On November 10, 2011, I went to see People Under The Stairs again at The New Parish in Oakland. By now, the homies recognized me, and they consented to give me another interview after the show. By the way, the show was amazing. Here's the transcript:
Notes:
Again, this is abridged, not word-for-word. I cleaned up the sentences to flow better [stuttering, me saying stupid shit, ums/uhs/knowhatimsayins/etc.], and I also took out almost everything spoken by this one guy hanging around that kept interrupting us with some random, off-topic stuff…
Also, the YouTube clip above doesn't cover the first part of the transcript below.
[Some background: I had asked Double K if there were any P tracks with no samples in them, and I mentioned SF Knights Remix and then asked if there were any samples in the Doctor and the Kidd. This kicked off a conversation about Double meeting George Clinton and jamming with him. He was talking about his conversations with George when I decided to start recording:]
[Double K:] Yeah, and he started telling me about how hard he thought Rakim and Scarface was, how they were the best rappers.
[Sactown:] George Clinton was telling you that?
[Double K:] Yup. About Scarface and Rakim, he said that those were the two best rappers EVER. And he told me, he said that him and the Funk Mob did a cover of "Follow The Leader". I've never heard it.
[Sactown:] Really? Follow The Leader… they did the whole fuckin' album?
[Double K:] No, just the song.
[Sactown:] Oh, just the song? Man… that'd still be fuckin' dope.
[Double K:] But yeah, George Clinton's funky.
[Guy:] You got to meet him, though, man. That's fuckin' great…
[Double K:] Meet him? Man, I got to…
[Sactown:] You got to jam with him.
[Double K:] I got to get him a cab to leave my house.
[Sactown:] "You got to go, George."
[Double K:] Ay-yo, all of the homies that was there was, like, "We'll take you." He was, like, "I'm 'dirty' right now. I'm 'dirty'. I gotta get in a cab."
[Sactown:] He was always dirty with funk, man.
[Double K:] Yeah, but…
[Guy:] Like "I've been drinkin'" dirty?
[Double K:] Naw, man. He had "white" on him, man. A lot of it too.
[Sactown:] Ohhhh.
[Oddball guy says "goodbye", but then keeps on talking]
[Double K:] Let me tell you somethin', man. We was on tour with Mac Miller. You was there, right?
[Sactown:] Yeah, I was at the Fillmore.
[Double K:] With Mac Miller. Now, this is a dude, and I have so much respect for the guy… if the dude sucked, I'd tell you the motherfucker sucked, straight up. But the dude has so much knowledge of hip-hop, but he… he's a young kid, he has that pop star, Justin-Bieber shit going on, and it's cool because it's like…
[Sactown:] Interesting mix…
[Double K:] Hell yeah. So if anybody was gonna represent him on the West Coast it would be us, and not nobody else, 'cause he's big and shit, and he's a fuckin' big fan of us, you know? He's been listening to us since he was 15, and he's 19. The m'fuckers can't even go to the bars with us. I mean, half the shows had a bar…
[Guy:] Why? People would recognize him?
[Double K and I just stare at the dude a second…]
[Sactown:] No, he's just underage! [Laughs]
[Double K:] He's fuckin' underage, man!! [Laughs] Yeah, he's underage, but yo… we jumped off that tour, and I ain't got nothing but fuckin' love for him. He's a real good dude, man, and he loves hip hop. He's really into hip-hop…
[Sactown:] He respects the roots?
[Double K:] He has songs with him playing guitar, and fuckin' puttin' on Tribe beats, and old school beats, and whoomp de whoomp. But his fans… they know the pop side, but he knows hip-hop.
[Sactown:] I noticed that… at the show, there were some people that were getting down and they were enjoying everything… opening acts and everything. But there were some people that were just kinda like… it seemed like they were just there for the pop sensibility of it…
[Double K:] Right… lot of kids, man. They want to buy the hats, and…
[Sactown:] Yeah, like before the show, when you came outside, there was a girl out there on crutches, and she had a poster, and all she wanted was a signature from Mac Miller, and she and her friend were standing there for hours…
[Guy:] Who's Mac Miller? Is that an Oakland Raider?
[Double K and I stare at him in silence again for a second…]
[Double K:] What the fuck? [Sactown's laughing]
[Guy:] Mac Miller was a Raider, right?
[Sactown:] Naw, he's just a rapper…
[Double K:] "Just a rapper…" [laughs]
[Sactown:] A hip-hopper, MC…
[Double K:] Actually, that's just the little homie right there… that's my little homie..
[Sactown:] Yeah, but those girls were into the pop, like… it was rockstar, pure rockstar.
[Double K:] Word.
[Sactown:] And I just feel like hip hop's a little different from all that. Even when you watch someone…
[Double K:] I mean, you know what, though? This ain't underground. "Underground" is fuckin'… a few people with dreads doing this [bobs his head]. Naw, this ain't underground. We superstar, man. We Led Zeppelin, man. We Led Zeppelin.
[Oddball goes on a sorta unintelligible rant about posting the show on his Facebook account, and not getting many responses, and then he says:]
[Guy:] I kinda wish that you guys had more mainstream success in that way.
[Double K:] Oh, really?
[Sactown:] They're still doing… doing mainstream.
[Double K:] What did he say? What did you say?
[Guy:] I want groups like you to be popular. To be popular on the same level as…
[Double K:] Why are we not popular?
[Guy:] You're popular with… all of us…
[Double K:] Okay, you know what…
[Guy:] I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds…
[Double K:] Naw, if you was, I would've slapped your brim. It's all good, bro. I'm just saying…
[Sactown:] "We made six figures and we drank a lot of beer…"
[Silence for a minute]
[Guy:] I'm a teacher.
[Double K:] You're a teacher? What grade?
[Guy:] In Oakland… High school… high school history.
[Double K:] Yo, I should be… I should be "blow and tell" tomorrow…. Come in, like, "Hey, y'all…"
[Thes comes back out of the venue's offices, and I turn the recording off for a moment while they we discuss the logistics of the interview. Oddball guy follows Double K around, and keeps saying weird shit. I start the recording about two minutes before the actual interview. I'm talking to Thes, who is packing up and assessing the damage to his drum machine from a drink that spilled on it during the show.]
[Sactown:] Seems like this place just straight up wore out your merch table tonight. You guys were selling a lot. Was Chico a little bit crazier?
[Thes One:] Chico was crazy too, but tonight was better, for sure.
[Sactown:] Tonight was better?
[Thes One:] Yeah. I mean, Chico was kind of a stoney-ass crowd, you know, so a lot of people were trying to trade weed for P albums… but it was good. Tonight was much more… tonight, everyone was real focused on the show, I feel like… you know? Everyone was, like, right there.
[Sactown:] Sure. That was awesome. Thank you, by the way. I really appreciate it. [I'm thanking him for the OST Party Sampler promo he gave me for doing the website & interviews.]
[Thes One:] Yeah, of course, man. I wish I could give… I mean, if you didn't have fuckin' everything already, I would give you more, but…
[Sactown:] You know, I'm trying to think of shit I don't have. As far as your music goes, I don't have any of the original 12-inches, like "Youth Explosion" and "Acid Raindrops". All I have is those limited edition represses from that era.
[Thes One:] I honestly… because Om kept all that shit, I don't even know how many I have.
[Sactown:] Oh, no, and I'm not necessarily asking for them.
[Thes One:] I had to buy "O.S.T." on eBay, the actual double vinyl.
[Sactown:] Oh, really? Damn.
YouTube clip starts HERE
[Thes One:] Yeah. Actually, man, why don't we do this… hey, Mike! He's got some questions from the forum and shit.
[Double K:] Oh, really?
