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Luckyiam 'one ups' the competition
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They say there is no rest for the wicked, but nice people can be pretty busy too. Luckyiam, the jovial co-founder of the Living Legends Crew and Mystic Journeymen member, isn’t one to take breaks. With a relentless touring schedule and a string of releases, it’s amazing he doesn’t have permanent bags under his eyes and a cup of coffee surgically attached to his hands. In addition to a stint on this summer’s Rock the Bells tour and bunch of solo tour dates, Luckyiam has dropped two albums this year already. His newest project with Sapient of Sandpeople called One Uppers is scheduled for release November 24. I was lucky enough to get some face time with the prolific MC to talk about his upcoming projects, Murs, and his love for the Bay.
Your originally from LA, but have spent several years in the Bay Area. What effect (if any) have these two different hip-hop scenes had on your career?
I moved to Oakland after the LA riots. I stayed up here long enough to get a good balance between a good LA and Bay Area guy. You need that because the Bay Area’s got the grassroots, the history, it’s more laid back and from LA I get my coolness. We went from throwing little parties at our house to selling out Maritime Hall to selling out the Fillmore. The Bay Area is dope but music wise there’s kind of a glass ceiling. You get to a point where you gotta branch out. In LA they’re not trippin’ off me trying to make moves. They’re busy chasing Robert De Niro at Starbucks down the street. They’re not worried about what I’m doing
Living Legends Crew is one of the most successful hip-hop collectives out and members Murs and Aesop Rock have had thriving solo-careers. How did it all start?
Sunspot was already doing Mystic Journeymen with two other guys but they weren’t really serious about it. We started pushing, throwing house parties, doing our own shows, traveling outside the country to promote our work. And then we started hanging out with the Grouch, Eligh and Murs came up from LA. We weren’t trying to start a crew or nothing, but writers heard about us. It was kind of like a myth in the underground world. This girl Sunspot was dealing with was like “you should call yourselves living legends.” The mystic journeymen name came out of that 90s era conscious days with groups like De La Soul. We were like journeymen on a life travel. So mystic was like just adding a little twist to it.
I was watching the promos for Rock the Bells and Murs mentioned that Mystic Journeymen were his favorite artist. How does that make you feel?
It confirms my love for that guy (laughs). He learned everything he knows from us. We showed him the ropes and he took it to a higher level. Now he’s opening up doors for us in the future. I’m very blessed to hear him say that.
How much time do you spend on tour?
We like to be on the road for eight to nine months out of the year. Recently I just took 3 months off to get back in the studio. I like to call it ammo for opportunity. I have five different projects going on.
This year has been pretty busy for you. Besides touring, what other projects are in the works for you?
I decided on my birthday (this past August) that I wanted to give a present to all the people who had my back and supported me. So I have a free CD available for download called The Present. If you’re truly a good artist, you should be able to build up enough work where you can give something back without having people always buy your stuff. If you’re good at it, then people are gonna support you more. The way the internet is, albums get leaked or you can put your album on iTunes and people can pick out tracks one by one. If you’re not consistent with your tracks they’re not going to support your full project. I like making albums good from intro to outro.
There’s the Mystic Journeymen release. I also have another project with Sapient out of Portland, Oregon called The Prime which comes out this year.
For more information: The Prime, Legendary Music
The Prime's first single "Common Place"
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