HHG  : Tell us about Street Radio.
J. Math : When Jimi and I first got up, I was coming with a dark, street sound and he was popping off with all these radio hits for Murder Inc. As we started vibing together, our sounds started meshing. The concept of Street Radio just made perfect sense.

Jimi Kendrix : Street Radio is that new sound coming out of New York. You don’t hear niggas doing what we doing. We are the gutter, the frontline, and when you hear it it’s crazy. But at the same time we keep it approachable with a commercial twist. Some people call us the New York Neptunes.

HHG  : So how did your show The Frontline come about ?
J. Math : A while back I started messing with acapellas to singles that were fresh out. Our tracks just changed the way a whole song would sound. The remixes started pumping out and we got a lot of really good response to them. People started to compare what we were doing to Green lantern and Clinton Sparks, so it was only natural for a radio show to come next. You can catch us on www.swurvradio.com every Thursday from 11pm to 1am EST !

HHG  : I see the chemistry between you guys and the whole vibe of the show. What makes you work so well together ?
Jimi : I’ve got a church background. Math keeps it a little more gutter. We’re like night and day. Our styles just bounce off each other and it keeps us moving. That same energy goes into the show.

J. Math : The show is just us chilling and playing the music we like to hear, including our own. It’s about 90% New York music, from the late 80’s up til right now. It’s a lot of serious music, but we’re play and joke, and just have fun up there. It’s a good feeling.

HHG  : I see you are getting good reactions to the show. What are your plans for that and where do you want to take it.
J. Math : Well right now the show is in its experimental stage. They love us already so we’ll see how it goes. We about to do drop a SwurvRadio.com/Street Radio mixtape with DJ Big Mike so that’s going to be a good look.

Jimi : We’re just grinding right now. We giving people something they need. Street Radio is not just music ; it’s a movement. So when we get on that mic, that’s what you get. Nothing is orchestrated. We have a vibe, we laugh, we just us and that’s why people love it.

HHG  : Who can we expect music from produced by Street Radio ?
J. Math : We got something on the new Bone Thugs album dropping this Christmas on Interscope. That’s going to be hot. The track is called “9 millimeter”. Remy Ma, Fabolous, bunch of stuff coming up in 2007.

HHG  : I see both of you have different production styles. How do you work it out in the studio ?
J. Math : Sometimes we work together and sometimes we work separately in our labs. Then we just come together and the pieces fall into place. It’s all a big pot and we each throw our pieces in.

Jimi : One of us might be cutting up samples while the other is mixing tracks. But when we get back together, we bring everything we’ve been working on. And once we start mixing it all up, it becomes that much bigger.

HHG  : You had mentioned the New York sound. What do you think of the current state of Hip-Hop in NY ?
Jimi : I feel like the south took all the energy and ran with it. You have a lot of cats now from NY that are switching sides. Doing snap music and screwing and chopping. Not sticking with the NY sound.

J. Math : Shout out to everyone trying to do their own thing and all the producers that still try to be original.

HHG : I heard you also have a youth program,
Jimi : Street Radio loves the kids ! It’s just great to be able to give back and have fun doing it. Big shout to A.E.E.P. !

J. Math : Yeah, it’s a program in Brooklyn for 16-21 year old at-risk kids. We get knuckleheads, lot of kids in gangs, kids that have been in and out of jail. I’ve been working there for about 5 years, doing my program “Rap, Poetry, & Word”. We bring the kids into the studio and let them put their life on the line. When Jimi joined up with us, it got that much better. They can do poetry or rap. We basically provide an outlet to for them to speak their minds.

HHG  : So Street Radio is for the kids too.
Jimi : (laughs) Amen !

HHG  : I know there must be a lot of talent in the program and you actually get to see the kids grow as artists. Have you come across anybody that has caught your eye that you would be interested in working with professionally ? Or is that something you are not interested in ?

J. Math : Well, a lot of the focus is on using music as therapy and helping kids face issues in their lives by writing about it. So I don’t think we’d ever be interested in releasing that material because it’s so personal. But we are working with this kid Gutta out of Bed-Stuy who was in the program a few years ago. So you never know !

HHG : So you guys are everywhere from the Internet to radio to production to helping out the kids. What can we expect from Jimi Kendrix and J. Math in the future ?

Jimi : We’re just connecting all the dots right now and watching it grow. But our priority is producing and continuing to work with these artists. We’re just taking it one day at a time.

Los Hustles
www.myspace.com/MusicIsMyHuStLe