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Apple Juice Time with Teddy Faley
As announced, yesterday was the live Twitterview with Teddy Faley of The Rape. Teddy Faley, an MC with trouble being pretentious but a fear of appearing so and a dislike for sauerkraut. Oh, and a hell of a story to tell.
The Baltimore MC has a free EP entitled Applejuice for download from The Rape’s website along with two other free EP’s from his constituents Cubbiebear and The Educated Consumers. Applejuice is a rock-frazzled, techno-touched piece of hip-hop that collides and combines genres in a way unique to Teddy Faley. The emotion is raw, the images vivid; a catalog of dark, spooky, and alluring images from Faley’s experiences smeared with audible tantrums and heavy drum breaks.
Download it here and listen while you read the interview:
AG: Time for an interview with Teddy Faley. Ready?
Teddy Faley: I certainly am. What’s good homie?
AG: Alright lets jump right into it. Teddy Faley. real name or rap name?
TF: Real name. Used to go by an honest rap moniker back in the day but it seemed pretentious to me.
AG: Honest shit. cool. How old are you and when did you start rhyming?
TF: 26. Feel 16. Cept when I run, or exert any energy whatsoever. Started rapping for fun, like cyphers and shit when I was 17 then recording at like 19, but still on some just for fun shit. Got serious when I started messing with @brakefast [Brakefast Records] in 2005.
AG: Word. How did you hook up with [him]?
TF: It’s a record label actually. I rapped with a fellow named Donte, who knew this dude who said he was starting a record label, Mic Brown. I didn’t think too much of it, but it turned out to be very legit. I was with them since day one, stayed with them for 2 years and left to start @therape [The Rape] with @cubrock [Cubbiebear]. no bad blood, just different directions.
AG: What were you guys trying to do by starting @TheRape [The Rape]? what was the goal?
TF: He may tell it different, but my take on it is that we thought we may have had something, and wanted to see where it went the first solo show i did (w/o brakefast) happened to have @cubrock on the bill too. as well as numerous other artists at the end of the night it became clear that there was a fairly large chasm between what he and myself brought to the show and what the rest did, in terms of draw, vibe, ect. we also had gotten an idea of how simple it was to book a show ourselves. before that, we had been in the baltimore system for a while. promoter books headliner, then books a bmore mc we would work our asses off selling tix, then promoter rapes us at the end of the night out of $.
It became clear that night that we could circumvent that whole process. so we tried it out, threw a show & called it the rape. it’s kind of taken off since then. whew, sorry for the long winded answer, but believe it or not, that’s the short version.
AG: No problem. I like the details. So you called it The Rape. as a reference to the industry raping MCs? Promoters raping you?
TF: That’s where me and @cubrock have diff definitions. I lean towards the promoter/industry definition. It’s staggering the monetary difference between what we make now vs what we made before. he leans towards how the rappers themselves are raping you. the listener. we’re all sponges, being fed poop, too lazy to look for real food, arguing w/ eachother over which poop tasted better. i feel both meanings, as im sure he does, but just lean stronger towards different definitions or i could be full of shit, he would explain his take better than me. just the way i see it.
AG: How do you think people perceive the name The Rape? Do you think they’re turned off by it?
TF: Some, yes. but i think on a superficial level it works in our favor more often than not.
AG: Can you elaborate on that a little more?
TF: Sure. It’s a weighted term, rape. I’ve spoken with plenty of people that have an issue with it. it’s also something you have to explain to people. Sspecially people like my aunt. (Laughs). But, you remember it and the first time people hear it they think on it a tad longer than they would ‘verbal weaponry lyrical spherical inc’
Also, my bad on not using ellipsis’s, but i don’t kno what they are, and am too embarrassed to admit it.
AG: Yeah that makes sense for sure. Is [Baltimore] a pretty friendly city for independent acts like The Rape?
TF: In what aspect? Indie like no major label support? There’s zero major label support for anybody out here and it’s not friendly for indie cats really, the city in general has an attitude, and that carries over into hip hop.
Fans are very territorial. If they came to see me, and don’t know who else is performing, they don’t give a shit. No matter how dope I insist the person may be. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it. I like the pissing contest that is in every bar/club/venue, but only because I’m immature.
AG: What kind of reception have you guys gotten in [Baltimore] then? Convinced enough people that you’re dope?
TF: Well yeah I guess I phrased my answer weird. we have gotten an incredible response. At the risk of sounding pretentiousI think what we attempt to offer people is a break from the ‘cool club’. We have a good time at The Rape’s. Like, a freakin blast. which is uncommon at a lot of the shows here. and our music is also absent a lot of the unearned bravado that everybody throws around. We aren’t special people. we just have a few jams we got for ya, we hope you like em. We are always way appreciative of any and all support, and I have never ceased to be amazed at the fact that I’m allowed to do this for money. It’s incredible.
AG: Wow that’s you being pretentious? And by the way an ellipsis is just a serious of dots (you got it down)…Getting on to your music – Is it hip hop? Is that how you would define it?
