Greenville's Big Hop Does Things His Way
By Daniel Brock
mixer
Thursday, March 01, 2007
When the Greenville rap group Artistic Anarchists, aka Double A, released its sophomore album "Now or Never" on graduation day in 2005, both band members, Kenny "Big Hop" Hopkins and Greg "Trigga" Able, received their degrees from East Carolina University.
But it was bittersweet.
Double A's "Now or Never" release came after a rushed, and increasingly contentious, recording process that had seen the third member of the group, John J'z, kicked out.
The experience left Hopkins and Able feeling that "Now or Never" was their last shot to get something done as a group.
Ultimately, Double A was destined not to be.
"I thought 'Now or Never' was good, but to me it was way more rushed and not as organic as the first one" (2003's "Listen . Understand), the 26-year-old Hopkins said.
"With the first one, we were just doing it for fun and we didn't really have any expectations," he said "Where with the second one, for one we were trying to get something out because Trigga was moving back home. We obviously knew that it wasn't the best work that it probably could have been, and that's why we named the CD "Now or Never"because that's kind of how it was.
"It was either we put this CD out now, or we don't put it out at all. I was looking at moving then, too, and who knows if in three months we would have both been gone and our legacy here would have been done."
As planned, Able moved home to Newport News, Va., leaving Hopkins on his own. But he soldiered on, and in November 2005 released his first solo effort "Man of the Minute."
"That's what kind of brought the Big Hop out," he said. "It was me moving on."
Hopkins followed up "Minute" with the November 2006 release of "My Own League," a smoothly cohesive album filled with Hop's fiercely independent spirit and socially intelligent rhymes backed by tight instrumental tracks from North Carolina producer.
TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE, CHECK OUT THE BLOG: "BIG HOP IN THE MIXER"
