When I initially plotted this interview with Steele from Smif-N-Wessun it was to kick shit about Timberland boots and for how long he had been a collector of the brand. Our conversations quickly found all kinds of other places of relativity, and relevance, like the culture of consumption, the pain and joy of making music and society at large.
Steele is one of the people the great spirits have entrusted with carrying culture from one generation to the next. That requires a perspective to contemplate your role in the chain of life. You have to be humble even when you understand how great your mission is. You have to be ready to sacrifice yourself for your destiny.
These reels are a total of a half an hour. The same amount of time you might use up watching a sitcom. I’d respectfully request you give that same part of your attention to an artist who has twenty years of work behind him and even more than that in front of him. All because of one thing… His reverence for the WORD. First came the word which put everything in being.
SNW D4L HM!
watched these as soon as they hit the yt… actually watched them all twice to make sure all the knowledge got soaked in. Dense material. This is that work.
great stuff DP; it’s refreshing and inspiring both to see a top MC really talk without all the usual layers of bullshit, lies and evasion. (I understand too we want rappers– and entertainers, and athletes, etc– to have charismatic personae but I’m sorry if I need more than weed, strippers and jive-ass fashion to get me off…
… though watching this does
1) make be break out both the excellent Cocoa Brovaz album AND Steele’s top-notch “Welcome To Bucktown”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwbewlNEU-g
2) get a little misty for my first pair of beef & broccoli purchased c. 1992 off the discount table of some outdoors store in Jersey.
Sidenote: the new Killah Priest album, “The Psychic World of Walter Reed” is un-fucking-believable… Shockingly so; maybe even thee single greatest late career album in rap history? In any case I’d love to hear a Smif & Wessun or Steel + KP collab someday.
Eh yo Dallas…do an in depth interview with Sean P or DJ Premier in this style
You really have a gift for this brother Dallas…its because you are a part of the culture you speak on unlike so many other fuckybergs
NWN,
N3WMEN
MGS,
I know what to drop to rustle the thickets of the internets. Good to see you out here.
james,
I gotta learn to shut up and get out of people’s way. But I was hype since this was a glorious day to reminisce
dp good looking out!!! gems thru the three videos…me and steele have the same born day and when he mentioned seattle wa i was in fan boy heaven, when the bcc did a show at chop suey they had that whole spot rocking…one of the many highlights was “sound bwoy bureill” being performed for like 20 minutes as both tek and steele were stopping and rewinding during the lighting and partaking of the blunts that filled the venue…once again and always salutes dp!!!!
Great interview Dallas.
The beauty of it lies in its simplicity. Its just two brothers talking. There’s no album sales agenda, there’s no hype for the media machine so that you can make the cover of someone’s magazine as part of some promo tour or press junket. Its just honest conversation which is what makes it so beautiful. No soap boxes, just straight talk. This is something that is lost in communication, even the staged “informal” video interviews cats shoot at “home” has carefully places product, the bag of designer smoke that “happens” to get in the frame, and all that other fuckery. Props to the brother Steele, haven’t dapped it up with the big homie in a while, but when ever it is its always love, and I owe him an now vintage “Bucktown” fitted. LOL. Well done Dallas. Shouts to the brother Steele & the BCC.
Love & Respect – Diesel aka “The Ginger Giant” aka Costco Sized ‘Lo Wears. LOL.
Great work, DP. MotherGaston, the Killah Priest LP is all that and more; He was always a favorite of mine.
Thanks for hanging in with me and my brethern Steele. We spent hours talking about life and everything under the sun. Smif-N-Wessun is very important in Hip-Hop. HM!
DP.com fam,
My laptop died on me the other day so on top of not having a cellphone to fux with (becaue I spent that money on other shit) I ain’t even got a computer to broadcast from at the lab. Bear with me while I’m reduced to public library transmission sessions.
Life is fucked the fux up for me now, but always so beautiful. I’ll see y’all in a minute.