In a region that has been known for its dirty south rap music, those who listen to Asamov will find it hard to believe that they come from Florida . Whether they are rocking a down tempo joint or some serious b-boy up tempo shit, they come out with a sound that is extremely soulful, conscious lyrics with underlying references of the hip-hop culture and those who helped to form its history. Yes, these cats know their shit.

Asamov is one of the dopest independent hip-hop groups coming out from Jacksonville , FL. They are signed to 6Hole Records and have just released an album, "And Now”. They bring back the energy of the Golden Age of Hip-Hop, circa late 80s while spawning out creative ways of creating a fresh new vibe within the genre.

Their album is filled with 14 tracks of hip-hop music that takes on the angle of how soul and funk can ooze within the beats and lyrics. “Boombox” gives a break down of an era of hip-hop that was once centered around the boombox (listen out for the scratch breakdown at the end of the track using classic hip-hop tracks that also deal with the boom box theme). “Suckas” talks about those who are “fuckin' up the game” with a clever use of KRS-1 use of “You Suckas” helping out in the chorus. “Supa Dynamite”, featuring Mr. Lif, echoes those who have soul, whether in soul music, hip-hop, funk, jazz, from those representing in city shout outs and other countries. “Seven”, which is my favorite, brings back the lost art of the funky drummer with jazzy flutes laced and an incredible chorus break down. (If I was listening to this on tape, I would be pressing rewind to hear that chorus again.) This is a definite Cd to add in your hip-hop collection.

With so much texture going on in the music of this cd, the listener can't help but to wonder how a crew like this could come out from Jax. Yes, these cats are the hip-hop sound manifested and if you are looking for a good hip-hop cd, they are just around the corner to your left. Note: do not make the mistake of sleeping on Asamov.

And on that note, here is the interview that I was able to get to know more about the crew and their music.

Deepvision: How did you guys get together?
J-One-Da: Basically, it was one of those things where everyone rolled around with their own crew. You know how hip-hop was; there were so many crews where everybody listened to hip-hop. It was to the point where we had the same likes where we were friends before this whole music thing happened. Then we started getting serious about music. Those who weren't serious, they just fell out to the way side, so it ended up being just us four. Since then we just moved forward. That was in 2001.

Deepvision: The name, Asamov, how did you guys get that?
Willie Evans, Jr: Not necessarily a tribute to Isaac Asimov, the writer, as to the take on the ideal of what he represented in the realms of writing. He was a science fiction writer who did a lot for the genre of science fiction. His new ideas of what he brought to the table. Basically, musically, that is what we are trying to do. That is what the name represents…us bringing a fresh sound to the table as far as the spectrum of hip-hop that is on the table right now.

Deepvision: I know you guys come from Jacksonville . Can you tell me more about the underground hip-hop scene over there?
Basic: Basically, there are only a handful of people in the scene doing some hip-hop shit. Yes, you do have your dirty south music. But on the underground hip-hop tip, I would say about 5 groups that are doing their thing here. It is fairly small. It is slowly blowing up, we trying to kick down the doors trying to open it up for other cats. They trying to get more serious into their craft and hopefully they can get it moving. Right now there are groups like Simple Complexity, Shape Shifter Project, Funk Monster, and None Similar who are doing their thing down here. It is fairly small.

J-One-Da: Ever since Asamov was formed we've been seeing a lot of groups coming out of the woodwork. So it was one of those things where they following in our foot steps and we are leading. We are knocking down the doors.

Willie Evans, Jr: Basically a thing, when you see cats doing something, it inspires you to get motivated. Hopefully, for the fact that we were fortunate enough to get something out there and the grind that we made has been made public I think that it will definitely help to build the scene and strengthen it a little bit.

Deepvision: I know you guys are really big crate diggers. Who is the one who has done it the most and how did you guys get involved in that?

Basic: Back in the day, I first met Therapy. He was slowly into buying records and had old records. With me, I was buying records. 12 Inches, hip-hop shit. My roommates were actually djs and then when it got to originals I was really intrigued in finding the original sample whether it was a Premier or Pete Rock. I wanted to find the original sample and see how these producers freaked it. I did my homework and was all about finding these original records. When I met Therapy, he was in the process of doing the same thing. So we clicked from there. This was about '96. From that point we kept amping each other up saying, “look what record I found” and he would hit me up and say, “I found this”. It became a friendly game of baseball. It definitely became more serious as the time went on. I would say between the both of us, Therapy has a serious collection right now. Therapy is holding it down right now. We both a part of a group called Little Green Apples. Which are Therapy, Slew, and I. Basically, there are only 3 of us. We have other members who are honorable mentions. It just started by collecting records.

