Every penny goes directly toward supporting this group of amazing artists and producers fulfill a lifelong dream of performing at a festival of SXSW’s caliber.

You can donate via PayPal:

You can also help out in person at the following shows:

February 18th, 2011 at Mac’s Bar in Lansing, Michigan. 9pm-2am $5 21 & up, $7 18+ with P2daHI and Red Pill.

February 19th, 2011 at The Bullfrog Bar & Grill in Redford, Michigan. 9pm-2am $5. Performing live in concert will be:
Street Justice
P2daHI
Kopelli of Cold Men Young
J.A.E.
Passalacqua (Blaksmith of Cold Men Young and Mister)
Red Pill

February 23rd at The Landshark in Lansing, Michigan from 9pm-2am with JYoung The General, The Amature, and Chell. Free admission, donations accepted.

Spread The Good Word!

• 

Enter Invincible.

I think we all have that good streak in us that really wants to be more involved with what we feel are social injustices. We all have a conscious. Invincible doesn’t just talk that good talk, she WALKS that good walk and then some. Invincible is a modern-day role model not only for me but for everyone. She’s the perfect model for who we all should try to be like.

Recently, Invincible sat down with Dick Gordon of American Public Media’s “The Story” to talk about everything from her days of living in the war-riddled Palestine region to coming to America as a kid, learning how to speak English through ESL classes and listening to Hip Hop – all the way to turning down a record deal with Sony and to do a record with Madonna.

This is a must read. It should be a required listen for all college Ethics, History, and Music majors.

Download: Invincible On American Public Media’s “The Story” with Dick Gordon
Usershare Download: Invincible On American Public Media’s “The Story” with Dick Gordon

Spread The Good Word!

• 

As her name means spiritual journey, Aliya has set sail on the seas of Hip Hop and has now decided to travel somewhere closer to home. Aliya recently created a new web site that focuses on talented and creative artists. With her site, Aliya hopes to combine her personal journeys with those of the talent she features. At MyAliya.com, audiences are given a front row seat into the visions and work of the creative, all while collecting inspiration to take a personal journey as well.

Jess: How long were you writing for DX and how did that all get started?
Aliya: About four years, I think. It was really random actually. I was in my last year of college as an economics major – with a minor in English. I had no formal journalism training besides a single semester long class and randomly Andreas Hale, who at the time was Editor in Chief of DX, found me on MySpace. You know, back when people actually had and used MySpace pages *laughs*. We just started talking about music and culture and he was looking for new writers. He asked me to do some mock reviews and the rest, as they say, is history I guess. It worked out well because soon after I graduated from college I started my family. And when I decided to stay home with my son, writing gave me a creative outlet and a way to build my resume while primarily being a mother too.

Jess: Did you writer for any other publications?
Aliya: It was primarily DX but I did some sporadic pieces for XXL Magazine, Okayplayer.com, and Pound Magazine in Canada –which is a really dope Hip Hop magazine. It’s put together really well, but shamefully doesn’t have US distribution. I think you can order them online though.

Jess: Oh ok. So you have a nice portfolio!
Aliya: It’s decent, J. [Editor's Note: Ahhh, she's so modest!]

Jess: Now why exactly did you decide to take a break from writing?
Aliya: Well, it was a combination of things. All of which I mentioned in my public “farewell” letter on HipHopDX. In part it was wanting to focus more on motherhood, but it was also largely because I was uninspired by the hip hop community and what’s taken over our attention.

Jess: What are your thoughts on Hip Hop now?
Aliya: About the same as when I wrote that letter *laughs*. I just think people are focused on really insignificant things and there’s much more going on in the world. It’s not just a problem in hip hop, though. It’s rampant in rap music.

Jess: Agreed! You launched your own site recently. Congrats! What do you hope to accomplish with that and what do you want your readers to take away from it?
Aliya: Well, the website is MyAliya.com. Aliya is obviously my name, but it’s also the Hebrew word for “spiritual journey/ ascension”. And it’s really a personal blog about my shifting awareness. But it’s also a way for me to connect with artists that I think are creating a new world through more meaningful art and actions and hopefully by showing people my journey it might encourage them to start their own. By revealing my authentic self it may encourage others to reveal their authentic selves too. And by showcasing great artists, maybe the focus will shift to more meaningful art.

Jess: For sure! I enjoy your voice when you write. I know in your farewell letter to DX you mentioned that you had poor grammar and didn’t interview well. What did you do to change that?
Aliya: Ha! Well, like I mentioned, when I started at DX I wasn’t a “journalist.” I’m still not totally comfortable with calling myself that. But, like my mentor now advises me to do, I just had to leap and build my wings along the way. So that chapter is over and I learned a lot from it. Now onto the next chapter!

Jess: What has it been like being a female writer in a male-dominated hip hop world?
Aliya: I think it matters as much as one makes it matter. Though I think my writing style itself reflects my feminine character, I’m not a “female writer”; I’m a writer. My breasts and vagina, or anything else that supposedly defines me as a woman, has nothing to do with my ability to form an intelligent thought or an insightful article. It’s one of those things that I just don’t focus on. At times I’ve been met with sexist comments but they are generally from cowardly internet boys. I shrug it off. Everyone feels big and bad when they don’t have to be held accountable for what they say anonymously.

