Lasto + ADTV = Bad Romance Weekend In Atlanta

You KNOW Nic E. Rock will be there and you should be there too.

Last Offence + ADTV = The Cypher

As mentioned in my previous interview with Last Offence here is "The Cypher" video with ADTV. Over Jay-Z's "Venus vs. Mars" beat Lasto lets off of a proper dose of lyrically seductive rhymes and further proves why he's one to watch in the Hip-Hop scene.

"Shawty get it in / Da-da-daddy go hard." Kill it, L.O.




*Side Lipton ~ Favorite line: "And I ain't even gangster like that / Just kick some thug shit to keep 'em masturbating like that." YAAAAEEEEESSSS!!!*

The Last(o) Scraps

What does Lasto munch on throughout the day?

Fruits and vegetables. *laughs* I think it’s important that we get our vitamins and stuff and minerals. My best friend in the world is a personal trainer, for the time I was living in L.A., and we both bonded over our love of maintaining the body, I guess.

Random question. What are some of the artists you’re listening to, right now?

Empire of the Sun, there’s a couple of songs I liked that they did. I’ve been digging back to my Bjork cause she gives me that life. I listen to Blueprint 3. I like Drake. I like his little song, "Money To Blow." It’s such a well written ass song. Beanie Sigel, the project he just put out.

You’ve been performing for a year now. What has it been like performing across the country and what you have learned along the way?

It was really cool. Like, this was one of the best years of my life. I really did get to go a lot of places and meet a lot of people who were cool. It was just really cool. I learned that you get out of it what you put in, as far as performing. I’ve learned myself, through performing. You know, I learned that you have to keep doing it. You have to spend as much time performing as you spend making records, in order to become an effective performer. Cause every time I do it I learn something. I’ve also learned what I need in a performance. Like, these microphones with wires connected to them, like, I don’t even want to deal with them anymore. I need cordless mics. Call me what you want but that’s how I feel. Sound systems I’d like for them to be on point. But that’s not always the case. But they play such a huge part in how people are going to respond to the performance. Everything is about what they’re hearing and seeing. I learned how important it is to have a good sound system. I learned it’s not a foregone conclusion. You just never know what you’re going to get out of these venues. Also, I’ve learned more and more about how to put together a mix.

Many artists have spoken about the trial by fire that is having good and bad people around them. Have you dealt with that in the industry?

I regret some things being so wide open. But that's just the type of dude I am. But a lot of my wide open-ness has resulted in certain unnecessary-ness. And it's resulted in future unnecessary-ness to come. As far as the trial by fire, I think that nobody can protect themselves from bad people because they come in all shapes sizes and forms. And, for the most part, everybody's capable of bad or being a bad person, to you. People are different things to different people. Unless you surround yourself with no one, which is impossible in this shit, then you're just gonna have to deal with it. And I think I've dealt with it in a nice way, I guess.

You "pay it" well, as you say.

Yeah, I pay it well, like no one else. You know they haven't gotten rid of me yet. I lived.

For me, personally, I would say that my family gave me music. My father gave me soul, funk, rock and my eclectic side, my sister gave me hip-hop and my mother gave me the drive to want it. Who in your family gave you music in that way?

Well my brother is also a rapper. My father is not musicy at all. He's that type of person who, I'll have some shit on the radio and he won't be paying attention to it. He won't care what radion station I have it on as long as it's not rap. He's got an issue with rap, I guess. But see it's not even the musicality of it he just, "Why the hell it's gotta be talking about that ignorant...?" you know. So anyway it's not from him. My mother is pretty much indifferent to music too. But she's a little bit more musical than him. Since she's a minister, gospel is pretty much what she walks around singing and she's emphatic about it. I, myself, nothing against gospel, I just...There are some gospel songs that I really get into. Ummm *thnks about it* ummm what's that one? Anyway, so I would say it was my brother. My brother was the one who introduced me to rap and I hated it because...I don't know. I guess I didn't understand. I didn't get it. So when I first came into music it was on some R&B shit. The first R&B CD I ever bought was that Babyface. It was the Babyface album that had "This Is For The Cool In You" on it and ummm....

