ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT: 20 years, 6 months, & 23 days

It’s been 20 years, 6 months, and 23 days since 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of… dropped Tennessee and Arrested Development right into the thick of pop relevance. On the phone from New York, front-man Todd Thomas AKA Speech discusses with Rip Nicholson, the current state of conscious hip-hop, charting the start of a Southern hip-hop scene and the band’s longevity, reaching the heights of a 20th anniversary that seldom acts of any genre aspire to, never loan touch.

Yes, it really has been that long since Arrested Development broke through to the mainstream. Now the band is in celebration of this platinum milestone, which includes taking part in Sydney’s upcoming Cockatoo Island Festival.

SPEECH  interviewed for Rip2Shredz  // Street Press Australia //  Hiphop.sh 
@ 10:00 AEST Thursday 11th October, 2012

Drum (Oct 23, 2012)

[Q & A Interview with Arrested Development HERE]

Congratulations on reaching a 20th anniversary.

This has been a really big highlight in our career. We feel like the fans have really been with us for 20 years and this particular year, with the shows we’ve been doing, i dunno, the fans have really shown their appreciation like it’s our 20th year its not like any other year we’ve done. It felt even more special. And there is something about the fact that we persevered and stuck with our message and our vibe, that the fans are really resonating with. It’s one thing to do 20 years its another thing to actually stick with your guns as far as musically and conceptually from what you first started with and what I think makes it so special.

You’ve been touring domestically across the US as of late, how much of your fans in the audience are new and young fans as opposed to us older heads who remember being down from day one?

I’d say about 70% are new. And it’s really great because it would seem the younger people are more thirsty than the older people because they grew up with no real sense of what positive hip-hop is at all. They didn’t see it so when they hear that it used to exist, they’re freaking out. ‘I wanna hear it!’ And then they hear it and it’s like, ‘why can’t music of our generation be more like this?’ and they come out with such enthusiasm and such excitement - it’s pretty amazing.

It’s been a long time since the Native Tongue movement meant anything. Where today do we find that kind of the consciousness in the hip-hop movement?

I mean, there’s a few artists, most of them are older though I mean, K9 is a good artist from Canada by way of Ethiopia. Then you’ve also got Immortal Technique, Talib Kweli, Common. Public Enemy is of course still doing their thing. But it’s like a lot of those people are still from a different era. So in the newer generation i’ve yet to see anybody in like their early 20s or 18-19 I don’t know anybody that’s talking about any real substance-type issues. There may be one guy named Hopsin who has one song that I think is brilliant where he’s talking about pretty good issues and you spell his name H-O-P-S-I-N I think. He is brilliant.

Groups like Public Enemy, Immortal Technique and Paris have always been more revolutionary and reactionary in their approach to consciousness in hip hop, whereas Arrested seems over the last 20 years to be the only group carrying a more peaceful protest, crossing borders into pop, mainstream. P.E., Paris brought shock and awe to make their point. You had music that the kids could listen to and the parents don’t mind.

I agree with that and I think the closest thing to what we did was the Labcabincalifornica record or maybe the Fugees record. I think when Lauryn talked about Zion it tapped into some of the movement that Arrested Development brought to the table.

Even records from groups like Jurassic 5 or closer to your starting point, early OutKast and the Goodie Mob.

Exactly, and they all came after us. You know, to me i feel like we opened the doors for groups like that. Goodie Mob - I think the fact that we came out first gave them a chance to come out and get a major label deal, in my opinion. Same with OutKast, Erykah Badu.

With the breaks and reunions and solo quests over the years, how together does Arrested Development feel today?

To me it feels more together than ever. The reason is because, the passion of the group is the same, the mission of the group is the same but we have some new blood in it and that just make’s it even more exciting and more fresh. it feels real, very real and very authentic. That’s my opinion.

When Arrested Development went about reuniting the group was it important to rekindle what was once or start fresh and go with what works with whom you’re with in 2012?

It’s more about two things. It’s about reflecting and celebrating the music we’ve done over the years, with a lot of our classics especially the first album. We’re celebrating it. We feel very confident about what we’ve accomplished. We’re not trying to do anything different or whatever, we’re just celebrating it. And then at the same time we’ve got 13 new songs that we’re gonna give away free to fans and all they have to do is go to [newarresteddevelopment.com]  where they can download them. We’ll do stuff from that because it’s brand new and in my opinion does have a very current feel to it and demonstrates the special parts of what we bring. I think between those two things that’s what I feel this tour is all about. It’s about celebrating the music, celebrating 20 years and at the same time show some new stuff that will interest people in the future.

Your recent mixtape, Standing At The Crossroads signifies the degradation of the rap genre 20 years on from your debut. On ‘My Reflection’ you dropped the line:

“If Jay-Z is Jehovah then I’m the anti-Christ and if making mad doe is living, I’m the anti-life.”

Arrested Development has always been hip-hop’s alternative to Gangsta rap - being that positive and afrocentric force. Was that always the cause, to represent the other side of the moon to commercial hip-hop?

I think it definitely was a cause more than represent it, but i wouldn’t call our style an alternative to Gangsta rap but definitely a representation of other styles. So, there’s a difference because to me alternative means it’s either-or. And to me, what we wanna do is say, ‘no, there’s other sides to this check it out!’ Whether you love Jay-Z or not, I actually like Jay-Z but the truth is there’s more viewpoints to sell drugs - get ahead by selling drugs, start your label by selling drugs, then once you’ve made your money from selling drugs and you’ve got a nice record label and you buy some nice cars, then you really blow up and be an international mogul and just brag about all your riches while the rest of all squalor in the mud. That’s not my version of hip-hop. To me my reflection is, ‘Gosh! Jay-Z you’re rich. But what about the people that decided not to sell drugs to make their living?’ I think people have forgotten the perspective of when you’re selling drugs, you’re selling drugs to the same community you’re in so you’re killing families. You’re selling it to some woman who is selling her body in order to keep using the drugs, well now what happens to the sons? There’s kids that are being raised without a family household, without fathers. What are they gonna do, they’re gonna rob people. You have this degradation of a community and none of that is being talked about in the music and it drives me nuts! That’s why to me the song ‘Reflection’ is like ‘what about the rest of us who ain’t living like that?’

