NEW MUSIC | MAINE THE MEDICINE (@MAINETHEMEDICINE) “LIVE FROM THE CATACOMB” VIDEO

By MJ Savino • On What is New , , , , , , , , ,

I had the pleas­ure of link­ing up with Maine The Medi­cine to chop it up about his forth­com­ing solo album titled “B.U.T.C.H” (Built Under The Culture’s Hands).  Fans can expect the LP to drop August 6th on all major platforms.

MJ: Your new album B.U.T.C.H. (Built Under The Cul­ture’s Hands) debuts every­where August 6th. After listen­ing to the album, I think it’s fair to state this is by far the most super­i­or of album releases. Can you go into detail about the cor­rel­a­tion between the title of the album and MAINE as an artist?

cover cd baby copy

Maine: The title B.U.T.C.H is in hon­or of my fath­er who for the last two years has been through so much, from dia­lys­is to both legs being ampu­tated, and not know­ing what his day to day would look like. I know there were times he wanted to give up, but he hung in there and kept fight­ing. Wit­ness­ing that I wanted to show my fath­er the ulti­mate respect and name the album after him, plus he was the first one to intro­duce me to Hip-Hop. My first two records he bought for me were Kur­tis Blow and New Edi­tion.  Between my fath­er and cous­ins Sudan and Bar­kin from Queens­bridge, and my uncle Stevie, a Lat­in per­cus­sion­ist who played with Luth­er Vandross for 20 years… I was raised under music. That’s where ‘built under the cul­ture’s hand’ derives from. To a fault Hip-Hop con­sumes my entire life from the way I think, dress, and talk. All I ever wanted to do was rap. Even now at the age of 42 all I want to do is rap and let the world hear my music.

MJ: This 22-track LP epi­tom­izes the essence of Hip-Hop and upon release will poten­tially push the cul­ture to the fore­front. Talk about everything that went into cre­at­ing this album. It’s evid­ent this was a skilled mas­tery in the making.

Maine: I went into this album with the mind­set of cur­at­ing some­thing per­son­al and spe­cial. I wanted to give the fans that gritty Maine with the punches, but also give them a can­did look into my life and some of the things I have been going through. Music is truly the best ther­apy wheth­er your writ­ing or listen­ing to it. I want my album to show great lyr­i­cism and storytelling, and to give the young­er gen­er­a­tion a reas­on to appre­ci­ate our cul­ture; learn from it instead of rebelling against it. I care­fully hand­picked people who I knew were Hip-Hop fans to express their love for the cul­ture and who or what made them fall in love with it… Although I hate to sound cliché, this album takes you on a journey.

MJ: The pro­duc­tion embod­ies the per­fect blend of soul­ful under­tones, gritty mixes, and of course that clas­sic boom bap heavy bass. That arrange­ment intens­i­fies your clev­er word­play and rhyme schemes. Tell us about that emcee and pro­duc­tion chemistry.

Maine:  Going into the album I knew I wanted a cer­tain feel and vibe to the album. That boom bap and soul­ful feel has always been my sound. I knew with this being my solo pro­ject I had to go back to that sound. I must give a huge shout to my big homie U.G for push­ing to do anoth­er solo pro­ject, “Maine when you gonna work on that pro­ject, I’m wait­ing for you lil bro, I got you.” He star­ted craft­ing some heat for me and flaw­lessly fell in line with the sound I wanted. Then he jumped on the “M.A.I.N.E” track and the ball star­ted rolling. Nat­ive Seals was also a major influ­ence to push this solo pro­ject. My second single “Let Me Love” fea­tur­ing Ty Soul is one of the many gems I got from Nat­ive. Of course, I needed to include pro­duc­tion from my 20-year crew I.M.F Cata­combs with Willy Sully and Da Leadgeon. They know my style and right off the bat they went in without me hav­ing to say any­thing and cre­ated 5 joints on the album. I also was blessed to have pro­duc­tion from Fath­er Focus Con­fu­s­ous, Jlstu­di­os, Big City, and Know- it.

MJ: It was dif­fi­cult to pin­point album favor­ites, as each track flaw­lessly tran­scends into the next track. How­ever, “MAINE” did stand out for a couple of reas­ons. In the industry there’s a craze that after a cer­tain age rhym­ing should be left for resumes so the young­er gen­er­a­tion can shine. The issue with that is there’s a fair num­ber of young artists who are not ‘built under the cul­ture’s hand’, not will­ing to learn the his­tory of Hip-Hop, and are not cre­at­ing music for the pur­pose of longev­ity. “MAINE” nails that from begin­ning to end with in your face, stay in your lane lyr­ics. Share your insight on that track.

Maine: That track was pro­duced by U.G and fea­tures U.G of the legendary Cella Dwel­las. He was so inves­ted in that track. I did a hook for it, but he wanted to take it up a notch. So now that track is on ster­oids espe­cially once he jumped on it. Hon­estly, I was becom­ing frus­trated with the lack of effort in the verses I here now a days, rap­ping over the vocals, and fol­low­ing the hot­test trend. Once I heard the beat, I just unleashed that frus­tra­tion. The hook defines me and what I’m about, which is a product of my era who was ‘built under the cul­ture’s hand’… Some of my per­son­al favor­ite tracks are “Nev­er Fails”, “Ded­ic­a­tion”, “I’m Try­ing”, and “let me love you” just to name a few.

MJ: Take this time to share with fans and listen­ers any­thing else they can expect from “B.U.T.C.H”

Maine: Aw man I want the fans to know I put so much thought, effort, and heart into this pro­ject. I want them to see how much I have grown as an artist, and that I will con­tin­ue to push myself to be cre­at­ive and not become stag­nant. I’m also com­ing out with a solo EP pro­duced by my cata­combs team, an I.M.F EP is also in the works, a Mercy Gang album, Maine and Ty Soul EP, CBC 2, and a couple of oth­er pro­jects are in the works… I’m 42 I need to keep mak­ing music while I can because tomor­row is not prom­ised.  I want to give a spe­cial s/o and respect to the artists fea­tured on the album includ­ing U.G, Sus­pect, Elz Sinatra, Ren Thomas, my B.O.B broth­ers Holla Da Schol­ar and Mercy, Will Sully, Paul­ie, Da Leadgeon, Lambo Lo, Ty soul, Aman­da Rogan, Jay Pre­ston, Dan Schultz, James Ebron, Vis­ion, Bomber The Mon­sta, and DJ TMB.  It was truly an hon­or to work with all these amaz­ing artists.

Here’s a sneak peek into what’s to come. Watch the offi­cial video for “Live From The Cata­comb” off the forth­com­ing “B.U.T.C.H” album.

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MJ Savino

MJ is Hip Hop Blog­ger, Pub­li­cist, Book­ing Agent, Act­iv­ist, but fan first and fore­most. “Hip Hop saved my life, it is only right I give back to the culture”!

About MJ Savino

MJ is Hip Hop Blogger, Publicist, Booking Agent, Activist, but fan first and foremost. "Hip Hop saved my life, it is only right I give back to the culture"!