On Tuesday, Black Moon emcee and Duck Down Records CEO Buckshot [click to read] spoke with HipHopDX about his upcoming collaborative album with KRS-OneSurvival Skills, coming this September 15 on Duck Down Records. Buckshot explained how the album’s recording process was like a call to war, and that as a general of both a label and a veritable army of artists, it was his duty to react as such.
“[My mentality while recording this album was] we’re going to war,” noted the emcee. “When it comes time to doing something [in which] I’m faced with pressure or discomfort, I always remember and say to myself that I’m a general in a boot-camp, and I can’t fail that position as a general no matter what I may personally feel. What I personally feel has nothing to do with my position as a general, so as a general, even though KRS-One is the man [and] I respect him and he’s a legend and I’m a student of KRS-One, I’ve got to get in there and bring back that trophy. I’ve got to get in there and assassinate that mic. I’ve got to destroy that bunker. I have to be a general at the end of the day.”
Buckshot also explained one of the album’s key themes: the rise of technology in Hip-Hop. Equating the Internet to the murderous machines from TheTerminator series, he explains how Survival Skills is a reaction to the current state of the Hip-Hop industry.
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“We’re living in the world [as] the John Connor’s [from ‘The Terminator’ films],” explained the BDI Thug. “We are John Connor. Those that stand for the independent movement, we are the John Connor’s and…‘Terminator’ is today. We are living in the T-1 era; this is the T1 era, and we are the John Connor’s. John Connor represents us, and that’s what that movie was trying to tell you. John Connor was the person that built the terminator, and he had to be the same person to come back and destroy it. Well that’s we are [doing]. We’re building the Internet, we’re building the terminator, and eventually, we’re going to have to come back and destroy it.”
Similarly, Survival Skills‘ cover, which depicts KRS-One [click to read] and Buckshot climbing a treacherous mountain together, conveys a similar message to the Black Moon emcee. He feels that the cover champions the power and the integrity of their music over the homogenizing effects of technology in Hip-Hop.
“The message behind [the album’s cover] is that we are both proud to be in our positions,” explained the Brooklyn-born emcee. “That’s just behind that picture. We are both proud to be in that position. What is that position? I’m proud to be being pulled up by a general, a leader, a legend. I’m proud to be being held up by a legend, a leader, a general, somebody who is striving for the same goals that I [am]…we’re both striving for the same mission: to preserve the integrity of the human…and with us going into the technology era or the age of technology, we’re relinquishing that [integrity]. So people like myself and KRS-One are just going to survive on the will of the most high, strictly to do that.”
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Later, he added “Before, we used to lack something. We had the right music, but we didn’t have the business. Well, they messed up when they linked up KRS-One and Buckshot, because Buckshot is in business. I eat craft and breathe business. So when you put that mind frame together with a mind frame like KRS-One’s, you’ve got a ticking time bomb. Let’s see if they stop us now.”
