Nero: How did you guys wind up migrating over to the Slip-n-Slide label?
Brandon Casey: Well, when we left Def Jam, we put the word out that we were lookin' for a new home, a friend of ours was friends with (label founder) Ted Lucas, and he hooked us up with Ted. Ted, first and foremost, was a friend of ours. And we felt like after this long in the game, and being certain labels where you didn't necessarily know how much focus was on you, to do business with somebody who's actually a fan of ours was a plus and very attractive. So we just had a couple of conversations and got together.
Nero: Is the group still on good terms with Jermaine Dupri?
Kyle Norman: Yeah, I believe so. First of all, a big shout out and major love go to JD, 'cause he gave us our start. Him being a super-producer, it was like a blessing for him to even recognize the talent that we had. We don't have nothin' but major love for him, and we really appreciate him for changing our lives. He just recognized what we did, along with the help of Kandi (Burruss) from ('90s R&B group) Xscape, she was interested, and she walked us in to him and we hooked up from there.
Nero: How did the members of the group meet Kandi?
Brandon: Kandi and Wingo went to high school together. Honestly, when we got involved with Kandi, Wingo was just bringing her our demo tape, as a friend, to get her opinion, what she thought. And she liked it so much she actually wanted to enter into a management situation with us. The deal was like, 'If I get ya'll a deal with So So Def, then ya'll get me the management.' And she got us the deal and she managed us for a few months. I think she just kinda felt it was a lot for her, and she decided to do other things.
Nero: You guys put out a mixtape recently, Love Potion; is this the first mixtape that the group has done?
Brandon: Yeah, it's the first Jagged Edge mixtape.
Nero: What was the idea behind the mixtape; did you just want to keep your name out there, or try something new?
Kyle: Definitely. Sometimes you have your favorite songs that you like and we just felt like, just put it all on one mixtape, the songs that we felt like our fans like. Each year is a different year so we gain fans every month, every week, every year and we got an older audience as well as a younger audience, so ... we just thought it would be a great idea for them to hear what we have new, as well as the old. We're proud of it. We consider ourselves the last band standing, so whatever we need to do to keep that name out there, we're definitely gonna make it happen.
Nero: What can Jagged Edge's fans expect from the new album?
Brandon: We try to give our fans what they love. I gotta give the fans what they love us for, and I feel like this album is no different. We're givin' 'em what they love us for, as well as what if you listen to music today in 2011, there's certain trends and certain fads that go on inside of music, and sonicly we try to incorporate that into what we already do. You get a little bit of 'right now' and you get a lot of us, and let it do what it do.
Nero: So how did The Remedy get it's title?
Brandon: For the last few years, I hear so many people say how radio ain't what it used to be, how it ain't givin' 'em certain things like they feel like it should. We all love the newness and innovation that we hear every day on the radio, but at the same time, it's certain things that we feel like we're missing. And we felt like this album, after sitting back for a minute, and trying to fill in the gaps in radio, that this album was the remedy to what people was talkin' about. 'Cause it is still new enough for you to get your groove on, it is still trendy and hip enough to do whatever it is with whatever you wanna do with any other hip-hop album. But at the same time, we're givin' you meat that you might not get in newer R&B records or newer hip-hop records. We give you real topics, we're still always gonna talk about love and relationships 'cause that's the thing most relateable to most people, and we always wanna touch as many people as possible.
Nero: Other than (Slip-n-Slide rapper) Trina (who appears on the song "Tip of My Tongue"), what other rappers and producers did you work with on this album?
Brandon: Gucci Mane, who's on that song ("Tip of My Tongue") as well, and Rick Ross. That's it in terms of rappers. New producers we worked with was Jim Jonsin, Guerilla Tech, (Cainon) Lamb, and mainly us, to be honest. It's a lot of Jagged Edge-produced and written songs on this album, and that was done on purpose. I felt we've been away and it's a whole lot of things we wanna say.
Nero: Is Jagged Edge gonna be touring in support of the album?
Kyle: Definitely. It's part of the job. We love touring.
Nero: Do you have any solid plans to go on tour either in the summer or later on in the year?
Kyle: It's being names mentioned, names being thrown out, I don't wanna jinx it because there's a lot of them I do and and if you speak on it, it don't happen for some reason. But we definitely got a nice bill of people that we feel like it would be a nice turn out. That's one thing you wanna do, you wanna pick the right people to go out on tour with to draw in that crowd. You want everybody to hear your music and walk away saying 'Wow, that was a good show they gave. This is my first time actually seein' how good lookin' those guys are. They look good in person!' (Laughter.)