Basically:

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You produce, emcee, sing, run your own label, produce for your artists, feature on a variety of projects, perform a great live show, back your artists up on stage, how do you have the time and energy for all that?

Tonedeff: I don’t have any time, basically my life is a series of chores, tasks, favors, deadlines and money stress, that’s my life. Ever since I was a kid I just always wanted to make records and put things together. I really enjoy being a collaborative person, working with other people and helping their sh*t look better and sound better via my talent. Anyway that I can help, because I like to see people succeed and I’m a real team player. In fact I tend to help other people more than I help myself.

It’s kind of a drawback, but I guess the drive to make things better, more interesting, more entertaining, that drive is what keeps me doing all this kinda’ sh*t. I’ll be sitting here and I’ll be like “this albums hot, it needs a hot video or this should come with a DVD”. I never made a DVD before I made the “Archetexture” DVD, I learned how to do it as I made it. I apply whatever I have mentally to whatever I’m working on at the time. Everything I do, I do out of necessity. Simple as that.

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“Politics" was the first single, you said a lot of shit on there that’s true. For starters, how hard is it for you getting spins and what do you think of college radio?

There’s a fuckload of hypocrisy in any industry and the music biz is a shining example. The reason I got into the topic on Politics was to school the public on the inner workings of WHY their favorite artists don’t get into rotation on radio/video and why a lot of albums drop and no one knows about it.

Let’s face it, people are brainwashed by the media, one way or another. They only know what they see. Advertising money drives the media, so that means that whoever got dough, is gonna be in the public eye - talented or not.

College radio, for the most part, follows the same principle in a different way. Because the “underground” has morphed into a set of mini-major labels with promotional budgets and publicists. So, whoever spends the most, gets the most run on college radio. Same shit, smaller pond.

online footprint

http://www.last.fm/label/QN5

http://www.myspace.com/qn5

http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/QN5-Music/5741678398

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A : Why didn’t “Archetype” come out when it was finished?

T : It’s a very sad, long story. I kept getting fucked over with label deals and distribution deals. QN5 Music is my label, we didn’t have any money. I didn’t have any money. To play the game, you need money. To put out an underground record, you need at least $20,000 to $40,000. Period. If you don’t have that, nobody is going to hear your record. And even then, it’s gonna be pretty obscure on the grand scheme of things.

A : Do you need this money to make the record?

T : No, no, to promote the record. You need to pay for publicists, distribution, displays in the stores, banner ads, magazine ads, college radio spins: you’ve got to pay for that shit! That’s why I say in ‘Politics’: “Everything you see and hear is paid for”. Regular people don’t understand that. They just think: “If you’re good, I’ll hear you on the radio”. But it’s got nothing to do with that. It’s all about money - the whole game. And at the time, in 2003, I didn’t have money, I didn’t have a way to put the record out. I was tired of waiting, so I kind of put it out through an underground label that folded the second after the record dropped. So, when I come to Paris, people go “Oh, you put out a record!?” [He sighs, then smiles] They’ve only heard me on the internet, but nobody has the album, because it was never distributed out here. The people who were really on it and knew the record was coming, they got it. But the typical hip-hop fan still has no idea that I put out a record. So it’s frustrating for me.

.....

A : Allow me to be critical...

T : That’s fine, go ahead…

A : OK. What you just said sounds a bit presumptuous… You don’t sell that much records, do you?

T : No, I don’t. I don’t sell anything. Yet. But you heard the kids out there. You heard them scream all the CunninLynguists shit. They don’t sell that much records too. Atmosphere blows us away in records sales. But we’re not playing with those budgets. We don’t have that kind of money.

A : Is it a accomplishment for QN5 to tour in Europe?

T : Absolutely! The difference is that QN5 is completely self-funded, do-it-yourself. We book our own tours. We press our own shit. We design our own CDs. I edit my own DVDs. I update those websites.

A : It must be exhausting...

T : It’s fucking tiring, dog! Look at me right now: I jumped off stage, I can’t talk, I have a cold, I’m selling merchandise. Some people think I have a chip on my shoulder or think that I’m presumptuous when I talk about what we’ve accomplished. Is it presumptuous? No! Is it ambitious? Yes! There’s a big difference… At the end of the day, I think that, as you said, you can feel the love and the authentic hip-hop that we’re putting out. It’s from the heart. Nobody can ever say that it’s presumptuous because you can’t deny what we’re doing.

