Raptalk.net: What's up BR, thanks for taking the time to give us this interview. To start off, why don't we give us a little information about you? Tell us where you are from, and how you got into rap?
BR: I’m from Mattapan. I was always into music through my pops. He worked with Maurice Star in the new edition days so I was always around music. I got to the rapping thing when I was like 11. I would use it to win money in radio contests and stuff like that but nothing that I took too serious. I still wanted to play football, chill on the block. When football wasn’t an option I switched my hustle. I started recording in ATL as soon as I left college in Va,.
Raptalk.net: I read somewhere you used to live with Phife Dog from Tribe Called quest can you tell us about that experience?
BR: I met Phife when I first moved to Atlanta. My barber introduced us because he thought I was nice with the rap shit. I met Phife one day at the shop and we been cool ever since. During my transition from ATL back to Boston I stayed at his crib. He really held me down, and it wasn’t never no music related shit. Him and Robi are some real niggas. Him and Jarobi is my peoples. Shout out to Kier.
Raptalk.net: You are currently, finishing up The Gwop Gang Album, can you tell me a little about this project? I got a chance to hear a few of the tracks from you, and was blown away. Tel us who's in Gwop Gang, how did you come together? Who did the beats for the project, who’s featured, etc.?
BR: The Gwop Gang album is myself BadNewz, Tre LB, Juste, and Gaff . The first two songs we recorded together were so crack we was like fuck it we should do the album. We got Triple Threat, Hitmakers, Steis, Slaine already...we might have a couple surprise features but I aint get into that yet. So it’s gettin put out Undapressha / Strezzed Out and its gonna smash the country.
Raptalk.net: What projects have you put out or been featured on? What up coming projects do you planned?
BR: I have the Undapressha Presents BR mixtape out now www.myspace.com/undapresshaent or www.myspace.com/brundapressa , Before that it was the Undapressha ETC. Collab mixtape which moved between 2,300, 2,400 in Boston / jersey...Real numbers not the fake you out. I’m on the Steis Reverse the Curse street album, DJ Young Mase Summer Heat; I got a couple joints circulating on some mixtapes in Detroit, LA etc.
Raptalk.net: Can you tell us a little about Undapressha ent? How did it start, who's part of the team, and can you also tell us a little bit about what you do?
BR: Undapressha was started in my hood shout to TRD, A-Mont all the 61gunners. Its really a label that came from myself and my brother tryna get niggas around the way to help promote the music we was making. At the time it was myself and E-Slim who was doin all the rappin with my brother doing all the tracks. Now it’s still the same. Check the Ross beats tracks www.myspace.com/realtimerecordsllc . E-Slims on a little hiatus, but the movement is just as solid. The team is T-Note, Big Shizz out in 4 months or so, C-Mex doin our mid-west promo, my brother Mizzo aka Rossbeats, and all the goons 61gunners. Shout out to my dude Smash..Smash records is the spot for all Undapressha releases.
Raptalk.net: Do you have any feelings you would like to speak on regarding what's going on lately in the streets of Boston? Any feelings on the guardian angels deploying themselves to the region?
BR: The shit that’s going on in Boston is alot deeper than police, and the guardian angels. People love to ignore the fact that there are 13 year old kids with guns. Nobody stops the people from getting the guns in the hood, but everybody wants to be peace maker after the damage is done. When you give a kid the ability to solve his problem with a gun instead of his fist or his mind you turn him into a killer by accident. All the kids know that all the other kids have guns, so every beef leaves both sides questioning where the guns at, and some kids just shoot rather that take the risk.
Raptalk.net: What do you think about the state of current affairs in Boston/new England area hip hop. Who from Boston and for that matter from New England are you feeling right now?
