X-Clan
Interview with Brother J
By David Friedman
Continued from Murder Dog vol 16 #1

Does "Mainstream Outlaw" bear any resemblance to your first two albums, "To the East, Blackwards" and "Xodus?"
Yes and no. I think the difference in this project and something like ‘East, Blackwards,’ our first album, is that I had samples at my side on those first ones. So people were listening to George Clinton or any of the other people like Roy Ayers or something that we sampled, and then were drawn to my voice or PX’s voice or so on. Now, I have quality producers who produce like a Roy Ayers does or a George Clinton does, but they don’t have the name that those legends did. So the challenge is, I have the good music and the hump on my breaks and stuff. It’s a matter of the audience respecting my production or not. I always tell people that the conscious artists and poets lost to the gangsta music because sampling was taken from us. When you have people that could afford sampling with these astronomical budgets that major labels give them, it’s hard for an independent to afford those same samples in this day and time. You know how many breakologists are in the game that make breaks and let go of the sampling. These tracks never get used. So we had to put this original music out there and have the brain of a sample, but the new musicianship that the new generation is respecting as well. So we really have to compose our music nowadays. On ‘East, Blackwards,’ it was more sample collage than composing. Now, it’s a different challenge in this day and time.
How did the collaboration with Bun B come about?
I actually recorded the album in Houston and one of my partners, Brother Zin, he works for S.O.S. Radio — they’re one of the few conscious radio stations in Houston, it’s a community radio station — this brother opened up the doors to his studio. Him and his brother, Anur, opened up their studios to me to come down and be able to put some concepts together. So I got to work with some very good musicians and singers and things of that nature. Brother Zin is very tight to the community. He just doesn’t play records and go offline. He’s very active in the community. Bun B had his first show since Pimp C died, and I went to the show. You know, when people of the same craft are in the building, everybody wants to make sure we meet up. It was a mutual respect and we got to talking a little bit and then recording. When I sent the track, it was undeniable. When he came out of the Vibe Awards, he went straight to the lab and put it up for me. It was a wonderful thing to come together. It was very powerful. A lot of people don’t realize that a lot of people are in the commercial game, but they’re not commercial artists. There’s a lot of cats that are still real in the game. And the way Bun B came was true street knowledge. Street knowledge is not about just blinging and just kicking it in the whip with some shorties and whatnot. Street knowledge is information that helps us survive out here in the jungle. Bun B really exampled that on this record. He really gave me hope from an artist in this game, grinding like they do to keep their families fed, there is another level of market they can approach when they hear lyrics like this from Bun. And people like Snoop and DPG can take a part of it as well.
What were some of the highlights for you of touring for and promoting "Return From Mecca," your Suburban Noize debut album?
The highlight for me was to ride with Bob Marley’s son, Damian Marley, and the band that was with them. They’re a phenomenal organization and really showed me another side of touring with large groups of people and staying in harmony on stage. I mean, my first tour out was very educational. And everything from there, we just stayed on the same level and escalated. I always tell people, man, when you present yourself clean and with no nonsense, you get good opportunities. If I was just rapping about bullshit, pussy and whatnot, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to tour with somebody icon-level like a Damian Marley and the Marley family. Just that alone, every tour I’ve done has been a highlight. I’ve toured with Kottonmouth Kings, Tech N9ne, I’ve toured with Public Enemy, I’ve toured with ICP, Jurassic 5 on the last tour they have ever done as a group. Hopefully they get together in the future. I’ve toured with a lot of different cats. The highlight is that we still keep this conscious music fresh where generation accepts it. I see a lot of people reacting like their elder uncles and aunts and mothers and fathers were in 1990 with us. I’m still a young man to experience this. It’s a blessing. It’s like living again. I’ve had a good experience at Sub Noize and it’s continuing with this project as well.
You’d think that, perhaps, some conscious rappers would shy away from touring with, of all people, Insane Clown Posse. But you did tour with them. What did you think of ICP and their show?
I thought it was similar to when we first toured with Geto Boys. I was telling everyone that they forget Geto Boys were a horrorcore group at one time. And you remember when they used to talk about cutting people’s heads and killing and killing and all these other things. It was kind of graphic. I think ICP took that signature to the suburban audience and they blew up. It’s so theme and so circus working with them. When they come in, it’s not about wondering if they’re gonna offend their crowd or anything. They know what their people come to see. When you put the circus tent up, people come to see the acrobats and the monkeys and the craziness. I really saw ICP provide a good show and I saw the team working hard and busting ass every day and putting these props up and making it really something like one of those ‘Saw’ movies! It was like you were stepping into one of those type of sets. That really taught me about putting theme on my stage. I mean, we get out there with the raw skills and we can entertain because people know our legendary hits and we get spoiled sometimes. But when you add on the bells and whistles and the lighting like Tech N9ne’s crew does or the themes that Kottonmouth Kings do when you walk out there and you see all the stuff that relates to their group onstage, it’s big. That makes it so much better. And it gives more for your audience to pay that dollar. You know, dollars are hard to come by these days. So if you really put that $20 or $40 down to see a show, you’ve really gotta do some serious shit, man.
