PETE ROCK, TEK & STEELE TALK "MONUMENTAL" COLLABORATIONS

After a rollicking 2010 in which iconic label not only celebrated it’s 15th anniversary, but continued critical success with releases by Skyzoo & Illmind, Kidz In The Hall, General Steele and others, the company that DruHa built maintains it’s focus on pushing quality projects independently. Phoaroahe Monch’s highly anticipated, W.A.R. debuted at #54 on the Billboard charts and it’s upcoming Random Axe (featuring Sean Price, Guilty Simpson and Black Milk) is set for it’s mid-June release. Last week in Manhattan’s Ace Hotel, Duck Down hosted a listening party for it’s latest anticipated release: Pete Rock & Smif-N-Wessun’s, Monumental.

Monumental is fourteen tracks in length and entirely produced by Pete Rock. “This has been a dream for me for a long time,” Rock said describing how he teamed with Tek & Steele. “Me and Druha, we always had a relationship with each other and one day I spit at him and told him I wanted to get Tek & Steele and do an album. When push came to shove, we made it happen.”

In a sense, Monumental is a collaboration within a collaboration. Pete Rock and Smif-N-Wessun united to present the album, but also enlisted the talents of Styles P, Sean Price, Raekwon, Memphis Bleek, Bun B, Freeway, Buckshot, Black Rob and a host of others to round out it’s sound. “Everything that was created on this Monumental album was created with Tek, Steele and Pete Rock,” Steele told The Well Versed.

“After we designed the blueprint so to speak, we sat back and thought, ‘Who would be dope on this track right here?‘ Not to reach out for who was poppin’, who would sell our album. We didn’t say that. We said, ‘Who can we get on this track that would make sense that when we play it for the people who we know already fuck with us, [they] will be like, ‘OK. I’m with that.’”

Monumental is Smif-N-Wessun’s fifth album and the first since 2007’s Smif-N-Wessun: The Album. Along with this Duck Down Music collaboration, Pete Rock also released 80 Blocks From Tiffany’s with Golden Era duo, Camp Lo this year and is rumored to be working with DJ Premier on Pete Rock Vs. DJ Premier (release date TBD).

Pete Rock & Smif-N-Wessun’s, Monumental will be available in stores and online on June 28.

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De La Soul Interview

Pete Rock and CL Smooth were there. So were Greg Nice and Smooth B and Dres and DJ Premier. Masta Ace and Craig G were milling about just after performing, right next to Marley Marl and Large Professor. Even Edwin Birdsong and Michael Rapaport were there breaking bread with Hip-Hop’s living history; the cultivators of The Culture.

It literally felt like a family reunion in the BHF10 Artists section. Like one big Golden Era family reunion (minus the matching T-shirts). Daps and hugs went around like cyphers. Cats couldn’t wait to catch up — to reminisce for a spell — with fellow flag bearers.

And at the center of it all stood that day’s head lining act, De La Soul, just as elated as every other legend.

Pos, Mase and Dave have seamlessly crafted a twenty-one year career laced with a laser aimed focus on artistic reinvention and genre pushing creativity. They’ve bucked industry pressure to conform to commercial trends, and in the process, consistently redefined the look and sound of Hip-Hop. Most impressively, they’ve never disbanded.

As Mase and Dave tell it, the reason that De La’s remained united since 1989 is simply because, before everything else, they’re friends. Before the classic albums and world tours and international accolades, Plugs 1, 2 and 3 were just high school homies who loved making Hip-Hop music; who loved the atmosphere and natural high that came with working together towards a common goal. While most of their contemporaries broke up over misunderstandings, individual aspirations and industry bullshit — Pos, Mase and Dave continued to build on the bond formed back in Amityville, Long Island by maintaining the foundation of their legacy: friendship.

BrooklynBodega.com spoke with each member of De La Soul — in between the daps and hugs going around the Golden Era Family Reunion — about stylistic influences, why Tupac dissed them on Makaveli, the reasons why the Native Tongues reunion never happened and how they’ve managed to remain unified since the first Bush administration.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW AT BROOKLYNBODEGA.COM

Talib Kweli @ Highline Ballroom

Twas the night before the night before Christmas, and it was freezing in The City. Twenty-three degrees to be exact. Cold enough to question ever leaving the apartment. But judging by the nearing capacity crowd packed inside and the sixty-plus people deep Will Call line dangling down the block of Manhattan’s Highline Ballroom, cold don’t mean nothing. Blacksmith Records is rocking. Twelve years following his professional debut, and heads still run deep for Talib Kweli.

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