Paul Mighty Interviews “Cyrus Tha Great”

Interviews / Paul Mighty / Worcester, MA

February 25, 2010 1

Life is an ever-changing cycle of new experiences and memories of the times that have past. Through music, I have had the opportunity to not only meet new faces and forge new relationships, but also maintain relationships from years past. This interview is a perfect example of the latter. I have been creating music for 10 years, with many of those years being spent trying to perfect my craft. Along the way, I have had many chapters of my life come and go. One chapter in particular is revisited here for a moment with an interview of Cyrus “Tha Great” Alexander. Cyrus and I had the pleasure of working with each other at a young age. At that time, Cyrus and myself were students to the world of Hip-Hop music, and music as a whole. We learned a great deal together with regards to creating, recording, and mixing the music that we shared a strong passion for.

After years of sharing a musical bond, as well as a strong friendship, Cyrus and I eventually attended the same college to further the knowledge we had gained from countless hours in the studio. While we had many opportunities to work together in school, we also had the opportunity to grow and find ourselves in various ways. Cyrus eventually moved on and attended film school to extended his knowledge of another craft he has a strong passion for. As for myself, I moved on to gain knowledge and work in the electrical trade. Through it all, Cyrus and I have kept in contact and as you will soon realize reading this interview, we still share an undying passion for music.

(P) For those who don’t already know, tell us a bit about yourself. What had to happen to get you to this point?

(Cyrus) Well, I come from a musical background. My mom was very into music growing up. She played music constantly, especially when she was cooking in the kitchen. That had a huge impact on me as a kid. Aside from that, my older brother Gary Lucas was the biggest influence I had growing up. Gary was a producer/vocalist and he is one of the people credited for being an impresario in the Worcester Hip-Hop scene. Musically, I watched his every move.

(P) You play a very important role in a group you call the “Film Skool Rejekts”. How did the group form and what is the meaning behind the name Film Skool Rejekts?

(Cyrus) Well, originally the line-up of the Film Skool Rejekts was myself, Future Joyner, and Sheen Phillips. Sheen is no longer with the group due to some personal family issues that he had to take care of. Me and Future are blood relatives, he is in fact my nephew. The both of us have been making music together since 1996, starting when I was 10 years old and he was like 8 years old. Just like he said on “FS Carry the R”. He is in fact the first rapper to ever rap over one of my beats…point. blank. period. On February 27th of 2007, right after the break up of my group at the time “Personal F.O.U.L”, I made a decision to keep it moving, but go back to my roots in a way. Sheen Phillips had been a great friend of mine for quite some time and I respected him as a lyricist. So what I did was I decided to pair those two together with me, and form an unstoppable team, hence the Film Skool Rejekts. FSR was born on February 28th, 2007. To me, 2007 was my 3rd favorite year in the first decade of the 21st century. As Jay-Z recently said, “Numbers don’t lie”. I follow the teachings of The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammed, Prophet Noble Drew Ali, and Father Allah Clarence 13X. The thing that all of those guys have in common is the reverence of the number 7 which represents God. To me, 2007 was a great and godly year for me. I believe I formed what could potentially be one of the greatest groups in Hip-Hop history. I wanted it to be to the point where we sounded different and created things different from other entities in Hip-Hop, hence the name Film Skool Rejekts. With me, I’m really into film so I decided to make a film-themed group, with a concept behind it. We could go so many places with it, but the name actually stems from the notion of being outcasts. I knew from the gate it was going to take a while for us to connect to the game because we weren’t making cookie cutter, fast food mainstream music so to speak. That’s why we are rejects. I look at it like this, the industry is like a film school. A lot of these labels create an image for an artist, tell them what to do, control how their music sounds, etc. These artists are actors. Dramatic. 90% of these rappers lie, and 99.9% of these pop artists are a creation of some rich record executive. It’s like an illusion. It’s one big fuckin’ film/acting school. We don’t conform to any of that shit. So we are… the Film Skool Rejekts. BONG!

(P) In 2007, the Film Skool Rejekts released “Workprint: The Greatest Mixtape of All Time” and received great acclaim. Who was involved with the project and how have things changed to this point?

(Cyrus) Well, “Workprint” came out when Future and Sheen were just getting a feel for each others vibe, and building a chemistry. Most of that tape was me giving them random beats that I did, and just telling them to write whatever hot shit they wanted. No concepts, just straight MCing. So the first impression we gave to the world was on some “these guys are nothing the fuck with”. That’s what I wanted, and I basically got it. The whole lexicon of FSR to me is MCing! I’m all about the art of Hip-Hop in it’s rawest form…no watered down bull shit. So, that’s where I went with that project. It was basically like an album, but in mixtape form. I produced 95% of the beats with the rest being either an old school industry beat or a beat from my man Majestic, who produced “The Real”. DJ Prince mixed the tape together. As far as changes go, nothing has changed much besides the fact that Sheen has taken some time off to take care of his family, which has allowed Prince to step up as a full fledged MC in the group. But even with that, Princes’ comfort zone lies more within the turntables. So in future FSR releases, you will hear a lot more Future than you have heard previously.

