"Been here for a while, what the fuck you mean welcome back...?"

- AG off "Keep It Going" from the Oasis album


 

HHG: Were you inspired by one another when you were making this album?  Did it drive you to knock out the best material possible?

OC: Yes...

AG: OC inspires me even when we're not on the same project, so when we got in the same zone and the same space...that's even more so.  I learned a lot from him.  I'm not necessarily a melodic dude, you know what I'm sayin'?  As far as my rhythm pattern, I learned from O how to do that without making my shit sound a little bit different.  O has that shit where the record and him is a marriage and sometimes I go against the grain cause that's what I like to do.  If the record's doing this, I like to go the whole opposite way.  I sat back and saw O and said, damn, if we make the record a marriage...now it's a classic song.  Based on hearing that in my new shit and stuff I'm doing after this, like damn, A got a little harmony with him.  I really got that from O cause that's what he brings to the table.  20 years in, I'm still borrowing, I'm still learning and that's what makes us dope - we never stop learning.

HHG: I love it.  I love that you're both still in it, 20 plus years, and are able to progress and stay current and push yourselves to put out great material.

OC: Thank you man.

AG: I appreciate that.  If I didn't have Diggin' In The Crates, I don't know if I could still be here because to do that, you have to trust and respect the person on the other end.  It's not something where I gotta think, why is O telling me this or when he says this line, A, I think you could come a little stronger...it's not for no other reason than to make the song even better.  This is still harmony, this is straight cohesiveness.

HHG: How did you hook up with Nature Sounds?  Did you shop the album around or did you have a relationship with them prior to the album?

AG: No, my man Adam who represents with us and works with us, he brought that to the table.  Originally we were supposed to do a Show & AG album but we weren't quite ready for that.  My man Adam, he's a Jewish guy, and he's into family and he goes hard and he brought it to the table and we said, fuck it, let's do it.

HHG: Between the two of you, you've worked with hip hop royalty in terms of producers and I don't really have to name the names...Premier, J Dilla, The Beatminerz, Diamond D, Lord Finesse...do you have a favorite memory of being in the studio with any of them?

OC: Well, we right next door to Premo and his studio.  We have a studio of our own next door that he basically rented out to us, you know what I'm sayin'?  We built the whole side to it and Prem is always there so that's just another extension of Diggin'.  And, I mean, memories?  There's too many man, there's too many to go into.  We might over-cap this interview with all these memories...(laughs)