You learn or relearn something new is the best thing I can tell you. Several years ago, "Baby Got Sauce" made waves on radio and was a fairly known song. Then, as the man says himself, we lost track of the flavor of the month for a new flavor. But he kept doing him and making music, dropping seven albums including his latest with Special Sauce, entitled Lemonade.
And The Crew is pretty diverse when it comes to listening tastes. Long story short the convo went like this...
Holla At Mitch - "Yo...I'm going to see G-Love and Special Sauce on Sunday. Can you get @ your dude & score me some tickets?"
Gotty™ - "Yeah...maybe. Can you do an interview if I get them?"
Mind you, Mitch doesn't do anything journalstic with us at all, as he's more involved with the music selected daily.
H@M - "Yeah...sure."
What became of it all was probably one of the most thoughtful & honest meetings that we've had a chance to bring you...all captured on the back of a tour bus.
Respect due to Shawn K for pulling the strings and making it happen.
Words By Holla At Mitch
TSS: How’s it going?
G: Good...
TSS: Where did you just get in from?
G: Charlotte?
TSS: How was that?
G: It was good, not like my best show ever or anything, but it was definitely a great show.
TSS: Alright for people who aren’t familiar with your music, how would you describe your sound?
G: We call it hip-hop blues.
TSS: Hip-hop blues?
G: Mhhmm
TSS: Is it important what people label it? Do you really care about the labels?
G: Uhhh…it doesn’t really matter. I think hip-hop blues…I think we’re the only people who do what we do and the heart of it is basically really raw Delta blues like Fred McDowell, Robert Johnson, and Lightin Hopkins style kind of vibe and mix that with the hip hop shit like De La or Tribe but then there’s a little rock and roll freak you could say the Rolling Stones. But everybody in my band is real schooled in all kind of American music and the hip-hop thing kinda just happened culturally. It’s kinda like a soup of American music so with that being said you really could call it rock and roll (laughs)
TSS: Well, definitely, I guess it would be tough to describe your sound encompassing so many different styles like that. Most of the stuff I’ve read, they always want to put, they try to describe your style as alternative, hip-hop and blues. Why is that alternative? Does that bother you at all to feel like maybe you’re marginalized?
G: You mean like on ITunes it says alternative?
TSS: Anything…if you read any bio it’s pretty much "alternative hip-hop" and not just straight hip-hop.
G: Yeah, I mean we’re not like straight hip-hop and we never really tried, that was never really the goal. I mean I’m definitely kinda a hip-hop kid as far as the shit I like to listen to. But we’ve always kind of felt like we were more of a garage junky blues band that just happened to rap instead of just sing and write about shit that was relevant to growing up in the inner city as opposed to just regular blues topics.
TSS: It ties into blues about the struggle as early hip-hop it’s definitely about the struggle…
G: We’re kind of reactionary though. I always felt like whenever we’re out with blues people, we kind of want to represent more of our hip-hop side and whenever we’re out with hip-hop people it’s the opposite we want to represent more of the white boy blues thing. I don’t know…Especially when we first came out we were on a lot of hardcore hip-hop bills and it’s kinda weird to be on some of those bills becuase, for one thing, hip-hop audiences, in my mind not just the artist and dj, they’re really open. I found they’re just like any other musician like musicians of any genre love music of all genres, I find as long as it’s being done well. But the hip-hop audience to me is one, seriously, one of the most narrow minded audiences out there. You can say that hip-hop audiences and country audiences are like the most closed-minded listeners.
TSS: Everything’s got to be in a box and if it’s not inside that box it’s tough for a lot of people.
G: That’s the only thing that’s frustrated me about hip-hop is that everybody dresses the same, everybody listens to the same shit that’s hot at that moment and then it’s gone and they don’t really have any love for it too much looking back.
TSS: How much do you think the reason for that is a few companies controlling what people hear?
G: I think it’s the people you know. I don’t really buy that. There’s so much independent hip-hop. Backpacker hip hop straight up to commercial hip-hop. Whoever’s making hits. Like people wanna say ‘uhhh…you know, hip hop’. There’s some exciting mc’s out here. Like that group Atmosphere and that dude Slug, he’s clearly got something to say. And they’ve also figured out how to take their thing and make it into a successful, hugely successful live show. That’s exciting, you know what I mean. All the commercial hip-hop that’s the shit that’s dope…Jay-Z is dope, you can’t really hate on Snoop Dogg. There’s a lot of great hip hop out there.
TSS: What other music do you listen do? Like right now who do you like?
G: Well it’s funny cause I was in Japan and my manager was like you need to study hits. And he was kickin it to me how Kurt Cobain, before they made Nevermind, he listened to ABBA nonstop and he hated it, but he was just studying top music, so…
TSS: So you listen to a lot of ABBA now?
