Features

ThaFormula.Com - Tell us about your name man, you aren't the typical MC with the "Lil" moniker… 

Lil Sci - My name is pretty much the explanation of my style and my vision of writing. My name is Lil Sci, short for Little Science. It explains the way I rhyme to people, it's intellectual, it's thought provoking but at the same time it's charismatic. I used to always say "I'm giving a little bit of science at a time, to much can explode your brain, and possibly blow your mind"

ThaFormula.Com - You came up in the Bronx, which was just overflowing with style at the time…

Lil Sci- Yeah, yeah exactly…

ThaFormula.Com - How hard was it to separate yourself from the rest when there was so many other incredible artists breaking?

Lil Sci - It wasn't really that difficult. I mean, I grew up in the Bronx in an area with people like BDP, Fat Joe, Diamond, Show and AG and mostly a lot of heads that are icons. But it wasn't that hard because New York is so big and a lot of times you can just find your own ground and I moved around a lot. I grew up in the Bronx and then I moved to Jersey and that really just gave me a whole other perspective because you had New York which is like a concrete jungle and then I went to Jersey where there was more residential areas and I met black folks that were actually doing well, and had both their parents and it was just a whole different change of lifestyle for me. I felt like all the places I'd been gave me my identity and my confidence.

ThaFormula.Com - How old were you when you went over to Jersey?

Lil Sci - That was in high school.

ThaFormula.Com - How long had you been rhyming at that point?

Lil Sci - The first rhyme I ever wrote was when I was like 10 years old. The brother in my class named Jamal Thomas and his parents were singers in a group called "Thomas and Taylor," and they would come to class and sign autographs. They were pretty big overseas and he was a writer pretty much back then. He forced me to be in this talent show and just showed me a lot of ropes for writing songs, and like bars and hooks so I learned a lot at a early age. I kept rollin' with it and it evolved to poetry and eventually full blown rhymes.

ThaFormula.Com - So by the time you moved to Jersey you were pretty much invested in it…

Lil Sci - Oh yeah. Full fledged.

ThaFormula.Com - So you started out as a solo MC, but you made your name off a group…

Lil Sci - My brother ID4windz he moved to Jersey before I did and when I got out there he had a group already called K.B.M - S.O.L. (Knowledge Being Manifested Through the Sciences of Life) so that sort of drew me in when I got out there. I started doin' shows opening for them and recording at the same studio you know, just breaking ground and eventually their group fell apart.

ThaFormula.Com - How did you get your deal with Fondle Em Records and Bobbito?

Lil Sci - There was this spot in New York called "The Nuyorcian Poets Café," a legendary spot. That place goes back, there was even a movie about it called "Pinero." Bobbito at the time was doing a showcase there. You could go there and see anyone from De La Soul, Common, Talib and Dead Prez. We frequented the place a lot and eventually it led to getting a show there and we did our first showcase after submitting some stuff to Bob. After performing at the show we hit him off with a more professional package and we got a call like the next week. I got the message and Bob was like "yo Sci, I want to do a record call me back." I was like "wow, this is big" it was an opportunity to put out a release and I knew at the time that Fondle Em was just growing and growing, internationally even.

ThaFormula.Com - Talk about the importance of Fondle Em being that they were really one of the first independent labels in hip-hop…

Lil Sci - I would say they were the first indy label at least in my eyes to really start the whole vinyl movement in. They kind of provided hope and started a whole 12" movement…

ThaFormula.Com - Right…they never even pressed up once cassette or CD right?

Lil Sci - Exactly, and not only that, they never even had artwork. Everything was pressed up white label, no stickers or anything and didn't get a lick of radio promotion. No promotion was his whole attitude, like "if people love the music, they'll come to it period, let the music speak for itself." I feel that label was a huge success and that whole time was a legendary era in terms of what the independent hip-hop world has grown into now. So peace to Bobbito, to be a part of that was a blessing.

