Not Built By Faith Alone...Pt. 1 (LINK to PT. 2 & album review coming soon)
The more things change the more seasoned emcees stay in their lanes. Before we hear a collab album from Buckshot and new Duck Down Records signee KRS-ONE, or Skyzoo’s LP under 9th Wonder’s Duck Down subsidiary, General Steele lets us into Bucktown USA via ‘Welcome to Bucktown,’ his solo debut. The song “Bucktown State of Mind,” with Mantecha Music, delves into the little known story behind the structure of Boot Camp Click, Duck Down Records’ collective that just won’t go away.
MIKE TV: Steele, what’s happening? How you feeling bro?
STEELE: I’m maintaining brotha. How you doing?
MIKE TV: I’m blessed - tryna get better every day.
STEELE: I can dig that.
MIKE TV: We spoke in 2006 when I worked with Nobodysmiling.com just before ‘The Last Stand’ dropped. How do you compare the energy @ Duck Down Records now compared to then? A lot has happened, huh?
STEELE: Aw man, that’s like an understatement. The energy now is phenomenal. What’s real about that is Duck Down has been working toward this for the longest; we’ve always wanted to be successful. We’ve had people tell us, ‘You not gonna make it as Boot Camp the group; you not gonna make it having Heltah Skeltah, Smiff N Wessun and Black Moon; you need more people.’ But we also have a core of fans that know that we have to put out a brand of music. It just took time to figure out how and who we can mingle with to make that happen. It’s perfect. Duck Down now has its’ classic artists like B Real, KRS-ONE; you got new artists like Torae and Kidz In the Hall, and you still have the Boot Camp Click. It’s like the things that shoulda happened years ago, but it happened at the right time, so everything is pretty much in place.
MIKE TV: OK, so why is ‘Welcome to Bucktown’ the right album for Duck Down to drop right now?
STEELE: It goes in part with the first question you asked. You seen a whole lot of things going on; you might be wondering, ‘What’s going on with the Boot Camp Click or what’s up with Smiff N Wessun?’ When you hear Duck Down you know what artists is gonna be affiliated with that. You had no idea it was gonna be those other artists that was coming down, but they sharks and sharks swim with sharks. There’s also a consideration to those who really are not aware of the history, so when we say ‘Welcome’ we allowing you to come in; Bucktown is what started for Smiff N Wessun - a very integral part of the Boot Camp Click and Duck Down. So when we say ‘Welcome to Bucktown’ we reminding you or making you a re-member. Not only that, it also happens to be my company - Bucktown USA is my company.
MIKE TV: As far as the album, why’d you go with the film snippet in the intro? Where’s that from?
STEELE: That snippet, where he asks…‘Do you believe in God,’ and he says, ‘yeah sure, why not?’ I went with that for two reasons: it’s from the movie [‘Bucktown’] and when you hear that it has a chilling affect on you. And, for two, the house was not built by faith alone; when you hear that phrase, you gotta have faith but you also gotta know that you gotta try to work. So if you step into a zone where you know that these people are about a certain thing you gotta have extra guard. The Most High is with you all the time. You can never work as hard as the Most High work but you gotta act like you can, at least, to even get the special privileges of that. When I think about that phrase it just reminds me that the chosen are few, and the chose[n] have to choose themselves in order to even be able to go into that line. If you sign up for the military…you still gotta be chosen. You not just gonna go cause that’s what you wanna be. You wanna be a rapper [but] you’re not sure you’re gonna be a rapper; if you want a job, you’re not even sure you’re gonna be employed. So a house is not built by faith alone. ‘Son, do you believe in God?’ ‘Sure. Why not?’ Then you in the wrong place cause here you starting from the bottom. People around here is gonna do everything to dissuade you. They don’t believe in that, and if they do then they sure to knock you off your horse so you don’t see the glow that you supposed to see.’ So that’s the beginning of anything that you come into. Pardon me for going in too deep for some people.
MIKE TV: Nah, we need that depth...
No comments:
Post a Comment