[Sactown:] Yeah.
[Thes One:] Let's sit right here and answer this shit.
[Sactown:] Yeah, and I tried to… I think I might've actually started recording already. They were having kinda… that dude was acting funny.
[Thes One:] Oh, okay.
[Double K, joking around:] You got more questions. You motherfucker, man.
[Oddball guy starts trying to cut in]
[Thes One:] Hold up for a second. [turns to me] You ready?
[Double K:] Want me to call Greg Nice? Want me to get Greg Nice on the phone?
[Sactown:] Greg Nice, too? [laughs]
INTERVIEW STARTS HERE (if you wanna skip all the stuff above…)
[Sactown:] Two questions that were asked a lot, and I told the forum to hang back a bit and ask some more original questions after this… but I'll get to these two questions first, is: what would you say to any fan that's in a remote location that really wants to see you tour near there. Like… is there something general you just want to say to them?
[Thes One:] If, um…
[Sactown:] There's a guy from Finland, great guy…
[Thes One:] Right. The thing is: I know it's hard for people to understand 'cause we see people on Facebook saying, why don't you come here, why don't you come there, we talked about that… If people want us to come somewhere, the steps that they need to go through are basically: whoever the promoter is in that town… whoever the person is who's booking the shows at the club or whatever… let them know that there are people there that wanna see us. Because the promoter's the one that has the clout to call the booking agent and then get us there. But it takes a people's movement to basically make that shit happen. The people have to unify and say "Look…"
There have been shows we've done, say in Salt Lake City, where… and they're on the forum, man. Shout out to Salt Lake City and all the cats on the forum there… SLC and all of them dudes, like… every time we go to town, they make flyers and shit, you know what I'm saying? They are doing the promoter's job. But then the shows sell out, and the promoter invites us to come back because there are people on the ground who are making flyers and promoting the show, so the promoter makes money, and we end up coming back there, so it's one-part promoter and one-part people's movement.
[Sactown:] Alright, makes sense, makes sense. The other question I had and I was getting a lot of… and I just wanted to get these questions out of the way… Okay, so for the first two albums, you have American Men, Volume 1. On ...Or Stay Tuned, you had some "O.S.T" outtake stuff… what's the chance that we'll see any unreleased material from Stepfather through to now? One guy was asking about the beats that he heard on the Stepfather DVD and things like that... what's the chance that we'll see any unreleased material.
[Thes One:] Right… um…
[Double K:] Yo, I would say "bet on black", man. I think it's comin'.
[Sactown:] For real?
[Double K:] Yeah. We got a lot of stuff. Yo, we got new stuff. We got old stuff, a lot of stuff y'all ain't heard, and uh… we're trying to release it. Word.
[Sactown:] Alright, cool. I know you guys probably get asked those two questions more than anything else, so…
[Thes One:] Not really.
[Sactown:] Not really?!
[Thes One:] Only a fan would ask that question. Most people who interview us aren't fans.
[Sactown:] Ah, magazines and shit.
[Thes One:] Yeah. Right.
[Sactown:] Alright, so first, I had a few questions really quick…
[Thes One:] Nah, it's alright, take your time.
[Sactown's note: The only reason for my apparent fixation on timeliness was because, at this point, the only people left in the place were The New Parish staff, the oddball dude, me, and PUTS. I was thinking that we'd all be getting kicked out soon, but Thes and Double were completely not concerned, and oddball dude was just rockin' back and forth. We interviewed for another 45 minutes with nary a word from the staff, so I guess my concerns weren't justified!]
[Sactown:] I wanted to ask how the "Rick James, B-Boy from Buffalo" thing got started 'cause that shit's fuckin' hilarious to me.
[Thes One:] Yeah, I'll tell you the exact chronology of that, and Double K can back me up. We were in Sydney, Australia. We had just gotten off the…
[Double K:] Naw, man, we were in Melbourne.
[They stare at each other for a minute, shaking their heads.]
[Thes One:] Naw, man. I'm not gonna let you… not gonna let you fuckin'… I'm not gonna let you do this shit to me tonight.
[Sactown:] C'mon, now, you guys are brothers… [Sactown laughs nervously, oddball dude goes all high-pitched with some "tee hee" shit.]
[Thes One:] We were in Sydney, Australia. We had gotten off a plane. We had been flying all night, and this dude named Trent picked us up and took us to our hotel… it was a fuckin' apartment thing, and…
[Double K shakes his head.]
[Thes One:] It was fuckin' the first day… we were in Sydney, dude! Don't fuck this up like you did the other night… tryin' to fuck my story up for him. I remember this shit. I remember this shit.
[Sactown laughs]
[Double K:] It was in Melbour- It was in Adelaide!
[Thes One:] No, it wasn't, man! It was in Sydney, man!
[Double K:] It wasn't in Sydney, man.
[Thes One:] Alright, then you tell the story for him.
[Double K:] Nah, bro, you go ahead.
[Thes One:] Nah, bro, you tell the story for him. 'Cause you remember better than me, apparently.
[Sactown:] Contentious…
[Double K:] Wooo, long term memory… Okay, so check this out. So me and Thes One…
[Sactown:] Weed.
[Double K:] Yeah… so me and Thes One, we were in Adelaide, Australia. We were chillin'. We were at the balcony of this venue that we were doin'.
[Thes One:] Wrong, man. We were walking down the street in Sydney.
[Sactown:] Ooooh… Regardless of place…
[Double K:] So check this out, make sure you get this all down, I'm passing the phone back to Thes One.
[Thes One:] Naw, go ahead, man. I'm just sayin'…
[Double K:] Naw, it's all good. Go ahead, bro…
[Thes One:] We got off the plane. We were walking around in Sydney, and he [points at Double K] was saying "to the bottom, to the bottom, to the top, to the top". It was the first fuckin' day that we were there because… Dudes were running around with boomin' systems in Sydney, and it was like seven in the morning, and we'd just gotten off our flight. And that's what it was, it wasn't on a balcony in Adelaide. You really remember it that way? That that was the first time that you said "to the bottom, to the bottom, to the top, to the top", or was that after a couple of days of being in Australia? And it was already a joke?
[Double K:] You already know it. Tell the story. So tell 'em the story, dude. I don't know the story.
[Thes One:] Controller 7 is a real fuckin' amazing dude, who… he would make .gifs of shit online, and so when we got back, I hollered at Controller 7, and I was, like, "Yo"… he's from the Bay actually, shout out, Controller 7! And I was, like "Yo, Controller, we got this inside joke thing. If you could just animate it for us." And so, then we recorded the thing, and Controller did his thing. Yeah, Controller 7 did that.
[Sactown:] That's awesome. Yeah, I noticed that "IAmController7", that was the guy's YouTube name. I noticed that.
[Thes One:] Yup. He did that.
[Sactown:] Now, I'm a little afraid to ask another question about a story behind a song, but… this one's even further back, like a lot further back.
[Thes One:] Here, man. [Hands Double K the phone] You can answer this one.
[Sactown:] So, um… the next one is "Pulp Fiction". You guys usually do songs that are "daily life", like… about your daily life. And you guys don't really go into fiction that much. But on that song, you guys actually made up a story.
[Double K:] What song is this again?
[Thes One:] "Pulp Fiction".
[Sactown:] With Murs… when you guys…
[Double K:] Oh, woooow… damn.
[Sactown:] Yeah, I know that's a long time ago, but I was just wondering if you guys had any recollection of sitting around being, like, "what if we were fuckin'… a monkey came up and… we were on a hovercraft…"
[Double K:] I remember us three sitting around together, writing that, right?
[Thes One:] Yeah, the beat actually existed way before that.
