I'm going to be perfectly honest here and address this, and I may say some things people won't like.

I think happy go lucky backpack rap is for generally lost, sometimes talentless, non-musical artists. Its the kind of rap you make when you don't have the means or direction to produce something greater. I think the music is completely disposable, we have no want to make it and we will never make a record in that vein again. I feel we have more to give music than bouncing around onstage pushing 30 talking about "Thugged Out Since Cub Scouts". Nobody has ever came up to me and said "Halfanimal Halfman saved my life, yo!" but they have said that about "Mic Like A Memory" and "Caved In"...and thats one of the greatest compliments you can recieve, cus Lord knows we aren't in this for money.

Not to say that the old music is wack now, but I think alot of fans don't realize these songs were written years and years ago. Literally the last "SU"-esque record we wrote was "Dirtay" and that was technically written in late 2003. I'd venture to say you did not start listening to us in summer 2001 when our first material dropped, if you did...you'd realize that we, like you, are now 6-7 years older and are at different stages in our lives. The music reflects that. Its almost 2008...the thing is, our music has always had 'slow burn' potential, so alot of our fans are just now getting up on WRFF and SU like that shit is brand new.

Also, being that Southernunderground is our worst performing/selling record means 1 of 2 things : our fans agree or fans of that type of music don't buy records anyway, so they all downloaded it. Either way it only validates what we feel to be true...you don't make timeless music writing songs with "pun" titles and silly concepts. Can it make for good songs? Sure, but is anyone who heard "So Live!" in 2001 really still playing it?

Look at this list, especially at anything past 1990, and you'll see a trend.

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/scottbdoug/the_source_maga...rap_albums

Why does nobody even talk about Common's first LP...like he only started to exist when "Ressurrection" came out? Where's Kwest The Madd Ladd? Wheres Ya'll So Stupid? Where's [insert random Lyricist Lounge rapper from 1999]?

They may have made good rap songs, but we're trying to make timeless MUSIC...and some people (a vocal minority) may not like that. But music never dies, and the old albums will be around forever for you to listen to.

-Цитата от MC Kirs

Just to give an example of "grown up" hip-hop, I love Illogic, Atmosphere, Brother Ali, Tonedeff, Living Legends, Zion-I, J5, Insight, Soul Position, etc (just to give a few).

I generally don't like any of the music you just listed except Atmosphere, Ali and Tone and some J5. It perfectly represents the type of rap music I have no interest in making...and until someone can convince me Blueprint or Illogic or Zion-I or The Grouch have the capacity to make a record like APOS, I won't be changing my mind. Thats not an ego thing, I have just never heard anything from those artists that would lead me to believe they have the capacity to tackle something like that...but I don't think you can point out a song in these people's catalogs that we couldn't nail with proficiency. I think we've proven that.

Another thing some listeners seem to have issue with...we are indeed from the South. Thats not going to change, and we've never made apologies for it. We're never gonna be from Cali or Minneapolis or NYC, regardless of how non-regional you might have thought our first 2 albums were...the first one was basically a demo, us finding our musical voice...the second one was basically a replication of the first with an added member who is no longer involved in our recording process and hasn't been since 2004.

As a producer I have to give the emcees a comfort zone to operate, and this is Deacon and Natti's zone. This is us. Its also the first time since our inception that we've had the same line-up in the group on back-to-back records, which is another thing I think people overlook.

So for you to say we've changed, you're absolutely right. We've had 3 different line-ups and gotten 6-7 years older...yet we've been blessed with (what I think is) amazing consistency. Odds would say we should SUCK by now, for real. But we don't, and I think that should be folks main concern...and not even the most die-hard punchline rap fans can say we've made a shitty record.