By Odeisel
Planet Ill’s interview with Nappy Roots continues…
B Stille: I don’t think the camaraderie between us five of us would really be destroyed by fame or anything like that. We were able to do a lot of things that we wanted to and I remember, this is when we started using this little clause that we still use to this day, but[it was] “If you was left, you was left.” It was many time is woke up overslept and I’m in Miami like, “Fuck!” But then you know, nigga had money just jump on a plane and get wherever we had to get to the next show. I meet the guys, they laugh about it and say you know it’s the G.A.M. clause, you a grown ass man.
So basically, it kinda made us grow up a little more, and it really didn’t affect us as far as our friendship goes. I think first and foremost we was friends and I think doing our album… it’s kind of hard to change that; we keep each other grounded, we keep each other honest and because you can’t front in front of us. We can’t front in front of each other. I just think it kept us honest and nothing… money didn’t really change us.
On the other side of that coin, I can speak from personal experience; it changed me towards other people because when you ain’t got money, people treat you like shit. But when you got a lot of bread, it’s a different way that you get treated. So then I’m like, “Well fuck, If this is what you want my money then I’mma treat you like I want. Because you don’t care about me, you care about this money that I’m bout to give you. So, of course, I’mma snap. If my burger wasn’t done a certain way then I’m paying good money for it so a motherfucker had an attitude. But I mean it’ a growth experience, you live and you learn and God giveth, God taketh away; let you learn about it and give it back to you when you ready for it.
Skinny De Ville: And that’s the other side of the coin. That’s the part b of that question. Like okay, the niggas had a bunch of money on they second album, and Atlantic Records didn’t really put they all behind that album. At the same time, you can go back to 2003, that’s like when the labels started really crashing and collapsing because of what Napster had done to the industry. So it wasn’t a lot of people selling a shitload of records and we were fortunate to sell a million at that time. It’s even harder now.
There’s only a few guys selling a million records at that time this is 2002, 2003. The labels merged in 2004. A lot of artists got left behind and a lot of people got fired. So at the same time as people were getting fired is when our project came out. That September, August. People started worrying about their jobs and getting canned in September and October. People got canned that following December. So wasn’t nobody really focused on pushing any project. They was just worried about they own house and their own lifestyle. And I know because I talked to the people that worked our project and asked them what the fuck happened. How we go from selling 1.2 million to selling 350,000.
Besides the sophomore jinx we felt the effort from the label like they said they was gonna do and like they did the first one. They went hard on the first one. They went all out for nine months. And then they went around again and worked another four months after the top of the year. Ronnie Heinsen, Craig Paulmann James Lopez Mike Cairn. All those people believed in us; marketing, publicity, all those people believed in us and fought for us like hell on that Watermelon Chicken & Gritz album. And the vibe kind of changed between the co-workers around that same project on Wooden Leather. That album sold 350,000 which still, to today, is great. But for us, as nappy Roots< from what we just did, for what we can do we thought that the label kind of disappointed us as a group because we thought they wouldn’t give their all like they said they were and how we were. We stayed on the road a whole damn near year working that project when they said we need to get back in the studio and do another album. We was like fuck that. You didn’t work the last album. Why would I get back in the studio and give my all for a project that you don’t even give a damn about because we’re just a number on your list?
We’re smarter than that we went to college. We’re educated. We stick together and we communicate as Nappy Roots. We some smart guys. So we figured let’s go independent and make all the money. Fuck, we already got the name now. That’s why we decided, “Fuck the fame, let’s get the money.” It’s not about the money, at the end of the day, it’s about the music but at the end of the day we still got kids to raise and families to feed. So it’s a business. And that’s what we’re all about.
Fish Scales: We study groups, we study labels, like Master P. That’s how we pretty much started; we took his blueprint. He had a record store, and that’s how he got started. We said, “Aight we gone get a record store.” We got a record store, the first Black student owned record store in Bowling Green Kentucky owned by college students was the one we started. And we sold our music on one side of the store and our albums on the other. And we took the Cash Money approach; stick together as a clique and stay as a clique. We looked at the Fugees and EPMD and then look at Wu-Tang and how they would diversify each individual member and market each member a different way. We was really trying to do that on Atlantic, but they really was just hearing Nappy Roots.
That’s another reason we left. We looked at all the groups that had success and allt he groups that failed and studied them like it was a college course. And learned from their mistakes. We learned from our own mistakes as I’m sure people under us will learn. We don’t really say “Fuck the labels too much cause they will fucking blackball your ass for years they will shut your shit down. And that’s what happened for the three years you hadn’t heard Nappy Roots or five years. It’s because of that shit. Trying to clean up a mess.
Deep voiced member: I think it’s a case where if they can’t make money, they don’t want nobody to make it. That’s how it is.
