Flatline - The HipHopGods Interview lyrics

Exclusive: Mad Flava - The HipHopGods Interview HHG: Can you talk about the early days on the Dallas hip hop scene?...the early shows and the parties, and how you guys were involved, even before Mad Flava became a group. Hype Dawg: I was located in STL and had been previously producing Sylk Smoov, JCD and a sh**load of local artists. Cold Cris: Yeah, Hype Dawg came up in the St. Louis hip hop scene. I have been involved in the Dallas hip hop culture since the early 80's. I was extremely active as a B-Boy in the Dallas Breakdancing scene as soloist and also as a member of the Star City Breakers (with Rob Free who is a Grammy Award winning producer and a member of Erykah Badu's band The Cannabinoids). These were the days of the Fresh Fest tour, roller skating rink parties, apartment clubhouse joints, teen clubs, high school dances n sh**. The Breakdancing scene in Dallas was very serious, filled with ridiculously talented Poppers and B-Boys. I had an agent, was in videos, commercials, several paid gigs, had a sponsorship from Puma...sh** was real. Then I started DJ'ing and rhyming in '85, throwing parties, rocking' DJ battles, DJ'ing and MC'ing clubhouse joints, park jams, bingo halls, school dances n all that. I was heavily involved in the Dallas Latin Hip Hop scene with Mixwizard Pedro (RIP), The Rincon Brothers, and the KNON community radio station. Then I became a member of a collective of emcees, hustlers, DJ's, street cats, producers, drug dealers, dancers, knockout artists, etc...just a wild-a** clique. That collective was the International Grand Posse. The I.G.P. We connected with DJ Ez Eddie D who had a weekly radio show on KNON 90.9 (now 89.3). Ez Eddie D still has his show. It's the second longest running Hip Hop radio show in the country. Ez Eddie D's show, Down By Sound, became a platform for the I.G.P. We got down with DJ Baby G in like '88-'89 and we had a weekly gig with him in the basement of the legendary Starck Club. Then Baby G won the national DMC contest and sh** really started poplin'. I.G.P had different formations and at one time we performed as a full band performing at shows in the Deep Ellum area of Dallas opening up for groups like Tribe Called Quest, etc...we rocked a lot of shows. We were active all over Dallas, especially at Club Exodus in Deep Ellum where we rocked with Gang Starr, Pete Rock & CL Smooth...lots of cats. Then we formed Mad Flava and got our deal and...there you go. That's the condensed version of the history (laughs) HHG: How did you guys come together, and did you know instantly that the chemistry worked? With all the moving parts, with Cris, Hype, Kasaan and Baby G, it must have been important that it all clicked. Hype Dawg: Actually Professor Griff was responsible. I was working with an MC named Efek. We hooked up with 2 dancers, Boardwalk and Parkplace that we met at an early Cedric the Entertainer talent show. The dancers were from Clarksville/Louisville and hooked up with Griff there, they pulled us in and Griff found Cris and G in Dallas. It was off to Miami after that to sign with Luke Records. Things happened and ended up really clicking with Cris and G. The next summer after the Luke thing died out, we formed Mad Flava and made the demo in my basement in St. Louis. Cold Cris: Baby G and I did a freestyle set opening up for Professor Griff in 1990 at Trees in Deep Ellum. Griff was doing A&R for Luke Records at the time and he had me and G come to his dressing room after the show. He said he was putting a group together and he wanted Baby G and I to be a part of it. I thought he was bullsh**ting but a couple months later we were signed to Luke Records and flew down to Miami to record the album, That's where we met Hype Dawg. Griff found him and another rapper plus two dancers and put us all together as a group. The Luke deal didn't work out but me, G, and Hype Dawg clicked from the start musically and we went on to form Mad Flava. We recorded a 6-8 song demo on a 4-track and got signed by Priority Records in late '92. Kasaan joined the group later. As far as chemistry: we had done so many shows together that the crew was very tight. Our stage show was on point. The chemistry was natural. HHG: Cris, can you talk to us about how The D.O.C. was instrumental in your growth as an emcee when you were coming up in the Dallas hip hop scene? Cold Cris: The D.O.C. was inspirational by just being an example of what a complete emcee was - lyrics, concepts, voice, style, swagger, live performance...he was the total package. He was a star. He just had that aura, that "sh**". It was very obvious early on in his career. HHG: Cris, who were some of your biggest influences and favorite emcees that you looked to when it came time to write lyrics? Cold Cris: When I first started rhyming I prayed at the altar of Grandmaster Caz, Melle Mel and Kool Moe Dee (Treacherous Three era Moe Dee). Later on it was Rakim, Kane, Kool G Rap...plus other cats like Super Lover Cee, Ultramagnetic, KRS-One, Treach, all that early Flavor Unit, Wild Pitch Records stuff...lots of different influences. HHG: Can you talk about the creation of From Tha Ground Unda? What was the recording process like? Hype Dawg: Insane, like kids in a candy store. LA really had a vibe. We recorded at Skip Saylor (shared a control room with DJ Quik) and Westlake. Those were the days. Cold Cris: We basically had From Tha Ground Unda completely written and produced before we even got to LA to record the album. I made a lot of trips to St. Louis to work with Hype Dawg. Me and G rode the Amtrak to the Lou a couple times and perfected the art of smoking trees on a train. (laughs) We worked a lot on the phone too. Hype Dawg playing samples and beats over the phone and we would come up with ideas for joints. By the time we got to Los Angeles to record the album was pretty much planned out. We added a couple of interludes during the recording sessions in LA. We added Goldie Mac to "Spread Tha bu*ta" but that was really it. Everything else was already prepared. We tracked the whole album in like 3 weeks. We spent about 2 weeks mixing and sequencing. We recorded at Skip Saylor studios. DJ Quik was recording a project there at the same time. We also recorded at Westlake. Legendary studio. We did "Git Tha Funk Up" and "To Tha Break" there. The whole process was dope. We knocked that sh** out. We had just got turned on to that Cali chronic so we were very inspired. HHG: "Freak 'Em" samples the same piano loop by Ahmad Jamal that Ice-T used on "Addicted To Danger" and "Fools" samples The Charmels, which Wu-Tang also sampled for "C.R.E.A.M."