Nappy Roots have endured
and struggled through trials and tribulations that would break up the most tight
knit groups.
Hailing from Kentucky, an area of the country
that’s not known as a hot bed of hip-hop activity, the Nappy Roots have pulled
in platinum sales, fed the homeless, traveled the globe and performed during
a war and received their own state recognized "Nappy Roots" day.
The group has proven that there’s more in Kentucky
than the Colonels fried chicken. Peep out their secret recipe.
AllHipHop.com: I interviewed a couple of months
ago. How has the group changed since coming into the industry? You guys can’t
say you haven’t changed.
Nappy Roots: We see everything for what it is.
We aint so quiet anymore. We don’t hold nothing back anymore. We aint virgins.
We don’t have any problem. We are being more real with ourselves. Just keep
the bullsh*t away from us. We got a bigger budget this year too. We living better.
It’s a lot of things that come with it having a platinum album. You more nervous.
We all getting our families together. It aint just about us. Its more than that.
AllHipHop.com: Is it ever difficult dealing with
success?
NR: I think it can get hard sometimes. You gotta
look at it as your job and you do have a family. Take care of your family like
you suppose to take care of everybody. Leaving your children, your woman or
whatever, that makes it difficult. Other than that, we know we got a job to
do and the only way Nappy Roots is going to get that done is if Nappy Roots
is going to do it. For the most part we aint change too much, but it’ like the
rest of the world changed. You gotta surround yourself with real people.
AllHipHop.com: The industry is very grimy but
yall seem like yall come from pretty humble beginnings. How do you deal with
that contrast?
NR: We what matters to us is each other. Our
fans matter. Our family matters. We don’t give in to that industry bullsh*t.
I don’t give a f*ck what you bought last week. f*ck who’s ya brother. I didn’t
ask who done that beat. We didn’t ask you for no verse. I don’t need no remix
from you. Don’t let it get into you if it don’t mean sh*t to you. We love those
who loves us. Everybody go they own little thing so we just do us. This is what
we bout. Not to be against anybody else, but this is just what we is.
AllHipHop.com: On the new album do you have any
guest appearances?
NR: We got our folks. They just country cousins.
David Banner hooked us up, but other than that, Mike City kept it the same.
He pretty much produced on Watermelon Chicken and Grits. He got some new flavor.
AllHipHop.com: So on the new album is there gonna
be some different things. What’s the differences?
NR: We seen the world. We not just rapping about
Kentucky or Oakland or Georgia. We seen more of the world. We been to London
to Germany to Baghdad, Kuwait and all over North America. We been to every state
except for 2. This album you going to hear more unity. Because it took a lot
of unity to get past all this bullsh*t to figure out what we need and what we
don’t need.
AllHipHop.com: What about the music. How is
the music this time?
NR: We basically stepped up. we had to. The
people that we work with, Mike City and Raphael Saadiq. They been making hits
for people for years. Nappy had to step up our lyrical game. We coming with
different concepts on every song. People is going to relate to it regardless
of what color skin tone. Just like the last one.
AllHipHop.com: Can somebody explain the name
of the album?
NR: It gets better with the weather. You can
actually past this album down and the last album down to the next family. Its
gonna last you forever.
AllHipHop.com: You guys performed in Kuwait.
What was that all about. What are your views on the war?
NR: They did a poll with the soldiers over there
and they was like they wanna hear Nappy Roots. I aint gonna lie because at first,
I was like me being a reserve and seeing the inside of the war, its different
than folks see it on the outside. They wanted us so we had to go. It was love
man. It was like 125 degrees over there. The moment you got off the plane it
was hot. And then you see after that there aint nothing but fatigues. Everybody
you see is in fatigues. They all draped down in their robes. Going to all the
bases and actually meeting with the soldiers and shaking their hands and they
telling us stories and we telling our stories. We was on tour with everybody.
We was smoking and drinking. That’s what I like. All the camraderie between
all the stars. It was athletes actors actresses. We had Kid Rock, Bubba Sparxxx,
Robert Dinero, Irving Johnson. It was a lot of people that went.