BRM: Why is Little Brother breaking up?

Phonte: I mean, there's nothing else to say. Me and Pooh been doing it for a while and we're both going in different directions. We're still very good friends, he's still my man. But in the course of business relations, sometimes you see yourself going in different directions. So you stop the business relationship so your friendship can continue. So that was the decision we came to regarding this record.

So is this like closure?

Well, yeah. Originally, LeftBack was supposed to be an EP of stuff, but in the time that the deal was signed and the actual album was done, a year had went by. So in that year, a lot of stuff had happened. I was touring with Foreign Exchange, Pooh was working on his solo record and doing mixtapes and stuff. So, once we came back to release the record and decided it was going to be our last one, we decided to go in and do some fresh stuff as well to give the fans some new music.

Have you been getting any letters or emails from fans begging you to stay together?

I haven't gotten any emails [laughs], the fans aren't that crazy. But you know, you get the requests from fans, "c'mon please don't do this." It happens and I know it's coming from a good place. It doesn't bother me. But either way this is still the last one.

Why isn't 9th Wonder on it?

We don't work together, we don't have a business relationship, we don't have a personal relationship. I can't speak for Pooh on this matter, but I knew I wasn't about to reach out to him on some “hey let's do a song together for old times sake, just 'cause it's the last album.” I personally am not big on nostalgia and all that shit. If we don't fuck with each other, we just don't fuck with each other, last album or not. I'm not gonna let nostalgia or "for the fans" change that. To me, that would be phony. So, we don't fuck with each other, we haven't for some time. I didn't feel the need to change that.

What would you tell the Little Brother that was first coming out around the time of The Listening?

Phonte: Really, I wouldn't change anything. But if I were to have the same perspective as I have now, back then? [laughs] First off, I would say don't make your producer a part of the group. That situation just doesn't seem to work out well in a lot of cases. If you got your man doing beats, he's crazy, he's talented, he's dope, just let him do the beats. Don't officially put him on paper as a member of the group because that shit will cause a lot of the problems for the group. Second thing I would say is do not sign with a major label, you're better off financially doing it yourself. Third would have to be don't sign with an indie label, shit [laughs]. That would probably be it… Also, just know that nobody's going to work harder for you as you're going to work for yourself. Don't put your faith in labels to save the day and expect them to be great people that are going to help you. It doesn't work like that, or it didn't work in our case. That's what I would tell Little Brother from ten years ago. But then again, I wouldn't change any of that because all of that were things that we had to go through to make us a lot wiser and stronger as far as business goes.

What's your favorite Little Brother track?

I don't know. If I had to pick one I would have to say "Speed" because that's the first Little Brother song.

Okay, let's talk about the new album. How far are you guys pushing this album? Tours, videos?

We'll be putting out videos. That's something we wanted to do, give our fans some more visual stuff. We've only had one real video in our career. That was an area we were lacking in and we wanted to give the fans more of that. In terms of touring and stuff, we'll probably do some dates. We're not doing a massive eight, nine week tour, but we'll probably do some spot dates, East and West coast, some Midwest dates. Just do it like that. It won't be like a world-takeover farewell tour or something like that, it's not that major.

What tracks are you aiming to put visuals to?

That, I don't know yet. We'll pretty much see. The first single "Curtain Call" is going to be the first video we're going to do. In terms of what's coming after that, I don't know. We'll let the fans decide.

I see these remixes on the project, can you tell us about that?

Those were joints that came about when we first started working on the record. It was an EP that was supposed to be remixes and a couple songs that didn't make LeftBack. Like I said, a year went by between signing the deal and getting everything together. Then when we decided to make it a full-length record and do some new songs, I didn't want to just let the remixes go because them shits is dope. My mans S1 & Caleb, they remixed "After the Party" and my man Zo remixed "Two Step Blues" and they did an incredible job. I didn't want them to go to waste just because it was now an "album". When shit is dope it's dope.

I always wanted to ask, would you ever consider doing a collaboration with Kid Sister? Maybe something about family?

No, that's not going to happen.

Alright… Anything you want to leave the fans?

I just want to say thank you to everybody who supported the music. Buying the music, downloading it, passing it around, going to the shows, spreading the word. Anything you've done to promote the name Little Brother, we can't thank you enough and we sincerely appreciate it.

