They say that college is a place of higher learning and that may be true. This group of Morehouse alumni received more than just a formal education. Current ATL resident emcees, The Remnant has gained relationships and experience that make for great conversation and material for great music. On the hills of a new project PB&J (Players, Babes And Jesus) I got a chance to chop it up with Niles and Adan of the group. Saying they are two hilarious guys are an understatement. In our conversation they shared some very interesting things including the fact that they were once signed to Cajo International Records and that their first cd was executive produced by none other than Canton Jones, It was a great conversation.

Paul: First off thank you in advance to agreeing to this interview! How did the group The Remnant come about? Who came up with the name? And what is the purpose behind the name?

Adan: Just John introduced this book to us called “This Present Darkness” by Frank E. Peretti. We all read it and the idea came to call ourselves after a group of people in this fictional small town that were interceding on behalf of the whole community. That’s pretty much the extent of where it went w/ us. We felt that credo on our college campus (where we formed) and subsequently, any community we found ourselves in going forward. The Remnant simply means for us the faithful minority that can affect the majority, which is important to us because we find ourselves in the minority often.

Tribe1: We started out as friends, first. we all stayed in the same dorm in college and every Friday night when the rest of the dorm would head out to the club we'd be the only three guys left playing video games or freestyling over instrumentals we got off of Napster before Metallica ruined it for all of us. From there we figured since we thought we were pretty good, maybe other people would think the same thing so we started writing raps and recording and performing around campus.

I’m pretty sure john was the one that came to me and Adam with the idea to call ourselves the remnant. So everyone who says we stole the name from remnant militia can blame him.

The name itself came from the book "this present darkness" by frank peretti, and it was something that, when we all read it, we recognized the outright coolness of the idea that a handful of dedicated people can make a difference and make things better for everyone.

Paul: How long have you all been emcees and who are some of your influences?

"Know This" featuring Scar

Tribe1: I’ve been rapping since sixth grade when I was the only black kid in school and all the other kids would come to me to do verses from snoop doggy dogg songs, back when he still had the "doggy" in his name. I think my biggest rap influences are project blowed/freestyle fellowship from southern California, rhyme sayers from Minnesota, Galapagos 4 from Chicago and the quannum rappers from the bay area of California.

Adan: I really got into emceeing b/c I was trying to beat my older brother who rhymed when I was about 11. So I just came up freestyling for the most part and then got into writing shortly after that time. As far as current hip hop influences, I’m just drawn to great writers and storytellers. Heiroglyphics, QN5, Rhymesayers, Lupe Fiasco, Deepspace5 and Lamp Mode Recordings.

Paul: Your bio says you met in college, so what other endeavors are you all currently involved with career wise or are you solely doing music right now?

Adan: Right now, we pursue the dream after 5pm as I do Search Engine Marketing by day. I’m getting that grad school itch so I’ll probably find myself in someone’s school come soon. All 3 of us are pretty creative people at heart so the arts will always be a part of our day-to-day. So in addition to The Remnant, we’ve all do a little of graphic novel/comic writing, acting and spoken word. Collectively, we’ve got everything covered except for praise dancing. I’m putting Niles on that cause he looks thuggish in a leotard swinging that praise flag.

Tribe1: It would be really cool to have rap pay rent, but I have two kitty cats to take care of. since I’m a certified super thug I work as a librarian in an Atlanta suburb.

Paul: I heard a lot of the music on the album and it seems to relate to women, was that intentional or did it just happen in the writing and recording process?

Adan: Intentional. After recording our 2nd album “After School Special”, we went in the studio to record some music for a book project. While doing those short sessions, we recorded the song “Most Wanted” which would later end up on PB&J. It was a song about getting over a relationship that didn’t work out and it happened to be true to life for us at the time. We started introducing it in our live shows and received an overwhelming response. From there, John had the idea that we could focus the whole album on love and relationships from a singles perspective. So often things are only spoken about in the context of marriage (which is important), but very little instruction is given to the Believer as to what to do “from the ‘hi’ to ‘I do’ as our good homie PJ Morton says.

Tribe1: It was definitely intentional. we knew going into it that this would be the relationship album. unlike our previous records we came up with the name of the project first, even before we started working on any of the songs. I think the idea was originally to take all the success we had from our song "Christian girl" and really milk it for all it was worth. but then, halfway through that process, we looked back and saw we had made a pretty good rap record.

Paul: There are guest like Pigeon John and Playdough who are huge underground artist how did they end up on the project? Also Scar who is from ATL hooked into the Wondaland Arts Society. How did those collaborations come about.

Tribe1: We've been extremely fortunate to be able to do shows with artists that are incredible, while at the same time keeping our albums almost entirely self-contained. if you go back and listen to "after school special," you will notice we didn't have any guest rappers on it at all and the only voices you hear that aren't our own are on the song "felt tip skies," for which we brought in the incredible justice caston and got an extremely brief cameo from dj dust of mars ill. all that to say that in all the time we've been doing this we've been making connections with super dope people and waiting for the perfect moment to call in favors and cash in every bit of good will those people had for us. it just so happened that perfect moment was the pb&j album. if you listen to it you'll see what I mean.

