ChiBangin.com - The Official Chicago Rap Site Outside Interview

Outside

Back

(*) Indicates credit to each member's question

Q: Describe to us a day in your life? (*Face97)

A: Fingeroll: A typical day of Outside is basically in the studio recording songs. What we do, is we hear the track, have some hennessy to drink (laughs) and then just start writing. Other than that, we stay in the studio, on the road and just doin' shows. That's just a typical day.

Q: What can we expect from your album? (*dawreck67)

A: Fingeroll: It's got that classic sound that we had on our first album. It has the Midwest sound. We got some features, Newsense, Mag of Midwikid. We got Thugged Out, Ric Jilla and SMK on there. Those are all the features. Just the sound, I call it the classic sound because it's got that Midwest hi hats and them kicks you know type of sound.

C-Saw: My involvement with "Domestic Violence" is mainly referring to women now on the streets, how they make themselves look bad, make me look bad and need to get themselves together and respect themselves more. Also "Domestic Violence" had a lot to do with how niggas be beatin' girls asses, how I be beatin' bitches asses over men, just stuff like that. It's violent between couples and being in the streets.

Q: What was the delay with Domestic Violence being released? (*Face97)

A: Fingeroll: We probably had the album finished 2 years ago. We added a few new songs. Basically the delay was me working as a producer. I was working with so many artists on their projects. I had to stay focused and work with them and didn't have time to work on my own project. Then we were working with Freddie Gibbs and he was going through getting his deal. I was working with the rest of the No Tamin artist's projects. I was doing a lot of traveling too and production in Atlanta . Once I got everybody's projects done, I was gon' throw ours out there.

Q: Is "Domestic Violence" going to be a classic as many consider "Ain't No Tamin" to be? (*wardedout)

A: Fingeroll: We had more time to focus on this album. We stayed in the studio and wrote together. Our second album was basically like a complilation. A lot of the songs we did at different studios and places. This album was more together, it was done at one place. Mostly everybody featured on it, they recorded at our studio. It was just more of a vibe with this album. We were going through a lot, living in Gary , doing all types of crazy shit, so we had time to focus and get a real nice sound. It's definitely a classic Ain't No Tamin sound.

Q: Why do you think that people seem to like "Aint No Tamin" more than "Area 67"? (*FrumDay1)

A: C-Saw: We didn't really put our foot in that shit (Area 67). That was a rushed ass album. Not only was it rushed, but me and Roll were kinda goin' through a phase in our life where we both kept going through personal problems. It took a lot of time out of us spending together, collabing on songs. So we basically just got beats, wrote and ran in there (the studio). Now that "Ain't No Tamin" album, we use to sleep in the studio and spent many hours bonding close together.

Fingeroll: The first album that was when we was hungry. That was when we were debuting to everybody. We came with the DramaWard. Everything was just all new to us. We were trying to make sure we made a good impression. We had all the right connections goin' on at the time. We was just hungry, around that era we was doing features and meeting new people. We were hungry to put it out there and just snap and let everybody know who we was comin' out the gate. That's basically how I see it. It was more aggressive. The second album I put it together quick. I had grabbed songs and threw a couple features on it. It's more of a compilation to me than just straight me and Saw. Domestic Violence got more songs with me and Saw rapping on it, more of our hooks together. This album is really more like Outside.

Q: How did the group become affiliated with the DramaWard? (*wardedout)

A: Fingeroll: Well Dawreck had came out to Gary . They was promotin' a Chicago Outlaws CD that was with Rawle Stewart, who's managing Twista. He came out there with Dawreck and Triple Darkness and they came to my studio that I was working at. They heard our stuff and was like “well yall need to come out to Chicago and start doin' some work with us out there”. So that's basically how it happened. We came out there and met everybody else from the Ward, PsychoDrama and all that. Then we wanted to be down and they blessed us in. Ever since then, its like family. We went out there, did shows out there you know. Everywhere that Triple Darkness, PsychoDrama and them performed, we were right there. Chicago embraced us much with the Ward.

C-Saw: Since then and till this day, me and Newsense still best friends, still dogs. I'm still cool with all of them.

Q: Fingeroll, what artist from Chicago do you want to work with that you never worked with before? (*FrumDay1)

A: We never did nothin' with Crucial Conflict. We always see them everywhere, so that would probably be a good collabo. We done been around everybody else in Chicago . I done produced and worked with everybody from Triple Darkness, Turtle Banxx, to Twista. Right now I'm workin' with Payroll, Belo and the whole Legion Family.

Q: C-Saw why weren't you able to release your solo album and why wasn't there anymore group work in the mid to late 90's era? (*Daowl)

A: C-Saw: I just had a son. So I been tied down with my son. I let Roll go do his thang first and mine is in the makin' right now. I had damaged a left vocal chord in my throat. It's gone for the rest of my life. Basically I just prayed to God and he showed me how to use my new voice and it's comin' in a direction that's so real, so raw, it sounds like I'm talkin', but I'm actually rappin'. It's hard to explain, you just gotta see, but I guarantee this one thing....nobody out there is doin' what I'm finna do to yall. This finna be some way different stuff that's gonna flip everybody out. It's nothing that you would expect from Domestic Violence, the Ain't No Tamin album, none of that. It's something completely opposite, it's just gonna be me.