Words by Rek

BRM has done it again. We've hunted down, captured and documented the most innovative and exciting artists to recently emerge on a number of different scenes.All month long we’ll be running q&as with our discoveries to help get you ready for what’s to come in 2010. But to get a complete look at our full list of emerging artists, check out our current winter issue.

With eight members from all over the globe, or to be exact, Haiti, South Africa, Nigeria, Japan, Jamaica, and the Bronx, NY, Brown Rice Family is all about culture and diversity Intent on spreading love and encouraging peace through their music, the Brown Rice Family’s will force you to get up and dance to their soulful reggae beats. I had the privilege of talking to the band’s producer Yuichi, and three other band members Okai, Sticky Rice, and Amu, who put together the vocals, bass, and percussion.

BRM: How did you all come together, how did Brown Rice Family Band start?

Yuichi: We kept adding members to the band. Some people quit, some people join – right now we have eight people. Joe quit last year, he went back to Korea and Okai joined. We kind of all already knew each other.

Is it difficult to compose songs or put them all together with so many band members? What is the creative process like?

Yuichi: I’d say it’s easier than when one person writes all the songs. Some songs start on the bass, some songs, the guitar starts …and then we all start jamming around that idea. We start jamming, then we arrange it, and that’s how we make songs. 

Okai: Sometimes somebody might have something in mind that they created that they want to bring to the table and we’ll work around that, and sometimes a song might come out of just straight jamming and we all just build around it.

Sticky Rice: When someone comes up with an idea, or they already have something in mind, everyone starts to play around it then everyone starts to be like, “Okay it would sound better if we did this”

Do you guys ever switch up who plays what instrument or does everyone pretty much stick to one thing?

Yuichi: Not really. There was one switch. Soils, who plays the soprano saxophone, he used to be the bass player. Actually Caz who is our guitar player, he was originally the bass player when we started, well not when we started – we started without bass or guitar or anything, but then, when Caz joined, he was playing bass and the guitar player quit so he started playing guitar. Then we got Soils as the bass player. When Soils left to go to Japan, we needed somebody to play bass so I asked Amu, and he started playing bass and it sounded good so after Soils came back from Japan, he didn’t have a spot. So he started playing saxophone in the band.

Do you prefer writing songs in languages other than English? What’s the difference?

Sticky Rice: Recently we came up with a song, a contribution to Haiti and I recently wrote a verse for that song and it’s in Creole, the native tongue of Haiti. So it’s just a feeling thing, it just happened, it’s not premeditated. I’m pretty sure in the future we’ll be adding other dialects on different songs. We’re not going to force that issue but if it happens, it happens.

Yuichi: We don’t think like let’s market in Japan and write a Japanese song, everything happens naturally.

On your website it says that you all believe that the most natural way is the most civilized way. How did that discussion come about?

Amu: Joe came up with that, and I guess his idea was just, you know, if we do things on a natural state, that’s more of a normal way of doing things. You know if you eat right, if you live right. I guess things like that… the natural way is the better way. I guess being in tune with nature, according to him, was the civilized way, but he came up with that.

Do you guys all agree with that?

Yuichi: Yeah we still agree with it. It’s good for the environment and it’s good for other people. Good for the environment is good for us. I always say you are what you eat, you know, so eating good is important. Brown rice, eating brown rice!

You’re very focused on celebrating diversity. Is this interest rooted in personal experiences where people haven’t been very accepting of you or of diversity or ethnicity?

Yuichi: I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s the reason why.

Okai: Plus, living in New York, it’s a place where the whole world in, in New York. I guess it’s just fate that it happened that we’re all different backgrounds, but what’s really good about it is that we all still have that thing in common. And that’s where the unity and diversity comes from. We’re all different we’re all from different backgrounds but music is what unifies all of us and we all have a certain vibe to us that makes us attracted to each other, or has attracted all of us to the band, so that’s where that comes from.

In the song “Take Me Away” you talk about some negative aspects of NYC. How does Brooklyn or New York compare to where you were born or where you grew up?

Yuichi: I think New York is a place where I see the problems more, than where I’m from. Conflict between race and class… it’s a good place to give a message through music to everyone.

Amu: New York is like, you know, compared to anywhere, New York is like really hustle-bustle, very chaotic. It’s very hard, especially dealing with people and paying rent or whatever it is– it can be a very big headache compared to where we all come from. I’m from Nigeria, things are a little more laid back, you know, people believe there’s a saying “it takes a village to raise a child,” people believe in knowing what your kids are doing and what your friends are doing. But in New York it’s everyone for himself. So compared to where we come from, it’s very, very, very different.

