TSS Presents Smoking Sessions With Tanya Morgan

"Smoking Sessions With..."    By TC on May 19, 2009 at 2:54 pm

If A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul were on a world tour, then Tanya Morgan is in a whole ‘nother galaxy. Convening at their lyrical Chamber of Commerce, the trio from two parts Cincinnati and one part Brooklyn take competition to school (geography class to be exact) with their third album Brooklynati. Read along as TSS Crew’s TC unfolds the mysteries of this rapper’s realm which includes Donwill, Ilyas and Von Pea’s day jobs, why Hip-Hop will always live in the heart of Brooklynati and what you will never see there.

TSS: Could you give the readers some background on your names and your occupations in Brooklynati?

Von Pea: My name came out about when I was like 14 years old. I used to call myself Von Phenom and I had shortened it to “P” cuz I would always would say “Von Pea or Von P. for short.” And when I was trying to come out with my demos, nobody was commenting on the music, just asking “What does this P. stand for?” So I spelled it out so they can stop asking. And now it just represents the underdog; something pea-sized is small and you may not be thinking about it but it’s still there.And my occupation in Brooklynati is everything! I work in every store I can. Like the all-purpose dude in every town.

Ilyas: Mine is a little more spiritual. Initially it started off me just spelling out “ill” but I’d spell it with one “L” in my early freestyles. But I spell it with the lower case “i” and hyphenated with EL and I keep the “i” small because EL means God and basically I’m saying I’m not God but just an extension of Him. Beneath Him in a sense. And if I had to pick an occupation in Brooklynati, I would say I’m a hitman that kills unwanted visitors (Laughs)

Donwill: Sucka MCs no doubt. My birth name is William Donald but I always answer to Don before Will so I just put them in their proper order for this MC shit. It was like a given. And my job in Brooklynati is an art teacher.

TSS: Would you say the days where you get mistaken for a R&B singer are over?

Ilyas: It hasn’t happened as much recently but I do remember back in the day on our first tour, we went to Boston and our record [Moonlighting] was sitting right there in the R&B/Soul section. People did not do the research (Laughs). But we threw people off with having the girl on the cover. It was kind of our practical joke on everybody else and ourselves.

TSS: What would you say this album means to your career? An official debut or just a continuance to the works you already have?

Donwill: I would say a new beginning more so than a new continuation. I say more because a lot of time has elapsed since the debut [Moonlighting]. Like even when the debut dropped, we were already creatively beyond that — and that’s not taking anything away from it because it’s classic. But I’m also saying that this album is the most current grips of where we are now. It’s a more progressed, more mature sound and I’m pretty sure the people are enjoy as much, if not more.

TSS: Who came up with the concept of Brooklynati?

Von Pea: I came up with the actual name but it was more so off the strength of where we were from. As far as the concept, it was all of us over time, just building. I remember the name wasn’t sticking at first but after awhile, we just kept saying it; you can hear it a lot of older songs too. We just used it as a catch phrase kind of like Wu-Tang would scream Shaolin. It’s a combination of our styles too with the rapid flow from the Midwest to the bottom heavy sounds with the lyrical approach you would hear from the East.

TSS: What would you say fans should expect to experience when they “arrive” in Brooklynati?

Ilyas: They’ll see we evolved as songwriters, grown into ourselves — especially as individuals and there’s more distinction where you clearly tell us apart on the songs. We’re definitely more comfortable in our skin and we all know our roles in the group and it really comes out in the music. We all know what we’re supposed to bring to each song.

TSS: Give us some background on the visuals for “So Damn Down.”

Donwill: The concept is pretty simple because we wanted the focus to be more on the song itself. We got a white background, we’re dressed up and we’ve got a couple ladies in the background. It might sound cliché but what for what our music sounds like, it’s probably against the grain. For example, say Rick Ross has a video where he’s somewhere tropical, surrounded by women, that’s kinda cliché. If Rick Ross was walking around with a boom box and Adidas and shit, breakdancing, that would be against the grain. But for us, that would be cliché. So we decided to go with the opposite cliché.

TSS: So those fans who’ve “visited” Brooklynati so far know that the city has its own superstars. Tell us about the Hardcore Gentlemen’s Club.

Tanya Morgan: (Laughs!!!)

Von Pea: Back when they had came out, people said they were too similar to Onyx and they never made it because biting wasn’t allowed back then. But now that biting is cool, they trying to make their comeback. And since they’re natives of Brooklynati and were the pioneers of the Hip-Hop movement, we gave them a spot on our album. They basically remade a joint from back in the day.

Ilyas: Yeah what they’re trying to do is the same of what we’re trying to do: break the box people put us and show people something different like we’re doing with the “So Damn Down” video. They said they wanted to show, even with the shootings and trouble they got into, they really do have a softer, gentler side…

Everybody: (Laughs!!!)

