Category: Boom bap

Interview: Teflon, DJ Premier and Jazimoto on “2 Sides To Every Story”

Brooklyn rhyme vet Teflon is back with a new album, 2 Sides To Every Story, set for release this Friday, June 30. We spoke to Teflon about the new album, his long affiliation with M.O.P., working with Jazimoto, and the project’s other producer, the legendary DJ Premier. We also spoke to them too, and you can read the whole thing below. Check back on Friday when we’ll post up the full album.

Teflon, this is the first new music we’re heard from you in a while. How’s it been, getting back in the game?

The layout of how music is pushed has changed drastically since I first came out, due to the internet and social media. But thankfully DJ Premier and Matt Diamond have been instrumental in helping me make that transition.

Your connection with M.O.P. goes back decades, as pretty much the third member. Billy and Fame are all over 2 Sides to Every Story, which is cool to see. How did you guys first connect all those years ago?

Well M.O.P started out as a family, a small crew who etched their name in the streets of Brownsville, Brooklyn. We grew up from the sandbox together. A lot of our fellow soldiers were lost to the street. Fame and Bill hooked up with Laze E Laze who secured an album deal for them. I was away at the time when they recorded the first LP, but made it home in time for the 2nd album and have been featured on almost every project of theirs since.

DJ Premier is another long-time collaborator, and he’s been promoting the album hard. It must feel good to have someone like Preemo on your team for so long?

Absolutely. Preemo and I originally connected in the ’90s and he’s always been supportive of M.O.P.’s career as well as  my own. He told me that after he saw my energy on stage, that he wanted to work with me. That was a big honor, especially being that he was and still is one of the most sought out producers in the game…a top dog who’s status still holds to this day.

2 Sides to Every Story is exactly what you want from a Teflon or M.O.P. album: rugged raps over boom-bap. But that said, it doesn’t feel stuck in 1995. Is that a challenge, giving the ‘90s heads what they want, while also appealing to a younger fanbase?

Not at all, its more challenging to stay in the same place. When you’re a creative, you need to have the creative space to grow, otherwise you smother the fire and burn it out. I’ll always be connected to the streets but these days, I’m not doing the same thing I was doing in the ’90s, so that’s where 420 Music comes in. The diversity of the imprint gives me space to grow. It’s a new, refreshing sound that’s different, yet has a feel that both fans that have been supporting for years, along with younger fans looking for a new wave of heat they can get down with.

Having a feature from Benny The Butcher helps bridge the gap. How did that come about?

Benny is a solid lyricist and I like the fact that even though he’s an artist of this generation, he doesn’t mumble rap, he’s clear, concise, has dope metaphors and I can feel where he’s coming from. He keeps the lyrical tradition alive amongst the younger hip-hop heads.

In addition to DJ Premier, the album is produced by Jazimoto. For those of us not yet familiar, bring us up to speed with her.

Jazimoto is a classically trained pianist and violinist with a hell of an imagination and ability to create masterful musical compositions. Hip-hop only scratches the surface of her vast musical arsenal; in fact 420 Music was established with the purpose of providing production for hip-hop, pop, R&B, as well as music for TV/film, movie scores and video games. Jazimoto is the equivalent to an entire team of producers, all wrapped into one person. I’m the voice of 420 Music, but Jazimoto is the sound! You could learn more about Jazi through our recent feature via AllHipHop.

Now that you’re officially back, are you fully reenergised? Can we expect more new music after 2 Sides to Every Story?

Yes. I am reenergized and ready to go with much more music coming through our 420 imprint. After 2 Sides To Every Story, we intend of following that up with Higher Ground. We have over 50 unreleased songs in our catalog and we’re currently working on Jazimoto’s compilation LP, which will host a number of different artist features.

Jazimoto, For those new to your work, how did you get started, and what was your connection to Teflon?

