By Alvin "aqua" Blanco
Call them the Fantastic Four. Except, their superpowers were not the result of cosmic radiation but a byproduct of a appreciation for the fundamentals of Hip-Hop lyricism; wordplay and delivery. Composed of VA’s Malice and Pusha T of the Clipse and Philly brethren Ab-Liva (formerly of Major Figgas) and Sandman, this fearsome foursome call themselves the Re-Up Gang.
Riding a Pyrex and powder laced pair of critically acclaimed albums (Lord Willin’ (2002), Hell Hath No Fury (2006)) and a rep bolstered by staggeringly potent volumes of their We Got It for Cheap mixtaptes—the latest being Vol 3: The Spirit of Competition—the Re-Up Gang is motivated by a love of creating dope rap music. No pun intended. Now rolling with Columbia Records in 50/50 joint venture for their Re-Up Gang Records, Pusha, Malice, Ab-Liva and Sandman spoke in depth about everything from the beef with that guy from New Orleans to being independently major to their exasperation with former home Jive on down to how they are their own greatest inspiration.
AllHipHop.com: Alright, so Volume 3's been out. How's the feedback been?
Malice: It's real good, it's been a long time coming. A lot of people have been waitin' for Volume 3. A lot of success on Volume 2, Volume 1 also was hot and the feedback we get is everyone saying Volume 3 definitely lived up to, if not exceeded Volume 2, so we're happy with that.
AllHipHop.com: Obviously you were aware of the success of Volume 2, is that part of the reason why it took a little longer to drop Volume 3?
Pusha-T: Yeah, we had all intentions, with all the albums that were dropping, to come out a little earlier because the whole theme and the whole premise behind Volume 3 was “the spirit of competition.” So we was goin' to take all the albums that dropped — Jay, Kanye — everybody who was supposed to drop but didn't drop - take all their beats and black out on them. That was what it was supposed to be, but a lot of albums came out and the beats weren't there. So we were like, “Damn, what are we goin' do?” So then we had to go back to diggin’ in the crates and finding the "Scenario 2000" record and going back to "Rainy Dayz." We were doing this s**t off of inspiration; like the records that inspired us and so on and so forth. Hopefully hoping we were going to get inspiration from the joints that did drop, but didn't.
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13 comments:
I'm glad they brought up that if you just tell the truth it's going to be hot...everybody think they have to make up some fake shit to seem hard or whatever...talk about what you know whether its dope or playing playstation, someone will feel you...and the people that don't feel you they just don't...and that's a wrap!
jnh I know you will be on here soon...I was thinking what can we do to help get the word out there about this movement for the idiots that aren't on it yet...or do we just keep doing what we're doing, letting the guys know they got real fans out here?
I'll get back after I read this long ass interview tmtwbk
sandman said it best
"I keep hearing and reading, “They cocaine rappers.” Can somebody give my n****s credit for being able to reinvent that subject that many motherf***n' times?" -Sandman
every1 quick to say all they rap about is cocaine, but they all fail to notice that the wordplay is fucking insane. And look at my ass with the Brain tattoo, they know I'm loyal. Malice beat me to the re-up tattoo! jus' jokin. That interview is fuckin' nuts tho, very deep and finally answered my "P" questions, simply gettin' shit off his chest, what? who cares, people gotta vent sometimes. ya know.
PROMOTION...
well they could promote the blog on their myspace page, and also could promote the ning page on their myspace page. They could get a RUGR (funny how reupgangrecords abbrevates to a gun) myspace page goin too. I'd actually create one, but I'm swamped in shit wit my boy Hannabal (plug www.myspace.com/signhannabal) I actually run about 10 different sites online for him simply for nothing, grew up with him and got serious respect for his music. Got 7,000 friends on it, and I'm posting reup bulletins to get the word out.
So Pusha, go holla at Shomi (who's probably reading this) and get a reupgangrecords myspace page made up, put that bitch as #1 friend on all 4 pages and the friend requests will come, shiet look at how quick the play cloths site took off. I know every1 flocks to the Star Trak forums when Pusha would be on it, so if he would actually identify himself (or the rest of reup) actually being on, the page would get series traffic...I'm full of ideas, when you spend 8 hours after work promoting for sum1 who is unsigned you tend to get a lot of creative ideas...
like some play cloths giveaways up on here, and who got that phone call?
after reading the article its funny to see some of the comments at the bottom of "HipHop's" page. people are talking about "they keep rapping about the same shit" and "they're really not innovating or exploring something new".
I'm not sure about you all but people that supposidly changed it up never got any more "innovative".
like my first post, who the hell would be innovative enough to use "W.E.B. Dubois" in a supposed "concaine-dboy" genre rap…or Malice’s verse from WGFC Vol 2…
“Cop the sorbet, straight from Jorge
Jack of all trades even mastered the gourmet
Plus the price got the street ‘tongue and cheek’
Cook it till its al-dente, Muah! Magnifique!”
the other part of my rant about "innovation" is this; lets take Jay-Z for instance...most would say that he has written/stole some great music... but when he got "innovative" and moved on from the subject matter of his first 2 albums, i couldnt relate anymore....im not "big pimp'n" on a fucking boat in the med.sea...i’m still ground level…i cant go buy “Purple Label” to wear to work…..
when I got a chance just to see Re-Up in the SF Bay Area, they rocked the house and shook hands with the fans… i mean I had a short convo about my “fuck your clique” shirt with AB when he walked over to our booth….these dudes are real people…
in short…..
don’t change shit…. TMTWBK said…. It’s in the words…
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