Living Legends

Thrasher Magazine, May, 2003

IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD of the Living Legends by now you better crawl out from whatever rock you've been hiding under for the past decade and ask somebody. Hosting both their own shows and their own world tours many times over, the Legends have taken back power previously thought only held by record labels and radio DJs. In the world of underground hip-hop, these guys have what every independent artist dreams of. But pressing a middle finger towards the glass ceiling is not the mission here. Like Grouch told me, "It's never enough." Before a recent show in San Jose, I caught up with a few members of the crew.--Mark Harvin

What are the favorite albums for each of you that you've made?

Grouch: Fuck the Dumb, just because I like the title.

Sunspot: My favorite for Journeymen is 4001 because that's the shit where motherfuckers understood what we were trying to say, regardless of any criticism. Mine is Child of the Storm 'cause that's my first step on really trying to do something by myself. It was interesting. It had my old school picture on it.

Grouch: He likes everything he ever made. This motherfucker is the type of guy who plays it in the car all the time. He likes his own shit more than anybody else's shit. Period. I'm not mad though, that's cool.

PSC: My favorite album Journeymen-wise is Fate and Destiny that never came out. It's an album that we did in '96 in Japan.

Grouch: Just to be weird he says his favorite is one we never put out. The underground has blown up, same with skating. Do you feel black underground artists aren't getting their fair share?

Sunspot: That's one of my new underground albums I'm putting out. It's called Return of the Black Emcee. Black emcees are missing in the underground, like they all over the commercial but they MIA underground. You see some, but not a lot.

PSC: Some people show bias, because they can relate more to somebody that looks like somebody who can relate to them. That's throughout the history of music, but I think if you're tight fools are gonna like you regardless. If you're tight and if you know somebody's tight--all you underground emcees--hopefully you're gonna get sown with 'em. Or you're gonna get left.

Grouch: When I started rapping it was to all black crowds and people used to throw shit at me. When I would go to shows I was the only white person there Considering how blown up the culture is right now, how do you think the life cycle will play out this time?

PSC: As far as the cycle, as far as the music getting bigger and everything... Fools in the underground are gonna start signing major deals and get bigger. And fools who are so-called underground heads are gonna start fronting on them and start liking something that's more obscure instead of stuff that's more popular. It's already going on right now.

Sunspot: As long as Ja Rule albums are for sale people are always gonna buy hip-hop. It's sad but it's true. I'm not worried about people not buying our album. I'm worried about people just being brainwashed into thinking what you're doing isn't declared so-called hip-hop anymore; that's the wack shit.

Grouch: If it was up to us there would be a lot of every-body at the shows. Fools don't like to take it to race issues. It's a shame it has to be like that. Period. For the most part the people who listen to us got pretty open minds. On your album you say "Get free skate shoes and down cups of booze." Who hooks you up?

PSC: The homies at Liberty down in Southern California hook us up. My homie at Hurley got me hooked up with Etnies. Sometimes I get skit from DC and Osiris. I wanna get something official though, 'cause we're kinda jealous of skaters. You guys get paid by your company, get free kicks, and get paid when you win contests. We only get paid when we sell CDs or do a show.

Grouch: We want a Legends shoe, Grouch shoe, Luckyiam shoe. Speaking of visually, what's up with Stop, Look and Listen Vol II?

Sunspot: That's done. You'll probably see everything in like March. We're going on tour right now, got a movie called E-Love that I just wrote and I'm trying to shoot that. Hopefully a new Mystik Journeymen will be hitting y'all. Best in Show, that shit's gonna be out of control. I got a cookbook for homeless people that really ain't homeless, they just sleep on people's couches...a tight ass cookbook.

Grouch: The most important thing I got coming out is this DVD that has a couple videos from Crusader for Justice and live show footage. It's Servin' Justice.

PCS: I got an album Extra Credit II that is almost finished, the CMA II album and the new Journeymen album Best in Show. That's it for me besides the Creative Differences Legends album out soon. Do record labels still fuck with you or have they gotten the point by now that it just ain't happening?

Sunspot: They looking for suckas. They need some patsies. Anybody trying to talk to us, independent or large, we not some patsies. It comes across like that to a lot of people and we don't have problems. Just put it that way.

PSC: I think they might know us. They heard stories so they think we hate record companies, so they don't want to mess with us. We don't have enough documented sales on paper for them to even be trippin' off trying to do something with us. The record industry is doing pretty bad right now and they looking for something that s sure fire. There s not a lot of people who are in a position to make a decision that risks putting their balls on the table. But whoever does make that decision and steps to us with something proper they gonna come up, 'cause we are down to do something.