Identical
Interview by Black Dog Bone
You’ve been doing music for a while, but you seem to be really making a push at this time.
With the music we have been hitting the road for a long time. We are from Michigan, but we have been all over the whole country. We travel so much because we want more people to know about it than just in our neighborhood.
Do you feel that by doing so it has opened the doors for you?
Definitely. It helped us get our name out there and our brand out there a lot more than somebody who is afraid to leave their block.
How do you get around?
We hop on a plane, we hop in a car. However we need to get there we do it. We have been to Vegas, Cali, Texas, New York, Florida, Georgia. We’ve seen a lot of places!
When you travel and perform, what do you see happening with the music scene? Do you see a lot of good music happening? What do you see out there?
There are a lot of things going on, but every neighborhood is the same, every block is the same. You just got to get out there and experience everything that has been going on.
How long have you been around?
We have been around since 1992. We are only 28 so that lets you know that we were real young when we got in the game. We were only 10 when we started.
What made you start at such an early age?
Esham, UGK, the Dayton Family and people like that.
Were you influenced by Esham’s music?
Yeah! We are from Inkster which is 20 minutes outside of Detroit. Esham at the time was one of the biggest independent artists out. Everybody listened to Esham.
Esham influenced you musically or lyrically?
It was more the fact that he was putting out records. Back then he was like one of the only independent people putting out records out here. We liked his hustle and the fact that he was putting out records on his own.
You have a very different sound from Esham.
Right, but that just goes to show you that the music we listen to don’t affect the music we make.
Also did the Dayton Family influenced you? I see your music more similar to their sound.
With the Dayton Family it was the same thing because they was right up the street. It was the same thing where we were impressed by their grind and hustle.
When you first started rapping were you into the lyrical side, the music side, or the dancing side?
We never danced! Back when we started people told us if we rapped more like Kriss Kross or Another Bad Creation then we would make it. But we weren’t living the Kriss Kross or the Another Bad Creation lifestyles. We have been getting in trouble, fuckin’ with girls, getting money, and rappin; all since ’92 when we was ten years old.
You were doing all that hustlin’ at such an early age?
Right. That’s why we couldn’t make music for kids because we weren’t like normal kids. What was normal to us wouldn’t be normal to the average 10 year old.
What made you grow up so fast?
It was a combination of a lot of things. Our father had went to jail when we were young. We had older brothers who influenced us and they wouldn’t shield us from anything. If we got into some G shit we had to handle that shit. Whatever we did we had to pay the price for, but they had our back.
How did you get into doing music in a serious way?
We have been putting out records since 2000. In 2001 we created out own label which is called “Neighborhood Music”, and over the years the projects just progressed. With our new project “Made In Tha 80’s” we went and got the best producers that you could get around here. Those producers happened to be The Olympick, which is Rick Ross’s label. And then there is another independent producer out here who’s name is Kidd, who you remember from working with BG, Snoop, Rick Ross, Soulja Slim. Half of the project is produced by him and the other half was Olympick. We are at a point now where those 11 years when we were in the game functioning as an independent label, now we have a project that we can give to the world that is undeniable.
How many albums have you had before?
This is our fourth album so we dropped four physical albums. And we started a website and we started a web series called Interstate Identical. We also dropped two digital singles.
Being twins, are you very different from each other as rappers or are you similar?
We are actually two totally different people. Despite the fact that we are identical twins, we live two totally different lifestyles. This is SJ and I went to jail back into 2002. That was the first time that me and my brother AJ were apart for any amount of time. If anything it showed us that we are truly individuals because I know people that he don’t know from that experience and he knows people that I don’t know from those months from not being together.
Were you listening to the same music or do you have different interests musically?
For the most part we listen to the same shit, but there are some things I listen to that he wont listen to and vice versa.
What are you listening to right now?
Right now we are listening to our album “Made in Tha! 80s”. This is SJ and I listen to Messy Marv, I’m real big on Mac Dre, and E-40. Right now in my deck I actually got Brotha Lynch “Loaded”, UGK “Dirty Money” and UGK “Ridin’ Dirty”. We listen to everything.
I can see why you are such big Murder Dog fans.
Yeah we have been reading Murder Dog for a while. We’ve got Murder Dog’s from ’96 in the basement right now.
Would you say the Identical sound is very different from the Detroit sound?
We are from town called Inkster which is about 20 minutes away from Detroit. The sound is similar as you got your Hip Hop cats, your Gangsta cats, and then you got your people who are watching what is going on. But the Identical sound is something that we molded since ’92. Our sound is a measure of so many different sounds that you can’t contain it and put it in a box.
What kinds of things are you talking about in your music?
With this record we decided to make records that will last long after we’re gone. Our other albums were more about our neighborhood, but this time we said, “We’ve been to all of these places. We need to make music that everybody can listen to and that will last long after we’re gone.” The first record we made for this album we actually came up with when we was in a club in Atlanta. It just went from there.
You wrote a lot of songs for this album while you were on the road?
It’s a mixture of both. While we were on the road, while we were home. You get different levels. We’ve been in the mix with a lotta people who just do their thing. That’s why the album is entitled “Made in the Eighties” because the eighties was the era when you just go out and get it. Nobody cared. If you wanted to do something you did it.
At that time you could just make a thousand CD’s and live good.
Exactly. And we come from that era and that independent hustle. We were big fans of Master P and E-40.
How did you get into Bay Area Rap so much?
Through Murder Dog. The Murder Dog Magazine put us up on Lil Flip when he had the Leprechaun album. Cause our people had a record store and Murder Dog named Lil Flip’s album the best Independent album of the year. So we ordered his CD’s for the store; we literally put people up on Lil Flip in our area. We ordered it and people started buying it out here.
A lot of times people forget that Murder Dog was the first to put Master P on the cover, the first to feature Three 6 Mafia or Cash Money Records.
Right! We were reading that Murder Dog forever. The way we got up on Mac Dre was they put so many ads in the magazine that we had no choice but to listen to him. Now I listen to Mac Dre like every day. That’s one of my favorite artists.
When you travelled around did you meet a lot of rappers?
When we went to New York in April we met with the Ruff Ryders, the label owner. We were in LA with the real Ricky Ross, Freeway Ricky Ross. We were there when he got out of prison after 20 years. We met a host of people in Atlanta. We met DJ Bigga Rankin in Florida. We lived in Jacksonville for a while.
Is there a lot of music happening in Inkster, Michigan?
There’s a lot of Rap going on. But we are putting our hood on the map. Us being in the Murder Dog Magazine solidifies so much. Everybody knows what Murder Dog represents, and by being in there we put the hood on the map. Just like Esham did Detroit. Just like the Dayton Family did for Flint or the Geto Boys did for Houston. Like E-40 did Vallejo. We’re doing it just like that.
