I heard about Petey Ugly x Kraze Ugly a few months ago through the grapevine, and the idea of a hip hop duo in Jersey City intrigued me…I did some internet stalking and listened to their music. Petey and Kraze are so talented, they rap about real life, which is relatable in comparison to some music that is out these days (I don’t have a rolex watch or turn up on a Tuesday….). If you listen to their mixtape, it will bring you back to the golden era of hip hop, where its raw, and its all about the story, the flow… there is one song called “201 ONLY” that makes me want to buy a hoopty and just cruise down Newark Ave with my windows down….
I reached out to them and they invited me to meet them at NJCU in one of the media rooms they usually hang out in. Petey and Kraze have this insane bond, they are like brothers… they finish each other sentences, they know what each other is thinking and all that really comes across in their music. What I loved most about them is they have such a positive attitude, they are friendly and so warm which makes them even more likable. Petey and Kraze are so driven, they are consistently putting themselves out there and I am so excited to watch them grow as artists. Petey and Kraze are going to show the world what hip hop really is, when it comes from the heart.
What are your names? Petey and Kraze
Kraze is not your real name…. (Kraze) My real name is Antwan… Kraze is because in the 6th grade everyone had nicknames besides me so I called myself Kraze…
Does that mean you’re crazy? You seem really sweet and smiley…. I would always act out in class so people would say I was crazy so I just stuck with that.
What do you guys do? (Petey) We are trying to change the world….
(Kraze) We are trying to become hip hop moguls.
I love it! What are you guys studying? (Petey) We major in media arts. We are trying to use it as an outlet where we can use our rap skills.
How long have you been a duo? (Petey) 4 years now. Freshman year, this dude came up to me and I didn’t even know him…. and he was like “What’s good?” and I was like “Who is this guy? you ugly…” It turns out he lived 4 blocks away from me and he rapped so ever since then we’ve been kicking it.
Are you bff’s? (Kraze) I don’t really like that word haha… We won the award for “best friends” in High School haha.
(Petey) We are like brothers… He is like blood, my mom knows him, my whole family knows him…. People think we are related but I’ve only known him for 5 years.
Do you ever fight? (Petey) Not really…for some reason, I think of something and he knows what I am thinking… it’s really weird… we never bumped heads.
How has it been working together? (Petey) I wouldn’t work with anybody else, that is why we work together to be honest. If somebody else wants to work with us, I always talk to him first.
You are a team… that’s cool. You don’t really see that many hip hop duos. (Petey) The other day, I was watching something, and I was like “Yo, we’re like Run DMC” we don’t really do the whole back and forth thing, but we are the same in how they act and how close they are… Mega Mission is our Jam Master J.
I love Mega. I have a crush on him… Don’t tell him that though haha (Petey) We probably will haha…Mega is a god… before we met him we were trying by ourselves to do everything and we met Mega Mission and Wolf and they believed in us… they told us that. A lot of people didn’t even listen to us before we met them… and then they opened up everyones eyes and people that we were looking up to look up to us now. Every day we just work harder, we want the world to see us not just Jersey City.
What is your creative process? (Petey) We know a couple of producers, but usually we go on YouTube and find producers who put beats up and we get those… sometimes we are just at my crib and we play any beat and we freestyle… we both look at each other when we know that’s the hook right there…
Haha you guys must get so excited… (Kraze) We do, and then we record it…. we write the lyrics…
(Petey) Back in the day, we used to let each other hear what each other was writing, but now it became more of a friendly competition and we wait till we’re both done with our verses to let the other hear..
(Kraze) But somehow we always stay on the same path which is crazy…
BFF’s!! (Petey) That’s my brother man… he ugly though…
That’s not nice… That’s hurtful! (Petey) We were walking down the block and a guy told us… he said “y’all ugly as hell….I see you on Instagram and I can’t forget it…” Which is what we want, we want people to remember us.
Why are you called Petey Ugly? (Petey) There is a song called 3am Quick Check…and we were recording… (Kraze) I butted in while he was recording… before he started spinning his verse and said “Petey Ugly”….
(Petey) Later on, we just thought it was funny and one day it was raining outside (I like to think when it’s raining) and I was thinking about what’s next and then I just wetted “Petey Ugly KRAZE ugly the mixtape coming soon” and Kraze didn’t even know…
What do you guys rap about? (Petey) Reality… every day you feel something else. There is one verse that Kraze says “Looking at my broken watch you would have thought time froze…” His watch was really broke at the time…
That’s a good lyric! (Petey) Me and my family got evicted one time, I wrote the song the next day. We are always inspired by whatever is going on in our lives.
Do you have a favorite JC hangout spot? (Kraze) Hookah lounge, the school library and the studio.
How do you feel Jersey City has changed in the past few years? (Kraze) Musically its letting in more artists… back then it was more focused on gangster rap… now everything is different.
What’s next? We are working on videos… trying to perform more. We are doing the Faded Royalty Show “Screw York” March 24th at Arlenes Grocery.
Any artists you look up at? JCole, Kendrick Lamar and Kanye.
You guys have really good attitudes… (Kraze) It’s the way we were raised, I think it also affects our music…. Our personality, we are open.
You are super warm, smiley and approachable, I love that.
Anything else you want people to know about you? (Kraze) I’m only 17… haha
You just stole Andy’s line haha. (Petey) Shout out to Andy, Kid Kold, Real Music, Wolf Juice, Mega… shout out to my mom. (Kraze) Shout out to his mom, and to mine…
Aww. So cute. (Petey) Stay Ugly.
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