Bored stiff.

WITHOUT A GROUP RELEASE IN A WHILE, some of you new jacks may still need to learn about the Stiff. You couldn't always produce, record, and burn your own album on your iMac in a couple days. And that used to he OK, because not everyone wanted to make their own album. I know, I know, hard to believe, but it's true. Originators in the underground tape-slanging cult, Bored Stiff has been in the game for over a decade and have no plans of leaving it to you just yet, ya greedy bastards. I met up with Big Shawn, Equipto, K-Dub, and Rocky Myint at Shawn's apartment in San Francisco to See what's up with the legendary click.

They had the Good Life down south, Lyricist Lounge in the east; was there ever one spot in the area or was it just house to house?

Shawn: Nah, there never was a Good Life; we had the Upper Room. We had to create our own situation. Around "93 White Mike had his little spot called 512 around Lower Haight, an apartment flat. We had a four-track up there and hella instrumentals on tape, so we would pick the ones we wanted and just fuck the whole thing up. One day E might be over there and do a solo, the next day Kwanze is there doing his thing. Originally we started with karaoke. 512 was like a jail cell and we would be up there with a karaoke two-track.

Kwanze: We pioneered, did our own thing against all odds to keep it real. It was the Stiff.

Equipto: It was our own love for it, experiencing something new. Finally we're making the music instead of listening to it. We learned the shit and we're still learning. Doing little shows to the point people wanted to hear a tape and we were just like "Damn, maybe we should put out a tape."

So when are you going to drop a new album as a group?

Equipto: Right now it's called The Symbol. It's like the feel of being back at 512. We're trying to incorporate that same feeling we had 'cause some people was working, some was hustling, some were making beats, some were getting beats from other people. We would all just congregate back at 512 and make the music we wanted; express what a nigga went through today. Get all types of scratchy records, OGass porno, and mixing all types of shit into our music that was far out. We want to incorporate some more up-to-date but still get that OG feeling, that breath of fresh air that's missing.

You guys have been seen at Mumia rallies and the Amadou Diallo protests. To make real music you gotta talk about what's really going on in the world. Politically or socially conscious, however you want to put it, you're still saying something important. What got you into that?

Rocky Myint: I was just a street rapper. Then E came and we started peeping hella game all around the world hella early. So every time we went to another part of the world we knew what was up. Like, "Alright--we can fuck with these people, these people are cool, but stay away from those mutherfuckers." We would already know the streets.

Equipto: When Kwanze cad I met he was already reading hella books, like Nat Turner. I was aware, but just stuff my mom and dad were feeding me. When I'd run into Kwanze he would gave raps about that shit, and I was like "This mutherfucker's tight." Shawn's heavily influenced by public Enemy. Even Big Daddy Kane, the suavest rapper, always had a song about uplifting his people. It was in hip-hop to do that; it would only be right to do that. We would never put out an album if we didn't think it could move someone or teach the young about the industry, the world or another country. Rocky, being a street rapper, is more political than anything. Like you said, that Mumia shit happened on the streets. That was gangsta shit at its highest level. That's why Bored Staff is so tight, we're not all this or all that. We're the yin and yang together.

Tell 'em about the people who ain't here tonight but are part of the Stiff.

Equipto: White Mike is the original, the essence of the Stiff. Everybody plays their part, but there wouldn't be a Stiff without Mike. To us he's the original Slim Shady. He'd hustle, rhyme, do crazy shit.

Equipto: That's why we never made it to the point of like the Living Legends. The street took us under. Our friend died. Shot in the street. Then Kwanze went to jail. That's what held us back. We were like "Damn, mutherfuckers close to you can get touched."

Big Shawn: Just 'cause we aint' in the limelight don't mean we dead. We're making it happen. We've grown up. We don't come out all the time 'cause we don't need to. When we do come out we're a landmark, like Halley's Comet. Everybody's got their binoculars on us. Once in a million.

Equipto: That's how I look at it. Explains', classic album. When people talk about the underground, Explain' has just got to be mentioned. The first Bored Stiff album revolutionized the game. Like you said, we started the hustle.

We're out. What do you want to leave the people with?

Equipto: Bored Stiff has never really been recognized for being part of a foundation of independent sales, underground music. I really don't think people recognize that shit. That ain't nothing against anyone else. I just don't think we've been notice for putting our balls on the line.

Rocky: I don't look at it like it's over. Mutherfuckers is peaking to me.