[Double K:] We had it, but we sat there together and wrote it that day, and I remember us all going in there and layin' it down. Yeah, with Murs.
[Thes One:] Murs is the type of dude that would like to write something like that, you know? So I think he probably pulled us out of our comfort zone to write that.
[Sactown:] Sure.
[Thes One:] One thing about that, I remember that Murs refused to write down his verse, and I kept offering him, like… "Yo, you sure you don't wanna a piece of paper and a pen?" And he was like, "No, I got this…"
[Double K:] He did refuse to write down his verse. He did that.
[Thes One:] And then it took him, like, eighty fuckin' takes to get it right because he refused to write it down. He was trying to remember it.
[Everyone laughs]
[Sactown:] "Oh, wait, lemme go back again…"
[Double K laughs]
[Sactown:] Okay, so this is just kind of a weird question I just had to ask 'cause when I was going through, I found "Oh, shit, Original Sounds & Tracks"…
[Double K:] All your questions are "weird", dude, chill. Everything's cool. Just… everything's "bad", "sad"…
[Thes One:] Naw, man, it's all good. He's just fuckin' with you.
[Double K, laughing:] He knows I'm fuckin' with him, man.
[Sactown:] Yeah, yeah, word.
[Thes One:] Tough to say, you were in that zone.
[Sactown:] Um… has anyone ever gotten all of the samples from that "Original Sounds & Tracks"?
[Thes One:] No.
[Sactown:] So that $500 is still out there?
[Thes One:] Yup.
[Sactown:] I've got 9 of the 16, but I can't get…
[Thes One:] Montego Slay is not… is still… is well unaccounted for, man.
[Sactown:] Oh, okay. Alright, then… Double K, is there a timeline at work for a solo release… for Double K?
[Double K:] Pssh, no. Not at all. I'm dedicated to People Under The Stairs, man. That's what it is… so I couldn't tell you that at all.
[Sactown:] Alright, sweet. Just thought I'd ask.
[Double K:] Word.
[Sactown:] A question about record collecting and sampling, and then we'll get to the forum questions. Is there any genre that you feel is underrepresented in your collection, maybe rightfully so? I mean, do you have a lot of fuckin' 80's hair rock or country or metal or… is there something that you're missing?
[Double K:] I… you know what, I can say what people are missing, and that's yacht rock. If you don't know what yacht rock is then…
[Sactown:] Yacht rock… you mean, like, Steely Dan?
[Thes One:] Steely Dan is a good place to start.
[Double K:] You already said it. Like Michael McDonald, which we're big fans of, man.
[Sactown:] I've got every Steely Dan on record.
[Thes One:] Here's a little "behind the scenes"… we should put him up on the People Under The Stairs-Michael McDonald shit.
[Double K:] Yo, yo, yo, check this out.
[Sactown:] Hell yeah.
[Double K:] Any time we're caught…
[Thes One:] Only in Colorado…
[Double K:] Only in Colorado. Me and this dude, we listen to Michael McDonald. We make sure that as soon as we land in Denver, and we gotta drive into the Rocky Mountains, we have a Michael McDonald CD. All the Michael McDonald joints, that's all we listen to.
[Thes One:] That's all we listen to. It's like a People Under The Stairs rule: when you're in Colorado, it's only 100% Michael McDonald
[Double K:] 'Cause his beard is frozen…
[Sactown:] Ahhhhh…
[Thes One:] As soon as we get the rental car, it's just 100% Michael McDonald. And then when we leave? No more Michael McDonald.
[Double K:] No more Michael McDonald!
[Thes One:] Like, when we're on the East Coast, we listen to certain things. When we're in Colorado, it's Michael McDonald.
[Sactown:] A geographical playlist. That's great.
[Thes One:] People don't even know that. It's crazy because we pull up at venues, right? And people expect us to be playing, like, Murs or some shit…
[Sactown:] Sure… some Scarface or something..
[Thes One:] … and we're listening to, like, "What A Fool Believes", and they are like "What the fuck, man? We thought these dudes were rap dudes!" but um… that's how it is, man.
[Sactown:] Nice.
[Double K:] Dig!
[Sactown:] Alright, these might go a little quicker. Forum question number one… someone said that they think they have a good idea of beers you guys like from hearing about your music, but… is there any beverage that's "wowed" you recently? And I think they especially wanted to know if you guys liked ales of any kind. Like, is there a beer that you just…
[Thes One:] Here's the problem with most beers, man, in my opinion. This is for the forum, this is private shit. There's a trend of microbreweries… and microbrewing has become a big thing in the States… more so than when we started touring… there's a race to make shit that's hoppier than the other shit because hops are expensive, and it's kinda like a fuckin' badge of honor, like, "We made a pale… we made an ale that's hoppy as fuck!"… Hops make your breath stink, and they make you fat! And they give you heartburn. They're cool and shit, but like… Odell, I love them dudes to death and they take great care of us, but a lot of their beers are kinda undrinkable, man. I'm just saying…
[Sactown:] Too hoppy.
[Thes One:] Too hoppy!! What's the point of making a fuckin' 7.3% hoppy-ass fuckin' Double IPA?! A Double IPA?! I don't eat Indian food all day long. That's what IPAs are made for. Don't give me this hoppy-ass shit.
[Double K:] India Pale Ale, y'all…
[Thes One:] I can't drink a Double IPA… more than one, man, and your breath will stink like fuckin' shit, man. No one should! And it makes you fat as shit, man. And the hops are crazy expensive, so it's just a fuckin' waste, man. My favorite all-day-drinkin' beer is Session by Full Sail. It's a lager, it's not hoppy.
[Double K:] We drank Session during the recording of Highlighter. Yeah, we had a 24 of Session, for sure. Yo, yo, yo, I'm not trying to bust the homie out, but when the homie was recording, man, he had some blueberry beer. It wasn't good, Thes.
[Thes One:] That shit was nasty.
[Sactown:] Blueberry beer sounds nasty, man.
[Thes One:] Yo, that shit tasted like Sisco, dude.
[Double K:] Even Brendan wouldn't drink it.
[Thes One:] Yeah, Brendan's like our "Mikey", dude. We were like, "Does Mikey like it?" No. Even Brendan wouldn't drink that shit.
[Sactown:] Life cereal. That shit's fuckin' great.
[Thes One:] Yeah, so fuck that fake-ass hoppy ale bullshit, dude. [points over to the bar] I see a box that says "IPA" over there and shit. Fuck IPAs, dude. Only good IPA is Stone IPA.
[Double K:] He came at me the other day. We had this show… I can't remember where it was… but he looked at me, real tough, and he was, like, "Yo, fuck hops, man." Shit fucked me up on stage. "Fuck the hops."
[Sactown:] Did he scare you a bit?
[Double K:] Nah, nah… actually… he did! 'Cause he loves beer. Thes One loves beer, y'all.
[Thes One:] Hops are bullshit.
[Sactown:] Well then, since you made Piecelock70 studios, and you built the shit from the ground up, when are you building the microbrewery next door, to like pipe it in…
[Thes One:] Let me tell you guys… this is straight "behind the scenes", unknown information shit. Kat Ouano… Kat 010… brews her own beer.
[Sactown:] She does?
[Thes One:] Yes, she does. If there wasn't enough to love about Kat, here's one more thing to love about Kat. She brews her own goddamn beer!
[Sactown:] She hot, she plays piano, and brews beer.
[Thes One:] Yeah, she plays piano and brews beer!
[Sactown:] Does she have a man?
[Thes One:] Yeah, she's getting married in… in… in like two days, dude. She's getting married on 11-11-11. [Sactown's note: technically, the interview was after midnight, so it WAS 11-11-11, but I didn't think about it at the time… Congratulations, Kat!!!] Congratulations to Kat and Dorian…
[Guy:] You going to their wedding?
