The 3rd Annual Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival was a major success. It showcased talent not only from Brooklyn but from all over the map. Acts like Tanya Morgan, Ghostface, Consequence, Sean P., Dres, Kidz In the Hall, Large Professor and even guest appearances from Chubb Rock and Fat Joe really brought people back into that New York state of mind. We all know that hip hop is alive and well the festival was a clear indication of the people that are moving it forward and have taken the responsibility upon themselves to keep hip hop’s growth progressing. Scheme had the opportunity to catch up with a couple of the performers, but we might as well start of at the beginning with the lead coordinator Wes Jackson.

Wes Jackson:

Scheme: Wes, first I have to thank you for a great day and great event. Keeping my fingers crossed but today’s been perfect! What is the future of the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival?

Wes: It’s been a great day and for the future we just want to keep moving forward and growing. We want to keep this close knit feeling but definitely grow in attendance impact. We are working on taking this festival to a few others cities and really just spreading the love. We will always bring out good artist and promote a positive time.

Scheme: The Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival is about celebrating the city of Brooklyn and also the Hip Hop culture. When is that last time, aside from today that hip hop just made you smile?

Wes: Um, 2 days ago actually. I was just cleaning up and threw on some music and it just brought to mind some great moments from my past and some great memories and they will forever be linked to a certain era in hip hop. It really made me reflect on those times and feel good.

Scheme: What is missing from today’s mainstream Hip Hop?

Wes: The message man. We have no sustainable message in a majority of the music today. I am not saying the message has to be super positive, it could be a message about what’s bad with the world but in a creative way. A lot of the artists today want to glamorize fake wealth and nothing else.

Scheme: What’s great about hip hop today?

Wes: It’s still growing and has become something that many people have turned into a living. It has become something stable and has claimed its place and is no longer a fad.

Scheme: Is there anything you want people to take away from this event or from you?

Wes: Yes, Judge me and the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival by what we have accomplished and not by what others in the entertainment industry have done. Today during set up one of the set up guys made a comment “Is anyone going get thrown off the stage by the artist?”, making a reference to what Akon did to a fan. It may have been a joke but at the same time that is the type of thing I don’t appreciate. The Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival has been a peaceful and entertaining event. We have had no arrest the past two years and a total of one citation from something that took place outside of the venue. As you can see the crowd has been respectful and just enjoying themselves. Judge me and Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival by what we have done and not what others in hip hop have done.

Large Professor

Scheme: Large, what does it mean for you to be performing at the Brooklyn Hip Hop festival?

Large Pro: It’s great, rocking on a beautiful day in the name of Hip Hop, what can be better? Wes has put together a great event and I have the opportunity to come out here and have Killa Sha perform with me, it’s a blessing, word!

Scheme: When’s the last time that Hip Hop made you smile?

Large Pro: Just this morning! They were playing some music from the 90’s and it just made me remember some great times man. It reminded me of how blessed I am to still do what I love.

Scheme: What made you gravitate to hip hop, what was it that made you dedicate your life to it?

Large Pro: It’s magnetic to the soul. Music, good music speaks to anyone and hip hop speaks to me. Being able to create something that evokes emotions and feelings (good or bad) is a powerful tool and I love to work with it.

Scheme: What do you not like about the current state of hip hop?

Large Pro: There is too much filler out there, music that doesn’t mean anything but you can’t change it. In order for there to be good there has to be bad, it’s the balance of things. We just need to make sure there is an even balance and right now there isn’t. The business end has really changed things.

Scheme: If you could go back to your beginnings and go back in time, would you try to warn your peers of the direction that hip hop has gone in?

Large Pro: Um, that’s interesting but I don’t regret anything and I don’t think you could change things because it would affect the good and the bad. You have to let things unfold the way they do.

Scheme: Do you plan on performing at future Brooklyn Hip Hop Festivals?

Large Pro: Absolutely, if Wes would have me I would love to, this is a great event.

Scheme: What can we expect from Extra P for 2007, what’s your Scheme for the rest of the year?

