Grind Mode

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Now if you haven't heard of Grind Mode and you're from Miami, then you need to get a reality check. These artists have been grinding on the edge of the game for a minute now. Stage McKlezie, lead of Grind Mode, has taken Hip-Hop to a whole new level. I once told you before that Miami is on Fire, Grind Mode is one of the reasons next to list of many more. McKlezie, Chaos, and Hunger comprise Grind Mode and have just recently inked a deal with Universal Republic. Their hit single I'm So High has already swept across the nation and banging in clubs all over the place. With Iconz in the past, and looking towards the future, there is definitely no stopping the reign of Grind Mode.

I caught up with McKlezie at Audio Vision studios while in the process of recording the official Grind Mode album and he agreed to vibe one on one with 24hourhiphop.com and give us a idea and scope into his current and future projects, leaving the past behind him as just history.

24: So start off, congratulations on the hit "I'm So High." How have things been after that huge success and what's next?

McKlezie: Everything right now is real crazy, we still on the grind, we on the main set. We gotta do what we do, on the grind, still doing street promotion.  Basically seeing people day to day, performing, we still in the studio making music; the easy part is making the single, the hard part is staying on top. We always are going to be still on the grind. That's it.

24: For those people that aren't familiar with your work, let's get them up to speed, let them know who you are?

McKlezie: Well most people know my name is McKlezie aka Stage McCloud from the world famous Iconz, you know Mr. Get Crunked Up himself. I'm the one who spit the 16 on the hook, 16 on the verse and ghost writer extraordinaire, you know just international star and everything like that, but now I'm back in Miami.

24: From Iconz to Grind Mode, what happened between then and now?

McKlezie: It's about maturity; more of an understanding as far as how the game goes. You go through your whole life trying to get somewhere and become something and when it stacked upon you, it's either you can stand strong or fold. When things are stacked up against you, chances are, you're going to fold. I'm not saying Iconz folded, but it is what it is. And now, this is an opportunity to give myself, Chaos, and Hunger the ability to get back out there and show face.

24: Can you explain to us, the downfall?

McKlezie: It's a lot of things tagged into the downfall, if you want to call it that, but you know, differentials, dudes wanna do movies, fall out between Slip N Slide (Records), Koch (Records), and Atlantic (Records). But me personally, I'm a very patient person, I played my role as a teacher and I played by part, played the soldier role for a long time and it's out of my character to play the soldier role when I know exactly what I want to do with my career, what I feel in my heart. But every time I play the General role, you see some difference when I did it. So I played the soldier role, I played the obedient soldier, but at the end of the day it is what it is. Things just happen, and the downfall, if you wanna call it that, happened; Iconz is where it's at right now, but they're doing good, they got some things poppin' off, and I'm in a good place, I got things poppin' off. Me, Grind Mode, Bigg D, Dadetown, we working on something big, there's going to be a session, ya'll wait around for that.

24: Explain the name change from Stage McCloud to what it is now, McKlezie?

McKlezie: Sometimes when you're shedding the past, you got to shed everything that comes with it, to have a rebirth of your character. If I kept McCloud up then I would have to keep the whole memories with Iconz. It's not the same story, it's not the same environment, it's not the same work ethic or the same people and principles involved with it. It's totally different people involved and I'm playing the leading role sort of speak running the Grind Mode enterprise in itself. So if I'm going to create something new, then everything's going to be new, so Stage McCloud had to die for McKlezie to run Grind Mode, and I don't even let my crew call me McCloud to be real, they call me McKlezie or they call me Stage, but as far as McCloud, it's dead.

24: So as the head of Grind Mode, can you describe the history and your purpose?

McKlezie: As far as the history, everybody knows our pedigree. We've been in the streets, grindin' like doing open mics, doing performances and hitting these clubs. We did the Oh No; we did the Oh No video, Red Rat came through and just laced it. But for an independent label to do what we were doing with my budget, my street budget, we made Video Mix and out of 200 we hit 22, so we were number 22 most requested. And that was just a buzz video, we were out there trying to have some fun and see what we could do. So then we came out with the Yayo, I Got that Yayo, and that was a different movement in itself, but we couldn't get any radio play off of it because of the subject matter and at the time we didn't have that major behind it so it wasn't being pushed. It is what it is, we just had to keep regrouping and coming back at them. Everything we put out got a positive response. We always stayed in the foreground and do things that people didn't expect us to do and change it in a way where we just had fun, not take ourselves too serious.

24: Who does Grind Mode's roster official consist of?

McKlezie: Well, Grind Mode is the group and Grind Mode Enterprises is the label. The group is Me, Hunger, and Chaos, that's the group. As far as the label, we got a couple of writers and producers on the roster. My dude Swagga, Gold, Sonya, the singer on the I'm So High and couple of other records, so that's who's on the roster right now.

24: Besides running the mixtape scene, when are we going to finally hear an official Grind Mode Album?

