Los Angeles emcee Alph Tha Alien presents the Evan Clark-directed music video for "Black Tax", the self-produced title track from his new album out now on Dystopia Records featuring guest appearances from Open Mike Eagle and Sahtyre. Under his previous moniker Alpha MC he was part of LA underground collective Swimteam which also included Open Mike Eagle and Dumbfoundead (watch the 2013 Swimteam cypher). In 2014 he released The Rebound, a 7-track EP with fellow LA emcee Pigeon John (watch the music video for "Outchea"). "I wrote this when you really started to see the shift in America's race dynamic after Trump came into office," says Alph. "The song is about the veil of racism and what black Americans do to work around that."
What motivated you to rebrand yourself from Alpha MC to Alph Tha Alien?
I felt like I went as far as I could as Alpha MC and I needed to evolve with a new name. My inconsistency as an artist can be directly attributed to my battles with substance abuse and running away from accountability, and that was all done by the hands of Alpha MC so I wanted to leave those things behind me, as I achieved sobriety and evolved as a person. I came up with Alpha MC when I wasn’t fully developed as an artist so I thought about how I could flip my name into something clever and give a more updated representation. I’m a nerdy black dude from South Central L.A. in a creatively different lane from any other artist I know so in a sense, I’m an alien. Hence, Alph Tha Alien. It’s also a reference to the 80’s sitcom “Alf”. On the show, Alf was an alien that lived in a home with a middle-class “normal” family. Alf was accepted in the family despite his strange habits and customs, in an allegorical sense I’m the same way, a cool weirdo.
How has the response been?
There’s been mixed reactions honestly, but I sense the people that rock with the new Alph will be the more legit fans. The last thing I released as Alpha MC was a self-produced E.P. titled The Rebound with Pigeon John in 2014. My hiatus stretched for so long, I fear people retired their interest in my endeavors so the rebrand has given me a new start without any of the accolades from my previous moniker. The album made a lot of noise when I dropped the single with Open Mike Eagle “Intellectual Property” early in the year but the pandemic has thrown a lot of my plans off, I’d say it’s too early to tell. I have future releases in the works and I plan to push the album as much as possible until the next release.
"Black Tax" is a strong, opinionated assessment and an honest mirror of our current times. How has the differing reactions been?
This song has been an inspiration to the listeners who’ve accepted its message. One of my goals as an artist is to push people to think beyond social programming and I feel that was executed with "Black Tax". I wanted to make a song that was easy to digest and at the same time made listeners think critically. People were impressed by the way I took these controversial issues and translated them in a more modern style and vernacular. Some of my homies said “Do you know what you did with this?!” Lol. Others have said I’m bringing real lyricism back to hip hop which is the best praise I could receive. I’ve had a lot of positive feedback from the song/video, seems like a lot of people saw what I was going for and I’ve yet to hear a negative critique.
What do you think 2021 holds in store for America?
This is probably one of the most unpredictable moments in American history but I think everyone’s hoping to get back to normalcy with vaccine administrations and try to repair the impending inflation in our economy. One of the pros of this pandemic is the capacity for self-reflection and reform, hopefully it inspires more people to be conscious about sharing the planet and having tolerance for different people. Given our sordid history as a country, my optimism has its limits, though. The social climate will get worse before it gets better and we’re not swimming in viable options for leaders. The government is long overdue for reform and it will probably be triggered by some sort of catastrophic event.
What can we expect next from Alph Tha Alien?
I also produce! I produced the full-length Black Tax LP and my next project will be a beat tape called Smash Symphony where I take symphonic renditions of video game soundtracks and sample them to make super dope beats with. No release date in mind but it’ll drop before the end of the year. After the beat tape, I have a self produced E.P. that’s ready for me to pull the trigger on. While those projects are marinating I’ll be stockpiling songs for the next rap album. Other than that, I have my hands in other pots as well. I’m working on film projects with no release date in mind but I’m hopeful we will see a few webisodes come out next year.