Large Pro: Same as always, turn out good music and just keep hip hop moving.

Sean P.

Scheme: What does it mean for you to be here at the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival?

Sean P.: It’s good you know, because it’s for Brooklyn. I love being able to represent for my city so its love. Brooklyn shows me love so I show it back yah mean.

Scheme: When’s the last time hip hop made you happy?

Sean P.: Today! I’m here for the love of my city and the love of my craft.

Scheme: How is the Black Milk, Guilty Simpson and Sean P album coming along?

Sean P.: It’s moving, we’re doing our thing in the studio. It’s gonna be major so look out for it.

Scheme: What is your take on Hip Hop today?

Sean P. It is what it is. I mean there are a lot of clowns and a lot of real artist out there. As long as people leave me the f*ck alone and stay in their own lane it’s good.

Tanya Morgan

Scheme: How does it feel being asked to perform at the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival?

Ilyas: For me it was dope because I think this is a big thing, but for Von Pea it’s more amazing because he’s from Brooklyn. He is Brooklyn, if I need to go somewhere he is google maps.

Von Pea: For this to be the Brooklyn Festival and for there to be so many legendary acts, somebody thought we were important enough to be here and I’m just happy to be here for real.

Scheme: Where does Tanya Morgan’s sound come from and or what inspires it?

Von Pea: Since we’re from Cincinnati and Brooklyn it’s a fusion of the music that we’ve all listened to coming up.

Scheme: If ya’ll could be a cartoon character who would you be?

Von Pea: I’d be Gokoo from DragonBall Z.

Donwill: Donald Duck!

Scheme: Why?

Donwill: He’s traditional, he’s the underdog, he’s mad and he’s nice and he has a lot of nephews and he looks out for his people. His uncle was Scrooge McDuck but his uncle never broke him off any change.

Ilyas: I’d be Huey Freeman from the Boondocks.

Scheme: What do you have coming up for the rest of 2007?

Von Pea: We’re putting out a project that’s like a prequel called Brooklynatti called the Bridge to Brooklynatti and Beat Team Vol.II is going to be off the hook.

Scheme: What is Tanya Morgan purpose as whole?

Ilyas: Honestly I’ve been reflecting on that question and when I’m 50 years old we can still rock together on stage like Aerosmith.

Von Pea: Really I want somebody to say I inspired them and when they can remember when they were 10 years old and rocking to Tanya Morgan and then I want people when they get older to tell another group that they sound like Tanya Morgan.

Scheme: What was it like for Questlove to say you had in his opinion one of the top five albums of 2006?

Donwill: That’s crazy because Quest is like a big inspiration I mean I study how dude moves so that was amazing.

Blitz the Ambassador

Scheme: How did you come up with the name Blitz the Ambassador?

Blitz the Ambassador: To me Blitz is anything unexpected, a move that is unexpected. I mean at this point the last thing you expect is a kid from Ghana living in Brooklyn and spitting that real. As far as the Ambassador part I’m from Ghana originally and I’ve always been representing something outside of where I live and hip hop is one of those things I carry with me everywhere I go, and I’m able to express that everytime I rock.

Scheme: So when you were in Ghana what part of hip hop were you touched by?

Blitz the Ambassador: When I picked up a bubble jacket in 90 degree weather (laughs). That’s when I knew hip hop was in my blood and I couldn’t shake it. That’s the stuff we saw in videos and people were lighting barrels on fire because that’s what we saw. We could listen to these kids with almost similar backgrounds and listen to them express themselves.

Scheme: So you started your music career in Ghana?

Blitz the Ambassador: Yes in Ghana and I’ve been a fan since Paid in Full, my older brother had that tape, I had Criminal Minded. I’m still a fan of hip hop and I think that’s where a lot people forget-even though we participate in this art we’re always going to be fans. When you can’t be in a crowd anymore with your hands up than your not hip hop anymore. When tapes came out they took months to get to us.

Scheme: What was it like when you came here and the love that you have for hip hop in Ghana may not be the same as it is here in the states?

