On January 15th I had the opportunity to interview Ryan and Tenelle personally and here’s what they had to say..
Juicy Peach: What does freedom mean to you?
Tenelle: The ability to live as you chose.
Ryan: Being mentally free and able to do what you choose.
Juicy Peach: Where does your inspiration as artists come from?
Tenelle: I feel like with the experiences that we’ve had in the past few years and the fact that we can become an artist is more real to me. It has always been a dream of mine but now I’ve seen more, I’ve experienced more in life. And I feel like just more prepared to be what we would like to be.
Ryan: To add to that the inspiration for me would be the ability to kind of do what I want. I’m inspired by the fact of wanting to live out my dreams. Like my dreams are my inspiration and my motivation and they keep me going. Just that motivation to continue on to make our dreams come true is a big inspiration.
Juicy Peach:I know that you guys like Kanye, Drake, Jay-z, Wayne, and Lupe but who is the artist that you admire the most?
Tenelle: kanye
Ryan: Pharell
Juicy Peach: How has your bond grew since the 2nd or 3rd grade?
Tenelle: it’s basically the same we’re brothers. We went to the same schools every school that he’s been to I’ve been to. I’ve been with him since day 1 so now we kind of in the real world for the first time as adults. And we gearing up to chase our next task and that’s becoming a main stream artist or a national artist or whatever you want to call it. Getting rich getting this bread and doing what we like to do. Having fun and taking our family lives to the next level so they can enjoy their lives more. And escaping this hell hole we live in called north Saint Louis. But aint nothing really changed from us we the same people to each other we just been growing, days have gone by but that’s about it.
Juicy Peach: Who are you looking forward to collaborating with?
Ryan: I don’t know if I’m looking forward to collaborating with anybody. Right now I’m more so looking forward to the world hearing our music than us collaborating with somebody. Some of my musical idols I’m looking forward to them hearing my music versus than just a group of people that I’m looking to collaborating with right now.
Tenelle: I agree with what he said right now we just trying to get our foot in the door period. A lot of collaborations for me I would like to just come organically I wouldn’t try to force it just because I like so and so. If I knew them and if I could meet them and I hear them on something it would just have to come about. It’s more of a see what happens kind of thing. You might have someone who u think you may wanted to work with and they may suck or when you meet them they may not be the person you thought they were. But I would like to work with some producers I really like hit boy and overdose a lot and a lot of young artist that we would collaborate with and make some tight music with.
Juicy Peach: That’s deep a lot of people are always looking to collaborate with somebody for example like Wayne just to get on. That’s dope that ya’ll are really standing on your own. So that’s definitely what’s up.
Juicy Peach: So let’s talk about your single Family which is now being sold on iTunes I actually copped it so I have it on my phone. How does it feel to know that people from all areas support yall?
Tenelle: It’s a great feeling. We got a chance this past summer to go open up for Wale in New York. I don’t know how much time you’ve spent your life in St. Louis but here it’s like we always knew we were tight ourselves but everybody just knew us as who we were before we rapped so I don’t know if they just don’t wanna take you seriously or whatever but here we never got the reaction that we got like we did in New York. People were treating us like we were God’s gift to earth after we got done with our set. It’s a great feeling to know that people are listening. We have people who like our music in the UK and just all different types of places and it’s really special because it shows you how much hip-hop has grown. It’s not based off what areas you’re from or nothing like that. We are evolving as a culture. So that’s a good feeling for me.
Juicy Peach: Speaking on the chorus of Family “I’m trying to do this for my family got a plan A I ain’t got no plan B. “Ryan what is your ultimate vision for yourself that you can’t see being altered?
Ryan: I want to be an influence to people the way that people influence me. I want to be an influence for people to do what they want to do. Hopefully I can influence people in a way that my music can make them have a good day. Or my music can inspire them to get through issues with their families and they can look to me as a positive influence. You don’t necessarily have to meet somebody for them to be a positive influence on you. Growing up in St. Louis I was into music and basketball we didn’t have a NBA team and celebrities weren’t coming through here so I had to be influenced by those people from a far. So hopefully if I can’t come in contact with some people physically I can just be an influence to them and they can do what they want to do.
Juicy Peach:Tenelle In your verse on Family you stated “Stay loyal to the people you start your grind with.” Who has been down with you since you’ve started your Souls of Liberty grind besides Ryan?
