Fit Interview:

Troy: First off, I want to say that I just found out about this interview a few hours ago...
Fit: Well, that's cool...

Troy: So if I'm not fully prepared, I apologize.
Fit: Yo, it's all good. They're telling me that I gotta call another place in New Brunswick in 15 minutes anyway. So there's no stress man.

Troy: Cool. Last time you guys were down here in Fredericton, New Brunswick, I interviewed Kemo and he said that the next album would be more energetic, aggressive and conscious. Do you think you've achieved that with Reloaded?
Fit: Shit man, I dunno. To me, it just feels like it's a Rascalz product. It's definitely got all of those aspects covered, but I don't know if there's more or less of it than on Global Warming.

Troy: Alright, the biography on your webpage says that Reloaded "is comprised of solid tracks that take the Rascalz to a new level." So, how would you define this new level?
Fit: Shit, I dunno. I didn't write. I do know that with Reloaded our concept was just to say that we're back again - that the hiatus is over so to speak. From the last album title, Global Warming, it's basically coming back again and letting 'em know that we're back and fully loaded with a whole bunch of new tracks. As far as the way they're describing the album on the website, within the crew it's just us making those tunes and putting 'em together on the album. Hoping that it goes as far as the music will take itself.

Troy: So you could almost say that there's not much change in the group as a whole, but sort of a progression...
Fit: Yeah, the only change was within the engineering of the studio sound. Our ideas were this song is specifically for radio so let's cut it to three minutes and thirty seconds. But as far as the formulating and making of the songs, we're pretty much straight.

Troy: I'd heard that you guys put together 30 or so songs, from which to choose 15 or so for the album. I think that most anyone who hears that is curious to know what happens to those other songs that don't make the album.
Fit: Well, there still there. They'll be used whenever the time comes. Maybe they can be used for the next album that comes out or just bonus tracks for here and there.
Troy: Soundtracks, stuff like that.
Fit: Yeah

Troy: So what's life like for the Rascalz without the two breakers, Zeb and Dedos?
Fit: You know, we just gotta do a little bit more on stage. It hasn't changed a whole lot. There are some people out there that do miss 'em. I know that we of course do miss 'em, but we gotta pick up the slack. Right now, as far as they're concerned with their lives, Dedos is a dad. He's got a young baby that just came a year and half ago, so he's doing his thing as a father, like any father should. Zebroc is finishing school. He's doing his thing and getting a business started. So they're taking care of their life. People need to understand that this is only part of a life scheme. For anybody else, when they put in the Rascalz cd, it's only 15 minutes or so of their day that they're listening to it, then they got a whole wash of other things that they gotta do. It's the same for us. They (Zebroc and Dedos) gotta take care of a few things. They're definitely missed.

Troy: For those who haven't seen your show, post-breakers, what could they expect from it?
Fit: Same as always. We just go drop rhymes and hit the audience off with tracks from the albums from past to the present. We'll flav it according to how the audience is accepting us and how excited they are. We'll throw some freestyles in there just to make it unique for that city that we're in. It's all about crowd and how anxious they are for us. It's all about how it's gonna come across - just giving them a little bit of different vibes and extra stuff. I know I be givin' em a few of my solo tracks that I've been doing. There are little things that go into the shows that we don't really announce, but the crowd should get the gist that this is unique for their specific city.

Troy: You said you're doing a couple solo tracks. Is that from the album or is that...
Fit: That's stuff that I'm working on for my solo venture that hopefully come sooner rather than later. So it's not on the Reloaded cd.

Troy: Who're you working with for beats?
Fit: Myself. I do everything.
Troy: So you're producing?
Fit: Yeah. I'm doing everything.

Troy: So you don't know when it'll be out though?
Fit: People can go to my website and buy my cd from there. It's already done.
Troy: Oh...
Fit: Well, it's done to a level where I can sell it at. But if I was on a label, I would do more things to it. Right now I've got it like a DJ Clue mixtape. It's just like that. I put the tracks on there, put some fillers on there, put a couple interludes and mixed it all together. So it's continuous play and feels like a real hip hop mix tape. And that's up on my website...

Troy: What's your website?
Fit: aii-enterprises.com You can check it out there. The cds called Rap Loud Move-in-Silence Hell'z Kitchen Volume 1 mixtape. I'll be performing a couple of those things and that's a new thing that we've been putting in the show. Some of the little things that we've been working on on our own, and we're just putting them in there. Basically, making the show a lot more fun to do.
Troy: And unique.

Troy: When can we expect the next video to come out from the Rascalz?
Fit: We just finished shooting that yesterday.

Troy: What's that for? 'Movie star'?
Fit: Yeah, 'Movie Star.' The turnaround time will probably be two weeks, but I don't know if they'll release it in two weeks or wait until 'Crazy World' falls off the MuchMusic charts. So that's kinda how it's moving.

Troy: Now I've heard a lot of differ stories about the beat behind 'Movie Star.' What's the truth? [interviewer's note: the beat for 'Movie Star' also surfaced on Keith Murray's new single]
Fit: Basically the truth is that we went to LA. We were down there doing some pre-production. We rented a spot and we were hanging out - just me, Kemo and Red1 - in an apartment that we rented off our recording budget. We just went there for vibes; to soak up some stuff. We were shopping for beats. We got a link and went to visit this fella...
Troy: Khalil
Fit: Yeah. He had some tracks for us. He played 'em and that's the one that we wanted. We came back a month later and cut him the cheque for 7500 hundred dollars US for the track. He took it, he cashed it - that was our beat. The paper work was done.

Troy: So it should've been yours.
Fit: It was a whole year later before we actually got down and finished the track. In that time, he sold that beat again to Def Jam and/or Keith Murray. Then that came out and somebody heard it on BET, they were like, 'wait a second Keith Murray's got that song too.' We determined who he got it from and it turned out to be the same person. So that's where the shit started. Basically, we bought it first. He cashed our cheque. He did the paperwork and signed it, so it's our track. Def Jam investigated a little bit and started wondering what they could do. They thought maybe Keith Murray could do a joint venture with us; or we could sell it to him and let him have it completely; or Def Jam could pay us some money for it and Keith Murray could put a verse on another song for us. We went back and forth trying to figure out how we were going to squash this thing, but nobody could come to terms with it. It is our track, we were just being courteous in the sense that we could do something extra because it was Keith Murray. To us it means something, but to record labels, businesses, and lawyers they're just concerned with owns this, and who owns that.

Troy: Do you think that it'll make for good publicity for your track?
Fit: Oh yeah. Any publicity is good publicity. To me, personally, I'm real real with this shit. I couldn't care less. I'm not even on the track really to begin with. That's a conscious effort too, because that wasn't a track that I chose from one of Khalil's beats. I liked the beat, and I like the song now, but it's not something that I vibe on. It's not something that I want to rap on a be like 'yeah that's my shit.' So it's all good man. Things are worked out. We're here with the track today. It's gonna be a single. The video is gonna be coming out in a couple weeks, so we're straight.

Troy: Aight yeah. I'll be looking for it. Thanks for the time.
Fit: Aight, in a minute then.

Troy: Thanks.
Fit: Cool.