DX: The album’s got a lot of guest shots, too: Masta Ace, Phonte, Guilty Simpson, Black Milk. The last album was mostly just you guys.
Double-O: You can thank Rawkus’ budget for that. Nah, all albums only start with two or three songs. That’s the kernel of the album, the root of the album, everything builds around it. When this album started, it only started as an album where we wanted a little bit of a sparring session. Sometimes, you have to lay shit out in front of people. So it’s like, “Okay, we fuck with all of these people, let’s get them together to show that this is going to be the next 10 years.” These people are not the only people, but they’re representative of people that are pushing the forefront of music. You should support them, because they love what they do, we love what we do, and that’s all of it. It’s almost a call to arms: “Fans, if you think this way, this is what you need to be doing. This is what you should be listening to, this is what you should be looking for in new music.” This is our mission statement, to be a part of The In Crowd.
Naledge: The person who thinks they can change things by themselves will be the person that will end up alone, with no children, no wife, and no husband. Because at the end of the day, it’s a community. You came in this game appreciating artists, so if people appreciate you, at the same token, you can’t always isolate yourself off. The best artists of the game fed off people, the best artists in the game take ideas from different people in the room. The best artists in the room surround themselves with the best so they can compete. It’s a competition that’s healthy. If you just sit in the corner or on your block and spit your raps around your boys, they already sound the same. If you make your beats in the basement, they’re going to always sound the same if you don’t open yourself up. We’re opening up a community to where we feel like the future great should belong. At the same time, we’re making our record. It ended up this is our album, viola: it’s music, here it goes. It’s an exhibit of art: come in and look at it.