The Lytics

THE LYTICS – “You don’t need the music – the music is what needs you!” Mungala “Munga” Londe, the man behind these wise words, and one part of Winnipeg based hip-hop trio The Lytics, understands the basic requirement for successful music. “There is no music without people,” elaborates Munga, “if people aren’t there, the music is kind of pointless.” It’s the age old tree-falls-in-the-woods question, but one that Anthony “Ashy” Sannie, Munga’s partner in lyrical crime, feels is a little more than just black and white. “Music needs the people to listen to it, and we need music to express ourselves,” tells Ashy, “so it makes a pretty good team.” The Lytics, who formed in the Canadian prairie city of Winnipeg, Manitoba in 2003, have been building a head of steam hot enough to melt the ice in their frozen hometown over the past five years. Their heavily hyped, self-released and self-titled EP hit the streets to much fanfare, providing a taste of some of the most refreshing beats and rhymes to grace the dancefloor since hip-hop joined the mainstream. Andrew “A-nice” Sannie, the final third of The Lytics trifecta (and Ashy’s older brother), is just happy that people are enjoying his aural creations. “I think we all want to do this for a job one day,” admits A-nice, “as far as what we’re trying to accomplish, we just want to make the best music we’re capable of making.” A respectable goal to be sure, but Munga has a more patriotic agenda for the three Canadian emcees, “I want to put Winnipeg hip-hop on the map – [right now] there’s not much of a recognized scene.” If the response is any indication (“[The Lytics EP is] arguably the best hip-hop record to come out of Winnipeg.” –DJ DLO), Munga’s dream just might come true sooner than he expects. So The Lytics were born in 2003 but didn’t release any recorded material until the end of 2008; why did it take so long? “I think that we weren’t mature enough yet to put out a CD,” says Ashy. “Your music keeps getting better (hopefully) as you go, right? You make one song and you’re like, ‘this is pretty good;’ and you make another one, and another one after that. Then, after a year or so, you look back at that first song and you’re like, ‘that wasn’t that good.’ So then you scrap a lot of what you did and start over, make new songs, and you think, ‘this is good;’ and after another year you realize again, ‘that wasn’t that good either.’ After enough trial and error we got to the point where we had scrapped so many things; but in a way, that was our learning process. Eventually other people started saying ‘wow, you guys are pretty good, you should take it seriously,’ and we felt ready so we just said ‘let’s start taking it seriously’ – and that’s what we did.” We’re often told that hard work pays off, and if that’s to be believed, then The Lytics hard work is sure to pay off in dividends. Taking a grassroots approach in a modern digital age might seem like a fruitless task, but The Lytics don’t intend on being one-hit-wonders. “Raphael Saadiq said that he wants to mimic other artists who have had successful careers – who’ve had longevity – and you’ll get that longevity if you try. I’m not going to worry about how fast it happens; we’ll take our time and do it right,” says A-nice. That might be so, but there must be some resentment towards the recent string of one-song millionaires thanks to the likes of MySpace, YouTube et al, no? “That’s not for us to worry about,” states Ashy, “We work hard to make our music top quality; they can go make a song in one day, and get signed and make a million dollars – that’s good for them.” Munga doesn’t want to make a song in one day and be done with it, he wants to live and breathe music. “I’ve never really thought about not doing it for the rest of my life,” concedes Munga, “This is what I intend to do for as long as I can do it.” With influences like A Tribe Called Quest, Mos Def, Souls of Mischief, Arrested Development, The Pharcyde, and Poor Righteous Teachers, it should come as no surprise that The Lytics believe in maintaining a positive outlook, both in their music and in their lives. “I think hip-hop was positive music before it was ever negative music,” recalls A-nice, “It started off positive and was meant to make people dance. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message,” that was a positive song, and that’s widely considered the first hip-hop song. Everything around that time period was really positive; it didn’t get negative until the gangster rap, and even that was basically centralized to one area of Los Angeles: to gang culture in Los Angeles. You look at Souls of Mishief out of Oakland, they were positive all the way through. There are a lot of acts that were positive from Philly to New York to Detroit, there were all these acts making positive music, so it (hip-hop) really just got a bad rap; but we’re making positive music, that’s what we listen to and that’s what we grew up on. We have no reason to talk about stuff that we know nothing about.” “People never even used to swear in music,” laughs Munga. “You’re always learning throughout your career, but we’ve all tried to slip in a cuss word a couple times and it’s just so awkward,” adds Ashy, “and we just realized it doesn’t work, so why try and do something that isn’t us?” However, if all you want is to enjoy some fun tunes, The Lytics aren’t going to beat you over the head with life lessons. “I don’t try to write something that’s going to portray a message, I just write something that I actually feel,” explains Ashy, “if it does end up helping someone out, being something to someone, then that’s cool – if people listen and they get something out of it, that’s great.” All three members of The Lytics collaborate on writing duties to formulate songs that have multiple points of view; they do agree on one thing though, listening to music should be an enjoyable endeavor. “I want people to get what I get out of other people’s music,” says A-nice, “it makes me feel good, it inspires me.” “If you’re having a bad day you can just put our CD on and-” starts Ashy. “-feel good,” concludes Munga. Music may be an obvious inspiration, but A-nice isn’t afraid of being a man of his beliefs. “We’d be nothing without God,” beams A-nice, “and we won’t be anything without God.” The Lytics (a name derived from a contraction of “analytic”) believe that music is very much an analysis of the life we live. “Music is all about talking about situations,” explains Munga, “you have to think about it before you write it. It’s all about taking points out of life and situations.” One situation that The Lytics will never forget is the first time they put “Big City Soundgirl” online, out in the wild, for the whole world to listen to. Their phones ringing non-stop with well-wishers looking to congratulate them on the first of what was sure to be many memorable tracks, Ashy looked over at a stunned Munga, shocked by the sudden realization that he was now a part of something special. “You never really know who’s listening when it’s out there,” confides Munga, “I’m always surprised when I meet someone who’s listening to our music.” “It makes you want to work harder,” continues A-nice. Ashy described the symphony of cell phones as a moment of monumental triumph and pride, much like a parent’s glow after their first child, “It was crazy, it was like having a baby. I just wanted to hold it in my arms and watch it grow into something bigger and greater.” In five short years, The Lytics have grown from children into men, and with many more years ahead of them, and artistry, drive and passion on their side, Ashy, A-nice and Munga won’t be the only ones watching their child grow – the entire world will. Read more on Last.fm. 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