ThaFormula.Com - I know you are into production, but on the early Scienz stuff, your brother ID4Windz handled pretty much all of it…

Lil Sci - Yeah, he did most. At the time when we did the first album we invested in a lot of equipment and then we had a falling out. The producer John Q who produced the first two Fondle Em 12"'s. When we first signed a record contract with Subverse music working with Big Jus and them before the Fondle Em stuff, he sort of fell off and stopped doing music. It was a little hard in the beginning because we relied so much on working with him in his studio and we had the chemistry going. It was a blessing in disguise because it led to us working on our own stuff. It was at the time when we all did beats, but my brother was just that one who didn't shy away from playing his music. Because I was like "nah, I'm not ready for people to hear my music yet, I'ma just lay back, I'm a writer." So that's really where that all came from. I still do beats today and I'm just slowly braking out of that mold and playing my joints for people.

ThaFormula.Com - So ID4Windz has been doing your stuff since then, how do you stay fresh with someone you have worked with for so long?

Lil Sci - You know what, with 4Windz I would say it isn't that hard to stay fresh. He has an alias he calls himself "Invizible Handz" which means you can't really see his styles because he can do everything from just dirty and gritty to crazy spacey with Scienz of life to Sol Uprising which is more od a clean Jazzy, soulful sound. So he's pretty innovative and diverse. He's not one of those producers where you can just hear a beat and be like, "oh that's 4Windz," he's just fresh and always evolving.

ThaFormula.Com - On your second LP with Scienz, "Project Overground," you touched a lot on the labels we kind of live by today in hip-hop (underground/mainstream etc) expand on that and how you see hip-hop today…

Lil Sci - Basically I feel like hip-hop is phenomenal now. I grew up from strictly writing to doing little demos to being the president of an independent label with distribution all over the world so I feel like to me it's an elevation. But I may be biased because some people are not really enjoying it as much as I am. I'm looking at it from the aspect of a jazz musician almost where to me its more than just making money and being famous, to me its more about the youth and what they're gonna be listening and what they are going to be sampling from. Basically just preserving all the great things from the culture that I have came across so they can learn the same thing. Hip-hop is now everywhere in the universe it's invading so many different genres you can't even keep track anymore, and can't completely follow it all. Some people view that as a bad thing, I don't. I mean, we've broken so many boundaries and we shouldn't even be livin' right now according to the critics 25 plus years ago.

ThaFormula.Com - Yeah, they thought it should have been a wrap by now…

Lil Sci - Exactly. Of course there's stuff that I don't like but at the same time everyone is not supposed to like everything, life is about balance and there's gonna be stuff that you like and don't like. But whatever you don't like someone else may love and I feel that exists in all music. I don't love the fact that mainstream industry is constantly, constantly, constantly at a battle to destroy real hip-hop music. The only thing I can do thought, is counter against it and do what I do.

ThaFormula.Com - In between the Scienz projects and Sol Uprising project you did a lot of different music from the stuff with Science Fiction to King Geedorah, talk about what motivates you wander out of your comfort zone with Scienz and explore other area…

Lil Sci - I would say really what motivates me most is touching more people. Like with Scienz's first album it touched a lot of people and with the second album we kind of elevated but at the same time we felt we were preaching to the same choir, to the same people that already knew our music and lyrics. So with Sol Uprising that was a record dedicated really to the older generation that raised me personally. Because people in my family like my mom or grandmother support me and my music but it wasn't enough for me I wanted something they could put in their CD player ever day and enjoy it so Sol Uprising was that and it worked they all loved it. Even now, that project has opened up doors for Scienz that we probably couldn't have done as solely Scienz of Life.

ThaFormula.Com - I can appreciate that, because it wasn't out of left field, there was still Scienz elements to it. So many artists either stay content with the style they broke out with or they go waaaay left field like Common and end up losing their supporters…

Lil Sci - Yeah, I feel like you have to really experiment and challenge yourself. One thing I'm noticing now is in hip-hop music is there aren't enough "songs" anymore. It's really just "how fresh my lines are," or "how I'll kill a wack MC." To me I feel like there's so many things expound on and talk about that my concentration lately has been on writing songs and painting pictures that people can visually take with them, but yeah it's getting really repetitive. If you look at the mainstream industry right now there are a few people that actually get a lot of run and are actually saying something. People like Kanye, a lot of people hate on Kanye West but his album is like wow, the dude is actually saying something. Because so many records come out and the MC just doesn't say anything! It amazes me, but I give respect due to people like that. There's other like him, but I put the emphasis on him because within certain communities in our music I hear people saying "awww I can't stand him," and I disagree man, I feel like he's doing a phenomenal job and representing us well.

