KN Certified: Boog Brown Interview Part Two

Here it is! Part two of my extensive interview with Boog Brown. Check it out as we conclude by speaking about her upcoming projects, memories of Detroit, the evolution of women in Hip Hop, and her creative process. Enjoy and don’t forget to check out our other features on Boog who is officially KN Certified.

Arasia: We left off on the subject of “friends” and your peers, so answer this question for me. If you had the opportunity to redo the Midnight Marauders cover, name a few people that would have to be on that cover.

Boog Brown: DJ Houseshoes, Ta’Raach, Big Tone, yU, Oddisee, Illastrate, Dillon Maurer, um…shoot, I’m drawing a blank. Who else, who else, who else? I’m stuck!

Arasia: You were naming them off quick style too like bam, bam, bam!

Boog Brown: I know! I have some more…oh, J-Live and (Kenn) Starr.

Arasia: I know someone that you would add!

Boog Brown: Oh and Rita J!

Arasia: Yup, that’s who I was thinking! She’s such a sweetheart!

Boog Brown: Yeah, she is.

Arasia: I always wanted to ask that question. It gives a good view of the artist and who they align themselves with.

Boog Brown: Yeah, I was thinking about them when I was putting my iPod list together.

Arasia: So tell me, what do you miss most about the D?

Boog Brown: The summertime and the concerts…the fun, the laughter, and the amazing music. I miss being with those people and hanging out with them. Oh wait, on Midnight Marauders, I need Invincible on there too.

Arasia: Of course!

Boog Brown: K, yeah, I just miss hanging out with my friends and being home chilling and being with something familiar…my family, my dad. Our relationship has changed a lot since I moved to Atlanta. He’s still one of my best friends…it’s just very different than what it was. I miss going to Belle Isle. I miss…you know different cities have different things. Detroit has these things. I miss the smell of a summer morning. I miss small things. I can’t really put it into words…just being home. When I’m home, I don’t miss it anymore. Then I want to go back to Atlanta!

Arasia: Girl, don’t I know it! Now I also have to ask you because Detroiters….well, how you guys are with Coney Island is how Chicagoans are with Harold’s. We don’t play with our chicken.

Boog Brown: Oh girl, Harold’s! What!

(Both laughing)

Boog Brown: Coney Island too though.

Arasia: Right! So with me knowing this, I have to ask you, the next time I’m in Detroit, what Coney should I hit up? Because I swear, every time I go to Detroit, my people take me to a specific Coney. Don’t go to this one, don’t go to that one. And it’s like that here. I literally have a Harold’s across the street from me and I will head way to the East side because I know the Harold’s over there is popping!

Boog Brown: RIGHT! I don’t have a specific one necessarily. I like Davison Coney Island. I like Clocks, which is not Coney Island but it might as well be. The menu is damn near the same. That’s on the East side. And I like Lafayette Coney Island. It’s three of them that I will go to. It’s one near my dad’s house in Oak Park that I just won’t go to. It’s right down the street and I just won’t go to it. It’s not the same. But it depends on what you are going for. Like Clocks, I go there for the chicken Greek. And for Lafayette, definitely the Coney dog all day. And the one on Davison, their chill cheese fries.

Arasia: See, I feel you! That’s how it is here too! (Laughing). Now I’m hungry! Well, onto something else. Tell me about your creative process? Do you write first or do you listen and pick the beats first?

Boog Brown: These days, I’ve been picking beats and listening to them and just kind of sitting with them because I will write on two or three topics that can go with a specific beat. [And] before I can actually commit to a song, it takes me a minute to write unless I am in the studio and have to write right then. If that’s the case, then I will just go right then especially if I am collaborating with people. I like to sit in the studio these days and write with them.

Arasia: Word, so what has been the most challenging moment on this journey for you thus far?

Boog Brown: Most challenging part of this journey thus far? Hmm.., really just believing in myself. I’d have to say that’s been the most challenging. It’s not an external thing. For the most part, it’s more being a middle child and not ….flying under the radar for so long and not stepping up. This is the one thing I’ve felt like I’ve done 100%. The one thing I’ve committed to 100%. And so, just, believing that I can do this has been the challenge and standing or staying in that place and staying in that belief. That has been the challenge.

Arasia: So what are your thoughts on the evolution of females in the Hip Hop game from the first woman you heard on the mic up until today? And what are some of the positives in that and what do you think needs to be improved?

Boog Brown: I don’t really think anything needs to be improved because everyone has their point of reference and their goals and they go about them or go about obtaining those goals differently. I just feel like, we live in a misogynistic and patriarchal world where men are at the forefront and women are at the back. And that’s just kind of how it is. I mean the American society that we are living in right now…that’s just kind of how things go. And while I don’t necessarily agree with that, I just recognize that’s how it is. Like if you are going to know how to play this game, then you are going to have to learn those rules in order to be able to avoid or break or disregard them all together.

