Featured: Inverse

SHARE TWEET EMAIL TEXT

Tunji and Toby.
A few weeks ago I chopped it up with Tunji, one half of the very dope Cali based duo Inverse.
If your on the internet a fair amount, i'm almost certain you've seen these guys around.
In the following interview, we speak about Tunji's influences, their latest album So Far, dream collaborations and much more.illRoots: How are you man? What are you up to?
Tunji: Real good man, things are going well. I'm actually at work right now, but not working at all. [Laughs]
iR: [Laughs] That's good to hear. I saw ya'll were featured on Myspace, thats a huge look.
Tunji: Yessir! That was definitely a great look for us right now. They let us add more tracks to our profile, so people could hear our entire project and really get a feel for what we bring to the table.
illRoots: Dopeness. What project is that?
Tunji: It's called So Far (The Collection). It's not our album, but it's not a mixtape either. It's more like a compilation of some old and a few new songs that we wanted to put out to get the buzz up for the album we've been working on. We've been recording for awhile, so we just had a lot of music that wasn't being used and we knew it would be a minute before the album was ready. We wanted to have a project out there for people to identify with us and to show what we're capable of and where we're trying to go musically. So we threw it together at the end of last year and released it for free download on New Years Day.

illRoots: That's a damn smart idea. No reason to let it go to waste. What are some of your favorite tracks off So Far?
Tunji: My favorite is probably "Constellation," just because of how incredibly chilled out that beat is, and I love the way the hook came together. That song just reminds me of summertime and crusing around carefree. "HipHopSoul" is another favorite because of the concept, and M-Phazes killed that beat as well. I really like "I Believe" and "So Far" too - I think our emotion came across well on those songs.
illRoots: Who is Inverse?
Tunji: Inverse is two MCs from Cali - Tunji and Toby. We've been making music together since '01, but we just put out our first project this year.
illRoots: How would you describe your sound? It's different then a lot of the mainstream acts out now...
Tunji: We have an upbeat, dreamy, soulful sound. Our songs are mostly about everyday things that regular people are going through. The lyrics are always pretty personal and we talk honestly about how we feel and what we see around us. I guess people like to call it conscious hip hop, but we're just making music the only way we know how to.
illRoots: I can definitley feel that. Who were some of your inspirations growing up?
Tunji: Growing up, we were both really influenced by Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, James Brown, Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, Fela Kuti and a few others. As far as hip hop goes, Common, Nas, OutKast, Jay-Z, Tupac, Black Star, Dre and Snoop, The Roots, Cee-Lo, Lauryn Hill, Atmosphere, The Pharcyde, and a lot more I'm forgetting right now.
illRoots: Good choices. What's your illest hip-hop memory?
Tunji: Man, I met Eminem at the X-Games in '99 when he was my favorite rapper and just about to become the biggest dude on the planet; that was pretty great at the time. And I stood about five feet away from Nas as he talked about the Hip Hop Is Dead album for two hours in December of '06; that was incredible and pretty inspirational too. I'm lucky because through living in LA, being in a rap group and working in the industry, I've gotten to meet pretty much all of my favorite rappers except for Jay-Z.
illRoots: So if you could meet anyone, it would be Jay?
Tunji: I guess at this point, yeah. Oh, and Andre 3000.
illRoots: If you could only as them one question, what would it be?
Tunji: I'd probably ask Jay for business tips, especially dealing with labels and publishing. I'd want to know about Andre's songwriting process and how he puts together his lyrics.
illRoots: If you could work with any artist for one song, who would that be and what would the song be about?
Tunji: I wanna make a song with OutKast. I don't even care what it's about really, I just wanna do a song with both of them.
illRoots: Word. So what can we look out for as far as Inverse in the next year?
Tunji: We're going to put out videos for a couple of the best songs from So Far, and we're going to release a few new songs during the summertime to keep the buzz going. We've been working on our album Long Day's Journey for a long time, and it should come out this year as well. It's executive produced by Deacon The Villain and Kno from the CunninLynguists and we should have some help from Brother Ali, Talib Kweli, 9th Wonder, M-Phazes and a few other great artists as well. We should be touring pretty soon too, so look for us in your city onstage with our band.
illRoots: Sounds great. You sure will be busy [Laughs]. Any shoutouts?
Tunji: Shouts to all our collaborators and band members. Shoutouts to the CunninLynguists and the whole QN5 fam. And huge shouts to all of our homeys out here in LA doing their thing and rising right now - U-N-I, Blu, Pacific Division, TiRon, New Kingdom, Nieve & Cook and anyone else I forgot.