If for some crazy reason, you were to go up to a thousand college kids and ask them about their most-played artists in their CD collection, the list you ended up with would probably look something like this: Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead, Beastie Boys, Nirvana and U2. Dig a little deeper into their stash, however, and you’re bound to find a few albums from a trio of Henny-poppin’, smack-talkin’ Californians named Tha Liks. While Tash, DJ E-Swift (both originally from Cincinnati) and J-Ro don’t have some secret obsession with electric guitars or do the hard rock thing, the reason universities in Middle America blast the group’s 21 & Over and Likwidation in the same way inner-cities in Oakland and Boston do is still obvious: Tha Liks are hella fun to listen to.
And equally cool to be around. In the midst of a nationwide tour-with fellow westsider Defari-promoting their 2001 release X.O. Experience, HipHopDX was fortunate enough to catch up with the famed liquor sippers to discuss a few things. From commentary on the ongoing war in Afghanistan to their own personal war for respect in the rap game, Tha Liks prove that they have a lot more on their collective mind than tequila and gin.
A lot has changed around our world since September 11. What are your thoughts on all of the fighting?
J-Ro: My brother is over there.
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E-Swift: I was born in a military hospital. My dad and my grandfather served in the military so I’m always interested. I just pray for them. I hope they go over there and blow his ass up. I should go over there and try to get that $25 million [for finding Osama bin Laden].
J-Ro: But there’s so much unsaid stuff that we don’t even know about that we can really even speak on it. It’s like when your parents got a problem with something, they ain’t gonna tell you all the details. We don’t know what’s going on to tell you the truth.
Let’s move to the deep questions. How did you all meet?
E-Swift: Just from hangin’ out and stuff. J-Ro and King Tee were in a group together, and I started doing beats for King Tee. But at the same time, me, Tash and J-Ro were hangin’ out, rappin’ and stuff. We were all doing solo projects and I was DJing. But after hangin’ out, we were becoming real close so we decided to just become a group. That’s really basically how it happened.
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That was back in-what? ’89 or ’90. 10 years in the rap game? You all are hip hop veterans yourselves.
E-Swift: I feel blessed. You have a lot of rappers that come out, and whether they do good or not on that first album, you never see them again. We’re working on our fifth album right now, sixth if you include Tash’s solo album, so we appreciate it. I don’t feel like we’re underdogs anymore; I feel like we got respect. Our record label respects us. And the fans appreciate what we’re doing. I’m blessed, man. I’ll say it today, “I feel like I could make, like, 20 albums.”
J-Ro: But that’s what we set out to do-have that longevity in our career. Before we made a record, we pretty much knew that it wasn’t going to have the platinum success out the box and all of that. We knew that, just from the type of music we make. [Consumers] were buying a certain type of music, and our music didn’t sound nothing like what was out at the time of 1992. “Make Room” came outta nowhere on people. So, we just always wanted to keep that longevity aspect of our careers.
What do you attribute that longevity to?
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E-Swift: Actually, I attribute it to us not following the trends. You know, not being caught up in the whole trendy thing. I mean, we’ve experimented with different types of songs, but basically, we’ve developed a cult following of people who’ve followed us from our first album and they’ve just continued to grow with us. So, I attribute it to us just being original, man. Not following what’s going. Just setting our own trends.
Speaking of cult followings, describe a person who listens to Tha Liks.
E-Swift: Man, they drink a lot. That’s damn near everybody out there! We’ve got a hardcore fraternity-rap following. We’ve got a skater following. We’ve got a big urban following, too. Us, being from the West Coast-coming with the funk-appeals to the urban crowds. So, we got a potpourri, a whole mixture. We got a little rock influence. We got a lot of alternative rap fans into our music for whatever reason. It varies, you know? Actually, we’ re one of the few groups that bring everybody together. We can go and do a tour with [rockers like] Primus and Deftones and jump right [into rap circles]. We did a tour with Biggie. We can do both sides of the coin. Biggie, Snoop, A Tribe Called Quest.
