By Odeisel

New York and Boston don’t normally get along.  The Knicks hate the Celtics, the Giants ruined The Patriot’s chance at perfection, and we already know what’’s good with the the Yankees and Red Sox. Is there any hope that we can get along? Masta Ace and Ed O.G. are two emcees from those cities respectively, with very long histories and a track record of dope rhymes and solid work. Their careers have taken different paths, but now they find themselves aligned for their coming work Arts & Entertainment. Can their union bring a new peace to those fabled cities?

Planet Ill: You both have had two different phases of your career.  How have you found the reception to your work then and now?

Ed O.G.: My first single came out and shot number one on Billboard and we did a bunch of crazy things that I never thought I could do. We had the top joint on “Rap City” and “Yo! MTV Raps.” So my career started out up here, and went all the way downhill, went rock bottom, went back up and since about ’96-’99 I evened out and been on an even keel ever since. I’m at a nice cruising altitude, the seat belt is off.

Masta Ace: My career might even have three phases.  I had the Cold Chillin’/Juice Crew phase and then I went and signed with Delicious Vinyl out in California.  And then I had two albums with them.  I had the record “Born To Roll” which was a huge single, all over the radio and “Inc Ride,” so I had this time period where I was going to be this big kinda radio artist, and then, 2001 Disposable Arts and ’04 with Long Hot Summer, where in between those two phases I had gotten disenchanted with the game. Had a record with Big Beat and they folded so it never came out; never saw the light of day. I was ready to go behind the scenes, get a job at a label and probably change it from the inside out. Got a resurgence when I went overseas and did a tour, did Disposable and that’s when I found that there was still people that were checking for me. That album had way more success than I expected it to have, and it allowed me to tour the world. Then I came back in ’04, did the other record and those two records recharged my batteries.

Planet Ill: Do you think that artists are better off circumventing the label system?

Ed O.G.: Every artist’s goal is to be successful. They want to get signed by a major label and make money. We’ve had that experience and we’ve had the indie experience.  I think it works for artists who have had the label experience to then go independent and now you’re reaping all the benefits because sometimes it’s hard to get to the status where we’re at. I think it’s a double edged sword. It may be better for some people than others.

Masta Ace: I recommend that every artist, especially new artists, create their own situation, release their stuff themselves; circumvent the major label system which has robbed and raped so many artists over the years. There are artists who have sold millions that are broke right now because what they thought was success actually wasn’t real.  They thought that it was going to continue, and once they didn’t have a hot record, they were dropped; they still owed the label money. The money that they made they spent, because they was balling out of control, buying cars and houses and jewelry and then all of a sudden had to find a way to pull all of that back. If you can do it yourself first and then get the label to come to you, with a boat load of money, and you retain your ownership rights. That’s your property, the record that you made.

I know firsthand because my first album is being exploited by my former label. That’s when you start to realize that ownership is the best thing because you want to be able to control your music. I happened to run into one of the owners of that label fairly recently; I had a couple choice words for him and things got a bit heated when I was talking to him because I didn’t like the idea that…what I said to him was, “You didn’t write a song, you didn’t produce A song, and you’re putting my records out, and you’re not hollarin’ at me, or giving me a check and I have a problem with that.” I don’t want to see any more young cats go through that.

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Planet Ill: What kind of tools does a new artist need to defend themselves in such a system?

Masta Ace: You definitely need a team because you need someone who understands marketing and promotion. You need someone who understands music and the A&R part of it because a lot of the new artists have no concept of who they are, what they are trying to be, and how they will be seen in the marketplace. They just copy whatever is on the radio and try to do the same thing. You need people behind you that are going to help you in these different phases if you can’t do it by yourself and most artists can’t.

The cats down south got the right idea in the way they’re doing it. And it’s not so much the music. Bt the way they handle their business is what allows them to be successful.

Planet Ill: Ed, what did you want to be when you came out as an MC? Did you have an idea of what you wanted to project?

Ed O.G.: Not necessarily.  I knew I could really spit, I was an MC first. The very first think was just hearing yourself on the radio. Then you succeed at that then it’s seeing your video. You succeed at that then touring and meeting the artists that I looked up to; the artists that I had their posters in my room. When we started it wasn’t about money. It was about the art and making my peers recognize me. I was just doing it because I loved to do it.

