I'm reposting this interview that DrewxBlood did last March because it is awesome, and more people need to read it. Sayin'.
Not to mention, Cutting Losses is making moves as of late. Get on that shit.
Also, I am now to be known as "Jaywalk."
http://cuttinglosses.wordpress.com/
1. So how long has Cutting Losses been around? Can you give me a brief band history?
Basically, the band started way back in a time when people still bought Compact Discs and you could count all Mt. Dew flavors on one hand in Oct 04 when Greg was already blessing VA Tech with his mosh in multiple bands and, mostly out of pity, he decided to write some songs for me to whine over. I told him to sound like Trial. He did. We played that song and a Misfits cover about a month later at a show I booked. Coincidental timing? Naaah. Fast forward to July 2008, we now have a whopping 4 songs and play our second, and supposedly last, show. We was grindin, son. In the between time members moved, members joined better bands, etc. Shit just got sidetracked, but I never could let go of the one decent band I've ever been a part of (SWC included). We've had too many members to categorize any summary as brief, but long story short, we've had 15 members/players. It's Rampage & Blood till the bitter end but we've been through a lot of dudes. No homo. Special mention to Mike Ta Life playing a solo once, Keithbabe coming up with Dummy Bears during practice and Boring Chris for being the only one to play the first 2 shows.
2. The demo is hard. "Anvil" makes me want to break an engine block over my face. Your thoughts on this.
Yo I'm sayin. That's the song that rivals Terror for amount of curse words but listening to the music, what else was I supposed to say? All in all, considering we taught the songs to some of the people that played on it that same day and because I thought it was going to be the last thing CL was ever going to do, I'm pretty proud of it. We wrote the first song in 04 and the last in 08, so it was a cool way to wrap up that time period of my life before starting a new chapter in here in Austin. Fuck the music though, have you seen the cover?
3. You guys are doing a new recording soon. How many songs is it going to be and is anybody putting it out? What's the new stuff sound like?
It's looking like 8 new jams right now. Still hard, still up-fucking-set. A little less Trial, a little more Right Brigade/Droppin Many Suckas. Equivalent amount of me going out of my mind and addressing topics that are uncomfortable outside of song context. Now that this is Greg's only band he's writing a little more seriously and not just pandering to my personal desires. I think our drummer is basically gonna put that shit out himself. He mumbled something about "diy" or whatever, I don't know. Look out for the grey cassette edition.
4. What do you write your lyrics about?
Anger, hatred, one deepness, suicide, death, murder, betrayal, fucking the world, desolation, loneliness, desperation, instability....see, that's awkward, right? I have one more set of lyrics to write for the new recording, maybe I'll address health care or gardening tips. Mostly I just write about choices.
5. Didn't Cutting Losses go on a hiatus, or something, after only playing one show? Are you guys solid now?
A hiatus to other bands is a busy period for us. We decided 4 songs in 4 years was just too ridiculous of a pace for us to keep up and there wasn't anything else left to do with the band so we decided to put it to bed. We managed to clear our schedules, add 2 more members to the band and play our one and only actual show in Richmond, VA, July 08. Then we moved to Austin, TX. And were too lazy to think of new band name. Enter Daine & Gary. This is as solid as we've ever been so I'm glad to have those dudes on board. Daine has a van and Gary has a silly stupid credit line so they might just kick Greg and me out. We have been practicing consistently since around November. We've played 3 shows, too. We need to slow the fuck down. Side note: all of us are from VA and went to college in the same area. Glad we had to move 1500 fucking miles to make this band work.
6. Why does Richmond continually produce great bands? Who do kids need to be aware of from your area?
Richmond is a grimy fucking place. That's half the beauty of it but in my 13 years of living close by and 2 years of living there I noticed it's got a dark soul. And of course, the infamous "third per capita." So no surprise some hard shit comes outta there. Down To Nothing, Government Warning & Naysayer sup. Keep an eye on Ladies, Critters, Pistol Bitch. Do you like how I answered that as if you knew we moved and meant to ask me about Richmond anyway? As far as Austin goes we have a lot of bands here but straight forward hardcore has been lacking until lately. We have Losing Grip, some young dudes that cover Cold As Life, and One Against Many, some old dudes that cover SSD. I think Seeker is on their way back, too. Quit jaywalking, JJ.
