Rapper's delight

Though you might not realize it, Boston’s underground hip-hop scene is alive and well with Moe Pope at the helm. Named best rapper in Boston by URB magazine, Pope has been laying down rhythmic truths for over a decade. And with two of Boston’s most talented producers, Headnodic and Rain, he recently released his most heartfelt album to date, Life After God (Brick Records), a remix album called Mega Bjork, and played with Boston breakouts Bad Rabbits at the Middle East last weekend. Moe Pope sat down with The MUSE to talk about his career, his family,and being the only kid in the projects who didn’t listen to rap.

The MUSE: You got your start in hip-hop back in the late 90s/early 2000s. How has your career in music progressed since then?

Moe Pope: I’m going to say mostly the categories in music. I grew up, and you had your underground hip-hop: your Roots, Mos Def, [Talib] Kweli, or whatever. That’s around the time that I started rapping, and there were very definitive lines between how you rapped, you know? Between the gangsta rap and the more jiggy hip-hop and stuff like that. But I’d say now the line is starting to thin out dramatically. There’s your pop music, and then there’s everything else. I’d say that’s definitely where I’m at right now. I grew up listening to all different types of music, and I’d say we pretty much use the vast majority of all the music that I listened to when I was a kid. From your pop, to punk music, to gangsta music. When I first started out, I talked a lot about the progression of man, and what we need to do to move ahead, and stuff like that. I think that’s awesome. But I think there’s a certain time to scream, and I think that’s where I’m at right now. I’m screaming a lot more.

TM: Life After God came out last year to strong reviews in the Phoenix and URB magazine. What was your main purpose and feeling behind this album? How is it different from the rest of your work?

MP: I don’t think it’s different from my work as a whole, really. I think that when I first started, I was rapping on my first album, which was called Mission: One, I always talked about personal things. I talked about my family. I talked about my daughter. It was something that I felt was solely lacking in music—in hip-hop. I wouldn’t say that for folk music, or R&B, or blues, or anything like that. I think that every other genre of music, from country on down, there’s some type of personal aspect to it—where they talk about their feelings and such. And I feel like hip-hop is the one music where they don’t a lot of the times. I’m not saying that a lot of groups don’t do it, but I’d say that the vast majority, they don’t want to hear about that shit. They want a beat that makes their ass move. They want words to make them forget about their day. I think that’s awesome. I can’t do that. I don’t know how to do that. If I had a good day, I like to come home and write about it. If I had a terrible day, I like to tell people about it. I have a 14-year-old daughter who is driving me absolutely nuts. So I wrote a song about it. I just feel like there needs to be a little bit more of that—just a little bit more. Not a whole bunch. I still want people to shake their asses, and ride around in cars to forget about their everydays. But I just feel like there needs to be a little more of reality in hip-hop. And I think that’s what that record was: a whole shitload, a heaping spoonful, of truth.

TM: You worked with a new producer, Rain, on Life After God. How did you guys meet and start working together?

MP: Rain literally called me up one day. And it’s funny because I told my homies, we were having a conversation, and I was telling them, “All these people keep hitting me up and giving me beats.” I never really like when people email me to send me their beats. I hardly ever listen to it. I mean, not for any disrespect, but it’s usually very, very bad. Very, very bad. So this dude, Rain, hits me up, and he’s like, “Hey, I’m Rain. I got in touch through a homie of yours. I’d like you to come over my house, and let me play you my beats.” I have no idea why I agreed to do it, because I’m telling you, for like three years I’ve had people calling me up sending me beats like that. And I don’t know what made me go over to this one dude’s house, but I did. It’s definitely what saved me from quitting the music altogether. I was right on the edge of quitting, and not making any more music. And that dude called me up, and changed everything.

TM: Since then, you’ve come out with a remix album called Mega Bjork, over Bjork tracks, and you’re releasing another one called Depeche Moe, over Depeche Mode tracks. Where did that idea come from? Do you have any plans to make more in the future?

