Do you guys feed off of the wack s***?
Wiki: I try to stay as focused as possible, I go about my day and try to do something different and feed off of that. But when you do hear the wack s*** that’s out there I’m just like “yo, I’m so hyped for this f****** album to drop.” You got to use the internet correctly, it can be negative and it could be positive, but you can’t get stuck in it.
In Brooklyn’s Apostrophe Gallery, I heard their track “So It Goes” for the first time. A small hidden venue off the Bushwick path, a friend of mine and I arrived early and we got a chance to talk to the three of them together, actually checked out some of the art for a change. The beat made me think I was in a crime-thriller, a man running away from the feds, that type of thing. The venue was dark and looking back now, I notice that it wasn’t the CMJ crowd that I would later see with the cell phones recording and taking pictures. It’s a song to really listen to, lyrically potent with plenty of meaning. I thought, why aren’t more people aware of them? You learn with some artists that following them is a process, their lyrics take getting used to. We took it back that night, to a time where there was no internet, no blogs, we just kicked it and got some perspective. I heard the music and walked away understanding the artists I just met as people.
Sporting Life: Dog, we’re not Quincy Jones. There’s still stuff to learn we’re not there yet, nobody feels like we’re anywhere yet or we’ll ever be, it’s a journey. You don’t just become a rapper. The endeavor of making music never ends, it’s not like anybody is trying to make it anywhere. I guess you take in as much useful information as possible and process it through however you’re going to do that then put out something that somebody finds some type of value in or maybe inspire by themselves .
At your shows everybody takes on their own character. Sport, I compared you to a mechanic on stage. What is the most rewarding thing about doing live beats?
Sporting Life: A big part of making any type of art or visual art whether it be film or music is the burden of having to complete things. When you do it live it never has to really be completed, the beat is never finished. It can exist on MP3, it could be recorded on the internet but when we play it live it will never be the same as that. Coming up as a producer in reference to the music industry, that kind of takes the weight off of me having to make a beat CD and hoping somebody listens to it. Even though it requires a lot of practice the rewards are really good. Just the conversations after you get into that. I can talk to the sound man now, me and the sound man can kick it and I can ask “well how do I make this or do that?” instead of just screaming “turn my mic up.” It opens a whole level of understanding with people that I feel most hip hop artists never even explored.
Wiki is a straight spitter, Hak is an accidental poet, and Sporting Life is an architect. You can distinctly tell them apart. It comes together naturally, the three of them painting a picture in three separate styles. Wiki does his best Picasso, Hak steps in and rearranges like Dali, while Sporting Life chisels on the boards like Donatello. A perfectionist, a tactician, and wordsmith making their own brand of hip hop while staying true to the essence and the art.
Wiki: I think it’s an unnecessary risk and that also makes it so dope because you have to be on point. The first show we ever did was not the illest show but then when we do ill shows it feels that much better. You’ve got to take that jump and land, it’s dope to spit on too because you never know. As an MC, when you spit over fixed instrumentals you can get around every nook and cranny.
Sporting Life, Give me your Top 5 All-Time favorite Producers/Beat Makers?
Pharrell
Zomby
’06 Kanye West
DJ Toomp
Timbaland
I heard Wiki’s a Cam’Ron fan. Favorite Songs or Verses from Cam?
Violence ft. O.D.B.
You Gotta To Love It
Confessions – from the 1st album.
Double Up – from S.D.E.
Losing Weight Part 2 ft. Juelz Santana
Where I’m From ft. Dutch & Spade
Get Em Daddy Remix
The group is gearing for a tour with California collective Death Grips and a number of appearances this summer. Stay tuned for part two of this interview where we speak to Hak and discuss more art and hip hop, the relationship they have with renowned photographer Ari Marcopoulos, their work with Young Guru, and insight on touring with Gza.
Virgilio Mendez
@REGULARGUYV
Photos by Christian Francis & Virgilio Mendez
