Please, Akim, introduce yourself and Tru Paz and tell how long you have been doing this and what you have released so far.
Akim: Peace, I am Akim the emcee of the crew TRU – P. A. Z! Tru-Paz consist of myself, Boozie, and Dj Unknown. The Tru-Paz family however is much larger than just the 3 of us. Behind the scenes and on road we got crazy troops, what you see making the music is just an expression of our people and our lives, struggles, and success. We have been doing this music thing for the last 7 years as a group. For me I have been doing this for the last 15 years easily, Unknown has been doing music since he was born I think. Seriously though he has been doing this for at least 15 years too, and Boozie is music he is a walking melody, harmony with soul all in one. This album, Concrete Kings is our 3rd album. Our previous albums were State Of Emergency, and R-Evolution.
Your style is pretty different from Boozie´s. What made you start a group? How did you even meet him?
Akim: Well, Tru-Paz was actually started by one of our brothers… Rasun, myself, and DJ Unknown before we even released R-Evolution which was our first official record. As the years passed Tru-Paz kept making music and evolving to what it is today. Rasun is still part of the Tru-Paz camp and is still an integral part of us. So basically this group is one that really occured naturally, we are just family that connected musically, then we made some tracks and nature produced Tru-Paz. I actually met Boozie probably like 10 years ago. To make a long strory short, when he came up here (Toronto, Canada) I met him through Rasun. This made him fam to me instanty and he treated me the same. Ever since then we rolled as a unit. Then we brought Boozie with us on the R-Evolution tour as a hype man for us. Boozie was always developing his style and he let it loose on that tour when it came time for him to do accappellas. Needless to say Boozie was ready to share his talents with the world and he has been a major part of Tru-Paz ever since.
You last album was released almost 3 years ago. Why did it take so long to make new one?
DJ Unknown: State of Emergency was a heavy, emotional album, so we knew we had to follow it up with something of equal intensity, but with a different theme. We started recording tracks for Concrete Kings at the end of 2005, and and recorded straight for a year and a half, bringing us to a 2007 release date. Its because we try to make complete albums that it takes us a year or more to record. We put equal effort into everytrack. We give serious thought to what we want to say on each track, and how we want the songs to fit together. Our albums are always thematic, and that being the case, we tend to take our time picking which songs make the record. So there is a definite reason why we take as long as we do, but that said, we had so much material from this past session, plus we never stopped recording, that a new album won’t be as long in the making.
The album is very diverse. Did you have any intentions how the album should sound?
DJ Unknown: We always go into recording with an open mind. As a producer, I am influenced by what is going on around me, and as MC’s boozie and Ak write what goes on around them. So teh ablums tend to be a snap shot of our mind set and our life at the time we are recording our album. Concrete Kings is the sound of who we are. Reggae, hip hop, soul, jazz, all of these styles are evident in some form on the record because it was what shaped us as artists. We like many styles of music, so we make music for listeners who can appreciate many types of music. We hope that most listeners can open thier mind to the experience and enjoy the ride. Above all, we always strive for a complete album, and that is what we try to deliver.
What does the title, Concrete Kings, refer to?
Boozie: Concrete kings are those who emerge as kings from within the concrete jungle. The Jungle depicts a place where wild life is abundant, some subtle some violent, To emerge as a king from within these habitats, it has to be a consensous amongst all the animals otherwise one will come in an effort to claim ur throne, So as a concrete King u have to be loved as much as ur respected, How many can do that? The Concrete jungle is where we live where the people are unscrupulous an cunning towards each other.The trapz are the prison cells and the weakness of men spirtually, lust envy greed and deceit these are the serpents. The antidote is limited its called love and respect..very hard to find.. people say they love ya but can’t accept u for who u are well..Two words F— them. As a king we don’t just claim a throne we aspire to create harmony within our kingdom for all. Thus the song "people are just people". The concrete king can never claim total inncoence because he would have no crediability, he has to grow through the ups and downs of life always dustin himself off when getting up surviving by street intutuions, never getting trap in hotel hell, because he knows its hard for a rose to grow from the concrete. A Concrete king is a anyone who has lived, loved, died, been betrayed, hated, lost anythin an everything yet remains a person admired by any and many" thus the song people are just people the next step would be an angel or a God.Concrete Kingz.
The album is „just“ 48-minute long. Does that mean that you are sick of these 80 or 90-minute long albums?
Akim: Yes I am sick of long ass albums with 80% filler. Most of those albums only have about 3-4 good songs and that is just a waste of my time. Most of the classics in Hip Hop and music in general were solid albums with 9-14 songs.
Do you need Street Intuitions in today´s Toronto?
Akim: Definitely! Without it I don’t know how you would survive. Without getting into all the negative shit that happens out here, I will just say you need to keep your head on straight and get some knowledge of self to really get by. I also think you need those same Street Intuitions in any place in this modern day world, cause what happens here must happen on some scale everywhere else.
What made you write Hollywood?
