NATE OG DET @NATEOGDET INTERVIEWS CHI-TOWNS GANGSTSARR THE OLD DAYS

1. What’s good family, now it’s been a minute since our last interview but incase the readers missed it feel free to introduce yourselves?

Ki: What’s up! For those who don’t know us we are The Ol’ Days!  The guy with the bald head is Rookie Chi and I’m Ki’ of NC the guy with the locks lol.

2. I want to congratulate you on a masterpiece of an album "1979" that’s in my heavy rotation on my iPod classic but how has it been received by the fans?

Ki: I think it has been pretty well received! I am honestly amazed by the response we have got worldwide since it dropped in January. We get random love all over the US and more surprising people contact us from overseas to buy the album and tell us how much they like it!

Rookie The Producer Chi: the people have been accepting it as an eye opening experience, literally. When we do live shows or we post the album on line people usually stop in their tracks to either listen or tell us how they felt listening to us.

3..I see you are opening for some big names and some of my influences like Slum Village, and Talib Kweli what was that experience like?

Ki: It was kind of surreal because I would have a lot of reflective moments as it was happening. I would automatically think back to living with my grandparents and listening to Talib Kweli or SV in my bedroom wishing I could someday be like them. So it’s an absolute dream come true to open up for people you admire and respect so much. 

Rookie The Producer Chi: these are some great opportunities and we got to thank God for that and those who support us because we didn’t have to get blessed with these shows. I tell you Slum Village was so awesome because this was like the group that inspired our sound greatly, I mean we were speaking about the groups we loved before we recorded 1 song as The Ol’ days and Slum Village was on all our tongues. That event was like our "guess what, we rap" party because cats had heard of us but many had not seen us live so it was our 1st real opportunity to connect with those who had been supporting us initially. Being that it was the 1st performance we really took it terribly serious and because it was our heroes SV we took it even more serious and rehearsed as much as we could until the week of. when we did the show we had never seen a crowd that big but it just energized us, we bounced back and forth on that stage and when the smoke cleared and we got off stage we damn near impeded the next act from going on because of the commotion people caused when we went into the crowd to watch Slum Village and our guys substance rip it. Our supporters were very excited and happy with our energy as far as the performance. For a long time almost a complete year that remained our best stage show to date until that is we opened for Talib Kweli. That was one fuck of an experience because we had our own dressing room, luke-warm waters, wireless microphones and a super large audience to perform to. This one topped Slum Village but it was because our energy was on 12 and our chemistry as a group got even more intact and I have no doubt it showed because we still hear great things about how we did on stage and it was a 1/2 month ago. We were electric that night and the crowd’s energy was unbelievable!

4. So how have you guys been since we last chatted what’s new with y'all?

Ki: Yea we’ve really been working hard to keep the music going. We still meet once a week and have writing/business sessions to help push our music to a new level. I work a full time job so the work never stops. You’re always balancing music and family.

Rookie The Producer Chi: the main thing that has changed I think is how many people know about us, I mean we are still in our humble beginning sort of speak but now we definitely see the numbers increasing on everything we are doing and the overall support here in the states and especially overseas is astounding. we have been mad busy with collabs in the us and overseas and of course working on our new mixtape, we stay busy with that but as you know life doesn’t stop so the balancing act between home work and music continues but we thank god for the opportunities we have been getting tossed to us.

5. Rookie I wanted to ask you if you heard any new developments on your documentary about the violence in Chicago?

Rookie The Producer Chi yes I have been working diligently on the documentary actually I am cutting the main trailer as we speak in order to establish the Indigogo or Kickstarter to raise the money to get the remainder of the film done. The soundtrack has many artists from Chicago, but all centering on the events and how they have made them feel in a musical sense. The artists are donating their cut to the film to see that it gets done and I think that speaks fathoms about the artists of Chicago and how much they care to do something to make a real change. Of course Ki will be scoring and doing much of the sound design of the film under Jimbro Records and I am very happy with that decision/placement. I trust my bandmate with my life so a film is nothing to toss to him! I will continue interviewing people up until I close off production to edit maybe sometime in the late winter but it should be a powerful piece of work that will tell the side of the story from that of the victim. Being that I live in the belly of the beast I believe they will have no choice but to listen as it is one of the most honest works I have ever done.

6. Now Ki being one of the dopiest producers I know when can we hear breaking the code vol. 2?

Ki: I’ve been planning to push a new beat project out sometime this year. It’s too early to tell if it will be the long waited Breaking The Code 2, but I do plan to drop something special before the end of 2014. 

7. Are you guys doing a sequel? If so when can we expect to hear some dopness from it?

Ki: 1979 as it stands will be our personal “Illmatic” meaning there won’t be another project exactly like it. We will however keep the storyline going where 1979 left off. I won’t elaborate too much on it because for those who haven’t heard it yet need to go out and buy it. It’ll probably be 2015 before we drop another official album. Until then we have some dope mix tapes and EP’s coming up.

