triple ave. q&a...

www.tripleave.com

ryan somers: what's going on?

hyp: man, a lot man, a lot! i got a lot to talk to you about. let me ask you a question, before we get into the interview. do i gotta limit my potty mouth?

r: haha, nah, don't worry, that's what editing is for. we'll take care of that on this end.

h: cool. man, i don't know if you got a chance to look at the bio, i'll try to give you a brief breakdown. for the most part man, i'm the one that's from boston. the name triple ave., i guess you could say the whole triple meaning is the three of us in the group, the three vocalists. i'm from boston. the singer/mc, she's latina, she's a puerto rican/mexican/cherokee. she sings and raps. she's got some chops on her. she's from the bay. the third vocalist, he's from st. louis.

r: that's cool, you're from all over.

h: yeah. i've been living in cali for about ten years. i'm from a group in boston called "exile society," we've been doing this shit for i can't even tell you how long. the "subterraneans" was the group that got the most exposure, when we first moved out here to cali, we were back and forth to europe for the first five years. the group broke up. we were out here freestyling in the park, back when that was still cool. it really is a trilogy. we've been going at this as long as i know. in my family, my mother and father are both musicians. i take it for granted, it's just natural.

r: cool. so what's going on with you guys now?

h: let me give you the gist of the random-ass things that we have going on... what's a trip about our music, when you really listen to it, the music is eclectic, it has that bump, you might get conscious lyrics, but from a hood perspective. i can't think of too many other groups that come from it from a hood perspective. a lot of conscious groups come from the 'burbs or from the outskirts. it makes for interesting listening.

r: yeah, i notice that about your stuff. it has that bumping feel to it, but still different than your average club music.

h: yeah. i also play the harp. our stage show is crazy dude. the instrumentation is upright bass, keys, guitar. we have some features, the bass player plays the bagpipes sometimes. it's a trippy show dude, a trippy show. i'll mess around, put the mic down and start playing the harp. it's like electronica meets live instrumentation.

r: how long have you been making music?

h: i've been doing it the longest. i'm the youngest in the group, we're all golden era, in our 30s.

r: so tell me about the members of the group.

h: louie, he's from st. louis, in the midwest. if you check it out, the midwest in general, has a certain flare. common, kanye, crucial conflict, there's a niche. who is it that said "boughetto?"

r: the st. lunatics.

h: yeah, that boughie ghetto thing, that's a midwest thing, that's why kanye does the preppy look. you do hear the east coast influence. he would be considered like that, he brings that midwest slang, that whole vibe.

r: cool. tell me about gypsy love.

h: she's a singer/mc. she's from the bay area. the oakland/richmond area. as i told you, she's latina. you hear some of that influence in the music. you hear that laid back cali, bay area thing. it's kind of an eclectic area.

r: yeah, i've always loved how diverse the bay is. like how you can get too $hort, digital underground, hieroglyphics, spice 1...

h: yeah. and you see her, she can play both sides of that fence too. it comes through. so that's gypsy. and the fact that she sings and raps, obviously, is a plus.

r: cool. and yourself?

h: yeah, i'm hyp, and i bring the whole boston thing. you know what's out of boston. mr. lif. radioinactive.

r: rso, ed o.g.

h: what you know about rso? ed o.g. is from my block. we grew up on the same block. boston is east coast, but it's the north east. it's got a specific vibe. it's in the shadow of new york, so i think we relate more with philly, but you know, in terms of hip-hop there's more of a jazz influence. in the west they more musical, we were more sampling. i grew up on old soul, jazz and all that. my musical taste is eclectic as hell. being raised in one of the war zones in boston, it really makes for an eclectic world view. my background... cape verde is a group of islands off the coast of west africa, and my father's family comes from there. his mother is into a revolutionary leader that was killed two years before i was born: amilkar cabral, who is my grandmother's first cousin. if you look him up, you'll see. his image is on the money in that country. the airport out there is named after him. he's a hero. you get a real eclectic mix when you're fucking with me.

r: i heard you also had a canadian connection?

h: let me tell you about that. through sonic bids, which is a company based in boston, they have this website where you set up a page and all these different opportunities from all over the world come through there. i ran into the redpipe site, i ran into them through that, and when they first put up redpipe.ca they were having this contest, a registration contest, the grand prize was $8,000 canadian, and we won that. so we're probably gonna use that for the new album. we're still doing this independently.

