Supreeme, Supreeme pt. II

Back in the first part of the interview, the guys of Supreeme, Tom Cruz, Negashi & King Self talked about how they began, how they’re bring a new perspective to their music and they told us they were from the future. Here’s part two.

interview originally published here

Yeah, I’ve caught one of your shows before. That free show that Murs had in LA last summer-

Tom – that’s like our worst show ever.

Really? (Laughs) How so?

Tom – well, I have family in LA and my cousin was there—

Yeah, the guy with the dreads and the henny that come out and spat a verse?

Tom – Yeah, well I won’t say what exactly he does, but the thing is he tried to show me a good time, and basically I was too drunk when it was time to perform.You where there you saw how I was, insulting the crowd and all that, I was out of my mind. I learned a lesson that show for real, I don’t need drugs, not that exaggerated. That shit was too hot for tv. On the performance aspect, it kinda messed us up, I messed up the vibe because we feed off each other. That wasn’t no novice shit tho, that wasn’t our first show, that was like our 300th show.

N – It was definetly a lesson learner, I was looking at this dude like he was crazy. Our shows are like a real intense experience normally, people leave sweaty, crying. I’m not exaggerating when I say crying.

Tom – It’s like a religious experience, we incorporate alot of different things into the performance. We give you something to behold.

N – We give you pop-rock.

Pop Rocks?

N – Yeah, we give you pop rocks.

I gotta ask you, when I was telling people I was gon’ interview you guys, the friend I went ot the show with wanted me to ask, what was up with the face paint? I guess that’s directed at you Negasi.

N – Well, during my tenure in Supreeme, I got into Bowie and Fela Kuti alot. I got into the performative aspect. The facepaint is like a transformation, like when Superman takes off his glasses, its something simple that changes your whole feeling. Its funny cuz at that LA show people didn’t know what to think, like ‘where does this come from?’ the future!

Tom – Anything we do, its already been done, that’s what people forgot.We’re from the future, we know what’s gonna be hot, we know whats gonna be lame, so there is no way we’d do that lame shit. So when we perform, when we make music, there’s an element of trust.

N – Yo thats mad metaphysical

Tom –Also, in the future, we don’t wear moon shoes and shiny suits, like what everyone thinks. We dont do funk, funk is great, but we don’t do funk

N – Funk came out a long time ago, it’s not future music

Tom – Just cuz you got them peeew, peeew, sounds, that don’t make you futuristic, we don’t do that. Alotta weed and ex is not futuristic, you fakin the future with that, the funk as well, and if you do, we’ll look back upon you with scorn

With scorn?

N – And malice.

Aight, switching gears real quick, just off the top. What’s the best/worst thing about being “In” hip hop for you guys?

N – You mean now that we broke the rap hymen? Well, the worst thing…lemme see, it’s not that I mind listening to people’s shit, really I don’t its just that I don’t really like when –

Tom – I want a copy of it tho, you can be damned sure I’ll listen to it, over and over.

N – We gon keep showing it to everyone till someone likes it.

Tom – Oh shit, my favorite demo, this dude named Hen –

Hen? Like laying eggs hen?

Tom – Nah, i think it was short for Hennessy, the shit was hilarious *Tom Cruz and Negasi proceed to sing a hook off Henn’s demo*

Tom – Nah, but the best aspect: I always felt elite, ever since I was a child, like I was the president of something. Now I go into a club and the DJ shouts me out, I like the respect I get off making dope shit. I’m trynna do something so tight that everyone will respect me for, I mean everyone, from Glenn Close to Dick Cheney to Quincy Jones

Negasi – I like that when I see my record label people, I can act like a spoiled kid. I make them take me out to eat, eat their food at home and all that.

T – You can do that tho, because the shits tight. If what you do is tight, is undeniable. If you can make your shit tight, you can do anything, you can—

N – Kill somebody, shiit look at OJ.

Tom – Being tight, being dope, it makes you above the law, you know? Above the law of gravity too, we’re fly. It’s all about Supreeme ho.

Going back to the demo shit though, is that how the wack demo skit on the album came about?

