Bootybass, electro-rock, whatever you want to call it, Ninjasonik is the new shit.  Period.  So if you ain't ready, you better get ready.  Jah Jah aka Rev. McFly aka New Dirty Bastard and Kevin aka Teen Wolf, aka K-Ross are here to stay.

Chief Magazine: How did you guys meet up in the first place?

Kevin: That’s funny because Sterling is here (a.k.a  Kupo) I first met Sterling in the Bronx when I was going to Fordham University and I met him at a record store, a thrift store on 187^th and Webster Ave. and I was digging and he was digging and we just staring joking and talking shit with each other, and we walked out together to our cribs and it turns out that he lived right across the street from me, and I was just thinking ‘are you fucking serious? You live right there and I live right here?’ And then I probably saw Sterling a few times after that, and that was 2002, and a year or two later Jah Jah moved in with Sterling and probably didn’t really meet until you [Jah Jah] DJ'ed that party.

'Cause I lived in this like building, in the Bronx, that was all college students from Fordham University, and we threw parties on the first floor. And I DJ’ed and he [Jah Jah] came through and said ‘get down for a minute’ and he brought some records and shit was tight. For the next few years, we kind of knew each other and then I moved to Brooklyn and started building a recording studio; and I invited him to move down because I had open space if he wanted to live in the spot, because I was basically renting it out to whoever, so Jah moved in and that was like 2004. That’s crazy how long it’s been.  We’ve known each other probably like 6 years. 

We DJ’ed together and I was working on other musical projects and stuff, learning recording and engineering and stuff, and Jah and I messed around a bit, with some live bands and stuff. We had another group we started, that we never really did anything with, Yo that Mob which was me singing punk rock with him [Jah Jah] on drums and a drummer that played guitar.  We actually have one or two recordings of that.  Then, last winter I was like, ‘let’s fucking start a group’. I don’t know where the name Ninjasonik came from, but it just popped in my head.

Jah Jah: Yeah, we first were mocking, like, "Yo, we should start Hipstersonik."

Kevin: [Laughs] Yeah we did try to call it Hipstersonik!

Jah Jah: Let’s make stupid songs and call it ‘Hipstersonik’ 

Kevin: Yeah.  I think that shit has been going on longer than I’ve known about.  I didn’t really know about Baltimore club shit until like late 2005, early 2006, and it wasn’t even like the real Baltimore club, now there’s this new synthesis, this hipster sound, I couldn’t really put my finger on it, but it’s like this hipster look and sound and this party vibe type thing.

Jah Jah:  Really colorful and vibrant.

Kevin: Yeah exactly, definitely fashion is a big issue.  I’m not really like a nightlife person, so it’s all foreign to me.  I just think most of it’s funny. But at the same time, I mean I DJ at parties and shit. Whatever, I don’t discriminate. But yeah, there were definitely some influences from like Spank Rock and Amanda Blank.  I didn’t really listen to their albums, to be honest.  I didn’t know about them.  They’re pretty much sampling in some ways and re-birthing the Baltimore club sounds that like, [Jah Jah] fucking knew, because [he] lived in Baltimore, I didn’t really know about that shit.

Jah Jah:  I give those guys a lot of props because they’re bringing a different twist of a sound to a different audience, but at the same time, keeping what’s there, like a bass line, keeping that bass line real, but then they’re adding their twist to it, and their happiness to it, because the Baltimore club is really fucking gnarly shit. Like you go out there and there it’s fucked up to a point where if you’re a white kid that no one knows, and you go to a club that plays hard-core Baltimore shit, they’re’ gonna be like ‘look it that white boy’, like really fucked up shit.  If you’re from a certain area and if a song says ‘Where my Westside niggas at?’ and you’re like ‘I’m right here’ and there’s a bunch of Southside niggas there, you’re going to get fucked up. Like knee'd and shot. I remember going to clubs when I was like, sixteen, and people being like ‘Stay over here, the stick up kids are kids down the street’, like people were getting robbed. I remember just being in the way of the bouncers and getting punched in the head, like ‘Get the fuck out the way; we gotta throw these guys out.’  I remember one time a bouncer actually grabbed three people and I was one of them.  I had nothing to do with it, I was fucking being nosy like ‘I wanna see this guy get fucked up!’ and I got thrown out, and I was like ‘I gotta call someone.  My friends work here, I gotta get back in before someone robs my little ass.’

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What the fuck were doing in Baltimore when you were sixteen?

Jah Jah: I moved there for exactly 365 days. It was the best and the worst time. It was the best because I learned about Baltimore music and for the first time I was like "Holy shit! I’m in the suburbs. What? Your mom is leaving you home for the whole week… tight!" Like, what are we gonna do? I don’t drink. I don’t smoke.  Kids were like literally coming over, having house parties, then going to school and I was like ‘No wonder these kids were not paying attention to shit, everyone is still fucked up from last night! What the hell?’

 Yeah. A bunch of sixteen year old kids got their own house all of a sudden....

Jah Jah: Spank Rock and those dudes really kept a new sound and brought it to a new environment and that’s dope, because now you can pretty much make whatever you want, and just dish it out to people. And not worry about, you know, you’re not gonna hear so much on Hot 97, like certain shit, but that’s cool, you know?  There’s nothing wrong with that, like you’re not gonna hear Dan Deacon on fucking Hot 97, but like opening up for dudes like Girl Talk, and then dudes that like him don’t even know who Dan Deacon is, but there’s a fucking billion people know that dude.

