Camp Lo radio interview from 1997:
Toast: How did you hook up with Sonny?
Geechi Suede: I met him through a lady friend, she knew him. It
was a long time ago. He wasn't rhyming at the time. He was giving
me advice on my demo tapes.
Toast: How long ago was this?
Geechi: This was like 6 or 7 years ago. It got to a point where I
was getting bored with it and I didn't want to do a solo thing.
Toast: Explain how the whole attraction to the 70's flicks and
the 'Black nostalgia'.
Geechi: Cheeb had always done the 7-0 style, the way of dress,
the way of talking, all of that. Me, I was on something else. So
he introduced that idea to me, and I thought it was fly because
nobody ever did it before. Nobody ever came like that. We
definitely carry a great love for the whole 7-0 era because it
was such a great difference between those times and these times.
We dig it and we're just trying to bring it back, a little taste.
Through the music, through the dress and all that.
Toast: There are 15 tracks on the album. Which ones are your
favorites?
Geechi: I like Black Connection, Killing Em Softly, Krystal
Karrington, Smoke, all the features. Like the De La Soul feature
(B-Side to Hollywood) and one with my man Butterfly (Swing). I
like everything. There isn't anything that I don't like. I will
say that if people like this, to us it's just a demo tape.
Because we have advanced so much since that style of music and
rhyme. People are really going to be in for something on the next
LP.
Toast: So are you saying that you recorded this a while ago?
Geechi: Yeah, we recorded this a little while ago. It's like our
old expressions and thoughts. But people will still appreciate it
and enjoy it because they didn't get the full feel with just the
Coolie High single.
Toast: You have quite a few guests on your album. You talked
about Ish and Trugoy, but you've also got Jungle Brown, and
Bones. Are these people from around the way?
Geechi: Bones and Karachi are from around the way. Jungle Brown
is my brother and he's featured on Say Word.
Toast: Your first single "Coolie High" had quite an
underground buzz. It was all over BET and it made it on the
soundtrack to "The Great White Hype". But that was
quite a while ago. What's been going on since then?
Geechi: Stuff with the record label like sample clearances, guest
appearance clearances, all that stuff caused that little gap. I
didn't like that little gap, but we are here to refresh them.
Toast: With Coolie High I think people kind of slept on your
lyrics because they were attracted to the music and the vibe.
Geechi: Yeah we can bring it to heads. It's just these crab cats
out here. If you ain't hard, if you're not talking about guns and
all that, then you're a soft cat. You're trying to be sweet and
pretty and all that. You can't just be cool, you can't just be
right in between. You can't be somebody that's just trying to do
your own thing. You always have to be labelled and down and
hated. It's all good, but there is more to it than that, there's
more to it. Don't hate me, don't hate us because we are creative.
Toast: What's it like trying to get a record out these days?
Geechi: There's alot involved that people don't know about.
There's alot before you get into it. It's so ill because you love
to do it. You have an undeniable love for the music, but once you
get into the game its twisted. It becomes more of a job.
Toast: That's because not everybody is in it for the love.
Geechi: Yeah, but once the record is in the store, it don't
matter.
Toast: Did you guys shop your demo around for a while?
Geechi: It actually took us longer to do the demo tape than it
took us to get signed. It took us 6 months to do the tape and it
took us 2 months to get signed. My man T-Strong who is partners
with Ski from Original Flavor he shopped our tape.
Toast: Did any of the songs that were on that demo tape make
it on the record?
Geechi: Nah, the only song on that the demo tape that we got
signed off that we used was Coolie High. We got like 3 albums
man, we did so much stuff. It's crazy man.
Toast: Geechi said that he was doing the solo thing before he
hooked up with you. What were you doing about that time?
Sonny Cheeba: I had just got out of high school and was about to
slide over to the college thing for technical studies.
Toast: Was Coolie High your first time on wax or did you press
something up on an independent type of thing?
Sonny: Nah that was the first time.
Toast: How about the reaction to Coolie High?
Sonny: It was cool love. I was glad that cats took us in, being
that we was brand new and all that. I was glad that everybody had
an open ear because we were coming with something new.
Toast: Now your boy Ski did the production on the album. How
did you hook up with him?
Sonny: I hooked up with Ski through Suede, because he was already
working with Ski on his solo project. So after we hooked up, me
and Suede, Ski was the first cat that we looked to. We had the in
house studio so we could work out of there and get our ideas
together.
Toast: Who do you admire lyrically?
Sonny: I really liked the way Slick Rick rhymed, how he put his
words together. My man KRS-One and Criminal Minded. All them old
school cats. Right now I'm feeling the Wu, the Roots, the Fugees.
Toast: Back then, people would come out with an entire dope
album. Even now if you play anything old from Slick Rick,
anything off of Long Live the Kane, or Criminal Minded, people in
clubs will jump out of their fucking shorts. Now, people put out
a records with one maybe two good songs and that's it.
Sonny: That's what I'm talking about.
Toast: What's the significance with the name Camp Lo?
Sonny: It used to be C-Lo because we were dice fanatics. Then we
found out that the man in Atlanta had that name. So we took that
C and turned it into Camp. And being that we were digging the
70's we flipped it upside down.
Toast: So you introduced Geechi to the whole 7-0 style?
Sonny: Oh yeah. That's because my pops used to beat me in the
head with. Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye all day. That's how he
talked, so I just took my pop's influence.
Toast: Movies play a big part in the influence. What were some
of your favorite movies from tha era?
Sonny: Coolie High was my favorite. Then I was digging The Wiz,
Superfly, The Mack.
Toast: What's it like uptown on a saturday night?
Sonny: Everybody on a Saturday night uptown, they throw on their
best attire, and have fun, with the females, and really showboat.
It's all about showboatin'. I would prefer to be uptown Saturday
night back in the 70's. Back in the days I just heard about it,
but I knwo it was on-time. You didn't have no HIV running around.
Everything was lighter, there wasn't as much hardcore violence.
(Live On-Air interview from 1997 by DJ Toast.)