Blitz the Ambasador: It hurt man. It’s like seeing God and he’s a squirrel and that entire process I refuse to accept it as reality. So I feel like it’s my responsibility wherever I am to restore that feeling and that’s what keeps me writing and what hopefully keeps other people writing. That sh*t that we remember we refuse to let go.

Scheme: In your upcoming album Suicide Stereotype what are you talking about content wise?

Blitz the Ambassador: Everything, and that’s the beauty of hip hop. I believe this album is going to connect with the audience because we’re all thinking the same thing and I think it’s going to take a little time before it gets to the people. As far content goes it’s about looking forward and saying we’re going to make it.

Scheme: Coming from Ghana and now living in Brooklyn, NY what are the similarities and differences?

Blitz the Ambassador: What’s similar is that there are a lot of people that are broke but that’s everywhere I go. What’s different there is a lot more access and a lot more hope here and its that hope that I’m hoping to bring back to Ghana and resurrect here. So I guess there are more similarities than differences everyone is trying to be seen and heard.

Scheme: What is your ultimate goal?

Blitz the Ambassador: My plan is to be the President of Ghana, I’ve always said, “If you want to talk about change, you have to be a part of change.” To be a part of that government means your plans can be realized because everything is political so the more active I am I can see some things happen.

Kidz in the Hall
Scheme: So you guys just came from overseas Sweden and London, what was that like?

Double O: It was crazy it was like Swedish Woodstock. Ozzy Ozbourne, Amy Winehouse and there were only five hip hop acts there.

Scheme: What would say the difference is between the audience in the states compared to the audiences overseas?

Double O: Depends on where you go overseas, the one thing I noticed was we were in Germany not to long ago and if your at a place where they don’t necessarily understand english and you try to do to much talking in between (laughs) they don’t understand what you’re saying. They’re all about the music and you showing what you can do. A lot of times here artists don’t really go on tour until they have a poppin single and people usually go just to hear something they know. So for us we have to win you over because we don’t have a HOT97 single.

Scheme: Where did the inspiration come from behind the new track “Work to Do”?

Double O: I made the track thinking about a transition of where we were with School Was My Hustle and setting up Naledge as a solo artist. Kidz in the Hall is like the fun De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest type of group and Naledge as an individual wants to speak to the people and speak a lot more. So that was one of those tracks where we were trying to set that up for what he was about to say and do.

Scheme: Lyrically what do you want to do when you get on every track?

Naledge: Every verse and every song is just a photograph of how I’m feeling at the moment. That’s why when people try to put you in a box I feel like it’s unfair because how I feel right now might not be how I feel in five hours. My mother always said if you’re the same person at 20 that you are at 25 than you didn’t grow. Something is wrong with you when you’re moving backgrounds. I like that people like what we’re doing and like what we’re spitting but you can’t put me in a box. Style, stage, vocally and even topically I just try to push the limit creatively and do what’s right.

Scheme: You talk about being put in a box, what do you think the biggest misperception about Kidz in the Hall is right now?

Naledge: That people that went to school don’t have fun and aren’t well rounded people. I’m a phrat biy shout out to Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. We had the best parties I’ve ever been to in my life. At the end it’s college and you go to class and you do what you do outside of class. College breeds well-rounded people and I think people think we sit at home read books and burn incense.

Scheme: What stamp do you guys want to leave on hip hop?

Naledge: I really want people to realize that we’re not reinventing an era that’s already passed us. If anything I want to be placed amongst the groups of our era. I don’t mind being slept on right now. We want to make timeless music and music that still rocks 10 years from now. Paid in Fall can come on, Follow the Leader can come on and that’s the type of music we want to make. No offense but we’re not pop drop and locking it.

Double O: I want the kids right now who are 9th, 10th and 11th grade and hear the music that we put out and that be the stuff that help in really fall in love with hip hop. I remember when Nas came out and I was in homeroom and that’s all we were talking about. So I want make Naledge your favorite emcee and Double O you’re favorite producer.