Kevin: There’s a new counterculture right now, Ninjasonik is geared at that, it’s not like hip hop.  I wouldn’t even say it’s Baltimore club.  We’re influenced by that.  We’re influenced by hip hop.  We’re influenced by electronic music, but that’s the thing about right now, there’s a lot of fucking music crossing paths and a lot of new sounds coming out, and it doesn’t fit into the format of pop radio.  It doesn’t fit into the format of what people knew from before.  It was literally like, of interest to fucking dabble into that.  I really knew that Jah had the personality to be a fucking star.  Like that’s the thing about Spank Rock, he put a new face on Baltimore club, and a youthful face that was pretty to people outside of Baltimore. And that’s why Baltimore club never really made it out of Baltimore until recently.  Cause if you meet Scotty B, and no offense, these are like old dudes.  They don’t fit the prototype of any genre, and that’s why Baltimore club has been its own thing and hasn’t really left.  Miami bass got out because it was more about bootys and shit, but Baltimore club had its own thing and it could never really break out of it, I feel like.  I knew Jah and I could see Jah the personality, and anybody who knows Jah, knows he just has fucking charisma for days.

Jah Jah: Well thank you, gentlemen.

Kevin:  He’s got the glow, really.  He’s got the glow.  But literally, I’m an alright musician so we could do better than these motherfuckers.  Literally, all it is, is fucking charisma and sound to energize.  That’s the thing about a lot of shit right now, too, a lot of the music is secondary.  There’s a lot of good music, but what people are really getting into is everything around it.  It’s about image, too.  It’s a good combination.  It’s a potent combination.  I knew I could make the music to warrant, to make the energy, and the image is Jah.  Combined it’s just like, fuck it, Ninjasonik.

Jah Jah:  Honestly, the songs we make aren’t necessarily to make people like them or make people happy.  Like that’s one of the reasons why dudes like GG Allin and Ol’ Dirty Bastard have a really big influence on our performance.  If you like, just fucking YouTube those dudes and watch interviews… like that dude ODB was just living his life and he was like ‘Fuck it, I'm gonna be me. I’m not gonna say 'I gotta look this way and be this way.’

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Yeah, [GG Allin] was throwing shit at people from the stage, and like shitting in his hand!

Jah Jah: Yeah, GG was shitting in his hand, jerking off, like whatever. [Laughs] As much as people hated him, they wanted to go see what he was gonna do next.

Yeah, and we fucking all still know his name.  Goddamn right, like he was still making fucking music.  He was doing it.  You can’t stop him.

Jah Jah: Music doesn’t necessarily have to be good, but if you can fucking put your point across, like ‘Yo, I’m just gonna be myself, and I can either ride with the rush, or get rushed on.’ That’s honestly… like Sterling with the tight pants on, me and him were getting shit years ago when we were in the Bronx. Like ‘Yo, look at these niggas in tight-ass pants… these tight pants wearing ass niggas right here.’

And I remember the day Sterling was like ‘You know what’s funny? One day everybody in the hood is gonna be wearing tight-ass pants.’  And I quote him on that.

Kevin:  Totally because all the white kids took the style now and its getting flipped on its head.

Jah Jah:  Not even, yo.  Dudes like Kanye…shit like that.  You look at his album and now he’s remixing Daft Punk songs.  I will bet you three or four thousand beers that a lot of kids didn’t know who the fuck Daft Punk was before 'Better, Faster, Harder’, and now they’re like ‘Oh I like this,’ I get kids like ‘Oh, this song is cool. Who’s song is this?’ ‘This is River Phoenix by Japanther.’  ‘Oh shit. This sounds really cool.’ ‘This is Dan Deacon’ and I’m like ‘Whoa, wait a minute, you live in the hood, that’s dope.’ Like before you thought this shit was corny, like ‘Yo, why you listen to that white boy shit?’ Nah, man.  Music doesn’t have a fucking race or color.  This shit breathes and lives on its own energy.  And I’m glad to see that now kids are seeing that shit in different levels.  You wanna dress the way you wanna dress? Do that. As much as we… I can’t speak for everyone, but I fucking hated the kids that dressed like Goth in high school, like ‘what the fuck man?’ But I respect them because they were being themselves at all times.

Sad as they are.

Jah Jah:  Everyone has to get a little lonely sometimes. But it’s cool to see kids skating in the 'hood and kids are doing not the ordinary shit you would see. You know?  And to some extent, now it’s looking like the ordinary but at least now it’s like… I’m fucking psyched when I see a kid pushing down the street, whether he is really good at it or really bad at it. Yo man, that’s dope, fucking skate and if you want to, fucking roller blade.  If you wanna ride a scooter, do whatever the fuck you want.  Live your own life. Do your own shit.  That’s what Ninjasonik is about: everybody that don’t give a fuck about everybody. That’s why every show I make sure that I tell the crowd ‘Yo, I fucking hate you and I love you too.’ I want you to know that yo, we’re all special to ourselves but the person next to you might not give a fuck about you, but respect them.  Respect what they’re doing, cause you’re not doing it.

So how many shows have you had so far?

Jah Jah:  We’ve played maybe like four or five shows.

Kevin: Yeah, I guess so.  Yeah.

That’s crazy.  I feel like it’s been more than that.  But really, just four or five?

Kevin: That’s what I’m saying, like the music has charisma and so do the fucking live shows.  So, it’s hitting harder than we know about. We haven’t even released most of the songs yet.