Whats up BK? Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. I was wondering if you could give a brief introduction of yourself to our readers?
Hello, BK-One from Rhymesayers Entertainment. I'm a Disc Jockey. I live in Minneapolis.
A lot of hip hop from live shows, to whats popular, to what gets played has historically revolved around the DJ. As of late though it seems as if the DJ has been relegated to the background more and more especially in mainstream hip hop. I was wondering if you could touch on what you see your role in music being as a DJ and why you think it has been a dying part of the art form of hip hop?
I don't think that it's necessarily a dying art. MC's get more attention than DJ's, but that's inherent in our roles. The MC's job is to make a direct connection with the audience and demand attention. They direct the crowd in a very literal way. The connection that DJ's form with the audience is more visceral and more unnoticed. We set the mood for the evening. We control the tempo of the night and make sure everyone's having fun.
What is the hardest part of being a DJ?
I don't know...most of it is great. Maybe hauling all the equipment. Trusting $1,500 worth of gear to baggage handlers on a regular basis!
I am not sure how much people generally know about or understand what goes into the creating of a show especially from your vantage point. I'd like to spend a little bit of time on that...so it seems like there must be a lot of pressure in creating the sound and environment for the emcee. How much goes into creating a live show for you? How do you pick what records you want to use for a given show?
It's different from show to show. You have to read the audience and decide what's going to engage them the most. You're not going to play the same records at a show opening for Rakim in New York that you'd play headlining at a college in Colorado. Are people coming to drink and dance, or is it going to be a room full of MC's coming to watch Ali? Is it going to be younger folks or an older crowd? Mainly guys or well-mixed? People who just started listening to hip hop? In preparing for a show, I try to think about what the audience is expecting. I pick appropriate records, but try to throw in some surprises too.
Do you ever play records that you do not necessarily enjoy yourself but think will help enhance an overall performance?
Never. What's the fun of being a DJ if you're not going to play good music? I might play a guilty pleasure every now and then, but I never play records just to be ironic or to pander to the lowest common denominator.
You have been playing with Brother Ali since I believe 2000, and having seen you two perform together several times the sets you present are seamless. How long has it taken you to put together your current live show with Ali? How much goes into creating a set list and why have you two been so successful at creating such an intense show?
Ali and I both grew up worshiping MC's and DJ's that knew how to throw a live show. In the 80's, it was a requirement. So even though we're not on some throwback shit, having a strong live show is extremely important to us. We practice regularly, and are always trying new ideas. In terms of putting the show together, I think of it like a movie. You wouldn't want to watch a movie that was nothing but explosions for an hour and a half. You've got to mix it up and give it an arc. Some jokes here, some action here, some emotion there...and keep the plot moving forward. In the same way, a good live show is constantly moving, and hopefully takes the audience through a couple different moods. That's one of the things that I enjoy so much about working with Ali. It's all there on the album: Humor, Ego, Pain, Spirituality...I view it as my job to translate all of that into the live show.
So generally speaking, how much of the show is you and how much is the artist you are playing with? That is to ask, do you try to help dictate set list, how the show will go etc. or do you see your role as being more to compliment what a given artist wants to do?
Both. When I'm backing up an MC, my primary goal is to make him/her look good. I want to make sure that what we're showing the audience is the best possible representation of what the artist has to offer. It's like framing a painting. I'm not trying to change the artist's vision, I'm just trying to compliment it. But that being said, I have a lot of say over how we go about doing that. What would you say in general are some things hip hop fans just don't understand about the role of a live DJ?
That there's an art to playing records. Everyone thinks they can DJ. Then again, everyone thinks they can rap too!
What equipment do you use?
I toured for years with 2 technics 1200's and a Vestax-07 mixer. Last year I tried using CDJ's. I was sick of beating up my record collection on the road, and of soundmen who didn't know how to mix turntables correctly. Ali and I would spend months putting together our set, and it ends up sounding like shit. Then some jerk gives his beat CD to the soundman and says "Play tracks 2, 5, and 11"...and his set bumps! The CDJ's fixed the sound problem, but were a technical nightmare, always breaking. One thing I really enjoyed about using CD's was the ability to rearrange songs. I've started making my own edits of just about everything. It's actually made DJing a lot more fun, and given me the ability to try some really different things. I just bought Serato, and we'll see how that works.
To spin records you obviously need to have a pretty deep knowledge of music generally, and on your Myspace you say that you have been playing the piano since you were eight. Do you play any other instruments? How does being capable of actually playing an instrument enhance your ability to do what you do?
I also play the vibraphone. In high school, I entered the music program to study jazz piano, but there were only a handful of bands to play with and about 30 other piano players. I had been playing piano for 8 years at that point, but there was a set of vibes in the corner and no competition so I switched! Piano taught me a lot about music theory and how songs are constructed. Studying jazz really helped open my mind about what music could sound like.
It taught me about improvisation and gave me experience of collaborating with other musicians and putting together live shows. I spent the majority of my senior year in high school traveling around the country playing jazz. I missed a lot of classes. Also, my teacher loaned me all kinds of equipment over the summers (the vibes, a Rhodes piano, an organ, a 4-track...). That gave me the experience of starting with nothing but raw materials, and creating my own music. Who would you consider your early musical influences?
My strongest early influences were people in my life. Desmond Henry, an excellent jazz saxophonist who taught me a lot about jazz history and what to listen for. Tom Noble, who I played in several bands with. He had great taste in music and exposed me to a lot of new records. My jazz teacher, Cliff Gribble.
In terms of records that influenced me, Stevie Wonder was my favorite. Innervisions was the first record that I owned, and it blew me away. I loved John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. Their music was so forceful, but profoundly sad at the same time. I was also a fan of Tom Waits and Elvis Costello for their songwriting. Obviously all the early hip hop.I was especially a Public Enemy fan. Also, Boogie Down Productions, Kane, De La Soul, Rakim, NWA.