[Thes One:] No, I'm not going 'cause we're on tour… I wanted to go, man, but…
[Sactown:] Tell her that the forum says "Congratulaltions."
[Thes One:] Yeah, definitely. The forum says "congratulations" to Kat Ouano and Dorian. Congratulations, man. Y'all are special.
[Sactown:] Do you ever watch shows like Phineas and Ferb or Yo Gabba Gabba when your kids aren't watching it?
[Thes One:] Nah, I only watch it with them, man. Well… let me tell you a little story about Yo Gabba Gabba. Last year, I took my kids to see Yo Gabba Gabba. Kid Koala was DJing for the tour, and Biz was on the tour. Now, us and Kid Koala go way fuckin' back. Right? So, I was at the bar at the Yo Gabba Gabba show, right? This is fucked up. My kids were watching the show. I was getting a beer, and I seen Kid Koala at the bar. He said, "YO, THES! WHERE'S DOUBLE K?" 'cause we go back like that. We toured in 200…2.
[Double K:] One…
[Thes One:] 2001. We spent mad time together, right? So he was, like "Yo, what you doin' after the show? Come backstage!" So I gave my kids some backstage passes. Now, these little mo'fuckas didn't understand what it means to go backstage at a show! They acted like everyone gets to go back there.
[Double K, laughing:] Right, right!
[Thes One:] And the fucked up thing is… backstage at the Yo Gabba Gabba show in the green room, there was mad applesauce and juice boxes. There was no alcohol. There was no food. There was applesauce and juice boxes backstage at the Yo Gabba Gabba show. So I gave them some free applesauce. I was, like, "Yo, enjoy this." So then… Biz walks out. And Biz… same thing: we go way back So I said was up to Biz, and my kids were like, "Oh, that's the… Daddy knows the guy from the show." Not a big deal! I was like "Guys, this is Biz!" They were like "Whatever. It's fuckin' Biz's Beat of the Day." I'm, like, "Naw, it's Biz!!"
[Oddball guy, confused:] Wait, who's their daddy?
[Double K, pointing at Thes:] He's their daddy, dude! Pssh.
[Sactown:] That's great.
[Thes One:] "Daddy knows a bunch of wavy motherfuckers." They didn't get it. But they were backstage at Yo Gabba Gabba at the Staples Center. They didn't even get it.
[Sactown:] When they grow up, they'll appreciate it, dude.
[Thes One:] After that, I took them to get some spaghetti, 'cause they were… I was tryin' to impress them. I was, like, "This didn't impress you?! What will impress you?!" They were, like, "We want spaghetti!" I was like, "Alright." I went and bought 'em a big-ass bowl of spaghetti, and they were impressed. They met Biz, they weren't impressed. They were bought spaghetti, they were impressed.
[Double K and Sactown laugh hella hard.]
[Thes One:] They were like, "Yo, this noodle's long" and shit. "Oh, this is amazing." That's real talk, dude. Biz and my dad and Uncle Mike? Just people on the TV. Spaghetti? That's some real shit. Spaghetti's the real deal.
[Double K:] People on the TV. Yo, yo, yo… the new group is called "People On The TV".
[Thes One:] Yeah, "People On The TV"… or Walkman.
[Double K:] Yo, what's the new album called, man? We should tell him. Or should we not?
[Thes One:] We made… I don't think we should put it out there yet. We have a title for the new album.
[Double K:] We have a title for the new album, so…
[Sactown:] Oh, shit… damn. No that's fine… Shit!
[Thes One:] It starts with "We…"
[Double K:] "We…"
[Sactown:] Oh, man… I know that you guys aren't much for collaborations, but if each of you could do a one-off track with one artist… but then they put in "dead or alive", which kinda fucked me up…
[Thes One:] Ohhhhhhhhh… yeah.
[Sactown:] … so what I'm gonna do is break up this question…
[Thes One:] Alright.
[Sactown:] I'm gonna ask for one dead artist and then one kinda recent artist…
[Double K:] Oh, really? Oh, really?
[Sactown:] And just to tell you what they said…
[Thes One:] Yo, yo, yo, before we even get into that, hey, man, we got to tell him the "Oh, really?" story, 'cause this shit is pertinent… nah, 'cause you just said "Oh, really?"
[Double K:] Not really. Not really. It's cool.
[Thes One:] Alright, then…
[Silence for a moment.]
[Sactown:] They mentioned Blu and Kendrick Lamar.
[Thes One:] Those are not two people that we would collaborate with. Honestly, man, I've got respect for Blu and Kendrick Lamar, but… if we could collaborate with any artist…
[Double K:] So, you wanna ask me?
[Sactown:] Yeah, yeah, yeah… both of you…
[Thes One:] Yeah, dead or alive. I'mma grab a beer. Hold up.
[Double K:] Dead or alive? James Brown and DJ Quik.
[Thes One, in the background:] Why you gotta take my dude?!
[Sactown:] Aw, shit. James Brown? You just took Thes' dude. It's all good. What kinda shit would you do?
[Double K:] James Brown? I would, uh… I would make sure there was a lot of World Of Curls and whole bunch of sequins thangs and… you know. I'd make sure that Jabo was there.
[Sactown:] Jabo! Hell yeah… not Clyde Stubblefield?
[Double K:] Jabo. And for DJ Quik, I'd make sure that D and KK from 2nd II None was there. Boom.
[Sactown:] Nice.
[Thes One comes back:] Took James Brown, huh?
[Sactown:] I'm sorry… James Brown is taken! Maybe, uh…
[Thes One:] Damn, dude. Alright…
[Sactown:] Well, you can say the alive one first while you're thinking about the dead one.
[Thes One:] Any person alive right now I could collaborate with… that's crazy. I would say that, man, honestly… and we've been trying to make this happen, and there's still the possibility it could happen… is that People Under The Stairs and MGMT would do a fuckin' song together.
[Sactown:] Wait, who?
[Thes One:] MGMT and People Under The Stairs.
[Guy:] Those kids are good.
[Double K:] Naw, they're not kids, man. They are fuckin' grown-ass men in their music, dude…
[Thes One:] I think that that shit would go off. And I'm just saying that from, like… from a "what I'd like to hear", you know what I'm saying? I think that would be dope. Yeah… as far as someone who's dead or passed away, um…
[Sactown:] You could say James Brown too, it's cool.
[Thes One:] Well, naw, man. He already said James Brown, let me… there's plenty of people who have passed away, man… HEAVY D!
[Double K, in approval:] Awwww, man!!
[Thes One:] Heavy D and People Under The Stairs! Double K and Heavy D go heads up on a phat reco-
[Double K:] Wooooooo… Heavy up!
[Thes One:] HEAVY UP! That shit would be called "Heavy K"! That shit would be Buffy…
[Double K:] "Double D"!
[Thes One:] "Double D"?! Buffy, Heavy D, and Double K… and Chubb Rock, who's the alive…
[Double K:] On the hook…
[Thes One:] Yo, it would be two alive rappers and two dead rappers battling… so him and Chubb Rock would be together, versus Heavy D and fuckin' Buffy. It would be a battle for heavyweight domination.
[Sactown, to Double K:] What do you think about that, man?
[Double K:] That's dope. I love that. I love that shit.
[Thes One:] I'mma have my manager get on that shit. We gonna raise 'em from the dead.
[Double K:] Yo, yo, yo… let's get Chubb Rock on the next… on our East Coast tour. Let's have Chubb Rock come out.
[Thes One, in Chubb Rock voice:] "I don't wanna come out with you. I signed a lotta autographs, don't need new friends."
