Consequence Interview: A Tribe Called Quence

by Alex Shtaerman

The world first met Consequence in 1996 as a teen rhyming alongside Phife and Q-Tip on A Tribe Called Quest’s fourth LP Beats, Rhymes and Life. Featured on six of the album’s fifteen tracks, Cons was quickly dubbed as Tribe’s unofficial fourth member. With a deal from Elektra Records soon to follow, a promising solo career seemed certain. However, in an industry where trends and perceptions change overnight, Consequence, more often than not, found himself in the midst of a perpetual chess match with music industry executives as opposed to recording and promoting his music. Bouncing from label to label Cons would appease core fans by dropping several acclaimed mixtapes including Cons Vol. 1: All Sales Are Final, The Cons Vol. 2: Make The Game Come To You and Consequence: Take ‘Em To The Cleaners.

Rejuvenated after meeting Kanye West in 2002, Quence would be re-introduced to the world once again in 2004 with a guest appearance on Spaceship, a memorable cut off West’s multi-platinum, Grammy winning album The College Dropout. Also appearing on Kanye’s sophomore LP Late Registration, Consequence aims to finally stake his claim as a solo artist with his long-awaited debut album Don’t Quit Your Day Job, set to drop on West’s G.O.O.D. Music imprint.

With his solo LP right around the corner, Cons is back with one more mixtape for the masses. A collection of remixes, freestyles and new material titled A Tribe Called Quence: 1995-2004, the thirteen track release aims to educate fans on Cons’ storied past ahead of his major label debut. Featuring production from Kanye West, 88 Keys and 9th Wonder, A Tribe Called Quence is the perfect jumpoff for anyone who may still be unfamiliar with Consequence and his talents.

RIOTSOUND.COM: You first collaborated with A Tribe Called Quest as a teen almost a decade ago; how did that original collaboration come about and what was the biggest thing you took away from the experience?

CONSEQUENCE: I was given the opportunity by Q-Tip ’cause we’re family and also ’cause like out of all the dudes trying to do the rap shit around in our ‘hood I was really the one who was on it the hardest. I was trying to actually get a record deal so it only made sense for them to take me under. It was like either you do it or somebody else is going to do it the way I was going. And what I took away from that experience more than anything else is the experience in itself and actually learning how to make an actual record. It’s one thing when you doin’ demo’s and shit but it’s another thing when you are actually doing the whole recording process and going through the mixing. And also learning how to structure your songs with sixteen bars and all the other things you gotta go through to fuckin’ make a record.

RIOTSOUND.COM: You are coming out with new material now; just so the fans know, what have you been doing over the past several years?

CONSEQUENCE: Getting’ it in [laughs]. From the Tribe situation, I had a deal with them through Elektra Records but unfortunately I had to be released because my project kept getting delayed. It was one of those things where timing wasn’t really where it was supposed to be. I kept moving forward through, I worked with several producers over the years and also been in situations where I caught a couple of deals. But eventually as I grew and started maturing as an artist I just started wanting to do things my own way and eventually as you know I met Kanye West.

When I met him he had just moved to the New York area and he was living in Newark, New Jersey. And from the time I met him, we did one song and he just opened his home to me. He told me “since I’m Roc-A-Fella, I’ma give you the opportunity to have the same beats as Cam’ron and Beanie Sigel and State Property and Jay-Z and Memph Bleek. The beats that they’re buying and using and they’re going platinum with, I’ma give you the opportunity to rap over them, it’s all about you doing it”. I was like “yo dog, gimme the ball, I’ma show you that I can dribble; don’t make it sweet”, you know what I’m saying [laughs]. So we took it from there.

RIOTSOUND.COM: How did you and Kanye actually come to meet one another?

CONSEQUENCE: One of our guys who is a producer also, very talented, 88 Keys; me and 88 we knew each other from back in the days with the Tribe shit. I gave 88 his first professional work. We always were cool since we worked on that album that didn’t come out with Elektra. As he moved up we’ve always stayed cool or whatever, he had called me like “yo, I’m working with this dude named Kanye West”. And I was like “yea, I heard of son” ’cause I knew one of D-Dot’s cousins and Kanye was signed to D-Dot as a producer at one time. 88 told me he did H to the Izzo for Jay-Z and a few other joints. And then [88] was like “well, he rap too”. And at that time there was that whole producers really can’t be rapping shit, like the stereotype. So I was like “oh ok, he rap, wow, aww shit [laughs] aww shit, here we go”.