We’ve gotten alot of opposition over the years. It manifests itself in really subtle ways. A lot of artists and indie labels don’t fuck with us. Nobody ever approaches us to get on songs or tour with them. It’s kind of sad, because we normally get along with everybody. We’re normal guys: you see us, we’re not assholes. But at some of the shows we have done with other artists, a lot of them try to act like they’re stars, like “Dude, who the fuck are you?!” Alot of cats like to play the self-important role and act stand-offish if they can’t use you to get something they want. We’re really not like that at all.

I don’t give a fuck if Common sold a million records, I’ll be coming up to Common like “Yo, what’s up?” I’m a big fan. I’m not afraid to say that, I’m a big fan of artists, just like the other dudes in QN5 are. We respect the culture, and if you do, you respect the artists that have influenced you.

A : How are you reacting to that digital wave?

T : The entire industry is moving towards it… It doesn’t cost as much money. Like I said, putting out a record costs thousands and thousands of dollars, so when you don’t have money, it’s the cheaper thing to do. It’s easier to promote it but only because we’ve established a really solid fan-base, particularly online, that we’ve been cultivating for 10 years. It’s quicker and easier for us to put out a record digitally. Recently, we did the valentine’s EP, “Baby Blue For Pink”. We finished it in a week, and we put it out a month later. We don’t have to wait 3 months for distro and we don’t have to put 30 grand in it… People online still get the music and spread it around. CD’s have slowly become a niche thing. Soon, it will really only be big with collectors.

A : You were mentioning your fan-base… Was it hard to gain? Is it hard to maintain it?

T : I built my fanbase through hard work and honesty. A ton of shows, a ton of music, a ton of interaction. I’ve kept a fairly transparent open-door policy with them over the years. Before there were blogs and Myspace, I had a dedicated message forum and a website. I keep them in the loop and they show love, ‘cause they know that I don’t bullshit them and we have a clear-cut relationship. Of course, I make music for myself, but everything that SURROUNDS the music is 100% done for the fans. And 9/10 that’s more work than making the music.

But I seriously have the best fans in the entire world. They understand me – which isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do for a guy who wants to rap, sing ballads, animate cartoons and build a theme park. They’ve supported me 100% over the years – even helping to right wrongs that have been done to me (ie the Gibson Fiasco). I’ve always interacted with them more than just about any other artist out there – always have. The trick, really, is gaining new fans. But I trust they will come into the fold in due time. I’ll keep working.

http://www.philaflava.com/qn5.htm

Philaflava.com: Nearly three years have gone by since the last Asterisk was released. What made you come back to it after all that lost time?

Tonedeff: We had intended on getting one ready in 2005, for our annual Megashow at BB King’s. With everyone already busy at work on their solo projects, it just didn’t come together in time. All of us were focused on our own grind, and it just happened to be bad timing. The same thing happened last year when we had the Megashow at CBGB’s. It was very near completion, in terms of the songs we had at the time. We wanted to make a professional pressing this time around, but then the timely Queens power outage totally shut me down and I lost all my production time.

Philaflava.com: Did you lose any material?

Tonedeff: We didn’t lose any material, but it certainly didn’t allow us to finish it in time for the Megashow. Time passed, and we figured, “Okay, there’s no point in rushing it. Let’s just take our time, do some extra shit, make a lot of songs, and fuckin’ OD on the next one.”

Philaflava.com: The list of artists on Asterisk 4 reads as mostly family, even bringing out artists that you’ve worked with before but haven’t shown up in the Asterisk series before (Masta Ace, Inverse, Supastition). One name I didn’t expect to see on there was Tanya Morgan. How did you hook up with them? Also, how do you feel about branching out to other artists who aren’t already apart of the QN5 family?

Tonedeff: Tanya Morgan got brought to us by Kno. He really liked their Moonlighting album from last year, and decided he wanted to produce a song for them and put them on the record. As far as branching out, we tend to work with the best in upcoming talent of the Northeast region. Sometimes, we’ll reach out to cats we see on the West Coast too, like Inverse or Immaculate. We always try and find new talent. At the same time, there are a lot people that are straight up assholes that we won’t fuck with. Basically, if we haven’t worked with them by now, either we don’t like them, or they don’t like us. Simple as that.

Philaflava.com: You’ve been around for several years now, establishing your name in more than just the Northeast region of America. When you go out to different cities, is there more love or more animosity directed towards you?

PackFM: I’ve never had a problem with anyone. A lot of people in the scene aren’t very vocal, but then when they make certain moves and they choose to include you in those moves, it’s like, “Okay, so what’s really on your mind?” It’s not like anyone has any tangible reach with QN5 at all. But like Tone said, if they ain’t fucking with us by now, they probably ain’t fucking with us at all.

