What follows is an enlightening interview with Generic John from Me and Mimes.
Please enjoy the brilliant way Generic John encapsulates the Universe and blows your Mind.
BEATS: When one thinks of Hip Hop, one does not normally associate the lost Art of Mime with it.
GENERIC JOHN: This is true, Beats. Do you mind if I call you Beats?
BEATS: Not at all.What should I call you?
GENERIC JOHN: You should call me Generic John. And I’m not a mime, I’m a rapper. In this group, I’m kind of like the sign language interpreter at the edge of the stage…except reverse that. Anyway, back to your loaded question.
Now, wasn’t Hip Hop, at its creation, all about making something out of nothing? These Mimes also make something out of nothing, except that "something" still happens to be "nothing" at the end. Hip Hop was born on the streets; Miming is primarily done on the streets.
Horizontal striped boat neck shirts have become synonymous with mimery, all rappers have been to prison before and have worn striped prison wear. Hip Hop is like ballroom dancing in Hell, Miming is also much similar to ballroom dancing in Hell.
It's all right there in front of one's face, but this "one" guy is obviously a little bitch and when I see him I'll probably slap him.
BEATS: Who is this “one” guy you are referring to, and why does he deserve a slap to the face?
GENERIC JOHN: Look dude, you said “When one thinks of hip hop…” I think this “one” guy should stop thinking about hip hop. I don’t know who he is, but a professional slap cures a lot of things. I lettered in Bitch Slapping in High School. Got a lettermen’s jacket and everything.
BEATS: The previous mimes I interviewed were much less verbal and much less ‘in your face’ than you.
GENERIC JOHN: Well, I’d like to state for the record that I am not a mime. I’m a rapper in a rapping mime crew. Didn’t I already say this? I’m kind of like that old guy you never saw but always heard on the Wonder Years…except slightly different.
BEATS: Do you know who else was on the 'Wonder Years'? Winnie Cooper! (birth name: Danica McKellar) She is writing math books now.
BEATS: What forces inspired this cultural collision of Hip Hop and Mime?
GENERIC JOHN: Well Blood, funny thing. It was an actual collision. PRODUCT and I were driving to the cleaners and there was a troupe of mimes doing a street performance protesting vehicular manslaughter, and he fucking hit one of them. It was funny at first, the way the mime sailed through the air and they all freaked, but then one of them mimed out something about legality and suing and we felt obligated to take them back to the pad. They just never left. They started crashing our shows, stealing beats, throwing parties at our place. They're shady as fuck. I even battled one of them last year in front of about two thousand people. I lost. PRODUCT and I are only semi-willing participants in this project. We just make songs to keep them occupied. They do, however, rock the shit out of a live show.
GENERIC JOHN: Well Blood, funny thing. It was an actual collision. PRODUCT and I were driving to the cleaners and there was a troupe of mimes doing a street performance protesting vehicular manslaughter, and he fucking hit one of them. It was funny at first, the way the mime sailed through the air and they all freaked, but then one of them mimed out something about legality and suing and we felt obligated to take them back to the pad. They just never left. They started crashing our shows, stealing beats, throwing parties at our place. They're shady as fuck. I even battled one of them last year in front of about two thousand people. I lost. PRODUCT and I are only semi-willing participants in this project. We just make songs to keep them occupied. They do, however, rock the shit out of a live show.
BEATS: What influences you?
GENERIC JOHN: Wow. Where to begin. I'm definitely influenced by Duck Duck Noose, 5-4-3-2 Fun!, The Michael W. Smith & Wesson Band, Tango & Thrash, Fluxxx Capazitah & 1.21 Niggawatts, Munchkin Puncher and Courier Knives. I'm also influenced heavily by alley cats. They're scrappy, feral, and usually have fleas. Just like me. I cried when Michael Jackson turned into that cat on prime time T.V. and fucked up that car like twenty years ago. That was some alley cat shit.
PRODUCT is the "talented" one and is into "the good shit" and "is too busy for me to ask him about this interview because he's got a real band that I'm not in", so I'll say I hear Stockhausen, Run DMC and Mogwai in his shit. The mimes are hard core: Straight Outta Compton, It's Dark And Hell Is Hot, All Eyez On Me, The Phillip Glass/Huey Lewis collab., Manheim Steamroller and the likes.
BEATS: I was not aware that Huey Lewis and Phillip Glass ever worked together, that sounds really ill!
GENERIC JOHN: Fuckin’ A! Huey did an experimental remix album of his greatest hits. We’re talking some of the best band pairings since the Judgment Night Soundtrack: The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo De Silos and Mastadon covered “Power of Love”, Travis Tritt, Travis Barker, and the band Travis all teamed up for “It’s Alright” (yes they did it a capella), Huey himself and Phillip Glass did “Back In Time”, and that’s all I can remember. You should just post that shit.
BEATS: Unlike other mimes that I have interviewed, you seem to have a pretty solid interest in music.
GENERIC JOHN: Hey, I’m not a fucking mime. I’m a rapper. They’re like the weather forecast and I’m those little dots moving across the screen that mean bad shit’s coming. Got it? I realize I happen to be wearing a horizontal striped boat neck shirt with suspenders and a beret, but those mime FUCKS slept on my regular clothes and now they smell like imagination. Fuck that.
BEATS: Who would you like to work with in the future?
