FatBeats: Behind The Counter Podcast Episode 4

On Episode 4 of FatBeats: Behind The Counter Podcast, DJ Eclipse connects with Natural Elements (Mr. Voodoo, L Swift AKA Swigga, & A-Butta) to discuss the group's past and present - plus a surprise drop-in from FatBeats President, Chris Atlas. 

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DJ Eclipse:
https://www.instagram.com/djeclipsersc

Natural Elements: 
https://www.instagram.com/naturalelementsworld/

L Swift AKA Swigga: 
https://www.instagram.com/swiggarillo/

A-Butta:
https://www.instagram.com/vaudevillespit/

Mr. Voodoo: 
https://www.instagram.com/mrvooakakrhyminal718/

Charlemagne: 
https://www.instagram.com/realcharlemagne/

#Fatbeats #HipHop #BehindTheCounter #Podcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:03

What up, what up, what up? DJ Clips right here, Fat Bees Podcast behind the counter, coming to you with none other than one of my favorite groups of the 90s that are still here, still doing stuff. Natural Elements. My man right here to my right goes by Mr. Voodoo. You know what I'm saying? My man right here to my left goes by A Butter. And my man to my far left goes by Swigger, aka L Swift. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And uh new album is out there right now, Alignment. Yes, sir. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Hope y'all got that, and I hope y'all, you know, groove into it. It got a lot of highway miles on it. You know? Nice driving music, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 0:52

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

Um this is gonna be great because we've got a lot of talk about, um, a lot of history between all of us, uh, between just the connections are crazy. Obviously, there's there's Fat Beats, you know, there's there's um N E. Uh shout out to Fortress Records, um, shout out to Tommy Boy Records, you know, shout out to Chris Atlas. Um lot of connections that make a ton of sense right now with what's going on. Uh and as always, we're gonna start at the beginning. Um so y'all are the core of what the world knows today as natural elements, you know, the three of y'all. Right. But there were earlier installments of natural elements with more members and stuff like that. So let's take it back to the beginnings of uh how everyone kind of got together. Because if I'm not mistaken, uh Vu, you're Brooklyn. Yes. Uh uh Swiggers, the Bronx, uh Uptown for uh uh A. Um So how did how did y'all did y'all know each other prior to kind of getting into the group, or was it like you guys were picked to be into natural elements, whoever wanted to start? Let's take it back to the essence.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

I mean, I guess it would start with with with me uh when I when I started getting out there with the uh first single, um, what I would do is I would bring uh my man Swigger and my man Kai, may he rest in peace.

SPEAKER_05 2:23

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Um on stage and and to the radio spots, and we would do everything together. And so um we kind of got known as a click, as any the click, right, by me bringing everyone in from that and all us always rhyming together in ciphers or whatever. So uh any as the click was the first iteration of it. Uh um form formerly as a group, um that probably would have happened um as uh the first uh time, the first the uh net lyrical tactic singing, yeah, yeah, um where you have uh the the uh shine right um that would be the first time as a group, the iteration of the group, you know. Um and there was a there was a previous iteration of the group uh as myself, Mr. Voodoo, Swigger, and Kai, but that was a sort of an informal thing that was created in the framework of of that demo here for Def Jam at that time, okay, right? So that also is another iteration, but the official iteration of Annie would actually begin with Shine, and that would be myself, Swigger, A Butter, and a young lady by the name of Estes. Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

But how how did the Swigger connection even come about?

SPEAKER_02 3:52

I can understand Kyle because I knew Charlemagne from when I was like 10 years old. We both from St. Lucia.

SPEAKER_03 4:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Um my aunt and his mother both worked in dialysis at Einstein Hospital. And um Charlemagne and them, their household used to babysit me and my sister when when my aunt and and his mom would go to the convention or whatever. So Charlemagne, we both from St. Lucia, so like he started teaching me about hip hop before I got there. Because I I I came to America when I was eight. You know what I'm saying? Um so he was teaching me about everything before that. And um one day I wrote a rap, you know, and I was like, to make a little story short. I wrote a rap and I told his cousin, Miguel, I was like, yo, Miguel, I wrote a rap. He's like, yo, come tell it to Chris, which is Charlemagne's first name. And um, I went there and I kicked it for him. He was like, yo, I didn't know you rap, but look, we do this thing every Saturday. Okay, it's a studio. I make beats for the guys. Just come up on Saturday and check it out. And I went one day and I met Vu. I met all the guys up there, Tim, O. E. Smalls, everybody. They real, the original click, right? Click, click. Yeah, and then monsters. Yeah, and then Dante. Big up to Dante too. Dante. Dante Cacino. Dante. He from he from St. Lucia too. Right. Actually, my my my aunt taught him in school. Uh-huh. Wow. My aunt was one of his teachers. But anyway, um, so when I went up, when I went up there, I was the youngest, but I was like, this is before A-Butter. So I just acclimated to what they was doing. Like they, you know, all them was in college. I I was still so young that I was like, I was just still learning like my vocabulary and what I wanted to use as vocabulary, and and um, and I adapted to them real well because they they wouldn't let me make mistakes. They'll fact check me. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 5:44

L was like the boy wonder the group. Okay, you know, the youngest in charge. We was always impressed by but what he brought, his skill level. And that was actually one of the reasons why I wanted to bring him. I wanted people to marvel at the youth and skill that that he brought with it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

I couldn't mess around, I couldn't have no excuses, I couldn't use no edges. We was on them hard, yeah, like boot camp. Yeah, yeah, yeah, man. And then Charlotte, so Charlotte, and then Charlemagne knew me so well or knew us all so well that he gave us individual beats to fit our styles. So like Kai would get a beat that fits Kai perfect that I wouldn't even touch. Right. Or like Vu, you know, vice versa. So that when we when we got the group, uh the click, that was still when it was the click. So when we got to the point where we was with in the group, where it was me, Vu, and Kai, it was kind of seamless because we was always around each other anyway. Yeah. Every Saturday, and you know, and just and them, and at the time, you know, my father wasn't around, rest in peace, and my mother too. Um, so they were like father figures to me. Because I I was like in high school, early high school, and like I would like tell them, yo, so-and-so is going on. First, they want to know if I have any beef. That's the thing. Or Brooklyn Cassie, like, good, nobody looking at you crazy. Nobody doing nothing crazy, right? Nah, nah, they cool. They don't even know I rap because I moved to Mount to Mount Vernon to went to Mount Vernon High School after my mom's pass. So, um, yeah, so but that's when I got into the click.

