Interview: Joey Purp Talks ‘The Purple Tape,’ Save Money, Chicago Hip-Hop and Much More

How far back in general do these Save Money relationships go? Chance told me it used to be called Bo-Squad.

Bo-Squad still lives bro. There’s different extensions of our relationships that go back farther than I know even. Just because a lot of us are from Hyde Park like Vic, and Nico, not white-Nico, but another Nico. But him and bunch of our friends are from Hyde Park. So they knew each other from school and after school programs, sports and stuff like that.

III played basketball with a couple kids from Whitney when they were in grammar school. I met Vic through being in the same neighborhood for our Grammar schools, and I met Nico Segal in 6th grade. Nico and Vic went to grammar school together. So they’ve known each other forever, literally forever. They’ve had one of the more deeply seeded relationships in Save Money. And then me and Tokyo, we went to grammar school together. I’ve known him since we were in second grade.

It’s great how you’re even able to say, ‘not white Nico.’ Chicago is a very segregated city.

That’s funny. I did say that subconsciously not knowing that the world doesn’t know that we have two Nicos, and one of them is white and one of them is black.

I think it’s rarely shown that there’s kids growing up that have the ability to do that. When I look at Save Money and see an ethnically diverse group of kids – I think I told you that I grew up in Hyde Park as well – that for me was part of my everyday. But then you get to an age where you leave your neighborhood and you see it’s not like that most places.

It’s not the same.

That’s why I feel it’s important for you guys to get your music out and show there’s a very valid scene of kids that are able to share cultures. I don’t know if you guys ever think about that, but we’re only shown a side of Chicago hip-hop that is very one-sided, very secluded and poverty-driven, which exists, but is not the only thing.

You can’t really realize things like that about yourself, that you’re not in control of, until you get asked about them. We know we’re all different races. We all grew up ourselves, so we see the difference in everyone. We’re just not preconditioned to let it be a judgement factor I suppose. It didn’t really matter.

I don’t want to speak for white Nico, but whenever any of the guys met white Nico was probably freshmen year in high school. Whatever they were doing in their day to day, he was probably doing the exact same thing. So when they met each other, me in particular, when I met Nico it was 6th grade and everyday I would smoke blunts, rap rap lyrics, and play basketball. I met him and all he wanted to do was rap rap lyrics and play basketball too. It was cool. If your lifestyle’s not different, we didn’t grow up in the era when that was ever a problem.

Can you also talk a little bit about your relationship with Kami?

That’s my brother, bro. We’ve been through it all too. With everybody, we’re like a pack. We’ve all been here through the formative years of each other’s lives. One thing in particular with me and Kami, me and III we’ve always had the smoker ‘not give a fuck attitude about things in general.’ We’ve always just chilled and just walked our own path so to speak. Me and Kami were the first two to step outside the box of what was considered cool for young black kids that were pushing things.

At one point it was like, when we were in high school there were things like Curren$y’s movement happening and initially I remember coming into high school and I had an older brother and I saw a lot of things early like weed and drugs. I was exposed to things in general. I saw that there were restrictions and limits and everything wasn’t so dangerous. Coming into high school I’m thinking ‘who got some weed? I’m trying to cop some weed. I’m trying to smoke with my homies. I’m trying to have some fun. I’m trying to maybe grab a bottle before school or something like that.’

But these are things that everybody wasn’t exposed to, so when those things turned into, ‘yo, you trying to cop some shrooms and trip this summer? Y’all want to drop some acid’ when we are all sitting on the beach, and I stole some acid from my older brother, it was uneasy cause we’re all still young black kids. I’m mixed. My mother’s white, my brother was a punk rocker at one point. He was black but he was white. If you were going to call somebody white, you’d probably call him white. And he’d probably whoop your ass. He wasn’t like a bitch, but he was just a punk rocker. He was doing things that white kids would do cause he was the only black kid. He had all the white kids doing things that black kids would do.

So, when put in the same situation, it would be different if a random white kid walked up on a group of black kids like, ‘you guys want some acid?’ But when a kid that you grew up with, been through thick and thin with, you know his demeanor, you know his personality, you see him tripping on acid and having a ball, it’s less of an uneasy feeling. Kami was the first person that was really like, ‘that shit’s not that crazy. Opening your mind’s not that crazy. As long as you go to the right place with it, that’s not a scary thought.’ People thought the idea of being under the influence of something was terrifyingly crazy, like the idea that your mind wasn’t your own or some shit. Kami was the first one to open up to anything like that.