Rookie The Producer Chi: we are currently working on the next project which is our mixtape and that along with fulfilling our collabs is the focus for now. getting more music videos out for 1979 is also a goal of ours as we may not have the budget but we still would like to put our best foot forward as far as trying to get our audience to understand where we came from and where we are trying to go with this music.

8. What was the creative process behind 1979 as far as the album being put together sessions etc?

Ki: In the beginning I would make beats and Rookie would come up with hooks at the beat was being made. Our technique is still the same except now we get tons of beat submissions so we like to have listening sessions and start writing when a beat starts speaking to us. Our whole sound and style has always been based off a feel. So when we “feel” something we write to it because we know that it will more than likely become a great song!

Rookie The Producer Chi: personally I think our main goal was to find out what our group chemistry was at the time and just try to put together a project and keep it a cohesive piece, kind of like a book reads or a movie watches. We had lost a member at the time so our dichotomy changed tremendously, but it didn’t stop us thank god. We continued to meet at least once a week and get business done, then the music. Sometimes Ki would come with song ideas and sometimes I would but the best songs that happened to me were the ones we did from scratch there.

9. If you guys could lock in a studio for a month with an artist or producer who would it be and why?

Rookie The Producer Chi: The artist I would pick would be Kendrick Lamar and that is because not only can this guy put together a classic album, but he can battle rap and freestyle, I mean he is like the total package and he seems rather down to earth as well. Those are the kind of guys we love to work with. Producer wise I would say either Madlib or Dj Premier. Madlib is so unbelievable as far as production goes he makes me just want to go and clear samples while he works. The shit he did with Piñata was astounding! That’s the only other album fucking with Kendrick’s album to me. Dj Premier was my favorite even before I knew who Dilla was and how big he was so I want a primo lock down bad!

Ki: Personally I would love to do an EP with Elzhi. He is my favorite emcee out right now and I’m still amazed by his lyrical ability. I think that would be a growing experience for me as a producer and an emcee!

10. Anything you guys would like to speak on feel free to do so?

Rookie The Producer Chi: I think that we have proved Chicago’s music scene is wide open, I mean the looks and opportunities we have been getting would normally not be here in this manner. We know what we have is a very unique opportunity and we don’t plan on squandering that for anyone! The Ol' Days are going to prove you don't have to be a spring chicken to do this music thing as long as you love and respect it, and put all your heart into it. We want to show MC’s and Rappers that it’s ok to smile, laugh and be silly again. a big part of what is missing out of hip hop is the comedy and the jokes and people can see from our live shows and the music we drop that we don’t take ourselves that damn serious, but we definitely take our music serious. Chicago has enough people talking about death doom and gloom, just because it’s real and that’s how it is out here doesn’t mean we want to harp on the negativity.

Ki: I agree with Rookie. We just want to let people know that it’s okay to smile, laugh and have fun A lot of people run around with false bravado thinking they have to portray themselves as something they are not. Just be yourself and try to enjoy your limited time on this planet Earth. 

11. Any special shout outs or special thanks?

Rookie The Producer Chi: shout outs: Dj Taigo and all the DJ’s at WHPK that showed us love, Jennet Posey aka Jpose who filmed and snapped photos of us and even wrote an article about us in the Hyde Park Herald to get us some needed publicity for our upcoming show, our guy Montez, our girl Chiquita and all those who came in from out of town to show support. You guys made the ultimate sacrifice and we can’t thank yall enough, Troy, Slone, and all our overseas people who been showing mad love. We can’t forget Substance and Deka Derse, we been ripping some awesome shows with you guys and I believe the best are yet to come. Amina and Coolout Chris you guys have been supporting and linking us up with good people and events since day one and we love yall! Leland aka LP you are the best engineer I know, stay growing with us and watch where we all make it to! Shout out to all who were involved and supported 1979 in anyway because we couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you to ALL the blogs and friends that have reposted or retweeted us to get the word out faster and to more people. Shouts out to our very supportive families because yall put up with a ton of our "rap artist" shit and we love yall for that!!!! Shout out to my son chill, I love you and this is all for you man, all of it! Last but not least shouts out to Facey McFacerton.

Ki: Yea I’d like to give a shout out to all the people in our circle, the Dj’s, the bloggers and the fans who have continued to spread our music since our debut! Super special shout to Dj BVAX, Troy “DaHybrid” Brown, Anthony “D2G” Ingram, Derrick Curtis, Ashley Woods, Ladonna Blair, Tony Chambers and Keisha Chambers. 

12. Any Final words for our readers and how can they stay connected and updated to you guys!

Rookie TheProducer Chi: Shouts out to Serena and our guy Kevin Smith for helping us with our web presence. Please check out our website www.OLDAYSMUSIC.com Expect that site to grow as we do one opportunity at a time. You can reach everything we do from there! A HUGE THANK YOU NATE OG for always looking out with the interviews man!

Ki: For those who haven’t heard the album yet please go straight to theoldays.bandcamp.com now and check it out! If you want to connect with us we are just a click away on the net!