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Editor's Note: NJS4E originally ran this story in April 2005, but only the first part of the interview. Now we are extremely thrilled to return to our profile on R&B duo Christion. When this feature was first produced:
Circa 1997, Christion became Roc-A-Fella Records' first ever R&B act (and original Def Soul act) when CEO Damon Dash was impressed enough to sign the group, consisting of brothers Kenny Ski and Allen Anthony. Their debut single and video "Full Of Smoke" (click pic below to watch) generated a sensational buzz throughout the music industry that had practically cemented the group's "cool" status before they had even released an album! As a testament to the duo's precocious musical talent, Roc-A-Fella even allowed the brothers to write and produce the whole set un-encumbered by outside producers or objections from Def Jam.
However, when the musically poignant (and highly substantive) Ghetto Cyrano LP finally did debut, the music industry's "Jiggy" era was in full effect, which meant the over-arching theme at that point was anything *but* substantive. Spearheaded by Puff Daddy and his Bad Boy Records, the order of the day was to discuss high-powered materialism as opposed to gritty urban realities and the trials and tribulations of relationships. Looking back, it isn't difficult to understand why a truly soulful album like Ghetto Cyrano might have slipped under the radar throughout the late 1990s. But for heads that were in the know, this album was and still is, a bonafide classic. Click the two pics below to view clips for "Bring Back Your Love" and "I Wanna Get Next To You."
After appearing
on 1998's Streets Is Watching soundtrack, it
started became glaringly obvious that Def Jam
Records may not have been the best place for an
R&B act. Things started to look up when Island
Records merged with Def Jam (bringing
then ultra-hot Dru Hill to the fold),
but from a historical standpoint, Def Jam's true
area of expertise is first and foremost as a hip-hop
label, and Andre Harrell's Uptown Records was
founded in the late 80s primarily because he couldn't
make R&B music at his previous (thanks to the likes
of Lyor Cohen or Rick Rubin)
employer, Def Jam. Besides, hip-hop act Jay-Z was enjoying massive success, along with fellow Def
Jam acts DMX and Ja
Rule was just beginning to emerge. Unfortunately
for Christion, the Def Soul imprint (and R&B music in general) was an
afterthought at the label.
Feb 2005 -- Kenni Ski: We’ve been
producing for a lot of artists that he wave in-house. We
have an artist by the name of Max Jewels who is a rapper.
We have a singer by the name of Donya, another singer by
the name of Rain, another female singer by the name of
Kat. We’ve been working on a compilation record that
we’re excited about putting out. We’re probably
going to release it after the Christion record on The
Mint label. So we’re going to give the public a
taste of everything that we do as far as production, the
writing and arranging, and I think we’re just really
excited about this year. Kenni Ski: Yeah, we did. NJS4E: And a lot of artists
have to go maybe three or four albums deep before they
get a chance to really do their thing on their own album.
So that’s definitely a testament to the magic you
were able to create in the studio with both production
and the songwriting.
Kenni Ski: I give a lot of credit to Roc-A-Fella also. It was also a testament to Damon Dash and Jay really believing in us as far as [us being] artists because the Def Jam had actually suggested to bring another producer, but what Damon had said was, we like the sound the way it is, why don’t we let the kids produce the record. And at that time as you know it, it’s just like you stated, it’s just not done. For Damon to stand up for us like that, I have to commend him because Def Jam definitely wanted to go the other direction and have him bring in some producers in house. So that was a blessing. NJS4E: And the good thing about it too is that when we hear the new material, I’ve actually been lucky enough to hear some of the new stuff – there’s definitely continuity between the first project and Project Plato coming out now. Kenni Ski: Thank you. T-Ross: We’re really excited about it NJS4E: Now one question I’ve wondered about and I’ve done a lot of reading and there’s a little bit of gray around this, but originally some people referred to you (Kenny) and Allen Anthony as brothers. One article said you are in fact biological brothers. A lot of other articles said you were basically like brothers. Would you let to set the record straight for NJS4E? Kenni Ski: Nah…. NJS4E: That’s all good. But we can definitely say that Christion is a family affair with the introduction of a cousin, if I have that correct? T-Ross: That’s correct. NJS4E: How are you doing sir? T-Ross: Oh, not too bad. Any questions you have for me is all great. And we’re all family, no doubt about it. We’ve all been together since Christion, and beyond that. It’s been forever, we’ve always been together. And like you said, we’re blood cousins and we have a lot of the same ways. Our writing styles are very similar and all of our inspiring artists from the past are from the [same vein] – our mothers are sisters – so that’s where we get that from.
