New Naughty By Nature Interview

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Naughty By Nature: One For All

October 3rd, 2008 | Author: Jake Paine

Whether De La Soul, Run-DMC or Westside Connection, Hip Hop has produced some memorable trios. Among of all of the greats, few had the contrast in the three parts of East Orange, New Jersey's Naughty By Nature.

Treach, Vin Rock and Kay Gee are just as memorable for bat mitzvah-accessible anthems like "O.P.P." as they were for open-palmed lyrical slaps like "Uptown Anthem" or "Dirt All By My Lonely." Treach's soldier persona, Vin's charm and Kay's ability to walk the line between street and pop led to a debut 1989 album as The New Style before four successful and acclaimed Naughty By Nature albums, followed by an asterix iiconz effort without the group's producer and deejay in 2002. Always independent, always consistent to the formula and showered with Grammy and American Music Awards, this group arguably bridged the gap between rap in the '80s and '00s.

According to Treach however, the greatest accolade may be next week's Vh1 Hip Hop Honor. In the studio recording a yet to be titled 2009 album that returns Kay Gee to the mix. The vocal duo tells HipHopDX about the journey, Eazy-E confiding in them, and why 50 Cent might have some liner notes a bit misconstrued.

HipHopDX: What does receiving a Hip Hop Honor mean to a group that already has so many awards and accomplishments?

Vin Rock: I know, it’s kind of crazy! Me, [Kay Gee] and Treach have been talking about doing this album for maybe two or three summers now. We’ve started and stopped, started and stopped, started and stopped. Then, this summer, we got super-serious about it, and started going hard with the album. And then the call came in for the Honors. I was kinda thinking, “God don’t work in wrong ways.” This was the best time, perfect opportunity, perfect timing for us to do this new album, and this honor will kinda set everything off for us.

As far as the honor, we were getting pressure from our boys like, “Yo, what’s up man? They forgot about y’all! They doin’ all these other, different groups, y’all impacted more than these guys!” [Laughs] I’m like, “Look, you can argue both sides. I’m sure there’s a lot of artists who deserve to come before us. We put in work. It is what it is. Eventually, they’ll get to us.” I guess this was our year.

Treach: There’s no words for it. It’s an honor. That’s the perfect word for it – it’s a Hip Hop honor for us, as we’re just fans of Hip Hop first. You get awards through the years. You get your Grammys, your AMAs, but when your own home honors you and gives you props, that’s like comin’ to the hood and gettin’ what you get in Hollywood.

DX: Well-deserved. All three of you had such a knack for being accepted in the mainstream, but regardless of that, still being one of the grimiest, street-respected groups in Hip Hop history. Can you put that method of balance to words?

Vin Rock: I think it’s just the different personalities. When you work as a group, the finished product is representation of all three personalities. If you didn’t have Treach in the mix, you definitely wouldn’t have that street mix. If you didn’t have me or Kay Gee in the mix, you wouldn’t have the marketing and the music there – as guys know us to be Naughty By Nature. It’s just a perfect balance. When you put different people together, I guess that collective input equates to one. You get the merge. It is a mixture, and we have been able to ride that fine line between street and Pop.

DX: Treach, the way that you deliver words on the microphone, I think so many guys today learned from that. You, Tim Dog and Freddie Foxxx were the first angry, passionate emcees pushing words into the mic. Where did that come from for you?

Treach: It came…passion. A love for what I was saying. It’s a different type of things when you actually be goin’ through something and put it through an outlet, like actual feelings; there’s not a writer behind you. It’s not just a story you’re making up.

I always had a strong voice, as far as projection. I always was a good projector, but I didn’t want to be yelly or preachy, anything like that. You’ll see the difference from an “Uptown Anthem” [click to read] or a “Ghetto Bastard” or a “O.P.P.” and “Jamboree” [click to read]. I feel as though, like how singers have different ranges and notes, I feel as though, me as a Hip Hoppers, I wanted to bring different tones and levels of my note, into the fold. Projection, because I was rhyming so quick, I had to be clear enough so people would know what the hell I was saying.

DX: You said quick. You have an interesting syncopated timing to your flows. It’s almost like verbal percussion. Tell me, before you rapped, did you play the drums?

Treach: If you were in Hip Hop back in the days, if there wasn’t a beat-box there, you’d take over and play the beat on the table in the cafeteria. Or me, a lot of times, I wasn’t writing to any beat. Or I’d write to any type of beat. My mom had me in different stuff – I took a couple of guitar classes and things like that. My moms had me modeling and stuff when I was younger. I was into music, entertainment, the facet of that from a young upbringing. It came more naturally to me. In the cipher, you don’t have no beat; you just gotta be on beat. Continued on page 2 »

DX: I interviewed 50 Cent in May [click to read]. He told me that “Hip Hop Hooray’s” chorus came from a party routine from a spot called Gray Door in Jamaica, Queens. I don’t think he was trying to discredit you in the least, but have to ask. Is there truth to that on your side?

