Illuminati 2G

Not many have heard of Broward County, Florida unless it was from lone mainestream rapper Ace Hood. We are introducing Vice Gripp with this exclusive interview, a fellow Broward County native who has an interesting story to tell filled with pain and struggle; and of course, a love for the art form we all respect as hip-hop...Read on...
 

Interview: What was life like growing up in Broward County, Florida?

Vice Gripp: See, Florida itself is a completely different world from anywhere I’ve ever been; especially South Florida. Down here in Broward, it’s a melting pot of all different cultures and creeds, and all types of different people. This is the only place I’ve ever been where you can be standing in front of million dollar mansions on one block, and then walk down the street and hit the hood. But Broward all around really influenced me as a person. Shit is not easy down here. There is a lot of drug money that floods the streets and a lot of two faced people. You really have to be on point at all times. There is not a lot of southern hospitality to say the least.

Interview: Speaking of influence, which artists influenced you as you grew up?

Vice Gripp: I grew up in the mid 90s. As a kid when I was really young, MC Hammer, Michael Jackson and a lot of the popular artists of the late 80s made me want to be a performer. I always knew I’d feel at home on stage. I used to do talent shows and lip sync and dance to Michael Jackson songs when I was 5. I still have cassette tapes from Notorious B.I.G., No Limit, Skee-Lo (neither him nor I ever got taller) and Bone Thugs. I was heavily influenced by groups in hip-hop; Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Twista and his Speedknot Mobstaz, the whole No Limit camp, Heltah Skeltah, Snoop Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound, Wu-Tang Clan, UGK, OutKast as well as a few different solo heads. Canibus was a big influence on me too. I can tell when artists pour their hearts into their music, and mainly that is what I look for when I’m listening as a fan.

Interview: Interesting. When did you realize you yourself had the talents to rap?

Vice Gripp: Early on in life. My grandmother (RIP) was a published poet and I had artistic people throughout my family tree. I had a really advanced reading ability in elementary school, and my writing was always advanced with short stories and poetry. The schools always put my work in their little yearly pamphlets or whatever you call them. I originally started battling cats in chat room on Napster when that first popped off at like 12 or 13. When I reached high school, I met my brother-from-another-mother, Big Rela and we formed our Psyko South crew on 10/26/01. Since then, it’s just been history in the making.

Interview: We’re going to get into Psyko South shortly. First off, at what age would you say you began really taking it serious?

Vice Gripp: Of course at first we just made songs for fun and practice and showed our friends in high school. I'd say we started getting serious as a squad when the crew we were recording with, The Safehouse, merged into Psyko South and formed the six man squad that it is today. That was back in 2006. We've been called the Wu-Tang of the South by fans because everybody in the squad has homies that rhyme who are down wit us Psykos.

Interview: What would you describe as the first big break you received in the industry? Or are you still waiting for that?

Vice Gripp: I'd say we are still waiting for a big break. The first time I realized we were on the radar was when we did a show with underground Miami veterans THC (the Hispanic Connection) and Garcia. We were supposed to open up for Capadonna from the Wu-Tang Clan and Big Noyd from the Mobb Deep camp. Something happened with their transportation and they never showed, but we fucking ROCKED the house. We were in Downtown Miami with 50 rowdy ass Psyko's from the 9 Nickel 4 and performed a ridiculously crunk set. This was our first time opening for a big act and doing a show with local legends, so we made sure Psyko South was stamped into their brains. We came out the gate with “2008 BC (The Broward Anthem)” as our first song...now for readers to realize the amount of balls it took to do this, you have to understand something -  Broward County has been hated on in the local scene for a long time by folk in Dade County. Even going to the clubs back in the day, if you were reppin 954 and screaming "Hollywood" in the club you were probably gonna end up in a fight wit someone from Carol City or Opa Locka. I don’t know why, but fools weren't respecting Broward like that.

After the show, we read an article about it in the New Times local magazine and they were hating on us! They barely mentioned any of the other acts there even though they were way more visible in the scene, and dedicated a whole paragraph to hating on Psyko South. That's when I first noticed we were on the radar.

