The East Coast has always been the place to give their music to the streets and the fans just how they want it: dirty, grimy and hard. The Outsidaz is a group that is using this formula perfectly. Coming out of New Jersey, The Bricks, these nine MC's are taking their rough street lyrics and hard, dominating beats and putting them right in the face of all who will listen. And in doing this they have gained a very loyal and very big fan base. With only an EP out The Outsidaz have already gained the respect of many heads and done well enough to open for EPMD on the Lyricist Lounge tour and now for Redman and Method Man on the Blackout tour. They have succeeded with very little help from the radio and video channels and done it the old fashioned way, word of mouth. They let their reputation speak for itself and never let a crowd go unmoved and that is why they are in the position they are today. I caught up with some of the members of this super group when they came through San Diego and they told me what being an Outsida is all about.

JC: How did The Outsidaz get together and become the nine member group that it is?

Young Zee: It was nine members before anybody did their solo venture. We was trying to get and Outsidaz deal. We was just solo artist within The Outsidaz. Actually searching for a solo deal was our second choice. Our first choice was to just go for The Outsidaz deal but then when that was taking a while, everybody starting doing solo songs anyway. So it was cool. We have been together since like '91. Put (Rah) Digga down in '91. Put Eminem down in '96 and now it's on.

Frosty: So that like extended fam?

Young Zee: Yeah.

JC: Young Zee, you being on the Redman album, is that how you guys got to get on the Blackout tour?

Young Zee: We both got the same promoter and when it came time for the Red and Meth tour, well I guess they gave them a list of all the artist they work with and which one they wanted to fuck with to open up on tour. And they picked us.

D.U.: Basically it is all one big family thing. We have been knowing Red for years. We have been knowing Tical for mad years.

Young Zee: Yeah Red introduced us to Meth a while ago. I like I knew Meth even before that because me and Red you know.

Frosty: How is The Outsidaz album looking and is it going to be done for the scheduled summer release date?

Young Zee: It's looking good so far. The only thing that might hold us back is like sample clearances and shit like that.

JC: Now as far as producers, is it in house? Is it your own people or is it people that you went and sought after?

D.U.: Pace-Won does production. Zee does production. Az Izz do production. Then we got my partner right here Ricashay, we just signed him to our camp. He just an all our producer. He real talented. He play every instrument under the sun. We got Rockwilder.

Young Zee: We got a lot of people from our hood too.

D.U.: We look for whatever is fresh. We are not biased to anybody.

JC: What did you look for to do different, with all of the styles going on in the East Coast right now? How did you guys look for a different angle?

Young Zee: Just live different.

D.U.: We got our own lingo, our own language, our own life how we live. We stay in tune with what is going on but we don't get caught up in it. I am happy for everybody doing they thing. When I see Cash Money and Ruff Ryders on tour, I know if they are going to be famous, it gave me hope to say "aight, we are fresh too. We real fresh, so we are going to get to that level to." I ain't knocking they style or they flow but if they are doing it, you know for sure we are going to do it.

Young Zee: Because in a battle situation you've got to ask yourself. And that's basically what it boils down to. You know people start rapping for different reasons, like this person might start rapping because they see Slick Rick with a lot of jewelry on or something. This person might be rapping because they see Eric B in a Benz. Or this person might start rapping because he want some bitches and he know all the bitches are going to come. Basically all The Outsidaz started rapping on some battle shit, you know what I am saying. That's how we became a unit. Like, most of us started rapping to humiliate the next rapper, you know what I am saying. If I come to a area like at my school or something and there's a whole bunch of people there and they think this cat is the freshest rapper, I want to try and take him out in front of all of them niggas. That's what thrived me to start rapping and the rest of The Outsidaz. It wasn't flashy jewelry. Don't get me wrong, jewelry is shit and cars and money and all that. Music is an image and it's not a poor image. You know what I am saying. I mean you could come out as portraying the less fortunate person that you are at the time, like bastard child, you can come out portraying that but then like two albums later, you are going to have to be creative and just come with music.

JC: Do you still have the same mentality going into it after all the years? Is it still battle first, write songs later?

Young Zee: When you become a signed artist, you have to have structuring. You can't be just a battle artist and then your rhymes don't have no hooks or no universal feeling to them, you know what I'm saying. It's a double-headed coin with that. You gotta also know how to make a song.

