Interview: Main Attrakionz on Grape Darkening

Hayley Louisa/Clash Magazine

Were the Modern Library to go bat shit crazy and commission God to rewrite Genesis, Yahweh might just scratch out Adam and Eve and replace them with a duo from Oakland. In fact, Associated Press wires from last week report, in starkly bland sentences, strange vibes “emanating from the sky,” what’s been interpreted by VICE Media as thundering claps, bells and the odd ejaculation of dark grapes raining down from the heavens. Unsure as to meaning of such presumptuous reportage, one is left wondering, in rapture, about this unknown rapping coming from the clouds.

In the bowels of the continent, where the soil is still brown, uncontaminated fans of hip-hop protest that the Oakland duo of Main Attrakionz are responsible for what they call “music,” or “cloud rap,” echoing earlier claims made by the Modern Library.

Unsatisfied by baseless speculation, and the literary community’s confounding press releases, we’ve dispatched one of our reporters from his post in the Interzone to establish contact with the elusive musicians, God’s sons themselves, Squadda B and Mondre of Main Attrakionz, who drop their latest mixtape GreenOVA Life (the ice tape) today.

Download GreenOVA Life (tha ice tape) here.

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Hey, what’s going on, man?

Mondre: Oh shit, it’s the boy, Peter.

What’s up, dude? You guys in Oakland?

M: Yeah. Oakland, California, man.

What’s it like down there?

M: Damn, man, shit. Cool. Chill out here, you feel me? It’s pretty much what it’s like up there, different lingo you feel me, different styles of shit, ain’t too much different.

When I was talking to Shady Blaze the other day, he told me about this time when he came and picked you guys up and went back to his…I guess garage, and made some beats. You guys were like 12 at that time. I want to start at the beginning. Bring me up to that point, when you meet Shady.

Squadda B: Shady’s original Main Attrakionz. Hell, yeah, he’s one of the original muthafuckas. When we came up with the name Main Attrakionz Shady was in the room. He was part of the group. Shady’s fault. Shady’s fault.

You guys started so young, how’d you do that?

S: Shit, it just happened though, man.

M: But you know it was us two doing something called Oakland Idol, you know what I’m saying? It’s like a little talent showcase we was trying to audition for and you know. Hey, we met this guy named Peter, you feel me? [laughs] We met this dude named Peter. He knew Shady Blaze and shit. We got him on the phone, Shady Blaze playing some beats, a couple weeks later we done linked up.

S: Damn! So Peter was the reason we met Shady Blaze?

M: Hell yeah.

S: [laughs] Goddamn, Peter. Oakland Idol, man. For real.

How long before that were you guys rapping, or performing I guess?

S: Was it 7th Grade when we met Peter, or 8th Grade?

M: Yep, 8th Grade during the summer time and shit.

S: We started rapping together that year though. The year we met Peter was the year we started working together as far as the rap shit. That shit crazy. I ain’t even think it was going to be like that. I met Mondre and we started fucking with it. We weren’t really serious and shit but we were the only ones serious out of the dudes we were fucking with. We should have seen this shit coming though. It’s crazy.

Where’d you meet?

M: Carter Middle School, man. Carter Middle School.

Is that in Oakland?

M: Yep.

How was that? I’m curious about the moment you first met, were you feeling each other from the start? Similar interests?

M: Shit, we knew people that knew people that knew us, so we was the link, man. We been rocking ever since.

S: I don’t even know how we knew each other rapping shit. I don’t even know how that conversation even started and shit. I was in class. I don’t even know how that shit started, rapping and shit.

M: It all started with a little thought I had in my mind. I wanted to start a rap group and shit.

S: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You put me with the kings, man.

M: It started as a four-man group, you feel me? Squadda was like the last person to get in. That was crazy too. To see where we’re at now, though.

I’m from Canada, totally different country, what was Carter Middle School like?

S: It was crazy. That shit was like a war zone. It was like a half-war zone, a half-academy. You could really try to learn something there but at the same time there was a war going on but at the same time it was like fun. That shit was Oakland.

M: Hell yeah.

What were you guys doing?

S: Rapping.

M: Doing this shit that a nigga doing now, just on a different level.

S: Now we know what we’re doing and shit.

Was music a part of your community, or was your family big into music?

S: I think both. It was in the families.

M: Had BET on as a little nigga all day, watching music videos.

S: Our babysitter bought music videos and shit. I used to get left at home and just watch music videos. That’s all I love. Watch a little music videos, watch a little wrestling, a little cartoons and shit when I was younger.

M: [laughs] It started with karaoke too, man. Hell yeah, a muthafuckin karaoke machine, instrumentals.

What kind of songs?

M: Ah, man. 50 Cent beats.

S: We was just DJ shit, how the beat was and just rap on that shit.

M: 50 Cent was the first one I can remember.