I started playing classical piano and violin when I was three years old. I took private lessons and started going to music conservatories from a very young age. Both my father and uncle were both professional jazz musicians; my father, Wilber Morris, was the founder of Wilberforce, which included Nas’ father Olu Dara. But despite being classically trained, I wanted to go in a different direction, and so I pursued production. I fused my musical background and put it in all directions; hip-hop, R&B, pop, jazz, etc. I just love music, what can I say [laughs].

But eventualy I linked with Tef through both Billy Danze and Fame (M.O.P.), whom I had worked with on the track, “Shake Em Up” off their Street Certified LP. Teflon heard my music and liked it. I orginally approached him about an EP, and once things got started it was magic after that, and here we are.

You’re producing half the album, with the other half being done DJ Premier. Is that daunting? How were you able to rise to the challenge of going head-to-head with one of the GOATs?

I didn’t feel like I was going head-to-head with Preem because my musical pedigree is deeply rooted. But I will say it’s been a dream come true. We each bring a different sound to the table, which both work well with Tef. With Preem being more sample based, and my style being based on live instrumentation, the combination is a win-win. You get both sides of the story!

Teflon comes from the era of the classic DJ Premier boom-bap aesthetic. Did this sway you towards wanting to make beats that compliment that, or take the sound in a different direction, to carve your own mark?

I took my music in a different direction. I definitely wanted to carve my own lane, and I generally try to avoid sounding like anyone else. But like Preem, I want my music to stand out with its own distinctly signature sound. But album production aside, I really want to pursue film scoring, and sync opportunies from commercials to video games, etc. That’s the fun stuff [laughs]. But the records I have on here have a big anthemic sound that I think Tef’s fans are going to dig.

DJ Premier, You and Teflon go way back. Tell me about working with him for so long.

I first met Tef back when we were in New Jersey at a show with Biggie (R.I.P.). Lil Fame had just produced his first demo and was playing it backstage on a boom box. I liked his voice and rhyme style delivery. Then M.O.P. had a show at Wetlands downtown on the west side of NYC. Tef came onstage to warm the stage up for them and his stage presence was so on point I immediately told him we should record together. First record we did was, “Firing Squad” and It continued from there.

You’ve always been supportive of new talent, and on 2 Sides to Every Story you split production duties with Jazimoto. Is she an artist you’ve been developing personally?

I just met Jazimoto through Tef when he played me the song “No Fake Love.” I liked her approach to live instruments but still sounding raw. From there we established a friendship. She had already produced for M.O.P. prior to Tef.

You’ve talked before about challenging yourself to go in new directions, but 2 Sides to Every Story feels like the classic Preemo aesthetic. Is working with Teflon like sliding into a comfortable pair of shoes, or is it still a stimulating challenge to get it sounding fresh?

Both. He and I have always made solid music together from our singles with Fat Beats and of course the M.O.P. albums, so the comfort zone was definitely easy to pick up where we left off.

Lastly, hip-hop is 50 this year. I know you’ve already been involved in some celebratory projects. Are there more on the way?

I have several projects. I’m releasing new singles in hip-hop, dance msuic, latin music, and gearing up for the long awaited NYGz LP, PRhyme 3, a new Big Shug record and some surprise projects.  And it’s never too late to get my EP Hip Hop 50: Vol. 1, available Now featuring Nas, Remy Ma, Rapsody, Slick Rick, Lil Wayne, Run The Jewels and Joey Bada$$!

***

2 Sides To Every Story is released Friday, June 30, via Coalmine Records, and is available for pre-order now. Head over to Coalmine’s online store to order the album on vinyl and CD. A blue and purple whirlpool edition is also available now for pre-order exclusively through Get On Down, along with a silver edition via RRC Music. Both are limited to just 150 units each. 

Nobody Beats The Baz

Words by Dave Waller.