Tonedeff: Basically, I feel like we threaten people. Our sound and what we’re doing independently is a threat to a lot of cats. We’ve done on our own what a lot of people have not managed to do and will never manage to do: Establish ourselves in a post-Golden Age, post-Lyricist Lounge, post-Rakwus era with no fuckin’ money, no budget, a hard grind…shows and music, that’s all we’ve done.

Philaflava.com: Talk to me about your distribution woes.

Tonedeff: It’s like this: You can make records, you can make songs, and you can have albums…you can have all of these things poppin’ off, but if you don’t have a way of getting it into the stores or a way of getting it picked up in other countries, you’re stuck ass out on the Internet. You’re stuck making songs for you and your boys down the block. Distribution has always been difficult for us because we’re not playing with a lot of money. Distributors are only looking at you if you have 60-90k to promote this release, plus another 30k for marketing. Since we haven’t had that kind of money, we’ve been hopping around from label to label, from distributor to distributor. We’ve been in a lot of fucked up situations. Money has been taken. We leapfrogged to the next step, putting out music on our own in a confident matter and get it out to the cats who want to buy it in the store. We’re mercenaries at this point and we’re gonna put out our music however the fuck we can put it out.

Philaflava.com: What objective or constructive criticism has furthered you creatively and fueled you to step up?

Elite: Every time you make music, you get a million opinions from a million people. You have to know what to sort out, what to pay attention to, and what not to. You need to know how to move forward and be positive. My main thing right now is thinking positive. The more I’m in that frame, the more good shit comes my way. When I go to make music now, before I make it I say its about to be the hottest shit I ever made. That’s the mindstate you gotta be in.

Tonedeff: These days I’m a lot more resilient when it comes to people’s criticisms. Everyone makes it a point to find something wrong. They’ll find the smallest fucking detail and harp on it just for the sake of harping on it and having a unique opinion. You have to just put on your Teflon and let all that shit bounce off. It will ruin you as an artist. Me, personally, I make music that I know I love. And I know that if I love it, someone somewhere will respond to it and will love it as well. That’s how I approach it. That’s how I’ve gotten better and become more confident as an artist now than when I was when I first started.

PackFM: I’m a very determined individual. I set certain goals for myself, so I’m not really concerned with what other people have to say. For me it’s just about reaching my own personal goals, so when I make music, I make music that I want to listen to. I don’t care if anyone else likes it…I’m pretty sure they will like it though. I want to hear good music, so I strive to make the same. I set high standards for myself to keep elevating my abilities. Every single time I write a rhyme, it has to be better than the last.

Tondeff: And honestly, those who have followed PackFM know that all he has done is improve himself every time. It’s scary, because he just keeps on getting better, so just imagine how he’s gonna be five years from now.

PackFM: Give me a moment to wipe my tears for a second, that’s beautiful…Nah, but it’s just my own personal standards, you feel? As long as you stick to your own shit and do what makes you happy and successful, you’ll be fine. But if you’re trying to live to please everybody else and they’re all opposed to what you’re doing, you’re probably never gonna be successful. You’ve never gonna please everybody all the time. Please yourself and you’ll be fine.

Session: My motivation comes from when somebody tells me I can’t do something, or I’ll never do this or that…. Fuck that bullshit. I use that to my advantage and throw it right back into their fucking face. I don’t really care what other people think though, cause if you look at Eminem, 50 Cent, Jay-Z, or any of the biggest artists in the world, there’s still plenty of people who don’t like their shit. So what, not everyone is gonna like my shit. You don’t like it, go listen to something else. I only care about the people that like my music.

Tonedeff: That’s the biggest thing that pushes us forward as an artist collective. With all the doors that have been slammed in our faces, it makes us work all the more harder, and at the end of the day, all of the most successful artists are the ones who’ve gotten the most doors slammed in their faces. And when we finally get to that mountaintop, we are literally going to shit all over everybody that didn’t give us a hand and didn’t support us. We are literally---literally, literally, literally--- just going to eat up and obliterate motherfuckers, and the same injustices will be past over to them.

Philaflava.com: All of these years, you’ve established a very specific audience. In 2007, are you looking to gain a new audience?

PackFM: That’s the thing though! If you look at QN5’s audience at shows, you just can’t pigeonhole any of the people that really follow us. They like all types of music. They’re not the kind of people who just like one genre. You got kids who are into Rhymesayers, Def Jux, MF DOOM, but then they also like Bjork, Radiohead, The Killers…they like everything. It’s not like they like anything per se, but they’re very open-minded. And that’s the kind of music we make. We don’t make music for people who are looking for some Nineties-revisited type shit. We make music for people who want to hear more new shit.

