"After The eNd" is the first solo project from Fair, one half of Mook N Fair, set to release in September. I was able to hear a sneak peek of the album at a listening party a couple weeks ago and from what I've heard, Fair is definitely trying to kick open yet another door in music. As an artist, he's used to working in groups most of his career, from back in the Wolfpak days to his recent two man team with Mook. Having met a level of success with the latter, he now decides to set his focus on trying to conquer the same game in 1-Player mode. I recently spoke with Fair about his upcoming project titled "After The eNd", his expectations on his first solo project, the meaning behind the name, and a few other things.
OC Supreme: What's up, Fair. Tell me, you got a project coming out. What's it called?
Fair: The name of the project is actually called "After The eNd". I do have a way of spelling it and I mean that’s something that a lot of people are talking about because it’s spelled regular with the first two words and the last word is eNd with a little a capital N and a small d at the end. It's kinda raising some eye brows right now.
OC: Have you explain the meaning behind that to the people yet?
Fair: No, I actually haven't. I just been running with it. What I did was I wanted to think of something to pun of the old Mook N Fair stuff, really just think of a dope title to kind of work with that so it does have a double meaning. Mook N Fair is spelled M-O-O-K, the letter N, and F-A-I-R. And my name Fair is after the "N", so that's where I came up with that.
OC: So what inspired you to come out with this project?
Fair: I had a lot of material that I've just been working on through the years of the group. It came to a point that it was so much stuff that I was sitting on, so why not just put it out. I think, it started out during the Wolfpak years. There was a point where it didn’t matter who was on the song. Whoever was there during that time puts out that song and it’s still under the Wolfpak umbrella. So that’s where this comes from. It’s mostly just me but it’s still under the Mook N Fair brand.
OC: How many tracks do you have on this project?
Fair: Between 15 and 17. Debating on two tracks.
OC: Are they all new tracks? Prerecorded?
Fair: Actually two are fairly old. But I re-recorded everything. You wouldn’t be able to guess which ones were old because I really tried to make this sound not really different, but more me. Because when you hear Mook N Fair, they’re used to a more upbeat, hype type of style, party anthems, songs for chicks, and songs like that. But with just me, I try to show some content. A lot of the times, I hear people saying “I like that Who’s Your Daddy?! Song but them dudes can’t rap, They ain’t got no lyrics.” And for me, that hit home, that hit my heart.
OC: Did that make you feel like a challenge?
Fair: I felt disrespected. (Laughs). And I think the people who said that didn’t really listen to a whole project from Mook N Fair. They only heard the radio songs. They might not have understood the plan that went behind that. So that’s one thing I really tried to do, and that’s one thing that’s really gonna stand out the most is people are gonna say “Damn, this motherfucker got a lot of content, there’s a lot of substance in what he’s talking about. He ain’t just rapping about random stuff.” That’s what I want people to take from this the most.
OC: Who are you trying to reach with your solo project?
Fair: I think at the beginning of this process, I would’ve said my demographic that I’m looking for is around 23 to 30. But right now, it opened up and I have to give credit to cats like Kendrick Lamar , J. Cole, and Wale because I feel like they are doing what it takes to bring in that young crowd into listening to some of the older music as well.
OC: Who did you end up working with on this for the production? Did you stay in-house? Networked outside your circle?
Fair: P Boogie actually did two joints on this project. We’ve worked with him on some of the Mook N Fair project, recently on the “Secret’s Out” project on a track with Chris Webby. Also DJ Semi, who we’ve never worked with, only on a DJ level and never on a production level. He has 4 joints on the project, as well as some scratches on other joints on this project. I even went way, way back in the crates and even got a D-Lux beat. If you’re a Waterbury head, you know who D-Lux is. I felt like I had to work with him because he has that essence in his beats. I have one from a major as well with NO I.D. There’s even an unreleased J. Dilla beat that I used. Rest in peace to J. Dilla. Obviously, I don’t have a full authority to use that, I felt like I needed one to get that extra Hip-Hop type of feel on this cd. I also got Meese Forbes out of Hartford is on it as well. I try to keep it as close to home as possible with who I chose for production. There are also tracks from Ralphie O from Royce Music Group (also under Justice League), Weezer Rascal, G-Whiz and Sandman.
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