Tyfu
interview by Marisa Brickman
About one year ago, ’Sup featured an article on Tyfu that opened like this; "A storm is brewing and it’s called Tyfu." Well my friends, the storm continues to brew and now…
Enter the eye of the storm, known as Tyfu. Like a Typhoon, they will attempt to drown you will their ill lyrical proficiency as all eleven emcess poor down with rain fiercer than Floyd. This local act calls Kackalack home and is the first hip-hop group to sign to a major label from Chapel Hill. Just picked up by Mammoth Records, Tyfu said they promise to remain true to their roots and strive their best to take their music and the local thirst for hip-hop to a higher level.
Ever since Hack, Eddie, Shana, Jacobi and Taye came to my birthday party two years ago, took over the mic, and got the entire crowd of about 200 people to sing happy birthday to me, I became one of their biggest fans. I used to go out to shows at the old Lost City when they hosted spoken word and open mic. I Tyfu (then Tyfu Dynasty) at a few Hip-Hop Nation gigs at UNC-CH, the Lizard and Snake, and at a few random events at the Cat’s Cradle. Over the course of the year, Tyfu has definitely made some major progressions. They are a good example of what can happen when perseverance, a positive attitude, good luck and talent all come together in your favor. Tyfu has been doing what they do best and someone outside of Chapel Hill finally realized it and decided to put some money behind the crew.
One sunny Saturday afternoon, seven of the 11 members of the crew headed out to my pad in the country and we chilled on the porch and talked about their music, the current status of hip-hop today and their attitudes and their expectations of the future.
So let’s first start with the introductions. Tell me your name, most influential artist and the role you play in Tyfu.
My
name’s Contact and my most influential artist would probably be me and I rap.
This is Haxo, I’m the journeyman, I’m the cat that’s going to be there, I’m like the backbone. Make peace, rap, whatever. Business though, that’s where I’m going. My most influential artist is a producer, it’s DJ Premier. As far as rappers, it’s my brother Lovejoy. When he came about, that’s when I saw that we could really do this. I’m from Chapel Hill, I’ve been here all my life and I’m ready to get out of here.
I’m Taye and I’m an emcee slash producer. My most influential artists are just other Tyfu members ‘cause they have way more influence than anybody, we always build together. I’m from Chapel Hill, a town of nothing but boredom, music and diversity.
This is Logic, I’m from Pittsboro. My function is being a lyricist. I’m most influenced by the Notorious B.I.G.
My name is Young and I’m from Connecticut. I moved up here at a very early age and have been back and forth ever since. My most influential artists are the people I see everyday and can relate to.
Yo, what’s up? I’m MSTK and I’m from Greensboro, NC. Haxo is my most influential artist. I was rhyming before Hack, but he just took me to a whole other level and instilled a bunch of shit in me. I’m greatful to him for that. I’m the sniper in the group because nobody ever sees me coming. I’m probably one of the least expected to come with anything, but they all gonna fall because if I can’t take them, someone will.
This is SKILLZ, S, K, I, crooked letter, crooked letter, L, L, Z. Right now I’m living in the Bull City of Durham. I have the universal vibe, representing the BX, NYC. My most influential artis ever would have to be Prince and KRS-ONE (they are lots of snickers to this response). Yeah, it’s mad giggles, it’s mad giggles, but I’m going to keep it real and let you know that anyway. Right now, I don’t personally vibe with any of those cats, then ten other cats that I rhyme with are influencing me everyday. Every time I hear another verse, you have to one up the hanny. Every time, every song is another step up to another level. Other than that, my role in the group is to try to coincide with the Armed Forces division of Tyfu, the cats that will multiplelly smack you all over the place. Other than that, I’m a lyricist, a newborn producer trying to get into this beat-making game, trying to get my feet wet.
Peace,
this is Lovejoy and I’ve been in Tyfu for many. In the last four years, I’ve
really seen the blossoming and it’s beautiful. I look up to everyone I’m surrounded
with. Half of Tyfu is bloodline, I’m releated to a lot of cats. The other cats
in the group, we click like family; brothers and sisters. Everything we’ve been
putting out is just hot. I went away for a little bit and when I came back,
the shit was just sounding so incredible I couldn’t believe it. I’m glad I got
a part to play in this. We really are a unit, together we find unity. That’s
something we try to live by and show. I look up to myself because I know I’m
going to always keep myself on point and the people around me are always going
to keep me on point. If I had to pick an artist it would be KRS-ONE because
he’s been holding it down for so long and I want to do that myself.
How would you describe where you were last year at this time?
HAXO: We were at a point where there was just a bunch of frustration. We had been doing our thing for awhile and we couldn’t really see the picture that we were about to be in. It was kind of hard, but we kept pressing on and doing what we had to do to get to this point. How we are now is almost a 360 from where we were last year. We were kind of inactive and hadn’t been doing many shows. Now we are a lot more busy and it’s a lot more funner vibe.
How does that compare to where you are now?
HAXO: We signed a record deal, we’re doing shows again, building a lot together and doing more songs. Basically, our whole music life is just amplified. Last year was a lot of confusion and not knowing what’s next. We’re taking it national, worldwide. We see the steps, now we just have to walk them.
What sort of reception did you get from Spinfinity?
YOUNG: Being a cat from out of town, I could see the response from North Carolinians and my friends up in Virginia Beach and at home. Tyfu’s roots are right here in North Carolina, but the music that we make isn't confined to any type of borders, states or whatever. We printed up 1500 copies and sold them just like that. The response has been nothing but positive and cats are just feening for more.
