Some of you might remember him for being KRS Ones former go to producer, or his publicized beef with KRS. Some of you might remember him for the slew of classic tracks he produced in the 90s for artists such as Kool G Rap, Fat Joe, Big Pun, and Ras Kass. You might even know some of the underground work hes done recently with Wordsworth, Pack FM, Masta Ace or Immortal Technique. But most of you dont even know who
First of all , what got you into hip-hop? Howd you get in the game?
How I got in this game.Well I was discovered by Marley Marl back in 88. My uncle is the one that inspired me to get into music.
How did he inspire you?
Well he used to DJ radio stations in
What kind of music did he bump?
Mostly Disco, SoulHe played Rappers Delight when it first came out, thats how I got into hip-hop.
So why did you pick the path of producer? Was there ever I time you wanted to pick up a mic or pick up a can of spray paint?
Oh I used to write graffiti, I used to do all of that, break-dance, all that stuff. Music because a passion for me though, I wanted to do music. So it was like just by my uncle inspiring me, and watching him get down, dj-ing clubs in
So how was it growing up in
How was it watching hip-hop grow there?
Hip-hop had a hold over the streets after it was birthed in the
What hardware do you use to make your beats?
I use ASR 10, MPC, whatever I can use to make a beat I use it.
With the programs like Fruity Loops and Pro-tools, do you respect dudes who use those things as much as the ones who use actual hardware?
I dont mind if anyone uses those things, but it just lead to too many fly by night producers because of those things.
Fly by nightlike here today, gone tomorrow?
I mean like random people will go by Reason and think they a producer all of a sudden. It takes years to learn that craft, and just because you put a kick snare and a sample down, dont mean you a producer. Me personally, I use Fruity Loops. I aint got nothing against it, I actually think that fruity loops is not a bad program, the name is just real bad. But that program can do a lot of things that people probably dont even know it can do. But I can adapt to anything, you know what Im sayin.as far as other people using it, you use what you use to the best of your ability, and due to technology, computers are becoming more relevant and hardware machines are becoming irrelevant.
Take hip-hop nowadays, compared to the shit from the 80s or the early 90s, has the production taken a step forward or a step back?
I mean, I really cant say cause theres still a lot of producers that got heat. But personally, I heard this cat Black Milks album at a release party for Ras Kass, Im feeling his music. He definitely got something going on. Besides that aint no really new cats that I can think of.
MC-wise, step forward or step back? As far as lyrics are concerned
I think MC-wise lyrics have been dumbed down to the point where a person thats a vegetable can understand hip-hop. It just watered down so much that its just dumb. Like the average young kid can rap and make a hit record, as far as what the record labels consider a hit. There aint no more content in hip-hop. Hip-hop should just be called western movies cause its all bang bang shoot em up. At the end of the day, how many times you gonna bang bang shoot em up all over your records.
I like how you put it, cause its like hip-hop was on some revolution shit but now its just reinforcing that American, murder, western, take over mentality.
Yeah, I mean theres many styles to hip-hop. You got people like Immortal Technique, who to me is like the new millennium Chuck D, even though we way past the new millennium. You got my man sitting right next to me, Corey Red, gospel hip-hop, theres many aspects to it. But the music industry is 99 percent politics and 1 percent talent, and that 1 percent talent nowadays is pure garbage. They cant hold the weight of a Kool G Rap, they cant hold they weight of a Big Daddy Kane. You can call these guys has-beens, or say they had their time, but you put those veterans against any of these cats these days and its no contest.
Especially Kool G Rap, Ill co-sign on that any day.
Yo Kool G Rap will murder half these dudes out here. Anybody that want to say that 90s era is dead, you right its dead, but lemme see any one of these new cats rock it on Apache like G Rap did on Men at Work. You know how fast they rhyme? As high as maybe 85 BPMs on a beat dog. These cat cant hold they weight against a cat like Kool G Rap who can rhyme to a record doing 105. But let me not get too high up because I know that theres some people reading this right now thats so dumbed-down they dont even know what a BPM is.
Wow.(laughing) I mean is there any of these new MCs you respect? What about Papoose or
Papoose been around though!
Well the reason is the dollars obviously.
Yeah you got dollars but aint the end of the day what are you really doing? I mean I personally know a few DJs thats on the radio right now and do I give them records? Nah! We cool, we stay cool, but I aint paying you a dime to play my shit. I rather just approach you and shake you down to make you play my shit than give you anything.
