"NOW" is another good album from the 90s which deserves to be released on vinyl nowadays... It was dropped by KANSER in 1997, a group from Minneapolis, Minnesota originally comprised of NuMC a.k.a Big Zach, Unicus and MeshOne a.k.a Mesh. DJ Elusive who was tight with the group is also considered as an affiliated member.
"NOW" is an 11-track album released on cassette tape only, and entirely produced by A.N.T, half of the duo Atmosphere. This is the first project delivered by KANSER a.k.a Kanser Troop. All the members of the group were in High School when most of those songs were recorded at the time.
Big Zach, could you tell me how the connection happened between You, Unicus and Mesh ?
Big Zach : "The three of us went to high school together. Mesh and I used to tag/do graffiti together. And another kid from our graffiti crew introduced us to Unicus. Unicus introduced us to Ant, who later became the producer for Atmosphere, and Ant would let us come do our first rap recordings in his basement."
Where does the name KANSER come from ?
Big Zach : K-a-n-s-e-r is our 6 favorite graffiti letters
Which part of Minneapolis were you all from exactly ?
Big Zach : "We're from South Minneapolis. I was born in Northern Minnesota and moved to South Minneapolis when I was 9. Unicus was born in Haiti, and moved to South Minneapolis in highschool. Mesh was born and raised here. If you saw the police station that lit on fire during the George Floyd riots, we're all from around that area. Though by our age now it feels like the entire Twin Cities is home, as we've all bounced around the metro area over the years."
Do you remember how many copies of the tape were dropped at the time ?
Big Zach : "Roughly a thousand. Funny, when we first finished the tape in '1997 an older homie advised us that if we sell ten to claim we sold a hundred or if we sell a hundred to claim we sold a thousand but by 2023 might as well keep it on honest. I know a thousand isn't a lot in the big scheme of things, but in our younger smaller world it felt like a lot. We sold about a thousand of the second tape that we put out the next year too (Network 1998)."
About DJ Elusive, could you tell me when and how he became an affiliated member of the group ?
Big Zach : "I think around '1999. Elusive toured with us for about ten years, though he got into bar tending and managing a Minneapolis bar/eventually opened the club in the city of Chicago. From there we adopted DJ Gabe Garcia who played with us for the next ten+ years."
Have you ever thought of releasing this album on vinyl nowadays ?
Big Zach : " Kanser Now ? It was recorded on a 4-track and we probably lost the master copy in the early 2000s ..."
Mad Props to Big Zach, thanks for your time. Big thanks to my man Fred Thecle for the tape rip.
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