So you went straight into rap. When I talked to Shady he said he wasn’t into rap at the beginning, he was into soul and R&B, he didn’t even like rap and then later on-

S: Shady older than us. Shady older than us. I always liked rap, even when I listened to everything when I was younger and shit. I didn’t really know the difference between music. I just knew what I liked and didn’t like. Rap was always in the mix. Rap was always like the main course of the meal and shit. It was always the shit I loved the most. It was the only thing that really caught my attention fully where it was like, man, these muthafuckas are doing it. I for sure remember watching the [Juvenile & Lil Wayne] “Bling Bling” video and shit, and hella videos when I was younger, and man, niggas is really living life like this. It seemed like a dream. That shit always reeled me in because I knew people, man. There were people in my family doing the rap shit. That’s what brought me in, seeing niggas.

So a lot of it started with TV.

M: Not even. Come to the Bay. A lot of niggas from the Bay don’t even know TV.

S: I wasn’t even seeing a lot of Bay niggas when I was younger. Of course the E-40s and shit. E-40 and Too $hort were poppin hard when I was coming up. Besides them we wasn’t really seeing any Bay shit on TV. It was Ca$h Money. The LA niggas was poppin back then. I was just seeing that shit. I wasn’t really seeing the Bay area shit. I was hearing it, but- And I was actually around the Bay area rappers but I wasn’t seeing that shit. I wasn’t influenced by them on TV.

Were you guys going to any shows?

S: Naw, man. We wasn’t fucking with no shows.

Until you guys were on the stage …

M: Yeah, I never bought no ticket to see anybody, man.

S: Hell, no. First ever show I did, too, was just rapping and shit. There was a group from the Bay called The Frontline. They was poppin back then.

M: Okay, fo show.

S: That was the first show I ever been to, seeing them perform. We was waiting for our performance. I was watching them like, they got these muthafuckas hype. That was the first show I been to.

When you were going to the talent shows, what were you hoping for, to get a manager, money? What was the purpose of those?

S: I don’t know about them niggas, but I was just rapping.

M: Find my style.

S: I don’t know how you got memories, nah mean? Nah, but we weren’t really thinking about no label or anything. We was just doing it because we wanted to do it.

M: That was like our studio.

S: For real. Whatever we had to say we had to perform that shit. We wasn’t going to studios at this point. We were going to shows and spittin that shit. Whatever songs we made it was straight to the stage, not straight to the lab.

I’m just curious–because in your community, you’re icons of independent music–when did you decide you were going to go that route and start thinking about business?

M: When we got into this shit, we was fucking with someone on the independent label, doing it himself, pressing his own CDs. He didn’t have any label with him. He just told us. The business and making music is different things, man. You shouldn’t make no music if you want to get into the business side, because I don’t know, man, fuck it. We get high though. [laughs] I’m rocking with the OG right now, man, you feel me?

You stick pretty much to the art then.

M: I mean, shit, man, do what you love and you’ll never have a nine to five in your life, man. Eventually shit going to pay off. Can’t really worry about it too much, though.

When did you decide to put together Green Ova and bring all the chapters together?

M: ’08, ’07 or something.

S: We started putting this shit together as far as like- that chapters shit came out later, but as far as the name Green Ova, I guess ’07 or ’08. We had to figure out some sort of organization.

What was it like in the Bay at that time for rappers?

S: That shit was dying.

M: Niggas kept it rocking, keeping it real though.

I feel like a lot of people, at least nationally, became interested in your music because of the A$AP Rocky feature, so how did that develop?

S: I guess us doing us. He came to us. We ain’t never heard of him. He heard of us. He started popping out of nowhere. That was a blessing he came to us before all that shit started happening. I don’t know. However he heard of us is how you heard of us. I don’t know. I can’t quote.

Why do you think he wanted you guys on a track?

M: You gotta flag that nigga down, man.

S: Ask that muthafucka about that shit.

What are you guys working on nowadays?

M: We just dropped B.D.E. The Bricktape you feel me with The Smokers Club out in New York and shit, free download. We’re working on 808s and Dark Grapes III with Friendzone, got a little solo shit dropping, keep dropping little shit here and there. Shady droppin shit, untitled projects, hella songs.

You drop so much stuff. How do you decide what goes on an album?

M: Just the flow of it. Play songs. The next song that come after it probably flow together, you’re probably like, “let me keep it like that.” It just builds on as you keep listening. Go with your first day, put a playlist together on the first day, because the next day it’s for sure going to be different, but for sure it’s going to flow properly, you feel me?

It’s all the feel.

M: Hell yeah.

I was a big fan of Bossalinis & Fooliyones, songs like “On Tour” and “Wings.” How’d those two songs come together?

M: Man, being on tour. What was the other song?

“Wings.”

S: That was one of the last songs we even did for that album, besides “Do It For The Bay” and “24 Hours.” I remember the names. I remember “On Tour” too, performing both of them.

M: We recorded that “On Tour”, I want to say in a studio that Tupac recorded in before, up in Frisco.