Arasia: Interesting.

Boog Brown: So I don’t necessarily feel like anything needs to be improved. I think it is progressing like it is supposed to. I’m not one for fucking up the order of things. Let it go how it goes and let it be what it is. Just let the work speak for itself instead of being like, “I’m a woman and I can spit. I’m a woman and I can hold my own.” You know, whatever. Nobody wants to hear a vagina with a mic. Just do what it is you’re supposed to be doing. I didn’t take anything from Monie Love other than the fact that she knew she was ill and she knew she could write…she knew she could spit and she knew her delivery was cold. I didn’t take. “Oh, I’m a woman, you better respect me.” Although, a lot of her songs had that message, I didn’t take that and that alone from it. It was more to it than that. And I could be…the only thing that makes me upset about an artist like Nicki Minaj is that she was so ill when she started. She was actually an emcee when she started and now because of the fact that she has put herself in this position, which is an awesome position to be in, [and] make no mistakes, she is doing what she wants to do and what she needs to do so I can’t be mad at her for making the decisions she’s made. However, I feel like it’s more of a gimmick than her actually being an emcee…a dope artist. It’s more of a play thing. It’s like, “Nah dawg, you are dope! What are you doing? You don’t have to do this.” So it’s just more frustration with her in that regard. But she makes her music and she has some dope ass verses…all that shit. I just don’t feel like she has to play herself and to a degree, she is. But you know it’s not my call. It’s not my place to judge her on that. That’s what she wants to do. That’s who she wants to be. And she’s doing it to the best of her ability and she’s succeeding at it. And I can’t be mad at that. I just feel like don’t sell yourself to fall in love.

Arasia: Isn’t that what SV told us?

Boog Brown: Oh yeah, what is the look of?

Arasia: It’s got something to do with a…(Both laughing). Well said. Now I know you have mentioned the Boog Brown experience in other interviews you’ve done. Tell me about that.

Boog Brown: It’s ever changing. It’s a mission…a journey to attain a goal that is my goal that is my personal goal that I will not share with anyone because people like to shit on goals and put their negative energy towards it. What’s mine is mine. My aspirations will continue to be mine and no one else’s to dissect and put their thoughts to. I don’t need that. Only my close circle will know that but it’s just an ever changing journey as to who I am as an artist and woman.

Arasia: I feel that. So will there be a Grind Season part two?

Boog Brown: Oh of course! Of course!

Arasia: Speaking of, overall, what actually is next for you?

Boog Brown: Right now, I’m working on this project with my friend Dillon. It’s called Martha Knuckles. It’s a collaborative project with he and I. That’s what’s getting the most effort and the most play. And after that, I’m going to do this project with Georgia Anne Muldrow. It isn’t titled yet but it will be a full length project that we are doing.

Arasia: Really?!?!

Boog Brown: Yeah, coming very soon. And my next solo EP will be called Boogie Monster. I have a couple of things in the works.

Arasia: My soul just traveled outside of my body when you mentioned a project with you and Georgia.

Boog Brown: (Laughing). I know right! I’m so geeked about that project!

Arasia: Both of you are amazing. That’s a project of epic proportions.

Boog Brown: It’s going to be awesome! It’s huge. It will be an amazing project. I’m really excited about it. I’m anxious to get started. I’d like to hear some of the music so I can get my ideas together for it.

Arasia: Can’t wait. Now when are you coming to Chicago? We want to see you!

Boog Brown: I’m anxious to come out to Chicago and tour period. No one has reached out on some booking shit and I’m really not into not being paid in some way. It doesn’t even have to be off top. It could be a couple people on the guest list, free drinks, and enough people so I can sell my merch. Just something. I’m not trying to just be a local artist. I want to expand.

Arasia: I dig. Well, we are going to have to change that. Now my last question…my signature question that I ask everyone I’ve ever interviewed. If you encountered a fan that was deaf and they asked you to describe your music in color, what would those colors be and why?

Boog Brown: Red, purple, yellow, orange, and blue. Red is power, orange and yellow exhibit a form of happiness, blue is becoming…everyone has a story and goes through their form of blues, and purple is royalty. I believe that’s it.

Arasia: Great answer. Well that’s all I got my dear. I’ve talked your ear off.

Boog Brown: That’s okay, I had a good time!

Arasia: Yeah, me too! Well thanks for taking time out and being so candid and open to talking with me. I appreciate it.

Boog Brown: I appreciate you reaching out to do this with me. I appreciate all the support because it’s so important and I think it’s really dope the way you guys support the way you do. I can never thank you enough for that.