[On Da Record] Recognition

Rico Sivad and J. Rod, collectively known as Recognition, have been on a ride to stardom for the past ten years and are slowly earning a legion of fans in the process. With the recent release of their free album ‘Backstage Pass’, the duo is preparing for more major moves and giving their fans a treat in the process. RoJay spoke with the fellas about their release, upcoming project and the story they want to tell.

RoJay: Good speaking to my fellas once again! You just dropped this free album on Dec. 31, 2011. It’s called ‘Backstage Pass’. Tell me how you came up with the theme for this free album.

J Rod: Well ‘Backstage Pass’ originated from what we were trying to do with the album. The album is called “Sound Check” and the album after ‘Sound Check’ is going to be called ‘Opening Act’, so basically we were like before we give you sound check we have to let them know what’s happening backstage. So as far as the album before the album, we gave the fans a backstage pass.

RoJay: Well I definitely have my tracks that I rock out to and I’ll mention a few in a minute, but tell me what made you decide to do the free album. Is this more so to build your fan base more first or to kind of hold your fan base over until we do get the album?

Rico Sivad: Most definitely. The game has changed and it’s changing every year. Now you have to give people something to receive something. You have to give them a free album or give them a mix tape to get them familiar with your sound and crave your sound that way when you do sell something they are interesting in purchasing it because these days if they don’t have respect and love for you they’re just gone go burn it for the free. You gotta gain their trust. You gotta gain their respect for your artistry. You gotta pay to play these days so we just playing by the rules man and it just feels good to share this music with the world.

RoJay: Okay. You got the ‘mistake songs’ to the ‘I done you wrong’ songs and the ‘You done me wrong’ songs… you’ve covered so much material on here to be honest. You have to tell me who came up with the idea for ‘Girlfriend’s Friend’ because that record right there…

J Rod: I’ll take a little credit for ‘Girlfriend’s Friend’. Me and Rico we always writing when we’re on the road. That’s how we write. Those are the times we come up with the best songs. We can sit in the studio all day and we’ll come up with ‘Oh yea, that’s a nice lil album cut’, but if we’re riding on the road and we’re listening to tracks we’re like ‘Man, that’s what it is.’ So I was in a situation where the girl I was talking to her friend was just amazing. She wasn’t pretty… she was AMAZING! You can’t look at her and be like “Oh yea, you’re beautiful’…she was AMAZING! Her body was crazy… personality… everything. She was just amazing… finer than a mutha…so that’s how the whole “My girlfriend’s friend finer than a mutha….’. That’s where that came from.

RoJay: What about the sexy cut “Bedtime Partna’. Who took control on that one?

Rico Sivad: That would be I… Sivad. It was just another way to say friends with benefits basically. I wanted to come up with another way to say that. Some people, believe it not… you got Husbands and Wives, you got Boyfriends and Girlfriends and you got friends and some friends do more than just read books together.

RoJay: I don’t know who doing too much reading these days, but I definitely got you on that one.

J Rod: Reading on the internet.

Rico Sivad: Exactly!

RoJay: Oh I know! What I do appreciate is although you have the sexy records and you have the party records, you guys strip all of that away and give me this vocal on ‘Moment Of Clarity’. When you came up with this one, what was the story you wanted to be sure to tell on this one?

Rico Sivad: ‘Moment Of Clarity’… basically with Rod’s verse and my verse, there are two situations going on, but they both have to take a moment of clarity before they let the situation go whether they win or lose. They have to let this person they love know ‘Look, I’m about to clarify everything!’ I know I gave out the wrong signals. It may seem like I didn’t love you, but I do. I know I always leave, but I really wanted to stay. So that song is actually a moment of clarity. It’s like a ‘to be continued.. .’ It doesn’t tell you if they get the person back or not, but it tells you that they are going for it.

RoJay: It’s cool because it’s not too often you get the fellas to express something like that on a record these days, so I have to give you props for that one. I like that one. What I also know is that you two have been on the road like crazy building your fan base from the ground up. How has that experience been for the both of you?

J Rod: The experience has been great. Every city that we have been to, they give us that recognition that we want and we give them that recognition that they deserve. When we come to their city we don’t just do the concert and leave. We come, we want to visit your mall, we want to know where the good places are to eat, we wanna go to church with you, we wanna play with you. We wanna go to IHop… you know we really just wanna experience life with you and let you experience the life that we live and try and provide with our music.

RoJay: And I know it’s a grind… especially for new artists, but has there ever been a time where you just get so frustrated that you start to think that maybe you wanna find something else to get into?

Rico Sivad: We’ve been doing this for ten years and it went from being fun to serious and yes it gets frustrating. Like I said in ‘Moment of Clarity’, the music thing gets real real frustrating and you have to take a breather and put things in perspective. To us, life is music and it’s all intertwined so right now we’re pouring our souls into our music. We’re like pleased here. It’s kind of like the last cry. Here we are… we’re doing this and we want to survive off of our music. We want to do this for life. We want to give you good music that enhances the moment, whether it’s glad, sad, partying or a break up. We want to be there with you through a track. So allow us to do this. Allow us to make these records… to tour. We’re trying to get the fans to let us in their lives. That’s where we’re at right now with our music.

RoJay: So when it’s all said and done and you are finally getting the recognition that you want. You’re giving us albums back to back, you’re touring… the fans won’t let you sneak out the house….when it’s all said and done, what is the one thing that you hope that the fans take away from this journey with you?

J Rod: That success comes with a price and you can’t expect things to happen overnight. Everything takes time and you have to work things out. Like Rico said, you gotta see the perspective of what you’re trying to do. Everybody gotta be on one accord and moving in one car.

Rico Sivad: The old folks said it and it might sound a little cliché’, but anything in life worth having you have to work for it. You’re one of the luckiest people in the world if somebody just walks up to you and hands you success. You have to build this thing from the ground up and even though we’ve been in this game for ten years, we’re still on the foundation of this house. It’s gonna take fans to go ahead and finish this thing up, so we’re heading for the fans. We ain’t worried about no label, no industry or nothing. We’re heading for the fans. In the end that is all that matters is the artist and his or her supporters. That’s how you’re going to become what you’re trying to be. Rock Bands have been doing this for years. They would do gig after gig to build their fan base. They’ve been on it for years and us in this R&B and Hip Hop game we have it hard because we’re just now learning that you gotta get out here and build this thing brick by brick. So that’s what we’re doing.

RoJay: Well of course, I’m still riding with you fellas. Still watching the journey and know that the hard work is paying off.

J Rod: Thank you!

Rico Sivad: Thanks!

RoJay: Get at me.