7. Is there any possibility that Cutting Losses will tour? If so, will you please come to Florida?
If we can figure out how to get out of this gigantic ass state we will go anywhere we are wanted. We have a $12 guarantee and demand 5000 brown m&ms. We will play to no fewer than 3 kids. Cuff ya chick.
8. I know you're also an emcee. Tell me what got you into hip hop and what it's like to be active in another genre.
Well I have yet to prove myself as an MC since I've only performed live once but I've written stacks of lyrics and recorded about 150 songs in my bedroom. I'm still working on my craft but due to the amount of fun I had performing, and the amount of chicks that love dudes rapping about their dicks, I've decided to finally take it seriously. I am also working on making beats. I've made over 300 and I am pretty proud of what I've been coming up with for the year i've been messing around but unfortunately too broke to buy the real equipment I need to really thrive. As far as being active in another genre I can't really say I am as a contributor yet so I'll answer that from a different angle. Being active as a consumer is the exact same. I go to shows by myself, get there way too early by accident and am annoyed by everyone there. But if you think show o' clock is late in hardcore... I will say this, though: I love hip hop and always will, and lately i listen to it 90% of the time, but I am a hardcore kid. Hardcore has made me who I am. I see neither as a novelty and certainly would never combine the two for such.
In all honesty the first taste I got of hip hop was Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer & Donnie's verses on New Kids On The Block songs. I was in 2nd grade though, so I think that's okay. Third grade was Kriss Kross. 4th grade was The Chronic & the Baby Got Back video. I didn't have a copy of The Chronic when it came out and my media access was on tight lock but i caught the videos a few times and kids at school would let me hear it on their headphones. That's the first legit rap album I remember being fully into. Fast forward to 5th grade when I was big man on campus with a radio/tape deck and you find me waiting with the blank tape in the deck to record "Who Am I" by Snoop Doggy Dogg. I had that song like 17 times on the same 60 minute tape. Pepper in some Cypress Hill and accidental recordings of the first few seconds of Mariah Carey songs for the rest of the tape. That's the song that I really credit for making me a hip hop fan. Shit blew my mind. I was as confused and excited as my first erection. Fuck, I think that's WHEN I got my first erection. There was no specific reason why i loved it. The music was new to me, the people responsible looked cool as shit and I was really intrigued by that blurry thing in the hands of Warren G in the Nuthin But A G Thang video.
Basically, I started doing the raps myself because i was never able to get 4-5 people together to do a band for any period of time, so I said fuck it, let me do something that I can do on my own. Rap was that option. It was basically a way for me to get shit off my chest without having to actually talk to anyone. I had been writing rhymes down since, like, 8th grade but i started recording myself in May 08 (Jonesy shout out). I love writing, I love crafting words together as creatively as possible. Yeah rap is a great way to get sweet chains and fat asses and big dollars, but at the end of the day, it's just a great way to get creative and tell the world what you think of it. Plus, you can do it in your bedroom, by yourself. The fat asses are cool, too, though.
9. Tell me how you come up with your rhymes and beats.
With rhymes, there really is no method. I find a beat I want to rap over and just put it on repeat. It usually brings forth a certain topic or idea and I just delve into that. The first 2 lines are the hardest but once I get those, I just write. I later go back and chance wording and phrasing. Obviously, I can't rely on "swag" or thuggery alone, so I have to try and be creative as possible. Multiple rhyme schemes within bars, alliteration, all that shit. For fun, I'll write lyrics on any typical rap topic, ie: drugs and bitches, and I might even use those to rap at a party or something where I'm not going to be held accountable for what comes out of my mouth and I'm simply aiming to entertain, but when writing for something that I would put on record, I stay pretty serious.
