Nappy Roots: World Tour Pt. 1

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 […]

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.