Loop Diggin' Thursdays 11.01.07: Oh, Hell No
Posted by Phil Watts, Jr on 11.01.2007
The LIKWIT CREW REUNION! Plus: RZA & Ghost make nice, KRS risks losing fans in an attempt to lose weight, Oh No loves METROID, and 9th breaks his silence.
Remember the much-ballyhoo'd Liks' ‘retirement'? Remember that farewell album, FIREWATER?
Me either.
I guess they took one listen to that album and thought, "Damn…we kinda went out with a whimper here…"
E-Swift, the producer/sometime-rapper 1/3 of Tha Liks, was recently interviewed by AllHipHop.com to talk about his beginnings as King Tee's DJ, performing live with the Liks, and the UPCOMING LIKWIT CREW REUNION!:
J-Ro moved to Sweden like two years ago, which made our last release very difficult cause the formula wasn't all the way there. It took a lot more work than usual. So when we're together we work, and when we're apart we work on separate things. So when J-Ro gets back out here, and everybody gets their individual projects done, we're definitely coming with a collaborative effort. Matter of fact, a lot of people don't know this, but the whole Likwit Crew is getting together to put out our long overdue album. Everybody from Tha Alkaholiks, Xzibit, Defari, Madlib, Lootpack, everybody. We're like the legendary Likwit Crew from the West Coast and we haven't really put out an album yet, collectively that one major album. We're focusing right now on doing shows together, touring, having fun, and getting back to the basics of being together as a crew. Everybody's had their careers and a lot of success individually, but collectively I don't think we can be stopped. So we're getting ready to take over the West Coast music scene with all these groups together to show people how Hip-Hop music is supposed to be done.
Tha Liks. Xzibit. Defari. Madlib & The Lootpack. Look at that. THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN.
Hopefully, the Likwit crew founder King Tee and Dilated Peoples will be up in it, too. (Yeah, I know that Dilated is rolling with OkayPlayer these days, but they used to roll with the Likwt crew back in the day. )
Fuck all this retirement/farewell bullshit. To me, the only 'retirement/farewell' is when you get carried by six and planted 6 feet under. Other than that, there's always a chance for an artist to comeback, depending on how hungry they are. Here's hoping that E-Swift brings his beat game back to mid-90 levels, Madlib gets the bulk of the production (with beats similar to his second remix album) and every MC brings their A-Game.
*****
You may remember last week when I brought up the Wu's 8 DIAGRAMS and Ghost's BIG DOUGH REHAB were being released on December 4, as well as who that ‘Wu hierarchy' could be. Everyone was saying that it could have been RZA or someone else in the core lineup. I said otherwise (I put it on Wu's A&R man, although he can't be doing it by himself). Anyway, here's what RZA said about it to MTV:
"The blame can't fall on me like that...Wu-Tang Clan is a bunch of brothers working on one common cause. ... We planned to put that record out in September, then October, and it kept getting pushed because it's just a lot of work, yo. ... I wasn't really conscious [Ghost] was dropping an album on December 4th, but yesterday we moved our [group] record from the 4th to the 11th. We gave that spot to Ghostface ... because of how he felt. ... I had to make that call. [SRC label head] Steve Rifkind also, he was getting bashed up by Ghost [in the Mixtape Monday interview]. So ... we moved...
"We didn't have him move, we moved, I think that shows the kind of bigger men we could be. Ghost is my brother, [I] love him to death. But we're in this business, and it's hard to kind of discern what's right and what's wrong. ... But I will say that, when it comes to a Wu-Tang Clan album, I plan on making it a 60-, 90-day type of schedule. ... It turned out to be a 200-day schedule ... and I didn't want to wait until next year [to put out 8 Diagrams].
"But Ghostface, we moved it to the 11th. You got that 4th. Do your thing right then, double up [the] next week, make mad cream this year, family."
That's right. Ghost on the 4th, Wu on the 11th.
Now they all need to look into shaking up their management and let them know they're working for Wu and not the other way around.