Jess: Your main focus seems to have been music and the arts. Will you be writing about other topics on your site?
Aliya: Oh definitely. For sure. MyAliya is heavily influenced by music and the arts, so that will be reflected in the site but MyAliya is also shaped by my experience with motherhood, thoughtful conversations I’ve had, and moments that I found deeper meaning in when I looked more carefully. But I do think that music is so important –it really is transcendent. So I’m always looking for great music, and ways to promote that but I like to think of them less as “interviews” and more of “innerviews,” conversation instead of interrogation. I want to dig deeper and start talking about things that really matter to these artists –whether its spirituality or parenthood or entheogens or issues within the industry. I want to have REAL conversations. I want to talk about how they’ve mastered the art of inspiration.

Jess: Innerviews, I love that!  We really do need more of that.
Aliya: I’ve also been in the industry long enough to see how easily artists words and thoughts can be chopped n screwed. They can be heavily manipulated and out of context so I’m hoping to allow them to really and truly be heard.

Jess: Describe your site in one word
Aliya: Expansive.

Jess: What can you tell aspiring writers?
Aliya: I’d tell an aspiring writer to WRITE. And don’t fall victim to this internet age where every piece must be less than 500 words because people have no attention span anymore. Take as long as you need to write whatever it is you feel needs to be said.

Jess: Good advice! What are some valuable lesions you have learned as a writer?
Aliya: Not everyone will love me. Not everyone will even like me. But in the end the only thing I can do is be my most authentic self, and create the art that I intend to as honestly as possible. Those that “get it” will support me, and that’s all that matters.

Jess: Do you have any future plans? Or are you just thinking about focusing on your site right now?
Aliya: My future plan is to live for now but yes, I’m just focusing on the site.

As you can see, Aliya is a writer who is all about greatness. She is wants to showcase brilliant talent and inspire along the way. Don’t forget to bookmark MyAliya.com!

Spread The Good Word!

• 

WHUTUPDOE: What’s been going on in the world of Rhymefest?

Rhymefest: The album is the biggest thing I got going on. By me having an independent release, I have to be all things. I gotta be video director. I gotta be the business consultant. I gotta be the artist. I was talking to Pusha T of the Clipse, and we were talking about how there was a time where the artist could release music every year, or every two years, but now it’s so much music. Everyone’s a damn artist [now], G! As artists, we gotta step up our game and not put out quality but put out quantity. And that’s what I been on. You got the mixtape [out], Dangerous: 5-18. I’m doing videos for every song on the album. Then you got the album, [and] then you got the features I’ve been doing [like] the joint I did with Skyzoo called, “Crack The Code.” So, it’s just like a lot of music and a lot of hustle.

WHUTUPDOE: How did your indie deal with Dangerous Negro come about?

Rhymefest: I was introduced to them by one of the owners – my man Gary that lives out in Indianapolis. I was like, “If y’all gonna be makin’ clothes, y’all might as well add music to that. I got some money and some resources. Y’all got some money and some resources. Let’s put it all together and do the shit our self.” Ain’t nothin’ more dangerous than a negro that can brand your clothing and be a mouthpiece. And I’m that musical mouthpiece.

WHUTUPDOE: Where do you see the Dangerous Negro deal going?

Rhymefest: We tryin’ to get back to the loyalty, man. The one thing Black people don’t have is loyalty. We haven’t been able able to forge alliances that stay together forever and a lot of different money at a lot of different tasks. We gotta bring back that Nicky Barnes thing and make it work man, where we don’t covet each others girls. So where I see it going is going where Black people never been before. If these White folks can be out here in these fields creating militias, why we don’t have Black militias? And gangs don’t count because they killing each other. Why we ain’t got no Black militias? We got Chinatown, where’s Blacktown? And the ghetto don’t count. I’m talking about something productive where other people wanna come purchase stuff from us. Why we not in other people neighborhoods setting up shop for their kids to come in our stores and buy, like, “buy now or leave.” Why we not doing that to them? So when you ask me where Dangerous Negro is going, we’re trying to form a [structure] and sell these records. Do it one step at a time and become a dangerous empire.

WHUTUPDOE: I can definitely see that. Dangerous Negro is making an impact here in Detroit where I am. Y’all work with a couple of artists from here.

Rhymefest: Yeah, man. And I’d rather be a Dangerous Negro over any other kind of negro.

WHUTUPDOE: What do you think the first move would be to get that loyalty, that you spoke on earlier, back?

Rhymefest: Everything starts locally. Everything’s communal, first. So the first thing you gotta do is grab hold of the brother right next to you and be like, “Aight, we together [now] what’s our agenda?” We need to have where it can be a few brothers with an agenda. We gotta live around each other, so everyday we’re working on our agenda. When we wake up we’re in each others faces. And if we ain’t got nothing to work on, we ain’t gon’ like being in each others faces. So guess what we gon’ do? We gon’ work. I think that Americans, not only black people, suffer from a lack of agenda.

WHUTUPDOE: That’s real talk. I can get with that.

Rhymefest: Put it this way: Not America, young people. We suffer from a lack of agenda. We ain’t got nothing we believe in no more, man. A chain ain’t nothin’ to believe in. The club ain’t nothin’ you can believe in. A car ain’t nothin’ you can believe in. What is it that we’re really willing to put our life on the line for? We don’t believe in nothin’. So we gotta figure out what’s important to us. I’m not just gon’ sit here on the phone like, “Yeah this what we need to do,” but my thing is [that] what’s important to us? The way we view it, and I view it, what’s important to us is [that] our unemployment is triple that of Whites and double that of Hispanics. Blacks and browns, we’re suffering in the fields. We’re going to the penitentiary. How is it that in Kansas City, they’re shutting down 50% of the schools? What you think ‘finna happen? When you shut down 50% of the schools, the kids gon’ drop out. The drop out rate in Detroit is horrible, 60-70%. And when kids drop out, where they going? To the criminal justice system. And if you read the Constitution [it states], once you’re incarcerated you have no rights. So what are you out here? You a slave. So my thing is, I believe our agenda is to self-employ ourselves. Can we create money and wealth within our community, and trade it within our community?

