In part two of AllHipHop.com’s cross examination of Chicago’s Cool Kids, Mikey Rocks tells us about what it was like going through the label trouble over the past few years and the excitement he has for his upcoming project. AllHipHop.com: Chuck was telling me about how you guys have been just putting out mixtapes because you guys got caught up in a little bit of label trouble. Can you talk about the situation from your perspective?Mikey Rocks: Yea we were some younger cats. I would say ’07. We were 18 or 19, excited about the music and someone was talking about furthering the music and helping us build and someone decided to take advantage of our excitement and us being kids and good hearted dudes trusting that someone would do right by you… especially if you are friends. But we got into a little independent label situation where a lot of money was stolen from us and we don’t want to put out anything to sell or the dude is going to make money off the earnings. We are just trying to finish out this legal situation and show our fans how we are progressing. That situation should all be over soon though. I don’t know what some of the cats are going to do out here but its all a go for us man. I’m just waiting.AllHipHop.com: As much as that sucks it is still kind of like good music sometimes comes through adversity and maybe or at least hopefully in the long run you can look back and say that it was in some ways positive. Mikey Rocks: I think that we definitely had to up our skill at a faster pace because we got to fight this s**t and put out the best stuff we can at least at this time. And we had to up our skills at a faster pace because we don’t get to stay afloat with the big pub and magazine features and all that s**t. That s**t comes with an album, and they don’t really f**k with you unless you put out an LP. We just putting out mixtapes and stuff and we just got to trump the competition and try to sound as good as we can as quick as we can while we wait for the legal situation to be over. It kept us from getting into anything that was dumber than this and signed to a major label that would have gave us the shaft harder. So I guess everything happens for a reason. AllHipHop.com: Can you talk about how you guys work collectively and how this project is coming together?Mikey Rocks: Well with this album, we were allowed to use more instruments, different studios and it was just us in a college apartment f**king around in the closet with a microphone. With this we have been able to expand and to add more instruments and dimensions to the music. Using more equipment and we are not limited by the outreach. I think this will be a lot deeper and more colorful than the last joint.AllHipHop.com: I know you guys are really using some crazy instruments, tell me about some of the instruments and keyboards you guys are using for this project.Mikey Rocks: Man its live trumpet dudes, who we have play and then we sample how we want to chop it. Old synthesizers and leads and moog voicers, and stupid s**t that you don’t ever see. Using different studios and sounds there is so much that we are trying to experiment with this time. Different vocalists and its just a lot more fun this time. AllHipHop.com: Anything else you can tell me about this upcoming album? Any features or unexpected surprises?Mikey Rocks: Ah man, we definitely got some of the homies on this one. I don’t know if Chuck gave any names, so I don’t want to say anything man. (Laughs) Man, we trying to keep this little mystique going on, but its not us alone this time. You gonna see some of our homies on there. AllHipHop.com: Y’all got Bun B on there?Mikey Rocks: Aye man I don’t want to give it away, he might be on there (laughs). There’s definitely some features on there to get people excited and I am definitely excited about whose on there. Can’t say too much though man. AllHipHop.com: Haha, well then tell me more about Tacklebox.Mikey Rocks: Yea man it’s just a mixtape that we wanted to put out for the summertime. We just threw them on there to get people hype and we got some of the older joints that we throw on there and its been getting a pretty good response. It might have been some conformed haters that might have started to join our side.We are trying to get to the point where the music is undeniable. We want to get to the point were you cant deny us man. We just wanted to make Tacklebox so we can convert a few haters over and have everybody aware of where we are at. I think we are gonna slap the people in face with this project. I am usually a pessimistic dude, but I am excited about this one and I think it’s going to be good.
