“We’re trying to bring back that hippie, man. We’re trying to bring back that shit Jimmy [Hendrix] was on.”
Shaheed and Ali Warren, two musicians from the suburbs of Atlanta, make an unlikely duo. Shaheed, or Big Heed, is the MC. Ali Warren, or Alien, is the drummer; together they are Big Heed & Alien. Frequently breaking the rules of common behavior, they both put on an unforgettable show and alter the meaning of a Hip-Hop group. Having honed their skills as the house band on BET’s 106 & Park, they have built up what seems like a cult following but have not yet broken through to a mainstream audience. Perhaps they like it this way.
Big Heed & Alien completely embody the essence of musicians. Putting aside for a minute the music itself, they have musician personalities. Hyper, aggressive, angry, with a fetish for the unusual. They aren’t afraid to put themselves out there. They aren’t afraid of shunning the “gangsta” persona and just being real musicians, acting out how they feel. Heed and Alien are angry about the current state of affairs. But they embrace their anger; they channel it into their music and infuse it with an alternative mindset.
From the beginning of the interview to the end, Alien and Heed displayed a tremendous amount of passion and creativity. Their music, a direct product of that mindset, is a breath of fresh air, and it truly is music for the people. Parlé chopped it up with the two gentlemen hailing from Atlanta, picking their brain and getting their take on music, politics, and everything in between.
Parlé: Hey man, nice to meet you guys. I’ve been watching all your videos; I like your sound a lot. I’m a musician myself – I play the sax, bass, guitar and all of that.
Alien: Oh, you’re a musician’s musician.
Parlé: Yes, sir. I’m a Hip-Hop head, too, so it’s always nice to see that live music is coming back to Hip-Hop.
Alien: Thank you, thank you man, that’s what we’re trying to do. That’s what’s up.
Parlé: I can’t get your song “Legz” out of my head, man.
Heed: [Laughs] Thank you. I think we still owe ZZ Top man, but we don’t know yet, ’cause it ain’t that big of a song [laughs]. I’ll be happy to give them some money, too.
Parlé: [Laughs] Good stuff. Alright I’ve got a couple of quick questions. First…I read that the both of you grew up in church together, playing together. What influence does Gospel music have on the music you make now?
Alien: Oh, Gospel is where music came from. People forget. Everybody knows music came from the church – that’s where everything really got started. From the slave days, from the days where the drums was illegal in church ’cause it was the devil’s instrument, and shit like that, you know what I’m saying? So, church is pretty much the main basis of music. Any great musician, I would say, has at least played a year in church. Church has the craziest sounds…especially church music now. It’s all big and symphony style. Even though I’m more used to the ‘Rugged Cross’ and AME [African Methodist Episcopal Church] days, my Grandma’s church music. But you can see that anybody who has any sense of music…I bet you played a couple times in the church, you know what I’m saying? You might have been stoned, I know I was. There’s a lot of stoners in the church…so church is where it started, I know for a musician – lyricist-wise what [do] you think Heed?
Heed: Yeah, church is where it all started, man. I used to skip church, I’m going to be honest with you bro. The pastor, the church that we went to, the pastor was crazy, you know what I’m sayin’? And, you know, she was talkin’ about a bunch of crazy stuff. So we used to skip church and then go down to the local Piggly Wiggly. Next door to the Piggly Wiggly was this little DJ booth, it was these white dudes, first white dudes I’ve seen with dreads. And they had these long dreads, and they were playing island music. It was a whole other feel that I was introduced to at a young age. But when I went back to church you hear the tambourines, and the organs with the big pipes on them, and the drums and stuff….it’s a whole different feel. And that’s where the roots come from, church. Not saying that you should skip church, it was just that, I was in a crazy church.
Parlé: Right, right. What’s the biggest misconception that people have about your group, or your music or your style?
Alien: Oh, that we’re coke-heads and all that we do is just drink Jack Daniels and smoke weed. Sayin’ that we’re on acid all the time. We’re not. And that would be the thing, ’cause I would think I was on coke too if I didn’t know me.
Parlé: Now you guys are going on tour soon, right?