D.U.: You gotta come with that extra niche no matter what. There's got to be something extra. No matter how fresh you are, you gotta have that extra niche. It's mad fresh that I heard, and I was like "damn, I wonder why they ain't blowing up." It made me sit back like "damn, that could easily be me." I just stay on my toes.

Frosty: How does the creative process work as far as like you are working with nine verbalists right? How generally does the concept go from the mind to the paper and bring in all the heads into the fold?

Young Zee: Outsidaz, we are not really a story telling group. So basically we come in and boom, somebody got a hook and we say that hook and all agree to it. Boom, everybody go in their little separate area and writer they rap and come kick it on the mic.

D.U.: Since we been signed and we went through a whole lot of learning process, it's like we learned about each other at that same time because now we are serious. No more on-the-corner type shit. So it's like certain songs they sound like they might could do this better than I could because there is brothers in my crew that done years in jail. I only did a week in jail, you know what I'm saying. So if this is on some jail shit, I would rather my dog speak it instead of me just trying to. But you got some other shit like on some rocking-on-the-block type shit, spittin', holdin' it down, battlin' for years, then that's what I like to hear me and my dog. Then you got some shit on some wild ecstacy, acid, hashish, I want to hear Az Izz, you know what I'm saying. All of us can't be on every single song.

Young Zee: And it's also competition because this person going to come with the fresh lyrics. That simple shit that you thought you was going to say just because you got a little fame or whatever. Like a lot of artists come out and they get a little fame and they feel like they can say whatever on a record. The minute we do that, you got the next man coming that is going to be fresher than you.

Frosty: So it's like a friendly competition amongst y'all?

Young Zee: Because we are all a group and we want our group to be the freshest group out there but we also individually want to be the freshest MC's too.

D.U.: We tryin' to be the best everything. Group, soloist. If he drop (points to Young Zee) and he sell more records than anybody else, then that's a gold I'm puttin' up for myself, like when I drop my shit I'm gunnin' for him.

Young Zee: I'd like to do my solo shit though, when we get off this tour. I ain't done a solo song in a while. I haven't started my solo record. But I'm gonna do my solo shit in a minute. All my competition is basically down with us. Outsidaz, Red, Meth, Eminem. So all our lyrical competition is basically down with us. So that's a good thing.

JC: Now with being such a large group at nine members, is there someone that acts as the leader or is everyone on the same plane?

Young Zee: Yeah we are. It ain't no leaders or no followers. Everybody going to do their own thing. Like an artist can't tell another artist what to do in this group. We got structure, you know what I'm saying. Everybody play they position.

D.U.: Like by him (points to Young Zee) having a solo deal and Pace having a solo deal, they went through a lot of stuff. I went through the deals with them and I sat backed watched them, just absorb everything. So I watch for what thy done. There be situation where I might had a problem. But I definitely come to them and say "yo what you think about this."

JC: Now aside from the immediate nine members, are you guys working with any other people out in the industry, like MC's and producers?

Young Zee: We got Red and Meth on our album.

D.U.: On this Outsida album we just really want to expose the Outsidaz really. We want to expose that and our unity with Digga, Eminem. That shit is real.

Young Zee: Even though we got friends in the industry, they are not just going to do us a favor. How many friends got friends in the industry. They are not just going to do us a favor. We got to be able to hold it down around that caliber of artist.

D.U.: Being a young blood they test you. I look up to them and we damn near all the same age. But when I spit for them and they like it, I be like "yeah, this is what I've been striving for."

JC: Is there a particular concept to the album?

D.U.: The title says it all. The title is called The Bricks. That's the concept, Brick City, North New Jersey. It's our style of music. It's not the same as say Red's shit, but it's that Brick City. It's just raw. Fresh samples. Fresh beats that came up with.

JC: So is everybody a New Jersey native?

D.U.: Yeah the whole crew.

JC: Now that you guys are in a major label position are you going to be going back and bringing people up and developing younger artists?

Young Zee: Yeah, there's cats that we are working with. There are cats from the Bricks that's real fresh.

JC: If you had everybody in Hip-Hop listening to you, what would you want to tell them?

D.U.: Ahhhhhhh, it's on.

Young Zee: That my shit is definitely fresher than yours. I don't give a fuck what you say, my shit is definitely fresher than yours.

Pace-Won: I would say, yo for real, the East Coast rocks the best.

Az Izz: We have won.

SDU