NJS4E: One of the things I’m curious about with Christion is you are a Bay Area [based] group, but I feel like your sound, you really couldn’t lock it down. I mean, people in Chicago feeling you, you were signed to a New York-originated label. Could you talk about how your experience in the Bay Area may have shaped your sound or shaped the way Christion puts out its viewpoint? Kenni Ski: I think the Bay Area kind of allows you to be an artist – really free. The Bay Area is kind of a melting pot of music. You get blues, you get jazz, you get rock, you get R&B. It’s not really segregated. Like, most of these cats in the Bay, like the rock cats hang out with the R&B cats, the blues cats hang out with the rap cats, you know what I mean? T-Ross: We all respect each other. There’s a lot of respect for different cultures and even different arts, dance, music, it all relates back to each other. For us, we take a lot of things in continuity. In other words, the dance has to mix with the rhythm of the song. Everything we do has to coincide together. When we create a beat or decide the melody of a song, it is usually based around rhythm. And that rhythm is old school, new school and everything. Kenny Ski: The Bay gives you the opportunity to encompass everything you’ve grown up listening to, and everything you wanted to try and experiment. And you can actually do it in the Bay without fear of being rejected or ridiculed, or ‘oh, what are they doing?’ It really gives you the freedom to be an artist. I mean, there’s no other place that I’ve been that’s like the Bay Area as far as the freedom to do whatever you want. T-Ross: Yeah, the freedom to be different. And that’s why we’re different than most artists that you just see on the videos. Kenni Ski: The one thing about the Bay, and I will say is that the street culture, and hip-hop culture, I think we were the first ones – as far as I know – California and the Bay in general because we grew up in the hip-hop culture – we were the first ones to really latch on to Afrika Bambatta and Rock Steady Crew and everything that was happening on the East Coast. We really embraced it. A lot of people tried to say well, I like it but let me go ahead and we’re doing our thing. The south was doing their thing, LA was doing their thing, where actually the Bay Area cats, when we were kids we actually emulating exactly what we heard and dressing exactly like they dressed. I think we have a lot of East Coast flavor in the Bay. We grew up with Afrika Bambatta and Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap, so I think a lot of our stories and the way we put together rhymes and rhythms – that’s why I think the East Coast can relate to it so easily because a lot of it is East Coast influenced. NJS4E: One of the things you
said earlier about being different, being unique –
one thing that’s definitely unique about the way you
put your message out there is how you have the streets,
the relationships, the love, and the aftermath, and I
think I actually heard Project Plato will be starting
with Chapter 5?
