St. Lunatics – Interview

St. Lunatics will undoubtedly be best known for Nelly because he’s their most recognizable member, but for Ali it isn’t a problem that Nelly is the brightest star right now. Yes, he’s still spreading the country grammar, but with the other cats that make up these lunatics crazy cunning, you’ll get hip-hop from angles you haven’t heard before. It’s their diversity that is so appealing, but diversity alone isn’t enough to make them mega-stars: you need the songs to be just as strong. Free City is the proof again that the Midwest can swing.

“This kid is crazy,” proclaims Ali. “Oh, no!” Ali begins laughing, which becomes infectious. You quickly get the idea that these guys aren’t all about the serious looks they hide behind. “Look at him, he’s crazy!” Ali continues to laugh, “Okay, I’ve got to go in the room. I can’t pay attention watching this.”

Seeing that guy impersonate Nelly has to be weird, yet proof that your style is hot.

It’s crazy, crazy, crazy. It all happened so fast. It happened like overnight.

Did you have the feeling when Nelly was working on the album that it was going to be this big?

I actually did. I was always like, ‘This is going to sell like seven million albums.’ I knew because it’s all brand new, it’s a new style that no one ever heard. I just kept envisioning it. I knew that either ya’ll were going to love us or hate us.

Where did you cook up the style?

It was a combination of the north, south, east, and west. All those places combined. It just made us. We’re in the middle so we get all sounds of music. We get every cd from all places in the country. We get it late, but we do get it all.

Back home it has to be a bit surreal.

It’s crazy. We are like Michael Jackson. (laughs) St. Louis has shown us much love and we appreciate all of it. Half of what we do is for St. Louis. It’s our drive and keeps us going. It’s home. You know?

And calling the group St. Lunatics shows you’re giving them back the love.

Yeah. That keeps us right there with St. Louis and St. Louis right there with us. They feel us.

How long was the album in the works?

The ‘Tics album was done in November.

How do you all come together to write?

It’s a gathering of minds. It comes in a lot of forms and fashions. We might be watching a movie together and one person might repeat one part of the movie and that creates a song. Or we might just be sitting down together like with “Midwest Swing” and come up with something. Sometimes one of us might just come in with something, but we will brainstorm together and come up with something.

Just listening to Free City you can hear the distinct voices, but how do you see the distinctions?

My distinction is that I’m the oldest and I have the deepest voice. Murphy Lee is the youngest and has the high tone. His voice is really crispy and it has a whiny like sound. (laughs) Nelly is sing-song. You can definitely tell it’s him. Kyjuan has a heavy country accent. We worked on that for a while. We’ve been doing this for nine years together. We were well prepared for if we made it. If they didn’t like the music, there was nothing we could do. If they like the music, then we were prepared. We didn’t want to sound like each other. We want to sound different because that will keep us fresh and crispy.

Are there characteristics that each member has that you might like to have yourself?

Yeah, I’d like to have Nelly’s sale ability. I’d like to be able to sell it like him. His whole presence is like he’s going to do it. His whole presence is pure confidence. To him, no one is better than him. I feel that way about myself too, but my confidence might be a nine and his is a ten. Murphy, um, I wish I could trade the youth with him. He’s got money, he’s young, and he’s learning a lot. Kyjuan, I wish I could have his metaphor. I’d trade raps with him. Everyone has their own things.

When you signed your record deal, each of you signed solo deals too, right?

Yeah. I just finished my album last week. It’ll be out in the fall or maybe winter.

Does it drive you crazy that it has to sit around?

Yeah, but we’ve got no room to drop it yet. We’ve got the ‘Tics album and Nelly’s new album.

Are there groups out there that you look up to from the past and today?

I like Michael Jackson. Old hip-hop, I like LL Cool J, Run-DMC. But more LL, LL is my man. Today I like Wu-Tang. But there are so many.

Is it crazy to think that it won’t be long before there are a bunch of artists doing the St. Lunatics style?

Yeah.

It’s inevitable.

It is. And you know what? I never thought about that before, but it is true. It’s strange. Last year I was on the outside looking in and now I’m on the inside looking out. I’m like, ‘Whoa, you do that because we do that.’ It’s really cool, but crazy to think someone is doing what they do because we do it. Now Nelly wears a Band-Aid on his face, now you’re going to see all the little kids wearing Band-Aids on their faces. But seriously, I think because we’ve sold so many records so fast that dudes just want to make money. It seems real simple the way we did it, so there’ll be a lot of people writing simple nursery rhyme type of hooks.

You make it seem so easy.

I know and it really is so hard. The process isn’t easy.

How does it feel that your crew may be inspiring the next generation of hip-hop?

It’d be good. It’d be good for kids to get into this because we have a good combination of rhymes and beats. We’ve brought back the element of showmanship. We want to bring the show from the mid-’80’s with like the Fat Boys, Kurtis Blow, LL. They didn’t just walk across the stage and that was it. They’d come out and there’d be explosions and they’d dance a bit, but not like some R&B group, but at least they’d move a little bit. You’ve got the show stopping and talking to the audience. You’ve got to give the people a show. We’re bringing that back.

+ charlie craine