L.E.F.T. and Piseas of the California duo, the Bash Brothers, have a huge fan base in their native Bay area. In 2006, their mixtape "Everyday" was an underground smash locally and internationally. Currently their singles "America" and "Summer Rain" are in heavy rotation in college and indie radio, and their new single "Session" featuring Planet Asia is poised to do the same, as well as bring nationwide recognition to the pair. They recently checked in with Certified Hip Hop's Wisdom to discuss their new album and plans for this year.
Waddup Gods.
L.E.F.T: Waddup, how you doing.
I'm good man. Now for dudes like myself on the other side, east coast, and the heads spread out over the four corners of the globe, paint a picture of life out there in the Bay....how y'all meditating? How's life out there? What y'all about?
L.E.F.T: Bash Brothers we just about the grind man. Its all about taking this music to the streets. To be honest man I'm up in LA traffic right now, cats in LA know about the traffic out this shit, It's a grind in itself....but yeah its about grinding in these streets, staying alive, college radio, live shows, just keeping this hip hop movement going, thats really what it is with the Bash Brothers day in and day out, no jokes. What projects y'all been working on lately, I hear you have a new album soon coming, whats it titled?
PISEAS: The album that we got coming out March 27th is Dirty Work/A Good Day to Die, and what that is, the album as a whole is a double disc, and its two solo records. One from the L.E.F.T. and one from myself Piseas. The name of L.E.F.T.'s record is Dirty Work, he name of my album is A Good Day To Die, and together, those halves represent the full picture of what we're doing as Bash Brothers. Its out March 27th. We got Planet Asia on the record, the Visionaries, we've got others...thats why we're here, thats why we're pushing it, just to bring people good music.
So you got one half Piseas and one L.E.F.T....do y'all see yourselves as two strong solo MCs coming together or more of a pure duo?
L.E.F.T: Its basically a movement. Anytime I do my thing as L.E.F.T. its a representation of the Bash Brothers. Its a true brotherhood. You can find shit from L.E.F.T., you got my mixtapes...you can get shit from Piseas but its Bash Brothers every time out the gate. This project we're yang yanging it, songs from both of us, but its all just one movement. What genre do you consider yourselves? Are y'all like gangsta, conscious, hyphy? Or you cant really put a label?
PISEAS: I'm gone plead the fifth and say you cant really put a label, but I'll tell you where our roots come from. We're raised in the west coast, I grew up on a lot of that Bay rider before hyphy was hyphy, I grew up on a lot of that hip hop that came at the time, Hieroglyphics, back to Too Short, Ice Cube, so I reflect all of that in my music. But what we bring, theres no label for it. We bring stuff for the underground heads, stuff for people that are overground or commercial or whatever, its good music at the end of the day.
L.E.F.T: If I could interject on that too, I think a lot of people, I can be conscious, but people tend to think if its conscious that shit sucks. Dont get that shit fucked up. You like dope hip hop music, you like motherfucking spinning the wheels, I got something for you. We can be in the club and have a political discussion, but on some shit, I'm not saying I'm gangsta but I'll get gangsta. On the real I'll diesel a motherfucker but at the same time I got to touch, you know, some kid thats into me and set him on to some shit, so they can come to me and tell me my music made a difference in they shit. We coming from the Bay, the most diverse musical landscape hip hop has to offer. So from the new album we can expect the club anthem, social commentary, story telling and shit like that?
PISEAS: Yeah. For us, to be a complete artist you got to be able to do all of that. Its like you're and athlete or something, you gotta have the speed, power, and you gotta have the game smarts. This is what we define ourselves through, its not about being pigeon hole or being one sided about something. We come from a generation or era where you develop an album one song at a time. At industry level, you do the things you need to do, and at times it ends up just generating singles, doing videos. We try to cover the whole landscape of hip hop. We do something to touch as many people as possible and as many different people as possible. Thats what music, thats what life is all about. Y'all put out a lot of material on mixtapes, for my people who aint up on you yet, before they get your album on the 27th, what should they be getting from your catalogue to get caught up with you and y'all movement?
L.E.F.T: Well right off the bat I got a mixtape, its at , gangland, its a free download it will be able till about the 24th right around when the album drops. We got The Bastard Kids Volume One, basically the best thing to do is go to the website. You can get introduced to the Bash Brothers if you're not knowing. Hit the download section. preview our projects, get a t-shirt...shit is all good come check all that out. We always show respect to you when you come in our home and thats our home right there online.
You were alluding to earlier the Too Short, E-40, theres been artists that came out of the Bay area and touched everywhere in the world. Do y'all feel that Bay area's time peaked already? Or is there a lot more in the scene for the world to see?
PISEAS: Has it peaked? Nah. Until the end of time, as long as theres people rapping in this game, there will be people from the Bay holding it down. For us, we havent even got it started, so we're gonna take it to new heights and new places that we havent gone. The world hasnt seen anything like Bash Brothers. They haven seen anything like us from the Bay or anywhere period. The moves that we're making and the things we're doing, we're here to take it to places that its never been before. There people that came before us and theres people that are gonna come afterwards. I think when regions have their cycles of shine, it goes back and forth between everyone in the game, everybody got their time. We're doing what we can to put it down, we're representing Bash Brothers movement Bay area and worldwide.
Anything else you want to say to our readers, and your old and new fans?
L.E.F.T: If y'all like real hip hop music, dope hip hop music, when it comes down to lyrics and MCing, fucks with the Bash Brothers. We fucks with y'all, real recognize real. Hit up , cop the album, and when we on tour and we come to your city, check out the show....Its nothing but love.
Whats that Myspace again so people can hit you up?
PISEAS: , and the website . Go online thats where we at, thats where you'll find us.