A few years ago, many followers of Mass Appeal’s Rhythm Roulette series noticed a glitch in the Matrix. Alongside the regular films of 9th Wonder, El-P and Large Professor testing their beatmaking chops on random records, there emerged a clip fronted by a middle-aged English bloke in wire-frame specs, a needle-sharp v-neck sweater and a lemon shirt, clutching a carrier bag from Lidl. “I’m Barry Beats,” he said, before ducking through the door of a record shop. Inside, he blind-picked an INXS 12”, some AC-DC and the Hair soundtrack. Then he got busy in Pro Tools and duly unleashed heat.

The clip somehow found its way into Mass Appeal’s official rotation, and has since racked up close to half a million views and hundreds of comments – the vast majority of which can’t get over how someone as unhip-hop as this guy could be banging out that kind of beat. There are a lot of Ned Flanders comparisons. Walter White. Lenny from Memento. He was called the ‘dirty old man of hiphop’, and a ‘korny ass mutha fucker’.

Then there was this: ‘If this cat had 2-3 dead boys n his closet and one cut up and stuffed in his bed I would tell anyone thats not even the craziest shizt I seen him do.’ [Sic]

Indeed, despite all the confusion, there was one sentiment that drove the response: this weird-looking dude is lit.

Digging for a living

Should you ever find yourself in the town of Camborne, deep in the rural English county of Cornwall, you’ll feel the past. The town is dissected by long terraces of granite cottages built back in the 18th Century, for men who spent their lives underground in a perilous hunt for tin. Back then, Camborne was the richest mining area in the world. But all that bustle, industry and purpose is now a distant memory, hanging heavy over the town like the mist that still hugs its hills. These days those streets are dotted with bored kids, old folk and shops struggling to survive.

Today I’m in a particularly weird example of the latter, one full of thick carpet, lavender and trinkets. I’m here following local resident Barry Beats, clad today in slick bottle-green wool-felt slacks. He strides purposefully up the stairs, past Miss Molly’s Tea Room and a terrifying display of old Dutch dolls, and through a room of floral drapes and paintings of pink carnations. Well-honed instincts lead him to a corner annex, where he discovers a rich vein of old vinyl. “This one looks good,” he says, extracting a battered copy of Non-Stop Latin Party. Price: 20p.

Newcomers may be happy speculating over the contents of Barry’s locked attic, but those of a certain vintage may be aware of the man’s real secret – he was once half of production duo The Creators, going under his old alias of Si Spex. As well as doing remix work for Dilated Peoples and Nas, The Creators released one full-length LP, The Weight, back in 2000. It was a transatlantic banger, with Mos Def and Talib Kweli, El Da Sensei and Dilated all gracing the mic.

In the wake of that LP, Barry got hit with label troubles, and his MPC got shut in the loft while he went out delivering Chinese takeaways to make ends meet, and to fund a troubling addiction to model railways. But now Barry is back and dropping his debut solo release, the instrumental ‘2 Sides of Barry’, on King of the Beats records. The sound is what Barry calls ‘new bap’: crisp, tight and funky with hard drums and playful edits. On the first side of the record, everything is sampled. On the other side, Barry deftly twists software instruments to perfectly ape ’70s easy listening LPs from the charity shop crates.

It’s a sound he knows well. “My brain is programmed with a default mode to sniff out records wherever,” he says. “The other day I went to the car park at Carn Brea Leisure Centre, which had three stalls of records. One guy just kept pulling Bags for Life with records in out of his car boot. Then I popped into Pool Market, which had four stalls next to a fun fair – one of which was a pick-up truck with the entire back-end full of records. I’ll always be diverted to get records.”

I watch as Barry contorts among the cramped shelves, hunching his back, his knees creaking to the floor. These days he could just sit on his arse with a mug of Yorkshire Tea and sample stuff from YouTube. But, he says, “the discovery is the joy”. He goes off to pay for his pile, smiling as he recalls once finding a solid break on a Wombles record. Then, much to the bafflement of the shop owner, he tries haggling for 50p off.

Chopping it up

We head back down the stairs and sit in Molly’s Tea Room, to share a couple of saffron buns and blow the dust off Barry’s stash – which includes Peter Skellern’s ‘You’re a Lady’, a Pebble Mill LP and a flexidisc selling the Magicair ‘salon-style home hair dryer’. It doesn’t look promising. But, as Barry says, that’s the alchemical art here: creating gold where you really have no right to.

