By Odeisel
20 years is an eternity for a job these days, and longer than that if you’re in the music business. Naughty by Nature’s 20 has been filled will classic songs, big records, a little group tension and a whole lot of ripped stages. With their new album, Anthem Inc. in stores, celebrating their milestone, Naughty spoke with the Planet on longevity, rumored beef, rumored street connections, established legacies and yes, the many anthems. Planet Ill presents The Definitive Naughty By Nature Interview.***LISTEN*** Naughty by Nature: The Definitive Interview
Planet Ill: 20th Anniversary of Naughty By Nature
Treach: Yes sir, yes indeed 20th anniversary with a classic album to go with it yo. The 20th anniversary collector’s item.
Planet Ill: You’ve come a long way as both and emcee and as an act; your image has evolved and your music has evolved. How have you advanced as an artist since you first came out?
Treach: Everything is a learning experience. We never want to make any records that sound the same, like two “O.P.P.”s or two “Hip-Hop Hoorays,” “Uptown Anthems,” “Guard Your Grills.” We want all our records to sound totally different. We change with times and we just pride ourselves son taking ourselves to the next level in being creative.
Planet Ill: You’re one of the few acts that have been able to deliver that hardcore shit, but still make legitimate anthems that will be remembered all time. How do you walk that line?
Treach: I don’t know, without trying, I guess. It wasn’t a plan, like you we gone make records where we have pop success or hood love. We just did what we were doing. We had a different sound. We were doing things like sampling Jackson 5 albums, people weren’t doing that. A lot of break beats and James Brown was going on like that.
Planet Ill: If you had a choice to be remembered more for “O.P.P” or “Yoke the Joker,” which one would you rather be remembered for?
Treach: Ah man that’s rough. It’s really like looking at your kids, like which one you want to be known as you love more. I love them all. Cause there’s going to be people that love “Yoke the Joker” and the other rock joint. So I like every fan to like whichever one they want as long as they love something man.
Planet Ill: Twenty years is a long time to be around people. Familiarity breeds contempt. What’s some of the forces that pull at you as a group when you’re trying to maintain the same kind of focus and unity?
Treach: More or less it’s just the creative process and getting things done. You know everybody’s anxious to handle it You got three different minds working. You have to have a level of respect for each other’s minds or it’s going to collapse.
Kay Gee: Also, you also deal with, you know when you’re working as a group and you’re also doing individual things. When you’re doing those outside things, you got other people that might not necessarily be involved in that group but they’re involved with you personally on the outside. So their whole thing is, they’re pulling you to try to get the most out of you for whatever it is they’re trying to do.
So they have their financial or personal gain pulling you away from what it is that started you. So you also have to deal with all of that on top of a lot of friends. You know just everybody that got something to say. Everybody that feels like they know better for what you’re doing than you do. And you just have to deal with that; you have to be strong enough and smart enough to deal with that and know how to get around that.
Vinnie: A lot of time it takes time for you to realize and understand how to deal with that.
Planet Ill: You guys sold a lot of records man. You’ve made some songs that people will always remember. But what happens when your albums ain’t hitting no more or people aren’t checking for you? When you go through that lull period, how do you adjust as artists? Mentally? Emotionally?
Treach: But see the funny thing is, just being blessed for 20 years, whoever don’t’ see us at they local spots, we travel worldwide, 20 years. 100 and better shows a year. For 20 years. So even our low times, we kept it poppin.
Vinnie: And it kind of gives you a false sense or makes you delusional at a point. It’s crazy but when you’re traveling abroad and as you go on, you go to so many different places with people who have never seen you. So what it does is make you say, “Well dag, it’s not like people are NOT checking for me because if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be coming to these shows. They wouldn’t be doing this; they wouldn’t be hitting us up on Twitter, they wouldn’t be doing this on Facebook. And more important, like he said, we’re going out there and we’re performing for all these different people.
I know what you’re saying as far as like millions and millions of records, but that’s why I say it creates this false sense, because you out there hitting new people and you’re seeing a bunch of new people still checking for you. So it kind of makes you feel like, “Well dag, people ARE checking for me! What’s going on?”
