The Beatnuts are one of
the most criminally slept on crews, ever. “Off the Books” and “Watch
Out Now” are gems for the history books. But while MTV might play an instrumental
while their cornball hosts talk, you won’t see a Beatnuts heater getting
airplay.
Like a lot of artists, JuJu
and Psycho Les have accepted the fate of their talent, but suffered because
they kept it too street for nearly everybody. Their ability to tap into the
life blood of our favorite clubs and bring frenzy to dance floors while remaining
grounded in the art of sampling and the essence of Hip-Hop is unmatched.
You can always rely on The
Beatnuts to dig in the crates, and craft some unique head-nodders that stand
out from the mainstream but that are meant for the masses. The Beatnuts’
JuJu, spoke with Allhiphop.com about his love for Hip-Hop and how the current
state of things may cause him to change his proximity to the art he loves so
much.
With a new album, Milk
Me, on the way, the Hip-Hop community is given yet another opportunity
to show The Beatnuts how relevant and necessary they are.
AllHipHop.com: I hear you’re
on a new label.
JuJu: Yeah word up, we’re
on Penalty and s**t. They’re re-launching Penalty Records through Ryko
Music Group and we the first act on the label and s**t.
AllHipHop.com: Your new
record is called Milk Me, what’s up with that title?
JuJu: Actually Psycho Les
named the album. We was in Europe one time and was all watching some p####’s
and the n*gga [in the video] was like ‘milk me’ and we thought the
s**t was mad funny, and it just stuck. We don’t really be thinking too
hard when it comes to the names of the albums. We on some party s**t, anyway.
None of our albums are real conceptual. It’s just about hot beats and
rhymes.
AllHipHop.com: Speaking
of hot beats, The Beatnuts’ beats are top notch. Why aren’t cats
beating down your door for beats or is that the case and we just don’t
know it?
JuJu: It’s weird man,
a lot of the beats that we use, we make them hit records, right. But when we
go play these beats for n*ggas, they don’t have the vision. Right now
n*ggas are into a whole other sound, n*ggas don’t wanna clear samples
and we sample a lot. ‘Cause we think feel that s**t is like the essence
of what Hip-Hop is about. I know that there are n*ggas that’s nice with
the keyboard s**t, and we use them sometimes too, but a whole album of that
just gets redundant. Right now there’s a lot of MC’s out there that’s
mad nice. And just because of the s**t they’re rhyming over, I don’t
even wanna hear they s**t. We are all about the beat, that’s our formula
when we produce s**t, the beats gotta be hot, it’s gotta grab you. ‘Cause
I’ll be the first n*gga to say that we’re not the best MC’s
in the world. It kills me to hear these nice MC’s rhyming over f***ing
garbage.
AllHipHop.com: Last time
we talked with Psycho Les, he was pretty upset about that “Jenny from
the Block” single. How did that whole J-Lo/Trackmasters situation ever
pan out?
JuJu: The actual producer
of the song was totally with giving us our props and even giving us some money.
I think it was the powers that be, like Corey Rooney and rest of the people
behind that s**t that were the d*cks in the situation. As far as J-Lo, I ain’t
bitter about that s**t. I don’t give a s**t. ‘Cause everybody knows
that’s our beat. Les is a little bit more bitter about that s**t than
me. I look at that kind of s**t like it’s a compliment.
AllHipHop.com: Did any paper
ever change hands?
JuJu: Nah, no paper ever
changed hands, cause it’s a sample. But the bottom line is that if we
never made that record, nobody was gonna make that record.
AllHipHop.com: I heard ya’ll
have been doing a lot of traveling.
JuJu: Yeah we went to Spain,
we went to Columbia, we went to Australia. Man that s**t was crazy. Ya know
how crazy it is at JFK, man it was like that when we got to Columbia. We thought
people were waiting for they families, but all them muthaf***as was waiting
for us. They had to rush us to the van, it was like some real Michael Jackson
s**t.
AllHipHop.com: You were
talking earlier about all these nice emcees not having hot beats to flow over,
but what emcees would you like to see flow over your stuff?
JuJu: Man, there are so
many, that n*gga Skillz from Virginia, Dead Prez, Eminem. I would have loved
to do something for that n*gga Jay-Z, I know he would’ve gone berserk
over something like “No Escaping This.” Ghostface, too, there’s
just a lot of cats.
