What do you get when you mix a hit-making producer and an energetic, lyrically superior emcee? You get something so powerful it can only be shot from a Double Barrel—which happens to be the name of Marco Polo and Torae’s debut collaboration.

In a chance meeting in underground hero Masta Ace’s studio, the pair met, vibed and created a nostalgic sound that brings hip-hop heads back to a time when rap truly made a difference. There are times when fate is working overtime and Marco Polo and Torae’s introduction should have earned fate time and a half. The two worked together, for a common goal—giving music lovers an option outside of autotunes, skinny jeans and egos. With the recent release (June 2^nd) of Double Barrel, Marco Polo and Torae want to remind us of what hip-hop was and how it still can be as real, unadulterated and hearty as it once was.

By Danielle Young

Everything between you musically is pretty organic. Is that how the process was for recording Double Barrel?

Marco Polo: Definitely. It’s just all about being open minded. There [are] no egos here. If I’m doing something whack on my end with the beat, he’ll let me know and vice versa. [We're] ultimately working towards making the best music we can make. Just because you record something doesn’t mean it has to get used.

So you guys have a lot of unused songs?

Torae: Yeah, I think the first three songs we did didn’t make the album, but we just got into the groove of recording together and we offered each other constructive criticism. You just check your egos at the studio door. Marco is a great producer; that’s why I’m working with him. He thinks I’m a good emcee, so that’s why he’s in there working with me. We both understand that there is a mutual respect. If he says, “Yo, Tor, try this, this and that.” I’m going to try it because I know that he’s working with me because he thinks I’m good. He’s not doing my any favors and vice versa. His suggestions are only for me to be better; it’s not a detriment. When I pass on a beat, it’s not because the beat is whack. It’s just because I don’t think I can bring it to the next level. It just has to work and make sense together. That’s why we make the type of music that we make. I think that’s why people feel our music the way they feel it because we make it for all the right reasons.

Now that you guys have Double Barrel under your belt, are you guys going to be doing more things together?

Torae: I think we’ve got the basic foundation, which is the respect and a genuine love for the music we make. I think once you have that foundation, you can always build on it. I think a lot of people tend to do things for the wrong reason—because it’s a good look or a buzz builder. Whereas, me and Marco—that’s the homie—so anytime you have that foundation, you have the potential to keep making music. Of course if there is a demand and we feel like we can go back into the lab and make something that makes sense and make good timeless, classic music, then we’re going to do it. We’re going back because we feel we have something to contribute and we both want to go in and make music.

You guys draw a lot of your inspiration from more of an old school sound like Wu Tang, Kool G Rap, etc…are you trying to bring that back or is this just for nostalgia’s sake?

Torae: I draw my creativity off of my inspiration and as an artist that grew up listening to hip hop music in the nineties—that’s everything that inspired me to want to be an artist—that made me want to create music is from artists from that golden era. I’m not trying to bring it back; I don’t want to knock 10 years off my life. I do want to evoke that same emotion in people that I felt when I heard that music. It inspired me. It made me love it. It made me embrace it, adore it and embody everything I was as a person. Coming up, it defined me. I want to create music that I feel like will define someone in this generation. There are kids that are 12 and 13 right now that will hear Double Barrel and it will change their perspective on a lot of things. At the end of the day, that’s all I really want. I’m not trying to bring it back; just making and creating music from a standpoint of, “This is how I was inspired. This is what it inspired me to make, let me see if I can continue that on.”

As far as music is concerned now, hip-hop has taken on more experimentation. Why do you think that is?

Marco Polo: I think a lot of artists, instead of staying true to the things that they’re good at and makes them stand out, are more focused on what’s popular so they can copy that. There’s a lot of biting going on, so you get a lot of clones and reinterpretation of the last hit. Nothing new, fresh or exciting is coming to the table. I know for me, as a producer, since I started and got mild success from the independent releases, I want to stay true to the things that make people like me for what I do. The moment I start trying to be like everybody else producer and artist-wise, I’m going to go out of my element. I think that me and Tor are trying to focus on what we’re good at—what brought us this success up until now and not really follow what’s going on with an updated sound.

Torae: To add on to that, it’s a lot of politics involved in the music business; a lot of propaganda and smoke in mirrors. For Marco and I to make the album we made; we took a risk. Obviously it’s not the most commercially successful album we could have made, but we did it for the love. We didn’t do it to chase a dream or a goal, as far as the sales projections or keeping up with what’s going on. At the end of the day, we can play this album 5-10 years down the road and still be proud of what we made. 

You both are doing big things underground. Is there any desire to come into the mainstream spotlight?

Marco Polo: Me and Torae would both love to achieve success commercially. Personally, I would love to do it with what I do, though. Like I said, I think the moment I try and do things to do that, is when I’m going to fall off. If I can bring an element of Marco Polo production and music in a way that is more accessible to people; that would be my ultimate goal. My dream is to do me and have it be successful. I’m never going to stop doing my style of beats, which is known to be boom bap-ish and true to the field of hip hop production. For me, I would love to be big and have lots of nice shit [laughs]. It would be dope doing it making the music that me and Tor make. I think it’s possible. For whatever reason, hip hop goes through cycles and it’s just got to turn around so that corporations can find a way to make money off of original hip hop again. Once that happens, it will come back around.

