city. So we can’t have no bad days, ’cause they’re all watching us. The minute we do something they’re all on Twitter, “Hopsin’s an asshole, Dizzy Wright’s an asshole.” So you just gotta be comfortable and have good people around you on tour.
JB: I’ll tweet ’em back, like, “You an asshole, bitch. I saw you out there, starin’ at me, bitch you made me mad.” [Laughs]
H: Touring is not a game.
DW: Hop don’t like to tour.
H: I don’t like touring, but I do it anyway. Touring to me is like boot camp. Boot camp and slave camp.
DW: [Laughs] Nigga, what? Oh, shit.
JB: You know, I think, I can see how it can get like that. The main thing is comfortable. If you comfortable, if you get people around you like you bring the homies out with you—if you have enough room—’cause from the outside looking in, it looks like touring is fun. But if you don’t got the right people around you, like he said, it can feel like—I’m not gonna say slavery… I’m not gonna say boot camp, neither—but it can get exhausting, I will say that.
H: Picture a little monkey on a little bicycle throwing little juggling balls, no homo, that’s what it feels like. The only way to make touring feel comfortable is if you literally took your house and put it on the back of the tour bus. Your whole house with everybody in it and put that shit on the back. ‘Cause you’re out for so many days… This is my perspective, only. Yeah, it feels cool for the first few days or weeks, but then when you’re out for months it’s like, Man, okay, I don’t even feel like a human no more. It’s just every single night is the same thing. And I understand that’s what touring is, but that’s just what it feels like.
DW: Man, I love that shit, homie, I love that feeling out there. But like I said, I got my best friend with me, I’ve taken some of my big homies to drive and shit like that.
On The Difficulties of Life On the Road
H: I personally think from touring, from my personal experience, whoever you are at home, touring will turn you into somebody else. And that’s what people don’t understand.
JB: It will.
H: And there’s certain things, like, if you normally eat pizza every day and you live in the jungle, you will have to adapt to your surroundings or else it won’t feel right and you’ll go crazy, like, “I’m not about to eat bananas muthafucka, I need some pizza!” I’m like that on tour, I’m like, I need my shit that I do at home. When you don’t embrace the tour life for what it is, that’s when it clashes. I don’t embrace it, so that clashes for me. Tour life can be great if you truly embrace everything that it is, from the stardom side to just the shows. Every single thing, but once you embrace it, you will be 100 percent comfortable.
JB: I will say this, too: [Hopsin] don’t drink or smoke. If I didn’t drink or smoke, I think I would feel exactly like that. He’s doin’ this shit sober. I gotta get fucked up. I couldn’t do that.
DW: He’s doin’ this all sober, from the shows to everything. I get faded before I go on stage and I’m lovin’ it! I turn into Jimi Hendrix, nigga! Shit!
JB: But that also can be the downside, like he said, to where on tour you turn into something that you maybe not at all. Like I don’t usually go as hard with the drugs and alcohol when I’m at home, but when I’m on the road…
DW: It’s just so natural, everybody’s doin’ it and if I don’t do it I feel like I’m kind’ve…
JB: Nah, I need it, I feel like I need it.
DW: Nah, I’m talking about from Hop’s sense; because he doesn’t do it at home and when he comes on the road it’s just, that’s how you get through shit.
JB: It becomes my coping mechanism on the road.
H: That’s the other thing, when I’m on tour and you thrown in front of a bunch of women every single night, that fucks your head up. I don’t care what guy on planet Earth goes, “I love my woman no matter what.” Go on tour for two months, I don’t care who you are, have these hot women flashing you, saying anything they can say—’cause that’s a guy’s fuckin’ dream at the end of the day, having every woman praise him and say, “I wanna suck your dick right now, right in front of everybody, I don’t have no shame.” [Laughs] That’s really, ultimately, what every guy wants, but it’s unrealistic in a normal life when you work at WalMart and your girlfriend lives across the street. But when you on tour, it’s a whole different planet. So you’re trying to be the guy back from on Earth when you’re on Jupiter now and you like, Man, the Earth ways don’t work here, but then I’m still talkin’ to people on Earth and I don’t wanna tell them about who I really am and it’s like, “What the fuck am I…”
DW: That’s how it’s gotta be, though, you overthinking it, be the nigga you wanna be!
