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Divine Council Shares The Best Day Ever

“[Andre 3000] just sat next to us eating tomato soup, pretty much just talking about how much of a big fan he is of us.”

Divine Council–the foursome of Lord Linco, Cyrax!, ICYTWAT, and $ilkmoney–is undoubtedly one of the more exciting acts that are destined to bloom into fruition this year; they have a cult following that is crazy about them. Rightfully so, they were co-signed by Erykah Badu and Andre 3000 late last summer and were signed by LA Reid, the guy behind all of the most influential acts in modern urban music. While they may appear at first glance to just be ‘riding the wave’ of current music bumped by the 90s babies, clearly there is something there.

Their EP was fascinating–as I wrote last year–so it’ll be exciting to follow them as they inevitably turn Super Saiyan. I was able to chat with the guys a few months back–and you can now check out that conversation below as they describe what was essentially the best day ever (up to that point in their lives). If you’re not up on the guys, get familiar.

Early.

You’re standing in an office, and you’re talking to LA Reid. What’s that like?

Honestly, that shit was too good to be true. That was like seeing the movies for real; it was some movie shit, he just came in and explained how it worked. It was all organic. I’m not sure how those meetings usually go down, but I know niggas usually gotta meet with an A&R. We didn’t have to do that, we went straight to LA Reid, he wanted to meet us himself–and it was all love. We was just cooling with that nigga, vibing down, and then after we were done playing our song he was like, ‘Yo, I’m gonna do this.’ That shit was cool as fuck. Even up to today, it was like one of the best days ever.

That was the same day that we met TWAT too; That was the first time we had officially linked up in person, which was a very momentous occasion for real. [TWAT is from Chicago.]

So what I’d heard too is that one of the driving forces of getting you guys to LA Reid is that you had a pretty major cosign by Andre 3000. How did Andre 3000 reach out to you?

We had got flown out to New York for the first time to do a show at SOB’s–this was like the first big show that we’d done. We never really did a show like that. Mainly all the shows we’d usually do would be in Richmond bars, and nobody would come, or it would be some lame bullshit happening, so this was like our first real show. So we went out to New York and met up with Dom and Chris, and Dom was going to get her hair done, and when she came back they had Andre with them, and we just looked up like ‘What the fuck?’ Because I’d never even seen a famous person up close. We had never seen a celebrity up close, so first thing when we saw him we were like, ‘this nigga looks like Andre 3000,’ and it turns out it was [deadass] him.

He just sat next to us, and he was talking about how big a fan he was of us, and how his son Seven had put him on to our music, which was crazy. He just sat next to us eating tomato soup, pretty much just talking about how much of a big fan he is of us, and we’ve been big fans of him all our lives, so it was crazy to hear that coming from the other way from somebody like him.

I think what’s cool too about you guys is, it feels very organic; you know what I mean? It feels like overnight out of nowhere you guys appeared, but it feels like there’s been a little bit of thought process.

I talk about that shit with my niggas all the time. It’s a lot of niggas out here in the game that have that machine behind them, and it’s a very inorganic push; you can tell that a lot of the shit that’s popping right now is forced. Divine Council, we didn’t force ourselves to link up, we didn’t force ourselves to make the songs, we didn’t force ourselves to make the moves we made. Everything we did and that happened, happened organically and for a reason.

So maybe talk about your EP. Talk about Council World and the process of putting that together.

The process of putting Council World together was a whole new experience for us. We wanted to put a lot more songs on it, but it was more of a time thing. It was [really] to get fans who don’t know about us to catch up, trying to get everybody and the general public caught up on us before we start going hard. We’re just trying to get everybody familiar with the Council.

It felt like it had different flavors to it, too. It wasn’t just one type of thing. It hit a couple of different checkboxes, you know?

Yeah. With the Council World EP, there’s definitely a song on there for every occasion, every moment. That’s how all our music is, honestly. Every single one of our songs, we as artists don’t stay in one lane. We all have different styles and stuff we would just go off of, and stuff like that, a bunch of influences, so we have songs for every moment, every occasion, every emotion, every feel.

How do you guys see the dynamic of the group playing out? When I look at something like Odd Future, it’s a weird dynamic, because I guess Tyler’s the leader, but it’s hard to put it together, and some people do solo stuff. So, what’s the dynamic of the group going to be?

Well, Divine Council, we’re kind of like Odd Future, but I feel like every group is different. We’re not like the regular rap groups of back in the days; you know how like every rap group, they had to be on every song together. Divine Council, we’re a collective. Everybody in Divine Council, overall Divine Council is a group, and we’re family, but everybody in the Council is their own artist. But Divine Council were like a collective.

So what’s next? What are you guys working on next? Are we going to get a full project, like a full LP?

We’ve got a lot of shit. Honestly, as of right now, we’re working on our individual projects and stuff, like TWAT is about to drop Milk, which is like his baby. That’s the project he’s working on right now, and the project that he’s taking his time on to perfect, just to make it perfect. Cyrax is working on his album – we all just working, so that’s all we can do is just work. So many ideas for videos, and so much new music coming out. Endless working, man. That’s all we’re doing.

Riley About Author

Riley here — father, artist, videographer, professional writer and SERIOUS hip-hop head. I'm a member of the Universal Zulu Nation, and I think everything is better on vinyl. Add me on Twitter! @specialdesigns