Is it a personal goal to inspire people to dance with you music?

Okai: Well as far as me – yes. Because I’ve done many shows in the past, especially a New York crowd, it’s hard to get New Yorkers to dance. So to me, from past experience, yes my mission is to get people up at the shows. And it helps that Sticky Rice has happy feet, you know what I mean, other people dancing as well, he gives you an example of what to do when Brown Rice Family music comes on.

Sticky Rice: When I first joined the band, this is actually the first band that I ever played in, I noticed that people would only stop and listen to us if we were doing something they could dance to. When we did a slow song or did any other song, people would just pass by. By if we played a song where you were just forced to dance, everyone would stop and listen. And that was how we used to make money on the streets. [Laughs] I read a book where it said with music you have to make people dance. Once you get them to dance you get them to listen to you, and then you can throw the message out there.

Yuichi: Our music is kind of a mix of everything, African, Caribbean, Brazilian, we try to create a common dance crew. It’s just the kind of music where if someone wanted to do a salsa move to it, you could be able to even though it wasn’t necessarily made for the salsa

Do you get compared to Bob Marley a lot?

Okai: We’re all big fans, I mean everyone’s a big fan of Bob Marley. I think for anybody who does conscience music, Bob Marley has a big influence on your music whether it’s hip-hop, afro-beat, reggae, rock ’n’ roll, Spanish or Latin music.

Amu: Yeah and it’s good being compared to Bob Marley, but it’s not something that we think about or try to do. If there’s one thing about Bob Marley’s music, it’s that it reaches everyone. I mean I don’t care how old you are, I don’t care what you color are, I don’t care if you’re from the year 3030, you’re still going to be listening to Bob Marley. If there’s something that fits with our music, It’s something that anyone can listen to, you know if we’re playing at a night club, someone comes up to us and says, “We’re planning a wedding.” We can play at that wedding cause you know it’s just that kind of music. So in that sense, we’re kind of following Bob Marley. But we’re not trying to copy him, we’re just trying to do our own thing, you know something that’s never been heard before. But something that’s a blend of reggae music and Bob Marley’s music and whatever else.

What was the best show you ever played, what was your favorite?

[Laughs]
Amu: Messiah College. Everybody, I mean literally everybody went crazy. From the first song we did, everybody was sitting until we started playing.

Okai: It’s a good feeling when people never heard your music before and the first or second song, everyone’s just dancing like they’ve heard it before, and that’s a really good feeling.

You have an album called The First Harvest that was recorded in 2008?

Yuichi: It was never released officially. In the last year we made another album with many songs, it is official.

When can we expect to see it?

Yuichi: It will be ready in the summer.

Will this be through a record label?

Yuichi: We are going to produce it independently.  Actually we have an LLC so we can make records, and rice, grains, we make soap too, and cashews.

What do you think is most different about you now as compared to when you first started?

Yuichi: More fun, I’m way more confident now than I initially was. Brown Rice was the first band I was in, and I’d never performed on stage before, and you really feel it in your gut – that gut feeling.

Sticky Rice: It’s way more fun and you know, everyone is in that comfortable spot, where we can all just be comfortable around each other. So this way when it comes to criticism or encouraging someone to do something, we’re all fine about it. I would say it’s more fun and more comfortable which allows us to keep getting better at everything.

Tell me about your soap business

Yuichi: Joe, he had a wedding two years ago, I think. And we were saying we want to make something for the wedding guests. And we decided to make soap. So that was our first soap making experience. Then we got very good discounts and people asking for more soap, we got another order to make somebody’s wedding gift. Then we all kind of got into it. And we started researching about soap making experiences, different recipes, and then finally we made brown rice family original recipe. We started delivering to stores and online… yeah that’s how it started. Making soap.

Is there anything else you would like to add before we go?

Everyone: If you want to take a shower, get some brown rice family soap! You can feel us!

Words by Lindsay Sturm
Photo by Kyle Timlin

http://www.brownricefamily.com/Welcome.html

Ruste Juxx and Marco Polo’s album The eXXecution, due out March 23, is the product of the perfect artistic chemistry between rapper Ruste Juxx and producer Marco Polo. Tracing hip-hop back to its roots, the album’s authentic style is not what you would expect from hip-hop artists today. Released through Duck Down Records, The eXXecution is definitely something to look forward to.