“Whether the world knows it or not, I have to embody change” – Rhymefest

WHUTUPDOE: Right. Me personally, I’ve been clamoring that our generation is missing that voice. That freedom fighter. We don’t have a Martin Luther King Jr., we don’t have a Malcolm X you know?

Rhymefest: We do, though! We do, we just don’t believe them. We’re cynical. It ain’t no way you can really tell me Farrakhan ever sold Black people out! I ain’t in the Nation of Islam, but he ain’t never sold us out! But, don’t nobody wanna be disciplined. Nobody wanna listen. My thing is, we gotta stop talking about what we don’t have and look at what we do have. And appreciate what we do have. Anything someone names, we’re quick to say, “Yeah, but the problem with that is…,” you know what I’m saying? C’mon man! What’s something that we got that’s got more good in it that’s going to help somebody? We can fill up whatever the problems are. First, we gotta get rid of our skepticism and our cynicism and our unwillingness to barter with one another. We’re quick to give someone else our money before we’re quick to give each other our money. And then when we do do business with each other, we disappoint each other. That’s why I say start with a few brothers and say, “Trust or nothing. It’s us. And it’s us against the world.” And then that brotherhood grows.

WHUTUPDOE: So is that something you think that you can achieve that you can achieve through the avenues you reach people?

Rhymefest: Yes it is. And not only is it something I’m able to do, it’s something that I’m doing. I go out here, and I’m in the community man. I’m in the hood with these shorties, and I’m the same dude in the hood with the shorties that’ll go kick it with Kanye [West]. I’m the same dude that’ll then go to London and have a meeting in the House Of Commons and meet with Parliament about how Hip Hop affects people out in Britain. I did that. I’m the same dude that can then go in the boardroom and hatch out a deal. So these are things that are not only possible but that are being done.

WHUTUPDOE: I think that’s something that this generation definitely needs to look up to like.

Rhymefest: I just left Israel, man. I was in the Palestinian territory, I see what’s going on in the world. So all we gotta do is put this music out and let people relate to it, and to who we are.

WHUTUPDOE: Speaking of the music, you got the new album – El Che – coming out. What was the process like in putting it together?

Rhymefest: Long! Frustrating at time, and something that I was like, “Whether I sell two records or two million, I have to put this out because as a man I said that I would put this out.” And you know, fans look at that. You’ll lose fans for not having the drive beyond the obstacles to get your stuff out. I realized that whether you sell records or don’t sell records, there’s a certain respect that comes with just dropping the record. So with El Che, this was the album that has my real name on it. Is that the album [I'm] not gon’ put out? The album that got yo name on it? My name is that, and that’s revolution in its definition. I had to put it out, man. And the only people I could find that would put it out is Dangerous Negro.

WHUTUPDOE: I listened to it a few times, and I knew what to expect because you’re one of the best songwriters out there. But this is probably one of the most complete albums that I’ve heard in quite some time. I’ve gotta give it up to you for that.

Rhymefest: Man, I appreciate that. I hope the public views it that way as well. There are songs that I really like on there like, “City Is Fallen,” is one of my favorite songs. I love the song with Saigon, the, “Give It To Me,” track. Aw man, my favorite track I did is with Twan Gabbz called, “Truth On You,” and it’s just like we’re saying everything I felt like I heard people say about me.

WHUTUPDOE: Speaking of the, “Give It To Me,” track, that’s the track you had a contest for where emcees had to submit their 16′s to win a feature slot on the track, correct?

Rhymefest: Yeah. Actually I did one with just me, and I did a video for that. That’s the one. The last dude you hear, Adad? That’s who won the contest.

WHUTUPDOE: What made you want to reach out to inspiring emcees, to give them a shot to work with you?

Rhymefest: Man, ain’t that my duty? If I say I’m El Che, ain’t it my obligation to help people and do something that other artists will never do? Whether the world knows it or not, I have to embody change. So I’ll do stuff that no other emcee would do, and give another emcee a chance who people ain’t really ever heard of. We often say, “Man it ain’t my job, I’m just trying to do me.” People that know Rhymefest, know Rhymefest. It is what it is at this point [but] if I don’t try and start helping people now then when?

WHUTUPDOE: Better now than never. What was that process like choosing Adad? Was it an easy process?

Rhymefest: It was a difficult process because I had to listen to 600-700 verses, man. Everybody rappin’ ain’t supposed to be rappin’. In the beginning, it was something else!

WHUTUPDOE: You got a few features on the album that people may not have associated being on a Rhymefest album. Like, you have two tracks featuring Little Brother, how did those come about?

Rhymefest: Little Brother is my family! If I ain’t know no better, I’d think I was a part of they crew. By that being my fam, they always hold me down. I got they songs first and second on the album. I just think their songs are some of the best songs on the album as well. I wanted to definitely represent my fam on [the album]. They so talented too, you know? To me, Phonte is the male version of Lauryn Hill. And Pooh is so underrated, man! He’s so dope.

WHUTUPDOE: I agree. To this day, I don’t understand how The Minstrel Show got so much criticism.

Rhymefest: ‘Cause people are scared. People are scared of them because they’re talking about things that make other people money. Don’t nobody wanna face the fact that they sold out.

WHUTUPDOE: What would you like the listeners to take from the album when it drops?

Rhymefest: I want them to take the full experience – that lyrical rappers can also make money. That lyrical rappers are from the same places that rappers that can’t rap are from. If you take a listen to the music, I think you’ll see that there’s more value in being dope than it is just being hot.