SPEAKER_03 7:07

Okay. Yeah. Okay. All right. So then A, how did you make your way to everything?

SPEAKER_04 7:13

Yeah, so what's how did I start? Well, big up to Dante Ross, by the way. Speaking of Dante's. Yeah, Dante Ross. You know, it was Dante's kind of idea, in a way, right? To bring y'all together.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Like, yeah, he saw us as a click. Right, right. And I believe he wanted to sign Vuofus.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Yeah, it was it was it was weird because it we because his interest was me. Okay. But when he saw us as a click and the way that we vibed, he was like, yo, y'all would be good together as a group. You know what I'm saying? So let's go and let me um get y'all into the studio and put some joints together and let's see what happens. Okay. You know, so yeah, Dante was very integral.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

See, I never knew that people and that makes sense now with uh the stimulated stuff and you're going back to the stuff. Bring it right, run it back, right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:01

And I say that to say this because I was not in natural elements at the time, I was listening to the radio, like college radio shows at the time, whether it be Jay Smooth's show, stretching Barbito, Martin Moore and Mayhem. And I was hearing, you know, well, even before the joints with Car Vu and Swigger, I was I was hearing, you know, come off hard, I was hearing Live the Life, crazy records off that first Fortress compilation. You know what I'm saying? I'm in the Grant Projects in Harlem, just checking out late night radios or whatever. And then I'm hearing, you know, then at that point, I hear the joints triple team, I got your heart, like the demos, right? The demos that I guess they did, but they were but they got leaked, right? So they're playing those on the radio, and I'm in my mind, like, these cats are crazy. Like, these, you know, I'm writing my rhymes in my crib, but I'm listening to these cats, like, yo, this is I'm bringing the tapes back to school, you know what I'm saying? Like, like, yo, check this cat out. Elsewhere, it's crazy, yo. Check this. I remember when Hemlock came out, like I guess it got leaked, or whatever version, it wasn't even official, whatever it was. And I remember like, you know what I'm saying? I'm catching FCC finds for foul thoughts, something, and I was like banging my head like I was like banging. I remember vividly like hearing the song off the radio. And I was banging my head on the project wall like it was crazy because in the projects there's a little like light bulb on the uh on the wall. It's like it's really weird how they built it, but I just remember almost sitting in my head on that light bulb, and the rhymes were so crazy, right? So I would repeat that. I would repeat live the life too. Like live the life and hemlock, like I knew the I knew word for word, you know what I'm saying? So I say that again to say this. Mayhem, peace to mayhem, more on sunset. They had a segment on WNYU. I think the show was called uh Real New York Live. New York Live, New York Live, New York Live. And so you would call the radio station, like they would have a segment where people can call and spit rhymes or whatever. So it just so happened that um I think I was talking to my man, I was like, man, I think I because I was hearing people call. People call up and they be trash. Like part of the lore was they were so trash. Like, so there was a lot of those. And in my mind, I'm like, man, I I know this verse I got right here. I could say that. You know what I'm saying? I just had the confidence. Like, so I was like, I think I called one day. And uh, and it's crazy because when you call, okay, one, it's hard to get through. Yeah. So it's like you on there for a minute. I'm in my grandmother's phone, I'm rocking shit. I'm in my grandmother's rocking shit. The radio's right here, I'm rocking, and they pick up. I'm like, oh shit, and then when I pick up, I got mad, they're like, hold on. Not only do you gotta get through, you gotta hold on. So then I'm waiting, and I'm like, damn, and I can hear like the other MCs rhyme, you know what I'm saying? Crazy. And I'm like, oh man. So then finally, mayhem's like, okay, so yo, you ready about and we live and we live. I'm like, oh and he throws on a beat, right? And what beat is it? It's a natural element beat. I got your heart, right? Yeah, right. So I know the beat. I'm like, uh so I'm on the phone, I'm known to blow spots like cyclones, man. You know, I'll start spinning my little thing. By the top, niggas go, and I hear the phone, it's chaos. I'm like rhyming, the phones are ringing. Mayhem's like, yo! I spend my mom, he says, hold on, hold the line. Yeah. So I hold the line. He said, Yo, son, you you buy. I think this I had called multiple times at this point, maybe. Now they're getting they're knowing you now. Yeah, and they're like, yo, son, I need you, I need you to come to the to the station. So, and so from that point, I go up to the station, and at some point, mayhem, uh, whether we had a we built a relationship at that point, and he's like, yo, man, I think you would sound ill with natural elements. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, natural elements. Like, yo, it's like, well, that's my favorite group, some of my favorite MCs. He's like, nah, yeah, I was I I know Swift, I know I think mayhem was working with them on the demos. So boom, yeah, mayhem introduced one day. Mayhem introduced me to Swig at the station, and it was instant, it was instant synchronicity. But what's crazy is that I had the house it going down tape in my pocket. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Mayhem DJ some shows for me. Yeah. 95 and 99. Right.

SPEAKER_04 12:37

So I had the tape and I said, yo, Swig, can you sign this for me? This is metal. Signed it. Next thing you know, like a couple weeks later, yo, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

I was like, come to the Northeast Bronze, he's spent the weekend in my crib. That's dope.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

I know, you know, just a side note, it was um Martin Moore and Mayhem that were in the in the process of like helping us to solidify a deal, you know, because they would later on have a relationship with Tommy Boy and penalty and all that. You know, so um, you know, they were instrumental also in, you know, what we have as any today, because through Martin and Mayhem, a butter found his way to us, you know.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

And and I guess you know, it's it's great hearing this because it's been so long that you know, for myself anyway, it's like you forget exactly it it always seemed like you guys were always there together. Right. But now when I think about it, yeah, like at the L Swift yellow 12-inch was was by himself, then was by himself. Yeah, uh, and and you just don't rem I don't remember exactly when the first one I saw. I just always felt like it was always just always snaps and elements, even though if it was solo stuff.