MP: Honestly, I’d like to do every record. It’s a cool like side thing. I know that people have mashed up records all the time, but it’s usually another producer doing it. Like Jay-Z gettin’ it done, and Danger Mouse did the first real, official mash-up with The Beatles. That was somebody else who has no real knowledge of Jay-Z making a beat around his shit. And it sounded great. What we’ve done with the Bjork stuff and the Depeche Mode is… I mean, Jay-Z didn’t pick the Beatles and say, “Hey, can you make me a mix of the Beatles and me together?” It just kinda happened. I got to pick which groups I wanted, and I got to be a part of the remixes happening. And the people who are making the remixes know me. They know what’s going to move me. It feels a little bit more artistic than sending my shit to someone else. Headnod did the first one, and then Rain and Headnod did this one. I’d love to do it for the next one. We’ve been kickin’ around the bullshit… Nah, nah I’m not going tell you about the next one. I can’t (laughs).

TM: Are there any plans to do another project with Headnodic?

MP: Yeah, we’ve been really trying. As you know, he has the Mighty Underdogs, he has Crown City, and he just did a solo record with Raashan Ahmad. It’s been really busy, but we know exactly what we want to do. We know the ideas we want to use. We know exactly what samples we picked out for certain songs I wrote. Certain melodies I wrote on guitar. We definitely want to do it. It’s just finding the time. Both of us have spoken about it just as recently as last week. So I’m going to go ahead and say that yes, it’s definitely going to happen.

TM: You mentioned you have a 14-year-old daughter, and on your Facebook, under interests, you have listed: “Music and Art” and “Being a Dad.” How do you balance your professional and personal lives?

MP: It’s really crazy, because around the time we were making Life After God my daughter was living with her mother. I was really depressed. We were going through custody battles. Talking about getting lawyers, and stuff like that. Arguing with my girlfriend. When Life After God came out there were a lot of personal issues that came out of it. I think it was real easy to ignore when I was recording that I had a child before, because she wasn’t living with me. Because you can’t really be a full on attentive dad if you’re only seeing her two days a week, you know? And she’s lived with me now for a couple of years—it’s tough. You don’t want to bullshit the audience, and you also don’t want to say something that your family might not see you in a certain light. But you gotta tell the truth. I need to stick to my regular way of doing it—tellin’ the truth. And hopefully we’ll have a conversation about it later on in life.

TM: What were some of your favorite albums to listen to growing up?

MP: Very funny, because I didn’t really start out listening to hip-hop at all. My uncles were listening to punk, 80s hair bands, and stuff like that. I really identified with that stuff. It’s funny because I lived in the projects, and I didn’t listen to any hip-hop. I got made fun of thoroughly for it. I’d say probably my first huge influence had to be… I’m going to go with a hip-hop one because I always talk about the rock influences like The Police and The Smiths. But Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh’s “The Show” was the first hip-hop song that blew my mind away. That was the one that blew it open for me, and made me listen to hip-hop. And it had been long out in the world before I heard it. I was probably about 12 or 13 when I first heard it. It impressed me so much with a dude beatboxing and a dude rapping. It was just so catchy. I don’t think I’ve stopped listening to hip-hop from that second on. My mom wasn’t the type to let me or my sister listen to hip-hop in the house. It wasn’t something that we were allowed to do. So I listened to a lot of R&B, a lot of pop, and a lot of rock. Back then, it was easily accessible because MTV had everything mashed together. There was really no separation of music. They would play Run DMC, Billy Idol, Billy Joel and then New Edition. And then a couple of years later there was Yo! MTV Raps and Headbangers Ball. All the music got separated. I think the good thing about the generation coming up is that you don’t have to do all that. For the most part, the kid that listens to rock listens to hip-hop as well. The kid that listens to R&B listens to hip-hop. You may not love rock, but you might have a Lady Gaga CD. It’s like with clothing and fashion—the line is blurred dramatically. So yeah, I pick Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh.

TM: When is the next time we can see you live in Boston? Do you have any plans to play outside of Boston or tour?

MP: Yeah, we’re trying to work that out right now. We’re trying to work out a tour for the summer. Trying to get out of the country. We’ll see how it works.

Moe Pope plays the Middle East Downstairs for REKS album release party March 12 at 8 p.m.