“Pete Rock’s work on Rahzel’s ‘All I know’ is ridiculous,” he says. “He uses Dorthy Ashby’s ‘Windmills of your Mind’, and what he gets out of it is just bonkers. The original isn’t really funky, but the way he chopped it is. That’s probably my favourite chop of all time – you can hardly even hear the little bits he took.” He bites into his bun, and then starts salivating over the back catalogue of DJ Premier. “He’s great at taking something from nothing,” Barry says. “On Royce da 5’9”’s ‘Boom’, the original is by Marc Hannibal, ‘Forever is a Long Long Time’, which is just really lightweight and terrible. Premier makes it sound so powerful and meaty.”

Many subscribers to Barry’s ‘School of Beats’ YouTube series have the same reaction to him. With his idiosyncratic approach to Ableton, he’s inventing his own methods to get the sounds he wants from the gear, recalling the early days of DJs first manipulating turntables to turn forgotten funk records into hip-hop classics. He’s a craftsman: drums are sampled, cleaned and chopped, and days can pass while he perfects a particular bass line. Barry points out that he came up in the age of the MPC, when it could take 40 minutes just to fill the pads – only to find what you had was crap. He’s now happy building a community around his generous online tutorials, but he still mourns that lost sense of struggle. “There’s no secrets in beat making now,” he says. “Back in the day you had no internet and had to learn it yourself.”

Barry’s own route in to hip-hop was typical for rural British kids in the ’80s (meeting breakers at the local monster truck show, getting LL Cool J tapes in Woolworths). But he was soon taking it further, following a growing curiosity into playing with four-tracks and early samplers. It was after a chance meeting at a Cornish holiday park that he hooked up with fellow Creator, Juliano, and the digging became serious. In the mid-90s, when break insanity was at its peak, and the top US producers were paying crazy dollar for records they knew their rivals hadn’t touched, Barry and Juliano would travel to the US to serve them with these mysterious European slabs. “The likes of Buckwild were getting paid $10k a track,” says Barry. “They’d do two or three tracks a week, and would go out and chuck thousands of dollars around at record fairs. We’d go over there with Top of the Pops records, and we could trade them for killer US funk breaks. I couldn’t tell you how many Playschool records we took over.”

It was, he says, an insane time – and not just because of the inflated market for local charity shop finds. Here was a Cornish lad who’d scored a backstage pass to the centre of hip-hop’s Golden Era. “After one record fair, I’m sat in the driver’s seat of Q-Tip’s Mercedes, next to Pete Rock. Tip’s in the back, and they’re playing our demos. They’re both freestyling over the beats, going: ‘Yep, that’s a good one’.”

And then?

“A week later I’m back in Cornwall, stood at the bus stop in Troon.”

Or your Honda or your Beemer…

There was a story about jeeps that emerged back when Q-Tip and Tribe Called Quest were still yet to release Low End Theory. The group would apparently make copies and rush them direct from the studio to the parking lot to hear how the bass sounded in the ride. They were crafting an album for a particular context, a certain time and place. A few weeks after our sojourn to Molly’s Tea Room, Barry offers to give me a test drive of the still unfinished ‘2 Sides of Barry’. I’m stood waiting in the centre of Camborne when a dark blue Hyundai i30 pulls up, and Barry stretches across to the passenger window. “Jump in, pard,” he says. I sit on a Fruit Salad chew.

Barry kicks off my tour of Camborne’s back streets. Pointing as we pass one property, he tells me it’s home to local ghost hunters, Terry and Tracy. “They reckon they’ve got the best ghost footage in the UK,” he says. “They wanted me to clean up the audio on it. It’s probably just interference from local radio, but they’re convinced it’s little girls.”