So [88] was like “yo, he wanna do a joint with you”. I was like alright, whatever; I mean I wasn’t doing nothing that day particularly. I was working with Geology, who’s another producer and we had just done a project over in Japan so I was really just doing projects to stay on my feet. I’ve been through some ups and down financially and shit. So I shot out to Jersey and when I met Kanye the first thing he did was put a beat on and was like “yo, I’m trying to finish this song, see what you can come up with”. We just started working immediately. It wasn’t like “yo, you want something to drink?” It was like “drink this”, [laughs] you know what I’m sayin’.

So we actually knocked a song out that first day. I stayed as his crib, we kicked it, played videogames all night, he gave his number and was like “yo, come through whenever. You could just call my assistant and get beat CDs and start. I always felt that you were dope as hell and I know provided we had the right situation I know we could make a classic album together. I’m just trying to get my deal right now but you’re more than welcome to come through whenever”.

I actually got interviewed by another person and they was like “what would you have done had you not met Kanye West?” Well, number one, god puts certain people in your life for certain reasons, that’s just my personal truth about that. There’s certain destinies that you don’t even control and I threw back at the dude that interviewed me “well, who would Kanye West be if he hadn’t gotten into a car accident?” Certain things are just out of the realm of your own personal control. Then I went on to saying “forget about the car accident, say me and Kanye met and we ended up having a fist fight in a bar”. So as much as he’s helped me and we have shared secrets about recording and shit like that, we obviously, in my opinion, met for a reason and Kanye has been a conduit into helping me get my life back together.

RIOTSOUND.COM: On A Tribe Called Quence you got the track of you and Kanye redoing the classic Tribe cut Electric Relaxation. Where did the idea for that come from, you play off each other a lot with the lyrics, what was the writing process like in redoing a classic like that and making it sound so good?

CONSEQUENCE: Uhmmm, shit, we was just in the crib listening to the old shit and we was like yo, we should do this shit over that shit would be crazy. So then it was just a matter of doing it, just vibin’ that’s all.

RIOTSOUND.COM: You also got the Bidding War track on there where you cleverly incorporate the names of many different record labels into the rhymes. I gotta ask you, was that at all inspired by Gza’s Labels track?

CONSEQUENCE: Well, nah, it was really more or less about my shopping to get a deal process. I forgot that he actually did that. It was from personal experience more than anything. I mean, I had four record deals [laughs], you know what I’m saying. And I’ve dealt with pretty much like every major label as far as like every parent company.

RIOTSOUND.COM: A Tribe Called Quence is giving fans a chance to re-familiarize themselves with you and really get to know you as an artist; can you talk about your forthcoming major label debut album Don’t Quit Your Day Job?

CONSEQUENCE: With the Don’t Quit Your Day Job album, the whole theme of the album is it’s for those [people] who aspire to be whatever they dream to be. You’re a writer, I’m pretty sure you aspire to be a Pulitzer Prize winner or to be the best that you can be at what you do. And no matter whose mouth tries to deter you from doing that, ultimately through your persistence and your tenacity, you are going to get as far as you can go. And it’s the same thing with me.

You know how many people told me “Tribe, they shitted on you, you don’t need to fuck with that rap shit no more. What you need is you should just go back to work, that fuckin’ rap shit got you walking around with your Timberlands leaving”. But when this is what you do and this is where your heart is at, how could you stop? How could you stop doing what your heart tells you to do? And basically Don’t Quit Your Day Job is the album for those who aspire to be and those around those who aspire to be and the situations that everybody goes through. Pretty much everybody knows somebody who’s trying to do something. It may be somebody trying to be a small businessman; it doesn’t just apply to rap, it applies to people who put their best foot forward and those that try to pull those who put their best foot forward back.

Pretty much my whole album is based on relating to the relateable. Just regular people will be able to fuck with my shit once they get a hold of it and grasp it and sink they teeth into the album. I mean, we all have a little bit of stunna in us. We also all have a little bit of humility in us; we all have had valleys and peaks in our life. And I think that’s what the album itself represents.

RIOTSOUND.COM: Are you going to have any collaborations on this record that we can look forward to?

CONSEQUENCE: John Legend, of course Kanye, I got a special guest that’s supposed to jump on there, I don’t want to say his name ’cause it’s not all the way confirmed yet. I can just say he’s from Queensbridge.