With the newly much anticipated album on the shelves, “The Pursuit of Nappyness”, and touring from Nashville to New York City, Chicago to Kentucky, it is quite hard to catch up with The Nappy Roots to have a one on one sit down. Luckily, it was possible for me to get them for an interview via telephone, five minutes before actually being contacted by “It’s The Official” HQ to conduct the interview, which made it all the better with the easily flowing conversation between Fish Scales and myself, as they were on their way to their first stop on the tour, riding in two Big Wheeled Yukons.
Out the hip hop scene in 1995, Kentucky bred and hit singles under their belt such as “AwNaw” and “Po’ Folks” off of the “Watermelon, Chicken and Grits” LP. However, have been out the spotlight, but still doing what they love best, which is “making more and more music, music that the fans love” as Scales puts it; in addition, to running their independent label “Nappy Roots Entertainment Group.”
Initially being signed to Atlantic Records in their earlier years, the transition from being signed to one of the biggest labels, to being founders and now Indie artists came at a price to pay, with going from selling millions of units to a little less. Nonetheless, in the eyes of Fish Scales and the crew they reaped a lot more benefits from “NREG”, with complete ownership of all their work and the feeling that they actually made more music as Indie artists as oppose to being restrained under the supervision of a major label. And a lot of that music being made now you can hear it concert in a city near you, just as I did at Mercury Lounge In NYC where The Nappy Roots put on yet another popping show.
Performing the old and new hits to having a moment of silence for the fallen soldiers of the music game (Michael Jackson, Notorious B.IG; Tupac Shakur, and Kurt Cobane), all of which the professed to be influenced by. To also concluding with a salute to the Big Apple for the September 11th tragedy, as they can connect tremendously due to their being in the city one day before the tragic event. My associate and friend Brandon Haynes or as some may know him “B Conscious” were able to catch up with them back stage.
The haze of Kush filled the air with a bottle of Absolut being passed around and the topic of the game of Hip Hop comes up for discussion. Scales and Slim explain why they even got into the game, which was simply the passion they had for it mixed with uplifting one another. As Scales digresses as he speaks on his take of the irony in not even getting the hometown love that an artist would expect to get, as he thinks of the lack of love and respect he gets from his own hometown of Kentucky. He also adds the example of the boy from Canada also known as “Drake” who appears as the hot commodity now, but was it really his hometown that influenced the propelling of his career off the ground and being one of the front men of hip hop nowadays? Most, just as Scales and Slim will say, it wasn’t and for the most part his signing with the label headed by one of Hip Hop’s top selling major players “Lil Wayne” plays the biggest role in “that boy from Toronto’s career” as Scales puts it after taking a drag of that chocolate and a swig of the bottle, all after yet another night of putting in work on the mic and stage. Slim, Scales and Big V take another trip to the moon as they conclude their night in New York City with their next stop in Illinois.
Written By: Kelvin Augustin, Photography By: Brandon Haynes
