SXSW 2010: Get Busy Committee

Get Busy Committee’s debut album ‘Uzi Does It’ was released for pre-sale download on October 27th on the band’s site and was released to other outlets like iTunes on November 10th. The album is a 100% self-funded and self-released independent record from the groups’ very own record label, Tokyo Sex Whale Records. “Get Busy Committee is gonna be something really f—– crazy,” says group member Apathy. The album has been called “hip hop album of the year” by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and has fans ranging from Rob Dyrdek to Snoop Dogg. Spinner recently spoke with Ryu and Apathy about their group and their first official gig as GBC at this year’s SXSW.

How did you guys form the band?

Get Busy Committee was formed about one year ago in Los Angeles, California by long time friends Ryu, [of Styles of Beyond and Fort Minor], Apathy [of Army of the Pharoahs], and Scoop Deville [producer known recently for producing tracks with Snoop Dogg, Fat Joe, and others]. We were just there together all the time, and we wanted to do something different, something completely different, so we came up with the sound, the type of direction that we wanted to do, and it kind of just took it’s own weight and we were making it up as we went along.

How would you describe your sound?

I don’t know, maybe this is a question for somebody else you know what I mean? We do R&B, we do hip hop songs, and we do pop. Is there anybody else that does that? I doubt it! We are a combination of Morrissey with GZA and f—– The New Radicals, that’s our sound! [pauses] Not really!

What are your musical influences?

Our influences come from Eazy-E, Bell Biv DeVoe, Boogie Down Productions. Simple.

How did you choose your group name?

We were shouting out names, and “get busy” is like an old school term, so the whole Get Busy Committee just sounded fresh and we went with it. We wanted something that sounded dope.

What’s your musical guilty pleasure?

I’m not going to lie right now Lady GaGa, Black Eyed Peas, and The Carpenters.

Have you been to SXSW before? What are you expecting?

This is our first time at SXSW, we were invited, so we were like f— it let’s go. The prime ministers of SXSW emailed us and told us that they were waiting for a group like us to come along, so now that we are here they are pretty excited about it, and that’s how it happened.

Do you have a ritual before going on stage?

We don’t know! We never played as GBC, we’ve done tons and tons of underground and our own shows, and shows with other crews, but we’ve never played together as GBC, we are saving that for primetime at SXSW. We wanted to debut the live portion of our music, but we didn’t know how to do it and SXSW seems perfect for it. So a ritual will happen naturally at SXSW, we’ll bring a little shrine with us, or something.

If you could tour with anyone dead or alive, who would it be?

Sex Pistols, they are a–holes and we are a–holes! We would have a good time with them, they seem to drink a lot, and we’ll get in a fight with them. We either hate them or love them, and they’ll probably hate us.

What was the last physical CD you purchased?

Yesterday I bought Organized Konfusion, ‘Stress: The Extinction Agenda’ and also ‘The Killing Fields: Original Film Soundtrack.’ The last song I bought on iTunes is ‘Blackbird’ by Paul McCartney.

What is on repeat on your iPod?

Jay Electronica, ‘Exhibit C’ — can’t stop listening to it, and also The Beatles ‘A Day In The Life,’ its on constant repeat.

Anything else you’d like to say to Spinner’s readers?

Come check us out ‘cuz you don’t know what you are going to get — it’s going to be a surprise, for all of us! We’ll all be surprised together!