Adam BernardA little over three years ago Turquoise Jeep melted the internet with “Lemme Smang It.” The hilarious song and video about wanting to “smash it and bang it” racked up over ten million views, and launched a then unknown crew of artists into the limelight.
Refusing to allow themselves to be relegated to internet meme status, Turquoise Jeep released an album titled Keep The Jeep Ridin’, which they then followed with a number of brand new clips, including “Treat Me Like A Pirate,” and “Naughty Farmer.” Those new songs were packaged together for their latest album, Existing Musical Beings
Fun, and funny, the team that’s made up of Yung Humma, Flynt Flossy, Whatchyamacallit, Pretty Raheem, Slick Mahony, Tummiscratch Beats, and MoonRock (MoonRock not pictured), have a desire to inspire good times everywhere they go.
As Turquoise Jeep prepare to hit the road again to do just that, RapReviews caught up with Yung Humma and Flynt Flossy to find out more about the group, including when they first realized they were doing a lot more than just posting funny videos.
Adam Bernard: Your history is very Ultimate Warrior, or Nomi from Showgirls. As far as I can tell you’re either from “parts unknown,” or “different places.” Is there a backstory to how Turquoise Jeep came together that you can share?
Flynt Flossy: We were in the industry already. I was directing, and I was also writing, and producing, and Humma was writing, (as well). He’s a brilliant lyricist. We were always crossing paths, and we just became cool. Dealing with the industry, dealing with other artists, CEOs, and stuff like that, you get tired of it sometimes, because you’re limited in your creative expression, so one day me and Whatchya were like, “Yo man, let’s start up this label.” Humma was always the homey, and I knew how talented he was, so we just linked up from there.
AB: You guys have used the internet incredibly effectively. What was the moment that made you realize this could turn into something more than just posting a funny video?
FF: After “Stretchy Pants” we got on TV. They wanted to license “Stretchy Pants” and we were like OK, cool, and one time we looked at the blogs and we were on MTV’s blog, we were on VH1’s blog, we were like, “This is getting kinda crazy.” Then we opened up for Big Boi. When we did our first headliner act we were in Indiana and the promoter came up to us like, “Yo man, sold out.” We were like sold out? OK, cool. We’re all down to earth cats, we’re all humble. I stuck my head out the door of the dressing room and girls started screaming and running towards us, and I was like, “Oh shit, this is getting crazy, Humma! This is something serious now, man.”
Yung Humma: In the beginning, me, personally, like Floss, I didn’t know that it was gonna become viral the way that it did. I thought we were just putting out some of our stuff, and if you liked it, you like it, but this is just us, this is who we are in raw form, and people just started receiving it, so it was definitely a blessing.
AB: When was the first time you were recognized on the street, or in a restaurant?
YH: I was recognized once leaving a Hooters. I guess they saw the ponytail. Normally I try to cover up the hair.
FF: He covers up the hair, I take off my sunglasses. With my sunglasses off, and my sunglasses on it’s like Clark Kent and Superman.
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FF: It’s actually doing rather well, it’s getting received real well. It shows our maturity, and how we’ve evolved. We’re in the process of shooting all the videos, because I’m old fashioned with it, I want to do a video for every song. We’re getting those lined up, and we’re gonna work on the next project after that. Keep it movin.
AB: Are you going to keep the videos in the same vein as the previous clips?
FF: Probably, because a lot of times you don’t want to stray from what people love you for, but at the same time you see the progression, you see the maturity of how we’ve evolved.
AB: How do you hope the album affects people?
FF: I want them to feel good. I want them to hear a track and have it evoke some kind of emotion, whether it’s happiness, whether they want to dance, whether it makes them think. All these songs, they have some meaning behind them, they have a backstory, they were made for a reason. A lot of times when we make music we’re speaking for the people. Like “Why I Gotta Wait” is an underdog song. It’s like why are you making ME wait? A lot of times an artist will think they’re too cool to say, hey, a girl made me wait for it. I’ll say it. Everyone plays the fool sometimes.
YH: We get plenty of fans that, when they see us in concert, they’re like “Yo, I love your stuff, it always makes me laugh. Whenever I’m having a terrible day I just put on a video and it makes me feel so much better.” It’s very inspiring.
FF: Our goal is for people to enjoy the music, but it’s a crazy feeling, because we get a lot of letters, “You helped me through my day,” “You got me through my divorce,” and it’s like wow, it’s powerful, man, it’s beautiful.
AB: Comedy and hip-hop have a weird relationship because so many people take hip-hop so seriously. When you’re writing, and when you’re making your videos, how do you know what’s going to work, and what might be taken the wrong way?
YH: I think we don’t focus on that. We just put out there whatever we’re feeling. We don’t try to bog ourselves down as far as how everyone else is gonna think about it. We do it the way we first started, we just put it out there and if you like it, you like it. We just do us, pretty much.