Torae: Definitely. What Marco said. Nobody in life wants to struggle and not attain certain things in life. We love the music and at the end of the day, it’s a job for us. You can’t intern forever [laughs] and you don’t want to work for free. At the same time, you don’t want to lose yourself chasing a hit. That’s corny. I’ve seen a handful of artists stay true to themselves and gain commercial success. For me, just having a record in stores, being able to tour, being recognized when I’m walking down the street or riding the train, that’s success to me. I can walk in a record store right now and pick up my project; people see it. My grandmother sees me in magazines and calls me to tell me she’s proud, then I feel like I’ve attained a certain amount of success because that’s always been my dream to do it. Monetarily, if that could accompany it a little bit [laughs] that’s all fine as well. If not, I’m going to continue to do what I do because as long as I do it to the best of my ability, I will always be able to make a living out of it.

Is there anyone you respect in the game right now?

Torae: I don’t knock anybody for doing anything as long as they’re providing for themselves and their families and doing it the right way and it’s not harming me. I got to respect everybody that was able to come up out of the hood and make money from their music. As far as the integrity—that leaves little to be desired. A lot of people are out there making music that is more of a detriment to the community than help. You turn on the radio and hear “Birthday Sex” behind “Pop Champagne”…The morals in society tend to diminish because this is what they hear—the propaganda—and they think it’s acceptable. I think the responsibility in the content they put out needs to be stepped up. I can’t knock anybody for trying to make a living. Some people look at it as merely a hustle; I look at it as a way of life.

Double Barrel has a lot of violent content [Torae laughs]. Do you feel violent music also affects the youth as much as the “Pop Champagne” songs?

Torae: This album is definitely hard. By no means will I ever try and sugar coat it and it was done for a reason. Obviously we made it because it was the music we wanted to make, but it’s so much candy coated, popcorn fluff out there [laughs]. This is almost a direct contrast to that. It’s not pretty, bright and colorful. It’s dark and hard. It was a time for that. There was nothing being done of this type of sound in the last few years and I feel like people want to hear it. You’ve got to have a balance and right now, there is no balance. Everything is real light; there’s nothing hard. There’s nothing mirroring the other side of reality. Reality is there’s violence in the streets. There’s still a lot of things going on. I can’t rap about anything more than what I know, so [for me] there’s no Maybachs, Bentleys and things like that. That’s not my reality. My reality is how are we going to eat tomorrow, my man got killed, my man got locked up and I don’t want to glorify those things, but it is a part of life.

So that’s the difference. There is no glorifying of this lifestyle in your music, only a recounting of past experiences?

Torae: It’s the reality. People can relate to it and obviously, you want to make it better. Sometimes people attain a certain amount of success and dip up out of the hood and never look back. My thing is, you know what’s going on out there. Let’s do something to help the community. If I can raise awareness—because that’s really all it’s doing—then I’m good. The title of the album is Double Barrel and you can pull different meanings from that. Like every other rapper says, “I’m just talking about what’s going on in my neighborhood”—that’s pretty much it. I’m just reporting what I see when I look out my window. If it’s too real for you, let’s do something to change it. Just turning your head from the situation doesn’t change it at all.

Torae, how would you describe Marco’s style of production in three words?

Torae: Raw, gritty and nostalgic.

Marco, how would you describe Torae as an emcee in three words?

Marco: On Double Barrel, I’m going to say excitement, hype and real.

Other than on the strength that it’s Marco Polo and Torae, what will make people go out and get Double Barrel?

Marco: There’s nothing else available like it. I think we brought something to the table that’s just not there anymore. I really want to avoid the whole “trying to bring it back,” because we’re not. That wasn’t our mission. We’re just trying to make music that we wanted to hear. A fanbase still exists for this type of hip-hop and I think if anything, we’re just giving people an option that should have always been there. For whatever reason, over the years, it’s just not there anymore.

Where are you guys going individually in your careers and what’s coming up next for you both?

Torae: Honestly, I like to focus my attention on one project, one mission, one goal at a time. Right now, everything is Double Barrel. Everything is Marco Polo and Torae. That’s all I’m focused on right now. I want people to know that we spent the last two years of our lives making this album because there was a void, there were people complaining that the type of music they grew up on [wasn’t] being made or represented. I felt like that too. Instead of complaining, I wanted to just go in and be a part of the solution and not the problem. I put my all into Double Barrel—I put two years in it and I want to put another two in promoting it. I want to make sure that people get it, understand it. And people that really understand the music, know that we went out there and made the music for them. It’s there now, so go out there and support it.

What about you Marco?

Marco: I agree. Creatively and artistically, me and Tor are both artists. So, we’re always going to be creating new music no matter what project we’re promoting….With our outlet being smaller—being on an indie—[people] are going to discover this album when they discover it. There’s not two million copies in stores. Over the next year or so, people will be discovering it and we’ve got to be around to let them know about it. It would be selling ourselves short to be making an album over the last two years and just let it go. Both of us are focused on promoting Double Barrel, touring and just hitting people up from all over the world because it’s something people need to hear. We’re definitely putting in effort to have it at the forefront.

Check out one of hip-hop’s most dynamic duos at www.myspace.com/doublebarrel08