Long story short, peep my interview with HipHopLead. Updates on what’s next and the road to my sophomore mixtape “Come Back Fly.”
Getting up to 3,000 views in 3 days isn’t bad for somebody that’s coming up. Appreciate the interest you all have, and hopefully the same interest I can keep.
LUZ
Definitely a Shout out to HipHopLead.com for putting me “On The Grind.” And giving me that real estate on the homepage is a good look too. Not too high, not too low, just right (haha).Check out what the fuss is about. Read More
Over the past weekend I did a quick one two, chit chat with some good people over at Undergroundfuzion.com. Come peep what we been chatting about.
UF: For the people who don’t know who you are, tell the people your name and where you from?
The name is LUZ, pronounced Looz. I’m originally from china but now my stomping ground is Brooklyn, Chinatown, so shout out to that.
UF: How did you get started in music?
Love of music started back in the days, back in the days the first tape I ever owned was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle soundtrack. It had nothing to do with hip hop but it sounded dope. Hip hop was the next love. lol
UF: For everybody that hasn’t heard your music before, explain you’re sound and style to them.
I like to stand between Fab and Lupe. Basically listened to them a lot. And of course the Notorious BIG, Pac, Nas, Jay and down the line it goes.
UF: How has your upbringing, born in another country shaped your musical style? I guess coming from a different culture it brings another point of view to an otherwise repetitive atmosphere. Like the same event to you might mean something different to me, and I would reflect that in what I do, which is making music with a new perspective.
UF: I like to ask this question to every emcee since it seems like everybody wants to be a rapper these days. What would be some key advice that you would give to someone that is looking to start their own buzz?
Grind, make decisions and be committed about it. Set attainable goal as well as the unobtainable.
UF: Who are some of your musical influences in the industry?
Like I said before, my style is influenced by a lot of greats. As of right now Jay-z is holding it down.
UF: Since I know there are a lot of artists that are making moves in New York, what are you planning to do or have done to separate yourself from all of the other talented artists?
Everybody goes towards this one direction of instant gratification. Like create what’s hot now, make my money and bounce. I want to stick around for the fourth quarter, ya know. I’m planning my future as I’m living tomorrow already.
UF: What are some of the other projects that we should be expecting from you in the upcoming future?
Well in the last couple of months I got on a bunch of mixtapes with DJ Whoo Kid, DJ Drama, that dude Big Lou. Now I’m striving for a second mixtape to be released summertime. Looking at couple of DJ’s to cosign as well. Title is still tentative but look out for that. Meantime I release random freestyles on my youtube page, youtube.com/thenameisluz
UF: Your Instant Success Mixtape already dropped, what can we expect from your next project?
First off, for everyone who missed my first mixtape you can download it free on my MySpace along with other mixtapes I was on, myspace.com/thenameisluz . For what’s coming up…definitely coming from the left field with this next one. I want to explore my creativity and see if I can take it to that next level.
UF: With everything in music always changing where do you see yourself in the next five years?
Rich, filthy, filthy rich. Pay somebody to do meaningless jobs just to keep them employed. Hahaha. But seriously I want to see myself still in the game, because I love this right now.
UF: As far as the music scene in New York, who are some artists that people should lookout for?
Music scene is so big its way beyond NY. I don’t want to start naming because I’m going to forget some names and that would offend some people. Lol
UF: Any last shouts outs…..
Yea, shout out to Gee, my peoples, Sinima, VA Dave, Illuminaires, Eleven, my fam, my fans, and you guys for having me. Take the time to listen, in the meantime check me out on http://www.myspace.com/thenameisluz
Sad I didn’t get to meet the dudes, everything had to be done over the phone. But still glad to do a Q & A. Inside they talk about who they feeling right now and who they not feeling. Talks about how the game should pay homage. Lastly, welcome home Flesh-N-Bone!
I know it’s been a while since everyone got back together, how come it took so long for you guys to come out with another album together?
Flesh: A lot of things been happening since the 90’s. I took a little spill, took a little fall, had to do some time. Bizzy fell off a little bit, now he’s back to the table, back with the group and everything. I’m back after almost 10 years of incarceration, so it’s perfect timing for us to get back to together and everything at this point.
You guys have been in the game for a long time, just as long as Jay-z. What does it take to be in this game for such a long time and prosper, sustain?
Wish: First and foremost you got to have blessings from the good lord himself with longevity. Then you got to have good music with content, that people can feel and relate to and be truthful with them.
You guys have been the pioneers of that spit-fire style, going fast, hard and having rhythm at the same time. Do you guys feel like you have opened the doors for others such as Twista, etc?
