Exclusive Naughty By Nature Interview
December 15th, 2009 | By Big Dom
Words by Dominic Di Francesco.
If Hip-Hop were a country, Naughty By Nature would have penned its national anthem. From “Hip Hop Hooray” to “O.P.P.” to “Jamboree”, Naughty have made a career of interpreting Hip-Hop for the masses and repackaging it in catchy rap-a-longs that the whole world can [and do] sing. However, countering the good-time rhymes have been their omnipresent, depressing depictions of America’s depleted inner-city communities, as brought to life in the hopeless tale of “Ghetto Bastard” and the menacing “Guard Your Grill”. It is here, riding the dichotomy between party and poverty that Naughty By Nature live.
It was in the early ’90s, under the watchful eye of fellow New Jersey native Queen Latifah, that the trifecta of Anthony “Treach” Criss, Vincent “Vin Rock” Brown and Kier “Kay-Gee” Gist first broke out of their East Orange neighbourhood - machete, baseball bat and chainsaw in hand - and carved out their place in music history. Treach took center-stage as the crew’s lyrical tongue twister, Vinnie as the irrepressible hype man, and Kay-Gee as the pair’s DJ and soundscaper. Together they turned their poverty to paradise, laying down a string of rap anthems, six albums, and collecting a Grammy for their troubles.
Their rise-and-rise was followed by a cliched falling-out amongst the group, resulting in Kay-Gee renouncing his Naughty throne and redirecting his attention on his own record label, Divine Mill, where he would launched the careers of Next, Jaheim and Koffee Brown. And while Treach and Vin kept the Naughty By Nature flame burning with the release of 2002’s IIcons album, seven years have now clocked past since original music has leaked from their camp - a lifetime in music industry years.
Officially reuniting in 2008, Naughty By Nature are now back in the studio working on their seventh studio LP, Anthem Inc., and will be hitting Australia for the first time in over a decade as a trio for the 2010 Good Vibrations Festival. Vincent “Vin Rock” Brown phoned-in to Rhyme & Reason to discuss Naughty’s reunion, their legacy, the “new” music industry, and their upcoming album.
Naughty By Nature has now been in the game for 20 years. Did you ever envision this for yourself?
Wow! I never thought what would happen. It all started as a hobby. Next thing you know, it’s a career. Next thing you know, you’re considered a legend or pioneer by your peers and fans alike. That’s definitely never been expected.
And how does it sit with you to be considered a legend of Hip-Hop?
It’s crazy! I still can’t believe it. I feel I’m more of a fan than any kind of legend.
If you had the opportunity to impart one piece of advice on your younger self, what would that advice be?
I would’ve invested more in my real estate investment trust. I thought with my heart a lot, so I put a lot of money out there in other businesses. But I’ve learnt that my real estate investment trust has been, for the long term, the most profitable and the most sensible investment. Other than that, I wouldn’t regret anything else.
With a two decade career already to your credit, how much longer do you hope to be bouncing around on stage alongside Treach and Kay-Gee?
It’s all about supply and demand. As long as the people demand us and we’re having fun with it, collectively and individually, it’ll go on. On top of that, we always keep other ventures, other opportunities open. Even our peers – you have the Jay-Zs, the Diddys, the 50 Cents of the world – they keep coming up with new business opportunities. So as we get older, if we can lend that experience or lend ourselves to different corporations or better causes, or worldly causes, so be it. But I think the sky’s the limit. Hip-Hop is taking kids from the ghetto and having us break through whatever glass ceiling was there. And now the sky’s the limit.
Naughty was one of the first Hip-Hop groups to really make an effort to brand themselves - from Naughty By Nature bed sheets to Naughty boxer shorts. What inspired that approach all those years back?
Well, it was something we’ve always done. Even before Naughty By Nature, we were a group called The New Style and we come from the golden era. We were fans of the golden era of Hip-Hop where you had the Kid ’N Plays, the Salt-N-Pepas, the RUN DMCs – everybody had an attitude, a certain swagger about them, something that distinguished you from the next crew because there was definitely friendly competition out there. So we had always branded ourselves as The New Style; we had our own t-shirts, our own jackets, we always had our crew roll with us, and we always looked uniformed. And that’s what made us stand apart from our peers. So when we did the Naughty By Nature thing and had that great logo, it only inspired us to continue to do the same thing.
Also, corporate America inspired us as well because Hip-Hop wasn’t as well respected back in the early ‘90s. You had a lot of clothing companies who wanted to give you clothes for free and basically pimp you out, even offer to do photo shoots, like; “I’ll put these posters all through Foot Locker, but I can’t do a deal with you because we only do deals with athletes.” These are the kind of things that made us say, “You know what? Fuck You! We’re going to reinvest in ourselves and instead of you pimping us out, we can create our own clothing lines and support our own brands.” And that’s what happened.
The whole music industry model has changed drastically since Naughty first debuted. Technology has revolutionised everything from the way music is recorded to the way it is retailed and marketed. As someone who has experienced both the old and new music industry models, which do you prefer?
You know what? I don’t prefer the old industry model. I’m not one of those guys who are just stuck on the past, so I love the future and I’m embracing technology. I believe that right now, with all this technology, it’s going to enable artists to be owner operators.