FF: And a lot of times people try to ask us if you consider yourselves comedy. Nah, Existing Musical Beings
YH: And if you think about it, music back in the day, most of it was happy feel-good music. If you talk about The Fresh Prince, and artists like that, it was fun music. I feel like we get so caught up in trying to be dark, and be hard, and I don’t know, this crazy image, we get so caught up in that we forget what music does for you. It’s an emotional tool. It makes you feel good. It makes you laugh. It makes you want to dance. It makes you want to move. It wakes you up in the morning. It makes you want to work out. We forget about all those other emotions that music does for us because we’re so focused on the dark side of it.
YH: Not necessarily. You like what you like, at the end of the day, but at the same time don’t frown on other viewpoints. Just cuz it’s not real to you, doesn’t mean it’s not real to someone else, or someone else can’t relate to it.
FF: I think everyone just plays their lane. You’ll listen to a Rick Ross to get a certain kind of emotion, or you’ll listen to Prince to get a certain emotion. We were just fortunate to create and develop our own style. If you listen to Turquoise Jeep you’re going for a different kind of emotion. So it’s like, everyone play their line, and like Humma was sayin, don’t frown on people. What we do, I don’t front, I don’t push dope, or nothin like that, nothin crazy, I just rock about what I know, what I experience. A lot of times when people sense that you’re genuine, it’s like, “Man, that’s something I want to do, too.” They can relate. That’s what it is, we want our listeners to relate to us when we make it.
AB: I’ve read some reviews of your live performances, and they sound like a great time. Tell me about some of the wilder things that have happened at Turquoise Jeep shows.
FF: {*laughs*} OK, I don’t know if I can mention all of them. The wildest, a lot of things dealing with women as far as their excitement to see us. Some girls just won’t let you go. We have women take off their bras, pull out their breasts, have us sign everything. They’ll get naked, and you’re like, OK, and you have a dude in the back, (we’ll ask him) “Isn’t that your girlfriend?” “Yeah, it’s cool, just smang my girl, man, just smang her.” You’re like, what? You’re into that freaky shit, OK, to each his own. Girls try to sneak into the dressing room, stuff like that.
AB: Have you ever been concerned, or scared, about the aggressiveness of a fan?
FF: Yeah. Definitely.
AB: Tell me about one of those situations.
YH: Some fans, you can tell they’re just genuine fans, and then some fans have a different look in their eye where it’s like you feel like you’re gonna go to their house and there’s gonna be a shrine of you above their bed, or something.
FF: There was this lady, she had to be in her late 40s, or (early) 50s, and she waited after the autograph line. She just kept grabbing me. Security had to come. She said, “Floss, I’ma eat you up. I’ma just tear you up. Don’t let me get you.” I’m like, I’m scared right now. I’m not even getting turned on. This is scary. This woman was extremely, “You’re my favorite. Ooh, I’ma make you my favorite rapper for real! Wait till I get you!” Security was like, “Ma’am, could you please leave?”
YH: Have you had a fan, cuz I know I have, come up to you and say I’ma have your baby? They’ll look at you fiercely like tonight you’re gonna impregnate me.
FF: I think once (I had a woman say) I’ma marry you, but Humma gets some crazy stuff cuz he’s a ladies man right there.
YH: We were in Athens, GA, and I had two chicks say it at different occasions at the same show, and they waited around while we were signing autographs, waiting for the night to be over like, “I’m serious, you’re impregnating me tonight.” I’m like, OK, I’m nervous now.
AB: Do they realize that requires an action by you that they’re not really inspiring at that point in time?
FF: He’s gonna be in the room like, “Can’t get it up for ya!”
YH: Once you hear that you no longer take any drinks from anybody.
AB: Tell me about a place you were able to get into, or a situation you were able to get out of, because you’re Turquoise Jeep.
YH: There was one time we were on the road, we got stopped by some patrolman.
FF: Oh yeah, he was like “Wait, you’re who? Oh, my son loves you guys!”
YH: But we’re very low key, so we don’t put ourselves in crazy situations like that. If it’s outside of kickin it with the ladies, we’re pretty low key.
AB: How high over the speed limit were you going when you were stopped?
YH: We were doing like 90 in like a 65.
FF: Trying to get to a show.
AB: That would have been expensive.
YH: Exactly. We told him who we were, where we were going, and he flipped. It was almost like he was a fan.
YH: It depends on the girl, and where you lead her. Of course, you can’t be at church thinking you’re gonna smang a girl after service, but if you meet a girl at a bar, and she’s kinda giving you a vibe, if the vibe is going well, hey, try to get it that night, or at least the next night.
FF: And you gotta play it like this; first off, you can’t get into that friend zone. Even if you’re not aggressive, and don’t be aggressive with it, just let her know I’m willing to cross that line, because a woman knows if she’s gonna have sex with you the first five minutes, or the first couple seconds, after she meets you. A lot of times you can start out with an A+ and work your way to an F.
YH: Don’t be like me, because Humma’s had cases where he’s talked too much, and I’ve talked myself into… it’s like in the beginning she wants to sleep with me, but at the end of the night she really wants to get to know me, and wants me to be her man.
FF: He’s the super nice guy. First they’ll be like, “I wanna rip your clothes off,” then they’ll talk to him for a while and be like, “Let’s cuddle.” {*laughs*} He’s still the man.