MY BROTHERS KEEPER: CULTURE PUSHAZ COLLECTIVE

INTERVIEW TERRELL “REALIFE” BLACK PHOTO ISMAIL SAYEED

VALIDATED: I know you guys got this “Culture Pushaz Collective” movement going on, who all is involved?

TEK: Well, we’ve got myself, Fla$h, Inno (Innocent?), Cease, Bristal, we’ve got…

INNOCENT?: Chillz.

TEK: Well, that’s the new artist. We’ve got Chillz... Flush (Royal Flush) is involved. We’ve got a couple of people.

FLA$H: But it’s a movement though, you know what I’m saying, but we’re the nucleus to this shit. Anybody that’s for pushing the culture, as long as we all see what you’re doing and we all agree, you could be a Culture Pusha too. 

VALIDATED: I feel like that’s something hip hop needs, like it’s perfect timing. So how did the whole idea even come together? 

TEK: You’ve got to thank Inno for that link, really. Inno put me and Fla$h together, then we just started building and we came up with this movement that started growing legs of its own and we just took off with it.

VALIDATED: So I hear that the first installment is dropping soon.

FLA$H: It’s dropping this year. We’ll properly drop right after Tek's solo album “Pricele$$”. That’s going to be the next situation coming up out of our camp. And then you know, our artists on the come up, Chillz, he’s got a mixtape. But the first official Culture Pushaz project is going to come right after Smoke’s (Tek) project. Probably be around, what you think Smoke?

TEK: Shit, to play it safe, probably looking at June, right around the summertime. I don’t want to give no exact month or date then fuck around and miss that shit. But summertime, we’re going to be heavy, we’re going to be rocking. 

INNOCENT?: It’s all done, though.

TEK: It’s like you said, Boom McElroy, he mastered for some of the top industry cats right now. RicK Ross, The Lox, he did a bunch of people. His sound is gritty and clean but he get busy. He know what he doing with it.

FLA$H: Yeah, you know the project got some of our new artists, a lot of young and upcoming artists, we’ve got them all on a joint together. All of us rapping together, you know, we’ve got (Jada) Kiss on there, Cease on there, Flush on there. It’s definitely some Hip-Hop shit. 

VALIDATED: So, in a group or clique, where you’ve got so many cats with history in the game, and not only got history, but got bars. How is it that you’ve managed not to have egos get in the way? 

TEK: Everybody know everybody is nice.

 INNOCENT?: Everybody plays their position. It’s just like a team, you’ve got your guards, your forwards and your center. Everybody knows their position. We sit down, we do the huddle, or whatever we do and we play the plays. Everybody knows their spot, everybody’s going to get a chance to get a shot, and that’s the bottom line. 

FLA$H: That’s the perfect gangster. Everybody can’t have the ball at the same motherfucking time. 

INNOCENT?: Right, we’ve got to pass the ball, we’ve got to protect the nigga with the ball. 

VALIDATED: So, what’s the goal of the movement? 

TEK: It’s self-explanatory, it is to push the culture forward and protect what’s ours. It’s really to show and help the up-and-coming artists and even artists that’s in the game, such as ourselves that’s been around, who don’t really know too much of how to handle their own business. And stop fucking with people you don’t really have to. 

INNOCENT?: Right, we want to restore the feeling, the unity, the whole shit, the moving as a unit. Remember street teams and all that, we want to bring all that back, that’s the culture. Like even all the way down to dance, niggas got dancers... to do shit different, bring it back. That’s it, we’re trying to push it forward and make it new, reinvent it. 

FLA$H: I think a lot of people get the wrong idea, like when we say bring it back, we ain’t saying bring it back to like, you know, we ain’t saying like to regress, we’re saying we want to push it forward. I ain’t downing no sound or nothing that’s out there now, but we are saying that all of that needs to come together and be able to be brought forward. I feel like what’s out there now they can learn from us, as well as we can learn from them. So, we’re bridging the gap between the young and the old. We’ve got young artists, but our artists are able to get on that mic and be lethal, as well as make hits, as well as go out there and compete. So we just want to bring some of that feeling back, you’ve got to earn your motherfucking spots in the culture. 

VALIDATED: So, basically bringing back the core values? 

FLA$H: There you go. 

TEK: And it’s like you said, to put the egos aside and bring the generations together to show you that everybody can work with each other. Like, hip hop is such a combative field, the only type of music where you might not see this one fucking with that one. So, the Culture Pushaz Collective is, you see, we could bring all that together, different artists together, you wouldn’t even think would even know to be fucking with each other, being on the same type of music track and create something dope. 

FLA$H: Word. 

VALIDATED: So, I know that individually, you all have been doing music for a while, for at least two decades, from everything that I’ve heard, it’s always been solid, what keeps you all motivated to keep going though? 

TEK: Well, for me, it’s a family, I’m a family home body type, and my music is oriented and comes from my family. Just going through that shit, I’ve got a son that’s 19, if I’m not here to teach him, then he’s going to be lost in these streets. He’s not going to have the same principles and morals that I came up under from my older brothers and uncles. So, for me, it’s more of a family structure, and that’s why the three of us right here, we basically all come from the same background type shit. 

INNOCENT?: So, for me, I just want it to keep going, like I can’t stop, it’s like, I’m going to keep going regardless of whether I make a million dollars or whatever, until I can’t go because it’s something that, you know, it’s a way to release a lot of stress a lot of the times and all that.

