Clan Destined: Positive, Funky & Dope

Amdex(23) and DT(22) from North Carolina were both raised on balance. Meaning, just as much as they listened to the native tongues they also listened to everything from Wu-Tang to Spice-1. In the current state of the hip hop culture where people have been desensitized to the formulaic music that is produced whether it’s commercial or underground, Clan Destined wants to remind people to not get comfortable with one sound or track you hear on their album because the minute you settle you automatically find yourself listening to something totally different from the previous. Coming from the South where snap and crunk are in the majority and have constructed the formula current equation, Clan Destined is here to bridge the gap as well as open doors for the up and coming and is a clear reminder that hip hop is like the amazing race in that there is more than one way to create music.

Scheme: How did Clandestined come about?

Amdex: We met each other through another member of our crew DJC who went to Morehouse, he was an RA as DT was coming into the Morehouse Summer Program and I went to Georgia State and we met through Felix. I lived by Morehouse so I was over there a lot and I was djing by the campus at Underground Live and open mics. We both make beats, rhyme and dj so we started kicking it hard by 2002.

Scheme: Describe your sound because when I listened to it I thought of Outkast’s first albums but then it also had a Kev Brown feel to it.

Amdex: We get that post native tongue feel a lot, and that’s cool because that’s what I was raised on, we’re from the south but I was raised on Wu-Tang, Def Squad, Outkast and I even listened to a lot of gangsta stuff when I was younger. A lot of gangsta stuff used to have the most melodic stuff, like Spice-1 and Battlecat, so we just melded all of that together, we both lived in Cali for a while so we have a big open ear and a big mind for music.

Scheme: When did you guys decide when this was what you were going to pursue full time?

DT: Like 2003 we were hanging out and doing a couple of shows together. February 2003 I got put down for real and Amdex and I always threw around the idea of working together but it really started coming together when I became a Vinyl Junkie member.

“…people can see that our comfort zone is huge and we want to go and establish ourselves early so people are used to it when we go and do something different because we’re always going to do something different.”

Scheme: What were you guys doing before hand?

Amdex: Before hand the Vinyl Junkies were in a state of flux, we went from a crew that started in Cali that went to Atlanta where I came on and then everyone broke out into separate ways. Some went to New York, a couple of people went to DC and LA again so it kind of became this syndicate and I wasn’t around everyone as much as I used to be except for Felix. So I started being more introverted making beats and I just happened to meet DT and it was kind of easy making beats and we really didn’t have much responsibility except for school, we even took a break from school, but I plan on finishing up and D has two years but we’re going to finish (laughs). Eventually after all the hard work we landed a distribution deal with Domination and they hooked us up with a nice indie album that’s getting good feedback. Now we’re about to do this Rawkus50 thing and we put out the remix to that album through Rawkus. So that’s pretty cool they want us to have that ready for them by next week. We have projects coming out with Eddie Meeks, DT and I are producing a solo album for him, I’m working with a couple of Dungeon Family cats now so its been a very fruitful year, we’re just getting started.

Scheme: What’s the ultimate goal you guys are trying to aspire to?

Amdex: That’s a hard question, we kind of respect the work ethic that made a lot of good music come out. We respect our contemporaries like People Under the Stairs, and other people who seriously dig for records and it’s just to say that the south isn’t all about one thing. And it’s also to put out some good shit that we like and other people can enjoy to.

DT: Ultimately we want the freedom to do whatever we want and not have people like oh they went out of there comfort zone. With our album Abracadam people can see that our comfort zone is huge and we want to go and establish ourselves early so people are used to it when we go and do something different because we’re always going to do something different. Like Outkast has the freedom they have established themselves to the point where they can do whatever they want and we might not sell a lot but everyone will respect the music.

Scheme: Has it been a struggle for you to come out of the south now where it’s predominantly crunk, snap and dance music?

DT: As funny as it sounds, the only struggle for that is…it’s weird because we are originally from North Carolina and North Carolina has always been filtered more towards a New York type vibe. The good thing is we do a lot of shows in North Carolina and they never expect us to do a lot of south sounding stuff, they expect it to be True School in a sense. In Atlanta there is still an open market for people to be True School or what have you which is kind of cool because we incorporate a lot of south stuff so in a sense we are trying to bring everyone with us. It’s not so much about breaking them out as opposed to bringing everyone with us.

“I think the greatest thing about our music is that it’s not pretentious. All the music that comes out whether its nerd rap or Jeezy the music always tells you what to think, our music leaves the door open for interpretation that’s why we get a lot of different interpretations with our music and that’s kind of the whole point of us making it.”

Scheme: I know you guys have expressed your broad comfort zone but is there any one instrument that you build off of that is the foundation of your beats?

DT: There’s not one basis but I do know that I don’t think we could have an album if we couldn’t go electronic. I think one of things we are really good at is taking older electronic and making it new hip hop. It’s hard for me to explain but we take the old and we sample and freak them and we make them new, and you’ll hear massive amounts of cuts on the album.

Scheme: Why is music what you guys choose to do as opposed to becoming an engineer, doctor or lawyer?

DT: The main reason behind our music is to fill a void, I guess a void in my own life and also a void in the game but the thing the about the void in the game is that I wouldn’t necessarily put it all in my music. I think the greatest thing about our music is that it’s not pretentious. All the music that comes out whether its nerd rap or Jeezy the music always tells you what to think, our music leaves the door open for interpretation that’s why we get a lot of different interpretations with our music and that’s kind of the whole point of us making it. We really want you decide whether you like this and no one is telling you to like this and we never get to preachy with our lyrics and tell you how to live you life. If you listen to a nerd rap they are like your stupid if you listen to Jeezy and their like that’s not real hip hop Gangstarr is real hip hop. Then you have Jeezy like you should be sellin blow or your hating because you don’t. But if I tell 5 different people on some amazing race sh*t to go from North Carolina to San Francisco there’s going to be 5 different ways to get there.

Amdex: Another reason why we do this is to open doors. I consider our music very positive and at the end of the day we’re not trying to promote any filth or no garbage the culture is so engrained and engulfed hip hop is on Oprah and she is teaching 50 year old White Women how to do the chicken noodle soup, then she turns around and talks about how bad hip hop is. So if we’re gonna make some sh*t it has to be responsible at the same time and funky and dope because a lot of the music out here ain’t human.