by Alex Shtaerman
Met with unanimous acclaim from fans and critics alike, Christión’s 1997 Roc-A-Fella / Def Soul debut album Ghetto Cyrano featured the Oakland duo of Kenni Ski and Allen Anthony delivering deep soulful narratives in a fashion so compelling they were hailed by many as the next heirs to the Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield throne. While such a characterization may be somewhat ambitious after just one release, it is not surprising. As Kenni Ski explains, Christión’s vision for making music is deeply rooted in the nostalgic sounds of yesteryear. “We just feel that we owe it to everyone that came before us, all the Marvin Gayes and Sam Cookes and Donny Hathaways and Roberta Flacks; we owe it to them to have some kind of pride and respect when it comes to this craft that is Soul and R&B”.
After parting ways with Roc-A-Fella, a move precipitated in large part by the megalabel’s shortcomings in marketing artists outside the Hip-Hop genre, Christión is finally back with a new label and a highly anticipated new album. Stepping to the forefront after singing background vocals, T. Ross replaces the departing Allen Anthony who remains close to the group despite contractual obligations precluding Anthony’s active involvement in Christión’s latest project. While the group has evolved, Christión’s new LP Project Plato does not stray far from the formula that made Ghetto Cyrano a bona fide classic. On Project Plato “we got even deeper than what they say Christión was on Ghetto Cyrano”, reveals T. Ross. “We got older and wiser and through our experiences we gained more knowledge and more lyrical format”.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Project Plato is the new album, how would you characterize this record; in what ways is it different from your debut album Ghetto Cyrano and it what ways is it similar?
KENNI SKI: Ghetto Cyrano was the first book of Christión with four chapters. Project Plato is the second book which is five chapters and it’s similar in the fact that it’s structured the same way as you would do a Lord Of The Rings or a Harry Potter or any kind of books you read that’s structured that way. But this one is different because the experiences are different. Our lives have changed and we’ve grown, we have different experiences than we did with the first album. It’s structured the same so the fans will get a similar experience and they’ll be very familiar with the characters, the stories and the people that are involved in the stories, which are myself and T. Ross.
RIOTSOUND.COM: What was the recording process like in making the album; you had a long layoff between Ghetto Cyrano and now, what was that period like for you? Was it in a way frustrating to not put out more work for such a long time after all the praise your debut received?
KENNI SKI: [Originally] our second album was supposed to come out a few years back. The second album was actually recorded for Sony and we had some contractual issues and some political things that happened where we couldn’t drop the album. So that was very frustrating. And it’s always frustrating when business gets in the way of music. I know it’s called the music business but it seems to be now that the business definitely comes first before the music; and that always is hard for an artist because all you want to do is just make music and get your message out there and get your vibe out there.
There is a lot of money involved so everyone else has to make sure that the paperwork is right and everyone’s pockets are getting breaded. My theory on that whole situation is: there’s so much money in the music business and entertainment in general that no one can have it all and there is more than enough for everybody, so you should just push and make the project successful and then worry about dividing the spoils after that [laughs]. But right now we’re on the right track so we’re happy to be here.
T. ROSS: In the process of actually making the second album before the downfall of knowing that we weren’t going to be able to put it out, it was really fun, it was great and we had a good time. We actually did material for that particular album that we are going to save for a later date and some of that material will probably be coming out on the upcoming album after this one. Project Plato is actually the third album that we recorded and the process of this one was even more amazing because we got a little more intellectual with it. We got even deeper than what they say Christión was on Ghetto Cyrano. We got older and wiser and through our experiences we gained more knowledge and more lyrical format.
RIOTSOUND.COM: A lot of people who are into classic Soul and R&B music from the 60’s and 70’s really feel your music; what’s your approach like to making records where you are able to incorporate the new with the old and deliver the best of both worlds to the fans?