DJ Unknown: That ties into Weapons of Mass Distraction….TV and the obsession with celebrity is destroying our self esteem and who we are as people. Boozie talks about how Hollywood makes people desire to live a life beyond thier means, simply to ‚appear‘ in the image of what some corporation has created and marketed . Hollywood is the messenger for these images, and these images are creating bigger problems than people care to admit. The poison, and garbage that is spewn all over the TV is dumbing down the collective intellegence, and making huge profits doing it. Hollywood is designed to sound like a pop/club track so that it can sneak into the commerical playlist, and deliver a message to those who need it the most. If some listeners can hear it, and re-think what they do, then we have done our job as musicians with a concious.
Is my TV really as dangerous as say you in Weapons Of Mass Destruction?
DJ Unknown: Most definitely. There are tons of studies on the effects of TV on pre-school kids. Links to TV and higher rates of diabetes, obesity, poor mental performance etc etc. Plus, when you talk to people now a days, they don’t talk about their life, they talk about Brad Pitts life, about Linday Lohan’s latest coke problem, about who got the boot from Survivor….really….who cares? We care about the people on our street, about my family, about immediate things. TV distracts the public from what is happening in thier own communities. Everybody knows that Britney shaved her head, but how many people can name thier local MP? If we cut down the hours of TV we watch, we could do all the things that people say they have no time to do – work out, learn to play guitar, read more, talk to your friends more. Its a tool used to sedate the public.
Hotel Hell is very interesting. Has anyone of you been incarcerated?
Boozie: Hotell hell breaks the conceptualization of many whom believe that prison or going to prison is a part of growing up. That its not soo bad because their is food clothing an shelter. In these confinements we are dehumanized, reduced to a mere number, our free-will an spirit is removed. Most importantly, its a system designed to retract wealth, you need a lawyer, you need bail money, you need money for canteeen if serving time, you make nothin worthwhile in there. The low income citizens pick up the slacks. We all know who are hurt the most by taxes. If u have a child? A woman, You never serve time in your town, your moved, travel expense. Then u become a convict resticted to meanial jobs, so u become a repeat offender and apart of a beautiful system. In our society incarceration and guilt are synoymn, what a misconception! To be incarcerated means imprisoned (adjective): in prison, locked up, enslaved, confined, caged. We live in a economical prison, because we never leave the hood. Mentally we are often enslaved, to lifestyles and fashion and lust. Confined to our own ethnic demography within our cities even music, Because some people don’t beleive in rap or hip hop. Some would go as far to say rap music is just noise . Caged by tradition and laws. My question isn,t who’s been incarcerated but rather whos‘ free ?
You´ve scored several several videos. Do you write screenplays for them? Do you plan to make another one to this album?
Akim: For all our videos off of State Of Emergency we did not. We were fortunate enough to work with a director who understood our music and was able to visualize those songs in a creative way. We like to give directors a lot of freedom to do what they do best. Yes, we definitely plan on doing some more videos for this album, we actually in the process of deciding which songs we will do videos for. So far we have done a video for Dust Yourself Off and we hope to do at least 2 more videos for this album.
What´s your opinion on the current state of hip hop?
Akim: This is a question that needs a lot of time and space to fully address it. I will try to be as brief as possible so please bare with me. At the surface Hip Hop is in bad shape, it is controlled by too many corporations and people who have no love for Hip Hop Culture or the people who originated it. It has become more than business, it has become a tool for these corporations. They use it in the mainstream to make our people dumb, deaf, and blind teaching our youths to shake their ass, worship money and vanity like it is God, and to basically make the hip hop listener nothing less than a consumer. Hip Hop was originally a voice for the people struggling in the ghetto, it was uplifting, it was our way or educating the youth. It was in balance for many years giving us party vibes, edutainment, story tellers, politcs and enhancing our spirituality as a people. That is how powerful hip hop is. I grew up on Public Enemy, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap, BDP, PRT, De La Soul and a whole list of others, my point is that at that time (even with gangsta rap like N.W.A.) hip hop was balanced and it helped the average hip hop head to be grounded and self motivated to do something positive. In 2007 it aint like that anymore. Hip hop is promoted and determined to create an imbalance in our people…this is what has been happening for the last 5-8 years. With that being said Hip Hop is slowly getting back to its roots with a lot more groups making real music again. The concious emcee is emerging again and the party emcee is still strong as is the gansta. The balance is slowly coming back and major coporations hate it (although they too will jump ship to make a dollar when that time comes). That is why so many people who have faith in hip hop are searching for good music and supporting indie artists. The people who love hip hop are yearning for that good music and they are finding it because it still exists (it just does not get the industry support that bullshit gets). Hip Hop is in a stage where it is evolving and redefining itself and we (Tru-Paz) are proud to be on the front lines making that real music. To rap this answer up as best I can, Hip Hop is coming back to what it was meant to be. It is just going to take some time for all people to realize that good hip hop is still out there, hopefully the internet and credable media will spread music faster to combat the monopoly of rap and bullshit that the major coporations flood our airwaves with in North America. My final thought is this Hip Hop is not dead it is in critical condition right now but the future is bright and Hip Hop will always be here in its pure form one way or the other.
Thanks for doing this interview with us, all we can say is support message music, support Tru-Paz. We make music for the people who need it and if you need music you will find us. Peace.
