Naughty by Nature

Fri 23rd Sep, 2011 in Features

After 20 years in the biz, this Grammy award-winning group known as Naughty By Nature are still going strong with a tour Down Under. Vin Rock, took some time out of his Wednesday night to chat with FL about touring, music and much more…

So you guys were down under for last year’s Good Vibes festival and your heading back for the Fat As Butter festival, how do you guys like performing in Australia?
We have a long going love affair with Australia since 1995 when we did our Cool Naughty Pains tour, we came out there for the first time then and we’ve been back numerous times; we’ve done lock the block, like you said we did good vibes last year, earlier this year we were in Canberra, Melbourne and the Gold Coast and now we’re coming back for the Fat As Butter festival.

Well everybody here is happy to have you guys back
We’re happy to be back!

So you guys have been touring around the world for the years, how do you find the crowd’s vibe are they different or same?
I think some people are definitely more into the basic elements of hip hop, the break dancing, the graffiti art and the DJs, we see that in a lot of places and actually we just came back from the Netherlands and they have an incredible vibe there. We also just came back from São Paulo in Brazil, the guys there were actually making the graffiti murals as the festival went on and we went to Bogotá in Columbia. The great big huge festivals out there are the throwbacks to the 80s for us.

Well that brings me to latest album Anthem Inc. Is it safe to say it’s collection of your old stuff and your new stuff, what made you guys want to make this album?
Well it’s half and half we have six throwbacks, which we re-recorded the vocals and took out all of the samples so KG production wise it was the tweaks for with all of those samples and beats, so there’s definitely a twist to the old songs. And then the other half are the other seven songs are all brand new songs, brand new material. It’s like a then and now, kind of like what we’ll doing then and what we’re doing now.

You guys have been in the music hip-hop industry for over 20 years. That makes you veterans when it comes to the hip hop scene, how does it feel to still be up on stage and alive in the scene?
Yeah yeah, well for me it’s the demand; these kids now just keep the demands going. They keep calling for us and the phones keep ringing, the booking agents and promoters are calling us and now all of these social media tools like Facebook and Twitter means a more viral presence out there. Its just the rules of engagement, supply and demand and on top of that, what keeps it interesting for us is that their not the same 21 year olds from 1991, when we were 21 years old. I’m 40 years old now and it’s the new twenty-something year olds who are listening to our music; their at these Naughty by Nature concerts waving their hands in the air saying “Hey Ho”.

Exactly, it’s funny actually I remember stealing your albums from my sisters room and its funny to see different generations passing it on and keeping it going
Yeah definitely I think we’re one of those groups that people follow for as long as we decide to tour and perform, kind of like Public Enemy and like A Tribe Called Quest; generations after your prime people follow the music.

Well how do you view the music scene today, whether that’s the hip-hop industry or the music industry all together. The difference between 20 years ago and now with the Internet as a source of exposure, how do you view that?
I think it’s beautiful even when we were coming out there; there was tons of good music out there that we sampled ourselves from, our mothers and fathers music. So now that were older and there are these kids that grew up on Naughty by Nature, Run DMC and Public Enemy. Their translation of hip hop is just going to be that much better and that’s why you have the Nicki Minajs, the Lil Waynes and the Drakes of the world out there, those are well rounded artists. You know a lot of people say they don’t like what’s going on but all of these artists making incredible music and incredible records, I see it as a testament of studying the game and studying their four fathers; with that said I think there’s a lot of good young music out there and there’s a lot of bad music out there which has always been. As far as these viral tools, I think it’s a beautiful thing that now an aspiring artist can have that virtual grind to accompany them. Although it increases everyone’s chance of being out there, I believe in some way if your truly blessed and a talented artist, you can call out an audience for yourself.