KENNI SKI: I think to put it simply, we just feel that we owe it to everyone that came before us, all the Marvin Gayes and Sam Cookes and Donny Hathaways and Roberta Flacks and I could go on and on. We owe it to them to have some kind of pride and respect when it comes to this craft that is Soul and R&B. We just try to look to them as mentors in the game and we try to kind of follow in their footsteps and then take our own experiences from being the new Hip-Hop generation and add to it and try to make something new. We feel that anyone that comes after us, this generation of Hip-Hop [influenced] Neo-Soul artists as people like to call it; they should just take from the best. Keep what you like and throw away what you don’t need.
T. ROSS: We’re trying to change the game back to how R&B and Soul was before. [The way it used to be] in Soul music, if you put out something that had no meaning to it or had no foundation you would get a bad name in the business. Now, it’s more accepted where you won’t get the bad name. [Today] it’s not about the lyrics but more so the music. So what we’re trying to bring is the music and the lyrics together as one and by doing that we want to be the new trendsetters. And we feel that since we are respected in the industry, we can fulfill our obligation to the old school and put [some of those original values] back out on the map.
RIOTSOUND.COM: In your view, as far as R&B goes, what’s missing right now? A lot of artists seem to rely on mostly shallow subject matter to sell records; it often seems newer artists are lacking substance.
T. ROSS: A lot of the R&B singers out right now, they seem not to have a lot of input in what they are involved with. [When we make music] we are involved with the whole project, which is pretty much the difference between Christión and maybe 75% of the other artists out right now. We’re in the studio together, we’re always around each other, we’ve been raised together and that’s something that Christión brings to the table that a lot of other groups don’t. A lot of other groups are hand picked or thrown together or just may have met a couple of years ago; where with us, we’re brothers.
We’re cousins but [at the same time] we’re brothers and we put a lot more into it when we come together with our feelings and things that happened to us through our experiences. We write about it, we lay it down in the studio. If we having problems we go to the studio and we handle them. We solve our business with our music. I don’t feel that a lot of the singers now have that same input or do the same thing. But by the same token I have to say that anyone in this industry right now has to work hard to make it. We’re here also; we know how hard work pays off. [Any artist in the industry right now] got put on the map for a reason, because they worked hard to do it.
KENNI SKI: I agree with T. Ross but I also have to add that I don’t really blame the consumer and I don’t blame the musicians because I know a lot of acts right now that I listen to that are outstanding. There’s a lot of cats out right now that I think are putting out great music. I blame it on the radio stations and the monopolies that companies like Clear Channel have on the radio airwaves. What the consumers don’t realize is – if you want to hear good music and you say I’m sick of the radio and I don’t like what’s on the radio – it’s simple, turn it off. ‘Cause if you turn it off then their advertisers will stop paying for the slots and they will be forced to play good music.
A lot of people are going to places like MySpace.com and now the IPods are getting really popular where people are downloading their own selection of music; and that’s because they say they’re tired of listening to the radio. If the radio doesn’t wise up fast I think we are going to have a real problem. I think music in general is going to be very disposable; it’s going to only be the type of music that you listen to when you go out to the clubs. I love hearing the club music when I go out to the club but when I’m cleaning my house or making love to my woman or just trying to meditate and have my “me” time, I don’t want to hear Lil Jon all the time. That doesn’t make sense. I think music is environmental and it’s emotional, when your environment changes your music changes. When your emotions change you want your music to change. The radio right now is stuck on the strip club and club mode, so I can’t listen to it.
T. ROSS: That’s why we trying to give you five chapters [with Project Plato]. We’re trying to give you love, we’re trying to give you some passion, we’re trying to give you everything in one. We love our fans out there, we really love our fans. When we do a show and we get respected and they cheer for us and they tell us how much they love what we do, I can’t do anything but just give them praise back because we are so appreciative of people who appreciate what we do.
KENNI SKI: If it wasn’t for the fans and it wasn’t for the people who understand and appreciate music, I think R&B, Blues and Soul would be dead right now because the radio is not playing any of it. But the fans and the people like us who appreciate it are going to keep it alive.
RIOTSOUND.COM: For fans who may not know, can you explain your roots and how you first got into making music as well as who some of your original influences were that really inspired you to do what you are doing today?
