This is Part 2 of the interview I did with Portland Oregon’s rap group Animal Farm.
Read Part 1 and don’t forget to download the entire interview. We had a lot of fun on the radio and you can hear it all with the player below.
Chase: “Alright, we’re back. That was Animal Farm off their album The Unknown. “We Came to Rock.” Nice, nice track. Who did the production on that?”
Animal Farm: “This dude Gen.Erik. He does about ninety percent of the production on the album actually. He’s also an emcee in the group.”
Gen.Erik: “That’s me!”
Chase: “Is that Gen for like General? Are you the general in charge of things?”
Animal Farm: “It’s for genitals, actually”
(laughs)
Chase: “I don’t want to go there.”
(laughs)
Animal Farm: “We’ve been trying to figure out what the gen meant for a while.”
Gen.Erik: “It’s just generic. That’s all it is. Thanks for putting me on blast man.”
Chase: “So looking at your myspace page, there was a video there. Somebody said that Animal Farm was like two separate crews coming together.”
Animal Farm: “Yeah, it was.”
Chase: “So you guys were rhyming separately for a while. How’d ya come together?”
Animal Farm: “There were two crews up here for a while. One was called Money Shot and they were pretty cool. And there was this one called Sound Proof which was really tight. Nah, nah, we were all just doing the same shows, getting booked on the same bill, and we just decided, let’s just hook up. Like a conglomerate of rappers and see if we could just kill things.”
“We were all homies. We were rocking together for years and we ended up doing a lot of sets where we would trade off together. We knew each other’s material and were backing each other. It was kind of a natural thing that we just came together to merge to form Devastator.”
“It’s funny ‘cause we get asked this question a lot. I didn’t really think about it, but when me and Kwils used to be in Money Shot, we’d actually have girls dancing on stage in bikinis and making out with each other. It’s kind of like, the whole formula’s changed a little bit when we added Sound Proof.”
“And plus, like, actually Gen.Erik, he was an emcee and producer in Money Shot. He was actually the DJ for Sound Proof too, which was me and Hanif. So, it was already there. We were kind of working together, ya know?”
“We don’t really have girls dancing anymore, ‘cause girls don’t like us anymore.”
“I got my tooth knocked out and they don’t think I’m as sexy they used to. My stock got knocked down, ya know what I mean.”
Chase: “Crazy, crazy! So what are you guys bumping right now? What’s in your rides when your going around town, or what’s in your Ipods or MP3 players right now?”
Animal Farm: “Yeah, I’m feeling that Zion-I Takeover album, that’s it. That’s ridiculous hot.”
“I’m bumping Mos Def. Ya know how he was on the remix to The BushBabees, what is it, The Love Song? With De La and Mos Def.”
I didn’t play that track during the show but I’d like to drop it now. So here it is,
Chase: “Yeah, the Bush Babees, props man.”
Animal Farm: “We’re just bumping down here, Serge Severe. Big Up’s to Surge from Focused Noise and DJ Wels.”
“And we’re bumping the Haters that Hate Me, probably the best (laughs) CD I’ve ever heard (still laughing). No, I’m just playing. Really, don’t listen to that. It was pretty awful.”
“I’m not trying to call these guys out but we get a lot of CDs handed to us when we’re on the road. You should hear some of the stuff that comes out. It’s crazy, like it’s just not put together. People need to think about it before they get into this business.”
Chase: “Yeah, definitely.”
Animal Farm: “We’d really like to thank everybody who hands us a CD ‘cause sometimes they make good Frisbees.”
“Yo, on the real though. I do give those guys props, cause ya gotta get out there somehow, Like I remember back in the day Kwils was trying to pawn me off on his demo tape. Like it was four tracks on it. It wasn’t a good Frisbee but it worked as a good football.”
Chase: “That’s how Gamma Krush and I got together from a tape man. So sometimes, like good things happen from tapes. But ya gotta make sure your sharp with it right? Like don’t be handing out tapes that you only spent two seconds on. Put the effort in, right?”
Animal Farm: “Yeah ‘cause we love this man. We put a lot into it. And when we hear something that sounds like someone didn’t really put much into it, it’s just kind of like, ‘Come on, man.’”
Chase: “I think ya can tell when the heart’s there. When ya got a group that’s like real, it’s something that you can just feel. Like you know it. And Animal Farm’s definitely got that, for sure.”
Animal Farm: “Thank you.”
Chase: “Are you guys familiar with any Canadian hip-hop?”
Animal Farm: “Yup, Swollen Members. We’ve been bringing folks down since the mid 90s pretty much.
“For Canadian tours cats like Moka Only, Swollen Members, Sweatshop Union.”
Chase: “Sweatshop Union, yes! We just had them on the show recently.”
Animal Farm: “Kardinal Offishal. I recently heard that dude Shad.”
Chase: “Yeah, Shad is wicked.”
Animal Farm; “He’s ill.”
Gamma Krush: “Yeah I saw him at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. He put on a crazy show, crazy freestyle, dud plays like the acoustic guitar and everything.”
Animal Farm: “Oh really, He was dope. That Fresh Prince take off video he did was ill.”
Chase March: “Let’s drop that right now. This is ‘The Old Prince Still Lives at Home’ by Shad off his album ‘The Old Prince’”
Gamma Krush: “A lot of people are going off that Drake’s the best emcee out of Canada right now but yeah, Shad’s really killing it. No disrespect to Drake, I mean, he’s ill and I like his acting and all. I watch Degrassi: The Next Generation. But speaking of like, performances, when are y’all gonna come through to Ontario?”
Animal Farm: “We’re just waiting for that phone call, ya know with the big guarantees.”
“Yeah, we definitely would love to come up as soon as possible really. We’re trying to make some things happen for this next summer. Get some more dates around the country. Ya know, we gotta conquer these 50 first, but we’re definitely looking to come up there as soon as possible. As soon as my man Fury is legal and stuff like that, and he’s allowed back into Canada.”
“Yeah, we’ll e coming through your neighbourhood for beer tickets and gas money real soon.”
Chase: “Yup, that’s what we’re known for. Anyway, what’s one of your, ah let me just pick a guy – Fury, what’s one of your favourite songs off the album”
Fury: “The Show Must Go On. I like the beat a lot. Gen.Erik was on that for sure. I just like that song specifically because you can take about every line in that and relate it to some show that we’ve done and been through before. That’s why I like it the best. It’s one of my favourites anyways.”
Chase March: “Let’s play that right now. Here is ‘The Show Must Go On’ by Animal Farm.”
That was Part 2 of the Animal Farm interview we did for Dope FM. Stay tuned here for Part 3 tomorrow of the text version and please download the podcast of the radio show. It’s free. What do you have to lose?