[Double K, in voice:] "Well, just ask Hot Dog and Stanky. They might know."
[Thes One, in voice:] "Hot Dog and Stanky? They don't wanna go."
[Sactown:] Just call it Chubb and Chibbum.
[Thes One:] CHUBB AND CHIBBUM!!
[Double K:] Chubb and Chibbum, YEAH!
[Thes One:] That's good shit. I like that, dude. That shit would be awesome.
[Sactown:] Alright, now here's the DEEP forum question. I know I'm puttin' adjectives on everything.
[Thes One:] From the bottom of the forum.
[Double K:] Yo, yo, yo, this is for the forum, from the bottom of the forum…
[Sactown:] So, someone said, "Do you have any regrets?" and then he said "I know they are all about having fun, but is there anything they wish they'd done different? I personally regret ever starting smoking, bloody bane of my life."
[Double K:] Ooh, wow.
[Sactown:] So yeah…
[Double K:] Wow. You want me to tell the truth?
[Sactown:] Yeah, man. You can be as honest as you want…
[Double K:] You want me to tell the truth? … I regret not going to school, and not doing what my parents and my elders told me to do. That's what I regret. And I regret a lot of other things too… and George could tell you what those are, you know what I'm sayin'? Boom. [laughs] Word. I regret not going to school, man. Straight up. For sure. Because this shit right here could end at any fuckin' moment. I love People Under The Stairs. It's my life, you know what I'm saying? I wanna die being a Person Under The Stairs, man. Hell, man, this shit has taken me through a roller-coaster. It's taken my man… my man's got two kids right here. Thes One… the one with the gun. He's got two kids, that's some ol' ill shit that my man's going through that… you won't ever hear about that, but it's going down. I know about it. I love it. We're family right here. So… going to school, man, and just havin' something else to fall back on is, like, the thing I wish I woulda done. Word.
[Sactown:] So, you got something to say to the kids, man? "Stay in school"?
[Everyone laughs]
[Double K:] What I was getting ready to say! Hey, kids: Listen to your parents, stay in school, and if you're in the UK, don't drink Strongbow. Word.
[Everyone laughs]
[Thes One:] Good advice.
[Double K:] Don't smoke the R.
[Thes One:] Don't be a chav, dude.
[Double K, laughing:] Don't be a chav.
[Thes One:] No matter what they tell you about that Adidas suit, that shit don't look right. Don't wear that. Don't chav up, dude.
[More laughing]
[Sactown:] Woo… alright, man, what about you? What do you regret?
[Double K:] You don't regret shit.
[Thes One:] Naw, man. It's tough to say, man, because honestly, and I know…
[Sactown:] You try to have no regrets…
[Thes One:] I know that Double's being real honest and open and shit, but I know that… for this group… we've really lived it hard, and we haven't made regrettable decisions, you know what I'm saying? A lot of groups get torn up because they make decisions that they regret and it causes friction in the group or whatever. And we've never put money in front of this group. We haven't put family in front of this group. Like, seriously, man…
[Sactown:] Do you ever regret that, though? Do you ever regret not putting family in front?
[Thes One:] No way, man! No way!
[Double K:] 'Course we don't regret that! This is my brother. This is my homeboy.
[Thes One:] There's no way, dude.
[Double K:] He's okay before our group is okay. Our group is what gets us our money. As long as he's okay, I'm okay. You know what I'm saying? Fuck the group. I love the group, but…
[Thes One:] But it's bigger than the group. Like, his mom's his mom, so if there's a problem, it's not People Under The Stairs' business.
[Double K:] All I'm saying is, like, if this dude called me up and was, like, "I can't do it because the family is fucked up", which… it's never been like that. Let's say it was like that… then I fall back. That's my homeboy right there, man.
[Sactown:] Yeah, give him some space, and then when it gets fixed, then the group's back.
[Double K:] Yeah, man. Let him get right. Word up. And yes, I am faded right now.
[Thes One:] But naw, I would say that, like, my one regret… and I mean, this is… we bein' "real talk" or whatever… I kinda regret not thinking through the reality of my life when I got married and had kids. I don't wanna say I regret it in a bad way, but there's, like… I carry an enormous amount of guilt on my shoulders every time I leave home, right? When I met my wife, Ritu, I told her, "I'll never love you more than I love music," and it was kind of a joke. I was, like, "I love you, but I'll love my music, and I love this shit more." But then when we had kids, it was different. Shit was different because I'll say that to her, and it's fucked up. And I'll say that to her, but I would never say that to my kids. I would never say "I love my music more than I love you guys." That's fucked up. Like, why would I say that, right? So that shit…
[Oddball guy starts trying to interrupt]
[Thes One:] Hold up, man. So that shit changed the whole dynamic of everything because People Under The Stairs is like a pyramid that me and Double K have been building for fuckin' 13 years…
[Sactown:] One of those little card pyramids…
[Thes One:] It is a pyramid of cards because people… and that's a great analogy… people don't understand that a simple blow from one direction or another direction could shatter the whole fuckin' thing. I mean, we're walking on quicksand, man. Every show we do, if we fuck that shit up, could be our last show. If we fuck up what we do… 'cause of the way the Internet works and the way information spreads, we fuck up one show, we don't show up for one show…
[Sactown:] Just like the politicians…
[Thes One:] Right! Like Rick Perry, he just tanked his whole shit, that motherfucker. Fuck him anyways, but you know what I'm saying… one bad debate, you're a wrap. That's all our career is, and we've been keeping this shit going for thirteen years… but anyways, to go back to what I was saying… I love my kids, I love my fuckin' family… I don't think I thought this shit through. I acted on impulse. I wanted to be a dad. I wanted to be a husband. I wanna to be a member of People Under The Stairs, but before I wanted to do that shit, I wanted to be a part of this group. And so like… I had no idea…
[Double K:] We had no idea. We were kids when we did this...
[Thes One:] We were kids, man! And we've grown up and we haven't abandoned this shit.
[Guy:] When did you guys meet?
[Thes One:] We were 16… 16 or 17.
[Double K:] We were 17, going on 18, when we met.
[Thes One:] Anyways, that's not really a "regret", man, and I don't want that shit to frame the wrong way, but who in the fuck woulda thought that 13 years later, we would still be doing it? That's real talk, you know what I'm saying? Who woulda fuckin' thought?
[Sactown:] Then, as a supplementary question to that, do you ever think that… maybe this is a little deep… do you ever think that you got into your marriage thinking that maybe this shit would fall down, and that the marriage would be, like… "I'm setting myself up for the future."
[Double K:] It had nothing to do with the music.
[Thes One:] Nah… I'll answer that… basically…
[Sactown:] And if you want me to edit any of this out…
[Thes One:] Nah, it's all good. I don't hide any of this shit. It is what it is.
[Double K:] You want a drink, or you good? [goes to bar for a minute]
[Thes One:] I'm good. Basically, here's what happened, man. I didn't think about it. I just did what the fuck I thought I was gonna do. In 2004, it was time to get married 'cause my wife, Ritu, has been with People Under The Stairs since the fuckin' beginning. When me and Mike were sitting in my living room, putting the beedies in "The Next Step"s, hand-assembling them shits… she was there with us. The three of us, and his girl too, we were all there, all fuckin' four of us…
[Sactown:] Yeah, I remember seeing her name on all the stuff…
[Thes One:] Yeah, man! Her brother took the picture… her brother was 17… he was the only dude I knew who could go with us… he took the picture for Question in the Form of an Answer. The cover of Question in the Form of an Answer… my wife's brother took that shit with a fuckin' cam-
[Sactown:] Yeah, I remember seeing that… another Marwah… uh…
[Thes One:] Rahul…
[Sactown:] Yeah, Rahul, that's right!