AllHipHop.com: What you
got banging in your car?
JuJu: Right now the only
s**t I got banging in my car is Dead Prez, Ghostface, and that Talib Kweli.
AllHipHop.com: You feeling
any of the southern sound?
JuJu: Not really man (laughs).
I can’t say that I do, I’m a straight city boy. I wanna hear some
beats. I wanna hear some New York sounding s**t. I wanna hear some Large Professor.
AllHipHop.com: What producers
are you feeling?
JuJu: Just Blaze, Vitamin
D, Kno, No I.D., there are a lot of up and coming cats out there
AllHipHop.com: Let’s
do some quick word association.
JuJu: Cool.
AllHipHop.com: Psycho Les
JuJu: Crazy.
AHH: Beatnuts.
JuJu: More Crazy
AllHipHop.com: George W.
Bush
JuJu: A fag**t.
AllHipHop.com: John Kerry.
JuJu: Another fag**t.
AllHipHop.com: J-Lo
JuJu: Disappointment. She’s
so stupid, cause the hood would have loved her more if she would have done that
with us. She’s supposed to be so pro-Latin and BX and all this s**t, the
hood would have loved her for doing that with us. She did that s**t all wrong.
AllHipHop.com: Talk about
Milk Me.
JuJu: The album is hot,
the beats are crazy. On this album, we had the pleasure of working with A.G.,
f***ing Razhel, Tony Touch. It was just a good time and it’s a good album.
Hopefully Penalty will do what they suppose to do and we can make this s**t
a success.
AllHipHop.com: What exactly
are you expecting from Penalty?
JuJu: Just some support,
just to let the people know that the record is out there. We’re gonna
spend money on advertising, and then we’re going to let the record speak
for itself. I don’t want to spend any money paying DJ’s to play
the song. If they don’t feel it, than don’t play it. I don’t
want to be spending G money so these n*ggas can play my record. Right now, I’m
so f***ing excited that Funkmaster Flex is playing my record, ‘cause Flex
is playing the record because he likes it. Believe me, we did not give that
n*gga a dime to play that record, and that s**t means a lot, cause it re-energizes
my faith in the whole Hip-Hop s**t.
AllHipHop.com: You’re
losing your faith?
JuJu: For real man, there’s
so much payola going on. But I can’t get mad at n*ggas doing what they
feel they got to do to get a check. It’s disappointing and it gives the
wrong impression to the young kids. It doesn’t let Hip-Hop naturally develop
and progress as it should, ‘cause n*ggas start hearing the same s**t on
the radio, and they start thinking that that is what’s hot and then they
start emulating it.
AllHipHop.com: How often
do you think cats are getting paid to play records?
JuJu: I know that s**t goes
on a lot. I know that it does for a fact. I know n*ggas that have paid money
to get their record played. That’s what it’s come to, honestly it’s
on some corporate thug s**t. Our music is out of our hands right now.
AllHipHop.com: What two
tracks on the album you know are just going to kill it?
JuJu: Man, this joint (“Find
Us”) we did with Akon, where we flip the “Happy Days” beat.
The joint with A.G. “It’s Nothing,” is crazy. Another joint
“Buggin,” that’s nice. Just the music itself, the quality
of the music is crazy, there just so many joints.
AllHipHop.com: Is there
any thing else that you’d like to say?
JuJu: Even if this is the
last one that we do, I just want to thank everybody that has supported us throughout
the years. I want n*ggas to know that we love this s**t. I love this Hip-Hop
s**t. And I’m gonna be buying records and flipping beats even if I ain’t
getting no record deal or nothing.
AllHipHop.com: Man, what’s
up with that tone, you said “even if this is the last one.” What
does that mean?
JuJu: Man, I don’t
know man. N*ggas be throwing shade, it’s just f***ed up right now. I don’t
even know how long I’m gonna be around, as far as like, out there.
AllHipHop.com: So you’re
saying that if things turn out a certain way with this album, you may not mess
with the game anymore?
JuJu: Yeah man, I might
just find some other s**t to do. cause I don’t want to be…ya know.
JuJu never finished that
last statement.