The path of band RDGLDGRN has been an unconventional one. You may have never heard of them but important people in the industry have. Coming out of Reston, VA, the trio have had Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters & Nirvana) drum on their songs and Pharrell co-produce another one. And now they’re preparing their second album. The first single from it, “No Pixar” has a light-hearted bounce to it while Green, the group’s emcee, keeps his lyrics fun for himself and the listener. He jokes about performing on Jimmy Kimmel’s show instead of Jimmy Fallon, points out the things hip-hop idolizes from thugs to drugs, and covering up his weird bald spot with a Kangol (don’t we all?). The punchlines are subtle and the flows ride the beat comfortably. The song has us looking forward to this full LP.
In case you had some questions for the group about their name or the song, we went ahead and asked them for you. You can peep the answers below. And if you still have some lingering questions, come out and see them live in NYC next week at Webster Hall so you can ask them yourself. The flier for that show is below as well.
How did you guys come up with the group name? What is the significance of the colors for each member? Why is Marcus Red, etc.?
When it came time to name the group, we just decided to name it after ourselves. Think of groups like Peter, Bjorn, & John but we adopted the naming techniques of artists like SBTRKT. Everything we do is a mix of something!
Wearing our favorite Colors as kids has evolved over time into something greater. It’s how we maintain our own individuality while maintaining unity in a very diverse group. For example, I [Marcus] was born in San Jose, CA to parents from Pittsburgh & Tucson and lived in Ghana & Bolivia as a teenager. Andrei is 100% Romanian, born in Bucharest and came to the US when he was 6 and lived in NYC. Green is 100% Haitian, born in Boston, but lived in France as a toddler making French his first language.
It’s not common for a Hip-Hop band to work with Pharrell and Dave Grohl. Who are some other artists outside of the proverbial box, at least for Hip-Hop artists, that you’d like to work with? And within Hip-Hop?
We’d love to work with Gorillaz, Bjork, Andre 3000, Common, and Shaq.
How did you come up with the title of this song?
The song title comes directly from the line in the song, “No Pixar, No Disney, just a tinted cop car for the picknies” and it is talking about two things. First, it deals with us not having a big company (like Pixar or Disney) to help us produce our dreams and, secondly, that there is nothing in hip-hop culture that is equivalent to the identity and sense of morality that these companies represent.
If you had to choose, Pixar or Disney?
Classic Disney over everything.
If you were to describe your next project’s sound, how would you describe it?
Focused and Free. The idea of no boundaries is something that has always been a part of our group dynamic and songs like “No Pixar” are perfect examples of what can happen when RDGLDGRN has no one to answer to. Guru said it best in “You Know My Steez”:
“That makes me know that…we had the right idea in the beginning, and we just need to maintain our focus, and elevate. We update our formulas, we have certain formulas but we update em, with the times, and everything y’know. And so y’know, The rhyme style is elevated, the style of beats is elevated, but it’s still Guru and Premier, and it’s always a message involved.”
Bryan Hahn wants to hear a RDGLDGRN & Shaq collab like yesterday. He’s on Twitter (@notupstate).
