Post by Admin on Feb 4, 2009 11:59:38 GMT -8
Source: www.urb.com/permalink/4851/INTERVIEW:-Myka-9-(Freestyle-Fellowship)-Turns-40.html
When an artist drops two very strong projects within the span of a few months and one of them isn’t a mixtape, it is a sign that the artist is in his/her creative zone. For Freestyle Fellowship cofounder and freestyle assassin Myka 9, this zone isn’t new found but rather is a result of 40 years of maturation. 1969 isn’t merely a reference to an end of an era of free love, rock, and war, it is the birth, literally, of a hip-hop pioneer and fittingly the title of his most recent project. Following up his concept project with JtheSarge, The Magic Heart Genies, Myka 9 returns only a couple of months later with 1969, an album grounded in nostalgia for a past era that demonstrates an MC who is able to continue to push forward by being grounded in the past. URB got a chance to go on a freestyle fellowship with Myka 9 to find out more about these two projects, his favorite freestyle moments, and the possibility of a Fellowship reunion.
URB: Let’s start off by talking about the Magic Heart Genies’ Heartifact project.
Myka 9: The Magic Heart Genies project came out a couple of months ago, so it is still fresh. JtheSarge and DJ Drez will be involved in the upcoming tour. It’s just amazing to have two projects that got two four out of five reviews in your publication, you dig; so I consider that an honor and a privilege in itself. And that’s why I am approaching the show sets for my kind, our kind, those that are a part of the scene and as far as the heads go, in chronological order of all of the projects I have been on and released: My core groups like Freestyle Fellowship, Haiku d'etat, Magic Heart Genies, and my solo stuff. I think now I have the representation for each period [of my career] in my show. It will be education as well as entertainment. Like KRS-One said, Edutainment.
URB: Do you like the confines of working within a concept based project?
Myka 9: Yeah I do; I also like the other side, which would be none of the above, but in respect to Magic Heart Genies, we were able to bring some of that magical vibration back into hip-hop not that it was lacking, but I just hadn’t personally heard it from many other artists or myself even. And just you know, creating a world within a world. Not to many people know this but we scrambled the letters in our name [Myka, JtheSarge] and that’s how we came up with Magic Heart Genies.
URB: How did you even get to that moment of discussing the scrambling of the names?
Myka 9: That’s exactly how the 1969 album came into being as well. I call them songs for hire because you’ll be working with someone and they like your style; it will come out good and want to do another one. You do another and that parleys into a project. The project sounds good and that’s why it starts to become conceptualized or us featured. I like working with different artists or creating groups like I have with Haiku d'etat. So it was time for me to participate in a whole different vibration and not even widely established artists either, so they are still on the grind; they still have that hunger. The common ground with me and Sarge is I like the Humboldt area; I like Northern Cali, and I will just leave it as that. Lots of beautiful trees. That in of itself was common ground, love for the crowd, love for the art. That’s how we really ended up parleying into a concept project. We were trying to figure out what to call it and that’s when I decided that we should scramble the letters in our name up. We came up with different words, and Magic Heart Genies stood out as the best name and then we just ran with it. There is a whole story behind it where there is this microphone and its shaped like a heart, but it isn’t like a genies lamp and you rub it, but when you flow into it, it gives you the ability to rhyme as good as we do. It’s a mystic heirloom and there is a heist involved. The next album will be like it was an inside job. We are already half way through another one. I like the production we have across the board; it has nice range. My favorite songs on the album are the ones we perform; I like “Royal Caravan” , I like “Magic Heart Genies” because it has that feel. I like “Multicultural” because it has that international feel; I even like “Good Energy” because it is 6-8; I like “Quandary” because the way me and Sarge go back and forth. I really like when MCS rhyme and have their own pattern, or match verses and things of that nature to show some kind of cohesion and that way I am able to feel fine working within the confines of a conceptual record.
URB: You mentioned that you are deep into the next Magic Heart Genies project. Is that something fans can expect to see in ’09?
Myka 9: Yes.
URB: Tell me a little bit about 1969, which celebrates the year you were born.
MyKa 9:That project is called 1969 because it has a strong nostalgic feel of that era. It’s not heavy on the DJ scratch but it is heavy on the nice melodic structure and it’s bringing up images from the era that I was born in. I thought it would be fitting because I was born in 1969 and now it is 2009, so you have all of the different 9’s working there, and the mystical implications with that. I am also proud of it because it has a cohesive feel; I haven’t done a project like this since I did It's All Love back in the ‘90s, which is me doing all of the vocals and working with one producer exclusively, and he has curtailed this project for me. We have a video out called “Smokey”. I love it. It has all of these different connotations-Smoking cords; I like to smoke my herb. I have two cool projects out, which defiantly motivates me to continue to push these records, do well at shows, and stay relevant in this underground arena.
