DX: Where do you think that comes from?
Von Pea: I think it comes from accessibility. It’s easy to be an artist now. There’s a lot of people without money that deserve to be an artist, and there’s some people with or without money that don’t deserve it, but they just have the access to it. The reason I put money into it is because…you’re sitting around with a lot of talent, but you can’t afford a MTV or you can’t afford to go to a studio that’s $75 an hour, you should be allowed to sit at home with your $200 mic and your crack of Protools and make your music. But then you have people that have the same thing that just have it for no reason, and now they think they’re an artist. You buy a Mac now, and it comes with music software to make beats and all of that. I don’t mean that to sound like everybody shouldn’t have a chance, ‘cause they should, but this is everybody – and it’s not supposed to be everybody.
Ilyas: The only thing is bothersome about that, at times, when you step off the stage or whatever, and people approach you. You’re thinking, “Word! A fan. They really appreciate what I do.” And then they’ll be like, “Yo, I should get your number,” and you’ll be like, “Ahhh!” They came to politic.
Von Pea: We don’t really do that. We go to shows, and we just go as fans, there chillin’, and they might be like, “So, what’s up?” We’re just there being fans.
Donwill: We just go to look at a show. I’m not saying I don’t want to work with people, but it pushes me away. There are certain channels of appropriateness that you have to go through. Sometimes it’s not in good taste to coattail another man’s lane, or side-swipe it.
Von Pea: Sometimes you just gotta be a fan, man. It’s funny, I saw my man Skyzoo, and I see him a lot. I had a magazine he was in, and I said, “Yo, sign my magazine.” He was like, “I’m not signing that. You’re Von Pea, blah blah blah.” I’m like, “Nah. Sign it! Sign it!” You’ve got to remain a fan too. Nobody’s an artist no more – especially in Hip Hop, at least they’re not treated like one. And keeping it 100, a lot of times, it’s artists that I know for a fact that I want to do joints with them, but I won’t, just for the simple fact that I would rather enjoy them as an artist, and enjoy how they influence me. The song’s allowed to happen, but it has to be a natural setting; you can’t really force anything. That’s the problem with Hip Hop sometimes, is you’re forcing something that’s natural.

DX: Is that one of the reasons we don’t see Tanya Morgan doing a lot of collaborations?
Donwill: If you like every collaboration we’ve done, from production to emcee, that’s a personal relationship. Those collaborations came about as easy as you goin’ out and getting a drink with somebody. It was nothing like, “Yo, do this track!”
Von Pea: And if you look at the mixtape we put out with DJ Soul, Tanya Morgan Is A Rap Group mixtape [click to listen], the people on that, those are all friends. The joint ["Shake It Off"] with Torae [click to read] and Supastition, that’s just off the strength of being homeboys with them. Naledge from Kidz In The Hall [click to read] – we were all just hanging out one night and were like, “Yo, we gotta do something.” It should always be natural, ‘cause that’s when it works the best.
Ilyad: Without a bunch of collaborations, we know our fans are our fans. We don’t have just a bunch of people checkin’ for us ‘cause we did a song with so-and-so, and that’s real.

DX: Moonlighting is still finding its way to new fans, simply because independent releases get out there a bit slower. Do you guys find a lot of fans still treating that album like it’s brand new after two years?
Donwill: We’ve been touring the past two years off of Moonlighting. With all due respect, whenever it touches you, it’s brand new. As artists, in order to make your statements, you make one statement an album. We’ve made that statement, and now The Bridge is a separate statement. I’m not knocking Moonlighting at all; it’s a dope album. If you ask me right now what fans should pick up, I’d say The Bridge. We recorded Moonlighting in 2004, and it didn’t drop till 2006; we recorded The Bridge in February.