SPEAKER_04 13:45

And and even even Ka had I am a genius, I mean this. That was like on the compilation. And it was getting played.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

It was getting rotation, yeah. It was now obviously the night breed stuff came.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

But Shine is really when we first yeah Yeah, but Shine really was where we started getting traction. Yeah, the track was infectious, and you know, and they're hearing them for, you know, they heard they know me, but they're hearing us together. And they hear A Butter for the first time and Essence for the first time, and everybody's like, yo, we want more. We gotta hear more.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

It was it was it was I mean the independent scene was great because like, you know, it basically gave us a way to continue making the music that we all loved. And you know, the the the mainstream was changing, you know what I'm saying? So it's like so for us, the only way to get out the music that we still felt was the standards of music was to go and do shit independently. Absolutely. And of everyone that came out through an independent scene, y'all were definitely like um the favorites, I would say. It's like you had you had the ends at radio, you know, you guys were always up on mayhem and mon board, you know, even stretching bob, you guys I mean the woo-ha freestyle is legendary between y'all two. You know what I'm saying? Like that that was crazy. The the off the top of the head. Uh, and then and then the music that you guys were making was um shout to Charlemagne once again, because the beats have always been on point. And it was it was music that, you know, because sometimes when you're in the independent scene, um you had a lot of different genres of sounds coming out from different groups, and you know, some stuff sounded really underground, some stuff, you know, was left field, some, you know, and y'all were really like the perfect combination of like music that sounded mainstream for what we thought the standards were, but it was just on our level, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 15:43

So it was like we call it being digestible, like natural elements is digestible to the person that said, Oh, that's lyricism, but we could understand what they're saying. Sure. And we and we and and their beats are like very, you know, real groovy to and it fits their style.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

It was the perfect combination of everything from the music to the vocals, yeah, and how each one of y'all sounded, and just you know, you know, it's like I can tell Vu's a huge KRS fan. Definitely because like he always throws those quotes and things in there and we were students of it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

And like um for us, we kind of were fans of both. Sure. Right? And so being that we're fans of both, like there be he'll tell you, there'd be times we would sit and listen to albums and you know, just be meticulous about it, like listening and studying, you know. And so because we were fans as well as doing it, right? We were able to find like where we could like put that together and create a sound that was kind of like accessible. Sure, right? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

And and and and if if a beat cleared all three of us, we know it's a fire beat. Yeah, if it cleared, yeah, even the beats that I, you know, that's like outside the joints y'all gonna handle that album, like dopamine and that's like outside of Charlemagne's production, right? It still had because my my criteria for picking a beat outside of Charlemagne is that it can't sound like a fake Charlemagne beat.

SPEAKER_03 17:06

Right.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

That's one, and two, it gotta like uh move us forward, evolve us somehow, some way where either either it gains us a new following or just have our following know that we we could do all kinds of stuff. So when when when you're talking about um what he's with him with the with the KRS stuff and all that, I we bring into the group our individual personalities and put that on the song with the other person. So A Butter could be talking a whole different he could be talking about aliens on his verse, right? But then I could be talking about smoking weed or whatever, but it still fits on the same song, right? Because it it's us coming together like, okay, this is the activity we're doing today, aka this is the beat, this is the subject, and we're gonna go give our perspective, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Yeah, everything about natural elements, I think, you know, for the group is uh is a synergy. Sure, you know, absolutely and and it's a weird kind of synergy because as you can see stylistically, we we are very unique, but we able to put it together and make it work, you know. And that's like like what he says from our experiences of being in the studio, you got all these different guys, and Shaw's making all these different beats, and we just learned how to cooperate, you know. How do you do that without there not being no fights and the ego and people boom, boom, boom? So in that dynamic, we learned how to like like basically share. Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:29

Yeah, and that that's what happened with like um recipes of car, his whole run with the no drums beats, right? Right, um, we we like literally didn't touch those type of things. We did like a couple of joints, but we literally didn't touch those because we're like, that's Kai's style. So if if this was us still back in the studio, it'd be like, oh, that's a car beat.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

I don't even know. Unless Kai wants me on there to say something, I would be on a hook, yeah, that's his that's his whole world. Yeah, right. So when we saw him do what he was doing, it was like that's Kai's whole style, like his the way he does his videos, that's him individually. And I would never try to do even now if I you know want to get on one of those beats, it's like a silent dedication to Kai.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

Right. Like, you know, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then uh how did y'all connect with Fortress?

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Um well Fortress is um family, really. To be the honest is family, um, Charlemagne's brother Randy was one of the guys, and you know, it was like we were honestly looking at, you know, signing to labels because we had a lot of talent, right? But they weren't trying to hear us. Right. So you got a couple of you know, blue-collar guys that got together and was and believed in us. Sure, of course. And said, okay, we're gonna put our money together and press up some records. Um they decided to go with uh me at first because they felt that I was the one that was ready. Okay. But you know, so um they that's how they did it. And um, but the our f connection with Fortress is that they were just guys that saw that what we were doing and wanted to see us, you know, go and progress. You know, and so they decided to put the money together and do that, you know. And so like when um I came out and with my connections with the Underground Railroad and the radio and able to get the rotation and and everything and get it out the circulation, right? Um, it started to gain traction. You know, but but Fortress for what it is was was supposed to be a place where like um, you know, guys like us could get and and get our chops. You know what I'm saying? And and you know, they wanted to be a platform for, you know, like the underdog, the underground guy who's not getting play but he's key and not getting any consideration, right? But he's crazy nice.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

And and and and and it's like they introduced us to like commerce too, because it was them pressing up the record, because we was doing that stuff without anybody hearing it, as far as like amongst ourselves. Yeah, right. But then when Fortress started like putting out records and like we've in Fat Beats and Rock and Soul and all these places, we got to get around in a different kind of way, and then having Lyrices Lounge getting us shows, so it was like a nice ecosystem, the end, the end ecosystem.

SPEAKER_03 21:18

Absolutely, and it was also like I think probably around that time, vinyl was still also a way of um it was almost like it was your demo to trying to get signed. Yes, you know what I'm saying? So you'd put out the record independently, still with hopes of you know getting like a major label deal, and then eventually it just grew into its own thing where it's like you didn't need to go anywhere else, you just kept doing independent stuff.

