Artist Of The Week - The Day Laborers

For a commercial artist, a guest appearance on an album can simply be a representation of said artist buying someone’s time that they feel will help them chart a hit, or break them into a new market. For underground artists, however, a solid guest appearance represents a lot more. It represents the networking they’ve done, who they’re cool with, and most importantly, who respects their work enough to want to jump on a track with them. When The Day Laborers passed me their album, The Learning Process, and I saw two former Artists Of The Week, Homeboy Sandman and Louis Logic, were featured on it, I knew it was high time I found out more about the group. After giving the album a spin I caught up with The Day Laborers duo of Aspect and I.N.F. (pictured L to R) to do just that.

Adam Bernard: Start me off with some background info on The Day Laborers. Who are you, how did you meet and when did you start recording together?
Aspect: The Day Laborers are made up of Aspect and I.N.F. I'm from East Meadow, NY, and have been involved with Hip-Hop since I was 14 when I first started DJing and writing. I.N.F. and I met through a mutual friend in 2000 and The Day Laborers came into play around 2004.
I.N.F.: Our friend knew we were both starting to record and make music on our own. He suggested us linking up since we had a very similar taste in the Hip-Hop we wanted to make. The name The Day Laborers comes from our 9-5 jobs and it just fits. Plus we wanted to show something real and genuine and write songs people can relate to.

Adam Bernard: Long Island, to a lot of folks in New York City, is almost considered foreign territory. Anything past Queens is like a whole ‘nother world. So tell everyone about that world in terms of your Hip-Hop scene.
I.N.F.: A lot of legends are from Long Island - Rakim, De La Soul, Public Enemy, etc., and I think the Long Island Hip-Hop scene is doing well. There are a handful of stores and college radio shows, like DJ Cut Supreme on 90.1 Stony Brook, that support the music.
Aspect: Funny thing is back in the mid 90's all of Long Island was into Hip-Hop because that’s what was breeding in NYC and being played on the radio. Long Island has been down for a long time because of the small record shops spread all over. Big up to the old House of Hits in Hempstead (R.I.P.) and Eddie @ The Cop Shop in Smithtown L.I. It’s spots like those that help keep kids updated with the stuff you can't get in major music stores. The aftershock of the mid to late 90's underground Hip-Hop scene started a whole new group of followers that have multiplied.

Adam Bernard: What do The Day Laborers labor on most?
I.N.F.: To eventually spread our movement all over the world and start a label where we can then put other talent on that we feel should be getting shine.
Aspect: Right now we labor on booking shows and making ourselves look as professional as can be. Making music in the studio is the fun part!

Adam Bernard: If there was a mantra to describe the work and the goals of The Day Laborers what would it be?
I.N.F.: Work hard, stay humble, and book us please. {laughs}

Adam Bernard: What do you feel makes each one of you unique as artists? When someone puts on one of your songs how can they easily tell one of you from the other?
Aspect: I have a distinct voice and my clever wordplay makes me unpredictable. If you hear scratches on a Day Laborers track, nine times out of ten I did them unless we got a DJ that we both highly respect.
I.N.F.: I work hard to write well structured songs and not just rap about rapping all the time. I help pick out a lot of the samples we use for the scratches and the placements for them. I think my style and word choice is very different then a lot of what’s out there.

Adam Bernard: Tell me about The Learning Process. What are listeners going to be learning about when they put it on?
Aspect: They are going to see the result of two normal humans that make music with passion through expression. They will learn about how serious we are when it comes to getting in the booth and making music.
I.N.F.: I am really proud of what we made and I think a lot of people are gonna be surprised by It. It’s good boom bap Hip-Hop with clever lyrics, dope cuts, and hooks.

Adam Bernard: You have some really noteworthy names featured on the album, including Homeboy Sandman, Louis Logic and Mac Lethal. How did these collaborations come about?
I.N.F.: I’ve always liked Mac’s work so I hit him up on a whim and was surprised when he said yes. With Louis, our friend Kyle mentioned he could get him to do a song with us. He made it happen and since then we've become good friends with Lou. Kyle also told me about Sandman. We thought he was dope and just asked him, as well. He is also a really cool dude. It feels good to know people of this caliber respect what we are doing.

Adam Bernard: Finally, how do you define success for yourselves?
Aspect: Success would be if we could make a simple honest living touring and doing music, we don’t need to be rich or famous. Doing what you love for a living is great though!

Related Links

Website: TheDayLaborers.com
MySpace: myspace.com/thedaylaborers