Warren S. Britt is an artist from NYC. I recently got put on to his dope music from his fellow crew mate Truth Now of Fam!LL... This kat's styles are not to be slept on! A behind the scenes chat with hard working MC: Making albums, doing live shows, and of course the occasional "Spittin' in the Whip" episode. We take you now into the music and mind of Warren Britt as he shares his insights on the state of Hip Hop, trading the corporate hustle for the true passion of creating music, and more... Hold on tight, Fam!LL is in the house!
JP: So first I'm glad I got connected to your music... You have some real talent bro, respect! Tell us who are you, and where are you from?
Warren: Thank you very much Mindcontrol... My Name is Warren S. Britt. The "S" stands for Samuel and I'm from BROOKLYN!!! WHAT?
JP: So who you crew with if any? And how long you been in the rap game?
Warren: I represent Fam!LL with my homie BS, Albert Rhymestein, The MC Faceman, Grey Matter, and Truth Now. I also represent a group called the Underdogz with a goodfella by the name of OTiS CLaPP. I've been rapping since 1996, professionally since 2002 and loving it!
JP: That's the FAm!LL connection... Of course I got put on to your music through Truth Now... Who I've recently collabed with... Y'all have a great talent set in your crew, man for real... Big thangs! How old are you?
JP: The album "The Britt ISH is Coming"... Can you talk a bit about this project? Was this a first release?
Warren: Actually The Britt ISH Is Coming is my second professional release.
JP: What was your first release... Let's start from there. Who's on it, etc.?
Warren: My first release was a 28 minute EP titled @TheMethLab and I named it after a line in one of my favorite Gym Class Heroes songs "Taxi Driver". There's only one other person on it, my homeboy First Class who I used to be in a group with by the name of Absolute Truth. He left the group, and we did like five songs, I put four on there. I miss the dude for the record and I wish him nothing but the best wherever he is. He left due to personal reasons.
JP: So I see in your bio that you had an epiphany about the "everyday job hustle" that brought ya back to the MC status. Can you tell us a bit about that, and was this after that release of @TheMethLab?
Warren: This was a bit before @TheMethLab. I had fell back from rapping in 2006 when I got a job working for a banking & investment firm I will not name. It really was killing my spirit. I would go to work and feel like a drone. Just a robot. Plus I felt a certain way about Hip Hop and the direction I percieved it to be going and that wasn't helping my life line anymore either. I was shot at what the media was putting in our music and I was tired of what the corporation was doing to my mind. But I was still a fan of MUSIC. I picked up The Foreign Exchange record Leave It All Behind and it was a moving project. It had a Bonus Instrumental Disc and I pretty much started vibing to that and next thing I knew I was writing a song about my then girlfriend. Sooner or later, I got sick and called out of work right after Thanksgiving vacation. The next thing I know I came back and they let me go. I felt empty for literally 5 minutes, then I realized, this is the best thing to ever happen to me. I'm FREE! My boy First was like YO! We gotta do this group thing now man, this is our time. And that's when I decided to come along for the ride and get back into Music for real. No turn arounds. I'm forever connected to Music.
JP: That's whats up bro. I'm glad to hear you using that experience to make something so positive like music and give back to the listeners a piece of that lesson in life. Big ups. Let's get to the new album, The Britt ISH is Coming... How'd you develop this album and who's involved?
Warren: I was in the studio with The MC Faceman, I think we were talking about his project Up From The Ashes which is like one of my top 3 favorite joints of the year. And I was just like I'd love to be able to get this type of mindset to help me direct this EP because man... I just really dig that project a lot. It was intimate and detailed a lot of emotion, and lyrically ill. So I asked him if he could help me and he accepted. It was an experience that I'll never forget. On the record we have my little brothers BS, YC the Cynic, J.Monopoly, Jose Nova, Texas RnB singer Jovanna Lopez lends her super steller vocals and DJ Dyllemma does cuts on a joint. Production was handled by Spills, Don Willi, KO Beatz, Gabe Starrc, Ron Solero, and Manny Faces. All contribute greatly to this effort and I am very thankful for their assistance.
Warren: P.O.S - Optimist. "We Are Not For Them" All Day! Besides him I've been bumping a lot of Willie Green, El-P, Aesop Rock, Jesse Abraham, A.M Breakups, The MC Faceman, Doomtree, Dollar Coffee, Truth Now and BS, and Premonition lately. Major influences have been Blink-182, Redman, Green Day, Keith Murray, Rakim, Kurupt, Black Moon, Motion City Soundtrack, Dump Body, Fall Out Boy, SET YOUR GOALS, The Honorary Title, Sing It Loud, NaS, Jay-Z, Notorious B.I.G and of course Tupac. Tupac is my favorite artist of all times. And Motion City Soundtrack is my Favorite Band of All Time. And Christopher Gutierrez is also a Poet who has influenced everything that I am.
JP: Dope to see ya have some of my hometown on there... Doomtree definitely reps, my favorite being Sims. Cat goes hard! What do you feel about the current state of hip-hop both in your scene and nationally?
Warren: Hip Hop in my scene has restored my faith about Hip Hop nationally. I don't think we're going to "save" music. I think there are too many evil people out there that are trying real hard to eliminate any progress being made so I don't attack it from that standpoint. But I do believe that the more we reach out and understand the problems that are running rampant in the music community the more we can at least see eye to eye. But I'm all for just doing us, and not bending over for any corporation that's looking to destroy our quality of life. And since a lot of us LIVE music, it's all about survival. I'm trying to find a means where we can celebrate through the trials. It's going to get worse before it gets better. We gotta lot of cleaning up to do within ourselves. But I'm happy for where Hip Hop is going. You see a lot of our faces getting some prime slots on TV and Radio and all you smile... And just think one day, it'll all be better. One day it will all come together. Not for any sole individual, but for Hip Hop.
JP: Most definitely, inspiring words..! What do you have coming in the future and what can we expect from Warren S. Britt in 2011?
Warren: Well you can expect The Underdogz LP with my homeboy OTiS CLaPP coming soon, and then I've just started working on a joint with Producer Willie Green who is my favorite producer right now. I'm also working on an EP with producer A.M Breakups who's definitely in my top 3 list of composers as well. There's a project I'm also working, The Brothers Piff EP with The MC Faceman and Precise of Illicit Visionaries that's actually another group I'm apart of. Then maybe we'll be able to see my "official" debut LP The Art Of Warren somewhere in the mix for 2011. We'll see I suppose. Plus I wanna fit skydiving in there somewhere. All of my friends got to go skydiving this year without me and I'm kinda mad I missed out. So we'll see if we could get on that pony as well.
JP: Alright, well thank you very much for this opportunity to reach into you and your music, I appreciate the time. You definitely got some real raw underground flavor, I'll be sending you beats soon... You got any last words or shout outs?
Warren: Shout out to you DJ Mindcontrol and Truth Now for this opportunity to speak. Shout out to those who support my homies. And shout out to those with Good Intentions. From Brooklyn, NY to Minnesota... We Are Not For Them!!!
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