According to the great
sages of old, winning entails a lot of great qualities such as talent, drive,
determination and, perhaps the most important attribute of all, stamina. Because winning
means outlasting your competition by hanging in there when the chips are truly down. It
is, as the old sayings goes, winners never quit and quitters never win.
No one understands this adage better than the Mississippi based duo Reese & Bigalow,
whose forth LP entitled R & B: Playa Music proves that the rap race belongs
to those who endure to the hits start popping. Just prior to them shipping their masters
off to the pressing plant, the two stopped by to let me hear what they’ve been
working on for all of these months. That’s where we conducted this interview.
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 Down-South: It’s
been a little while since we last talked, what’s been going on with you two?
Bigalow: Music.
Reese: Doing good music, just soulful music….music that hit the
bellows of your stomach and make you feel it.
Down-South: You last album, Unfinished Business won you guys all kinds of
critical acclaim as well a many new fans around the region how did that make you feel?
Reese: Ah, it like we’re supposed to be doing this. The critical
acclaim and new fan base just urges us on to do more, but it’s no settle. I gotta get
somewhere and I’m going to give them some good music along the way. I appreciate all
the fans and all of the writers who offered criticism, good and bad, it’s all good.
We’re doing music and basically just trying to make it in this industry. We really
haven’t received no hellava financial reward for it yet, but I really receive my
reward comes from the fact that there are people out there who are feeling the CD.
Down-South: What’s the name of this new CD?
Bigalow: R & B: Player Music.
Down-South: What up with that title?
Bigalow: It simply explains itself. R & B can stand for pretty much
what you want it to stand for. R & B music or rhythm and blues, but it really stands
for Reese & Bigalow.
Down-South: Okay what’s the Player part about?
Bigalow: Player music is just real music. It ain’t somebody beating
on key board or and MPC. It’s actually music. And player music, you know what that
means.
Reese: It’s just soulful music….something you can ride to. It
stretches into all of the genres of music. Like R & B flavored tracks with the lead
singer of Silk and we got JB Money on the song the Set Up with Rock Guitar so it’s
kinda crazy. You kinda just have to keep an open mind to really just enjoy this one, but
it’s a rider. You’re gonna want to listen to all of them.
Down-South: Okay, the last record had sort of a Texas feel to it, what is
different about this one? Does it still have that laid-back feel to it or is there
other elements in the soup?
Reese: Oh yeah, it still has that feel, but, like you said, there are
other ingredients in the gumbo. It still as the Texas vibe because we did so much work in
Texas with the first two albums that we wanted to stay with that same type of vibe. So if
you like the last two albums then you’ll love this one. But, you know, as you grow in
the music you change, things change, but it’s not straying to far from the blueprint.
It’s just an improvement.
You know we got better music, better musicians, better lyrics and better delivery.
We just transforming into musicians.
Bigalow: I think that you made a really good assessment by saying that
the album had a Texas/Houston feel to it, but I really don’t think that the case. I
think that it had a major feel to it. It didn’t sound like a independent label
record. It sounded like something you’d hear on a major.
Down-South: How did you all
hook up with them?
Reese: Through Bonecrusher. He knows everybody in the world. Bone know
everybody.
Down-South:
So how does this album differ from your last record?
Reese: Not to take away from anybody that did work on our last album, but
this album is more musical. We got more singing on this one here. We got our own artists
Tay singing on a few tracks. We’ve got Billy Cook doing something also; and we got
Little G, the former lead singer of Silk doing about three songs so it’s definitely
got that R & B feel to it. That’s why we called it Player Music.
Actually we were on a whole other vibe when we first started doing the album. We were on
the vibe of the Set Up, because of the stuff that we went through on the last album. But
this music got into us. It got into me and got into my soul and that’s what we came
up with. I didn’t want to make a whole album talking about how fucked up things are
without having some songs to balance it out.
Down-South: Speaking of the Set Up, the last time I interviewed you guys
you told me that your album was going to be called the Set Up, what happened to that
album?
Reese: Oh, it still, it’s still…..listen, what we did with that
album….even though it was going there musically anyway with the R & B and the Set
Up was a blend of the two.
The song the Set Up and a couple of songs on the album are actually from the Set Up, but
we just didn’t waste a whole album talking about how fucked up the police and the DEA
and the whole system in Mississippi is. We felt why waste these track on all of that.
Bigalow: I think that at the time when we did this we were very bitter. I
mean you know us and the public know us and yall know what we’re about. And it
ain’t about alla that. But, let the media tell it we this and we’re that.
We’re this and the other so we were bitter. But then we started doing music and our
whole vibe changed.
Reese: Music calms the savage beast! (laughs)
Bigalow: (laughs) Right. So when the vibe changed it wasn’t no doubt
that we had to change because it was counter-productive.
Down-South: So now you all have formed your own label?
Reese: Right. Mo-Bigga Entertainment.
Down-South: I notice that
you have some major guest appearances on this album. Some of them are people your fans may
know from your previous work like PSK-13 outta Houston and Bonecrusher from ATL. But you
also have some new cats on here like Lil G from Silk and Killer Mike from the Outkast
Camp.
Bigalow: Well, first off let us mention our artists: Frank da Macka and
Tay.
Reese: We also have that boy Smoke D straight out the pen and spitting
hot shit. He’s not on our label, but he’s really cool.
Down-South: How’d you get Killer Mike?
Reese: The stars aligned up and he just arrived in the studio and he
wrote a hot verse and I hugged him and shook his hand. Killer Mike, I still got to give
him a Reese & Bigalow CD. I was suppose to brought him one then, but forgot.
Down-South: Now I heard that Big Boi was the one who recommended that
Killer Mike get on the track because he wanted to get on it, but couldn’t because he
had prior commitments.
Reese: right. He had heard the track and liked it. Bonecrusher had let
him hear the track and he like it. Bone wasn’t supposed to do that because we
weren’t finished putting our vocals on it. But he did and Big Boi told us that he
loved the track and would love to do something on it, but knew he couldn’t do it so
he sent Killer Mike instead.
Down-South: Any final words?
Bigalow: yeah, look out for that new Reese & Bigalow album. It’s
called R & B Playa Music. If you like the last record, you’ll love this one.
It’s three times better.
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