The Liberty Gigoloz also referred to as simply LG, are an indie hip-hop group from Williamstown, New Jersey. The group formed in 2000 by Matt (Gio) Giovanisci (aka Rapsmear) during his senior year in high school. Since then the band has released 4 albums. The first two albums titled “We Want You” and “Revolution” we considered freestyle albums. The latest 2 titled “Too Hot Fo’ CD” and “Nation” were full written LPs. “Nation” was the last album recorded in 2006 and consist of 18 tracks.

For the past 9 years Gio (Last.FM user remtom46) has been writing and recording albums and tracks out of his parents basement. His father is the owner of Studio 29, a self-built basement studio that he has utilized to create music. He was also the lead singer of The Remember Tomorrow who also recorded there. Since the creation of Liberty Gigoloz, the group has seen some members come and go. The very first album was recorded by 5 members including Gio (know at the time as Snuffs), Lugie, TimDawg, DJ Rockie and Triple S (Shorty Shit Stain). The sophomoric effort known as “Revolution” only contained Snuffs and Triple S.

After the first two albums Liberty Gigoloz took a short hiatus. During this time Gio was recording with Remember Tomorrow, but he was shortly back in the studio to record LG’s 3rd album “Too Hot Fo’ CD” completely by himself. However none of these CDs are available for sale because they contained samples they cannot get the rights for. But at the time of thier creation, they weren’t intended for sale they were intended for fun. But since then things got a lot more serious. Gio decided to go back to recording LG but this time enlisted the help of two of his friends who became known as Bootleg McDillywhack and J-Fizz. Together, during the summer of 2006, they wrote and recorded “Nation”.

This became a breakthrough album because every single song and lyric was original and fully written (meaning not freestyled or sampled). Also this was the first time that the group used any outside help to enhance thier sound. They hired a friend they knew named Laura to record the female vocal tracks that can be heard on Platinum and It’s A Gigaful Life.

Currently the group is working on their 5th album which has a working title “The Recordset Script”. And every member from “Nation” will be on the album including some more additions.

The History

It was my senior year of high school in the year 2000, and there were a group of friends who had created one funny hip hop song called “Ghetto Trash Picker”. I thought this was brilliant and the best part was they were starting to sell that one song for $1 in the halls of Williamstown High School under the name Spiked Punch. I was intrigued by this and maybe just a little jealous, so I wanted to have some fun with it. This was a time during the Eminem rap rivalries with just about every other rap star on the planet it seemed and I thought it would be a funny idea if I created a little Williamstown rap rivalry of my own.

So that night I jumped on my computer and made a quick beat using my Sonic Foundry software with some royalty free loops and rapped about how much they sucked as individuals. Looking back at it I probably shouldn’t have used their real full names in the lyrics but it made it clear as to who I was talking about. Some of the lyrics included:

Ryan M—– gives free blow jobs and Sean R———- likes his mom. Josh M——- drives a piece of shit car (why) cause Josh thinks it’s the bomb

Cause you know your rhymes suck and your beats suck, that’s why we made this cd so you know they suck

When I brought my song to the attention of my friends we decided to create a rap group and make an entire album’s worth of music. That day in study hall I decided to come up with a name for our rap group. I was trying to think of two names that made no sense together but I knew I wanted it to be sexual in some way. The first name that I came up with that I liked was The Gopher Pimps. Not too bad but I needed something better. I looked around the classroom for some ideas. I guess the a good reason for the name was that my study hall class was in a history teacher’s room because I saw a quote on the wall that gave me my first word:

“Give me liberty or give me death.” -Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775

When I saw liberty I just added Gigolos. Later I added the “Z” at the end to make it seem more badass. Thinking about it now I would have to say I got the word gigolo from Louie Prima’s “Just a Gigolo” which, as a kid, I would play on the record player over and over again.

Later on we all met at my friend Rocky’s house to record. It was Luke, Tim, Chuck, Rocky, Bob and Myself who recorded on the album. We created 10 beats and just freestyled the lyrics over every beat until we had a full 10 songs created. It took us only one night to accomplish, and it wasn’t that bad even to today.

The next day we brought it to school, we parked and blasted it before class started in three cars with huge subwoofers. We walked around that school like kings that day. Everyone was asking me about the CD saying how much they wanted to hear it. It felt like everyone was talking about us. It was awesome!

But my original intention was lost in the swirling cloud of fame and popularity. I guess because we used their full names but the members of Spiked Punch were pissed. And they weren’t pissed in the way I wanted them or expected them to be, they were just flat out mad. I was kind of hoping for a retaliation song and a back and forth hip hop battle, but none of this happened. We ended up just fighting and being mad at each other. I know it’s not gangsta to say this but, I was upset and I felt bad for them.

So a few weeks later after it all died down we made up as friends but the rivalry between Spiked Punch and The Liberty Gigoloz I so hoped for never came to fruition. But as you probably already know that didn’t stop me from continuing the LG project.

About a year later Chuck and I visited a haunted attraction called Creamy Acres and freestyled and beat-boxed our way through the haunted houses. After that we decided to record a 2nd album just the two of us. I had moved from my room to the basement and got a bigger computer to record “Revolution”. It was another freestyle album between me and Chuck.

After that the group kinda fell apart and I can understand why. There was no more hype, we didn’t have the high school. But I was still looking to record. I made an LG cd by myself called “Too Hot Fo’ CD”. It was first album that I wrote out all the lyrics to. I even put effects on my voice to make it seem like there was more people on the album. I recorded that album in 2003 and created a website for it. But it didn’t go anywhere except within the close confines of my friends.

But in 2004 I decided to take things a little more seriously. I figured that LG was ready to use the recording studio. I was still living with my parents and my dad had built a recording studio in our basement back when we first moved in. I used it before but never for LG. So I went out and bought Reason, which is midi software that I used to make beats. I was no longer going to use loops, I decided to make every beat from scratch.

Once I had a bunch of beats I called up some friends to record, Jim and Conor. We decided that we were going to be in the studio every Tuesday for the whole summer until the album was done. During that time we would sit and listen to beats and write lyrics together and then record them. We enlisted some of our other friends to sing including our friend Laura who sang the courses for Platinum and It’s a Gigaful Life. When the summer was over we had 16 songs done. From there we just show our friends and that was pretty much it. LG was once again just a burnt CD in the back of everyone’s CD case.

But now in 2009 I started to make some beats again because I wanted to record a new album. But this time I decided to really try and make a buzz. I built a website/blog about LG and I plan on posting everything that I have on LG throughout the years. I put our music on Last.fm, Facebook, Myspace and Twitter and I’m planning on getting our music to a lot more ears. So I think that LG will re-ignite in 2010, mark my words.

For more updates, music and video visit www.libertygigoloz.com
www.myspace.com/libertygigoloz
www.twitter.com/libertygigoloz
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Liberty-Gigoloz/252928055323