Make sure you’re not left out when the revolution comes, El Che hits the web and stores on June 8th!

In the meanwhile, check out the video to, “Give It To Me,” featuring Saigon and Adad.

Spread The Good Word!

• 

WHUTUPDOE: How did you get into hip-hop?

Double O: I grew up in this quote unquote Golden Era of hip-hop. I grew up in New York before I moved to Jersey, and there were two things going on, crack and hip-hop. It was inevitable that I would become infatuated with the music. I started Djing very early right when ‘Juice’ came out, in ‘93 or ‘94. I’ve always had the musical background but the bug really bit me when I got to college and I started doing more things that were industry related and interning for Sony was like the eye-opener.

WHUTUPDOE: What is the concept of “Land of Make Believe?” How would you describe this album?

Double O: It’s our most personal album. Conceptually, it’s about deciphering what’s reality and what’s illusion and if illusion can become reality. “Land of Make Believe” is that idea that on the path to success, a lot of times people will call you delusional and crazy and people will think that what you are trying to do is a dream, but it can manifest into something real. Then personally, Naledge went back to Chicago and recorded a lot of the album while he was in Chicago and going back to Chicago having been on BET and MTV, having traveled the world and doing all these things and people perceiving you a certain way even though they may have know you your whole life. A lot of that self-reflection goes into it the album too; he was like did I think I was going to be here, do I enjoy where I am now, what have I done and what have I written to get here.

WHUTUPDOE: There are some dope features on this album, like Just Blaze, Colin Munroe, Amanda Diva, Marsha Ambrosius, anybody that you still want to work with?

Naledge: Raphael Saadiq, I want to work with him and I say the same thing in every interview. I’m just going to keep putting that energy into the air. I believe that he is a genius in so many different ways; he has a good energy and I feel like if I was in the same room with him we’d make some crazy records.

WHUTUPDOE: What is your favorite track?

Double O: I love all the records, especially for me putting together the songs and the entire way the album is going to play, it’s hard for me to just pick one. If you pull this track out then this doesn’t make sense or if you pull that track out then that doesn’t make sense. I’m excited for people to hear certain records like “Take Over the World” and “Running” I love the album as a whole.

WHUTUPDOE: Who, besides yourselves, have you been listening to?

Naledge: Jay Electronica, We’ve been listening to Jay Electronica for a while we actually have a record with him that dates back to before “The In Crowd.” I’ve been a fan of his music and his level of lyricism is just talented and he has a good energy. I listen to Lupe, I think he’s dope. As far as new era artists, B.o.B., Curren$y is also a friend of mine who I listen to. I need somebody to find Melanie Fiona for me, because I want to propose to her.

You have to mention Slum [Village] and taking it a bit further, Royce Da 5’9″ is one of my favorite rappers ever, I think he is very underrated. – Naledge

WHUTUPDOE: Who are your favorite Detroit hip-hop artists?

Naledge: You have to mention Slum [Village] and taking it a bit further, Royce Da 5’9″ is one of my favorite rappers ever, I think he is very underrated. I like cats like, the Quest MCODY’s of the world, the whole battle rap thing, I like the way that they attack. I’ve always felt that style, it’s very aggressive. Mr. Porter does that well too, I feel that there is so much dope stuff out of Detroit. I love Dwele,  Dwele isn’t a rapper but he used to be a rapper. Guilty [Simpson] and Black [Milk] are people we respect and have worked with before. I know I just said Slum, but Elzhi is another MC that is very underrated. I’ve gotten in arguments about Elzhi, like people saying he was not even supposed to be in the group, and I’m like “what the f–k are you talking about?” If  you want to take it to the left, a lot of people don’t realize Chuck Inglish is from Detroit, they think he’s from Chicago even though he slides a lot of Detroit references into his records.

WHUTUPDOE: Naledge, I heard you’re supposed to be doing a solo album, is this going to affect KITH in any way?

Naledge: I think a lot of people misconstrued it, when I put out “College Picasso,” I just make a lot of music. The original idea for me to put out a solo project was because that was the original deal that was put on the table with our label and it had its own budget and was its own entity. For me, at this point there really is no difference between a Kidz in the Hall record and a Naledge record, the only difference is that there is a whole bunch of different producers. I have a problem with not being able to stay away from the studio there are not enough beats that a person can make for the amount of rhymes that I write. I write everyday, I get beats sent to me everyday, so I just make music. Sometimes I feel like certain songs don’t fit in the scheme of our album depending on the direction of the album and I put them to the side but I still feel like they should be heard. Why not let people hear this music?

WHUTUPDOE: If you can change anything about hip-hop now, what would you change?

Double O: I wish that people would listen more and spend more time with the music. People ask, ‘Yo how do you get heard these days?’ and I tell them it’s easy to get heard but it’s hard to get people to listen. It’s one of those things where everyone may have 20 songs and each one is from a different artist and they like that song but they don’t hear anything else and what happens after that point? We love the connection between our fans and us as artists. There is so much dope music coming out right now, that I wish people would listen more and really take the time to let it soak in. Listen to the album, and really listen to it.

Naledge: I just don’t like everybody rushing everything.

“Land of Make Believe” will go on sale March 9. Kidz in the Hall will be in the area on March 11 at the Crofoot in Pontiac, Mich. for The Crowd Control Tour which features 88-Keys, Izza Kizza, and Donnis, as well.

Check out, “Out To Lunch,” featuring The Kid Daytona from Land Of Make Believe.

“Out To Lunch” ft. The Kid Daytona by duckdown

Spread The Good Word!