URB: You have been credited with redefining the art of the freestyle, so I am curious, what are your thoughts on the art form today?
Myka 9: Its dope. It’s hard to tell, if a cat is freestyling or if it is written. There are so many people that are gaining ground musically because there are songs that have stemmed from someone stretching out or getting open. Freestyle is just one aspect. There are a lot of songs that have started from a freestyle; freestlying one’s life; its similar to some of those early Zen artists who would paint a picture but never lift the paint brush. I was talking to one of my colleagues, and he was telling me how either through of age or matching a certain level, it takes awhile to get to a certain zone. Back in the day, you could just pop out. You can still just pop out now, but your own level of potency can take 30 minutes to an hour of rhyming and resting, rhyming and resting to get your chops up.
URB: As an observer, what are some of your favorite freestyle moments?
Myka 9: As an observer, when Supernatural battled Juice, or the other time when he [Supernatural] battled Craig in New York. I have seen the upside and the downside. I have seen ferocious exchanges. I have seen Medusa just snatch souls; I have seen Acey crush heads; I have seen Ab make people want to fight because he was disturbing them so much. I have seen Busdriver step on stage and MCs step off stage [laughs]. They step on stage and are like “Why did he have to come?” I have seen entities, which are cats that you can’t serve. It’s a sensei kind of vibe. I’ve seen No Can Do perform strategic surgery. From the primitive days of B-Boys to now, even on some of those beef tapes where it’s Cassidy ripping Freeway. It gets kind of ridiculous after awhile too. I’ve been in Germany where everyone is just shiting in your mother’s mouth. And I am just like man, they go to another level. I can appreciate bag raping, but I like it when there is a little bit of skill involved. I thought that the movie 8 Mile was very well done with the atmosphere and that’s how it was for us in the Good Life in the ‘80s and ‘90s. It is good to see that the culture is alive and well. It would just be nice if I could go judge a Freestyle Friday or if I could go on VH1 and be one of those commentators or something, but it’s OK.
URB: What about the time Supernat rhymed for over 8 hours at Rock the Bells?
Myka 9: Oh yeah, they said Nat was going for some record right? I am walking around and saw him busting but they had him set up in like a living room. I didn’t know he was doing that. When I went up there he gave me an honorable mention, which is one thing, but then he started going off for 24 bars for your boy. That’s the ultimate honorable salute. Speaking of Supernat, I have known him a long time, and he has come right in line with the way we roll, and he has taken that around the world. But Nat did 24 bars about your boy, had me cracking up, talking about things I don’t even remember. That was such a great night because later I joined the stage with Kweli and KRS and Nas.
URB: It was historical.
Myka 9: It was defiantly historical with Wu there and everything, and I’ve paid my dues, and I am no slouch on the mic either and that was a hot moment.
URB: Rock the Bells is famous for reuniting legendary groups, and discussion about getting the Fellowship back together?
Myka 9: There have been some strong discussions about the Freestyle Fellowship reuniting, who the members will be comprised of might be a tricky situation, but it is looking like it’s a strong case for the Fellowship to hit. I will say that we have done some recordings; I can say that we have had some rehearsals and that was about a month ago. And or course me and Acey roll very strong together. It’s getting stronger and stronger now. DJ Q is making incredible tracks. P.E.A.C.E. is still up north; he has a beautiful family; he is doing some recordings as well. Jupiter, I believe, is still on hiatus, but I think even if it just comes down to a few of the members, we can still perform the songs and completely shred it. I think that the Freestyle Fellowship could just be better off left as legendary. The stuff that we recorded is incredible, and I always perform my stuff from Freestyle Fellowship. I haven’t had any discussions with Chang or anyone else over at Guerilla Union; I heard the Pharcyde got back together, which is a great thing. The Fellowship is a powerful force; I imagine us with Kazoos on and those old Fila suits with the big F, with the bboy sweat suits on, and we would just come out wrecking it. It’s a question of scheduling and more over than that, the will to do. I know I have will to do it, and Acey does too, I know Q does and P.E.A.C.E. does. We will defiantly be doing something this year Fellowship related. I think I will probably cry.
URB: I think there might be some in the crowd crying as well.