Session: And what’s crazy is that all of us as artists make different music. At our shows, you really see a mixed group of fans that come together for our individual shit.

Tonedeff: Let’s make one thing clear: we don’t attract hipsters. That’s the one audience we don’t attract. QN5 Music does not attract hipsters. We attract music lovers. Not people who are down with a specific scene. These are literally people of all ages and from all walks of life that come through that genuinely love music. With that said, you’re gonna attract a whole bunch of people you wouldn’t expect to see at a hip hop show.

Philaflava.com: Obviously lyricism among your collective has evolved tremendously over time. How do you feel the production has changed drastically with QN5 though?

Tonedeff: I’m gonna let Elite answer that one.

Elite: When I first started, I would hear any little thing and make a beat out of it. Now, I’m more selective. I’m trying to be more experimental again, so it’s all coming full circle.

Philaflava.com: Given that your views represent the collective, it would make some sense regarding the “Punk” track on Asterisk 4, a trance track which is different than anything QN5 has released so far.

Tonedeff: Actually, since Day 1, we’ve always incorporated electronic music in our sound. On Will Rap For Food, Kno had drum n’ bass breaks on three different tracks. I also had tracks like “Velocity” and “Fast” which were in the same vein. Elite did “Bring It” on Underscore. “Line Drop” switches between hip hop and bounce. We have no qualms with electronic music, and we have no stylistic limits. That’s part of The New Hip Hop. As far as “Punk” goes, that’s Substantial’s thing. He had a connect named Berry Corsten, who’s a gigantic Scandinavian trance producer, internationally known, plays DJ sets for like fifty thousand people. The track was meant to be a single. In 2003, they called Stan and I in to do a rap version of the song. They gave us the song, we recorded it, we handed it in. Literally, years went by, and they went back and forth at the label. They weren’t sure if Europe was ready to hear rappers over trance. So we’re literally sitting on this song for years waiting to hear a definitive answer. Ultimately, it never comes out, it’s not on Corsten’s album. Finally, we see a new version come out on his newest release…with Guru on it. Obviously, we’re wondering what the fuck happened. What it came down to was that his label was scared of putting rap on it, but when they heard Q-Tip on the Chemical Brothers track “Galvanize”, they figured “Oh, okay, now it’s cool. Let’s find another old-school rapper that’ll get on this shit.” So they picked Guru. No disrespect to Guru, but the one we did is completely more progressive, by leaps and bounds. When we debuted it at the last Megashow, people freaked the fuck out. We had to put it on Asterisk 4.

Philaflava.com: What’s the status on future projects?

Session: The Spicasso LP has been taking a little longer than I’ve liked, but then again I also haven’t been as focused. Lately though, I have been. We have a deal through Koch. So I’m seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I was always the one who didn’t want to do the whole independent/underground thing. My goal was always to sign with a major---go through QN5 to something big. But I was patient, I was always trying to hold out on it. Koch is good though, I’ve got the motivation. It took age though. And now my shit is gonna drop real soon. Substantial’s album comes first though.

PackFM: I’m not one of those people who’ll cut a record and then drop another one right away. It took a long time putting out WhutDoesFMStand4?, so I’m gonna really let it ride for a while. But I’m not sitting at home doing nothing. First of all, I do shows, and if you know anything about me, I’m on the road every weekend. I am always performing.

Philaflava.com: Yeah, you were in Baltimore opening up for the Clipse recently, right? How did that go?

PackFM: I did my thing. In fact, all the other openers after me got booed, and they wouldn’t have gotten booed if they had gone before me, because everyone before me was exactly like them. They even wanted an encore out of me! I did the damn thing. As far as new material goes though, I’m working on an EP with Domingo, tentatively titled Brooklyn Bridge 11201. I felt like there were a lot of things that I didn’t get to cover on WhutDoesFMStand4?. I did touch on quite a wide range of material, but there’s just something that PackFM does on the mic that I didn’t get to touch on with the last album. So with this EP, I’m gonna fuck up a lot of people. Put some dudes in headlocks, rob some people…I’m gonna do the PackFM thing. I’m taking it to Brooklyn. I’ll be touring for the EP too. See, some people wanna keep dropping record after record. But when this culture started, albums were made a lot differently. A real album shouldn’t last three or four weeks and then people forget about it. A real album should last at least a year or two and let people come back to it like, “Yo, that shit was hot!”

Tonedeff: It Was Written didn’t come out until three years after Illmatic dropped.

PackFM: Redman for a while was dropping an album once a year!

Tonedeff: DMX, he overdid it.

PackFM: I just don’t want people to forget about my record. You want to buy a PackFM album? Buy WhutDoesFMStand4?.

