How you doing man?

Planetary: Chillin.

For those who don't know, how long have you been down with AOTP?

Planetary: Me and Paz met years and years ago. I want to say like 15 years ago. He had the Pharaohs already when he had the first CD with Bahamadia and all those other cats. We got hip to the game after that but the Pharaohs really didn't do anything in all them years. When he finally wanted to put the new Pharaohs out, we strayed away from some of the people that were there in the beginning, so he put us on board since we were the closest with him. Everyone else has kind of been added on, you know?

So you would be considered as one of the core members

Planetary: Yeah, definitely.

What's your initial feeling when you hear there is going to be a new addition to the clique?

Planetary: I think it's banging. It would be something different if we added people who were garbage. If you're adding new people and it's making the music better and growing the fan base, we can only benefit from that. I mean we are a big group and it's not really a money situation. That has nothing to do with it. It's about making dope shit. We see guys in the squad that have grown and have gotten to the point we're like, "Damn this nigga is nasty". If you're nasty and make good music, it makes sense to bring you on board. That's how it is for Demoz and Doap. I mean Doap Nixon, he's been around for years. He was on that "Language Is Fatal" years and years ago. He's been around, but you know people go through their shit and go through life. They separate for a little while but they are always around. He's ten years better, know what I mean?

Is it a joint decision or does Paz have the final word.

Planetary: I mean Paz is the boss man. I don't know if you're asking solely about Demoz and Doap Nixion, cause they are the only new people. I mean we got Des Devious and all them but they were on the last one anyway. Other than that, we got King Magnetic, Doap Nixon and Demoz. Magnetic got straight to Paz, I knew him through Reef, but I didn't know him that well. Now we've gotten real tight. Doap's been around like I've been around. It was never a question if he should be down, it was more like, "Yo, where's Doap at?" You know he got knocked for a little while. So it was like, "Yo, where's Doap at? We need to get with him." It was that kind of thing. With Demoz, he was a young guy, he just needed to build his years up. Paz decides who's going to be on what songs, but yeah it's definitely up to Paz. If somebody's nasty, he's nasty. There's really no disagreement.

Your group Outerspace dropped Blood Brothers a little while back. What was the overall response for the album?

Planetary: All in all, I saw more good things than bad things. You start talking about a couple of different things and you get caught in that whole crossing over shit and all that. I try not to listen to that kind of stuff, cause those people do nothing for me, you know what I mean? [laughs] I don't make music for people's opinions. I make music to make it. What comes out comes out, it's not something I do intentionally. It's just natural. We hear a beat and we write a rhyme. A lot of people want to hear us like we were back in the day. People say I changed since "Fire in the Sky", but I was 18 when I did it. I can't change anything ten years later, know what I'm saying? [Laughs] I'm three kids later with that. That's the only thing that kind of upsets me, when you grow as an artist or whatever. You try to please your fans because that's who's going to buy it, but it's like I don't want to make shit I don't want to make either. I don't want to make all this crazy lyrical shit from back in the day. Back in the day, that was the style that was hot. Me myself, I don't like listening to that shit, so I can't make that shit. This is a terrible comparison, but if you listen to an Aseop Rock or someone like that, then you listen to us. Aesop Rock says all that weirdo shit and he's garbage dog. He's like one of the worst rappers I heard in my life. [Laughs] I mean not to talk about him since he's really successful and he's doing his thing. I don't like that shit so I can't make that. That's the point I'm trying to make. If I don't like it, I can't make it. I like G-Unit, I like Jadakiss, I like Nas, I like Jay-z, that's the shit I listen to. If that's what inspires me then my shit is going to target that sound or style or whatever. You know, hard beats and rapping about whatever I'm rapping about.

That's funny because you just raised another question. Some artists say they don't read press due to the fact it can get into your head and you could possibly change your style for the worse, so they'd rather not read it and stay true to themselves.

Planetary: I'm not going to read too much into it. I don't have that much time on my hands. I think a lot of artists say they don't and they do, but that's just my humble opinion. There's no way there could be 40 thousand people talking about you and you're not going to read none of it, you know what I mean? When it's right in front of you on the internet, you're going to read some of it. I ain't got time to read ten opinions, but I got time to read one or two. Either way I'm dealing with criticism. The only time I don't respect criticism is when it knocks my content. I rap about things that are real life to me. If you're listening to Blood Brothers, that's all we are really talking about, trying to make money for our kids to eat. So when people knock that I'm like damn, they're dissing my reality. They want me to rap about throwing a proton across an atom and splitting my axis. I'm not doing that dog! I'm 29 and I work 9 to 5. I tour. That other stuff is not real to me.

They might say we are fake, but really they want us to be fake. They might say, "Yo! They ain't real no more," but that is reall. We're talking about our lives, talking about our kids, doing homework with my kids. That's what I rap about because that's the reality I'm living. That's the only stuff that really upsets me. There's this 16 year old kid that don't know shit about me. All they know is the creative rhymes I wrote on "Fire in the Sky" and that's all they know. As you evolve as a person and do more things in life realistically, your style is going to change. A perfect example is 50 cent. People be like damn all 50 talks about is getting money, but dog he's getting money! He was second on Forbes. He made 38 million dollars last year. I mean, what else in the fuck would he talk about? [Laughs] Back in the day he was trying to get on so he was spitting his heart out. Even Pun, as much as I love Pun he changed from his first album to his second album. He was one of the best to me ever but he changed form his first album to his second. He had funny joints like "We're laughing at you". It was corny but he was so happy with life because he was rich. He was so successful that he expressed his happiness by being funny, doing funny shit, funny skits. He was still nasty as hell with everything he spit, but you know what I'm trying to say.