Treach: Not that I know of. I mean, I’ve been going to Queens and Brooklyn and the boroughs ever since even before Naughty By Nature even came out. Like, as far as the “hey, ho,” whole thing came, we had the song, we performed it…the way we wrote the song, after “Hip Hop horray,” I needed something to rhyme with “’ray,” but not like [simple]. Me, I’m a hook analyst. So “Ho,” that’s since the first Hip Hop party. At the end of that rhyme, when it came to “’ray,” I said “Hey, ho.” It rolled with the beat.

I didn’t hear it at a certain party and put it in the like. But heyyyy, if somebody said they heard it, I might’ve been in the area…if that’s the case, I wasn’t in the area for every hit we done had. [Laughs] Like you said, but 50 [Cent] is my man. I just finished his movie with him, everything. Like you said, it wasn’t a discredit or anything; somebody might’ve said something to him or whateva, but I definitely didn’t go to no party. I don’t be going to parties to try to find hooks. [Laughs]

DX: My favorite album, strange as it may be, is Nature’s Fury. That album, or iiconz, have the same qualities as the other three or four. Again, how did you achieve the consistency of whether you were in your early twenties, early thirties or today?

Vin Rock: It was a blessing that when we started, we made music from our hearts. With records like “O.P.P.,” it broke across all barriers, and it became a mainstream record, and it had a [Jackson 5] jingle – all of that was organic for us. So if we did a “Jamboree,” a “Feel Me Flow” [click to read], any of those kind of records, it’s organic to us, ‘cause that’s our style. That’s how we interpreted Hip Hop, being from [New] Jersey. Once you have your own style…certain artists can’t do [those songs] because they pigeon-holed themselves. We were blessed that we came out the box with a record like “O.P.P.,” which was universal. It kind of formed our profile. Us doing these records, it’s not like we’re reaching.

DX: You did a hot record in “Radio.” You guys were on Tommy Boy Records for a bulk of your career. As you’re doing it yet again, given the climate that Hip Hop is in today, do you think it’s possible for groups coming up today, to have the success you three did without having major label backing?

Vin Rock: Yeah. You know why? Because the music is more accessible now. Lines are blurred. Kay Gee and I were just reviewing the [MTV] VMAs the other day. White kids have been enjoying Hip Hop for so long, and Hip Hop has been around for so long, and I guess the urban kids are aware of the white kids liking it, the cultures kind of clash and merge. Maybe more urban kids are up on white music, and vice-versa. Now there’s no rules. You can do basically anything. Look at what Kanye [West] attempted that night [in “Love Lockdown”]. I guess it’s not the most well-received record he’s done, but there’s no boundaries now. Look at what Jay-Z [click to read] did, coming out to [Glastonbury] with his guitar. I just saw Lil Wayne [click to read] perform on Saturday Night Live this weekend, and he came out with a guitar on his back, and even played a little. I think it’s easier now, ‘cause music is more universally-accepted.

DX: “Radio” was a Vin record. “Dirt All By My Lonely” is a Treach record. After 10 years, what made you come like that?

Treach: It was a [line] that I said in “Uptown Anthem” first. Going back to 50, how strong that was…out of everybody he robbed in “How To Rob" [click to read], the only one that he ain’t diss that he mentioned was [me]. “I do my dirt all by my lonely like Treach.” A lot of people after that made that a slogan for they selves. You know we live in a snitch-free, supposedly, ghetto and it’s supposed to be against the rules. With me, I used to say I’d do [dirt] by myself because I don’t trust half these motha****as out here. I’m not gonna tell on myself, so I do my dirt all by lonely.

Derived from that, it was Kay and Vin who said, “We need to do a ‘dirt all by my lonely’ record.” It was like a “Guard your grill.” It was a saying people said after that, so it’d only make sense to make a record after that. And Kay just had a track that was just so gully and hard, his track helped me write the rhymes. Continued on page 3 »

DX: You guys began as New Style, a group signed to MCA. The first Naughty album had Lakim Shabazz, Queen Latifah and Apache. Look at what you’re doing now. To what extent would you say Naughty By Nature carried Hip Hop from its place in the ‘80s to its place today in the ‘00s?

Vin Rock: Hmmm. After Run-DMC and Salt N’ Pepa, I think Naughty By Nature helped put the final stamp in Hip Hop being mainstream and getting this Hip Hop music out to the suburbs. I think we put the final stamp on it, and then the Death Row [Records] era came right after that.

DX: I’m glad you mentioned that. You guys did one of my favorite Eazy-E records in “Only If You Want It.” Besides Ice Cube working with The Bomb Squad, bi-coastal collaborations were rare in those days. How did that happen?

