Now there's Part 2:
M: We always wanted to be like Kenny Rogers, Cher, David Hasselhoff, Boz Scagg, people like that. That’s the leaders of the Greatest-Hits-League. We want to be there, too.
V: That’s the artistic range in which you want to fit in?
M: Hell yes, think about it for a minute. Those people got an ego. That’s insane.
V: I think it’s amazing how timeless most of your songs sound. Was that always your intention?
M: At least not apparently. It was always about creating something consistent. You know, if you work on something for several months or even years and then go on tour with that, you want to still like it two years later. So it’s kind of egoistic as well.
V: That’s what the progress from each album to the next is about, too?
M: That’s more about being artists again: you don’t want to repeat yourself. And you want to create something you’ve never heard before. Otherwise it would be boring. Those two things have always been the energy behind our music.
V: So it was always the search for innovation?
M: In a way it was. But that’s not unusual. It’s just the nature of it: Hip Hop is renovation. The basic evolution of Hip Hop is, that from time to time there were always records, turning all the well-established stuff upside down. There’s always been those creative powers, messing up everything known as Hip Hop.
V: I don’t see that kind of evolution in the last 7 or 8 years. Seems to me that Hip Hop - with some exceptions like Outkast or Neptunes – because of it’s commercialisation remained in it’s own stigma. And even you guys returned to Old School…
M: In that way Hip Hop’s not that different to other kinds of music: the longer something remains, the more sophisticated are the different styles and scenarios. So the renewal gets more difficult all the time. Or you start to revitalize the tradition, like we did with “To the 5 Boroughs”. And even then you get surprisingly new music. Does that happen with Pop?
V: Not very often.
M: And why is that? Because Pop Music is there twice as long as Hip Hop. Now you see the development.
To be continued...
I'm sorry for the bad translation. I hope you get it anyway