• 

WHUTUPDOE!: Everyone is very aware of where Burn Rubber came from, to the superstar status you guys have it now. What was that process?

Rick- The way I look at it is like this: With everything that we do, you have not

‘cause you ask not, man. You just can’t be scared to ask and that’s the way I see it. When we first got here we were talking about getting a New Era account. We talked to the guy and we just kept talking to him. [Then] we got the Dilla watch. No one’s think about doing stuff like that and that’s what sets me and Ro apart from everybody. ‘Cause that’s how we think. We don’t wanna do things like everybody else. So we’re in Michigan and we feel like why aren’t we getting the same recognition as Undefeated and DQM is getting? Why aren’t we being looked at as one of the premier sneaker boutiques? We selling the same product. So, we kinda take it upon ourselves to give the Midwest love. People only talk about [sneaker boutiques] in L.A. and New York so we just felt like, we’re doing things on the same level. We’re confident that what we have is our brand and our brand is something that’s important. So that’s why we are able to talk to New Era, Toy Watch, Leroy Jenkins, 10 Deep and these other companies that we do collaborations with.

And, Ro was born a superstar. *laughs*

Ro- It’s about a lot of people try to jump to levels like, “I’m starting a clothing line now. I just did my first drawing yesterday and it’s like 10 times better than 10 Deep clothes,” and it’s like a lot more that goes into that. “How you get yo New Era account?” And I’m like, “Dog, you gotta crawl before you walk.” You can’t just call New Era like you wanna hat! They gonna look at you like you stupid. It’s a process. You gotta do certain things on your own to make people want to do business with you. Like I said, everything we gon’ do, we gon’ do it. If we say we want a t-shirt and we want it to be pink and green and yellow and everybody like, “That’s the worst colors in the world, why would you do it?” I’ll say, “Rick, you cool with doing the t-shirt pink, green and yellow? He’ll say, “Let’s do it!” And then when it come out and sell, people are like, “I told ya’ll should have did it in pink, green and yellow.” And I’m like, “Man, y’all was the FIRST ones to tell us we shouldn’t have did it.” But the thing is, once you believe in something [do it]. Even if we wouldn’t have sold one shirt, I would have been straight with it.

Rick - We got this. You didn’t put no money up. We the ones who gotta eat that, so it’s all good. I feel like we grew into that too ’cause at first we was listening to people. We still listen to people. You told us something, we’ll listen. But we’ve taken people’s advice; some of our boys and then we sitting on something and we’d get that bad taste in our mouth like, “We didn’t even want that joint.” That’s why now it’s like me and Ro are in this together and we’re the ones who are gonna have to fight to get out of that hole that we dig. So now it’s like if he not feeling it and I’m not feeling it then it’s a wrap.

Ro- It’s a process, man. You gotta crawl before you can walk. You gotta do good business. You gotta treat people with respect. You gotta be your own person. You gotta bring something to the table. That’s the majority of it. We go out to Vegas and we talk to a million people. Dudes from Leaders are like, “Those are some fly dudes. They name buzzing”. First thing they say like, “Yo, we both [from the] Midwest, we can both make stuff pop, let’s do something together,” and it builds from there. It was relationships and stuff like that. Some people just are gonna come in the game and do this and just be like bam. But that’s like one in a million.

They appointed us to be a trend setter. – Rick Williams

WHUTUPDOE!: So what’s next for Burn Rubber?

Rick- We’re really focusing on our private label stuff. We’re trying to develop the quality and the uniqueness of the Burn Rubber clothing line – the house brand. And then we definitely got other collaborations coming up. We just trying to keep things fresh, keep things moving.

Ro- And keep trying to stay one step ahead of everybody else. And the crazy thing is that we don’t even really have to try. We’re constantly calling each other like, “I think we should do this to the store.” Or I think we should do this. Or what do you think we should think about this. And that’s the problem, a lot of people are going to wait ‘til they see a skateboard in our store then they’ll say, “Oh we should put skateboards in our store.” Or, they got G shocks over at Burn Rubber [we should get some, too]. Our thing is that we bout to get some G shocks. I don’t care if y’all don’t like them.

Rick- Our thing is that I like G-Shocks and we had G-Shocks when we were younger; let’s do some G-Shocks. And now they’re crack.

Ro- There wasn’t nobody thinking about G-Shocks. Nobody. Ain’t nobody thinking about a good amount of certain stuff we got. A lot of people weren’t even thinking about G -Shocks but Rick had a couple and I always asked him like, “That’s cold, where did you get that yellow G-Shock from?” And at this point we had never really did accessories. The only accessories we had was hats.

Rick- We didn’t meet nobody for this either. We just started looking. I like called four people in corporate over at Casio.

Ro- Yup, and two days later we had some G-Shocks. And the day after that they was all gone.

Rick- How Ro just explained about how the G-Shocks came about is the same way the New Era’s came about and. It’s the same way. I remember it was a time like I’m done thinking. We were like, “Man, I think people will like this.” And we do that to a certain extent. But for the most part, if we don’t like it then we are not going to bring it in here because Burn Rubber is an extension of Rick and Ro. So if it’s not fresh to us, it’s not going to be hot.