I’ve done well but I’m not living like Jay-Z by no stretch. I still take out my garbage every Thursday. So you’re right, this record talks about some of the other viewpoints that get left behind in the present day hip-hop population.

If you consider the notion that hip-hop has always been an industry that celebrates materialism, and coming from a voice that struggled its way up from nothing out of the ghettos - isn’t hip-hop exactly where you thought it would be two or three decades out from it’s conception?

Not at all, i feel like it’s in the wrong place from where it should be. We always had this element in hip-hop that was like 'I’m driving off in a def OJ - I got a Coupe Deville, I got a Cadillac, a Mercedes.’ But the truth of the matter was that was the dream. ‘Yo, we wanna be rich, we wanna make some money.’ But then it also changed. Where you had ‘The Message’ you know ‘Junkies in the alley with the baseball bat’ and then KRS-One where ‘You Must Learn’ and ‘Stop The Violence’ and ‘Self Destruction’ all of this stuff was hip-hop. So, to me it never was just about being rich. Once we had a chance to get rich, to me, it needed to be about, ‘now what are we gonna do to help the others get up? Not just our posse, not just our personal little circle. Now we make dumb-down music that totally demeans women, totally glorifies drug dealers and we make a bunch of money…’ you know. ‘We demean about 10 million people around the world and then we come up about 50 dudes from our neighbourhood.’ To me that’s going backward. That’s not going forward. So hip-hop to me is supposed to move forward and that’s what I liked about acts like even A Tribe Called Quest at their height and Public Enemy or KRS-One and many other groups. But it’s like, where there was a sense of, ‘yeah we can flaunt a little bit, we can talk mess.’ I get that. But there’s also a sense of responsibility toward the people and the community. To me that’s missing.

KRS-One recently visited Australia and we spoke on issues of ‘what do you do as an elder statesman of hip-hop’ His aim was to help rear Australian rappers, teaching them how to fish, and bring up the next generation of rappers under them so that the scene can not only survive but thrive on it’s own. And i felt that that is exactly what someone of his stature and influence should be doing out of love for the culture. True movement for the cause and the love of hip-hop’s survival as an art over industry.

That’s exactly right and I agree with that. I have always had a lot of respect for KRS-One. he is someone who has always been a visionary and a forward-thinking guy. He is someone who deserves respect and honour for those who love hip-hop music. He’s definitely among those you have to salute and give him some props.  

New track ‘Raga In Coolangatta’ has such a strong energy and great lyrical flow - They’re gonna love the title when you play this at the Cockatoo Festival. I’m sure you could have named that record anything, why ‘Raga Coolangatta’?

Yeah, it’s funny because our guitar player JJ Boogie wrote the track while we were in Coolangatta and when he sent me the track, because we did the whole album on laptop, so when he sent me the mp3 of the track he just titled it ‘Raga Coolangatta’ and I never changed the title because even though we were rapping about other stuff, we were influenced by being in this beach town, hanging out in a very relaxed time and we just started rapping about stuff that we wanted to rap about. it had nothing to do with politics or issues, nothing about any uplifting per se, one guy just starts talking about what he likes on his salad, you know. It was very comical and laid back. We kept the title because there really was no topic for the song and we felt like that was needed for our catalogue. We have a lot of songs, a lot of topics that we address but we also wanted to have some songs that were about having fun. And this was sort of in the vein or tradition of the Beastie Boys to some extent and Jurassic 5 to some extent. Just good rhymes, good word play and fun with music.

Speaking of the good rhymes and wordplay, you’ve actually got the one title where you could have used the term - ‘use your medulla oblongata’ in that. I was surprised you didn’t use it.

That is so true! We could have finally rhymed that into the wordplay of it.

In Australia, the hip-hop culture stays grounded, mainly because, save for one or two acts makes enough money from records to live the life full-time, never loan be rich. Materialism in Oz hip-hop doesn’t exist. Most find that refreshing from the juggernaut of commercial US rap.

100% And I love it. You guys are one of the saving graces of hip-hop. Anyone who really understands the art of it and loves the art of it and lives it when you get to Australia it’s a breath of fresh air. It’s a desert and you find an oasis. There’s a few other places like it but there’s not many and we appreciate it.

So you’re heading back down for the Cockatoo Island Festival - what’s on the itinerary for your trip down under with everybody? Cuddle a koala, take a bush walk?

We actually did all that last time, we did the Steve Irwin thing. We’ve done a lot over the years, but one of the funnest things we plan on doing while we’re over there is celebrating my birthday which is on October 25th, the date of the Cockatoo Festival. We’re also going to spend a lot of times with friends and family, not blood family but a lot of friends that we’ve met over the years and spend a lot of time with them. I’m gonna do a few DJ sets at night. I’m not sure of what nights they are because I don’t have that itinerary in front me right now, but that’s gonna be fun and we just plan on having a great time. Of course we pray for a safe flight there.

WHO: Arrested Development
WHAT: 20th anniversary of 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of…
WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 25 October - Cockatoo Island Festival, Cockatoo Island NSW

Saturday 27 October - Valley Fiesta, Brisbane QLD

Friday 2 November - Prince Band Room, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 3 November - Metro City, Perth WA