THE NEEDLE DROPS INTO THE GROOVE AS THE RECORD CRACKLES! A FUNKY BASSLINE LOOP KICKS IN, THEN THE 808 BASS DRUM DROPS!TWO DUSTED MC'S START TRADING RHYMES BACK AND FORTH OVER A SONIC BREW OF OLD SCHOOL BREAKS, FOUND SOUNDS AND DIALOG,AND SCRATCHES FROM THE WHEELS OF STEEL. YOU HAVE ENTERED THE WORLD OF TYPE 4, AN INNOVATIVE BAND FROM BOSTON WHO'S LOVE FOR HIP HOP HAS GUIDED THE PATH THEY WALKED ON SINCE DAY ONE.FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW ABOUT TYPE 4 ,THEY WERE ONE OF THE FEW RAP CREWS FROM MASS TO TRULY PUSH THE ENVELOPE.HAVING PERFORMED ALL THROUGH OUT THE EASTCOAST AND ALL ACROSS AMERICA AND MAKING WAVES WITH 3 LPS "TRAILMIX " "FOR SALE" AND "AS IS" .THE BLUNTED B-BOYS HIT HARD TIMES AND GOT SWALLOWED UP IN THEIR STRUGGLE FOR THE JIVE. LOSING ALL HOPE AND SEVERAL BAND MEMBERS ON THE DARKSIDE FROM HARD DRUG ABUSE.THE BAND TOOK A BREAK FOR A FEW YEARS TO BATTLE DEMONS AND EACH OTHER. NOW THEY HAVE RETURNED FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL, WISER,STRONGER, AND DOPER THAN EVER. SHEMROK CHRIST(BOD / CTS)TOOK THE TIME TO TALK WITH EMCEE TOMMY O DEED TYPE 4'S RESIDENT MADMEN AND LEAD VOCALIST ABOUT BEATS,RHYMES AND LIFE.
SHEM: CAN YOU TELL THE DRUGRATZ OUT THERE HOW TYPE 4 CAME ABOUT AND HOW THE BAND FORMED
TOMMY O' DEED:.i first got into hip hop through break dancing in about 1984by 87-88 i was really into the music.the first two boogie down productions albums were what really brought me into for good it.i started DJing but couldnt afford good turntables,but i got by.i was secretly writing raps and recording them in my bedroom for the next couple years but knew i needed other peoplpe to do it with and would never persue it on my own..in the summer of 1991 i got a call from a kid who had a two man rap group with brian cantwell whom i founded type 4 with.we quickly realized that brian and i were a good match,but i will always be greatful for that third nameless MC who brought us together. brian and i were young,still in high school but we noticed (that when )we started smoking weed and recording our ryhmes over instrumentals into a ratty kareoke machine was when we really started to take it more seriously.a friend of a freind told us of a producer out in dedham with a home studio who would record us if he liked what he heard on our ratty demo.that was around christmas time 1992.once brian and i met producer matt reyes we were off and running.we recorded our first casseste single which we put out on our own called "bubbles in my bong" this was before cypress hill came out with all their weed soaked songs.we were just rappin about what we were doin,gettin baked being young and not really givin a fuck about much else.it all started out so innocent..through the years there have been quite a few guys in type 4 as far as the live band we eventually put together and toured the country with by the end of the 1990's but the core memebers were always myself brian cantwell and producer matt reyes,who i must mention has always been the glue that held it all together,someone had to be flying the ship who wasnt outta his fuckin mind! together the three of us wrote and recorded several cassette singles EP's ,a 12 inch, and the first full length TYPE 4 albums "TRAILMIX "1997 and 2001's "FOR SALE"
SHEM :.AFTER BLAZING YOUR OWN TRAIL THROUGH OUT THE EASTCOAST TOURING AMERICA ,AND RELEASING A NOW CULT CLASSIC LP "TRAIL MIX", WHAT INSPIRED THIS NEW L.P.?
