Real Live – ‘Ain’t No Love’
taken from The Turnaround: A Long Awaited Drama (Atlantic, 1996)
Bobby Bland – ‘Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City’
taken from Dreamer (Dunhill, 1974)
To round off the week’s celebration of all things K-Def here at FDB, today’s beat deconstruction picks apart what is for me one of the greatest cuts that he has ever put together: Real Live’s ‘Ain’t No Love’. So much more than just a ‘banger’, the track in question exemplifies that mid-‘90s sound to such a degree that it serves up a veritable lesson in boom bap aesthetics, a flawless realisation of how emotive, sonically rich and downrightbeautiful hip hop music can be when executed by a master.
Let’s begin with the sample. K-Def’s inspiration comes in the shape of Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland’s song ‘Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City’ lifted from his album of 1974, Dreamer. Essentially his one hit from a relatively extensive back catalogue, the song is a fine mix of blues and soul that also finds its way into the Kanye West-honed cut ‘Heart Of The City (Ain’t No Love)’ from Jay-Z’s highly celebrated return to form, The Blueprint. It’s the chorus hook from Bland’s composition that is the most instantly recognisable of the elements that find their way into the Real Live joint, but notice also the jangling guitar riff that runs below it as it clearly contributes to the song’s highly developed layers of texture. The strings are of course another key element to the K-Def beat that I assume have been lifted from the same source, although it’s impossible to discern from exactly what point given that if they are, they have been rearranged and distorted significantly during the production process.
And herein lies the complexity for your resident ‘deconstructer’, readers. The strings are just one element to ‘Ain’t No Love’ that prove difficult to pick apart given the simple fact that there is so much going on here. The opening section is a case in point, with the first four bars featuring both the main vocal hook and strings as well as a recurring ‘yeah’ that echoes out in preparation for the main beat drop, only to be followed by the inclusion of what I can best describe as the wail of a neutered pterodactyl swooping overhead at the beginning of bars six, eight, ten and twelve (not my most eloquent of moments, I know). The result of these various elements coming together is a feeling of being completely surrounded by the song, the listener plunging ever deeper into a bottomless lake of constantly shifting musical water only to surface four and a half minutes later with an almost irresistible desire to take a breath and dive again.
There is a risk when undertaking these deconstructions that such an analytical approach to the production process detracts from the experience of simply listening, that it removes the scope for an emotional response that truly great music can evoke. With ‘Ain’t No Love’, as much as I have tried to sit back and assess the intricacies of K-Def’s composition, all too often I’ve realised that I’m no longer paying attention to these details anymore and am lost in the song’s swirling brilliance. If ever you needed proof that K-Def was amongst the best that ever did it, take a minute to indulge yourself in one of the most sumptuous slices of hip hop production ever committed to wax. Just make sure you don’t forget your swimming trunks.
The Program (K-Def & Dacapo) – ‘Free Speech’ & ‘Life Goes On (Instrumental)’
taken from The Article EP (Ghetto Man Beats, 2008)
Mic Geronimo – ‘For Tha Family’
taken from Vendetta (Blunt, 1997)
So here we go with the second installment of my interview with the mighty K-Def. This time around we talk in more depth about how his creative process has changed over the years with a particular focus on computer technology, an overview of how The Article EP (what do you mean you haven’t downloaded it yet?! Get on it!) came about as well as reminiscing over some of his extensive back catalogue. I’ve also thrown in one of his lesser known cuts in the shape of Mic Geronimo’s ‘For Tha Family’ for your listening pleasure, a beautiful slice of K-Def orchestral phatness.
Just to give you an overview of things to come from the K-Def camp, these are the releases pencilled in for 2008:
Beats From Da ’90s (Instrumental)
Collard Greens (Instrumentals with some guest MCs)
Analog Past (Instrumental)
Digital Future (Instrumental)
Rest assured that as soon as I know more about them, so too will you. Enjoy the rest of the interview and check in on Friday for a beat deconstruction that focuses on one of my favourite K-Def produced joints of all time: see you then.
From Da Bricks: You’ve spoken a lot there about new technology. How has using Logic and other digital programs changed the creative process for you? Did it take a complete shift in mindset?
K-Def: I can tell you this much. If I hadn’t jumped on the computer in ’98 I wouldn’t be doing tracks no more, I would have just been known as K-Def the producer from the ‘90s that did these hits and that’s it. I wouldn’t have did Ghostface, I wouldn’t have did the KRS One or the UGK or the Diddy, none of that stuff would have ever come out. I would’ve given it up because the computer and Logic taught me how to play. I don’t know how to play a whole full song but I know how to program play. I can actually hear what I’m listening to and replay it back which I couldn’t do when I was on the MP, it just wouldn’t allow me to do that. Now everything is keys and I get to hear music better now and I get to see my music better now and do complex things that I could never do on my machines. I love it, I love it to death. I feel like I’m a Logic expert now, I’ve been on it for twelve or thirteen years now since it was version 2.5 and Cubase since it was version 3.0 and I just love the computers man. I love the technology, I love the virtual instruments. They’re making great, great sounds now, they’re getting better and better and the more you learn how to play the instruments the better they sound when you record them so it’s really great.
That gives me all the happiness in the world to be able to turn on my computer and know that I can produce a track that day. I can have EQs, I can have compression on my tracks, edits, I can have it mastered and mixed. Those are things I couldn’t do when I was on the MP unless I went upstate to Marley’s studio and get on the SSL board and waste a whole bunch of electricity, and all that just to make a beat that probably wouldn’t have ended up on nobody’s album. There was a whole bunch of extra time that was being taken that I don’t have to take no more and I get better results than I did then. I’ll never go back. I use the MP for drums every now and again or when I’m in the mood for an MP beat I’ll do it but anything that I produce is going to be pretty much on the computer. I’m sold on that. That keeps me going, it keeps me happy and helps me not to have to rely on having a band or getting hired musicians. I got everything I need in my own little studio in my house and I can do anything that my brain tells me to do. I couldn’t pull that off before, I’ll be honest with you. It was just too expensive and too time-consuming.
FDB: Are you happy with the changes they made for Logic 8?
KD: Logic 8 is actually great. They did a lot of overhauls to it. Put it like this: the way it looks for a new user it’ll be great because he doesn’t know, but for me, coming from the earlier versions, Logic 7 Pro is actually a lot more stable than 8, but 8 has the greatest plug-ins of all time. I did the American Gangster album through Logic 8 as far as the final mixing and mastering and it definitely makes a difference in sound. The sound is a whole lot better than Logic 7. The compressor plug-ins, the EQs… they are fantastic, I love ‘em to death.