With beats it really varies. Regardless, the beat I end up making is usually never the one I intended to make. I admit that 90% of the time I just sit down with the intention of ripping off a certain beat that I like, more so for practice's sake so that I can hone an ability to actually make what I hear in my head, but my natural aura overcomes and makes something totally different. Which I guess is cool. broaddaylight512.com if you wanna check some stuff I'm fucking with. Yeah, I have a website, but I don't really push it. That's just so I can show my friends what I'm up to. Like, I said, waiting to step up my equipment/studio game before I go hard on that tip.
10. Two part question: what records do you believe are essential listening in the genres of hardcore and hip hop and do you think these two styles of music have any similarities?
I can't really feel comfortable answering a question like that so I'm just gonna list a couple albums that may or may not be good and may or may not be important, but I know they will always be in my favorites list until the end of time, regardless of certified legitimacy. I feel like if I need to tell other people what the actual essentials are (in either genre), they need better friends. So that said, none of this shit is from the 80s for a reason. And anybody who takes issue with what I list, remember I don't write the music for Cutting Losses, so deal with it.
Hardcore: Madball, Set It Off; Go It Alone, Only Blood Between Us; Morning Again, Hand Of Hope; Hatebreed, Satisfaction; Down To Nothing, Save It For The Birds; Death Threat, Last Dayz; Dead Wrong, Hellbomb; Blacklisted, Peace On Earth; Torn Apart, Nothing Is Permanent; Orchid, Dance Tonight; Integrity, Pretty much everything; Day Of Suffering, Eternal Jihad; Step Forward, S/T; Shai Hulud, Hearts Once.
Hip hop: Nas, Illmatic; UGK, Ridin Dirty; Z-Ro, Life Of Joseph W. McVeigh; Three 6 Mafia, Da Unbreakables; Eminem, Marshall Mathers; At least one record from the Cash Money discography between '98 & 00; Wu Tang, Forever; B.I.G., Ready To Die; 2pac, All Eyez; DJ Screw, 3 in tha Mornin; Ice Cube, Lethal Injection; DJ Shadow, Entroducing; Trae, Restless; Cam'ron, Purple Haze; AZ, AWOL; Bone Thugs, Creepin; Clipse, Lord Willin; Ludacris, Back For The First Time; MC Ren, Villian In Black; Mobb Deep, The Infamous; TI, King; Fat Pat, Greatest Hits; Naughty By Nature, S/T.
As far as similarities, absolutely. They came to fruition at about the same time. They are both from the streets (Agnostic Front & Cro Mags are as hard as NWA & Rakim). They both have their splinters and factions that help to not only strengthen the genre, but weaken it (Hardcore, used loosely, has Achilles (strength) & Attack Attack (weak). Hip Hop has Andre 3000 (strength) & Soulja Boy (weak)). And I feel like if you aren't pissed off about at least a few things in life, you have no business being in either. Even positive bands like Youth Of Today, etc were still pissed. They were just positive in how they approached that anger. Or if you look at party rap like Gucci Mane, you still have to consider where this attitude of "i'm just gonna get rich and dance" came from - probably because he was so tired of growing up pissed off in the projects and getting shot at and now he can do something else for a change. There is also the dividing line between underground and mainstream, but in hip hop it is a little blurrier. When I started getting into Texas hip hop and the whole Screwed Up Click & Swishahouse scenes, it was just like when I first got into hardcore. I had a whole new genre of music to research and dive into. It was a new sound that I wasn't totally aware of and it kept me excited and busy for a good couple of years. Even still I'm finding new (old) shit, so that's cool.
11. Greatest emcee of all time?
Sheeeeiit. Well there are my personal favorites and then those that are most important. I pick my personal favorites based on a combination of lyricism and the music they choose to rap over, and the longevity of those. For instance, Saigon is an amazing lyricist, but has yet to put out a whole album I jam repeatedly. Or on the flip side, I own (as in paid for) 14 Pastor Troy albums, but I can't ever put him on a top 5 for obvious reasons. In a quick list, my current five that I find myself listening to the most and keeping an eye on for new tracks the most are: Z-Ro, Chamillionaire, Royce Da 5'9, Clipse & Cam'ron. I'll also give you my all-time personal 5 favorites and why.
