Capital Letters and Dots - G.L.O.B.E. interview (Soulsonic part 2)

Is it possible there's actually more Soulsonic history to learn after my in-depth interview with Pow Wow? Certainly; and it's all here in this brand new interview with the one and only G.L.O.B.E.

Do you know we, Soulsonic Force, have a proclamation from the city of New York? We were presented this about four years ago, and there's not another artist that can get that. You know, recent artists can't get that:

"Whereas the council of the city of New York is pleased and proud to join family, friends and legions of adoring fans in honoring the pioneers of an art-form known as hip-hop on this occasion of this first annual Hip-Hop Appreciation Night. Whereas hip-hop has become one of the purest forms of artistic self-expression from its early beginnings, as a vehicle through which concerns and issues of young African Americans were articulated to its current status as a driving force in the music industry. Hip-hop has influenced and informed society on many levels and it has opened an artistic legacy of a marginalized community to greater and greater expressions of cultural significance. Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force are one of the most influential groups in hip-hop history, featuring Afriaka Bambaataa, Jazzy Jay, Mr. Biggs, G.L.O.B.E., Whiz Kid and Pow Wow. Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force transformed hip-hop music with their classic hits, 'Planet Rock' and 'Looking for the Perfect Beat,' fusing funk and hip-hop. Afrika Bambaataa is considered one of the godfathers of hip-hop for his formation of the Almighty Zulu Nation and the fusing of all elements of hip-hop: rappers, DJs, breakers and graffiti artists into cultural force. And Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force have inspired a generation of MCs and DJs through their innovative and ground-breaking contributions to hip-hop. Now, therefore, be it known that the council of the city of New York honors MC G.L.O.B.E. of the Soulsonic Force for his remarkable contributions. Signed this 25th day in June, in the year 2003."

Wow. How did that come about?

Well… recognition. Recognition from people like yourself that get the real story.

Especially when you consider that the city didn't exactly start out embracing hip-hop.

True. Well, honestly, we were so into making noise, there was no time for negativity. We just wanted to teach everybody. They say I'm a genius. I invented that MC poppin' thing; I'm the first who ever did that on "Renegades of Funk." And even on "Planet Rock," "all girls don't want to be…" UTFO bit that, but what we said was, "do what you want to, but you know you got to be…" So that genius thing? I'd rather implant my daughter… and my dog, and the rest of the world with that shit, man. I love humans; I have nothing against anyone or anything that's poppin' off right now at all. There's no hate in my heart, no regret. I'm glad that Pow Wow and I had the strength to do what we did.

Man, shit! We took what we had across the bridge to Bambaataa! On our side of town, there was Flash and Theodore and Breakout and names you never heard of but are always huge in my heart.

So what compelled you to link up with Bambaataa as opposed to someone more in your circles.

Pow Wow. I wanted to be down with the Funky Four Plus One because we all grew up together. It was really me, KK, and Keith Caesar… Rodney and Jeff came a little later on, but they were down. KK and I were in the boy scouts together. The first time he told me he could flip, I was like, "what are you talkin' about? You can't jump!" That nigga went outside with his combat boots off! We were having our boy scout meeting held in St. John's Lutheran church, and he went outside and proved that shit to me. From that point on, me and KK were the best of friends. He broke my fingers sparring in karate class - I was taking Judo; he was taking karate - we would teach each other what we knew, B-boying, all that shit.

So by the time he got to New Jersey, for Sugar Hill, they didn't know who the fuck they were fuckin' with! We were like dreams, man, like little entities that were programmed to do incredible things.

So, what happened that you weren't on the Funky Four's records and all?

Well, what happened was The Funky Four was complete. Those were KK's words exactly. Now, remember, I'm talking about someone who used to spend the night at my house, I spent the night at his house, we'd go to the gym together, he'd flip around… he was the star. G.L.O.B.E. has always been chubby, ok. But you gotta see me now. (Laughs)

So, ok, KK and I were real close. And it got to the point where my skills were retarded. So, I said, ok, I wanna be down with the Funky and he said, The Funky is complete. I was heartbroken. So Pow Wow and I were boys. And I knew Pow Wow was down with Bam and Soulsonic. I met Pow Wow through his sister, who was this woman everybody wanted to holler at her. I was like, nah, I don't even know this little girl. I was always an entity that was positive. Because if you're negative, they'll eventually get rid of you, but if you're positive, you'll be around forever. So she would see me, say hi, and I would think, this little girl is trying to holler at my ass. So one day we sat down and talked. She said, "My brother's name is Pow Wow." I said Pow Wow? I heard of him. Take me upstairs and introduce me to him.

From there, Pow Wow taught me how to dance. He showed me mad B-boy moves. Pow Wow was the best B-boy I ever seen in my life. Ask anybody: ask Crazy Legs… Wiggles is my family, he taught me, Fable taught me. I could dance my ass off, too; I just don't. So Pow Wow said, why don't you come across and be down with Soulsonic Force? That's across the bridge. That's like going to Jersey, you know? So I said, ah fuck it, I'll go.

So I went and it was Bambaataa and Biggs in the cafeteria of Bronx River Center. And at the time, he didn't mean nothing to me, you know what I'm saying? I heard about you Bam; I heard you the master of records and all of that, blah blah blah. So they asked me to spit and I spit. Ok, there were 8 MCs in Soulsonic Force at that time. When I finished spittin', there was only 3, me Pow Wow and Biggs.

And what about your name? Is it really an acronym, or is it from how you spelled it out in your verses, or…?

