URB: What’s the concept of the “Bars” video?
TEENWOLF: We recorded [“Bars”] almost two years ago and we’ve opened every show since 2008 with this song. It’s about hanging out in bars, drinking beer. You might see us in the clubs sometimes but we don’t go to clubs.
REV McFLY: The locations that we chose for this video are places we actually hang out and we know the people that work at. It could be that fuckin shit-in-the-wall bar down the street if I hang out there, we’re gonna shoot it there because our friends work there.
TELLI: The melody for this popped in my head one day and I was like, “we hang in bars, bars…” The next [time] we were in the studio, I was like I got some dope hooks. The nigga was doing something and he just totally stopped what he was doing and just started making the beat. I wrote the rest of the rhymes and then we just went and did it. That’s how it goes, we just sit around and goof off.
TEENWOLF: This song is where [the chant] “Ninja Fuckin’ Sonik” came from. At the end of the song, “they call us Ninja Fuckin’ Sonik, We are sonic fuckin’ ninja.” That was the first time it ever got really recorded.
URB: It’s a really important song for you guys…
TELLI: That’s why we doing it the style of the video because it’s basically just like… about us and how we just do it.
TEENWOLF: We was never about the jiggy shit. This whole jiggy rap era shit that’s been going on. The clubs and shit, that shit is wack.
TELLI: I used to like, rap a certain way. Ninjasonik was a wake up call for me. It actually killed all that. I’ve rapped all my life, I’m a street nigga. I was runnin’ around, I’m from Brooklyn, that’s all I know. I got tired of the whole rap shit, it stressed me out. I ran into Jah… and I ran into Kev drumming in my uncle’s band and it was at a point in my life when I just got tired of the whole rap [scene]. It just got boring. God and the universe lined itself up and the situation with these niggas and… it ain’t been no turnin’ back ever since.
URB: Your style is very downtown and DIY but you’re getting a lot of buzz, touring the world and you’re signed to Green Owl. What’s Ninjasonik gonna sound like with more, well, money?
REV McFLY: We’re gonna sound exactly the same. Just because you have a million bucks doesn’t mean you’re gonna spend the whole million.
TELLI: I’ve watched the progression of a lot of artists and their music. With more money we’ll be able to do what we want to do like travel more and helping out others around us. Our music is organic. It doesn’t come from material [things]. It comes from feelings and emotions. The more we live and grow and travel, we’ll just be talking about more… cooler shit.
URB: Are you ever surprised by who’s into Ninjasonik?
TEENWOLF: I would say not at all but sometimes it is like “Wow, like that’s cool.”
REV McFLY: To me personally, it’s like everything evolves over time. Like if… a group of people love quarters and people sweat that group of people then everyone’s gonna begin to love quarters until someone likes a dollar. Then when the dollar’s wack, then they’re gonna go to five dollars.
Who thought skateboarding would be cool? Not the guy that invented the yo-yo, he was trying to take out the skateboard. But now…skateboarding is the fucking shit for everybody, it’s the household thing to have.
TEENWOLF: It’s not that I think that the people who like our music is weird, sometimes I’m just amazed that… it even caught on. The guy who made the skateboard must still sometimes be like wow. You know that it’s gonna happen but it you still gotta look at it like damn. When we made songs we were like, I know these are gonna be big songs because they’re like honest and cool in a weird way. But it’s still like, wow.
URB: Initially, it was Teenwolf and Rev McFly. Why was Telli the right fit for you guys?
TEENWOLF: He brought something to the show, really. We already have like two albums done but when you hear the new music… Telli’s given it even more character and more dimension so it’s cool. He’s just a rappin’-ass rapper. All he wants to do is rap.
URB: Rev, you and Telli’s styles are really different…
REV McFLY: Yeah, I’m like really into a lot of punk music… hardcore music… shit like Morrissey, new wave stuff. The three of us being together we all feed off each other. Before, Telli didn’t know about a lot of the stuff [I like]. I was always into hip-hop but not that strong. But I learned so much from him and now he has me writing rhymes. I’m not a rapper at all but I can write a rhyme now.
[Teenwolf]… knows the history of music so well, he has an ear for like a certain sound. The three of us together creates… Ninjasonik. You can’t fabricate that. It comes from all of our hearts. Even if people are not into it, it’s like, “we don’t give a fuck, it’s our shit!”
[...] striving for environmental sustainability that generally focuses on global sounds. In a recent interview with URB, Teenwolf reflected on the time when they recorded it: “What’s cool about it is [...]