With the rift between supposed “real” hip hop and “mainstream” hip hop seemingly growing vaster with each release, emcees D.G., Devious, Fast, G.O.D., and Zakee, the five member group of BK spitters that make up Pitch Black, wish not to be pigeon holed into either of hip hops seemingly opposed schools of thought. Pitch Black’s Premo produced lead single, “It’s All Real,” is a classic DJ Premier track that puts on full display the rhyming range of the group and has cats salivating for whatever other dopeness Pitch Black can deliver. Combine a dope single with a equally as dope video featuring an omnipresent hovering mic, and it’s a wrap, Pitch Black is here.
The five emcees spoke with Allhiphop about the upcoming album, Pitch Black Law, hooking up with Premo, and they dispelled any thoughts that the sound of their lead single should have cats thinking that they are against mainstream records or that they are on some backpackism. In fact, Pitch Black says they just want to make good hip hop that has “integrity,” what a novel idea.
Allhiphop.com: How did you guys find each other?
G.O.D: We grew up together, we family, D.G., Fast, and G.O.D. are cousins, and we met Zakee through our first manager and is D is from around the way, so it goes way back.
Allhiphop: It seems it’s hard for large hip hop groups to stay relevant and even get into the game, what made a five member group the route for you?
G.O.D: I mean the chemistry is there, yaknowwhatImean, sometimes you only have a certain chemistry with certain individuals and when you know you’ve got a sound and a chemistry it’s something that you’re gona wanna keep going. We’ve got a sound that’s distinctive from other groups and anybody who hears that “It’s all Real” single can hear that from jump. So by having a different sound we bringing something to the game that not really in the game right now and that’s clearing an automatic slot for us.
Allhiphop: The singles crazy, it’s bananas, how did ya’ll hook up with DJ Premier?
Fast: Yo DJ Premier man, he’s the greatest man, he’s a real individual and ya know, real recognize real so when we got up it was just like a slam bang shin ding, ya know what I’m talkin’ bout. We met him through our first producer by the name of Rich Black, and the first Rich Black songs that were ever made were made in D&D studios and we use to work in studio A and Premo use to be in studio B right next door. So we would hear him cranking out some real classic s###, and we were like ‘damn man, we wanna work with Premo’ and ya know, he felt us, but he was busy at the time. So we waited it out, we waited for our turn and when he’s schedule was clear he got with us and we made “It’s all Real.” He felt that and he said he was gona give us another beat and then we made a song called “Got it Locked” with Foxy Brown and both of those songs are on the album.
Allhiphop: Since about the early to mid 90’s there has been a growing rift in the hip hop fan base, between those who favor “real” hip hop and those who lean towards mainstream or radio friendly hip hop…what are your thoughts on that dynamic and where do you think Pitch Black fits in it?
Zakee: Alright, as far as that is concerned, I think a little bit before that, hip hop kinda got divided cause before that era, everything was cool, Tribe Called Quest had their thing, NWA had their thing, EPMD had their thing, Eric B and Rakim had their thing, Kane had their thing, Slick Rick and Doug E Fresh Dana Dane had their thing and everybody was cool with what everybody was doing. Everybody had their own movement and what their we’re doing and everybody was cool, somewhere down the line that got divided and, so it was like alright, I can’t mess with them cause their making party music, I’m real hip hop. But since when is that real hip hop when one of the most important songs in hip hop history is a party song, Rappers’ Delight. Then somewhere down the line, where did we go wrong, that’s the whole problem. Pitch Black is neither of them, we Pitch Black, we represent everything that’s dark.
Allhiphop: Talk about each other’s rhyming style and how it all blends together?
Fast: I’m the flamboyant one of the group, I’m the poster boy, ya know, when I talk about the fast cars, fast life, yaknowwhatImtalkingbout, fast cash, I bring that element to the group.
D.G: My style is basically just street, I gone keep mines street, I’m telling the ghetto tales, I’m doing the damn thing like that, I got a lot of passion and aggression with my style so you gona hear a lot of that.
Devious: I’m the BK loud mouth, I’m the one who make all the noise, all the energy, a lyricist, and I deliver the laugh that go with the grit. I’ll think of the most craziest punchline you could think of that will be funny, but at the end of the day, when you think about it, it don’t be funny at all
Zakee: My style is more like unpredictable, you just never know what I’m gona say I might say anything at any given time.
G.O.D: I just try to show as many sides to life as I can man, I got quote what I say ‘G.O.D. is agony, exctasy, simplicity, complexity, mental fortitude and lyrical dexterity,’ yaknowwhatImsaying, I just try to be as lyrical as possible
Let’s get into the album, what can we expect?
Zakee: The album drops December 16th, we got a lot of production, a lot of big names. We got Teddy Riley, we got Swizz Beatz, we got Young Lord, we got Nots, we got Premo of course, and it’s a well rounded album, it represent BK because it makes a lot of noise and it represent who we are. But its well rounded it’s got songs on there that everybody can listen to, whether it be little kids, your Grandmother, old grown folks, people on the block, hustlers who ever and it’s just a well rounded album.
Allhiphop: You mentioned Foxy Brown, what other features?
Zakee: We got Foxy Brown and Busta, that’s it.
Allhiphop: I like that, keeping it in the family
Devious: Yeah, bar bones ya know. We already pretty deep at five members so, ya know.
Allhiphop: Your current single, does that kinda of sum up how you feel about hip hop?
D.G: Naw, I think for us the single is just a good foundation setup for how we plan to go about in our journey through this hip hop thing. “It’s all Real” is a good foundation because we saying it’s all real, so everything we do no matter what we do, as long as we representing it and we believe in it and we confident in what we doing, “It’s All Real” for us.
G.O.D: We try to approach things in a down to Earth way, we ain’t trying to be put into some hole, like we some backpackers or something like that and we against pop records, we don’t even want something like that to start, because we not, we trying to sell records, but at the same time, we just trying to come with some integrity in our music. And being that it’s missing in a lot of music, it might seem a little strange right now, but the game was once like that, and we just wanna add to the game and not take from it.
Allhiphop: Any last words from you fellas
Pitch Black: Yeah man, Pitch Black Law, the album, January 27th, get that, Travio/Universal Records. We wanna to say peace to everybody that ever supported us…and love to the fans.