SPEAKER_04 21:40

Right. There's a there's an infamous story, because you know, Fortress didn't have any record label experience or anything like that, no promotional team. There's an infamous story where uh Swigger put his because he used to live right next to Flex. Okay, and he put his record right in Flex's door.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

And he played it, he played it, he played it, it was it was on the back in the backyard. On his rim, because I know he's gonna come out and check his rims. I put it right on the on the front of the light. It was no, it was lyrical tactic.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

No doubt, no doubt.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

Yeah, because he bought how it's going down from the back.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Right, he bought how it's going down in Lyric. I've always wondered how he got lyrical tactic. I thought he went to the store to buy it. I remember I pull up on my bike.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

Yeah. And I was like, yo, and I went back there. And I'm not because usually you can knock on his window of the basement, but if he don't answer, you know. So I was like, I'll just put it there and I'll bounce. Yeah, you're the same night. I was like, talk about gorilla tactics. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

And that's what's crazy about like a group like us is that like a lot of that stuff was unsolicited, you know. Like I think that our sound and the way that we move, it kind of spoke for itself. Oh, absolutely did. You know, so when people received this stuff, it wasn't like, you know, they were like more like a receptor. Oh shit. Yeah, yeah. I got you.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

And they see it was like untouched. It was like the industry, we didn't need like necessarily need the industry to put our records. So it was like untouched, it was like, you know, seeing something innocent going on. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Right, right, right, yeah. I think, yeah, because of maybe the the purity of it, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 23:16

It was dope though. Above and beyond everything else, it was extremely dope. You know what I'm saying? I mean, lyrical tactics for sure. You know, shout out to DJ Riz on the cuts.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Yes, DJ Riz, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:24

We all hear. I think I said it on the song. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:27

Riz scratched it up like 65.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like, yo, we need somebody to yo get Riz. Yeah. Yeah, get Riz. Yeah, Riz doing those joints. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

Um big up, right? And then basically, after you know, you all put out some stuff through Fortress, you know, then it just became bigger. You know, I mean, the radio, again, the radio played a big uh part of that. You know, again, shout out to Jay Smooth, G-Man, you know, Underground Railroad. Definitely big on the room. And you guys kind of I feel like between them and mayhem and Martin, those are kind of like the two real homes that you guys. Right, right. Right, yeah. Was it was it was it you and Jay-Z up at uh Underground Railroad? That was the Underground Railroad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The freestyle. Yeah, I was on there too.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Yeah, like a lot of iconic moments, you know, came out of that. And I'd like to thank them because that was also training ground. You know, like as opposed to my fam, like, yo, fool, yo, yo. You know what I'm saying? We all you know, yeah. When you get out there and you get the type of accolades and you get the receptiveness and the response, it's like, okay, yeah, I could, I could do this, you know. Like the DOS effects is the Jay's and all these other people, you know. And um then um then from Underground Railroad, other guys would visit. We had a little nice little network, you know what I'm saying? So at any given moment, you know, Bob would be on the Underground Railroad just chilling, you know, and he's there and he's CNN and he's like, yo, come to my show, you know? Mayhem is there. They're like, yo, come to my show. And I'm like, I bet. But I come to my show, I come, yeah, and I bring it L. Yeah. I bring it Kai, yo, Kai. We going, L, we going to we going to stretch and buy word, yeah. Let's go. I got it ready. Yeah, man, and that's how that's how it all started.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

You know, so dope. And the thing with us too is that, like you said, our music is in a way where the average person could adapt to it. And we had our own group and our so we was always able to like after the def jam thing didn't work out, it was just because really, because they didn't want to give Fortress a label deal. We and we was loyal to Fortress. It was like, yeah, okay, if y'all don't want to, they wanted to sign a straight to you know straight to Def Jam or like Leo Cohn was in the meeting and all that. Yeah. Um but we was like, nah, we if y'all don't want to give them a deal or some kind of situation, then y'all basically snatching us up from them. That's like the only label we were on.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Like Def Jam kind of felt like, oh man, we starting out with too many hands in the pot. Sure. It's a control thing. Sure. You know what I'm saying? So Dante Ross did try politic for the group, you know, but the label politics didn't allow that deal to happen. Right.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

Like you said, we're so cemented in the in the in the um independent world that uh it was like seamless. We wasn't even like mad at that. It was like we love the independence of it. So we we adapted to both seamlessly. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 26:32

And that deal kind of made it uh made it even though it was a setback, it made us kind of like want to move even more free. Yeah, right. Well, do we stop here? Nah, let's not stop.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Yeah, let's say you know, right. And just learning like the department, like only when we got to Tommy Boy, because uh before that, like we'll visit labels or do stuff like that, but uh when we got to Tommy Boy, uh you know how like when you def when you uh first come to a job and they're like this is so and so in accounting, that's what they did with us. They're like, this is uh Sam Crespo, he does radio art, this is so-and-so. And I at the time I was in school, so I used to go down to Tommy Boy with like a with like a five-subject notebook, and I'd be like, marketing, promotion, AR department, and I used to study, I used to study those departments, and we got up to the part where we was like about to hand in the album. So every department that I learned when when we got off there, I was like, oh, so I know the major label system and the independent. So now we now we know both equally, like we know the protocol. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 27:37

Right. Whoa. And uh before you got to Tommy Boy, there was still like other like offshoots. Like there was the you guys did the record with Nervous, um Triborough, Triborough, you did Triborough with Nervous, you did uh with Dolo.

SPEAKER_02 27:52

Dolo Big Up the Stretch and Big Uh Stretch's mom and his pop. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

Well we went to his crib, we were early in his crib. They recording. I didn't know. I think his pops took the pictures. His mom was handling the business for that. His mom was handling the business for sure. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

You know what's crazy? And I uh it's just weird because we talked about Dante and Sean and all that. Dante came back and depicted Dante Ross, and we sat down with him, and he he won, he kind of was the one that was like, because we had essence as well, and we were still kind of like a we were click, and it was the song was a group, but it was again we met again with Dante and like yo, a butter, voo, swag. Again, he did it. You know, he's he's a three-man guy, right? He was like De La Sole, naughty by nature. I feel like was it naughty? He did he have a few three-man crews, brand newbie, maybe. It was brand new. De La Soli had a little something to do with it. So he saw us as the you know saying three three things. So, but we didn't do a demo deal at the when we met him with him again. But yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

But we're comfortable with both sides. That was the thing. Either we have a, you know, the only plus sides on a label, you have a bigger budget or something like that. But yeah, it was still, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

And then with with um those, those were all um sort of like one shot, one-off deals. But what what what happened was that it kind of generated even more of a buzz for us because they were really good singles that were being received well by the community, yeah. So it kind of helped to generate more of a buzz. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 29:25

You know, at that point, you was playing that stuff heavy. I was playing all that stuff. I was playing from the L.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Big Ups to Eclipse. Nah, but it was just like, yeah, I mean, no, y'all don't know, like, Eclipse is like like an unofficial like member. Like he's DJ for us overseas, all of that shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were we had um we had um like rehearsals at Flat Beats for shows, you know.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

We came back to this crypt to film um turning tables or something.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

Right.