CONTACT: If there’s a flipside to that, it’s negative. Recently our response at shows has gotten better, but we’ve experienced a lot of hatred. To me, if we’re a football team and it’s our homecoming, and we come out and take the field and everyone is cheering for the visitng squad, how you gonna come out and win. We come out and do our show and try to give off our positive energy. Let a cat from New York come in that’s signed or has a little name for himself, [the crowd] is going to cut flips for him and then stand there and look at us like we’re crazy. People need to get off that because we represent ya’ll.
Do
you feel like other local hip-hop artists aren’t as supportive as you’d like
them to be?
CONTACT: No not artists, I feel like a lot of artists would feel more comfortable and progress a whole lot quicker if they had the support of the people they support. How can you come out and give a good show for people who are sitting on their hands or sipping their little drink. I’ve seen our boys sit down and not even get up for us, we’re going to address it all.
LOVEJOY: It’s kinda like every place where hip-hop comes from, people from those general areas support those artists. You’ve got the New York, down South, Mater P, for example. The No Limit People got their artists from where they’re from. If they didn’t have a distribution deal through Priority, they’d still be selling albums in New Orleans. We’re just trying to do that here, but take it to a professional level. We need North Carolina behind us, that’s some real shit. That’s what we stress to their people that like our music. Stop the hating.
Do you think NC has a place in the hip-hop scene as far as a national level?
LOVEJOY: I feel like in the next few years, North Carolina’s gonna have some groups out representing our state. We’re down south from where hip-hop came from, we’re caught in the middle, the money middle. We call it the Middle Passage. We want to take advantage of where we are a make a little bit for everybody. We’ll make a little something the down south people can relate to, give the uptown people something, but keep it original to all of Tyfu and to the true spirit of hip-hop.
Will you still continue to rhyme about North Carolina, even though you are now on a major label?
SKILLZ: When you listen to anybody’s album that comes out nowadays, North Carolina’s gonna get some type of shout-out, it’s gonna be big-ups. Whether it’s North Carolina or South Carolina, the Carolinas are gonna get bigged up. But, if you ask those same artists who the hottest group is out of North Carolina, they’re gonna be stoned faced, because there’s really no one out there doin’ it (someone shouts out Yaggfu Front). A year from now, you ask who’s leading North Carolina hip-hop, I guarantee it’s gonna be Tyfu.
LOVEJOY: There are people in the industry right now from North Carolina, but they’re scared to let it be known. They think if they’re put in that Southern category that they’ll lose respect, fuck that.
SKILLZ: We’re blazing a new trail for the South. For all of these groups coming out, trying to sound like somebody else, trying to get with what’s marketable—what’s marketable is something’s that new and fresh and that’s what we’re bringing.
What does it take to keep it fresh?
CONTACT: We’re taking it back to the essence. There’s not too many groups that I consider real hip-hop. We’re trying to dig up the category of hip-hop. We’re not about to give into a watered-down sound or even a watered-down category because if we can get our state to follow us and we can get a following, the rest is like a domino effect. The fashions and fads and all that, we’re not worried about that.
What is the key to retaining fans and keep people coming back for more?
LOGIC: I think it’s the beats and the lyrics. The artists that are in the game right now are just getting slack. They feel like they can get comfortable saying anything and really, that’s not the case. I feel Tyfu has an original sound. We have 11 different lyricists and 11 different sounds, so there’s gonna be different feelings on each track.
Do you think that commercial hip-hop is lacking on the lyrics side these days?
LOGIC: To a certain extent I think it is. What a lot of cats are doing now is just hopping on the bandwagon and when you do that you lose your street credibility. You may be hot, but you’re always going to have a critic that will say, ‘yeah, you were hot until you started doing this like that guy.’ Then you’ll lose respect. That’s when people start looking for something new.
TAYE: You have underground emcees that can make commercial tracks and you’ve got commercial rappers. You have to look at all of these people in the industry and ask yourself what their purpose is. Some people’s only purpose is to make money, so they conform. That’s their only goal. We’re dealing with 11 individuals from North Carolina with a raw sound that you’ve never heard. In order for us to have credibility, we have to keep it raw, because we are unknown. We are the unknown knowledge here to feed your mind. We’re going to keep it North Carolina style.
SKILLZ: What Taye’s saying is real. You can have a nice flow and spit over a hot beat, but if you’re not saying anything and you have no substance to your rhymes, no one will respect you. That’s the thing with Tyfu, we can spit on any issue. We talk about pertinent things, stuff that the community wants to hear about, not just what’s hot like Benzes and Beemers and ice. There’s enough cats doing that, we’re on something that people need to listen to, it’s not just entertainment.
LOVEJOY: Tyfu is going to keep it real because we’re going to give you 100 percent of how we feel from our heart. We’re not going to give you anything that isn’t us. We are entertainers, we want to entertain. We want to make people laugh, we want to make people hype, we have songs that are going to make you cry sometimes, sit down and think. It’s universal, that’s what Tyfu is, universal.
Tyfu continues to promote their production company, Illgore. They remain a tight unit and all the money that they receive from the new deal is going to be dumped back down to the unit. Tyfu, has remixed "Terrorized," off Spnfinity, and recorded a new song, "I Declare War," for their single which will be released at the end of this month. There’s talk of a video to be made by January and another full-length album by next Spring. Check your local club schedules for the upcoming listening party. Mammoth has these cats busy, so look out, they’re on the prowl. Tyfu, baby!