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Tangled Thoughts

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Written by Stu

Tangled Thoughts, Cas, Tek, De a trio from Philly have made the move to the West Coast with a little help from Philly and Cali legend Kurupt. With their debut album hitting stores this month rawroots caught up with Cas and Tek to talk about the transition from Philly to Cali and to find out what this album is all about. If you have heard a few of the tracks we have had streaming on here you will know that they have some good music going on and "Philly to Cali" is not going to dissapoint so be sure to pick that up when it's released.

First up I appreciate you guys taking the time to do this interview
No Problem

Ok, for those that don’t know much about Tangled Thoughts how did you guys come to form?
Tek: Well we formed in the year 2000 basically me and Cas, we met in Philly on South Street, actually in a Cipher you know what I mean, a mutual friend suggested we get together and start working so we did, and he went to school in Seattle meanwhile living in Philly, he went back to Seattle and when he came back months later brought De back he was originally from the state Washington State and we just linked up, it’s been on ever since

What is behind the name Tangled Thoughts?
Cas: What it really is, is three different guys, with different personalities all with one goal we all got the same message and really displays on track as one voice, so three different guys, three different walks of life and we just represnting one thing and you got Tangled Thoughts

Being partly based in Philly and Cali how would you describe the sound of this album.
Tek: The sound for this album is basically, Philly meets Cali, it’s the swagger and the lyrics, it’s the east coast essence of rap against the west coast musicality you know what I mean, we took that West Coast cool sonic sounding stuff and we put our swagger with it and that’s how you describe Philly versus Cali.

Coming out of Philly a city that has produced artists like Kurupt, Beanie Siegel and others, how have you been received initially by the Philly Scene
Cas: We really started from the ground up so that gave us a lot of street cred, we started off on the ciphers so it wasn’t like we came out of nowhere like who are these Philly guys, we really started out rapping on South Street in Ciphers with some of the names of Philly, at first you know it started off as that and as we started cutting tracks and doing shows we even got more rep because people were like “yo these guys have actually got something, they actually do got talent”, it just not like people put us together, it really came from somewhere.

Moving on to the relase as that’s what were here to talk about, how did the initial link with Kurupt come about?
Tek: A few years back when Roscoe was putting out Philaphornia, he was promoting it and since him and Kurupt were actually originally from Philly they came to Philly and I’m down with their cousin, basically their cousin Jameer called me up one day said we got Roscoe and Kurupt we coming through your studio, I said come on lets do it so basically they came through, we met, we linked up and it’s been on ever since. Kurupt had suggested we pack everything up and take our show to the West Coast, we packed everything up a couple months later and did that exact same thing so we came out here, worked on the album and here we are today.

What were your thoughts initially when Kurupt asked you to move to Cali
Tek: I had never been to California before, I don’t think any of us really were, at least to the extent that we are here now, I had never been period, so when he said that it caught my ear, first of all I never been here and second of all I got Kurupt saying that we should be here. It was just like one of those things where, you know, you just gotta take the advice, lets go.

How has the move to Cali affected you guys musically
Tek: Major, when we were in Philly we had our swagger, we were there, where we need to be music wise, but we come out here and were in the studio with Cypress Hill, The Dogg Pound, Tyresse and were around Snoop and all the major people that be working you know to see there work effort and to learn from them and be around some of the dopest producers in the game it really has upped us tremendously.

What does Kurupts involvement on this project mean to you guys as a group and has his expertise brought anything to your music?
Tek: Most definitely, production wise for me, he always told me I had classics, that I had bangin’ shit, but once I came out here it was a whole different way of, I don’t know how to describe it, vocally it was like, we learned adlibs, we learned.. just swagger man and just being in the studio with a guy like Kurupt who has been round for years and seen it all and done it all it really brings a lot to our table.

The album has a host of artists like Roscoe, Freeway, Gillie da Kid, how have you got everyone involved in this?
Tek: Basically it’s a lot of love, a lot of favours, basically everyone on the album. Freeway is on the album courtesy of our homeboy Rok Bottom, shout out to Burn Down All Stars, basically he had done the record with Freeway, sent it to us, said remix it do your damn thing, we did, Freeway heard it gave us his blessing. Everyone else that’s on the record other than Freeway basically it’s all for love, friendships, relationships that developed, from Philli to Cali pretty much like Roscoe, Kurupt, Gail Gotti, they’re the Gotti family so naturally they’ll be on the album. Guys like Gillie Da Kid, Ab Liva… these are my boys from Philly, you know what I mean

Whose handling the production for the album, is it mainly down to you Tek or is other people involved.
Tek: Yeah, I produced the entire thing from start to finish

How would you describe the sound generally overall, is it a east coast Philly soud, west coast or a fusion of the two
Tek: as far as the production goes?
Yea
I guess it’s what day or what mood you catch me in because I just love music, you know all aspects of it, all genres and I let it show through my work, so pretty much it all depends on the day and the mood, normally I love Cali, I love the West Coast sound so that’s normally my comfort zone but I’m in to everything.

With the tracks that have been doing the rounds on the internet what has the feedback been like?
Cas: Everybody’s been really loving the album, loving the sound. Tek works with other groups too so it’s funny they hear our album and they like “you know what I need some of those beats, I need some stuff that sounds like that”, so the reception has been real lovely I been hearing it compared to the 07 new Chronic and all types of stuff so were just hoping the whole rest of the world feels exactly the same way as we been getting this feedback

With the album being released May what does the next few weeks hold, is there going to be a big push for promoting the album?
Cas: there’s going to be so much promoting all sides from us, we got a couple of street teams out there, a lot of internet presence, doing shows trying to lock down a tour, definitely trying to hit up overseas there’s a lot of love out there that were waiting to get you know, we just really trying to lock down every aspect of the promotion that we can

Well we definitely like to see you over in the UK some point
Cas: You got any shows we rock them
Tek: Let us know, we are waiting anxiously to come over to the UK

Once the album is out, you guys gonna take some time out or just keep grindin’?
Tek: Were already in the studio working on our second album, we already started we got tracks with Kurupt and B-Real already done, tracks with Jayo Felony, were already ready for next year, you know what I mean were already embarking on the next Tangled Thoughts album and then me and Cas we have our own project we working on called “The Thought Brothers” We already working on that, that’s planned for next summer, we never stop working it’s round the clock and you know that’s what it is, we don’t slow it up, our equipment is mobile so when we go on shows our equipment comes with us, we record in the back seat of a truck if we have to.

Is there anything you want to add
Tek: Basically, Tangled Thoughts, our name is our came, we coming, Philly to Cali out May 22nd on Good Hands Records and to everybody in the UK we looking to come there look out for us we coming, we got a lot of love for everybody out there, it’s a wrap, we coming we get there it’s a wrap.

Listen to Tangled Thoughts Shout out to Raw Roots

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