q&a Da Backwudz (Atlanta, GA)
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ailing from Decatur, Da Backwudz already know what it’s like to work with the industry’s biggest names. They also know what it feels like to see their buzz die right before their eyes. Now with their long-awaited debut Wood Work on shelves, Sho-Nuff and Big Marc weigh in on how they are working even harder since the album dropped. How does it feel to finally see your record in the stores? Sho-Nuff: It’s been a long time coming, we’ve been doing this since ’97 and we finally getting in the stores. It’s at Best Buy, Tower, Target, wherever you wanna buy your music. We got Nas, Slim Thug, George Clinton, Killer Mike, Big Gipp, Bohagon, Sleepy Brown, and a little Sade on there. We got our boy Caz Clay on the “I Don’t Like the Look Of It” single and we got Bun B on the remix. How much creative control did you have on this album? Big Marc: Dallas [Austin] gives us full creative control, he just comes and sprinkles his spice on it. We didn’t have to fight to do songs. It’s still a business at the end of the day, so a lot of the people that we wanted to work with we couldn’t quite afford, but we still got to work a lot of people. Who can say they got George Clinton their record? Well, Blackalicious from Oakland is another rap group that worked with him recently. They didn’t say it was weird, but they said that his methods are interesting. How was your experience with him? Big Marc: We was just vibing. We had the track going and he was in [D.A.R.P. Studios] working on some stuff. We asked him if he wanted to hear some of our stuff and he said yeah. After that he just laid something down on it. I was a king to my dad when I told him I made something with George Clinton. “You Gonna Love Me” dropped two years ago. How does it feel to see people still interested in your music two years later? Big Marc: It’s a blessing to have people take heed and listen to us. That’s motivation to stay in the studio. Sho-Nuff: When “You Gonna Love Me” died down our buzz died down too, because of the sample not being cleared, so Quincy [Jones] and Dallas had to sit down and work it out. But then we came with the “Oompa” and the buzz came back. Since then, MTV has made it Jam of the Week and BET supported too. We getting love everywhere, overseas, Holland, Germany, West coast the Midwest. We just came back from D.C. and New York and they loving us too. How did the “I Don’t Like the Look of It” idea come about? Sho-Nuff: The Execs came with the beat. When we heard that, we was skeptical at first. Big Marc: We visualized it as we wrote it. We all came to the table, everybody had the same vision and we made it happen. What was your reaction when you first saw the video? Sho-Nuff: My reaction was: This is it. It’s like no other video out right now. It was a complete video. I haven’t seen a video like that since Outkast’s “Bombs Over Baghdad.” Speaking of which, do you guys feel any pressure from the Outkast comparisons that have been coming up? Big Marc: Not really. That’s motivation, because look at where they at now. I know people ain’t saying we sound like them, but people get the same feeling from us that they got from them. It’s a blessing to be said in the same sentence as them. Sho-Nuff: With all the music in the South, we coming with something else, so naturally people say we on some other shit. I think that’s where the comparisons come from. You guys put in a lot of work leading up to the release of this album. How has life been since the record came out? Big Marc: We getting a lot grinding in. Just because you got an album everything ain’t sweet, but now you gotta work harder because you got a barcode now. You got to grind to get folks to get your record. You go harder when the album out because you got something for people to go grab. Its like a dude selling door-to-door insurance, he ain’t gonna fall back, you gotta knock on doors because you got
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something to sell now. Sho-Nuff: Like when we in a place and they don’t know what we got. But after we do a show, they gonna be like, “I gotta go check them out.” It’s word of mouth. If you ain’t in people’s faces you might as not record. Months or years down the line, will you be disappointed if you’re looked at as one of those groups who get labeled “slept-on”? Sho-Nuff: Hell, look at Jay-Z, his first album got slept on. A lot of great artists’ first album got slept on and when they got more successful people went back and bought the first album. So, naw I wouldn’t be disappointed. Big Marc: For real the money and all that is gonna come, we done claimed all of that. We love to make music, if people respect us for making good music the rest will fall into place. So if you make good music people will fuck with you eventually. So even if we are slept-on, the world will know that we made good music. We are starting hear about groups like you, Little Brother and Lupe Fiasco out of Chicago being applauded for lyrics and content. Do you sense a shift in hip-hop music taking place? Big Marc: We do feel like hip-hop is going back to having to make a song with substance to win. I’m a consumer too and I think people are tired of being mad when they hear music. People hating on snap music, but D4L blew up because people felt good when they heard the music. They wasn’t worried about their bills and relationships when they heard their music. We do think people are going back to wanting to feel good when hearing music. And they want substance and content too. Can you understand why people would hate on snap music, folks feel like they aren’t saying anything? Big Marc: At the end of the day people want to jam. It is what it is. That’s why you got groups like dead prez, Mos Def and Tali Kweli. They go over people heads sometimes because those people don’t want to get that deep sometimes, they’re like, “I ain’t worried about that because it ain’t got nothing to do with me,” when really it does. That has to do with folks just having knowledge of life, that don’t really have much to do with a song that got hella spins. You can’t be mad at the artist for making songs like that. Sho-Nuff: It may be happy music but they ain’t gotta worry about shootings when they hear it. Do you think hip-hop fans are maturing any? You are both around 25 years old with your first record coming out. Big Marc: I don’t think age got anything to do with it. Look at LL, he banging. Him and J-Lo banging right now [hums their single “Control Myself”] look at Snoop, Too $hort, Pimp C and Bun B, ‘Ball and G. If you making good music that you think people gonna feel there ain’t no age limit. Look at Shirley Ceaser, she still making music. I still think people like Kool Moe Dee and Big Daddy Kane could come back if they was making records. There’s people that love them niggas, if they came back they could win. I bet Missy will make records for hella long, she ain’t never gonna stop. I don’t think age got anything to do with it. Even if it’s your first album, if you making good music it don’t even matter. - Maurice G. Garland