NJS4E: Could you give us a little taste of what chapters are in store for the next album? Kenni Ski: The chapters for the
next project. There’s the journal, then there is
once again, the relationship but this time it’s
actually called the conversation. Those two chapters will
pick up where Ghetto Cyrano left off. There will be a
streets chapter in this also. It’s basically us
telling our stories as far as we know them. We’re
not trying to make anything up. Like we said on the first
album – no fiction in our diction. Whatever
we’re saying, either we lived it or we know someone
who did that was very close to us so it’s from
personal experience. If it didn’t happen to us, it
happened to someone that affected our lives profoundly,
so that’s what you’re gonna get. Kenni Ski: Yeah. And we grew up – it’s no secret we grew up around a lot of pimps, hustlers, drug dealers, I mean that’s just part of Oakland. And our older brothers, and older cousins were into the game – all facets of the game. Be it, pimpin, dope dealin’, hustlin’ all facets of the game. So for us to actually avoid it, it was a blessing. For us to experiment low level hustling, just doing what they did experimentally, our older brothers and cousins would kick our asses. [They’d be like] “don’t ever go this route.” And that’s we’re trying to convey to our generation and to the kids that are younger than us and to the youth that are coming up, that I know that it looks all great and I know the ghetto is being glorified right now but, there’s no place for you in the ghetto and there shouldn’t be no ghetto. That’s our message. NJS4E: That’s real. Kenni Ski: If we all worked together and put our minds to use, there wouldn’t be any ghettos. And that’s our goal and our dream. NJS4E: One of the things that
also made the first album special and I’m wondering
if it’s going to happen this time around...you guys
really pulled off the remake of “I Wanna Get Next To
You.” NJS4E: Pulled it off. Not to
sound like it’d be formulaic, but will there be
another remake for this project or in the future at some
point? T-Ross: Yeah, I know I had a couple myself.
Kenni Ski: So we just put it all in a hat and said, okay just pick one. So I think that’s going to happen the same way. We love so many artists, obviously you hear the Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye influence, but you know there’s Stevie Wonder, there’s Bill Withers, there’s Rufus Thomas, and Sam Cooke. We have to figure out exactly who we would like to pay tribute to. There’s the Manhattans and the Temptations, it goes on and on. NJS4E: Well we’ll definitely be looking forward to that one. Now, can we talk a little bit about the new album…what songs you’re excited about right now? T-Ross: I can tell you that we’re really into the song that we’re gonna push most frequently called “Let ‘Em Know.” That song itself is something that Kenni came up with. It was more romantic-type, hip-hop-type, 'stay off my lady' type thing. We’ve seen some stuff go down at a club and actually one of our friends was involved and Kenni was inspired by that and came up with “Let ‘Em Know.” He said we need to write something about that, let’s get on this. Kenni Ski: A lot of our inspiration for this album came like that. Us hanging out or something happening to T, something happening to me, and we were like, “ok we gotta right this down.” But I’m particularly excited about the fact that we have more uptempos. On the first album, I think we left a lot of room for ourselves in the clubs and on the dance floors. On Ghetto Cyrano, I think the one thing we left out, and I remember people would tell me, they’d tell us all the time, “you left the clubs out, I mean I love Christion put I can’t play anything off the album!” In the clubs the girls would all strip to "Midnight x-tc" and "Anything Goes" for some reason. Not that we frequent a lot of strip clubs (laughter) but we do party. T-Ross: We do party and we do dance, and I think on the last album we held back a little bit on that. Kenni Ski: So this time I’m
excited about, we actually did a song – a friend of
mine that plays for the Lakers, I won’t say any
names – but we did a song particularly for the
Lakers called “That’s What’s Up” and
Phaethon was like, “why don’t you
put this on the record?” and I’m like,
"it’s not generally what we would consider a
Christion song," and he was like, “yeah but we love
it. It’s catchy and you cats need to show a side of
you that people may not be familiar with.” So I
think we’re kind of nervously anticipating what the
public is going to think about that side of us also. Kenni Ski: And to end that
statement, I’m really excited about a song called
“Broken Streets” which is basically like T-Ross
said -- we both recently lost our moms, and it’s kind
of a spoken word slash hip-hop tribute to a kid in the
ghetto just dreaming to get out. And it’s kind of
talking to their moms about the things that kids talk
about. Kenni Ski: Hopefully they know that we can all get through this together. NJS4E: I am sorry to hear about the recent loss. I’m sure the music was probably a healing process not only for yourselves but for everybody who’s been touched by that situation. There’s been some coverage on this already but I figure I should ask it while we’re here, is how is the relationship with a) Roc-A-Fella now and b) how is the relationship with Allen Anthony?
Kenni Ski: Oh Allen’s great.
We’re kinda proud of him because he’s going
where I would say T and I are kinda scared to go.
He’s really experimenting with music as far as his
sound. He’s doing I would say kind of a hip-hop
slash rock, metal, I can’t even describe it.
