East Coast Hip-Hop has always had a certain feel to it. It wasn’t so much that you could dance to it, more like nod your head to it instead. But as time passed, gimmicky dance steps started to overrun the once signature neck gesture almost into obscurity.
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However, not to be written off in the history books are two students of the Golden Era, and they go by the names of Ruste Juxx and Marco Polo.
Continuing where he left off with 2009’s Double Barrel album with Torae, the beatsmith from Canada that now makes New York his home returns with another formidable MC in Ruste Juxx for their upcoming effort The eXXecution.
And coming off his own project, with 2008’s Indestructible, the Crown Heights, Brooklyn representative is out to prove he’s no flash in the pan, and with their forces joined as one—the East is definitely in the house.
Marco Polo: What people can expect to hear from The eXXecution is a cohesive Hip-Hop album from top to bottom… The beats are knocking, and Ruste Juxx murdered every beat, and made incredible songs…
He really brought energy, and he’s really going at a lot of things… It’s not anything specific, but it’s just high-energy Hip-Hop with beats from the crates…
Ruste Juxx: I was going to get on his next producer album, and I was going to put a verse on there… I was going through a lot of his joints, and then I asked if he could put a few of them on a CD for me… Then I ended up going in on all of them sh*ts, and then I came in, and laid them down… From there, he was like, “Lets do an album.”
Ruste Juxx: I had a manager at the time, and he was Rock’s cousin from Heltah Skeltah… So he was like, “I want to introduce you to Heltah Skeltah,” and this was when they were working on their Magnum Force album… So he introduced me to Sean Price, and me and son clicked…
I spit for him, and he was like, “Yo this kid is nasty.” Then I got on a few joints on that Magnum Force album… I was on the Magnum Force title track, and I was on ‘Gang’s All Here.’
Ruste Juxx: I like to listen to it from the beginning to the end; it’s like a movie…
Marco Polo: I usually tell people it’s hard to pick a favorite track, and I know that sounds like a biased answer, but on any given day depending on my mood; there will be a new favorite…
Marco Polo: Definitely… I was definitely happy with how people received Double Barrel… I think for people that appreciate authentic boom-bap East Coast Hip-Hop loved Double Barrel…
Ruste Juxx: The same with me… A lot of people knew what it was, and a lot of people that knew about it, went out and got it…
Ruste Juxx: Yeah, basically… All the joints we did; if he wanted me to change something I went in and changed it… We kept it official, and we came out with a crazy project…
Ruste Juxx: Well, I’ve been making albums since I’ve been rhyming really… I’ve always been into making songs; it’s just that when I got Marco’s tracks, it just motivated me to go into a different realm…
Marco Polo: I don’t really see it as a trend, I see it as the why that it always should’ve been; you know what I’m saying? For whatever reason over the years, people got away from that… But if you look back in the history books, all the albums I consider to be classics; that was the formula…
It was an in-house production team… With Tribe you had Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammed, with Gang Starr you had Preemo, and with EPMD you had Erick Sermon and [DJ] Scratch… Those were all one sound, and they were all classic…
Somewhere along the way, people started straying away from that formula… There were a bunch of hot artists that started using more than one producer like Busta Rhymes, and he put out a few classics…
But if it is a trend now, it’s because the music seems to be better, and there’s more longevity… When you put an album in and it sounds cohesive, it has more power…
Marco Polo: Well, I definitely always been producing projects from Port Authority to Double Barrel, and now it’s The eXXecution… I’ve produced them from top to bottom, and I love doing that more than anything…
I get to have more control within the scope of the album, but I definitely still work here and there with other projects… I just have to be aware of what I’m sending certain artists, because a lot of producers will send 20 of their hottest beats to an MC, and it really shouldn’t be like that…
You should think about the artist that you’re sending tracks to, picture their style, then the types of beats you have, and send them 3-4 that fit them… Because chances are; if you give an MC the opportunity to pick beats, they’re going to pick the wrong ones [Laughs]… So you want to put them in the zone that you think makes sense… That’s essentially being a producing, and being more involved with the music…
Ruste Juxx: Nah, not at all because this is what I do… So if they’re ain’t market for it, I’m going to create a market for it… I’m going to open up one [Laughs]…