I use Logic for the more complex stuff, but then I use Cubase if I want to sound like my old stuff from my MP days. Cubase is more my analogue funk machine, whereas Logic is my digital composing machine. I use them both as tools, I don’t pick one over the other and I know them both on expert level. The best thing about Logic is that when I get my mixes done they really sound good compared to any other program, even Cubase doesn’t sound as good as Logic when I get to mixdown. Logic is my inspiration, but Cubase is like my tool when I want my drums to sound funky and MPC style, with quanitzing and the right fills and those really intricate loops where if I was on a machine it would take a lot of edits to get it really tight. On Cubase it’s just a case of warping or time stretching where it just snaps everything right to your beat where you don’t even hear it. It’s the best. Cubase is my main program for making the hot beats. UGK was done in Logic, KRS One was done in Cubase as was Diddy’s ‘We Gon’ Make It’, Ghostface’s ‘Over’ was done in Cubase, Jayo Felony’s record was done in Logic. It just varies: anything that came out was one of those two programs. Believe you me, I’ll never turn back man. They make me happy and wanna keep on making beats everyday. I don’t knock anybody who uses what they use but I just think that with technology that those two programs are the best of the best. If it wasn’t for them I would have stopped making beats a long time ago.
FDB: Let’s talk a little more about The Program project with Dacapo. How did you guys hook up?
KD: He came through from a friend and he was telling me his story; he’d be working with a bunch of guys and they’d go into the studio and it would seem like it would never get to him when it was time to record and he wouldn’t get a chance to get his songs done. The first time I heard him he reminded me of Large Professor, this guy reminds me a little bit of C.L. Smooth… he started reminding me of too many guys who I used to like and I was just like, I got a lot of soul records, I got a lot of breaks and a lot of stuff that would fit his style so we decided to work on something. We did a song and he sounded pretty good man and I thought we could do something together. For some reason, he just had an ear for the tracks he was hearing and was like “I want to do that… I want to do that,” and my style of music just fit his style of rhyming.
We wound up doing an EP that we’re gonna have for free download and we have an album also that we just finished completing. It’s looking really good and we’ve actually started on another album as we speak, we’ll probably be recording again this week. We just gonna keep movin’ because I just feel like he’s a dedicated guy and he really loves his craft. You can tell he’s been into hip hop and the real essence of hip hop, the songs that made a real difference in his life and has influenced him as a person. All I try to do is just complement him by giving him tracks that make him sound the way he would want to sound and not somebody else dictating to him what he should sound like. He’s got the freedom and the opportunity to kind of pick what he wants to pick and that gives him the chance to do it the way he wants to do it. I’m really pleased with that, and I think in time he’s gonna get better. He’s a young guy, this is new for him and hopefully with my guidance and coaching and him having the understanding to make a great record we’ll have a couple of hits under the belt soon.
FDB: I think it’s great stuff. With the downloads you are obviously addressing an online market. Is that something that excites you or worries you?
KD: It excites me more because the physical products are very tough to sell now. I look at some of the biggest artists like Kanye and 50 Cent, and if these guys are not selling no more like that… I’m not even on that level they’re on. I feel like there has to be a better way where the music can get to the people without them having to physically go to a store and buy it. Those days of going to the store and going to buy vinyl and all that… the DJs are always gonna do it, but most people are lazy, everybody got credit cards now so pretty much everybody wants to sit at home and browse around on their computer and see what the can find and have it mailed to their house. Everything’s got so simplified now.
I look at it that it should be a plus as far as I’m concerned, because as far as selling CDs and vinyl through major labels, there’s a lot of red tape involved in that and you have to wait a really long time to see any profit or money back from that, when everybody else is trying to get paid before you do. I think that there are just too many people involved in projects that have to get paid before you get paid and then if the project doesn’t really fly off then you don’t get paid. That’s the part that scares me more, dealing with those companies that don’t give you that 110% push where you can see a little profit and you can look forward to having a second or third album with the company. It’s not like that anymore. At the moment you’re lucky if you come out with an album and if you do, they’re only looking at pushing one song off the album. For me personally, if I got the digital downloads and people are buying it I don’t have to pay all these people out. If it only generates 5000 sales, that’s 5000 sales that came to K-Def, not 5000 sales that came through the company and have to go to this person and that person… by the time it gets down to you, you’re looking at pennies. I think it’s a better way to go and I think it’s only gonna get better because there are more and more big companies getting involved in it and I really want to take advantage of this moment before it gets too big and they figure out a way to rob the artists and the producers online. I don’t want to be on the outside looking in. It’s hard to get into record labels now with deals and everything because they’re not signing any groups or giving any deals out and that’s destroying the future of hip hop and the music. Online is definitely the way to go.
FDB: What about your label Ghetto Man Beats, us that just a vehicle for you to release stuff or do you have other artists signed as well?
KD: Definitely. It’s there to let people know that I have a company, I put stuff out and I love to do joints with other companies that are doing stuff. I take it seriously and I have skills that are just more than just making beats when it comes to the music. Me having a company solidifies that. There’s graphic design in this company, there’s photography, music, DJing, editing, mixing, mastering… pretty much everything involved in the music the company Ghetto Man Beats can get down and do. That’s one of the main focuses right now, having the company stand on its own and be able to do things other than just K-Def making beats for the company there are other things that can transpire from it.
FDB: Jersey is obviously your home and you still live there. How do you think it has managed to establish such a strong sense of its own identity regarding hip hop when it is in such close proximity to New York?
KD: There’s an old saying that states that although it started in the Bronx, hip hop made money in Jersey. Jersey was around the money makers and New York was more the culture end of it, you know what I’m saying? The cultural aspect of it was New York bound and Jersey took that culture and figured out how to make money and a profit from it. That’s what I’ve been around. I was around the Sugarhill Gangs and I saw all that era and for me, I’m not from New York but I got footprints all over New York. From day one when I was a kid when The Rooftop and the Latin Quarter and Union Square and all those spots was open I was a young kid and that’s where I learned a lot as far as the culture. When I came back to Jersey I was looking at the bands and rappers coming in and they were actually doing records over that were really breaks at the time.