G: Well, no but on his recommendation I downloaded Nevermind, Offspring Smash which was their breakthrough record and then ABBA and Madonna’s greatest hits. So like yesterday I kind of studied up on Nirvana’s shit and then today I studied up on Madonna’s shit. It’s a good idea if your goal is to have a hit and my goal is to have hit but really do it in a low down dirty blues way.
I listen to like…I’m kinda stuck on a lot of the same records for the last 10 or 15 years like Dr. John and a lot blues like I mentioned earlier like Little Walter and shit like that. A lot reggae like old Lee Perry shit and all the old Jamaican shit from the 60’s and 70’s. And then classic rock and the hip-hop greats like the albums I always come back to the first record the De La record, Tribe, Gangstarr, Boogie Down Productions and shit. So, now I’m trying to like alright…well, I know I got all that shit in me I’m just gonna study up on shit that…I never really, I kind of hated on a lot of 90’s rock and roll and the grunge shit. So I’m going back to kind of check out what’s going on.
TSS: So when you’re listening to music a lot of it is not necessarily to…you’re listening cause you want to hear it more, like study, to see what I missed out on or what to improve yourself on.
G: Just kind of recently, but that’s not to say that I don’t like all that music.
You know Madonna even, you can’t really hate on her too much, she’s had an amazing career. It’s not the kind of shit you want to admit to liking, but it’s good you know (laughs).
TSS: Do you really plan on touring forever? How long do you plan on touring?
G: I mean a lot of my career’s been modeled after Bob Dylan, especially musically, but he’s someone that I kind of admire because he’s put out over 30 records. And, John Hammond, who’s my other idol like that he’s put over 30. I just produced his 31st record, John Hammond’s new record. These are guys who are my parents age like 65 and they’re still out there doing…I mean, John does 100, 150 shows a year. And I’m sure Bob Dylan does over 30 or 50 shows a year which is quite a few. John Hammond needs to do it cause that’s his bread and butter but Bob Dylan doesn’t probably need to. I think he just does it cause he loves it and what else is he going to do except sit around and be bored.
That’s kinda how I feel like I love play for the people. I love to be out on the road, traveling kinda sucks sometimes but you know it, still, it's really kind of nice you wake up everyday in a new town.
TSS: This tour bus is nicer than some peoples homes.
G: Yeah, you know. We’re doing good. I love it. I would stay on the road forever.
TSS: What’s your favorite place to play? Do you have a favorite?
G: I mean, you know just really wherever the vibe is.
TSS: Do you like playing in front of a larger audience like with more people or would you prefer to play in a smaller venue, more intimate?
G: I like both, you know. We play in a lot of intimate venues so whenever we get the opportunity to play in a big, accessible crowd like Bonnaroo or Austin City Limits that’s always exciting for us. It’s not like the Rolling Stones are gonna do an intimate show. Most of our shows are pretty intimate and have been. Cause we’ve played in general for 800-3,000 people in every city across the US. That’s kind of where we’re at.
TSS: You’ve collaborated with a wide range of different artists. Who would you say your favorite person to collaborate with is?
G: Well, on this new record we did, the whole new record was all about collaboration. The two coolest ones I thought were the Ben Harper and Marc Broussard because I thought that was a really cool track for everybody involved. Everybody shined and it showcased everybody’s abilities. I think everybody came off a little bit different than they do, myself included, on their regular recordings. I thought that was really positive. Me and Ben Harper have been longtime peers and it was cool for us to finally do something together. And then Marc is just like a young up and coming singer who’s gonna be a huge star, I think, cause he’s got a real voice and a good personality and something to say. Pretty cool.
And then the other one was a track with Blackalicious because "Gift of Gab"; he was the one that dubbed us new school mc’s. So, that’s someone that even though I’ve maybe got a couple of years on him I look up to him as an mc who’s clearly doing something different than anybody that I’ve ever seen or heard. And then Latif was just like, you know Latif is a good MC, he’s not necessarily breaking any ground but he has dope lyrics. And just to have the two of them…You know, I give Latif props. His verse comes off dope on the song, his shit’s dope. It’s just the "Gift of Gab" is you know…
TSS: He’s doing something, I mean…’Chemical Calisthenics’. That kind of stuff is crazy and not a lot of people, anybody really, can do what he does.
G: That was a real honor to have him on. And then DJ Chief Excel he produced it with us so we sent him the track and he kinda chopped up our live performance and it was a real collaboration. And in my mind that was the quintessential hip hop blues track to me because it has a real blues chorus, harmonica, the riff is totally blues driven and it’s got the realest, newest hip hop crew on it too. So that was like okay fine you can call it hip hop blues but this really is…you’re gonna say oh this really is hip hop blues. It’s kind of like that ‘Bridging the Gap’ song that Nas did.
