Having grown up in Patterson projects in The Bronx during the ’70s, hip-hop was ingrained in AG’s DNA. After years of watching the local park jams from afar, he witnessed the effect that Rakim’s ‘My Melody’ had on the crowd the first time he heard it played, inspiring him to want to make a record with the same impact. While recording the sole guest spots on Lord Finesse’s Funky Technician album, AG met Showbiz in the studio, which led to the duo selling so many copies of their Soul Clap EP from out of the trunk of a car that they were picked up by a major label. Diggin’ In The Crates officially introduced the extended crew, while the Goodfellas LP introduced the world to the talents of the late Party Arty.
AG’s first Australasian tour, May 2014
Sydney – Friday May 9 | Civic Underground
Melbourne – Saturday May 10 | Laundry Bar
Is it true that you were originally calling yourself Infinite in the early days?
Indeed, Infinite Barkim. I went to the New Music Seminar with Lord Finesse – while he was recording his first album – and Stu Fine, the owner of Wild Pitch. When we went to the Marriott Marquis on 42nd, when you register to get in you get a badge to let you in every event. Infinite Barkim was a powerful name, but I needed something that stood out so when a person looked at the badge and looked at me they would wanna know more about me. I needed something more universal, so I said, “You know what? I’m gonna be Andre The Giant.” When I said that and the person filling out the application looked at me and laughed? I knew that was it.
Were you a big fan of the wrestler?
I was a big wrestling fan, but my uncle who lived next door called me that all the time. ‘Andre The Giant’, because I was always the littlest guy out of everything, in height. I used to laugh because he knew I liked the wrestler, but I had never put it together until that day. So now I’m walking around the Seminar and dudes are looking at me and laughing – not at me, but like, “Dag, that’s slick!” So it really worked tremendously. When we went to press the first record, me and Show, Andre The Giant was a name I couldn’t use, and I used to say in my rhyme, “Andre The Giant – AG for short.” Show had to make a decision, so when he brings the box of records I look at the title [Showbiz & AG] and I’m like, “This is dope!” I ran with it ever since. So Show kinda named me AG.
How did that first appearance on Lord Finesse’s Funky Technician album happen?
Me and Finesse battled, that’s how I met him. He came up to my school, cos I was running shit in my high school, me and my man Shabazz. Finesse was bold, man! He came up to my school with my home crowd, and Clinton at the time had like 4,000 students, so he really didn’t care. I’m in class and this guy comes to my home room and he goes, “Yo Inf, you need to go outside, cos this dude Rob is outside and he’s illmatic.” And I’m like, “What?” My man 40 Oz., he was telling me in gym class, “Yo, I’mma bring my man Rob Finesse to school so we can get it in!” Cos my man 40 Oz. was nice as well, and I would go, “I’m waiting! I’m waiting!” When I walked out the building and I saw the huge crowd making noise and cheering that’s when the butterflies set in.
“Oh, the dude’s really as good as they said he was!” I just remember him that day, I’ve never heard nobody rhyme like that before. His punchlines, his metaphors, his humour – I’ve never heard that all in one. We’re going back and forth for a long time, but I’m saying a lot of scientific rhymes, cos that’s what I was into, I was into my culture, and he had the girls on his side! He had the dudes as well, but that was the school of the Gods, so a lotta dudes were very relative to what I was saying.
In my mind, when he walked away I felt, “This is my school, this is my home crowd – if it’s a draw then he should get the advantage.” When I walked up the hill to give him love he said the same thing about me, so we exchanged numbers. We lost contact, ‘cos that’s how life is sometimes, and I was at a girlfriend’s house one day. I had just broken up with the group I was in – I had a partner and a DJ – and they just moved on, cos I was into the street too much. That kinda woke me up – it hurt me. Now I can’t record? This is horrible!
What was the name of the group that had moved on without you?
The name of the group was R2D2 – it was my friend Rodney [aka Sick Lyrical Damager]. It’s Rodney 2 Dre and Dre 2 The People, that’s what R2D2 stood for. My girlfriend knew how much it meant to me and she goes, “They’ve got this guy over here who DJs. Maybe you can use him for DJ?” Her brother goes downstairs and gets the guy, and it’s Lord Finesse. I’m like, “Oh shit!” He was like, “You still spittin’?”
I spit a long rhyme for him, and he’s like, “I’m recording my album tomorrow, you should come with me.” The next day I went to the studio, and when I walk in the first person I saw was DJ Premier. I’m like, “This is crazy!” I’m watching him on ‘Words That I Manifest’ on the TV and now I’m in the studio and he’s right here. Show was on a machine, making a beat. That’s the first time I met him too. Stu Fine [President of Wild Pitch Records] was there too, so I was like, “This is your shot, A!”
When I went in the booth, it had no windows, so they can’t see me and I can’t see them, so that made me go extra harder. The uncer of not knowing if they liked me and I wasn’t sure if I was ready for records. I spit it with everything I had, and when I walked out the booth and I saw everybody looking at me a certain way, smiling, I knew I was ready.
Me and Show start vibing like, “Yo, we should work on some music together.” If you look on the Finesse album, the one he did was Art of Noise chopped up, and he was chopping it and I was like, “What is that?” Dude’s was looping records, dude’s was rhyming over whole records – this dude took this record and made something else? This was a few levels up from the group that I was a part of, so I felt that I’d just took one step back and ten forward. We went in the studio and we recorded a few songs, and one of them was ‘Soul Clap’. I knew from there that I was gonna rock with this dude for a long time.