Flesh: Damn Right!
Krayzie: Oh yea, we definitely feel like we paved the way for a lot of people, and it was a blessing for us and them. Like, we started the category and we opened up the doors for a lot of people to follow in the path. It’s a wonderful thing.
Do you feel like the game paid enough homage to you guys?
Flesh: Hell nah! Not close, not hardly! But they do pay homage in the fact that they immolate the style, and they pay homage in that fashion rather than verbally. Actually, the former is more flattery, but we do look for at some point, we do expect to get that verbal, that overall recognition as the inventors, as the creators of the category, of the harmonizing, tongue twisting type flow.
Who you guys bumping in your car right now? Who you feeling that’s out right now?
Wish: I got that new Jay-z in there right now, that T.I., and I got the dude from umm, what’s the name of the group, that boy group that broke up not recently. He got a solo record out.
Boy group? Omarion?
Wish : No, no, no. What’s them dude? Used to wear gold clothe all the time, his album off the hook though.
Flesh: Pleasure P?
Wish: Yea, Pleasure P.
Which artist would you never bump in the car? Ever.
Flesh: I don’t think we would put anybody out there like that.
Wish: Yea, I will. I’m sick of these punk mother fuckers.
Krayzie: (Laughs)
Flesh: Naw, naw.
Krayzie: Me myself personally, I really haven’t bought like any new music in a long time. You know, it really hasn’t been anybody out there that has me like “oh, oh shit.” You know what I’m saying? I mean I like some of the music being made today, but it ain’t nothing that I have heard and took me over the top in a long time.
You guys came out with consistent albums that has gone platinum, including your DVD called “I Tried” that gone platinum as well. You guys have a new project called “The Worlds Enemy”.
Bone Thugs: Yep
Can you give us a little more information about that? The release date?
Flesh: The release date for The World’s Enemy, Unified World’s Enemy is December 22nd.
Who you guys collaborating with on the new record? Who you got producing?
Wish: Well you know we wanted to let ourselves shine on this album. We got a couple of background features, you know what I mean. We still putting the endings on the album so we probably squeeze in a couple of features, but we don’t know thus far who their going to be. As far as producers we went back and got DJ U-Neek from back in the days that kicked the things off with us. We got L.T. Hutton who we used to work with back in the day. We got a lot of up and coming producers, 1500 and it’s a few other guys that’s up and coming. With Bone Thugs-N-Harmony it doesn’t matter who makes the beat, as long as it’s hot, we make the music, we make the beats good too.
Do you guys have a single dropping?
Flesh: Yea, name of the single is “See Me Shine”. We got See Me Shine the main video, the main single. We following up with some nice viral videos, Determination, Rebirth, Meet Me In The Sky for viral videos. Those songs are also major looks as well. See Me Shine is the greatest smashes on the album, the forerunner of the album. We have other smashes on the album that’s just as big and convene a powerful positive message as well.
For the album, what do you predict is the first weeks sale?
Krayzie: Man, in these days and time. Ain’t no telling what the first week no more. Like back in the days you could of guesstimated, but like these days you got to sit and wait and see. We are expecting it to do well, because of all the hype we got on it. These days, in the digital age, you never know.
Going back to when you guys were signed to Easy-E (Ruthless Records), at the same time you guys where doing collaborations with the east coast, with Biggie. Did you guys have any conflict between the two interests?
Wish: One thing Easy-E always told us was to not get into that beef with the east, west, none of that stuff. Because he had a vision for us, he basically didn’t want us concentrating on any non-sense, he wanted us to just do music so that kind of stuck with us over the years.
Where can people find you to get updates and stuff?
So I had he opportunity to interview Jamie Foxx for his upcoming movie Law Abiding Citizens. He didn’t want to get into a gossip mood. So, this one’s all about the movie. Which is pretty damn good. Thumbs UP!
Q: The new movie Law Abiding Citizen comes out this weekend, October 16th. When you first read the script, how did you feel about it? How did you end up getting into your hands?
A: I’ll be honest with you; it was a combination of the script and just the people that was involved. I mean, you know Gerard Butler, if you see the movie 300, you’re automatically a fan. So I was like you know man, I got to work with this dude! Then we didn’t have a director in place, the director fell out. So me and F. Gary Gray, we homies and professional partners, so he jumped on board. Then it became this race to the finish line to get this movie done in the short amount of time that we had, and F. Gary only had 6 weeks to prep. The script went back and forth. A lot of days writing scenes and getting stuff together, really making sure that Gerard’s character was menacing, little bit of the smarts, but with all of the action you would get from a “300.” That was really the deciding factors, you know!
