This is an interview by Alexander Fruchter of Closed Sessions. Follow him on Twitter at DJ_RTC.
With a bag of fresh peaches in tow, Joey Purp makes his way up the back steps of the Closed Sessions office and takes a seat at the round table on the deck. It’s a warm summer day in Chicago, the type made for chilling on somebody’s deck. “You want one?” he offers, taking two peaches out of the bag, along with a freshly rolled joint. “I had some fruit earlier today,” I said, thanking him for his consideration. This is Joey’s second time coming to our office, and the second time he has brought fresh fruit to share. It’s a small thing, but indicative of Joey’s personality and his uniqueness. I’ve done hundreds of interviews, and we’ve had hundreds of artists come through our doors the last few years. Joey is the only one that has ever offered us fresh produce, and on a short list of those that have brought any food at all.
Purp stands out in other ways too. I remember getting the earliest songs from the Chicago emcee a couple years ago. They came from Joey Purple, then from Joseph Purps, a couple other variations, and finally resting on Joey Purp – or something like that. But Joey was finding his way, and not afraid to do so publicly. His debut mixtape, released in the spring of 2012, was titled The Purple Tape and representative of a kid with a lot to say, who was finding the right way to say everything he needed. It had showings of brilliance, true introspection and key-observations. It also had moments of being unfocused and a little all over the place. Since that release, Purp has refined his skills and stood out from his Save Money crew for his hippie inspired style of dress and the rawness of his raps. Purp raps in a way that doesn’t need metaphors or similes. A lot of rappers say ‘they keep it real.’ Purp doesn’t have to say it, he just is it.
On that hot summer day, Purp enjoyed some peaches, smoked a little weed and talked to me about his upbringing, taking the music seriously, and much more.
Alexander Fruchter: Would you characterize yourself as a generous, thoughtful guy?
Joey Purp: I suppose so. I always try to extend myself in anyway possible. Especially if I’m coming to somebody else’s space, I don’t know, it’s hospitality. You used to bring pies to your neighbor’s house.
Another communal thing is sharing the peace pipe. Is that part of your ritual? How does that fit into your day?
It’s pretty subconscious at this point I suppose. It’s pretty habitual. I just like to smoke where ever I land so to speak, no pun intended. It’s kind of a passing time and traveling type of thing. I might smoke while I walk over here, I might smoke once I get here. I might smoke before I leave. It’s kind of like a checkpoint kind of thing I guess.
You have the “Smoke Break” skit on The Purple Tape. I’m guessing that’s a moment in the studio where you just left the mics on. How important are those types of moments for you and your creativity?
I don’t know. It definitely was just a moment. We left the mic on and did what we do I suppose. Talk about each other and shit. I don’t know how important those moments are necessarily as far as my creativity, but as far as the creative process – it always gets tense whenever you’re working. Whether you’re working out or playing basketball or sitting in the studio writing to the beat for a long time, it always gets tense. Things like that are just natural tension relievers I suppose.
How much does that add to how you and Save Money work together? Do these great musical collaborations spring from a tighter personal relationship outside the music?
Definitely. I feel like the two correlate simply because we don’t really work like it’s a job. We just work naturally. Our collaborations always end up very close to home. I haven’t gotten a chance to work with him yet, but Mick Jenkins I fucked with his music when he first started putting stuff out. I heard the joint he did with Chance and Vic and it was just like closer to home. And then coincidentally, I ran into him at the studio that we always use. It’s just shit like that. It just ends up very natural, very organic. It seems like the whole scene outside of Save Money is very communal.
Is there also a competitive side to Save Money? We talked earlier about how everybody’s watching Kendrick Lamar, it seems like he and TDE have said they are close but they compete. How do you guys work as a unit with each other?
Yeah. We definitely compete. And it’s not like, I mean, of course we’re going to speak on our competition and competitive tendencies when asked about them, but it’s not conscious. You’re not going to sit here and let him take off right next to you. Literally, we’re sitting in the same room and he’s taking off. You can’t let that happen. It’s just natural I guess, we’re men. If we were women I guess we’d just get mad and talk about each other. But we try to get even.
Really enjoyed this, thanks
Purp is low key an essential force to the Save Money crew…