Myka 9: I just love that there is still interest on how we didn’t go super-platinum, but there is a vibe and culture behind it. I am not mad if others do it, I just wish they did it right.
When an artist drops two very strong projects within the span of a few months and one of them isn’t a mixtape, it is a sign that the artist is in his/her creative zone. For Freestyle Fellowship cofounder and freestyle assassin Myka 9, this zone isn’t new found but rather is a result of 40 years of maturation. 1969 isn’t merely a reference to an end of an era of free love, rock, and war, it is the birth, literally, of a hip-hop pioneer and fittingly the title of his most recent project. Following up his concept project with JtheSarge, The Magic Heart Genies, Myka 9 returns only a couple of months later with 1969, an album grounded in nostalgia for a past era that demonstrates an MC who is able to continue to push forward by being grounded in the past. URB got a chance to go on a freestyle fellowship with Myka 9 to find out more about these two projects, his favorite freestyle moments, and the possibility of a Fellowship reunion.
URB: Let’s start off by talking about the Magic Heart Genies’ Heartifact project.
Myka 9: The Magic Heart Genies project came out a couple of months ago, so it is still fresh. JtheSarge and DJ Drez will be involved in the upcoming tour. It’s just amazing to have two projects that got two four out of five reviews in your publication, you dig; so I consider that an honor and a privilege in itself. And that’s why I am approaching the show sets for my kind, our kind, those that are a part of the scene and as far as the heads go, in chronological order of all of the projects I have been on and released: My core groups like Freestyle Fellowship, Haiku d'etat, Magic Heart Genies, and my solo stuff. I think now I have the representation for each period [of my career] in my show. It will be education as well as entertainment. Like KRS-One said, Edutainment.
URB: Do you like the confines of working within a concept based project?
Myka 9: Yeah I do; I also like the other side, which would be none of the above, but in respect to Magic Heart Genies, we were able to bring some of that magical vibration back into hip-hop not that it was lacking, but I just hadn’t personally heard it from many other artists or myself even. And just you know, creating a world within a world. Not to many people know this but we scrambled the letters in our name [Myka, JtheSarge] and that’s how we came up with Magic Heart Genies.
URB: How did you even get to that moment of discussing the scrambling of the names?
Myka 9: That’s exactly how the 1969 album came into being as well. I call them songs for hire because you’ll be working with someone and they like your style; it will come out good and want to do another one. You do another and that parleys into a project. The project sounds good and that’s why it starts to become conceptualized or us featured. I like working with different artists or creating groups like I have with Haiku d'etat. So it was time for me to participate in a whole different vibration and not even widely established artists either, so they are still on the grind; they still have that hunger. The common ground with me and Sarge is I like the Humboldt area; I like Northern Cali, and I will just leave it as that. Lots of beautiful trees. That in of itself was common ground, love for the crowd, love for the art. That’s how we really ended up parleying into a concept project. We were trying to figure out what to call it and that’s when I decided that we should scramble the letters in our name up. We came up with different words, and Magic Heart Genies stood out as the best name and then we just ran with it. There is a whole story behind it where there is this microphone and its shaped like a heart, but it isn’t like a genies lamp and you rub it, but when you flow into it, it gives you the ability to rhyme as good as we do. It’s a mystic heirloom and there is a heist involved. The next album will be like it was an inside job. We are already half way through another one. I like the production we have across the board; it has nice range. My favorite songs on the album are the ones we perform; I like “Royal Caravan” , I like “Magic Heart Genies” because it has that feel. I like “Multicultural” because it has that international feel; I even like “Good Energy” because it is 6-8; I like “Quandary” because the way me and Sarge go back and forth. I really like when MCS rhyme and have their own pattern, or match verses and things of that nature to show some kind of cohesion and that way I am able to feel fine working within the confines of a conceptual record.
URB: You mentioned that you are deep into the next Magic Heart Genies project. Is that something fans can expect to see in ’09?
Myka 9: Yes.
URB: Tell me a little bit about 1969, which celebrates the year you were born.
MyKa 9:That project is called 1969 because it has a strong nostalgic feel of that era. It’s not heavy on the DJ scratch but it is heavy on the nice melodic structure and it’s bringing up images from the era that I was born in. I thought it would be fitting because I was born in 1969 and now it is 2009, so you have all of the different 9’s working there, and the mystical implications with that. I am also proud of it because it has a cohesive feel; I haven’t done a project like this since I did It's All Love back in the ‘90s, which is me doing all of the vocals and working with one producer exclusively, and he has curtailed this project for me. We have a video out called “Smokey”. I love it. It has all of these different connotations-Smoking cords; I like to smoke my herb. I have two cool projects out, which defiantly motivates me to continue to push these records, do well at shows, and stay relevant in this underground arena.
