Tha Alkaholiks – Last Call

Interview by: William E. Ketchum III

Can there really ever be too much of a good thing? Fans of West Coast trio Tha Alkaholiks would say no—with how solid their first four albums were, and their new LP Firewater showing that they’ve still got it, why leave the game now? “We created a legacy,” says E-Swift, the group’s in-house producer. “And like any other great person in sports or music, you’ve got to go out on top of your game.”

But don’t think that E-Swift, J-Ro and Tash are leaving hip-hop altogether; this “retirement” is the end of one chapter, and the beginning of another. In this interview with NobodySmiling, Tha Alkaholiks talk about the timing of their exit, future solo projects, and take a look back at some career highlights.

NobodySmiling.com : Why retire now?

E-Swift : To set the record straight, we aren’t really retiring, this is just the last Alkaholiks album. So we’re retiring the group itself, but individually, we’re still getting together and making records. The album came out so strong, we felt like it would be a good time to make it a farewell album, so we can go on to our individual stuff. A lot of groups stop making records when people don’t want to hear them no more, the music starts sounding wack, or they get into internal conflicts that prevents them from carrying on. But we remain best friends, business partners, and we made quality music for over a decade, so we don’t want to drag it into the mud.

It’s just a sign of growth, we’ve matured. A lot of things we’ve done on these Alkaholiks records, we’ve done and talked about over and over, so now it’s time to move on to some other things. Personally, I want to get into a lot more outside production, doing different things. Being in a group is like being a fireman, because you’ve always got to be on call, you’ve always got to be ready to slide down the pole and jump in the fire truck and go to work.

NobodySmiling.com : Like you said, most people don’t leave their groups until people are tired of them.

E-Swift : Yeah, until people start slandering them, and downgrading their status. We created a legacy, and like any other great person in sports or music, you’ve got to go out on top of your game. (Some people) keep trying to come back and say, “Naw, that’s not really the end of it.” This is really the last album, so it would have to be something really big, with a big incentive for us to do another album. We just want to solidify our legacy and lock it in like that.

NobodySmiling.com : How can you tell when it’s that time to leave?

E-Swift : In the case of Tha Alkaholiks, this album wasn’t easy to make. J-Ro has moved overseas, he’s pursuing things over there. Tash is doing his thing. Once people start moving on to other things, it’s just that time. When you’re forcing an album, it just doesn’t work. This album, fortunately for us, it wasn’t that type of situation. After the album was done, everybody is branching out and wanting to do stuff. It’s just a good time. Without having to sit down and have a big conference like, “This is the last album,” it was just pretty evident. Let’s just go out with a bang right now, and we’ll just get together and start putting out more projects individually but still involve each other on them.

NobodySmiling.com : You guys have a big following, and if you look at moves from other artists, people are going to be like, “These guys aren’t really retiring.”

E-Swift : Well it’s always a possibility for anybody. Even with Michael Jordan, he went out on top of his game, he came back and played a couple more years. It happens because you have a passion. It’s different for us, because it isn’t like we’re all retiring and going into different fields. We’re still in the music business, so we’ll still be doing what we’re doing, but we have solo careers about to blast off, so that means three times the amount of music. The legacy is still going to continue, it’s not really a publicity stunt or anything like that.

A lot of groups that said they were going to retire, usually have retired. A Tribe Called Quest, they retired, they haven’t made another album since they said they were retiring. Jay-Z hasn’t made another album to date since he said he was retiring, that hasn’t been that long, but you know. Too Short, from what I get out of it, that was a stunt to get out of his record deal, so when I really decides to retire, he’s going to retire, I believe that.

NobodySmiling.com : What can you offer people to let them know that you’re for real about retiring, even though you’re still doing solo projects?

Tash : When they look up five years from now, and we ain’t did shit [laughs]. When they look up five years from now and they don’t see another Alkaholiks album, then they’ll take it serious, like, “Hey, I thought this was a joke?” We aren’t really retiring, we’re still gon do jams together. Swift is probably going to do my solo album, J-Ro has a solo album coming out, I’m already on that, and J-Ro is already on my solo album, so we’re going to still do music, just keep it pumping. We’re just going to do it as solo artists and collaborate with our boys and shit.

E-Swift : You know how fun our albums are. It can take a lot out of you when you’re having that much fun for that long. To party, drink and go hard in the paint for over 20 years, that’s a lot man. I think we paid our dues to hip-hop as a group and beyond, we really set some trends, so what else can we do? We’re going to keep doing music (individually), but as a group, we’re done.

NobodySmiling.com : So what solo plans do you guys have?

Tash : I’ve got like 80% of my solo album done right now. I keep saying that the name is Expensive Habits, but it’s tentative what it’s going to be called. Along with the solo joints, I shot a movie with Lion’s Gate films, coming out in the summertime. Really, just doing that and real estate. I’m trying to buy a lot of property and get my real estate game up, that’s where it’s at.