Tenelle: My family just in general outside of me, special friends and family. Since our career started I feel like it’s been me, Ryan, and maybe my homeboy c he’s a dope artist you should check him out. Ryan’s cousin Kevin been down since day 1 and my cousin lil Dave he’s been down since day 1. Our peer group and our circle of friends for the most part have been real supportive since day 1. But then it’s been people also that are close to me on a personal level who we just now winning over because maybe they never thought it were realistic for us to be doing something on a big scale. A lot of people may love you but also at the same time they are like” Well make sure you finish school because you never know…..” They didn’t have unyielding faith and now we’re starting to get them to the point where they believe. People are starting to see the potential that we always saw in ourselves. But my cousins and my close friends gave me the reassurance that I was tight and that I could do it.
Juicy Peach: What is the meaning behind the album title 10,000 hours?
Tenelle: 10,000 hours is a theory that was made by this man named Malcolm Gladwell where he says deliberate practice for 10,000 hours will master your craft. I came across it on YouTube. He has a book called Outliers that’s really popular in American Culture and I ended up reading that after I found about it. But I’ve always randomly heard the saying 10,000 hours and I came across a basketball YouTube series randomly about two kids who weren’t prototypical basketball players but they were trying to work hard to reach their goals and putting 10,000 hours in it and see what happen. They were documenting their workouts in the gym and running bleachers. Doing all the things that they could possibly do to fulfil their potential and it kind of related to us because I felt like we have put that time in but we have to continue to work hard. This album for us is not just any album, it’s us finally reaching our potential or working through to the point where we finally mastered our craft and we’ve been working towards it slowly over time throughout the course of our life but now we finally made it there. We put the work in and we feel like we deserve it. We didn’t deserve it any other time because we didn’t put enough work in. If you’re not on its nobody else fault it goes back to what you’re doing. And this time I think we got it all together because we mastered it.
Juicy Peach: I know that you guys just recently shot your video for your new single Future Millionaires which is dropping Friday so what is the first thing that you would do when you receive a million dollars?
Ryan: Invest it! Invest it in what I don’t know but I don’t think I would spend it on anything. I feel like I’m a long way from a million dollars so I feel like I would do something more exciting with my first 100,000 dollars like the first million dollars I feel like I would just be afraid that I wouldn’t get it again so to be safe I would save my million so I would always have a million dollars.
Tenelle: I would definitely take care of my momma, do something hella tight for her that she hasn’t been able to do. She hasn’t been able to travel or do anything that she wanted to do so I would try to do something great for her for holding me down all this time. And for my aunt and other people that’s special for me. But outside of that I would do like Ryan and start thinking of ways to use that money to make some more. Like how I’m gone make this next million and how I’m going to make it to a billion. Basically invest it in different things maybe like real-estate ventures, pay some stuff off for my mama and I would pay off my student loans so uncle Sam can get the f*** off me real quick. And after that just grind and put it back into the stuff that we love to do.
Juicy Peach: If you could give one piece of advice to the opposite of sex what would that be?
Tenelle: I would let them know that they’re beautiful and to communicate. Don’t hold your tongue if you feel a certain way make sure the man you’re involved with know that. Men can’t read minds. Most of the time all of the issues I had were because either the women were not extremely secure with their selves or they expect you to know what’s gone make them happy. So make sure you always have the lines of communication open and if you feel a certain way don’t keep it in and expect for anybody to know.
Ryan: I would tell the opposite sex to stay patient. I feel like a lot of girls see they friends getting married especially our age and they want to do it also. So I would tell them to stay patient even if they have a partner stay patient with their partner because men don’t get the best hints and majority of the time. Just stay patient and work with him.
Tenelle: I wanna add on to my answer. If you getting dogged…DON’T LET NO BODY DOG YOU. As I grew up I’ve watched a lot of women in my family personally just be with men that they don’t need to be with at all and a lot of girls feel like they can make a man better. You can’t just do a makeover of somebody. Like if he’s and idiot and you take him in he not gone get smarter and get his degree. You can’t do that it’s not pimp my ride. A lot of girls need to know when to keyshia Cole the situation and let it go and move on.
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I love to hear what’s in a mans mind. Being patient is a start. But how long is too patient? How about men be men and not boys and not need a woman to be patient putting up with childish mess.
It’s always great to see & hear about young black men doing something positive! Music is therapeutic and can diff innately strengthen relationships… It’s even more inspiring that they have known each other since they were children, and are still growing and creating as a team.