I just try to lead by example. I realize that a lot of entertainers think it’s not their problem, but I realize that there is a responsibility when you have masses of people watching you, especially kids who are influenced by you. There is some level of responsibility, so I just try to do my part.

Right now, we’re working on the Nelly tour. They’re routing it right now and the promoters are bidding, but it’s pretty much confirmed. That’ll be the biggest thing we’ll be doing this fall.

Ja Rule, definitely. He’s been doing his thing for a while now. P. Diddy is the master of parties these days. Dre always keeps the head moving. Busta Rhymes is also a party music pioneer.

I think we’ve carved out our own niche with the party joints and the feels-good type music. A lot of hip-hoppers try to be so hard that there’s nowhere for them to go afterwards without being accused of being a sell-out. They come out too hard, and then they can’t come back with a lighter record because people will wonder where that came from. With us, it’s sort of a contrast. Our music is sort of light, but our image, for Treach in particular, is harder. We’ve been able to ride that fine line. That niche is always there for us, and when we come out, people will always expect a party record from us. The only thing that’s really hindered us has been our consistency over the years. We had internal problems, with the third member, KayGee, leaving, and it was all a build-up. We’re back on track now, and we’ll be more consistent in the future.

I’m going to do more voiceovers, and get more involved in television, hosting and stuff. I don’t necessarily have a passion for acting, but I am going to work with Treach, like how Ice Cube is doing it, developing our own stories, finding financing, and getting our own movies produced. I plan to get more involved in television and film, but on the production end. I’m more interested in that than actually acting.

Well, for us, our inconsistency was kind of forced up on us with all the internal drama. We had no control over that. But, there is a fine line. When you don’t have problems, you can become oversaturated. If you’re too consistent, people will get tired of you. You have to balance it out - work, then take some time off.

We tend to get involved in other projects. Treach will do more film work, and I’ll tend to do more family-type things. I do real estate on my time off, but primarily it’s dealing with the community.

I mostly go into schools. I work with the local PTA, the Recreation Department, our Board of Education in East Orange, the Mayor’s office. I run all over this place (laughs).

Really, it was better, because we got to work with guys who had a passion to work with us. A lot of producers were like, ‘Oh, shit! We get a shot at Naughty?’ Because, historically, we had kept it all in-house. If Kay didn’t do it, we wasn’t messing with it. That alienated us from working with a lot of producers. Now that he left, we opened up the floodgates. The process was faster, because instead of one guy trying to produce a whole album, we had a bunch of producers working with just one group. The whole process was faster and more creative, with lots of different flavors coming together.

We have a production situation right here which is still developing. We’re gonna do a solo record on Treach, and get our boys The Rascals back on board. I have a couple artists in the studio right now that I’m working with to help develop them.

Basically just self-containment. We got put on by Queen Latifah and the Flavor Unit, and when we came to them, we were totally self-contained. We had already been through the local club circuit and had a following. All we needed was the outlet, we needed to get our music distributed. When we’re looking for artists, me in particular, I’m not just looking for someone who can just sing, or spit some bars. To me, a person who’s never been in the local clubs and has never been in the studio is just lazy. The more work you put in, the better.