The rise of the Internet as a music-distribution platform—specifically hip-hop’s embrace of MySpace—was supposed to free rappers from their record-label overlords and lead to an explosion of collaboration and creativity. Instead it’s yielded a throng of crappy wannabes who think they’re Jay-Z. Though MySpace has helped launch a number of great artists, it’s a safe bet they would’ve hustled their way to the top even without the assist. And another Biggie or Tupac has yet to emerge from the fray—hell, we haven’t even seen another Big L or Rakim. There’s plenty of talent out there, but a serious lack of genius.
Chuck, you rapped on a track with Freddie Gibbs. How was that?
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Inglish: It’s cool. Rich [Parry], our manager, is actually a musician too; he has a production company. He works with his other half, our engineer. They put some songs together and I was going through a time in the winter when I was dealin’ with some BS, and when he played the song and he wanted me to get on it—I usually don’t rap to shit like that, that’s usually not my style. I usually like more those ’85, those real . . . head-noddin’ beats, but this one was just a different day. So I ended up kicking off something where we ended up creating a group. We’re creating an album for it.
What’s been the weirdest part of getting sort of famous?
Inglish: I’m talking in terms of everything. Movies ain’t no different, people making remakes—it’s like, motherfuckers tapped out.
Rocks: That was when we got the Super Soaker, man.
Inglish: I’m 25.