Fingeroll: Basically I wanted to try and launch my label. I was dealin' with a lot of artists at the time. When we put the Outside albums out, we really didn't blow our label up. So that was the whole deal of gettin' the label out there and once the label got strong, got some artists behind us, then we could go ahead and work on our projects (Outside albums). Basically we had to focus, get my company established, business, rights, looking for distribution and stuff like that.

Q: What ever happened to the Outside "Unreleased & Rare Tracks" album? (*Daowl)

A: Fingeroll: We just squashed it. We already recorded like over 30-40 songs when we were getting ready to put that out. So we just scrapped it and said we gonna put out the "Domestic Violence" album. Right now we still got like 30 tracks we didn't put on "Domestic Violence". We basically threw that on this GI Legends mixtape. So if you get the mixtape, you'll hear some songs not on our new album that was suppose to be on the “Unreleased & Rare Tracks” album.

Q: Fingeroll, why are the beats you choose to create now sound more southern, than midwest and why do you choose not to make anymore tracks with that classic original style? (*Daowl)

A: Well as far as me being a producer, I had to adapt to all different people everyday I'm working with. I was doin' a lot of work and travelin' goin' to Atlanta , so I developed artists out there with they sound. I would come mix it with my sound, but if you listen to the "Domestic Violence" album, it's totally the Midwest sound and that classic DramaWard sound. Just me being a producer, I gotta adapt to everything. The South was blowin' up, so I was makin' trips back and forth there producing. I worked with some artists in Memphis and stuff like that. That's basically where the sound started rubbin' off on me.

Q: C-Saw what has been the greatest experience in your life up to this day (*Face97)

A: I would say my son. My outlook on my music hasn't changed. I still feel the same way I do about my music. I'm just not as crazy as I use to be in public, but it doesn't change the lyrical format at all.

Q: How did you and C-Saw get together to form Outside and are you a couple? (*FrumDay1)

A: Fingeroll: Nah we're not a couple. We do got a daughter together, but we're not a couple right now. We first met back in like '96 when we formed Outside. She came to the studio I was workin' at, Solid Gold. I was with another partner by the name of Money, that was another member of Outside. So we just formed the three of us. Later on, it became just me and Saw. She's from Gary , she had moved to Atlanta and then came back to Gary. That's when she started lookin' for a producer and hittin' the studio. She came to Solid Gold and that's how we said we'd be a group and form.

C-Saw: We were just dedicated to each other, loving each other. We been in this thing for 12 years and yeah we had rocky times, some hard times, but when you real friends, you gotta learn to separate personal from business. No matter how bad things seem to get, you gotta keep workin' towards what you want and what you believe in. That's one thing we always did.

Q: Who is on No Tamin these days? (*dawreck67)

A: No Tamin roster includes Vicious, Reese, Billy Kannon and then Freddie Gibbs was always No Tamin. That's basically the main artists that's rapping for No Tamin.

Q: What are all your future projects? (*wardedout)

A: We got a NTG album that's comin out. That's straight the whole clique, Vicious, Reese, C-Saw, Freddie Gibbs, DJ Roc, me also and Billy Kannon. I got a solo album that I'm workin' on right now. We also puttin' out a line of Big Bizness mixtapes that's by DJ Roc. We got a lot we workin' on right now that's about to be out.

C-Saw: I been on a lot of projects, on these Big Bizness CD's and Dramatized's stuff. I'm also recording a song with Payroll right now.

C-Saw breaks down how it feels being a female rapper in Gary, Indiana:

It feels dominant as hell. I feel dominant because I was like the first rapper in the G and I'm a woman. So all these rappers that's comin' up now, have came up under me and under my name. I inspired them. I'm the most dominant of the G and I feel damn good about it. I feel like a leader, I feel like I inspired people.

Outside explains their place within Gary rap:

Fingeroll: You got legends here. That's why we call ourselves the Indiana pioneers ‘cause we was there when CCA was comin' out. When we came out it was really just CCA, MCGz and us that was comin' out from Gary . We were like the pioneers that set the trends for all the other artists that's comin' out now. We was down for the Live or Die In GI movement. We been puttin' out music back since in '96 and so on, so you can classify Outside as one of the GI legends.

C-Saw: It probably just sounds like I'm sayin this ‘cause I'm in the group Outside, but I believe we stand at #1. The reason why is because all the artists that's here now, like I said before, I inspired ‘em. And number two, they all come to Fingeroll's studio for work! We are the pioneers here, we are the ones that's doin' it. So we're #1 if you ask me.

*Click here to preview Outside's "Domestic Violence" album