"PRICELE$$": TEK

Bed-stuy, Brooklyn, New York | Tek

INTERVIEW INNOCENT? PHOTO ISMAIL SAYEED

“That’s why the Boot Camp, the Wu-Tang, cliques like that, and these movements in general… Like when people see that genuine togetherness, and that camaraderie you know what I’m saying? It makes the audience want to be a part of it. It brings them into the family of what it is we are doing.” - TEK

VALIDATED: All right, so to get right to it, you’ve been in the game for over 30 years. I believe we’re approaching the 26th year anniversary for “Dah Shinin’”? 

TEK: Yeah, the 25th just passed so you combine that with Boot Camp, I mean, Black Moon joint, you damn near pushing 35, a couple of joints in. 

VALIDATED: So, how did you and General Steele meet?

TEK: Oh, well, we met through mutual friends and family, being that he’s from Brownsville, Brooklyn, I’m from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. So, we met through a cousin, Big Ol’ Pimp Cookie Head, from Brevoort Projects, and we damn near been inseparable ever since then. Because for me, before me and Steele became partners, he had another group called MOST, it was him and my man Chase. And that just wasn’t the right fit or what we was looking for or what he was looking for, because when he was doing his thing, I was more separated from the music. I really wasn’t into that shit like that. He actually wrote my first rhyme for me. So, from there, we just took on our own shit and just started making it about us.

VALIDATED: So, initially, you weren’t even into the music, so how did they convince you?

TEK: We both was involved in the streets, it’s just, I was doing a little bit more, like, I was boxing, I was in the street, and I was doing more of his security than anything. You know, for me, I just took pleasure in hurting people, so for me, I was more into boxing, more of the violence, remote control cars and shit like that. Because I was more of a quiet type nigga that didn’t even really speak a lot. For me, if you’re going to do it, we got to do it, if not, I don’t need to be around. So, like I said, he started doing talent shows, he had a show called… I don’t know if you know about Ron Alexander but it was like, what they call them little shows that be coming on? He was doing those shits, and I was his hype man slash security.

So, from there is like, he said, “Yo, son, you need to really get into this shit, man, I don’t want to do the shit by myself. You got the look and everything.” I said, “That’s just not me.” Even though my dad and my mom had heavy music influence, my mom was a minister in a church, my dad played in some of the bands with James Brown and would be touring around the world, playing saxophone and drums, that just didn’t resonate and excite me for that time. 

As we started moving around, we went to the same high school, Graphic Arts Communication. So, in there it was a bunch of superstars, Maxwell went to my school, Sticky Fingaz from Onyx went to my school, Craig G went there, Rakim would be up there damn near every day. So I always say I didn’t choose hip hop, hip hop chose me. So, we’ve been in the midst of it and dead in the nucleus, it just happened for us.

VALIDATED: So, present day you got two up and coming projects I believe with Terminology?

TEK: Yeah, we’ve got Terminology joined us, we’ve been kicking that around for the past couple of months starting back last year. I got a few joints with Static, that’s our brother and Terminology. So, he’s just like, “Yo, Tek, let’s just put something together.” And the name just came out of, I think… Where we was Flash, Fat Buddha’s? At one of his birthday parties at Fat Buddha’s or some shit. It was just like, “Let’s put the album together,” and from that day, we just spoke it into existence. But they could send all their beats to Tekology@gmail.com, we’re still taking beat selections. We ain’t even start… I don’t think we started one joint for that yet. So, that’s going to be crazy, too. 

VALIDATED: And also I understand you got the “Pandemic” album?

TEK: Yeah, the “Pandemic” was an EP that I dropped… when was it, March? Whenever the pandemic first started, that was just... because we were actually… Smif-N-Wessun was supposed to be on a European tour that we would be gone for the summer, but once the pandemic hit, they started slowly stopping all the tour dates, and everything. So, I was like, “Man, I’ve got to do something.” Just sitting in the crib, I was going crazy. So, my partner Charlie Brown Phife, he’s like, “Yo, let’s put a couple of joints together, we could drop a quick EP, you know, it’s just to keep busy.” So, stop going crazy or whatever it was, came up with the “Pandemic”, people started fucking with it, it started catching on.

VALIDATED: Being a fan of Smif-N-Wessun, being a fan of Tek, is, how did you and Steele keep the longevity of the unity with you two, the genuine friendship, how did you all keep that? I’m sure everybody go through their shit, you know what I’m saying? But to remain standing strong till today is something that’s dope that niggas don’t even have. 

TEK: It’s deeper than rap, bro. Like I said, we connected through… the further down the rabbit hole you go, we have family that’s connected through whether it be marriage or whatever, like Aliyah is my cousin through marriage. That’s Cookie Head, his grandmother is my grandmother, through my cousin that passed away, so it’s all connected and then Steele and Cook, they have cousins on their side. We were friends before we started with the music shit. So, the music just came into play later. So, you could never let the music ruin our brotherhood or friendship. So that’s all contributed to the most high.

VALIDATED: So you keep that separate.

TEK: Yeah, I mean, we argue, fuss and fight just like any brother, any family or any partnership or duo, but that’d never be nothing that the public would know about it and there would be no separation, I will never go on the air kicking him under the bus and vice versa. So, that’s how we do that.

VALIDATED: As a fan looking from the outside in, I know at some point, y’all had issues with labels, and even though y’all was… I guess y’all were on different labels or whatever. But it seemed like all y’all full circle still came back around, still rocking with each other heavy.