TOMMY O DEED:. off the power of TRAILMIX the first full length released we played all over boston and did the whole touring thing..after returning from touring some really dark times layed ahead for us.we pretty much all had did drugs through out the years but after coming off the road and returning to the hum drum everyday life back home it wasnt enough and most of the guys in the band,myself included slipped into a period of serious drug abuse..the next few years were rough but we managed to record another album "FOR SALE" by that time the title said it all.the way we looked at it we were broken down yet skilled and for sale to the industry..even though the days of hard drug abuse were upon us we were getting some interest from some people in high places but that all came to a screeching hault in april of 2001 when brian cantwell my partner in rhyme died from an accidental heroin overdose..not too long after that we lost another memeber eric goodridge the original drummer from the live band days took his own life.it was another ugly drug death that marked some rough times for some years to come.. when brian died it was as if god him self had come down ,rang my door bell and said" all you dreamed for,all you did,all that that time,all the music,start over" and turned his back on me.. it would take sometime but i eventualy got together with matt a couple years later and we began work on the first TYPE 4 album with me as a solo artist.it was a weird and shaky time and the title from the album of them years pretty much says it all.the previous album was titled "FOR SALE" so "AS IS" was a fitting title. there were many false starts and stops and it took many years to finally call it a wrap.put the album in the can and release it which we did at the end of 2009. its a rather large album and it covers a pretty long period of time but its definitly something matt and i are proud of.. over the past year i have been able to remain alot more stable,i have been off the hard drugs for some years now and this new album 'WRITTIN IN RED" is the most focused of the TYPE 4 music since the early days before all the evil shit seeped into our souls and killed half the team..on this new album i feel as though im getting alot more across than i might have been able to get across say ten years ago.i have done alot,seen alot and lost alot..the title WRITTIN IN RED comes from a sense of urgency.it actually started out cuz the first couple rhymes i wrote for it were done in red ink.they came out dope so i just stuck with the red ink,so this whole album was literaly WRITTIN IN RED. it goes beyong just red ink though. it has a sense of urgency.tommorow is not promised and ya gotta say what ya can while ya can in the best fashion you know how.
SHEM:WHAT ARE SOME OF THE THINGS THAT INFLUENCE YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS?
TOMMY O DEED: jesus christ thats a tough one to answer..so many things influence my music these days.for one thing i read alot more old books than i listen to new music..i do a shitload of reading and writting ..guys like jack kerouack charles bukowski,and hunter s thomposon have really helped me to get through some really hard times..musicaly im all over the place.im into everything from early KRS-ONE to Elvis Presley .but when it comes to makin music the one thing that really gets me fired up are the rap sounds from 1986-1989 even some of the early stuff from the 1990's was cool but after that i fell outta touch with current hip hop.thats around the time i started doing my own thing which i think really helped to keep me from sounding like anything else going on around me.by that time we were smokin weed and sampling shit like led zeppelin and black sabbath.
SHEM:.HOW DO YOU APPROACH CREATING MUSIC IN THE STUDIO ? DO YOU USE HARDWARE , SOFTWARE , OR BOTH?
TOMMY O DEED: we have always recorded the old school way with actual hardware components,although our DJ (DJ Daylate) records on software for alot of the preproduction stuff like loops,along with all of the scartching you hear on the last album and the new album.
SHEM :HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE CURRENT STATE OF HIP HOP?
TOMMY DEED: as far as current hip hop goes im really out of touch with it and i dont pay it much mind, but when something good comes along worth checking out it will usually make it to my ears,it might be a year or 2 after it comes out cuz im not too plugged into day to day living like normal people but overall i think its all too glossy and hard to relate to.when i first got into it i had to tune into local college radio stations in the wee hours of the night with a coat hanger electrical taped to my antena in order to pick up the low rent rap shows that would air once a week,nowadays hip hop is part of everything from the cloths we wear to the cars we drive and how there sold to us..fuckin weird if ya ask me...
SHEM: BEING THAT THIS IST HE FIRST GENERATION OF HIP HOP WHERE THERE IS AN OLDER AUDIENCE NOW. WHERE DO YOU THINK TYPE 4 FITS IN?
TOMMY O DEED: .i think the style of production that we do is something that will be very farmilur and comfortable to the older people out there,even alot of the younger kids these days are goin back and diggin the thicker late 1980's early 90's style of production..some people have reviewed our last couple albums and called us"brave" for having such layered production but we make our brand of music the same way a group of 5 or 6 guys jaming in a room would.we are constantly building and taking the songs apart bringing you up on a high and puttin you back down into the groove,the same way a killer funk band would.weather its recycled drum loops, nasty breaks or movie samples, what ever if it feels good ends up in the mix. i think alot of crews are holding back and they are not even aware of it cuz they are younger and came up listening to a much lighter hip hop production.so yeah i think the older hip hop heads will get where it is we are coming from with the production and the rymes as far as havin been to hell and back and still being able to stand in front of a crowd and do it the way we feel fit and in the fashion we learned it.
SHEM:WHATS YOUR CRAZIEST LIVE SHOW EXPERIENCE?
