This is Part 3 of the interview I did with Grand Analog on location at Call the Office in London, Ontario. If you missed Part 1 or Part 2 you can go back and read the transcripts, stream the show with the player below, or you can download the podcast for free right now and hear the entire show.
Chase: “I’m lucky enough to be sitting with one of the members of Grand Analog right now. While the others are busy working, we’re sitting here talking.”
Odario: “I didn’t get any text message yet saying ‘Where are you?’ so we’re in good hands.”
Chase: “I really like one of your lyrics that says ‘I bring the passion back in one freestyle. This ain’t no accident, just a brain child of another movement, whole other lifestyle.’ Nice! So do you freestyle?”
Odario: “Not as much as I used to. That’s what happens when your band turns into a full-time job and you’re also on the management. Ya know when I was just doing this as a hobby, it was fun because you could just kick back with your friends and just shoot the gab. But I will not lie, it gets really busy and you gotta keep the business going. One minute you’re working on a show in Halifax and then next minute you have to get the show set up for London and then you forget that you’ve got a show in Vancouver. I don’t have that much time to sit back and just freestyle and have fun and goof around these days, but I’m not complaining.”
Chase: “It’s probably a part of the writing process though.”
Odario: “Now the writing process is a whole other thing because you have to shut down everything else so you can write and be creative. You can’t come out of a meeting or prepare a tour and then just go sit down and start writing. The human brain is just not built to do that. Your material won’t be as good as it can be.”
Chase: “So you have to be in a zone when you’re writing then.”
Odario: “Yeah. I like to write on the highway, to be honest. The beats that we make we get on the highway. If the next town is four hours than I’ve got four hours to just freestyle and write stuff. I remember everything I write in my brain. I’m luckily capable of doing that.”
Chase: “That’s amazing ‘cause I use a little tape recorder sometimes and I think I’m going to get in trouble with that one day because I come up with a rhyme and I got that in my hand and this new hands-free law while you’re driving. Uh-oh, I can’t dictate a rhyme to myself or a story idea or something that I’m working on writing.”
Odario: “Nope, you can’t do the hand movements either.”
Chase: “So, I hope you’re not driving while you’re writing. One of the other guys is driving.”
Odario: “It all depends because when they’re sleeping is when I like to write the best.”
Chase: “I also heard that Ludacris said in one of his interviews that he writes a lot when he’s driving. And your car is like your own little world so it’s like how you can get in that zone. I totally identify with that.”
Odario: “It’s like your own little recording booth actually without the recording equipment of course. It’s like a little booth where you can practise your lyrics in.”
Chase: “Of course, the irony of this is that we’re recording this interview in the car. Yeah, we got to the venue a little bit late and it’s really loud in there. This is a little more radio friendly, live on location in Odario’s car.
So, the song we just played, you have a lyric in there, I’m not going to pretend you wrote it so I’m just gonna say it without crediting it right now.
‘Can’t hear nothing but the music, I’m slipping.’
Now I hope people out there caught that.”
Odario: “You know what? I put those things in there just to see what comes back. That one hasn’t come back yet. It’s very interesting.”
Chase: “No,”
Odario: “I don’t know, Maybe it’s just a younger audience that’s listening.”
Chase: “I wish this were live so we could say, ‘Phone in now if you know who that artist is,’ and give away something. Props to EPMD by the way, if you didn’t know it was them.”
Odario: “That was a fantastic album.”
Chase: “Definitely. Even their latest one is good. It didn’t seem to get as much play or notice.”
Odario: “That was-”
Chase: “We Mean Business”
Odario: “They kept the whole ‘business’ thing going, that’s classic, just classic.”
Chase: “I think it’s awesome because you can look at rappers making sequels to their albums like Raekwon’s ‘Only Built for Cuban Links II’ and ‘Blueprint III’ and I thought at first that it was crazy. Why are people making sequels? You can’t capture the same album. And I thought about it, EPMD, every album has been a sequel. Every single album! When they broke up, ‘We’re Outta Business,’ when they got back together ‘We’re Back in Business.’ It’s pretty cool.”
Odario: “There’s no other artist that has managed to do that in their entire career. It’s fantastic.”
Chase: “Even when PMD went solo he kept the business part. Sermon didn’t but PMD did.”
Odario: “He did, didn’t he? What did he call it? Do you remember?”
Chase: “He had one called ‘Shade Business,’ which I think might have been a little bit of a diss at his ex-partner there. So many people were rooting for them to come back together.”
Odario: “I’m glad that they did. They’re perfect together, not apart.”
Chase: “It’s unfortunate these days but there are a lot of disposable groups that you just don’t hold that passion for. If you realistically look back at it, Erick Sermon isn’t that great of a rapper. His rhymes are kind of simple. But I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s the time we group up but they’re-”
Odario: “Batman and Robin, just like Pete Rock and CL Smooth, they need each other. Gangstarr, they need each other. Separate it’s just not the same. It’s not as exciting.”
Chase: “Definitely. I think there’s a movement now with different one-off combination albums like Marco Polo and Torae. I think that’s great, bringing that producer and rapper back like Gangstarr. I think we need some more of that, give it some more direction in the game these days.”
Odario: “Illmatic is obviously the best idea of this but getting numerous producers to contribute to your album. That turned into a trend within itself but I think it’s very cool if you’ve got that one producer who’ll make all beats for you and create an album with you, I think that’s awesome.”
That ends the awesomeness for today folks. Please come back tomorrow for the final installment of this transcript, and don’t forget to download the podcast for free from DOPEfm. We bring you the best in underground hip-hop each and every week on 93.3 CFMU in Hamilton, Ontario. If you can’t listen live, subscribe to the podcast. It’s free and easy. This way, the great mix sets, interviews, and Know Your History segments will come right to you. What’s better than that?