Boot Camp Clik: Interview
[Note: This interview was conducted by London Bureau Chief Akuma, the same fellow I had attend Busta Rhymes Big Bang Listening Party. Boot Camp Clik's new album The Last Stand will be out July 18th, with production by Pete Rock, Large Professor, 9th Wonder, Beatminerz, Coptic and Marco Polo -- Bol.]
Last Thursday the Boot Camp Clik (BCC) touched down in London for a show at Fabric, to help celebrate the 6th anniversary of UK hip-hop night Kung-Fu.
The night was a sell-out, with UK support from Rodney P, Verb-T & Harry Love, Jehst, Yungun & Mr Thing, Doc Brown, Sarah Love, The Extended Players and Skinnyman. BCC rocked the crowd with a broad selection from the past and present, including I Gotcha Opin, Bucktown, Black Smif N Wesson, Stay Real, Boom Bye Yeah, and Onionhead.
The next day I managed to catch Tek & Steele of Smif N Wesson, Buckshot, and Rock of Heltah Skeltah for a Q&A. Various chatter about the merits of 'Mr Jerk' versus local jerk chicken shops ensued before we settled down to tackle the big topics, Boot Camp style.
Akuma: You rocked Fabric pretty hard last night. So how are the crowds in London compared with those in New York?
Rock: There's no place like home, but still our fans are like a cult - they know what they're looking for when they get there. As soon as they get there it's gonna be a big old thing. The only thing that makes a bad show for us is if nobody promotes it and nobody shows up. Other than that it's gonna be a beautiful thing. One thing that's consistent with us is we fucking adrenaline junkies.
Steele: Damn right we junkies!
Rock: When we get on stage, as long as we can get out there - like last night, all Ruck had to do is walk out on stage and the crowd gave him the energy he needs to act a fool.
Akuma: Where's Ruck right now?
Rock: He's in the studio; he had to do a guest spot with a UK artist? I don't know the name, but he's dope and he was at the show last night.
Akuma: So how does London compare with home generally?
Rock: As a place? It's cold!
Steele: Right now at home, it's probably beautiful. It's probably hot.
Rock: Yeah, the sky is usually grey outside. Every time I been here I'm used to grey-ass skies. Its a cool place, I mean the accents, the cars being on the wrong side! I been trying to get in on the wrong side of the car. Used to be like that all over Europe, now it's just London - they don't give a fuck! London seems to hold to more of the..
Steele: Tradition?
Rock: Yeah, tradition - with the buildings and all that. I like it.
Tek: But we started this shit son!
[Laughter]
Akuma: So on that subject, are there any UK artists you are checking for? Or are you just hopping over, doing the show, and out?
Rock: We going to the cabaret tonight! I'm going to get my 2 1/2 step on!
Buckshot: You know you got the bashment [reggae-hip-hop fusion] parties out here. Skinnyman be showing us all that . We love that, you know we from Brooklyn and we grew up around a lot of different cultures, Jamaicans, Dominicans... and that's all inside of our music. You got tracks like 'Sound Bwoy Burial'...
Tek: It's all right around us. We don't have to go far to run into a different culture.
Buckshot: We know there's a lot of people in the UK from Jamaica...
Rock: There's more Jamaicans here than in Jamaica!
Akuma: How does your sound fit in to today's scene, with the gritty sample-led sound being pushed back by synthesized noises?
Rock: We always did whatever right? We don't care, so long as we like it. If you had a beat that moved us it doesn't matter if it was samples or it was whatever, you know what I mean? Once we jump on the beat you just hear Boot Camp.
Akuma: So how was working with 9th Wonder different from working with Da Beatminerz?
Buckshot: Well.. they different people, they two different producers. It's cool 'cause 9th Wonder is like the person that saw Da Beatminerz come up, he's like a child of Da Beatminerz if you will. He watched them, so with 9th right now it's great because he's great at what he does. His music represents a lot of soul and it represents a lot of movement - it's rich, it's thick, it's saucy and it's got a lot of boom-bap. It's opened up a new door and new foundation to what we did. It's helping maintain our status in today's market, opens us up to Justice League fans.