McKlezie: The fourth quarter did pretty good; we flooded the streets with 50,000 units and we had the Oh No and the Yayo singles on it. It was a great response, myspace went up. But I'm So High is the first official single off of the I Will Grind Album. Right now we doing a lot, but I'm not one of those type of dudes that like to predict the future and be like yeah "We gonna have 30 albums." I'm not that dude, cause I hate to eat my words at the end of the day. So let's just say, realistically, that we looking for a release for the album sometime in the summer of 09, realistically, now if we come out before that then God-Willing. But before we do anything it's always thoroughly planned and put together, we don't just do things on a whim. Especially now that we got Bigg D on the project, we're mapping out everything, because a lot of people say they're moving units, but we're trying to do something Miami hasn't done, be the first diamond sellers out of Miami. We looking past just being a local and nationwide group, we're trying to take it to an extreme and our whole mindset in life is we want bigger things in life. I got family to feed; we all got family to feed. There's a lot of people in Miami that's looking to get out, I wanna be that person they look up to because why settle for two gold or platinum records when you can try to do numbers that's ridiculous. I'm trying to do ridiculous numbers, cause I want (industry) people to come back down to where I came from, where I got my training, like the pub, or the pipeline, I want them to come down there and pick up other people. So it's on our back, we trying to do something they have not seen before and the responses we're getting is like comparisons to people that have done it already, like the Fugees and the Black Eyed Peas. We're not just being labeled as a rap group; we're called superstars, entertainers, artists. I love the fact that they're not calling us a rap group from Miami, they're calling us a group that just might take over the industry.

24: I had a chance to hear several of your tracks, including I'm So High, now you said you don't to be labeled just Hip Hop, you want be labeled as a superstar, so what would you say your style of music is?

McKlezie: Grind Mode style is like a personality, like all in all we just do not take it that seriously. You gotta remember that at the end of the day, we're all just entertainers and some of these cats forget that and they want to mean mug constantly and we ain't built like that. Let me tell you something, I had a lot of fights in my life and a lot of shit like that, some of the stuff I ain't proud of, but I'm not walking around mad at the world, I'm happy, I enjoy my life. It's proven that people want to go to clubs and enjoy themselves. So we're trying to provide something that is missing not only in Miami, but in the industry because people are just mad for no reason. A lot of people are just upset at the world, I don't know. If you're going to be real, then be real. So with these characteristics that we all portray, if I'm crying on a track you're going to hear it, if I'm excited you're going to hear it. So as far as style goes, getting back to your question, we just real life, we don't hide nothing, everything is poured out on the track as far as Grind Mode.

24: What producers have you been working with and what does Grind Mode have in store for the world?

McKlezie: As far as producers, we still constructing the album, but as far as guaranteed producers, Bigg D definitely put down. Gorilla Tek, he did the I'm So High record, Swagga and Gold from Grind Mode did a couple of tracks for the album. We still in the studio working, I mean, if we need a track with Timbaland and it landed in the right place, then we might get something from Timbaland. Right now, we got a little family going and everyone knows exactly where we're trying to take this to.  So everyone's on the same page. We're going to shake up the world. Change the books, sort of speak.

24: And how about McKlezie, when can we expect a solo album?

McKlezie: I'm not worried about a solo record right now because my focus, my major focus is on Grind Mode. We're not talking movies; we're not talking solo records, nothing, unless it has to do with I Will Grind. So put that in everyone's head, the only thing they should be expecting is the I Will Grind album, following the fourth quarter Vol. 2 mixtape; it's going to be crazy, real crazy.The I Will Grind Album that's it, listen to my radio station, 98.7 on the dial.

24: So how do the fans get in contact with you and Grind Mode?

McKlezie: Grind Mode Nation on myspace.com/grindmode2006, you can download the I'm So High track on there, check out the videos, the Oh No video if you haven't seen it yet. Leave your comments; we have contests for people who leave the best comments, we send you something. That's Grind Mode Nation. If you want to get in contact with the actual group, its myspace.com/grindmodemia and all the members are the top 3, so you'll see Hunger, you'll see Chaos, you'll see me, the Grind Mode girls are up there. We just a whole movement, Grindtime T.V., my boy Chaos, every Wednesday, 7pm, you can count on him to be there, Grind Magazine. We are trying to do everything. A lot of people don't grind, we grind. We will respond to ya'll personally, no managers, no monitors, just us. And ladies leave ya'll comments, I will answer you personally. You can also check us out on http://www.grindmodeent.com, the site is up, we just gotta update it, so go check it out.

24: Thank you for taking the time to vibe with 24hourhiphop.com, do you have any last words?

McKlezie: 100%, for real, for real, I know a lot of people said this before, but I really mean this so, I do this music as a stress reliever just to get it out, but if the fans wasn't there to guide us on and empower us, then we couldn't do what we do on a regular basis. It's more than a movement man, I don't know what ya'll hearing, but it's official.