Planet Ill: How does your creative process evolve as you move on. Times change; tastes change. You go from “Uptown Anthem” which is decidedly street, and then you have “Written on Your Kitten.” You guys have such a range of music. When you’re in the studio, what’s behind the process?
Kay Gee: You gotta think about everybody; you got to think about the broader scope. Even our first album, we always had a broad scope of records. We were coming straight from the block, so it’s not like we knew no pop, commercial anything. So it’s not like we intended to make those records. We did what we felt like was us. And it continued as it went on. So the creative process always stayed the same, we just know that some people are going to like sex and some people are going to always like sex. Sex is going to always sell; it’s a part of life. So you put that in it.
And one of our main consistent things that always came across to us is that we always had to do performance records. But outside of that really, it was just doing what we felt was good. The concepts, that all comes from Treach, he just… he comes up with what he’s feeling at the time. Whether it’s “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” or anything you want to go to All of those different things like that. They come up and when h hears the track he already has those things; he has it in him mind already. He puts it to the beat that fits what’s in his mind already.
Planet Ill: there was a point when Treach was really one of the most feared emcees. Do you think that your aggression stopped people from working with you?
Treach: If you ain’t coming to tango don’t put on your dancing shoes. Don’t get in the booth with the dragon if you can’t survive.
Vinnie: I mean that’s one of the things through the years that we talk about. I know I’ve said it and I wonder personally on my own a lot why it hasn’t been a lot more collaborations. It could be that we were very internal. I don’t know I don’t want to make excuses. All I know that the outcome has not been a lot of people collaboing for whatever reasons. And on top of that we reached out to a lot of people on different occasions to collaborate and it just hasn’t happened for whatever reason. And it’s just baffling to me as well.
Planet Ill: Let’s talk Jersey for a second. You guys are one of the premier Jersey representers. Jersey always had a strange place in Hip-Hop. Some of the greatest emcees ever are from Jersey but it kinda has that step sister rep to New York. How do you feel about how Jersey is represented in the history of Hip-Hop?
Vinnie: I definitely feel like it’s represented well now. But like you said we always had that chip on our shoulder that we were the step sister of new York and we were kinda on the outside looking in. I remember a crazy story a long, long time ago cause I got a lot of family; most of my family are from New York. They from Queens though. My parents grew up in Queens and I remember a long time ago my cousin asked my older, “Yo, ya’ll get Kiss and WBLS out there?” And that was just the craziest stupidest thing ever. I’m like, “We live 20 minutes away from ya’ll, what do you mean, do we get KISS or BLS?” But that’s how Jersey was looked at. And we had that chip on our shoulder and we busted through.
Planet Ill: It’s the 20th anniversary of Juice and the 20th anniversary of Tupac’s first album. I know Treach you had a really tight relationship with him. How did you form that bond?
Treach: Well first of all, we met up on the road. By the grace of God we were both roadies. He was a roadie for digital underground, I was a roadie for Queen Latifah. A roadie is someone that’s on the tour bus that carries bags; that does whatever needs to be done to handle Run to the store, do this. Then you get paid your money, your per diem while you out there. But we had a special job on top of that, we got to come on stage and perform. Digital Underground, Pac had the “Same Song” and I was just doing freestyles with Queen Latifah.
So we got to perform in front of 15,000 people a night. Nobody knows us. We ain’t in the hood doing nothing crazy. We out on the road, doing something; getting a little paper and seeing how the game works. So what the Flavor Unit was doing they were just crafting me and training me on what it’s going to be like once we come out.
Planet Ill: Physically, how do you maintain when you go up on stage? You’re older now, how do you keep that in shape?
Treach: Aw man you gotta take it like it’s a fight. When I’m home I walk like 2-3 miles a day. I do a lot of cardiovascular. Calisthenics. You gotta keep a regimen; you gotta eat right. We party like rock stars sometimes but you gotta keep it on deck where you be able to function, focus and perform. If you can’t do that then you ain’t gone get your paper.
Planet Ill: There’s always been rumors about certain incidents. There was one with Grand Daddy I.U. that the hood circulated involving a little machete action; a little chase action. Can you shed some light on that?
Treach: Me and grand Daddy, we good. We done reconciled everything that went on. We aint’ gone reopen old wounds or nothing. That’s my soldier.
