About nine months ago we were sent a Tweet concerning a young musician asking that our team check out his YouTube video called "Quarintine". The artist then unknown to us artist named Napoleon Da Legend. we have always been a big fan of creative talent in the music industry because a well crafted song can endure the years of a culture's change and progress that the future brings to it. this particular randomly delivered video was one that the content will have a significance to the listeners of hip-hop 5,10, or 15 years from now.
Talent and creativity can never be measured by platinum or gold records or the numbers of followers on Twitter. we had the pleasure of having Napoleon answer a couple of questions concerning his hip hop career.
What made you start getting into music?
Music
was always around growing up. At the crib, there was always something
playing, whether on TV or on the radio or on the stereo system. The
music never stopped. I would be hawking the radio and making my little
personal mix-tapes before the age of 10. Never had it crossed my mind at
that point that I would even be involved in making music myself. It’s
not like I knew what a studio was or even the process of actually making
a song in any genre at a young age. It wasn’t until I seen some of my
friends at school record their songs on 4 tracks or karaoke machines
that I even fathomed the thought of even writing or spitting a rhyme. It
blew my mind when my boys made me hear a tape of my homie Matador and
he was spitting on an instrumental and it was sounding dope. Some of my
other homies got into it and they formed a group. At that point, I told
them “I want in”, maybe only had one rhyme to my name at that point. My
boy let me borrowed a karaoke machine and I was copping these 99 cent
singles with the instrumentals from Sam Goodie or whatever else. It was
over then, I just started penning rhymes and recording myself from that
point. Then naturally, seeing others on the television set and hearing
them on the radio. I had never seen a live show at that point, our
ambition told us we could be there too, we can do that too. You know, so
from there you keep creating, you keep sharpening and you find ways to
be heard. It’s just that love you have for it, which, before you even
know it, grows into a passion. I think the passion came quick though, I
was absorbed into rhyming since high school. I didn’t know what I was
doing or what I was getting myself into, I just wanted to do it. When
there’s a will there’s always a way, that phrase is not a cliche, it’s
the truth.
What do you feel has made you different in an entertainment age of commercial repetition?
What
makes me different is that I’m not too concerned the “expectation” or
the “trend” of the current time, every 6 months seems like a new “trend”
starts, a certain type of sound in beats or a certain type of pattern
in rhyme. Doesn’t excite me for real. This is self-expression you know, I
feel as though if I bring myself in raw, brutally honest manner, I’m
good with it. Whichever type of production, whether the production is
“commercial” or not, I’m a do me on it. What does “commercial” mean
anyhow? It’s all sound you know, people love to label and dehumanize,
but its flesh and blood in the studio manipulating sounds at the end of
the day. So I feel as though when I step in that booth, it’s gonna get
“real” for that moment in time. I’m true school, I’m a flava that sauce
you feel me. I’m a evolve as the inspiration comes to me. When I get
that feeling and it hits me I’m a do just that. I’m not gonna over think
or second guess myself, and at this point of my career I don’t even have
the time or luxury to second guess. I’m inside the pressure cooker.
I’ve had many songs on blogs and on the Net 5 minutes after they were
laid, fresh out the oven. Once song is done, on to the next thing and so
on. It’s fun like that though, I can’t even front.
12 months from now where do you picture yourself?
I
see the NDL movement having grown in numbers and having spread on a
more global level. I picture more doubters turning into believers and
converts. I see stubborn non-believers starting to looking more musty
and shedding a few pounds lol. More bangers shot out the speakers 12
months from now for sure like meteor showers.
What artist has had the biggest influence on you?
That’s a tough question. As a whole, I think
my answer would be the Wu-Tang Clan. Just from their
sword style, the different techniques they brought to
the table. They immersed you into their own world, like an urban kung-fu flick.
That still messes my head up till this day champ. They kept it all the way raw
and all the way real. That was Hip-Hop, didn’t sound like anything out there.
Gave my generation inspiration that we didn’t have to follow trend, just do the
dopest, wildest joints that came to mind and its all good. You don’t have to be
corny to be heard. That’s an important jewel they gave me.
Plans for 2012??
Drop massive science on these beats. I’m
searching the four corners of the earth for the dopest instrumental
to lace these bars to. Just keep dropping meteors until the ground cracks. My
plan is to destabilize things, shake things up a little. My plan is the give
y’all my truth. I want to visit some pyramids this year. Eat more kiwis.
Scratch that, that ain’t a plan, I would be doing that anyhow. I just wanna
live this year you heard. I appreciate yall for real. Stay blessed. Shout out
to the human, animal and plant race.
www.twitter.com/TeamNDL
