Posted on 04/29/2009
Geechi Suede of Camp Lo can back flip off of an eighteen-wheeler. Ok, could. He can still give you a front tuck, back tuck no hands, back handsprings, twist offs, you name it. It’s a stunning secret that very few people are aware of, but no one is more surprised than rhyme partner of almost fifteen years, Sonny Cheeba. “How old were you when you were doing all this?” Cheeba (who is a former track & field athlete himself) asks him, still marveling over Suede’s inner-gymnast.

Cheeba is trying to get at the fact that these two have known each other too long to still have secrets. Musically, their animated and unpredictable flow complement each other on every song dating back to their smash ’95 hit “Luchini (A.K.A. This Is It).” But somehow, despite their inseparability, they are still learning new things about each other. It’s this constant freshness that makes their newest album Stone and Rob Caught on Tape still relevant during these topsy-turvy Hip-Hop times.


OKP: You guys been around for a while. Are you finding new fans to this day?

Sonny Cheeba: We continue to get them fans. People continue to put cats on like, “Yo you need to check them cats out.” We always find that out at the shows.

Geechi Suede: It’s always a blessing to have new fans and obviously to keep the family running.

OKP: So how is the style on Stone & Rob Caught on Tape changed from past releases?

Geechi Suede: The last joint we put out was Black Hollywood and we just kinda found pizzazz on that one. We cooked it out on them a little more this time through. These [releases] are like coming attractions. There’s probably one or two more to come before we get to the main piece of the act because we’re building a brand right now. We got Soul Fever. Got the Stone & Rob Caught on Tape coming through right now, so it’s a good situation. I mean looking at the cover of the CD, I’m looking at all the years we’ve been at this, and it’s fun just to see the evolution.



OKP: I hear that. How’s the recession been treating y’all?

Sonny Cheeba: I mean, I gotta be honest. Is it an illusion or you can’t really say that? I don’t know.

Geechi Suede: Well, we’re not hand-to-hand. Definitely we pushing it through in a BX way.

OKP: True, true. How did the title for the album come about?

Sonny Cheeba: Well we’ve been Stone & Rob for a minute. Stone & Rob are aliases or whatever.

Geechi Suede: The first time we made reference to Stone & Rob was in ’94 in the demo days. Basically two characters out of the movie Coolie High that were into the fast life.

OKP: On the cover, there’s a picture of an old fashioned TDK, symbolic of vintage Hip-Hop. Is that kind of the vibe of the disc?

Sonny Cheeba: We got an old smash. It’s kinda like something we were missing. We weren’t getting the music we were looking for from other artists, ya dig? Where we from, [we prefer] more verses than just singsong dance fever type music, you know what I mean? We thought we’d hit them with some Caught on Tape, a more authentic, a little bit more rugged, but we do got the recliners on there too, word.

OKP: What are you guys doing nowadays?

Geechi Suede: North Carolina has been our recording headquarters for the last few years. We just cook it here and go back home and do what we gotta do, you know what I’m saying? So we just commute back and forth and it’s been pretty good. Right now, we just pretty hitting up the road and pushing this project. Trying to hustle. We got Charles Herron featured on “89 of Crime.” We’re about to push his next project. We got Jungle Boogie Brown featured on “Hold On.” We ‘bout to push his project. So there’s definitely things in the works, brother.

OKP: And I see the joint with Styles P and Pete Rock. Is that the track to look for?

Geechi Suede: Well we definitely was going for a New York energy with that record right there, but I can’t really call it because I enjoy it all.

Sonny Cheeba: Just press play because the more you listen to it, the more other joints hit you.

OKP:I always notice there’s the poster song. Then there’s the song that people are really attached to but which doesn’t necessarily get the radio play. Y’all don’t have a track like that?

Sonny Cheeba:The joint I was jumpn’ out the window for was “Sky Hi.” It’s an upbeat booty slash carwash, carwash type [song].

OKP:Obviously y’all got one of the most unique flows. It took me years to realize that you don’t rhyme on some of the verses. Is that something you still take pride in?

Sonny Cheeba: I speak for myself. Rhyming was not a thing I was really trying to bring across. It didn’t matter if it didn’t rhyme, as long as the pattern was straight. Plus I was just starting so whatever came naturally was where we were at.

Geechi Suede: Rhyming was definitely different back then. I know a lot of times we looked to give them something that now would take to them to essence. Definitely back then it was no thought at all, cats just went in whether we knew what we was saying or not. I think now we approach it a little bit differently. We feel like we want to take it back fully.



OKP: Are y’all gonna help us save New York rap or what?

Sonny Cheeba:You know what? It’s not gonna be no one duo or one artist. It’s gonna take artists. We basically gotta show cats you ain’t gotta do it like this.

Geechi Suede: That’s one thing that cats say about that particular [90’s] era is how cats used to compete to see who was coming with the flyest stuff especially in NY. When I heard some new AZ/Nas, some new Hov, I couldn’t wait to get back in the lab--some new Rae and Ghost--I couldn’t wait to go home. Nowadays you just ain’t getting that adrenaline.

OKP: What’s one thing that even the most die-hard fan wouldn’t know about y’all?

Geechi Suede: I thought I was gonna do a few things before I rhymed. I thought I was really gonna be a gymnast. (Laughs)

OKP:You said a gymnast? How did you come to that?

Geechi Suede: I used to back flip off eighteen-wheelers, son.

Sonny Cheeba: Let me ask you this…how old was you when you was doing all this? I could have sworn I met you around sixteen years old, B.

Geechi Suede: Come on, B. You really don’t even wanna go there, son. I ain’t got it no more like that. I could still give you a front tuck, back tuck no hands. I could give you back hand springs, round ball, no hand tucks, twists off, you know what I’m saying. I got hands on the ground, the ghetto flares, but I had a time where I could walk on my hands fully. Word, I still do that. I think the thing that would have sent me in the right direction, on some real shit, was the fact that I had no fear. That was why I was able to flip off of those high heights like that. I think being a gymnast requires that. That’s why I really think I could have got into it. I’m ready to get busy right now, son. I’m ready to show right now! What’s good son?

Sonny Cheeba: That’s gonna be the first thing I ask you when we come out the airport.

OKP:Anything else you want to add before we end our chat?

Sonny Cheeba: We gonna continue to make music that you can only get from this boutique, you know what I’m saying? We gonna make it like that all the time. Ain’t no telling what you might hear but I guarantee it will be different.

- Sidik Fofana

For more Camp Lo, make sure to pick up Stone and Rob Caught on Tape today.

Watch “On Smash/’89 of Crime” from Camp Lo’s latest project, feat. Styles P, below.