Interview with Bon & Nip
For More Info on Bon&Nip: http://www.cdbaby.com/bonnnip

Whether working in the studio or chilling on the couch, Bon & Nip’s conduct is like the mic is always on. This Southside duo has sharp wits and a brother like chemistry that can’t be faked. We spent the afternoon discussing music politics, Chicago’s geography and the benefits of ostrich burgers.

Hadjy: Tell me about your aliases
Nip: Audaz and Harvey. Now Audacity is like the Incredible Hulk. I personally thing the Hulk is a sex deprived man who blew up to a big creature because he waited so long to have sex. Audacity is the road rage, person waiting too long in the fast food line who’s finally had enough, is just pissed off, *Clap* let’s go. Harvey is the “All Bangers,” he produce the tracks and is the mad truck driver.
H: What do think of that new Hulk?
N: Bullshit.
Bon: I’m suspending my judgment until I see it. Ang Lee directed it and he did Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
H: So what’s your deprivation that turns to anger?
B: Hunger!
N: Hunger for this what we call, just a taste for the industry life cuz I know that once we get it we’ll be like “Aw we hate the industry” and all that stuff.
H: Are you going to stay in Chicago?
N: I say two more Bon & Nip albums and I’m moving to Kansas and raising pigs and some fish
B: You gotta have an ostrich ranch man. Ostrich meat is a commodity and we need to find a new white meat.
H: How have you been received outside of Chicago?
B: We got love when we went to Canada, Atlanta, uh…
N: New York!
B: N.Y. Oh man, after a show we were chillin in the back and this cat had to be like 10 feet tall. Now I’m 5’10” on a good day. All I see is this huge hand come down and hear “Y’all was hot man.” I shook dudes hand and shit (mimics a baby shaking a large hand).
N: See the thing is we’re winning more road games than home games, we gotta get that home turf going. We’re trying to do that but right now Chicago’s on that MTV mind state of whatever’s new, whatever, they got shit on their head that’s what everybody going to start doing.
B: You will be loved outside your home more than you will at your home. The funny thing is, to get love here, we have to go outside of Chicago and bring love back. See Chicago is a consumer farm. Everyone is cultivated as a consumer because we have so much marketing at every possible second. I’ll flip between channels, one is playing a song, I change the channel another station is playing the same song and another channel is playing the tail end of that song. Mind you, three separate mix shows on three separate channels and songs are overlapping to death. Because, of the lack of variety and concentrated market that we have here and how hard people hit Chicago market-wise, we’re bred as consumers. We’re bred to see Rocawear billboards every five stops, Nike, this, that and the third. In my opinion, when it all started was when Jordan arrived here and the Air Jordan shoe came out. It came out here first then went abroad; and it seemed like Chicago has been the tastemaker of consumer markets, whereas if they like it here we can go elsewhere with it.
H: How does this affect Chicago’s opportunity or culture in the music sense?
B: Well let’s start with culture. Culturally, Chicago has historically been a segregated city, where you have one culture here and another there and none of them really combine culturally. They all have different tastes but they get marketed the same things in different ways because of the division and culturally that’s good and bad. It’s good that they recognize diversity, but it’s bad when we ask, “what do we do here that signifies what’s from here.” I can appeal to my family and my clique, but he appeals to his clique, they appeal to their clique but we can’t all appeal to each other. It’s not that there’s hating involved it’s just that’s how we’re raised. We were raised to like what we like, fuck what they like. In the big picture we like the same things, but you don’t see it the same because how it is presented to you. To have opportunity, we have to build our own opportunities and hopefully break the loop that many are caught in here.

Check out Bon & Nip “Unheard Of” out on J.A.W. Entertainment as well “The Release” and “Bon & Nip’s Bar & Grill.”