Now that hip hop has turned so big the way it is today, people forget that even though I’m from New Jersey, don’t think I’m country, don’t think I’m corny, don’t think I’m lame, don’t think I don’t know what time it is because me and my peoples were only ten minutes away from Manhattan. Going to Manhattan was just like going to another town: it was nothing. I learned a lot, you picked up your dos and your don’ts, street codes… New Yorkers feel like we were trying to be like them or better than them but I just want to clarify that I’m from Jersey, but everybody from New York lived in New Jersey so don’t talk about it, be about it. If you gonna represent New York then go live in New York, I represent Jersey and I still live here. I think I know as much as any other New York guy with producing and DJing and everything else, I just happen to live in Jersey. I wasn’t dumb enough to stay in Jersey all my life, I did get out. That’s the difference: I got out when I was a kid. I got put in situations in New York where I was scared for my life, and from that point on it made me realise how seriously I had to take hip hop and the culture. I don’t think a lot of these new cats understand that. I was at the Raising Hell tour at Madison Square Garden where I saw people get cut and stabbed and beat up, and that was at a rap concert! I was there when KRS One threw PM Dawn off the stage at Sound Factory. I’ve seen a lot of things that show that the only way you get respect is not where you from but actually how nice you are doing what you do and where you at to do it. I felt like if I was as nice as I could be I could show New York that I could do it as well because I was in New York every other day, be it record shopping, being down in the Village, the Bronx, Queens, wherever it was, I was always a part of seeing how they looked at the culture. I vibed from that. There’s not a lot of people in Jersey who could be how I am. As far as I’m concerned you might as well say I’m from New York because I spent my share of time over there.
FDB: When you look back over the last 15 years or so, what do you identify as the best records that you’ve made?
KD: The best records to me? I would have to say the Real Live album. The early stuff, I didn’t look at myself as a producer because I was young, it was going so fast and I was doing so many projects, and it was only when I did the Real Live that I got serious about being an artist and taking on a lot of the business responsibilities that I didn’t have to take when I was just making beats for everybody else. I would say that the Real Live project was a real good project. I don’t have too much to say about the early ‘90s stuff because I really wasn’t paying attention like I am now. My mind wasn’t even set as like being a producer because I was under Marley Marl’s wing at the time and I was really doing everything for the company and not really for me. The Lords Of The Underground and Da Youngstas and the Tragedy, the Sah-B, the World Renown, I was just looking at it like whatever, to be honest with you. It was only when Real Live came into the picture and you know, Jayo Felony, the Ghostface and all the newer stuff I was doing gave me more seriousness in making it happen. I felt good about everything I did after I left Marley Marl. I felt good about those projects because I was on my own two feet doing it by myself and it felt better having been underneath somebody else for so long and not getting the full recognition that I should have got. The Real Live made me feel good because I’d never done a full album except that one.
The Program (K-Def & Dacapo) – ‘Free Speech’ & ‘Life Goes On (Instrumental)’
taken from The Article EP (Ghetto Man Beats, 2008)
P-Diddy – ‘Come To Me (K-Def Remix)’ (Unreleased)
So here it is: part one of an extensive interview I did with K-Def recently. A great interviewee, he sheds light on a whole range of subjects including projects from the past, present and future as well as getting into some of the intricacies of his production processes in what has to have been my most enjoyable interview to date. Audio-wise, as well as the link to the free EP with Dacapo, I’ve also included an unreleased remix that K-Def produced for Diddy. Get that mouse button clicking!
This first part includes discussion of the World Renown LP, the unreleased albums from both Sah-B and De’1 as well as a K-Def’s feelings about the issues surrounding sampling in the contemporary game. In the second half of the interview dropping on Wednesday we cover his current production set-up, approach to digital downloads and even reminisce over his personal favourites from his truly slammin’ back catalogue. To finish off the week, I’ll also be deconstructing one of my favourite beats from the Real Live LP. Celebrate: it’s K-Def week people!
From Da Bricks: Let’s start with some of the projects that you’ve worked on that never saw a full release. Why did Warner decide to shelve the World Renown LP?
K-Def: Wow… at the time I think Warner Bros was dealing with a merge and their rap department basically wasn’t doing that great. It was a subsidiary called Reprise, the urban department they had at Warner. It really wasn’t lifting off the ground, I think they had like The Bush Babees, a couple of other groups… When we had all the albums done, or almost done, I don’t think Sah-B’s album got done but I believe De’1’s album was pretty much done ‘cos I did a couple of other records with him that nobody ever heard that didn’t get released. What happened was that the Elektra/WEA system was shutting down and they were merging with Atlantic and a lot of other companies and at that time a lot of the independent subsidiary companies off the majors were all folding. Sah-B only had a single, but we were working on the album at the time, but eventually they just said that Warner was folding. Nobody really went into depth with it, but I don’t believe it was because of the projects because as far as I’m concerned I really believe the World Renown album was a great album, it had a lot of great stuff and it was for that time. But I don’t know, I couldn’t really even tell you the full 100% reason why it didn’t come out, but what I do know is that the record label itself just went under.
FDB: The Sah-B album must have been pretty close because it states on the back of the ‘Summa Day’/ ‘Some Ol’ Sah-B Shit’ 12’’ that the album was imminent.
KD: Right. I think Atlantic had something to do with it as well, from all the stuff that was going on. I don’t think they wanted Warner to be a rap label, they wanted to keep it more to the movies and the rock/pop stuff. I’m pretty much sure that Marley Marl has everything in the vault still so the albums do exist so maybe at the right time they’ll be released one day. I released the World Renown on my MySpace and I didn’t have the full master copies of it, just an old tape of it. I cleaned it up as much as possible and just reissued it out because I was trying to get it from Marley at the time but we didn’t come to a conclusion on having it released. The year somebody comes around with the right paperwork and the right business maybe the albums can be released. I can definitely let you know that the World Renown was definitely completed, I’m not quite sure if Sah-B’s album was ever completed and I’m pretty much sure that De’1’s album was completed. As far as why they didn’t come out, I don’t know… Marley has it so I think it will just be a matter of when he lets loose.
FDB: With the internet it would seem like the right time to do it, wouldn’t it?
KD: I would think so. That’s what’s selling right now, CDs and albums aren’t selling that much but downloads are of course really big, so I would think that would be the best way to go about it. There’s so much bootlegging and stuff going on, and I think that’s the reason why a lot of stuff hasn’t been released yet, because you release something now and a few months later another country has got the record and is selling it too, so once they can change those laws and fix that, I guess a lot of vintage stuff that happened in the early ’90s will get released.
FDB: How has the World Renown album done on downloads?
KD: For it to be 13/14 years for it to be released… it’s not doing that great. If people know about it, but it just took so long that it was just like, ‘I want to get the album but it’s not my top priority now because it is what it is,’ you know? I had intended to put it out a few years ago, I was going to put it out with Marley, we had somebody that was going to put it out but that didn’t work out. After that, everything just tapered off and died off. I just got frustrated and was like, ‘You know what, I got a copy of it I might as well go ahead and put it out, I know they’ll be a few cats who’ll buy it.’ It’s not the best quality as if it came out the studio fully mastered but it is the full-length songs where nobody else really has it and anybody who does have a copy it sounds terrible. I figured it’s great for history for it just to be out. It sells, but it doesn’t sell a whole lot.
