Touching back on the new album: It’s pretty much fun times and BBQ raps that you’re known for. Do you and Double K ever think about recording other subject matter?
I think at best Mike and I are fun, party type guys. We’re the dudes constantly joking around at the airport bar drinking a beer waiting for our next flight. You know, we had to keep doing us. I’ll let the bandana rappers do the bandana rap, that’s not me. I mean, I had to get a wisdom tooth pulled during the recording of the album, and that hurt like shit. I wrote a song about it called “Teeth” and it’s on the album. That’s me.
This is PUTS’ seventh album. What’s it like, comparatively, to your early work.
Well, man, we were just kids when we made the first album. We didn’t’ really even make it to be an album. We were just rap fans who were recording songs because we loved hip-hop so much and had always been a part of it.
By 1997 we were thinking, maybe we should pull these together and release it as an album. But even then, I was thinking nobody aside from me; Mike and our homies would like it. I even had a homie named Ben who worked for Sony at the time. And he basically said: ‘Dude, I don’t think you guys are good enough to put this music out’.
What was the reaction like when it dropped?
We released it in 1998 and were completely shocked by the overseas response we got. It just took off from there and we never looked back. I guess the biggest technical difference is that the first record was made on an 8-track tape. And we were mad shaky on the mic back then [laughs] but our heart was in the right place.
You guys always give nods to the past hip-hop you grew up on. Talk about the track (“Check The Vibe”) where you pay homage to Tribe. How has that era affected your own stuff?
Tribe has been a huge influence; all of Native Tongues, D.I.T.C., Flavor Unit, etc. There are so many people to cite when talking about influences, you know? But tribe just had such a distinct style to them, a creative direction and vision, and I like to think we kind of have our own as well. They were never trying to be lyrical miracle mathematical emcees, but they still made some of the most classic archetypal rap albums.
Why did you guys decide to work with OM Records again?
The bottom line is that they’re a good label and their heart is in the right place. We just needed to find a partner that was trying to hustle as hard as we are.
For instance, I woke up one morning and decided I wanted to do a 45-rpm (7”) with Colt 45, and call it “The Colt 45”, for our new song, “Beer”. I typed up the proposal and they were able to get it in the right hands, so now we got a Billy D. Williams’ PUTS’ limited edition Colt 45 coming out! It’s having the muscle to make an idea like that a reality that makes it invaluable for us to be back on OM.
Cheers to David Ma and glad to see PUTS still holding it down for the real rap fans. They still remain the most under rated group in Hip Hop/Rap ten years on. Yo stop frontin’ and use your head! I look forward to hearing the newness.
[...] PUTS’ new album, Carried Away, came out recently so I contacted Thes to see how well their career has developed and what else has gone down since a couple years (and albums) ago. You can read my interview with Thes at URB’s newly relaunched site. [...]