Akuma: So you're going to work together again?
Buckshot: Yeah, me and 9th Wonder are working on another album, called 'The Movement'; we got the rest of the Camp on it so we called it The Movement. 9th is working on a lot of tracks right now, he laced us for the new BCC album.
Akuma: Yeah, you mentioned the new album on stage last night?
Buckshot: Yeah, we got Pete Rock, Large Professor, Beatminerz, Coptic, Marco Polo, Ill Mind. Let me say something about Ill Mind and Marco Polo - they are the way 9th Wonder is the future of today, they're the future of tomorrow. A lot of people are starting to know about Marco Polo, he's from Canada and his sound is boondocks. So we're coming with the future, but we're not trying to take much credit. One thing we never did is try and take our credit.
Akuma: I was going to ask you about that. It seems that a lot of people don't recognize the influence that BCC had on 90's hip-hop with albums like Enta Da Stage and Dah Shinin.
Rock: I do feel like that. Most great things are underappreciated, that's just something you have to accept for being great. That's why we don't get lazy. That's why I could never just sit there and get comfortable with my rhymes like... "I can just slow it down right now and say anything, I can just say what I want now". That's what I feel like [people are doing] - do you feel like people are doing that?
Akuma: Yeah, yeah they are doing that. [laughter]
Rock: You know they do!
Akuma: I don't think you need to give me any examples..
Rock: It's all good though, it is what it is. Those people know who they are. When you get to a certain status it's like, ok they all suck, they all lay down on the beat and you don't hear no more of their funk, their hunger or whatever. They can just say whatever they like and it's gonna work. I was on the internet a few days ago and some dude was talking about a certain artist and he was like "of course he's gonna blow up - it's official, wack shit sells records". It is what it is, we're under-appreciated but that's probably one of the reasons we still gettin' so busy. You can still pick up a Buckshot album and hear so much fire, you could pick up a Heltah Skeltah album, a Ruck album, like wooo, these ni*ggas is still gettin' better. Most rappers get worse after their first thing.
What else is coming up on the Boot Camp horizon?
Buckshot: 'The Last Stand', that's the Boot Camp album.
Rock: The Surveillance DVD, that's out right now.. the X Files mix CD. You got the new Sean Price album, it's called Jesus Price. You got my jump-off, it's called Monstah Musik. You got the incredible rap team! That's Heltah Skeltah, the album's called Dirt.
Akuma: So you and Ruck are back together now?
Rock: Yeah man. The only thing that separated us was... listen, we're both have big personalities, you know what I mean? Me and Ruck knew each other since we was kids but we were both solo artists. You understand? We was just looking for a partner 'cause we like doing homie shit! But Ruck put out his solo album and I had a deal with DJ Lethal from Limp Bizkit. We were on Geffen and all of that and I was gonna do my solo album over there and it just didn't work out, it's all good. It was never an official break-up. You know what? The break-up thing sounds better on paper you understand? They're all like "they broke-up, they back together", that's not really the story but you know if it sounds better to print that then print that - we're back together.
Akuma: What are your thoughts on the South?
Rock: It's their turn! We fathered this, the hip-hop shit started in New York. Everything that came out of that was spawned by the beginning. How could you be mad for your child to grow up and get busy, get a good job and do well for itself? You mad at your kid? You must be a terrible parent.
Akuma: So do you think New York will win back the crown?
Rock: Me personally? We don't live in the UK, there are no kings in America, never was. There's always been individual states and people do what they do where they do it, and they hold down what they hold down. So anybody running around saying they're.. I mean it's cool, you say what you want - you could be the king of New York, you could be the king of whatever - you could do that. [the entire Clik laugh] That don't stop us doing what we do.
Akuma: Buckshot and Smif N Wesson, you've both had problems over your name. How did that feel? It must have been very frustrating.
Steele: Frustration is a good word. It came at an interesting time for us as we'd just put out our first album. To us it was below radar, didn't think they'd try and shut down our operation. But it's like being from where we're from and how we're raised we just came back with that punch, came back out as Cocoa Brovaz. I think initially we didn't really know what the impact was gonna be in sales and stuff like that, but we knew we had to put out music. Smith and Wesson were going to sue us, sue the magazines. So we had to come back as Cocoa Brovaz, Tek and Steele, and we try and preserve Tek and Steele for our own personal reasons. When it came back to using the Smif N Wesson name again we just said - f*ck it.
