Interview with Berkeley's Hard Knock

I got the chance to talk with Berkeley's greatest rap group,Hard Knock, in an exclusive Beezies & Bankrolls interview.

First some pictures off their myspace to familiarize you with the the group



Da Kid



Lil Nico



Freaky

How did you guys meet?

Me (Da Kid) and Lil Niko met in a cypher behind Steamworks in Berkeley. About a month later we met Freaky while we were camping out in front of the Virgin Megastore to meet Clay Aiken during an album signing. We all got along so well and had so much in common that we were inseparable from then on. This was a very happy day in all of our lives.

We did get sad when Clay's tour manager told us that we weren't what they were looking for in back-up dancers.

What are some swagger enhancing tips for the kids?

Our number one tip is never stop celebrating Jesus.

Who's swagger inspires you?

Lately we've been really into Liberace, that guy's swagger is so on point. All that fur, all those diamonds, he's quite the sex symbol. He's sexier than Cam'ron.

What are your thoughts on Old Spice's Swagger deodorant?

It's actually a funny story, this is how the hook for "Swagger Right" came about. We used to be all about TAG deodorant when we were going through our Abercrombie faze. Once we started rapping more hardcore our crew decided to all switch over to Old Spice's Swagger flavor. Lil Nico has really really short arms, which wasn't much of a problem while using TAG because it was spray on. With Swagger since it's roll on, Lil Nico's arms couldn't really reach, so he'd have to lean his torso closer to his tiny T-Rex arms. We would all gather around and cheer him on "Lean get your swagger right", that's where the dance came from.

How did the whole BET thing come about?

This is such an amazing story. We are HUGE fans of America's Next Top Model, and we made a couple tribute mixtapes just for Tyra and J Alexander somehow Freaky mixed up the mailing addresses and was sending the mixtapes to the cast of BET's Baldwin Hills (go figure). One thing led to another and we got on 106 and Park. It was all very exciting.

Does going on Youtube and seeing all the lames doing your dance make you guys upset? Or is it just a sign that you are on to something good?

Do you mean the fat Asian? Yeah it really bothers us. Soulja boy gets buffed out shirtless dudes to get while and crazy doing his dances, we get the bottom of the social barrel. But i guess every trashcan has it's lid.

Explain Hard Knock's notalkin movement.

Our NOTALKIN movement is a lot like the Army's don't ask don't tell policy. Yeah it's true we're into men, but we ain't tellin'.

Who are you guys listening to?

Only the most swagger having dudes, Elton John, Liberace, Cam'ron and of course Clay.

This interview was a lot tougher to get than I initially expected. There was a lot of back and forth correspondences on Myspace, finally I got the answers I was looking for in our gmail inbox.

Now I just wish I would have asked how the "Hard Knock" name came about.