With a thick, booming voice that made him sound like Zeus gone gully,
Vast Aire loudly announced himself on 2001’s classic Cannibal
Ox album, ‘The Cold Vein.’ Blending a sense of stark,
urban paranoia with an abstract, post-millennial dread-which it
turns out was entirely justified- Vast invoked the ghost of Wu-Tang’s
past trapped inside the shell of El-P’s numbed funk. He quickly
ascended to the top tier of hip-hop’s emcees, and then seemed
to disappear just as quickly, only resurfacing briefly last year
with a procession of freestyles.
On his new album for Chocolate Industries, ‘Look Mom…
No Hands,’ Vast- with the help of super- producers Madlib,
Jake-One, Ayatollah and RJD2- comes up for air. While there is still
a decidedly dark undercurrent, the album is far less insular and
seems less captive to its noir-ish setting. Be sure to check out
the CD, but for Vast’s sake, please don’t listen to
it on your computer.
XLR8R: I have to ask you this-after
you guys pulled out of the Jean Grae tour, and with all of the contradictory
statements coming out after that fiasco, is Cannibal Ox still together?
Vast Aire: Yes. For the record, Cannibal Ox is still together and
will die together. There were a lot of miscommunications during
that tour, and Cannibal Ox was lied to about money. So when we pulled
out four days before the tour, we only pulled out because we were
lied to about revenue, you know. We just backed out; it's not our
fault. Our cheese was wrong, and we had to leave. We also had to
fire our management team, but that's that. And then everyone was
trying to save they ass so they made up a rumor that we broke up,
so that's why the tour fell apart.
XLR8R:
After being in a group where you used the same producer for the
entire album, how is the creative process different when there are
so many more participants?
VA: It's not too much different. I'm going to get different flavors
and interpretations. On this album there are a lot of different
interpretations on how to flip a beat.
XLR8R:
What do you look for when you pick a beat?
VA: Actually, I look for something that I thought about already...(chuckling).
That's the best way I can explain it.
XLR8R:
How do you feel you've evolved as a lyricist these past few years?
VA: It's just a progression. I make a lot of music, you know. This
is just a definite reflection of what I like, how I feel. I think
that it's very ‘Cold Vein’ in some ways, and it's very
different than others.
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XLR8R:
How do you feel it's different?
VA: I feel that it's a little more up-tempo. ‘Cold Vein’
is a little murkier; most of the beats are like 86 bpm. On this
album, it's got more like 91 bpm, a little more uppity; it moves
a little quicker, but it still settles down and gets murkier. It's
a perfect balance-it's like yin and yang. It's sunny where it needs
to be and it's twilight where it needs to be.
XLR8R: When Cold Vein first came out,
a lot of critics, and fans as well, noted you were different then
a lot of the other hip-hop at the time. They used the difference
to define, if not your sound, then your persona, as if Cannibal
Ox were the "defenders of the underground." Was that ever
the intention?
VA: People will make up any illusion in their mind, but personally
I just do me, and I'll be in the grave doing me. I come from a time
where underground heads were on BET selling 300,000 [copies], you
know what I'm saying? Now there are all these nerds at home on their
computer jerking their dick to what they think hip-hop is. Hip-hop
is living and experiencing, and if you're not doing that then you're
not hip-hop. Hip-hop cannot be frozen in a philosophy like a book.
Hip-hop is multi-cultural, it's all across the world, and it's here
to stay because it taught people how to make something out of nothing.
So all these art hip-hop critics who think it's cool to have a hole
in your sneakers, and they'll go the extra mile to be holey, dirty
and poor...that's fake. You're supposed to be able to pay your rent.
Underground is a position and it's not a style.
XLR8R: Does it piss you off
when people pigeonhole you as "underground hip-hop?"
VA: It does! It does piss me off. I just do my music and it's just
a reflection of me, and it's just honestly me. My music is just
my experience. I can't help it that I'm from the ghetto and have
half a mind. And I'm sorry that when you ask me what inspires me,
I don't yell out your favorite group. It's tiring, and we're all
tired of it. I'm speaking for everyone in my crew, Atoms Family
and the Weathermen. We're just some real cats that have opinions
and ideas. Either respect that, or don't listen [to us]. Some of
these kids think they know you.
XLR8R: But when you strive for
honesty in your rhymes, as you've said you do, you can't blame some
of your fans for thinking they know you.
VA: Yo, but [honest] is all I am. Honest doesn't mean go make a
book about what you know about me. Every artist gives you pieces
[of themselves]. Unless you're my friend, you don't know me. And
people need to realize that artists evolve, and if you don't evolve
with them you're left in a dream; you're left in the past. That's
like if your mom didn't want you to leave seven years old, and you're
like, 'Mom, I'm 13 now, I have hair on my dick.'
Words: Sam Chennault
Photograph: Brendan TobinVast
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