It depends on the moment. So it is an acronym, it has many different meanings.

Did it start out that way, though?

My initial reason for spelling it out that way was for the articles. Whatever article that came out, Billboard or whatever was poppin', I would buy it. And I wanted my name to be bigger than everybody else's on the paper, so I asked them to use capital letters and dots in between. Then the questions came: what does it mean? Shit. But it can mean: God Loves Our Black Entertainers. It could mean: Good Lookin' Out… (laughs) It depends on the time. But I like the fact how everybody started spelling their shit out, too, man. It's crazy how they bit my shit like that. That's sick, ain't it?

So, when we went down to Sugar Hill, the song we were supposed to record for Sylvia was called, "The Gift of Life." And they had me go in there, let's hear what it sound like. And I didn't know I was under a microscope; I was like 18, 17 years old. I spit this rhyme about a king and a queen. And the next thing I knew "It's Good To Be the King" came out! Ok, so we all knew, my family, Bam and all them. You went in there for a test, spit some shit, and they made records off of that. And Nate Robinson produced that one. Now, no bad talk against them. After "Pillow Talk," I have no problems with that lady.

So we went out there, our record never came out. We didn't record it, so of course that never happened. I don't know why they… I guess they didn't fuck with us because of Zulu Nation. 'Cause everybody else they fuckin' robbed! Flash, Spoonie, Funky, Sequence, Sugar Hill Gang, everybody got robbed.

Well, Pow Wow was saying you recorded a track or two that didn't come out? "Rhythm of Life…"

With Fats Comet?

Well, I think… They're usually credited as The Sugar Hill Band.

Yeah, that's Fats Comet. Make sure you put that in there: Keith, Doug, Skip… that's Fats Comet. Well, "Who You Think You're Funkin' With" was the name of one song. "What Time Is It?" That was with Keith. We did a couple of them. I knew Duke Bootee. He loved G.L.O.B.E., 'cause he knew if we ever collaborated, shit would happen. And it was like the same thing with Def Jam. I was approached my Russell and D at the Roxy, and he was like, "yo, why don't you get down? And these niggas is so and so." That's my family; I ain't goin' nowhere! So Tommy Boy gave me "Play That Beat" with Whiz, God rest his soul.

Yeah, I definitely wanted to get into your solo records… not just "Play That Beat," but like "Get Ridiculous," and "The Millions…"

That was with my dude Steve… You know about that record? That's deep. Holy cow! Oh my god, I went in on that! And there was the Two Sisters, the New Edition album, Jenny Burton on Atlantic, Nairobi…

How did that Two Sisters one come about?

Phone call from Sugarscoop to Tommy Boy. We need that bad boy on one of our joints. Yeah, have him come to the studio, cut him a check and that's it.

So you didn't know the Two Sisters at all?

Nah, but they were cute as Hell. Yo, man, we did it in an orchestrated studio! On 13th St; it was an orchestra studio. It was huge. And these two ladies were standin' there behind one microphone. What was my dude's name? He was real cool with me. Anyway, he said, yo G.L.O.B.E., scribe up some shit. I said erll I already got that, just let me get in there and spit some shit. So they let me in there… by myself, this big room, behind the mic and I spit some shit. Whew! Cuties, though…

And one I wanted to ask about specifically was "Get Ridiculous." You worked with Ralph Rolle on that…

Ralph Rolle lived in Bronx River. And I went to an outreach program, 'cause I was a little delinquent. Still graduated high school, but I wanted to do something, so I went to outreach, and he was one of the teachers. And once he found out who I was, from tearin' the fuckin' block up so many times. He lived right there, and the center was right next to his building, and our voices would bounce of those buildings like nobody's business. Ralph was cool; he was a percussionist. I don't know where he is now, but we were very close. He discovered the genius and shit; he always used to tell me how to do my thing.

But we did "Get Ridiculous," we did a song called "Crunch…" we did like three songs. But only one of them really was presented; that was on Body Rock. As far as unreleased songs… there's a slew of other things with Easy LG, the cut man. Shit that never came out, and we still got it. I own that.

Before we end this, I want to ask about what you're doing these days, or what you're planning.

Everybody has a talk: what they gonna do, what they wanna do… But when you build up an arson that is so heavy you outdo everybody else, that's what it is. That's why the United States is the greatest country in the world - 'cause we got mad arson. God forbid if we run out of ammo! (Laughs). So the music brings the money to the country.

What do you think about Rage Against the Machine?

I've never really been a fan…

Ok, well, what do you think of a band taking a hip-hop lyric and doing it over like that?

In cases like that, I'd usually rather just listen to the originals.

[Rage covered "Renegades of Funk" and made it the title cut of their 2000 album.]
Damn. Why you wanna bite me?

Well, it is a classic, though.

Yeah. Like the Black Eyed Peas, straight raping Soulsonic Force, man. They might as well just blindfold us, take us away and fucked us, as much as they been stealing our shit. That "boom, boom, boom" that's 2007 and that's "Perfect Beat"'s break. I know the whole story; I know what's going on. I'm not stupid. I'm gonna use the words someone used today. She said, you're still above ground, you're still on the ground. Period. So guys like you, doing your damn thing, put it out there. Tell the truth. Just make sure your name is on there. And if they need confirmation… huh! We don't lie. Fuck that, no lies.

Well, it has been a very incredible evening for you sir. You have spoken to somebody... wow, everybody wants to be like. Everybody. That's crazy, but it's true. (Laughs) And I want big ass capital letters and dots in between, please, sir. I mean it.