Akuma: So what was the situation with Black Moon and Nervous Records?
Buckshot: We were in a situation where we had to get out of our contract, but Michael Weiss wanted to keep the name Black Moon. We left.. we had a chance to leave, but we didn't get the name. It's like we left but we left with no clothes. Still we had Buckshot, 5FT and Evil Dee, and we started putting out tapes and had the first installment of the Black Moon 'Warzone' project, but it was eating my stomach away. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat, I couldn't do nothing - that mood that it's just not right. But like anything else in my career I had to complete my mission and basically that's what happened - I went back and I got the name. I had to get that name back.
Akuma: How are you using the internet to promote your music, and are you checking the online community?
Rock: Ah yeah, everyday. It's an excellent weapon in the war against brokeness, the war against poverty; the internet is a beautiful thing. It puts you in touch with people it probably would have taken years to run into. Looking for people you've been a fan of or whatever, or just people you have no idea they exist. Just some nobody dude that'll find you, and he'll be the dude you need. It's a beautiful thing.
Akuma: For independent artists it's been empowering.
Steele: Right, 'cause radio ain't gonna be playing it. It's created different ways to get exposed, somebody will give you a shot. But even that is not easy 'cause you still have to ride with the bullshit like whose really hot and whose... you know?
Akuma: If you had to pick five non-rap tracks that represent the Boot Camp Clik, what would they be?
[General puzzled looks from those present]
Steele: Current tracks?
Akuma: Anything that's inspired you.
[after some thought]
Steele: Portishead.
Tek: Craig David.
Buckshot: Curtis Mayfield.
Steele: Bon Jovi.
Akuma: You know Beanie Siegel used a Bon Jovi sample recently, could we see a potential Boot Camp / Bon Jovi collabo in the future?
Rock: Um.. well I just like that song Living on a Prayer.
Akuma: That could be hot. Lay some rhymes on that, maybe on a BCC mixtape soon?
Rock: [Entirely ignoring Bon-Jovi mixtape suggestion] What we contribute to the game is the bridge across everything, know what I mean? From the gritty to the pretty. We can easily maneuver and walk in all of those worlds. Boot Camp is a massive family, but of the great eight that you know, that we're sure most people know - you got different personalities and no two of us are alike even if we're in the same group. Look at Smif N Wesson, they have two completely different styles, same as Ruck and Rock, or all of us. Whether it be the conscious, whether it be the gangsta, whether it be the pretty, whether it be the extra lyrical, we messing with it. That's how Tek can go and make a song with Craig David and it'll still make sense. He might be a little bit pop but that is a fly n*gga on the low, you know what I'm saying? [laughter] It is what it is, do what you do.
Akuma: Your music is still doing it but you haven't compromised yourself, like a lot of artists have.
Rock: Well did you hear the Destiny's Child remix that Ruck did?
Akuma: Yeah.
Rock: My boy is naturally hilarious. He heard the song and got to thinking on it. If you can feel a way about something you can write about it. Why can't he write about it just 'cause it's Destiny's Child?
Buckshot: Yo, did you see that Dave Chappelle DVD?
Akuma: We haven't really got Dave Chappelle over here just yet, you can get the DVD but the regions are different in the UK.
Buckshot: So you get everything late? [screws face]
Akuma: Well, we're a little behind but we're working on it. It used to be we had limited information about stuff but now the internet means we can stay up on developments. Now it's a worldwide thing.
Rock: The internet is amazing, you can type in 'gettin' jiggy with it' and 100 things come up, more than 100.
[Discussion turns to Philly's, English people not smoking blunts, where copious amounts of weed may be found in London, etc.]
Akuma: Thanks a lot for your time, it was a dope show last night.
Boot Camp: Thanks.
Check out:
Akuma would like to thank Nick & Danna at Fabric, and Leo & Charlie at Kung-Fu.
