Audio Majik Most
Nothin' But Trouble

Florida emcee Majik Most (also known as the Original Sweaty Back Bastard) has been making quality music for over a decade. Known for his storytelling abilities and ample punchlines, he has appeared on numerous 12-inch singles, mixtapes, and full-lengths, frequently collaborating with the likes of Celph Titled, Apathy, and Louis Logic, among others. In 2005, he released the CD/DVD Molesting Hip-Hop, and in late '07 returned with his first proper solo album, You Got Jokes?!.

MP3: How you doing man? Majik Most: Chillin'. I'm never late on an interview. Right on, I appreciate it. So lets talk about the new album. For the people out there that may not be up on it, might not be up on you, what can you tell us about the new record that's out now? It's the new project You Got Jokes?! Majik Most, the official album. The last album was like a mixtape that morphed into an album. But this is what I'm calling the official album. I mean it's featuring guest appearances. I have a little bit of J-Zone, Celph Titled on production and on some tracks. I have 45 King. Nice. He did a couple joints. Yeah. And who else do I have? Louis Logic, all kinds of people on production, most notably Celph Titled. I mean the album's just—I want a lot of people to be able to check it out because it's something creative and new. Everybody's looking and saying they want a fresh breath of air. Totally. Now, these guys, Celph and Louis and all those cats, those are people that you've been working with for a long time now, like ten years or so, right? Well, kind of. I mean initially. Off and on? Yeah, me and Celph were in a group called Equilibrium in 1997. And we actually recorded a full-length album at that time. I think I was like 16, and it was never released. So, yeah, it's been ten years from then. But on my little journey with Celph through all these years, I've met Louis Logic. I've met Apathy, who's also, he did production on the album. I met all these connections. So, I always give props to Celph because he was the trailblazer that went out there and made all the connections, and made moves in the industry. He made waves for me, you know. Is this the first straight up like full-length official album, or did you have a record before the last mixtape? I mean I've had over ten twelve inches come out, and features that I've been on. And I had two official twelve-inch singles that were just Majik Most singles. But actual full-length LPs, Molesting Hip-Hop was my first. I labeled it as a mix CD. A lot of people said I shouldn't have, that it was really an album with how much I put into it, and how high people hold it in the underground scene, I mean all the positive people that embrace me. But I considered it a mix CD since it's like three beats that I ripped off, you know? I hear you. And you came up in Miami, right? You grew up in Miami? Yeah, originally. And you're in Tampa now? I've been living in Tampa since I was 12 years old. That's originally how I met Celph. Celph is from Tampa. So, I originally met DutchMassive, and through him, we met somebody actually that was a recording artist from L.A. And they hooked us up, and told us there was somebody in town that made dope beats. So, that's how we met Celph. And then you sort of, you're not an official member of the Demigodz but like a close affiliate with all those guys? I don't want to be—I don't want anything to do with the Demigodz. Okay. I'm Majik Most. I represent Majik Most, All Most Productions. I'm my own entity. I'm my own juggernaut. I don't want anything to do with the Demigodz now. But, yeah, everybody—in all this stuff, we put Demigodz affiliate, whatever, because people lump me in with them regardless. You know what I mean? Totally. I'm proud of my Demigodz family though. Like I could say that I'm part of the only crew in the underground that like almost everybody is dope in the crew. I'm not going to say who's the people that aren't. [laughs] Right. Now, obviously, your style—you flip a lot of humor in your rhymes, which is something that is kind of lacking. At least, intentional humor, nowadays it's like everybody's either trying to be a superthug or all 'on the block,' a D boy, or whatever. Is that something that when you were a kid, you were into more of the light-hearted stuff, or what? I mean see I don't understand. Like, I want to have fun. Doesn't anybody want to have fun anymore? Yeah, like there're serious parts—I got serious stuff going on. Like sometimes I go and I make pottery with my grandma. And we ride horses and cry in the sunset. But I don't need to put that on record. You know what I'm saying? [laughs] Sure. Like you can in your own personal life, and then you can have fun on a record. I don't understand why people are scared, like you can't have fun on a record anymore. You know what I'm saying? I'm like the biggest hip-hop head on the planet. To myself, I think I am. And hip-hop is like…something like when I listen to records like the Alkaholiks' first records, and when I listen to the Beatnuts, when I listen to Biz Markie, when I listen to all of those people, it puts a smile on my face. And I want to give that back to the new generation of kids that are going to school with like their little iPods, just like I was going to school with my Walkman. You know what I'm saying? Trooping with those little tapes in my Walkman, making me laugh and feeling like you're part of that inside humor. You know what I'm saying? Absolutely, man. Who wants to cry? Who wants to be like, "Yeah, I really want to get that CD so I could wrap a blanket around me, and drink hot cocoa by the fire and cry a little bit. I really need that CD in my life." You know what I mean? [laughs] No doubt. Now, I also want to talk a bit about Florida. This year especially it seems like there's been a lot of people in Florida doing big things, you know. Not exactly stuff that sounds like you, but DJ Khaled and Plies and cats like that. Do you feel like Florida is sort of untapped, this hot bed that's finally getting some mainstream recognition? Or do you feel like it still got a ways to go? Being that you're like a native... Well, I mean I don't know. I mean if you're talking about hip-hop, or if you're talking…I mean because when I was younger, Luke was huge. Well, yeah, totally. But I mean… My grandma has a Luke CD. [laughs] Nice. My grandma has Banned in the USA. I'll tell you that right now. But it's been a minute since Luke. I mean, dude was definitely a pioneer that doesn't get his props, but like newer artists… There's a lot. There is a lot of dope people. And on the new CD, I tried to put an up and coming person that's from around here, that's in Florida, my man Laws that I put on. Actually, he's on two tracks on the CD and because I tried to put somebody out there that is dope that I think