I’m not even sure if there’s a word for it. As far as Roc-A-Fella? They’ll always be family. They brought us in the game and I could never be mad at someone who spent money on me and brought me in the game. We’ll always be family. T-Ross: But I want to add to Allen, we support Allen in all his ventures. He’s a great vocalist and what I’d like to say – I see Allen as a visionary. When he envisions stuff he likes to write about it and put into song format. And that’s what I admire most about Allen – he’s a really great person, he knows exactly what he wants to do and when we wants to do it. Now he wants to bring everyone into [understanding] what he’s doing and I commend him for that. He’s gonna go ahead and do his thing and we’re gonna support him all the way. Kenni Ski: His solo record should be dropping on Roc-A-Fella sometime, I think right before the Project Plato drops. So I think Allen’s solo record should be coming out in May right before Project Plato. I wrote a couple of songs around there, T’s got some writing on there, some backgrounds. T-Ross: We’re always in the studio together, we’re always on the phone together, we always see each other, we go out together, we do everything together. We love each other. NJS4E: Fantastic. Any chance people might be able to catch a show where you guys on the same bill? Kenni Ski: Oh definitely. You’ll definitely probably see all three of us on the stage. We’ve done it before. A lot of folks don’t know, when we toured the first time – T-Ross was on the stage and he sang background. And if you watch the first video we ever dropped, “Full of Smoke” the first person you see is myself, the second person you see is Allen, and third person you see is T-Ross. And a lot of people were confused, they thought Christion was a three person group at that time because T-Ross was in so much of the video! T-Ross: I was doing a solo gig at the time, and we also got together and did shows together all throughout the United States. And we had a great time. Kenni Ski: So he was our opening act basically for a lot of our shows in the West Coast and in the South. T-Ross: and at award shows. Kenni Ski: Which I had to pull him away from – I’m sorry….(laughter). T-Ross: It’s a family affair. Kenni Ski: But I’m really proud to have him on board because it was always a plan for him to be a part of the group in some way it’s just he always had the solo thing going so we couldn’t drag him away from the solo thing. Now we finally got a chance to include his talent so I’m really excited. T-Ross: Yeah, we did a
bunch of shows where I would actually take over
lead from time to time and sing background. And
we always had fun doing that together. We do a
lot of things in the Bay Area together and
throughout the United States. Now we’re
focused on this album. We’re gonna go ahead
and do this and put our 100% into it.
T-Ross: Mint Records now. We made a transition from Roc-A-Fella. Kenni Ski: Most of the cats on Roc-A-Fella have their own labels – we have our own label now, it’s called The Mint and we’re really excited. That’s another way to say we’ve grown as men and as artists because we’re hoping to run our business with the rest of our partners. It’s just exciting because we can put all of this knowledge to use. This 10 years experience in the business, okay let’s try to help run the label and see what happens. I’m really excited about it. T-Ross: We see other ways of hitting the industry that we probably didn’t see before. And we can do it ourselves. NJS4E: That’s real hot. There’s a couple of songs that I heard that I want to ask about, I’m hoping they make the final album. First one I know Phaethon – I’ve talked him to death about this song, but it’s “I’ve Grown.” That’s the one for me that I’ve latched onto. Could you talk a little bit about how that song came about and where it came from? Kenni Ski: That song I’ve grown, to put in a nutshell basically came from the relationships that T-Ross, myself, Allen we’ve all gone through. All our friends, our management – Phaethon our partner – we’re a really tight knit family and we hang out a lot. We don’t just work together, we play together, we play basketball, we play chess, we work out. We do everything together. When you’re that close to other men, you see the things that they go through with their women and their kids, and we’ve been knowing each other since the diapers and the similak (laughter) and that song is just a statement saying that hey, [these] are some of the things that we’ve all gone through. And there’s times – I don’t want to put anybody’s business in the street including mine – but there’s times when this music game is really hard on a brotha. And sometimes you got other mouths to feed other than yours so you have another responsibility and a woman that you’re dealing with. I’m sure that everyone in America has seen the movie Ray by now, I hope. And that’s just a glimpse into the life of a musician. You’re surrounded by – it’s no secret – you’re surrounded by groupies and drugs, and that’s just one dark side of the music business that is easy to slip into. And so “I’ve Grown” is just a statement saying this is what I’ve been through, this is where I’m coming from, and this is where I am right now. Isn’t it beautiful that I’m still the same person and I’ve grown and become a better man now? I can see all the signs for what they are and my spirit is still the same kid that wanted to get in the business and make music? I’ve Grown. That’s what that song comes from. NJS4E: Now, I also heard
