There was once a time that whenever Chicago was mentioned, the first thing that came to mind was Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. But after the championships dried up, another form of entertainment captured the windy city.

Even though Hip-Hop has always been a part of Chicago, it just took a while for the rest of the world to catch onto it. But veterans such as the Twista-affiliated Speedknot Mobstaz have been there from the beginning. They first jumped onto the scene with their debut album, Mobstability back in 1998. Industry red tape took  them off the main circuit for almost ten years, but that didn’t stop them from releasing projects through the underground with their Legit Ballers imprint.

Now with a newfound hunger, they’re geared-up to release their long awaited sequel Mobstability 2. With everything going in their favor this time around, it doesn’t look like it will take long for them to red lining once again.

So what new with you guys these days?

Liffy Stokes: We just chilling man, we ready to hit this road and sh*t.

I dig it. How do you guys feel about your new deal through Koch?

Liffy Stokes: It feels real good now that we’re finally able to drop this Mobstability 2 al bum. We can finally get the project going. So now hopefully everything goes good. It’s been a long time; it’s been like nine years since we dropped a Mobsta album 

Everybody knows that you’re associated with Twista. But how did you all actually meet?

Liffy Stokes: We met on some old school battle sh*t, you know what I’m saying. We met up on the streets of Chicago, and we got to kicking a couple of rhymes and sh*t. Then I started going around the town saying that I f**ked Twista up in a battle. [Laughs] Then the next day, the place that we used to be at, Twista was in there like; “What’s up?!” “What’s popping?!” [Laughing] And from there we kicked some more rhymes and just got cool and sh*t. And that’s how we came together. 

How did you approach the Mobstability 2 album?

Liffy Stokes: We basically kept the formula the same, because that’s the genre of music we do. Street reality rap, gangsta rap, or whatever you wanna call it. Because in my eyes, street music is always going to be timeless. If you look at all the artists that came out with their little gimmicks, they’re not around right now. But if you look at the Jay-Z’s, the Scarface’s, the [Ice] Cube’s and everybody that kick that real rap, that real sh*t is still around and still relevant to this day.

But do you think sometimes that change might be good?

Liffy Stokes: Well yeah. Because you gotta change with the times. If you look at ten years ago, crack, heroin, and weed was the sh*t. Now it’s all about kush, pills, and other type of drugs like over-counter-counter sh*t is the sh*t. So now there is something different to talk about. There’s a ten-year gap, and people are doing different things in the streets right now.

Earlier you spoke on how the first Mobstability came out nine years ago. Why so much time in between?

Liffy Stokes: We were going through situations with our label; know what I’m saying. We were signed to Atlantic Records, and we were trying to get off of the label. Then we ended up going through another fight with the Mobsta contracts for like another year.

 Then we did the underground thing with Twista with the Legit Ballers project, and we had dropped like three albums on the underground, and they had sold like 150,000 a piece. So we was doing independent stuff, then Twista came back out with Kamikaze.

We really was supposed to drop right after Twista dropped Kamikaze, but we still had a little situation with Atlantic then. But now here we is.  

Are first week sales something that ever enters the back of your mind?

Liffy Stokes: It didn’t really get into my mind until Twista’s Kamikaze sh*t. Right when you see the opening day, you’re able to find out if that can take your career somewhere. But the way the game is right now, it’s real fickle and you don’t really know what to expect. But hopefully we got enough fans out there that be hitting us up. Everybody is waiting on the album, and the first one was a classic so I’m hoping that are of our fans go out there and support us, know what I’m saying.

When you first came out, there weren’t too many acts from Chicago. What would you say are some of the biggest changes between then and now?

Liffy Stokes: Even when we first came out, there was a lot of underground music that was real big in Chicago. But it just didn’t reach places like the East Coast, or down South, or the West Coast. But there’s always been a lot of artists from out here in the Midwest. But now with the Common’s, the Kanye’s [West], and the Twista’s they see that people are selling records out here. And people are like; “Okay, there is some talent over there.” But the problem with Chicago is that we don’t have no labels here.

If you live in L.A. or New York you can get up in the morning and be like; “You know what?” “I’m gonna go to Capitol Records, or I’m gonna go to Atlantic and try and see if I can meet somebody.” You might just get signed if you’re around that, and people just like how you look.

But in Chicago, you got to go somewhere else to get put-on. You just can’t get-on in the city. And people are starting to realize that they won’t be able to do it here at the crib, so they go down South or they go to New York, or the West Coast. People are figuring the game out. You got to leave this mothaf**ka to come up.  

So how’s the mindset in Chicago? Do artists try to look out for each other?

Liffy Stokes: Hell no. Chicago is really like the city of haters man. If a n***a ain’t down with your team, they don’t give a f**k in what you’re doing. That’s one of the problems too, if we all came together like people down South. The people down South might have a beef, but you’d never know that because they all stick together. But we can’t get a movement like that going here, because everybody is in their own little cliques doing their own little thing.  

What do you say to the people that think you guys can’t stand on your own feet without Twista?

Liffy Stokes: I think we already proved ourselves, know what I’m saying. Right with the first Mobsta project that we did. That’s a CLASSIC RIGHT THERE! Know what I’m saying? Every where you go, people still buy that album to this day. That album still moves units, so we proved ourselves lyrically that we can stand on our own two-feet and do our thing. Twista was just a man that put us on. If you’re a true Twista fan, then you already know that we’re straight, we can hold our own, and we do our thing.