RESPECT. Interview: After 7 Years of Unmatched Mixtapes, Audio Push is Debuting their Album, ‘90951’

After seven years of mixtapes, Audio Push is debuting their album, 90951. You may remember them from “Teach Me How To Jerk” but they are much more musically than that song.

Audio Push shared with us their amazing energy and how excited they are about their debut album, 90951 which is dropping September 23^rd, so definitely be on the lookout. Audio Push is also going on tour tomorrow with Dizzy Wright & Mark Battles. Go support them, they are our voice for the youth, great vibes, and new music at its finest.

RESPECT.: Tell us about Audio Push, how did you guys start up? Tell us about the 90951 and what it was like growing up Inland Empire, California.

Price: We have known each other since we were kids, we went to middle school together, we have been rocking ever since and we have been in a group since we were 16. 90951 isn’t the zip code, it’s the entry code for IE. 909 and 951 is both area codes for IE, that’s how we created 90951. Inland Empire is 40 minutes from Los Angeles. You get it all in the IE, everything from good times, parties, schools, gang-banging to drugs to anything else. One of the best producers ever (Hit-Boy) is from there, one of the best drummers is from there (Travis Baker) and we are from there. We are the first ones to be proud and completely rep IE, Inland Empire.

RESPECT.: As an artist, as a group, what keeps you guys together as a team as one? We’ve watched numerous interviews from you guys and people always ask about solo projects, but you guys always decline which is something so beautiful to see in music, unity.

Oktane: We already know we are dope solo, but neither of us are focused on that right now. We know that one day it will happen but not now. What we can do together is just unmatched and never been seen before that element of it, we have something amazing to bring to the world. The focus is always going to be Audio Push because that’s the force that drives the whole city, the world. We are really homies, we weren’t shoved together, all the stuff that comes with rap like the business aspect becomes midscale. We have always done it together, so it just happened that way. There is not too much that can tear us apart, that’s just what it is.

RESPECT.: Can we throw it back to one of my favorite projects from Audio Push, Come As You Are. Come as You Are was a game changer mixtape to me from the amazing features and from Price and Oktane as artists. What was the inspiration behind that project?

Price: The whole process for Come As You Are, we were on tour with Lil Wayne & T.I. , this was our first big tour with big tour bus, we had a studio in the tour bus, it was playa. Come As You Are was fueled off the inspiration we were getting every night seeing Wayne perform. When you hear Come As You Are, you wouldn’t think we were on a Wayne tour. We weren’t trying to remake songs like “Lollipop” and The Carter III. We were inspired by it and taking that fuel, going and creating the best thing we could create at that time. Come As You Are, that was really the project were we found ourselves. When we created “Shine” that was a moment of us catering to the people who want to feel good, we don’t want to talk about the bullsh*t no more. Come As You Are was when we realized we don’t want to talk about sh*t that doesn’t count. We had T.I., IAMSU!, Ty Dolla Sign, Wayne, Kent Jamz, and K. Roosevelt.

RESPECT.: How has Audio Push grown since their first mixtape, The Soundcheck?

Oktane: The same way as everybody else grows. From jerking to now, we have always been making music about life. We have grown by living so much and traveling to many different places, we have been able to get inspired by life. I think music and art is supposed to reflect life. The more learn, the more we travel and see, we reflect that very well. Our growth drives us to make more and more music. I think we are at a dope point in life where we are learning a lot more and seeing a lot more and putting up with a lot less. We have been working hard and showing super growth.

RESPECT.: How do you guys feel about the music today? Name some artists out right now that you want to work with.

Price: Sade, we would love to do a record with Sade. She’s just the queen. If I had to choose to do a record between Sade and Erkyah Badu, I’m choosing Erkyah Badu. Those are the people we want to work with. Like Musiq Soulchild for instance, we just released our single “Praise You” featuring Musiq Soulchild. Those are the artists we want to work with rather than the new young artists out right now. We aren’t against doing songs with anyone as long as it fits our vibe and our world. We aren’t seeking out to do things with our peers so much. We wanted to do a song with Tribe, Rest in Peace Phife. Those are the dream features. I want to work with Erkyah Badu and Jill Scott again.

RESPECT.: Name some artists that you’ve dreamed of working with and your dream came true. Name some of your musical inspirations.

Oktane: Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Jimmy Hendrix, and Kid Cudi,

Price: Bob Marley, Black Jesus, Andre 3000, Erkyah Badu, Linkin Park, E-40, SugaFree, Eminem, Rakim, Baja Man, whoever in the game like Prince….

RESPECT.: You guys go on tour this Friday with Dizzy Wright & Mark Battles, how does that feel? It’s the same day as the release of your album. How does it feel after being in the game so long and finally releasing your first album, 90951?