You're SUCH a 35 year old woman!! You were my mother!! *laughs*

*LAUGHS* You're too much. But I loved Babyface. That *sings* "This is for the cool." Like, that was my shit but, anyway. So yeah I used to be into TLC, En Vogue...sort of, but mainly TLC. I liked Brandy when she came out. I lost track after the first album until "The Boy Is Mine" then I lost track again. Aaliyah. You know, your typical gay boy which is a bunch of female icons. I could never get into the male figures. But then the Death Row...I really really got into Snoop and then it was just on and popping, I guess. I just kind of fell in love with it. But then I kind of fell out of love with it at the end of the 90's. Then I went off into a whole different direction and started trying to find other shit. That's when I got Bjork and my Portishead and my Radiohead and my other various heads. But it didn't mean that I was leaving rap alone. I was still fucking with rap at the same time. I love my Jigga, Eminem, Fox, you know. So I'm really glad that I did go find all those non-rap artists because it does give me that range. I get inspired from them, just like their techniques. You wouldn't think I would be able to because they're singing. Like the Bjork Medulla album taught me to use vocals in a different way. You'll see it on "Nevermind Me" (A song from Red Label) especially. That's the most Medulla inspired track that I've ever done. In particular that track, "Nevermind Me," is like an exercise in my vocal range because it's a bunch of different noises going on but they're all me. There's like a wide range over this industrial sounding minimal ass beat.

*Side Lipton: You can hear a snippet of "Nevermind Me" at the beginning of Lasto's Mondo Homo performance video HERE*

Last Offence - The Interview

You’re coming up on 2 years as an artist. What do those 2 years mean to you, personally?

There’s a chapter for each project I guess. Everything leading up to Run A Lap was one chapter. In that period, I was able to be born in this shit. I would say that was my birth and adolescence, like, puberty period right there. I was brand new and just feeling my way through the shit. You’ve got the little Not for Non-Profit period which was more tumultuous. I got a little bit of acclaim from some people and kind of the backlash from that. Backlash from some of the decisions I made, personally.

Kind of like GaGa’s “The Fame.”

*laughs* Yeah, the funny thing is I ain’t even famous yet. But I did basically have to get, not crucified, but get my ass reamed a little bit. And I can honestly say that it didn’t humble me because I was already humble and that’s no bullshit because I’m still the same “ninja” throughout. I can’t even say it made me stronger because when “ninja’s” started saying X, Y, & Z about me, it was kind of like I expected it. I just kind of shook it off and moved the fuck on. But now I’m entering into chapter 3. Lord knows what that will bring. I think a lot of self torture. Chapter 2 was a lot of people shitting on me. Now this is kind of a me shitting on me period, at least in the beginning of it.

Self torture? Talk with me a little bit more about that.

You know they always talk about artists going insane. *laughs* Now I get it. You’re looking at what you’re doing and you’re just not ever happy. It’s never good enough and you’re contemplating quitting all the time and you’re asking yourself, “why are you doing this?” It’s just those inner demons. The psychology of an artist, you know? The neurotic neurosis…ummm…yeah. *laughs* That’s why things keep changing. Dates keep changing. Songs keep getting trashed and that’s why I have not released a song since March, which is a long time in this shit. I’ve just decided to let it go. It doesn’t have to be the hottest song on earth. Cause if I keep waiting on the hottest song on the Earth then I’ll just end up not releasing shit. So better something than nothing at all.

In terms of “hot”, are you talking about what you think is hot or what the consumer thinks is hot?

*laughs* I’m seriously thinking in terms of what the public thinks is hot. I have somewhat of an instinct. Nobody’s got a perfect instinct for hits….maybe Michael Jackson. But even Michael Jackson had a team of people around him, as most major artists do. But I have pretty good instincts about that. In my past I’ve predicted very accurately the songs people would respond to versus the songs that people would not respond to, in droves.

When you’re creating music is their a difference for you in creating for a mixtape as opposed to an album?

Yeah. I mean actually the very first thing I did, the EP, was the least neurotic project, I guess you could say. I was basically doing whatever songs I could get my hands on because I didn’t know a lot of producers. I didn’t really know how to go about getting music. So whenever I would get a beat I would just do the best I could with it. But with Not for Non-Profit I really wanted to approach it like an album. So it kind of was different there. Even though I was calling it a mixtape, I wanted it as the aesthetic of an album. That journey type feeling. So this time around, with Red Label, I’m going that same route. I’ve decided to myself that any piece of work that I put out has to be that same type of journey.



Let’s talk a bit more about Not For Non-Profit. Some artists talk a lot about what they DO have. You on the other hand talk a lot about what you DON’T have. Why did you decide to be so honest?

