DJ Skee & Teruo Artistry (January 2010) | Interview By: Jose Ho-Guanipa

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Interview was conducted in February 2010
 

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Related Media & Links
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DJ Skee & Teruo Artistry // Video Interview // Dubcnn

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Dubcnn: this is Jose with Dubcnn and I’m here with Teruo Artistry, and DJ Skee. What’s up guys?

Choc: What it do man. What up Dubcnn?

Dubcnn: So tell us about the project that you just released that you were workin’ on, and your collaboration with each other.

DJ Skee: Going back to about just a little over a year ago and I saw what they were doing, I heard some stuff before, I even tried for a second too, but I’ve seen what they were doing and collaborating. Just new age stuff between the music, the lifestyle stuff, the clothing, the magazine, the art that you actually see so beautifully all around our studio, just was down with it. Thought that everything they were doing was dope and now we had to team up in a bigger way. So the first thing you see was the mixtape. They did my website, we have some cool top-secret collabo t-shirts. There’s so much stuff we’re doing together. This is just the start, I’m sure excited about everything that have going on from the production with Deep Waters to Six to Prophet, Tim’s art, you name it, it’s going down.

Dubcnn: Yeah, what you guys have going on is very unique. Tell us the different mediums you’re working, you got graphic, visual stuff, music, everything, so tell us.

Prophet: Pretty much it boils down to anything having to do with the lifestyle of the generations that we come from, anything having to do with creation, anything having to do with art, music, fashion, lifestyle. Everything from the music we put out to the clothes that we wear, to the life that we live embodies you know how we all feel and how to create, and how promote creativity, you know what I mean?

Dubcnn: Definitely. So talk about the lifestyle and the movement, how would you embody that? If you had to kind of describe it, how would you do that?

Deep Waters: I guess everyday waking up and figuring out how you’re gonna express yourself through creation. Like Proft was saying and Steve was saying, it could be through a pain, it could be through a song, it could be through the clothing we’re wearing. So it’s just that lifestyle of waking up and following your dream, and creating it.

Prophet: How you speak, how you talk, how you walk, how you dress, everything that is you, outside of what somebody tells you is you, everything that you create yourself is basically what we’re about and helping each other explore that and being able to share it with the rest of the world.

Dubcnn: Alright, so how did this collective start? It’s definitely a collective group.

Prophet: At least for my journey of the group, it started out when I was in the Bay, and I met Deep Waters through a mutual friend, saying I should hook up with him cause of his production, saying he should hook up with me cause my style would be crazy with his stuff. We basically started working on one track, two tracks, three tracks, turned back about 3 months after working together, we have an album together, man just vibed out and I got on board. They had the clothing company, just for bringing it back up to speed, just getting everything they wanted to dial it in, moved out to L.A., met my dude Six met my dude Choc, so we started mixing the gumbo at that point, and basically it just got served, know what I’m talking about?

Dubcnn: So what have been some of the good experiences, positive things you’ve been able to get from being in this kind of collective when you’re working with guys that aren’t just doing music when you’re doing music, and aren’t just doing visual stuff when you’re doing, it, how does that benefit your art?

Six: Well basically as far as my experience go, I started my own record label at 17, and had to put on every hat and do everything. Me and Choc, we been cryin’ me’s and writing e’s since we was shooting marbles and shit. But once I met them, everybody was so good at what they did and everybody did different things. It really allowed me to just focus on the music and just be like a public official. It’s just my job to see what’s going on in the streets and report back to it, so that’s all I had to focus on. I took my perspective and the way I dissected songs and wrote songs, it just took it to the next level cause that’s all I had to do the business side. B was gonna come bring any paperwork to me, or his ideals to me and at last I sit down with him and figure out if this is the right move to make. Proft would let me know from the industry standpoint if that is about right, what he get right there, how many points is that? Well alright, and then Tim work with me on my brand, and I feel as an individual my shit don’t sound like nobody else shit, so I don’t want my brand to look like nobody else shit. So basically, I’ve been fortunate and blessed to work with these cats where they know how I am, who I am how I know to get down, without me even having to be there. So I say this is what I wanna do, and automatically shit just start gettin’ done I sit inside the machine. Just having DJ Skee put his stamp next to my name, that shit’s a blessing right there. I can’t even fathom just where that’s gonna take the team to right there. Just having somebody that’s international, internationally known, now working with you and being able to get feedback so, my standpoint, it’s just all a dream, I don’t even wanna wake up.

