No doubt. That brings me to my next point. Both of you guys, you know, respectively have extremely long and impressive resumes. Do you think you’ll ever consider yourselves as legends in your lifetime, or do you guys want people to talk like that after you’re gone? Basically, let the music just live to tell the story.
J: For myself (clears throat), I would just have to say, nah, f*** yeah! Nah, I’m joking. Nah, I don’t really consider myself like a legend like that. I just consider myself a dude that’s just out there, doing what I do. Doing what I love, more or less. I don’t consider myself to be, well not right now, because I still keep improving. I don’t think my skills have deteriorated. More or less, I think I keep improving every year; I get more gigs every year. It’s like, it’s never done over here so I could never feel like I’ve done enough and that I’m accomplished. I think a legend will have nothing to prove. If you’re a legend, you could just chill out and you don’t really do anything. So, I’m not a legend for sure because I’m out still DJing. I’ve been out working all the time so I’m out there still proving my legacy, you know?
M: To be a legend-well, I don’t consider myself to be a legend, I’m just asking a question-to consider yourself a legend, it’ll be on your craft. But you’re a legend when it’s pretty much a wrap and the people are praising you as a legend. I think you’re a legend when it’s a wrap. Like the Rolling Stones, that’s a legend. I know their new album went gold or platinum and all that, but you don’t really look at the Rolling Stones as some new group. You think of the Rolling Stones and, “Oh, those were the guys from the ‘60s, they’re legends!” You know, Grandmaster Flash, “Oh, that’s a legend right there!” He’s a legend because he put it down so much. Respect that man, because he put so much in the game. And I think that’s what makes you a legend: what you put in the game and how long you been in the game. I have a feeling it hasn’t been long enough yet so. I got to be at least 50 years, like Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, and all them dudes. Definitely. And you don’t really get recognized because you pass away anyway. Even like J. Dilla, nobody really recognized his talent then, like they do now. Everybody goes through that.
So then, as legends in the making one day, I have to say that they’re a lot of younger artists right now that probably do look up to you like that. And MED, I saw you did a joint with Hodgy Beats from OddFuture.
M: Yeah, yeah.
So then how do you guys see yourselves as part of the younger Hip-Hop scene coming out of California because there are so many different sounds coming out. Do you see yourselves maybe as mentors or guys who’ve just been doing it longer than other cats?
Both: Yeah, more like cats who have been doing it longer.
M: I can definitely say that, at the end of the day, there’s a point that we understand that somehow, in some way, we are innovators and motivators. You know, it’s like you said, the young kids do actually be in their rooms doing music and sometimes they look at other people’s careers, no matter what their careers are, and they might find some motivation behind what you’re doing. Yo, definitely, even with Pac Division and stuff. I was just chilling with them the other day and they were just like, “Yo man, we used to play your CD until the sh*t went dead!” And I think, older people, we’re inspired by the younger generation at the same token too, so I think it goes both ways, which is dope man.
That’s for sure. The energy kind of goes both ways.
J: They keep you on your toes-the younger generation. I have to say, some of the new kids coming up, they show you, they definitely pull you inside the wave they’re doing. I remember having a long conversation with Flying Lotus back when he worked with Stones Throw. Man, I could tell he was on his mission. He was learning. He was picking up so much game and absorbing stuff too so, big ups to him.
Yeah, he’s crazy talented as well. You guys were talking earlier about how this EP will eventually lead to a full project. Do you guys have a direction or a possible drop date for that?
M: The name of the album is going to be called Theme Music. I guess the reason why we called it Theme Music, more or less, is connecting Axel F. to Beverly Hills. The Axel F joint is the theme music to Beverly Hills. So yeah, we were like, let’s call it Theme Music. They both have that good energy, like everything fits the scene. It could be the soundtrack to somebody’s life, or day, or what not.
J: There are a couple of tracks where it’s definitely a soundtrack feeling with theme music songs. The one that comes to mind “The Set” off of Sofa Set EP. That’s theme music. You turn that up real loud and drive through the hood real quick and see what happens. You’ll have a good movie going. You never know. Somebody might come out the house or come back to the neighborhood. And there are a couple of other tracks that give you that vibe: either that dangerous vibe or that good feeling vibe, even have an R&B type song with Jimetta Rose and that’s for you and your girl riding around all day. So we definitely have a lot of theme music on the album. But like MED said, we got the title because Axel F was the theme song to Beverly Hills. We were joking around, one thing led to another, and this was some theme music anyway so let’s call it that.
M: And there’s no denying the connection of Axel F so we definitely have to have it make sense without the Beverly Hills in there.
J: And for a release, we’re looking forward to February. We’re getting the artwork together and the album’s basically done.
Purchase your copy of the Sofa Set EP HEREand look out for Theme Music early next year.
Bryan Hahn (@notupstate)
