Grimy Fingernail & Timbs Music Artist: Torae Interviewer: ENIG MUE

Grimy Fingernail & Timbs Music

Torae Interview with ENIG MUE 04-22-09

AmalgamDigital.com:  Why do you think it was important to make Double Barrel?

Torae: The importance in making the Double Barrel album or any LP is to fill a void. That’s not in all cases, but in this case, definitely. I don’t think anyone was making a hard hitting gritty , boom bap NY City feeling album. People were going for fourteen singles, or I got this joint produced by this dude, but nobody was trying to put together a whole cohesive project from top to bottom and I just felt like this is an album that I want go out and support, this is what I want to hear. Since I felt like that, I figured someone else is going to feel like that. Once me and Marco started building and just connecting, we both had that same mentality, that same mind, we were like there’s a fan base out there, somebody is going to be interested in that album, let’s make the album we want make and bang it out, and we did it.

AmalgamDigital.com:  Is that your formula to making music, do you make music that you want to hear in belief that the fans will enjoy it?

Torae: Yeah, definitely, I’m a rapper’s rapper, I always write from the perspective of “what do I like to hear?” As a rapper, when I hear a certain artists, what excites me to say “damn he’s crazy?” and makes me push my pen? I try to evoke that same emotion for other people.  When you put out one or two joints and you get the feedback from the people, obviously everyone is not going to love everything you do, but once you get the general feedback and its positive, then you know people are feeling what your doing and you stay on your path

AmalgamDigital.com:  How quickly did this project come together?

Torae: It wasn’t a quick process at all, we could of went in and banged out some joints but instead we vibed, we worked off the chemistry, that vibe. We didn’t have ant time constraints, no label hitting us with deadlines. We were just homies, we would just go in the studio, I think the first 3-4 records we recorded didn’t even make the project, it was to get the momentum going. Overall, it took us about a year and a half, I mean in that time we went on tour for a couple of months and things of that nature, so there was a little break up. In terms of straight working time, it was probably around fifteen months.

AmalgamDigital.com:  Why did you make this album with Marco Polo as opposed to other frequent collaborators like DJ Premier or Khrysis?

Torae: Well Preem, that guy, its impossible to get that guy in the lab for a whole project. [laughs] Its baby steps, me and Marco are two dudes who were being looked at, on the come up, as being inspired by the whole “golden era”, so I felt it was a no brainer. In addition to that, we both live in Brooklyn as opposed to going down to North Carolina, trying to knock out a few joints in a couple months, or a few weeks. Everything fell into place, once we toured together and spent 28 days in Europe, we shared a room, just being in those close parameters with another dude, you going to either love or hate that dude. So that’s the homie, everything fell into place and nothing was done for any other reason but making the dopest music possible.

AmalgamDigital.com:  I see you have M.O.P. & Sean Price of Heltah Skeltah on Double Barrel, who are your top 5 hardcore hip-hop artists/groups?

Torae: I mean, if you going with hardcore, you gotta start with M.O.P., them dudes, when you hear a M.O.P. record it puts you in a certain place. Hmm, EPMD made a couple records that crossed over but overall they still one of the hardest groups. They came out with the funk but they kept it real gritty, real street. On the solo tip, I’m a big Guilty Simpson fan, he’s dope. He keeps it real gritty with the lyrics and his subject matter. [laughs] Its going to sound like the all the features on the album but I have to go with Heltah Skeltah Heltah keeps it real street, like Sean say the most ignorant shit ever and Rock add to the ignorance and he got the crazy, killer voice. For the last one I’ma take it back, Onyx. Their music, I’m not going to take it to personal but Onyx their music, was real hard, real street fingernail, timberland music, nah mean? So that’s my top 5.

AmalgamDigital.com:  Double Barrel is being released by the ever consistent Duck Down Records, why did you decide to roll with Dru & Buck?

Torae: Shit, you just answered it, the ever consistent, who else been here 15-16 years putting out records no matter the climate, no matter what’s poppin’, they’ve been surviving, they’ve been living, that speaks volumes man. A lot of other indies have come & gone, gotten eaten up, folded, whatever. Duck Down, from the time they put out “who got the props” to turning in my own album, they’ve been there. That means the world to me, that I can even put out a project on that label. As a fan, seeing that logo and know that quality attached to it and to be apart of it now is a beautiful thing. Plus we had relationships, I knew Buck for a number of years and Marco has been producing for Duck Down for the last 3-4 releases so we definitely had relationships already. Once they found out we were putting out a project, we started sitting down with a bunch of people and it made the most sense to roll with the double D.

AmalgamDigital.com:  Last year you released the dope Daily Conversation album & mixtape, were you happy with the response to your long awaited debut?

