By Odeisel
Von Pea may be unheralded as far as mainstream Hip-Hop goes. he’s not a wild personality or someone with a massive underground following either. But he’s one of our favorite emcees and his everyman style is supplemented by Bed Stuy aggression, New York neurosis and definitive wit. We caught up with Pea on the back end of the release for his Aeon-produced EP Duly Noted. We ended up talking the album, the greatest Jordans of all time and the quintessential emcee. Here’s how it all unfolded.
SCROLL DOWN FOR INTERVIEW AUDIO
Planet Ill: The infamous Von pea, Skinny Biggie, What up? You guys [Tanya Morgan] were Planet Ill’s first video interview, way back in 2009.
Von Pea: I didn’t know that, that’s crazy!
Planet Ill: Let’s talk about the new project first, and then we’ll get into a whole bunch of background stuff. Duly Noted. I call it Nuevo 90’s where it doesn’t sound dated but the spirit is still reflected. Tell us about the project.
Von Pea: it’s something that started mid-late August and recorded most of September and I think touched up here and there in October. It was pretty much done at that point. Aeon did all the production, I did all on the vocal side; I did all that fun stuff. Then just started working to get it out there, thanks to Hipnott, they helped us put it out. Yeah man, just been pushing that project. It was a snapshot of my summer, but not necessarily a summer album. Almost like a journal entry for six tracks of my life for mid to late 2012.
Planet Ill: This isn’t the first time you’ve worked with Aeon, right?
Von Pea: Not at all. We’ve been working with him since 2007 I believe. We’ve known him for a long time but 2007 we did a song called Walk My Way, it’s one of the songs on the snippet at the end of the song Nip Slip. At the end of that track Nip Slip is just a portion of a lot of the songs that we’ve done through the years.
Planet Ill: This is your third project outside of Tanya Morgan?
Von Pea: I’ve done a lot of…I don’t even know what to call them because they’re not necessarily mixtapes, but they’re not albums either. I’ve done these projects where I was rapping over other people’s instrumentals, when I was rapping over like Kanye beats. I did one over JD beats. I did one over like some Quasimodo instrumentals. Those are just like projects I did, but I have one album really which is Pea’s Gotta Have It, and then I had a mixtape called So Motivational. That was an actual mixtape. So this is the latest one; I guess you can call this the second album of totally original music.
Planet Ill: How important is authenticity to you? I noticed that you’ve stepped your bars up, you hit me with one, that Willie Aames line. You’re definitely showing your 80’s babies status with that one. Where do you draw your inspiration and how do you imbue those pop culture references? Where do you make the choices of infusing that stuff?
Von Pea: For me really I definitely try to make sure I’m clear and that it doesn’t get too boring and make sure I’m getting my point across and make sure I’m not trying to be too obscure or anything. But lines like that one, for example. To be specific, that kind of thing just flows out. And I know that sounds corny, too but it just happens.
Planet Ill: if it comes out it comes out. That’s not corny; that’s just your process.
Von Pea: Yeah. Some of those lines just happen. And being a fan of yourself, I wrote it and I was like, “Whew, that line was dope!” So I was like I’m definitely keeping that. Even if it might seem too random for a 20 year old, or something, I’m keeping that line. And then if anything I go back and say, “Am I too random in this verse? Did I get too obscure with something? Did I not make my point clear, whatever I was trying to say when I started; did I do it?
I go back a lot and I treat my stuff like book reports. It would be the first draft and I may have to write it again. Change this part here and there and then I say what I was trying to say. That’s pretty much my process when it comes to writing.
Planet Ill: Let’s talk about Nip Slip. Was that a real story or was that just imagination?
Von Pea: It’s funny; Aeon asked me the same question, because he knows me very well, personally. He was like, “Yo, when did this happen, because this sounds like something you would do?”” But the truth is, I created a scenario and reacted to it the way I would react to it. I was hoping that other people would kind of see themselves in it. The subtleties of the things that I’m saying vs. what you may or may not imagine what’s going on in my head when these things are happening. And what led me to walk around by myself sulking or whatever happened.
I wanted to just create that scenario an react to it the way I would in real life and it sounds lame or weird or corny or whatever but there’s a person that would have reacted the same way and I want them to hear it and be like, “Word!” And I didn’t want to turn it into some big story to where I flipped the table and punched somebody in the face. I wanted to do it in real life. You’re somewhere; you’re with people that may be looking down their nose at you…
Planet Ill: A lil’ too vegan for their own good…
Von Pea: Yeah! How would you react? Would you sit up and say “Fuck all ya’ll!” Or in reality, would you kind of just leave? And this is like a girl, a woman or a guy that you like. Are you just going to be like, “I’m leaving?” What are you going to do? So I just went with the story the way I really would and a lot of people seem to like that one and are drawn to it.
Planet ill: Most of the music on the album are mid-tempo. Do you feel like that’s strongest speed in terms of getting on top of the beat and hammering home what you have to get done?
Von Pea: I think in this case, it’s more like everything came from a certain beat tape. Like a certain beat tape he [Aeon] gave me. I see it all as like mood. It’s a very mood-specific record to me. Like everything has a certain feel to it.
It’s funny, I was talking to my homeboy DJ Chris the other day, and he was like, “Man I was on my way to New York, coming up from Philly. It was kinda dark ‘cause it was raining and I threw on the EP [Duly Noted] and it was perfect.” And I’m like that’s what it’s for. It really gives that sun goes down at 5:00PM music. That’s why I was mad that it came out kinda late. We was trying to put it out in December so it would be perfect because it’s mostly dark. Day light savings so it would be perfect if it could come out, like I wanted it to come out like 5PM one day because it was for that mood.
To answer your question, maybe Aeon was in that same mood when he was making those tracks and then I picked out those certain ones and they all fit in a certain pocket. I took the time to make sure that it flowed a certain way. Although they do things within a certain window, it flows the right way. I made sure that Things Have Changed came on after Pessimistic because I knew that although it’s not a fast song, it sounds fast coming on after that one.
Planet Ill: You sounded like you were on a mission with Pessimistic. What were you trying to accomplish with that? There was a little anger in that one.
Von Pea: Honestly that wasn’t anger; that was just New York. That was just Bed Stuy; that was my neighborhood.
Planet Ill: That emcee arrogance…
Von Pea: Yeah, that’s pretty much what that was. Not even anger just like the arrogance on that one.
Planet Ill: Let’s play word association. Orange Card [From old Nike releases]
Von Pea: It’s funny I was thinking metro card but I would say [Air Jordan]IV’s .
Planet Ill: What’s the dopest pair of Jordans ever?
Von Pea: Well the dopest are the III’s [Black Cements] but my personal favorites are the VIII’s.
Planet Ill: Who was your favorite emcee from that era?
Von Pea: Kane. I was little when It’s A Big Daddy Thing dropped. That was my introduction to him. I was only about 8 but I had an older brother. My father had just got a CD player. That was like an iPad back then. And I had gotten that, and that’s just like what a rapper was to me. Even if you would have said rapper, even to this day. When you mention it, the image is Kane.
Von Pea: The Duly Noted Interview by Illsideradiopodcast on Mixcloud
