Too often, MCs claim to be incorporate that “nineties feel” into their music but rarely deliver on such promises. Thankfully for most older fans, Truck North doesn’t know any other way to bring it. In fact, the Philadelphia freestyler was so headstrong, his mixtape — the stellar Truck Jewels — almost didn’t happen because mixtapes have become “too flagrant” as he so eloquently put it.
Get inside the head of a traditional MC who hates ringtone rap and where he thinks he measures up with Black Thought in terms of bar for bar explosiveness. He’s appeared on the last three Roots’ albums come to think about it…
TSS: So you’ve established your own footing with Truck Jewels. How do you feel about that?
Truck North: I feel good about it! I was an anti-mixtape dude. For obvious reasons of course. The game just got fucked up. I was like “Man, fuck it. I’m not gonna do a mixtape. I’m not gonna be like everybody else.” But it was dope though cuz it was all based off of people actually wanting to hear something.
TSS: And it stayed true to the actual mixtape format with some songs clocking in a little over a minute…
Truck North: Oh definitely! In and out! I know how my attention span is and I can’t expect somebody to devote an hour and forty-five minutes to my ego (Laughs). Thirty songs and shit…c’mon man.
TSS: Backtracking a little bit, where did you get your first national spot on a record. You were on The Roots’ [The Tipping Point]. Was that the start of it all?
Truck North: Nah, that was my first Roots album. The first thing I ever did that ever came out was some joint called “Bang, Bang” that ended up getting used for OkayPlayer’s True Notes Vol. 1 and subsequently ended up getting used for NBA 2K5. Read the rest of this entry »
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