Jurassic 5’s Management Team Walks Us Through Their Reunion, Talks Future Biz Plans for Band at Coachella
A massive crowd packed Coachella’s Outdoor Stage on Friday to catch a glimpse of hip-hop legends, Jurassic 5 who reunited on site to play their first show together since their 2007 breakup. Prior to the set, we caught up with the band, who was backstage prepping with their management team Rick Gonzalez (Apropos Management and Marketing) and Mike Lanza (Mike Lanza Entertainment). While the news of the rappers getting back together has traveled the world, many don’t know the story of how the reunion transpired. The man behind their regeneration, Gonzalez, walked us through the story, as well as touched on the current priority for the guys this year. Lanza also weighed in.
So you and Mike are managing the newly reunited Jurassic 5?
Gonzalez: Yes. Mark manages Charlie (Chali 2na) as a solo artist and I manage DJ Nu Mark as a solo artist but I also manage Jurassic 5. When we put it together, I was like “Dude. We gotta do this!” so he has his world and I have mine and we were able to bring it all together.
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It must be exciting having them back in action.
Gonzalez: We’re having so much fun.
Lanza: We’re bringing good hip-hop back, seriously. I think this is needed right now. We’ve been reminded what a real hip-hop show is supposed to be.
How did the band’s reunion come about?
Lanza: The beast of Jurassic 5. It’s an animal by itself. It haunts us all in our dreams. It tells us when it’s ready to go.
Gonzalez: We had been receiving offers and inquiries for the last couple of years and after talking with each of the guys individually, everyone expressed an interest to do it so we reached out to Paul at Goldenvoice and said, “Hey. We’re getting offers and we’d like to do it at Coachella” and he said “yeah absolutely. We’re doing this!”
What are the plans for the guys beyond Coachella?
Gonzalez: We’re going to do some key festivals around the world. We’re going to go to Europe. We are going to do some headline shows in the UK as well. We’re going in June. We’re going to do the Parklife Festival in Manchester and then we’re going to do Glasgow and Birmingham and headline London and then Sonar Festival in June, come back and then in July we’re going to do the Optimus Festival in Lisbon, Portugal, Switzerland, and then go back to the UK and pick up a few more headlining shows: Bristol and Leeds and then we’ll do Lovebox Festival in London and then after that we go to Japan and do Fuji.
What about after the summer festival circuit?
Gonzalez: We have some things set up towards the end of the year. We’ll do Australia at the end of the year but we’re literally just going to go and play select festivals around the world and kind of get it all back together.
What about US tour dates?
Gonzalez: We’ll probably do something in LA, in NY, do something in Colorado — some key markets but just stealth style — go in and out — just weekends and then come home. We’ll see next year if we’re going to do anything bigger
And we heard rumors of a Jurassic 5 documentary in the works?
Gonzalez: That is correct. We’re documenting the entire process so we’re going to have a film documentary to put out afterwards sometimes next year.
Aside from all the business stuff, was it a natural fit for the guys once they got back together and started rehearsing? Did things run smoothly?
Gonzalez: Yeah. We started rehearsing in March because a couple of guys were touring so not everybody was around. We did 3 dates in March and literally what I thought we could get done in 3 days, we got in 1 day. Everybody felt really good about it, it was just a matter of remembering lyrics and what have you and then we went through a full production rehearsal in April for the actual set. Everybody feels really good. The last night of rehearsal, we had a family and friends night — just to run through it full speed so that they did mess up. They knew they had to just keep going. I mean you can sit in a room all day and go over stuff but when you have to go over it full speed in front of an audience that’s hardcore! It’s an exciting year for the guys. We’re looking forward to what else may pop up for them down the road.
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