Four years have passed since The Camp Lo duo, Emerald Geechie Suede and Sonny Cheba, hit the world with a burst of creativity and the hit singles Coolie High and Luchini.Feeding off of the 70's flavor of blaxsploitation films, their debut album Uptown Saturday Night, became a critical success. But, after the videos and the singles faded from rotation, Camp Lo disappeared without a trace. I tracked them down, to find out why they've been on the Lo for so long.
Moses Miller:“Where have you cats been for the past 4 years?”
Suede:“We’ve been label hoppin’ bro. KnowwhatI’msayin? Profile got bought out by Arista in 97’, for 11 million dollars. And we were part of that sweep. It took a year for us to get a release once we found out that wasn’t the situation for us”
Cheeba:“Then it was a third year…”
Suede:“Then it was a third year that we were signed to Stimulated/Loud.”
MM: “Stimulated Dummies?” (laughter fills the room)
Suede:“Is that there full name?”
MM: “Yeah, Dante’s label right?”
Suede:“Yeah, well that was a fu*kin perfect description, yo. With what the fu*k was going down over there. They didn’t know what was going on with Lo. They tried to market us on some this and some that. I haven’t felt good about sumthin’ til now.”
Moses:“Right now, what label are you on?”
Suede:“Actually, we’re on our own company called Diamond Crook. It’s definitely a better situation, cause we’re more involved and have more control.”
MM: “More control over the direction you want your project to go in?”
Suede:“Right. We’ve always known that, and fortunately, praises be to God…People have always dug our music, but it’s never been where they can hear it as often as they would like to hear it. KnowwhatI’msayin? Any success we have now, is because people love our music. Not because of promotion, marketing, or this, that, and a third.
MM: “What direction was Arista trying to push you in?”
Cheeba:(deep voice-southern drawl) “They was trying to make us go R&B. Cause the only song they was really diggin, was a song we did with Jimmy Cozier. That they was feeling the most. And it was sing-song, sing-song, bouncing ball type of song…which really wasn’t us. But, that’s what they had us doing, to convert to the Arista way of making records.”
MM: “What does Camp-Lo mean?”
Cheeba:“When cats came up with the name, it was Ceelo, cause we was rolling dice from the start. Changed the C to Camp, cause a cat in Atlanta had the Ceelo name, from the Goodie Mob. And we was thinking like the Lo, at the end of it, is the lowest form, like the prime, the bottom, knowwhatI’msayin? Chances of you seeing another group like us, is pretty much, you not gonna see it. We rhyme over tracks that’s real different. We switch up flows every joint. So that’s where the Lo is coming from.”
Part 2 of the interview-Next Week