FDB: Am I right in thinking that Seven Shawn and John Doe are Marley’s cousins?
KD: John Doe is Marley’s cousin and me and Seven Shawn are cousins, on distant paths, but we’re related. Basically that was a crazy time right there, John Doe just got out of jail and he said he wanted to do ten songs and hook up with Marley and come out with something. We did ten songs, Marley heard the beats, but wasn’t really feelin’ John Doe at the time and I started messin’ with the Lords Of The Underground right from there. Long story short after that it was all over with. John wound up hooking up with Seven Shawn maybe a year or two later down the line and we started working on their album. Those were the memorable golden days, the mid-‘90s was a great, great time, it was really great.
FDB: So tell me about some of the projects you’ve got coming up.
KD: K-Def is gonna have a lot of tracks coming out this year and it’s not gonna be through no majors, it’s gonna be all independent as far as I’m concerned and it’s gonna be all great, hot material, none of this throw together stuff. A lot of stuff I have from the ‘90s that was never heard before, those beats are gonna get released on certain albums. There’s gonna be a lot of great things going on. I got an album Beats From The ‘90s that will be dropping which is like all the instrumentals for stuff I did in the early ‘90s, stuff I did for Positive K, Artifacts, a lot of good instrumentals that will be appealing to the DJs to actually do blend mixes and have some of that old ‘90s culture that people are still trying to make today. I’m just doing a little bit of everything bro, I’m doing a whole lot of everything. I got so many beats that I’ve been doing. I got sample stuff, stuff that’s just strictly played with no samples at all.
FDB: You’ve mentioned there that you’re taking a range of approaches to composition now and sometimes playing over. What’s your approach to sampling now?
KD: The sampling that is going on now, I look at it like I really don’t try to change my style and I try to keep that same old sound, but use technology and engineering to make it sound clear like today’s music. A lot of people are just using MPCs and machines and that’s how I started at one time, but at some point you got to get older, more mature, you gotta use technology to your advantage and learn new technology. There’s a million and one records out there that still haven’t been used that you have to go out and search for, but a lot of these guys, nobody’s really doing it, but I’m doing it for sure. As far as what I’m trying to bring back, I’m trying to bring back that ‘90s sound but I’m trying to have it where it can go to mainstream because it’s so clear just like any other down south or mid-west record that’s out: it can compete with sound quality but still actually have samples in it.
When I was doing records in the ‘90s… ‘Funky Child’ had like five samples, but you know what, you take five samples that made a classic record for me but I never seen no publishing off it, I never ate off it, and I have to clarify this because people need to understand. If everybody’s keen on that ‘90s hip hop sound then there need to be someone to go to the lawyers and tell them that they need to make a new rule on publishing because in order for you to make those records that you did in the ‘90s then you gotta sample like five or six records in one song and if you do the math, everybody’s taking a percentage of your publishing and you’re not gonna eat. You get a whole lot of props but you ain’t making no money from it. I’ve been doing that for ten years! I’ve been sampling and doing what everybody wanted me to do for ten years on those machines and I didn’t make no money from it. You know why? Because I was just sampling, sampling, sampling, sampling, not knowing any better that there’s a strategic way to sample. A lot of the new guys that I see now, in the last five or ten years, they been sampling, sampling, sampling and they’re not doing it strategically where they can get away with doing it without clearing it. It’s not the same how it used to be and you have to be smarter now, because I know already that you’re not making any money off sampling. There has to be a new law behind that shit, where if you sample somebody’s record the publisher can’t take 50% of the record, they can only take say 30% and give the producer 20% because the producer did the work, you know what I’m sayin’? Until they can come up with that law, it’s gonna be rough, it’s gonna be really rough out there.
I’m keeping it real: I would love to do what I did in the early ‘90s and stay focussed on that with MPs and all that, but I do this not for the money, but to get better at my artform and to let the world know that I’m really good at what I do and that I have a great passion for it, but I still need to make money from it too because this is how I make my money and I’ve always been making my money like this since I was a teenager, you know what I’m sayin’? I can’t do that anymore: you gotta change with technology and that’s what K-Def did. As computers came onto the scene, I jumped right on the computers and started making music on the computers and I used that to my advantage. Now, I feel outta place trying to use an MPC again, it just doesn’t make sense. I can’t make a hit song like I did in the ‘90s, because the first thing I’m thinking is it’s going to take a whole bunch of sample to make this song and I’m not going to see no money. It’s a great record and it’s a hit record and everybody else who made the records in the ‘70s that I sampled from, they’re the ones that are eating from it and I’m sitting here twiddling my fingers with nothing and I did all the work for it. There has to be some kind of way where that changes. I just feel that they’re really hard on producers when it comes to sampling, but people still want to hear them because it’s what they love to hear, and yet producers are getting thrown into the shit every time!
Although I have little doubt that the majority of people reading this post will have a similar appreciation of the wonders of Show’s production style as I do, it strikes me as a gross oversight that he is rarely mentioned in the inevitable and never-ending G.O.A.T. conversations that relentlessly crop up amongst the online hip hop community. For me Show’s back catalogue is not only one of the strongest in the game, but it also demonstrates an ear for samples and breaks that is both devastatingly effective and truly unique. Need proof? Look no further than the following deconstructions that attempt to argue that the Bronx bomber should without doubt be considered a part of the elite group that are more widely acknowledged as the best to ever do it behind the boards.
Ear For A Groove – ‘Sally Got a One Track Mind (Showbiz Remix)’
Diamond D – ‘Sally Got A One Track Mind’ (Showbiz Remix)
taken from ‘Sally Got A One Track Mind’ 12” (Chemistry, 1992)
Jack Bruce – ‘Born To Be Blue’
taken from Things We Like (Polydor, 1970)
Given that ‘Sally…’ in its original incarnation is one of the standouts from Diamond D’s rightfully celebrated solo debut Stunts, Blunts & Hip Hop, Show’s achievement in producing a remix that gives the track a different twist whilst keeping the slammin’ vibe that made Diamond D’s version so successful is nothing short of sensational. Backed by a forceful drum track of relentlessly pounding kicks and multiple snare hits, the secret to Show’s success here is in the pairing up of the brutal percussion with a decidedly mellow loop, a characteristic juxtaposition that permeates many of his finest beats.
