Any Oz Hip Hop fan who seriously follows the scene will be familiar with one of the dopest crews out of Adelaide, Pagen Elypsis, whether it's through Prime and Purpose's battle record on WRC, or the various mixtapes and features the fellas have dropped over the past few years. The guys have just released their debut album, 'One Way Ticket', yesterday (August 19th), and they took some time out to chat with us about the album, their line up and their nunchuck skills.
Oh - cop Pagen Elypsis's album, 'One Way Ticket', from iTunes NOW!
Cee: What it does fellas? Aight, I gotta ask this one straight up. Where did the name 'Pagen Elypsis' come from?
Pagen Elypsis: Pohetikut & Motive came up with the name in about 06, walking there drunk asses home to a shack during schoolies. The name itself came from synonyms of Pohetikut + Kadowg's first group the "Skeptiks", and Purpose and Motives first group "Figures of Speech" i.e. Pagen (syn. skeptic) Elypsis (syn. figure). So it means a skeptical figure, which suits us just perfectly haha.
Cee: Break down the group for the people. Who's who, what are their skills (ie nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills etc) and why are they better than the other dudes.
Pagen Elypsis: Well the group consists 5 MC's: Purpose, Motive, Kadowg, Prime & Pohetikut. Purpose also handles production duties on a majority of the record but we ALL have equally great nunchuck skills and I feel for whoever gets to witness that first hand.
Cee: So y'all dropped the Double Or Nothing mixtape back in 07. How was that little puppy received?
Pagen Elypsis: Yeah the "007" mixtape did well and opened us up to an overseas market we never really aimed it at. About 6 months after we released it, Purpose and Prime generated a bit of a buzz through an international battle comp called the WRC battle series and it had made its way onto the internet without us knowing haha. Around home it did well, having the Battlehoggs DJs a part of it helped a lot in Australia as they were on the brink of starting their official mixtape series.
Cee: You guys took a bit of a hiatus from the group projects between then and now. What happened in between?
Pagen Elypsis: On the music front in between '07 and now there has been 3 more mixtapes/street releases; a Purpose solo tape, an Aforementioned group release (Motive & Purpose) and the Pagen Elypsis "2010" promotional tape. We were fortunate enough to play some big shows, P Money + Mystro in Melb, Funkoars in ADL, Xzibit in Middleton, Obese Block Party 2010, Obese Car Jack tour 09. A lot has been in the works but its only really becoming official now. Aside from that a lot of drinking, a lot of sex and a lot of hangovers haha.
Cee: A bunch of you blokes have quite the rep in the battle scene. For you, what's the difference between making music and battling? And why do you think so many battle MCs make terrible music?
Pagen Elypsis: Thank you, the difference is really the longevity aspect. A battle rapper is only as important as he is in the moment where he's battling. There are certainly some battle rappers who will always be respected but there are a lot more rappers known for their music who are timeless. That's more the direction we are looking to steer ourselves towards, we had our fun and enjoyed it but we prefer to spectate these days haha. I don't think 'battle MC's make terrible music', I just think some people gather so much attention through battling that they put something out before they're ready to try and capitalize on that hype. It's a genius idea if your music's good, horrible idea if you suck cause you will instantly fall into that bracket.
Cee: So tell us about the new album, One Way Ticket.
Pagen Elypsis: The new album really represents something that we're proud of and that we've been working on since we started. It's a well rounded album that shows all the different strengths of the members of the group and allows us to give people exactly what we've been preparing them for over the past few years since we came out. The production has very much the same feel of an 'Elypsis' album but with a bit more charm to it. I think we really nailed the balance on this album of bringing what people know us for, and what they would never expect from us. That's a hard task to do but we are very proud of the results.
Cee: Did you guys get many features? Seeing as there's a gang of y'all, that might be redundant.
Pagen Elypsis: The only people who feature on the album are producers and DJ Butcher haha. Five rappers is enough, the next album is the Aforementioned album and we got some crazy features lined up for that but this time around it's all Elypsis.
Cee: Who did you get on the boards?
Pagen Elypsis: Purpose kick started the production off, I think he ended up with 8 or so beats on there. We got a few joints from a cat from Brisbane by the name of Cam Bluff who's really crazy, a joint from Answer in Melb and we also worked with some overseas cats by the name of Vokab & Kela who we had used on the Red October release so some familiar faces.
Cee: What's the plans as far as promotions for the album? Will there be a nationwide tour of some description?
Pagen Elypsis: We're looking at putting together a tour for the album towards the end of the year with some shows all around the country so if you think we should come to your city hit us up on Facebook......NOW. You can keep up to date with any new gigs through the Facebook page or Twitter @pagenelypsis.
Cee: Where can the people cop the album? And where can they find you online?
Pagen Elypsis: People will be able to cop the album on iTunes, Amazon, all good independent stores and we're negotiating a JB account as we speak so you should be able to get this bad boy anywhere.
Cee: Any final message for the fans?
Pagen Elypsis: August 19th...DONMusicLtd. So neccesary.
Cee: Thanks for your time, y'all.
Pagen Elypsis: No doubt.