Lainie: I think that he might need therapy.
Clivilles: He doesn’t, no, he’s a great writer, a great songwriter and it’s great, he touched a pulse and, you know, I think a lot of people are angry out there and, you know, never really said what they feel, so he’s basically telling people what they feel. But you always need the opposite of that and that’s pretty much what Stag is all about, Stag is about…
Lainie: He’s about the party.
Clivilles: The old classic way, yes, I call him Adam Sandler, you know, like Adam Sandler is one of the few comedians out there that black people go check him out because he’s funny. Like, everybody goes checks him out, there’s not a certain squad.
Lainie: Right.
Clivilles: Everybody goes and checks him out because he looks like he could sit down with anybody, have a couple of drinks, get stoned and be part of the crew without bugging out, you know, to the point of, you know to the point of violence. And that pretty much is Stag, Stag can get down with anybody and he’s not soft, he’s just, he’s just the dude that wants to chill, he wants to enjoy life and that’s pretty much where the old hip-hop comes in, it was about talent, it wasn’t about belonging to a gang, it wasn’t about, it wasn’t all about what’s going on right now. There’s a real big mis-definition of what hip-hop is now. I mean, one of the best movies that I checked out was the Tupac movie.
Lainie: Resurrection?
Clivilles: Yes, Resurrection is a great movie for any hardcore hip-hop fans, or anybody that doesn’t know about hip-hop to check him out. Because Tupac shows all his sides. Tupac wasn’t a thug when he was younger, he was a school kid, he was well educated. While he’s in prison he talks about how he was scared about being in prison. I mean, there was a kid that is the number one thug in the world, the number one MC in the world, and he shows all his emotions on one movie where you see that he, I mean, for God’s sake, he’s doing a video with Jada Pinkett doing Will Smith’s “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” you see a quick snippet of that. And, you see, he doesn’t have no shame in contrast and he’s showing that he’s an individual, and that’s what hip-hop really needs to focus on is OK, that’s your number one MC, he is the number one thug of all, that movie is very interesting because it shows the philosophy, the poetic side, the, you know, a regular, normal kid, you know, that didn’t grow up with guns in his waist like people think.
Lainie: Do you think that a lot of people only know like a very small part of the story, only caught the end?
Clivilles: Absolutely. Absolutely, that’s why that movie was so important.
Lainie: So, all the kids that are trying to mimic what they think rather than what they know, it’s getting misconstrued and if they knew the whole story, you know, they’d be more open to other people…
Clivilles: Absolutely.
Lainie: Because it’s not only about the end, it’s about the whole story?
Clivilles: Absolutely. I think that movie really, really does that, it exactly does that. I didn’t go to the movie to just see it, someone showed me the video, and when I saw the video I was like wow, this is really, really a cool story and everything, and I think everybody in hip-hop should check this one out because it shows you he wasn’t growing up in a gang, you know, he wasn’t mugging people at a young age. He was kind of doing his homework and rapping to Jada Pinkett when they were teenagers and, you know, pretty much doing what everybody else was doing. So, yes, it’s real important for people to see that, definitely.
Lainie: And now Stagga’s coming out with another single soon.
Clivilles: Stag, we’re going to try to come out with another single in late January and we’re going to try to come out with Stag at least solo record, which I think should come out next, and I think that single should follow Rock Ya Body, because I think that pretty much shows Stagga, because M.V.P. is more of a party album, party hip–hop. And we wanted to do that intentionally, we want to have fun on our record, and on the other one its still dance influenced but it’s a little more serious. It shows, you know, him as a real rammer, not just having fun over a mic and I think that’s important for people to see right now, it’s in rhythm.