The loop is sourced from Jack Bruce’s Things We Like, a record that has been spliced up and rearranged on multiple occasions by the genre’s more discerning diggers. Most widely known for his role in legendary ’60s outfit Cream, the album was his chance to break away from the group and pursue his lifelong interests in jazz in greater depth. Interestingly, the whole LP took its inspiration from songs that Bruce himself had written when he was as young as twelve, and it features performances by John McLaughlin and a host of other musicians who took part in the emerging jazz fusion boom of the early ’70s. I actually find the record itself a little hard to take, my untrained ears unable to pick apart the subtleties of what can fairly be described as an experimental piece of work. Having said this, ‘Born To Be Blue’ is one of the most cohesive songs to be found on the album for a non-jazz specialist (read: me), and it is here that Show, amongst many others, finds his inspiration.
The moment to look out for drops at the 1.19 mark, a seemingly innocuous couple of seconds from the song that is masterfully plucked by the hands of Show and placed into the ‘Sally…’ remix. It’s really his ear for a groove that impresses me most here, with the majority of other producers focusing on the opening sax solo or more obvious two bar loops such as the section jacked by Da Beatminerz for the Smif-N-Wessun banger ‘Bucktown’ that appears just before the three minute mark. I’m not sure where Show sourced the screeching horns that are added into the chorus sections of the remix, but when combined with this sample from Bruce’s original composition and the slammin’ drum track the result is undoubtedly one of his finest moments ever committed to wax.
Flippin’ Styles – ‘Next Level’
Show & A.G. – ‘Next Level’
taken from Goodfellas (Payday/ffrr, 1995)
Wes Montgomery – ‘Angel’
taken from A Day In The Life (A&M, 1967)
Although I imagine most people favour Premier’s remix of this cut from the sophomore drop by Show & A.G.Goodfellas, this particular hip hop geek gravitates towards the original as the better of the two versions. Featuring a more uptempo and sumptuous quality than the highly revered remix, Show’s production work on the cut is brilliantly executed and stands as a prime example of his deft ability to rearrange sample material into his grimy yet melodic aesthetic with seamless ingenuity.
The guitar sample used in the original version of ‘Next Level’ can be found on Wes Montgomery’s track ‘Angel’ from his 1967 album A Day In The Life, recorded towards the tail-end of his career. I imagine it’s a record that would have appalled purists at the time given its blatant attempt to crossover to a more commercial market, but there are enough enjoyable moments to warrant picking it up if you are interested in the smoother side of jazz from the era (although the covers of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘When a Man Loves A Woman’ are perhaps best avoided).
Show actually jacks two separate sections from ‘Angel’ in putting together ‘Next Level’, taking both the two bars that end in a flurry of strings found at the very beginning of the song for the verse sections and the gradually descending chords that introduce the first verse for the choruses. The tempo is slowed down somewhat from the Montgomery original and it seems as though there must have been some subtle chopping involved to get the sample to sit right over the drum track. Whereas his use of Bruce’s ‘Born To Be Blue’ demonstrates Show’s ability to choose samples that would have passed the less discerning producer by, the way in which he flips the Montgomery break provides us with another perspective on his technique, displaying his proficiency at incorporating elements into his work that are not immediately and easily transferable into a hip hop context.
Filed under: Producers
Frank-N-Dank – ‘Rite Bites’ & ‘Take Dem Clothes Off’
taken from 48 Hours (TSO, originally recorded in 2003)
The first time I heard of Frank-N-Dank was on ‘Pause’, one of the standout tracks on J-Dilla’s Welcome To Detroit album. The LP still stands as one of the best producer led albums ever.
Frank-N-Dank signed a recording deal with MCA, but their 2003 album entitled 48 Hours was shelved by the label. Dilla produced all 15 tracks for the album and showcases some of his best sample-free beats. This was due to the fact that the album was re-recorded after MCA rejected the first version of the album, probably because the label didn’t want to clear all the samples. This version was later released by the group, but without a great deal of promotion the album is one of the lesser known Dilla projects that obviously deserves some shine.
Q-Tip’s contributions to Mobb Deep’s seminal sophomore LP are without a shadow of a doubt some of the very best examples of his work behind the boards. Nestled in amongst the dark and grimy soundscapes created almost exclusively by Havoc, The Abstract’s three additions to The Infamous are priceless, aptly providing the listener with moments of melodic respite in the midst of a collection of songs that are otherwise deeply shrouded in the shadows of the Queensbridge housing projects. With ‘Give Up The Goods (Just Step)’, ‘Temperature’s Rising’ and ‘Drink Away The Pain (Situations)’, Tip not only provides the LP with a depth that it would otherwise have lacked but also solidifies his status as a producer who was able to effortlessly switch his game up when the opportunity arose during the heady days that were the mid-‘90s.
For this special edition of the Q-Tip Beat Series I present to you all three Abstract-produced cuts from The Infamous with key sample sources and discussion for your listening and reading pleasure. Let the deconstructing begin…
‘Give Up The Goods (Just Step)’
Mobb Deep – ‘Give Up The Goods (Just Step)’ ft. Big Noyd
taken from The Infamous (Loud, 1995)
Esther Phillips – ‘That’s Alright With Me’
taken from From A Whisper To A Scream (Kudu, 1971)
Esther Phillips, born Esther Mae Jones, lived a turbulent life that was ultimately cut short by a long-term heroin dependency and a substantial dose of heavy drinking on the side that caused her liver and kidney to fail in 1984. Having been discovered by legendary musician and bandleader Johnny Otis in the late ‘40s, Phillips progressed through a range of styles that saw her release numerous albums over a career that spanned 30 years. Amongst her most successful was From A Whisper To A Scream, an album that received a Grammy nomination and which acts as home to ‘That’s Alright With Me’, the inspiration for the first of Tip’s Queensbridge flavoured beats, ‘Give Up the Goods (Just Step)’.
As is the case with all three of these selections (and indeed his back catalogue in general), Tip holds back from rearranging the sample too heavily, jacking a couple of bars from the opening section of the Phillips’s original. It’s interesting to note that the bass also makes its way into the Mobb Deep cut, although its depth suggests that there is either some heavy EQ-ing going on or that The Abstract simply followed the pattern with a beefier sound that he sourced elsewhere.
In terms of its context within the album as a whole, ‘Give Up The Goods (Just Step)’ is the song that seems to bridge the gap between Havoc and Tip’s production style most obviously, with both the sample and ridiculously crispy snare hit smoothly fitting into the Queensbridge aesthetic. It’s a clear demonstration of Tip consciously adopting a slightly different approach for the project in which he realises a grittier style with devastating effect.