Z-Ro:
Reason 1- He can make heartbreak songs hard as shit.
Reason 2- "Mama said that it would it be days like this but not a life like this, so I take a knife like this and slice like this, take life like this, fuck around and I take my own life like this or click me a bitch ni**a, in the windpipe like this. That's right bitch, I'm a ignorant son of a bitch and I do click quick. It might be to break a ni**a bones, but never be stones and sticks. I ain't the shit bitch, I'm the motherfucking commode and fuck everybody that ain't Z-Ro, that's on my soul. Finally, I found me."
Reason 3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPUiL7oV2KQ
Nas:
in 1994 - "I switched my motto, instead of sayin fuck tommorrow. That buck that bought a bottle could've struck the lotto"
in 2009 - "They say I’m so low key, I’m socially awkward. Only those that really know me are the ones that I talk with"
If you can't see the genius in those lines, I can't fucks with ya.
Eminem:
There are so many things you can say for or against him, but at the end of the day he just might be the sickest fucking word-crafter that ever lived. It's undeniable: "I sit back with this pack of Zig Zags and this bag of this weed it gives me the shit needed to be the most meanest MC on this Earth and since birth I've been cursed with this curse to just curse and just blurt this berserk and bizarre shit that works and it sells and it helps in itself to relieve all this tension dispensin these sentences. Gettin this stress that's been eatin me recently off of this chest and I rest again peacefully but at least have the decency in you to leave me alone, when you freaks see me out in the streets when I'm eatin or feedin my daughter to not come and speak to me. I don't know you and no, I don't owe you a motherfuckin thing, I'm not Mr. N'Sync, I'm not what your friends think, I'm not Mr. Friendly, I can be a prick if you tempt me my tank is on empty/ No patience is in me and if you offend me I'm liftin you 10 feet in the air. i don't care who is there and who saw me destroy you, go call you a lawyer, file you a lawsuit. I'll smile in the courtroom and buy you a wardrobe. I'm tired of arguin'. don't mean to be mean but that's all I can be is just me"
And for current proof, reference his verses on Lil Wayne's Drop The World and Drake's Forever in which he carelessly murders the aforementioned artists on their own shit.
Ice Cube:
What's scarier than a pissed off black man from the hood? A pissed off black man from the hood that's smart as shit. Also, because he managed to ease his way into the mainstream and make kids movies but still be legit as shit. He's like the Jamey Jasta of rap.
Bun B:
I think he is the only high profiler rapper to LITERALLY never have any one talk down on him or beef with him. Dude is respected by all coasts, all sets. Truly an OG that is as legit as the day he started. Never fell off to do some hollywood shit and he'll never let the world forget Pimp C. Really I think Scarface is probably the OG'est of all Texans but man, Bun (/UGK) has never stopped influencing the whole entire south.
I would just like to state on record: Cam'ron > Jim Jones. B.I.G. > 2pac. 50 Cent > Lil Wayne. DJ Screw > DJ Khaled. Vanilla Ice > Ja Rule. RIP Fat Pat, Big Moe, Big Hawk, DJ Screw, Pimp C, Mafio, Big Mello, Gator, Proof, Big L, Point Game, Soulja Slim, ODB. Free C-Murder, Lil Boosie, J Kapone.
12. Mo'mint. Discuss.
Oh shit. Can I change my above answer?
13. Thanks for answering my questions, Drew. Anybody or anything you want to thank, comment on, or ask a question about?
I appreciate the conversation. Take it all with a grain of salt. I'm not an expert on anything. I probably could have answered these questions better if I put it in rhyme. Oh well. Sorry I talked a lot. This interview was 6 years in the making so the next one will probably be one word answers.
Thanks to Jenna for getting in Busted and breaking her boyfriend's edge. Thanks to me for not breaking my edge. Thanks to Waka Flocka Flame for being awesome. Thanks to Hypeman Sneak. My styles ain't free but my mixtape is. Proud as a peacork, right my bologna? How about a hot dog? Big day. Here go a quarter. How YEW doin? Ol' fake ass Beverly. OR! Message! So, you know, we. Ran.
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