...were these nods to Ice-T and Wu-Tang or just coincidences that you sampled the same records? Hype Dawg: Strictly coincidence. Cold Cris: I remember we were on the road in San Francisco and we played an early copy of Enter The 36 Chambers in the van and when C.R.E.A.M. came on we are like "oh sh**". But yeah, Baby G rocked that sample before we ever heard the Wu Tang joint. Same thing with the Ahmad Jamal. Just a coincidence. HHG: Hype, you're a very talented producer to this day, and no joke, From Tha Ground Unda still bumps. There are albums from '94 that are in desperate need of remastering, and that album is not one of them. Who did you look to for inspiration at the time, in terms of producers, and what kind of equipment was used to create the album? Hype Dawg: Mantronik, Marley Marl, Bomb Squad, Dre and Muggs. I used an Ensoniq ASR10 and an SP1200. HHG: Did either of you feel like Priority just didn't quite know what to do with the album? As a fan and a listener, it was frustrating to see such a great record not do a little better. Hype Dawg: Yes, but there were politics that didn't work in our favor also. I'd rather not elaborate. Cold Cris: It was a matter of bad timing and some of the staff at Priority that were really behind the group leaving in the middle of the project. The album was supposed to drop in May '93 and it didn't end up coming out 'til April '94. Priority did an excellent job promo and marketing wise initially - full-page ads in The Source and lots of other mags, great promo items - Mad Flava weed pipes n sh**...but all that promo was geared towards the album dropping in '93. We had a great buzz with the first single "Feel Tha Flava"; It was doing really well at College radio and mix-shows. Then Eric Brooks, who we worked with on our previous deal with Luke Records, left Priority with his key staff members and started Noo Trybe Trybe Records over at Virgin. That staff shake up stalled the release and the album ended up dropping in '94. After all the promo set up. A year too late. HHG: How did the legendary Mister Kaves from Lordz Of Brooklyn come into the picture to design the Mad Flava logo? That must have been quite the honor to have him put that together for you. Hype Dawg: Cris spearheaded that. From what I remember Danny Boy lived nearby and I think that was the hookup. Cold Cris: Yeah, when we first got out to LA to work on the album Kaves was in LA too. He was staying with Danny Boy from House of Pain. I hit Danny Boy up to hang out and I mentioned that we needed a logo so he suggested that Kaves do it. Mister Kaves freaked that sh** too. Great work. So really it was Danny Boy that made that connection happen. HHG: Feel Tha Flava was the first single off From Tha Ground Unda and it got the remix treatment, not once, but twice by Eric "Vietnam" Sadler. How did that come about? Cold Cris: It was Eric Brooks that made that happen. He had history with Eric Sadler. Being such huge Bomb Squad/Public Enemy fans we were kinda blown away by the fact that he was even f**ing with our sh**. HHG: Hype, you're currently working with Randy Kunin on The Dark Arts Movement, and it sounds like we may get a partial Mad Flava reunion with Cris possibly jumping on some tracks. Can you talk more about your plans for the music? Hype Dawg: Cris is part of DAM and hell yes there will be solo Cold Cris joint. It's in the works. Randy and I have an awesome process where he chooses what I chop up. Very different from me searching, his taste is amazing and he is an audio madman building speakers. His company is Randall K Designer HIFI. A lot to come man. HHG: There are tracks recorded after the From Tha Ground Unda sessions which can be found on YouTube. Were they recorded for your soph*more project that never came together and do you have any plans to officially release them, even as mp3's on iTunes or something? Hype Dawg: Yeah we always planned on another album and yes we planned on doing an Unreleased album eventually. Most cuts were done in my basement in STL. Cold Cris: Some of that stuff was recorded for the second album with Priority. Some of it was recorded for a demo package we were shopping after we parted ways with the label. A few of those joints were released as 12"'s on our own label. We have talked about compiling all those songs and releasing them as a project. We have had interest from a couple of distributors. HHG: From Tha Ground Unda, for me, is one of my all time favorite albums and I think it really embodies what hip hop is all about - dope beats and lyrics, incredible scratch work by DJ Baby G - what is it like looking back and listening to the album? Do you have any favorite tracks off it? Hype Dawg: "Spread Tha bu*ter" and "To Tha Break". I listen and can't believe it's us sometimes. Very proud of our work. Cold Cris: Looking back at it there are a few things I would change but that's typical artist over-an*lyzing sh**. Overall I'm very proud of the album. I think there were moments of brilliance and it was only a preview of what the group was going to develop into. The second album would have been crazy. My favorite tracks are "To Tha Break", "Gotz Ta Flow Ta This", "Fools" and "Spread Tha bu*ta". HHG: Thanks for taking the time and congrats on the 20th anniversary of From Tha Ground Unda. Hype Dawg: Appreciate you doing this man. Archived from HipHopGods