How do you feel about downloading? Do you feel a person's financial bracket or demographic plays a part?

Planetary: When we were teenagers, the thing to do was to buy cd's. See these kids, I don't blame them because if that was the popular way to get music in those days, that's what we would've done. See now they are growing up and that's what it is. You don't go to CD stores, you go to the internet. I mean Itunes is helping out you can go to Itunes, whatever. See we are from the old school, I want to see the cover, I want to read the credits, I want to see who he thanked all that. That's our school. I think a lot of people that support CD's are like 28 to 35. No matter the race. Rich Kids that got money do Itunes, shit I do Itunes too. To be honest, I prefer the store. I just bought 50 Cent and Common from the store the other day. The only time I buy something off of Itunes is if I'm so anxious to hear something that I can't wait, and I still buy the CD the next week. So I buy it twice, you know what I mean? That's just how I am. I think the fact that street cats can download it or buy the mixtape, well I think mixtapes hurts people like us more than downloading. Mixtapes are huge but I buy mixtapes, so I can't really talk shit about mixtapes because I buy them. That's because I want to hear freestyles over instrumentals. I hear an exclusive joint and I'll go buy the album. For most niggas, that's all they care about and that's enough for them. I think it's that the game has to find a way to beat it and they just haven't done it yet, because the music isn't going anywhere. The industry just has to find a way to beat the downloading. It's eventually going to happen. They are cracking Iphones so it ain't going to be nothing to figure that shit out soon.

Is there a new Outerspace album in the works?

Planetary: Yeah we already started it. It's not titled yet but it's in the works. We probably did like 8 joints so far. We are trying to do a lot this time, maybe do like 25 and pick from them. There's other things we are doing. King Syze, we are working on his album too. He's almost done so we have to find a placement for that. So yeah, there's a lot of things in the works. Definitely some Outerspace. We actually did some shit yesterday. Right now we are focused on the Pharaohs shit, so probably after the new year. 

I read that your older brother has a web site called BrownPlanet? Can you to tell us about that?

Planetary: Yeah it's www.brownplanet.net. He's big in the board of registration. It's basically the Latino news of everything that's going on in the world. He's has daily updates from Political stuff to Sports to Music, everything. It's his own personal web site he created and he does a lot of pod cast's. It's real hot for Latinos cause he focuses on everything. He works tons of hours and still goes home, updates and does his thing. It has daily news. I don't know if you got a chance to peep it but it's a dope site and he has it hooked up.

I'm Latino so yeah, it's something I'd definitely checkout. I brought it up because I read about it and was curious.

Planetary: Yeah it's dope. He talks about a lot of shit that you know, maybe we won't give a fuck about, [laughs] but its good for Latinos because he talks about everything that's going on. Some might not think there's not a lot of things happening in the Latino world for an update, but there is. You got Ricans, Columbians, etc. You'd be surprised. Sometimes he'll talk about two or three things a day and you could learn a lot from it.

So what's next? Tour dates? What else do you have on your plate?

Planetary: As for tours, nothing is official yet. We are on our second year for doing this Christmas benefit to donate toys to kids. Last year was really, really successful. So we are doing it again this year. It will be December 7th at the Khyber. The same place but we got to find a bigger place to hand out the toys because there were kids galore. I had enough thank god, you know what I mean? [Laughs] I had enough but things only get bigger. So yeah, we need a bigger place to hand out toys but it was really hot man.

It's not everyday someone gives a fuck. I really respect the fact that you're helping those around you and setting an example for the younger generation.

Planetary: When we're passing a lot of the gifts in the hood there's a lot of young parents, you know? They're hood niggas and they look at us and see that we are on the same shit, but we are doing the right thing. I got to build with a lot of young cats and I could tell they were inspired. That to me was as important as making those kids happy. We also had a mixtape done around that time and we just gave them away to the parents. To be honest it wasn't intentional but it helped us in Philly a lot. I would be in deep in the hood and I would hear it playing in cars and I'd be like, "that's what's up". Just that little thing helped spread the word.

And that goes on December 7th?

Planetary: Yeah, if you can you should come down. You're in Allentown so you're close so you can make it.

No doubt

Planetary: We are going to rock too and we don't charge admission unless you don't bring a present. The entry is pretty much a toy basically. If you don't bring a toy then it's five dollars. The money we get, we use to go to Toys R Us and get more toys. That's actually how we got over the top. We were like, "damn there's a lot of kids! We need to go to Toys R Us." [Laughs].

Anything else you'd like to add?

Planetary: Right now the focus is Army of the Pharaohs and not because I'm on it or my homies are on it, but this album is bananas! I listen to it and I'm so proud of it. The new additions help it out a lot. I think it's way better than the first one and I love the first one. I think with this one we hit another level. Everyone is doing their thing on it. So that's pretty much what we want everyone to do is to focus on the Pharaohs. I'm not even going to be selfish and talk about Outerspace because right now we are talking about AOTP.


Drew