BRM: When did u guys meet? Was it through Duck Down?

Marco: I would say I met Juxx at a Knitting Factory show, I think, Ruste had his kid on stage – yeah Vic was performing.

You both have collaborated with other artists and producers before. What was different or special about working with each other?

Ruste: Marco is really on point with everything he does, his beats – they’re phenomenal, they’re so great, I was happy to have a chance to work with him. A lot of other producers, you know, we worked together good, but we didn’t link like me and Marco

Marco: If I can expand on that, I think the type of beats that I make, they fit Ruste’s style perfectly and he complements my production, and my production complements him. It just sounds like a natural collaboration, it sounds like the eXXecution!

You also worked with other artists on the album, like Sean Price and Black Moon, how was that? Who was most enjoyable to work with?

Ruste: They’re all cool, everybody is like our family. I guess I would say Sean Price, he’s a comedian, man. Marco: Sean Price was always entertaining. The thing with me is when I work with people I like to work with people who like to work with me, because then you get a better performance out of them. If you’re just hiring other artists because of their name, and paying them and they don’t really respect your work, they’re going treat it like a job and you may not get the best performance. And on this album we worked with the people that we know and wanted to work with us, so we got the best performance possible.

Ruste: Rock from Heltah Skeltah, DJ Rrevolution and Black Moon - these are all people we work with, that we’ve worked with before so there’s a mutual respect and we make better music that way. In the intro track you define executer and executioner.

How do these characters or this theme apply to your own lives, who’s who in real life?

Marco: Ruste came up with that analogy.

Ruste: Yeah, yeah I came up with it, you know it’s like he’s coming up with the tracks and I’m executing them.

Marco: I’m not a violent person in real life, but the music that I make definitely inspires an aggressive feel to it, you know that New York street gritty feel. You have to go in a certain direction when you rap on my pieces, it kind of tells you what to do and that’s what I’m saying, it fits Ruste’s style because he goes in and attacks everybody and it just works out.

In “Death Penalty,” the lyrics are “Last LP I said death to all my enemies” – were you thinking of anyone in particular when you wrote that or just about the general opposition you get?

Marco: Anybody wearing skinny jeans! No I’m just kidding, don’t quote that as Ruste.

Ruste: Just the general opposition, you know that’s just me lashing out, period. I’m just trying to prove my point, that’s what I do.

In the song “Rearview” - “got a clear view, you ain’t even in my rearview” is pretty ingenious. How did you come up with that?

Ruste: I don’t even know, I think I just thought about it like that, I don’t know how I came up with that. It just what it called for. I was telling them, you know, to put the car “vroom” in it and that just added on.

Do you prefer freestyle over sitting down and writing? What’s the difference?

Ruste: I like both, I like to sit down and write more because I like to make songs and records.

Marco: There was no freestyle on this album. It was all planned and conceptualized.

What was your favorite track to work on for this album?

Marco: I liked working on everything, I mean you know it’s our album so it’s obviously a biased answer, but every track had its own vibe and me and Ruste are in the zone, so working on every track was good. If I had to pick certain tracks, there’s so many that I would pick, today I was listening to “Rearview” and that’s my favorite, tomorrow it might be something different.

I know this album started with you guys just messing around in the studio, and then you ended up recording nine tracks.Which ones did you record first?

Marco: I think the first song was “Rearview” or “I’m On It”? I think those are the first two songs he recorded.

As a final product, is the album what you expected it to be?

Ruste: I think it’s better than what I imagined. It definitely came together with the mix, it just made it perfect.

How was making this album different from making Indestructible or any other album that you worked on?

Ruste: This album was much easier for me. I would get on a train, go to his crib, record, you know, it was a good environment, it was comfortable, and it came out great like that.

Marco: As a producer, I’m a perfectionist and pretty controlling with how things should sound finally, so I really like to have the emcee come in and do his job which is spit the rhymes, and then I kind of shape the rest of the album and put it together with my crew, you know my man Shiloh helped sequence the album, and let Ruste just focus on writing the songs and I’d take care of pretty much all the rest. It was convenient ‘cause he’s in Brooklyn, I’m in Brooklyn.

How long did it take to record the whole album?

Ruste: We recorded it probably in two months.