H: Nah, I understand, but then you got… Let me just get my definition out.
DW: I’m just sayin’, nigga, look. I hear you. But fuck them bitches. There’s gonna be fans, there’s gonna be groupies, that comes with the lifestyle. So what? Find a girl that respect that. Find a girl that understand that this shit gon’ get crazy. Don’t tell her, “I might fuck a bitch.” Don’t tell her that! But she gotta understand the life, that it comes with flashing women. But it do get hard, I get it, it do get hard. But you can’t focus on them girls.
JB: I will say this, coming from a background of working a 9-5 and tryna do fuckin’ rap and now I’m livin’ the dream, I’d rather go on tour sober any fuckin’ day for 98 days, three years, whatever, rather than go back to doing some shit I hate doing. So in a sense, we’re just damn-near blessed to be doin’ this shit, but anything you work at is gonna be hard. But I dig it, I like it. It has its ups and downs like anything else.
On How the Label Has Changed
DW: SwizZz isn’t here.
H: Yeah, SwizZz isn’t here, that’s a big change. [Ed. Note: Later in the conversation, Hopsin would clarify that SwizZz is still part of Funk Volume, but is not participating in their 2015 tour. “He’s still on the label, he’s just not here,” Hopsin said. “He’s working on new stuff. He’s just kinda taking a step back from the music because he has other things that are very important in his life that he has to handle. But he will be back around.”]
DW: It’s changed a lot, bro.
H: Yeah. It has a different feel now.
DW: Three XXL Freshmen now. That shit’s way different now. We just got into the industry. I don’t think Hopsin was part of the rap industry at all.
H: I think that’s what’s cool; we actually did [get into the industry]. I was in the underground world, but the under under under dark part.
DW: He had a big following of the way down there.
H: They was in the sewers, way down there.
DW: I was walking through the shows scared sometimes, dudes walkin’ around with a “KILL” tat on their forehead, I’m like, Wait a minute! [Laughs]
H: [Laughs] Yeah yeah, all that stuff. But now it’s cool ’cause we run into rappers that we respected and they know about us. And it’s like, “Damn, you heard about me? I never thought you would know my name.”
DW: Yeah, or we run across the rappers [Hopsin] be dissing, and they wanna fight. [Laughs] Nah, but it’s cool ’cause now we come to New York and we got interviews with XXL, Sway, all these different types of platforms that wanna talk to us. It’s kinda cool.
H: Yeah. And just the way we’re viewed in the industry, too, is kinda dope, just being independent but got our foot in the door and we’re in the game. It’s just completely different; before we were all online. Before they joined, I had fans, but I don’t think anybody up here would’ve heard about me.
DW: I don’t think anybody was paying attention. Now they’re paying attention, everybody wanna know, What the fuck is Funk Volume gonna do? They gonna fall off or they gonna keep going? So we got some expectations to live up to.
On Their Experiences As XXL Freshmen
DW: I think I had the dopest cover. [To Hopsin] But I mean, you had Macklemore, Iggy. But I think I had the best hip-hop one.
JB: Yeah, I’d agree with that.
DW: I mean, I had Bronson, Joey, ScHoolboy, Ab-Soul, Travi$ Scott was on there, he killin’ it on there.
H: I had the coolest cover with all the cool dudes.
DW: You had the biggest cover right now, Macklemore, Iggy, Future. Oooh, nigga, your cover was tight!
JB: French Montana.
DW: Ooooh!
H: I kinda regret not asking Future for a collab when he was a lil nigga. [Laughs] I shoulda been like, “Can I get your number my nigga?”