Willie Evans, Jr: For me, to get records was for the beats. I have records here and there. My pop has a record collection. I kept hammering at him until he gave me his collection. For me, it is for getting beats and finding something and end up liking the record. So my record collection is way less valuable and way less organized.

Deepvision: When I hear your guy's music, I think of the early days of hip-hop like Cold Crush Brothers, The Furious Five, and Treacherous Three. Who are your guy's influences?

J-One-Da: My influences are KRS-One, Tribe, DeLa, Organized Confusion, Redman, Nas, Common, Beatnuts, EPMD. Basically the foundation of the golden age era. We were all in the golden era and the foundation of music. There are so many to name. The thing about it is is that we are not trying to bring that era back. That era is what it is because it was around during that time. What we are trying to do is use the tools of what made it dope back then and make music now. As opposed to trying to bring the era back, we are trying to make dope music now based on what we thought was dope and what we think that next evolutionary step in dopeness would be from that.

Willie Evans, Jr: Just trying to bring that feeling back. That feeling back when we used to listen and critique that album and say, “Lord Jamal was my favorite. No Sadat X was my favorite.” Just critique the verse. We just trying to create that whole feeling back.

Basic: There are 4 guys in the group and we got different individual influences. All that combined. We are pretty versatile when it comes to our music. Whether it is up-tempo or low tempo hip-hop, we are all over the place. When we concentrate on one particular sound, we make it happen. That comes from being influenced by different people. That chemistry is immaculate and comes really easy and comes natural.

Deepvision: What was it like recording with all these different artists such as 9 th wonder, J-live, Cassidy, and Mr. Lif?

Willie Evans, Jr: Lif and Akrobatic, we are really cool with them, hung out with them and we are all down. A lot of these joints came about by the miracle of technology. When we hung out with Lif and Akrobatic, it wasn't about music; it was about just hanging out. Just playing cards and we would mention that we should all do a joint. They would go their way and we would go ours. Then we would be on the Internet mailing files. Actually the joint with Akrobatic, he was out here on vacation. He was at the crib and we were chilling saying that we should do a joint. We kept working on a joint until we got something. That I how we got that out. As far as 9 th Wonder, we reached out to him. Therapy and the owner of 6 Hole Records went up to North Carolina and chilled with him for a while. That is how the relationship started. He sent us a beat cd and we chose our joint from there. We put some stuff on that and he put a little treat on that with some switch ups and polished it off. That's how it came about. J-Live, Wordsworth, and Cassidy joint were originally supposed to be Cassidy's joint. Once it got completed, with Therapy on it, the owner of the label like it so much that he said, “This is an Asamov joint.” We didn't disagree with it because it obviously came out dope. Originally, Therapy was going to produce it. They wanted him around more because they heard that he rhymed.

Deepvision: About the album, “…And Now”, explain to me the over all feel that you wanted to have and explain the title.

J-One-Da: The album is like a melodic, soulful, funky shit. Pretty much that is the feel of the album. Dope Beats and dope lyrics. It is pretty simple. The album gives you a good feeling of hip-hop in general. When you come to our live show, that feeling is tripled.

Willie Evans, Jr: We've been recording songs for a long time. I would say, not including the songs on the album we recorded 50 songs. When we started to actually chisel out songs for an album, we wanted to have a unified sound as far as us working together on an album. Because we have so many things that we do individually as artists that it is easy for us to put together a project and it sounds like we are all standing in one room doing our own thing. We wanted the album to have a cohesiveness to it.

Basic: in the beginning. What you have is the third version of the album. All four of us are represented on every song. Whether it is 3 of us rhyming and one person on the hook or all 4 of us rhyming on every song, I think that the concept went well on the songs. As for the name of the album, "And now..”, the album was first called “Past Futures”, but that name was already taken. Immediately, Willie came up with the title, “…and now”. It made sense, because you have the past, the future, and now this is what we present to the table.

Willie Evans, Jr: It encompasses the whole thing that we are coming from out of nowhere and we are presenting Asamov an introduction to the world. Obviously this is the tip of the iceberg. So basically, this is an introduction to how we get down musically.

Deepvision: Give me your top 5 hip-hop Albums of all time

Asamov:

Deepvision: Any Shout Outs?

Asamov: Big Ups to Deepvision for showing us love. Make sure everyone gets the CD “And Now”. Big shout out to Rubox for holding it down Orlando . Big up to all the Orlando Cats; Andromeda, X, SPS, UJ Empire, Soliloquists of Sound.