West Coast collective Living Legends — Murs, Eligh, The Grouch, Aesop, Bicasso, Sunspot Jonz, Luckyiam and Scarub — are ready to rock the Eagle Stage at The Arise Music Festival with their classic boom bap, no-frills hip-hop. Over the years, the group have taken a couple of hiatuses, but Aesop confirms their reunion is official (however, it’s unclear if Murs will be at the Arise Festival).
“We are definitely back together,” says Aesop. “Our break was for spiritual reasons if you can call it that. We all needed to take personal time to flesh out our solo careers and deal with life and family. I honestly think it was for the best, as we have grown stronger as a group and family because of it.”
While Aesop can’t speak on behalf of the rest of the group, he says he’s thrilled to be back on the road with his longtime friends.
“It feels great,” he says. “I personally have taken a break from the rap life to pursue a career in radio that lasted the last four years. For me, it’s amazing to go back on tour and still have the same strong fan base coming to the shows and being as hype and excited as they were when we took a break.
“The thing that makes me feel best about it is having day-one fans come with their kids and kids’ kids. We are blessed to have three generations of listeners still supporting or music.”
Living Legends was formed in the 1990s and over the years, each member has evolved and become different people because, well, that’s life. But their skills as MCs have also sharpened.
“Our music has always been a bit advanced, so I think we have grown into our different styles and it shows with the new music we have been recording,” he explains. “We still gather together and write to new tracks like we did back in the day.
“We vibe off one another and recite our lyrics to each other to make sure we are all on the same page. It’s very magical when we all get in tune and create. I’m excited to let the world hear what we have coming next.”
Living Legends has been in the studio for roughly a year and plan to release new material at the end of 2018. In the meantime, Aesop is looking forward to getting back to Colorado.
“I love Colorado,” he says. “It’s seriously one of my favorite places to rock — Denver, Boulder, Vail, Durango, Colorado Springs — all that. I have had great times and memories playing all those places. Colorado was one of the first states we started touring in. In many ways, I credit the love and support of Colorado fans in helping us build our careers, plus y’all get extra hype when we play and all the shows feel like a huge reunion party.”
The Arise Music Festival goes down August 3-5 at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland and this year’s lineup includes performances by Thievery Corporation, Slightly Stoopid and Pepper, among others. Make sure you don’t miss your chance to see the godfathers of the ‘90s hip-hop scene reunite once again.
