Lunatik Derelikts

V’s X-rated aspirations may have preceded his hip-hop goals, but his Midwestern-boy fantasies were ruined after a peep at the industry up close. ”Since I was a little kid I‘ve always seen it, read it, looked at it,“ he says. ”I always wanted to be around porno actresses and the directors and the actors. I got to L.A., met a few of them, got invited on the sets, hung out, and it’s not cool now. It seemed like they were having more fun back then. Now it‘s like, um, you want to do an ass fuck for $250 real quick? Okay. Boom.“

Illusion shattering, though, has been part of the V & Legacy experience from day one. Soon after meeting, the pair began writing songs together, eventually maxing out their credit cards to make a demo. After the Galaxy tightened its live policy, the duo took what they could get -- post-midnight Tuesdays at the Kibitz Room or the Room to spin instrumentals or the Opium Den to freestyle. ”We would do that just to keep warm and loose with our live flow,“ V says. ”We were more concerned with making demos. Keep making new music and getting it out there, keeping the flow going.“

For a while, though, the flow slowed to ketchup-oozing speed. As they shopped their music, Legacy worked as a bank teller in Century City while V shilled for Camel, handing out free packs of cigarettes at Hollywood bars. Eventually, the quest for a deal began messing with their heads.

”Dude, you make a demo and all you do is constantly play it for people and watch them react to it,“ V says. ”Every time, it’s like a fucking shot to the nerves. Everyone has so many comments, and then if there‘s any success, usually nine out of 10 leads turn to shit. They’re lies. Big words. On top of that, we‘re spending credit constantly to make more shit. We could pay for rent and make the minimum payments on the credit cards, but we were just getting deeper, deeper, deeper. It was tons of depression and hill climbing and stuff like that.“

They finally signed with Flip Records early this year, but were put on the back burner as the label threw its resources behind Limp Bizkit’s Nookie. Although DJ Lethal gave them a lovely parting gift (he helped produce ”Lunatik Derelikt“), V & Legacy left Flip and went to X-RayCleopatra, which oversaw 2000 MG, recorded in three weeks last summer.

The record-industry shuffle‘s over, but V & Legacy aren’t shopping for real estate in Ice-T‘s neighborhood just yet. ”Twenty grand in the hole, you know what I mean?“ V says. ”But it doesn’t matter. Every big corporation is in this huge debt, so why can‘t we think of ourselves as a little corporation? As long as we can manage our minimum payments and keep working, we’ll just keep chugging along.“