- I'm Mouse Jones, here for BET Social, and I'm here with:
Syd, Matt, Chris, Steve, and Patrick.
- We're the Internet, we just pulled up.
- Yurp, yurp, appreciate y'all coming out, all five of y'all
- Yep. - You know what I mean.
Everybody's here, everybody feeling good?
- [Syd] It's a packed room, you know?
- [Mouse Jones] Yeah, it's a packed room here.
- Feel great, it's a packed room, feels great.
- Y'all should be used to this.
- We are, we are, yeah, yeah, we insist.
- [Mouse] Y'all outside.
- So, before anything, gotta, you know,
pay honors to the queen, Syd, you know what I mean?
You was in the "Nice For What" video.
(Syd laughing)
- [Mouse] You know what I mean, big cameo right there.
Getting that, you know what I mean?
Y'all was just showing that Drake stimulus package.
(shouting and laughing)
Look, they got you, you was out here with the...
- [Chris] They get the earring bling.
- How'd I get the, oh, I'm gleaming!
- You got the, you got the good fade, no more mohawk.
- You know the fade. - So how was that?
How was it, getting that call, like,
Syd, we want you in the video?
- It was pretty, uh, surreal. It was like, what!
Then I was like, yeah, what you mean!
- Right.
- And it was like, the quickest, easiest shoot.
I was there for like, what, two hours.
It was real quick, real easy man.
- You guys, y'all was on set with her?
- Oh nah, nah, nah.
- Man, no way!
- Honestly, y'all would've hated it.
It was really cold.
Everybody was nice, but it was really cold.
- That's how you tell somebody, like,
yeah, you couldn't come anyway.
(laughter)
- Y'all wouldn't have wanted to come anyway.
- Y'all would've hated it.
- Yeah, y'all would've hated it.
It was lit, son.
No, but, in all seriousness, since you guys,
you know, everybody since the last album
everybody's released a solo effort.
Has there ever been a time during that period
when everybody was releasing solo efforts where like,
somebody heard somebody else's project and was like,
that shit kinda too fire, I gotta step my shit up,
or like maybe inspired by somebody.
- Friendly competition all day, all day.
I'm inspired by everything, but like. . .
- That, and we're all on each other's albums
- True, true, true. - For the most part.
- And I don't think we compare how successful they are.
I think we compare, like, damn, that chorus fine.
- So who had the best album?
- I'll say, Steve had, to me, overall, the best project,
as far as making me feel that way as like, damn,
this [bleeped] Steve came in thirteen minutes.
(laughter)
And didn't waste one minute.
To me, that's hard to do, you know?
Thirteen minutes, not one minute is wasted,
you know what I'm saying?
I thought that was super interesting to me, still is.
- Right, "Ego Death" that came out three years ago,
so now y'all coming with "Hive Mind."
I heard that the whole thought behind this album
is like, black camaraderie, and just really showing unity.
How did y'all come up with that?
What was your thought process going into this album?
- I'd say the thought process was just naturally like,
what theme represents us the best?
And I feel like, you know, black camaraderie,
and coming together for a positive outcome
is really like, what we formed the band for.
And it's like, you can make an album
about some random theme, but I felt like
we wanted to make it about us because a lot of us
personally, all of us personally,
found a lot of self-love around this time
which is interesting that we find it,
they say hive mind, we find it at the same time,
so I think that's the ultimate thing.
It's like self-love, but then as
a group appreciating each other.
- That's deep.
- Like "Hive Mind," how did y'all even come to that decision
where ya'll like you thinking like that
'cause I'm thinking like that, like you thinking like that?
- We talk a lot.
- The group chat be lit- - Yes.
- No, because we'll have something to go to,
and we'll all have the same color on
and not talk to each other about the outfit.
- Something like the same color scheme, we'll be like, "Yo!"
So I think it's just natural.
We just got lucky.
- It's pretty natural. - That's dope.
- So, with the video for your latest single,
Roll, I wanna say it right, Roll (Furbank Funk).
- Burbank.
- Burbank, I said Furbank.
I told y'all I'm from New York.
I ain't graduated high school, you gotta work with me.
- It's okay, originally it was just called-
- We smashing it.
- [Mouse Jones] Look at ya.
- Ah, lit!
(laughing)
- So I noticed when I watched a video,
I'm super into R&B, especially 90's R&B,
I felt like there was a whole lot
of Tony! Toni! Tone! early 90's vibe right here.
Like was that done purposely or?
- This picture, not on purpose.
It was just sent to us.
- Yeah, and are Patrick's eyes
closed, or are those his eyelids?
(laughing and clapping)
- I don't know.
- They look like your eyes are looking to the side, man.
- They were all the way open on them
(mumbles) bro, I was trying to close them.
(laughing)
- So that was just accidental,
so being from Cali, you guys, and being a band, obviously,
did you guys ever feel influenced by Tony! Toni! Tone!
To me, y'all remind me of mixed. . .
- Raphael Saadiq is a big influence on all of us.
- Raphael Saadiq, I was talking to my manager,
and he was talking about Raphael Saadiq, if you look
at who sampled him, his solo career,
mixed with other groups - All his collabs.
- He is low key one of the greatest musicians to ever do it.
- And I feel like people don't, he gets
his credit probably through them checks,
but I feel like enough people don't talk
about what he's actually done because
to this day, and what's done probably in the Bay
for other artists that we don't even know about.
- And just staying true to himself.
- Yeah.
- Steve introduced me to him, like,
what was it, like a year two years ago?
One of the coolest dudes ever, man.
- So I've also seen while watching
the video, seen my guy, Mac DeMarco.
Ya'll better get up on Mac, son.
That's my guy, I love Mac, yo,
so I've seen him in the video, I've seen Tyler.
Were there any other Easter eggs
in the video that people need to pay attention closer.
- Thundercat, we have Bus, we got Luke James, Katie Dunn
- Oh, so you did your own little nice for what, for Matthew?
(singing and laughing)
- Dev Hynes was in there, too.
- Dev Hynes, Buddy. - Yeah, my man Buddy.
I like Buddy. - I'm on skates, ya feel me?
Nah, it was one of those videos where
we just felt like it was a good time to have people pull up,
especially off all the love we
got on the last album, and we never did real cameos.
I love cameos in the early 2000's videos, the late 90's
videos, like I love just seeing Ginuwine in the cut,
seeing Tim Mcgraw walk down the hallway, seeing you know.
- And they always had the cameo turn around.
- You feel me?
They was fit with that one lyric and be done.
- So with the way the industry is now and the way
that fans are real fickle in their attention spans,
what made you guys so confident that you could just
take a break or like not release out
for three years and then come back now?
- The solo albums.
- [Mouse Jones] Mmmmmmm.
- They had quality, I know this, people wait on quality.
If it's not quality then they want it
'cause it won't hold their attention as long.
It's like I need more, I need more,
but if you give them something that could be there
like people just discovering 'Girl'
- That's true, even after a Grammy nom.
- And that's the thing, and I like that about it,
where it's like you keep discovering things
about our band, opposed to you just figured it out,
and solo albums also throw you into a whole road of things
to kind of explore to keep you busy until we come back.