TSS: How do you think you’ve been able to stay together for so long and just put out records? Here it is 12, 13 years or something like that. You guys are doing your 7th record. You’re on pace do like Dylan or some of your idols.
G: I think we’ve really put in our time on the road and gotten to a place where everybody is…we’ve had our trials and tribulations. There is this thing that mostly fucks up bands and we went through that years ago and we kinda did break up the band. And then put the band back together. Now everybody is just like alright look we’re all out here, we’re all making a good living. You know I tell the guys I’m gonna tour and do this thing and I’m gonna always call you first and if you want the gig it’s yours and if it’s ever not good for you to be on the road or you tell me you need a year off and when you’re ready to come back…
TSS: Do you think in hindsight that short break up helped you guys?
G: Yeah, definitely cause it had to just erase, just squash the tension. When everybody came back it was just on different terms, with a different purpose. I think you have to be out here and you have to serve yourself first and then the music and then each other. You’ve got to be somewhat selfish to be out here. Because you’re obviously just following your personal dreams to be out here playing music in front of people.
You want to make your money and then you also want to make great music. Making records is something that I think that we’ve had our up and downs with. But I feel like our last few records have been a revamping of our career. I think I have a lot more focus that I’ll take in the studio the next chance I get. Yeah, for us it’s like why would we stop? Fuck else are we gonna do?
TSS: If you like what you’re doing and you get paid for it that’s the best thing you could possibly do.
G: I saw this quote in a Holiday Inn. “It’s not enough to do what you love, you have to love what you do.” So it’s funny because we do get to do what we love but there are times when you’ve got to check yourself because you’re like damn I’m not really loving playing music at this time. And those are the times when you really have to dig deep and like go back to old records or instruments to get a great crowd reaction, something to bring you back into your game.
TSS: How do you think the music industry has changed? Has there been a big change at all?
G: Yeah. For one thing it’s harder than ever to sell records. It’s harder than ever for bands, like in our scene, a live touring act to sell records, because the pop people still sell a lot of records but our crowd is the same crowd that’s really computer savvy and college kids. And the people that download and have the wherewithal to do that and just swap music. So it’s harder for bands like us to sell music.
And then at the same time you have this other thing where record labels don’t really sign developing acts anymore. They don’t want to have, whether it’s rock and roll or hip hop or whatever, it’s all about the flavor of the month, like indie rock all of the flavor of the month. The thing about indie rock is it’s a kind of a supportive scene but how many bands last over the last 4 years? I can name so many bands that were like the shit like Hot, Hot Heat or The Strokes. Really the only bands out of that whole indie rock scene that crashed through it all are people like the White Stripes and they’re more blues than indie rock. Indie rock is almost as bad as hip-hop as far as how much…it’s still flavor of the month. It might be thirty flavors but it’s still the flavor of the month.
TSS: Do you think touring so much, does that help by getting your name out there and putting things out? I would imagine you guys probably do a lot better on tours, make more money at a venue when someone comes in and buys your merchandise or somebody comes in and shows up for your show than you do off of one cd someone buys? Is that another reason to stay on tour?
G: Yeah, well you know the biggest artists out there are people who have paid their dues people like jimmy Buffet who did 325 shows a year and now does close to 20 shows a year and everyone makes $1 million. Dave Matthews, a lot of people have put a lot of time into it and their fan base grows slowly year after year. We’re doing well in that kind of thing too except we’re on a much…well obviously we’re not that big yet but hopefully a couple of big records and then I’ll be right up there so when I’m 50 years old I’ll have a couple of smart people in my band and we’ll be playing the road and do that kind of thing.
TSS: Well, 13 years, especially in this day and age is a big testament to what you guys do. I’m sure you wouldn’t be around if people didn’t enjoy your music and what you put out.
Before you go, one of our "signature" questions that we sometimes throw in - What would you say to the first girl that broke up with you if you had a chance to see her now?
G: What would I say to her?
TSS: What would you say to her?
G: The first girl that ever dumped me?
TSS: Yeah.
G: Uhhh…I never really had a bad dump. I guess uhhh…What would I say to her? I’d just be like yeah you look great. How’ve you been?
TSS: So nothing dirty then?
G: Nah, I’m not a hateful kind of guy. Plus I’ve found it always hurts to get dumped and you see yourself…She’s 33 now and I’m dating a 22 year old young lady and it’s good to be me. Laughing…
TSS: That’s cool. And what are you smoking on right now?
G: What am I smoking on? What do you mean? I’m smoking on the vaporizer. Although really I’m smoking on a joint man. And trying not to smoke on the cigarettes.
TSS: Cool. Well nice meeting you. Thanks for your time.
G: Cool.
For more info on G-Love vist www.myspace.com/gloveandspecialsauce and www.philadelphonic.com.
Listen
"Hot Cookin'" feat. Donavon Frankenreiter
"Let the Music Play" feat. Ben Harper and Marc Broussard