TSS: But speaking on all these concepts, especially in the traditional sense with album artwork and so forth, how do you guys feel about the digital age and fans buying downloads when they really can’t see the effort you put in the CD packaging?

Von Pea: It’s funny because we go along with it to an extent because we do have a throwback sound but we’re riding the curve in what’s going on with technology in music with the way people are recording, marketing and putting it out. What’s becoming the norm now is how we linked up together back in 2000.

But I would never say I don’t like people downloading because we wouldn’t be here without it. I would probably still have my little burned CD and probably wouldn’t be that far. I wish record stores weren’t closing but I guess they can’t stay open with the way times are changing.

TSS: How did this union come about? From my understanding, it happened at Okayplayer?

Donwill: Me and Ilyas go back. We’re from Cincinnati, went to college together, everything. And once we started making demos, we got on the Internet to see what else was out there and I bumped into Von Pea and we just got cool. He was doing stuff that I felt lined up to what we were doing and then it turned into a music thing. We turned into each other’s go-to-guy for opinions and then the natural progression went from “We should just do a song” to “Let’s be a group.”

TSS: What’s the next single?

Von Pea: The whole album!

Donwill: “Morgan Blu” took off by itself since all the blogs picked it up and posted it. It’s like the street single. But we would like for the next one to be “Never Enough (Crazy Love).” But we’re looking for the maxi-single treatment and have an event surrounding each one. Instrumentals, remixes, the real deal. That’s what music is missing in general right now: event albums. That’s why Eminem’s album is so important right now because it has an event behind it. There’s really no budgets no more and I kind of feel sorry for music fans right now. But when we say single, we just don’t mean a song posted on a blog.

TSS: So with all the love for the music, are record sales a main priority?

Donwill: Hell yeah they are!!! Outside of a purely financial state, I think record sales set the trend as far as listeners go. You have Tech N9ne going platinum with a unique sound outside of the scope of the mainstream, selling out tours in large markets. You have artists like U-N-I, releasing albums for free when everybody’s like “Yooo, you could be selling 10,000 of these, easy!” But they understand the power of perception and setting themselves up correctly. More than anything, record sales let people know what’s being accepted and celebrated so to speak.

Ilyas: If I go platinum, I’ll retire (Laughs)

TSS: Makes perfect sense. But let’s fly back to Brooklynati for the landing. Is Brooklynati in Ohio or New York?

Ilyas: It’s in neither…(Laughs) It’s kinda like Washington D.C., a place all to it’s own. It like floats…somewhere in the heavens (Laughs). Mannn, where is Brooklynati?

Von Pea: It’s in the state of Hip-Hop!

Ilyas: Hopefully not in West Virginia (Laughs!!!)

Everybody: (Laughs!!!)

Von Pea: But we always say it’s somewhere between Brooklyn and Cincinnati and that’s like the one accurate answer.

Donwill: Brooklynati is in the state of emergency though. That’s why everybody should move there.

Ilyas: And Brooklynati is immune to swine flu. We got the vaccination, come holla. If you buy Brooklynati, you will not catch swine flu. I guarantee it (Laughs)

Donwill: Tell ‘em we got the remedy Charlie Murphy.

TSS: Aiight, what goes on in Yancey Park after dark?

Ilyas: Wooo, you don’t wanna know!

Von Pea: Nobody gets robbed or nothing. Whatever Dilla would do at night is what goes down.

Donwill: There’s a lot of digging in the crates. And alcohol consumption is legal as long as it’s in a plastic cup!

Illyas: And blowing trees…and I mean wind blowing through the trees (Laughs)

Donwill: But yeah we keep it real Dilla in there.

TSS: Last one: Since ?uestlove is the mayor, what scandal is he most likely to get busted for?

Tanya Morgan: (Laughs!!!)

Donwill: I heard he leaked the Rihanna and Cassie pics. They got traced back to the government office in Brooklynati. And he leaked D’Angelo’s new album while he was at it.

Everybody: (Laughs!!!)

Von Pea: He spent the city’s money for rebuilding the schools on his record collection. The highways are falling apart but he has every record in the world.

Donwill: But most importantly I like to thank TSS for showing us love constantly. At the TSS & Nah Right show during SXSW and everything you guys do on the site. Buy Brooklynati!

Von Pea: I concur.

Ilyas: Yes, buy Brooklynati (Laughs)

(Click on the picture to see the Brooklynati in full scale)

Tanya Morgan’s Brooklynati is now available in stores and on iTunes courtesy of Interdependent Media. Make the trip to Brooklynati.com and to their official MySpace page while you’re at it.

Previously Posted — “On Our Way” - Review Of Tanya Morgan’s Brooklynati | Your Official Brooklynati Survival Kit | Video: Tanya Morgan’s Official Brooklynati Tourism Guide

Posted in "Smoking Sessions With...", ARTIST INTERVIEWS, GENERAL — Tags: ?uestlove, Brooklynati, Donwill, Ilyas, Smoking Sessions With, Tanya Morgan, Von Pea