words: Kwame Wilson
(www.heynuworld.blogspot.com)
One of the most promising rappers to emerge from the Midwest in recent years, talks to Shook about Dame Dash, jazz in Jamaica and wanting to tour the UK.
Stalley what’s good, what you been up to?
I’m good man I just came from a photoshoot, right now I’m just chilling.
I see you’ve been running round a lot lately with the ever-impressive Creative Control. Is there some kind of deal or is that just a friendship thing?
Nar that’s family. There is nothing as far as a deal. They just blessed with talent. We pretty much shoot everything together. That’s the home team, we just basically do what we can do to help each other. That’s basically the two guys from Creative Control and Dame Dash.
STALLEY AT HIGHLINE BALLROOM from Creative Control on Vimeo.
How is it to have someone of Damon Dash’s stature fighting your corner?
It’s great to have someone like Dame giving me advice in terms of the next step. I actually met Dame through Creative Control and like Dame bought into my talent, like he was fan of everything I was doing, so that was an honour. Obviously someone like Dame can bring me into places where I can be seen and heard, because of his name, like you know my videos have appeared on MTV. Having Dame around is great you know, it’s a good thing.
I see recently you and Curren$y, went to Jamaica but apparently it wasn’t for a holiday, you went for a jazz festival. You weren’t just out there smoking?
Nah (laughs), like we was working real hard out there. We shot five, no four videos and recorded like four and a half songs for the week we was out there. Like we was really putting in work. It was also nice to catch another vibe, like another change of scenery. In Jamaica there were palm trees and sand, meanwhile back home it was snowing.
How is DD172, Dame Dash’s Tribeca studio space? Because that place seems like something else.
It’s hard work every day, we always recording and shooting videos. DD172 is real family -oriented, it’s like work, boom, boom, boom.
You recently went back home to Ohio after a long time away. What was that like?
Ar man, it was beautiful. It was such a joy to be back home. Went to my old high school, saw all my old friends, haven’t really been able to go back as much as like. Hopefully one day, I will be fortunate get to a level, where I can go back whenever I please and go and get some of that real food again.
Apparently you left Ohio long ago for dreams other than music?
That’s correct, like I left in pursuit to become a basketball player. Unfortunately I injured myself, and had to take a detour route. Basketball is not like no.2 for me, rap and ball go hand in hand, I love them both the same.
If you make money like Jay, you can then maybe build another team for Ohio (other than the Cleveland Cavaliers)
Right, right (laughs) that is the only reason why I am doing this.
You and Curren$y seemed to have a built strong following. Have both of you spoken about maybe coming to the UK and performing?
Yeah, we trying to get sort something out you know. Like the UK is a great place in terms of the music they like, like for my music personally, the UK would really appreciate the lyricism of my stuff, and would relate to like the day-to-day struggle and day-to-day happiness. Yeah we would love to come to the UK.
XXL just released their list of 10 Freshmen for 2010. You were not on the list, did you feel anyway or you don’t really pay attention to that sort of stuff?
Nar man I don’t really feed into all of that. Like a lot of publications are always the last to know what is good. They are usually the ones to miss the boat. All I can worry about is myself. People also tell me the type of artist I am, I can’t worry, because Apple doesn’t worry about what Pepsi is doing, they have different consumers, so I’m not upset or anything.
Your mixtape ‘MadStalley’ was impressive, but to me the mixtape was like really musical in terms of instrumentation. You also have a spoken word track, can you explain the title of that track and what made you do a spoken word song?
TinLizyFordToARollsRoyceBoy. Yeah basically, it’s about like coming from the bottom to the top, like from me being a country boy to now being a city slicker, it represents the growth. The reason why it was spoken word, it felt with the vibe of the mixtape – like you said the mixtape was musical – I personally did not use the mixtape as a chance to prove my skills or to exhibit them, it was more like a story so people could know more about me, like an introduction to myself. You see a lot of rappers do not make themselves vulnerable, like they have all of the women, whips and chains…
But the end of the day, they are still human beings.
Right exactly. After all is said and done, it’s easy to make punch lines but it’s hard to make a song people feel.
What time of music do you like listening to, in terms of rap?
I’m not really listening to anyone right now, like nothing is moving me now. Like I listen to a lot Mos Def, Common, Nas like those artists constantly stay in my rotation. I really love OutKast too, ATLiens is one of my favourite albums. But anyone out right now, not really, only Blu.
Yeah he’s nice.
I think Blu is dope yeah.
His ‘Below The Heavens’ album with Exile, was a lot of stuff.
I felt that shit had the same formula as me, personal, he was telling you about his life and stuff. Then on the Johnson and Johnson stuff, he went super lyrical to show everyone he can go hard. When I listen to Illmatic, I felt like I grew up in that project. The same with Southernplayalisticcadillacmuzik, I feel like I am hanging out the Cutlass with Andre and both are elbows are just poking out. Like I believe good music takes you on a journey, like I mention a place back home called ‘Lincoln Road’, whenever I spit that the homies back home get a little hype.
At the moment you don’t have a label situation do you?
No at the moment there is no label situation. There are some labels talking to me at the moment though. For now, I am not really interested in signing anything. Just enjoying music, and working on my next project, an EP. I am also working on a separate project with Ski Beatz, halfway into that and that is sounding real classic.
Speaking of Ski Beatz, the 24hr Karate School when is that dropping?
Stalley March 30th
24 HOUR KARATE SCHOOL TEASER from Creative Control on Vimeo.
Are you sure?
Oh definitely. You can get it from iTunes, some other different places. On that I am straight killing everybody on like it’s nothing.
Lastly do you have a Twitter account yet? I heard you speaking before, how you don’t feel it’s for you at this moment in time. Care to speak on that?
Yeah basically I am not really a fan of the whole social networking thing. The reason why is because it gives everyone a voice that shouldn’t necessarily have a voice. But the thing is people talk about me all day on Twitter, like asking, ‘Where is Stalley?’ and ‘Who is Stalley?’ Like I prefer people talking about me, rather than me talking about me. When they make me a trending topic, I might think about joining Twitter.
Leave a Comment