Back!

Standing high atop a career spanning 20 years, hip hop trio Naughty By Nature are back in the studio serving up their reunion album ‘Anthem Inc’. It’s been a while coming, with production, a clothing label and even TV acting taking the front seat for the trio. But now, Treach, Vin Rock and DJ Kay Gee are back together and they’re bringing their brand new album down under.

The group formed in East Orange, New Jersey, which at the time was known to locals as ‘Illtown’. Since 1989 they’ve won a Grammy, their work has been named among the top 100 hip hop singles of all time – they were even referenced on ‘Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air’.

But as Vin explains, the music industry was a different world then. â€œIt was a whole different level, the way the music industry worked. Y’know, back then it was all about signing to a label; like right now, it’s more about doing (it) independently, you have to have a buzz about yourself before a label will want to even sign you, so it’s more like doing it yourself now. We have been around the industry; we (have) definitely lived a different life since being in the industry; I think we pull from experience, we pull skill and talent that evolves (over time) and we apply it and translate it into music.”

Since the group’s inception, they’ve been serving up feel-good hip hop that proudly represents where they come from. â€œThere is always going to be the ghetto, there is always gonna be hard times, there is always going to be good times, and we just basically put our music and our talent together just to make feel-good music. Whether it’s to hold your head up high, whether it’s political, whether it’s social, whether it’s party, we were always known for making those anthems, and that’s why we just keep on with that agenda.”

Naughty By Nature will grace Australian shores to play the Good Vibrations festival tour next February. â€œWe have heard about it, but our manager Rebecca Foster, she has been out there before, and she politicked with the promoters to really get us out there, so we are definitely excited to be doing it. We hear it’s one of the biggest festivals out there.“

As experienced showman, the trio promise a lively set laced with new material. “Naughty always bangs with a high-energy show. What we look forward to the most is giving ‘em new music, some of these tracks off the upcoming ‘Anthem Inc’ album. And we pride ourselves on introducing songs that you never heard on the internet or radio or video before, and really rockin’ the crowd with it.”

Back together after attending to their respective projects meant NBN were able to approach the reunion recording with fresh musical muscle.“Since doing Naughty By Nature, Kay Gee has gone onto to R&B projects, he has been working with a lot of different musicians, traditional songwriters. Treach and I, we have been writing with different rappers - young guns, young hungry guys, they keep Treach on his toes. So it’s kinda like bringing all of that experience back to the table, it’s like a Naughty By Nature on steroids because you know what you’re workin’ with now.”

Over two decades in the biz, Treach, Vin and Kay Gee have come to understand the power of hip hop to express the sentiments of a misunderstood and mythologised culture. â€œIf it weren’t for hip hop music, you got a lot of kids that are in the suburbs who have a certain perception of the ghetto, you know? Their parents may have schooled them ... (but) basically hip hop music is the ghetto kids explaining their story, explaining their conditions. It gave the rest of the people in America insights into our neighbourhood and our culture and the kind of people we are.”

Hip hop has become a vehicle for the storytelling of many people that wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to express themselves, and where they come from. â€œThe prime example is NWA. When they were saying ‘f#@k the police’ and all of that stuff, people wondered why they were saying that stuff. You can listen to their record and find out and they really opened everybody to what was really going on in LA, with the gangs, with the police brutality.”

Naughty By Nature will perform at Good Vibrations, at the Gold Coast Parklands, February 20.