Although old school rap has started to take a seat on the back burner, it is not enough to stop the Rusty P's from doing what they love. The Rusty P's are a midewest hip-hop group based out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. ReviewAConcert.com recently caught up with the guys and learned more about this entertaining group.
RAC: Could you give us a brief look at your history, (i.e. how did you get started, how did you decide your name)?
Phantom Channel and Cadillac aka Count Classic were in previous hip hop groups and in 1995 decided to form a super group. We didn't know what the name of the group for our first show. Still undecided we took the name from a Restaurant in Florida for the time being and by the time we really were doing shows on a regular basis I, Cadillac, couldn't get the other guys to agree to change it.
Liz Berlin is an original member of Rusted Root, a band that originated in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. She has been with the group for all of their original albums, along with several solo albums of her own. Rusted Root will soon begin a small Midwest tour in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio from December 26 to December 31. Tyler: You have a small tour coming up just after Christmas and just before New Years, any reason for this small tour?
Liz: We like to do tours during this time period about every year. It is fun for us.
Tyler: Why the Midwest?
Liz: Besides the fact that we need to stay in the same region for this small of the tour, we enjoy coming out to the Midwest and we have a lot of fans out there.
Ryan: Here we go, I’m with Tyson Ritter, we are leaning against his tour bus and it is July 1st. Care to say something for the mic?
Tyson: Hey, yeah, it is July 1st. Glad I’m finding this out.
Ryan: So, I gotta ask you, because I was here for Blue Öyster Cult and then I was here for John Kay. And the impression I tend to get with a lot of these older classic rock bands still playing is you get a mixture of the old and the young. But with your crowd, I gotta tell you, we’ve been through the crowd bumping around and whatnot and I don’t need to worry about the 6’5” burly 55 year old guy who’s gonna crack my skull.
Wolves are generally dangerous creatures, or so I’m told, but Kevin and I figured we would take our chances when we set up our interview with John Kay of Steppenwolf. We met with Charlie Wolf, Kay’s touring manager, a few minutes before Kay arrived on stage for sound tests and were led to the dressing room, backstage. Charlie was wonderful with helping us out and giving us access to the backstage and his friendly demeanor only helped to compliment his professional personality. As we waited for Kay to arrive, Kevin and I sat there, talking about how exactly we were going to go about this.
Art Alexakis’s 10-year span of being a staple at Milwaukee’s Summerfest was only solidified by his personality of being such a great musician. In the interview we talked about how his music has changed since his first performance in 1996. Alexakis stated that much as changed since his debut not necessarily in his music, but certainly with his own life. “Now I am a father of a teenager, not a four year old, that alone has changed me” Along with the growth of his daughter, he states that he now is “happier in my own skin than I was in ’96…the rage and anger are still there, but now I have experienced more of life and now know how to control those emotions.”
