Interview with THORNE

I interviewed underground rapper Thorne, one of our favorite MC's here at 7:10:7. Check it out:

7:10:7 - What's up Thorne? Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. First off, tell us a bit about yourself, where are you from and how did you get into rap? 

Thorne - I'm good, brother. Thank YOU for taking the time to do this interview with me.

I'm an independent Hip Hop artist with a serious infatuation with the darkside, both philosophically and musically. I've been rapping for about six years, but only started recording in 2012. It was more of a matter of wanting to know that my flow was where it needed to be, before I even attempted to record anything.

I'm from Southwest Virginia, but I claim Whitesburg, KY as my home base of operations. I know it's popular for MC's to carry where they were born on their backs, but I got no love for Southwest Virginia because Southwest Virginia never had any love for me. Eastern Kentucky, especially Whitesburg, is my favorite place on this planet and I'll rep it until I'm no longer breathing. Even before I started making music, they showed me real love and acceptance that I didn't get anywhere else, so I feel it's my duty to show it back whenever I can.

Overall, it's just an amazing place to be. You've got Summit City Lounge, which is one hell of a nice place to relax and always be able to see real music being performed, and most recently some friends of mine opened up a really cool independent record store, Roundabout Music. Saturday, I also played my most insane show to date in Whitesburg with a host of other sick locals, so there's definitely something on the rise in these hills.

I got into Hip Hop when I was 13 years old. I grew up listening to Metal and Hardcore, but when I was 13, an older friend of mine gave me a copy of Straight Outta Compton and it forever changed my life. After that, I went and got every West Coast/G-Funk LP that I could find. To this day, there's no form of Hip Hop that influences me more than the shit I grew up on.

7:10:7 - Your music has a classic 90's hardcore vibe as opposed to the gay trends going on in hip-hop nowadays, what are your influences and what inspires you to pick up the mic?

Thorne - Classic 90's Hip Hop is most definitely my biggest influence, for sure.
I get inspired by everything from 2Pac to Big L to UGK and all the real motherfuckers in between. Hip Hop got soft somewhere along the way, and you're right. There are way too many fucking trends I can't get down with. They can call me a hater, I don't give a fuck. There's nothing redeeming about Yeezus, Based God, Weezy or any of that bullshit.
Real Hip Hop is coming back though. It's been a slow process, but the real shit is finally starting to claw its way back to the surface. There are a lot of talented cats in the game right now, but you've gotta wade through the shit to find them. It's worth it when you do though.
What inspires me to pick up the mic? It's simple. I'm trying to take this music back to a dangerous, dark, deadly place that it hasn't seen in many years now. That's been my goal ever since I dropped Black Mass, and with every release, I'm getting closer to fully realizing that vision. It's nothing I can even put into words, but what motivates me is darkness. Plain and simple. I'm at my best when I'm channeling that into my music.

7:10:7 - You've released a couple mixtapes so far and they're all dope. Your new album "218" was announced earlier this year but it seems you have a hard time trying to release it. Please tell us a bit about the album, is it gonna come out any time soon?

Thorne - You know, first I wanna say thank you for being into what you've heard thus far. I'm always thankful when someone "gets it", y'know?

218, since its inception, has been a fucking struggle. I worked on that album for close to a year, and it was the ultimate form of catharsis. I literally released every inner demon, some that I've carried with me since I was a child, in the lyrics of that album. I took steps to make sure that this release would be different than anything I'd put out before, even down to the artwork. My dear friend, Patrik Doherty, gave me the cover art for it because I told him it struck a nerve with me. It was the most fitting piece I could have ever imagined to display the hatred, pain, and malevolence contained in the record.

Tracking was completed in March. Here we are in June, and I still don't even have as much as a single song from those sessions. Why? Because I refused to do what someone else thought I should do. When you record an album with someone who has always done right by you, who you've known since you were in pre-school, and who legit pretended they had your best interests at heart, you don't tend to worry about the outcome. If I've learned anything from this experience, it's that I should have worried more.

Here I am three months after the fact, and 218 is still unreleased. I'm an independent artist, at the end of the day. I've spent enough time in the game to understand how things work, and how I need to promote myself. I don't look like their favorite rapper, I don't talk like their favorite rapper, and I probably have a different agenda than their favorite rapper. I don't apologize for being different, I don't apologize for not wanting to cater to someone else who isn't paying my fucking bills and who isn't living my life on a daily basis.

