In 2000, BET executives felt these were taking a chance on Nelly and his awesome St. Louis twang. (This is the identical Nelly who does go on to market 9 million copies of his debut album, Country Grammar.) The South had already had much hip-hop success, but coastal media elites still believed Outkast to become regional; Cash Money and No Limit, flukes. So if people couldn’t understand Nelly, these people were less than enthused about Atlanta’s Ying Yang Twins as well as their distinct sound.

The Ying Yang Twins might not exactly get the credit they are they deserve — something noted on his or her new song, “Thundercat,” a team-up with Mad Decent DJ duo Pyramid Scheme. (The opening bars — more than a snapping beat — are “F*** you, nigga, you never like us/But you’d like you had a clique much like us.”) Twins D-Roc and Kaine use a point, due to the fact they popularized twerking many years ago, heightened value of the ad-lib and, perhaps most oddly, collaborated with Adam Levine before Kanye did.

It’s challenging to persist amongst players for any length of time, nevertheless the Ying Yang Twins get home after a long period and so are ready to fight for his or her place in history.

First of, Pyramid Scheme are Atlanta guys — they did a song with Trinidad Jame$ — but I are not aware of if they are to Big Daddy’s on Old National Highway. What do you connect on?
Kaine: One from the guys in Pyramid Scheme actually worked for the Zone, one of many studios we did plenty of our recording looking for our first three albums. Pyramid Scheme consists of Adam plus a gentleman called Sterling. Adam utilized to engineer lots of our sessions if we did the Thug Walkin’ LP. That was the place that the whole Pyramid Scheme happened with the Ying Yang Twins. We were already knowing Adam.

Did you ever drop out of contact or have you always keep in touch?
Kaine: Uh, no. We ain’t never lose contact, individuals were always only a call away, man.

At what point have you been like, “Oh, you are just an engineer, you’re carrying this out EDM thing?”

Kaine: I have no idea how long Adam and Sterling are actually working on the Pyramid Scheme thing, but I know he was always handling music around. I know almost any job he was gonna have, it absolutely was gonna be dependant on his love of music. In music, you might start out as being a runner… just as, you may be asked to go to the store. Any time of day! It might mean you’re usually a videographer on the end of the morning. You’ve gotta be wanting to transition once they call you.

D-Roc: I can say, back when he was engineering our projects we were focusing on, he type of put his feel for the reason that he was thinking about not just just as one engineer for your longest time. ‘Cause you understand, he could say, “Oh, you may say ‘pusha from the hood’ such as this.” So be the first time I could see him about to step up. When he met Sterling, I think then the transition took place. When he was like, “I could make this happen on this end; you could potentially do this over there. We put that together? And we ended up a Pyramid Scheme.”

Atlanta has about six different hip-hop scenes going on in the same time. How is it make fish an EDM duo was the first person to reach out?
Kaine: I mean, not for nothing, but we was in this lane before we started showing up in world hard. It was only all before our time.

D-Roc: I would say, when you really think concerning this and return back, we was already because lane once we did “Shake.” Almost and possibly popping into that EDM. Because it turned out different.

Kaine: “Shake,” “Drop,” then “Fist Pump, Jump Jump.”

D-Roc: And now you’re just acknowledging it with “Thundercat,” cause, like, the transition gets better in doing what we’re doing.

Kaine: It’s the initial actual official EDM track the Ying Yang Twins take presctiption. That’s it, only a new label. It’s songs from us, making it all the more better.

Kaine is sending a number of subliminals as first verse. I know you’re talking about biters a few years ago; is always that still in your concerns?
Kaine: You know, everybody has folks that they idolize. Some people won’t say so. Some people may. It doesn’t matter. I think it’s this: My verse was merely praoclaiming that people looked in the Ying Yang Twins like there we were outcasts. The way we have been is we’re more abstract than any nearby artist. Or national artist, it does not matter. The thing is, people make an effort to figure out how to find the niche that individuals possess, and nobody can imitate or emulate us because we’re a hardcore act to adhere to. And that’s merely what I was saying inside verse. We ain’t never needed to piggyback no artist. Ying Yang Twins will always be their own group. We drop singles just how we feel they should be dropped and that we do things inside a manner that’s distinct from any other rhyming artist hanging around. So that’s basically what that verse was saying. Plus, I’m a lyricist anyway. That’s visiting the forefront in the Ying Yang Twins from the future, ’cause that is a likes to tag to female records. We’re greater artists than merely one thing.

I mean, but…well…nevermind.
[Laughing]

I was gonna ask a follow-up about something at a few years ago, but I do not believe it’s a big problem anymore.
D-Roc: Go ‘head, go ‘head. Lemme hear what you’re about to ask.

