Скачать или смотреть II Tru - To Be Real - The Source Magazine Article October 1997 by Miguel Burke

I guess it's safe to say that the female rap
scene has never been as fruitful as it is today.
Everywhere you turn, there's another new jill
popping up to prove that you don't need a Y chro-
mosome to control the microphone. Straight from
the streets of Cleveland comes Il Tru, the first
branch sprouting off of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's
Mo Thugs family tree. The group's two MCs-Jhaz
and Brina-are both lyrically tight, with old-school,
MC Lyte-like confidence. After first gaining expo-
sure on the platinum Family Scriptures album, the
ladies' upcoming debut, New Breed of Female, is
as raw and harmonically striking as the music of
their mentors. With the group's third member,
Archie Blaine, providing the beats, these sistas-
with-voices are impossible to ignore.
THE SOURCE: How did y'all hook up with Bone
Thugs-N-Harmony?
BRINA: We all stayed in the same neighborhood in
Cleveland and we just did this little rap thang in the
streets or whatever. We made each other a promise
that whoever got on first, they was gonna come back
and get the other. And they kept their word.
JHAZ: We all were signed to the same label at first. It
was a little local label, but the nigga wasn't down for
the right thangs. And when they got on with
Relativity, they came back and got us.
Even though there are two female rappers in your
group and you're called II Tru, there is a third male
member in the background. What do you think
made him pair up with female rappers as opposed
to rolling with some male rappers?
BRINA: Well, me and Jhaz, lyrically, we're just as tight
as any guys out there. To me it really ain't no
female/male thing. If you got lyrics, you got lyrics,
and with the vibe I had, the vibe Jhaz had, and the
vibe Arch had, we just clicked tight. We got along real
good and we could work together as far as putting
material together. We all had the same desire to get
on in this rap game. We had that bond.
There are female rappers out now who take a lot
of heat because of the way that they flaunt their
sexuality in their image and music. What made I
Tru decide not to go that route?
BRINA: Well, because we've never been about thaitt
I mean it's all about the lyrics. We love rap. We love
to create stuff. Archie loves to make beats. Sn
that's what we did. I ain't got to sell my body in
you or give you something just to make you Iik
what I make. I feel that we're lyrically talenten
enough not to sell our bodies.
JHAZ: I mean it's obvious that we're women, and if
you're sexy you ain't gotta put it out there like that
That's the problem women encounter in this industry
It's always thrown up in their face that they are
women, and they feel they need to put a sex image
out there. We need to concentrate on our skills and
being real. That's where the new breed of female
thing comes in because I feel like we're puttin' it
down in a way that females ain't touched on yeit
Everybody's talking about sex or something thait
sounds made-up, but basically, we're talking about
stuff that we lived through, that happened to us, so
people can relate to us better.
One of the things that stands out about your
album is that there is very little profanity on it,
although the subject matter deals with a lot of
what's going on in the streets. Was that a con-
scious decision on your part?
JHAZ: Arch, he used to make a big thing about
cussin' back in the day. I guess cuz we thought that
was in or whatever. And he was sayin' the hard
thing about rappin' was comin' across without a lot
of cussin' and being on a level where everybody can
feel you more. That way you can save on studio
time as far as making clean versions. And he put us
on a level, and we try to make a lot of our raps
where they can be played on the radio.
BRINA: II Tru don't feel that they have to cuss to
get a point across. We can do plenty of songs
without cussin'. Plus, it's really not about the
cuss words to make your raps what they are,
'cause you can do it without the cussin' and still
come up with somethin' that's tighter than
someone who did cuss. But we still cuss here and
there though. I ain't sayin' we never cuss.
It's obvious because of your connection and the
melodic textures of your music, that some are
gonna be quick to compare you to Bone. Does
that bother you?
JHAZ: Being with Mo Thugs, that's the first thing
they wanna say: "Y'all sound like Bone." But the
first thing we did was try our best not to sound
like somebody.
BRINA: I'm not listening to somebody else's stuff
like I'm gonna rap like this person. But Arch puts
that beat down and me and Jhaz grab a pencil and
paper and write whatever we feel. You may call it a
certain style, I just call it being me.
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