Lil Dap (Group Home) interview

You started out with Group Home and in the Gangstarr Foundation. What’s up with Group Home?

Well, we’re working on things right now. My partner he’s still locked up, in and outta jail so I’m working on my solo album now. I been focusing on that since the last couple of years now so you know, just been taking my time, do a little track. I’m dropping a single and working on some labels so you guys can get to hear what you heard tonight at the show.

We see a lotta cats from the same borough sticking together. Since you’re from Brooklyn and Nutcracker’s from The Bronx, how did you meet up ?

I basically saw Nutcracker grow up. When we met up with Guru and them at one point we decided Nutcracker could get down with me and drop some shit and there it was.

Do you still live in Brooklyn?

Yeah back and forth, Brooklyn, Queens, sometimes Pennsylvania and stay more around my son. That’s my heart right there.

Where did you get the name “Lil Dap” from?

I had that name for like….I started with that. It’s how people used to call me.

How different are the works of Lil Dap from the music of Group Home?

I started with Lil Dap first and then Group Home. It was Lil Dap from Group Home. And when I put Nutcracker down with me, it became the Group Home, but it will always be Lil Dap from Group Home. I put a major stamp on the Living Proof and the Tear For The Ghetto album as being the basic member of Group Home.

Do you have a wishlist of collabos or people you look up to, idols?

Yeah, I gotta lotta idols. I’d like to do shit with Run DMC, shit!

How do you feel about the whole hiphop movement nowadays?

Well, it’s big business nowadays, you know, there’s nuttin to do about it. That’s why I named my album “I Adapt”, adapt to the situations of life what’s going on right now which is adapt to the hiphop game, the new slang, the new era you kow, everything. To adapt to know what’s going on. Cause my music’s ready for that, I’m old you know, getting older now doing this music shit so I wanna get more into production and things of that nature. Some of these tracks you heard tonight, a lot of them had to do with our production.

So, adapt, but within certain boundaries I guess.

Yeah of course. As far as with the music, I deal with it from the heart so if I like a track I will rap to it. Put my pain on it. That’s it. That way people can feel it.

Are you up-to-date with all the new shit what’s going on and artists?

Nah, not really. What I do is I try to focus on my own shit basically.

Since everybody’s starting labels, how about Group Home records or Lil Dap records?

Nah man, we try to put out shit and see what’s up with labels. If it’s cool, it’s cool. But not my own label or nothing. I do the music and let the rest to people who know about that shit. But when it’s time for my own, you’ll hear it.

Like you mentioned earlier you put your pain in the music. Is your personal life the biggest inspiration for the music?

My personal life and my experiences, I put into rap music. It’s almost a one on one translation.

How do you look at yourself in the past?

I’m cool. I did alright.

And how do you see youself in the future?

I can’t really answer that. I got goals but how life is nowadays, it’s dealing with yourself, live day by day, you know, cause tomorrow ain’t promising. I used to have a goal, I used to have a future but the way shit is, what’s going on in the world, you gotta live it whole, minute by minute, second by second, take your goals with you and you work on your goals each day. Each day you living do something worth something, do something towards your goals. If you got a goal, you gotta work towards it, every other day, everyday, you know’m saying. Cause you ain’t promised tomorrow, so this is what I do. It’s what I gotta do now, I do what I gotta do. So live life and keep hope alive with this rap shit until it pop off. Keep my ass in the studio until it pop off. And when it pop off it gon’ pop off. And the more work I put in, the more rewards I’mma get. The more real I keep it, the more understanding out there from the people who like the music I will get.

Geplaatst door bowie op 5 maart 2005