DW: Macklemore, too, nigga! I remember that XXL show; I hype man’d for [Hopsin] the year he got it. I was like, Man, I gotta get on this bitch. [Laughs] I gotta put some work in. I told Dame, “I’m next, nigga!” and he was like, “Alright.” I hype man’d for him, but nobody really knew who Macklemore was. It was left field for me, I was like, Where the fuck did this nigga come from?
JB: I knew about Macklemore before the Freshman cover; he was doing his thing. That was always the thing that surprised me, everybody thought that Macklemore came out of nowhere. Nigga was grindin’.
DW: He had albums, I had just never heard of him.
H: He was like us; he had his fan base, but it was never in the mainstream eye.
DW: That muthafucka… To the sky.
JB: For me, I had Chance, Vic, Jon Connor, Rich Homie Quan, Ty Dolla $ign. We had some hittas on there. Ah shit, Kevin Gates, too, Isaiah Rashad. Troy Ave. We had some hittas on there. But for me, man, it was a dope experience. I didn’t expect to get it. Or, not that I didn’t expect to get it, it took me by surprise. But when I saw the 10th Spot, I was killin’ everybody on the votes. For me, I was just blessed, man, it was an honor for me, man. Honestly, I was like, “Shit, I got a lot more work to do.” I was surprised; Dame called me like, “Yo, they just called me, man.” I was like, “Oh shit!” I was on the road, too, when he called me, I was on the road with Freddie Gibbs and Tech N9ne. And when he hit me I was like, “Oh shit, let’s go.”
DW: Did he hit you with the, “You got it.”
JB: I don’t know, to be honest with you. I don’t remember.
DW: Dame said something so short and simple to me, I was like, “What? We got what?” “We got that call.” I was like, “Nigga, what up! Tell me!” I was super excited.
JB: It was chaos when I got to the shoot, chaos everywhere. [Everyone agrees.] Hell yeah. Everybody was cool, all the rappers I was on the cover with showed love. It was a dope experience, man. Definitely.
On Where They See The Label in the Next Few Years
H: We always like making progress after each project. So this year we’ve done a lot and we’ve learned a lot; we just want to take it to the next level each time, take it somewhere we’ve never taken it. Me personally, I never like doing the same thing I did last year. If I had a certain sound or a certain feel, I don’t want to ever do something like that again, or at least for a long time. I just want to keep branching out and expanding myself and my brand. I’m sure they would probably agree, ’cause doing the same thing is just boring.
JB: I think we’re gonna have some more hittas on the squad.
DW: Yeah, we gonna add some more hittas, for sure. I just want us to be relevant still, you know what I mean? So that just comes with adding artists that are dope and different, you know, no clones. People that have confidence in theyself.
H: Yeah, learning how to be relevant is important, as well. ‘Cause you can be dope… Me personally, learning how to stay relevant to me is important because when I came in and got my foot in, it was the perfect time for me to have done what I’d done. Everything just lined up, the way YouTube was, the way Facebook was, it was the perfect time for that to have happened. And now there’s a change happening, and I can see it happening, so now I have to re-adjust myself in a certain way—not change my style or anything—just learning how to adapt to this little change that’s happening online and all these new little social media sites that are coming out, how to stay on top of them. Because it’s different than five years ago when I first came out.
So we’re all just learning. Staying relevant is something that I personally value; even someone like Jay Z, he’s been able to stay relevant and still be that same Jay Z, that strong Jay Z—even if his flow has changed a little bit or whatever—he’s still been able to stay relevant and he’s still Jay Z. And that is a talent itself, I believe. There were a lot of rappers that were dope for their time, but once that time left, their career left.
DW: But Jigga’s not relevant just for music, to, you know what I mean? That’s another thing we gotta…
H: I could just be speaking for myself, but I want to turn myself into the type of brand to where just my name, Marcus Hopsin, is big. So whether it’s dealing with music, movies or businesses, I just wanna be that dude where someone’s like, “Yo, I got a meeting with Marcus Hopsin.” “What the hell?” It’s like meeting with 50 Cent or P. Diddy. And I’m not there yet, but I’m gonna get there.