URB: You have been credited with redefining the art of the freestyle, so I am curious, what are your thoughts on the art form today?
Myka 9: Its dope. It’s hard to tell, if a cat is freestyling or if it is written. There are so many people that are gaining ground musically because there are songs that have stemmed from someone stretching out or getting open. Freestyle is just one aspect. There are a lot of songs that have started from a freestyle; freestlying one’s life; its similar to some of those early Zen artists who would paint a picture but never lift the paint brush. I was talking to one of my colleagues, and he was telling me how either through of age or matching a certain level, it takes awhile to get to a certain zone. Back in the day, you could just pop out. You can still just pop out now, but your own level of potency can take 30 minutes to an hour of rhyming and resting, rhyming and resting to get your chops up.
URB: As an observer, what are some of your favorite freestyle moments?
Myka 9: As an observer, when Supernatural battled Juice, or the other time when he [Supernatural] battled Craig in New York. I have seen the upside and the downside. I have seen ferocious exchanges. I have seen Medusa just snatch souls; I have seen Acey crush heads; I have seen Ab make people want to fight because he was disturbing them so much. I have seen Busdriver step on stage and MCs step off stage [laughs]. They step on stage and are like “Why did he have to come?” I have seen entities, which are cats that you can’t serve. It’s a sensei kind of vibe. I’ve seen No Can Do perform strategic surgery. From the primitive days of B-Boys to now, even on some of those beef tapes where it’s Cassidy ripping Freeway. It gets kind of ridiculous after awhile too. I’ve been in Germany where everyone is just shiting in your mother’s mouth. And I am just like man, they go to another level. I can appreciate bag raping, but I like it when there is a little bit of skill involved. I thought that the movie 8 Mile was very well done with the atmosphere and that’s how it was for us in the Good Life in the ‘80s and ‘90s. It is good to see that the culture is alive and well. It would just be nice if I could go judge a Freestyle Friday or if I could go on VH1 and be one of those commentators or something, but it’s OK.
URB: What about the time Supernat rhymed for over 8 hours at Rock the Bells?
Myka 9: Oh yeah, they said Nat was going for some record right? I am walking around and saw him busting but they had him set up in like a living room. I didn’t know he was doing that. When I went up there he gave me an honorable mention, which is one thing, but then he started going off for 24 bars for your boy. That’s the ultimate honorable salute. Speaking of Supernat, I have known him a long time, and he has come right in line with the way we roll, and he has taken that around the world. But Nat did 24 bars about your boy, had me cracking up, talking about things I don’t even remember. That was such a great night because later I joined the stage with Kweli and KRS and Nas.
URB: It was historical.
Myka 9: It was defiantly historical with Wu there and everything, and I’ve paid my dues, and I am no slouch on the mic either and that was a hot moment.
URB: Rock the Bells is famous for reuniting legendary groups, and discussion about getting the Fellowship back together?
Myka 9: There have been some strong discussions about the Freestyle Fellowship reuniting, who the members will be comprised of might be a tricky situation, but it is looking like it’s a strong case for the Fellowship to hit. I will say that we have done some recordings; I can say that we have had some rehearsals and that was about a month ago. And or course me and Acey roll very strong together. It’s getting stronger and stronger now. DJ Q is making incredible tracks. P.E.A.C.E. is still up north; he has a beautiful family; he is doing some recordings as well. Jupiter, I believe, is still on hiatus, but I think even if it just comes down to a few of the members, we can still perform the songs and completely shred it. I think that the Freestyle Fellowship could just be better off left as legendary. The stuff that we recorded is incredible, and I always perform my stuff from Freestyle Fellowship. I haven’t had any discussions with Chang or anyone else over at Guerilla Union; I heard the Pharcyde got back together, which is a great thing. The Fellowship is a powerful force; I imagine us with Kazoos on and those old Fila suits with the big F, with the bboy sweat suits on, and we would just come out wrecking it. It’s a question of scheduling and more over than that, the will to do. I know I have will to do it, and Acey does too, I know Q does and P.E.A.C.E. does. We will defiantly be doing something this year Fellowship related. I think I will probably cry.
URB: I think there might be some in the crowd crying as well.
Myka 9: I just love that there is still interest on how we didn’t go super-platinum, but there is a vibe and culture behind it. I am not mad if others do it, I just wish they did it right.