Posted on 08/04/2008
With their latest release, The Bridge EP, garnering the group more attention than ever before, and their recent addition as opening act for indie hip-hop legends Hieroglyphics, it looks like another one of our own is on the cusp of breaking into a new sphere of success. Tanya Morgan is on the grind, having come a long way since the trio first linked up through Okayplayer’s message boards.

An hour before they were set to rock the stage at the Social in Orlando, FL, I caught up with group members Donwill and Von Pea (third member Illyas is holding it down on the homefront for this outing), and here’s how it all went down…

OKP: So you’re out on tour with Hieroglyphics, the biggest tour that you guys have ever done. I remember going to Hiero’s Full Circle Tour in 2003, and catching an opening act for the first time called Little Brother, and now I’m a fan for life. Now you’re in that same opening slot. How has the reception been?

Donwill: The response has been great. A lot of people who don’t know who we are take to it and they love what we do.

Von Pea: Not to make the comparison, but the energy is a little bit different; there was this big buzz and rumble around Little Brother when they were coming out. We have a lot more to prove. Although we’ve been out and paid our dues on our own for a while now, it’s not the same as their situation was. Peoples’ attitude is more like, ‘oh, who are these guys? Oh, they weren’t even wack.’

Don: There’s not the same anticipation. They were established a bit at the time, but we do kind of get the novelty act stigma sometimes.

OKP: But on the other hand – and not to gas you guys up –it’s not like there’s NO buzz about you. As someone who posts on Okayplayer several times a day, it’s ridiculous to me that a group that formed on an internet message board could already come as far as you guys have. Do you see the group’s beginnings as a detriment or has it helped you?

Von: When I say the energy is different, I just think it’s a sign of the times. It’s a different industry now. If it had been reversed, and it was us that came out back when Little Brother came out…not taking anything away from them at all, but it was a better time to come out and people appreciated new stuff a little bit more back then. It’s not the same amount of interest, but we still come out and definitely get a lot of love. I think nowadays, people are more likely to expect you to be bad. Back in 2002, and that’s not even that long ago, people might be more open, like, ‘oh this might be dope.’

Don: The decline in CD sales was just beginning then; now people don’t even buy CDs. Things like touring is just to supplement that, like ‘here’s the CD, we’re in front of you rapping, you like it?’ Being that we were founded on the boards, it’s kind of like our hometown. I’m from Cincinnati, Von’s from Brooklyn, and of course those are our hometowns. But usually artists gain a local buzz in their cities first, whereas we used the boards to gain our buzz a little bit. So it’s like okayplayer’s its own hometown. You’ve got love in your hometown, hate in your hometown, people who don’t really care, but love it or leave it, that’s home. OKP is home. (laughs)

OKP: Getting back to what we were talking about, why do you think people have become so cynical about new music?

Don: In my opinion, it’s too easy to make music in general and get it heard by as large a group of people as you can access. If you had an in at ConcreteLoop.com, you could record a song and post it on there, and people may love it or hate it, but that’s millions of people that are exposed. The Wizard of Oz curtain is gone – everybody can see that he’s a miniature wizard now.

Von: I don’t mean it to be negative, but I feel like hip hop has a going out of business sale sign hanging on the wall. You know a lot of record stores are closing. You would go to Tower Records, and you remember the day that Hard Knock Life, Aquemini, and The Love Movement came out, and there were posters all over. It was a nice place to be. And now you go in there, and it’s people you’ve never heard of, and everything is in boxes, and they’re having a going out of business sale. And that shit that used to be a big poster of Mariah Carey is now just a big hole in the wall. That’s how I feel it is now. Not only is the curtain open, but the curtain behind that curtain is open. There ain’t no curtains on the wall anymore, it’s just like shit in boxes. The whole industry is in boxes.

Don: The allure and mystery is gone.

Von: And this is not just coming from us, who are considered to be some new-jacks. Anybody you talk to, the legends from the 80’s and 90’s…

Don: We’ve been having some real ass conversations about it. Talked to ?uest about it, talked to Black Thought about it…it comes up with everybody, especially when you’re dealing with somebody who has a career in the game and they’re talking to you as a new artist. They guide you and help you out. Everybody is saying it’s just a scary time to be in the business.

Von: Nobody knows what to do except to make some good music. On the one hand that’s how it should be, but on the other hand, you still got them bills to pay and shit. I think it’s a great time to do this as far as art goes, but a bad time to do it in terms of maintaining your life.

Don: On the art side of things, one thing that me and Von discussed is that there’s no rules to it right now. You can upload ten-minute clips to YouTube, you can put out your songs for free…

Von: You don’t need MTV, because they don’t care about you…

Don: …You don’t need physical CDs to a certain extent. It’s a totally different climate, so I mean whoever it is that’s out there that has a very astute grasp on everything digital media is gonna have a good shot. Basically, I want to see the next Puff Daddy, the next guy who comes through and is the multimedia wizard of this generation, and he will make an extravaganza, because there’s going to be some shit. He might have a hologram show in every park in America, and motherfuckers are like ‘oh my god,’ during a simultaneous simulcast.