Adan: We’ve just spent a lot of time cultivating relationships. I’d say that’s the biggest advice I’d give to upcoming artists. Cultivate relationships. No one is on the album that we’ve not personally met or dealt with for some time. We didn’t have to coldcall anybody asking them to be a part of the project. Pigeon John has stayed w/ us most times that he comes through Atlanta and serves as a big brother to Just John. We got to know Playdough on the Deepspace5 tour. In addition to being a great talent, he has a true servant’s heart. We’ve known Scar for years and he’s always been supportive of our music. I think he came and recorded “Know This” for us right before he headed to a John Legend session (for “Everybody Knows”). I say that to say this, he’s always reached back no matter how far he’s advanced in the industry. The Wondaland Arts Society and Janelle Monae are our friends from college. The main producer, Nate Wonder of Deep Cotton, was my roommate sophomore year. Same goes for PJ Morton who stayed across the hall from Niles freshman year. He opened up for our “After School Special” release in ’05 and we knew we wanted to work on something together for this album. Mars Ill is like our big brothers in the Atlanta music scene. They took us on our first national tour. We love manCHILD and Dust for that. Debra Killings (of TLC and Outkast fame) graced us with her vocals on “The Rose” based off past shows we’ve done together. As I said, it’s all about relationships.

Paul: Do you find it difficult to keep the balance as emcees that are Christian when you do venues that are not in a religious setting? What do you find more a comfortable fit, shows in a religious or non religious setting?

Adan: I used to think about it a whole lot until I realized that hurt people are everywhere – regardless of setting. Our bar/club shows and church shows are pretty much the same in that sense. I will say that we don’t exactly fit in either place. I can’t remember if it was Corey Red or Shai Linne who said “a little too much church for the world and too much world for church” or something like that. Personally, I feel like that a lot honestly. We just want people to leave shows closer to God than when they came.

Tribe1: I prefer to do non-Christian shows. the audiences tend to be a lot more discriminating in the sense that if you aren't good they'll let you know. that being said, I love doing church shows because a lot of people still don't know that there are a bunch of us out here doing quality raps. it would be extremely difficult to keep a balance if we were anything but one hundred percent honest. if you come see us perform at any venue we're always the same dudes who make fun of each other on stage and quote jane austen in our rap songs.

Paul: What is your take on the music industry as a whole, gospel as well as secular?  What avenues if any are you guys taking to be relevant or viable as artist? Also do you think that it is important in the day and time we live to get signed by a major label?

Adan: Well, creativity still reigns supreme in my opinion. This goes for Christian/Gospel or Secular. Please be creative. I’m not a fan of formulas. So I really hate the fact that Gospel/Christian music is marketed as, ‘if you like so and so, then you’ll love…” I can understand why people feel the need to do it, but it cheapens the art and ministry of whoever’s at the end of that subordinate clause. Also, it is bad business. If you’re known as the artist to listen to as an alternative to Drake, then you are only “hot” and relevant for the same amount of time that Drake is, if that. Why tie your buzz to someone else? God’s not derivative. As far as being signed to a major label, it’s not that important. You can get your music to people these days in so many forms that they no longer hold the key to distribution as in the past. It just depends on what you want though. There are numerous examples of successful indie artist that do not and have not had any major label support. You just have to work a little bit smarter which honestly isn’t hard b/c major labels love to throw away money on the unnecessary things. I will say that I’m a firm believer that dope music shouldn’t have to be hard to find. It should be readily available. How much better would the world be if you had to dig for artists like Waka Flocka Flame? SMH…

Tribe1: I guess I would say that the answer to this collection of questions is the internet. in my opinion it's pretty much the best thing ever since it has given people the opportunity to search for the music they like on their own terms. I remember when I was in high school my friends and I would go to blockbuster music and best buy every week to take a chance on a couple of albums and hope that we liked a song or two. also we had to walk to school in the snow uphill both ways. things like myspace music and youtube have really given up and coming artists like us the chance to get our music out in a way that was absolutely not possible ten years ago. I think the record labels are fighting against this so hard because they know they're not going to be around in the same capacity much longer. it just sucks that they're lashing out at music lovers instead of trying to adjust and stay relevant.

Paul: At this juncture in your music as well as your lives what would you say is your purpose for doing music, And what is the most important things that you are looking for the listener to take home from a Remnant show besides a cd?

Tribe1: I guess the reason I’m still interested in music is because it's still fun. there's something about music that makes people happy, and we've been so fortunate that people mostly enjoy when we get up in their faces and yell words at them. it's really kind of crazy. and the most important thing that I hope people get from a remnant show is that life is too serious not laugh.

Adan: Well, as I said before, I just want people to leave our show a little closer to God than when they entered. We believe God does the “saving of souls”; not our songs. So we hope our live show waters those seeds. The writer Anne Lamont describes earth as a big waiting room. We’re all there, sick and in need of the Great Physician. Our job is to tend to one another until we’re called into the Doctor’s office. I guess at this stage in our music, tending to others with our music is what I see as our purpose. God does the healing; we just want to help stop the bleeding.

Paul: If there is anything you want to say to the people we might have missed and you think is of any importance let it rip!

Adan: Thank you for covering us! We hope people enjoy the music and if not, blame Niles. He’s the wack one in the group. Note that we are currently working on a follow up EP, tentatively titled “Blue Like Rap” with an amazing producer – Alex Adiels - from Sweden. It should be a Spring release. twitter.com/TheRemnantCru, facebook.com/TheRemnant and myspace.com/remnantmusic. Thank you again for doing this interview with us!