Alien: We’re tryin’ to, yeah. We should be on someone’s tour this summer, hopefully. A lot of people are kind of scared for us to open up for them ’cause they don’t know what to expect, you know what I mean? And we’re not trying to take nobody’s shine, either. And that’s one thing that happened to me, every band I’ve been in I’ve been kicked out of for standing up and doing all of that crazy stuff; drummers aren’t really supposed to do that. And it’s cool, I’m trying to change that, know what I mean? [I’m] trying to make the drummer a front man now, and I’m seeing, especially in Atlanta, I’m seeing a whole lot of drummers just come out and play with DJ’s like I’ve been doing since back in the day.
Parlé: Good stuff. Alright, besides what you just said. What do you think you bring to the table that artists in the game right now don’t really have? Or that they can’t understand?
Alien: First of all, we’re bringing back the Kurt Cobain syndrome, everything’s not happy. You’re not gonna hear me saying “I love you baby”, you know, using a vocoder. So what we’re saying, we’re not wearing cardigans, we’re not wearing tight jeans. We’re not wearing seven thousand dollar shoes. I’m wearing Wally World shoes, and throwback Nike’s.
Heed: And T-shirts from the thrift store.
Alien: And T-shirts from the thrift store, 99 cents. We’re trying to bring back that Grunge era of, you know, the early 90’s where, you would wear a flannel that was ten years old, ’cause you really don’t want to spend your money ’cause you’re spending it on drugs, ’cause you’re angry. So we’re bringing back that anger. ‘Cause there’s too much happiness, I believe, in music. Because the world isn’t really that happy…gas is back up to four dollars. It don’t matter if it’s Obama, it don’t matter if it’s George W. Bush.
Heed: Yeah, we tried to do a song with George W. Bush, but that motherfucker won’t call me back!
Alien: Everything is all up-tempo and all pop. And that’s kind of where the world is going to…life ain’t that happy, man. You can’t be that happy. There’s no fucking way.
Heed: And another thing, man…a lot of dudes out here are just so caught up in trying to get to a certain status and trying to be a certain way. Like, “oh, I want the next biggest shit” and not really paying attention to right now. And all that really matters is right now, just like right now, in this moment that we’re having on this phone, get what I’m saying? I feel like a lot of artists get into this little fad, and they see the whole ‘bad boy’ image behind Hip-Hop. And everybody wanna be so ‘gangsta’. I don’t believe all of them. You get what I’m sayin’?
Alien: You can’t be [a] gangster singing.
Heed: I’m not taking that from them, though, ’cause I know folks from the hood that got signed and they’re making money of their own. But at the same time, man, truth be told, you ain’t doing none of that. If you’re gonna tell a kid to go the wrong way, you gotta tell them the repercussions. You gotta tell them the good and the bad. If you tell somebody to go slang some dope, tell them that they’re either going to get killed or they’re gonna end up in jail.
Alien: And they’re gonna lose friends…you’re gonna have a snitch come in and infiltrate you…and your Mom is going to call you a loser…you gotta know it all. So we’re trying to bring just pretty much the essence of realness, anger, hatred, and “fuck the love” syndrome. That’s kind of what we’re trying to do, that other artists I believe aren’t doing. It’s not their fault, I’m not dissing them for it.
Parlé: I like it, man. Very honest. My next question is for Heed. What was it like to meet up with the Dungeon Family? They’re one of the best groups…Outkast is one of my favorite groups of all time. What did you take away from working in the studio with Cee-Lo, man?
Heed: Aw man, it was awesome, man. Dre [Andre 3000] noticed me from a lot of shows that I did by my hair, you know what I’m saying? And one day he was doing a show. I was backstage…and he came down and he walked from around their bodyguards and he said, “Hey man, meet me at the studio.” And I went crazy, are you serious? This is Andre 3000 asking me to come to the studio. Me and my partners go to the studio, and, when we get there, it’s only him, John Frye [Dungeon Family engineer] and his bass player. There was nobody else, no extra entourage. Me and my homeboy came through, and he was actually recording “Bombs Over Baghdad.” Now this is my first time seeing him do anything ‘hands-on’. I’ve seen him do a lot of shows but, as far as the studio, I’ve never seen him do that. And the way he works, he’s dead serious, man. And I came to see him a couple of times and I think about the third time I went to Stankonia [Stankonia Studios] I met Cee-Lo, and Cee-Lo pretty much taught me everything I know about making beats and creating a song. He told me the importance of “first verse, second verse, third verse”, and not have the shit too long, and not bore people out, and keeping their attention span, and [having] the right rhythm.