Von: I feel like Kanye might be that guy, I guess…

Don: This culture is coming to that. This Kyte phone we have has live feed. Say if Common did that, set up a few Kyte phones and did a broadcast of one of his live shows, the web would be on smash. It’s just going to take someone savvy to come along and coordinate that.

OKP: In such an uncertain time in the industry, what is it that gives you hope about what it is that you do musically? Because in spite of all of these problems, you guys are still doing it…

Von: I think it’s because you can get away with whatever. You might not have your joint on MTV/BET, but you’ve got that ten minutes on YouTube, and it doesn’t have to be a three minute joint, it can be a ten minute joint. You can do whatever you want. And also, you don’t have to be in some big studio rushing to get your joint finished, and it has to sound like this…chorus here, etc. There’s not really a rule to what is going to be a hit song or hit video because it has so and so featured on it. That’s what keeps me going. It’s just wide open. I feel like we ain’t done nothing yet. One day, god willing, we’ll do THAT shit, something that was like…’what the fuck is that?!?!’

Don: No music is really reinventing the wheel, it’s just perfecting it. For me, the industry may be crowded, but coming from a graffiti standpoint, it’s about finding a design that will stand out on a crowded wall. How can you stand out in that crowd?

Von: You’ve got to remember how groups made you feel before, and figure out how to make the audiences feel that way.

OKP: Would you attribute that feeling to the success you’ve had so far?

Von: I think it’s resonating with people at every stop. Let’s say 500 people show up tonight. And five of them know us – it’s guaranteed that three out of that five really, really like us a lot. I’ve had people come up to me all flabbergasted, into the music, and I feel like we’re some weird little cult that Hiero allows its own little spot. We’ve even had nights where two or three people pay to see our 15 minutes and then leave. It’s crazy!

Don: One guy in Austin, Texas was like, ‘I came to the show and I don’t even know who Hiero is.’ In my head, I was like, ‘what?!?’ To me, that’s fucking amazing. I sit here every night and watch Souls of Mischief do ‘‘93 till infinity’ and it’s like ‘AHHHHH!’ (laughs)

Von: To us, they’re as legendary as you can get from the class that we come from.

(At this point in the interview, Domino from Hieroglyphics interrupts the interview to go over the night’s schedule for a few minutes, then leaves to coordinate sound check.)

OKP: That was a really good segue way – what’s it been like touring with Hiero?

Von: It’s been fine. It’s like we’re with our older cousins – they’re not uncles, but not younger cousins either. They’ll come to us like, ‘y’all having a good show? Your show was dope, you’re doing your thing.’ For us to be the little guys and the very first act that goes on, they don’t treat us that way. They show us love.

Don: I liken it to going to summer camp. We have our activities for the day, have the main meet for the day, gotta get up early, you know. It’s nothing that the other tours weren’t; it’s just like watching a well-oiled machine, rather than us figuring it out on our own. Everybody on the tour has been really accommodating, from stage show times to having conversations and just being real people.

Von: On some nights, they’ll be like, ‘no one is here yet, and I know we got curfew but we trying to hold it off.’ There’ll be nights where everybody cuts some of their songs so that we can go on a little bit later when people are here. It’s like, you shouldn’t even care about the first guys! They don’t really have to care, so that’s a trip.

Don: And it’s funny, for a unit as big as Hiero, there’s always got to be a head and a body. But it’s been unanimous with usA-Plus, Opio, Tajai, Pep… they all dig our shit, and they really want to help us get somewhere. It’s cool as hell.

OKP: So right now you’ve got The Bridge EP…

Von: Yup, The Bridge EP, it got an 88 on Okayplayer. (laughs)

OKP: Ah yes, the often-maligned Reviews section. Anyway, beyond the EP, what’s next for Tanya Morgan?

Von: In February, we’ll have the full length, Brooklynatti, produced by me and Brickbeats, also with some production from Aeon. Phonte is on there, Blu is on there, Musinah, Carlitta Durand…but it’s not a compilation album. (laughs)

Don: What’s funny is that we’re saying all these names, but if you’re not paying attention you might miss them.

Von: We listened to the demos the other day, and some of the guest appearance are no different than a vocal sample. We’re trying to do something different where these people aren’t MAKING the song, they’re a part of the song. It was situations where, say, I come up with a hook, I can’t sing, so let me call Phonte, and see if he’ll sing it. Oh, Musinah, you can be on the album? We’ve got this joint where the sample is saying this, but can you say it instead of the sample? It’s organic. They’re not being downplayed, but if the album is a movie, then they blend in as part of the scene.

Don: It’s more organic. We’re not doing it to sell the album to people. If you’re gonna get it, you’re gonna get it. But it’s not going to be some big sticker on the album that says ‘FEATURING…’! It’s gonna be there when you pick it up.

Von: The homies is gonna be on the album. It’s not just who’s hot, it’s because we respect them and they respect us.


- Sean Kantrowitz

Make sure you cop The Bridge EP today, or visit iTunes and download it now!

For more Tanya Morgan visit their myspace page.