Where did you grow up?

All over. To be detailed, when I was born for a brief period we lived west on Foster, over by the Brown Line in the Hispanic parts. I lived there til I was 3 or 4 I guess. It was straight Latin Kings. There were some white kids, but they ended up doing meth. It was those type of white kids. From there we moved to Humboldt Park and I lived there for a while and then we had to get the fuck out of there because it was like our old place on steroids. Humboldt Park in the ’90s and early 2000s.

My dad moved out and he moved to Cabrini Green. A vast majority of that side of my family lived in Cabrini Green and Englewood when my mom and dad split. And then we moved to Wrigleyville. My Godmother owned a condo so she rented one out to us for the low. We lived in Wrigleyville and it was dope because we had the opportunity to live in a nice neighborhood for once. Even there though, it’s a nice neighborhood but you have the same problems because everybody’s a target… Instead of where nobody has anything in a bad neighborhood, in a good neighborhood everyone is a target.

We lived in a Garden apartment. Our door got kicked in like three times in five or six years. A Garden apartment in a good neighborhood’s really not a lick. It’s Chicago, there are homeless people everywhere. There’s somebody without anything somewhere. So our shit kept getting broken into. Then my grandmother died and we got her house way out on 55th and Harlem, Archer & Harlem, a straight Polish neighborhood.

By the airport.

Right. Then I lived out there for a minute. That was really where a lot of the bonds got built with me, III, Brian Fresco, a bunch of the homies that don’t rap, the guys. We would have a place to get away to no matter what we did. There wasn’t a neighborhood that we couldn’t leave completely for a long period of time cause we could just stay at my crib. If we did anything hot in Hyde Park, we could just go to my crib. Do whatever the fuck we want downtown, get out of there and go to my crib. I stayed way too far for anyone to ever find us. But we lost that crib and shit, and now I stay on the westside.

That’s crazy to hear. When you tell that story and I think about the music I was listening to earlier today with that knowledge. There is that sense throughout the album of a very observation heavy person.

Yeah. Definitely.

Now knowing that you moved around a lot, it seems like you were a kid always watching, taking in what’s happening. Now you’re telling those stories through the music.

Definitely. I feel like that was another reason why I felt like I had a reason to make music. It’s not like I haven’t had the most normal upbringing, but I’ve also been very observant through the entirety of it. It’s not like it just built me any type of way, I made myself into what I wanted it to do to me. If you’re not observant, things will just pass you by and they’ll still effect you, you just won’t know it. Cause they still happen to you, you still saw them, but if you’re not extremely observant in my opinion things will shape you and you won’t know it.

What have been some of the latest observations, going into the newer music.

I think that, as far as hip-hop, there’s the obvious return towards any kind of lyricism in general. For a while there was a shy away from it, and it’s not bad because in hip-hop leaving lyricism you get things such as Kendrick’s ability to change rhythm and change cadence and still be melodic. “Swimming Pools” would not have happened had Future not been a wave, cause these two types of music were the result of a same situation. It was the result of over focus on melody in hip-hop.

But that over focus on melody leaked into the lyricism and that focus on lyricism leaked into the melody. Future’s not a bad songwriter. Kendrick’s not bad at melody at all, but he’s a great rapper. Future’s really good with melody. Even Chief Keef, Chief Keef has an ear for melody that nobody in Save Money has. Short of maybe Chance. Straight up, he’s better at making songs than anybody in the team, but he couldn’t say the same things. Any day of the week he wouldn’t be able to say the same things.

Is there a pressure of feeling like we need to put something out soon in regards to Leather Corduroys?

Nah, we’re just chilling. With me there’s life, not pressure. The need to just eat in general. Whatever you’re gonna do has to be prosperous. We’re not focused on any type of like monetary goal, but we know it’s possible so we are going to prepare for it. We’re going to make it as good as possible. But also, we haven’t really told people the idea for Leather Cords at all, it’s going to be pretty off whatever people might think that me and Kami would come together to do based on the purple tape and light. Or depending on how close you’ve been observing.

To somebody like you it might make perfect sense. Cause you’ve been right there the whole time. But if you just hear The Purple Tape and you hear Light and then you hear Leather Cords, it might sound crazy. It’s a commentary on hip-hop and pop culture and their effect on the two, and the big ball that has come in the last five-eight years.