HipHopCanada’s Jesse Furnell recently interviewed Twiztid over the phone. In this interview they discuss a variety of topics including “A New Nightmare”, being friends outside of the group, the fans, face paint and more. You can read the full interview below.

From HipHopCanada.com

Vancouver, BC – While bombing through our nation on their Abominationz Tour the boys from Twiztid – Madrox and Monoxide Child – took a minute to answer a few questions. They each had a lot to say and generally spoke in unison about such things as being their own master after an address change, having more talent than face-paint and bringing their fans and the world A New Nightmare. HipHopCanada’s Jesse Furnell chopped it up with the duo over the phone recently – check the interview after the jump.

Twiztid: Q&A

Interview conducted by Jesse Furnell for HipHopCanada

HipHopCanada: You’re currently touring in support of your 9th studio album, Abominationz. How’s the new material being accepted by the fans?

Twiztid: They’re great and we’re giving them everything at the shows. It’s a hodgepodge, we run through our whole catalogue from our oldest to our newest…but we’re more into talking about A New Nightmare. We’re all about A New Nightmare.
HipHopCanada: You guys just don’t stop putting out new material, what’s up with A New Nightmare?

Twiztid: A New Nightmare is the first release that we have done sans Psychopathic Records and it shows that it was never about a record label it’s about our drive and will to succeed…and to provide for the people that need, that’s our drive. It’s got giant songs, 200 people on the album, 30 minute songs (laughter). Naw, but it’s a step outside of our norm. In fact it’s more like a mixtape. It’s another layer of the evolution of us – it’s the new us. We don’t want people to think that just because we changed addresses that anything on our end changes in any way, shape or form. You just see more of us now. We have full control now, so everything you see is 100% us, ya know?

HipHopCanada: You have one of Vancouver’s hometown heroes, Madchild on the new album correct?

Twiztid: Madchild is DOPE. The guy’s HUGE out here! We knew he was sick but he’s a star out here. In fact he’s comin’ along with us and doing a few Canadian dates on this tour.

HipHopCanada: What drives you this late in your career to keep up this pace, to still be going so strong at this point?

Twiztid: The fans. As long as they need a voice we’ll keep doing our thing.

HipHopCanada: Speaking of fans, Twiztid definitely has a lot of Juggalos within it’s fanbase, what’s it been like watching the whole Juggalo movement grow?

Twiztid: It’s been amazing watching it grow but as far as it becoming a mainstream thing we don’t care. Our fans are like us, the misfits, the lost souls, the kids the mainstream rejected. Now that it’s becoming popular- it doesn’t affect us. We just do our thing like we always have.

HipHopCanada: Explain the whole face-painting thing that’s so common in your scene?

Twiztid: It’s entertainment, man. Like, would a kid want to hang a poster in his room that has a bunch of crazy looking guys on it or a poster with kids from your neighborhood on it? It just adds to what we do. And as far as the fans and other artists, some paint and some don’t – come to our shows and you’ll see that. If you’re doing your thing rappin’ anyone can rhyme about murder and raping but at the end of the day if you don’t have talent it’s not going to catch, ya know? If you don’t have talent all the paint in the world won’t help. And we think that’s what separates us from others, we’re serious about what we do. With us it’s about quality.

HipHopCanada: You guys have been kickin’ horrorcore for a long time, what was it like coming out of Detroit repping that style?

Twiztid: Well, you’re forgetting that it was already goin’ on. Like, Brotha Lynch Hung, The Ghetto Boyz, they were all laying it down way before us, ya know? And we never forget where it started. You forget where it started then you forget what you’re about, you forget where you came from, you forget your roots and start to dilute yourself. We’re not gonna sit here and play like we’re the originators, we pay respect to the people that laid the groundwork and had the balls to go against the grain. And not talk about the same old “I got a big gold chain, and I got all this money, and I rent this car that you think I own” – all that stuff. They just took a different lane and we respected that so much. I mean we were listening to dudes like that way before we were rapping and it just so happened that here we are today carrying that torch.

HipHopCanada: You guys were in House Of Krazees until ‘97 when they disbanded and have been together as Twiztid for over 15 years. As homies and band-mates how have you been able to survive the business and each other for so long?

Twiztid: In the beginning yeah, it could be tough but in the end you don’t want like 500 captains on your ship, ya know? You have to figure out what works for you, to not put people in positions to fail- and even more importantly we’ve always been friends. Like when the two of us aren’t doing this shit we hang out, we chill and have BBQs, we’re family that just hangs out. It’s genuine, like if we weren’t doing this we’d still know each other. It just makes it easier that we were friends before we were a group and over the years you just build a certain trust, I know he knows what he’s talkin’ about and he knows I know what I’m talkin’ about – it just takes time. You throw a bunch of people on a bus for a month in the middle of nowhere and some people go crazy, ya know? They can’t handle it. But we’ve had the time to learn to react to situations and the fact that the two of us aren’t strangers helps – we know how to handle things. Like, we’ve never had the situation where they’ve had to cancel a Twiztid tour due to band problems, like the two of us fighting over some girl or something stupid. And we’re not out here to party and start wild’n out ya know? We’re out here on a mission.

HipHopCanada: You’re playing Vancouver on Friday, Sept 27th. Where It’s At Entertainment is bringing you out to the Rickshaw, what can your fans expect to see on Friday?

Twiztid: Well if I tell them what to expect then they won’t go (laughter). Naw, they got to go because this is our FIRST time ever in Vancouver and what you can possibly expect is that we may never be here again. So this might be your only chance to see us – do not hesitate. Bring everyone you can and witness the awesomeness. The whole thing has been amazing, to branch out on our own and now finally make it up to Canada after 15 years. We’ve been trying to come here for 15 years and it just never panned out but miraculously when the ball is truly in our court where do we go? Canada, that’s where. So, now that we’re %100 indie we should be back again BUT in case we don’t, you better come out and catch us while you can.

Websites:

• hiphopcanada.com