DW: I wanna be like Cube, writing movies, ghostwrite for these niggas. [Laughs]
JB: Honestly man, same what he’s sayin’, just tryna to find, not necessarily a way to stay relevant, but a way to re-invent yourself. Like right now I got a couple shits I’m working on, but for the next album I want to find a way to expand my sound. I feel like I can grow as a lyricist, but I feel like production-wise it needs to be bigger. But overall, man, I see the label getting stronger, adding some more people on there and I feel like if we just all go hard and do our best, sky is the fuckin’ limit. That sounds so cliche, man. But yeah.
H: I’ve never heard that before.
JB: Mars is the limit. Fuck the sky. The universe is the limit.
H: There you go, say somethin’ different. There is no limit.
JB: What’s the hottest fuckin’ planet?
H: Just say this: What’s a limit? There we go.
JB: What’s a limit?
H: What’s a limit?
JB: But yeah man, I think if we all keep a good head on our shoulders, don’t do no stupid shit, don’t get arrested and we all just keep grindin’, we all gonna be where we wanna be.
On What Funk Volume Means to Them
DW: Personally, family, you know.
H: F is for fucking. U is for ugly… Fuckin’ ugly niggas…
JB: Kickin’ it. [All laugh]
DW: Y’all niggas ugly. Fuck y’all! What does Volume mean to you, Jarren?
JB: Nah man, I agree with Dizzy, it’s family. Over the years, these niggas have grown to be my brothers, man. Dame, man…
DW: Dame is like my real brother, for real. Dame looks out for me.
JB: Hop, DJ Hoppa, SwizZz too, it’s family. I feel like there are a lot of artists probably on labels where they’re all separate, they probably don’t even really have a bond like that. I think we all got a cool little bond, man, that I value within Funk Volume.
H: When I used to be signed to Ruthless Records, there was distance between all of us. Tomica Wright, I could never say the wrong thing to her without—I couldn’t even call her on Saturdays. I would call on Saturdays and she would get mad and call my manager and say why am I leaving voicemails on a Saturday. Hollywood shit. But Jarren can text Dame… We can actually really genuinely voice our opinion to where it’s not like, “Man, I’m gonna shelf you, I’ma make sure you never…” If anybody ever has an issue, or Dame makes a business move that Jarren or Dizzy doesn’t like, they can really say how they feel and it’s not like, “Aw, fuck you then, we ain’t puttin’ your shit out no more.” It’s more of a brotherly type thing where you just be open. There’s not a wall like that.
DW: Yeah, Funk Volume is dope. All the way down to the people who work for Funk Volume. Me personally, I was 20 when I got to Funk Volume, I’m becoming a man on Funk Volume. I’m growing up, my daughter’s gettin’ older. I’m about to be 25 this year, man.
H: I can’t believe he’s about to be 25, he was 20 years old when he got here.
JB: I’m becoming an old man on Funk Volume, damn.
DW: This nigga’s fuckin’ ancient over here. [Laughs]
¡MAYDAY! “Something In The Air” ft. Femi Kuti
taken from the album – Future Vintage, in stores 9.18.2015
pre order from strangemusicinc.net for a SIGNED copy
– http://bit.ly/1O9YTph
Cass Café is its usual, eclectic self. There’s alternative music bouncing off art-covered walls while patrons of various ethnicities tend to their preferred beverages. The emcee known as Dagda fits right in. With his long hair and pleasant disposition, he walks in giving away smiles like a granddad gives out candy. Dadga’s real name is Joey; he stumbled on his stage name while attending Roosevelt High School. “I was doing a research paper on my Irish heritage and I discovered Dagda was like a father figure god to the Celtic gods,” he says.
Dadga was born in Dearborn but grew up in Wyandotte. His introduction to hip-hop was much the same as many other artists. A friend turned him on to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony in elementary school, and he’s been hooked ever since. Though he stayed a hardcore fan of the music through high school, his passion at the time was sports. “Football came first — I played fullback and defensive end, and played linebacker for a bit at Wayne State,” he says through a nostalgic grin.