FLA$H: But for me real quick, it’s like, I’m a hustler, you know what I’m saying? So, as long as people are still out there that want what I’m hustling, I’m going to give it to them, as long as I can still inspire, I’m just going to keep going. I am going to ‘til the wheels fall off, ‘til the block gets dry, I’m going to still be out there hustling. So, this is what I do, you know what I’m saying? I’m sure we’ve all had times as artists where we fall back and be like, “Yo, man!” you know, life might grab a hold of you or whatever and then you hear something, you hear a beat, and it’s just that shit come right back to you. It is just what we do. And then being in the Culture Pushaz, and just creating this whole movement, man, like that keeps me going too, like being in the studio with my brothers, him and this one and Tek sending me this record and Inno sending me this song and I’m handling this nigga’s project and that nigga’s project, and now we’ve got the young niggas under us and young niggas is lions too. So, that shit keep me going as well. 

VALIDATED: With the competitive piece, because I know you all are three ill mc’s number one, so even though it may not be egos involved, I know it’s a competitive streak, you never heard somebody’s verse and be like “Nah, I got to rewrite my verse.”?

INNOCENT?: It never was like that, I think it’s more like when we did “F.I.T.”, it was more of how are we going to make it fit right? Like, how are we going to put each other’s verse, rather than what verse is better, or which one sounded… It was just more like how it sounded sonically together. Like, we don’t even think that because we know we all capable off as far as lyrics, we never got to doubt that. So, it was a matter of where are we going to put it and how we’re going to place it on the board. And it makes it that much easier. It’s never ego, because I respect both of their crafts to the utmost, so it’s never that. It’s just that I want to make sure I’m good enough, I’m holding it down. I can’t come half ass. And if we all think in the same way, it ain’t never going to be a problem. 

FLA$H: That’s it. I ain’t going to pass the ball to a nigga that can’t shoot. It’s like, how “F.I.T.” came… even with “F.I.T.”. I know it sound like it was like we came up with the concept, Fla$h, Inno, Tek and called it “F.I.T.”. That shit came as we were doing that shit live in the studio, we just went in there, putting bars in and I go, you go, I go, you go. Then Inno was just like, “Yo, Flash, Inno, Tek… “F.I.T.”, lyrically fit, bars, you know what I’m saying?” Boom, and that’s how that came together.

INNOCENT?: And then Fla$h took it from there with the hook. You know he got the hook cut up and that was it… That shit was crazy. 

VALIDATED: So as far as the whole movement, what is it that you want the whole world to know you all are about to do? 

INNOCENT?: We ain’t letting them know we’re about to do nothing, they see what’s happening. So, we’re just letting them know what we’re doing, and that it's going to be times 10, you know what I’m saying? We didn’t even do nothing yet, man, like on some g shit, like we’re just formulating it, and weeding out the snakes. You know, you’ve got to get through all that first, go through the little hurdles, and then it’s just forward motion. And people, I don’t want to be blunt, but it’s either going to be a get down or lay down type of thing after a while. You know what I mean? 

TEK: That’s what it is, man. 

INNOCENT?: And that’s what it is. 

FLA$H: We ain’t worried about what anybody else is doing either.

INNOCENT?: Right, facts.

FLA$H: You know how other niggas be like, “Oh, them niggas over there doing this.”, “They’re doing that.”, you know what I’m saying? Niggas watching. 

INNOCENT?: We’re not taking away from nothing nobody’s doing. We’re just trying to add to shit… and push the culture forward.

TEK: That’s it, man.

FLA$H: Like, you can have your own squad and doing your own thing, to me, and still pushing the culture forward and still be a culture pusha. And culture pushing is more than just music.

INNOCENT?: Right, because Validated is part of the culture… is part of the collective, at the end of the day.

FLA$H: That’s just what it’s about. I just want the world to just keep opening your eyes, open your ears, and you’re going to see what’s taking place. You all see what’s happening. Y’all see what’s taking place and just know that there are a lot of great things coming in the future from Culture Pushaz. 

VALIDATED: You all made noise with the “F.I.T” joint with the three of you. Any chance the three of you will doing a whole project? 

INNOCENT?: Yeah, of course. 

TEK: I mean, we’re constantly recording songs with just the three of us. We know in time it’s going to fall to where it’s supposed to. We haven’t yet sat down and be like, “Let’s put a F.I.T. project together.” The collective is going to be… this is just the introduction. That’s why it’s volumes to it. So down the line, who knows what’s going to happen? 

VALIDATED: So I know you mentioned the producer, I’m assuming if it’s a collective, it’s more than one producer involved. Can you tell us a bit about the producers involved? 

TEK: Yes, we’ve got some Vinnie Idol joints, we’ve got… Shit, I can’t even think of all them niggas that’s up there right now. We’ve got some heat for niggas, man, it’s some things up there, trust and believe.

INNOCENT?: Everybody’s got resources.

FLA$H: You’ve got to think of all of us, like we said, we all do our own thing as well, so we’ve got producers sending us heat from all over, you know what I’m saying? So we just come together and pick the hottest shit, go in there and do what it do. It don’t matter if you’ve got a name or you’re up and coming.

INNOCENT?: Yeah, if the beats is hard the beats is hard.

FLA$H: Level 13, he did the intro. We’ve got The Noise. We’ve got... 

TEK: Stan Da Man did “F.I.T.”. We’ve got some heat… There’s probably a couple whose name is not even out there yet. That’s a part of pushing the culture forward, let them know too. Whether it’s the big name or the little name.

VALIDATED: What’s ya’ll’s social media tags?

TEK: My joint is just @TekSmokeeLah. I really just fuck with the Twitter and the Instagram, I’m going to jump on this club house shit in a few. 

INNOCENT?: I mean, I’m @InnocentFlow13 on everything… Instagram, Twitter, Tumbler, SoundCloud, all that.

FLA$H: My shit, @FlashIsHipHop on all social media.