[Thes One:] He took the picture for that, that's how deep this shit goes. This shit goes back crazy deep. And there's so many fuckin' ghosts surrounded by us. Like… the cover of The Next Step... that picture that's on the cover of The Next Step… the person who took that picture is DJ Dusk, he's fuckin' dead.
[Sactown:] That was DJ Dusk?
[Thes One:] He took that picture! See? This shit is fuckin' deep… when I met my wife, he was dating this other girl, Paula, and we would go on double dates, and…
[Sactown:] Yeah, you told me about that at the Fillmore show.
[Thes One:] That's right. I don't bring this shit up for novelty's sake or whatever, but it's worth noting, the fact that this is deep… it's surrounded by ghosts, and it's fucking deep…
[Double K comes back from the bar]
[Thes One:] I was saying that the cover of the The Next Step was taken by DJ Dusk. You were with Ethel, I was with Ritu at that time. These people that fuckin' hung tough, man.
[Double K:] Yeah.
[Sactown:] The next question was… someone wanted to know if you had any plans to do something commercially with woodworking skills.
[Thes One:] Oh, shit. Well, I like building studios, man. In fact, Double K said, "Yo…"
[Double K:] Yo, yo, yo… when this dude wants to… [notices the mic] oh, are we live? Check it out, when this dude wants to stop making music, this m'fucka can build recording studios all across America and the world, man. This man fuckin' does it!
[Sactown:] Well, you could hold the fuckin' nails and the hammer, man…
[Double K:] Straight up, he's got the nails and the motherfuckin' hammer, yo. Boom.
[Thes One:] We hooked up something fly for your room, man. That shit was tight.
[Double K:] I have a nice studio 'cause of this foolio, man. Yeah, my shit is nice…
[Thes One:] Yo, his shit… Double K's studio is dope because it has classic 12-inches all up on the fuckin'… sorry, man.
[Double K:] Yeah, all over the walls, man. You come to my studio, I got… yo, every record you ever liked is on the wall. And a gang of People Under The Stairs posters and shit, man. Word up. And cool records and crates and things…
[Thes One:] Its' tight. We wrote the third track, we wrote…
[Double K:] We wrote The Second Track…
[Thes One:] We wrote a lot of tracks in that room…
[Double K:] We wrote WRLA… Doctor Bill came through…
[Thes One:] WRLA! Yeah, Doctor Bill came through…
[Sactown:] Yeah, I had to ask you who that was!
[Thes One:] Why don't you break it down?
[Double K:] That's my uncle, man.
[Sactown:] "Dolla bill, y'all."
[Thes One:] "Dolla bill, y'all." Yo, for everyone who has the Question album, when you hear that, okay, here's the thing about that…
[Double K, imitating scratching:] "Dewi-Dewi-Dolla bill, y'all!"
[Thes One:] Yeah, when it says, "Dewi-Dewi-Dolla bill, y'all!"… that was him in… what year, Mike?
[Double K:] Uh, that was 1987 or right there… yeah… and I got the record, straight up. 'Cause he had a record…
[Sactown:] No one's finding that sample.
[Thes One shakes his head]
[Double K:] He had a radio show… it was radio shows for the Air Force bases, and they would press 'em up on records, on vinyl, and just give 'em to these dumb-ass DJs, they'd just play it.
[Sactown:] Just drop the needle.
[Double K:] Oh yeah. For this year… "Here you go. A whole bunch of fuckin' good songs for y'ass."
[Thes One:] So we brought him back for Highlighter and shit, and fuckin' Bill comes through.
[Double K:] Dolla Bill.
[Thes One:] Dolla Bill, sorry… all respect due, man. Bill is so fuckin' deep. Bill will tell you about how he… okay, here's a little Dolla Bill story for the forum. This is why everyone's gotta love Dolla Bill. We did a show with EPMD in House of Blues in L.A., and someone came backstage and said "Yo, DMC's in the crowd!"
[Sactown:] Ohhhhh…
[Thes One:] Yeah, and Dolla Bill's in the green room with us. This was years ago. This was four years ago. Right, you can finish the story.
[Double K shakes his head]
[Thes One:] So someone came backstage and they were stoked, like, "Yo, People Under The Stairs…"
[Double K:] Naw, you were stoked. You came backstage!
[Thes One:] Oh, I was stoked 'cause I saw DMC. I was like, "Yo…"
[Double K:] Alright, hold up. I wanna take it over right here. Boom, you got it? Aite, so check this out. Me and Dolla Bill are backstage with a couple of some family friends and things like that. Thes One busts the fuckin' door open, like, BOOM! "Yo, doggs, DMC is downstairs!" I'm like, "Oh, shit!"
[Thes One:] I didn't say "doggs".
[Double K:] Oh, he didn't say "doggs", but… it was kinda like that. He said, "DMC's downstairs!" I'm like, "Oh, shit!" My uncle jumps up… we're talking about Dolla Bill from WRLA… he's like, "Oh… DMC owes me 40 dollars!"
[Everyone laughs]
[Double K:] And he jumped up and was like, "Lemme get my 40 dollars" I was like, "Dude, shut the f-"
[Thes One:] He jumped up, and he went out to find DMC to get his fuckin' 40 dollars… and what was the 40 bucks for? He fuckin' told us.
[Double K:] Because he fuckin' broke a Rock Box on the L.A. radio. Yeah.
[Thes One:] And he's owed his payola… to this fuckin' day, he wants his money. He wants his 40 dollars from DMC.
[Sactown:] He won't let the fame of DMC stand in his way?
[Thes One:] Nope! It doesn't matter. It's fuckin' Dolla Bill, y'all.
[Sactown:] And it's 40 bucks, man…
[Thes One:] It's 40 bucks, man! That's a lot of money.
[Sactown:] Alright. Here's one someone asked. I gotta ask it. You guys could probably answer it in just one word. "Give up one: beer or weed." Give up one.
[Double K:] Funk.
[Sactown laughs:] You'd give up the funk before you'd give up beer or weed?
[Double K:] Yeah… I'd give up the funk, man.
[Thes One:] There it is.
[Sactown:] … alright. And then, the final question is from me, and then I have one other thing.
[Thes One:] Yeah, man. It's all good.
[Sactown:] I know you guys like drum breaks, but… okay, I know Double K, I know Blewfoot…
[Thes One:] Yo, you remember, real quick…
[Double K:] Blewfoot. You know Blewfoot?!?
[Sactown:] No, I don't know Blewfoot, I'm guess I shouldn't say it that way…
[Thes One:] Tell 'em about Blewfoot.
[Double K:] Oh, man…
[Thes One:] People need to know about Blewfoot because he's such a part of People Under The Stairs, but he just doesn't get a lot of..
[Sactown:] Is he the Jarobi White of People Under The Stairs?
[Thes One:] Kinda, man. Kinda.
[Double K:] Ay-yo. Blewfoot's like the fuckin'… Man, he's like that one dude that was real epic in Star Wars… I don't know his name, but…
[Thes One:] Luke Skywalker? Darth Vader?
[Double K:] The fat dude.
[Thes One:] Jabba The Hutt?
[Double K:] Jabba The Hutt, he's like that guy!
[Thes One:] I'm not following you.
[Double K:] He told everybody what to do. But yo, Blewfoot? That's the homie right there, man. He's gonna be at the El Rey show on the 19th, riding his motherfuckin' bike around the stage. That's what he do.
[Sactown:] The unicycle? Fuckin' crazy.
[Thes One:] Unicycle. How many people have ever met a stone-cold, fuckin' OG Crip who rides a unicycle?
[Double K:] Word. Word.
