Two years later, I’m standing in front of their hotel with their road manager Derrick. “They aren’t dumb,” Derrick pauses to light a cigarette. “Despite what people might think, it’s just entertainment.”
Upstairs, a much more mellow D-Roc and Kane are settling into their hotel rooms after sound check. D-Roc leans back against three pillows and flicks through stations on the remote, settling on the Disney Channel. It’s a rare quiet moment where the “twins” are not in performance mode.
What are you guys working on now? Do you have another album in progress?
D-Roc: We gonna start working on it, but we just trying to get [our last album, “Me & My Brother,”] platinum. We already gold, we about 150k away from platinum. We’re pretty excited cause we ain’t never got that far. Gold, we was happy about that. But platinum??! And we’ve got Don Yute’s first single, he’s a Jamaican dancehall cat on Slip-N-Slide, we got Bonecrusher’s first single “Take Ya Clothes Off,” and then we got a joint on Britney Spears’ album. We on Nick Cannon’s new album, and we got a little came on the movie Soul Plane.
Britney Spears and Nick Cannon are unusual collaborations. How did you hook that up?
D-Roc: They folks called us, so, BOOM! It was like, aight. Britney already had the song, we just went in there and put the Ying Yang on there, so it came out FIYAH!
You just shot the video for “What’s Happnin’” with Trick Daddy – who came up with the idea to have the sports theme?
D-Roc: We wanted to have something different, do everything street, that’s what made it FIYAH! It came out actually very colorful and very good. We taking it to BET this week, we gonna be on 106th & Park. “What’s Happnin’” will be the third single. “Naggin’” was the first, then “Saltshaker.”
Was “Naggin” from a real-life experience?
D-Roc: That’s for every man that encounters that kinda relationship and for every woman that’s ever encountered that kinda relationship too. It ain’t never been spoke on. It’s like, “Girl, shut up!” sometimes. Every man done went through that kinda relationship, several of ‘em. So it needed to be spoke on.
What’s something that irritates you in a relationship?
D-Roc: I mean, you know, it’s the same shit. Something stupid. If you been makin’ my food like this here and you turn around and make something different, it’s like hold on now, looka here. That’s why I just make my own plate. I don’t like my food all mixed up, I like mine one at a time. So if they just put all my food and slap it all together…
So you want a woman to just cook for you?
D-Roc: Nah, you know, she gotta do something. She gotta clean up. And she gotta go to work. She gotta get out the house, ‘cause that’s what makes a relationship stronger. If she just sittin’ there looking for something to get into, you gotta give her something to do. If she just sittin’ there, she gonna be like, “I wonder what he doing now… what he doing now… what he doing now?” She gotta go to work. Come in with your ends, too, so you don’t need my money! Whoo!
You make a lot of strip club anthems. What’s the best strip club in Atlanta?
D-Roc: The best strip club in Atlanta? Oh, I got several of ‘em. You know, Pin Up, Magic City, Body Tap, Jazzie T’s. They got different days.
Kane: Wednesday is Pin Up’s, Jazzie T’s is Sunday’s. Body Tap, they be off the chain on Saturday.
D-Roc: Preach on!
What’s the best way for a stripper to get bigger tips from you?
D-Roc: I dunno, I just go in the club and have fun. That’s my fun time. If I’mma spend, I’mma spend. If I’m feeling like it that day.
Kane: Our album sales are a direct reflection of the strip clubs. So it’s not that we go just to go, we go because the money we invest in strip clubs is gonna come back to us. These girls are able to make $2,500 to $3k on a good night on the weekend, but they only making that type of money when songs like ours are being played. We went from being nobody to being the favorite group in the X-rated clubs, so what you see in our sales comes from when we keep putting out music. That’s the same reason we out here chillin’. We sell all our singles to the strip club, we don’t sell ‘em to the world. The world comes into it. They wanna dance again, yeah, dance, dance, keep dancin’!
Do you consider your music “crunk music”?
D-Roc: Nah, nah. See, we music lovers. We make soulful music. Our music comes straight from the soul. That’s how people like it.
Kane: Crunk is just our way of being. Lil’ Jon created a sound with the way that a person that lives in Atlanta might act. He actually reenacts the attitude and characteristics of this city on his song. So when you hear him screaming “I don’t give a fuck,” okay, that’s crunk, because that’s how we act whenever a song comes on in the club that we like.
So isn’t “What’s Happnin’” a crunk song?
Kane: Yeah, you could say that the way we make music and act might make someone put us in the “crunk” category. But the difference is, we rap about something like, (raps) “She a real freak, tryn’a make those ends meet, don’t be tryna mu’fuckin’ tease me.” But this is crunk: (screaming) “YOU GOT A POCKET FULL O’ MONEY BWOYYY??? I DON’T GIVE A FUCK!” That’s crunk.
Rico Wade commented that you are more talented as a rapper and freestyler than people think. Do you think people respect your talent?