GENERIC JOHN: I saw on the cartoon news that dead people will come back to life in the future. They’ll just put their heads in a jar with some technology shit and they talk. When that happens, I’m gonna KILL the mic with Marcel Marceau (RIP). Until then, I definitely want to get running with this hippy rapper Bio Da Great. I might also be doing a track with MC Carnivore Hands. Let’s see, I also hope to work with the bands , Reflect, Grudge Wine, Death Titts, Kitten Party, and DJ spin Ladin within the next year.
BEATS: How long has Me and Mimes existed?
GENERIC JOHN: Wow. You're killing me with these questions. Are you Eyes? Where’s Teeth?
GENERIC JOHN: Wow. You're killing me with these questions. Are you Eyes? Where’s Teeth?
BEATS: My name cannot be spoken aloud. It is a heavily guarded secret. Eyes and Teeth is not a mere two person operation. It is a highly orchestrated cabal of fiends, freaks, Artists, and other cultural derelicts under the direction and dictatorship of Me.
GENERIC JOHN: Don't care. I'll tell ya, I don't usually do promotional interviews for free…but for you? Yeah. Ok. Me and Mimes has been together for about two years. After we all settled in, it got right comfy. We started getting drunk and terrorizing the streets. These mimes are like the girlfriend that's too fun to get rid of and too crazy to keep.
BEATS: Who currently comprises Me and Mimes?
GENERIC JOHN: Same as it ever was…except there's not as many. There's Gigantomime, Phantomime, Undermime, and Mime of the Ancient Mariner. Mime Kompf got hate-killed and Aunt JeMima got run over by PRODUCT.
BEATS: Where can people expect to bear witness to this magical juxtaposition of Hip Hop and Mime?
GENERIC JOHN: Well, we hail from Columbus, OH. PRODUCT and I have a show every year at this huge, free festival called Comfest and the mimes usually crash it. They also prowl the streets of Columbus just about every night, drunk and suggestively belligerent. Other than that, you could hit up our myspace page. I recently fell in love with one of the mimes, and in a moment of vulnerability, wrote a song to get her out of her tights. It didn't work, but she probably just hasn't heard it enough.
BEATS: I keep hearing about this PRODUCT character. Who the hell is that? And why isn’t he/she here right now?
GENERIC JOHN: PRODUCT is kind of like my Sonny Bono; without him I’d just be a pretty face. He’s the man behind the curtain that produces Me and Mimes, and he’d like to stay behind that curtain. Honestly, he’s kind of embarrassed by us. He’s in a group called Advanced Placement with a rapper named Adjust, he scores music to kick ass cartoons, teaches music to preschoolers, produces indie rock albums, and he’s in a group with me called Generic/PRODUCT. He’s not here because I think I used an old piece of fruit to call him and tell him about the interview. Whatever.
BEATS: How many times have you or other members of your crew been locked down and what for?
GENERIC JOHN: Woah! Pullin’ out all the stops aren’t we, Diane Sawyer? O.K. We’ll come clean. But once again…just for you. I did a night in juvie circa fourth grade for trying to catch a Care Bear. I hid a bear trap on the playground and sat next to it crying. The idea was to lure a Care Bear with my frownies. Instead I lured the school janitor. Longest night of my life.
I know that Phantomime and Gigantomime were arrested for stalking the Tran Siberian Orchestra.
Mime Kompf got into all kinds of trouble I’m not even going into. I’m kind of glad he’s dead.
I think Undermime used to be a Juggalo and I think that speaks for itself.
Mime of the Ancient Mariner just did time for Cruelty Towards Animals, although he says he’ll be paying for the rest of his life.
BEATS: Do you have some words for the haters out there? I know the mime community has had its share of problems through the years.
GENERIC JOHN: Yes Blood, yes I fucking do.
For those of you who are too confined by your invisible middle-class “Not In This Economy!” suburban walls you’ve never even thought of PRETENDING to break through because, well, the time is just never convenient…FUCK YOU!
For those of you with faux hawks and girl pants synched with white belts listening to “Established in Milwaukee” on your IPod while you ride your fixie down Awesome Street, tirelessly pulling the invisible intangibly hopeless rope of fashion…FUCK YOU!
For those of you that throw garbage at us because we’re drunk and throwing much more garbage and mostly feces at you…FUCK YOU!
For those of you that are female and think our whiskey breath and mimed marriage/sexual propositions are preposterous and immoral in the Baptism pool of a Mega Church…FFFFFFFFFFUCK YOU!
BEATS: What’s the situation with rival mime crews? Lots of bad blood, or is it pretty chill?
GENERIC JOHN: The only “Bad Blood” here is you! Heyoh! Just kidding, you’re Beats anyway. I think.
Rival crews? Let me put it this way: we’re like The Warriors and the entire world is our Coney Island. We’re like that bad ass speech pro wrestlers give in the locker room before they run out and pretend to beat each other up. We have no rivals, although there are other mimes out there besides these five. The one I wrote the song about, for instance. Or the one in the food court.
BEATS: Are there any plans to take your crew on the road and terrorize other locales? I am currently situated in SW Florida, and a hot mime crew would definitely liven this bitch up!
GENERIC JOHN: SW Florida, eh? Nah. Too many mosquitoes and medium-cock sized roaches. Besides, SW Florida will be a prison for diseased demons by 2012…at least that’s what Kirk Cameron said in Left Behind. By the way, Gigantomime wants to know why you don’t have any Tran Siberian Orchestra in your Illin’ Index? And I’d like to know if that chick at the top of your blog is your girlfriend…or available? Holla at your boy about that. I mean, her mouth is open and ready, right?