While Almost A-List has been featuring a ton of rock news lately, don’t get it twisted–we love hip hop too! We recently had the chance to send out a few questions to New York based hip hop trio, True 2 Life, a group that is sure to bring the meaning back to the hip hop scene.
These guys have shared the stage with Lupe Fiasco and T-Pain, and we’re sure that’s just the beginning. Not to mention, seeing as Almost A-List is brought to you by a pair of Cornell undergrads, it was extra special to pseudo-interview our own. True 2 Life is comprised of Cornell alumni K.Words, Concise, and Slangston Hughes (and before you even ask, I’m pretty sure that is not their real names).

ALMOST A-LIST: Many Cornell students (and I’m sure college students everywhere) have been wondering–you came to the Ivy League as undergrads for a reason…what was it, and how did you decide to leave as rappers?

K.WORDS: Well, I came in thinking I was gonna be a big time sports or entertainment lawyer. The Black Jerry McGuire. Show Me the Money. But… when I got to school and met Concise, things changed. He taught me how to make beats, and soon I was making beats and writing rhymes… along wit Slang, the team was making music… and we got good at it… and then we got REALLY good at it. Sooner or later we realized it would be a crime to not pursue the music. I was getting D’s in class and failing midterms, but i never really cared as long as the beat I made that day was hot… that’s where my mind was, honestly. Just didn’t wanna fail out so i could stay up there [in school] with the group…

CONCISE: I came to cornell to go to the school of engineering. i graduated with a degree in operations research and industrial engineering. but i pretty much did the engineering, math and science thing because i was good at it. i was really good at math, and engineering was a good fit. but i always wanted to make music. i was making music before i knew i wanted to go to cornell. and when i linked up with k.words and slang hughes at cornell, it only made me want to continue doing it. so i graduated as an engineer, but like u said, left as a rapper. and now im rapping. and producing of course.

SLANG - I came to Cornell as a gentleman of leisure and subsequently left as one. In between however, I was on the track to become an Investment banker. Before college in addition to being heavily involved in Music, I got the chance to go to the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth for an intensive summer program and found my “calling” in Business. Apparently, I was smart as shit. The catch is, I knew rappers and then I knew executives working at financial institutions, and the average of the latter made more money. At some point, I decided to follow my dreams at the risk of everything and my true passion outweighed my pursuits of financial gain. Concise and I met freshman year running track at Cornell and we clicked personally and from our backgrounds in music and from there I got with the rest of the team 211 and we started making noise in the hip hop scene ever since. Now, here I am pursuing a career doing what I love to do, both music and business…so I made the right choice..( I still have a semester left to complete my undergraduate degree)..so to be continued on t.v…

AA-L: You have been described as having that old school hip hop feel, which is pretty emblematic of the underground hip hop scene in Chicago (with bands such as The Cool Kids and Kid Sister). Would you guys say that your music fits in to this new area of hip hop?

K: I’m glad we get the oldschool label to an extent. At first it worried me, but people weren’t saying our sound was antiquated, rather our style brought them back to a place where hip hop was less about the business/marketing strategies and more about the feeling of rockin’ in the park. That’s dope…but i don’t want people to get confused because musically we’re very forward thinking with our lyrical content as well as the different type of sounds/beats we incorporate. I don’t know how we compare to these new artists cause I haven’t heard much of their music or even many artists in general with the versatility we have…lyrically and sonically being about to bounce between various concepts..from emotional music to party records to political songs. We’re really carving through our own lane…

S: Respect to them, hopefully we’ll be out in the Chi soon. I would say that we do what we do better than everyone, and what we do is good hip hop. We do us, no one else, its about originality which seems to be a lost art today. I think we fit in the new area of hip hop b/c this is our time and more so because we’re the same age group as those you mentioned, but more so we fit in with the EPMD’s, RUN DMC’s, NWA’s, Dogg Pounds, WuTang’s, Lost Boyz, Onyx’s, UGK’z, Geto Boys’ of the world as far as groups go. We’re making undeniable bangers and creating a legacy and a classic body of work. I think the only reason people say we have an “Old School” feel is because we remind them of a time when MC’s were nice and the beats were crazy. We are, how we say in French, “Dope as (F*)”.