Ro- People hit us up like, “Man, I know y’all getting that such and such shirt.” And I be like aight, I really don’t like it. It’s some stuff we brought in here that we particularly didn’t like that we knew would sale, like a couple of these fusions. But for the most part we see something on the line sheet and we would see something about it, or like whatever would have something on it. One clothing line, Mishka, a lot of they stuff to me was alright. I thought it was dope. I thought it was kinda weird in a sense. So Rick started paying attention and he was like, “What’s that upside down cross mean?” I’m like, “I don’t know [but] it’s a dope shirt!” And he be like, “What does that shirt with the skulls and such and such oozing out of it and this going on?” And I’m like man I don’t know. It’s a dope shirt and I think it will sale. And he be like, “Why is this inverted and why is that a five star? I don’t think we should mess with it no more.” And after that I was like, “Aight cool, we just won’t.” Then people would come in and be like man I know y’all got that Mishka shirt. So in a sense, not on some ego [stuff], well it’s not really ego but the position that we in as far as a retailer… in a sense you decide what your customer is gonna like.

Customer in the store – Kinda like a trendsetter.

Ro – Yeah!

Rick- They appointed up to be a trend setter. We put ourselves in business, but it’s the things people like what we are doing and people would come to us and ask us, “What do you think would look good with this?” I’ll let you come in here and pick out whatever you want as long as you got the bread.

Ro- We kinda like in that position like not on ego stuff, but we’re kinda like… basically if it’s a clothing line that [let’s say] if 10 Deep has a shirt on their line piece that we don’t order or that none of the stores that have 10 Deep don’t order, you’ll never know that shirt ever came out. So you won’t know if it’s hot or dope you know what I’m saying? Like, if one store in LA gets it [but] you never see it on the internet, how you even know about it?

Rick- I feel like if I don’t have to talk myself out of getting it, well it might not have been that dope. ‘Cause there is stuff that will come and we will get into this point like I got to have that. But it’s times like we out there and have to check ourselves. It’s stuff that if I don’t have that feeling about the garment then it’s like, “Ok, that might not be that fresh and we might not need to waste our money.” We kinda put ourselves in the mind set of the way we used to be when we were just shopping. Like, when you come in, you gotta be like that shirt is fresh. I gotta have that.

WHUTUPDOE!: It’s been a great interview, guys. You have any last words you want the readers to know?

Ro- Really, just shout out [to] everything Michigan. I’m not even gonna say Detroit. Of course Detroit is the focal point but we shout out everything Michigan – from Detroit to the whole Metropolitan area. And of course people not from around her [might] feel different, but [we have] the best everything. It’s no music like Detroit music. Man its fashion, [it’s] everything! So, shout out to the Black Milk’s, the Guilty’s, the One Be Lo’s, the Octane and Illite’s. You know what I’m saying, man? And to anyone out here that’s doing anything positive.

Rick- I just want to say thank you to all the people that do support the store and what we do. This is how we eat. This is how our family eats. It’s so important. We just really appreciate the love and support that people show us on a day to day basis throughout these couple years since we had the store. I just think it’s a good look and we just gonna try to keep making people proud and happy with what we doing.

Part 1 of the Rick Williams & Roland Coit interview.

Part 2 of the Rick Williams & Roland Coit interview.

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WHUTUPDOE!: Going back to when you got started in this Ro, at the time where you got married, I remember hearing a story where you two drove to New York to pick up some shoes from the Bape store to wear in the wedding. What was your wife thinking when all of y’all walked down the aisle wearing Bapes?

Ro: She was down. My wife is cool, man. She’s not like a nagging, clingy wife or anything like that you know. When I first told her I wanna wear sneakers in my wedding she was like, “Hell naw!”

*laughs*

The first thing she said was, “Hell naw!” Then she said, “Well that’s you. If anybody I know can do it and can pull it off, it’s gonna be you.” And then when I told her I was spending $200 on a pair of sneakers, at that time, it wasn’t going down. $200 Bapes off rip, before taxes, you know what I’m sayin’? It was like, “Dang, you spending a lot of money on a pair of shoes.” But it got to a point like [spending] $200 [on a pair of shoes] was like $50 to us.

Rick: It was like a point in our lives where I was like, “Man, what are we doing [spending all this money on shoes].” *laughs*

I had like 8 pairs of Bapes. I had to get rid of them boys before they depreciated. *laughs*

Ro: Yeah, we were out there buying 3, 4 pair of shoes. A hoodie [for] $275.

Rick: I had my boy going to Japan. My boy, he works for Nissan, so I thought I was getting a deal for $150 or something like that. But they came from the real Bape store.

Ro: But her first reaction was like, “Nah, that’s not gonna go down,” but after that she was pretty much down for it.

I finished school and felt like what I was doing wasn’t a return on my investment. – Rick Williams

WHUTUPDOE!: So it’s safe to say that she’s always been supportive of your dreams and goals. What kind of support system did you guys have when you wanted to go from the comfort of your regular lives to taking a risk like this?

Rick: [My wife] wasn’t that comfortable to me. *laughs*

Ro: She was the first person [that understood]. I got the Heineken’s right? Now Heineken’s are like $800 brand new, or maybe even more now. But when I got them right after they came out, I think it was 03, they were going for like $150. I was on the internet [searching for shoes], nobody really like told me about this. I just saw a pair of shoes on the internet [that I liked]. I’m like I have to find out about those and it just so happened to be that. So I found somebody in East Lansing at Michigan State and they said $150. I was like, “Oh wow, that’s a lot of money for a pair of dunks.” And at the time I was working at Enterprise Rent-A-Car cleaning cars. I wasn’t even on the inside sellin’, I was like bussin’ cars basically. This is when [my wife and I] were going together. We weren’t even married yet. She was like, “Babe, you work every day open to close. You work hard. You may be getting like $6-7 an hour but you work hard every day. You deserve to do something nice for yourself.” And from that point on I was like, “Yeah, I do!”

*laughs*

From that point on she created a monster, you know what I mean?

