Our Interview with Uncommon Nasa

You’ve probably heard his name spoken on early Def Jux records by the likes of Vast Aire, Aesop Rock, or El-P. You might have purchased one of the many albums off of his Uncommon Records has released over the last 10 years. If you’ve done none of those, and no idea who he is, you’re an asshole, but I’m here to help you with not being an asshole. First step, stop being shitty, second step, take a shower, third step, listen to Uncommon Nasa, starting at his first group, The Presence. Finally, catch the fuck up and listen to his new stellar New York Telephone (which I reviewed recently here), and read our conversation we had before Christmas, where we talked his music, Staten Island post Eric Garner verdict, and Wu-Tang.

Uncommon Nasa not only can rap his ass off, and produce, but the dude is passionate about everything he does, and believes in. He pulls no punches, gives no fucks if you’re offended by his honesty, and makes what he’s dubbed prog-rap unapologetically and owns it like nobody else. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing the dude as much as one can via the internet, for the last 4 years, and I can honestly say that 2014 was his break out year, with more coverage, national touring, and praise from the internet’s baldest music review guru.

Bodega’s are trying to kill him, cops on his block are murdering unarmed black men right outside his Staten Island front door, and he sits at the helm of his MPC with his Prog Cat and wife, writing it all down for us to enjoy.

Happy New Year you Monsters.

OUR INTERVIEW WITH UNCOMMON NASA STARTS NOW!

SYFFAL: New York Telephone is the cats’ balls dude. But I've had a nagging question since it dropped, that wasn't fit for the tweet-o-sphere. In your paranoia, are you wearing aluminum hats? Do you feel like there's a Doberman Pincher barking orders to you?

Uncommon Nasa: Man, I hope cats balls are a good thing. I'm a cat person, so I'll assume so. Paranoia or Perception is about a lot of things. It's a pretty personal story and one that I didn't think I'd ever broach on record. I come from a family with mental illness on both sides of my family tree and was raised with a paranoid schizophrenic in my home. So what the song breaks down is close to the knife-edge you get when you come from those sorts of genetics, especially in a city like this where you are over loaded with personalities to interact with. Sometimes I pride myself on a being a good judge of character, which translates as, knowing who not to fuck with too seriously. Being the guy who can figure out when someone is full of shit, irresponsible or nefarious is a HUGE part of this business. That being said, I come from a world where you don't trust anyone, and that's not healthy either. So, is it Paranoia or Perception? Sometimes, I just don't know, and that's something I come to grips with daily.

SYFFAL: Uncommon Nasa, your wife called you out like a grumpy old asshole on this album. Thank her for me. Also, why do you think honesty is a lost art in general, and in the music scene?

Uncommon Nasa: I think it's particularly lost in rap music. Rap is about the upsell. I have more money, more skills, more pride, whatever it is. Sometimes we all need to take a step back from the competition (which I don't deny is a huge and needed part of this game), and talk about who we really are. At my core, sometimes I just want to be alone or with my wife. I'm an only child. Being Mr. Popular and knowing everyone is something I've done for decades. I take pride in the varied figures I've been friends and/or collaborators with in this hip-hop thing. But that said, there's nothing wrong with closing that door sometimes and focusing on the people you've already let in the room.

SYFFAL: Gajah recently dropped a great album that Brando drooled over here at SYFFAL. You produced the entire thing for that chopping ass swordfish, and wrapped a tour with him too. Did he have his accordion? And was he often found trying to spoon with you on cold nights since he's so petit?

Uncommon Nasa: This dude Gajah was shivering in 50 degree weather! And I'm not saying that to be funny or embellishing. When we got to Las Cruces I wasn't sure he was gonna make it to the venue, his eyes teared up and everything. It's crazy. We're talking about doing shit back East and I feel like I'll probably need to have a fire place in the car, if that's even possible. But it was a great time touring with him. Rolling with a guy like that can only increase the bar for myself. Having the history he has in the LA scene EVERYONE wants to rap with him all fucking night, so I found myself in more cyphers than ever. I come from a more studio rat background, so it was great to try and keep up with him, but that sure as hell wasn't done. We both ripped our sets though, and came at it from totally different styles which I think really entertained people. It made us a very unique package. It was a great time man, really look forward to traveling with him again. White Horse was born on that trip, we will be back to fuck up more mics.

SYFFAL: You live in Staten Island, across the fucking street from where Eric Garner was murdered (RIP). You've also been pulling protest cards, because no one’s actually in his neighborhood other than his friends and family, protesting. Why do you think folks are on board but failing to keep a strong presence on the home front?

Uncommon Nasa: Because people here don't understand how close Staten Island is. If you look at a Subway map, Staten Island is presented as a 3rd of its size in a drop shadow like its Hawaii compared to the mainland. And this comes from the fact that the MTA never built a subway here, they try to convince you its distance, but when you look at an actual map you see it isn't. They underserve us. We famously call ourselves the "forgotten boro". Unfortunately this comes into effect when really serious shit like this happens. People seem to want their protesting to be convenient. If a brother was murdered by cops in Brooklyn, I'd go to Brooklyn. Every night mother fuckers are trying to "shut down the Brooklyn Bridge!" Why? What did the Bridge do? What did the Rock Center Tree do? Those things are so abstract to Staten Island. I went to a protest here on the Island tonight in fact. Eric Garner's daughter led it, his mother was also there among other family members. To actually be lead in chants by the family members, to actually start a march from the Staten Island Supreme Court that denied him justice and end with a die in where he was murdered was REAL. It was an abstract march. It was about Eric and his family and about this fucking 120th Precinct that's been out of control for years. Our chants were calling out the DA by name, calling out the officer by name, calling out the EMS that failed him. The chants were "Hands up, Don't CHOKE" as opposed to shoot. I wonder if the people in Manhattan realize how easy the cops here have had it in their coverage of protests. Or if they know who the crooked DA is, his name is Daniel Donovan. Protest his office! It drives me crazy, this is the cycle of protests that become about the protesters feeling better about themselves instead of trying to make a real impact. The other night a bunch of white people attacked cops. WHY? They are white, they can go the fuck home after that. If they were black they'd be dead. But they don't consider how hard they are making it on the rest of the protesters due to the white privilege they think they are fighting. Fucking aye.

