I want to talk about a part of your campaign-the video demonstrations. Why instead of calling them music videos you chose to call them “video demonstrations”?
N: Well everything we do, we demonstrate. Every song is an audio demonstration. Every video is a video demonstration. Every show is a live demonstration. We want you to know we are presenting something to you and that we are demonstrating something. We aren’t just doing this for us. We’re not doing it for no reason. A lot of music that comes out today is really on the superficial side of the actual artist. People are overlooking the production, overlooking what these people are saying, and they are like “Oh, it’s a hot song.” But we are actually saying things even though the beats are dope. We exhibit artwork that has a lot of meaning that may affect your day and how you look at the song. We usually have a simple meaning for a song and then we have an in depth meaning for the same song. That’s why it’s a demonstration because we want you to pay attention to what we are trying to say to you. The same like as if Banksy did an art piece on the wall he’s not putting it there to show people he has skills. He’s also making a demonstration. It’s something deeper than “I’m dope.” It’s what I have to say to you. It’s the reason I’m existing.
I looked up the etymology of opera and two modes in opera are the “recitative” which is plot driven/dialogue and “aria” which is more emotional and provides insight into the singer’s minds. Do you guys try to balance between the two or do you try to choose one over the other?
N: That’s a great question. Yeah we definitely try to do both. A lot of people attach to The Black Opera because of our lyrics. I guess in this type of climate of Rap music, people feel like a lot of people aren’t saying anything that is inspiring them and thought provoking and we give them that. We want to reach as many people as possible so we do realize that some people listen to Rap music for a feeling that moves them and makes them get up and dance or smoke or drink. There is theme music to every aspect of life and we touch all of them. A lot of people would put us in a positive category but really we are just telling life stories. We want people to live, do the best they can, and be happy. We realize that there are terrible things in this world and covering it up doesn’t help. We like to expose those things. Sometimes it’s with the vibe or the feel but you can say a lot with less words.
S: You have to see that there is a real transfer of emotion in the show. The most beautiful thing about the show is that we move in certain ways. We freeze and stop and start again. We change outfits. We try to break it up, like we are showing real human emotion. There are times where we are more robotic and times where we are more human. The fact that we are all different is what makes it the opera.
Would you guys ever stream your shows or is that something you try to keep special for people to see?
N: We want people to come to the shows and talk about it and get other people to come cause that’s where the excitement is. That’s how it was done back in the day. Concerts were never on TV. You had to go see these artists. You have to get there early to get into the front row. The word of mouth is what really made it grow. People at our shows say they wish they would have taken more pictures but they were frozen in shock. Like nowadays you go to shows and all you see is phones in the air but in our shows there are times where people are really locked in. With us now it’s more like performing arts. It’s more like a play. They say they have never seen things like we are doing.
S: We just keep it fun, man. We like to surprise ourselves. We like to challenge ourselves. You know, the same things we want from our crowd and from our like-minded affiliates, we basically start with ourselves. We’re like, “Aye, let’s start this show without a DJ to make it more like a magic show… Let’s do this show with a live band… Let’s do the show like this… Let’s do this show like that… Let’s do an impromptu show we can set up on the spot…” Because it’s not just one show. It’s more like an ongoing, evolving experience. So, that’s where the fun comes in. You can come see ten TBO shows and they’ll all be different.