Interview: That’s a crazy story right there. Where does the name Vice Gripp come from?

Vice Gripp: (Laughs) that’s a funny story. When I first started rapping, I switched rap names every week. I couldn't find something that suited me. I was recording a freestyle one day wit a cheap mic from radio shack at like 15 years old, and I was gripping the mic so tight I literally cracked the plastic outer shell. I noticed that and not even missing a beat, incorporated it into my freestyle I said "I crush mics like I'm a vise grip". When I went back and listened to it, it was so fresh I thought "Yeah, I am like a vise grip! I have shit on lock, I can crush mics, I'm holding it down" ya dig? The changing of the spelling, that's just something hip hop does. But it took on other meanings because of it. Vice as in something bad you do, I feel like I'm kind of casted as a villain because I speak the truth all the time and that's looked at awkwardly in some instances. Gripp with 2 P's because my lyrics are full of punch lines and I hit you with both fists.

Interview: That’s dope. Now tell us more about your Psyko south crew.

Vice Gripp: Psyko South International because bitch, we’re going global. That's the motto, because we are a hip-hop group from South Florida made up of 6 completely different individual emcees. All of us are different style wise, ethnicity wise, influence and life style. We’re just all around different people but we are the perfect example of South Florida's melting pot culture. We are all Psyko's because it's more socially acceptable to go with the flow and be sheep rather than stick out like a sore thumb and just do you and be yourself. If you don't dress like a fit description or look like, or act like a stereotypical robot of a person then you’re not normal. Plus we are all insane! Drugs are fun (laughs).

Interview: I hear you. How can our readers get a hold of some Psyko South clothing?

Vice Gripp: As of this time, you'd have to know someone personally. Our manager was importing the clothing from Pakistan (yeah, I said we’re International) and we were designing it over here but our manager is no longer with us. Look out for it in the future too, clothes, shoes, underwear, energy drinks, automatic weaponry, I want a hand in all of that. Give me that money!

Interview:  Let’s talk about the single we recently debuted, “The Outlaw Anthem.” Talk about the content and your overall favorite element of the song.

Vice Gripp: My favorite element of the song is the energy. When I first heard the beat, the entire song came to me in an instant. I was like 'Imma do what I want on this beat'. I also have the word Outlaw tattooed to my left forearm and it's basically how I live my life. My old girl would even tell you I've basically done what I want to my entire life if I felt strongly about it and couldn't find a reason not tp. So I wanted to capture the energy of the beat with the lyrics too which is why the chorus is done like that. It follows the melody and is crunk as fuck. The lyrics are basic insight to me, my life, and the way I think. Like in the second verse I said "I live my life in fast forward, I don't need a pause//I do this shit for self expression I don't need applause, but if you feeling how I'm feeling donate to the cause//". I feel like verses are individual poems in a song. My lyrics always got altered meanings and hidden shit in them, my mind just puts concepts together real well.

Interview: Great meaning and lyrics right there. What is the title of your upcoming project and when is it being released?

Vice Gripp: The title of the project is "Entering Broward County Vol. 2". The first one is available on www.datpiff.com. It was just a side project I did for fun in a home studio that I decided to put online. I worked on it on the side while doing a studio album with Psyko South. Surprisingly to me it got real good reviews. For a good while the only artist outta Broward that had more listens on there was Ace Hood. But I never even promoted the project; I just let it do what it do. The people felt it though so I decided to do this one in the main Psyko South lab and give them a little more quality and thought out, well put together product. It'll be out on 9/19.

Interview: How will the fans be able to get their hands on it?

Vice Gripp: The project is 100% free for download available on a few different sites, as well as www.psykoSsouth.com. Eventually, I will be printing up physical copies and those will be available at a donation at any one of our live shows.

Interview: Ok. What type of production and guest appearances do you have on there?