*LAUGHS* The thing about me is I’m a very honest person, period. So I wasn’t gonna get away…I can’t convince nobody of some shit that ain’t true. I just don’t have it, ever, in me to perpetrate a lie. It just takes too much work. *laughs* It’s just other things I would rather put my energy towards. And also I think that there’s so much fakery going around that, shit, them “ninja’s” is faking enough. It’s like I let them do them and here’s what I’m gonna do. I ain’t saying nothing’s wrong with it. I mean there is something cute about that little fantasy. “I got so much money that my lawyers have lawyers,” and all that other bullshit they talk about. I just think that, for me, that’s just not me. I just don’t care that much. *laughs*

I have to say “Rokurboy” was probably one of the best rock songs I’ve heard, this year. That’s a banging, rocking, hard track.

Yeah, I fell in love with that track. It was either that or “Don’t Go There” that was like the last (song), cause it (the mixtape) was put together and I was fixing to chuck it out there and then I heard that beat. I was like, “Hold the fuck up! I gotta do something with that.” And I didn’t want to do a traditional type song with it, you know, three verses and a hook. I just felt like it was so high octane and you only needed a good 2 minutes of it to get the point across. I just hopped on there and I’m just so happy that it made it. I’m so happy that I found that record before I put it (Not for Non-Profit) out. I think I recorded it like a week before I put that shit out.


Speaking of rock songs, there’s another beat of yours I heard on your YouTube video for The Dip and it’s this bluesy rock track ("L.O. 101").

Damn. You are like really listening. I can’t get nothing past you. Shit. That track is basically like…what do they call it? There’s an analogy people use, it’s not an Achilles heel. Oh fuck. Basically it derives from some story where it was something that somebody was trying to achieve but they could never achieve it. But anyway that’s my THAT. I cannot crack that beat. I’ve been trying to crack that beat since…a long time. But I’m getting to the point where it’s actually gonna happen. But it’s a tough egg to crack. It really is. Most of us don’t like to admit weakness but, you know.

So what do you do when you have writers block? When you come across a beat that you just can’t crack, what do you do?

Usually I dump it *laughter* I give up. Nah, I mean, you really don’t wanna force nothing. You never wanna force it. I’m trying to think, have I ever done a forced…*thinks about it*…Nah, nope. I don’t think I’ve ever done anything forced. Some beats will pull it out of you, immediately. I think I wrote “Hello Boyz” in 2 hours. It’s the funniest thing because that was another song that almost did not happen. I had run across that beat a couple of times and I just kept glazing over it. Like, I just didn’t give a shit and I didn’t see how beautiful he was. And then, you know, he did his hair differently one day and then I seen him and I was like, “hold on this motherfucker’s kind of fly.” Then once I really felt it, it took no time.



You’ve covered a lot of topics but there was one thing I noticed that wasn’t on the mixtape. You didn’t talk about love. Why was that?

I feel like…it wasn’t a lovey dovey album. Ugh how do I put this into words? I feel like as artists, I mean for me, I think we talk about love the most when we have love and lose it. So I hadn’t dealt with that yet. Everything was still sunshine and roses pretty much, during the recording of that project. So it just wasn’t in my focus.

From Not for Non-Profit what songs did you put the most effort into and love the most?

“Not Whining.” I would say “Rokurboy.” Ummm “Who We Are” even though I’m not 100 percent satisfied with how it came out. *sighs and laughs* Like that was the hardest, that was definitely the most difficult of the songs.

Let's talk about your new project, Red Label. Is it going to be a mixtape or an album for sale?

It’s gonna be a project. *laughs* It’s gonna be a project called Red Label. That’s all I can really say about it, right now.

But you are going to sell it, right?

Just to keep it 100 with you, I think some songs are gonna be for sale and some aren’t. Yeah, it’s gonna be weird. There’s this website called bandcamp.com where you can set it up in that way. Like, you can sell songs and some songs can be free. When it does come out it’s gonna be exclusively through bandcamp.com and then the songs that are free will be just tossed around through Twitter, Facebook and the MySpace type things.

I was just hoping for a physical CD that I could have. Damnit!!

I think I am gonna press up copies. This time it’s gonna be real with the little jacket, the producers and all that shit.

Tell me a bit about the new project.

Everything has changed now though since the last time we talked. It is…anger. I think it’s finally the most declarative anything I’ve done. It’s like, okay, this is Last Offence. I don’t feel like any of the projects prior have done that. That’s just the feeling I get from it. I just feel like this is the identity. You know, I did the training wheels for a while and now I’m like riding the bike.