After the first EP, how different was the process of recording Runaway Slave?
A lot of the ground work to ‘Runaway Slave’ was done in Jazzy Jay’s studio. Jazzy Jay is a mentor to Diggin’ In The Crates, period. Jay is a great soul and he’s straight-forward, like, “You need to go back in the booth and do that verse over,” or “Yo Show, this beat is cool but you need to change the drums, they not hitting hard enough.” And we would listen! He was guiding us on how to do an album.
Do you miss having Showbiz rhyming on songs with you?
I always felt Show was a real dope MC. A lotta people don’t know, on Runaway Slave if you listen to the songs, I start a lot of my rhymes the same way he starts his. I actually duplicated my shit after him, and I’m the MC! [Laughs.]
Plus he has such a good voice.
He has a great voice, his melody is crazy and his musical knowledge is crazy and he’s a hype record dude. ‘Fat Pockets’ and those type of records are really his records. If you listen to ‘Fat Pockets’, he rhymes twice, I rhyme once. If you take me off ‘Fat Pockets’ and just listen to his rhymes, this is what a Showbiz album would sound like, and I would love to hear that.
Did that put a lot of pressure on you for the second album without him to play off?
He was like, “I’mma fall back and do these beats. You better hold this shit down.” That’s why Goodfellas is totally different – soundwise – than Runaway Slave. I feel like Runaway Slave was a better album, but it was directed by Show – most of the concepts, the songs, the interludes, the intro – I’m just playing my part.
Now I’ve gotta be the front man and do everything. I accepted the challenge, and at one time during the album it was like, “Hmm, I’m doing OK.” One day he’s driving me home and he’s like, “Yo, you gotta step up even more, ‘cos you holding it down by yourself now.”
That took me to a whole ‘nother level. So we stopped going to the studio for a week. “Just stay in the house and get your shit crazy.” So I did, and that’s where that song [‘All Out’] comes from: “If I was a nice motherfuck I wouldn’t be here!” – the Redman sample I took. That’s my personal song, saying “Damn, I’ve gotta step up to the plate now, the pressures on!” You’ll hear the process of what I just told you, in the rhyme. Show has always done that for me though – even now, even during this album – he pushed me to a place where if he wasn’t there I probably wouldn’t go to that place.
Is that why you recruited the Ghetto Dwellas [Party Arty and D-Flow] to get on that album?
This isn’t just a record thing for me. I had these two dope dudes in the same projects, right under my nose, and I just started taking them everywhere. I think timing and everything was perfect when he said, “You’re gonna do it yourself.” I’m like, “I wanna throw my dudes on there” and he’s like, “Do whatever you want, let’s just make it hot.” So the motivation and the push that I needed, that I used to get from Show? I was getting from them.
My favourite Show & AG song is ‘Medicine’. What can you tell me about that track?
‘Medicine’ was really inspirational, because that went along with ‘All Out’. It was me trying to prove something, and hip-hop at the time was sounding real crazy to us. Runaway Slave came out ‘92, Godfellas came out ‘95, so that little hiatus we seen the changes in the music and the gimmicks that’s popping up. We were really getting conscious and bringing truth to the forefront, but dude’s is sick so that song was supposed to be the medicine. Originally [the album] was gonna be called The Medicine – the cure for these other dudes.
It was a great loss when Party Arty passed away. Do you have a specific memory of him you’d like to share?
I never met nobody like that dude. He really didn’t give a fuck. He was confident in what he did and he was a character – similar to Ol’ Dirty Bastard type character. He was before his time, I think he was better than me, then, and he would push me. His voice, his delivery. He came up under me, so I inspired him, but it came to a point where I knew – I didn’t guess, I didn’t think. On any given day, I really think I’m the best line-for-line lyricist, ever. That’s just the bloodsport of it. There’s days when he made me feel like I wasn’t. Just hearing him – so young, raw, untampered with. Anywhere we went where we took the stage or song, he got the same response.
Big L is doing his album and he’s doing the song ‘Da Graveyard’ with Jay Z, Microphone Nut and Grand Daddy IU. I was the other person on that song, and I pulled L into the other room and said, “Do me a favor – take me off the song and put my man Party Arty on the song.” He’s like, “You’re buggin’!” Show flipped on me, “Yo, what are you doing?” I’m like, “Hear my man out.” He hears him spit one time and he’s like, “All good.”
That’s how Party Arty got on that ‘Graveyard’ record, because I felt in my heart this dude might be better than me! Not to be disrespectful in any way, but if you listen to the song he sounds way better than Jay Z. I’m trying to show you how advanced he was at that time.
Can you recall any life changing moments from when you were young?
I took Chuck D’s order when I worked at McDonalds. When he walked in I was in the back and my cousin was on the register. I was like, “You gotta let me take this order!” Everybody there knew I was rhyming, so they were like, “Go ahead.” After he ordered, I’m like, “Yo, I rap and I think I’m really good at it.” He looked me dead in my eyes and said, “You can do anything you want if you put your mind to it, but you’ve gotta put your whole mind to it.” It wasn’t corny to me, it wasn’t a speech – it was simple. I quit the next day.