Dagda dibbled and dabbled with music after football but it wasn’t until 2009 when he began to embark on a professional music career. He collaborated with longtime friend J-Shine to form the duo Sticky Bandits, started seriously writing, bought some average recording equipment, started recording himself, and released a mixtape. “We joined this label called Squad X, which was run by DJ Xavier. I was doing a lot more structured smooth hip-hop, and DJ Xavier was more into what was fresh on the radio,” he says. He pinned a song called “After Party” using a track he bought from the Internet. The song was a constant club banger and got several spins from 95.5 FM. “We linked up with DJ Buddha, who as a DJ for 95.5 back then. I was able to keep the lyricism with ‘After Party’ and still have an up-tempo poppy chorus.”
During the next year Dagda continued to record but was still bouncing from cubicle jobs to factory jobs. DJ Buddha had moved to California (thus ending his radio connection) and his time on Squad X was coming to an end. By 2011, he decided it was time to take things to a higher level. “It got to the point where I couldn’t keep recording myself. That’s when I met Tone Rizzo, that was the turning point when my professionalism and my sound became correct,” he says.
Rizzo had built a name for himself as one of the premier studio engineers in the Downriver and Detroit area. In an instant, Dagda’s sound became more Dungeon than Radio Shack. By the fall Dagda also signed with Beats at Will Records (run by Kid Rock’s DJ Paradime) and re-released his mixtape J.E.A.H. as a whole album.
“I was on the label with Mr. Chief, Ketchphraze, DJ Amf, Pony Boy, Jypsy, Astray, Cancer, Knox Money, Peace of Mind, Ben Price, and Aaron Taylor. It was definitely an all-star roster,” he says. Dagda’s first shine came from being featured on the 2012 complication album called DJ Amf Present Beats at Will Support Your Local BAW Mixtape Vol 1. In 2013 Dagda released The Black Irish EP. “That was my Detroit hip-hop project,” he says. “It was real boom bap influenced.” Just like Dagda promised, The Black Irish EP was an odyssey of hardcore and witty lyrics accompanied by East Coast-influenced beats. Dagda didn’t take any songs off and practically forced the beats to keep up with his flow.
During Dagda’s time with Squad X and Beats at Will, he quickly became creative and business savvy when approaching his performances. Before he speaks, he scoots his chair up and rests his elbows on the table. “A friend of mine was in a band and they had a show at Harpos opening for Bizzy Bone. This was 2010. He gave my number to the promoter and I told him I could sell tickets and open up too. The promoter didn’t care to hear my music but put me on the show because I promised to sell tickets. I sold 75 tickets to that show,” he says.
The “tickets for performance” hustle isn’t new. Local promoters and club owners have routinely tried this, but most times the artists have no interest in it or weren’t that good at it. “I noticed the artists that sold the most tickets got to go on before the opening act. I figured I could take the fans of the big act and make them my fans as well,” he says.
Dagda mastered these tactics and used them to throw his own shows featuring local artists and build relationships with national promoters. Using his own hustle and wits, and help from manager William Ashworth, Dagda has been featured at Gathering of the Juggalos, shared the stage with Cyprus Hill, and was the lone opener for Yelawolf at Saint Andrews Hall last year. “We always approach each new business relationship, showing them we are ready and able to work,” he says.
Dagda is preparing to open up for Tech-9 on Sept. 27 at Saint Andrews, and pushing his newest release, Bar Soap, which dropped in March. The album’s first single and video, “Sunrise,” featured Guilty Simpson. Dagda’s spitfire lyrics matched up perfectly with Guilty’s monotone flow. The production feels more diverse. Some tracks sound West Coast, some sound trapish, and most are boom bap. “I don’t slack lyrically no matter the style, but I do understand different emotions call for different things,” he says.