Planet Ill: Ace, you were the baby [career wise] on “The Symphony” but in a very real way you managed to stay relevant longer than anyone else on that record. Would you agree with that statement?

Masta Ace: For the record, I think I’m [physically] older than everybody on that record but I was the new guy.  I don’t know. Because I was on that record and because I was on that label with so many influential artists, so many successful artists, I think up until this day, I’ve just been trying to prove that I belong. I’ve just been trying to prove that I could measure up.

Hip-Hop is competitive. Being on a label with Kane and G. Rap and Biz, these guys were making hit records and killing it. So every step of the way I was trying to prove that I belonged in the same breath as those artists. I never stopped. Maybe I still don’t feel that I’ve proven that yet so that’s why you see me continuing to be relevant to keep hitting new music and to keep that career going.

Planet Ill: Where is the Biz doll from the video?

Masta Ace: The last I heard, the Biz doll was in Seattle Washington at a Hip-Hop museum of some sort. It was in my management’s office. At the time I wanted nothing to do with the doll. It represented for me, something that was negative. I got a lot of flack on the streets of Brooklyn for that doll; the whole puppet concept of the video. People didn’t take me seriously.

Warner Brothers had forced me to use that record as my first single. I felt that that record didn’t really represent my album and I didn’t want to come with a novelty record first, and that’s typical of what major labels try to do. If me and Ed O was on a major there would be, all the way, “Dancing Like A White Girl” would be the first single.

That doll represented some bad times for me. It wasn’t until I had done other things in my career and had established myself in other ways that I could embrace the doll. Then I wanted the doll but it was already shipped off to Seattle.

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Planet Ill: How is the group dynamic different from being a solo artist?

ED O.G.: It’s easier, ‘cause there’s less lyrics; it’s less work. It’s good to play off one another. There’s beats on the album that I may not have necessarily picked for myself and the same with Ace. I’ll be big on a beat and give him an idea about how I’m going with it, and it’s like wow I never would have used it in that way. Those kinds of dynamics work great in a group.

Planet Ill: Do you think that your college degree or you ability to get a life has extended your shelf life as an MC?

Masta Ace: I don’t know if colleges definitely played a part in that, but college definitely gave me something to fall back on. The whole time I was doing music, I knew that I was going to be alright either way. If the music thing wasn’t going to work out for me, I had a degree; I thought I was going to be able to get me a job so there wasn’t necessarily that pressure of if I don’t do this, I’m going to be a bum. I knew that I was going to do something in my life regardless. It just so happened that the music thing took off for me and I was able to parley that into a whole career. It was unexpected, I didn’t think you could actually make a living rapping. When I came out there weren’t a lot of rich and famous rappers. If you went gold, you were doing something.

Planet Ill: Who’s the best rapper you’ve ever heard?

Ed O.G.: Kane. I loved everything about him; his whole delivery. He’s one of my all-time favorites.

Masta Ace: I hate that question because it could change from day to day. He said Kane and I would agree with that, but just to throw another name into the pot, Elzhi from Slum Village is one of the best rappers that I ever heard spit because he bends your mind a little bit as an MC. He makes you think about rhyme combinations and ways of combining words that rhyme that you maybe didn’t even think about or cadences that you didn’t even think about.

He plays around with it and that’s what I like about him, because rappers like that stretch my imagination and make me try to get trickier and crazier with it. When I came out, all I wanted to do was show skill and make people bug their brains out, so I like dudes that get intricate with the patterns and he’s one of those guys.

Planet Ill:  Whose idea was the Chester French song?  I hate it.

Ed O.G.: It was both of our idea. We wanted to do some left field shit. Something that was unexpected. If we were feeding you, you would be full. The Chester French song is not even dessert. It’s like coffee at the end of the meal. It wasn’t our core audience.

Masta Ace: You know what the Chester French record is? The chef comes out of the kitchen, you finish your meal and you dessert and he goes, “This is a little something new, try this and let me know what you think of this.” Some people may go “Ill, I don’t know if I like this.” Some people gonna go, “I never had this before but this is dope. I like this.”

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