Vice Gripp: All of the production is handled by producers through www.soundclick.com. We just basically downloaded a ton of beats off there and write songs as we sift through them. The main producers I feel off there are Shadowville Productions, VTZ, Anno Domini, Mister KA, Mista Koo Man, Royal Beats, Track Bangas, Vybe Beatz and Black Tee Productions. There are a lot of dope producers on there so y’all rappers reading this, holla’ at them! Guest appearances are mainly in house. My Psyko South fam; Big Rela, Brasko, Czar, Lou Bez, JM Blakk, the Killuh Twinz - King Grim and Trakz, my homie Intouch who's an R&B singer, my dogs Dyce and 12 Gauge, my dog Sike 3, and some of the emcees from a little side joint I got popping off called the Weapon X Project - Aztek, MZA and Ill Ran Da Flamespitta – they’re on a cipher joint on the album.

Interview: Ok. What are your goals for this project?

Vice Gripp: Realistically, it's going to do what it's going to do. The two keys to success can't be denied; that's skill and hard work. If you’re good at something and you work hard at it then no one can deny that you've done that, because you did it. They can't take that away from you. So I'm going to push my project and art as far as I can at this current point in time. I feel like it's a real solid piece of music and honestly fans of the culture of hip-hop I think will enjoy it. Real recognize real and I always put 100% of myself into my music, no bullshit. It's just how I do.

Interview: Quote worthy material right there. What do you hope to achieve by the end of your career?

Vice Gripp: I want to take over the world! (Laughs). Nah, but on the real, I would love to make an impact on the culture and inspire others to think about their craft and write from their heart like all of the musicians and lyricists that influenced me did. There's a lot more to life than fortune and fame no matter how many TV channels that lifestyle might be on. Life has depth. There are motherfuckers with nothing to eat right now and they don't live that far from you. So I just wanna’ inspire people to think really. It's good to think and know shit.

Interview: Ain’t that the truth. Florida really made a lot of moves in hip-hop over the last 5 years. Did you really see such a takeover coming?

Vice Gripp: Nah, really I didn't. I mean we've been banging quality music down here since back in the 90's. A lot of people labeled the mainstream shit “booty music”, but that's a media term from the way females get loose to it. To us down here it was party music, roller rink music, having good time music, you dig? Florida has got a lot of good looking beaches and bitches so that's part of our culture (laughs). But in the past 5 years you've seen the Southern style of things get accepted into the mainstream light and it's crafted the sound scope, at least, for the time being. It's new school reality rap, what the media called gangsta rap, and they now call trap rap. I knew when Pitbull came out and Lil Jon co-signed em that he was gonna pop off something serious.

Interview: What are your thoughts on Rick Ross, Plies, Trick Daddy, Trina, Ace Hood and DJ Khaled?

Vice Gripp:  (Laughs) this is where I get in trouble. Trick Daddy is the king of Florida, in my mind. He represented musically like no one else at the time. From concepts, to lyrics, to mainstream acceptance, to originality. Trick Daddy was repping hard. I'm more of an underground head, so as far as Ross, Plies and Trina I don't listen too much of. I think Plies is fucking wack as shit. Ace Hood… I had his first joint; I feel like whoever didn't let Ace be Ace is what hurt his career. I think he can flow, but his lyrics aren't that stand out and there are way too many features on his albums. You can't get to know him because the focus is more on the features and production than the main emcee. What I do like about him is he tries to work concept tracks like Champion or Overtime which shows he thinks about what he puts out. And he reps for Broward, so he gets love. DJ Khaled is alright but he's more of an orchestrator, a maestro if you will, than a DJ. I've never heard any scratching on his records but he does make artists collaborate and he organizes shit. Plus his tapes usually ride out so he's doing his thing.

Interview: Ok. Do you have any last words before I let you go?

Vice Gripp: If you love music and real shit download “Entering Broward County Volume 2” from ya boy Vice Gripp of Psyko South on 9/19 available on many different sites or at www.psykosouth.com. Also available at www.psykosouth.com is my dog Big Rela's album "Theory of Relativity" and the last Psyko South group project "Hurricane Season". Shout out's to StrongArm for the cover work. Stay up with us because we aren’t gonna’ stop bringing that real shit with a fist to ya’ mother's face, ya dig!? Psyko South International, bitch we going global! Knowledge is power.