Do you plan on taking your live show in that direction at all in terms of props and themed stage sets?
Well, the theme of X-Clan has always been information. People come to see how we can take a DVD screen to another dimension to really show people stuff that’s beyond the physical eye. You’ve gotta really get them reading between the lines. I think when they start to see where we’re coming from as far as what kind of information we provide — meaning solutions and not just complaining that the world is fucked up... Yeah, we know it’s fucked up. What are we doing to find a solution for that? And how can we put that into a show format where people just come to keep a show momentum to show how dope they are? How can we educate and do that at the same time? I think people will come to our show and start to see that in the ’09 tours that we’re planning.
Who will you be touring with in 2009?
We’re gonna be doing some headlining tours. These runs that I’m telling you about were basically for us to earn our ranks. I’m very much about touring with underground groups at smaller clubs because those are the nooks and crannies that people forget about. We you ride around with people that sell out their shows all the time, you really don’t get a chance to really get the people who didn’t get a chance to get in. So we’re making those small passes to get a 200- to 500-seater club and let them get close to the energy of X-Clan and show them what’s really up. We’re planning those kind of runs and we’re trying to get another legend to ride with us this year — KRS-One. The X-Clan and KRS-One tour is long overdue. X-Clan and Dead Prez is overdue as well. We’re trying to do things like that. And to do a Public Enemy and X-Clan, Part 2, international, is probably in the works as well. These things got put into the hat. Once my management team comes together and the booking agent comes together to figure out what’s best, I think they’ll do what’s best to complement the album.
What have been the greatest aspects of being on Suburban Noize Records so far?
The greatest thing for me of being on Suburban Noize is to really be a part of a label that’s growing. Usually people sign to labels that have been there and they have a cut and dry policy. But I’m glad to be here to help this label expand to a wider audience because they’re judged just to be a ‘white-boy label,’ as they say. They’ve never seen Suburban Noize serve the ‘urban’ community. And to get into a Source magazine with an album and things of that nature, they had need for things like that. They have their own circuit and their own lane. And some people just kick back. But they were brave enough to sign a group like X-Clan and explore the levels of (hed) p.e. and my brother Tristate’s group is down there. They’re willing to explore and that’s a great thing in the independent market.
What are your personal goals for the "Mainstream Outlaw" album? What do you hope it accomplishes?
I hope that ‘Mainstream Outlaw’ penetrates a lot of the audiences that they say are glues to jingle music. I think people just want to hear something good and something different that rocks. A lot of people who do conscious music just throw information out and don’t focus on the hump or the funk of it. They focus on, ‘I’m telling you about this situation. I’m telling you about the world. I’m telling you about this and this and that.’ You’ve gotta remember that the women are listening. Children want to be entertained. They want to do a new dance to your song when it comes on. This is taking them back to how X-Clan had them dancing from the beginning. When we first dropped our first records, we used to go up into these colleges and these high schools. Our music was No. 1. We were up in the charts. I think that this album will position itself the way it’s supposed to. They didn’t have enough chance to digest ‘Return From Mecca’ because a lot of people were afraid. They thought it was one of those gimmicks, like you say, ‘X-Clan is back,’ and you’ve got two songs on there and nothing else on there is dope. After we got all the accolades at the end of the year as being one of the best albums of the years, it was already too late. The smoke had cleared. The people really looked for the direction where they could play a hip-hop album in front of their families and stuff like that — and they didn’t have that in too many records but ‘Return From Mecca.’ We gave them clean hip-hop music with good grooves that they could play at any time of the day, at any corner or any mosque or any church. I think ‘Mainstream Outlaw’ kind of follows up to say, ‘We’re not leaving. This wasn’t a flash in the pan. And we’re not gonna be defeated because people didn’t catch up to what’s happening.’ I know now since ‘Return From Mecca’ is picking back up and the new album is coming that people are starting to believe in this group more. And I’m enthused. I see the house is packing when we started doing these headline runs. They’re packing on their own. And I’m very happy to be a part of re-living the X-Clan experience.
Any final thoughts?
Just tell them to support conscious music. That’s all I wanted to say!