Kane: They have to respect it ‘cause it’s got the game at a standstill. We don’t think they fully respect it, but we got the game locked down. People haven’t even seen the whole group. This ain’t nothing. The door just got opened so we can put in what we’re totally capable of. My brother, D-Roc, is more like a crowd pleaser. I’m a lyricist. And one of these days y’all gonna see.
So do you feel like your album “Me & My Brother” represents your skills completely?
D-Roc: If a person listens to our album, you’ll already know we got skills. ‘cause the whole point is, we rap. We don’t just have booty club songs.
Kane: People don’t understand the fact that we use our voices as instruments. You know, singing or playing an instrument is part of the track, and when you put your voice on top of the track you’re another instrument. A lot of people try to come up with some kinda outta-the-world notion of what type of music we doing or why it ain’t like everybody else’s. It’s because we studied out future. Whatever D-Roc is good at, he studied it to get like that. Whatever I’m capable of, to the best of my abilities, I studied it to get like that. When you looking at the Ying Yang Twins as a whole, you’re looking at entertainers. We ain’t crunk rappers. Crunk is our way of being. That means, before we came out, when Master P came out with the No Limit soldiers, we used to be at the club. And when the club was too packed we’d be in the middle of the street in our van, rockin’ the van in the middle of the street. We crunk. The only artist that’s reppin’ that right now is Lil’ Jon, no other artist showed that crunk side. We don’t want nobody to take it wrong when we have to speak on it, he’s just the overseer of the whole crunk era. The people of Atlanta own that crunkness, he liked it, so he put that on a worldwide scale.
Where do you come up with song ideas?
Kane: Just dealing with each other. We don’t deal outside of what made us what we are today. We feel like we should say what the next person wouldn’t say. We always wanted to say “shake your ass” or “bounce that booty” without saying those words. A million people can make songs that say “shake” or “bounce” in it, but a lot of people can’t fit other types of words around it that mean the same thing. So if they don’t have it, it’s gonna be hard for them to understand it. When people don’t’ understand it makes it easier for them to criticize. When a person can’t do something themselves, they’re quick to pick up on that and criticize and make a unanimous decision on why this shouldn’t be. The reason why we are being is not because of anybody in the industry, it’s because of the fans. We’re on high demand from the people. The people know what they want right now, and we givin’ ‘em what they paid to see. Right now we’re the most talked-about group in the game. Right now we go for cheaper than any other artist. Right now we close to being platinum and we still humble artists. People find this hard to deal with, hard to believe that we’re at the level of the game that we’re at. We’re at this level because blessing comes from work. Blessings don’t come when y’all just sitting on your butt begging.
D-Roc: Hard work and making good music. That’s the two things we do.
Kane: We always knew we was gonna make it.
D-Roc: Mama said if you work hard for it, you could get it too. (laughing)
So are y’all really brothers?
D-Roc: Nahh…
Kane: The questions that we get asked.. someone really needs to get us on Behind the Music, ‘cause a person that could better explain us as a group to the people would be Smurf. Everything that’s come to pass with us began with the people, but you have to see it first before it happens. Smurf saw it before we saw it. Me and D-Roc, we dropped an album in 1997, with no help, no help. D-Roc and the 2-Time Click, “Tru Dawg.” But we had no representation.
So the album caught Smurf’s attention?
Kane: Yeah, ‘cause we were 17. No dudes had did that as young as we were. And we had came up with “Get Low” then.
Didn’t the “Get Low” hook originally come from a fraternity chant?
Kane: We ain’t never been to college, so I really couldn’t tell ya. We came up with that one just sittin’ at the crib. Wherever it came from, it came from one voice to another voice and it got heard from around the world. I mean, that “Get Low” shit is old as hell. It didn’t come out until we turned 25, cause we gave it to Lil’ Jon when he asked for it. There’s a lot of stuff that’s old as hell but it won’t come out now.
So do you have any more hidden hits?
Kane: Hell yeah. We ain’t gonna tell you nuthin’ about ‘em though, you gonna have to hear for yourself. You gotta hear ‘em.
Being on the same label as Lil Jon, has there been any friendly competition between y’all?
D-Roc: Nah, Lil’ Jon been on all Ying Yang albums, so we always been one big happy family. When he was at So So Def he got us on the compilation, “So So Def Bass All Stars Vol. 3,” that was the first major thing we had ever done.
Why did you call the album “Me & My Brother” if you aren’t brothers?
Kane: ‘Cause that explains the difference. When he nighttime, I’m daytime. If he feelin’ good, I ain’t feelin’ good. If I feel good, he ain’t feelin’ good.
How did you meet?
Kane: Just walkin’ down the street. I was walkin’ down the street, he was at his cousin house. He said, “Shawty!” and I said, “Shawty!” He said, “Let’s do it.” I said, “Let’s go.” And it’s been on ever since. We were probably about 15, we were hella young.
Have you always wanted to rap?
D-Roc: Oh, yeah. We always did. It’s entertainment that’s always been in my blood. Being a great entertainer, like all the great ones.
What sets your stage shows apart?
D-Roc: The energy that we have. We just get up there and give you a real show. Our energy is just natural. That’s how we be at home, so we just take it and put it on stage.
