Today, I have the pleasure of talking to up and coming hip-hop duo The Other Guys. And although their music is genuine and thoughtful, it also marks a return to hip-hop’s Golden Era. A time when hip-hop was fun, and brimming with positive vibes. Their music speaks for itself without bravado or the bombastic-materialistic-self aggrandizing associated with most practitioners of the genre. Listening to their latest LP The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth is like listening to the dawn of a new day.
d. durand: Welcome. What’s up? I’m a big fan, and I’m loving your work. First, how about telling the readers who you guys are? Name, where you’re from, etc.
Mighty Joe: We’re both from the DC/MD/VA area. But Gnormen Insanate Baites lives in Brooklyn and me, Mighty Joe, I live in DC.
d. durand: How does your combined life experiences affect the kind of music you both create?
Gnormen Insanate Baites: For me, everything I speak about is a direct reflection of my experiences. Songs like Thick Skin, Nowhere to be Found, and Valley of the Sun, are about real people and real situations. If I had different situations in life I’m sure I would speak about different things, and that would change our music completely.
Mighty Joe: I grew up listening to a lot of different genres, so since I’m a fan of so many different things I incorporate that into what we do.
d. durand: What kind of music was played in the house when you were growing up, and what band or artists do you remember hearing?
Gnormen Insanate Baites: The first music I remember hearing when growing up were The Beatles. My dad liked the Beatles, so in turn, I liked The Beatles. He also played Bob James a lot too. He would give me long explanations about needing to know all the names of all the different musicians that played on a track, and not just the name of the artist whose song it is.
Mighty Joe: Gospel during the week, and hip-hop during the weekends when I visited my Dad.
d. durand: The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth is an interesting title for an album, do your think the geek or nerd persona is the new “it” quality ladies are attracted to, or looking for in a man?
Gnormen Insanate Baites: We don’t know what ladies are attracted to, but we have a suspicion that it’s not geeks. Seriously, the title was, and is just a simple representation of us.
d. durand: This is for Mighty Joe, tell us about your path to becoming a producer and what that’s like.
Mighty Joe: I use to try to rap and realized I’m a better musician. Since I was ten I could play the organ, so that was a natural progression into creating tracks. Around 2005 I bought my first beat machine when I lived out in Virginia Beach, and I swear there’s something in the air there cause it was just completely inspiring.
d. durand: Insante, at what point in your did you decide be an emcee? And how did you come up with your name?
Gnormen Insanate Baites: I wanted to be an emcee back in high school. In my freshman year, my man Substantial was doing it and getting so much love from it. I was an awkward kid and just wanted to fit in. I didn’t know at the time how hard it would be, and that it would make me even more of an outsider (lol). It became the thing that I studied everyday to be good at, because I truly believed I could do it. And my name, it stems from how I view the world. Am I insane for thinking what I think, or is everyone else insane for thinking what he or she thinks? That’s how the Insanate part came about. And Gnornen Baites is just a guy that really loves his Mom (lol).
d. durand: Is being an artist in New York as tough as it looks?
Gnormen Insanate Baites: Being an artist in New York may be even tougher than it looks. It’s a constant struggle to find the motivation to keep creating. You would think being in a place with some artists would keep you encouraged to do your art, but it doesn’t. For me it always makes me question whether my art is just as important as anyone else’s, and whether or not what I’m doing is important at all.
d. durand: When you guys listen to popular hip-hop/rap artists today, what distinguishes the music you two create and produce from the mainstream variety?
Mighty Joe: We personally try to create the music we want to listen to that we don’t necessarily think is being created. It’s got nothing to do with what’s popular or not. We make music that we want to hear.
d. durand: Do you feel that as an artist you have a responsibility to your public or community, and does that responsibility influence what you choose to address or say in the music you create?
Gnormen Insanate Baites: We think you definitely have a responsibility when you get to a certain point because, believe it or not, music influences people. Often we address the things we do in music hoping you went through those things too. And, if you have, that connects you to us, and hopefully brightens your day because of it.
* This is Part 1 of a 2 part interview. I’ll post the second half of the interview soon. Peace.