Intro By Odeisel Interview By Tora B

When it comes to art and culture, change is good. We need things to evolve and for paradgms to shift to throw us off. We can’t possibly be better off with the same shit all the time. But what happens when that change isn’t what you expect. When the baggy jeans become skinny and the boom bap gets synthesized?  You can get hip, or you can get out. The New Boyz brought about a big paradigm shift when they dropped “You’re A Jerk” and their debut album Skinny Jeanz and a Mic. They took a dance craze worldwide and made the LA music scene relevant again. Now, after becoming a phenomenon, and touring with heavyweights, the duo embark on their second project, determined to show that they are more than just “jerks.” But don’t take our word for it.

Planet Ill: There’s a new sound from The New Boyz where you’re not as reliant on your jerking style. What motivated you both to expand your music?

Ben J: We just didn’t want to be stuck in the box as jerking artists.

Legacy: If we would have just kept putting out jerking records it would have been a lot harder for us to branch out and do what we really wanted to do so that’s why we moved on so quick in our style of music. We made different types of records. We just reinvented ourselves, you know? Experimenting, trying to do a bunch of different things; whatever we was into at the time we just cut a record. That’s the reason why we don’t do the jerking stuff no more. We still make jerk songs though.

Ben J: For the clubs, to get the world poppin’ it’s still what it is but we get creative sometimes.

Planet Ill: Your new song “Back Seat” has an electronic sound that’s not traditionally Hip-Hop. What feedback have you gotten from your fans regarding this sound?

Ben J: The feedback that we’ve been getting so far is crazy. Everybody loves the track. This song is every genre so it doesn’t have to be just jerking or on some Hip-Hop stuff. We went to the club with this we went to the fist pump, we went to the Techno. Our sound period is like Hip-Hop, Swag, The beat was crazy, shout out to Cataract cause they went in on that beat heavy. We share sound with like everybody on this song.

Planet Ill: How has song writing changed for you since this became a business? Or has it?

Ben J: Actually I can admit when I used to write a long time ago, I was weak, you feel me? But as time goes by, we travel a lot more, our eyes are opened to new things and we just see so much, we have so much to talk about. A lot of people within our city that haven’t made it or what not they be like, “Man, it’s crazy that you have so much to talk about. And I kinda understand cause like, you travel, but it’s like me, here, I can’t relate to it, but I feel it.” That why we make music to relate to everybody.
Legacy: Pretty much, what he said. Traveling. Other music really inspires me too. When I hear people like Kanye doing really out the box stuff, like crazy production and not sticking to the typical eight bar hooks/16 bar verse thing; seeing stuff like that really inspires me to do different stuff and to create different types of sounds.

Planet Ill: How do you feel like putting LA back on the map, musically?

Ben J: I love it!

Legacy: It’s great and it’s perfect timing, too. We coming out when a bunch of other hot artists from LA are coming out too. Tyga out right now, YG, Kendrick Lamar, Rejects.

Ben J: I just seen DJ Quik yesterday. He gave us a good word, he said us young kids are doing it right now. He said it’s our time, we should evolve it; we should really make it mainstream. Bring back the West like how they used to do it.

Legacy: It feels real good to be a part of that, we’re real excited.

Planet Ill: Your first album Skinny Jeans And A Mic was a success.It defined a new aspect of what LA culture is and made you a fresh new voice in Hip-Hop. What are the motives behind Too Cool To Care?

Legacy: To really show the world what we’re capable of.

Ben J: Because we’re not dancers, first off.

Legacy: When we came out, when anyone comes out in skinny jeans and come out with a dance no matter how much you spitting, you gonna get hated on. And not to necessarily say we getting off on these track, but we do snap when it comes to verses, 16’s and stuff. People just don’t really realize it. The single kind of threw them back. If you wasn’t a fan you’d be like, “Nah, I ain’t really messing with them.” So we really wanted to show our creative side and our lyrical capabilities on this new album. SO that’s what it was really about and making fun at the same time.

Ben J: And you know we didn’t really care about what people had to say, the negative things they had to say about it. Our whole mindset was, “So what! We’re doing this, you’re not, we do it how we want to do it and we’re too cool to care about these negative comments.” So that’s where the title of the album came; the second project. When we were doing this we really didn’t care about what anybody had to say. People were trying to make us do what they wanted. They wanted our music to sound like how they wanted. That’s not a creative artist right there. You can’t be an artist doing what other people ask you to do.

Planet Ill: You were on tour with Chris Brown and Sean Kingston. What did you learn from them?

Legacy : We really didn’t learn too much; we just all had a good time. We learned how to work in front of a big crowd and how your tour should be ran the right way. I guess you can say we learned that. We watched how they ran they tour and how they handled their business. Now if we ever go on tour as headliners, we know how it should be done to make it professional.

Planet Ill: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen on tour?

Ben J: Well we’ve had a few fans faint, fall out; have seizures. That’s crazy. I’m just interested in fans’ reactions to every time we set foot in their town; their state. We’re from California and every time we go to these places and they crying, they moms is crying. For us two? That’s crazy to me.

Planet Ill: Jerking is worldwide and you guys are the pioneers. How does that feel?

Ben J: I love it. I feel good about it. I’m happy that we had this chance to even bring it to the forefront. I’m surprised that no one was before us to even do it. It’s me and him you know? Two normal human beings like everybody else but we did it. It is what it is. We can’t let that get tous so we keep moving forward.

Planet Ill: You’ve been hated on for your skinny jeans. How do you tell young people to be unique with their sense of style?

Legacy: Do you. Don’t listen to what anybody else got to say because once you start changing your style based on what somebody else is telling you is cool or what’s not popping that’s when you start dressing like them and not dressing like you. So whatever you feel is dope, whatever you feel is fly, you know, rock it. Even if it’s out of the box.

Planet Ill: What’s next for the New Boyz in the fashion industry?

Ben J: Right now we got a couple shirts and hats and we’re trying to expand it and get them to other stores. Once upon a time we’re going to have our clothing line. It’s gone come fast, though, so don’t think we’re not going to do it. We’re going to have our New Boyz line. That’s pretty much it. And then we got movies that’s gone come out. We got the new project Too Cool To Care, we’re on tour, going overseas. All that stuff.