They’re unique in another way too — they’re a mother and sons rapping together.
Retro2000 is a hip hop trio that lives up to its name — “Retro” coming from the group’s creative leader MaDukes, a veteran of hip hop of from the 1990s who is getting back into the game, and “2000” coming from Krypto and Ice, two dynamic voices who draw their inspiration from the hip hop of the 2000s and 2010s.
They’re unique in another way too — they’re a mother and sons rapping together.
“I think we are the first,” MaDukes said. “I’m the pro, I’m a 1990s kid and I hung it up when I had my children, so it was something that had to give, I had to provide for my children and not for a dream. So I stopped rapping when I had my children and now my kids are 18 and 21.
“I never even thought this dream would ever happen again, I haven’t rapped in over two decades. It just so happens my kids finally picked up the bug because their dad used to rap as well, he opened for RunDMC when he was younger. I think it was in their blood and when they were growing and when the finances got a little better, everyone seemed to have their eye on this rap thing, so what better way to do it than with one another and especially since it hasn’t been done before.”
The group’s debut single, “Till the Wheels Fall Off,” is an inspirational track MaDukes created when she was younger, and rerecorded recently with some modifications.
“‘Till the Wheels Fall Off’ is encouraging everyone to live their life, grey, blue, white, green, yellow, meaning fit your mold, not anyone else’s mold, and never think that you’re alone in your struggles and your pain because there's a lot of people living through struggles,” MaDukes said. “But you have to put on your big boy boots, your big girl panties and you have to push through. ‘Till the Wheels Fall Off,’ the message is never give up, live your life, live free, love hard, die trying.”
The song is also inspirational to her sons.
“So I went to the studio and I told them, If I can go in there and do it then we’ve got a shot because it will take you guys out of that race of trying to compete with who’s out there,” she said. “And the same for me because it will put us in a whole different bracket. No one’s ever rapped with their children.”
Krypto and Ice said some of their friends were shocked at first when they found out they were forming a rap group with their mother. But once they hear her rap, they understand.
“Most of my friends they’re a little shocked at first but after they hear her, they’re like, ok, she's a pretty decent rapper,” Krypto said. Everyone is a little shocked, everyone is like, really? I think a couple of people might see it as a joke at first. But me, I know her as a rapper and I can respect her as a rapper for the art. It doesn’t matter who she is, if she wasn’t my mom, if she was my aunt or someone else, if you hear the rap you can respect the art and the craft and how she’s communicating and the flows and cadences. I just know once they get to hear her, they will like her.”
“Typically I don't even tell my friends about our rap group,” Ice added. “I’d rather show them because the product is a lot better than when it sounds like. When they hear about a mother rapping with her two sons, they’re like, what, there’s no way we can be talking about something that’s worth anything or something that’s good. But when they actually hear the product, that’s when it starts to turn faces and people start to open their eyes and people start thinking, wow, you all really can do something.”
The next big project, “Big Blunt Boys,” will emphasize Krypto and Ice and their unique style of rapping. After that, the group will release singles that show off the three of them together as they combine the generational styles.
They’ll also emphasize that there can be more to rapping than just the cussing and the sex.
“It’ll be trying to show this three-dimensional personalities within the group, the three different styles that’s in the group,” MaDuke said. “We had destructive music but we had constructive music as well. We’re just trying to open that door to where we can find balance.
“Don’t talk about sex all the time without talking about how it can kill you and not only that but about how it can destroy and deform your body. Don’t talk about having a gun without talking about how you can get locked up for it or someone could take their own gun and shoot you and kill you and rob you for it. That’s all we’re talking about, you can talk about the negative but let’s put some positive back out there.”
With the cartoon-like graphics of Retro2000, there is a hint of nostalgia in the single’s artwork. “Till the Wheels Fall Off” was produced by MaDukes and mixed by Grammy-award-winning engineer Mike Wilson.
Using the hashtag #r2kATL, Retro2000 will make history, as this unheard of, unique, by blood relation is ready to take the world by storm.
Make sure to stay connected to Retro2000 on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
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