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( 0 ) The Breakdown TV Interveiw by Jclazzified Where did you get your name from? What exactly does it mean? > Caktuz Tree..?13, first off is officially spelled; "C-A-K-T-U-Z T-R-E-E-dot(.)-dot(.)-question mark(?)". There is the number 13 on the tail end, but it's silent. The breakdown goes like this. 'Caktuz', symbolizes that life that will survive in the middle of a waist land, when all else is dying around it. When you are lost in that waist land, you can always open up a cactus and replenish yourself and your energy. Water is symbolic to wisdom in some schools of thought, and I feel like I am giving that through my art. So the 'Caktuz' part of the name symbolizes a survivor that will make it through any of the harshest conditions. 'Tree' is symbolic of the fact that a tree has roots but is forever branching out in different directions. Forever growing and changing, with a story that can be told within the grooves of it's inner rings. The 'dot-dot-question mark' reminds us to always question the knowledge we are given. The '13' at the very end is a number that represents change of a complete cycle in numerology. Anytime you have 13 there is always some sort of change in energy. There were 12 disciples, but they were nothing without Jesus. 2 Pac was a rap star, then died on the 13th and became a martyr. The mystical 13th floor in skyscrappers.etc. So I take it to represent my pressence within the game. > > Where you born and raised? What type of impact do you think your > surroundings had an you as an artist? A human? > I was born in Pennsylvania, but moved around alot. I came up in the DC Area until my parents split when i was about 7 or 8. I went to go stay with my mother about 2 or 3 years after in High Point, North Carolina (same place where Fantasia Barrino is from), and was raised there primarily all my life. My environment in NC was one that gave me values as a human being. Those down home country values differ alot from the values and codes that i am faced with in the industry. I take everything that this industry brings at me personally, and that fuels alot of my musics passion. I refuse to be a victim or a statistic. My upbringing gave me music. That soul found in Juke Joints, Liquor Houses, Backyard Parties, the whole culture of NC. My coming up in NC also inspired my whole image and stride. I came up in a furniture textile city bent on entrapping you within it's comfort zone. Making you settle for whats here, instead of reaching for whats not. It charged my ambition. Just to make it out of High Point NC is a successful act. That's how hard it is there. > > How long have you been rapping? What initially lead you to become an emcee? > I've been making music since Middle School. It all started in the 80's when i had asleep over with my now deceased cousin Trevon Gill, and a school friend. we wrote a song about all the girls at school called 'Girls B.Ware'. after that I caught the rapping bug, because before that i only listened to Go-Go and R&B in DC. When I moved to High Point, my cousins put me on to hip hop. There is a college station, 90.1, that used to have a late night mix called The Full Moon Block Party w/ Texas Pete, and that's where I would get my crash course in hip hop. They played everything that someone was rapping on then. UTFO, Run DMC, NC's own Payroll Records, etc. i think what actually did it for me, as far as the point when I decided this is what I wanna do, was when I heard Run DMC's Raising Hell album. that was my point if no return. > > Where do you go to draw inspiration for your songs? > I don't go any one place in particular to draw inspiration for my music. I am inspired by life and the fortune of being able to be living it. On a metaphysical level, I go to places inside of me. The emotions that swim inside me over my life and how it has gone , where it is going, what dreams are on the horizon. My music reflects my life and how I perceive it. My album is called 2 Hevi 4 Heaven, because the songs on it were written in a time when it seemed like I was not in the favor of God. Like my prayers fell on deaf ears. all my sorrows and pain wer my conviction for simply being born. Like my life was to heavy for heaven to lift up or save. I mean, can you imagine going to prison innocently just hitting your 20's, how much of an impact that has on the phsyce. How heavy that is for one man to carry.I felt like all this talk of what God will do for you was a bunch of bullshit! My life was on the rise. I had record deals coming at me, running independent businesses, all before I was 20! To strip you of all that and push you down into a pit where there was no glimmer in the darkness for so long. No one beleiving your innocence, not even your own family! I felt abandoned. People deal with duality inside them everyday. We all question our relevance in the eyes of whatever is either guiding us or presiding over us. I spent 8 yrs. in prison 4 a crime I did not commit. Everyday I questioned my life and my God. It is in us to battle with it constantly. Jesus was said to be God incarnate. He knew his fate, but still cried out in pain bearing his cross. Even though I knew one day, I was going to be free, while I'm bearing those 8 yrs., i'm still gonna cry out in pain every now and then when it seems hopeless. These songs were what was transcribed from that screaming and wailing. Bob Marley said he named his backing band 'The Wailers' because we come into this world wailing, as babies, for life. Wailing to live, fighting for oxygen. so that is the condition of passion we exude in music. That need to be heard, and make sense of it all. My inspiration comes from these intimate bouts with God. Just like