Photos by Moses Mitchell
Class and professionalism are rare commodities in any industry, music industry not excluded. Money can’t buy it; record sales are of no consequence to it. Much like respect, those traits are hard earned. Strong Arm Steady exudes a certain quality in their music, their business, and their overall ethos. They’ve been doing this Hip Hop thing for a while now and they get it. Their latest endeavor with Statik Selektah merges two styles that may seem incongruent on the surface. On one hand, you have an “East Coast”-oriented producer whose trademark beats unashamedly knock hard and are rooted in the “boom bap” tradition. On the other, you have a triumvirate from the West Coast who personify independence and make no apologies about it. Carving out one’s niche, “doing you,” if you will, attracts the detractors and both Statik Selektah and Strong Arm Steady have been compartmentalized, at times, and it’s this project –Stereotype– that is so appropriately titled. They shed any notions of stereotypes and come together to make one very cohesive album.
I had a chance to talk with Krondon and discuss with him the makings of their latest album with Statik Selektah. He also offers insight into their relationship with Stones Throw and why the DIY (do it yourself) attitude is a must for Strong Arm Steady. The ideas of using cross-promotional and marketing partnerships have been instrumental in strengthening and broadening the brand’s base. Krondon’s demeanor is representative of the group as a whole as being one of musician and businessman; it’s the music business, after all, and Strong Arm Steady is well aware that they’re not far removed from the glow of Tinseltown. But don’t get it twisted: there is nothing Hollywood about this trio and Hip Hop culture is better for it.
Check out the rest after the jump!
[expand title=”More” swaptitle=”Less” trigpos=”below”]Statik Selektah has an “East Coast” feel to his beats and you guys are West Coast spitters. How does this connection make sense and translate into such a cohesive album?
It was about connecting and having him do some joints in front of us as well as going through his catalog. Let me say this: his collection of beats is constantly growing and we didn’t settle on any record. Some of the beats changed to make the vision clearer and more in-line with where we’re at now. It’s all about getting the right record, the right song to manifest the vision that we –Statik and us- have in mind. Once they were completed, mixed, and mastered we took them to J. Rocc of the Beat Junkies. He’s like our Prince Paul; he understands the vision and us. J. Rocc helps put our skits together and he helps fuse the album together. He was very instrumental, not just on Stereotype, but on our other albums, too.
I’m a producer-oriented artist. We’re very hands-on and we approach all our records that way. Comparing this to cooking, I’m a chef and I know what I want. At the same time, we appreciate the talents of those around us and the seasonings they bring. As far as this record, we recorded half of it in New York and the other half in L.A. This wasn’t about sending sessions back and forth; it was very organic in terms of being together when we were recording. Just being real, our brand has been pigeonholed in various ways, which brought us to the title of the album –Stereotype. Statik, I’m sure, gets typecast for his sound being “boom bap” as if that’s the only sound he can do. You can really only brand us as quintessential Hip Hop. Look at the catalog; we’re not afraid to branch out.
How does Stereotype differ from the past albums?
With Arms and Hammers, we had a bunch of different producers on that one. We had the deal with Warner Brothers and Blacksmith Music. We had been recording that since 2006 and it was turned in 2008. The record finally came out in 2011! It was recorded at a different time compared to when it was originally being worked on. I really love the album, but the timing wasn’t right. We view Arms and Hammers as our best record to date. It was really our debut album. Even though Stoney Jackson came out first, Arms and Hammers was our first one aside from singles and such. Stoney Jackson was recorded in three months compared to the five- year process of Arms and Hammers. Also, we had no idea that Stoney Jackson would be as well received as it was. It was a little shocking.
Things really flow on this album. Give me your thoughts on how this came about.
It’s a very mature album. As I mentioned earlier, it goes back to how we set out to record it with Statik in terms of getting the soundscapes right. When I take myself away from the record, I hear Mitch and Phil really doing their thing; it puts the album in its rightful context. The guests came in, gave their A-game, and really performed on this album. When you compare it to our previous body of work, this is just a progression of our artistry and maturity. We’re all very pleased with how the entire album came out.
This album is due out on Stones Throw. Expound on that relationship.
We toured after Arms and Hammer and began to redevelop the brand. We took a more DIY (do it yourself) approach to doing our music. Stones Throw approached us about recording another Madlib record. It was something we thought about doing, but that wasn’t our major focus at the time. So, we sat down with Wolf (Peanut Butter Wolf) and them to discuss future possibilities. We talked to them about the independent strength and direction of the brand and we played him the Statik material. He checked the joints out and hit me up the next day. After some more meetings, we got on the same page in terms of the brand’s vision. In terms of our relationship with the label, we have more of a distribution deal with them and it made sense for Stones Throw to get behind the album. Statik was very excited to work Stones Throw as that was something he always wanted to do. Please keep in mind: SAS is still very independent. We appreciate DIY but you also need BYT -build your team. You can’t do everything yourself and Stones Throw offers a solid partnership.
Explain what DIY means in 2012 for Strong Arm Steady.
It’s about ownership; it’s taking responsibility for your brand from A to Z. You still have to be able to hold every position in the company to understand how different aspects of the company work. Also, you have to know where you want to go and build a team around you that understands that vision. It’s not about relying on one source within your brand either. You have to diversify with some kind of intent. Doing complete collaborations are important, like this Stereotype album we did with Stones Throw. We also teamed up with Diamond Supply who is a clothing company that is definitely behind us on this project. They helped develop a special t-shirt specifically for this project that’s in limited supply. It’s no longer just about the music but merchandise and other avenues. You have to cross-promote and cross-brand with other companies. We did a smoke box limited edition on 4/20 with a bunch of accessories with all the logos of SAS in conjunction with Dearly Departed out of Arizona. Shout out to my man Slim over there. That sold out quickly and we have some more things planned in the future. Like restaurants, you have to be adding to the menu at all times.
How do you feel about giving music away for free? Does it help or hurt?
It makes it easier and more accessible to the fans. Now it’s easier to go to Twitter and have people go and download the album. We put out a free EP on 4/20 with songs that were on our hard drives. This project coincided with the joint effort we did with Dearly Departed for the limited smoke box promotion. You still have to be creative in creating awareness with the movement and we want everyone to be up to speed with our music and us. We’re not giving everything away for free either. This latest EP is not the whole album and we’re giving people who buy the album more songs. Also, three of the songs have already been out. So, we’re only giving them three more songs that aren’t on Stereotype.
Any final words?
Be sure to check out strongarmsteady.net to stay in touch with what we’re doing. That’s our home and steady is the key word in Strong Arm Steady. We have some other projects coming that definitely build on Stereotype and our past work. I don’t want to get into them too much now, but fans will be pleasantly surprised. Remember: The brand is here forever!
