In The Studio

Re-Ex Interview #1 with Rob Lote & Raztah Tree

Jaz from the RepostExchange Team

Taken from the very first Re-Ex podcast, we’re revisiting Jaz’s interview with Rob Lote (Last Of The Emcees) and Raztah Tree. Having picked their track ‘Streets Do’ to spin on the show, Jaz caught up with the duo to chat about Alfred Hitchcock, Grandmas and performing live.

When you guys make music together, how do you collaborate?

Raztah Tree: I’d say it’s different every track…

Rob Lote: Every time it’s different.

Raztah Tree: But Lote is the producer. Lote will make the beats and then he’ll send them out, usually with a verse or a hook attached to them already. And then, that inspires me to write a verse to it. But Lote be cooking it up in the studio.

Rob Lote: Actually ‘Streets Do’ beat is one of the first efforts when I joined, I found a site called Splice and they have royalty-free samples on their subscription service and I started downloading samples from them.

Nice, so what’s your favorite bit of equipment?

Rob Lote: Right now, my favorite would have to be the Akai MPK Mini, it’s a mini keyboard with eight drum pads on and I can just throw it in my backpack, take it to the park.

Raztah Tree: Mine would be the cell phone or a simple pencil because I’m more of a writer.

What kind of things do you like to write about?

Raztah Tree: I’d say I’m pretty diverse, so political mostly. A lot of it’s political, like chip on my shoulder kinda. Political-wise, everything that’s going on in the world. My previous projects were very party-oriented, you know about getting money and drunk, and stuff like that. And then my more recent projects have been more, I want to say a little bit conscience.

Rob Lote: To be honest, if it wasn’t for music, I’d be stark raving mad.

Like a therapy?

Rob Lote: Yeah.

Raztah Tree: Yeah, that’s a great way to describe it. It’s really is because you can have the worst day ever and as long as you have a beat, you can write down all those thoughts and you don’t have to hurt nobody. You don’t have to hurt yourself and you can vibe out and just release it. It’s a beautiful thing.

Do you ever play live?

Rob Lote: That’s one of the plans.

Raztah Tree: We’ve done a few performances.

Rob Lote: But it’s more little open mics. We have a group as a duo. I don’t think we’ve ever really been on stage together yet. We’ve been on the same stage on the same night, but not together.

Raztah Tree: You know, he does his song and I do one of my songs, that kind of situation. And Rob used to have an open mic party situation where he would invite a lot of artists to come out and perform.

Rob Lote: It was at this place called Funkadelic Studios, it’s in Times Square. It’s a pretty dope spot. Small, but it’s cosy.

That’s what you need!

Rob Lote: Yeah, definitely and people came out. You’d be surprised if you put Times Square on a flyer, people are going to come.

See me and Raz have another track that we’re working on right now called ‘Distorted’ and that’s the next one you’re going to hear from us.

How would you describe your sound? So when you go home to see your Grandma and she asks you what you’ve been up to and she asks what your music sounds like, what would you tell her?

Rob Lote: I’d tell her it’s rocking and rough, but you can listen to it too, Grandma.

Raztah Tree: It’s like back to basics with hip-hop really and focused really on lyrics, just making sure that the lyrics are on point. So, it’s a song that has to have a message, it’s not going to be mumbled either. It has to have a clear message. So, Grandma, it’ll be something like, “You remember hearing hip hop on the radio and you hated it? We’re bringing it back Grandma!”

Rob Lote: Exactly, that’s exactly what we’re doing.

How did you find out about RepostExchange?

Rob Lote: RepostExchange, I’ve been a Soundcloud user for years and I use it just like I use Facebook and Twitter or Instagram. So one of the artists I reached out to on Soundcloud told me that he loved my stuff and that I should put it on Repost Exchange. I started using it, I created a network account. I told Raz about it and I started putting my songs up just to test the water to see if people would listen to it. And lo and behold.

If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?

Rob Lote: If I could change one thing, it would be pay to play. Get rid of pay to play. That’s what Raz and I talk about all the time and the way the world is. It’s rigged, it’s not fair and people don’t believe you.

Who are your biggest musical influences?

Rob Lote: I have a lot of musical influences. The biggest I have to say… wow. I like a lot of different kind of music, so let’s say Tupac, Biggie. Those are two, I just like the way they put out music, they just kept it coming and it was good music. Phil Collins, Linkin Park. There’s so many more, Run-D.M.C., LL Cool J, all the top influences. Jay Z, Eminem, Dr. Dre – he’s definitely one of my biggest influences. Missy Elliott, Alicia Keys, Keyshia Cole, Mary J. Blige, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight.

Raztah Tree: It all started with a lot of salsa, merengue. Reggaeton, especially when I got to my teenage years. And then later on, I started learning about hip-hop, so I learned it through Method Man, Xzibit, a lot of Biggie. Biggie was really who made me love hip-hop, particularly. But through hip-hop, you start learning that they sampled all the old stuff and then you learn about James Brown and all the old cats, and New Orleans music. And then there was a little phase of techno, a little bit of that. So, everything really. Really eclectic.

Rob Lote: Definitely, I’m from The Bronx, New York, the birthplace of it and it’s in my roots. It’s heavily embedded. And even with the mumble rap…

Raztah Tree: You can’t even hate it, no matter how much, I still can’t hate it to the fullest because it’s the new wave and it’s an evolution and it’s something new and if you get stuck into hating something that’s new and just getting stuck to what’s old, you’ll never evolve as an artist, you’ll never be able to move forward. Because even spinning on some old school track with some old school flows, you still want to spit some lyrics that’ll reach the people today and not to necessarily talk about the same old stuff. Although, history repeats itself and you’re really talking about the same old shit you’re talking about today is the same old shit they were talking about yesteryear or not.

Rob Lote: I’m a big Alfred Hitchcock fan, that’s where I get my twisted sense of humor with my music videos. I think that’s why I like The Birds, Rear Window.

Rear Window is one of my favorites.

Rob Lote: Yeah, Vertigo is a really dope movie, I sat down with my aunt and we watched that, so that’s how I got into that.

Are there any artists that you’re listening to at the moment that you found through RepostExchange?

Raztah Tree: Hoolyville, King Ky0te, Bino Hooly.

Rob Lote: Hoolyville, for sure. MaeBae, Hooly Cal.

Rob Lote: Shout out to my boy Novel Hooly and all of the other artists on RepostExchange that really take the time to put in the work and put your song out there and be judged by the cruel world that we live in.

Raztah Tree: As an artist, you have to get over a hundred noes and a thousand noes so you can start hearing the yesses. You have to get away far enough from your circle because it’s not until somebody’s like, “Nah, this is trash, you need to do something different.” That that allows you to change what you’re doing so that you can put out something that other people will like. So, the opinions of other people for artists are unfortunately the only thing that matters almost(!)

Tell us about your track 'Streets Do'

Rob Lote: We wrote ‘Streets Do’, the song in the car at work. The first person that heard it was a bike messenger. She pulled up next to the car while we were working on the song and she said, “Hold on, what is that? Can I hear that?” And I said, “You want to hear it?” And we ran down the first part of the song for her and she loved it!