Masta Ace joins the call after a day of mentoring school students in his home of New York – something which keeps him grounded and connected to his community.
Masta explains what this type of work means to him, and in terms of his longevity as an independent rapper, he talks of how he involves hip hop in this community work he does, connecting students "to hip hop in its entirety."Not just what they hear on the radio, what's popular at the moment, but just give them a better perspective of what the entire picture looks like.
"If you focus on the radio, you really get one picture and you start to grow up thinking that that's it so I love those opportunities to speak to young people. Because that's my connection to the community."
This is something Ace has done throughout his music career, as he was a high school American football coach from 2002-2012. He coached and mentored "young men from impoverished neighbourhoods, and not necessarily the best family background that can be connected to the community".
Community underpins so much of what Ace does. "I feel like through the music that I make, the songs, the storytelling, trying to give people a perspective on my life, as an artist, as a young man, as an older man.
"I think in a lot of ways, the songs are another way that I connect to the community."
His songs not only have allowed Masta to connect to the community of his home in Brooklyn, New York, but also around the world. Ace is stylistically an introspective rapper, but brings enormous energy to his live shows.
"I like to have fun. I like to move around a lot. I like to sweat so [fans] can expect energy. That's always going to be number one. Most paramount part of it is energy."
His upcoming Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane shows with The Pharcyde is billed as Class of '93; Ace tells us what that time meant to him when his path first crossed with The Pharcyde.
"We were on the same label, Delicious Vinyl back in '93. I think their album 'Bizarre Ride II' dropped right before my album 'SlaughtaHouse'.
"I was with those guys all the time because the label to save money, they would put us both on the same promo tour together, we would go run around LA and stuff like that.
"We were very cool with them. They were making dope music. We would make good music and I think there was a mutual respect there. They have always been cool brothers. And I like brothers that are not wanting ego stuff and they've never been on that."
This elucidates for Ace the role that coming up in hip hop during the 1990s has had on him, even to this day, in terms of the music he makes but also how he goes about his music.
"The time period has a lot to do with the sound and the music. I think that we [Masta Ace and Marco Polo] both connect to more of a '90s feel, more of the boom-bap kind of sound.
"The '90s feel is where I feel like we live even with my newer stuff. It still has that visibility, that '90s sensibility in terms of the drums and what that sounds like."
Known for a distinctive style that is largely introspective through the form of autobiographical storytelling, in an industry that has seen many come and go, Ace has had strength in his longevity especially as an independent artist.
Ace pinpoints much of his success to a singular moment. "In 2001 when I dropped 'Disposable Arts'. That was when I realised the importance of writing introspective songs, and how they impact people because at the time when I was writing those songs, I truly believed that was going to be my last album, I truly thought that my career was gonna end at that point.
"So I wanted to make sure that I said everything that I wanted to say on record so that the fans would know when I was long gone, how I felt about the journey.
"To my surprise, fans reacted even stronger to those songs than they did to say 'Born To Roll', which was about a car cruise and kinda fun song."
After the release of 'Disposable Arts', Ace had the realisation. "I need to do this. This needs to be what I do. I just need to talk about my life.
"Be very upfront, very candid with the audience. Speak my truth and let the chips fall where they may; and I've been doing it ever since."
By expressing himself in this way, Ace has travelled the world; on the cusp of his return to Australia, Ace exudes: "I'm just happy to be coming back. It's been too long.
"I'm looking forward to the shows. I'm curious to see how much the landscape has changed in Australia since the last time I was there. I'm curious to see how much things have changed."
The Pharcyde & Masta Ace 2023 Tour Dates
Fri 9 Jun - City Recital Hall (Sydney)Sat 10 Jun - The Croxton (Melbourne)
Sun 11 Jun - Open Season @ The Tivoli (Brisbane)
