Interview Adebisi: Old man and the scene

Best known as the front man for the hip-hop crew Fresh Cut Collective, Adebisi is an MC constantly on the grind, having released a pair of well-received mix-tapes that are currently putting up some decent download figures on blogs—particularly his latest, an ode to growing up on Milwaukee’s North Side called ’80s Babies. (Download it here.) The A.V. Club talked to Adebisi about ’80s Babies and got the lowdown about this spring’s full-length release by Fresh Cut Collective before his show Friday at Stonefly Brewery.

The A.V. Club: On this mix-tape you worked with Mz Styles, who was brutally critical of your work. She even said you ruined hip-hop for her. How did you ended up actually collaborating?

Adebisi: I didn’t trip or whatever—you know, everyone has their opinion. I posted it on my blog and made light of the situation. She came around and told me she didn’t like that song, but she liked the stuff on my MySpace page. So I got back at her and told her I had these instrumentals. So I started working on the project with my homeboy Reason in Milwaukee. At the time, my living situation was crazy; my apartment had just been foreclosed, and I was living in my homeboy’s basement, so I couldn’t really write at the house. I would go to the studio once a week and he’d throw some instrumentals on. I knew exactly where I wanted to come from. I knew the level of growth I wanted to show in this project.

AVC: What are your memories of hip-hop back in the ’80s?

A: My older cousin was a DJ. He lived with us for a while and I used to look through his record crates. Also, I had this bus driver during elementary school, and she was so ’80s hip-hop. It was crazy. We would get on the bus, and she had a big ponytail, and some days her lipstick would be, like, neon green and purple on the bottom. She wore tights. She was just hella B-girl. And she was bumpin’ everything—Biz Markie, Big Daddy Kane, all that. It’s those kind of subtle memories.

AVC: You’re 29 years old. When did the realization hit you that you’re an “old cat” on the scene?

A: I think that realization hit me when I was about 25, you know? [Laughs.] I mean, I’ve been putting myself out here as an MC since I was about 14 or 15. A lot of the stuff that’s going on in the Milwaukee hip-hop scene, I know I did it in ’99 and 2000, 2001, 2003—before the scene got popular. And a lot of the younger cats I helped bring up, nobody’s paying any respects, you know? I felt like they were kind of playin’ me because I was old. [Laughs.] But I don’t mind. I feel kind of good being an elder statesman, because I don’t need to say too much to get my point across or get people to listen.

AVC: Word is that Fresh Cut Collective is dropping a new record this spring. What can we expect from that?

A: We’re trying to release the album on May 29 at Mad Planet as is scheduled, and we’re going to tour behind that. Right now it’s in its final stages; we got some kinks to work out, but it’s looking real good. I think the album is going to raise a lot of ears; it’ll be a long time before the sound on this album is reproduced. But I’d like to save those questions for when you interview the whole band, because I think Fresh Cut is a collective project. I’m the frontman of the band; I write the lyrical content, but I can’t speak for Fresh Cut Collective as a whole. There are seven of us and we have to dissect those questions like that.