Dagda claims Downriver and Detroit equally. He talks about getting nothing but respect from emcees all over. “It seems to me the assholes got weeded out. I love Detroit hip-hop and my Detroit hip-hop family,” he says. “There just isn’t any haters here.”
In the full interview Kevin speaks candidly about how he came to work for the Insane Clown Posse, the FBI labeling Juggalos as a gang, highlights from the Gathering of the Juggalos, burning the confederate flag at The Gathering, comparing wrestling fans to Juggalos, attending the GFW AMPED tapings, The Kevin Gill Show & MORE
The full interview can be found by clicking HERE or by listening to the show in the embedded player at the top of this post.
WrestleZone Daily is LIVE, Monday-Friday at Noon EST on WrestleZone.com. It covers all the news from the previous day’s, or weekend’s, WZ news cycle. It also features appearances and interviews with some of your favorite comedians, entertainers and pro wrestling personalities!
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Rapper-turned-home-improvement-guru Vanilla Ice once had an extreme sporting good store in Miami Beach, but he eventually left to pursue “other opportunities” in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Now, the Miami native is saying he could soon be back in these parts as a business owner, maybe in the Design District. The star of a DIY Network home rehab show is branching out into the furniture business, and his online-only sales are through the roof, he said.“We make our own tables and beds right here in South Florida by hand, one by one,” the star said of his collaboration with Eclectic Design International. “They are selling like hotcakes, so I’m planning to open a few stores, at least one in Miami.” Ice’s company started when he and friends took to designing their own stuff. Now, he sells 50-plus items, including beds and bathtubs he describes as modern, contemporary and simple and tweeted about the venture recently. “I actually studied design online when I was in Miami 18 years ago,” he said. “It wasn’t a cool thing to do, so I didn’t tell anyone. It’s coming in pretty handy now.”
Prozak – ‘Black Ink’
Preorder – http://bit.ly/1hZBPiq
New Hip Hop/Rap Album available 10.9.2015
Prozak’s newest album, ‘Black Ink’
is now available for preorder at strangemusicinc.net!
Your preorder comes with a signed copy, along
with an exclusive t-shirt, Strange Music decal, and
bonus MP3 Download Track!
Preorder here – http://bit.ly/1hZBPiq
Rittz attending a surprise welcome home party for @Will Hawkins who just got home from serving 9 months in Afghanistan! He was definitely surprised lol! GREAT DUDE,GREAT FAMILY, GREAT EXPERIENCE!!! Thanks for serving our country and S/O to all the armed forces out there keeping us safe!#supportthetroops#welcomehomeWILL
Hopsin Disses Trap Music, Addresses Haters, Talks About Being Different + More
http://www.hardknock.tv Hard Knock Tv’s Nick Huff Barili sits down with Hopsin for exclusive in-depth interview. In part 4, Hopsin:
1. Clowns Trap Music and rappers that don’t even make sense with their raps.
2. Explains inspiration behind “Rap Sucks”/”No Words” skit.
3. Say Trap rappers have no talent; its just the hard beats and producers adding auto tune to make the songs catchy.
4. Says he misses the old days when there were rappers actually rapping.
5. Addresses his song Mr Jones, says its for all the Hopsin haters. “I got hated on a lot..People call me corny…”
6. Talks being fulled by the doubters.
7. Explains the difference between being signed to major distribution vs major label. Say he is signed to WBR for distribution.
8. Says he does not have a label A&R and controls all of his own music himself.
+ More!
We are just getting started with this in-depth interview.
Tune in next week for part 5 of Hopsin’s and Nick’s conversation.
Make sure to subscribe to www.youtube.com/hardknocktv for our latest videos, including more from our interview with Hopsin next week. You can also follow us at www.facebook.com/hardknocktv and @Hardknocktv @NickHuff on twitter.
for the Insane Clown Posse, the FBI labeling Juggalos as a gang, highlights from the Gathering of the Juggalos, burning the confederate flag at The Gathering, comparing wrestling fans to Juggalos, attending the GFW AMPED tapings, The Kevin Gill Show & MORE