N – Yeah, i mean it was about how everyone we knew from high school that heard we got a deal or whatever tried to show us their shit. Them clowns. We got this dude to do the skit, when we were in Cali, the dude was off rehab, we met him at 7-11 i think, was it 7-11?

Tom – Nah, Rollins Donuts, we met him there. The shit took like half a take, we did half a take and we had to stop cuz we were laughing so hard. I think we did another take and that was it. I did the beat too

N– He made it wack on purpose

Tom – Don’t tell nobody tho, cuz in the future people were all like ‘oh you produced that? That shits wack.’ So i’m rewriting history, dont tell nobody

How did the Record Collection deal come about?

N– That was all Murs, all Murs right there. He hooked that up.

How did you guys hook up with Murs?

N– Well, when I was 16, I was dating this girl that was a huge murs fan, I didn’t even know who he was. She was skipping school to go to a Murs instore, and me and Tom, he was working at a radio station at the time and for some reason they let him drive a 22 inc chrome rimmed jeep. So we get to the instore and Murs is there, he’s looking kinda uncomfortable, he’s the only black guy in the room, well besides us. And Tom, he had listened to the 9th edition, and he goes up to Murs and hes like, “its aight”

Tom– I swear, I went up to him and said, serious as hell, ‘I listened to your shit, its ok.’

N– Then Murs got a look in his eye, that only after knowing him for so long, I can now recognize. The thing about Murs is, Murs is a very patient man, he didn’t snap or anything at shaka, he just got a look like “get the fuck out my face, but I won’t say that, cuz you a patron.” Thing is Tom knew the 9th edition was more than just ok

Tom– I knew it was more than just ok, I knew it was something dope (pause) but sometimes it just be’s like that. Then I was like ‘but this guy, he can rap.’ So I beatboxed and Negasi freestyled and Murs was like ‘oh shit’ and told us to keep in touch.

N– We just kept in touch through email, sent him our first mixtapes–

Church and State?

N– Nah, we had two out before Church and State. So we’re sending him shit, and while working on Church and State he was working on the 2nd album with 9th, he told us to go to North Carolina to meet him up. So we drove up there, fucked up King Self’s car and all types of shit. We get there, play Church and State for him and he loved it, so we ended up being the first and only group he signed to Record Collection.

Yeah, because Murs doesn’t work for them anymore right?

N–Yeah, hes not signed to them either, hes Warner Bros. Now, so are we actually.

Oh…so you guys are on a major label now?

N– Yeah, I guess so.

How did that happen?

N– I have no fucking idea, they just called us up and asked if we’d like to make more music, and we were like yeah, they asked when we wanted to start, we said now, so here we are now, in the studio, working on our new shit.

Damn, so what’s next for you guys then?

N– My birthday is in April, so we’re gonna have a big ass show, a celebration in LA, with hopefully Sa-Ra and Pacific Division. Then something else like that in March if everything goes right, and then maybe a tour with Brother Ali in the same month. He’s a good friend of ours so hopefully that can work out.

What about the album?

T– It’ll be out, probably later this year, we don’t have a date for it yet. We’re really making this shit dope, if you heard Supremacy, that shit was real gorilla style for us. This is gonna be a little more thought out. All the kids out there that took time to listen to Supremacy, I really appreciate that, because it wasn’t force fed to them. At most of the shows, I always give it up to whoever listened to that album because i feel like they understand us. It’s like you belong to an elite club, you weren’t force fed our shit, if you listen to me, I assume that theres something similar, something we have in common, every single one of them.

N– sorry to cut you off, but we gotta cut this soon cuz my phone’s running out of battery

Any last words? Anthing you want to say before we peace?

T– To anyone out there doing art, wether it be movies, music whatever, any art youre making, there’s a bottom line, how compelling is your art? Nothing else is a bottom line, because once your art is compelling, that’s real power, thats true power, you have power over people’s emotions, you can lead people anywhere and everywhere

At this point Tom Cruz says something about ho’s and the wife-ing of them, but their battery was dying so that was that.