Published: Friday - July 27, 2007
Words by Zach Prottas
The Alliance (Photo: Asylum Records)
Be easy trying to box this Atlanta crew under some generic Southern label because that makes them claustrophobic and they ain't having it. Their buzz is sky high with a single ("Tattoo") blazing out of radios and cell phones nationwide. The Alliance is set to drop Goin Digital and make it perfectly clear that their presence will be felt far beyond the influence of one smash hit.
With Atlanta's rich hip-hop heritage and its frontline leadership of some of hip-hop's latest and greatest trends and sounds, The Alliance has a lot to live up to. Ballerstatus got a chance to speak with Blackout, Ty-Cutta, Bliss and Skinny about where hip-hop has been, where it is at and where the youthfully energetic group plans on taking it. From the sound of things they might just be ready for the challenge.
Ballerstatus.com: Atlanta is often referred to as "the new South." How is growing up, making hip-hop in Atlanta different than the influence other parts of the South has on making hip-hop?
Skinny: It's just got that Atlanta vibe. They got the snap going on, the Rock n' roll... There are just so many things you can do to make it out here (with music). It's really kind of easy in Atlanta.
Ballerstatus.com: I'm an East Coast boy and we get a lot of misconceptions about Southern music up here. What stereotypes about Southern hip-hop bother you guys?
Nearly in unison: That's it bubblegum, that we can't rap, that it's pop. That hip-hop is dead.
Ballerstatus.com: Do you feel a duty to put some of those stereotypes to rest with the LP?
Blackout: Definitely. We know they going to talk regardless. They can keep talking, but when they hear the album, they going to have something much different to say, so they will be the ones who clear up the misconceptions.
Ballerstatus.com: Do you ever feel animosity or resentment from East Coast listeners?
Ty Cutta: Nah. It's all love because if you are our age and our generation than you grew up on East Coast rap. I don't care who you are; you came up on LL and Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap, that's what you grew up on. We don't feel animosity or give animosity. This what we grew up off and what hip-hop evolved from. We just giving our take on it. It's that we don't say "son" or "dun" out here, we say "folk" and "shawty." It's that we happen to be from a different place and how we get our point across.
Ballerstatus.com: It's just a different perspective on hip-hop from another part of the country. Hip-Hop is not just one place.
Ty Cutta: Exactly, Hip-Hop is a culture.
Ballerstatus.com: You had some features on the "Tattoo (Remix)." What would be your ideal collaborations personally for the future?
Blackout: Shoot... I mean someone like Pharell or Gwen Stefani, just somebody where we could take it to a level no one else has ever taken it.
Skinny: I'm going to go with either 50 or Ne-Yo.
Ty Cutta: I would have to go with Andre 3000 or Nas.
Bliss: I would want to work with Bobby Valentino, Ludacris or T.I. and really anyone who wants to work with me.
Ballerstatus.com: This question is for you, Bliss. Do you find it difficult to get respect as a female emcee in a time where hip-hop is so full of overtly masculine swagger?
Bliss: Yes, it is a little difficult. It is like 10 times harder for females than it is males because they always really criticizing the females. I am in a group with three men and they looking at me mostly waiting to see what I'm going to do, waiting to see if I mess up. So I gotta bring my everything to the table.
Ballerstatus.com: I have heard the single "Tattoo" get lumped in with the label of "ringtone single." How would you respond to such a label?
Blackout: When you hear the album then all the criticism will shut up.
Ballerstatus.com: There has been a lot of talk about major labels versus independent labels and rappers making moves in either direction. For your group what is the biggest advantage of being on a major?
Blackout: Knowing you get put out there. Just knowing you got someone whose got your back and will put you out there.
Ballerstatus.com: A lot of younger kids look up to rap stars and admire hip-hop because of how lucrative it appears to be. As a group comprised of young individuals what message would you send to kids who admire hip-hop for such reasons?
Ty Cutta: You gotta look at hip-hop and realize you gotta have a love for it. If you don't have a love for it to begin with, than don't just wait for the money because the money just don't come. Not everyone gets put on. Everyone don't get in the NFL or the NBA and if you don't know about what hip-hop is about -- the DJ and the graffiti, break dancing and emceeing -- than do your homework first before you get into it.
Ballerstatus.com: I gather from the title of the album Goin Digital that ya'll are very aware of the changing climate in the music industry, the shift from record sales to online music. What do you as a group bring to the table that can still transcend that shift and sell records?
Blackout: Realism. We just aren't going to follow the trends of everyone else. Even with "Tattoo," it categorized as "not music" or whatever. But if you think about it, that's a real easy concept and all these years in rap and no one has ever come up with that. So we just are going to speak what's on our mind and put it on wax, which is better than just making up some make believe person and then the audience coming to see that make believe person is not really that person at all.
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