The Underachievers (Issa Gold and AK) are about halfway through their "Eyes Of The World" tour, which has them matched up with some equally forward-thinking emcees like Denzel Curry, Dillon Cooper, and Azizi Gibson. HotNewHipHop was able to catch up with the psychedelic rap duo, who explained the approach to their upcoming project, Cellar Door, their goal to "enlighten" their generation, and the philosophy behind the tour.
"The reason that we named it "Eyes Of The World" is because we all come from different perspectives in terms of the people who are on the tour. Together we represent the 'Eyes Of The World'," said Issa, revealing that the concept came from a legendary jam band. "It got its name from the Grateful Dead. They have a song called "Eyes Of The World". It's pretty much just saying that we wake up to find out that we're all one-- a universal consciousness."
Issa went on to explain the duo's approach to their upcoming project. "The past two mixtapes were setups for [Cellar Door]," he said. "We had to practice. We had to get more acquainted with each other" We had to learn more and figure out what our sound is. We still don't fully know what are sound is, but our main purpose is that we don't want to get boxed in."
According to the duo, their first two mixtapes reflect two different sides of the group, while the new effort will provide yet another dimesnion to their sound. "With this project we're trying to establish a third sound," Issa explained. "Lords of Flatbush was very trappy, Indigoism is very enlightening. Cellar Door will complete the whole thing."
Later on, the group's ambitions were brought up, to which they stressed the importance of having seemingly unreachable goals. "I feel like the whole point of life is to set an impossible goal. Something you feel can not be done, and go and strive towards doing that. Even if you fail doing it, you're going to make it pretty fucking far," shared Gold. "Our goal was to enlighten our generation, and look how much we've done so far within the past year, just trying to go towards that goal."
Watch the full interview below.
