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Minneapolis Cypher Magazine�s interview with Tew Tone by Justin Smith It's hard to find a humble MC these days. When you talk to most MCs they are never short for words about how tight they are or how gangstar they are. Most will even tell you that they are the only hot shit out right now. So when you talk to local MC Tew Tone, you probably wouldn't even know he was an MC. With the carrisma of a playboy, street smarts of a hustler, and education of a scholar, Tew Tone comes off as more of a bussiness man than an MC. Although he�s an MC, its not a stretch by any means to say he is a sholar, or a bussness man, or even a ex-hustler. Born in Memphis, Tennisee, Tew Tone came up in a very large family where he said his biggest influnces were God and his mother. After moving to a slew of differant places, he and his family finally setteled in St. Cloud where he began his rap career. Cypher Magazine: So how did you get started in music? Tew Tone: When I was three I got a Smirf drum set, I thought I was the shit. So in Memphis my uncles used to rap on the corner. I used to hang out on the corner with them. They thought i was a fly nigga ya know. I was break danceing on the corner with the boom box and the shell toes and shit. That's how i got into the game, I started break dancing. I had a jerry curl and all! Wait, my ass had an S curl!! So I used to get on there and freestyle and shit, thenI started writing. I wrote my first song, it was called Spanish Fly. I got in trouble in school for it because I didnt know what Spanish Fly ment, come to find out I was on the right path with it. I was pretty much mimicing Too Short ya know. I used to bump Too Short and and No Face, some under ground cats. So i used a kareokee machine to record that and I started pumping the streets with it. I sold like ten tapes, and I thought I was moving something! So that's how I started some shit. CM: What was school like? Tew Tone: High school sucked! We lived at the Salvation Amy because we didn't have enough money to get a house. Everyone at school knew somthing was up because I came to school in the same clothes every day. They would ask me where I lived and I would tell them some bullshit. I would be like, "Well it�s this joint across town" or "like right next to the gas station." They knew i was bullshittin'. CM: Did you ever hustle? Tew Tone: Yeah. CM: Why? Tew Tone: Cause I was hanging with some hustlers and thought that was the only way to make some serious cash. So after I started hustling I started spitting more. I got my younger brother OJ on a track at eight years old rapping bout Mickey Mouse. I was looking for another way to get out this shit. MC: How did you get your name out there in the rap game? Tew Tone: A group called Trouble Makers helped me out. Then I got a spot on a local radio station. I started doing some more shit with Trouble Makers, then I started doing shit with my brothers. CM: What's your whole goal, wheather it's to get signed or get your message out or any thing else? Tew Tone: Well yeah, I'd love to get signed. I mean I'm a bussiness man, why wouldn't I want to get signed. Till then I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing. CM: What groups or crew are you a fan of or do you respect? Tew Tone: If I have heard of them I respect them, they're obviously doing somthing right for me to hear em. CM: How do you feel about the state of Hip Hop right now? Tew Tone: It needs mouth to mouth.....it's so unbalanced right now. The media is bringing a fucked up message right now, it's only playing dance music. Which dance music serves its purpose, but it's not bringing the other side to the public, what is that teaching us? That life is just a party? There�s another side to life. Just like Kanye was trying to say, you can't say God or you're not gonna get ya shit played. How does that make sense, it�s all fucked up. CM: What do you think about the Hip Hop scene in the Twin Cities? Tew Tone: Its cool, i like it, but it ain't where it should be. We got alot of work to do. CM: Thanks alot Tew Tone |
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