‘Temperature’s Rising’
Mobb Deep – ‘Temperature’s Rising’
taken from The Infamous (Loud, 1995)
Mobb Deep – ‘Temperature’s Rising’ (Remix)
taken from ‘Temperature’s Rising’/’Give Up The Goods (Just Step)’ 12” (Loud, 1995)
Patrice Rushen – ‘Where There Is Love’
taken from Straight From The Heart (Elektra, 1982)
Quincy Jones – ‘Body Heat’
taken from Body Heat (A&M, 1974)
ESG – UFO (33rpm edit)
taken from A South Bronx Story (Universal Sounds, 2000)
Although the sung chorus hook may have inevitably alienated the more steadfastly hardcore heads, ‘Temperature’s Rising’ endures as my favourite Tip produced cut on the album. The soulful melody of the sample and chorus are underpinned by a neck-snappingly fierce drum track, and the result is a musical backdrop that perfectly suits Havoc and Prodigy’s no frills account of trife life in the city.
The source material comes care of Patrice Rushen, a Grammy award-winning musician who is probably best known for her hit ‘Forget Me Nots’ (as sampled by Poke & Tone for Will Smith on the Men In Black soundtrack). ‘Where There Is Love’ is lifted from the same LP as the aforementioned track, entitled Straight From The Heart, and constitutes an enjoyable slice of ‘80s R & B flavoured pop that holds value beyond just sample-spotting geekery. It’s the first couple of bars after the initial drum fill that are of note, another straight loop that is masterfully dropped into the mix at the 0.39 mark of ‘Temperature’s Rising’ by The Abstract.
Inspiration for the chorus hook comes from Quincy Jones and his song ‘Body Heat’ from the album of the same name released in 1974 on A&M. It always amazes me how prolific and adaptable Jones has been during a lifetime in the music industry: from humble beginnings playing trumpet in Dizzy Gillespie’s band to the release of his own material and onto work with powerhouses of popular music, the man’s status is nothing short of legendary. As with ‘Where There Is Love’ the song is enjoyable in its own right, but pay particular attention at the 0.25 mark to hear the vocal hook in its original incarnation.
The remix of the song uses the same key sample source, and although not drastically different, it’s a pleasing rendition of the track with a more overtly radio friendly twist. With the drums toned down somewhat and lyrics cleaned up and re-recorded it manages to hold its own against the LP version and the incorporation of the ubiquitous ‘UFO’ sample provides it with an added depth. All in it acts as gratefully received supplementary material to what I believe is one of, if not the, greatest Q-Tip produced joints of all time.
‘Drink Away The Pain (Situations)’
Mobb Deep – ‘Drink Away The Pain (Situations)
taken from The Infamous (Loud, 1995)
The Headhunters – ‘I Remember I Made You Cry’
taken from Straight from The Gate (Arista, 1977)
And so we make our way to the final instalment of The Abstract’s Infamous odyssey. ‘Drink Away The Pain (Situations)’ once again falls in line with the Queensbridge formula, although the heavy drum track is backed up by an uncharacteristically funky break that sets it apart from the other songs that can be found on the LP.
The groove is snatched from a song by The Headhunters called ‘I Remember I Made You Cry’ which appeared on the group’s sophomore release Straight From The Gate. Essentially a loose conglomeration of constantly changing musicians who had worked with Herbie Hancock during the early ‘70s, this album saw the band further step out of his shadow and continue their experimentations into jazz-funk fusion, although the group disbanded after this release only to reform in 1998 with the triumphantly titled Return Of The Headhunters!.
The break can be found at the very beginning of the track and is particularly notable as a result of its three bar structure. It’s a technique that I’ve discussed as a feature of Tip’s production work before over at Oh Word, and it works just as well here as it does in the Tribe joints. The effect of it is difficult to define, but it gives the cut a distinctive and captivating vibe that once again demonstrates The Abstract’s ability to create beats with a subtle complexity that is masked by superficial simplicity. Although there are few changes to the groove throughout its five minute duration, the use of filters that originally appear at the 0.30 mark and a dope verse from Tip himself make this one of the standouts from an LP that is almost impossible to falter: ‘classic material’ doesn’t even begin to do it justice.
Pete Rock – ‘Bring Y’all Back’ ft. Little Brother & ‘Comprehend’ ft. Papoose
taken from NY’s Finest (Nature Sounds, 2008)
Although in internet terms I’m kinda late on this one, the bottom line is that this wouldn’t be FDB if I didn’t throw in my two cents concerning the latest Pete Rock full length NY’s Finest. You’re unlikely to find any particularly original thinking here, as a few blogosphere notables have already said their piece (and said it very well), and for the most part you can probably second guess what my reactions to the record are going to be. Still, for what it’s worth, here is how I’m left feeling after a week or so of getting familiar with the Chocolate Boy Wonder’s latest outing, which easily stands as my most eagerly anticipated release of 2008.
Let’s start with the good. Unsurprisingly, the elements to savour in the record are almost exclusively rooted in the album’s production, which on the whole is beautifully executed. The groundwork laid by Soul Survivor II and his numerous credits on major releases over the last four years or so is clearly built upon here, with Rock having gradually fine tuned his cleaner, more overtly modern aesthetic to the point of near perfection. Tracks such as ‘We Roll’, ‘Best Believe’, ‘Bring Ya’ll Back’ and ‘Comprehend’ are unmistakably Soul Brother penned whilst managing to sound current and involving, and that’s no mean feat for an artist who is rapidly approaching his third decade in the game. Studio engineer Young Guru also deserves a mention, aiding the Chocolate Boy Wonder in achieving a level of clarity with the sound that is for the vast majority of the LP masterfully realised. Although fans with their heads still firmly rooted in the sands of the golden era may take issue with these developments, for me there’s no faulting the beats on offer here (for the most part…), and I’m left with a feeling of warm satisfaction that NY’s Finest still ultimately feels like a Pete Rock record.
Unfortunately, things ain’t all rosy, and even my glaringly biased perspective can’t ignore numerous shortcomings that tarnish the release. Already heavily documented, the guest vocal appearances range from the good to the undeniably wack, with only ‘The PJ’s’ featuring verses that actually match the quality of the musical backdrop care of Rae and Masta Killa. In this context, Rock’s unusually high frequency of vocal contributions is actually a blessing, but there’s little doubt that in terms of both delivery and content his style of rhyme isn’t really up to extended periods of such prominence, and his somewhat clumsy flow begins to feel tired relatively quickly when exposed to such substantial opportunities for dissection. Despite this, I’d still rather listen to Pete Rock rhyme than the majority of the other guests on the album, and when it comes down to it, this is a sad indication of the lack of lyrical finesse on offer.
