After 16 years of hard work in Hip Hop, the Lordz of Brooklyn,
famous for hits including “Lake of Fire” and “Saturday Night Fever” are
having a resurgence with new developments. For starters, a song put the
Lordz as New York anthem-makers. Mr. Kaves told HipHopDX Wednesday, “Madison Square Garden picked up our song ‘New York Groove.’ The Knicks and Rangers were playing it – even the Mets and the Giants; it started to build an organic following. We had a meeting up at MSG,
and a woman up there loved the song, and heard a little about us, and
wanted to know more. At the time, I was working on a documentary about
our life through the graffiti years and early Hip Hop scene, so I had
this 60-second clip of us growing up in Brooklyn. They saw it, they
loved it. They were like, ‘I know this is crazy, but can you give us 10
episodes?’“
FuseTV ended up airing six episodes, which can be viewed [click here]. “It was great. It was about time somebody understood the struggle of the Lordz,
and what we’ve been through, where we’re going, and the roller coaster
ride. It was really cool to get to tell our story. We’re in
negotiations about maybe doing something in the future, so we’re
excited,” added Kaves.
The group also reflected on new material, a further expansion of their
long-established connections to both Rock and Hip Hop. “The Brooklyn
Way came very organically. The last few years, we’ve been grinding on the Warped Tour, trying to make our bones out there as a live act. We’ve always focused on bringing a show to people. When we are on the Warped Tour, we get to collaborate with friends of ours like Rancid or Bedouin Soundclash.
As we started to collaborate with some of our peers, Hip Hop, Rock, the
hybrid, it’s whatever really comes natural. It’s whatever’s there and
we’re feeling, we’ll do it. If it’s something over a breakbeat, or
something over some ill guitars, that’s the great thing about being a
Hip Hop artist: there’s no boundaries, no rules.“
The Brooklyn Way is releasing in March, with some faces indicative of The Lordz‘ respect in both genres. “On the re-release, the deluxe version of The Brooklyn Way, we have a remix with Gym Class Heroes [click to read]. We also have a remix with Freddie Foxxx [click to read].”
With Kaves being a successful graffiti writer and artist, he also spoke on how the group connects to their community in other mediums. “We opened up an apparel and art store in Brooklyn, called Made In Brooklyn.
Brooklyn’s a hip place to be, all of a sudden, although we always
thought so. We were like, ‘You know what? Let’s put our flag back in
the ground again and build a spot, more like a social club where people
can come and politic and meet us, and just build. We sell our artwork
there. My canvases just recently were on display in a museum in Germany.“
Culminating his career, Kaves declared, “I was conceived with a spray can. That was my first love, and music came right after that.”
The Lordz are presently on tour with Everlast.