[Thes One:] You have to respect that dude, like, you watch the Trippin' At The Disco video…
[Double K:] Let me tell you something. You see that shirt you're wearing? [Sactown's note: He pointed to my dark grey "P" hoodie with the blue "P" with a yellow outline]
[Sactown:] Yeah.
[Double K:] I can't wear that in my neighborhood.
[Sactown:] Really? You can't? 'Cause it's blue?
[Double K:] Naw, it's not even that. It's the P and the [makes the hand sign] whole thing because the neighborhood I grew up in is the Playboy Gangsta Crips, and that's the "P" and [makes the hand sign again]… Boom. So if some fools roll up looking for them Playboys… I'm one of 'em if I'm wearing that.
[Thes One:] T… you're T.
[Double K:] Right, I'm T. Check this out…
[Thes One:] They are lookin' for T.
[Double K:] Check this out. I went to the liquor store one day. I was buying some Kool-Aid and some beans, dig it? And this motherfucker walked up to me, like, "Yo, are you T?" I said, "Naw, I ain't T." He was like… "Alright, man…" And he gave me this look, like "Alright now, loved one."
[Thes One:] They're trying to kill T.
[Double K:] They wanted to kill T. I wasn't T, though.
[Thes One:] That's kind of a running joke. "They was looking for T."
[Double K:] … It's not a joke, though, 'cause the dude woulda killed me if I was…
[Thes One:] Yeah, 'cause T… T might be dead, man. That m'fucka dead, yo. They found him, dude. He wasn't buyin' beans, either. He was buyin' fuckin'…
[Everyone starts laughing]
[Double K, bustin' up:] That nigga was buyin'… dude was buyin' some fuckin'… chocolate… fuckin'…
[Thes One:] He was buyin' a Snickers bar, dude… a chocolate blunt wrap…
[Double K:] Nigga bought a Steel Reserve…
[Thes One:] He deserved to die…
[Everyone's dyin' laughing]
[Sactown:] Oh my god… [silence for a minute to regain composure] Yeah, I noticed you said something about when you were recording… on the Fun DMC Press Promo, you were recording the party… and then the next day, someone got killed, like, right in the same neighborhood or some shit like that…
[Thes One:] On the Fun DMC Press Promo?
[Sactown:] Yeah, you said something about how it's really real. Around where you guys had the party, and you were recording the party… like field recording…
[Thes One:] Oh, yeah!
[Sactown:] You said someone got killed the next day.
[Thes One:] Yeah, man. That was at Blewfoot's house.
[Double K:] What happened?
[Thes One:] Naw, remember that? When we were talking about Fun DMC… right after we recorded that…
[Double K:] Yo, yo, yo… some nigga got killed right around the corner as soon as we were done doin' that whole thing for Fun DMC, and I was telling him earlier today that that whole neighborhood is fuckin' rampaged with fuckin' violence right now.
[Sactown:] Oh, it is?
[Double K:] Yeah, I'm going over there soon… they ain't gonna fuck with the guy, you know what I'm saying, 'cause I'm all on positivity. Ain't nothing hittin' me. We People Under The Stairs, you dig what I'm sayin'? But…
[Thes One:] We don't wear that Piecelock, though. [points at my hoodie again]
[Double K:] No. Hell no!
[Thes One:] They'd be like, "T! We finally found you! Thank god, T!"
[Double K:] But from 43rd Street to 55th Street, man. Yo, you can't go over there, fuckin' around. And guess what? Me and Thes always go to the liquor store on 54th and Vermont, all the time.
[Thes One:] That's where we're talking about. 54th and Vermont. But Blewfoot play in a church right there on the corner of 52nd and Vermont. Ay-yo, what's it called? What's the name of that church? Shout out that church…
[Double K:] Um… shit, I don't know, man.
[Thes One:] That pastor's kind of a wave, but…
[Double K:] That pastor's crazy.
[Thes One:] Yo… but anyways, man, Blewfoot's the shit.
[Sactown:] So here's the question I had. I know you like drum breaks, but you got Double K, you got Blewfoot, they're both really good drummers…
[Thes One:] That's true.
[Sactown:] I'm sure you've got access to cats like Max McVeety [from Crown City Rockers]…
[Thes One:] Yeah, absolutely.
[Sactown:] So, why don't you have, like, one of them in the studio, just play like 15, 20 minutes of drums…
[Thes One:] We're not the Roots. 'Cause we're not the Roots.
[Sactown:] You're not ?uestlove and…
[Thes One:] Nah, the shit is…
[Sactown:] So, you wanna stick to drum breaks? You don't ever wanna go live drumming?
[Thes One:] Hell no!
[Sactown:] You think that would be going too far?
[Thes One:] Naw, I'd never go to live drumming. Here's the thing about live drums and shit… and drum breaks. The drums are the fuckin' root of what we do. The drums are the root of what James did. The drums are the root of what George did. The drums are the root of what Prince did. And what seperates what we do from all of those motherfuckers is the fact that we use drums from old records. That is the fuckin' essence of this shit. The second we get rid of those breaks is the second that we're just another fuckin' band, tryin' to make shit. But if you're scratching records in and sampling shit, you're making hip hop. Everything else you can play. You gotta have "Impeach the President", you gotta have Skull Snaps. You gotta have The Honey Drippers. You know, all that shit, like… that's what we do! We sample drums. Everything else is secondary to the fact that the motherfuckers are rapping over drums… you know what I mean?
[Sactown:] You sample the drums.
[Thes One:] Yeah! I mean even with drum machines, but it's still… it's not a live drummer. You know, Run DMC on Rick Rubin, that's fuckin' what it is. The big difference between Run-D.M.C., in '84, and Aerosmith on "Walk This Way" is that the Run DMC song had a fuckin' DMX drum machine! That's the only thing that separates us from everyone else! And that's what makes us all great, man. That's what makes hip hop, hip hop. You know, 'cause we fuck our drums… fuck the drummer! I love the drummers… but lay that shit down and let us loop it or give me the drum machine, you know what I'm sayin'?
[Double K:] Dewrit!
[Sactown:] Dewrit! But then, did you wanna put any plug for Wonderful Radio? I mean, on that, did you have live drums or did you use…
[Thes One:] Naw, naw, that ain't… there are no live drums on it. I mean, there's stuff in and out… 'cause the homeboy, Chops, played on that shit. But… Wonderful Radio's not… it is what it is…
[Double K:] Yo, yo… you know what I wanna say? I wanna say "Occupy Highlighter".
[Thes One:] Yeah, people need to Occupy Highlighter, man. Like, honestly, man…
[Double K:] I wanna end it off on: "Occupy Highlighter."
[Thes One:] I think Highlighter is like a lagoon, and the depths really haven't even been explored yet. People look at it and say, "I love this lagoon," but they haven't really probably jumped into that lagoon… maybe some people have, but I think there's a lot there for people to grip onto, and they haven't really… maybe they have, but fuck, I don't know… it's as deep as anything we've ever done, maybe deeper. There's a lot of shit there to bite into. You know?
[Sactown:] Absolutely.
[Thes One:] It's the fuckin' Time Bandit… fishing in a lagoon.
[Double K:] I just heard that the Time Bandit made it safely back to Homer, Alaska, because they got pummeled with a fuckin' really strong storm, and they're back in Homer, Alaska, so…
[Thes One:] This is during the new season?
[Double K:] Yeah, new season, so peace to Andy and Jonathan Hillstrand, y'all. Time Bandit, word up. Word up. Twitter.
[Thes One:] "At" TimeBandit… "Hash tag" Time Bandit.
[Double and Thes laugh]
[Double K:] "At" Jonathan Hillstrand.
