ARTICLE 31 > Message, entertainment and spirituality.

So was the beginning and so is for us

By Claudio “Sid” Brignole

AL 12 Fall 1994

Same time, same day, same place. After a year, I meet again with JAD and J-Ax to have a chat about their new record and to see how they are doing. We meet on a Saturday afternoon in autumn at Burghy, near WAG in Milan. Twelve months is a long time, and the differences are immediately apparent. People stop them on the street, ask them for autographs, have their picture taken with them. Shit, these guys have become famous! I remember last year when they told me, “If nothing moves with the release of our LP, nothing will be done in Italy.”.

They were right and fortunately in a positive way. In our country, at this time, they are really starting to talk seriously about Hip Hop and the credit is in one way or another also theirs at the expense of the much chatter and accusations of commercialism raining down on them from many quarters. Before the interview I have a Big Burghy, chips and tea. With my liver worried about the mass of work it will have to do, I start talking to J-Ax and JAD between bites (the first questions are asked with my mouth full).

Why is the album titled “Vespiri Mass”?

J-AX: It's a play on words, it means message, fun and spirituality.JAD: Which is the basis of rap, it's what it was in the beginning and what it is for us.

What are the differences with the previous album?

JAD: There is an evolution in everything, both in the music part and in the lyrics, there are also live instruments.

How has this year passed between us and your first record?Do you feel different?

JAD: First of all, we have matured so much, studio-wise, artist-wise and in our relationship with people. Now we are a phenomenon and you have to be in contact with people, which you may have despised before, but now you have your fans. And we don't mind, because we teach. Do you understand? Some people say but with “The Filthy” and with “Touch Here” what do they teach? We teach the same.J-AX: The party pieces we do have opened the door to everything else. We want to express all of our sides in the making of an LP and so also the goliardic side.

In fact, listening to Vespiri's Mass, there are many pieces with different sounds and topics

.J-AX: There is rock, reggae, salsa, R&B. We wanted to compare ourselves with all these genres to see what we could do, and it seems to me that the result is positive.JAD: As you can also see from the cover, we want to create something Italian musically. I don't want to do what the Americans do, although the roots are there.

But however, I heard that some temptations you had....

JAD: Yes, but because I like both the East and the West Coast, and then I try to create my own style, the Italian style, which is spaghetti.J-AX: In the cover, it's not that there is nationalistic spirit in it, but the concept starts from what Doug E Fresh told us, which is that if he cooks a spaghetti dish, they come out lousy, while if he cooks his own typical dish, he succeeds. Same thing applies to us, in reverse.

Doesn't making pieces that are very different from each other, however, produce the opposite effect of not determining one's own style?

JAD: No, it's good because of that, because there are many groups that have made records like that.J-AX: The style is then defined by the lyrics and the content. The bases and grooves underneath change and will have to change totally because I want to achieve a style that one from the first beat, regardless of the music genre, will recognize Article 31 right away. We like all genres of rap, from party to hardcore. In fact, “Vespiri Mass” means that we can do anything, but the important thing is that there is at least one of its parts present.

In Italy there is a tendency to label everyone immediately, and you have been saddled with the label of a party and goliardic group. Do you find yourself in these definitions?

J-AX: We introduce ourselves to people in a pretty goliardic way. We are like that. It doesn't even bother me. Certainly I also like to say things that are not party-related. In the U.S. there are groups like Kid N Play and Fresh Prince who just do party rap, but there are also people like Naughty by Nature who do OPP and then the rest all hardcore.

JAD: Do you know who we like in Italy? Colle del Fomento.J-AX: Because they are a group that if you listen to their song you immediately identify them and when I met them they were exactly as it flows from the song. They were able to give in a piece their identity.JAD: They are as natural as we are.J-AX: You distinguish them from posers because you can tell immediately who is from who is not.

Now how do you see the situation in Italy?

JAD: We also see it good at the level of records coming out.J-AX: Think of the Radical Staff record that is produced in Italy and in my opinion is at a stratospheric level.

As personal relationships with other groups, how is it going?

J-AX: We are quiet with everyone. We know very well that there are people who out of envy talk behind our backs, however as long as I am the one who sells the most records that will be seen around the most, I won't even get permalicious to hate anyone. We have been lucky because with almost all the groups that have emerged now we knew each other from before and so we have been giving each other a helping hand. On our side there is no competition.

JAD: We have already worked with Chief and ZaK, Zippo (the former NDR committee rapper), who did a piece with us in the LPs and is preparing an album in which we will also collaborate. We are looking for good groups to produce. Send us demos, but they must be real and good. Understand?

What is the best method of promotion?

JAD: It's the radio stations, you can go on television, and we've noticed that the radio stations are now starting to pass rap, you know? And for us it's a satisfaction. We don't say we are the creators, we opened the doors.J-AX: We opened the doors to the business, there is a lot more business this year for everybody. We set a train in motion, and now some people have to get on it.

AD: That's what I was telling you a year and a half ago in the other interview: if we don't go, no one will go.

Now the danger is that there is a large segment of the public that is interested in rap but is kind of lurching to one side or the other, without very clear ideas.

J-AX: I prefer the one who doesn't understand shit and knows that he doesn't know anything and that's the kid who buys our records, that's the mass of our fans. But I've seen that those who didn't understand shit last year already understand a lot this year. All of us started out not understanding shit. You come in and then you can take one thing from Hip Hop, the dancing, the clothes, the graffiti, then from a certain point on you take the whole culture and then it's forever or you leave. And then for those who are there for more than a little bit it means they get it.

JAD: Those who want to rap have to wait, understand what the mechanism is like. He has to do when he feels ready.

Do you think people are beginning to understand the difference between rap and Hip Hop?

J-AX: Yes, when the mess with Celentano happened we made a record for radio stations in which we responded to him. All the newspapers wrote “Hip Hop group responds to Celentano.” Maybe a year ago they would have written “Le Posse.” At least people are beginning to know that there is a word called Hip Hop.

There is also a lot of talk about DJs, but the figure of the Hip Hop DJ in Italy practically does not exist. You can count on your fingers.

JAD: We are very few. Enzo, Skizo, Gruff, Zak and a few others.The real DJ has to have a musical culture behind him, especially the black one. Then, screcciare doesn't have to be messing around, but finding sounds that allow you to produce sounds like playing a traditional instrument.

On the use of sampling, how do you go about it?

JAD: Samples you have to use them smartly. You have to put them in the right place, at the right time. Maybe you even put the very famous sample that they curl you, but if you put it in the right place nobody notices. We did not declare any samples, but I used them in the right way, in such a way that no one recognizes them.

Did you do everything you wanted to do?

JAD: I have fulfilled my dreams. I have been in the scene since the early 80s. I used to breakdance. My dream was to get on a stage and play in front of a lot of people. And I got there. I wanted them to dedicate a graffiti to me, and they dedicated it to me. My dream was everything that is happening to me in Hip Hop. I used to see at that time movies like Wild Style, Beat Street and I would get into it. Now it's happening to me too, I got there. Now I want to produce new groups, move forward.

J-AX: Becoming a phenomenon that sells hundreds of thousands of pairs, a reality to be reckoned with all the time, that it's not a smoldering fire and you will see that now.