Heavy Gun Interviews Rusty Redenbacher of The MudKids

The New MUDKIDS album 'MKEP' will be out (online) Tuesday, August 25 so, I caught up with the hardest working man in hiphop at Luna Music to pick his brain about everything: Kings of Leon, Cutting the Locks, Spiderman, Indy hiphop, and the new album.

HG (Grey): QUICK!gimme names, 5 songs from your "what I am playing in my car now" playlist:

Rusty: Bangin' this MJ mix I just did, alpha's 'Steal From The Rich' mixtape, E Dot's 'Inside My Backpack' mixtape, still riding to Kings Of Leon, and I've been smashing Bad Brains first cassette from 1982 (learning the songs for a set of Bad Brains covers I'm doing with You Will Die at The Melody Inn this Halloween)

HG (Grey):You are the father of Indy hip-hop and hardest working artist where does your motivation come from?

Rusty: I prefer to not think of my peers as people I brought up or anything like that. I will always be working with cats from around here, because it's how a scene develops. If anything, I'm more like a big 'play-Uncle'. I wanna see all of US do well.

...and I do work my ass off, yo. Thanks for the props on that. The motivation is just the fact that THIS is WHAT I DO. I really feel like somehow, someway, I will always be involved with the Music.

HG (Grey): I was at a hiphop show recently and almost everybody on stage came off like they came right out of your nut sack and, you raised them up to be good emcees but they fell a bit short and turned out to be just ok with the rhymes. I think people think they have it (what it takes) and they can rap but, it just doesn’t translate well when they are on a stage with 50 or 100 party people in front of them. Can you please give them a hint, how can they improve on this?

Rusty: I would say a lotta what makes a show special to the audience is a real connection with the people performing. Little things like making sure you keep your eyes open when you rap keep you in the moment. I have said that everybody in the world has written two raps in their life. EVERYONE. So, you better make yours special, from the presentation to the recording to the performance. Just mean it and show it. It should translate naturally...and that's not just for rappers, that's for everybody that performs.

HG (Grey):
Will you ever cut your hair?

Rusty: No plans on cutting the hair, but there are some summer days when it would be nice. This stuff gets hot! I've dealt with it this long, why cut it now?

HG (Grey): Ha! I can't even imagine you without your hair, that would be the biggest event ever- "$50 to get in son" *says the big door man* hmmm... welll.... do you have Any regrettable tattoos?

Rusty: I have some ink that I wouldn't say is choice. Some of the first stuff I got is pretty wack ('tribal', ugh) and the very first one I got is REALLY bad (no one ever sees it), but I don't regret them. They're just reminders of what not to do. Now, if I had 50something stars on my face like that girl in Europe, I'd regret that. These ain't that bad and they're outta sight for the most part. I've made sure that anything I got since my first run has been something of quality and meant something important.

HG (Grey): Your name is Godly Golden in Indiana, I feel like you could do more for Indy, yourself and the world, everybody in all the right places are on your team- "you can do no wrong". Do you have any thoughts on starting your own label or Starting a music festival?

Rusty: Man, thanks again. Like I said, I really am for everybody around here and I'd like to give YOU a big shout-out for all YOU are doing. This blog, your music, the people are recognizing you, bruh.

I wouldn't mind getting into a more inside game. We have a great team around MUDKIDS now, so I could learn some of the inner workings from people I know and trust. I've always been about the 'indie' thang and it would be nice to see something like that happen later in my career. I still got some work to do with all the stuff we have going on for ourselves, though. At this time, it wouldn't be fair for me to try to spearhead any label or festival just yet, because I've gotta focus on all the MUDKIDS stuff.

AY YO, OUT THERE!! THAT JUNK COSTS MONEY TOO!!! Look at all this talent in Nap, man! Somebody with some cake help us get that together, we gotta team up in heah!

HG (Grey): Marvel or DC? All time best comic book series?

Rusty: Marvel. All day. Marvel. Spidey, Daredevil, X-Men....sheeeeeyet...Marvel. (Although DC has the edge in the movies. 'The Dark Knight' trumps 'Spider-Man')
HG (Grey):Can I RT that in a this blog???

HG (Grey): What will make this new album stand out from your past work?

Rusty: I feel like this EP and the LP ('We Are Dynamic And People Like Us') to follow are easily the most mature work we have done. Tyler's tracks are absolutely stunning on a few of these joints. We reached for something new on a few tracks and we've gotten comfortable enough to where we will try just about anything. I'm singing a bot more, there's definitely more melody involved. I'm also really trying to focus my writing. I've never felt like I was the strongest story-teller when it came to rapping, so I am trying to add some new elements to my game.

'MKEP' and 'WADAPLU' easily rank with some of our best stuff. If you like MUDKIDS already, it's a great continuation and if you are getting hip to us now, it's not a bad place to start.

Anything else you want to add?

Rusty: Yeah, thanks again...and cop MUDKIDS 'MKEP' online Tuesday, August 25! We're all over the net, so please check us out and stay in touch. Respect and Grace, always.


FOR THE REST OF THIS INTERVIEW GO TO blogs.myspace.com/heavygunblog

or click here RUSTY INTERVIEW

MUDKIDS ON MYSPACE - http://myspace.com/mudkids
MUDKIDS ON FACEBOOK - http://www.facebook.com/pages/MUDKIDS/27167199418?ref=ts
MUDKIDS ON TWITTER - http://twitter.com/mudkids
MUDKIDS TV - http://youtube.com/mudkids
MUDKIDS on iTunes - http://itunes.com/mudkids
RUSTY on MYSPACE - http://myspace.com/rustyredenbacherofthemudkids
RUSTY on TWITTER - http://twitter.com/rustymk2
NEED BEATS? GET AT TYLER KNAPP (ELP-MASS of the MUDKIDS) - http://tknapprecordings.com

PEACE, RESPECT, AND GRACE. RR