I've spent two years doing this almost entirely on my own. I've put my own money into it, I've put in my own work, and I haven't been handed a fucking thing. I'm proud of that. It's made me a stronger person than I ever was beforehand, and it's taught me more about life and the way people are than anything else I've experienced.

To sum it all up, I don't know if 218 will ever come out. If someone magically put the album in my hands tomorrow, I don't know that I'd release it because of the sour fucking taste that's been left in my mouth, on the count of this bullshit. When YOU work your ass off on something, only to have it held hostage because YOU refuse to do what someone else wants, who isn't your manager, your label pres, or your boss, it'll take the wind out of your sails.

So, while 218 is on an indefinite amount of ice, I've started work on another release that will be entitled "Every Tongue Shall Confess". I'm hoping to have it out by August or September, but the first single entitled "Stay Loose" will be out even sooner than that. I apologize for the rant, but I've been hanging on to that shit for way too long.

7:10:7 - Apparently "218" will include a collaboration with Mike Apokalypse of Gehenna (which happens to be my all-time favorite band), how did that happen?

Thorne - Gehenna is one of my all-time favorite bands as well, man. You have no idea how honored I was when Mike agreed to do the four-part narrative for 218. I still plan on using that narrative for Every Tongue Shall Confess, because I refuse to let it go to waste. It's too fucking good, man, haha!

Mike and I randomly met on Facebook, and at the time I had no idea he was the same Mike that fronted The Infamous Gehenna. He can tell you, when I found out, I went unashamedly fanboy on his ass. That band is a major inspiration on what I do as an artist. Throughout the years, he and Dean have never sacrificed an ounce of their integrity for anyone else. Those dudes do what they want, how they want to do it, and crush anyone in their way. They're the realest band in Hardcore, and no one can touch them. No one.

7:10:7 - You seem to be a huge metal/hardcore fan. Did you got into rap and metal at the same time? Do you agree that hip hop, metal, and punk cultures are, at core, basically the same?

Thorne - I was into Metal and Hardcore for about two years before I ever listened to Hip Hop, but I love them the same. 2Pac has meant just as much to my life as Bathory and Dissection have. I definitely think you're onto something, when it comes to the core values of each genre. Extreme Music, to me, isn't relegated to screams, blast beats, and guitars. Ice Cube's first few solo records are just as extreme as any Metal or Hardcore album I've ever heard, and the same goes for Scarface and Spice 1. It's the same message, just conveyed in different art forms. We're all against authority, we all want to live life by our own rules, and we don't take shit from anyone. That's Hip Hop, Metal, Hardcore, and Punk in a nutshell. Ice T figured that out before anyone else did, and Body Count is STILL in the house.

7:10:7 - As an artist (and a quite relevant one), what do you think about the current state of hip hop, and the music industry in general?

Thorne - Hip Hop went through a period where the fake ass weaklings were sitting on top of the game. Hip Hop moved away from what was real, and became a parody of itself. I've noticed in the last few years that Real Rap is making a comeback. Rappers are speaking about real life again, not giving a shit about hurting anyone's feelings, and starting to make legit bangers again.

Have you heard 50 Cent's new LP? That is, hands down, the best shit he's released since Get Rich or Die Tryin'. It's all starting to cycle back around is what I'm saying. I think the industry is in dire need of something real. It's in dire need of artists who can write their own material, be original, and not have to rely on a boardroom full of suits to put out music for them.

When you see more guys and girls like that coming out in the mainstream, by way of the underground, you'll see a completely new music industry. Believe that. They want to blame downloading for killing the industry, and it didn't. Shitty music that all sounds the same killed the industry. Cookie cutter artists with no fucking substance killed the industry. In the end, the industry killed its self. It's going to take something powerful to bring it back to life, but the underground is full of artists who are able and ready to do that.

7:10:7 - What are your favorite rappers, and your favorite metal bands?

Thorne - Favorite rappers: 2Pac, Scarface, Big L, Onyx, Wu Tang, UGK, Spice 1, etc.

Favorite Metal Bands: The Crown, Dissection, Blasphemy, Bathory, Morbid Angel, Grave, Les Legions Noire, etc.

Favorite band of all time: Joy Division

I'd also like to endit by telling everyone to listen to Manic Scum, Stonecaster, Death Trip, If Birds Could Fly, Globsters, Yog Sothoth, Graverat, The Mic Company, Mannequin Hollowcaust, and all the other real artists from my area that I'm proud as fuck to know.

Thanks a lot Thorne! Cheers homie.

Thorne @ facebook