*laughs*

I work hard, I’m gonna buy me a Gucci belt if I want it. But I’m not gonna do nothing super stupid like go buy a Gucci belt and not pay my rent or car note or something. So the support was always there from day one. Both of our wives know we’re young. We’re 27, 28, 29 years old so the more we hustle and the more we grind now, when we turn 35-36 we’ll be financially free in the sense that we might still have the store but we’ll be able to go to our son’s basketball game or go to my daughter’s cheerleading event or go to this [and that]. Because we might not be like super in there like right now. Of course we do as much as we can right now but we might not be there right now to change every diaper, to get every bottle, to wash every bath tub you know?

Rick: At the same time, right now we’re able to do a lot more diapers and bottles than a lot of people. If I was at the other job, it wouldn’t be going down like this. So you can already see positive changes. Like I said, it wasn’t comfortable. My wife was like, “Something’s gotta give. Let’s go! If you gon’ do something, do something that you love.” And at the same time, my grandfather believed in me. He was somebody I looked up to. So she looked at it the same way.

WHUTUPDOE!: So what did you do before Burn Rubber?

Rick: I was working at like a call center RIGHT before Burn Rubber. So when we started negotiations, all my calls and everything went downhill. ‘Cause I felt like we’re about to get a store. Like it wasn’t even guaranteed until February 14 [the day we signed the paperwork]. I was sitting [at work] like, “Yo, this sucks!” I would call this dude on my break. I hope this goes down. You know what I’m saying? And then before that I was the manager at Finish Line. It was all bad. *laughs*

Ro: I was working for Chrysler Financial. I didn’t graduate from college, you know what I’m saying? At Chrysler it was one side for people who didn’t have degrees, and they got a certain rate. And the other side, basically, were the people that would call you like pay your bill and just nag you like that. So they got paid a little more. But it was still decent or whatever, you know? It was something. I told myself I can’t work in a cubicle for the rest of my life. It’s like that and the music thing, and the DJing. That was kinda like always on the side. But it was just… it was terrible man. I was like falling asleep. Every day I was eating candy bars and drinking like three Mountain Dews just to [stay awake]. I could go to sleep at like 9:00pm and it still be just like… that boring. I just hate bosses and managers that power trip and act like they own the company.

WHUTUPDOE.COM!: Kinda like Office Space.

Ro: You know what I mean? *laughs*

Rick: It is like that. *laughs*

Ro: It’s exactly like that. I used to say that while I was there like, “You act like you’re Mr. Chrysler or something.” *laughs*

But the crazy thing is when I went in there for our training class, the UAW representative came in there to talk to us and he said, “One thing you have at this job is job security.” He told us that the first day we came in. “One thing you don’t have to worry about… you don’t have to worry about getting laid off, unless you do something stupid. You don’t have to worry about getting fired, ‘cause we gon’ fight for you.” I swear 6, 7 months after I left, everybody started getting laid off. Everybody started getting let go. They started with the upper management. All the managers and the CSM’s [got laid off]. They just started letting them go. It’s noting guaranteed in life. But they want you to put your life and soul into it but in a couple months they could [let you go]. People in there 17 years don’t get nothing off the back end of it.

Rick: I finished school and felt like what I was doing wasn’t a return on my investment. I still encourage people to go to school and I feel like now I’m using my degree in marketing to actually help with our business, but prior to that I wasn’t even using [my degree]. So, basically it felt like it was a waste of time. That was another reason I was like, “Yo, I wanna get out here. I wanna do this so I can apply the things that I learned and I can do it for my own benefit.” We’re our own boss. The only person I answer to is him and vice versa. So if we don’t agree on it, it don’t happen.

Check out the final installment of our three part interview with Rick Williams and Roland Coit – of Burn Rubber – next Monday!

Check out part one of our interview with Rick Williams and Roland Coit of Burn Rubber here!

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In part one of our three part interview with the Burn Rubber owners, Rick & Ro discuss everything from how they met to their process of acquiring Burn Rubber.

WHUTUPDOE!: How did you guys meet?

Rick: We met through Ro’s cousin, One Be Lo. I was doing some event up at Oakland University and Ro just came up to DJ for us. And that’s basically how we met and then we went on and did some other projects together. We were in a band together and just seeing each other through him coming to DJ and different things like that. The relationship kinda grew from there.
Ro: That’s pretty much it. Through that we [fostered our appreciation for sneakers when] he had seen some shoes I had on and asked me about ‘em and I had seen some shoes he had on. And he would come back like, “I was on Hypebeast, did you see this?”
Rick: Actually, he put me up on Hypebeast. I was helping him sale a pair of shoes on eBay, and he came by my crib and was like did you see these? I think it was like the Tiffany’s? He was in my crib and he pulled up this site. It’s when Hypebeast was bootleg. It was not what it is now. And then from then on I’ve been addicted to it.

WHUTUPDOE!: What year was this?

Ro: Maybe like 04?
Rick: We knew each other a long time before then, but that’s when I found out about Hypebeast. Then we started calling each other about shoes and stuff.

WHUTUPDOE!: What year was it when y’all first met?

Rick: I was in high school, so like 98 or 99.
Ro: Yeah, I had just got to college.

WHUTUPDOE: Rick, you’re a tap dancer. Explain about your background in tap dancing, to becoming co-owner of a sneaker boutique.

