What up Ness Lee. Introduce yourself.(cues loaded lux-esque intro)
introducing the Ness - dopest in the south soon as i open up my mouth, automatically known internationally shown, ga is the birthplace they created an earthquake, daddy slicker than the average rhyme clown/ swaggy's thicker than dizasters eyebrows, married to the game i never need a stupid wedding ring/ better than PH at everything including everything, my haircut game is shittn on lush one's/ the one son a mother couldnt trust with a trust fund, everyday working man, man's man (pause, no homo and so on and so forth), rhyme animal, production genius, 3 big ass dogs live in my crib, Kap Kallouses beard breast feeds from mine, my girlfriend probably raps better than you, i just lost 25 lbs bro, tyga ty for president, dirtbag dan will die soon, christian side hugging all you niggas girls in the club just to piss you off - Lee!
what up fam? i appreciate the look out. i'm trying my hardest not to do that gay ass leg cross rich niggas be doin when they on talk shows but when you're important you're important and cant help it
How long have you been rapping and battling for?
seriously since i was 17. i'm 23 now. so close to 10 years.
i was always a hip hop fan but i didnt write my first official rap until i was 15 or 16. i was at west laurens high in dublin ga. my nigga jeff from jersey used to battle my other dude jimmy brown every day all day in school. one day jeff didnt show up and jimmy needed someone to pick on so he just did a drive by freestyle on me in the middle of the hallway in front of everybody. i was pretty much forced to spit a verse back. i ended up being pretty decent but he still shitted on me. i went home and wrote a verse and came back the next day like WHAT. he still shitted on me. he had the more simple rhymes, i was on my canibus big word, i read a science book and made it rhyme, tip. ever since i been rhyming.
what really got me into it was battling shawn jay from field mob on the radio every day in albany. they had this show called "who got da flava" where they let local artists call in and battle each other. i got pretty far and ended up battling shawn live at the amphitheatre. we tied. being that he was THAT DUDE in albany, it kinda made a name for me and my squad Kontraband around town.
How was MOB? I heard the crowd energy wasnt the same as it usually is.
man i missed a good 75 percent of MOB. i was in the freakin hotel room with strep throat coughin up green stuff on A Classes bags. but from what i seen MOB was all around one of the best hip hop events ive been to. its hard to pinpoint why there was a lack of reaction on some of the battles. i personally think it has to do with the stage. i think when spectators are closer to the artists they feed energy back and forth off each other. crowd hears bars better and react quicker and louder. emcees feel the reaction and get more amped or animated. so on and so forth. i prefer being in a circle in a battle. more hood/grassroots type. it may sound bad but the feeling of "organization" takes away the authenticity. for me at least. not to take away from whoever it was that thought of the stage idea. a lot of emcees used it to their advantage when they stomped and what not.
You had a battle with Illmaculate, i heard you battled in a parking garage after the event got shut down.
who? i battled a little kid outside my hotel yeah. a lot of people seemed to know him. dude had bars. real talk though, i cant think of a better place to battle than a parking garage. the energy was crazy. a good 70 people were out there and they responded to everything sans a few bars in my third. we both got crazy. shouts out to the little kid from the parking garage.
Why didnt the battle happen at March Madness?
schedule conflict. he had to be up @ 6 to catch the bus to school. i had to find that out a round and a bout way.
You are a top tier battler_300dpi_cmyk.jpg)
and you also make dope music, how much does battling help you put more light on your music.
nah i'm not top tier yet but i appreciate it. i'm working on it. real talk, i have to be specific when i say this, its not battling that helps shed light my music, its grindtime. i cant put egnough emphasis on this. for someone like me who's rocked everywhere he can rock in his city and has his city behind him, doesnt have a huge hit on the radio, and isnt on mtv/bet, grindtime is one of the only consistent ways to get shine. battling in general is great and i love it but you have to be strategic about your career if you want to have one. so as an artist who puts music first i advise anyone trying to get out to take part in grindtime/king of the dot/ smack-url etc. battling/ grindtime got me a contract along with my production partners Cafe Society.
How many CD's do you have available and where can we find them?
go to www.nessleeis.com :)
You had the best impersonation in your battle with FLO do you think it was one of your best showings?
lol i remember when i was writing impressions were big in grindtime. i was always a fan of his style so i figured trying 4 bars of it would be fun. i never noticed how similar our voices are until i got the feedback from that battle. yeah i def think its one of my best showings. either that one or vs paperwerks. shouts to paper and flo
Are you currently in the process of putting another album together?
indeed i am. "everybody loves ness". except for like 5 people on rapmusic.com. me and my team Cafe Society will handle the bulk of prodution. ive always been a person that people are drawn to and speak positively about for some reason. the album is focusing on that and more specifically my move to jerz. i moved from atlanta to new jersey in december 08. i got a d.u.i. the day b4 i was about to drive up here. things have been going like that ever since. so its an understatement to say the transition has been hard. without the help of others i would've been homeless or worse. aye at least i dont look like marvwon. anyway a lot of people have proven to me that the world, even in its terrible state, has an abundance of people with big hearts. for some reason these people see something in me and feel the need to help me get where i'm going. so this album is a tribute to all those people. shouts to Harsh z, blaze wun, hemisphere, sonny bams, drect, ph, poison pen, CAFE SOCIETY
Can you name some battle rappers you're working on music with?
me, hemisphere, jarren benton, and sonny bamboo are doing a project. i rocked a few beats for blaze wun. i'm producing Animal Planet's ep. shouts to passwurdz. chase moore and i will be working on some things in the future i'm sure. i'm doing some production in the near future for marvwon so i can steal his twitter followers. i plan on doing work with dutch vega. man, so many i cant really name them all. i did the beat for that huge grindtime collabe. the studio session for that was crazy.
i also am doing an ep with that toddler from the parking garage. planned on putting it out the day the battle is dropped but i've been so busy writing and producing. we're almost done though.
Do you have any idea what and when your next battle is? Anyone you interested in specifically?
i got syd vicious in atl on the 17th. i'm lookin forward to that one he's one of the better rappers in grindtime and just an all around monster. if i lose i'm probably gonna have a drink with or drop kick him. i wanna battle locksmith. i think that would be dope. but real talk, i reeeeeeally wanna get at E Ness. i respect what he does and just to keep it honest witchu i been tryina bait him for years. nigga finally acknowledged. so yeah i wouldnt mind zipping him up real nice. only enough room for one battle rapping, husky, dark skinned, reality tv showed artist named ness.
What do you think about Rapmusic.com? I see you posting there.
if you use rapmusic.com right it can be extremely helpful. i got my name there from battling. ever since, i had a hardcore fanbase that follows me and buys my music. now a days i just use it to argue with folks and get them saying my name.
Grindtime West Coast vs East Coast, Poison Pen is gunning for it, i saw your suggestion. Why do you think its being delayed?
oh no not gt west vs east (even though that was in the talks at one time). i'm petitioning for gt vs url/smack. i couldnt tell you why its being delayed. i'm not sure if delayed is the right word seeing as its such a new idea. i'm sure if the people call for it it'll eventually happen u feel me.
Where do you see Grindtime in the next year?
i'm kind of afraid for grindtime. its like the and 1 of rap. outsiders look at it as side entertainment away from the "real" rap industry right now. its getting huge though. power industry players are hitting me up saying they saw me on grindtime. but in its current format, it would be easy for it to hit a ceiling. i think by next year its either gonna be the biggest thing ever or exactly where it is right now depending on the moves that are made and the artists involved that blow.
Between battling and performing your music which do you like more?
definitely like performing my music more. two different people. as a battler i get a lot of comments on my writing and rapping ability. but on stage i get cult followers. for some reason my music touches people. its awkward and i dont know how to explain it. i feel like a martin luther type speaker when i'm performing
Where can people hear your music and show you love and see more of you, Ness?
www.myspace.com/cafesocietybeats
www.twitter.com/nessleethertist
www.facebook.com/jeron.nesslee.thomas
yall niggas stop stealing my name with these sites
Do you have anything else you want to talk about we haven't touched on? If so go for it:
thanks for having me, rest in peace point game, and rap isnt for everybody.
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