T. ROSS: A lot of it came from our moms. Our moms listened to a lot of Teddy Pendergrass and a lot of Marvin Gaye, Pointer Sisters, Frankie Beverly & Maze. We took a lot from our parents. We sang in the church choir and we got a lot of our instrumentation from the church. Without the church we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing and that’s why we give praise to God for giving us talent and for helping us out throughout all our struggles. It all started from church and singing that old school music man, just having fun.
KENNI SKI: I’m a big fan of anything R&B and Blues and Soul. I’ve always listened to Frankie Beverly and I’ve always been a big fan of Sly Stone and Bill Withers and Sam Cooke. As I got older I wanted to know more so I started to study and really get into the roots of music. I got into a lot of Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf and Robert Johnson, just going way way back to [artists like] Mama Mae, which is back to Mississippi and the Delta Blues singers. Also [I studied] the Chicago cats.
It’s just beautiful the way we can keep reinventing ourselves as African American people and reinventing our musical culture. That’s why I’m a Hip-Hop cat, I love Hip-Hop. I love R&B and I love Run DMC. Me and T. Ross, we’d go around with the Slick Rick album and all the gold chains and shit when we were little [laughs]. It all just keeps evolving, and that’s all I wanna see, I just want to see music keep evolving. I don’t want to see it in a stale state, which seems like kind of where it is right now. And I hate to sound negative because I’m not. I feel like there’s a lot of positive things going on in the music business. I just want the light to be shinned on the positive things as well [as everything else].
RIOTSOUND.COM: Going back to Project Plato, you mentioned that experience played a key role with this record; can you elaborate on that as far as what kind of experiences made the biggest difference for you?
KENNI SKI: I think one of the main differences is your maturity level after you’ve been in the business a while. We’ve been in the business for almost ten years and your maturity level helps guide you through the rocky waters. When you first get in the music business and you record a song and you love it, that’s all you go off. I’m speaking for almost every musician when I say, if you know that you love your record, you think it should be great. And you might play it for somebody else and they might say – I don’t like it, it’s not really doing nothing for me. And that might just kill you and crush you as a musician like, this is my heart and soul, what do you mean you don’t like it? What do you mean this sucks?
I think [as you get older] you learn to just accept the fact that even though something comes from your heart and your soul, at that period of time where you are in your life and where you are on your path and in your journey, might not be where another person may be. So they might not get what you are doing. That doesn’t mean it sucks but it doesn’t mean that everyone is going to like your music. So I think one of the things you have to learn as you mature is you kind of have to have something for everything. You have to have songs and music for every part of someone’s journey though life, like Stevie Wonder used to do and like Marvin Gaye used to do.
[Marvin Gaye] would say Sexual Healing but he would say Mercy Mercy Me at the same time. So I think that’s what we learned being in the music game. Let’s not try to live for the moment, let’s try to express our feelings completely and not just depend on one vibe or one thing and also lets not take everything so personal. It’s a business, everyone has their opinion and everyone is doing their thing. I’ve never bought a Justin Timberlake record but it don’t mean he sucks. You got five or four million other fans out there, I’m sure somebody bought his record. There were 300,000 Christión fans that bought our first album and that doesn’t mean someone won’t pick up our new record and say – ok this album sucks. So we’re not tripping like that anymore, we just trying to do us. As you mature I guess you just try to be the best person that YOU can be and hopefully God will set things up to make you win.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Looking into the future, what should the fans be looking out for as far as Christión goes?
KENNI SKI: We got our own label now; it’s called The Mint Records. We basically are trying to put out a lot of acts that we’ve known. We also got T. Ross’s solo album coming out and we got some female artists coming out. We will also have a compilation coming out, so we’re real real busy. As far as Christión, expect not to wait so long for the third Christión album. Tenement Testament should be coming out in about a year and a half. That will probably be with me, Al Anthony and T. Ross.
For the latest on Christión stay tuned to TheMintRecords.com
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