PAID IN FULL
"Benny Wong, saw Back to the Future when it first came out long time ago on betamax…very good video!"_, words from the yellow man mellow.
What is the "Tykoon Suit"?
Digger Barnez: It’s a separate reality, that’s why the music is called "escapist hop". It’s the negative and the positive us…the light and the dark!
And when is the album dropping?
Digger Barnez: It’s being mastered right now, it’s just waiting behind another project that has to be kicked out of the studio. We’ve already put two records out though, Friday Jones on the Harambe Dope Sessions and Gigolo Lounge on the Cape of Good Dope CD…and that was number 4 in Toulouse.
Benny Wong: We’re releasing a 4-track collectors-only, limited edition picture disk vinyl EP…I want to call it Peep Show. I like smutty shit!
Tell us more about the album?
Digger Barnez: We also have a couple of people featuring on the album, Neon Don’s on two tracks, Bang Bang rhymes, Bebe Pleez does all the female vocals.
Musically, where does Tykoon Suit fall in?
Benny Wong: We’re just having fun!
Digger Barnez: We always get together on Friday afternoons, a lot of weed, a lot of beer and he goes, "Check this beat I just made", I’ll be like, "Yeah, that’s Tykoon", so we pop it in the Tykoon folder. We’ll get more weeded out and we’ll edit and chop it up then I’ll get on the mic and kill it.
Benny Wong: It’s either the vibe is there or it isn’t, most of it happened where D was just like, "Okay, that’s the one!"
What smacked me over the head, seeing you live, was how well presented and staunch you’re shit is. The beats are bevok, the rhyming is on point, clear…it’s sad but most MCs out in SA don’t know how to rap yet…
Benny Wong: You must realise that D’s been doing this for 16 years…
Digger Barnez: I’ve been Mcing for 16 years, I come with a long past in the ART OF MCING, doing live shows. When I go out there I have to bring it! I can’t do a wack show! I talk about it in one of my rhymes, Weekend Warriors, whereas a lot of people aren’t really taking their shit seriously enough. Kids get too deeply involved in playing with language instead on focussing on rocking a show! There is no balance, those dictionary, breathless fuckers get shit boring if they’re not rocking the stage or a tight show! The media has pushed that standard as the ceiling, but I was rocking like that in ’88, when I was shy and shit!
Tykoon right now is very much the studio project and we haven’t fully planned the live show.
Benny Wong: If we were to do a real Tykoon show it would actually be quite ridiculous…we’d need all sorts of gimps, showgirls…
Digger Barnez: Midget bitches…
Benny Wong: How latina bitches from Athlone or Mitchells Plane.
How do you stay "Tykoon"?
Benny Wong: To stay rich and to stay Tykoon is two different things…
Digger Barnez: Tykoon is a level of acknowledging street style and smarts…where you go, "Wow, that motherfucker’s tykoon, he knows what’s going on. It’s not about being rich or famous, it’s a level of being smart. It’s kind of pimp smart…
Benny Wong: But along with that pimp-smart stuff is the undercurrent of things that people don’t really want to see, midgets and retards.
Digger Barnez: There’s a lot of different stuff on the album, there are some harder tracks, some Gigolo Lounge type tracks, some filthy strip club songs…not the whole album is vocal either! I decided, why make another full rap album, fuck that, I’d like to hear some breaks because I like to uprock and freestyle dance…
Benny Wong: And Have Fun!
Digger Barnez: And I know that a lot of other people think like that and so there are those instrumental break tracks. But there are hard "boomBoom-klat!" tracks like Death Ray Booster Rocket, Kangaroo Court and Friday Jones, they’re all on a level of, "You cannot fuck with us!"
On the SA Music industry
Digger Barnez: We’re not really concerned with the South African market, which is so small already for our sound, which is fairly international. We aren’t just looking to get our stuff out to that market. I’ve been doing this thing long enough to say that I don’t give a fuck about what’s going on out there in terms of who’s supposed to be the shit-hottest MCs or whatever!
Benny Wong: We’re just going to get it out there for people who are going to enjoy it…
Digger Barnez: There’s a lot of witty shit in there, there is some stuff which is purely for people who take certain substances…on certain levels it’s also a bit more mature! It’s not for the 15 year-old kids at all, because we’re into their moms!
As far as the South African "industry", we’re trying to rub it the wrong way and break all the rules.
I know that a lot of people will love and feel what we’re doing and people will get where I’m coming from but I also know that it will go over a lot of people’s heads, but we’re internationally on par with whoever the fuck is out there. Tykoon is about staying super-fresh…
Tell us about the role that soul music and funk play in the Tykoon sound?
Benny Wong: I love the funk! It’s something that moves us. When I’m making a beat, once I get the sample that I’m looking for, the rest just falls into place!
Digger Barnez: I won’t touch it if it’s not funky! We’ve been developing this over the last two/three years, crafting and moulding this. We’re not just busting verses over beats…
Benny Wong: It’s been three long years of sourcing stuff and crafting…if you were to look at the amount of Vinyl that me and D have gone through!
Digger Barnez: There’s also a lot of really good stuff that we haven’t used, all the beats for the next album are done already!
Who was the most Tykoonest cat in your neighbourhood when you were growing up?
Benny Wong: I was the most tykoon…
Digger Barnez: For me it was my uncle, he was a DJ! He had a mobile DJ unit and that’s how I learned about…they had it in the yard, but he also use to DJ at the Galaxy in the late 70s, early 80s. He was all collar open, tight pants, neat ‘fro, platforms, driving a sheepskin Datsun, with bitches all over him when he’d step in the club, so I always look up to him for that shit!
Finally, what do you have to say to the kids?
Digga Barnes: To the kids: wear condoms and buy the fucking album or else we’re going to turn your mamas out for tricks. You better not let your friends burn the album or we’ll have to get their mamas too.