TOMMY O DEED:so many crazy things have happened while touring and playing shows.but the one thing that sticks in my mind was during a pretty wild show at the middle east in cambridge mass. one of our fans took some idiot into the bathroom and broke the urinal with the kids head for saying some fucked up shit to a girl..i remember being on stage rapping while toilet water was making its way towards the stage. for the most part the crazy shit that went on happend after the shows or during the travel while touring.we emptied the septic tank from our tour bus in a few choice spots across the united states.im sure there are still a few piss stained areas that reek out there on the open road thanks to TYPE 4!!
(EDITORS NOTE BACK IN 1997 COOLER THAN SMACK PLAYED WITH TYPE 4 AT THE MIDDLEEAST ..........PRE-SHOW FOUND SHEMROK CHRIST IN THE BATHROOM SNORTING METH WITH TOMMY AND BRAIN FROM TYPE 4..................THE CRAZY DAYS!)
SHEM: WHAT ARE THE TOP 5 HIP HOP LPS THAT CHANGED YOUR LIFE?
TOMMY O DEED :jesus thats a tough one,i gotta think..
1.criminal minded BDP
2.it take a nation of millions to hold us back PUBLIC ENEMY
3.staright outta compton NWA
4three feet high and rising DE LA SOUL
5.pauls boutique BEASTIE BOYS
SHEM: WHEN IS THE NEW TYPE 4 LP DROPPING AND WHAT ARE THE DISTRIBUTION PLANS?
TOMMY O DEED: "WRITTEN IN RED" should be finished and ready to go by late spring of this year..in 2009 we released all of the TYPE 4 full length albums on ITUNES and AMAZON so we will be doin same with the new album along pressing up CD's.the industry has changed so much,its pretty much downloads these days but people still like to have something in their hands that they payed for.along with the new "WRITTEN IN RED" album we are gonna be releasing an album of rare tracks and remixes of TYPE 4 stuff from when we started in early 1993 till 2010.its called "CATERPILLAR SNACKS" and will be a real treat for old fans as well as new.both albums will drop around the same time,but "WRITTEN IN RED" is what we have been working on for for almost a year now.its odd but its the most focused album we have done to date and will have taken the least amount of time.as you grow older and wiser i think you realize that your time in life is something you shouldnt take for granted so if yr gonna open ya mouth ya mine as well say what ya really mean.
SHEM: WILL YOU BE PLAYING LIVE TO SUPPORT THE RECORD?
TOMMY O DEED: hell yeah!! in the last year or so we have regained our hunger for the music and the stage.though we did play shows to support the last album"AS IS" lets just say i didnt have my sneakers planted to firmly on the ground during that time period,but now i do and,thanks to the internet we have been enjoying alot of love from fans from all over the globe .the first order of buisness performance wise will be an album release bash here in boston which we are working on booking right now for either may or june.after that we will keep on booking shows on through the summer in support of the new album.
SHEM: WHERE CAN HEADS FIND TYPE 4 ONLINE AND YOUR PREVIOUS ALBUMS
TOMMY O DEED: all three TYPE 4 full length album releases "TRAILMIX" "FOR SALE" "AS IS" along with the first single "IN CAHOOTS" off the new album featuring fellow bostonian NABO RAWK from THE PORN THEATER USHERS can be purchased through ITUNES or AMAZON the official TYPE 4 website WWW.TYPE4.BIZ has links to both of them sites along with our FACEBOOK fan page which contains a gang of TYPE 4 music people can check out for free in its entirety,theres gotta be over 60 TYPE 4 songs from all or albums including a handful of cuts off the new album..we got a shitload of music to share,come check us out!!!
SHEM: WHAT WITH YOUR TOMBSTONE SAY?
TOMMY O DEED: "LIVED LONG ,FOUGHT HARD,TRIPPED A BIT, BUT NEVER FELL" ....but if i am creamated id like my ashes to be flushed down the toilet at KFC
CHECK OUT TYPE 4 AT http://www.type4.biz/ TO STAY UPDATED WITH THE CREWS NEW LP RELEASE AND TOUR PLANS. REAL HIP HOP NEVER DIES , AND THESE GUYS ARE TRULY DEDICATED TO HIP HOP CULTURE .WITH BOOMBAP BEATS ,CHEMICAL RYHMES FOR DAYS AND A NEW OUTLOOK ON LIFE. GUARD YOUR GRILLS ,CAUSE TYPE 4 IS BACK , HUNGRY AND BLOWING UP LIKE YOUR UNCLES CRYSTAL METH LAB!!!!
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