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Arrested Development: 20 years, 6 months, & 23 days
It’s been 20 years, 6 months, and 23 days since 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of… dropped Tennessee and Arrested Development right into the thick of pop relevance. On the phone from New York, front-man Todd Thomas AKA Speech discusses with Rip Nicholson, the current state of conscious hip-hop, charting the start of a Southern hip-hop scene and the band’s longevity, reaching the heights of a 20th anniversary that seldom acts of any genre aspire to, never loan touch.
ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT (Speech) interviewed for Rip2Shredz // Street Press Australia // Hiphop.sh@ 10.00 AEST – Thursday 11th October, 2012
Congratulations on reaching a 20th anniversary.
This has been a really big highlight in our career. We feel like the fans have really been with us for 20 years and this particular year, with the shows we’ve been doing, i dunno, the fans have really shown their appreciation like it’s our 20th year its not like any other year we’ve done. It felt even more special. And there is something about the fact that we persevered and stuck with our message and our vibe, that the fans are really resonating with. It’s one thing to do 20 years its another thing to actually stick with your guns as far as musically and conceptually from what you first started with and what I think makes it so special.
You’ve been touring domestically across the US as of late, how much of your fans in the audience are new and young fans as opposed to us older heads who remember being down from day one?
I’d say about 70% are new. And it’s really great because it would seem the younger people are more thirsty than the older people because they grew up with no real sense of what positive hip-hop is at all. They didn’t see it so when they hear that it used to exist, they’re freaking out. ‘I wanna hear it!’ And then they hear it and it’s like, ‘why can’t music of our generation be more like this?’ and they come out with such enthusiasm and such excitement – it’s pretty amazing.
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