The Wasteland Travelers are an El Paso based hip-hop group. The group is composed of Drunken Horse, Mr. J, Aker Metatron, and DJ Taebo Manuhs.
The following is a brief q and a with the Wasteland Travelers::
epcb:: How did the group start?
AM:: I met them through Seraphim, he gave me a Born Sinners CD so, I liked it and I told him to take me through and meet the guys. I met Horse, I met J, I knew Dom(Taebo Manuhs) from back in the day from like a couple freestyle sessions.
TM:: Yeah, but just a couple of sessions.
AM:: Yeah, never really anything too much, that was like four, five years ago probably. I guess shit happens, like I said.
epcb:: What other rappers do you look to and say “that’s dope?”
DH:: Aker Metaron and shit, ha-ha.
J:: 2Mex, Jedi Mind tricks.
DH:: Mine+Us & DJ Hoppa, yeah Jedi Mind Tricks
AM:: When it comes to hip-hop, the Grimm Image Family, all of Project Globe, Wu-Tang is a definite big influence, DJ Hoppa, Mine+Us.
J:: Atmoshpere, MF Doom.
AM:: All of the Rhymesayer family, Grey Skull, Abstract Roots, Strange Famous Family, all of strange famous, Fake Four Inc., and Left Hand Brewing Company, even though they are a brewing company, I think I owe a lot of inspiration to them.
epcb:: What sets you apart? How are you different from everybody who says they can rap?
J:: Talent.
AM:: Talent definitely, and a diversity of different styles. If you hear all of us we are all different. There is nothing similar about each of us.
J:: We are a border town group.
AM:: Yeah, we are local but if you listen to the local scene we don’t sound local, local artists have that local sound and we don’t have that.
DH:: Yeah, that is the biggest misconception, when you hear El Paso, right away you think gangster cholos, but that is not us, we don’t sound like that, we speak poetically we talk about life.
epcb:: Speaking of the local scene, how do you feel about El Paso’s music scene?
AM:: I think there is a lot of talent in El Paso, but people give up too easily, because it looks…
DH:: Like nothing.
AM:: Yeah, it looks like nothing is happening because there is not a lot of promotion. You have to keep at it, do it yourself, and skip the middle man, progress happens. Most just give up, they feel like they don’t have experience or have to go to school for it but just talk to people, go out make connections, do it yourself.
J:: Make your own.
DH:: El Paso is very underrated; there is a lot of hidden talent here.
AM:: Yeah there are people that have been around for years that you’ve never heard about, people I’m just learning about.
DH:: There are a lot of people who are great, you have just never heard them.
by Mark Coca
***