The other key issue with NY’s Finest for me is that it seems to attempt to do too much at the same time, and this results in a lack of overall cohesion. I don’t actually dislike ‘Ready Fe War’ as much as other respected bloggers seem to, but there’s no denying that it is completely out of place and only serves to disrupt the flow of the album when listened to from front to back. Elsewhere, the more heavily R & B tinged numbers ‘That’s What I’m Talking About’ and ‘Made Man’ are surprisingly weak, particularly given that Rock usually has a knack for incorporating these elements into his grittier aesthetic with a sense of enduring quality (see ‘Take Your Time’ from the first installment of the Soul Survivor series). I’m also not completely sold on the radio friendly ”Til I Retire’, which for me deviates too far away from the traditional Pete Rock sound and again feels a little at odds with the content that can be found elsewhere on the LP.
Having thoroughly enjoyed the initial 12” release featuring ‘914′ and ‘The PJ’s’, there’s no getting away from the fact that NY’s Finest ultimately leaves this particular Pete Rock sycophant a little underwhelmed. As much as I want to think that various cuts on offer here will grow on me with time, the combination of essentially dull vocal performances and an uneven level of quality leaves me feeling otherwise. It goes without saying that NY’s Finest still goes down as a must have in my book, but if this is an indication of things to come from Pete Rock, the sad likelihood is that I’ll be relying on his back catalogue with increasing vigour whenever I feel the need for a little Soul Brother fix. The Main Ingredient for lunch tomorrow? Aw, go on then…
Al Tariq – ‘Nikki’
taken from God Connections (Correct, 1996)
Otis Redding – ‘Don’t Mess With Cupid’
taken from The Dock Of The Bay (Volt, 1968)
Although I’m not gonna bitch about a free ‘holiday’ in the Alps and the delights of skiing, it’s also fair to say that being an on duty teacher for nine days straight with a troop of 49 students all undertaking a potentially life-threatening activity carries with it a certain amount of stress. As a result, I think I’m more exhausted now than I was at the beginning of the half term break, with a mound of backed-up work that is nothing short of intimidating. Naturally, rather than tackle this immediately I’m shirking responsibility and getting back on the blog tip, a pleasure that I’ve sorely missed over the last fortnight. Gotta give yourself some time off, right?!
I didn’t actually listen to a huge amount of music whilst I was away, but when I did get a minute to shut myself off with a pair of comfy Sennheisers, it was Oh Word’s Valentine Mix that remained in pretty constant rotation bar a few ‘on the road’ personal classics. Amidst a fantastic selection of tracks ‘for sensitive thugs and their shorties’ it was Al Tariq’s ‘Nikki’ that had me bopping my head on innumerable occasions, a song that may have passed CD heads by as it was a bonus cut that only saw a release on the double vinyl LP. With Psycho Les and Juju chipping in a hand on the boards, it’s one of the best tracks to be found on God Connections, an album that easily stands its own against the crew’s formally united output.
I’m always a sucker for a mellow, sun-soaked guitar loop in a hip hop jam, and the sample lifted from Otis Redding’s ‘Don’t Mess With Cupid’ is a certified gem. The song can be found on his posthumously released LPThe Dock Of The Bay, home to the song of the same name that will forever be intertwined with his legacy. The album is in fact a collection of singles and b-sides, with ‘Don’t Mess With Cupid’ actually seeing an original release in 1966 as the flip to ‘My Lover’s Prayer’. It’s a great little number in which Otis expresses his refusal to be trampled on by a member of the fairer sex with the passionate delivery that certified his place in the annals of popular soul, and also a song that seems to have been lost in the numerous greatest hits collections that many people probably assume covers the entirety of his work. Why ‘Don’t Mess With Cupid’ should have escaped the canonization process is somewhat beyond me, as it is as easily as good as his more obvious hits, but then perhaps therein lies some of its appeal. The musical snob in me lives on…
Production-wise there’s not a great deal of sample tomfoolery going on, with the first two bars receiving the loop treatment and some heavy drums, although there is some rearrangement on display during the chorus sections and the removal of the guitar’s upstroke that closes the first bar once the main beat drops is a pleasingly subtle touch. With the mellow vibe provided by the beat, Al Tariq takes the opportunity to wax lyrical about that special honey from the past with a level of sensitivity that is rarely seen amongst The Beatnuts’ camp (although a fair amount of ‘bedroom’ talk endures). The result is a rarity well worth savouring: ‘Nikki’ truly is a great hip hop love song.
Nas – ‘The World Is Yours’ (Q-Tip Remix)
taken from The World Is Yours VLS (Columbia, 1994)
An uncharacteristically short post from me today party people. I’m off to London in the very near future (i.e. the next ten minutes) and in truth, I’m not sure how much I have to say of genuine substance about Q-Tip’s momentous remix of ‘The World Is Yours’ beyond what you probably already know. Remixing a track of such magnitude in its original form is a task in itself, and although Tip’s reinterpretation falls short of the Pete Rock version (but then, what wouldn’t?) it is still an excellent song that deserves a place in your digital crates.
The beat reminds me of Tip’s contributions to The Infamous, which makes sense given the fact that his work on Mobb Deep’s seminal LP would arrive only a year later. All the hallmarks of those later productions are here, with melodic samples given a darker twist by way of heavy hitting snares. Plenty of manipulations throughout keep the beat moving, and I’m particularly fond of the ‘lah, lah, lah’ vocals that creep into the composition during the chorus sections. Nas’ lyrics feel remarkably at home as well, and to my mind this is the true triumph of the remix. Despite being removed from their more familiar sonic backing, his expertly constructed rhymes sit comfortably over one of The Abstract’s darker beats and the end product feels beautifully homogeneous.
I wasn’t kidding when I said this was going to be brief: I’m outta here.
PreC.I.S.E. MC – ‘Encore’
taken from preC.I.S.E.-ly Done (Luke, 1991)
Da King & I – ‘Flip Da Script’ (Remix)
taken from Flip Da Script VLS (Rowdy, 1993)
If you’ve been tuning into FDB for a while you’ll know that one of my discoveries of the year has been the fantastic Contemporary Jeep Music from Brooklyn duo DJ Majesty and MC Izzy Ice aka Da King & I. The definition of slept on, the crew’s first and only full length really is a forgotten gem, and if you’ve still failed to check it out then you’re playing yourself something terrible. It was a great pleasure for me to get in contact with the production half of the duo, DJ Majesty, and discuss things past and present: apart from being a hero, he’s also one of the nicest guys I’ve had the pleasure of talking to about hip hop. Here’s how it went down…
From Da Bricks: I’m really happy you agreed to the interview man, I’ve been listening to hip hop for a long time now and when I first heard Contemporary Jeep Music at the beginning of the year it blew me away.
DJ Majesty: Thank you, I really appreciate it.
FDB: Why do you think it endures as such a slept on release?