*****
XXLMAG.COM has learned that legendary MC KRS-One will appear on the upcoming season of VH1's Celebrity Fit Club. The network's reality series, which has already ran for five successful seasons, follows various overweight celebrities as they are split into teams to see who can lose the most weight. KRS follows in the footsteps of rappers like Biz Markie, Bonecrusher, Bizarre, Young MC, Warren G and Da Brat, all of whom have appeared on the show. While the details of the new sixth season remain unclear, a VH1 rep confirmed that the Bronx-bred rapper will be a part of the new cast.
Message to Kris Parker: When I kept telling you that you really need to lighten up, THIS was NOT what I meant.
Also, I'm dreading the possibility of KRS using this show as an outlet for his speeches on being a vegetarian. It's bad enough that he made a song about it ("Beef" from the EDUTAINMENT album).
I will be avoiding this at all costs. This is not the Kris I want to see.
*****
It's hard being in someone's shadow while in the same business. You have to work even harder to set yourself apart from your more famous relative. Will you be able to build a path for yourself like Del The Funke Homosapian, who went from being Ice Cube's cousin to being leader of the Hieroglyphics, or will you end up like Rampage, who's still riding the tour bus of his brother Busta Rhymes? Oh No, brother of Hip-Hop's beat-crafting genius Madlib, is stuck in a similar situation. On one hand, he's a lot more nimble on the mic than Madlib these days. However, while he does have some heat as a producer, he's got a long way to go in order to get in Madlib's level…unless he finds a way to pave his own path.
He was recently interviewed by Rhapsody.com (check it out RIGHT HERE!) where they covered a lot of ground, like how his father originally wanted him to be a lawyer, how he's been making beats since he was 9, his upcoming project with The Alchemist (!!!!!!), and his love for videogames! His top 5 games:
Legend of Zelda
Any Metroid
Any Rigar
Ninja Gaiden
Final Fantasy 7
A little fun fact: He actually sampled some background music from the original Ninja Gaiden for "The Ride" (from THE DISRUPT) and even printed the maps of Ninja Gaiden in the liner notes of THE DISRUPT CHRONICLES Pt. 0! They really need to reissue those first three Ninja Gaiden games. Those games were way ahead of its time. It was one of the first games that utilized cut scenes, and the games pushed the 8-bit Nintendo to its limits.
While I'm on the subject of videogames, King Of Fighters XI is about to drop any minute now (Say 'Hi' to Oswald! Eat your heart out, Gambit!) And be on the lookout for STREET FIGHTER 4! Yes, Capcom is finally getting off their ass and making another one. Hopefully, they'll actually put some effort into it. The last time they put in any real effort in a game was Street Fighter 3...and that was 8 years ago! It's time to wake the arcades back up!
*****
You notice how 9th has been silent all these months when it came to the breakup of Little Brother, right? Well, after months of "pleading the 5th", he finally broke his silence in an interview with UnderGroundHipHop.com. But first, lets rewind to an interview Pooh & Phonte did with HipHopDX.com a few months earlier:
HHDX: I read in one of your previous interviews that one of the reasons for the split was that 9th wouldn't make changes to his production style?
Phonte: Well, that wasn't necessarily [the reason for the breakup]. It wasn't like we said, "Nigga we need you to make some Swizz Beatz" shit. It wasn't nothing like that. It was just something that further let us know that it wasn't working [between us]. Going into the album we kinda had an idea of what we were looking for, and he wasn't really trying to go there.
Pooh: We was just trying to go in a different direction. After a while you always plan to open up [your sound]. We can't keep giving people the same trick. We was looking at it like we gotta give the people something different this go-round, and the way to give people something different is to open it up to different producers.
HHDX: Do you wanna offer up any insight into why you think 9th is refusing to talk about the split with the media?