r: nice. how's the record coming?

h: we're in the process of finishing the record. i'm being real fussy about it. i want to make sure that we cover everything we can. there's not enough dynamics, at least in mainstream hip-hop. some of it may have the potential to go mainstream, but we don't care. our music draws random crowds. you'll get an older mexican woman in her 50s talking about how she loves our shit, some cat from around the way - the 'hood - talking about he loves our shit, and a young white girl talking about how she loves our shit. it's crazy, random and eclectic, to be honest. so i'm being fussy about finishing up the album. so there's more to come on that.

r: and you guys have been playing and working with a number of different people?

h: yeah. dj true justice, his crew is the "all-purpose djs." he's on tour right now. we tour with him off and on. and he's got an album out right now called "the under scrutiny album."

r: so what brought you out west?

h: a lot of different factors. i did a year in college. my two brothers who i moved out here with, they were like "we're moving to cali to pursue our dreams. you can stay here or come with us." so i was like, "yeah, i'm coming with y'all," so we did it, we made the move. we left boston and started touring. there were other things going on in boston, typical shit a young person in the inner city goes through, so it was as good time for me to leave anyway. i've been out here for about ten years.

r: you menationed in your email some other projects you were involved in.

h: yeah, we're working with this group in austria that we toured with in 99 called "waxolutionist." we're working this project they're working on, with mystic. that's my homegirl, she's on there. they got hieroglyphics, and some other cats on there. shout out to "meister petz."

r: you were talking about that redpipe.ca contest you won. what do you think about all the websites now for music, redpipe, sonicbids, myspace, etc.?

h: first and foremost, i have to say thank the lord for redpipe. no joke. the people are so sweet and helpful over there, it doesn't matter, i told them i'ma be riding with redpipe until the wheels fall off. it's user-friendly, they offer a lot, news, they have discussion boards, a lot of sites don't do that. the only disadvantage is being here in the states, you have to be a rogers wireless subscriber to be a fan or download or whatever, but they told me that they're working on making so people outside of canada can fuck with it. i appreciate their mission and their goal. i checked out some of the other acts, they got some quality stuff on there. they're championing the cause for the independent musician.

r: what about sonicbids?

h: i have to give a shout out to them. i've gotten the most out of dealing with them.

r: and myspace?

h: myspace is not cool. it's too vast, obviously. we've been locked out of our myspace page since february of 2006. we tried to switch our password, i tried to contact them, i kept getting this automated response. there's obviously no human being behind this thing. there''s no way to reach nobody. who do you call? what do you do? i think the next big thing is gonna be facebook. i'm on there.

r: yeah, i think they're killing myspace the same way myspace killed friendster.

h: let me tell you about one other big thing we have going on. i don't know, i think it's in canada, you heard of emergenza? we're in that. we're in the final round. we're the only hip-hop band to make it in the bay area. we're performing at the world famous great american music hall in san francisco. it's been around 100 years. it was built in 1907. we're performing there next weekend.

r: sounds good.

h: i want to tell you something else really random that i love... i'm playing harp in the monte ray pop festival, another famous festival. this is their 40th anniversary, so i'm playing in this band called the sun kings, and we're covering this beatles song called "she's leaving home," and i'm playing harp on it. that's the kind of odd shit that i'm into. triple ave. is all over the motherfucking place.

r: that's cool man, sound way more interesting than your average "loop a beat and rap 16 bars" rap group.

h: let me just say that through all the changes that the group has gone through, we've got some serious history, and we got history with the peoples that we've been with. it's kind of like a movement dude. i came out here with my blood, and we've extended beyond blood. we keep piling on these good people. the ones that are superficial, they fall through the cracks. the ones that are real, they stay.

r: that's the way it should be.

h: that's what we're about. bringing people together for the greater good. i could die today - knock on wood - and be happy. we've brought people together and we're doing some good while we're doing it.

r: you're good at this, too.

h: what do you mean?

r: interviews [laughs], providing quotes.

h: [laughs] right on, man. was this comprehensive, because i'm a little sauced [laughs].

r: [laughs] yeah man, totally. i think i got what i need.

h: right on man. it's been good talking to you. let's keep this shit alive and well. our generation has to let these youngs ones know that there's more to this shit than rims...