Shaka airs out his thoughts after Supreeme calls it quits
Final album, God Bless the Child, the darkest by far
Pussy, paper and pride have come between the best of friends.
But if they somehow led to the recent demise of Atlanta rap trio Supreeme, as de facto leader/producer/MC Shaka Girvan (aka Dope Pope, aka Tom Cruz) suggested in our phone interview a week and a half ago, it’s all the more monumental considering their steelo. Even at their shit-talking best — and Supreeme talked a lot of it on the six CDs and mixtapes released over the last six years — they always delivered their youthful exploits with an air of pomp and circumstance that elevated them above the run-of-the-mill.
Then three weeks ago, Shaka unceremoniously announced, via email, that he, Negashi Armada and Sam Terrell (aka King Self) had split. Attached was a copy of the new, unreleased album, God Bless the Child — on which Sam only appears on one of 13 tracks.
As Shaka and I talked, it became apparent that he was torn between his excitement for the new album and his disappointment at Supreeme’s demise. He’d only had a couple of weeks to digest the group’s split, and the more we discussed the details surrounding their break-up, the group’s legacy and the album’s theme, the title God Bless the Child took on a whole new meaning. Here’s the final chapter of their story, according to Shaka:
SUPREEME BEING (THE ALBUM’S THEME)
You all reference God a lot on the new CD. Sometimes it seems like you’re referring to yourselves as gods in a sense
Sometimes we’re referring to God, too, third-party.
Right. So I’m curious. Why all the God talk?
(MP3 no longer available on the site)