Interview - Sev Statik

Sev Statik is a mainstay in the hiphop underground; lending his talents to a lot of compilations and different crews, including the Tunnel Rats, Deepspace5 and his solo debut Speak Life, not to mention his Stu Dent project Nephilim, the man is nailed to the ideas of integrity in the genre, collaboration and the movement upwards. 'Conscious rap' probably doesn't even cover it. So instead of spitting out one superlative after another, we decided we'd simply track him down. And here we go.

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sd: Give me a brief personal history of Joseph Evans, aka Sev Statik.
Sev: Born and raised in Albany, New York in a section called Arbor Hill. I grew up there, went to school there and met hiphop there. I have a wife, two daughters, one son, three nieces, three nephews, two sisters and a mother and a father (who I don't see, but talk to a few times a month). I got some cool homies, some not-so-cool homies and two or three lukewarm homies. I love Albany, my crew and my fam. Now, is that enough personal stuff about me for this interview? Hi, everyone!

sd: What's the Albany scene like? Tell me about the city so I know the place we're talking about. Population, industry, sports, music?
Sev: Ever been to Jupiter at 3am? Albany's about 100,000 heads deep, somewhere in that number, not a lot, but everyone sorta gets along and has their own entertainment niche. We got the hood, college-kids areas, white areas, trailer parks, suburban spots, etc. No different from other small cities. Everyone in New York thinks Albany is all trees and woods. WRONG! Hey, man, we're official - we have gangs too. Now what!? As far as music goes, we got it all. The live music scene for bands is really busy - definitely a great scene to begin in and gain a fanbase. Annnnnnd... we're still building the hiphop "scene" here. We got a movement here in the 518 [that's an area code, kids, for those who can't figure it out -ed.] called Pitch Control Music - something me and a few of my peoples got together on to try and create some awareness of the artists here in the 518. So, we're doing it - booking shows, putting out a newsletter, and we did the website thing at pitchcontrolmusic.net (some discussions and/or music might not be for everyone). PCM is growing, and we want heads to lay claim to it and take ownership of the scene. The dedicated are doing that.

sd: Why Sev Statik as a stage name?
Sev: Because it gives me unbelievable powers over the audience....oh, never mind, I thought you were talking about this gun in my hand. Yeah, the name - uhhhhh.....ok, ready? Last time I'ma do this for y'all. Sev is short for 7. Statik came to me in a freestyle and it just stuck. Yeah, yeah. Double O SevStatik. The point man in your grillpiece. WHAT WHAT! That's the coolest name ever. It should be on billboards right across from MTV when TRL is on.

sd: Hiphop is very stagnant at the mainstream, MTV level; what do you think happened to the talent base? Or was it just that we grew to expect and accept less from the top performers?
Sev: No doubt. We have such a young fanbase now, and unfortunately they're all addicted to "fast food" music. We live in a NOW era. Everything is fast. But with that said, all this was bound to happen. I wouldn't say all the mainstream is garbage - there is some really good hip hop and hard rock music coming out on the mainstream circuit. I can go into other levels of this answer, but I'll stick to the short version...see, we're all addicted to "fast food".

sd: Of the MTV generation of hiphop, who deserves to be there? Who should be there and isn't?
Sev: Souls of Mischief came to me first. They've been doing it for a long time with little mainstream exposure. I mean, there's a lot of cats who deserve more than what they're getting right now. I don't know if MTV is the answer, but I know Pharaoh Monche is like the poster child for cats just under the radar of hitting it big in the mainstream. Why he hasn't blown up on a major level is a mystery to me. Hopefully, signing to Kanye [West]'s new label will kick him over that line.

sd: Obviously people in your position can't make a living off hiphop - or can you? What work keeps you going day-to-day?
Sev: I can definitely make a living off of hiphop, but I can't stay away from my kids for more than three or four days. I can't handle it; I go through withdrawal. *laughter* Some cats do it and I know they're hurting. I don't wanna look at those scars later on. There's no health insurance with me being a weekend road warrior, so getting a big budget from a nice label would be ideal. I just finesse whatever free time I have and plan from there. I don't stress myself over it, but if ever a big tour came up to pay for all of my bills for the year, I would consider some of these label deals.

sd: Geographically, do you find Albany gets lost in the shuffle? Are you gonna remain a resident? Sev: Well, even us Albanians call Albany "Smallbany". We understand it's not New York City, and believe me, that's a good thing on many levels. We're close to NYC, so to me it's not a problem that Albany is a small city. To me, it's really small because I know it like the back of my hand. I don't see me moving anywhere else.

sd: Speak Life seems more focused on the culture of hiphop and the worldly, outward aspects of it, while your Stu Dent record seemed a lot more introspective and concentrates on the art side; was it because you needed a change of direction that you conceived the Stu Dent character?
Sev: I came up with the Stu Dent persona to do more hip hop - that's it. I had no idea it would get popular or this much attention. All of it is still me, but it's just another outlet to let go of whatever I wanna express. I do like the idea of doing music that I wouldn't normally do under Sev Statik - not that the Stu Dent material doesn't measure up, heck nah, [but] usually the stuff I bust for any Sev project is more surface- and people- oriented. I wanna reach the common person with the Sev Statik material. And with the Stu Dent material I'm aiming for the forgotten heads - the cats who may not want the polished master CD sound. It's all for a purpose.

sd: Take someone like me, someone who's a big fan of some of the urban/hiphop that he hears, but didn't grow up on it. What's the first thing newcomers should hear or know about, in order to project the best parts of rap?
Sev: I think if you're looking for good hip hop you'll find what you're looking for. You can usually tell off the bat if what you're listening to is something with or without substance. If you want the jiggy, copy the worldly, underground or commercial Christian rap; you'll definitely find it. A LOT of it. I always say, whatever album you wanna die listening to, that's the album you need to search for, and more like it. Heads need to get to my site and get this free music! I have some bangers up right now and they're all exclusive music for the website!! You won't hear these songs on any other release, period. Only available off the site. Don't sleep; they won't be up for long. I put one up every two months or so, and have to make room for more. Sign up for the newsletter list on the site, and get at me: sevstatik@hotmail.com.

[Sev Statik] [Illect] [Tunnel Rats]