[Sactown:] Okay, I was gonna try to make… I didn't have time to do this, I got too much other shit goin' on… I'm almost finished on my thesis…
[Thes One:] Yeah, I know, man.
[Sactown:] I'm hoping I'll be done by the end of this month, but…
[Thes One:] Come do "CSI" on the next People Under The Stairs album, like… dust us for prints…
[Sactown:] C.S.I.: P.U.T.S.
[Thes One:] "Dusted For Prints"… disco album…
[Double K:] Let's get "Dusted For Prince"
[Thes One:] "Dusted For Prince"! Purple Rain, '84, in DC? Dusted for Prince… Alright, anyways…
[Sactown:] What I didn't get a chance to do was… I was thinking about having a… I was going to dig up some really difficult People Under The Stairs questions and see if you guys could answer them.
[Double K:] Do it!
[Thes One:] Do it!
[Double K:] DEWRIT!
[Sactown:] But I've only got two of them right now…
[Thes One:] Alright…
[Double K:] Give me the first one!
[Sactown:] These aren't that hard… I just wanted to see… but…
[Thes One:] It's all good. That's what we're here for, man.
[Sactown:] Alright… how many 12-inch singles have People Under The Stairs put out? Not you with Raashan, or…
[Thes One:] Aw, fuck! I don't know, dude… Jesus Christ…
[Sactown:] Whoever gets the closer number gets this point... [laughs]
[Double K:] Woaaaah.
[Sactown:] Number of 12-inch singles. You can't count 10-inch, not 7-inch…
[Thes One:] Hold up, I could do this… one…
[Double K:] Let's see it, man.
[Thes One:] Two, three, four… five, six, seven… eight…
[Double K:] C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! More, more, more!
[Thes One:] Nine… Eleven!
[Sactown:] Yup! Eleven is right! [Sactown's note: For those of you playing at home, that's "The Next Step II", "Youth Explosion", "The Cat", "We'll Be There", "Jappy Jap", "O.S.T. (Original Soundtrack)", "Acid Raindrops", "Yield", "Tuxedo Rap", "Pass The 40", and "Trippin' At The Disco"]
[Double K:] Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….
[Thes One:] Can't stop me, man. We still in control!
[Sactown:] Alright, now, this one's a little bit more specific.
[Double K:] Okay.
[Sactown:] How many… now listen to my question carefully… how many specific alcohol labels are mentioned in "Beer"? In the song "Beer"?
[Double K:] Chimay! Oh shit… Old English… goddamn…
[Sactown:] I could be wrong on this. I think I have all the lyrics right…
[Double K:] PBR…
[Thes One:] Fuck, dude, it's a lot, man.
[Double K:] Yo, help, dude! Use you, dude!
[Thes One:] Alright, hold on. "Pass the 40, who's down to get plastered, I get the party started like the Arrogant Bastard…"
[Double K:] Arrogant Bastard, four…
[Thes One:] "The homies stay stoned, the wifey get boned…" [mumbles]… "she likes the beer like I like the brew… pump the pony keg, refillin' the 22s with the ales, pilsner, lager or the stout. Pops 'til the party stops, I make the people shout…"
[Double K:] Ay-yo, Yuengling! Yuengling!! (repeats it about ten more times) That's five!
[Thes One:] "Call the cops, call the cops… somebody…" hold on! "Royalty at Bev Mo, my party well known, with the Full Sail wholesale, but not the Duvel. Sometimes with the Chimay, I'm yelling like Timmy…"
[Double K:] I already counted Chimay! So…
[Thes One:] "You fellas keep it Stella, I keep it domestic, my big ol' Fat Tire, time to get reckless, wherever I'm at, ay-yo the party's right here. You like Ed Hardy, we like beer."
[Double K:] Hey…
[Thes One:] "Who wanna forty, we wanna forty, who wanna…" [mumbles through Double's verse]… "anything from OE to PBR…" [mumbles the rest of the way through].. hold on!
[Sactown:] I think I got it.
[Double K:] Wheeee!
[Thes One:] How does my verse start? Uh… How does my second verse start?
[Double K:] "Get the fuck out of here! No, really, I think you should go home!"
[Thes One:] No, no, that's not how it starts, there's…
[Double K:] Yeah it does. "No really, man, I think you should go home."
[Thes One:] No, there's something before that… "This here's a beer song for dudes who like beer. You don't like beer? Get the fuck outta here."
[Double K:] Boom!
[Thes One:] [mumbles] "my beverage was all foam and Keystone…" [mumbles] "Detroit Ghetto Blaster, Racer Number Five, even Yuengling keep the party alive, Shiner Bock, Rock and Lost Abbey, Rogue, Lagunitas, and what have we… [mumbles the rest of the verse]
[Double K:] See, you named all the beers!
[Thes One:] Naw, there's more!
[Sactown:] You got another verse.
[Thes One:] You have another verse, dude!
[Double K:] Well, we don't do…
[Thes One:] He didn't ask "at the show". He said "on the song".
[Double K:] Oh, but I wasn't talking about beer, I was talking about Night Train and bullshit, man.
[Thes One:] Yeah, that's not a beer. He just asked about beers.
[Sactown:] Naw, I said "specific alcohol labels".
[Double K and Thes One mumble through Double's verse]
[Double K:] "Back then, it was all about 8 Ball, St. Ides, good brew. Sometimes, we'd get the Night Train or the Thunder Chicken, I thought it would pass, the nigga's still sipping…" yeah, yeah!
[Thes One:] "I go hard like when I first wake up.."
[Sactown:] BOING!
[Double K & Sactown bust up]
[Thes One:] "Crack a cold one, and pour that shit in my cup, now, here comes the madness, the Knight like sadness…"
[Double K:] Woah! Woooooooooo…
[Thes One:] "call me Dynowino, see, I'm the baddest, word to Cash, this Bud's for you"… that's 21…
[Double K:] My nigga! DEWRIT! DEWRIT! DEWRIT!
[Thes One mumbles out the rest of the verse, doesn't find anything]
[Double K:] I didn't say no more beer after that. You said all the beer.
[Thes One:] Yeah, so 21.
[Sactown:] I counted 22, but I'm gonna go back and check it tonight, but 21… that's about…
[Thes One:] Pretty close, man. 21, dude.
[Double K:] 21 bottles of beer on the wall, 21 bottles of beer on the wall…
[More laughing]
[Sactown:] The last question I had, actually… I had a third one, but I already asked it to Double K, so he probably knows it already, but what's the only People Under The Stairs track that didn't have any samples on it at all… on an official release?
[Double K:] Hmm.
[Thes One:] "Drumbox".
[Sactown:] Oh shit, "Drumbox" didn't? No samples? That was all…
[Thes One:] "Pass The 40" didn't either.
[Double K:] Naw, naw, naw… it did…
[Thes One:] Well, "samples"… what do you call it? Are scratches "samples"?
[Double K:] But "Drumbox" had none.
[Thes One:] "Drumbox" had scratches too, so… it's either… it depends on whether scratches…
[Sactown:] If it's just scratching, then I wouldn't count that as a sample. I didn't know that, though…
[Thes One:] Alright, so "Drumbox"…
[Sactown:] But I was talking about "SF Knights Remix"… that was what I was talking about.
[Thes One:] "Drumbox", "SF Knights Remix", "Pass The 40"…
[Double K:] "SF Knights Remix", yeah, that had no samples… that had no samples… But you need to break that open on the way home, man.
[Thes One:] What's that?
[Double K:] Fuckin' PUTS… Om Years… let's listen to that… let's do this, man. You ready to go?
[Thes One:] Yeah, let's pack it up. Are we good?
[Sactown:] Yeah, that was it. That was all. Thank you very much!