Do you remember what the first hip hop record you bought was?
Notorious BIG- "Unbelievable". I had been collecting records for years before I started DJing. I wasn't really collecting hip hop on wax though. When I heard Biggie say "representin' BK to the fullest," BK-One was born. People had been calling me BK my whole life (it's my initials). I bought doubles of the single and would practice for hours, backspinning "representin' BK, representin' BK, representin' BK to the fullest." Over and over and over...my poor neighbors!!!
Have you found your tastes in rap change from when you were a kid to now? Are there some artists you used to be listen to but as you have become more knowledgeable of the culture, music, etc. you don't enjoy anymore?
That's a good question. I'm coming up on 30, and I do see differences in my taste. I look for substance now more than I did as a kid. And I have less patience for mediocre shit. As my tastes in music have expanded, I feel more and more like if a record isn't a 10, then I just don't have time for it. Unfortunately, most of hip hop these days is just aight. Not bad, but definitely not great.Going back to an earlier question of yours, that might be the hardest thing about being a hip hop DJ for me: Trying to find new hip hop records that really move me.There's usually 5 or 6 albums a year, but as a DJ I want to have 15-20 a year plus a couple crates of 12-inches to choose from. Outside of hip hop what do you listen to?
I listen to a lot of jazz, funk, blues, rock, soul...the usual suspects. I've done a lot of traveling in Central and South America in the last few years, so I've got quite a few records from Brazil, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, and Panama. I love it when different traditions of music collide- like funky rock, or soulful samba, or Afro-Cuban jazz. My collection is pretty diverse. Every genre of music has at least a few things worth checking out. Why do you think many hip hop fans refuse to look outside of the genre for good music?
I don't know, I guess it's an identity thing. People who don't have a strong sense of self tend to use groups that they're a part of to define themselves. When you do that, you draw boundaries around what you're "allowed" to enjoy.
It seems like a lot of fans of Indy or underground hip hop also refuse to look out of their own scenes and automatically dismiss much of, if not all mainstream rap, the flip of this being a lack of recognition from the mainstream of anything outside of what is hot or big at a given moment. I think the Rhymesayers crew who you are associated with, is an excellent example of middle ground between the two different categories in the genre existing. How do you think this gap can be bridged some?
There's already a lot more overlap than there was ten years ago when the underground movement really took shape. Common, Lupe Fiasco, Little Brother, The Roots...none of them are at the top of the ladder, but if you look at where they came from, it's a lot of progress. And where I used to get booed for playing Jay-Z, now the underground heads love him.
I think people naturally crave good music. It's just that the mainstream fans don't always have access or know where to look. The indie fans feel proud of knowing about something special, something hidden. So they automatically dismiss anything that everyone else already knows about. That's why DJ's play such an important role in helping to spread the culture. You have people's ears, and can choose to expose them to things that they wouldn't normally be listening to. Last week, a DJ at our commercial radio station put Brother Ali's new single up against a whole line-up of new mainstream singles and let listeners call in and vote. Ali won every night by 80-90%. People know good music when they hear it. But here's something that proves my point about the indie fans: One of Ali's fans called in and said, "You shouldn't play Brother Ali on the radio. It ruins it for me." Isn't that some shit?
Shifting gears some, what is it like being out on tour?
A tremendous honor. I've traveled all across this country, through Australia, through Europe, and I've been paid to do what I love most. Hard to beat that!
Do you enjoy being on tour? Whats your favorite part? Least favorite?
For the most part, I love it. It gets hard being away from your girl for so long. And I own a house now, so I worry about how things are back home. I love record shopping in other cities, and meeting new people will never get old. What projects are you working on/do you have on the way?
It just finished my newest release, "Set in Motion". It will be available in stores and on-line in the spring. I'll also have it with me on tour starting in March. It's a mix-cd that covers a lot of ground. I used over 100 different hip hop, funk, afro-beat, jazz, and afro-cuban records to put it together, and it features brand new exclusive songs by Brother Ali and Slug (of Atmosphere). I really tried to add something new to the mix-cd game with this one. I incorporated some original music in it, I added live instrumentation, and I tried to touch on some new themes. Nothing was off-limits. There's a cut and paste section that tells a story. There's music that you wouldn't normally hear on a hip hop mix. I'm really excited to see people's reactions to it. Can we ever expect to hear projects from you on a different level? Do you think you will ever branch out into producing, beat making, etc?
Ali and I are working on an album this year. It will be co-produced by me and him. It's inevitable that I'll start producing beats on my own eventually. I've got the records, I've got the equipment. I'll probably start taking it more seriously when I stop touring. It will be a way to make some money and stay connected to the music that I care so much about.
Also, what I do now isn't so different from producing. When I DJ live, I often remix and re-arrange songs to make them my own. And on "Set in Motion", there's hardly ever a moment when just one song is playing. It's usually more like the bass from one song, the drums from another song, the piano from this song, the vocals from that song... I love mixing other people's music to create something different, reinterpreting the old to make it new.
So you have a Spring tour coming up...do you want to talk about that, give out any info on the tour?
In April, Brother Ali and I will be starting our first ever headlining tour of the country. But, I'm not allowed to talk about the details yet...sorry. By the time this interview is printed, the information will probably be released. I would encourage people to look at my web page ( www.myspace.com/balmoral) or at www.rhymesayers.com. It will be a great tour with fantastic guests, and please believe that Ali and I are putting everything into this one!
Anything else you would like to add or say to our readers?
That about covers it. Thanks to everyone, and please come support us in the spring. Bring all your friends, introduce yourselves at the show, and don't leave without "Set in Motion"!!!