LuckyIamPsc & Eligh of the Living Legends

Created on May 21, 2005, and it was categorized as Interviews.
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The once self-proclaimed “Un-signed & Hella Broke” West Coast crew have continued to hustle their way to the top constantly staying active on covers of magazines,in magazines,one with major label, in clothing ads and on World Tours,leaving the crew neither broke or un-known and happily un-signed with the exception of Murs. They are back yet again to take center stage with no plans of stopping,with the newly released group effort appropriately titled “Classic”,which is a full body album recorded in Hawaii, and which might just be their strongest collective effort yet.

One summer long long ago,I was introduced to the sounds of the Mystik Journeymen ‘Black Sands of Eternia’ by my friend’s brother Guido, over water pipes and fluffy green clouds that filled the sky. We were hiking the Greenbelt. A ragedy cassette tape was recorded for me from his vinyl and It has survived over the many years, from the desert lands of Elpaso back to Austin locales.Their sounds were unique,different,creative, really amazing, and at the time really defined underground HipHop, when underground Hip Hop was really cool. Over the years their stardom and success luckily has had little to no effect on their musical sounds, and though the early gritty releases of Eligh,the Grouch,and the Journeymen,are Classics still to me, their evolution is much needed and headed in a good direction.
So if your a Hip Hop fan but have been living under a rock for the past 10 years or so, and don’t know about the Living Legends, then here’s the deal.

It’s an 8 man crew comprised of Sunspot Jonz,Bicasso,The Grouch,Scarub,Eligh, LuckyIam(formerly PSC),Murs,Asop and the long lost Asian Import legend Arata, who sometimes makes guest appearances. Within the crew are subsidiary groups of Eligh, Scarub &Murs who formed the 3 Melancholy Gypsies, The Grouch & Psc formed CMA, Eligh and The Grouch formed G&E, Psc and Sunspot formed Mystik Journeymen.

As well as having multiple albums with each of the subsidiary groups, each individual artist has multiple solo albums under their belts, and then the Crew it self has multiple albums together, resulting in about 40 maybe 50 releases all together. These guys just can’t stop recording good music.

They are highly talented, hard-working professionals notorious on and off the stage,and their concert performances always a wall to wall sweat-fest extravaganza. If you haven’t been to one of their shows you are missing out since they are few and far between HipHop acts putting on a 120% effort show.
The Living Legends empire is coming soon to a city near you so check them out.

How long did it take yall to record and complete”Classic”?

Lucky: It took almost a month to record Classic..But that was just the
actual recording process.. I see that you haven’t heard the back story behind
Classic ie. The tales of the Big house in Maui we rented for a month and how
we isolated ourselves in the jungle paradise to record & etc… opps, that kinda answers the next question huh?

Eligh: We were in Hawaii (Maui) for 3 weeks recording, by the time we left the whole album had been recorded….out of that time probably 4 or 5 days went by that we weren’t working on music. We spent another couple weeks mixing the album once we got home.

Was this a -planned- album to record or where you just all in the same town at once?

Lucky: Yup, we planned it out.. down to the acre’s of land we were sitting
on.. Put the fellas on a island and they can’t escape.. Now get in the booth
and make yer dopest shit ever. Simple rules. Work hard and play harder..Maui
girls visiting round the clock and the island in general knew we were
there.Fun times*

Who all produced “Classic”?

Eligh: I did a few tracks, Grouch produced a couple, Sunspot did one, and we brought in outside production from DJ Khalil, Madlib, BeanOne, and DJ Epik (who also worked with us on the last G&E album.)

What is “Classic” all about?

Lucky: For me it’s about creating music that is timeless. Putting together a album that you can play from the start to the finish without skipping tracks.. Kinda like The CMA2 AllOver!

Eligh: It’s about being focused, creating something together from scratch and coming up with our best effort yet……

It’s possible that the Legends were the first earliest Hip-Hop groups to start touring overseas, in the past 10 years of touring,- Where haven’t you toured?

Lucky: Great question! We have NOT toured Africa or Russia or India or
China.. I toured in South America last October..Peru & Brasil but nobody else has been there yet.. Grouch & I will be back out there this fall; Peru, Argentina, Chile & Brasil…

Eligh:Russia and the middle east…

Have you had many record contract offers over the years, and why have you decided to stay independent?