I saw all of you at Santos Party House throughout New York your last time here. You all were saying French Montana had taken “Haaanh” for himself. Is that still something? I didn’t desire to ask because I don’t seem like that’s what the verse is…
D-Roc: Hold up, endure, last. I can speak on that. One thing I check out is, I examine him and say, “I appreciate you when planning on taking what we started and branched out, managed to make it bigger.” But the thing concerning this is, give recognition and provide the credit where credit’s due. You failed to start it. That’s not your word. You cannot re-spell it and say, “I spell it that way and I say it in this way.” No. That’s still the identical word. That’s a similar word whether you’re saying “hannnh” or “haaanh.” You can say it low-key, high-key, mid-range. That shit is still precisely the same word. That’s all I was saying. So, okay, when you want to examine it as a bandwagon and pay attention to how people do, now listen. He’s singing. Singing! Like Future or Rich Homie Quan. It’s like, get into your lane; be in your lane. Find yourself. And that is the only thing i was saying during those times. We were saying in the event you’re about to take something, don’t say you originated it. You originate something if you come up with something. We developed that. We made that word big as it’s. Just at the least say, “Hey, big as much as the Ying Yang Twins” somewhere. Anywhere I can see it. If you do not do that, you happen to be stealing. You’re a copycat. If you’re a copycat, I have to say something as you did not start that. Now, if you started it, I can’t say nothing.

Just to experience Devil’s advocate: Juelz Santana and Jeezy say “Ay!” a bit differently. So is it feasible that there are two techniques used in saying “Hanh?”
D-Roc: No. I did say there are approaches saying words, but…

Kaine: Hold up, manage, D-Roc. Hold up. I did an interview along with a gentleman called to the show and declared that word was obviously a word which the Dominicans had since these were kids. I said, “OK, I understand that, but pay us that.” This is just some guy on a job interview call telling us that. French Montana didn’t do that within the right manner. You know, it’s like, the united states was built on taxation without representation. You could take the funds long and nobody can discover unless they’re likely to find out they’re taking it. That’s how I have a look at it. That’s how the united states’s built. It’s a small thing into a giant. We the originators of this. And that is where it lays. He wasn’t in the BET Awards in 2003; he was probably just attempting to crack the entrance open.

He was selling mixtape DVDs then.

D-Roc: That’s what I’m saying. We didn’t sell mixtapes up to now. We didn’t appear like that from the South. We didn’t arise selling no mixtapes. You took your ass for the club, got in using the real individuals who was getting f*** with; that’s how we got f***ed with. Somebody who knows somebody. We do a great deal of things that a lot of people could consider bold. Once you get on the Major Leagues, you do not go back for the Negro League. That’s been component of my hold-up finding yourself in this group, Ying Yang Twins, me and my buddy. The things that individuals’ve done have always arrived on the scene and hit massively. So it is precisely what we’ve gotta do. We’ve gotta come out thus hitting the masses. We can’t hit the peanut gallery and delay until it stacks up. That’s Negro League. We Major League.

That’s exactly what it took on this occasion and this kind of production team in Pyramid Scheme along with a group including the Ying Yang Twins. Everything happened inside the right timing. Everybody’s hunting for a fun time again, but they have no idea of how to acquire it using what’s been being conducted inside hip-hop community. So they need anyone who has sense enough to make fun back in music. All the music being released is still not fun. It’s not entertaining. When gangsta rappers come nearly me and say, “Hey man, you and the brother should drop something,” it is just a sad day inside urban hip-hop community. All these people making money however the city ain’t doing numbers. Everybody ain’t happy. There’s something else occurring.

Are there any specific gangsta rappers that are saying this?

Kaine: Yes, sir! There’s plenty of gangsta rappers that’ve come approximately me and my pal we must drop something. ‘Cause this new shit and the new rappers and the new attitudes gonna get people f***ed up and killed.

Is that the reasons why you haven’t worked with a great deal of Atlanta rappers recently?

Kaine: I mean, not for nothing, there’s plenty of people who don’t get the Ying Yang Twins. It just takes a conversation. We just merely… no one’s really had that conversation, that’s all of that is.

D-Roc: We have dealt with Atlanta artists. It’s just that this artists we have not worked with take a different level versus the one we’re on. We have caused Atlanta artists: we caused Lil Jon, that is where it started. We’re both Atlanta to death, and we have collaborated with Atlanta artists. It’s just plenty of lanes which everybody else in is not our lane. They feel they don’t wish to do a song around because we’re by 50 percent different lanes.

Pyramid Scheme is on Mad Decent — you recently did a spead boat party together. How was that? What was it like watching a very different crowd versus the one you might be utilized to?
D-Roc: The boat party was from the chain. But you can’t say it’s really a different crowd than whatever we’re familiar with; we’ve seen that caliber of crowd on the reverse side. We done seen more [types] of crowd than you think that. We’ve been overseas, and this is where it really started at. EDM were only available in Europe before it migrated over here. They party that way 24/7. Europe, China… everywhere we have. When we leave america, that’s their vibe. That’s the right off the bat you hear inside the club — the bass “doots, doots, doots” along with the sirens going “errh, errh, errh.” That’s what’s going on within the club. Now it done migrated over here and individuals are saying it’s new. No, it is not. It’s a new comer to us over here, however it is been occurring over there. That’s why we brought it back. Everybody wasn’t ready for doing this, the good news is that it’s in the forefront, everyone is like, “Okay, this new.” No. This the the first thing I brought back on the United States. Cause Kaine wasn’t for the reason that lane prefer that; that wasn’t his lane. He was like, “Aw, nah, Roc.” I would say, “Did you observe that crowd though? Everybody loving that shit.”