SPEAKER_03 29:53

I mean, it was um big up to Eclipse, man. That's what I'm saying. There's a lot of connections, a lot of stuff. Yeah, that's like we went over C's, was it like 98, 99? 99. Yeah, 98, 99. It had to be like 98. Maybe 99. Matter of fact, it was like, what was the thing? You you had a kid born. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right when we were at the airport. Yeah, it dropped.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Yeah, it was like they calling me. She's like, Yeah, I'm in labor. I'm like, oh man, I'm on a plane. I'll call you when I get the play mark. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 30:20

I think you put a you put the wrong.

SPEAKER_03 30:21

I put that in the rock. I put that in the rock. You were at the airport who got the call. Shout out to um that was part of the um um Boulevard Connection. Right. Shout out to my man uh Typhoon who brought us all over. Yeah, yeah. And uh we did uh must have been, we probably did Roskill Festival. Then we also did the the one in Norway. Was it the Court Fest? I can't remember which one it was, but it was about right the court festival in Norway. And then we did a couple, I feel like we did a couple of nightclubs in between.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, a couple of them.

SPEAKER_04 30:57

The only reason I really remember is the Roskill Fest because you put it in the freestyle when we were up there. Legendary Freestyle.

SPEAKER_03 31:11

Legendary Freestyle Corals, man. I didn't know. I got the video footage of a lot of that stuff. I think I put yeah, we posted some of the um the radio stuff, but then also the um the one in Norway, the festival. You had was that the one you had on, like the Lakers fucking outfit on?

SPEAKER_01 31:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:33

I think the roots was on one of the roots was on that one.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

As a matter of fact, that one, the roots was with D'Angelo at that at that show. Wow. I remember I was I'm trying to look for the tape. I filmed it. I was walking down, like had just entered into the festival, and I'm walking down the hill and they're on stage and they were performing.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

Cardinal Fisher was with us, yeah. And yo, peace to black. And yo, he smoked with 12 plus what a minute. That's what I said.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

Yo, that was dope. One of the guys that was with the roots that that helped like unpack their stuff or whatever, he was like, yo, he must really mess with y'all because he don't pass his blunt to nobody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

EK built with him and he dropped a lot of jewels for us. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Yeah, he told us about the um to keep your mic off, so you know he said, I don't use I don't use electric mics no more, I use all the cordless. Yeah, yeah. My shit went out, and I was like, nah, that's that's not a live.

SPEAKER_04 32:31

Well, remember, there was a connection too, because they had they had that live thing at NYU. NYU and we box it up. Three of us separate. Three different separate times.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

We had been in ciphers with Black Thought, definitely. That's yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:44

I mean, it it you guys are just so central to New York indie hip hop, you know what I'm saying? It's like you know, Fat Beats was selling the records, the radio was playing it, definitely. Um the shows, you know, shout out to I actually a happy uh belated 50th um birthday to Peter Oasis. Yes, uh Live and Direct, who did all those tramp shows?

SPEAKER_04 33:08

I ran into John Moscow, it's coming here. Okay. I said, Y'all about to go see eclipse. He told me. He said, y'all see a clip last night. Yeah at the 50th.

SPEAKER_03 33:16

So so yeah, so shout out to Peter Oasis and Zvee, who I saw there as well. Uh they were live and direct and they were throwing all the tramp shows. Um, and what they did, which was very helpful for all of us, was that they would book headliners, you know, whether it was Tri Call Quest, De La, you know, Outcast, they would book all these headliners at Tramps and they would fill up the opening acts with independent New York acts. I think that's how we did the Hyrule show. And so that gave a great opportunity for a thousand people to fill tramps up and see a lot of the people that they've only heard, like on radio and shit like that. So all this was was was was a network for like helping all of us get out stuff. You had the venues, you had the radio, you had retail. Right. Um and so, you know, and again, like everything you guys were putting out was just so dope. And then I guess now we can kind of catch up to like the the Tommy boy back to Tommy Boy now. And shout out to Chris Atlas, who's in the building. In the building. He he uh he is the current president of Fat Beats, which is crazy. And I we met each other back then when you know I was in the Fat Beats store and he was just working, starting out at Tommy Boy. Wow, yeah, and I didn't realize this until we had conversations more recently that he actually was the force behind the black label boy. Yes, right. Um I just thought it was something that they kind of did and you know bit from us, whatever. Shout out to Chris Alice, um but nah, it's like it was it was dope to see it was dope to see um you know the stuff that they were putting out, you know, specifically you guys. Um you guys were to me were the you know the head of everything as far as all the indie stuff there, and um and then I remember as you guys were working on the album, um, there was a point in time where there was some I guess unsureness about what was going on with Tommy Boy, because y'all had stepped to me about Fat Beats putting out the two tons single. And um, if y'all remember, because we actually Yeah, because there's actually two versions of two tons. Yes, there is the mobile. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

That was the next single we was gonna put out was two tons. Two tons, right? And live it I think live it up. Live it up, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:32

So that was the thing was yeah, it was well that was what that wasn't what was for the Fat Beats one. The Fat Beats one was two tons and supreme dominations. Wow. Wow, yeah, everyone. And what happened was you guys, there was I don't know what I don't remember the details, but but Tommy Boy was slow or or something was going on and things were unsure, and so you were like, we want to you know do this. I did the scratches on the chorus, the Bob Deep scratches, yeah, exactly. And then there was also like the the extra part of the chorus, I think it was like the Rolling Stones shit or something like that. I forgot about that. Yeah, it was a clear. Yeah, they didn't want to tell you what they want clearly. So we had to change it, we had to change all that stuff. Exactly. Yeah, so that was I don't know how crazy two tons that you think is crazy now, but the original so we actually had it into in production, and so we got the test pressings. It was in back then we would get three copies of every test pressing. So I have two copies of that version of the two tons um test pressings. I don't remember who got the let the third one, it's probably lost at this point. Uh but uh that's the only copies that exist of that version. It has uh two tons with the chorus with the scratches and the supreme domination on the B side. Right. Uh and then as right when we got the test pressings, is when you guys were like, oh, Itali Boy is actually gonna put this out. We're gonna put it out. So we were like so we were like, alright, you know what? So then we just we just left it alone. So that's why we never got past the test pressing stage of that version.