a song called “Do Ya Dance” – it
definitely has a retro sound to it, it’s
real catchy, I like the horns in the song. Is
T-Ross doing a lot of the vocals on that one? T-Ross: They have to hold me back most of the time. Sometimes I get a little sexual out there I don’t know what’s wrong with me (laughter). Let me tell you something about rhythm. Can’t hold myself back. I just feel the rhythm and I go. Kenni Ski: Any song that you hear that has a lot of excitement in it, and has that up-tempo, you can best believe that T-Ross had something to do with it. NJS4E: So then “Presidential Suite” would fall in the same category? Kenni Ski: Yes. (laughter). That’s what I’m saying. Now that he’s on board I’m excited because before, people didn’t maybe get to see that side of us. We would represented maybe three sides but now you get the whole cube. NJS4E: Well on a personal note, I’m hoping those two tracks I mentioned make the album because I know how it is when you hear the early stuff, you don’t know if it’s actually gonna make it. Kenni Ski: Oh thank you. So you’re feeling “Presidential Suite” and “Do Your Dance.” NJS4E: Yep. Kenni Ski: And “I’ve Grown.” NJS4E: Yes. Kenni Ski: Okay, well we never know what’s gonna make the album until about a week before we release it but I’m gonna definitely put in the word in for that one, huh T? T-Ross: Yeah, I’m feeling that right there. Kenni Ski: Actually, “I’ve Grown” and “Presidential Suite” are two of my favorites also. T-Ross: Ah yeah, “Presidential Suite” we gotta put that in there. Kenni Ski: I think both of them have a really good chance of making the record.
NJS4E: Fantastic. Are there artists out there that you can say, I respect that, they’re doing a good job? Kenni Ski: Honestly, people ask us that all the time. [I respect] any artist that’s in the business making money. Because it is so hard to make, I don’t care what you’re doing it is so hard to make money in this business in general and to get through the politics that are involved in just making a record and getting on TV. I know American Idol has everyone fooled. They have you thinking you can just show up at the mall and next day you’re a star. That’s just not how it goes down in the real world. Really, I have the utmost respect for any artist that’s on the streets selling their own records or hustling, selling them out of the trunk of their car like Too Short did when we were younger. Or these cats like Nelly and Jay-Z who are selling out stadiums. As far as what I personally listen to, a lot of cats have come along since Christion put out our first record and they’ve opened my ears to a lot of stuff. Anthony Hamilton, I’m really feeling that cat. T-Ross: Musiq Soulchild has been doing his thing for a while, he’s been hot. Usher? You’ve seen him develop and he’s improved over the years and he’s been doing a lot of soulful stuff that we admire. Kenni Ski: I’ve seen Usher go from singing “Candy Girl” type songs to being a grown ass man-type soul songs. And that’s an inspiration to see that people are latching onto the soul. I think that people have to go back to the roots of it all which is soul and blues in order for our music to survive. Hip-hop is great, I am a hip-hop head. T-Ross will tell you. I love hip-hop. From the moment I heard the first record and that was way before “Rappers Delight.” I remember a (kidney spice?) T-Ross: You used to bump (super rhymes?) as well – I was still a baby then. Kenni Ski: In order for R&B which is rhythm and blues to survive, we have to get back to the blues – we have to get back to the stories, the emotion, and the messages in order for R&B to survive. Right now we’re focusing on the rhythm so much that the blues is getting the stepchild treatment. T-Ross: It’s not so much [about] the lyrics anymore. Kenni Ski: If people go back to what inspired the rhythm and blues – Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Robert Johnson, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding – if you go back to what actually inspired this music, you will see it was a lot of pain, a lot of messages of “keep on up, keep moving, lets do it, brothas and sistas let’s get together,” James Brown “I’m Black and I’m Proud,” we have to get back to that. T-Ross: And we have to get back to really respecting our women. Kenni Ski: Oh man, that’s a whole other conversation… T-Ross: Because there’s a lot of music where they may say some things about their women or the women on the street and they’re struggling out here and you have to respect these women because they’re having babies and they’re taking care of their children. At the same time it’s an everyday struggle out there.