J-Ro: We can fit into anything really. A lot of our fans are people that just wanna hear soemthing that’s not played on the radio 30 times a day or whatever. Something fresh.
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What about the name change. Why go from Tha Alkaholiks to Tha Liks?
J-Ro: Tha Liks has been our nickname since Day One. People always called us that. We still call ourselves Tha Alkaholiks to this day. We just ran into a few problems with the name. People just not being really open-minded about the whole situation. We [also] wanted to be more universal. We wanted more people to be able to hear our music. We wanted kids to be able to ask their parents to buy’em Tha Liks album instead of Alkaholiks. If they hear that name, it’s no way. We were always like “whatever” about it. We’ll go along with it. So, now we just have two names.
E-Swift: It’s not formal though. We’re still Tha Alkaholiks! You don’t see it on this album cover, but we might put “Alkaholiks” on the next album cover. We try to just set trends like I said. Why can’t you have a group with two names and flip’em back and forth? It’s rap music-ain’t no rules! There are very few rules in rap music. We kinda always walk on that line like, “Damn, what are they going to do next?” We might come with a third name, Tha Alkies, for the next one. No boundaries in rap, huh?
E-Swift: None. You could go out there and paint your face like a clown, rap backwards and walk on your hands. It don’t matter! It’s rap music!
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You’re promoting X.O. Experience right now. What’s that album about?
E-Swift: We’ve got mad collabos. We’ve got a couple of producers on there. We recorded the album in Las Vegas. We were just so open-minded about it. People would send us their beats. We were just experimenting. This album really just got us more established as a group that’s going to be here to stay. ‘Til we decide to stop making records, we’re not going anywhere. We’ve established ourselves as one of the elite-not just West Coast-groups. You gotta a lot of groups where you be like, “Are they really a group?” There’s one person outta the group that’s always tryin’ to do more than the others. We ain’t talkin’ about splitting up. Even though we work on our own projects, that’s just financial. Every project that we’re involved with, we all involved with. Like I’m doing an album right now, J-Ro and Tash are going to be all over it. J-Ro has a compilation record for Roger Troutman (it drops on April 16), and we’re on it. We were on Tash’s album. It’s full circle. You’ve got Defari touring with you. Tell cats on the East about underrated MCs like him, Rasco and Dilated Peoples.
E-Swift: They us, dude. They just like how we were when we came out. They hot. They got their own sound. We just encompass ourselves with the tightest MCs that we come across. And that’s just because we’re in a position that we can do that now. Defari was introduced to me through a friend of mine. I run across millions of demo tapes, cats rapping in your ear at the club. Defari brought something to the table that was really unique. We had a knowledge of rap music and the business before he even came out with his first record. That was impressive to me. On top of all of that, he was a homie. A lot of cats you all have been associated with, like Phil The Agony, have blown up.
E-Swift: Look at what happened with Xzibit. We brought Xzibit to the world. We love Xzibit. There were a lot of rumors about us falling out [but] just like brothers battlin’, you’re going to have quarrels. There was never no jealousy, no deceit and hatred. It wasn’t what it was pumped up to be. We bring people to the surface for a reason: to blow up. If they don’t blow up, that means we didn’t do our job.
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What’s next for Tha Liks?
E-Swift: We’re working on a new album. Actually, we’re working on two albums. We’re going to try to release two albums close to each other. We’re [also] working on Tha Vapors album, which is all of us-Tha Liks, Doggpound and a few new rappers. Yeah, just our whole immediate family gotta group called Tha Vapors. Tash is recording another album. Stayin’ busy. We’re really blessed. We got our own tour. We’re headlining 40 dates.
When all of the albums have been made, what do you want fans to remember most about Tha Liks?
J-Ro: We were true to ourselves. We did our own thing. Like the good Frank Sinatra song, “We did it our way.”.[But] I really do think we get overlooked a lot. When magazines talk about the top 100 rappers, we won’t even be in there. I think we get overlooked a lot. I don’t know what the reason for that is or whatever. I think we smash a lot of groups that be in there, lyrically or musically.