TF: (Laughs), the pretention I was concerned about was in the ‘what we offer is a change blah blawwbloo’
Yes. Hip hop. I would also define it as ‘cabbage’. that’s what happens when i’m allowed to define shit all willy nilly. I would assume that what you would call it too, correct? (hip hop, not cabbage).
AG: So if I prepare your EP correctly it will make a nice garnish for my hot dog?
TF: That depends on your definition of ‘nice’. Cause ew yo. And i’m starving. I’m tearing up some chinese food in a bit.
AG: I think it’s hip hop if you think it’s hip hop when you’re making it. It definitely has a lot of elements not in most hip hop…
TF: Well, so does Swizz Beats production. Maaad whistles. But I see what you’re saying, I’m not trying to be all ‘hiphop is hip hop is hip hop’
AG: But that brings me into your EP. Applejuice. Did you just pick the most un-hip-hop-sounding thing you could think of?
TF: Bingo. I’m impressed. That’s pretty much it. The kind of person who likes my shit is the same type of person who is immediately put off by most rap. I wanted a quick and easy way to not have the whole ‘but I’m not like this or that’
AG: Is Applejuice the first disc you’ve put out?
TF: It’s the first official release. I’ve done 2 solo albums prior, and another e.p. – neither of which anyone hear. Ever. I’m also featured on a good amount of @brakefast’s divisions of labour. Def a diff style though.
AG: No one hears them because you don’t want them to? Or because they aren’t out there?
TF: I don’t want them to. I actually just found both of them on blogs recently. I recorded them under a different name. I mean, I’m sure cats could find em fairly easily.. but they’d be better off not. Took me a while to find myself.
AG: Why is that?
TF: I’m not sure, really. One reason is that I’m not a natural rapper/producer by any means, it took me a lot of work to sound halfway presentable. Another reason is that the shit that makes me the writer that I am were still occurring. I wasn’t done becoming who I am yet.
AG: So now that you’re there, who are you? What makes your sound unique?
TF: I like to think that because i write almost strictly about myself, or about how something looks from my POV, there’s something inherently unique. I mean, every one is different. I appreciate my differences. I am my mother’s son, I destroyed my life by the time I was 20, my mother’s death threw me into a 4 year insanity that is staggering for me to think about….I’m terrified at all times, I could go on forever.
Nobody else is that, that’s where i write from. shit, that’s where I buy milk from. I’m no more interesting than anyone else, this is who I am supposed to be, and supposed to write about.
AG: I’m really sorry to hear about your mother. How did she die?
TF: Lung cancer. Thanks. I was an evil person then. Had been for years. That’s who she knew me as when she died. That’s why I am who I am now. Why I write, make music the way I do.
AG: Is that what you mean when you said you destroyed your life by the age of 20? Being someone evil?
TF: Evil wasn’t the word I should have used — I was a bad motherfucker. A dick. I did some really horrible things & had no problem justifying them. I made my family’s life hell for a long time. Everything changed after she passed. Almost overnight which was, obviously too late. Hello guilt. And not knowing who the hell I was. That lasted until just about 3 years ago. Still too, just have a better idea. Guilt won’t go anywhere though, and it shouldn’t.
AG: Thanks for going into that. I’m sure it isn’t easy for you. What kind of an effect did this transformation have on your music?
TF: I think first and foremost it gave me something worthwhile to offer. I have some sort of story to tell, and a vantage point that may be fairly rare.
AG: So where from here? What’s in the distance for the new Teddy Faley?
TF: A sandwhich. A peanut butter and jelly sandwhich. Oh and myself and Joe Schaefer have made a record as @dropoutsinc, which very loosely follows shit that happened w/ me from 99-2002.
The end of me being a dick, I guess. He made the beats, I made the raps, now I’m doing some post production and mixing it. Which has been taking forever. But it’ll be out soon. Then, another apple juice. I’m also working on some things with @uncommonrecords [Uncommon Records]. and performing w/ them tomorrow night n NY.
http://www.twitpic.com/bfysw – This should be the flier for said show.
AG: Did you really drop out?
TF: Yeah. Shit, that was the least of my worries. I spent the next few months homeless and beating people up at random. Badtimes. I went back and got my GED though. Just to put that out there.
AG: You’re seriously full of stories but I’ve already taken two hours of your time. I think we’ll wrap this interview up here. Got some last word? A plug if you please?
TF: (Laughs) Word homie, yeah I need that sandwich. If people wanna download AppleJuice, that’d be swell of em: http://bit.ly/yD0VD
As well as follow @cubrock [Cubbiebear] @dropoutsinc [Drop Outs Inc] & @uncommonrecords [Uncommon Records] – all good music makers, and it’ll keep you up to date on things.
AG: Teddy it’s been real. Thank you for your time. Thank you for the interview. Anyone who wants to read the interview in its entirety it will be posted on abovegroundmagazine.com tomorrow morning. Thank you all for following along with us.
*Interview has only had slight variations from original formatting for clarity purposes.
October 14th, 2009 at 4:31 am
I just read through this again for the first time since I posted it, this was dope. Teddy really got into it. Thanks to him, dude it cool
June 18th, 2011 at 3:42 am
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