TEK: Yeah, Duck Down was the label that we all started out with, then Priority gave us some bread when they was doing... that’s when the big West Coast slurg came in with Ice Cube and with Master P things. So, we had our office up in Duck Down, and from there, we… I think that’s probably the thing that really, I don’t want to say hurt us, but it kind of kept us in our own circle and box, because we didn’t go outside of Duck Down or anything looking for a deal like, Rock could have been signed to a Def Jam or Steele could have been signed here or whatever the case may be, we just kept it all in-house.

VALIDATED: Was there ever a label that you targeted, like that you and him say, “Yo, we’re going to try to get this deal at Universal or we’re going to try and get this deal at such and such?” Was there anywhere you specifically wanted to go?

TEK: Not really because we were so fresh in a game, we knew nothing about labels. We knew nothing about what could do what for us, all we knew was helping our big brothers, Black Moon, make their album sound crazy. And wherever they was at, that’s where we wanted to be at.

VALIDATED: I think Boot Camp Clik and Wu-Tang, have two of the most unforgettable movements in hip hop history… they can’t match that.

TEK: Yeah, Boot Camp Clik ain’t nothing to Wu-Tang, as my man Sean Price would say. 

VALIDATED: Yeah, that’s something that is etched in history There were other cliques that came after that, like Ruff Ryders was crazy, LIKE that whole movement was crazy but I just think some stuff is just etched in history.

TEK: The only thing that really separated us from them, it was like, we was more of a whole group, where Ruff Ryders was more like a “Culture Pushaz Collective”, a bunch of groups together. We Heltah Skeltah, Smif-N-Wessun and Black Moon, but we were still one circle that was recording with… there wasn’t an album where each one of us was not a part of either intricate in making a chorus or adding a verse or saying, “Yo, align it like this.” We would come up with the different titles of songs and everything. It was just so compact that there was no room for anything else. With Boot Camp, it was like, “Black Moon is on? Aight!” They came back and got us. We were looking to go back and get Heltah Skeltah. They were looking to go back and get OGC to form Fab 5.

VALIDATED: Man, I can’t tell you how many times I bought “Dah Shinin’” album! 

TEK: That’s why the Boot Camp, the Wu-Tang, cliques like that, and these movements in general… Like when people see that genuine togetherness, and that camaraderie you know what I’m saying? It makes the audience want to be a part of it. It brings them into the family of what it is we are doing. 

VALIDATED: So, as far as legends go, like, from my understanding, like I know y’all had a joint with Mary J, on the remix, that was classic. I understand you also worked with Mobb Deep but my biggest thing is y’all worked with Tupac and y’all worked with Biggie, what was that like?

TEK: The thing is we never really got to work with Biggie. I mean, me and Biggie is from the same hood from Bed-Stuy, so Biggie was my brother, like we would be together every other day just riding around wherever... Uptown, going to weed spots, just through the hood doing whatever. Working with Tupac, I think it gave me a different type of work ethic. Like, I got lost in one of his rooms full of just music reels, like, this dude had so much fucking music. It was like, the closet in your crib was just full of Tupac songs. I’d never seen no shit like that before. And Mobb Deep was something different because that was another two-man duo, so being outside of Boot Camp like I said, we wasn’t spreading ourselves thin or we wasn’t reaching out to look to work with nobody else, except for niggas that we felt was on the same playing battlefield that we was on. So that’s how that came in the works.

VALIDATED: I know you got the “Culture Pushaz Collective” going on. What can you tell us about that?

TEK: The Culture Pushaz is a collective of my brothers that I’m working with: Flash, Innocent?, Bristol, Cease, my man Royal Flush from Queens, and we are just putting some things together for the people, for the culture, just for the music industry, period. We bridging the generation gap of the OG’s and YG’s or whatever you want to call it, the younger generation, because it’s really like a fucking slip disc somewhere in there. It’s fucked up that a lot of people don’t fuck with each other and all it takes for that to happen is a simple conversation or phone call and be like “Yo my man, fuck, blah, blah, blah, blah...” and next thing you know is like you found your long lost cousin or something and y’all working, and y’all rocking.

VALIDATED: It’s a shame, more people DON’T have that mind frame, for real.

TEK: That’s why we are who we are, that’s why it’s going to work, that’s why I know that it’s going to work.

VALIDATED: Any last words for the people? 

TEK: Ah, man, be on the lookout, make sure you go get that “I’ma Die A King” from my brother Fla$h. Innocen?t’s got so many joints, I can’t begin to name all his projects… “The Bartender” is everything, word. Definitely, we’ve got something in the works, man. The “Pricele$$” album is going to be crazy, we’ve got the artist Chillz “YGM3” project that’s about to drop. It’s Culture Pushaz takeover man. 

VALIDATED: Hold on, before you go, tell them who you got on the “Pricele$$” album, man, so they can look out. 

TEK: Who do I have one a “Pricele$$” album? I’ve got my brother Roc Marciano, I got Sheek Louch, I got a joint up there with uh…Damn, who else do I have? Of course, Boot Camp Clik is up there. I got Conway on there but I don’t want to give away everything, I just want them to hear it and be like, “Oh shit.” I just want them to taste the spices that I’m cooking with. I don’t want them to go and look for the spice that I’m using because then they’re going to try to take my recipe, you feel me? No, but for real though, look out for that “Pricele$$”, look out for that Culture Pushaz… Look for that CPC hashtag.

VALIDATED: WHAT’S Your SOCIAL MEDIA TAGS?

TEK: MY JOINT IS JUST @TEKSMOKEELAH on TWITTER AND THE INSTAGRAM.