Naughty By Nature Talk Absence, Current State Of Hip Hop

The Jersey trio explain where they've been for the past nine years and how they feel about Hip Hop today.

Stupid Dope recently caught up with veteran Hip Hop trio Naughty by Nature to discuss their 20 year anniversary retrospective project Anthem Inc. During the interview, the New Jersey emcees talked about their nine year absence from the Hip Hop scene. The members of Naughty said that while they haven't been dropping too much new music over the past decade, primarily due to label issues, they've been keeping their rep up with State-side and overseas tours.

"We've been making music, it just wasn't out," they explained. "We were trying to find distribution and all that, and in the meantime, [we've] just been on the road working, just going overseas and out on the road. We still kept it moving; if you looked on the Internet and looked on our YouTube channel and checked out our site, it was all up there. We would post all our shows and different stuff. As far as dropping records, it's been a minute."

Naughty also talked about their views on the current state of Hip Hop. The "Hip Hop Hooray" and "O.P.P." hit-makers said that while this new generation of artists may not be their cup of tea, they recognize that the times have changed and that there's still good Hip Hop to be heard. In addition, they noted that Hip Hop's sound has changed from decade to decade, and that it's their job to make music that fits the current genre.

"It's always Hip Hop; if you think about, it's just music in general," they said. "There's always something for somebody, and there's some stuff that you don't like. Even when we came out, there was whack stuff out there. There was stuff that we didn't like, and there was good stuff. It's the same now; there's some good stuff out there, there's some bad stuff out there. I just think that the times have changed, that's all it is."

They added, "Every ten years, if you look at Hip Hop, there's a different sound that really comes through, whether you like it or not. It's still just a different format: the '70s, the'80s, the '90s, the 2000's...every ten years, it's a whole new sound of music. You've got make sure that you fit into the mix if you're going to keep putting out music."