You know, cause I go out and search. My wife was at my ear saying, “Aye, man. Y’all need to do that, cross over to your different lane.” “Nah, nah, nah, they ain’t ready for this.” But we achieved it, and that is what made it thicken as time passes. When we first commenced doing it, we only agreed to be practicing, fish inside the water. But once we have started, now we know tips on how to make an EDM track. The drive on the track is exactly what gets you; I was saying we have to put some raps on the. That drive? Everybody was saying don’t put excessive rap into it. Man, seriously. If people listen to only a beat? Man. “Turn Down for What” was merely a beat. That’s the one thing he said! “Turn down for the purpose! Turn down for which! Turn down for the purpose!” Take that drive, twist it somewhat bit, and I guarantee it is exactly what we have now. That’s what i was shooting for after we first started. We just did not know the whole format of the way to make the track. We achieved it like an actual song once we first started; we had arrived talking through the entire song. On an EDM track, you’ve gotta shut the f*** up sometimes and permit the beat talk for itself. It ain’t merely an ad-lib going, “Yeah! Yeah, yeah! What? What? Yeah! Yeah, yeah!” The beat return in. “Umph! Ayeee.” This is the shit I’ve been seeing overseas for a long time, a long time. Kaine didn’t know what I was dealing with. And for the point I was attempting to explain it, I couldn’t know what I was saying either. I couldn’t said into words. I didn’t know the way to make that type of song in the past. Now we all do.

You just placed the drop inside middle and…

D-Roc: I’ll say it similar to this: when songs appear now, who made the beat and whose name is first? The producer. Justin Bieber, “Where R Ü Now?” Whose name is first? Featuring Justin Bieber. MØ is on “Lean On,” singing the entire song, but that is the first name the thing is that? Nicki Minaj, ditto with David Guetta. It’s all about the beat plus the DJ first and it’s about the artist on the. We the A1 sauce. You’ve just gotta guarantee the steak is produced well, seasoned as being a motherf****, cooked for the right degree and tasty such as a motherf*****. When we occur, we gone make that motherf**** lovely. We result in the gravy.

So Kaine, achieved it take seeing Flo Rida and Waka Flocka’s success to find out the vision?
Kaine: To be honest, we don’t take a look at no other artist. We’ve really never had to think about anybody else. We just had to concern yourself with formatting a brand new team that this Ying Yang Twins can be working with, which we’ve moving forward. Before then, we weren’t really focused on letting anymore music appear because — on my small end with the group — ain’t no way we had arrived gonna end up with each of the crooked paperwork we was up under the very first time that around. That doesn’t sound right. All the contract stuff there was wasn’t for your benefit on the Ying Yang Twins and we had to Chapter 13 that first, 86 them. Then return 100 percent on even more shit. Then we needed to restructure. Then it had to become the perfect time to release this info. Now it’s simply the perfect time. “Thundercat” is an ideal song. The Ying Yang Twins are an ideal group. Pyramid Scheme happens to become the perfect production team. This is a perfect conversation!

It’s a bit-known fact that everyone had Adam Levine on the rap song before Kanye did.

D-Roc: Wait, wait, wait. Say what? Say it again, that sounded dope [laughs].

Kaine: We knew that. But it does sound good hearing another person say it! How that took place was this: I’m a very well-rounded writer. That particular song concerned issues that I loved about music. We desired to reach something we weren’t quite recognized for, together with the females. I talked on the production team behind that, which had been Mr. Collipark and Billy Hume, who Adam from Pyramid Scheme was working under on the time. They had made the track and they also wanted me to publish the track about hardship, and I made them turn the full track down. It wasn’t nothing planned though the strings: no snares, nothing else sounds. Collipark was like, “How the hell you gonna write to simply that, dog?” I said, “That’s all I need!” I just proceeded engrossed. I wrote everything, laid against each other for Adam Levine, did the reference track for him to sing over. [Sings] “She’s stuck off in this particular little room/With nothing left to hold on to onto/The life of a stripper.” We was within the strip club when Mr. Collipark got Adam Levine inside the studio to focus on it. They said he responded, “Who wrote this shit? Whoever wrote this, I’m finna lay this shit enjoy it is! This thing is jamming!” And that’s how that went.

D-Roc: I like playing you tell that story. Ain’t nobody heard that within a minute. So we gotta make it for ’em while we still have it.