Phonte: A lot of times he's not gonna talk about it because he knows nothing that's come out of our mouths has been a lie. There's nothing really he can say. Everything [me and Pooh] have said in our interviews has been true. We haven't spread lies about him or the situation. So he can't really come out and say, "Nah, it wasn't really like that." So the reason he's not saying anything [about the breakup] is because there's nothing for him to say.
Pooh: That's just how he is. ‘Te will give a little bit [of detail about the breakup], I'll give a little bit, but 9th likes to keep it behind closed doors. That's just how he feel about the situation, and I respect that.
HHDX: I gotta be honest, from the outside looking in the rationale for this breakup seems a little light. I mean, it's not like 9th had some goons break in Phonte's house and tie everybody up like Erick did Parrish?
Phonte: Nah, it wasn't nothing like that. It was just, muthafuckas grow apart. I know y'all keep looking for something more, but shit, that's it. I mean, that shit happens with people, period. He was going in one direction, and we were going in another direction. The best way that I can describe it – to compare it to another group – would be more like a Prince Paul vs. De La Soul type of thing. He did their first two records, but clearly it got to a point where they were going in two different directions. That's the best way that I can describe [our breakup]. It wasn't no thing like goons broke in the house. It just wasn't working.
Pooh: I used to sit back and wonder why my favorite groups broke up – why EPMD separated, etc. But now I tell people you'll never understand until you in that situation. I could never explain our situation to someone who ain't never been in nothing like this.
HHDX: And so no reunion plans I assume are forthcoming?
Phonte: Oh, hell no.
Pooh: I was told to never say never, but don't hold your breath.
"OH, HELL NO."
With those three words, you can kiss all that "amicable split/we wished each other well" shit GOODBYE! Come to think of it, forget about "salty" and "bitter"--Phonte's attitude was straight SAUERKRAUT through most of the interview…especially when the subject of Kanye comes up (Wow. You just figured out that Kanye's an egomaniac. Where have you been?!) I was planning on doing a series of reviews of all of Little Brother's albums as a Countdown to GETBACK (including the NC STATE OF MIND mixCD---remember that one?), but this kinda put a damper on it. [The GETBACK review is still coming, though…]
It was only a matter of time before 9th had no choice but to say something about this, and he finally did in his recent interview with UnderGroundHipHop.com:
UGHH: Phonte did an interview in our store last week and mentioned that after a year of not speaking with you, he picked up the phone and gave you a call. He said he wishes the best for you but wouldn't say that your relationship was on friendly terms. Will you work with Little Brother again or has a friendship gone bad ruined hopes for that?
9th: I wouldn't say that. I mean, he gave me a call and when he called me it was a business situation, it wasn't like ‘C'mon let's have a cup of tea.' I mean it's just the truth of the matter. I don't know, it's gonna take some time. It's gonna take some time for us to sit down and be like ‘Look. I was wrong for doin this or I was wrong for doin this' and whateva, whateva, whateva. We are both Capricorns and we believe in what we believe in. And if you know anything about Capricorns we're very headstrong, when we go in a certain direction we don't turn around. So, that's the situation between me and him. Will there be another Little Brother album? Well I saw in another interview he said ‘Hells no. Oh hells no.' That's what he said. And I'm like, you know, ‘Whaaat can I say to that?' I really don't know but I think, ehh, maybe. I'm never opposed to anything. I can never say never. But hopefully it will [happen] and everybody will be happy.
So basically, what you have is pretty much a GangStarr situation, with Guru saying "Fuck it…GangStarr's dead. Quit asking.", while Premier is like, "Uh…don't worry, kids---we'll be back…uh…yeah, we'll be doing a little solo shit here and there, but then WE'LL BE BACK…YEAH--WE‘LL BE BACK!!!" I'll give them a year or two for them to reconcile and give us another one. Then again, that's what I said about Gangstarr. And Pete Rock and CL Smooth.
Don't get this twisted and call this 'hate'. I'll still be checking for all three of them…but in all these cases (including Pete/CL and GangStarr), I hope they don't all wait until they're all creatively tapped out before they reunite.
