Ugly Duckling : Dizzy Dustin, Andy C & Young Einstein

P: So, I was reading your press kit and everyone was saying the same thing like, “they’re the non-gansta alternative from the LBC” and blah blah blah…What do you want written about you that has not been written yet?

Dizzy: The fact that we’re real hardcore thugs…We all did bids. We all just got out the pen.

Andy: The thing is, we don’t talk about pimpin’ hoes because we pimp so many hoes on the daily that it would just be repetitive to be talking about it up in the songs.

Dizzy: Definitely. And we don’t want it to criminalize us.

Andy: We talk about who we kill and…

Dizzy: They could hold it against us if they really want to look deep into it.

Andy: We’re really some bad mama-jamas. Especially Einstein.

Dizzy: Actually, I’m strapped right now.

P: Everyone’s packing…

Andy: She saw it.

Peach: What about the whole retro thing? Do you guys mind that title?

Andy: Well, we’ve been a group since 1993…We were kind of doing music that was timely when we started and as we have the inability to progress, and we’re really not creative enough to catch up with what everybody else is doing, so we didn’t intend to be retro…It just happened that what we were doing was kinda cool again.

Dizzy: We all took the little yellow bus to school, so we’re late.

Andy: Year 2000, we’re cool, retro. In ’96 we just sucked. We’ve been doing the same stuff.

Dizzy: It’s in fashion now.

A andy: Give us a couple of years, it’ll suck if it just keeps being the same thing.

P: Well, when I was listening to the album, I thought, “sometimes I wish hip hop was all like this again…Why must we deal with people pretending they’re taking shit to the next level when they’re really just not hitting the beat right.”

Andy: That’s why we don’t pretend.

Dizzy: Realists…have you heard the snippet tape? We’ve got a couple of gansta songs on there you have to check out.

A andy: That’s our real shit.

P: And the label was like…no, you’re supposed to be retro!

Dizzy: The next album is gonna be “ducky style”, so we’re gonna bring it hardcore and g-rated…No, g-funk.

Andy: G-rated? What, we have to say bad stuff in nice ways?

The conversation gets into semantics…and then…

P: Actually, I wanted to ask Einstein a question. I was talking to Domino and he kept playing me records and saying, “Einstein hipped me to this”. So what is your favorite city for digging-if you can reveal that information.

Young Einstein: Detroit without a doubt. We cleaned up there. I got about thirty records a couple weeks ago.

P: Do you ship things home or do you carry?

Y. Einstein: I just carry them. We don’t have enough money to ship stuff yet.

Andy: You did well in Manchester England too didn’t you? Mostly old school rap stuff.

Y. Einstein: Yeah. For like soul and jazz stuff, Detroit without a doubt.

P: So, you guys took the grassroots approach. How did you decide to sign with a label that wasn’t a traditional hip hop label? Because I think Ihad a record with “Fresh Mode” with a blue label…Did you guys put that out yourselves?

Guys: Yeah.

Andy: Well, labels weren’t necessarily beating down our doors. Def Jam wasn’t really calling.

At this point Dizzy suddenly gets into a discussion with an undercover narc for Maritime.

P: Did you have a plan when you put stuff out?

Andy: They just liked us; they were nice to us. We told them we wanted to do it and they let us do it, so…

Y Einstein: And they gave us loads of money…

Dizzy: And bought us Bentleys…

Andy: We got approached by a few people, but they (1500 records) were the only ones that really had their stuff together and were willing to let us make our own stuff. They never really made us bring in outside producers and change our tunes, so…It’s all we could ask for. Plus they didn’t make us clear our samples. That’s the main importance. Our record would never come out if we had to clear samples.

P: My friend is a songwriter and he was just contacted by the Insane Clown Posse because they want to sample his shit. I was laughing so hard. He said, “have you heard of this group?”

Dizzy: Shaggy Two Tone.

Andy: We should try to do shout outs to all the big groups just so they could use it in songs…Insane Clown Posse…so they’ll use it as a scratch.

Dizzy: Kid-Kid-Rock

Andy: So, you asked us what the plan is?

P: Well, no. I was just wondering…When you put your own record out-at that time J Boogie…I went to the store and was like, “what’s new, what’s good?” and he said, “this record is dope!” and it was “Fresh Mode”. He was like in the store pimpin’ your shit.

Dizzy: (to Einstein) You gave a shout to J Boogie, right?

Y. Einstein: Of course.

Andy: We were just chickens with our heads cut off on that one. Calling and sending them to whoever would take them. We lost a whole lot of money doin’ that, but…

Dizzy: It worked.

Y Einstein: We ended up selling like 3,000.

P: That’s dope.

Andy: We got a call from Finland one time.

Dizzy: Most importantly, it was spread out.

Andy: It goes for big money over in Europe.

Dizzy: We’re lookin’ at about 10 pounds in europe…About $15 here. Big money.

P: Well, I do online stuff, and I just got an email from Israel. I was like, people listen to hip hop in Israel, damn!

Andy: We actually did a whole song about that on the new record called, “Hip Hop In the Holy Land”

Y Einstein: Didn’t we sell records in every country?

Andy: I know we didn’t sell records in…Nigeria.

Y Einstein: Yeah, they do.

Andy: Ecuador. We sold some in Algeria, though.

Dizzy: I think someone went out there and had the CD on them and sold it to someone for $20. I don’t think they could pick it up in Nigeria. I didn’t see no record stores in nigeria. I don’t know how it works.

Andy: Sade is Nigerian.

