Tanya Morgan: The New Formula

How does an idealistic individual deal with the Cattle Syndrome? You know, the effect that occurs when one person decides on what's trendy and then another follows and another and another. Instead of deciding what they feel is cool and letting that be what they embody. It is always much easier to do as you are told and more importantly what you see others doing.

Tanya Morgan has never been one to fall prey to Cattle Syndrome. Their name of all things should be the first clue of their individuality as MC's. Recently dropping their new album Brooklynati, and working with the likes of Drake on “Right To Left” and Blu on their track “Morgan Blu” this has already began to infallibly solidify their defining place in the end of Cattle Syndrome and its affect on MC's. Have you been infected?

AllHipHop.com: How did you meet and come together to do music?

Von Pea: Don Will and Ilyas met in college and I met Don Will thru putting my demos on the net back in 2001. We started sending each other music and decided to try a group project in 2003 and the rest is history!

AllHipHop.com: Tell me about Brooklynati? What is its purpose in Hip-Hop?

Von Pea: Our albums purpose is to give today's type of fan a reason to slow down and fully get into an album. This isn't an album that you let shuffle around on your iPod, it’s a complete work.

AlHipHop.com: What void are you filling in Hip-Hop?

Von Pea: I don't think we set out to really to fill a void. It’s more like, we came out being ourselves, uncompromising, and also not trying too hard to stand out. We're just us, and that alone makes us stand alone really.

AllHipHop.com: What is the virtual city and why was it created?

Don Will: It is the combination of Brooklyn and Cincinnati. We wanted to make it less general as far as our sound. We wanted a place to describe the sound that we bring. We wanted to make it more personal and distinctive for the sound that we bring.

AllHipHop.com: Who does your production?

Ilyas: Von Pea does about half the production - 8 beats on Brooklynati.  The other half is produced by Tanya Morgan's other in-house producer by the name of Brick Beats - 8 beats on Brooklynati as well.  We also have one track "She's Gone" produced by Aeon on Brooklynati.

AllHipHop.com: Has any major record labels approached you yet?

Ilyas: The major labels haven't yet. We had a contact with someone from a label via myspace but we lost contact so at this point no.

AllHipHop.com: How did you link up with Phonte for the song "Without You"?

Ilyas: That's the homie man.

Von Pea: We have always been connected with the site Okay Player. We were cool with him before they became Little Brother. We kept our comradery going since then. He is like sure whatever you guys need.

AllHipHop.com: It does seem like you have a very unique approach to rap. Why did you go in that direction?

Ilyas: We all grew up listening to "Golden Era" style Hip-Hop. I would say that our biggest influence is probably from that era. When we started making music together we decided we wanted to do fun stuff. That was the sound that we wanted to capture.

AllHipHop.com: Tell me about Brooklynati.

Don Will: It is in stores. We have a video dropping on Sunday. We are trying to reach out bridge the gap between the past and now . The video is for the song called "So Damn Down." It will be on MTV Jamz.

AllHipHop.com: I read that you guys are perfectionists. When it comes to creating your album, at what point are you satisfied with what you create?

Von Pea: I like to go over my ideas. When it comes to us, one thing that is so easy for us is that we always are in the same ball park as far as our ideas. As time goes on you can take songs and ideas that you come up with and create. One way is if it something that you would actually listen to. At that point its just like we did everything so you don't have to slave over it. You have to know when to let go. You can’t overproduce your music.

AllHipHop.com: What are some things that you wish the audience would pay more attention to when it comes to choosing the artists that they are going to support?

Von Pea: What I think what shouldn't be the number one influence is when a person gets on stage and the crowd doesn't know who they are at all and then they say " Yeah I'm down with Kanye" the crowd is like "Yeah!". Or "I just got signed to Jive Records" and the crowd says "Yeah". If we get up there and we say we are Tanya Morgan and we are dope but we not down with anybody. they just look at us and say this ain’t wack but y'all not down with Jay-Z or whoever so whatever. It shouldn't be so much about who you're down with and what T-shirt you got on and if the shit is dope.

Ilyas: Its like if you listen to a certain artist that everyone else does then you're cool. You're cool because you go to a party and someone ask have you heard that new so and so and everybody says yeah, then you're cool. It’s like someone coming up to a party wearing shoes that no one has ever heard of. I wish it was just about the music but the reality in this industry we are dealing with the cattle.

Tanya Morgan At Fat Beats In NYC Performing "So Damn Down"

Visit Tanya Morgan’s MySpace page at www.myspace.com/tanyamorgan