SPEAKER_02 37:10

I completely forgot that. And what's the thing with when we first signed the Tommy Boy, right? We our contract says Tommy Boy, right? But they came to us about the Tommy Boy Black thing. They was like, well, we want to continue what y'all have going with the indie, with the you know, putting out so we have this thing, uh Tommy Boy Black and Black Label, and we're gonna run it through the same system that y'all put y'all independent records to. And um I was like, alright, cool. And they was like, but the real album, y'all album is gonna is on Tommy Boy straight out.

SPEAKER_04 37:39

Am I bugging or was voice down? Was Voice Down? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

And and you know, that was the thing, like you know, um, they say that you know, um getting getting signed, even though it seems like it's the hard part, is the easy part. Yeah, because after that, now you have, as he said, the whole system, yeah, and you got all these departments, and you gotta make them all feel the same type of passion and that you feel for your project. So we didn't experience that before, Steve. Right. Because we were basically putting out our own brand, and we were doing it as you know we go along.

SPEAKER_03 38:19

And not only that, but it you're also now relying on how the other people that the other artists that are coming out through label are doing. Because if the three or four before you aren't doing well, by the time it gets to you, it's like you know, right.

SPEAKER_01 38:33

And that was a situation because on black label they kind of like loaded it. They did. They did.

SPEAKER_03 38:39

All of these put Chris put a lot of stuff on there shouldn't have come out.

SPEAKER_01 38:45

But you but this is the this is the good thing for us because why why we stood out. Because when we gave them live it up and two tons, they all looked at each other like, oh shit. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, this is it.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

Yo, yeah, listen to it.

SPEAKER_03 39:21

Before you get into your whole thing here, um when you first started at Tommy Boy, what was your position at that point?

SPEAKER_00 39:27

I started in uh college radio promotion. Actually, I first started as an intern. Okay, and then from the internship, I started doing college radio promotion.

SPEAKER_03 39:35

Okay, and then how long was it between doing that and then uh were you still doing college radio promotion when you came up with the concept for the black label?

SPEAKER_00 39:44

I I like this was probably I started at Tommy War in '95. Yeah. And then um I went from college radio to mix show.

SPEAKER_03 39:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

So that was probably like 96, 97 when I was doing mix show promotion. And then 98 is actually when I came up with the concept for black label. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 40:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

Yeah. I mean, and it was a whole, again, like during that time, particularly at Tommy Boy, Tommy Boy had gone through a whole influx relative to there was big big acts. Like when you think about Day La, Naughty, House of Pain, right? Coolio, you know what I mean? LV. Yeah. And you know, quiet is kept. Like there we had a compilation series back then called Jock Rock Jock Jams, right, and MTV Party to goes. Yeah. And that was kind of like keeping the lights on because the volume of what it was, right? But the scene was changing, the movement was changing, and I was always in the underground hip-hop. You know, I would always be in beats. And so that was that was a big part of my love in hip-hop. And that's where kind of black black label kind of was born, you know, and wanting to bring that to Tommy Boy. Right. Because so much of what was happening at that time was on the bigger pop level. And I'm like, yo, there's a whole underground hip-hop movement that we should be a part of.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

And I think, you know, even at that time, we talking about how hip hop and rap music in the industry is transforming, is morphing at that time, it's transitional at that time. You know, so like a lot of what we see even today had its beginnings in around that time in that area, and in that era where that transition was in that where do we fit as this thing is transitioning, you know, as a group. You know, so the label is kind of like trying to work that through their system, like, okay, well, how as the as the game is changing, how do we fit this group in there and make it, you know, a viable thing, you know.

SPEAKER_04 41:56

And the label itself changed it.

SPEAKER_00 41:58

And going through those changes, going, you know, time, warner, situation, and all of that, you know. I mean, and we had like with Black Label, like, we wanted to put out a lot of those voices that were on the underground, like natural elements, the Far Eye, the Far Eye, Shout Rangers, the Rangers, yeah, the Ranger had to be a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 42:17

Self-scientific. Yeah, jig masters, no doubt.

SPEAKER_00 42:22

Gemini the gifted one. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, yeah. We have some. I just remember it being a lot. A lot of time. Because but because part of it was it was singles-oriented. Yeah, for sure. And and although NE was signed as an artist for a deal, like, again, they were kings of that movement. Sure, absolutely. So we were like, well, let's put out the kings of the movement within the black labels and kind of set up the build traction for their project.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

You know, yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 42:52

All right, so then what happened?

SPEAKER_02 42:54

What happened to him?

SPEAKER_01 42:57

What happened to the album not coming out? Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:01

They're gonna take a break right now. You don't want to be here for this part. Exactly. Oh man, yeah. Alright, so guys, so come on.

SPEAKER_02 43:11

This is when it shifts over to my side. Yeah, this is the guy's interview. So I'm just not just walking. But yeah, but at that time, we was doing the album, and that same tour that we was um was coming off of um with Denmark and all that, um, that's when I started like, because remember, I told y'all earlier, my mom's wasn't alive, my pops wasn't around. So at that time is when everything caught up to me, like, like as far as me um coming out of the denial part of my mother's death that happened like nine years earlier, and to really coming to the conclusion like, okay, she's not ever coming back, ever. And at that time, anything on the mental health um side, it was like taboo. It was taboo, like the industry and people like that was yeah, it wasn't it wasn't like yo, I can't tour because of mental health. That wasn't even an excuse. That wasn't so when I went through Mine um and I was like real suicidal and I secluded myself from everybody and I I went about taking almost 40 pills and I you know and I almost I almost crashed out you know what I'm saying so um I woke up three days later but relieved of all the what I felt that was pent up inside of me and all the everything that I was going through in those nine years just living on my own just surviving and shit like that and um and that's when I went about doing that and um when I woke up from that they was like yo y'all could y'all can either hand in the album in three months that's what they that's what when I we went back to the lawyer's office and um or they gonna let y'all go but y'all can keep y'all masters that y'all have you know and we basically let that happen you know what I'm saying um and um we walked away with our masters but then at that time you know the vision I was given while I was under or while I was like going through what I was going through by myself but getting the vision of what we doing now even um with natural elements and how I started looking at it like before that I was looking at it as like a hip hop group but then after that I was more looking at it like a like a brand like a natural elements like a brand like a real you know what the labels were seeing in us basically you know what I'm saying so so from then on like a butter and and and Vu I uh chopped it up with them and and they understood what what I was saying as far as like the vision and and and um and where we're gonna come in later when we're needed because at that time we was wanted yeah people wanted but we're gonna come in a time when we when it's needed so later as as time went on we kept on working together behind the scenes you know we put together a few things we was doing two-faced stuff and right all that and um but now it worked up to this situation that we have with Fat Beats and it's perfect.

