Photo: Cameron Krone

For Game Rebellion (Flash, Dec/Jan ’09), the world crisis is a call to arms. Plotting a proper debut, the Brooklyn Afro-punk group–guitarist Yohimbe, keyboardist Emi, MC Netic, drummer Mr. Pink and bassist Chief Med–aims to translate desperate times into defiant music. Here Yohimbe and Netic discusss chain snatching, record executives begging for quarters on the subway and how to change the world.

GIANT: You’re all from New York. How important is the city to Game Rebellion?

Netic: I think the fact that Yohimbe and myself have spent time in other places besides New York is reflective in our ability to be comfortable in other places, not physically going other places, but going other places musically, sonically, being exposed to different shit. We’ve had to do different shit to survive our whole lives. We didn’t really necessarily grow up the same way everybody grows up. Even when we did have stable living conditions, where we lived and how we lived was kind of crazy.

How so?

Yohimbe: Growing up, moving around, you start to identify yourself as a collection of your experiences. And so when you go from place to place, you’re going there not so much as a visitor, but kind of like an archive of all these things that are happening that make you who you are. You start to rely on yourself. In terms of your own personal identity, you learn what makes you feel right, what you need to feel comfortable, how you like to hang out.

Netic: I remember meeting Yohimbe. I was probably one of the only kids that I knew that was black that skated, and when I met Yohimbe, he had these little blond locks right here sticking straight up, and his head was shaved, and I thought he was like the coolest kid on the fucking planet. I was in elementary school, so for me, what he said about being a collection of your experiences was evident in his being who he was and me meeting him. There was a level of feeling comfortable with myself to be that same way because I saw someone who was brown and looked like me and did the same shit as me.

How did you come together as a group?

Yohimbe: He was rhyming at different places in the city. I was doing music. I was doing my production thing and writing songs and trying to play with different groups. We had an opportunity to do some venues, and we needed to get a group together fast to do this venue, and that’s where it all started. It was me, Netic and Ahmed, and we started as a little three-piece. Next thing you know, people wanted us to come play at their schools. At that time, we’d do any show. So we were playing in like elementary schools. I had this battery-powered amp, and that’s what I would play out of.

Netic: We used to really be on some Mike Tyson fight shit. We were looking to knock ‘em out in the first round, but we weren’t really boxing. Now we realize that it’s a fight, and that fight is about winning, coming out on top. In the end, that’s our goal. Our goal is to win. We want to do that with the least amount of casualties, the least amount of injuries. Sonically, you have casualties. You have screw-ups, you have pauses, you have breaks. We want to go through it and come out seamlessly so that we’re the better band, that we’re the best band that we could possibly be….Sometimes that goes in different directions, and the best part about Game Rebellion is that we figure out a way to find the common denominator and bring it back to a steady beam. Game Rebellion is the fucking diamond that centralizes light to make a laser.

What’s winning to you? What’s the message you want to get across?

Yohimbe: When we first started this group, it gave us a way to focus our individual artistic and personal aspirations. Early on, one thing that we were always really excited about was showing people that live instrumentation is something that still exists….I feel like the younger people are taking back their direction in terms of what they do. A lot of it is based on what they like, their interests and what they’re attracted to. So right now, winning is us getting out there and being able to present a product that expresses and explains and documents what we can do and what we’re capable of….It really does seem like because everything is being trimmed down by politics and what’s going on with our economy, everything is gonna be like one laser beam. It’s gonna kind of be like a slalom, and we’re all single file behind it. We look forward to being a part of that because everything else is gonna fall off. We’re on a little path at the edge of a great mountain, and everybody that’s standing on the line hugging the wall is gonna make it all the way through. We want to be a part of that.

Tough times always seem to be catalysts for the best art.

Netic: The one thing I really want to get across is: Fuck fear. All that shit does is keep you in check and keep you acting a certain way. Fuck all that. Don’t be afraid. Just do whatever the fuck you want to do. And just go for it. I read some shit that was really interesting. Someone said that people who don’t push buttons, they wait for the world to change. But the people who are pushing the buttons or pushing the envelope are the ones who are changing the world. Essentially the people who are falling in line are the ones who are fuckin’ waiting for someone else to come along and change the shit for them. And progress is based on the motherfuckers who are out of line. So as far as I’m concerned, the idea of being a rebel, those are the ones who push productivity and push change and push for things to happen. It’s the motherfuckers who are safe, who are just going along with the world, the world doesn’t change for them. They change for the world. But I’m trying to change the world.

How is the record coming?

Netic: We’re in the writing process. I think we have probably thirty demos to choose from. We write and produce first, and when we get it to the point where we can play it live, we know that we can record. We’re shooting for the album that we want to hear. We’re shooting for the album that we feel like has been missing for mad long.

What music inspires you?

Netic: Cypress Hill, Naughty by Nature, NWA, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, Rage Against the Machine, Tupac. That shit not only was hard to me, but I thought that I could feel OK listening to this shit and not feel like I was soft or a punk or whatever, and it was still saying some shit. Ice Cube was my homey for that shit. He was still gangster, but he was like, “Yo, fuck the police.” But it wasn’t “Fuck the police” on some stupid shit. It wasn’t like, “I’m killin’ cops because they’re stopping my drug run.” It was like, “I’m killin’ cops because they’re pulling me over and beating the shit out of me. So fuck you. I’m shooting you next time.” Obviously that’s reckless. But that shit was dope to me. That shit was gangster to me. Saying you’re killing a bunch of people that don’t have anything to do with your existence or aren’t really fucking your life up, that doesn’t matter to me. That shit is stupid. But I’m excited about the music that we’re making because it makes me feel like something is being said. And shit needs to be said right now because shit is fucking crazy and nobody seems to be saying shit. What the fuck is going on? Are you not paying attention?

How do you carry yourself?

Netic: I like the idea of “swag” meaning something, not necessarily meaning more than the lyrics but the idea that your personality is valuable and how you carry yourself is valuable. Brooklyn’s been saying that shit forever, but I don’t need a fuckin’ $40,000 watch to be cool because I got my swag. You can have whatever the fuck you want to have. You can pull up in the Lamborghini, but you’re still waiting in line at the fuckin’ club because you ain’t got the swag. I got the swag, son. That’s something that you have. You find it and develop it on your own. I don’t care that you have the biggest chain. Tyga’s got mad chains that glow in the dark or light up n’ shit and then he gets robbed like two days later because he ain’t got no swag. Maybe get some swag first and motherfuckers won’t fuck with you.

There seems quite a bit of potential for your style of music. Are you looking to hit the major-label route or stay underground?

Yohimbe: Whatever will allow us to reach the most people and still keep our self-respect and dignity and integrity as a proper business move, that’s what we will do.

Netic: We’re never gonna stop doing what we do. The major labels could fold tomorrow. They could literally not exist tomorrow, and Virgin could close in six months like it’s gonna, and it won’t change shit that we’re doing. What we’re doing is who we are, and as long as we’re alive, and as long as we have a voice, we’re gonna keep doing it. I’m gonna keep screaming. We’re gonna keep playing loud, keep turning it up. Aaron’s gonna keep hitting the drums hella hard. It’s just gonna be what it is. I’m not even trippin’.

Yohimbe: I was on the train, and I saw this guy asking for money, and he said he was a record-company exec.

You’ve had music out for a bit now as far as mixtapes and Internet songs. But are you considering this record a debut?

Netic: The record is just part of a progression. This will be our first. We’re taking all the training wheels off. We hopped off the bike with training wheels and hopped onto a Kawasaki Ninja.

Yohimbe: Nah, a real ninja.