Torae: Definitely, Daily Conversation, to me, I know a lot of people look at it because of the way it was packaged as my first album, but really it was just a collection of dope joints that I wanted to put out. I wanted to let the people know I’m right here, here I go. So that was my introduction but by no means was that my debut, that was just my first look, that was my warning shots, or my foot steps. I definitely think it was well received, I put it out as my own, let Fat Beats distribute it, but I didn’t want it to be perceived as this is this dude’s album. I put it out, of course there was less marketing, less of a budget, but it still made noise because of the quality of the music. I was real pleased because I put it out on my own company, Internal Affairs Entertainment, so every single soundscan, whether I sold one or one thousand or one million is all off my own blood, sweat & tears, off the strength of my own company and everything I put into it, that in itself was its own success to me, so I was real pleased with Daily. It’s enabled me to do this and do my next go round so it’s a beautiful thing.

AmalgamDigital.com:  Are you touring for Double Barrel?

Torae: Ah man, I can’t talk about it yet, because it’s not finalized yet, but we working on something real big. There’s another big act or acts or people that are going out, they got a release that’s coming out around the same time as ours. Once everything is finalized it’s going to put us directly in front of the audience that we made the music for. I ain’t going to let the cat out the bag yet because in hip-hop nothing is final until you’re performing on stage really. [laughs] We got a couple of dope things lined up, abroad as well as across the states. Look for Marco and Torae out there real soon.

AmalgamDigital.com:  What do attribute to your perseverance through all the politics & hurdles to be respected in your craft and releasing music steadily now?

Torae: [I attribute it to] just my love for the music, I don’t do it for no other reason than I love it. It doesn’t help keep a relationship together, it doesn’t help keep your bank account zero’d up…well zero’d up but not behind some commas. [laughs] I do it because I love it, I do it because I got put on to hip-hop as a kid and it was right, it was a part of me, it was an extension of everything I did to the way I walked, way I talked, to how I expressed myself. I felt the only thing that was going to stop me was if I stopped myself, and that wasn’t going to happen. So everything else I attribute to being apart of the grind, I hear people always saying I have to pay dues, and now I understand what paying dues is. The pay off is a beautiful thing, seeing 20 thousand people with their hands in the air mouthing your lyrics is a beautiful thing, so if that’s what I was paying dues for then I’m glad, I feel good about it.

AmalgamDigital.com:  How has the current economy affected the independent rapper? Has it forced you to become more creative with the internet?

Torae: The internet is the mighty double-edged sword, it helped me get into the eardrums and the homes I couldn’t have gotten into otherwise but when Daily Conversation came out, whatever many hits I got on Amalgam or iTunes, I probably got quadruple that on zShare and Mediafire. At the end of the day it is what it is, you want the music to get out and you want the people to hear the music. Everything else will fall into place, with the shows, the merch or whatever it’s going to take, but like I said I don’t do it for money. Just like how people become police officers or teachers, there’s something in them that makes them do what they do because that’s what they feel their destined to do, that’s like me with the music. If it comes full circle and the money starts flowing in hip-hop real crazy maybe I’ll be here for a part of it but if it doesn’t so be it, I’ll still be here no matter what.
You always gotta be creative with your budget, you cant splurge out and go crazy, and the internet helps. So we’re going to be super duper viral in our marketing campaigns and things of that nature but I don’t do it for the money, I just do it because I love it. Money always helps though; being able to keep my phone on to do these interviews is always a plus.

AmalgamDigital.com:  Big ups to extra money in your pockets. What else can your fans look forward to from you? Are you coming with a debut — debut then?

Torae: Yeah, like I said, everything is just setting up, you hear my footsteps. The first place a lot of people heard me is on Daily, now Double Barrel is going to open me up to a whole different market of people and also show my versatility. It will show them I am not afraid to re-create myself or do stuff that’s a little out the box, to flex that artistry. Once that’s over then we will hit them with the official-official debut.

AmalgamDigital.com:  I’m looking forward to that, because literally I heard “Click” and said “who the fuck made this?” since then I’ve been on the look for both of you guys, you and Skyzoo, are you guys eventually going to do a project together?

Torae: Anything is possible because that’s my dude, the relationship is there. I just spoke with him yesterday actually, he just signed with 9th (Wonder), and he’s dropping an album, The Salvation, I think 9th’s label is distributed through Duck Down so he’s apart of the team as well. That’s the homie Sky, so who’s to say, sometimes the anticipation puts it in a crazy space but we are going to continue to make music together and hit the road together and all that. First and foremost we homies so once you got that anything else can happen.

Look for more Torae online;
www.Myspace.com/DaYoungVet
www.Myspace.com/DoubleBarrel08
www.Twitter.com/Torae