Parlé: Yeah. Do you think that meeting him shaped you as an artist?
Heed: Most definitely. Cee-Lo shaped me as an artist, most definitely. Ali, when I met Ali, he calmed the anger out of me, ’cause I was an angry individual. I was all about getting into trouble. And things change, you meet certain people. ‘Cause I was pissed off at Ali at one point. And we fell out…but after we got over that…[the experience] shaped both of us as different artists. As crazy as he plays, I’m sure on both sides of the fence that we’re helping each other out with what we’re doing, with shaping each other. You can call me ‘Play Dough Jr.’ [laughs].
Parlé: I’ve been reading in a couple of interviews, you’re talking about Freaknik and hoping it will come back. Do you think it’s going to come back this year?
Alien: We’re going to bring it back. We’re going to bring back Freaknik. ‘Cause once we get the city, you know what I’m saying? ‘Cause we’re trying to have the A [Atlanta] be our world nationwide headquarters…we’re trying to bring that back. And I think we can bring it back ’cause we’re making like a Freaknik Woodstock. ‘Cause it won’t be as hood…and it won’t be as rock. It will be both, you know what I’m saying? That’s what we’re trying to do, you know. That’s going to take a long time, and we really deal with politicians so we might do it on the sly, ’cause I don’t really talk to mayors…
Heed: For real man, I fuck with the government to a certain extent. You know what I’m saying? But on top of that, fuck ’em, dude.
Alien: So yeah, I don’t really care too much about the government, they already got me under the system. But, Freaknik, we want to bring that back. ‘Cause Atlanta is getting too Hollywood and I think that Freaknik will make people talk more. Make people understand that we’re not as Hollywood as we say we are. We the South, when it boils down to it. We some slow talkin’, slow drivin’, crazy drivin’ motherfuckers.
Parlé: Awesome. Well, that pretty much wraps it up, man. You guys have nice spirit about you and it’s cool to see that you’re intelligent. People just do not know what’s going on right now and they don’t care.
Heed: Yeah, and like I tell a lot of people, man. As far as the government and stuff…I don’t diss people that watch T.V. But so many people are caught up in watching the wrong shit. And the wrong shit clouds your judgement and clouds your mind, so you really want to pay attention to what’s really going on in this world…I think the kids, when they turn 18…like, Ali can’t vote ’cause he’s a felon, but I encourage everyone to vote.
Alien: Especially black folks, ’cause we died for that shit. And when I could vote, I wouldn’t even watch the T.V., and see who’s running, I would just vote Democrat. Just ’cause motherfuckers was dying over that shit. People forget that we have a real serious history, black and white. We’re trying to bring back that revolutionary shit, bring back that hippie, man.
Heed: Yeah, bring back that shit that Jimmy was on, man. Jimmy loved everybody. Like we’re not ‘happy happy, joy joy, let’s hug each other and grab each other’s buns’, we’re not about that, but at the same time, we’re not about ‘hate you, hate this motherfucker, hate this cracker, hate this nigger’, we’re not about that.
Alien: We’re about embracing our demons. Enjoy your anger. Don’t try to run from it like it doesn’t exist, but enjoy it. That’s why I like the fact that I play drums, ’cause I can enjoy my anger. So, we appreciate you, man. Thanks for feelin’ us. That’s what’s up.
Parlé: Hey, I’m looking at you guys, I’m watching you, you know, I love your music and I hope you guys make it. Yeah, but thanks for taking time out of your way, man. I’m sure you guys are busy as hell.
Heed: Hey, no problem, man. Hit us up anytime and call us if you want to do another one, man.
Alien: Let us know man, we got you.
Parlé: Alright, well, that wraps it up, we’ll talk to you guys soon and have a nice day.
Heed: Thank you.
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