Tonedeff: And there’s nothing wrong with that. Because if you look at it, you make a solid album that is playable front to back, and your fans will wait. They will love that record, they will let it sink in, they will examine every little piece of it. If you have the quality, you can sustain your career. But if your record sucks, you have to put out eight records in a row to keep your name out.

PackFM: I put out a mixtape three years before I dropped the album. I held my fans down. I’m probably the only person to drop three singles off of a mixtape! If you put out the music, they’ll wait for the album.

Philaflava.com: What about you, Tone? Chico & The Man is a joint project solely consisting of Kno on production, and you on the rhymes. Two tracks have been released to date, and clearly both of them follow a specific theme, lyrically and musically. What can fans expect out of this album, and how has Archetype influenced the material you’ve written?

Tonedeff: Kno is completely responsible for the sound, I’m basically being used as an instrument. But as far as how Archetype will influence Chico & The Man…well, obviously Archetype represented my artistic progression. I learned a lot making that record. In terms of this album though, the sound is going to be completely different. With “No Hope” [off Asterisk 3] and “My Lady” [off Asterisk 4], the album will definitely veer in that direction. The production will be extremely lush in typical Kno tradition. Both of us as artists are completely elevating our games on this record and doing something that no one has ever heard before.

Philaflava.com: Has QN5’s artistic mission statement ----manifested through “The Five Tenets of The New Hip Hop” you’ve established--- evolved at all?

PackFM: Right now, the Cunninlynguists and I are hitting the road pretty heavy together. Session is coming along for a few dates, as is Tone. But mainly it’s CL and myself. We’re about to do a heavy push in the Northeast---Vermont, Boston, New York. We’re rolling with Devin the Dude right now. Then we’re heading to the West Coast. You’re gonna see us touring all over in the spring. Check http://www.qn5.com for all the details. It’s amazing how you can get so much information by typing six letters. Every one of our shows are listed up there. Be on the look out between April and May, we got a good ten to fifteen shows lined up so far.

Philaflava.com: What’s been in your rotation lately?

Session: I only listen to beats. I keep up to date with new shit, but I don’t really listen to anyone right now. Like I’m feeling this that and the other, but I don’t have a favorite…

PackFM: Well, me, I’m…

Session: …And Dipset.

PackFM: …On the real, I’m been heavy into Redman. Redman is a big influence on me. What’s hard about being an artist is that it’s hard to say you’re a fan of another rapper. But I feel him because he’s still rapping. He’s still out there spitting. A lot of cats, they’re just trying to dumb their shit down and they’re trying to fit in and they’re trying to be current. There are so many emcees that just don’t wanna spit anymore. This is a guy though, that if you listen to his new material, he’s still spitting like he’s trying to get a deal! It’s good to hear that artists are still kicking rhymes. Because that’s what we do, we kick rhymes! We’re not trying to make a hit. Kick a fuckin’ rap! That’s what you’re supposed to do. You’re not just dumbing it down to get the video played. Say something while you’re at it! So right now, I listen to a lot of Redman.

Tonedeff: I basically listen to everything under the sun. I absolutely have no prejudices. I listen to everything except for country. I just can’t get into it, I’ve tried, I’m sorry. Lately, regular rotation is an album by a group called Midlake out of Denton, TX. They basically made a concept record about living in the woods in the 1890’s to the tune of Fleetwood Mac. It’s phenomenal. There’s a group called The Presets out of Australia I really dig. They’re an electronic duo that does some really hard shit. The new Arcade Fire’s been bumping in the whip too. Most of all, I’m a fan of anyone who’s a singer-songwriter and anything that has great melodies. There’s a cat named Finn O’Reilly out of NYC. Some Irish folk rock dude, he’s fucking amazing. His album just came out on iTunes, it’s called Spawn of the Beast. So yeah, anything that’s huge, epic, has a lot of melody, tons of layers, and great production I am a fan of.

Philaflava.com: Anything you want to say to the good people of Philaflava reading this right now?

Tonedeff: We just want to say hello to all the frustrated artists on the board.

PackFM: It’s cool to be a fan, nothing wrong with that. It’s weird though, cause I really read the site. You know, I get bored. And I read these cats, and they take everything so seriously! They take themselves so seriously! I’m not trying to offend anybody, but…be a fan. That’s all I’m saying. There’s nothing wrong with being a fan. Because a lot of you all think, “Okay, fine, because somebody posts on the same board, we’re on the same level as them.” And you’re not. You just share a fucking server space.

i really appreciate what QN5 does...not only do they make good music, but theyre humble as fuck