SPEAKER_01 45:51

It's like our fam like you know what I'm saying so going back to um that you know and the process that they use there's a certain amount of disillusionment that you begin to feel when you feel like you should be out but you're not and you know there's label politics that go with a release you know I mean just to solidify a release date you know with the label you know it's it's a politics as a whole process you know because they have to sit down and all agree okay well we think that this is a good time for this group or these artists to come out you know so in that process there's a certain disillusionment that that that you usually start to you know and then if you know then to to go with whatever is personal issues that you're having at that time it's sort of everything just sort of compounds right it's on itself you know whatever yeah so so like when we were hit with with L situation of course our first thing was is he alright you know what I'm saying but now we're all wondering well damn what we gonna do next yeah supposing he don't never he ain't able to walk I was like I don't care if he can't walk can he still rap this get about dead man my man is nice he gotta be heard there's no stop you know but seriously you know we like damn what a what a what you know what are we doing we're talking about like the the Tommy boy situation I thought I thought it was when I spilled the Hennessy on the SSL button like when the Hennessy spilled all over the SSL that's a million dollar bull yeah we're gonna pay into that but yeah so there was a certain amount of dis you know at that stage because we were like damn we should be out you know this process is going from a year now it's going it's moving it's moving it's put you know and so um finally you know when um Tommy boy decided that it you know and we all decided that it was right for us to to part ways um we we were we were uh left in a bad position but in a good position in that we had our work yeah you know why we had our work yes which so even though it's a dis it was disadvantageous for us to not be in that relationship with Tommy boy with all the resources that they had right to push the thing forward we got our work.

SPEAKER_02 48:14

Oh absolutely and part of that vision was the stuff that um because I'm not gonna attribute it to nothing else but universe and the most high you know what I'm saying um alignment but it's like alignment is that like I was being told at the time that yo it's something that's gonna go on with music itself not just hip hop but music itself where y'all don't need to be part of that like so the whole and and this is not something to diss the South or whatever because I love the South I I did cross country mixtapes and all yeah I know you did um yeah yeah right um but the South was about to come in right and when the South came in they it was like because from when I came up to America anything that was outside of New York my my pears and all that right they're like two short this is like why are you playing E40? Like they were called crib and I'm like why are you playing the ghetto boys? This that's don't country bunking dude like I and I'm like so hold you when we were in the midst of us writing those crazy freestyles and those rhymes back to back when I was in his crib with the 40s we was listening to Tupac and nobody was to Tupac they all yeah yeah so so so um I I kind of like when they started getting their traction I kind of liked it I kind of like that you know because any just universal law any anything that's downtrodden and like treated substandardly for however long when it can't when it gets its time to shine it's open it's like it's gonna take it's gonna hold on to it for as long as it can by spawn right exactly so when I was seeing all that going on with Lil Uzi Verts and the young thugs I I loved it because it was different than natural elements and it was we were still working on stuff behind the scenes right but it's like I worked at McDonald's so I don't have to eat McDonald's when I go home. Right natural elements for lyricism I didn't need any other helping from anybody else on lyricism. So so what was going on on the other side so now fast forward to how people are like they want lyricism now or they want the way they thirst for substance and stuff like that is perfect for us.

SPEAKER_01 50:16

So now we like oh okay so that's why we was put to the side for a second while we was getting our stuff together but the universe was getting stuff together too now it's like if it's perfect and now with us with Fat Beats and the alignment is right yeah yeah even with the title of the the the the the the the album being uh alignment um at this time it felt like there was an uh an alignment um like that us being absent that long like he said it had to happen for things to take shape the way that it did it wasn't by choice because we were still doing things you know but we weren't doing them as majorly as we were doing them in this endeavor you know so like you know Chris being president of Fat Beats and him having a history with us you you know and your history with us and so like that absence and that downtime that we had it was almost like it it yeah like it had to happen.

SPEAKER_00 51:17

It would put us in the position that we are now to be you know received the way that we we should be received should have been received I think that's the blessing of it too because just kind of even going back to that time right like there was there was love right between you know individuals that Tommy boy like myself and Sam and all of them mayhem and Tyrone Clerk and you know what I mean yeah but to your point it's just like things shifted there was also even a sh a musical shift happening technology was actually starting to come in and nap stuff so yeah the record business per se there was a lot of uncertainty right you probably remember this in terms of absolutely where it was going right so to fast forward right it is a it is the universe right because like I saw the guys at our 30th anniversary show in New York right and yeah and and Swift was like yo we got some new stuff I was like word I'm I'm over with Appies now and Eclipse and everything let's talk so it all comes right yeah right full circle right but it's where it's supposed to be sure because we we got when we got to the zen point of okay the universe runs the time because we we control you know I always say the W is we in control of the what the who the where and the why but the when is what what we're not in control of right so once we got once we grasped okay we're not in control of when we're gonna be pushed to the forefront but let's just keep working together and let's and and like I would talk to an A and we'll just it's like inevitable.

SPEAKER_02 52:49

We're gonna name the album inevitable until uh J. Cole named like his um like a docuseries or something like that. And we changed it but it was like really it was inevitable. So we we it was never like when people think of damn natural elements like not wo don't think woe was us it was great we dodged bullets and all of that throughout that whole time. You know what I'm saying? So so it feels great where we are right now. It's super aligned.

SPEAKER_03 53:14

And just to to clarify for people up there uh checking this out um the album that originally was recorded with Tommy Boy that you guys walked with is the album you guys put out as 1999.

SPEAKER_04 53:25

Right a variation of it a subversion of it remember the album was really it was done but it was never it wasn't all the way mixed right and it wasn't you know saying but the young guru too but it was a good percentage of of our vision of what was supposed to be on the album was supposed to be on the album.