Kenni Ski: I don’t really listen to the radio too much, but me and Phaethon were at the gym working out the other day, and when you’re in some of these gyms, they play the music? I was listening and there was a cat and I had to find out who he was, it was John Mayer. He has this song saying 'mothers, be good to your daughters, and daughters be good to your daughters because they’re going to grow up to be mothers one day.' And I thought, 'wow what a beautiful message, we need that in our community.' This was obviously a white record – a pop white record, but I was like, wouldn’t it be beautiful if we had more of those messages in the black community – the African-American community where it’s like, “be good to your women, because these women are gonna grow up to be mothers one day, and they’re gonna have daughters, and be good to these daughters, ‘cause these daughters are gonna grow up to be women and wives. And they’re gonna raise these other kids. So I thought that was a beautiful message. T-Ross: And not to say we don’t have balance, because the album has so much balance and we’re very critical on ourselves when it comes to that. We want to commit enough of this album to men and women in general because we feel that it’s important to touch bases in both aspects. Growing up as a man in the United States is a difficult task also. You have a lot of pressure. You have peer pressure, and a lot of people have to take care of their families, and they have to survive. Sometimes you can put a lot of your shoulders and we want to keep a good balance. Kenni Ski: And to finish up with T-Ross’ statement I agree with him 100%, and that’s why we put it in our music. When you hear songs like “I’ve Grown,” the first thing that you’re going to hear out of our mouths – the first lyrics to hit you in that song is, “to know a woman is to love her. She is depending on you.” That’s the first thing we say. We may argue, we may fuss, we may fight, we may love each other – whatever. But she’s depending on you to be a man and to be strong just like you’re depending on her to be a woman and be strong. So we have to respect our women. We have to. These women are the future. Men aren’t, women are. They create.
NJS4E: Going back to the first album...every song on there is incredible...what songs on the first album were your personal favorites? T-Ross: My favorite song is “Full Of Smoke” of course. The arrangement around “Full of Smoke,” the writing, the lyrical content, everything about that song is a Grammy Award-type song. Musically it was untouched at the time. And if you notice, but over the years after that song hit the market, other artists seemed to be pushing their songs in that direction. There’s also a lot of other songs that were created by Christion that you’ll notice a lot of producers even nowadays are using that style, that format. That style of singing. They take it to the hip-hop level. And what happens is they’re shooting their guns in that direction and it seems to be working. Christion was the one that started all of this. Pretty much. There’s the East Coast Philadelphia sound and there’s the Christion sound. They’re pretty parallel if you’ve noticed. This came from Oakland, that came from the East Coast. Once this album hits the market again, you’re going to see a lot of that also. “Soon” was probably my favorite besides “Full Of Smoke.” I’m a balladeer, and I’m a love child, and I love that song. So those two are my favorites. Kenni Ski: You know, I
really couldn’t pick, I’m really proud
of that album. I think that the songs I find
myself being a little shaken up by listening to
are probably “The Ghetto,” “The
Aftermath,” I really don’t like to
pick, “Pull It,” – I was really
drawn to The Streets chapter, because of what
I’ve been through personally. But I agree
with T-Ross, some of the love songs,
“Soon,” “Face Like Yours,”
and one that no one ever really talks about:
“Come To Me.” T-Ross: and it’s difficult because we were there doing the album the whole time to see it being processed, see what was done easier and see who shined the most during that time. And like Ski said, “Come To Me” Allen really shined that particular day, and it wasn’t a problem at all. Like for instance, when I say “Soon,” Kenni really felt that song and flew through the whole entire track non-stop. Of course we had to go back and do some other things – some doubles and do the chorus, but boy he had no problem with that track. Kenni Ski: So I had a soft moment. Big deal. (laughter) T-Ross: The one thing that a lot of people never really took in, Kenni Ski is probably the most talented all-around artist in the game right now. And he’s very underrated, but Ski is amazing when it comes to his writing ability slash production, you don’t even know it but he can do it all. I don’t even wanna throw out the rap, but he can actually flow if he needs to. I don’t wanna talk about his ghostwriting skills or who he’s written for – we’ll keep that on the under. We’re very competitive, all three of us. Kenni Ski: I get lucky sometimes. Thanks for the kind words. T-Ross: But I want to say this also. We are very competitive and throughout the years since we were tiny tidbits, we always competed to the very utmost against other crews and even against each other at times when it came to who could come up with the tightest song, who could come up with best melody. Who can get out there and be the showman. So what happens throughout those experiences - you grow and you get better and better and better. And I think in a positive way, it pushed us to be the men that we are today. Especially when it comes to music. NJS4E: Fantastic. One thing that I wanted to say is that “Where I’m From” which is from the Streets section…there’s two interludes. One interlude starts it off, then there’s the song, then there’s a second, longer, smoother interlude, and for me, it was like butter, straight up. Kenni Ski: “Where
I’m From” actually started off as a
spoken word, so that’s why when you hear the
second interlude, that one is the original form
for that song. It was kind of a spoken word poem
that I wrote on an airplane as we were flying
back into Oakland. We had just come from New York
where we did some shows, and we weren’t
received that well. And because a lot of the
times when we were shopping a lot of our early
Christion stuff, we had songs like “Living
That Life” and “Where I’m
From” where the content was…it’s
kind of like the market right now. For a moment
there, the black community was really hung up on
materialism* NJS4E: Wow. T-Ross: And it’s important to know your culture and your background. Kenni Ski: And your history. You have to know where you’re from. And that song goes way way deeper. Most people think when we’re saying where we’re from, we’re talking about the ghetto, but no we’re actually talking about Africa. That’s what that song is all about. And how we got pulled over here. That’s why it’s such a long song. If you go back and revisit the song, you know we say, “there ain’t no rules to live by, ain’t no one to ask why,” because it’s like, hey they just threw us here. And now we don’t know what’s going on. And we’re trying to find our way back. NJS4E: That’s real deep. Kenni Ski: It means a lot to us. I’m glad you felt that record because that meant a lot to all of us. I think Allen’s emotional ass actually cried in the studio. T-Ross: There was a
couple of times that happened. NJS4E: I want to say,
people are still to this day, discovering
Christion, and I really still feel like the best
has yet to come in terms of people feeling your
vibe and knowing what you’re all about.
It’s
been an honor and a pleasure to talk with you and
we’re now at seven minutes left in the
interview. Is there anything that I didn’t
ask that you want the people to know about
Christion? T-Ross: And you know, we’re very down to earth and we’re very approachable people, and we just love all people in general. We really do. We try to see the positive side of everything. Situations that may not look too bright, we often try to find a positive in it. It may look dreary and look like you’re having a hard life – that experience is gonna make you much stronger. Kenni Ski: That’s right. Whatever don’t kill you is gonna make you stronger brothers and sisters, so y’all don’t trip. Keep your head up. And believe me, anybody that says you can’t do it – why they’re saying that is because they can’t see it for themselves. And whatever somebody can’t see for themselves they can’t see for you, so don’t worry about it. So keep stepping. And once again, Andrew.
Man, this has been one of the best interviews
we’ve done. I really appreciate it. I just
want to remind everyone that the record is coming
out, Project Plato, on the Mint Records - we will appreciate
all the support.
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