C: yeah i would say it could fit there. i would say it could fit in the underground scene in nyc thats been bubbling. i feel it could fit with some of the southern music scene too. i feel our music could fit alot of places if not everywhere because of the versatility. we call it 360 degrees of hip hop. we cover alot of different elements.

AA-L: What has been the biggest accomplishment for the group thus far in 2008?

C: landing the roles in the Biggie Smalls biopic “Notorious.” I feel like thats going to be a huge look for us. it opens the door to a network bigger than hip hop and music. not to mention the movie is music related, so it ties right in. its an honor really.

K: Our internal growth. The concerts and acclaim we’re receiving is cool.. but I think in 2008 it’s all about the drive and focus, dedication and sacrifice we’re all showing with the music. Our team is on the same wavelength and we have a mindset to build our brand, company, and music. Mental maturation…that’s our biggest accomplishment so far.

S: I’d say our devotion to our cause is stronger than ever and the team we have assembled around us are as focused as ever and we need to continue to be so because its a beautiful thing. We’re doing big shows, gaining more fans everyday, and running our company the way we want. We’re doing movies now too, so its about to be a wrap! Stay tuned for more big things and to true2lifemusic.NET for a couple big announcements….shouts to Digimon Von Douglas, G Gutta, Cali D, Kof and the whole team…

AA-L: You guys opened for T-Pain and Lupe Fiasco, two talented and well known artists. What was it like to open for these guys?

S: It was great sharing the stage with two highly talented artists we respect. I mean, you can peep the review from the T-Pain show. The consensus is that we killed the show and upstaged the headliner, so who am I to disagree, haha. We love performing so whether its 4,000 like the T-Pain Show or 1,000 like the Lupe show, we’re gonna give you one of the best hip hop shows you’ve ever seen…that is of course, if you weren’t at the Fresh Fest…

K: It was alot of fun.

C: it was dope. we had alot of fun. the t-pain response was crazy. people was really diggin our set and our music. it felt good to be on stage and get that kind of response and just loosen up and have fun in front of so many people. lupe was a smaller crowd but just as dope nonetheless. lupe is one of my favorite rappers of all time. so just to be able to put that on the resume, then to meet homie and kick it with him afterwards was real cool.

AA-L: Any embarrassing or awkward tour moments that we should know about?

K: Concise sprained his ankle playing ball and didn’t think he would be able to perform at the T-Pain show. Good thing it doesn’t take a week to get over a mild ankle sprain. Slang used to tap me during the performance and ask me what the beginning of his verse was… that’s pretty awkward… to think about someone else’s verse while you’re rapping your own. As for me, I once wore a fitted on stage that wasn’t freshly popped. I wore it before for a video shoot. That was embarrasing. It goes against most of what i stand for, when it comes to staying fresh.

S: The first thing that comes to mind is that time when I was helping my homegirl Jessie Spano study for her Geometry test, and I inadvertently introduced her to “Stay Alert” caffeine pills so she could keep studying…and then I got her that audition with the record label along with our homegirls Kelly and Lisa that same week…plus we shot this crazy cutting edge video..I guess the hectic scheduled started to wear her down…long story short she ended up freaking out and getting addicted to the pills, I couldn’t calm her down and she kept on singing “I’m so excited!!!!”…I guess its one of those “you had to be there moments”……wait, actually come to think of it, that was an episode of “Saved By the Bell”…

C: probably forgetting some lyrics on stage or some shit…one time I completely forgot my verse and just rapped a k.words verse when it was my time to spit. the thing is k.words had just rapped that same verse right before me. so people were looking like…umm…didnt we just hear this? we all just have a good time with it. backstage with the team, g-gutta, digi, hollywood, whoever…

AA-L: What artists or bands in particular have influenced your music?

