Q&A W/ Drrty Pharms of the Beta Boys

With the first complete release from the “Beta Boys” a rap collective based in New York, consisting of many adolescent artist who come together to make dark, twisted, and demented rap/hip hop that makes you question ever moral you have ever believed in, we have received a very grimy and distorted taste of the many talented MC's and I was lucky enough to get a short Q&A from the respective leader of the Beta Boys, Drrty Pharms.

Q1: what made you finally want to release a mixtape under the beta boys name

Beta Boys started in early 2013 as an online support group where my friends and I could vent about our difficulty socializing, our relationship problems, our drug addictions, our fears and emotions. We would share nudes, embarrassing stories, confess to shit, etc. It was nice to have a place to be emotionally vulnerable on a website where most of the users seem more concerned with their reputation and marketing their personal brand than with self-denudation. Though the group initially had nothing to do with music, we soon realized that many of us made music and, since then, there’s been talk about making a beta boys mixtape. For 2-3 years, the mixtape was something we would all talk about, but never actually make any progress on. A few months ago, I took the initiative to organize the tape and now, after all these years of talk, it’s finally out.

Q2:Did you have songs already made and just unreleased, or was the mixtape made from completely new songs after the idea of the mixtape came about, were there any songs that didn't make it onto the project

One of my early concerns about the Beta Boys mixtape was that it would lack cohesiveness. Though a lot of us shared a common interest in rap music, we all had very different styles. I did not want the mixtape to sound like a compilation album of a bunch of random unrelated music made by people who were all friends with each other. I wanted it to be something you could listen to from beginning to end and have it sound like one complete project. So all the songs that are included on it were made specifically to be on this mixtape. Some people sent me other songs and asked me to put them on the tape and I said no because they were not in keeping with the aesthetic. The Beta Boys Mixtape will be the first of many collective mixtapes we plan to make and each one will focus around a certain sound. On this last one, I was going for a 90s, East Coast kind of sound. The next one, which we are working on now, will be more of a 1980s sound in the vein of artists like Afrika Bambaataa, The Sugarhill Gang, Ice-T and Kid N Play.

Q3:Was this the first Mixtape solely produced by yourself, how was the experience

This was not the first mixtape I’ve produced, but it was the first in this style. Prior to this, I had, for the most part, been on a hiatus from production and instead preferred to rap over beats which other people had made for me because I wanted to focus on becoming a better rapper. I eventually got frustrated with this process because the beats people sent me were usually too trendy sounding. They were more cloud rap or trap than hip-hop. They used 808s instead of drum breaks, midi instruments instead of jazz samples, etc. I didn’t want to make music that sounded like other trendy contemporary rappers, I wanted to rap over classic sounding instrumentals like my favorite rapper, Big L. Since I didn’t know anyone who made the kind of old school beats I wanted to rap over, I decided to make some myself. The process was really fun. I usually only listen to rap music now, so it was cool to get to dig through some of the jazz music I used to listen to in order to find sample material. I wanted to push the boundaries of the classic hip-hop sound to include more dissonant, dark and experimental jazz samples, creating a style I’d describe as Avant-Garde Boom Bap.

Q4:What's your own personal favorite song off of the project and what was your favorite song to record?

I think my favorite track off the mixtape is Drrty Wrk by Charles Melvin. I really like how he structured that song, with the auto-tune on the hook and rap verses which correspond to changes in the instrumental. that was also one of my favorite beats I made for the mixtape. I think Tompkins Finest was the most fun to record just cause that beat is really fun to flow over and we recorded it with us all in the same room at my mom’s crib so we got to like hype eachother up.

Q5:it's been about a week since the mixtape has came out, how do you feel about the feed back from fans

Like most of the projects I put out, people didn’t like it as much as I’d hoped/anticipated they would. I didn’t get any negative feedback really, but people didn’t freak out over it as much as I’d expected them to. I’m personally really proud of it. I think it’s one of the best projects I’ve ever worked on. I think more people would like it if they listened to it, it’s just hard to get people to take you seriously when you tell them to ‘check out your mixtape’, but have no one big cosigning you, cause there are so many artists out there trying to promote their shit and a lot of them suck. No one believes you when you send them a soundcloud link and promise them that your shit is actually good, that you’re not like all the other people who spam them with links.

Q6:have you grabbed any attention from labels or other artist, is it what you want?

Some artists liked the tracks on soundcloud and/or messaged me they liked it. No labels have hit me up. I’m not really actively looking for either, I think what we’re doing is too original and too controversial for most people to even be able to put us on. I know a lot of people are scared to associate with me. So, it’s to be expected.

Q7:Who do you believe is the most talented rapper out of the beta boys and why do you think so? I saw a lot of progression from The Sapien

That’s a hard question cause a lot of them have different strengths so I can’t really compare them. If I had to pick though, I’d say either Cool Swim or The Sapien.

Q8:Limited physical copies? Please?

Maybe, at some point. In the mean time, if you wanna support the team, you can cop a Beta Boys t-shirt at www.betaboys.bigcartel.com