Daily Archives: March 8, 2010

“Rain All Day”

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Moka Only and Psy are The Nope. The Nope is an
experience that manifests itself through stellar hip-hop
music. They have created an album entitled Melba.
Though this interview was done in two separate
sessions, the two musicians’ answers confirm
the synergy that shows in their music.

The CK Interview – The Nope.

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∆: How did you gentlemen meet?

Psy: “‘Twas the summer of nineteen eighty-eighteen in Toronto, and Costanzo from LEN was throwin’ this party that Planet Pea & Asicks (from Canada’s Cryptik Souls crew) had invited me to.  They both told me I needed to meet these westcoast rappers named Moka Only & Birdapres…and I did…and it worked.  We rapped alot during that chip, and talked about rappers, as well as rap.  Altogether a very rappy experience.”

∆: How, When and Why did The Nope come to be?

Moka Only: “The nope came to be over time cus we knew each otha and repected the hustle muscle.. too many weird things in common. It just happened without much thought.”

Psy: “I moved out to BC for school, and Moke’s crew the City Planners kinda adopted me.  I think there’s alot of us slightly older cats that still have alot of nostalgia for the fun era of hiphop, and it seemed to shine thru when we made cuts.  Thing is, we still both try to stay somewhat current on what’s floating around out there, so our music became kind of a mishmash of the old & new.  Anyways, one night we had this brainstorming session about what we should call ourselves, and every suggestion one of us made had the other saying ‘nope’, to the point that eventually we weren’t able to say anything other than ‘nope’.  At that point, it became obvious to us who we are.”

∆: What is your favorite music duo of any genre and why? What kind of song would you like to make with them?

P: “Jeeeeez….that ain’t easy.  I have 4 right now.  Simon & Garfunkel, Bobby McFerrin & Chick Corea, Outkast, and Murray Perahia & Radu Lupu.  Put me with any of ‘em and we would make the songs that would make the peoples do the backflips.”

M: “hmmm…fave duo.. lennon and mccartney,perhaps..i kno it sounds obvious but they were cholars toether in this music shit.. i would want to go back on some phsycadellic tip with em.”

∆: Who or Where is Melba?

M: “melba is the sound that is made at the end of a track when it lifts off into the cosmos…there is velvet in there somewhere. Its also some kind of freaky food.”

P: “Melba is generally at the end, or on the top…yet at many parties it tends to be at the beginning. There aren’t alot of Melbas running around, but when you encounter one, you tend to remember it.”

∆: In my opinion, your album Melba has a nocturnal feel to it, particularly due to the lurky keyboards and basslines in the production and deep vocal tones you guys rhyme with. Do you agree? If so, is this an intentional aspect of the album?

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