Freedom of Speech

It's 9am in Atlanta when Todd Thomas, better known by his alias Speech, bounds onto the other end of the phone. The cumulative effects of a five-hour time difference and daylight savings time have thrown our interview scheduling into disarray, but the Arrested Development frontman takes it in his stride, sounding more awake and alert than any hard-working rapper should sound at that early hour.

The Georgia hip hop collective's road has been a long one. They're now six albums and two Grammy Awards down the line from their formation in 1988 – barring a four year 'creative differences' hiatus in the late '90s – and Speech is relentlessly optimistic about it all. "I feel amazing, man. It's been an incredible journey," he says. Originally from Wisconsin, he speaks fast and with a soft Midwest drawl. "We've had some hits, and we've got to tour the whole world and make an amazing living from music that we love."

Often funnelled into the same 'alt-rap' category as Jurassic 5 and De La Soul, Arrested Development have done a brisk trade with their well-choreographed combination of incisive songwriting, Southern choir choruses and a mix of live and sampled beats. Common hip hop wisdom holds the band as a positive response to the gangsta rap of the 1990s, but this entrenched act of pigeonholing leaves Speech cold. "I think it affects us by making a really false assumption, which is that Eminem and Jay-Z are hip hop, and Arrested Development and J5 are 'alternative' hip hop. The assumption there is that one is 'real' hip hop, and the other isn't."

He's a little more circumspect about the accusations of positivism, but there's still doubt in his voice. "We've always been painted as 'positive' music; as 'the answer' to gangsta rap, but for us we're just being natural, and being honest to who we are. The positive label is cool, but it's a little restrictive. We don't go into the studio thinking 'what's the next positive message?' - we go in to speak our souls and scream out our feelings."

Their impending return to the UK on the back of latest album Strong marks Arrested Development's first visit to these shores in "probably three or four years", and Speech sounds like he's itching to get started. "Every time we go [to Britain], it's just a lot of love from the fans. And honestly, I sort of love the culture there. It's not as commercially-driven as America: it's more real-life oriented and less about products." Speech is well aware that British hip hop fans view the genre through a very different cultural lens to his band's home-turf crowds, but he hesitates when asked what he hopes they'll draw from an Arrested Development performance. "I have no clue. For me, I like peering into the window of other people's realities, and that's what I hope the British people will do: they'll listen to our music and see that this is what life is like for a black man in America today."

Briefly introspective, Speech pauses for a moment to reflect on his own hip hop heritage. "I know I do that with a lot of records – even with older NWA albums, because they're talking about Compton, Crips and Bloods, and I don't know about that because I didn't live that life, so I'm peering into their realities through their music."

Talking about Strong – which he identifies as "one of our favourite albums" – there's an unmistakeable note of pride in Speech's voice. Perhaps the most topical entry in the Arrested Development discography, the rapper is quick to elaborate on the point they were trying to make. "Strong is an interesting record. We wrote a bunch of songs: some had messages, some didn't, but we threw in maybe twelve of the most cutting 'message songs'... it was mostly hand-picked to be relevant to the time. Like, 'let me prove to you why there needs to be a group like Arrested Development in the game.'"

Scotland may not be renowned for its hip hop community, but Speech seems nonetheless optimistic. "We've only played in Scotland a few times," he tells me. "But it's always been absolutely awesome." Asked what punters at the band's upcoming Picture House show should expect, he becomes ever more animated. "It's going to be a celebration of years of music from Arrested Development. We're going to have a high-energy show, and very likely we'll have a surprise guest for you." Pressed for the identity of this mystery collaborator, Speech suddenly turns coy. "Not yet," he says, and nothing more.