Of course, back in the day the labels did the bulk of the work and they got the lion’s share of the profits. Now, you can roll up your sleeves – especially the established artists like us – we know the basics of what it takes to set-up and break a record. If we’re able to do that and control most of it, if not all of it, you benefit most from it. Musically, because of the politics and radio, there’s a thin bottle-neck out there. It used to be 15 or 20 artists that got played [on radio]. Now, especially on New York radio, you hear the same four artists all day. It’s crazy! I think that’ll eventually stifle creativity for the kids who do listen to the radio. There’s no diversity in the different styles or different offerings in the artists out there, so everybody may sound like the last two artists you heard on the radio.
Music censorship was a major issue back in the early ‘90s and Naughty’s lyrics were always very harsh and unfiltered. At that time, were you aware of the public and political resistance to your lyrics?
Yeah, definitely. We were aware of the resistance to Public Enemy, Luke, 2 Live Crew, NWA, all those were our big brothers and they’re the ones who made that censorship issue an issue. So I think it was all good. Basically, all of our kids are from the inner cities and we were always neglected and always looked upon last, so when we lash out and we talk about our experiences, we talk about our neighbourhoods and culture, it’s like we’re telling on our big mothers and fathers who were supposed to be looking out for us. So once we start airing out their dirty secrets, now they want to censor us. But at the same time, they must mobilise to do something about why we’re telling these stories.
It was almost a decade ago that Kay-Gee parted ways with Naughty By Nature, although the three of you are now back together and recording new material. What was it that inspired this reunion?
I think, first and foremost, it is our love for each other, ‘cause we’ve been doing this together since we were 13 or 14 years old. And just like any family, you’re going to fight and argue, but at the end of the day we’re all family - I‘m talking literal family. Where we’re from East Orange [New Jersey] where there’s only 4 square miles, so we have family members who are literally married to one another. Our family is so tight that we couldn’t get around it, even if we never got back together [as Naughty By Nature]. On top of that, prior to us really getting in the studio and working – we started in 2008 – but we were all back together just kicking it around 2005. It was really like three years before we actually got in the studio.
And has the group dynamic changed at all?
I think, basically, our attitudes and spirits are the same. I just think we come to the table with a bit more experience – life experience, looking at what everybody else is doing in the industry. Us, having the down time and looking at the other successful artists out there, we analyse that. We studied the game. With Treach, he always rhymes with different young guys from around the way. No matter where he goes, he finds some up-and-coming dude and he rocks out with him, so that definitely keeps him on his toes. I think Kay-Gee, musically, since he stopped working with Naughty By Nature, he’s been producing a lot of R&B stuff. So production wise, he’s coming to the table with a lot more experience than when he was 18 years old producing those “OPP” tracks. So, like I said, the mentality was there, I just think skill-wise and experience-wise we come to the table with a lot more in the bag.
Naughty will be touring Australia in 2010 alongside Salt-N-Pepa for the Good Vibrations Festival. Given the tumultuous relationship between Treach and Pepa, will touring together prove to be somewhat of a sticky situation? [Ed's Note: Treach married Pepa of Salt-N-Pepa in 1999, with the couple divorcing in 2001. Pepa made allegations of physical abuse within their relationship in her autobiography 'Let's Talk About Pep', which Treach denies.]
Nah, not really. We’ve been working with Salt-N-Pepa here in the States. We just did a show with them in Trenton, New Jersey about two months ago. Treach’s daughter was there and I think he and Pep spoke about their differences or whatever. So we’re rolling as we always did – as family.
What is Naughty’s label situation at the moment?
Right now, we’re totally independent and we are just getting our weight up so we can place distribution. That’s the kind of deal [we’re after] – strictly distribution. Other than that, we’re doing everything ourselves digitally right now. We’ve got the new single up on iTunes, we’re booking major national US television. So we’re just taking our time, working our project from the ground-up, and when we go in for distribution it will be as smooth as butter.
Musically, what can we expect from Anthem Inc.? We’ve witnessed big shifts in Hip-Hop since Naughty By Nature last released an album seven years ago.
If you listen to our two singles, that’s a little precursor of what the album is like. If you go to naughtybynature.com, we have the A-side of the single “Get To Know Me Better” [available to listen]. That’s so different that we have people up in arms, both ways. Some people hate the record; some people really love the record. People are like, “Wow Naughty! Y’all did something really different here.” And then we have the B-side, which is a joint called “I Gotta Lotta”, which is more traditional boom-bap Hip-Hop. But us being creative, us being artists, those are two good [indications] of what’s to come on the album. And we’re still recording right now. We definitely like the experience, like to work with different producers, different sounds, so we embrace it all. That’s what being an artist is about.
Again, the upcoming album is titled Anthem Inc. and Naughty is renowned for delivering Hip-Hop anthems. What do you think it is that makes your music so anthemic?
For one, it’s in the production - and that’s Kay-Gee. As a producer, it’s his demeanour. I don’t think Kay-Gee grew up an angry, mean kid. He grew up with a decent family. So just with him leading with the production side, he likes a lot of feel good music. And for us, we respond to it. I guess it was just those first looks, that first album, that second album, that’s what people took from it and they kind of carve you out based on those first impressions. I think it is what it is.
You’ve made the trip to Australia countless times, but for those who haven’t yet caught Naughty By Nature live in action, what can they expect from you at the Good Vibrations Festival?
Australia knows that Naughty’s got one of the most high-energy shows you can think of. That’s why they keep inviting us back. So you’re definitely going to have high energy. I just can’t wait to debut the new material in front of an Australian crowd, so they get a whiff of this new Naughty flavour we’ve got going on.
Naughty By Nature will be touring Australia in 2010 as part of the Good Vibrations Festival: www.gvf.com.au