K: Marvin Gaye made baby making anthems like “Let’s Get it On” and still socially conscious classics like “Inner City Blues”. Artists like him, 2pac, Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, Kanye West… who’ve been able to evoke various types of emotion thru their music are definitely the biggest influences musically for me. Rapping wise, I’m most influenced by Black Thought from The Roots. When it comes to production, I’ma tip my hat to Teddy Riley and whoever programmed the music for the Sonic The Hedgehog video game on Genesis (especially the Starlight Zone Board). When it comes to style, I’ll have to say Heavy D. He pioneered the “big dude that’s mad fly” category that Biggie and now, myself have carried on. It’s not as easy being fly for a big dude…

C: music wise and lyrically, heavily influenced by common, lupe, royce, nas, jay-z, blackthought, mos def, talib, etc…

S: first things first, I’m a fan of music. I consume music like oxygen so we’d be here a long time with a long list if I ran through each of my influences. Just know its not the (”generic classic rap album” + “Coldplay” to sound trendy/avant garde + “the streets”)..come to think of it, honestly it is those two minus coldplay….I don’t really like coldplay…. But i do like a whole lot more things including a good mix of hip hop I grew up with (mostly b/w ’89 - ’98)…hardcore…folk..punk..and alt.rock, the countries of Nigeria, Haiti, and Brazil, DeVante Swing, Teddy Riley, World Travel, and Inequalities and Cultures…..that will hold you over for now..

AA-L: Seeing as you guys have a fresh, unique style of music, what do you think about the mainstream hip hop and rap artists that are out there today?

K: Honestly, I think too many emcees are slacking on their verses. Too many are being overshadowed by who’s singing the hook on their record and not letting their own personalities and talents shine through. There’s no reason why you can’t have good lyrics on a radio or club song. And I’m not saying you have to be OD complex or superlyrical on every record… but there’s a difference between simplicity and being generic. A lot of dudes are just making excuses for having a lack of talent. And they dickride and jump on any type of sound or style that’s currently “hot” instead of crafting they own “hot” sound. On the other hand, there is alot of good music out there… and classic artists like Snoop, Common, and Scarface are still making good relevant music… so i’m good with that…

C: i feel like everyone else. i mean, there’s a lot of good (s*) out and there alot of garbage out. its up to people to find the good (s*). and the garbage (s*) isn’t just whats coming out the radio and on the tv because there’s alot of good music on there too. we just try to do us and make dope music. and if it connects with people then thats what’s up. i feel alot of mainstream hip hop is either trying to hard to fit some gimic or image or just underachieving. everything we do we try to be the best. we aren’t in the game to be average, we’re here to be fresh, unique and amazing. we like to amaze people.

S: For the most part I feel that most artists do a good job at what it is they do. Unfortunately, it just so happens that what a lot of these artists “do” is make wack music, but they do a good job at making garbage..so cheers to them…We’re unlike any group out, or any group that has ever been out, or ever will be out (shouts to Bret “the hitman” Hart)…we set trends, make fly insightful music, have fun, speak on what we go through and live life…most artists in our genre aren’t as talented as us, so it wouldn’t be fair for me to hold them up to the same standards…Originality is King….Plus our fans/friends are the best…Shouts to all the True 2 Lifers out there….Though we’re blessed with both, it seems now a days “swag” is more important than “substance”..I feel alot is a result of a disconnect between generations and the younger hip hop audience not being educated on the forefathers of the game, or even educated about music in general. I guess thats a longwinded way to say I could care less about mainstream hip hop, we do us regardless of the climate.

AA-L: What’s one question that you wished I would have asked in this interview? Go ahead and answer it too…(by the way, this isn’t me getting lazy with the questions)

C:
question:
how would a female fan get in touch with you on tour?
answer:
great question, via facebook or myspace. we check that alot.

K: You should have asked why I didn’t go into acting seeing as I was trained by a woman who trained Denzel Washington when I was younger.