is somebody that doesn't get any recognition that should be out there, even though I don't consider myself—like I have a tiny, tiny little inkling of fame that I want to use it to at least push him a little bit, you know what I mean, whenever I can. But, yeah, I think there's a lot of dope people in Florida. I just think that right now, you see what's going on in the mainstream. You see what's popular right now. But I think that anybody can jump on that bandwagon. They just come out of prison and have like one tooth. Jump on that bandwagon and do some of those songs.You know what I mean? Yeah. I hear you. Definitely. Now, as somebody who kind of came up in that late nineties, twelve-inch era when you could actually sell records as compared to now where even established star types are really struggling to move any kind of units, does that discourage you at all, or does that just make you grind harder to kind of just try to keep your name out there, and get in people's ears? Well, I mean there's a point that I said, what I said before about my real motivation is like, yeah, everybody wants money, but I also, on top of it, is that I want to, I have to be creative, and I have to put something out there, and I want to do it for the other people that are coming up. And they're like, "Ah, everything sucks now." You know what I mean? Totally. Or, "I can't find anything." And they have something like, "Oh, yeah, this Majik Most record is funny as hell. I love this record. Like this is a jewel that I found out of nowhere," or whatever. I want to give somebody that feeling, or be able to. If I can. So, I mean that's my motivation for doing it. What was the question again? [laughs] Basically, you're saying that the sales aren't as much of a motivator for you. Well, also if you talk about that, you have to talk about downloading. Now, I just had a conversation about that a couple days ago. Now, I download all kinds of stuff. I download porn, comedy. Like if I wanted a George Carlin comedy CD, and I went and downloaded it. But I also support, like I own a whole bunch of George Carlin comedy CDs, too. You know what I'm saying? So, if it's really good, I'm going to go buy it. And I do the same thing with records. Like I just bought the new Ghostface album. Yeah that's tight. Yeah, and I like that album. And I was saying, "well, I think that he was putting out too many records," that he should have had just one really, really dope one, like Supreme Clientele. You know what I mean? Sure. But I wasn't trying to downplay the record that it's not dope. And he was like, "Oh, you're a hater." I was like, "Yo. I actually bought the record. You downloaded it off the Internet, and you're calling me a hater because I'm critiquing your music a little bit." I'm supporting the artist. Like at least I bought the album, and then critiqued it. You know what I'm saying? Especially when it's $9.99. But no, what I said is that if people download my records, yeah, it's a little discouraging. Like the next thing you know, the next CD I put out, I'm going to sound like Group Home without the Primo beats. [laughs] Right. You know what I'm saying? I might start dumbing down what I do. No, honestly, like I'm thinking about just—like you can tell I already have complete creative control, but I think all artists kind of self-censor a little bit to kind of focus towards the—I mean what you think that the market—you want to do it for yourself. You want to make it dope, but also what you think that the fans would want. What the people would want to hear. Exactly. So, I think that I'm going to do a little bit, be a little more risk-taking in my future stuff since there's less motivation financially for me to just appease the people, or worry about appeasing the people so much. I hear you. So, I think that might be good though, you know? You mess around and get adventurous and take some more risks, you might hit on something really big, something that people really do want to hear, or create something that people didn't know they want to hear. You know what I mean? No doubt, man. So, what do you have on your plate? What do you have coming up next that we should be keeping an eye out for? Well, I mean on the last record, I took two years almost for the total time making You Got Jokes?! and getting everything ready for manufacturing and the whole process. I've already started jumping right back into material so I don't leave the people that are actually supporters and fans, I don't want to leave them out in the cold again like that. I'm all about entertaining. I want to entertain as much as I can. I'm like a sideshow clown, like a serious one that wants respect.
But now I'm working on this new project with a dude that's on the new CD. It was actually the B-side, if you call it that, because it's only a digital single. But the single that we first pushed out for You Got Jokes?! was "Back On The Map" with Celph Titled and DutchMassive. The B-side was "Nothin' But Trouble," and it was produced by a man whose name is Ferran. He's from Spain, from Barcelona. And I really like this kid, and his production's dope. And I really like his work ethic. He turns around a track for me in like two weeks after I record it. And does stuff that's amazing. But we're working on a whole project right now. I already started recording some joints. The album is called The Conquistadors. Cool. Yeah. So, that's going to be a dope project. I talked with Celph Titled, and we have—we're starting—slowly right now, but we're starting also to work on a full-length, another Majik Most album produced entirely by Celph Titled. But the plan is to release it only digital. But I'm going to try to release it on CD, too, because I'm trying to hold onto that. I don't want to go all the way digital. I like having…I'm a collector. I'm a hip-hop head. I want the CD and booklet even of my own stuff. You know what I mean? Absolutely. That sounds good. So, you got anything else you'd like to say to the people out there that's going to be checking this out? Yeah, I mean, check out MySpace.com/majikmost, and check out Domination Recordings. And if you do go to MySpace, hit on my blog. I got the blog on there, and I got all kinds of free downloads of exclusive new freestyles and other stuff. Like I say, I try to give back and entertain. So, if you did support the album, and you paid $12 or whatever you paid, or if you got it in a Chinese warehouse for $5, whatever, I want you to feel like you got your money's worth. So, if you still feel like you didn't get it, go to the blog and download all the free stuff I put up for you, too. Right on, man. Well thanks a lot for taking the time to talk to us. I appreciate it. And I'll be looking forward to some new material. No doubt, man. I appreciate the support. Take it easy, Majik. All right, Brolin, thanks.