BR: I think that Boston is about to do some things for hip hop...something real big. I think that the game in general is over saturated, so there is too much garbage music. All the hot beats with niggas that can’t rap on beat is dead. The game is missing good rappers, and Massachusetts is the same. There’s too many kids from the suburbs rapping shootem up music in Mass. I wish more rappers in Mass would be true to themselves. You can rap without being a thug, or a gangsta, but too many people think that’s how you have to rap. If you have talent people will feel your music. If you suck and try and fall in line with the trend you just make us all look bad. That’s why I hate myspace. It lets everybody think they have a chance if they got some myspace hits. I’m feeling Triple Threat, Steis, Slaine, Dundale, NBS, Hitmakers..and a few other people but I mostly feel them cause there is more reality to there music. I don’t want to hear about ice and twenty inch rims if you don’t have a car. I just don’t. If you broke, and go to work talk about what you want, but you can’t pull off a fake me out in a small city.
Raptalk.net: You did a video for the street classic "It's Whateva" w/ Badnewz that Sultan did the beat for, and that video was serious. I think it was on that spotlight DVD. Do you have any other videos planned?
BR: Yeah we got a video coming for the first single off the Gwop Gang album....but we aint pick the joint yet. We got an album full of lead singles without clubbing it out all day.
Raptalk.net: Termanology is making some noise on a national level, not to start any shit, but would you care to speak on him repping Boston when he's from Lawrence? I know the track "I Run the Bean" had a few heads in Boston a little bothered.
BR: I really like that somebody from the Mass area is doin there thing on a national scene. But i do think that he sounds stupid alot of times trying to make people think he knows what’s going on in Boston. It goes back to being true to yourself. In the interviews that i have read he says he's not from Boston, but then he attempts to act like he still is in touch with Boston, but then he shows he's not by saying lil Blood and Crip comments and shit like that. He knows he doesn’t run the bean, and i haven’t heard the track, but he knows he doesn’t run the bean. He's tryna get in where he fits in. He raps alot of street shit (gun talk, drugs etc.) , so if he told people he's not really that street, or that he's not from an area with too much violence, his music is no longer believable, or REAL, so he's using the hood to make his music look realer. I don’t blame him, its good marketing, and as long as nobody pulls his card he will probably keep doin it.
Raptalk.net: Who would you say your musical influences are? What artists that aren't hip hop could we find in BR's CD player?
My influences are my pops, Tribe. My Ipod plays Beanie Siegel, Pac, Jay, old Scarface, I like Jim Jones production. I have learned to tune out alot of rappers to appreciate the production. I can deal with anybody who has alot of real shit too say, more that i can somebody who can’t rap, and talks dumb shit all day.
Raptalk.net: Your track "whole world" is crazy. Who did the beat? How has the response been to that?
BR: My brother Mizzo (Rossbeats www.myspace.com/realtimerecordsllc ) did the beat. The response has been nuts. For a while i know i was top spins on Repdabean, getting alot of West coast love with that track, and its one of my favorites so i"m glad its doin alright. People seem to really fell that joint cause it sucks you in. Roll up that grimus and listen to that joint, it forces you to reflect on what’s really following all the shit we do. What’s really around the corner from all the Money, clothes, and hoes.
Raptalk.net: When will we get a BR solo album?
BR: The BR solo is going to be out before summer 08. I’m really waiting on the Gwop Gang album to hit the stores first, and then I’ll have the BR "Blow" album ready shortly after that. It’s gonna be a classic. No gimmick songs and all of that shit made for radio.
Raptalk.net: The Celtics tanked this year, and to me, the only way it will be worth it, is if we get Oden, are you a fan? What do you think of what the Celtics have become? What do you think of the red sox chances this year? This being opening day and all.....
The Celtics will be a dynasty again when we trade Paul Pierce, pick Durrant and buy another big man. Oden is nice, but the days of a center being more important than a swing man are over when Shaq retires. I don’t really follow baseball, but Matsuzaka got some shit. They’ll probably win the pennant though. It’s only right.
Raptalk.net: Thank you for giving us this time, we look forward to watching you on that road to success, any final thoughts, shoutouts, plugs, parting words?
BR: Look for that gwop gang album. Shout out to all my dogs 61gunners , my NJ dogs, My ATL goonies Bankhead/Simpson, my NC niggas BTS, my Philly dogs, and everybody who has been supporting the kid for the last couple joints. All my dogs locked up hold ya head. 3
No comments:
Post a Comment