Price: The tour starts Friday, the same day as the 31 city tour starts, September 23^rd. That wasn’t planned for the album to drop on the same day as the tour, that was just the creator showing out. The creator aligning and creating harmony for our career. We get to showcase how awesome our album, 90951 is to our fans and to our new fans.

RESPECT.: So getting into your album, 90951 tell us about the process of making the album, how long did it take?

Price: Honestly, we have been creating 90951 on and off for about two years. When we first created “Praise You” and “Spread Love”, it was about a year and half ago. It has been a work in progress. For the last 4 or 5 months, we really crafted the album out. After April, when we found out we were going to be independent, as soon as we knew we would get a 100%, we were ready to put an album out. We really can put an album out in a month or two weeks if we commit to it. Once we knew what we wanted to say and once we had the foundation, we knew we were ready.

RESPECT.: How do you guys maintain that positive vibe and great energy in your music? Like when I hear an Audio Push track, I just know it’s going to be riding and great vibes. That’s such a great quality to share in music today. One of my favorite songs on your debut album is “Spread Love”. Your whole album gives peaceful thoughts from “Heaven Yeah” to “Praise You”. Those records are definitely powerful, being that you guys are so young, it’s definitely very important to keep that message going for the youth, for our people, and for the world.

Oktane: We know how important it is to do that, everybody keeps saying that like its something that is supposed to be easy. You have to work at it and stay focus on what’s positive. I know what being positive can do. I always want to spread that vibe to people. I want to become a feeling so when you feel a way, I want people to think of Audio Push. We want to live life the way, we want to live it.

RESPECT.: You guys have a lot of soulful features on this project, 90951 from Musiq SoulChild to BJ the Chicago Kid to Eric Choice to Kent Jamz to Hit-Boy. How did you guys choose your features for your first album?

Price: Eric Choice is from the IE as well and we wanted to include him on our debut album. We wanted to feature the next new dope like Kent Jamz, Eric Choice, and BJ the Chicago Kid. We wanted to feature artists on our debut album that we are fans of like Musiq Soulchild. The music we grow up to helps craft the music we make. It’s easy to rap but to really create art is different. It literally is a dream come true having Musiq Soulchild on our debut album.

RESPECT.: After five years of releasing “Throw It Back”, you guys debuted “Throw It Back II” on your album which just might be the biggest record on the project due to history behind the record. How did you guys decide like we need another “Throw It Back II”?

Price: Literally, that was the first song that was successful and it got a million views on Youtube. The first beat I produced ever to get a million views. But beyond all that, the DJ played “Throw It Back” at this pool party and there was ass everywhere. I literally called Oktane up and was like we gotta make a “Throw It Back ll”. It was so crazy.

RESPECT.: After listening to your song, “Hypocrite” it reminds me of your J.Dilla freestyle “So Far To Go”, I love how you guys used those same lyrics and turned it into a song, “Am I a hypocrite or real enough to admit the shit? “How did that come into it work?

Oktane: We wanted to expand on that line “Am I hypocrite or real enough to admit the shit?” and really just be honest with the fans and what was going on in our lives. We were able to come clean and really talk about how life is in that song.

RESPECT.: What do you want the fans and the listeners to get from this album, 90951?

Oktane: I want this door to open up and see the room is a lot bigger than having one sound on one album and that’s what you come there for. I want them to view our album, the same way they view a body of art. They don’t come in expecting anything but they appreciate it for what it is. I don’t want it to be compared to other peoples’ art. I just want it to be appreciated for what it is. You can’t predict our sound but you can expect the sound to sound great. That is what you get from this album. I’m excited for Friday.

RESPECT.: What’s your favorite song from your debut album, 90951?

Oktane: “Praise You” sounded like liquid gold but it changes every day.

Price: “Control Us” or “Heaven Yeah”.

RESPECT.: What’s your favorite song out right of all time or out right now?

Price: Nav “Myself” is my favorite song out right now, he’s from Toronto.

Oktane: My favorite song of all time is Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day”. That is one of the greatest feel good songs on the planet. My favorite song out right now is Blink 182 “Rock Show”. If you haven’t heard that song, go listen to it. It’s great.

RESP SECT.: Who’s one of your favorite producer ever to work with?

Oktane: Hit-Boy, but if I’m not allowed to pick the fam, then Metro, Mike or Ye.

Price: Pharrell is always going to be my favorite producer. Pharrell is the only one who can do “Grindin” turn around 20 years later and do “Happy”.

RESPECT.: Share something with you want your fans to know about Audio Push.

Oktane: We want the fans to know we care, we really care when we go into the studio and create the art we are asking the fans to pay for. We really care when put on a show, we are asking people to pay and come see. We actually go in and craft the music out, we actually post the vocals. We don’t play when it comes to creating the art, we put our heart and souls in our music. We love God. We love to love.

Audio Push debut album, 90051 is out now on iTunes.