Jurassic 5 are one of the most widely respected names in hip hop and have never been afraid to experiment or collaborate. Their live shows are known to be among the most exciting and inventive on the circuit. Fused caught up with rapper Soup on their tour bus to get a taster of live on the road.
Do you enjoy playing live?
I enjoy it like you wouldn’t believe. I can’t get enough of it. Everyday I wake up and I go ‘more shows, more shows’. After I get off the stage, I’d be like, ‘I wish I could perform, perform more’. I love it. I mean who else is going to let me come and perform and then want an autograph, and take pictures? You got a gang of beautiful people coming up to you and you’re meeting new people and traveling the world - of course I love it really. It doesn’t get any better for me.
You play quite a few rock-orientated gigs too like Lollapalooza and the Reading and Leeds festivals. Do you enjoy playing to a different crowd?
Yeah, because when we do our own show, the majority of the time, lets say 99% of the time, that’s the people that know of you. They come to a show at an intimate venue, they’ve bought a record, they’ve bought a t-shirt, they’ve been to a show. When you do a show, something like Lollapalooza or Reading, then there are some people who don’t know you so you can touch more people. I definitely like to do my own shows because it’s an intimate thing. Those people are familiar with you so you can do certain things that you can’t do at a bigger festival.
Do you get different reactions in different parts of the world?
It’s kind of universal. Some places we go where somebody’s never seen us and they’re more into watching. If people are familiar with us they go out of their minds. But if we come to a city that never saw us, basically it’s a lot of word of mouth. When we get to the city, it’s like; ‘well I heard these guys were good’ so when they come to the show they get into it. But they‘re more or less watching to see what all the hoopla has been about and then after the show they go ‘man you guys have an incredible show’. So then when we come back it’s chaotic.
When you finish touring, is it a big holiday? Do have to kick back and chill out and recharge your batteries?
Well, we’re gonna kick back for a minute, but if it was up to me I would work all the holiday. We’ve been gone for four years so we had four years to rest and have holiday after holiday. I don’t have a problem because it’s work and it lets me know people are interested in seeing us.
What’s a typical day like for you when you’re on tour? Do you get to see much of the cities you play in or is it kind of, coach, hotel, venue and hotel again?
It is exactly what you’ve just said. Very seldom do we get to see the city and a lot of people always like to take you to go and see the city. We really mind our own business. We’ve come to perform. We have to sound check. We may have an interview to do or go to a radio station. So it’s not like we have a chance to go out and go to all the great malls and to the beaches and stuff. We got to come here to do what we - get paid to do. When we have a couple of days off we go and see the city but that’s kind of far and few.
It’s been four years since your last album. What kind of feedback have you been getting on the new release?
It varies. People are just like ‘yo man I love it, I’ve waited four years for your new album’. Then you got people that go ‘I don’t like it at all’. Then you have people that say; ‘I was a J5 fan but now you guys are selling out’. You got people that are just like ‘you don’t sound the same’ but after four years why should we sound the same? Even with just doing your regular job after four years you’re not the same, nobody’s the same. We’re not the same as four years ago, so if you were expecting another ‘Concrete School Yard’, you’re going to be disappointed. We were in a whole different mind frame back then, we had a whole different lot of responsibilities. Now the stakes are a little higher and that’s because we’re a little older and have children and so certain things have got to transpire a little different from four years ago. It’s funny how people just don’t understand that - they want you to stay the same all the time.
When you’re in the studio is the idea to make a record that pleases you more than critics and anyone else?
Yeah, that’s what it is. It gets awful because when we first did ‘Concrete School Yard’ we didn’t know if anybody was going to like it. We just did it because that’s what we liked to do at that time. When we put out ‘Quality Control’, we didn’t know if people were going to like that. When we put out ‘Pile of Numbers’ we didn’t know, we just did what we thought was sounding good to us. Once we put our stamp of approval on it, it didn’t really matter what other people said. When people say certain things that they don’t understand it gets to me. I respect my fans but I can’t cater to them. I can’t make fans dictate to me what I should be making.
You mentioned you had children, are they fans of Jurassic 5?
Yeah, my son is. He tells me all the time, ‘dad I’m your number one fan’. I’m like ‘thank you’ but I also know that he’s got a brown nose because he’s got to eat. Yeah I know he definitely has a motive for being my number one fan. Yeah he’s really into them. My little girl, she’s into her own little thing. She’s says ‘OK whatever dad, I know you do that but I need this brand new toy’. It’s good I love them. They are my babies.
Is there any kind of music that you can’t bring yourself to listen to?
Oh man, I know it’s probably big over there [UK], but Techno I just can’t get. I hate it. I can’t do it. I’ve tried, I’ve been in many clubs out there, and I just can’t do it. It’s good to see people dance to it - if you want to have a good laugh. I’m like if you can dance to that and keep the beat then you are an incredible. I can’t do it and I’m black.