When one thinks of Pioneers in this Rap shit they should be thinking of kats who changed the game. Naught By Nature is one of those groups. Don’t front like you ain’t never bounced to their timeless anthems “O.P.P.“, “Hip Hop Hooray“, “Feel Me Flow“, “Craziest” and “Jamboree” just to name a few. Naughty has continuously presented us with feel good music that has crossed the boundaries of Music. They have never been considered sellouts. They stay in the Bricks of Illtown and Newark and rep the streets where they hail from. Now with their latest release IICONS Treach and Vinnie the Mayor are back. Wait a minute, they never left; but with the cloudy visions thrown around in Hip Hop music today, one might have thought that they did. But if you know your history you would know that after 5 albums (2 Platinum and 3 Gold) Naughty has sold over 4 million records to date and they have the party anthem formula mastered. They have received Grammy’s, American Music Awards and Source awards for their contribution to this music we live by. They have been dishing out music for 11 years. That in itself is a milestone in Hip Hop.
Treach is always up for some good conversation and that’s just what I got when I had the chance to kick it with him. The last time we spoke they were releasing Natures Fury and they were still a trio. Since that time they have changed labels, banned Kaygee from the Naughty Family, Gotten props From Tha Row’s Suge Knight and put out another Anthem titled “Feels Good“. Treach says “TVT records was the only ones who had confidence in us, we were left for dead. We went to all the Majors and they weren’t trying to hear shit. TVT was like we ain’t gotta hear shit what yall wanna do?”
One may ask can the Illtown kids make it without Kaygee? I say to anyone asking that question that they should have the shit smacked outta them. So is there still beef between Kay and the two standing soldiers of the Naughty crew? “There ain’t no love. He pulled a bitch move and he knows that. He questioned my loyalty, so we went to the park and shot a fair one. We did it for the streets and that’s where it stays in the streets. What about staying so close to the streets, what fuels the necessity to do that? “Niggas know me as that nigga whose always gonna be in the streets and that ain’t gonna change. I still get harassed in my hood. I can’t even walk down the street with a beer without getting fucked with but that don’t mean I’m going nowhere. The faggot ass police need to just get off my nuts and you can quote me on that. It ain’t all police cause we got some police that’s down with us but it’s the faggot ass ones that I’m talkin’ about. People know Naughty as the ones who always repped their hood and we ain’t gonna change. We joke with Vinnie by calling him the mayor and who knows what the future holds. One thing we do know is that we gonna always be in our community. We get love from the streets and so many people. We got Suge coming at us tellin’ us that we need to be on a 100 Million-dollar team and that when and if we get ready to pursue something that he’s down with us. We ain’t gonna stop being Naughty.”
Well Naughty ain’t to be messed with and some of you up and comers in the game need top take lessons about nurturing the art form of Hip Hop and being the originator of your own styles. Naughty is set to release their next single “Swing Swang” and it’s sure to be another piece of the ongoing Anthem saga that they are so well known for delivering. Treach is involved in an upcoming series from HBO titled “Baseball Wives” which starts filming in October. He’s also in a full-length feature film called “Love and a Bullet” where he plays a contract killer with some exciting love interests. Vinnie is, as usual, entrenched in seeing his people grow as a unit and begin to own the streets that they represent so intensely. These kats just keep on working. So with a new label, new music and several new projects in the works whets to stop naughty from eventually being heralded as one of the best groups of all time in Hip Hop? Nothing.