The album kicks off with the familiar bells and Fender Rhodes from Bob James’ ‘Take Me to the Mardi Gras’, instantly mangled into new shapes under some scratched spoken word. Barry explains how, for the first side of the record, he wanted to take hip-hop staples and find a way to flip them in a way that still feels fresh. Soon massive uplifting drums rumble under ‘Harlem Shuffle’, while Bobby Byrd’s ‘I Know You Got Soul’ is chopped to within an inch of its life under an extended cameo by Clay Davis from The Wire. This all serves to set up the sample-free second side, where somehow the absence of crusty source material doesn’t change the quality of the sound at all. Everything feels like it’s culled from the same crates.

As the sound bounces off the surrounding pebble-dash, Barry keeps interjecting to explain bits he’s added and bars he’s cut, or to ask whether a particular vocal sample really works. This is minor detail stuff, but like a true beat scientist he only hears all the details that are missing. Judging from his mental unrest, Barry still has hours yet to spend trawling through arcane hair dryer sales records before he’s happy. In an age of constant throwaway ‘content’, he’s like an industrial craftsman seeking the precise nugget that will give the whole work the timeless cohesive sheen.

“A scratch may take only minutes to do, but you could be there for days trying to find the sample,” says Barry, as he pulls up to a red light. He slips a Fruit Salad into his mouth, dropping the wrapper casually on to the slip-on resting patiently by the clutch. “I don’t know how Premier does it.”

***

Barry Beats’ 2 Sides of Barry is out now . Download via Bandcamp here. Vinyl copies available from King of the Beats,  complete with free Barry poster and postcard. The vinyl release will be marked with a secret LP drop in charity shops around the UK. Check out Barry’s Instagram/King of the Beats for clues.

Dave Waller is a writer based in Cornwall. He occasionally lurks on Twitter as @diameterdave. He’d like to keep writing about music from different angles. 

Exclusive Premiere: Stu Bangas – ‘Fine Wine’ feat. Blacastan (video)

Today we bring you the premiere of the video for Fine Wine, one of many standout cuts from Stu Bangas‘ recent album, Discernment. The track features vocals from Stu’s Watson & Holmes partner Blacastan, who rides the dope beat perfectly. Watch below, get your copy on vinyl here, and look out for an interview with Stu Bangas coming soon.

Playlist: Best New Music – October 2019

October turned out to be another incredible month for good hip-hop. The playlist includes new music from legends like Gang Starr, Kool Keith, Pete Rock and Black Moon, plus the latest from Griselda, Apollo Brown, Planet Asia, Danny Brown, Damu The Fudgemunk, Blu, Crimeapple, 38 Spesh and many, many more.

Listen to the playlist below, and then go support the artists with a purchase from wherever you buy your music. Check us on Spotify for more curated playlists.

Classic Rap Demos

Words by John Morrison.

In the years since the emergence of the internet, the means by which music is produced, administered and distributed has been radically altered. Not only did the introduction of peer-to-peer file sharing, streaming and social media change the way music found its way to listeners, these new technologies have also changed the way artists would gain the attention of labels.

Today, aspiring artists have the tools to connect with listeners and build their own autonomous fan bases, with or without major record labels. Years ago, this was not the case. During the Golden Era of Rap, a relationship with a major label was almost mandatory if a budding artist wanted to secure consistent radio play and make an impression on millions of potential fans. For many artists, recording and shopping a demo tape was the first step toward securing that relationship.

Whether recorded in professional studios or in grandma’s basement, on Tascam 4tracks, ancient reel-to-reels or Ampex DATs, a tight demo tape was often times the key to an artist getting on and being heard. Mostly unheard in their own era, a wealth of homemade demos from future rap greats have now found a home on YouTube. John Morrison breaks down a few of the best and most significant.

1. Biggie Smalls – Unsigned Hype Demo: Recorded in the basement of his friend DJ Hitman 50 Grand, future GOAT Christopher Wallace’s first demo tape is a brilliant look at a rough but gifted young MC. Biggie shows off his trademark polysyllabic flow while 50 Grand cuts up classics like The Emotions’ “Blind Alley” break. The tape was so good, it won a feature in The Source Magazine’s coveted Unsigned Hype in March 1992.