Awww. Like the little kid on the bike, “I can do it, Daddy!”

*Laughs* Pretty much. And it keeps going through phases. Relationships have fallen apart. Some relationships have mended. Some records had to be scrapped. Some had to be recorded, just based on things that were going on. But I think we’re almost there. I’m hoping by the end of the year. I don’t wanna leave ’09 without putting something out there but…shit happens.

From the tracks that I’ve heard, it’s got depth. It’s hard-hitting. I feel like you’re going to go there.

Yeah *laughs* pretty much. It’s mean. It’s mean this time around. I can’t explain it. It’s like they changed me. Not in an integrity sort of way, though. It’s like, a lot of this is like, what they’ve made me. But yeah I’m hungry, bitch! It feels like ’96, again. That’s what Inga (Marchand) always says. *laughs*



You were just at a video shoot with FoxxJazell for her “Ride Or Die Boy” Remix. You come from a film background but what was it like, being in front of the camera, as an artist?

It was very strange but familiar. I mean I’ve been in front of the camera a couple of times before. I was in a couple of student films and I was actually in a Sharpie commercial when I was 18…just some random shit. I was one of the football players. I don’t even know if you could see me. But I thought the video went down real professional. For her to be an independent artist and for it to be low budget, it was just real professional. I was impressed.

Are we still going to see a video from L.O.

Ummm some things have changed. *laughs* Things are always changing but I think so. I actually do. I don’t think things have changed to the point where you won’t see that. I just have to get to a point where that’s my focus. Right now my focus is the music. But once the focus is the video I don’t think it’ll be long before you see it.

You’ve said in past interviews that you’re not sure if you wanna stay independent or if you wanna sign to a label, a major label. Why the uncertainty?

Because I honestly don’t think anyone knows how to do me but me at this point and a label’s gonna get in there and maybe they’ll clean house for the good and maybe they’ll clean house for the bad. It’s an unproven territory, this gay shit. So they don’t have any reference material to look back on. The only thing I really want to fuck with a label for is the money for videos. Because distribution is not what it used to be. Most people are doing this internet digital shit. The nature of distribution has changed to a point where it’s undermined the major label. So a label does become questionable. They’re gonna rape you. That just goes with the territory. You’re gonna be bringing in a certain amount of revenue and you’re only gonna get a tip of the iceberg of it. Marketing dollars are pretty much the only thing that I would fuck with a label about. This independent shit costs money so I’ma have to start selling records at some point or else I can’t do it no more. If I just make enough money to keep shit going then that’s fine with me. If I can make enough to keep shit going and not have to worry then I’m good.

This year you became a pretty active Twitterer and Facebooker. Do you enjoy it?

Twitter has this power of making you feel like you’re in the confessional or some shit and it should not be that way *laughs* because everybody can see that shit. Look, Twitter goes against everything that I am or that I was. I don’t know.

Well do you enjoy it in the sense that you are more connected to people, to your audience?

Yeah, that is cool. That’s the really cool part about it, the connection to people who really do give a shit. And being connected to other artists who I don’t get to see all the time but they’re on Twitter. It’s like kinship.

Besides Twitter, what else does Lasto do to unwind and relax?

Well lately I don’t think I have been unwinding or relaxing. I just think it’s been non-stop. Because I want something out already so I’m really not unwinding or relaxing. Everything I do has something to do with music. But sometimes I do have a moment to sit down with my friends and we’ll go see a movie or eat dinner or some shit like that. But then I’m in a rush to get back to the music, where ever that may be. I just did something really cool, last night. I just did this cipher freestyle thing for ADTV.

YAES!! YAES!! Who’s in it?
*Side Lipton: I love ADTV*

Nah, it’s just me. *laughs* But they’re calling it The Cipher for some reason. Yeah it is funny because it was just me. But yeah…me is enough. Fuck that! *laughs*

Any last words from Lasto?

There’s gonna be some miscellaneous songs that will hit the market place very soon. Some songs are gonna be coming out and they’re not going to be on Red Label. I almost want to put a title on a project that these miscellaneous songs will be on, just so they won’t confuse it with Red Label.

Get to know the artist behind the interview, here, at his MySpace page.
http://www.myspace.com/whoislastoffence

Coming Soon....Last Offence

The Interview

Last Offence = MY Hip-Hop

Being a HUGE music fan I come across artists and music that represent various facets of my personality all the time. But on occasion I come across certain artists that I feel represent ME and what I believe in. In a way they feel kindred to me and they inspire me. Rapper, Last Offence (Lasto), is the newest artist to be added to that list and he has quickly earned a place amongst my upper echelon of favorite artists.

