Despite Chicago’s winter wonderland, I had to get back to the streets. And what better way to get back than to enjoy a few 40 ounces of malt liquor with two of the streetiest (it’s a word, trust me) dudes I know: the guys from O.R. They.
O.R. They’s two MCs, Walter Liverharder and Lipschitz, a.k.a. Jed Spiegelman, have been lighting up the Chicago hip-hop scene since the late 90’s. Not satisfied with being two of the most accomplished MC’s in the underground hip-hop scene, they’re currently in-studio recording a new LP and shooting a few new videos. Taking a break from the studio, they joined me on the corner of Logan Boulevard and Washtenaw to enjoy a few bottles of the malt persuasion.
MM: You have persevered over the last ten years to become two of the most highly respected voices in Chicago’s Hip-Hop scene. A lot of musicians have come, a lot have gone, and a lot more will come and go. What is the starkest difference between Hip-Hop in Chicago today and when the two of you got started?
WL: The attention Chicago gets now. With Kanye’s rise to superstardom and great, youthful rappers like Chance the Rapper — and his whole Save Money Crew — there’s a lot more attention on Chicago. Not to mention the internet. When we started, the internet was purely for porn. Now you can promote yourself all over the world…..while surfing for porn.
JS: I think with the tools that are available to kids who are making music — and by tools I mean the combination of social media and easier access to production equipment — it reminds me that Chicago wasn’t always thought of as a [music] industry town. Before all of that, Chicago, felt like a dead end. You look at what Twitter does for a kid like Chance the Rapper — who is dope as hell — and how he hits internationally by creating his own buzz. The jump from needing help to being self-made is not as drastic as it was 10-15 years ago.
MM: Working together as a duo allows both of your voices to shine, to handle the mic, and have fun. Why did you choose to work together?
WL: I hate this dude. His voice just sounds good next to mine. Ha!
JS: Our boy Derek once told me that it worked because James is publicly passionate, and I am privately passionate, and all of that comes through in a cool way when we put it into music. That’s the best way I’ve ever heard it explained, even in my own mind.
MM: Writing rhymes is a distant cousin to writing novels or a blog or a short story but the process is still demanding. You have to sit down and write. You have to manage a regular job while pursuing your art and dream. Talk about your creative processes including how you manage to write while working day jobs and having a life?
WL: I don’t have a life. I have a daughter and a forty-hour a week job at the Chicago Board of Trade. So I pretty much write any chance I can get. When you love something or someone you find the time to make it work. And that’s how we work. We’re also roommates so it’s easier to coordinate. I also have a trained chimpanzee locked in my bedroom that writes all my raps for me.
JS: I’m not the right person to answer this question, because I lost track of all this (rapping) for a good 3-4 year period, when I got a job, a steady girlfriend, and got comfortable. I stopped making original music, stopped writing, stopped performing. And it was terrifying. Nothing in my life made sense without it. So while I can’t depend on music to make a living, I now know it’s an integral part of who I am and it needs to be in my life, somehow, someway. Just not with chimpanzees. They scare me.
MM: Working with a partner can ultimately cause creative differences. How do you blend your own personal writing styles to collaborate as a unit?
WL: We’ve always worked well together, since our days of rapping together in the love band, Bad News Jones. We’ve always just had an understanding of what we were trying to say. I just wished I liked the guy.
JS: This dude will say ANYTHING. It’s not that hard to find something to say when he he’s throwing out any and all sports, history, music, literary, and political references under the sun. It’s like playing tennis. Get a rally going.
MM: Okay, last serious one: what advice do you have for the kid sitting in his room right now listening to KRS-One on his headphones, with a pen and a pad, thinking about writing the first line of his masterpiece?
WL: Stop listening to rap music, it’ll fuck up your rap style. And do it. Just write. Inspiration doesn’t always come when you choose it to. You can’t just turn on being inspired. So write. Everyday. Even if you think it’s trash — get the trash out of your system. So, that way, when inspiration comes you’ll be ready.
JS: What he said – but you shouldn’t just NEVER listen to the classics either. Just save ‘em for the long car rides.
MM: Best hip-hop song to listen to when you need to get pumped?
WL: Tough one. I’ll get back to you.
JS: Were we not just talking about KRS-ONE?. The Rapture….shit goes hard. But, that question is impossible to answer while not being in mix-tape form, it’s just not fair, and you know it.
MM: Lobster roll or Chicago hot dog?
WL: Neither. Italian beef/sausage combo. Wet.
JS: I’ll take lime green relish for a thousand, Alex. Walter is gonna hate that I said that – cause that’s his line.
MM: Top three Chicago movies, top three Boston movies…
WL: (Chicago) I can’t do just three dude. Code of Silence. (Chuck Norris’ tour de force) Cooley High, The Untouchables, Ferris Buellers Day Off, and Backdraft. Damn. And The Fugitive!
JS: (Boston) One, The Departed. No contest. Two, I will say The Fighter because of the overall brilliance of the portrayal of people from Massachusetts and, three, The Boondock Saints.
MM: Have to know: deep dish or thin crust? And where?
WL: Thin crust. Pete’s Pizza on Western and Grace. Best thin crust in the city.
JS: If it’s deep dish, it’s Pequod’s. If it’s thin crust, it’s Dante’s on Armitage and Sacramento. But if I gotta pick…thin.
MM: You’re on a cruise ship and the electricity just went out and all you have is one book and one record until fix the stupid ship. What book and what record and why?
WL: Damn. Probably the Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami ’cause it’s an amazing piece of storytelling and you can re-read it over and over and find more in it and more to think about each time ‘cause it’s such a weird open-ended story. I’m gonna have to go with Frank Oceans’s Channel Orange. It’s the last amazing piece of work put out in a decade. It’s got up-tempo and down-tempo and it’s a solid album front to back. One of those “just press play” records.
JS: Book would be Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance…only because it’s the first book that, as soon as I finished, I wanted to start over from the beginning. Record: Graceland from Paul Simon. Because I’ve never gotten sick of it. Ever.
MM: The two of you’s were in Wicker Park in the late 90’s/early 2000’s and then moved to Logan Square before the gentrification happened there. What’s the next neighborhood that’s gonna pop-off? And, since you are such experts on Logan and Wicker – where’s the coolest place to get a crepe and a tattoo at the same time?
WL: Lincoln Square. And our house. Jed cooks the crepes and I’ll hide the cheap homemade mom tat.
JS: Fucked if I know, I’m from New England.
To follow: O.R. They, Walter Liveharder, and Jed Said.
For videos click here and here.
MATT MARTIN is a writer, actor, and producer, a graduate of the Second City Conservatory program in Chicago, owns a bachelors and is working on his MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago. Matt is the Interviews Editor for Hypertext Magazine and has been published in Hair Trigger, Trilling, Mad Licks, and Fictionary. Matt also writes a sports blog for Chicago Now and dreams of making a living in the arts. Until then, he’ll work toward collecting a pension from the city in 25 years.