ThaFormula.Com - That's what I like about the Sol Uprising album because it seems like every album nowadays is centered around the single, or 10 guest appearances and Sol was a concept album that strayed from the norm and a solid album…

Lil Sci - Yeah, Yeah. It was good man, it was a record that didn't create any pressure. It was actually Stacey Epps first recording ever. On that note I was definitely impressed by it. It was great because when we met it was around a lot of people that didn't necessarily believe in her like "awww it's too hard, she has too much to learn, her voice cracks on stage," but I believe in her because she was so passionate about it. I remember when we first met, 4Windz was playin' some beats and she came in literally walked through the door freestyling. I don't know many women that would do that. They would have come in humbly and said "hi," but not her.

ThaFormula.Com - Did you view that album as a risk with your following or think they might have a problem with all the singing? Because a lot people think there's too much o that in Hip-Hop right now…

Lil Sci - I'll be honest, I didn't care. Because like I said it was a personal dedication to me and my family. I grew up on that kind of music, I'm a 70's baby. Most of the music we listened to there wasn't any rapping, you know, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Gap Band, you know and many others, but it was soulful and it was sort of a tribute to that too. That's how I really feel about everything that I do. Everything is not for everybody. I'll just have to paint another picture and maybe they'll like that one. I can't really have anyone tell me how to make my music. I feel like the same people that didn't really feel the Sol Uprising project, 5 years from now may and they'll go back and check it out. It's all about growth. I mean I'm not a young kid anymore and you know you have to make music that fits you. With the mainstream industry I feel that you can learn a lot from it. Just watch their formula's and apply it to yourself. I watch videos a lot and you have these older brothers well into their 30's that have been doing music forever and they're trying to portray being 19 again! Every video is in like a high school or something. C'mon man, it's cool to be a grown man and respect yourself.

ThaFormula.Com - We talked about you growing up in New York and them moving on to Jersey, but you also spent some time in Atlanta and are now in LA, you seem to be sort of a migrant what drives you to spread yourself into so many areas. Talk about what drives you do that and what kind of perspective it's given you on Hip-Hop…

Lil Sci - I'll just put it like this.  New York is the place that I'm from, NJ is the place that I roam, ATL's another place I call home, LA's the land of the sun and I still ain't done, I'm on the road again! I feel like moving around and meeting different people and putting yourself in different challenges, life kind of forces you to take things to the next level. For me, I was fortunate enough to be able to move around like that. We wanted to pursue music on a whole other level and the whole crew just got up and bounced down to Atlanta for with no particular direct purpose just to kind of check out because we heard how great it was. Then I came to LA on a business opportunity. Two of my partners one on the East and one here started a company called Shaman Works Recordings and were like "yo Sci, we want to hire you to be a third partner and be the president of the company, lets do this LA thing." Stacey Epps was already here for law school and you know, all of these things had a purpose but in my mind it was also elevating me personally and I've never regretted on move I've made so far and I plan to move more.

ThaFormula.Com - In each of the cities you've moved to, you've came in at the ground level and are working your way up…

Lil Sci - Yeah, I mean I came here (LA) and discovered that a lot people were up on Scienz of Life and I had never been here before. I got here and discovered people knew Scienz of Life but then I was introducing myself as Lil Sci of Sol Uprising. So here in LA some people know me as just Sci, or Sci from Sol Uprising and have no clue about Scienz of Life. Other people know me from Scienz of Life and have no clue about Sol Uprising. It was not only building myself from ground up by splitting myself into two different people and sharing it amongst different listeners.

ThaFormula.Com - I was talking to another artist recently, a singer named Eric Roberson…

Lil Sci - Oh yeah, I know him…

ThaFormula.Com - Ok, yeah. We were talking about the independent scene and how he can record an album and promote that single album for a year or two and take it all over the world and it's new to each city he visits, he doesn't have to rely on a single etc, and you seem to be kind of taking that to the next level by implanting yourself into each cities culture…

Lil Sci - Yeah, that's extremely important what he's speaking on because the mainstream is killing the life of records. Like "if it don't go platinum in a month, it's dead."