Rick: I guess being like a hoofer, that’s like a cultural group. It’s like its own group in itself – it’s like a culture. Everything started out in NY and it’s a lot of heritage with that. I guess I have always been attracted to things that, you know, everybody wasn’t on. Even with my own style, I try to do things classy things that other people aren’t really looking at. When they’re jumping on the new trends, I’m trying to go a different way. And that was one of the things that attracted me to Ro ‘cause he has his own unique style. You know what I’m saying? When you see him, he does his own thing. I guess it’s like a mind state that got me into this. Just liking sneakers, liking to have things that cats really aren’t on, and we just had that mutual love for the sneakers and the clothing that comes with it. And my mentor used to own Burn Rubber, and then I did the first website for the shop. So I kinda worked for Burn Rubber before. Then we took over and he got promoted and now he works for Nike.

To back up a little bit, [this] was around the time we were doing stuff in the band together. I think we was at somebody’s house and Ro was about to record and he was like “Man I’m thinking about doing a store.” And we both cut hair and we was talking ‘bout possibly cutting hair in the store and selling sneakers. So we was kicking it about that and that was years before [we took over Burn Rubber]. So, when that came up, I was like, “I can’t do this by myself ‘cause I don’t have bread like that.” But then I was like, “Who could I trust and who would I want to do this with?” So I just went hollering at Ro like, “Yo, you wanna do this?” And of course he did because around the time that he was gonna start his store [when] this actually popped up. So then he kinda fell back and then when the opportunity came, I just hit him up. And the rest is probably history.
Ro: Sug!
Rick: Shout out to Big Sug! Mike Sugameli, he’s a champion.
Ro: Esquire.

WHUTUPDOE!: He sounds like a champion.

Rick: He is. He’s our secret weapon, but y’all can have it.

I always just do me because I know nobody can do what I do. Nobody can do me. – Roland Coit

WHUTUPDOE!: So explain your background Ro, and how you came from emceeing, to DJing, to co-owning Burn Rubber.

Ro: Yeah, pretty much same thing with DJing, man. It’s a culture in itself – the whole hip hop scene. Just being fresh, being different. My whole thing with music and everything I ever did was to be me. Whether me was like everyone else or whether me was completely different than everyone else. I always wanted to be a leader. Basically, like all you can do is you. Growing up, the only person I wanted to be in my life was my cousin Lo – my favorite cousin. I can’t be that man. One thing that he taught me was like, “Yo, all you can do is you.” So that’s where I took my fashion, that’s where I took [my] music. Even when I get on the track with somebody like an eLZhi, or whoever, I’m not tryin’ to top that person. I’m just trying to do me to the best that I can do so I can stick out that way. A person like that is super lyrical, you know what I’m saying? I always just do me because I know nobody can do what I do. Nobody can do me.

[And it’s the] Same thing with the fashion and the way we run the store. With other stores, and I’m not pointing no other stores out what-so-ever, but not even within this kinda culture but stores period, y’all gon’ do what y’all gon’ do. Whatever we gon’ do, we gon’ do it. And we not waiting on nobody. That’s what the problem is with a lot of these people – they’re waiting to see what we do and they’re waiting to see what the next man gon’ do instead of just going out and living their life. But that’s the [gist] of it, man.

WHUTUPDOE!: So when y’all first started the process of taking over Burn Rubber, did it ever run through your mind that, “Man, we may be in over our heads.”

Rick: It was scary. I had to look at him a couple times like, “Dog, do you think that we can do this?” *laughs*

We basically convinced each other like, “Yeah, we can do this. It’s nothing.”

Ro: It was the look. Like, “Yo, I got yo back, you got mine.” It’s like [when] back in the day you’d go in like, “Yo, we either get jumped or we gon’ stand there and fight – or we gon’ run. Tell me now so I know.” And once we got to the point where we were paying such and such amount of money for an attorney, it was like, “It ain’t no turning back now.”

Rick: And it just went up and up. We sit back and look at it like, “You just can’t do that.” You gotta keep it moving forward. With me personally, my grandfather was very instrumental with me being here and the faith that he had in me and him pushing me like, “You can do it.” He was like, “Rick, you have always been a hustler. You can do it. You’re gonna be successful in this.” So, that also gave me that feeling [like I could do this]. It helped me go to Ro like, “We can do this!” I knew that if [my grandfather], someone who was there since I was born believed in me, I was like, “I can do this.”
Ro: And as far as the scariness aspect of it, it’s like at that point I had just got married [and] just had a daughter. I had a decent job. [It was] something I hated doing, but it was money on the table every two weeks or whatever. Like, just that fact that I’ma try something that I have never done before that may work, that may not work and it’s basically all on our heads? To completely leave [my job]? If I was by myself, no question! Let’s do it! But I got a wife AND a daughter. I’m trying to build, not trying to go backwards what-so-ever. My mindset was, “I can’t fail. It’s not even an option.” It’s no if. We gon’ make it happen. And then it’s a thing when it comes to goals. If your goal is to be Foot Locker, you’re gonna fail. But if your goal is to stay in your lane and be a sneaker store and do THIS? You can succeed. It’s just people have misguided goals or something. We had a goal and we knew what we wanted. We knew it wasn’t gonna happen that next month. It’s a lot of stuff [that goes into running this store]. [Take] the redecoration of the store. We had this plan a year and a half, two years ago, but it just happened. It took two years, but if you on the outside looking in you may be like, “Man they movin’ slow.”
Rick: It actually happened faster then we actually planned it. We set goals. There are certain things that we talk about, certain things that we want to do and I feel like those things evolve. ‘Cause if you would’ve asked us the first couple months when we was here, you know we had a different view on what Burn Rubber was gon’ be. If you ask us now, our goals are way loftier than they used to be because our growth was at a point where like we didn’t even expect it to happen this fast or like this. We didn’t even expect the store to look the way it does. So you don’t really know what God has in plan [or] in store for you.

Check out part two of our three part interview with Rick & Ro next Monday!

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