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August/September 2008

Feature Story

An Up Close Interview with Dirty Water

By Alana A Jones

It's the year 2008. Popular trends have brought the eighties back into our homes. The community's music has risen to the center of mainstream on the heels of conservative politics, republican economics, and ostentatious materialism. We wonder about the effects of our individualistic ideals while we face recession and suffer the pain of the hype.

From a monopoly of corporate sharking and mainstream noise that's overrun the airways, and from deep in the sea of Indy artists that flood the internet underground, Dirty Water rises, with a trial of sounds and treasure chest of influences to confidently take the title as 'The Best Group You Haven't Heard Yet.' The public is ready for 'the real' and Dirty Water is that mature and self-conscious voice.

Alumni of North Carolina Central University, where the duo met and joined creative forces, Joe D and Cool Cee Brown bring lyrical styles bred of legendary mc's like KRS One, Big Daddy Kane, and Slick Rick to bear on a production style influenced by Pete Rock, Premier, RZA and older school artists including Al Green and Isley Brothers. Both natives of DC and the Go-Go sound, the pair rides their professional roots in spoken word and as front-men for North Carolina's Marquee Band and Show, to create quality music, full of honest lyricism and smart musicality, for a well-versed audience.

In their latest self-titled album, Joe D and Cool Cee Brown bring Hip Hop full-circle with twelve tracks that pay homage to the pillars of Hip Hop, R&B, and Soul while engaging listeners in something sincere and grown-up, we haven't quite heard before. Dirty Water brings freshness, energy, and ingenuity- 'the Modern'- to Hip Hop and to the Indy scene in which they are making a name for themselves. In a recent interview with the duo, TRIBES takes on the creative team and enjoys an opportunity to learn more about Dirty Water's origins, their path to notoriety, and their creative vision for the future.

TRIBES: How did you two come together at NCCU.

Cool Cee Brown: I guess in retrospect, it didn't feel like it then, but there was all kinds of crazy stuff going on while we were down there. Of course, Little Brother was forming. I was classmates with Fonte and Joe lived in the same dorm with Pooh. Then, of course Yahzarah, [was there too]. So it was a small world. While all that was going on, we were in a go-go band, the Marquee Band and Show, and that's actually how we met. Not how we met, but how we ended up hooking up creatively.

Joe D: There was a whole lot of weed smoking going on too. I don't condone that but that…helps field relationships and ciphers, free style ciphers, and songs came out of that.

Cool Cee Brown: It was a reason to get up.

Joe D: It was a reason to get up and then we had the beat machine there so we'd plug the mic in, start recording, and the rest is history.

TRIBES: You're both from PG County, MD, just outside of WDC, which has produced a lot of criminal minds. Tell us about what it was like growing up in that area and how did it shape you as artists?

Joe D: All the dudes in PG County weren't doing things to get locked up. I mean, PG County is like the most affluent of black counties in the U.S. so there were a lot of kids that had opportunities and, you know, that's the beauty of us. We never front. We were never trying to be something that we weren't; and I was a smart kid. I did my stuff. I partied. I went to the go-go's and did all that stuff; but I pretty much kept my nose clean. That sort of [criminal] lifestyle was something that never really attracted me. I was DJ-ing. I was listening to hip-hop. I wasn't really into the whole thug life element.

TRIBES: You can definitely hear the honesty in your music.

Joe D: We value certain things. I think that being a man and raising your family and doing the right thing…that's harder than being hard. Being responsible is what should really be held high. So, [thugging] was never something I got into because I had parents there and a big brother that were always influences on me in a good way. I was going to do the right thing. You know, there was still that element, but I just knew that you have to do the best that you can for yourself.

TRIBES: Talk about the dominance of certain styles in Hip Hop music today?

Cool Cee Brown: At the end of the day, it all ends up being a good thing. Like Snoop used to say, "it all ends up being good" because even the corny, bubblegum stuff adds to the larger picture and once the mainstream market gets saturated with all the nonsense and they can't take it any more, the attention gets shifted back to the underground.

Get the full interview now!

Also visit www.dirtywatermusic.com or www.myspace.com/dirtywatermusic to listen and learn more!