2. Organized Konfusion Demo: When Queens New York duo Organized Konfusion first arrived on the scene under the name Simply II Positive MCs, it was clear that Prince Po and Pharoahe Monch were already standing at the vanguard of the science of rhyming. Forward-thinking and fully developed, a few songs on this demo made it to O.K’s mind-bending eponymous debut album. “Prisoners Of War” is a stark, dramatic barrage of words delivered at rapid fire clip, while “Mind Over Matter” is intense, funky and avant-garde.

3. S.B.I. (Timbaland & Pharrell Demo): A true gem of a demo that’s been floating around for the past few years, S.B.I. (Surrounded By Idiots) is the teenage rap crew made up of future super-producers Pharrell Williams, Timbaland and his partner in rhyme, Magoo. Colorful, creative and full of soulful, jazzy samples, the S.B.I. demo tape is deeply indebted to the lighthearted Black Bohemia that A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul was mining during this era. Despite being noticeably derivative of the Native Tongues aesthetic, the S.B.I. demo is full of some refreshingly forward-thinking moments. “Skull Caps & Stripe Shirts” is a fun, uptempo “Human Nature” flip, while the quirky, skating vocal sample and dramatic piano stabs of “Uh Uh Uh”  are like looking into a magic 8-ball that reveals the production steez that Timbaland would use to completely transform the musical landscape in the not-so distant future.

4. DJ Quik – Red Tape/Underground Tape: While there is some discrepancy around the true-title of this tape unloaded by the Underground Dope YouTube page in 2015, this cassette demo of Los Angeles legend DJ Quik is one of the best of its kind available. Expertly produced and featuring young Quik’s x-rated lyrics and high-pitched delivery, this demo contains many West Coast classics like “Underground Terror” and “Born And Raised In Compton.”

5. Nas – Pre-illmatic Demo: By the time his landmark debut Illmatic was released, Nas had already made noise with show-stealing appearances on “Live At The Barbeque”, “Back To The Grill Again” and pre-Illmatic singles like “Halftime”. Before his debut would change the course of rap music, the young Queensbridge MC found himself in the studio crafting demos that showcase Nas as a gifted, blossoming wordsmith. In recent years, a treasure chest of Nas’ pre-illmatic demos have been archived on YouTube. The best of these demos include a rough and dreamy demo version of “It Ain’t Hard To Tell” entitled “Nas Will Prevail”.

Bonus Beats:

1. Jay-Z – Pre-Reasonable Doubt Demo

2. Wu-Tang Clan Demo Tape 1992

3. Juggaknots – Baby Pictures 1989-1993

4. T.I. – T.I.P. Demo

5. Artifacts – 4Track Demo

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John Morrison is a Philadelphia based DJ, producer, and music journalist (Red Bull Music Academy, Jazz Right Now, Bandcamp Daily etc.) His debut instrumental Hip Hop album Southwest Psychedelphia is a psychedelic trip through a day in the life in his Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood, and available now on Deadverse Recordings. Follow John on Twitter and Instagram.

Premiere: The Reconstruction: A Remix Playlist

Coalmine Records dropped a stellar collection of remixes from their catalog back in 2015, featuring new mixes from Large Professor, Diamond D and more, of tracks by Kool G Rap, Sean Price, Guilty Simpson and Skyzoo to name but a few. The label is now releasing a revamped version with two additional cuts: an Oh No remix of the Planet Asia and DJ Concept track, Gold Vases, and a remix of Guilty Simpson and Small Professor’s On The Run by DJ Concept. The project drops tomorrow, and you can order it on vinyl over at Bandcamp or via Fat Beats.

In the meantime, Coalmine Records are celebrating the release with a playlist of some of their favorite hip-hop remixes of all time, with a few remixed gems of their own added for good measure, which we are premiering below. Enjoy.