ThaFormula.Com - Or they hit you in the head with ads for the album or single, and if those alone don't create interest the project never even drops…

Lil Sci - You know what, while they do share some of the responsibility, I don't solely blame the mainstream for that, but also the downloading era. The downloading of so much music, people constantly wanting the new shit, the new shit, like I already got that, I need the new shit…

ThaFormula.Com - (laughs) The new shit? That new shit ain't even on the shelf yet!

Lil Sci - Exactly. So many people get it early that you have to have that mentality in the game. Yeah, man that's definitely real, you need to travel all of the world on one record. Remember the day when you would listen to a hip-hop record or even a soul record for over a year straight and it was "the" thing? Like Slick Rick's new album, his first album, I listened to that for like 3 years straight!

ThaFormula.Com - Yeah, it's different now too because like you were saying with the downloading people are getting overloaded. I remember having to go the record store every Tuesday and spending an hour deciding who's record to cop! Like "do I get the new Biggie, Nas, or PE?" You'd get one or two and rock those until you could get the others. Now you can have 'em all in half an hour for free! I'm not gonna lie, I download a ton of stuff, but I'm also copping a couple albums or more a week and listening to the shit I get in the mail to review. I have to keep up on it, but at the same time I feel like it's numbing my brain…

Lil Sci - (laughs) It's an addiction man. We're passionate. I fee like that's the thing about this music…if you stay a fan you just get more out of your career because you're constantly in tune with other people. I'm the kind of person that if I didn't like another persons music I wouldn't publicly hate on it. Like in our inner circle where we talk about stuff is on thing, but you'll never publicly hear me hating on anyone's record because I feel strongly about expression and how people express themselves. Because you never really know a person until you've worn his or her shoes.

ThaFormula.Com - Another thing I notice too, I know we talked about the mainstream and downloading, but I think some of these indy artists themselves are the problem. I see so many artists record something and put it out there and expect for it to grow wings and fly and don't want to grind and promote it. When I me you it was a different story, you came through to the store introduced yourself and jumped on the mic and never got off and support at every event because you know that someone might hear you for the first time that night even though you aren't getting paid. Then there will be nights that you do get paid, but you've got to give and take when you're breaking in the game. Where did you get that attitude and speak about the grind in general…

Lil Sci - Really it's being a fan of the culture man, really being into the culture and would kind of call it community service in a way. I'm the type of person that I feel…for instance I was going to a show here and I'll leave the names out…but I was on the list and having some problems at the door and finally I got in. Then the promoter was like "you know why don't you pay at the door and support?" I was like "support?" I've dedicated my whole life to this culture and I feel like I do support this culture at many levels. I've sacrificed so much to do what I do, I mean on the academic level I could have been doing so many other things and still contributing to the success of mankind but I chose music. When you sacrifice and put certain things down, that's a lot of support. The motivation of knowing you're doing what you want to be doing and actually seeing the elevation of success right before your eyes is incredible. It's very important to get out there and promote yourself and interacting with the people, that's what independent music is about.

ThaFormula.Com - I'm out at events all the time and see you jump on the mic more than most MC's and you're not even on the bill, explain the importance of getting out there keeping your skills sharp…

Lil Sci - I feel like that's very important. Staying fresh. When you think about all other music like Jazz, you can't jump into it without learning the instruments. You can't jump into R&B or Opera without training your voice...well not all the time (laughs) But for the most part yeah. It takes learning. It seems like in hip-hop we're losing our sense of apprenticeship people feel like "oh he I can do this!" but nah you have to practice. That goes for the producers out there too. You have take time and really get into your craft and build that level of confidence.

ThaFormula.Com - You've done a lot with MF Doom and you have and are collaborating on numerous things, tell me a little about that…

Lil Sci - We actually finished a record together. It's basically an Autobiography of my life called "The John Robinson Project," and he produced the entire album and it's a very dope record. I feel like it's my highest level of writing in terms of just painting pictures and telling stories. You can probably look for that next year, like early 2005 maybe March.