Jacob in Genesis when he was leading his people through the dessert. he stopped in a clearing called 'The penal', to rest and was confronted by a human-like being. The Bible says they battled, and Jacob was overtaken. His hip was broken. The being revealed he was God and told him he would change his name to 'Isreal' which means; 'one who looks apon the face of God, battled God, and who's life was spared'. This is how the children of Isreal were born. So we all battle with God on our own levels, in order to be forged. They say the lord never gives loads to heavy to carry in the south. So my journey was a test that prepared me for this chapter of life i am embarking on. A song on my album 'Savin'n Me' talks about my theory behind it all. > > I also heard that you do graphics design as well. Break that down for us. > Where can people hit you up for that? > I am a working graphic designer as well. I have an independent design firm called Floor Model Stereo, that myself and my partner Fuse Green run outta Bed Stuy Brooklyn, NYC. We do everything from product design, clothing, murals, motion graphics, album covers, corporate work, you name it. If it can be illustrated or designed by computer is in our range. Some of our clients include Scion, TBS, Sprite, Wndy Williams, Apple Bottoms, DC Comics, Rocawear, Ecko, Smirnoff Movement Studio, etc. We've done album covers for Mos Def, MF Grimm, J. Period, etc. We've done storyboards for screenwritters that have gotten them movie deals. Award winnig ad campaigns. we make hits in the design industry. You have probably seen some of our work at one or a number of times. There is also a lifestyle brand, named Wheatbread (www.wheatbreadlife.com), spawned by my partner Fuse, that produces everything from houseware, 2 clothes. It's a lifestyle brand like OBEY, where we basically are promoting that country/ city asthetic. In NC, where both of us are from, it is not the South, as most beleive. We are south to NYC but not the south. We like to call our place the 'Middle East' since we are sandwhiched in between the north and the south. Go to South Carolina or Georgia, and it's southeren, but NC is a gumbo of top and bottom. We are where worlds collide. That's what birthed my sound, the 'Carolina Bluez'. They describe me as 'Jay-Z's swagger with a Goodie Mob soul'. It is very hard though to be this involved in the design industry and juggle it with the dedication to music. So Fuse and I started a performance art group called DRX. We are the hip hop Blue Man Group. We do live graphic illustration, while DJing. We were debuted to the world at Melvin Van Peebles award winning play 'Ain't Supposed To Die A Natural Death' on Broadway. We would close the night out with a performance then DJ a an after party. Until you are moving an ocean of people from 21 to 80 all to the same music you ain't doing nothing as a DJ. Because of us the numbers coming to the show increased, and talk about the after show began to circulate. It would be what opened the door for us to be chosen by Mr. Van Peebles himself to evecutive produce the Tribute CD/DVD for him. > What drew you to graphics design? Do you ever get as passionate with your > visual art as you do with your lyrical art? > I have always been talented with a pencil. Coming up, Fuse and I ran High Point as far as graphic design goes. we were designing and promoting our own shows, clothing, and projects in high school. Everyone knew us for either the 2 talents- music or art. My 1st passion has always been music. It's very hard to make others understand this. I have been shut out in certain music situations because of being multi-talented. An A&R from Rocafella black balled me when I 1st came to NYC, because I tried to get him to listen to my music after we had worked out some business with a graphic project. In his mind, I was an artist, and that's all he wanted to deal with with me. I left NC with $800 and no promise whatsoever and came to NYC. I left a son there that I was unable to see or be with for all of 8yrs., and as soon as I was off parole 6 mos. after getting out, I up and leave again. I try to travel back and forth as much as possible, but it ain't easy. My own mother, stopped supporting my aspirations to go to college when I told her I was going for MusicManagement instead of Commercial Art. To this day we don't have the best of relationships. So you see, my music is my life. I have bled for this shit. Sacrificed 2 much (ie, love, riches, etc) just to get this far! and there is still such a long ways to go. There is no plan B. If not music, then everything I've sacrificed thus far has been in vein. > > What are your plans for 2007? Whom all have you worked with musically? > For 2007, my company AMAS Multi- Media, whom I run with my cousin, Aaron 'Mack' Mckinney, will be growing bigger as the momentum behind me and my projects does. We are moving up step by step, but theres no doubt in my mind that our time is apon us. My group DRX is in talks right now with a few labels to find a home for the Melvin Van Peebles project. If you don't know, We are basically bringing to the fore front, an untold story on Melvin. This man is the real godfather of hip hop. He was a musician before being a director, releasing 3 albums before Sweetback was made. His offbeat poetic styled songs, birthed spoken word poetry, which in turn would later make way for rappers to bring there poetry to music as well. He pre dates Gill Scott Heron and The Last Poets. He has recorded over 13 albums to date, from French to Country. So many artists have sampled from him and had hits because of it. The Beatnuts hit 'Off the Books' sampled from Melvin. Main Sources 1st album used snippets from his soundtrack to Sweetback. The