SPEAKER_03 53:42

Right that came out then and then now with the new album alignment which is all new material yeah it's nothing that was from back then and everything so yeah between that we put out we put out a series called Death Comes and Threes and um what happened is we was just thinking of different ways to put out music because at the time streaming was like really like this like I'm talking about like 2019 or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 54:04

This is right prior to the pandemic right so it was like we did of course we didn't know the pandemic was going to come the next year but we was like we we we was set it up with hip hop enterprise to put that out and possibly start touring around that time because they they out in Belgium. Right. So um at that time when we saw that started happening and they you know we was like damn we can't tour we can't first of all we saw England get shut down it was like yo no traveling in England it was like oh and then they said no traveling in China no traveling we was like oh but it's cool but but but that that plays itself into what I was saying about we're not in control of the win. So we don't know we we had no idea we were shooting to to be out there and you know it would have changed our financial situations and everything.

SPEAKER_03 54:44

But we had to take you know so now it's like oh this fits perfect perfect fit you know man yeah yeah so we I mean the album's out there right now alignment and as you can see from everyone here wearing gear this there's natural elements merchandise very important to let you all know you can go to fatbeats.com and and cop all uh all the stuff you see uh as well as the music you know the vinyl CD cassettes it's it's out there and and and and he is here and speaking of alignment you know like you had said that 199 album whatever we didn't put none on the unalignment of course but we did reinvent Sean you know absolutely and the infinite Sean is just crazy just on some alignment it felt it felt crazy even shooting the video because it was just like we do this like 30 and what's crazy was while we're shooting the video you know what I'm saying it's like we're like yo hold on did it when did Sean come out like this month maybe 30 years before the date he got the quotable and the source of June of 1966 before fat take it so it was just some weird like crazy alarm going on man it just feels like seamless and it feels like we don't gotta do no like we have to raise our voices to nobody or nothing like it just rolling seamlessly man and we're happy to have it. People say we look great we feel great the energy's dead you know saying it's not like you guys have always sounded great you know what I'm saying it's like and I mean again it's like those radio freestyles were like were like albums to us you know what I'm saying like my my homeboy Kade said he said y'all don't got no wear and tear y'all falling back at that time y'all wasn't abused by the industry or like y'all dodge a lot you know recipes of Sean Price he used to um he used to hit me up all the time like he he'll call me from his home phone but then when he got like a cell phone he was like he would call me like he'd be on the tarmac of the like yo I gotta go to Russia I hate doing it I hate doing this he said yo he said yo you lucky you get in a little break you get to yo man you got you you don't got to be in these airports all day and I'm like I I didn't really think of it like that I'm like oh you going to you getting your bread right but when I really think about I'm like oh so we didn't get wear and tear that's what right that's what natural elements is like sure left off picking up where you left off right exactly feeling great too feeling better than I ever felt like you know what I'm saying and big up to the fans that um have a lot of patience with us but they they as they grew with us they started understanding okay we're gonna get natural elements when we're supposed to we got we get this single here and and and our foray into videos because before we had like they saw us as shows but right we got to we get to really have videos now like real official videos.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

Big up to pro and big up to our fans and their kids because their kids listen to us you know what I'm saying the fans kids some of the youngest be like yo my pops was popping out I love that like you know man so yeah I was uh funny story I was uh I was working out in the park and I met a kid and you know we wind up vibing or whatever and I gave him a name and then whatever and um he came back to me and he was like yo my pops know who you are man why you ain't tell me who you are you know what I'm saying so it's weird that we have that kind of of longer stay in power you know without really really having been out there like that you know and um I think maybe it like you said because we were able to kind of like have that blend of being accessible but still being underground and um maybe a uh almost like a a timelessness type of a quality to to what we were doing.

SPEAKER_02 58:25

You know just our name our name alone um and how we come across as very eye to eye with people it's not like looking down on anybody. So like that that's always it's always been like that with us. So that the kids that hit me up on DM like 17 yo I just started rapping but I love L Swift when you know and I'm like that's dope because like that's a good starting place. Once you start once you if you were youngin' and you listen to natural and you study natural elements you're gonna be years ahead of your peers.

SPEAKER_04 58:53

I'm gonna tell you that straight up yeah you know so you know that's what I'm and in a weird way it might this might be our first official album. Yeah it is it's our it's our first official album that we cohesively gave the green light this is an album.

SPEAKER_01 59:07

The other stuff was more compilational like and there's a there's that's so there's a weirdness to to that because you would think you know based on that that we did have albums and all of that out like you said like the freestyles and everything we like the freaking albums you know and then we'll like the like the singles and stuff you know because we kept ourselves sort of in the mix that way.

SPEAKER_03 59:31

Well to everyone's point of what you're saying to kind of bring it together you know I always like to think back on something that Master Ace yeah said to me before when I was like you know what makes him different from the rest of the Juice crew in terms of he still putting out albums that are like still viable whereas a lot of the other ones just only douring at this point for the most part. Right. And and his answer is I n I never had the hit that they had so he never really got the the burnout the exposure you know it's like he's still on that road and I feel like that that's where you guys are you know it's like I thought you were gonna say when he said once you hit a capital A button but that's how I feel like with y'all it's like you all have have continuously done dope stuff but even when you dropped 1999 it was after the fact of like you know this was some of the stuff that was supposed to come out and here's this it would never you never really had your release day you know what I'm saying it was like and so now you know you have an official release and big up to Fat Beats for that man really appreciated out there right now fatbeeast.com absolutely so if people want to know aside from going to FatBeats what y'all gonna be up to where y'all gonna be doing shows and all that good stuff why don't you all give them the social uh stuff starting with you I'm Swiggerillo on there swiggero spell that out and um but go to the natural elements world and when you you see all our individual uh tags on there and um big up to Charlamagne run that page yeah natural elements world everything natural elements natural elements world that'll lead you to all the stuff to everyone our YouTube is the natural elements world too there it is you know it in terms of just you know pushing this project and hopefully being able to open up and get some venues and then you know and do all of that yeah tear down all the freestyles y'all want us to rock all that and I want to congratulate Fat Beast from going to a record store next to uh what's the what's out there freestyles next to great papers of being a label real full fledged label we have a we have a good team uh shout out to Kiafa uh shout out to each other we made it baby we made it yeah the whole team yeah peace to everyone up there man yeah thank you we all we all back together that's it thank you all for coming in and telling us the whole history that's it we're out of here towards the final episode we'll talk to you next time peace go to