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5/29/2006 Interview with Mr. J What's up? I'm feeling good, man. I just ran about three miles to this office, trying to get my cardio up for this tour we're starting May 30 to promote this album. How important is touring to the Procussions? That's where we started out. When we were recording music, we had actually performed the material for six or seven months. Before we had money to record, we were just making beats and writing raps. We were just trying to get shows. We were doing shows for six to seven months before we had any material out at all. It took us two years to get our first album done. After the first tour, we were able to get the money we needed to record the project. Is the live show dying out? I would have to tell you the only reason why I could say yes is because people are not prepared for us when we get on stage. If you're in the first five rows and you're not moving, you're going to get called out. I remember the first time we did a show in LA and people came up to us and told us we were crazy. I'm a b-boy and I do that on-stage sometimes. People were stage-diving and I come from a time of slam-dancing and letting the aggression out so you don't have to carry it around all day. People told us we were crazy and I was like, "Oh, thanks," but then they said, "No, you have to tone it down." A lot of people are used to guys walking on stage. It's cool to have swagger, but our music doesn't allow us to do that. If you listen to 5 Sparrows for 2 Cents, the energy on those tracks doesn't leave room for you to just rap. We'd look funny. We come from a background of the Public Enemy days and Rage Against the Machine and Biohazard where all you'd get is the pure emotion. As a group, we need to break out. In Colorado when we do shows, I can jump off the stage at any time and be caught. There were times I couldn't even move around in my jeans because there was sweat going to my knees. You can't formulate that energy. When the track hits, it's on and it's show-time. We've been able to open up for a huge array of artists and they have their fans, and we're trying to steal some of their fans, not that they won't like the other artists anymore. We have a special group of fans who may not even like most hip-hop or may be in the workplace and want to hear us talk about issues that are distressing in their own world like rape or child pornography. Some people aren't ready for that. We did a show with Xzibit and we had a different crowd there, and then we do a show with Lucy Pearl and we have a different crowd there. Some people are in the soulful jazz vibe, but eventually I'm going to scream out at the top of my lungs and it's borderline punk and some people can't handle that and some people love it. I think it's a new generation of hip-hop because the listeners all have iPods where you can jump from Jerry Lee Lewis to People Under the Stairs to Dr. Dre in one second. That's what you're getting at a Procussions show. It's a mash-up show. It's becoming this big monster which is a conglomerate of energy. Did you have a good time recording 5 Sparrows for 2 Cents? The album is great, man. We didn't meet as friends and then did music. We met solely on a musical basis. At the time, I was the only one who was serious about rapping. There were other rappers, but it seemed like it was more of a hobby for them. I was doing all the MC battles in my area and I was going to Denver to do some and I was going to other cities. Colorado, unfortunately, is just a tad bit behind. I met 'Stro who was making beats for another group at the time. I was a DJ also at the time, so I ended up DJ'ing for his group. Things eventually fell apart. If you do music with the intent of it going far but thinking of it being a hobby, it's good. It takes so much determination to make this happen. I started working with 'Stro and he started rapping and then we met up with Rez. Then we'd go to Australia and places like that. We all have our own personal ways we want to say things and do things. We're all adopting each other's musical likes and it's just working. We're all becoming one unit. You guys have been doing this for ten years. Did you ever see your movement going this far? When I was five years old, all I wanted to be was Michael Jackson. After Michael Jackson, I wanted to be LL Cool J. I think it's in you to do this, but then this train in your mind, whether it's your parent's insecurities or your friend's insecurities, you start to think like that and you think you can't do it. You get into this zone of life and it seems impossible, like, "How can I make it? Only a handful of people make it." So many people have fought through that and we still have to. The group took off further than we thought it could from the beginning. The first time we did a single and recorded it, we thought it was cool and we'd just do it on the side. I was going to school to be a teacher at the time and Rez was going to school for graphic arts. Our manager at the time was living in Japan at the time. We gave it to him and he liked it, and then ABB puts it out. We had a single out, so we figured we had to make an album. Then a promoter hit us about opening up some shows. Our first show we opened up for Dilated Peoples and our second show we opened up for Run-DMC. We saw we had to do this. Now 5 Sparrows for 2 Cents is our stamp. Now we're pushing forward. It's not just a dream or idea anymore. It's a reality that we have to make work for us. Did 5 Sparrows for 2 Cents come