Snowgoons Interview

Firstly thanks for taking time to do this exclusive interview for www.HipHop4Days.com. Let’s start at the beginning. How did you get into making music and when would you say your career started?

DJ ILLEGAL: My Uncle gave me a tape in 85 or 86 and there was beside regular pop music some songs from Sugar Hill Gang and I liked this kind of music the most. Since that I was a fan of Hip Hop. Its hard to tell when my career started but I would say in 92 I started spinning officially as a DJ with the name ILLEGAL. With the Snowgoons we started around 2000 and just keep working till today.

From when you started to now, what you consider being your biggest tracks or releases?

I have to say the most important release was the first album German Luger. That was our introducing to the game. But the biggest track is guess is The Hatred ft Slaine, Lord Lhus and Singapore Kane. Even the MCs killed that beat it shows how important the Beat is for a song. The most people never heard of Singapore Kane or Lord Lhus before but they loved the song also because of the beat!

How would you describe the music that you make?

REAL! Straight up Hip Hop like it supposed to be.

Have you done many collaborations, if so who have you worked with and what was your most memorable experience?

Yeah we worked with more then 200 artists already worldwide. There are a few songs that got a crazy story behind. The song with Reef The Lost Cauze “This is where the fun stops” was a crazy marathon. We did the song in the morning on a simple loop, did the video right away after the recording and edit and arranged the song in the afternoon. I think that’s what gives this song a special energy.

Hip-Hop is changing all the time. How do you feel about Hip-Hop in 2010, who are you feeling and how is the game treating you?

Hip Hop changed a lot compared to the 90s. Im still in the 90s so that’s why we kinda sound like that. In this era everything was so raw. The most new music is to much pop, house and techno influencet. There are still artists out there like Ill Bill, Boot Camp Click, Edo G or AOTP that keeps me going. If I see them doing still music then I know where my heart is.

Tell me about the label you’re with, even if it’s your own label. Tell us who is involved and how many people behind the scenes are helping you?

We building on our own label Goon MuSick but its not a label in the traditional way. We not try to sign people. Its more a platform for Snowgoons and Sicknature to release our own stuff. We got many projects coming for 2011 so it’s a lot of work to do. We got Alter Prod who doing a lot of grafix, art work and videos. Then we got Andeejay and Chris from Thug Music whos doing mixing and mastering. DJ X-Rated, DJ Crypt and DJ Danetic they all doing cutz for us. And now we workin with this talented kid from Canada Firman. He is a crazy artist and draws real dope characters and doing now a lot of grafix and art work too.

The music industry is changing from CD’s & Vinyl over to MP3, stores are getting closed and on-line shops are starting up. Do you think CD’s are dead or do you think it depends on the genre & artist?

Interesting question cause I never thought about the genre cause hip hop is so much connected to the vinyl and to the collector thing. But the trend is def leading to an mp3 world. If people are comfortable with that then its cool with me. I just hope there will be a way to avoid illegal downloads. Since im an artist that actually lifes of this music I really care about downloads and support.

So where are you from exactly and have you ever done any local gigs?

Im originally from a small city in germany and I did many local gigs. If you are active in your Hip Hop scene you should support each other. Without all my people back then I wouldn’t be here right now!

Have you done any big gigs or played live with any big artists? If so tell us what is was like and what playing live means to you.

Live shows are a big part of our music. I like to tour with many artists from Reef the Lost Cauze to Ill Bill / La Coka Nostra and so on. The craziest show Ive ever done was with La Coka Nostra in switzerland on a festival with 50.000 people. When we dropped Jump Around everybody was going nuts! Im a big hip hop fam so its crazy for me to performe with some legends in this game.

Hip-Hop is sometime viewed as negative music and in the media often gets a raw deal. Do you think that Hip-Hop should be more positive and that artists have a responsibility to the youth?

Since if got a daughter Im thinking about a lot of stuff and there should be some more positive music. But at the same time I love Hip Hop for this rawness and reality. Hip Hop came from the streets and sounds the best if its streets! But overall im a supporter of intelligent music def rep no gangster or bling bling stuff.

Can I get all the You Tube URL Links to all your music videos please?

Check out http://www.youtube.com/snowgoons
Subscribe to the channel cause we not only post Snowgoons music. We got many friends in this game and support each other and so we post there music too. You can spend a half day with our channel and its garantied just good music.

Can I get all your website links, facebook, myspace, reverb nation, twitter, etc.

The three most important websites are:
http://www.facebook.com/snowgoonsmusic
http://www.facebook.com/sicknaturemusic
http://www.myspace.com/snowgoons
http://www.merchdirect.com/snowgoons

Thanks for the interview and thanks to all the hip hop headz worldwide!

Interview by Stuart Patterson
www.HipHop4Days.com