Marco: We recorded it really quickly. There was a little bit of a gap in between the recording and the mixing. Without the gap, this album was recorded, mixed, mastered within probably half a year.

How do you see your musical contributions impacting the industry? How would you want your work to influence the hip-hop industry?

Marco: I think you got to lead by example when it comes to the hip-hop scene today. I think what my production brings to the table is it reminds people of how things used to sound. I’m not taking it back intentionally, it’s kind of like paying homage and an ode to the roots of hip-hop, and digging in crates and looking for records with my own spin, with an updated twist on it. I think a lot of new producers are concerned about chasing whatever the current trendy sound is and don’t focus on where it all came from, and the certain style of hip-hop that I was raised on by listening to producers like Pete Rock, and DJ Premier. And they’re still doing it, and I want to stay in that zone and pay homage to them but have my own spin and keep making music that I want to make and not be so concerned about what I hear on the radio and what I see on TV. Because to me, that’s really one aspect on hip-hop and doesn’t represent hip-hop at all in the proper way, you know it’s one side of things. I just kind of mix the beats that I want to make and show people that there is an audience for that style of hip-hop.

You’re playing in New York on the 22nd, do you have any other plans for going on tour or any other scheduled appearances?

Marco: Yep. Right now, that’s our first showcase, on next Monday, but besides that we got the album dropping March 23 that night we have a release party at Sutra, and besides that we’re definitely working on doing some shows out of the country in Europe and in the United States and in Canada, nothing’s confirmed yet but we’d like to be on the road.

Did you both grow up in Brooklyn?

Ruste: I did.

Marco: [laughs] I’m definitely not a Brooklynite, I’ve been here for eight years but I’m Canadian.

When did you first get involved in music, what encouraged you to jump into the industry?

Ruste: I fell in love with hip-hop really young. I listened to it for a long time. and then decided to do my own. It was like when my uncle came home from jail, he was a rapper, I was really influenced by him. So I started writing and got better and better and you know, now my name is Ruste Juxx

How did you come up with that name?

Ruste: One day I was sitting down writing a whole bunch of names, making up names. I don’t know I just came up with it.

What about you Marco, how did you get involved with music?

Marco: My biggest influence was definitely my pops, just because of the music he used to play in the house growing up. He deejayed when he was younger, but he was all over the place. I grew up hearing stuff like Miles Davis and Eric Clapton… He had a very open-minded approach to music and I think that really put me in the zone to kind of go and search out music that I like. He bought the first rap album in my house, A Tribe Called Quest. Once I heard that I was like wow and started getting into hip-hop heavy and, you know, going back in time and catching up with all the albums that I missed, and then I went to school for engineering.

Okay now I have to ask, how do you actually feel about capital punishment?

Ruste: I don’t know, it depends on the crime for me, but then who am I to say?

Marco: I’m not for capital punishment. I think it’s the easy way out. I think if someone did something incredibly wrong they should have to live with themselves and that’s actually more torture than taking the easy way out. I don’t think anyone should play god and take a life, I think you should definitely just let someone sit and think about it for the rest of their life, and that’ll punish them more.

Was there any one moment when you really felt like you were on top of the world, that you were finally doing exactly what you really wanted to?

Ruste: Not yet, that hasn’t happened for me yet

Marco: I don’t think I achieved everything I want to achieve. There’s definitely more that I want to accomplish, but I do feel like I’ve had that moment when I moved to New York and started producing for all the people that I grew up listening to and had people deejay for me and play my records. That definitely was a moment in time when I was like wow, that was good for a minute, now I want to take that and just keep going.

Ruste, What are u looking for?

Ruste: I want to contribute a lot of classic albums, but I’m going to move on and do a whole lot of everything, I want to get money all over, acting, whatever.

What was the most humbling moment in your life, or the biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome?

Ruste: I guess being a father. That was like a big change in my life, you know, from when I was a teenager to growing up and being a man.

Tell me about your kids.

Ruste: I have two, my oldest son is eleven, Lil’ Vic is on my last album on “Get Up.” And my two year old is Giovanni.

I noticed on your Twitter you had a lot of “retweets” from people giving your new album positive reviews, do you normally read the reviews and what people write about you?

Ruste: Yeah I do, I always look to see what someone’s saying about my record or if they like or they don’t like it. I look to see what they say, but mostly it’s always, you know, good.

-Interview by Lindsay Sturm