DJ Skee: We got some other crazy stuff were coming up with together too. Now you know we been doing a ton, just outside the music and all that stuff which is a given, the clothing and the artwork. On the business tip too, captivating some of the stuff that was done, with the Skee TV in terms of now we’re at 100 million views and the music videos and the corporate brand and marketing. There’s some new projects on the table that are real interesting and on some next level age stuff. We have the ideas you know we all team up on it, they do the dopest designs and art and graphics and branding, logos, and we do our thing.

Prophet: Basically ya’ll gotta stay tuned cause we form it like Voltron, know what I’m sayin', coming like the Gobots.

DJ Skee: Yeah wait till you see what we have. It’s gonna be on the next level stuff, and now it really helps us too cause it makes us at Skee TV cause the one thing we never had was a real art and branding department in this area and now we do. So it’s a problem.

Deep Waters: It’s a big problem.

Dubcnn: So you guys have a lot of talented people working together, very creative. This is always a problem that always comes up when you have a lot of talented and creative people. Ego’s, how do you get rid of all the egos?

Six: We talk shit to each other. All day long, I slapped the shit out of Choc, he punched me in my neck, I elbowed B, I kick him in his ass, we just kick each other. That’s the benefit of working with family. You know I don’t got a bunch of suckas and pussies around me dog. They keep my in my place and that’s good man. They let me know what path I should be on. Ain’t no true friend if they just gonna let you drop off the cliff, so anytime I get too close to the edge Choc will pull me back in or B will pull me back in. There’s been a few times especially over email with these dudes. That’s one thing, Choc gotta a problem with me he’s gonna sue up all on me like, “Hey nigga you getting too cocky.” Then this white dude gonna send me an email about this long, with bullet points and shit. Bullet points, you feel what I’m sayin’; it’s like what the fuck? But it all go hand in hand, you take the positive with the negative. That’s how we all interact, I love it, I feel it, I wouldn’t have got to the plateau I’m at now, you know, I’m a beast.

Prophet: I think all of us are at a level in our career and our maturity, at the point where it’s like you accept everybody background, how they came up. Like me from the Bay, him from Watts, you (points at Skee) from the various places you came from the galaxies and the stars, B where he came from. It’s like we understand each other to a point where the ego’s is put away. That shit is like when we was 19 and 20. Now the shit is, in order to survive in the landscape of today you gotta put that shit away because you can’t do everything by yourself, and at some point grinding at the youth stage you realize you gonna fatigue your arms trying to lift all that weight on your own.

DJ Skee: At the end of the day we all breathe air. Like even before that it’s irrelevant. No matter how successful you are. I don’t even care if its Kanye who sold 20 million records, you know he breathes the same air we all do, and if you do try that ego, I look at the Six Reason workout tape.

Six: The workout tapes is comin’ real soon. Imma show you how you can do the same exercises at the gym, how you can do it at home for free. So stay tuned for that.

Skee: Pure comedy.

Six: I’m my own self, I ain't one of those artists that be talkin’ all slick and shit on them records man, you can play with me if you want to, but that’s another topic. Back to what you was sayin’ man, all egos is in check man. Nobody, I mean nobody can do it alone, no man is an island. B, Tim, Choc, Prophet, Skee is better than 1000. One thing I learned in this game you gotta trust somebody. I get to a point in my career and a situation where they give me advice and I’m thinking opposite like, “Nah.” But then you gotta remember, why did you team up with these dudes in the first place? So by not trusting them that’s essentially not trusting myself. Cause my instict told me these nigga’s is legit, they real, they know what they doin' so that’s when I gotta snap myself and say “Man, alright. B I thought about what you said,” and by this time he know. He let me rant and rave send my emails back and in a couple of days, I be like “Yeah B I thought about what you said.”