S: It was a place Tupac went.

What was it called?

M: I don’t even know the name of the studio.

S: Hell no. That shit was cool though. It was fun. Going in. Play the beat and going in. Ain’t had no plan.

It seems a lot of your stuff comes from instincts.

M: Yeah.

How are you able to trust yourselves like that?

M: Who else can you count on? Shit. You gotta count on yourself.

S: If I couldn’t trust myself I wouldn’t be in this position right now. Not even just music, you have to trust yourself every day. That’s a crazy question. Hell yeah. If you can’t trust yourself, something wrong, man.

M: Gotta trust yourself.

How do you guys create? Do you wake up, or is it random, any time you decide to record?

M: It’s all loose, all scattered around now, man. I don’t know. When I used to go to school I used to write raps in that muthafucka.

S: We was in this shitty school. We just wrote raps, put them raps together for verses and put them together to make a song.

M: We don’t really be writing like that anymore. We wait to get to the studio.

S: I was about to say, wait to we get to the studio.

M: It all comes out differently.

You guys say you don’t write anymore then?

S: I mean sometimes. Sometimes we write. It depends. I’m fine. Writing can get in the way. Sometimes it gets in the way of what you’re trying to do.

You’re writing in your mind anyway.

M: Hell yeah. Everyday.

I found it interesting on the Shady Blaze album, on “Fucked Up”, how you guys use auto-tune pretty creatively. Not many guys are doing that anymore. What inspired you to use that?

S: We was doing that shit for a long long long long long time, 808s and Dark Grapes, we didn’t even call it that shit, when we was doing it, before part II came out. A lot of these projects didn’t even go how they was supposed to go and that’s why they came out the way they came out. The first 808s auto-tune was crazy. We was doing that shit at my house. We was going crazy. We had some cool shit for that shit. That shit didn’t make it. We ended up making the first one like a lost tape sort of thing. That was the whole point of the first one. We was going to be auto-tuned out. It was 08, 09.

M: That’s when we like took a loss on a studio. I don’t know, something happened.

S: Muthafuckas didn’t know us for that shit because they didn’t really hear it. We was doing this shit for a long long long time, so when I read shit about it and when they talk about it, it’s kind of funny, when they bring up rappers and say we were influenced. We were doing that shit a long time ago. People weren’t hearing that shit. They heard a sound from us and kept it in their head. They didn’t wanna hear nothing else. This shit nothing new. Like 5 years we been using that shit.

Why do you like it?

S: Why do I like it? it sound good! It work.

What was the last show you guys did?

M: Last week or two, you feel me, up in San Francisco, Brick and Mortar. We had a little free show. Got shut down when we came on, mics shut down. They took the mics, but we still rocked that shit with no mics. We might not even use microphones anymore to do our shows.

[laughs] I’m just playing with you though.

How’s performing in the Bay changed? You’ve been doing it all these years.

M: We haven’t been doing this for so long. The Bay ain’t seen a real Main Attrakionz show yet. We still on the come-out. We haven’t rocked the Petaluma’s or the big cities yet.

S: More people who come to the shows know the words, that’s the difference. Last year people didn’t know the words. Still ain’t no money out here. Still ain’t no money.

How do you making a living doing this?

S: We out doing what we got to do.

M: Hell yeah, make a lot of music.

Has the internet helped that?

S: For sure helped, for sure helped. Back when we was fucking with Mayhem doing the independent thing, we ain’t never dropped a project or nothing but I don’t see how that shit would have worked out like it’s working out for us now. I don’t see how that grind- we was on SoundScan a lot earlier, but I don’t see, I didn’t know how the internet worked.

What about the pace fans expect music coming at them?

S: That’s our fault. We made ‘em like that. We make music every day or every other day. We made ‘em like that. That’s our fault. If we didn’t want them to be like that they wouldn’t be like that.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing, just different music, different listeners.

S: But it’s our fault though. The muthafuckas expecting an album from a Devin the Dude, niggas aren’t expecting an album from him every year, or every month. We was going so crazy niggas just expect it from us because it’s what we do and it’s what they know us for. If you put the example out there you got to follow by it.

I feel you. Lastly, I wondered what kind of weed you guys are smoking right now?

M: I just got rid of some. A little kush, man, a little bit of that. We have some cannabis clubs out here, man, little dispensaries. You might like that if you come out here.

Are those good?

M: Hell yeah, yep, get a card and shit. Get prescribed real fast.

Go to the right doctor?

M: You don’t have to go to no doctor. Go to the little spot, sign some papers, say your back hurt, you feel me, there you go. For real though, 30 dollars man, real fast and easy.

Do you guys use that?

M: Yessir.

Unless you guys want to add anything that pretty much covers it. I talked to Shady as well. I want to write about all you guys together, as Green Ova.

M: You gotta hit all sides of this Green Ova, man, most definitely. Look forward to new music. Appreciate it though, man, keep in touch.