Keeping It Real
| by Chris J. Walker |
 |
“They’re more musical in comparison to other rap groups,” states engineer/producer Aaron Connor, from a suite at Artisan Recording Studios in Hollywood. He’s been involved with BTNH for their last three projects and has strong ties with them. “These guys are singers, but don’t tell them that! They take a lot of pride in rapping and that’s what they consider themselves, but they’re singers. They can all sing, and they come up with incredible harmonies that people don’t do in rap. That’s what sets them apart, but now their style has been copied.”
Layzie Bones (aka Steven House), who handles the midrange vocal and rap parts for the group, recalls Eazy-E, the deceased founder of Ruthless Records, and his initial reaction to the group: “He used to tell us, ‘Man, you got a different style.’ We’d say, ‘Nigga, we rapping; ain’t no style.’ We’d hit our harmonies together when we’d say our shit. We flip our flows, and we all help each other in the harmonies part of the shit. But we didn’t know we had a different style ’til the media brought it to our attention.”
Imitation is said to be a form of flattery, but in rap, it’s a much-practiced art form, with a lot of BTNH sound-alikes vying for a slice of the pie. Early on, before the Platinum CDs, BTNH attributed their uniqueness to their Cleveland, Ohio, roots. “The Midwest is just waiting for its time to blow,” says Layzie from the offices of Ruthless Records in Los Angeles. “The East had theirs, the West got their time and so did the South. But in the Midwest, there’s a whole bunch of talent there that the industry hadn’t tapped into until we hit. We get the best of all worlds, because we don’t just listen to East Coast, West Coast or the South—we listen to everything. That’s where we get the upper hand. From Cleveland to Detroit to Chicago, we got some shit jumping out our way.”
The aptly titled BTNHResurrection came out after a three-year layoff for the group, during which a raft of solo projects and various nonmusical issues kept the bandmembers apart. To Connor, “They keep growing and the songs keep getting better, with the songwriting being the most significant difference. Also, the way that we work and the instrumentation keeps getting deeper.”
A change on this album is the infusion of inputs from multiple producers. On their previous releases, DJ U-Neek wrote and produced the majority of the tracks, but now, according to Connor, “The songwriting got stronger, because there was more variety to the beats with different flavors from some people.”
BTNH’s creative process for BTNHResurrection involved various producers auditioning rhythm tracks, usually on DAT, for consideration. The “beats,” as they’re called, could just be a simple groove or a full-blown song. “They would decide on which ones they felt,” says Connor of the band’s selection process. “If they didn’t feel a particular beat, they might still keep it and come back to it later. But usually whatever they feel initially inspires them, and they’ll start writing lyrics to it immediately. If we need extra music, we’ll add that later.”
From the artist’s perspective, Layzie says, “Sometimes all of us are in the studio together and we’ll just vibe to a beat. Somebody will have a concept and we’ll just all go off of that. Or Krayzie will drop a hook and everyone else will follow after that with verses. It’s just like preparing a meal—you start with the little basics and you just keep adding to it ’til it all comes together. We do tracks ourselves, but right now we’re really focusing on working with DJ U-Neek, L.T. Hutton, Jimmy “JT” Thomas and other more solid producers. Krayzie is really the producer in our group; he’s made a lot of tracks for our previous CDs. The bottom line for us when it comes to producers is, if they got the shit, some heat for BTNH, we’ll add the flavor to it. It just comes together like that.”
Reprinted with
permission from 
Magazine, February, 2001
© 2000, Intertec
Publishing, A Primedia Company All Rights Reserved
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