E-Swift : I’m just producing and working on an album, doing my thing on that.

NobodySmiling.com : What’s the movie called?

Tash : A Day In The Life. It’s got a lot of people in it, it’s like a gangsta flick pretty much. You know Faizon Love, who played Big Worm in Friday? He’s a gangsta and everything, I’m like his henchman and sidekick that just rolls with him and handles business. Every gangsta has a sidekick, I’m like his right-hand man. It has Omar Epps, Mekhi Phifer, Sticky Fingaz is in it, he plays the other gangsta feuding with Faizon. It’s got a lot of action, a lot of shoot-em-up bang-bang.

NobodySmiling.com : E-Swift, why don’t you produce more records for other people?

E-Swift : Because I give them all to the Alkaholiks. I have a lot of platinum records out there. I’ve produced with Snoop, I’ve done some stuff with a couple rock groups, Xzibit. I’ve done my thing, I’m doing more this year though. After we put this final chapter of Tha Alkaholiks album to rest. I have a lot of things lined up that I’ve already started working on, so you’ll see a lot more stuff from me on outside projects this year.

NobodySmiling.com : What do you have lined up?

E-Swift : I’m just taking it as it comes. I just did some stuff for Lloyd Banks.

NobodySmiling.com : I’m going to name some of you guys’ classic songs, then you can tell me something special you remember about them. First off, “Daaamn!”

E-Swift : I felt like when that came out, to me, that song was exactly what I wanted to hear. That’s the type of music that I wanted to hear. Get that old funk movement in the break, then put a lot of new types of sounds to make it up to date. That’s one of my favorite songs, just for the simple fact that that beat right there really defines my style. I rap over those type of beats, uptempo and funky.

NobodySmiling.com : What about “All Night?”

E-Swift : I just had the beat. It was funky, it (sampled) Stevie Wonder, I didn’t think it was going to clear to be honest. When Stevie Wonder and the other people heard the song they liked it a lot, because it had the live flutes and instruments, they really liked how the song came out. And they cleared it! They weren’t clearing a lot of songs when that came out, and they didn’t even charge us no money for it. That’s just one of those joints that was really universal.

NobodySmiling.com : “Bully Foot,” with Busta.

Tash: We did that in New York. I remember that we had the studio session, and when Busta came in, we were blunted behind tracks, running late at the studio session. We were partying and shit, drinking and having fun, and I remember that time just got short as a mufucka real quick. I don’t know if it’s because we were fucked up, I don’t know what the plan was. But I went in there to do my rap, and when I went in there, I hear, “It’s a wrap, we’ve got to go, time’s up!” So I had to come back the next day and do my shit, I remember Busta Rhymes got to the studio before us [laughs]. DJ Scratch did the beat, so he was up there doing his thing. We had a lot of fun during that session.

E-Swift : We’re good friends, so we don’t treat it like a session and get too serious. We be clowning, crackin jokes, talking about each others’ momma and shit.

NobodySmiling.com : You guys have worked with some really big artists. What would you say is your favorite collaboration that you guys have done?

Tash : I would have to say “Hip-Hop Drunkies” with Ol Dirty Bastard. That was pure, unadulterated fun. The way you talk about being b-boys—anytime you get three MCs in the vocal booth with one mic, and they’re moving each other out the way attacking the microphone, that was crazy. So that’s my answer.

NobodySmiling.com : Even though you guys are still doing solo work, is there anything you wish you could have done before you stopped releasing group albums?

E-Swift : Going platinum, that’s about it. Even though collectively we’ve sold to a million people, I’m talking about one album selling a million copies, certified platinum. I feel like we deserve that, but it’s not anything. We had a good career as Tha Alkaholiks, so I’m not really complaining about anything. Anything we’ve put out, we’ve gone way beyond I even imagined we would. So I’m really satisfied with our career as a group

Tash : I’m just mad that after doing it for a long time, we never got in a fight. I wanted to beat one of these dudes up before it was all said and done, I wanted to bust somebody’s mouth [laughs]. I wanted to beat up J-Ro, and I’m mad that I didn’t get a chance to do it.

NobodySmiling.com : How would you prefer the group to be remembered in the long term?

Tash : I want to be known as legends. We put in a lot of work, a lot of hard ass work. In our work, we’ve reached everybody at different points. A lot of albums were sold, all the albums we put out, all the mixtapes we did, all the radio stations. I just want to be considered in the top 100 groups of hip-hop of all time.

E-Swift : There were no rules to us. We broke all the rules. We came out with a group called Tha Alkaholiks, that was unheard of. A lot of people, when they come out, their whole thing is, your name, your songs, your concepts have to be acceptable to the radio. We came out Alkaholiks, talking about spraying beer, and just being belligerent. We weren’t scared to be ourselves, and that’s what I want people to remember about us.

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