out the way you wanted it to? At first glance, I think we grew so much in a year. I don't mean that in a braggadocios sense. What I mean is we grew so much where we've gotten to know ourselves and we have the confidence with our own style and ability to do things. One phase of the album is where we were, one is where we are, and one is where we're going. It's a past, present, and future thing with an entire "now" spin on it. We were still tampering with jazzy ideas because that's still a part of us, and we still wanted to give people songs that remind them of As Iron Sharpens Iron. We're growing because we're doing so many songs. They only hear one version of the song, not the fifteen drafts of it. They can't go back the same way we can. We leave some things in there they can digest so it's easier to move on. We don't want to be arrogant and just say, "This is where we are, get with it and deal with it." Let's give people pieces of what we've done and hope they can change with us. It's all learning. The Procussions will not be stuck in this marketing rut that's like prison. It's a marketing prison where it's the only way you can sell. We're not just going to do jazzy hip-hop. We're too strong for that. As long as we're being ourselves, that's what really matters even if our sales go south. 5 Sparrow for 2 Cents is a great album for where we are now with a hint at where we can go. You're going to hear some rhythm patterns and flows that you didn't hear on As Iron Sharpens Iron. How do you guys work together? 'Stro could make a beat for somebody else, I might accidentally hear it, and I'll tell him I want it. Other times we'll all pour our ideas into a beat and it becomes this work together. Usually it comes down to us being in the studio. It definitely becomes a group effort. Me and 'Stro work closely together on a project we're doing and our side projects. I have equipment and I've done some production for people, so he can take some of my stuff and make it sound better. His mind is out of this world. It's amazing how you can tell him something and he can do it. There was one time I told him something and I confused myself, and I wanted it like 9 Inch meets the Pharcyde, and three weeks later, he has a sound that's exactly like I thought it would be. How important is the positive vibe in Procussions' music? I think it's important we focus on what being positive is. I don't want to be a happy-go-lucky group where your smile hides a lot of truths in things that are really happening. There are parts of positivity that can be dangerous, like when people use it as a covering device. That can hide problems and not allow them to feel their pain. There are certain senses of positivity we are not willing to take on. We believe being positive is anytime you get closer to the truth about what's happening in people's lives. Being positive to us is feeling tracks and making people aware to the point where we are moving towards an angle of truth and talking about the sacredness of the human spirit and building ourselves up as a community and becoming relevant in the world. It's more important for us to be relevant. Some things in our minds may be positive but they may not sit well. Some people need a release and they need to understand what's going on in the world, and they need to be cut open. Other people have already been cut open and they need to be healed. We hope we can heal and wound at the same time. All efforts lead to a better understanding of truth. We need human contact and we can't talk to computers all day. We want to leave that at the show. Right now, we have this genre of hip-hop that's built around fantasy. They listen to the music and imagine themselves being those people, but they don't have the same world the musicians live in, and sometimes the musicians don't even live in those worlds. They want platinum chains and women. Hip-hop teaches this idea of fearlessness and you can be a thug and it makes you a man to live illegally and it makes you strong because you're going against the system. There's a way you're supposed to go against the system. The system is set up to be human trafficking where people sell goods and make a gang of money for other people. We want to be another option. We want to be that thing that can hopefully plug them into another world. What's the next move for the Procussions? The next move is to tour as much as possible. We want to reach out to a lot of other artists. We have this idea for another album. We move way ahead even in our own minds a lot further than we should. Touring is extremely important to us. Getting this machine behind us and to work for us is a priority. We want our music to reach as many people as possible. The next step for us is to reach out to as many people as possible, whether that's being on MTV or going on tour. We have a tour with Aceyalone and Ugly Duckling. We're going to do whatever it takes. What do you want to say to everyone? Support music you like. It's important that people stop blaming the system and corporations. You should expect they are going to want to make money and you could expect that they're not going to understand music. The best thing you can do is support music you like. Stop listening to the radio if you don't like it. They're not going to play it if it's not going to make them money. Support the movement you like. Don't download our album, pick it up at Best Buy. Make places that aren't carrying our stuff carry our stuff.

By Brian Kayser

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