Posted on 05/12/2009
Possessive Tanya Morgan fans would do well to savor these last moments that the hip-hop trio exists as their own ‘best kept secret.’ A brief sampling of their third release Brooklynati reveals a group that has entered the next phase of their career, making a worthy case for the Native Tongue comparisons that have been attributed to their brand of comfortably creative hip-hop by the likes of ?uestlove, XXL, and The Source.

Based around a fictional city located somewhere between Brooklyn, NYC and Cincinnati, Ohio, Brooklynati joins a notable pantheon of one of hip-hop’s most rewarding and intricate microcosms – the concept album – and is bubbling with cool and breezy songs that never meander into thumb-twiddling territory. In keeping with the record’s conceptual spin, the group and their label, Interdependent Media, launched a full-fledged viral online campaign, complete with an interactive social media site for the Brooklynati Chamber of Commerce.

“The thing about this group is that we’re like kids – we all have great imaginations. A lot of times, people will come up with great ideas but they only follow halfway through, so it never gets fully realized,” explains emcee Donwill, a Cincinnati native who now calls Brooklyn home. “We were trying to get this Brooklynati on Googlemaps so we could trick people! We kind of get off on little weird shit like that.”

“I remember seeing how the movie Cloverfield had so many viral websites, and then Phonte from Little Brother put me on to that Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero and everything that went into that campaign,” says Brooklynite/emcee/producer Von Pea. “The label was like, ‘if we’re gonna go in, let’s go all the way in,’ and from there everything started flowing as we continued to come up with shit.”



Unafraid to acknowledge their influences (and proposed Native Tongue inheritance), the group kicks off airy album opener “On Our Way” with a brief snippet of De La Soul’s “Pass The Peas.” “I guess it’s obvious that De La Soul Is Dead was a huge influence on me,” Von says. “We talk about having a city on this album, but they had their own whole world that they built on that record. I was nine or ten when it first came out, and I hated it. I gave it away, and then got it back two years later and it blew my mind.”

But beyond just being a made-up city, the concept of Brooklyanti also represents a philosophical outlook that the members of Tanya Morgan have adopted since 2003, when they formed the group on Okayplayer.com’s message board forums. “Brooklynati is the place between where it is you’re most comfortable and the place where you’re least comfortable,” explains Cincinnati-based emcee Illyas. “It’s the places that you’re somewhat leery of that you’ll typically find yourself and be able to expand your horizons. New York was a real stretch for me at one time, coming from the Midwest. Connecting with Von opened my eyes to new styles, and vice versa.”

“I definitely learned a lot from Don and Illyas,” Von agrees. “If nothing else, they showed me how important it is to consider how music is supposed to sound coming out of a car. I learned that from them.”

“In the Golden Era of hip-hop, things were very regionalized, and if you were from a certain area, people would naturally assume what your sound would be,” Illyas continues. “We felt the need to push the envelope a little bit. Being that we’re from BK and the Nati, we sort of have a fusion sound between New York and Midwest hip-hop, and that title better embodies us. If we had just said we were from Brooklyn or Cincinnati, people would see that and make assumptions about what we were all about. I’d say the name is perfect – I’m the dude from ‘Nati who’s still in ‘Nati, Don is the guy from ‘Nati who moved to Brooklyn, and Von is the guy from Brooklyn who’s still in Brooklyn. It creates the perfect polarity for this project.”

Some might be surprised that three albums into their career, the group still abides by the remote email/instant messenger-driven recording process initially used on their debut, 2006’s Moonlighting. “Despite the fact that I now live in Brooklyn, I don’t really record with Von in person all that much,” Don admits. “For us, it’s stranger to be in the same room making music than it is for us to be emailing it to one another.”

“Every now and then, we’ll get together and do a random song, but it’ll usually be something for a solo project, like a ‘Don featuring Von Pea’ track,” Von agrees. “We don’t record Tanya Morgan songs together, and I think that’s us unconsciously acknowledging that Illyas isn’t here, so we shouldn’t get together and go too deep on a song when the third voice is missing.”

“It’s not really a big deal for me to not be in the same city as the other members,” says Illyas, who plans to relocate to New York within the next year. “I trust their vision and what they bring to the songs, and they feel the same towards me.”



“It’s easier for us to record it the way we’ve been doing it because we’re allowed our own comfort zones,” says Don. “I think the challenge for the next album is going to be that we all decided we want to record it in person rather than email.”

It wouldn’t be the first hurdle that the trio tackles, as the road from ‘Internet group’ to touring, buzzworthy artists has been lined with its fair share of obstacles and lessons to be learned.

“We’ve always been very creative individuals, but at this point I think we’re realizing that you really have to deal with the business side of music,” Illyas concedes. “As beautiful as the music is, you have to be smart about the moves you make. At first it was hard, but we’re learning.”

“It’s something we definitely have gotten a crash course in,” Don agrees. “In making Brooklynati, I learned a lot about putting an album together, rather than just recording 20 songs and then putting the best 10 on there. I’ve also learned certain shit about being on the road, like the joy of having your laundry done. It sounds weird, man, but when you can wash your clothes, it’s like Christmas!

” But aside from these brief reflections on their career thus far, the general vibe of the brothers Morgan is one that definitely depicts them as students of the game. And with Brooklynati to promote now and several solo projects on deck later down the line, the members all acknowledge that the ride has truly just begun.

“You know how sometimes you just keep moving and you don’t even stop to think about what you’re doing? I think that I’m in that zone right now,” Von says. “Right now, for Tanya Morgan, it’s just about moving and looking forward.”

-Sean ‘SeanDammit’ Kantrowitz


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Listen to "So Damn Down" by Tanya Morgan, off Brooklynati below: