HipHopHoopla hooks up with three-man hip hop group LikeBlood for an exclusive interview. Although a wide variety of topics are talked about, coming up in the political and murder capital of USA that is D.C., LikeBlood have quite the interesting opinion on the place they call home.

And on the music side of things, LikeBlood currently have a smash single and video with Bobby Valentino, a healthy partnership with Soblu Music Group and have opened up for countless talented hip hop acts.

LikeBlood official spot:

www.likeblood.com

Interview: We are right here with the three-man group Likeblood. The first thing I want to know is, where does the Likeblood name come from?

Likeblood: The Likeblood name basically means “family.” It came from the fact that we all grew up together and went to the same schools. We are close and we treat eachother like family. We would run around the city saying we were all cousins and when we started the group, we had a bunch of crazy names. One day, we were sitting back chilling and my brother said he was going to call us “Likeblood” because we carry it like family and it just stuck from there. That was back in 1998. It was a long time ago.

Interview: It’s definitely been a minute. Growing up together and what not, did that help develop the group chemistry at such an early age?

Likeblood: Definitely. We we’re all into music when we were younger and when we came together to make the group, it was natural because there was already a common ground for us being that we were already friends. That gives us a different foundation from other groups and I think it shows. The music isn’t what brought us together. We were on a friendship level before we started doing music. I’m talking since the 6^th grade; young like that. There’s a different foundation here. It’s really “like blood.”

Interview: You sort of alluded to it but I want to talk about the lifestyle side of things regarding growing up in D.C. – tell us about that.

Likeblood: D.C. is really like its own world. It’s not quite up north. It’s not down south either. It has influences from both. Me [Yung E] and Dre [Dre Strong] are from uptown and Mbea [Mbea Da 1] is from the southeast but we all went to schools outside of our own neighborhoods. That’s how we became close. We were also more connected with the whole city that way because we ended up going to school with people from all over the city instead of just our own neighborhood.

On top of that, D.C. is really small. We don’t even need six degrees of separation; just two degrees (laughs). You always know someone who knows the person you don’t know. That was a big plus for us; to be able to touch a lot of people all over the city. It helps people from the area relate to us.

We actually just put out a film, “Jazz in the Diamond District,” that gives you a good look at D.C., the culture, the people in it, completely away from the political side; just the regular everyday life side. It really dives into how we party, how we interact, the slang, the way we dress – everything, just the life here. Make sure y’all go get the movie on www.jazzinthediamonddistrict.com. It stars Avon Barksdale himself, Wood Harris, and our man, Clifton Powell.

Interview: Cool. I read something dope in your biography and you’ve touched on politics a bit already with D.C. being the murder capital but also the political centre of USA. What do you take from that? How have you experienced both?

Likeblood: You have to be both street-smart as well as book-smart; You need them both in this city. We grew up in the 90’s and in the 90s in D.C., every block was a different crew or a different set. We didn’t have any gangs in D.C. It’s just not like that. You had to fight on every block because you weren’t from there so you’re going at it with everybody until they knew you. It is what it is.

There is a heavy law enforcement presence in D.C. too. So its helpful to know your rights and understand the politics behind them just to protect yourself. A lot of us from D.C., we’re well balanced in that way.

But we grew up on the “murder capital” side of town (laughs) and the literal politics of D.C. don’t really spill into our areas. You would think being from D.C. that we’re supposed to have some sort of knowledge about the government more than anybody else, but that only happens if you actually try to know about it; We are actually getting screwed in D.C. with the taxation without representation. We don’t get voting rights in the Senate or House because we’re not a state.

It’s really like two different worlds in D.C. That’s one of the craziest things about the city. You can see one million dollar homes on one block, turn one corner and literally be in the hood. It’s not even a game. You grow up going to school with people who are wealthy and people who are broke; the mix is crazy. That’s D.C. for you. 
 

Interview: Tell us about Soblu Music Group.

Likeblood: Soblu Music Group is our record label and the next hot entertainment company taking over the industry in all types of ways – music, film and management. It was started by Lindsey Christian and Erica Chamblee who we went to high school with at Duke Ellington School of the Arts. We got with them on their first film project, “Jazz in the Diamond District,” which we starred in and ended up doing a lot the music for and we were so heavily involved in the project and we worked well together so they decided to sign us.

Prior to hooking up with them, we were on the street putting in a lot of work. We were hitting the open mics and hitting the mom and pop stores with our CD’s. We got some bread together and built out our own studio. We were doing all of this stuff on our own. And when we got with them and they saw our situation, they felt they could really take us to the next level.

Soblu is our GPS. We were making all this music and we made a lot of noise in the streets, but we didn’t know where to go with it for real. Soblu came and provided the direction and the plan. We hit the ground running and we’ve been running ever since.

All the labels like Def Jam, Interscope, whoever started small. Soblu Music Group is us starting from scratch. A real team that’s “like blood.” And to have started where we started and to have gotten to where we’ve gotten, is a great thing. Especially for D.C. We were the first rap artists from the city to get our video played as “New Joint of the Day” on 106 & Park and also the first independent artists from D.C. to accomplish that. We toured nationally Raekwon. Those are the types of impression we want to make; always breaking barriers, especially for D.C.

Interview: You mentioned the “Money Over Here” record with Bobby Valentino and the record has been playing on MTV Jams. Tell our readers about this record.

Likeblood: This record is the first single off our upcoming album, “#DaBiness,” slated to drop in May 2010. It’s a “grind and get money” anthem; whether you work a 9-5, or you’re hustling in the streets, or you’re ballin’, we’re trying to motivate people to get money. It’s definitely a feel good track for the clubs. They go crazy in the parties when it comes on. We wanted that type of anthem to make people feel like they can relate and participate with it.

Interview: How did you guys get at Bobby V for the feature?

Likeblood: That came about through mutual contacts with our label [Soblu Music Group]. We were in Atlanta working on some projects at Patchwerk, including “Money Over Here,” and Bobby [V] came up in the talks of who was going to be on the track. Bobby seemed like a good fit for it and being in ATL, he just came through and knocked it out. You can check out footage from our session on our YouTube channel. Youtube.com/likebloodsworld.

Interview: So the “We’re All Alone: 3010” EP is already available on the Likeblood website.

Likeblood: Yes, it is. You can grab it at www.likeblood.com/dabiness. Make sure y’all download that. It’s free. Since it’s called “We’re All Alone: 3010,” we dropped it on March 3^rd, 03/10 at 3:10 PM.

“We’re All Alone” was actually the title of the first album we ever recorded back in 2001. We started recording in 1997 but the first project we had that was a complete disc was called “We’re All Alone.” It was called that because we had an “us against the world” mentality. Nobody was going to do for us what we were doing for each other. We felt like our backs were up against the wall and we just went hard. D.C. still wasn’t really accepting rap then and it wasn’t cool to be a rapper in D.C. when we started rapping. We really were all alone.

This EP is a reincarnation of that “We’re All Alone” album. The Washington City Paper even did an article on the original “We’re All Alone,” which came out the day we released 3010. We don’t even know how they got their hands on a CD because we only pressed up 100-200 copies of it back in 2001 (laughs), but the article was great for us because it let people know how long we’ve been doing this and how consistent we’ve been.

We want in (laughs). Make sure y’all go download that.

Interview: I like how y’all titled the new EP after the first album. The “WLBR: Likeblood Radio Vol. 3 – Jazz in the Diamond District Edition” mixtape is also available now. Do you want to comment on that? How can the fans get it?

Likeblood: The “WLBR: Likeblood Radio” mixtape series actually has three volumes to it, all of which are available on our website, www.likeblood.com. The reason we started that series is because the powers that be at local radio stations were not playing local music. If you’re an artist, that makes it hard to get exposure. So we had the idea to make our mixtape an opportunity for everybody we see out here grindin’ to get their records out there. We had a bunch of actual radio personalities do this mixtape as if it was a radio station. It sounds like you’re listening to a radio show when you listen to the CD. On Vol. 3, there are 20 tracks from us and 20 tracks from other artists in D.C. that we really respect. The whole concept is to be able to share our spotlight with people from the city and help them get exposure.