Vin Rock: Right! We hooked up with Eazy…I guess “O.P.P.” had come out, and Eazy was just goin’ through that stuff with [Dr.] Dre and them, so he kinda reached out to us to work with him. We got the tail-end of what was going on. We knew there was a transition. Eazy told us about Suge [Knight] and the Death Row situation. He was like, “They came and kinda tried to strong-arm me, but I know the core and the basis of where this guy is comin’ from, and in the end, it won’t pan out.” I remember Eazy to this day, ‘cause he came to my house. We were both into properties. He showed me his properties in L.A.; we showed him our properties out here in Jersey. Even, right now, I still live in the same house that Eazy came to visit. When I think back about Eazy, I’m like, “God, this guy was right here in this house!” He definitely was a marketing genius. Even I picked his brain about merchandising. At N.W.A. they had all that merchandising and the pull-out sleeves. “Eazy, how are you doing that?” Basically, he was using a licensing company. I took it a step further. ****, we were already printing stuff and we’re selling it off the block. We have the inventory and don’t need those guys, we just got Tommy Boy [Records] to let us put the inserts in the album cover. Eazy definitely put us up on game.

DX: It’s always been said that you guys had the biggest entourage in Hip Hop. You guys and Hammer, and his folks were on payroll. To what extent were those people who were so much a part of your life in ’92, ’93, are they still in your life today?

Vin Rock: First off, we’re all from East Orange, New Jersey. We all met together at East Orange High School for a talent show initially. It was those people who supported us. It was those people who gave us that first round of applause as The New Style that made us want to believe more in ourselves and say, “Hey, we could do it.” And it was the same people, after that talent show – we used to perform at Club 88, and those people would come [and help us win the competition]. It was then that we took it over New York and tried to make it bigger. To this day, we’re still in East Orange around the same people. Same people! It’s one big family out here – minus the homies that went to jail or got murdered.

DX: You and Queen Latifah are often left out of the discussion about your state’s musical contributions, despite having unrivaled impact. How do you feel about New Jersey Hip Hop today?

Vin Rock: I think Jersey has always been a step-child. It takes groups like us or Redman or Queen Latifah [click to read] to kinda do for Jersey what Jermaine Dupri [click to read] and OutKast have been able to do for Atlanta. There’s always been a scene here. We’ve always been the [sixth] borough. Jersey has been up on Hip Hop since its inception. One of the biggest Hip Hop labels was Sugar Hill Records, and that’s where you get “The Message” and “Rapper’s Delight” from. All of that is Jersey. Right now, since Naughty hasn’t been as consistent, Jersey has a Hip Hop scene. There’s a lot of talent out here. As a matter of fact, Treach is working on a project called Garden State Great. It’s starting with some guys from Newark working with Treach, but we’re gonna move it around the whole state of Jersey and use that as an umbrella brand.

DX: Tell us about the new album, and where Naughty is meeting us this time on new material…

Vin Rock: We’re just working. We took it back; there’s nobody in the studio but me, Kay Gee and Treach and the engineer – four people in the studio at all times. First of all, for Kay Gee, his progression as a producer… he worked on all the R&B albums, Next, Jahiem, Zhane. His musicianship and his production-skills have blossomed to a whole different level, which is why it was unfortunate that we had to do the iiconz [click to read] album without him, but you know…the classic internal beef. You have to move forward. Basically, it was left to me and my guy Bryan Leach at TVT [Records] to work with these different producers to come up with the material. Continued on page 4 »

Having Kay Gee back] is the most important thing to me. I even told Treach: I really wasn’t interested in moving forward on Naughty By Nature albums without Kay Gee. That was just my personal opinion. It can always be done, but I just don’t believe in that. I believe we built such a legacy, and the situations that happened, which played a part in the group, I just thought it was bull**** and eventually we’d all come back together and work again. First and foremost, it was about getting Kay back in pocket production-wise.

We’re in here, and he’s starting to bring in some of his songwriters, live musicians and that’s the approach we’re taking now. We do want to continue to expand our sound and experiment a little. You mentioned “Radio” [click to read] on Nature’s Fury, we got some fly **** comin’ right now. We reached to DJ Lethal from House of Pain, and he’s cheffing some stuff up for us. We’re definitely gonna put a 2009 twist on this thing.

DX: Treach, when Tupac Shakur was murdered, you said one of the most profound things I ever heard. You said in his eulogy, “’Pac wasn’t a thug; he was a soldier.” People today ought to listen to those words. What does being a soldier mean to you?

Treach: To me, being a soldier means being a rider. You’re not out there reckless, in the streets…certain times, you have to do what you have to do to be protected – the police got weapons. They ask me what I’m doing with a [bulletproof] vest, what are you doing with a vest? You’re in the same hood I’m in. If you need one, come on.

A soldier is someone that takes care of they tribe. They go out to fight because they have to, not ‘cause they want to. They go out to protect they land and they family. They’re not just out there recklessly destroying their community, their people and their surrounding. We have a thug mentality ‘cause look where we from. We have no choice in that. If you’re a kid and you grow up around nothing but flowers, you’re gonna talk about flowers. If you go outside and you have to run into school ‘cause there’s shootings outside, that’s what your mentality is gonna be. Even if you don’t want to be like that, you’re gonna need that mentality just so the thugs think you a thug. But a soldier steps forward ‘cause he brings the soldiers and the thugs together and lets them know, “We’re here for a cause, not a pause.” Before you get them to follow the path that you want them to be on, you’ve got to get them on your team first. If there ain’t a cause, it ain’t for nothing because it’s easy to destroy but it’s hard to build.