TEK of Smif-N-Wessun - 24K Smoke » Interview

Smif-N-Wessun on Politically Incorrect Circa 2007

Charley Brown — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:17:39 +0000

TEK Interview on DWI Radio

Charley Brown — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 14:46:02 +0000

TEK sits down for an in-depth interview with DWI Radio. 24K Smoke The Album is coming soon!

TEK Crack Distributors Radio Interview

Charley Brown — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:17:00 +0000

TEK stops by Crack Distributors Radio for an interview with Shine Travis. TEK speaks on his upcoming solo album, 24K Smoke, as well as the new Smif-N-Wessun album, produced entirely by Pete Rock.

Smif-N-Wessun Interview: Hellucinations In Heaven

Charley Brown — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 20:44:37 +0000

Smif-N-Wessun (TEK and General Steele) sat down for an interview recently with Mindbender at Kevin Nottingham. Check the interview below.

Mindbender – What up, fam!

Steele – What up, its General Steele next to…

Tek – Smoky La Tek. We in there, let’s go.

Mindbender – In 2010, what do you want to do to hip hop?

Steele – Ooh! We want to smack hip hop with a fifth album in 2010 from Smif n Wessun. It’s gonna be a commemoration of greatness. We’re hooking up with the homie Pete Rock for production. He’s adding on to the legacy that we are a part of, as far as the Bucktown side of things, and we’re just trying to keep up that classic name, that classic, legendary music. 2010, expect some of that. Probably gonna see another Boot Camp album, cause we’re working on that as well. You’re probably gonna see some hella mixtapes from Steele and Tek, and a couple solo projects. You gotta stay tuned. Duck Down.com and also check my company BucktownUSA.com. We movin’, baby.

Tek – It’s coming. We’re just trying to put our hands in every aspect of that, behind the cameras, behind the boards, with the engineers, the design of the album covers and everything. We’re just taking it by storm.

Mindbender – I been around since the early 90’s, and I love to see it grow. Most importantly, I love to see that Duck Down still exists…

Steele – It feels good. It does feel good. We started with this family, and it’s still together. Love never lets love die, feel me? Like when we’re coming to T Dot. When we first came to T Dot we got mega love. Monumental love. It just continues to grow.

Tek – Straight open arms.

Steele – So we just do our part and make sure the love is reciprocated. But yeah, Duck Down is on my back, baby! I got the tat! We striped up right now.

Mindbender – I’m glad, cause its important, and it would be great to see another collab album. But what would make it different from any of the other ones?

Tek – Truthfully, I think… the fans. I can honestly say they stopped fuckin’ with us for a minute, and then we put some shit out… and we got them back. We went and grabbed our people that was in the fields wondering what direction we was gonna go. And we put that out that they wanted, along with Smif n Wessun, along with Sean P, along with Heltah Skeltah’s third album, and the new Black Moon and 9th Wonder, and they came back faithfully. We even gained a little bit more. That’s what’s gonna make a difference. They are with us now, and we are steadily gonna be picking them up as we’re going.

Steele – You know hip hop put us on, so we gotta be grateful. That’s it. That’s how we do our thing.

Mindbender – Word up. So, how do you approach your new beats now differently than before? You got 15 new Pete Rock beats just sitting there. What do you do now?

Tek – I go off the vibe thing. I have a natural high, I don’t smoke no more anyways. Once he blazes up, I’m easy still catching the contact high and it’s not hard for me to get into a zone, get into my lane and do what I do, feed off my PNC, feed off my dude, feed off Pete Rock. Each beat has its own words that need to go with it that are there to make the vocals stand out, and each track has its own feeling. And I think we’re still learning that as artists to see which joints, which lyrics sync up with which music, and I think that’s how artist learn and grow and make great timeless music.

Steele – We LIKE to do this shit. When we get that beat, what does it tell us? We definitely do not want to overshadow none of the tracks. We want to make the marriage proper. We are actually in the streets so we got a lot of stories to tell. Yeah, we either gonna give you something you can meditate on or we are gonna give you a tale about what happened around the corner the other day.

To read the rest of the interview, check it out at KevinNottingham.com.

TEK Interview With WeLiveThis.com Part 3

Charley Brown — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:04:58 +0000

In the final part of his interview with WeLiveThis.com, TEK (of Smif-N-Wessun) talks about his upcoming solo project, 24Kt Smoke. He discusses his growth as an artist as he’s progressed through not only his Smif-N-Wessun releases, but also his four solo releases (I mistakenly missed the first and inquired about the last 3 oops!). TEK describes what he feels has made Duck Down Records continue to be successful over the years, and lastly, he lists his all-time favorite Smif-N-Wessun songs. TEK lists Hallucinations, Wrekonize, among others.

TEK Interview With WeLiveThis.com Part 2

Charley Brown — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:59:44 +0000

For part two of his interview with WeLiveThis.com, TEK (of Smif-N-Wessun) speaks on the artists that he would like to work with/would have liked to have work with. He then goes on to discuss what he feels the difference is between the hip hop artists of ‘93-96 and the hip hop artists of today. Lastly, TEK discusses the projects that he and Steele have in the works, including the new Smif-N-Wessun album produced entirely by Pete Rock. The legendary underground hip hop duo is looking for album name suggestions, so speak your mind! At the end of the interview clip, check some footage of TEK in the recording process of Grind With Me, produced by S-Type, off TEK’s upcoming solo project, 24Kt Smoke.

TEK Interview With WeLiveThis.com Part 1

Charley Brown — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:55:36 +0000

TEK sat down for an interview with WeLiveThis.com back in April. The interview touched upon a wide range of topics, from the creation of Smif-N-Wessun to the reason for not releasing their album on Rawkus to comparisons between artists and the industry from 93 to today and the announcement of a new Smif-N-Wessun album entirely produced by The Chocolate Boy Wonder, Pete Rock. Also, at the end of the interview, catch a snippet of New Love by TEK produced by Drawzilla, which will be featured on 24Kt Smoke.

In part one of the interview, TEK talks about how he got started in the industry and how Smif-N-Wessun was born as a hip hop duo. In his answer to this question, TEK said, “During our high school days, we went to school with a bunch of industry dudes, like even dudes that didn’t go there would shoot through. Rakim used to shoot through.. Chubb Rock used to come through…” He goes on to speak on his early role before Smif-N-Wessun linked up with Blackmoon and the need to create a name for themselves that would always make fans think of one if they thought of other.

When asked about the making of Dah Shinin’, TEK talks about recording at the Beatminerz home studio, and how Bucktown wasn’t even supposed to be theirs. TEK reveals “Actually, Bucktown was supposed to been, actually, for Blackmoon or Heltah Skeltah, but they ain’t like it.. that was actually supposed to be the B-Side for another joint called Nothin’ Move But The Money All About The Cash.”

Later in part one of the interview, TEK spoke on the Rawkus album and why it never dropped, and then about how they’ve changed names throughout the years due to legality issues. TEK said, “Cocoa Brovaz was actually the name before Smif-N-Wessun.. but they really couldn’t come out with that as a name, so we revamped and came out with Smif-N-Wessun.”