You can download the “WLBR: Likeblood Radio” mixtape series or order physical copies on www.likeblood.com. Go get all three volumes and you’ll see where we’re coming from.

Interview: They can get all three volumes on www.likeblood.com. I want to get into the album now. I know it has“#” sign in front of the title like a Twitter trending topic. Tell us about the title.

The title basically has two meanings. We’re giving you our experiences in this business, and in life, good and bad, and everything we’re learning as we go alone. We’re seeing things as we get deeper into the industry and into this lifestyle and we are creating our story. “#DaBiness” is the first chapter in that story. It’s not just about the music business or even just the entertainment business. It’s focused in on that because we’re artists but it really goes into every aspect of our lives and our careers to this point.

Being from D.C. makes it tough. It’s definitely a humbling experience; especially with such a hard city to earn respect from. When you’re in a city where you know they don’t give out respect easy, we know it’s the type of city where you have to really earn it. And when you do earn it from them, you feel like you really accomplished something. We talk about that aspect too.

But we’re also in general just giving you the business (laughs). That’s the other meaning. The tracks are fire and the versatility is crazy. The type of artists we are, you can’t put a label on us. All three of us have very different styles. We touch on a lot of emotions. If you’re feeling a certain way, you can put a certain track on. If you’re feeling another way, we have a track for that too. We’re well-rounded rappers and since our styles are different, we cover a lot of bases.

We decided to add the “#” to make it a trending topic on Twitter. Twitter is where we do a lot of promoting, so we wanted to tie in the album with that side of the business. So musically, lyrically and conceptually, we are giving you “#DaBiness.”

Interview: No doubt. Bobby Valentino is on the lead single “Money Over Here.” Who else is on the album in terms of guest appearances and production?

Likeblood: We need to keep that top secret! We don’t want to let the cat out of the bag. It’s like a movie and we don’t want to spoil the ending.

Interview: We can respect that. You’ve toured and opened with Drake, Raekwon, Nicki Minaj, Lil Scrappy, The New Boys and so on. What did you learn from that? Do you have a favorite act you opened up for?

Likeblood: Opening up for Raekwon was huge. Of course it was a full tour so that made it a little different. We did the House of Blues in LA, the Fillmore in New York, the 9:30 Club in D.C., a ton of venues. The atmosphere of true hip-hop in its essence is not something you can explain or ask for, but something you need to experience and appreciate. That’s what we were doing that whole tour.

That was an experience to know we can rock a Raekwon crowd. They were there throwing up the “W” ready for Wu-Tang but we went out on stage and delivered, they listened to us and threw up an “L” with us. They showed us that we can rock those crowds. There was so much love.

You have to be like a chameleon because different crowds like different stuff. People on the west coast are different than people on the east coast. Those people are different than a down south crowd too. Everybody likes their cup of tea a little different. We learned how to mix it up and who else better than with the chef, Raekwon himself? Shout out to Raekwon for giving us that opportunity and allowing us to tour with him for that classic album “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. 2,” and shout out to the whole Wu-Tang Clan.

Interview: No doubt. We’re going to end it on that note. We want to make sure everybody checks out the “#DaBiness” album hopefully hitting in May. All the mixtapes and the EP, they can download from www.likeblood.com and get the film on www.jazzinthediamonddistrict.com. Everyone head over to the site and check out “Money over Here” featuring Bobby Valentino, the song is a banger and the video is also playing on MTV Jams. As your last words to our readers, tell them what’s up next for Likeblood?

Likeblood: “Capital Wasteland” is the next mixtape we’re dropping. It’s coming in April and its based off of the video game, “Fallout 3,” which takes place in D.C. post nuclear war. The concept behind the mixtape is dope. Something fresh for our fans!

Definitely check us out at www.likeblood.com and follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/likeblood.