Mad Ciphas sat down with Artist of the Month, Smoke & Numbers. Read on as you get to know them in this exclusive interview...
1. What’s good Smoke and Numbers?
You know, everything's copasetic. Maintaining. Trying to enjoy the finer things in life.
2. For those who don’t know, where are ya’ll from?
Well you know im from Harlem. Harlem Hospital born and raised, Numbers is a BX baby--the heart of the South Bronx.
3. How did ya’ll meet?
We met through a good friend back in high school. We just been grinding ever since--everything he (Numbers) put out--had me on it, and vice versa. It was instant chemistry from the jump.
4. When did ya’ll start to take this music gameseriously?
To be honest, i've always taken rap seriously--from the first time I got in the studio. When I realized I could make a living off this thing--when we got that first check -- that’s when shit REALLY got serious.
5. Both of ya’ll come from different boroughs, whowere your influences growing up?
SMOKE: My influences were the Harlem cats--the whole HW, Big L, the COC movement, MASE. Of course I have been influenced by the NY greats--Jay and Big. NUMBERS: Word, I been influenced by mad people. Um, Nas, Pun--Pac for sure. Big, Jay, LL the list goes on.
6. Color of Money Mixtape was an instant classic inthe hood, How did the Color of Money Mixtape come together?
We banged out in the studio for months. We got about 30 tracks deep and realized we had a good amount of joints together to put out a cd. We linked up with Big Mike, he was feelin the music--jumped on the cd--and there it was, like you said--an instant classic.
7. What can we expect for your follow up Mixtape Getting Every Dollar (G.E.D.)?
The new mixtape is heat. We following up from the Color Of Money--getting more versatile with the tracks, showing the world we growing as artists. These aren't just mixtapes to us, we address these as they albums. So we want to show the world where our heads at. For this next joint, we got Mike back hosting, but we brought on board a DJ to add that missing element that most CDs missing. Something for the original hip hop heads, bringing it to the new generation
8. Which artists did you collaborate with for G.E.D.?
We got our Purple City family on their, Shiest Bubz, Un Kasa. We got Hell Rell and JR Writer on there. We also got BG and Lil Flip on there for the south heads.
9. What producers did you work with?
Man, everyone--Kanye, Pete Rock, Bink, Chubbie Babie, my young dude B-Roc. We got a ton of records done, the surprise will which ones gonna make the cd.
10. When can we expect the G.E.D. Mixtape to drop?
GED mixtape will be everywhere early summer, We got the Swagger Development CD about to drop with the Purple City DVD coming out late May--so we gonna let that get its shine, then come through and drop the GED joint.
11. Ya’ll have collaborated with a lot of artists suchas, Kanye West, Keith Murray, BG, Sheek Louch and LyfeJennings and worked with Super-Producers Scram Jones,Pete Rock, Elite and D-Block’s Supa Mario and not alot of up and coming artists can say that, What other artists and producers out there would you like to work with in the future?
Maaan, theres alot out there. Producer wise--Ron Browz, Chad Wes, Hi Tek--then of course there are the greats like Primo,Timbaland, Swizz. For artists, I'd love to get down with a fly ass singer--some Keiysha Cole on a hook or some one like that--as far as MCs out there--i could see us fucking with some of the older cats in the game--like Slick Rick, G Rap, Jay of course. Some of the new dudes--Stack Bundlez, Corey Gunz.
12. How did ya’ll hear about Mad Ciphas?
(Smoke) was in high school when MC came out on public access tv. Public access was only known for porno back then--Sandy Kayne and Robyn Bird--HAHA--so we got encouraged by seeing cats from around the way on TV. After we saw that we knew we had to get on there--and its been a wrap ever since then..now we MC veterans.
13. What kind of reception are you getting in the streets from being on the TV show?
Man we getting love everyday off the show. People recognize us--whether we on the block, shopping, in the clubs. All over the place--we getting love.
14. What does Mad Ciphas mean to ya’ll?
Mad Ciphas was and still is a big tool in promoting ourselves in the streets. It sparked alot of peoples careers so we respect that. Ya’ll showed us love from the jump--so we gonna keep giving back.
15. Congratulations on your deal with Purple City,what was your reaction when everything was officialand ya’ll signed the deal?
It was regular, cause we were already fucking with Shiest beforehand--so it wasn't like much changed. The biggest difference was the amount of people that jumped on board the project. There's a whole army behind us now.
16. What is ya’ll relationship with Shiest Bub from Purple City and how long have ya’ll known him?
We known Shiest for about 2 years now. We had situations outside of music, and he was always family before the deal. So it was only right when we linked up on the music level.
17. Ya’ll also affiliated with Cinematic Music Group,How long have ya’ll been with them?
Yeah, Cinematic raised us. We been fucking with CMG since teens--they molded us as artists. We were the first artists signed to CMG. I'm (SMOKE) the VP of CMG, so look how shit turns out. HAHA!
18. Felon Union (F.U.) is starting to get their due in the streets because F.U. is made up of the gameslyrical and raw talents that are up and coming, tellus more about Felon Union (F.U.) and who is apart ofF.U.? Well, FU started on 911 (for the slow folks thats 119th St). FU wasn't even on some rap shit, but we were the only rappers--so we turned it into something else. FU consists of Renegade, Nate Bamz, Cezo--the extended fam, The Commission,--Charlie Clips, Ave, and the rest of the crew, you’ll see in due time--we got some surprises in store.
19. The state of Hip Hop is crazy right now, what areya’ll going to bring to the game and what would ya’lllike to change about it?
Shit--we just doin us. We ain't for the whole change hip hop thing--we trying to leave our own mark on the game--with no concern for what anyone else is doing.
20. Besides G.E.D. Mixtape, what other projects can wecheck for from ya’ll in the future?
Of course we got that Purple City Album--we on that joint--MAY 23rd it drops, go out there support ya boys!!! Every Best Buy, every FYE, Circuit City--go get that! We also got that NBA Ballers video game out there--we on that, Final Fight too--on Capcom, we on there. You can see us on all the DVDs: Mad Ciphas: The Raid Vol 1, On The Grind--we dropped that new "On The Real" video!, whole bunch of others. Then we got the best of Smoke and Numbers freestyle cd bout to hit the pavement. Plus, the solo ventures on the way--I got my shit, (Smoke) "Respecanize 3: Welcome To The Dice Game", Numbers got his shit dropping "Strength in Numbers" too. So there's alot of shit poppin--we got a tape a month for the whole next year--so be prepared!
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