P: Do you feel like you’ve had to prove yourselves over and over to people? I remember at Hiero when they were trying to figure out who was gonna go on tour with them, they were like, “I don’t know who this group is…” people were like, “I don’t know”. The profile doesn’t really tell the whole story if they haven’t heard your music yet.

A andy: We still don’t have any idea why they let us go out on tour with them. Del was really positive about our stuff.

P: He liked your stuff and Domino totally championed you guys.

Andy: I am still really puzzled any time someone is willing to tour with us. Cause it’s like a lot of people have this real b-boy image. And it’s like you’re supposed to be…not a tough guy, but a hardcore hiphopper.

Dizzy: And you’re not?

Andy: Well, we give the impression that we’re kinda…

P: Where is your baseball cap?

Dizzy: It’s upstairs. A white one.

Andy: My cap and my wallet chain are upstairs… It’s like the thought it just we don’t know anything about rap or we just jumped on (the bandwagon) as some rap group. Cause we just don’t look like guys who are supposed to rap. But ironically, most kids that are in the culture don’t know hip hop history and culture so well. Their immediate thought is “Hey, if it ain’t like the Wu Tang Clan, it ain’t real” or something. When you’ve been listening to rap for twenty years since you were a little kid…

Dizzy: We’re actually a hip hop white boy-band. Like we were on three different labels at one time, and they all put us together. We got writers and producers…

P: And they’ve taught you dance steps…

Dizzy: I went to hip hop classes. I learned everything. Ilearned to pose.

Andy: “Yes, yes, y’all”. Now you try it…

Dizzy: “One two, one two”. “Yeah, boyeee”. I got all my hip hop from the school of hard knocks.

P: So what preconceived ideas do people have when they see you?

Andy: People expect us to suck, I think.

Dizzy: Well, when they see Andy with a bed-head, they look at us, like, “what’s goin’ on here?”

Andy: That’s actually kind of an advantage, because if we do our show and do it well, it’s a double surprise.

Dizzy: Shock value.

P: So what do you guys listen to?

Y Einstein: Mostly old school. Jazz and Soul.

Dizzy: My mom. I listen to my mom.

Andy: She’s over there bossing you around…

P: Tell me you don’t still live with your mom…

Andy: My girlfriend has me listening to Destiny’s Child. That’s all I ever hear anymore. That’s all I’ve heard for the last six months.

Dizzy: Can you believe that? No, seriously, old school hip hop, classic rock, you know what I mean?

P: Groups? Artists?

Andy: Hieroglyphics…People Under the Stairs who was on the tour earlier. We’re friends with them, we like that band. A lot of cool hip hop flavor on the west coast and east coast. We get a lot of cds and tapes while we’re traveling. People hand you stuff.

Dizzy: I got this CD from a guy called Mr. Clean last night. You’ve got to open the CD up-it’s the real Mr. Clean logo with his face.

We are all laughing…

Andy: It’s easier to talk to you because you have a sense of humor. A lot of kids that are supposed to be in hip hop culture have kind of been told somewhere or other that you’re NOT supposed to have a sense of humor…or everything is “yeah, yeah aight. you know…cool.” and they’re not phony, it’s just seems like satire.

P: Iknow, I’m not the demographic anymore. I have found myself saying, “you need to listen to Rakim” or I feel old like, “You don’t know who Chuck Dis?!”

Dizzy: Speaking of Rakim and Chuck D, they’re on the new album…

A andy: Story of our lives right there. Sometimes we feel like we’re selling 8 tracks. It’s nice and maybe some people like it, but for the most part it’s just gone and it will never come back.

P: Are you maintaining? Are you going to keep your same stance?

Andy: We’re a one trick pony. We can only do one thing, so…We have the same technique for making all the tracks.

Dizzy: I think I could do punk music if I tried.

P: You’ll be the next Limp Bizkit.

Dizzy: We’ll be the Beastie Boys backwards–We’ll do hip hop and then punk.

P: Rage is looking for someone…

Andy: (in a deep voice) RECOUNT! I’d just think of stupid issues. (shouts) “Clean these sewers up!”

P: I’m so poorly prepared…I didn’t have time to dig dirt on you.

Dizzy: I have some dirt. He used to be a dancer for Kwame.

Andy: And he used to be Kid Frost.

Tour discussion…and then talk turns to the strategy for the new album…

Einstein: We’re not even going to radio until January.

Andy: And our record comes out in Europe in February. As if going to radio was a thing…

P: Well, it depends on which radio you go to…

Dizzy: I play the CD on my radio all the time.

Andy: Yeah, that’s the only radio we could go to.

More show discussion.

Andy: I’m so amazed when people call us about a show.

E einstein: We played at the Great American Music Hall For Senior Citizens.

Dizzy: An auction. They had an auction. It wasn’t senior citizens. They were auctioning things off and they wanted a group, so we were the group.

Andy: Yeah, they wanted a house band, but they knew our label, so they just said, “hey, give us one of your bands”. It was everyone in dockers.

Dizzy: Everyone was all dressed up with their wine glasses.

Einstein: They auctioned off my chain, actually.

P: How much did you make at the show?

Andy: A couple hundred. And we made 120,000 on the chain.

Dizzy: That’s our future, that’s our plan. Things go bad, we’re selling the chain.

P: Ebay! Putting your own shit for auction.

Dizzy: Actually, we’re secretly signing our wax and putting it up on Ebay so we can make a little extra money.

P: Do you guys have a website?

Einstein: freshmode.com

P: Cause I looked up uglyduckling.com, but that’s not you guys…

Dizzy: Car sales place. I own that.

Andy: We just do rap on the side.