premeir song we 1st heard Nas on 'Live at the Barbecue' uses a sample. Everyone from Common, Tweet, MF Doom, Digable Planets, KRS One, Mos Def, etc. has sampled this man. Besides that I am working with dead. prez/ RBG, Boot Camp Click, Sa- Ra, to name a few on some projects right now. I'm doing national TV ads for Wheatbread, Continuing to hustle this industry. > > What does Cactuz Tree bring to the Hip Hop culture? What makes you > different than the next rapper? > What makes me different for one is I am actually saying something relevant ontop of hot production. Most of the hot shit nowadays is just a bunch of bullshit subject matter. I think my story ads to my mystique. I don't wanna just rap. I also play the guitar, and it is a part of my stage show. I produced 4 songs on my album. I produce, arrange, write, you name it. My niche is that people in the streets relate to what I'm saying or the songs I have because i am a product of the ghetto, and I am still here. My music is for the people who don't go to church but are wrestling with their relationship to God. For the street walkers who don't know what words to use to pray. In India they have these wheels called 'prayer wheels' thatsit in front of the temples. Each wheel has prayers enscribed on them. People from all over the town come to spin these wheels beleiving it sends the prayer on it up to heaven for them. My music is the avater between thugs and Angels to conversate. I learned to play the guitar in prison, and used to bring the hardest thugs and murderers to tears with songs like 'Blackbyrdz'. That type of impact is rare in rap. Songs that are the soundtrack to our lives, not just something to move your ass to in the club. There is a place for more lighter groups, but I am an alternative, to the run of the mill. Malcom X said in order to change history you must 1st change how men think of themselves. That's what I plan to do. I'm not trying to preach my messages to anyone, or stand outside the struggle. I'm just a brother who can see over the heads of most of my crew. That brother who straddles the fence between the block and the boardroom. Who has his mind on something bigger. Wjose detewrmination ia so acute others feel it's wounds. I'm bringing real music back, as far as production that doesn't always fellow the metronome on the MPC, or traditional music theory. Rap has found a complacentcy..I'm here to mix it up again. > > What would you say your vision or your purpose is for this music? Is there > a motto you or your music lives by? > My motto is, "Sometimes U don't know exactly how/ where U fit in,...until U find a way to break out!" > > New projects, old projects, release dates? > My album '2 Hevi 4 Heaven' can be bought on line right now from www.myspace.com/caktuztree13 for a discounted rate, and www.cdbaby.com. As for new projects, I can't really reveal much until around the time these projects will be coming out. it's on the hush. > > Contacts for people to reach you? Where can they find the music? > Fans can reach me at www.myspace.com/caktuztree13 or e-mail AMAS at amasmultimedia@gmail.com. The web site is under construction right now but may be up by press time. www.caktuztree.com > > How do you see yourself as an artist and how do you think the listening > public sees you? > I see myself as one of the greats, people will be argueing over on project stoops within 5 yrs. from now. I see myself as a talented writer, musician, and overall creator. That's how I see Caktuz Tree..?13 the artist. The man is still a adventureous kid in his room making pause tape beats and sampling on Casio SK-1's. Just wanting to make good music I can feel in my soul. I wanna be a legend before I die. i want to change peoples live just from listening to my music. I think right now the listeners who give me feedback, think of me as a bubbling talent. But I don't think they trully comprehend the dynamics of the stew that is causing the bubbles. I haven't had a chance to really flex my wings yet. I couldn't fit everything i wanted on to 2 Hevi 4 Heaven. There are songs in the files that I beleive have the power to change peoples lives. But you can't just put ant beat or music to them, so I am taking my time in making these songs as powerful as I can. > > What has been the best personal memory of your career so far ? > The day I met Melvin Van Peebles. The man enhanced my whole perspective of the hustle. I've learned so much from him. Whenever we are around one another I am a sponge. He has taken me under his wing and heart only to allow me to understand the weight of my place in this industry. It is bigger than just making music to pay for rims on my car, or to be poppin bottles in videos. I have a responsibility to all those who fought in the civil rights era to give us these opportunities. We are the children of sharecroppers and abolusionists. i grew up watching the Klan march on Main St. literally. I came up when the last race riot between the Klan and the black community took place in Greensboro NC. When I say my music envoes spirits and stirs the soul, I truly mean that. i will never forget the inspiration Melvin has given me. > > Describe yourself for us. What are the ingredients that create Cactuz? > Soul, pain, love, loss, intelligence, passion , fire, sensuality, anger, my son Jordan, my people, fame, money, power. Those are a range of ingredients that make up Caktuz..?13 i describe myself as an artist- all inclusive. I'm a lover who will fight for what I love or beleive in. I am the type that would rather starve free, than live as a fat slave. It may never happen in my lifetime, but I know one day my music is gonna change the world. That's Caktuz Tree..?13 Feb-09-2007 15:35:45 Comments( 0 ) Add Comments