(P) Your first album, “Midnight Movie”, was originally released in December of 2008 and later rereleased as a “Director’s Cut” in December of 2009. Describe the creative process that went into that album.

(Cyrus) That was some of the best times in my life. With that Album, I set out to do concept album, in the same vein as Prince Paul, who is one of my childhood heros. I absolutely LOVE Prince Paul. He changed how Hip-Hop albums were made. I wanted to take his formula and add my flavor to it. So with that you have Midnight Movie. I always wanted to use that name for an album, and it wasn’t a time more appropriate than on an FSR album. I modeled the album after this John Landis film called “Amazon Women on the Moon” which is a Comedy/Anthology film, composed of different short vignette’s tied together by a man channell surfing. As he is trying to watch the film Amazon Women on the Moon, the Station that the film is on, keeps getting interrupted with technical difficulties and such. I basically took that and idea and used it as the backdrop to this album. Musically, there were two albums that I kinda modeled the sound of Midnight Movie after, and those were Ghostface’s Ironman, and Madvillain by Doom and Madlib. I took the aesthetic values of both piece, and created something with my own spin on it. Of course they were all MY beats, whit MY style, but the Grittiness of it was inspired by those albums.

(P) You’ve been a producer for years. I’ve can remember making beats with you in my basement when we were 15 years old. With all that has gone on with hip-hop music, you’ve stuck to your roots and continue to take the sampling approach to your music. How, if at all, has your style of production changed since you first began making beats?

(Cyrus) Well, Now I am playing more synths and stuff over my beats, and sometimes I’m even replaying samples. Like the Skyzoo record I did “Shooters Soundtrack”. Thats All Replayed. So right now, Im getting more into playing and re-playing. In 2010, I made a vow to myself to take it a step further and not rely so much on sampling. I want to actually go in and create my own samples and work like that. I am also using more live instrumentation in my music. All these things are gonna be heard more in my up and coming tracks, but trust and believe it’s still gonna be raw and funky.

(P) Last year saw the release of Skyzoo’s debut album “The Salvation” which featured production from you on two of the cuts. How did the relationship between Skyzoo and yourself come about? What was so special about those two beats that lead to them becoming such a large part of the album?

(Cyrus) Well me and Skyzoo got very cool after he appeared on FSR’s ”Soundcheck” and we shot the video in North Carolina. He told me what kinda beats he was looking for on his album and I told him I had his back. Weeks later, I delivered. Skyzoo to me, complete’s the Brooklyn Trifecta. First you had Big Daddy Kane, then you had Jay-Z, now you have Skyzoo. He is that next cat from Brooklyin thats gonna tear shit up. He can rhyme, and he can write his ass off. He has a great ear for beats, and I think his career will continue to grow.

(P) We’ve just turned the page on the first decade of the new millennium. A lot happened from 2000-2009. Clearly you’re wasting no time as you are already making noise with a new Film Skool Rejekts EP titled “Blood Circus”. What is the meaning behind “Blood Circus”, how did the project come together, and what is up for the “Rejekts” for this new year/decade?

(Cyrus) Originally “Blood Circus” was gonna be the 2nd full length. We actually started recording it in June 2009, but Future got into some issues with the authorites, and it was a point where we weren’t recording at all for a while. He had alot of stuff going on at the time, so we scrapped the whole project. Fast forward to fall 2009 and Future is like a born again rapper full of energy. Me and him planned numerous projects for the 2010 year, so we could make up for the lousy 2009 that FSR had. I mean, 2009 was a terrible year for FSR, let alone a lousy year period. Im glad it’s gone. But anyways… We revived “Blood Circus” and started from scratch. We put it out as an EP on new years. We are gonna shoot a movie for it and package it up with a DVD/CD type thing for the summer time with 2 more songs on it. The title for “Blood Circus” comes from a Science Fiction B movie from the 80’s of the same name that never saw the light of day. It was a film about these aliens from space that came down disguised as wrestlers, but their motives were really to eat human beings. Sounds crazy, I know. But I loved the name so much, and it fit the concept of FSR, and FSR be eatin MC’s, so we rolled with it. That was project number uno in 2010. The next project that FSR drops is “Music For the Bitches” which is dropping on Valentines Day. It’s basically a middle finger to all the contemporary mainstream lovers who complain that we dont make girl records. So we did it in a comedic/ tounge in cheek way. It’s gonna be dope. Then in March we are finally dropping the EPMD tribute tape “MInd Ya Business: The Greatest Mixtape of All Time Pt.2″. This project I’m super super duper excited about. For that project I went in and took all the original samples of the EPMD records that they sampled. I took those and reconstructed the beats, and reworked them. So it’s still all Cyrus production (except for 2 where I couldn’t find the samples) and they just re-worked all the classic EPMD records. That shit is gonna be crazy…. I can’t wait!