It’s been almost half a decade since underground favorite Capital STEEZ tragically passed away. Still, his legacy is lasting. STEEZ, who co-founded the popular Pro Era collective of his friends and like-minded MCs, has developed a cult following over the past few years comprised of fans who discovered him via YouTube, social media, playlists, and various other digital avenues. But before his passing, STEEZ revealed that he was working on a new LP called King Capital. While a few songs from the project have hit the net, the project was never completed. Until now.
During a recent trip to the REVOLT TV, Pro Era member Joey Bada$$ divulged that not only is the crew currently working on a group LP, but they are also trying to complete STEEZ’s posthumous project.
“To me, STEEZ is the best rapper, period,”Joey said. “That’s to me, though. Not enough people know about him. [They may ask,] why I’m saying that? Once you get into his catalog and listen to this man’s effortless cleverness that just rolls off his tongue, you’ll understand why I’m saying that. And why many cannot compete with him, including myself.”
And while crafting King Capital is obviously a labor of love, Joey and company have faced several challenges in putting together Steez’s opus.
“The hardest part [of] working on his album is trying to make decisions for him,” Joey said. “Trying to kind of gauge what he would want to do, how he would go about certain things. That’s probably the hardest part. Just making these calculated decisions, ‘Ok, he wouldn’t want to do this because…he would want to do this because.’ And just have everybody be on the same page. Aside from that, man, it’s a great body of work. To be honest, another hard part about it is listening to the records. ‘Cause, you know, every time you hear his voice, it takes us back. It brings us into that mode. It be really hard, but we’ve gotten to the point where we’re past that. We just really focused on putting it out and making sure it’s delivered to the people who’ve been asking for it for a long time.”
Joey doesn’t have an abundance to work with, but he promises quality over quantity will reign.
“I’ma be honest, it’s scarce. It’s a scarce supply,” he said about the amount of music that STEEZ left. “That’s why we really scavenging on anything we find to be something we utilize for it because it’s not a lot of options. Fucking dick-headed ass, crazy ass niggas done leaked certain shit. It’s just like, it’s hard. It ain’t a easy ting, but we gonna make it great.”