SYFFAL: This new album is my favorite from you so far, and to make it even girthyer you pressed it onto blue fucking cassettes. Thank You. And why?

Uncommon Nasa: I'm always looking for unique merch ideas. I strongly believe you have to bring people different things these days and cassettes just made perfect sense because of the material and design. I have to give all the credit for the look to DJ Jazzpants and Justin at I Had an Accident.

SYFFAL: Has your primary care physician diagnosed your issues as of yet? Anyone who hates the matrix, but loves sons of anarchy clearly has brain cancer that's clouding his judgment. Why do you hate & love those so much? Were you a biker in a past life?

Uncommon Nasa: It's funny, when I was a kid the first thing I said when asked "what do you want to be when you grow up?" was "motorcycle rider". The teacher then told me that wasn't a thing. This is a real story. I haven't been into bike culture at all since, and I would never ride one of those things, but I love the aesthetics of the whole scene. It's kind of like a bizarro hip-hop culture. In any case, the show has good dialogue usually, and that's a big thing for me. The characters are almost always compelling. I get that to some degree the violence is gratuitous and I wish I could see more positive shows like "Halt and Catch Fire" more often on TV, but in the mean time I want my biker fix and was glad for 7 years of it.

SYFFAL: What hole did you find Yeshua Da POED in, and was Siah in arms reach? I loved those guys.

Uncommon Nasa: Yesh is the homie man, I knew him from way back in the scene. We started really building together in recent years though. I mixed almost his entire new album which is yet unreleased. I hope he has me finish it up soon, the world needs to hear it. Good people, one of my indie scene rap heroes.

SYFFAL: You have a stellar line up of guests, but the clear standout for me is the Elucid featured "This Bodega". Is he as gentle as I think he is? What inspired the song, and had you feeling it needed the raspy brilliance of Elucid?

Uncommon Nasa: I've known Elucid for a long time and I knew subject matter wise he'd fit right in there. There's a Cult Favorite song called "People's Temple" and I knew if I had similar chorus in tone it would work. Our voices work surprisingly well together, on the chorus and side by side in verse. He crushed that song, totally exceeded my high expectations. We just shot a video for it that should be out some time in January. The inspiration for the song was food poisoning and racism.

SYFFAL: Interludes typically suck unless you're Prince Paul, or 90s Wu Tang. You managed to not suck at all with these New York Telephone interludes. Why were these important for the album?

Uncommon Nasa: I needed something to get to the core of the New York orientation on the record. I deliberately only collaborated with people that had New York roots on this record. Sorry, non-New York homies. So with that being the case, I wanted to have them embedded in the record even more by telling personal stories about what brought them here, keeps them here or caused them to leave. Messiah Musik's backdrop made it all work and his beats throughout the record were the glue that made it all happen.

SYFFAL: Exactly how excited were you that Anthony Fantano's fickle bald ass loved your record? His influence in reviews is kind of crazy. Do you even care about what reviewers think?

Uncommon Nasa: I care about reviewers that I respect. It was a goal of mine to get him to review the record after I completed it. I did it all on my own, I don't have a PR company, I just have my persistence and talent. I was honored that he took the time he did to evaluate it and that he gave me such high praise. He can do no wrong to me at this point, even if he hates my next album. He opened me up to a lot of people and for that I'm thankful.

SYFFAL: 2014 was a great year for you and your New Balanced ass. What's on the horizon for next year? How proggy will you get?

Uncommon Nasa: I'm gonna tour another 3 times this year. As I said, I have a Bodega video coming and that won't be the last video from New York Telephone. This little engine that could isn't done running. There are other cool things in the works for the album that I can't get into yet. But you haven't heard the last of it. And of course I'm working on new music, I'm about to start writing a full record with Black-Tokyo beats and another full record of Messiah Musik beats at the same time. I'm looking forward to both.

SYFFAL: Tapes have made a strong comeback over the last 2 years. I myself have gone on somewhat of a rampage in buying them. Do you have any other plans to drop more cassettes for you, or any other Uncommon Records releases in 2015??

Uncommon Nasa: I have a cassette of experimental instrumental work dropping on I Had an Accident in the 1Q of 2015 called "Cold War Era". Could be other tape stuff afterwards if the market demands and so far it does.

SYFFAL: Last Question. If WuTang actually isn't forever, as we've recently found out. What is then? Do you think RZA is crying right now? Do you think Rae has an "I told you so" look on his face?

Uncommon Nasa: Speaking as a fan and not as a fellow musician, I think RZA is on a mission to prove he's a "real musician" and I think he proved that on 36 Chambers. Adding a bunch of live instrumentation to me is less musical then banging out amazing beats that no one else on Earth can do and he's certainly proven that. I wish the Wu well, I'm a Staten Islander, and I have to support. Every time you think they are down, a solo or group effort drops that blows away everything these new jacks in the game are doing. Never sleep on the Wu!