Vinnie: The thing is man as you come up and you start off in this game there’s a lot of bumps and bruises you incur and on top of that you come across different issues and handle them different ways and when you younger you handle it whatever way comes to mind first. A lot of times that’s aggressive and as you get older, if your back’s against the wall you still have to be aggressive but other than that a lot f people work it out and do things in the proper manner.
Treach: Me and Grand Daddy, we done been at parties and stuff and bought each other drinks and everything. Kicked it an hung out. Recently; not long ago.
Planet Ill: When you in the middle of East Coast/West Coast problems, what are your thoughts as an artist? You gotta perform over there, they gotta perform over here. What goes behind making the decision to pop off or to restrain yourself?
Treach: You mean as far as where we go and choose to travel?
Planet Ill: Yes.
Treach: We went everywhere because one thing we had family, not even blood related family but we had family that we met throughout the years that we traveled from East Coast, West coast, North South. Everywhere we travel our Naughty followers; our family, fan base, fan club whatever you want to call it; our movement is all over. So we always kept contact with certain people and everything So we really got 20 years’ worth of family and wherever we go, we never say don’t book us here. We like book us there two, three times. We got family taking us to the airport around us all times. We know what’s going on; where we need to be held down. The same thing happen when they come to our hood.
Planet Ill: There’s rumors that certain “family” you got are the only sanctioned family on the East Coast. That a lot of other “families” are that in name only. How do you feel about certain rappers aligning themselves with “family” when they don’t’ really have to live that life?
Treach: Any time you do anything it’s like you don’t want to be coming out leaving the streets getting into something that gives you a lifestyle where you could take care of your family, travel the world pursue your dreams, do what you love doing and bring a negative element around you because it’s never going to work. When you got an alternative motive.
Our whole thing with collaborating with our homies from the West Coast and really getting tight with them and everything else was in the middle of all the East Coast West Coast rivalry or whatever was going on, and hearsay, we went out to the West Coast like, “Yo, we need to get some homies out from the West. Group up with them and show them it ain’t no East Coast beef really. That’s all media and everything else. This how it really go.” Homies from the East and West can get together and do things.
So once we started that, it’s like everybody ran with it, this that and the third like it was ulterior motives but we had hot songs and we created a family through music, not through any alternative motives.
Vinnie: And on top of all that before we even met with boob and love and al the road dogs out there, it was all music first. We had no idea what they lifestyle was or what anybody was doing or nothing.
Treach: Exactly. It could have been a Crip, it could have been an Ese it could have been anybody. They came up spitting and rocking, at that time we was looking for somebody from the West. We would have had them under the wing. It didn’t’ matter where they was from; what set, what hood.
Vinnie: It’s generic; it could have been a regular chill out dude, it was about the music. It just happened to be what they were. And they just happened to be rockers.
Planet Ill: Give me the five greatest Naughty By Nature songs ever.
Treach: I gotta say “O.P.P.” “Hip-Hop Hooray” Ghetto Bastard” “Uptown Anthem” and Yoke The Joker.”
Planet Ill: What do you want the people to remember about Naughty By Nature?
Treach: I want them to say, “Damn, why they ain’t making music like this no more?” Or “I like so and so because they remind me of their [Naughty] type of flavor.” Cause I guarantee you one thing. They gone still be playing it in the clubs. I’m telling you, that’s the fun part. We can still hear Sugar Hill Gang everything in the clubs. I know it. When I hear my songs that I knew when I was little in the club and 9still rock to them and remember that time. Hey man. That’s the best thing about it. I want them to remember that when we was here, we always gave back we ahd our meet and greets and our touch with the fans and we always stay down to earth with. They will remember that we was some of the coolest dudes.
Planet Ill: Bung. Any last thing you want the people to know?
Treach: I hope it [Anthem inc.] comes out this year, cause it’s fire. I don’t say it like feeling myself. Whenever I played any of the album material, or whatever I’m working on, I play it for the critics. The homies that just don’t like nothing. They come through and be like you know what? It’s fire. You never hear them talk like that. Yeah. We play it for the haters. They feeling it, so we got something for them forreal.
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