My answer is that when I was younger I was more into music and sports. And girls. I used to write the “do you like me” notes with the box for yes and the box for no. They would check yes, and I’d send another note back with a smiley face. Chicks love smiley faces.

S: Here’s four questions that you should’ve asked. a) Whats the meaning
of life? b) Why is the sky blue? c) Why do they call you the Black Zach Morris? d) and is it true that you have the whole Alphabet tattooed in Arial 18pt. font on a body part somewhere below your waist, that is “not your legs”….
Answers: a) i talk about it our mixtape “live.love.listen.” b) i talk about it on our mixtape “live.love.listen”. c) i talk about it on the mixtape “live.love.listen.” d) yes, its true and i talk about it on our mixtape “live.love.listen” (version for adults only)

AA-L: Where do you guys see yourself musically in the next 5 years? Who do you hope to be collaborating or touring with?

K: 5 years we should be headlining tours. If not, major components of BIG time tours. Like, I wanna tour with anyone from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers to Mary J. Blige and be not only looked at as a dope hip hop group, but dope musicians in general. Musically I think we’re gonna continue to push the limits and show the world you cannot put hip hop in a box. You don’t have to be a certain artist to be successful and you don’t have to compromise yourself to be relevant. Look at Outkast. They have continued to reinvent their sound all while staying true to who they are. That’s what True 2 Life is about.

C: collaborating with some of the best producers and artists. that would be alot of fun. have the ability to do some big powerful music with some of the best. touring with kanye west, 50 cent, jay-z. that would be crazy. in 5 years we plan to be penciled in that legendary status. that acclaim thats like, where did these guys come from and y are they so good. you know? and just get rich with our team. being able to empower those around us, enterprise , build our brand and just having fun with our team and our fam is important.

S: All the greats are dead so I pretty much don’t want to collaborate with any rappers besides the ones I’m doing this interview with now. So its SLANG, CONCISE, and k.WORDs all day. In terms of touring, I’m pretty much looking forward to seeing more of the world with my friends and family and bringing this True 2 Life show to a town near you! with the best artists in the world that we can connect with. Only possible collabs I could say would be Producers I respect such as Easy Mo Bee and Johnny J, holler at me….we’ll see what happens in the future, but for now I’m loving being a self contained unit….and 5 years from now, we’re running the game.

AA-L: Since Almost A-List is about promoting talented, rising artists and bands, do a bit of shameless self-promoting.

K:
www.true2lifemusic.net
www.myspace.com/true2lifemusic

Look out for our mixtape/album “Live.Love.Listen vol.1″ coming soon.
Look out for us in the “Notorious” movie, directed by George Tillman
Look out for our cooking show “Hip-Hop Cookin’ w/ True 2 Life” hopefully coming soon.

alright… the cooking show might take some time, but don’t be suprised cause ya boys do throw down in the kitchen. early.

holla @ us on myspace/facebook, whatever.

shouts to my mom and dad and my brothers. i love y’all.

C:
first off, check us out on myspace and facebook.

the music speaks for itself, but we make some of the best hip-hop music out. its true, its from the heart and speaks on everything. everyone can get something out of it. live. love. listen.

S:
This whole interview has been shamless self promoting on my behalf. But to make it formal here’s a statement straight from SLANG, no publicist……”Because if you don’t like True 2 Life…you hate your life!…you don’t hate your life, do you?” It is what it is haters and lovers. Live.Love.Listen Mixtape coming in March check the website to download it! feel free to email me at true2lifemusic@Gmail.com so I can give my music away to you for free…feel free to add us on Facebook…Also, we make all of our own beats!…so if you’re an artist looking for production holler at us…we do all genre’s…and thanks alot to our Fam/Friend//Fans for the continued support, much love to you all…and thanks to April and almostalist.com for the love…
HIT US UP ON MYSPACE.COM/TRUE2LIFEMUSIC! PEACE.

True 2 Life will be diong a free show at Central Connecticut State University’s Annual Fashion Show on April 5th.