This N.Y. emcee (by way of St. Louis, MO and recently L.A.) is part of the newer generation of openly gay rappers making a name for themselves in the hip-hop scene. Within the last year this former film-maker to be has released an EP, Run A Lap (a good head start for this new emcee), and more recently a mixtape, Not For Non-Profit , one of the best hip-hop recordings I've heard all year.

Not For Non-Profit is a melting pot of lyrical braggadocio, clever word-play, social commentary, revealing lyrics and sex.

When it comes to talk of sex Lasto both simmers and turns up the sexual heat with songs like "Wet Dream", "Back it On Up" and "On Top." The former is an exceptional blend of 90's hip-hop flavor and sexual come-on's that finds Lasto and fellow emcee, Nano Reyes, boasting that, "Any dream about me is a wet one." The song "Back It On Up" is a banging club track that has Lasto and his fans heading straight to the wild side of the dance floor as the Jay-Z sampled chorus instructs listeners to, "Back it on up/Back it, Back it on up/Back it on up like a U-Haul truck." However, on the latter track Lasto ditches his sexual commands, preferring instead to seduce over a softer middle-eastern inspired beat as he asks, "Why are you here?/You should be living in my bedroom...I Won't stop till I get up on top/Won't stop till I get up on top."

But lest anyone start to think that Lasto is a common whore he makes it abundantly clear that getting at him is no easy task. Over the synth flares, gun cocks and sirens of "Don't Go There" Lasto declares, "Yeah I'm into these nuts and ball sacks/That's common knowledge now/But I ain't no slut, ninja/Calm it down."

Besides being someone with a healthy sexual appetite Lasto is also a slick and witty emcee who's fully aware of his talent, and rightfully so. On the dirty-south inspired track "Fresh As I Wanna Be" Lasto comically boasts that, "I'm tight, tight, tight dawg/Like a gerbil's coochie." The song "They Don't Like Me" (Which seriously reminds me of The Karate Kid) finds Lasto cleverly professing his lyrical might on an even grander scale as he proclaims that, "Whatever god you believe in/You can believe in this fag."

Putting aside his own vanity Lasto also puts a lyrical mirror to the world around him and skillfully tackles a number of social issues affecting the gay community. On "Here & Now" Lasto blends observant and reflective lyrics with a blazingly powerful horn-driven beat as he sounds off on the effects of the Down Low; "The DL epidemic the way that it hit those black men/I feel I need to scream it out/Like fuck me from the back end."

Lasto dives even deeper into conscious waters on the anthem "Who We Are," covering topics such as Matthew Shepard, Harvey Milk and marriage equality. While the guitar driven beat may be a little too VH1 light for my tastes the lyrics are enough to carry the song as he asserts that "You will not treat me like you better no more/You will not treat me like a leper no more."

On one of the mixtape's most introspective tracks, "Not Whining," Lasto waxes poetic over Kanye West's "Say You Will" beat about his presence in the hip-hop world. In it he admits, "Ninja I'm not whining/The game don't want me/Won't pump me/No tender feelings/None of those warm fuzzies...the game don't love me." What would come to many as a crushing realization about the music industry's homophobia Lasto takes in stride and counters with an iron will and unstoppable sense of destiny; "But I've invested in this/See if you die and you just let your destiny sit/And you don't fulfill it/Fuck was you talking about, Willis? Why was you here for, homie? This is not a game." That type of strength and honesty is what makes both him and his lyrics so endearing and allows him to adeptly take Kanye's beat and create something equally as moving as the original, if not better.

Not For Non-Profit succeeds in lyrics, diversity, production and wit. To put it simply, it's dope and to speak simply of Lasto, he IS hip-hop to me and his voice is worth being heard. I, and now hopefully all of my readers, impatiently await his full-length album, Rap's Misfit. Until then I bow in his honor, give him my personal stamp of approval and formally "ride his dick."

You can download both his EP and mixtape from his myspace page http://www.myspace.com/whoislastoffence

Check out a video of his show from this years Mondo Homo Festival in Atlanta with fellow emcee, TwiZza

Side Lipton ~ *That's me laughing and screaming "YAES!" after TwiZza cups his tidday.*

Still don't think he's dope? Well here's a video of Lasto in a freestyle word game with fellow emcees Medino Green and Rowdy Raz.


*Lasto comes in at 4:22*