Lucky: Not really.. For one, I think we suck in the eyes of alot of those people. We have had a couple of minor courtships with A&R’s and labels but nobody has ever really pulled out some numbers and been like here. Also I think they know that we are smarter than the average rapping or singing slave so it’s a turn off. Pimps don’t like to fuck with ho’s that are too smart for they own good. We havce stayed independent because we have to make this happen for ourselves.

Eligh: We’ve talked to labels over the years, but there’s never been an offer that made everyone want to change how we’ve been doing things. The feeling of not owing a label money or having to recoup for someone else is a very good feeling sometimes….

Favorite album solo/or group so far /and why?

Lucky: The CMA “AllOver” - easily the best album to come out of our camp, ever. I can vouch for every single rap said on that album and the beats are fine tuned pieces of perfection.

Eligh:That’s a difficult one to answer, but I always liked “Murs Rules the World”, and I think our new 3MG album is pretty far up the list. Luckyiam’s “Extra Credit II” is a good one also….

What is the major differences in crowd response in the U.S and abroad?

Lucky: The responses are not that differnt.. minus the silence in between songs you get in Japan because they are polite people.. Some language barriors in some European countries…But everywhere we play if we give our energy and play the songs they get hype..they know what to do.

Eligh: We get a pretty good response at home, so I can’t say that crowds abroad are any more enthusiastic, but depending on the country there’s sometimes language barriers and the crowds might not pick up on some of the things we’re doing right away….but our fans are great all over the world.

You have acquired a bit of a “cult’ following, almost Grateful Dead-ish, with your fan base, people traveling out of state to see your shows, and your site forum speaks for itself, can you explain the Living Legends phenomenon?

Lucky: First of all we started this as a movement for self sufficency and self empowerment. The music was almost secondary to our belief in community
and pursuit of dreams. And in the early stages we had more heart than skill.
So our fans related to us on a level that surpasses the typical record or cd
that is released by whomever.. Our discography is filled with chapters
that belong in our ever growing novel based on our life experiances. It’s based on a true story.

Eligh:Sometimes I don’t even understand it, but I think it has to do with a group of 8 individuals all having very distinctive sounds musically and distinctive traits personality wise. This gives everyone something to grasp on to, it’s like having your favorite team, but on that team everyone has a favorite player. Also, I think our music is very personal and it becomes very personal to the listener, giving them a feeling that they can relate to and be a part of it all.

What do you like abut making music?

Lucky: I like to tell stories & I like the possibility of helping someone through a rough patch in life.

Eligh:The creation, having no limits and doing anything that comes to mind…

What inspres you?

Lucky: Many things…my kids, my family. Other dope mc’s and producers & MTV cribs.

Eligh: Sometimes other artists inspire me, sometimes it’s just a mood that catches me, the weather, it could be anything really…

What are you currently listening to?

Lucky: John Legend, Common, Coldplay & M.I.A (I wanna “work” with her*)

Eligh: Not much since I’ve been on the tour, before we left I was working on mixing the 3MG album, so that’s all I was listening to….

What does the rest of 2005 hold for the Living Legends?

Lucky: We leave for Europe on May 25th - June 19th..Then we have some time
off until we have to play a huge hip hop festival in So-Cal on July 30th…
The 3MG’s have a awesome album ready to go and there is more touring to do
and more promotion to get done for Classic. Im gonna start recording my new
solo album in August and Grouch is hard at work on his next one..

Eligh: It’s a busy year still, I have my new album “Enigma” out now, there’s a new 3 Meloncholy Gypsys album coming in June, a Murs DVD in June, we also have new albums from Bicasso, Aesop, Sunspot, The Grouch and probably Lucky coming later……

Visit the Living Legends on MySpace @ LuckyIamPsc & Living Legends
Visit the Official Site Living Legends

Interview:::::::Alexa Hernandez
Photo of Living Legends group::Dan Monick(C)
Photo of LuckyiamPsc ::::Alexa Hernandez 2000
Photo of Eligh :::::::::::::Dan Monick (C)

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