UTG INTERVIEW: 832 Discuss Family Legacy and Their History With Hip-Hop

Oklahoma City’s 832 is comprised of two brothers who are three years apart in age. Solomis and Nawlege 405 grew up with an inherent love for music which evolved into a love for hip-hop specifically, as well as a passion and career path inspired by the likes of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.

Fresh off a performance at SXSW in Austin, TX, we had the chance to chat with 832 about their progression as musicians, the legacy involved with the 832 moniker, and the reasons as to why their message and lyrics are unique to the rap genre. Get the scoop below on all these things and more.

UTG: As siblings growing up together, what are your backgrounds like when it comes to music? Did you have music in your home a lot as children?

832: We don’t remember a moment where there wasn’t music in the house. Our mom always brought new music home but at the same time would not let us forget about the oldies. If there was a remake of a song or a hip-hop sample of a song, she would always let us know where it came from, and when the opportunity came up she wouldn’t let us ignore it.

When did you two first start growing an interest in hip-hop and how did that all start for you? Any specific artists that really influenced your love for the genre?

832: The first time we’ve ever heard Bone Thugs in ’94, it captivated us to the point that we wanted to know everything that they were doing, what their names were, and the day their album drops because we wanted it as soon as it came out. We were 8 and 5 at the time and we wanted to be them, we thought we were them. We tried to learn the words but we couldn’t always grasp the words so we would create our own words. When that happened we started to create our own songs by beat boxing and freestyling, we weren’t very good obviously, but that was our start.

There’s obviously not a lot of well-know talent coming out of OK, especially in hip-hop, to my knowledge at least. Do you feel like that puts any pressure on you to be successful and represent your city and state?

832: Yes it does because the hip-hop is not well-known therefore it can make or break an artist coming out of this city, and in order for this city to have a future someone has to show that this city exists in hip-hop.

What is the music scene, and hip-hop scene specifically, like in your area?

832: Country music never seems to be a problem, and rock and roll. There is just as much hip-hop as anywhere else that we’ve seen, it just tends to get overlooked, but it has been looking up for guys like us and others from OKC, especially after the basketball team came in effect. It helped bring a lot of attention to try to make our presence known.

You guys tend to stray from what most would consider “typical rap lyrics.” Where does the inspiration behind your message and lyrical content come from and why was it important for you to take that path with your music?

832: The inspiration comes from experience and observing what’s around us, and when we converse with the new generation it hurts with some of the things we’ve heard from the youth and even peers. We want people to open their eyes and show them things outside of what they’re used to and maybe it can help save lives for people who don’t think they have a future. That’s why it was important for us to take a stand and go down that path with our music.

The name 832, along with the artwork of your newest album I believe, have very real, personal meanings for you. Could you explain a bit about that?

832: The name 832 came from the residence in which we lived for half of our lives, and we gained a lot of memories in that house and lost a lot of belongings that would’ve created a different legacy for our family. After it was burned to the ground in 2002 it changed our lives a lot, but we never wanted to forget where we started so we decided to use our home address to create a better legacy for us. The artwork was not intentional but as we continued to try to develop on what the artwork would look like, that was the most fitting and it hit us right in the heart when we saw the final product.

832 rapture

And continuing on a bit about The RAP-ture – it covers a lot of ground. 16 tracks, over an hour of music. It’s ambitious. From your works that came before it up to the process of writing and recording this album, how do you feel you grew and progressed as musicians. Are there any specific aspects of your work that you feel you got better at or put more focus into than you had before?

832: We always wanted to create this album from the moment when we started to record our Synergy EP but we knew our skill level wasn’t ready and the way we wanted The RAP-ture to sound wasn’t right. Our process of writing didn’t change much but our experiences did and our growth definitely helped. Our structure to create a song is extremely different from when we started as far as what beats to choose and how to approach the record without compromising the truth. Back then we weren’t open enough to tell our story so we had a lot of problems explaining who we are but that is no longer the case. We make sure that if we touch on subjects we have experience with it ourselves so that the person that’s going through that same problem or fulfillment can feel it like we did.

You guys just performed at SXSW recently. Was this your first time at the festival?

832: Yes. It was our first time as performers and fans.

How would you detail your experience both in performing during SXSW and just being there as spectators as well? Can you see yourselves going back next year?

832: We’ll definitely do it again, we just hope to be further ahead in the game so we can be in a bigger venue. But as spectators we learned a lot about what to do and what not to do. There were lots of times where we accidentally shot ourselves in the foot by being so ill-prepared. The rainfall didn’t help much either but things still could’ve been better. Many lessons well learned but overall it was a fun experience.

Your video for “Burn” has been out for a bit now. Do you have plans in the works for your next single and video?

832: We do but everyone has to be on the same page at the same time; things aren’t nearly as easy when we have to do everything ourselves.

And The RAP-ture‘s been out for about 4 months – have you already been working on new material or have anything locked down as far as your next release?

832: We know what we want to do as far as the next release, but the spark has not hit us quite yet, but we know it’ll be right on time when we do.

As for the rest of 2015, what all do you guys have in store? Any big plans you can reveal?

832: We are planning a tour this summer so look out for that – updates will be coming soon, and the next show we’ll be doing will be in Dallas, TX on April 2 at Poor David’s Lounge. If you are a fan in Dallas make sure you guys get your tickets at Aftonshows and we’ll see you there!

Brian Leak
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