Prophet: Pictures of the triceps and shit.

Six: So the ego’s in check because we battin' 1000. He ain’t failed me yet, he ain’t failed me yet, he ain't failed me yet, and if they did I’ll give them another chance cause we so far ahead every year. We way ahead than we was the previous year, we gettin’ further. So there ain’t no ego’s, well not in the camp there ain’t no ego’s.

Dubcnn: Alright so tell us about the mixtape.

Prophet: Mixtape is bananas man.

DJ Skee: Dangerous Species. You see we got the limited edition shirts and stuff with all the logos, so basically though ,music is an endangered species now, and sound with just artistry and movement. That’s why we fell like were some of the last people left that are doing certain things. So we’re trying to save ourselves, save the culture help it expand you know?

Six: You too can help it by purchasing the mixtape, the limited edition apparel.

DJ Skee: It’s high quality.

Six: It’s very very high quality, the music is high quality. I mean everything we do is high quality.

Prophet: The music speaks for itself, I mean it’s like if you listen to the music out there and you tired like we fuckin' tired of hearing the same old bullshit taste like watered down Kool-Aid, you can’t even taste the sugar in it. We put this tape out specifically to show you where we came from, show you a little bit about each of our histories, about our stories, we put together some real music. We put some heart into it we put some soul into it, some blood, some sweat, some tears. So when you check it out, you gonna see the music speaks for itself, I ain't gotta put no taglines on it.

Six: That’s really what’s missing. I feel what's missing from the music right now, what’s separated our squad from everybody else squad (Six turns to Choc, asks him for something, shows us the album) Booyah.

Prophet: This ain’t me sittin’ in a pile of Rolexes like my first album, I was sittin’ in 1000 Rolexes and I had a Mercedes Benz on my wrist. See we done passed that all up and flipped the whole script you know what I’m sayin’?

DJ Skee: Check out all the artwork, you see all these paintings, everybody always comes in the studio, like artists are actually stealing it and stuff. Like Baron Davis was in here the other day and wants a picture.

Six: We bringin’ emotion back to music. I feel like music, the emotion, was replaced with auto tune. You hear a lot of music, they not even flowing inside the beat no more, we gonna get on this track and say as much slick shit as we possibly can and rap over the top of the beat. They takin' the emotion out of it. How you used to feel like back when Tupac spit “Shed So Many Tears” or Kanye “Wait ‘till I get my money right.” That feeling he gave you it's totally gone from the majority of the music that’s put out now. We gonna say as much slick shit as we possibly can, and that’s it. Do some gimmicks, some dances some pop locking’ maybe stand on my finger upside down, shake with it, and that’s the song. So what we bring back is just the emotion, the realness to it.

Dubcnn: Alright so let us know what you guys got planned for the future. Where we can check you out, all that stuff.

DJ Skee: Man we everywhere, everywhere you see us online, you see us in the streets.

Prophet: Man just everywhere, you can check out skeetv.com, Google, Proft, Six Reasons, Skee TV international, shit is like a blimp in the sky every day. I’m serious, check out the website, we got all the music videos, we got it all, you know what I mean? Tune into your local radio, we gonna be on that too, but man just check everything out so you can get a view of what we doin’.

Six: This year be on the lookout for Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect 200 Dollars. That’s the next project from Six Reasons DJ Skee collabo, and that shit is gonna be just what it sound like. Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect 200 Dollars. I don’t know if they tell me, I might leak a couple of songs here and there up until, to build up anticipation, so ya’ll can get a taste of what it’s gonna be.

Prophet: I got that Electric Used droppin', so stay tuned for that.

DJ Skee: We got some Deep Water beats being played for some major artists too, oh yeah the Adidas commercial with Kevin Garnett.

Deep Waters: Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard, Derek Rose, check it out adidasbasketball.com. Or check it out on national TV. Also been producing more projects with these guys as well as Skee so check it out.

Choc: Choc nigga, watch out for me comin real soon, you already know. Choc got the girls shake it like jelly you already know. Lookout for my mixtape comin real soon, the champion, because that’s what I am. Holla at your boy, you know what it is.