Q: In this movie you played the character Nick Rice, and I’m pretty sure it’s more than just another character because you took part in building the character itself. Can you tell us a little bit about that and the importance of your role in the movie?
A: The way I built Nick Rice is by talking to other people that were DA’s. Mostly talking to defense attorneys who have to go against DA’s, trying to get the DNA of the DA. It’s more like these guys are no non-sense, trying to get 100% conviction rate. They don’t just want to be DA’s they want to rise to Mayor Giuliani, they want to move up. That’s the way I sort of like built the character, so it would give flavor of an art. Like this guy starts out as a hard-%#&@$!, and then when he finds out what really happens to Gerard Butler’s family, he takes note and really buckle down and try to figure out how to help this dude because he’s about to kill everybody in the city of Philadelphia.
Q: Also in the movie Gerard Butler plays someone that is off the deep-end, but thinks they are mentally stable. Did you help him with that role, because you also played someone that was mental in the Soloist?
A: I definitely gave him suggestions, because when you watch your favorite person in a movie, it’s hard to separate, even though you know it’s a different character. Like when you watch 300, you want to see that dude Gerard Butler kick %#&@$! again. Within this, I was like man, don’t be afraid of the tough whoop-ass element of this, because that’s what we really enjoy seeing you do. It was great that they set up the fact that his family was involved, the home invasion. And when you see your family get snuffed out, it’s game on. I think the audience really connects with that and they want to go on a riot with, because of that.
Q: The movie takes several jabs at our current justice system. What do you think the movie is trying to portray to the viewers?
A: I think it portrays the human element of when it happens to you. When you watch the television, or reading in the bed and there’s some tragic %#&@$! going down to somebody else. You’re sort of like, man that’s bad. But never really can figure out how it feels unless it actually comes to your doorstep.
We have a feeling of what the justice system is about, like this is how it works but when it happen to you, you are like, WHOA. So that’s basically what the movie is, when it happens to you, how do you react? Now the thing is, the justice system as flawed as it may be, it’s the only one we got. You got to work within that, when you are on the other side of the street, how do you react?
Q: Also in the movie, I was a little surprised. Well not surprised, but maybe the movie could have been a little bit better if you had your daughter to play your daughter, you know, do a little Will Smith and son type of thing. Are you planning to do any movies with your daughter in the future?
A: (Laughs) Well my daughter likes working behind the scenes, editing and things like that. She actually just worked with me on this film called Valentine’s Day. I mean that’s good because a lot of times we want to be in front of the camera, and being in front of the camera, you know like I know, there is a lot of scrutiny in front of that thang right now. So it’s a little tough being in front of the camera. The way we live now has changed, along with the internet, camera phones, how we judge people, so I tell her whatever she wants to do it’s completely up to her. But when you get in front of that jump, it’s a
m*t*r fu**er!
Q: Let’s take this back. Before you got the script and they offering both roles, Gerard Butler had a choice, you had a choice. Would you choose to play Gerard Butler’s role or would you stick with Nick Rice?
A: In actuality, it was the other way around. But I figured it would be a lot better for him and me, to see him in that role because I’m coming off “Blame it on the Alcohol” and next thing you know I’m trying to do his role. So like, people trying to connect the dots and you can’t separate your persona sometimes, you know what I mean. So with him playing this role, I thought it was just perfect, like I said, I got back to being a consumer and the way we live our life now to date it’s like we are the ultimate consumer and we like what we like about a person, and we hate what we hate about a person and that don’t never change. But when we see that person that we dig, doing what we like them to do, they’ll support you and I think it’s perfect for him to play it like that.
Q: For everyone that has not seen the film, what makes this film a must see?
A: Yo, it’s a barn burner, because I’m going to be honest with you. Sometimes I do a film and I’ll be like it’s wack, but I don’t want to say this is wack. So I start talking about the wardrobe or something, or how great the weather was while we were shooting. But I watched this film in front of a hard-%#&@$! crowd in Hollywood and they was jumping and screaming, and clapping, and rooting. So you know when it plays like that in front of that crowd and the consumer crowd that they played for, it tested like a 95. I’m just letting you know right now, even if they don’t. Which I hope they don’t, I hope everybody goes out on the opening weekend. But once they hear about this jump, it’s going to be a wrap.
Shout out to Big Ced, The Industry Cosign, and BlackPlanet.
My interview with Royce 5’9
Part 1
Part 2