Speaking on the dollarsI mean you have an album out right now, regardless you will make a little money off of it. Would you still be doing this if there was no money in it whatsoever?
Hell Yeah. Name me one rapper thats making money off CDs. If they say they are, then they lying through their teeth. Nobody making money off album sales anymore and I got proof. The poof is my album got bootlegged more than it sold. Amy Whinehouse is the biggest artist in the music industry right now., shes number 1 on soundscan sales this week. You know how much she sold? 60,000. So that shows you that CD sells aint getting it done. The only rappers that really got it going on is the ones from back then. I dont know about all these cats now. They flossthey get their advance and in they contracts they got a clause for the hip-hop rapper kit. They get they little iced out watch, they chain, but that dont convince me that they making money, lets show the numbers.
Youve worked with a lot of legendary artists, from KRS, Kool G Rap, Masta Acethe Eminem shit I aint even know about until today to be honest-
Well that was done back in 99 when Eminem just signed to Aftermath. Paul Rosenberg brought him in on a favor from my man P. Salem, who aint with us no more. P. Salem is the only cat that gave me my first break as far as doing a Domingo album.
So out of all these artist youve worked with, was there one you had the most chemistry with? One that once he came into the studio you knew it was on?
I had good chemistry with a lot of artists. Every artist was a different experience, but I had good chemistry with a lot of them.
How you feel bout Producers getting as much shine as the MCs? I mean its to the point now that the egos got them clashing,, Im sue you heard about the Timbaland, Scott Storch thing.
As far as producers rapping on records nowI think Timbaland is dope, I think Scott Storch is dope, but dont rap dogs, its like you killing your whole aurayoull never get no where rapping. That whole hip-hop beef spilled into producers now , what we gonna do, hit each other with snare drums? Its corny.
Speaking of the beefing..I read some of your current interviews so I know you dont like to get into this, but this it what the people want to know, what do you have to say about the KRS situation?
I say it again to you like Ive said in every interview, KRS know what he did. I dont hate him, I dont hate no man, but I hate what he did. When you loyal to somebody, and somebody loyal with you, you dont be dishonest to them. He couldve came to me, he couldve been like yo I got X, Y, and Z thats all I can do for youand believe it or not, I wouldve accepted whatever came at me. But to this day, its been going on 3 years now, he hasnt been man enough to pick up the phone and apologize. And you know what? Im not calling him, and he shouldnt have his wife calling me, dont have your wife fight your battles.
His wife called you?
His wife called in the middle of the law suit, tryna rectify everything and Im not the one to disrespect anybodys wife, so I rather not talk to her on the phone. But like I said in all the other interviews, if he did nothing wrong then why was the check cut to me?
Now lets talk about the album, whos on it and what can listeners expect from it?
The albums out, its called The Most Underrated, and the reason I cal it that is because I do feel underrated in the game. I feel like Im better than a thousand and one other cats thats in the game, and also, the artists on there are underrated. If you listen to them, they saying something, doing something. I got every aspect of hip-hop, from gospel, to political, gangsta, underground, sing songy kinda shit., just everything you can think of. The album got something on there for everybody. You can go buy it, download it, you can even get the bootleg at this point B, its out there, just go enjoy it.
Who are some of those artists on there?
Oh on the album I got, Immortal Technique, Precise, Ras Kass, Termanology, Joel Ortiz, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap, Beatnuts, GuruI got the song with Pack FM and Brother Ali, and if you got the version that says track 18 Poison Pen, thats wrong, theres no Poison Pen on that album.
Wasnt there a Boot Camp collaboration too?
The version you talking about is the one that got bootlegged. There is no Heltah Skeltah track on the album. You guys are the first ones getting this info though, on April 11th, The Most Underrated Japan is coming out, totally different album.. Its gonna be import, I dont think its coming in the states, but you can probably buy the download the album from DJ Honda recordings.com, on April 11th, but like I said its totally a different album. There might be one or two songs on there from this album, but as far as the majority, its different.
Is there gonna be Japanese artists on it?
No theres no Japanese artists, my man DJ Honda just came to me and offered to put out something, and I went with it.
Is there any other projects besides those that we should be checking for?
You should be checking for my work on Kool G Raps album coming out, Ras Kass, and its not etched in stone yet but I should be doing an EP with Termanology.
Whats that Myspace again so people can hit you up?
Good looking on the interview God, peace.
No doubt man I appreciate it.