Exclusive First Listen: The Legion – ‘Three The Bronx Way’ + Interview

Bronx’s The Legion are back with a new album – their first full-length project since the classic Theme + Echo = Krill almost 25 years ago. The anticipated Three The Bronx Way drops everywhere tomorrow but we’re bringing you an exclusive first listen today. Stream it below, then keep scrolling to read our interview with all three crew members; Molecules, Diceman and Chucky Smash.

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We’ve been excited about Three The Bronx Way since the audio for “1980 Something” surfaced early last year. Now it’s finally here, tell us about what we can expect?

Diceman: Well for starters we definitely didn’t stray from our sound—not one bit. Classic hard drums, dope samples, and a rap style that’s our own and not dated. Most importantly, from here on out we will remain consistent with our output of music.

There’s a bit of a Blaxploitation movie theme with the artwork and to a certain extent the sound. Is that the kind of atmosphere you are trying to capture with Three The Bronx Way?

Diceman: Definitely, as with our first album title, Theme +Echo=Krill. Theme music is our thing. We feel like every track should have some sort of theme to create the mood/vibe of the song or songs. It just gives it feeling. It makes your song sound like it belongs to a score for a movie, and gives a different affect to the lyrics…more artful.

You guys have been putting out records since 1993, which is impressive to say the least. Even more impressive is that you are still together as a unit. What’s the secret to maintaining a creative relationship for so long?

Chucky Smash: There’s no secret to us maintaining our relationship. Fortunately for us we were a crew before the industry. We grew up together in the Bronx. Of course we are brothers so we bicker and argue like any other family, but thank goodness we never had a falling out. The creative formula has been primarily Molecules on production and Dice and myself coming up with concepts. That’s usually the way we create songs.

Molecules: We’re friends, but we’re more like family. I’ve know Smash since like the 6th grade and Dice since like high school. Their kids are my God kids. We watched our kids grow up together. It’s more than a working relationship. We have a bond. With that it makes it easy for us to work together. We get in the lab, I lay down a beat, Dice starts spitting and Smash starts writing a hook. The process is effortless.

That said, there are sometimes long periods of time between projects. Other than your individual solo stuff (Molecules’ A Bronx Tale EP with Showbiz, and Diceman’s recent The Power of Now project, for instance), what else do you guys do between the music?

Chucky Smash: Molecules was involved with production for artists like Pink and also Mos Def. Dice is always prospecting other artists for us to work with. I had a nice run at radio with DJ Bill Skillz WVKR. The three of us are also proud fathers and family men.

When we spoke to Molecules last year he talked about how impactful Dres has been to The Legion. You have him on Three The Bronx Way (“Make It Hot”). It must be good to know you can call on an icon of the game like that to support you anytime you make music?

Chucky Smash: Yes, being down with Dres has definitely been a blessing. He’s had a huge impact on our career, and getting us our start with “Jingle Jangle.”

You also have Sadat X on the track “Word.” Tell us about your relationship with him?

Chucky Smash: Sadat X has been a friend of ours for years. We’ve done multiple shows with him and Brand Nubian. It’s just easy to link and vibe with him. He has that distinct dope voice.

Molecules: Sadat X is like family. He’s a real good dude. Like Smash said we’ve been running with him for years, doing shows, etc. Our relationship with him is bigger than music. I’ve still got unreleased music with some of my close friends on it, including Sadat. Anytime I hit him he comes through no problem. Genuine love for him.

Anything else you want people to know about, Three The Bronx Way?

Diceman: Besides to go out and support Three The Bronx Way, we want you to know ya’ll won’t be let down. We’re a piece to the puzzle of Hip Hop—what we call the forgotten formula: hardcore music in song form.

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Three The Bronx Way is out tomorrow, and you can get it from here. Follow The Legion on Instagram, and Molecules, Diceman and Chucky Smash on Twitter. Interview by Grown Up Rap Editor Ben Pedroche.