ThaFormula.Com - We talked a little about your role at Shaman Works, but tell us about your company, Solvizion Entertainment (www.solvizion.com) and it's subsidiary, Beatvizion and how you're taking them beyond hip-hop and making music…

Lil Sci - Oh yeah, definitely. What Solvizion is, is basically the mother brain of the label, which is growing right now and has a deal with Shaman Works and whatever released we put out will be Solvizion/Shaman Work. I was learning a lot and applied it to my label, and my production company Beatvizon which we're looking to develop a team that will be known as those go to guys like the Hitmen, or Timbaland. There's not a lot of people in Hip-Hop that have crews anymore, and that's important. If you look at the most popular artists they don't really have crews and I think it's because people are worried about themselves first. It so much easier when you have a crew involved because they can be holding you down on one end, in one state and you could be holding it down where you are and it all benefits the crew and gains you that much more exposure. It's like 20 people working for the same goal instead of one. Like at this moment, I know I have people in Jersey, or Atlanta or NY that are making moves on my behalf.

ThaFormula.Com - That's real man…Tell me about the web end of Solvizion…

Lil Sci - We have a web design company that does graphics and visual arts which is run by myself and my partner Kirk "K-Dub" Webber and that's called Solvizion Designs. Because you know everyone has to have a website, that's like the illest form of promotion, and it's fairly inexpensive to maintain.

ThaFormula.Com - Yeah, and it's inexpensive to promote as well, you don't need a flyer or a business card, you can just shout it out at a show and if people are interested and the name is simple enough, people are gonna remember it.

Lil Sci - Exactly, and if you're successful enough, you don't even have to promote the website. Just the fact that you are you, people are gonna assume you've got one and they'll search you out. The website has definitely been a blessing for us just in terms of promoting and communicating with the people. You know, you can go to the website and get everything, videos, bios, music, you can get it all. We're lucky that we got into it early. That's another thing that Big Jus at Subverse told us about. Back in like 1997 he was telling us about how we needed to get up on that and that it was gonna be the next shit. To this day he's always been the person that I build with every now and then that has really, really great ideas and knowledge.

ThaFormula.Com - Tell me about the project that you're about to release into the world right now, the new Scienz of Life CD/DVD combo that drops this week…that's a major project man…

Lil Sci - Yeah! It's an important project. It's basically documenting our early days at Fondle Em to our time in Atlanta. There some new music on there, both re-released and unreleased and some collabs with the like of Breeze Evahflowin and some others that are lesser known in the world that we are introducing. The DVD is like pure documentation of touring and recording in all different cities. I think we have a session of Stacey Epps first studio session where we were like just vibin'. A lot of the stuff on that DVD I feel like if we didn't document somewhere it would have just got destroyed and never appeared in hip-hops archives. Because I get a lot of calls and emails about re-releasing some of the old joints on CD or 12" again because people can't find 'em, or can't afford a record player. A lot of the stuff has been digitally re-mastered for the fans and for ourselves personally as well. It's coming out on a label called Raptivism records…

ThaFormula.Com - Oh yeah, we gave them a lot of support, they know what's up! Tell me about what else you have on deck, because I know you've got your hands in a few projects…

Lil Sci - We got "The John Robinson Project" we talked about, we got a Stacey Epps' solo LP, we've got the new Scienz of Life album for 2005, there's another project, I'm not even gonna really build on it, because the creator of the project told me himself to not even speak on it, but it's definitely gonna be one of the most legendary projects I've ever been involved in. With Shaman Work we have the Wale Oyejide album aka Science Fiction which is getting a lot of great response it's something different. We've got Emanon coming up in the following year. We've got the Doom "Special Herbs" series. He's been getting really, really, nice pre-orders, he's selling 'em out before it's even released! Things are really going well with Sham an works and you can expect more. Be sure to check us out at www.shamanwork.com, www.scienzoflife.com, www.soluprising.com!  

Scienz Of Life "Diggin In The Archives" Album Release Party Going Down This Friday October 1st, 2004 At Little Temple 4513 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles Doors Open at 9pm (323) 660-4540 21 & Over Ft. Count Bass D, Egon, and more...

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