M: At the time, when we first put the album together, it was kinda an experiment. Not as far as us doing what we do, but for the label Rowdy it was. It was the same label as Monica. At the time they didn’t really know anything about hip hop because they were from Atlanta and we were from New York, so when they put us out no-one really knew what the project was until a couple of years later. People such as yourselves, on blogs and stuff have been like ‘yo, that album was so crazy! I don’t understand!’ but we didn’t get the promotions. We didn’t bicker about it though, we just did the music we felt we were supposed to do. We grew up around Special Ed, Chubb Rock… I came up under Howie Tee, he showed me a lot of stuff. Being in that environment, that music was kind of normal for us, it’s just what we were always around and what we heard so when we felt that we had a chance to do an album, that’s the way we were gonna do it. We didn’t think about the money, we didn’t think about anything like that, we were just doing music from the heart and that’s just the way we do music.
FDB: Can you fill me in on how you and Izzy got together and on some of the earlier releases like the ‘Soul Man’ 45?
M: Wow, you went back! ‘Soul Man’ was actually produced by Howie Tee. Me and Izzy lived around the same neighbourhood and we kinda grew up together. We actually met through Chubb Rock who was a friend of mine who lived two doors away from me. I used to go to Chubb’s crib and just listen to records. I didn’t know how to do beats, but I always had ideas from the block parties and breaks, so I would bring breaks to Chubb and Howie. They would use the record but it wasn’t like I produced it, I’d just bring them ideas.
One day, me and Izzy were sitting out and we decided to form a group. We used to do most of our music using pause tapes, and we used to bring our music to Chubb and Howie’s place to critique it. How the group really got going was when I went to get a 950, my Moms was gonna give me the money, and I went to World Music and that’s when we started venturing out and doing our own music. I bumped into Shadez Of Lingo who were also on Rowdy at the New Music Seminar. We had an agreement that whoever got hooked up first would reach out for the other group. They kept their end of the bargain and introduced me to Dallas Austin and the rest was history.
FDB: The Shadez Of Lingo album is another example of something that has kinda picked up attention long after its release through blogs.
M: Right. We really vibed musically and gelled really well together. I think the problem with hip hop right now is that guys are scared to take chances and be themselves. That’s what’s really making the music stagnant. It’s not so much that hip hop is dead, I just think the creative process of being free has been lost. Everybody’s scared to take chances, and if you can’t just be yourself then you’re kind of scared to live, you know what I mean?
FDB: So when did the two of you start work on Contemporary Jeep Music?
M: In 1992. I was in the movie Juice that came out in ’92 and we got signed in June. The funny thing about it is that we did all of the singles in one day.
FDB: Really?!
M: Yea, because that was like all the pre-production from the house. I had the MP-62, the 950 and an eight track board. When the politics came into play, that’s what took the rest of the album so long. We had ‘Flip Da Script’, ‘Krak Da Weazel’, ‘Tearz’, ‘Let’s Take A Trip’ and ‘Ghetto Instinct’ all done in one day.
FDB: That’s crazy.
M: We didn’t know how the business angle was supposed to turn out, and when we got into the politics of them picking singles, and ‘you can’t do this kind of sample’ type thing that’s what kind of messed us up with our flow. We probably could’ve done about 80 songs back then because we used to just work, work, work and we figured out the rest later.
FDB: When I talk to people about the album, I tend to describe your production style as being quite playful, with lots of different samples coming and going throughout each track. What was the genesis of that style?
M: Pretty much my upbringing, man. In my household we listened to all kinds of music, from jazz, to David Bowie and onto James Brown so coming up my ear was always tuned to different kinds of music. That, and being around lots of different individuals who liked lots of different things meant that I was never the kind of guy to say ‘I’m gonna sample horns’, or ‘I’ll sample jazz breaks’, I just sampled whatever I liked to hear. I like to feel good, so when I go to choose my samples I choose those that’ll make you feel good.
The funny thing about Contemporary Jeep Music was that we used a lot of samples that other people rocked, but they didn’t rock it like we did. We never felt like samples were sacred ground that you couldn’t go over again, so we’d look for things in records that other people hadn’t seen.
FDB: One example of that is the piano loop from ‘Mr. All That’ that had already cropped up on one of the Spencer Bellamy produced tracks on the preC.I.S.E. MC album.
M: How did you remember that?! [laughs]
FDB: I interviewed Spencer recently so had been listening to the album again.
M: That’s crazy! Yea, we both used the Ramsey Lewis joint. That’s my boy too. We all used to be in the basement together. Me, Spencer, Howie Tee, Chubb Rock… so many people used to come to that guy’s basement it’s not even funny. Just what he did with two 950s was amazing to me. He taught me patience, he taught me to listen to the whole record, arrangement, just watching him doing his thing was crazy. He’d take something that 50 people had used but it would be his that you remembered: his was always the most distinctive. I would say it was him and Marley Marl that were groundbreaking to me at that time. The things that they did were like ‘woah!’ [laughs]
FDB: Another thing that really strikes me about the album is the cohesion between beats and rhymes. What was the process for you working together as a pair?
M: Everything we did pretty much started as a concept. We always thought about something before we did the beat. He’d be like ‘I wanna talk about girls’, so we’d make sure that there was some emotion in the beat. When he rhymed over it, it was more believable, because the content felt the same as the energy from the music. That’s pretty much how we did it.
FDB: What part did Izzy play in production?
M: He’d suggest where to put a change, or to add a bridge, or which beats should go with which samples. We were open-ended when it came to ideas, we were never selfish when it came to the production route. Anybody could come in a room with us and contribute if they had some ideas! [laughs]
FDB: You mentioned earlier about Dallas Austin, what was his involvement in the project?
M: The record label was his and he kinda geared us up to be ourselves. He came in and said ‘for you guys to be different you need to avoid pigeonholing yourselves’. What I really noticed about him was that we were the same age, but he had that knowledge and individuals around him to guide him, so he was ahead of his years. He’d produced Boyz II Men, Madonna, every popstar you could name he had produced when he was only 22 years old, so it would’ve been dumb for me not to listen to him. He knew what he was talking about. I just sat back and listened whenever he talked about putting together songs, and that’s where we got our ideas from. He told us to arrange our rap songs like R & B songs, have it change up with a bridge or something, and that’s why our music always changed and why there were lots of things going on. That’s what I got from him.
FDB: One thing that always surprised me about the album was the cover art, because it seemed at odds somewhat with the content of the album. How did that come about?
M: We were from Flatbush and Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn at the time. We knew musically we were different, but we still wanted to fit in. Visually at that time it was the Timberlands, Carhartt, and we wanted to lure people in just from the look. When they got the album, we hoped it would blow them away because it wasn’t what they thought it was going to be just from the cover. It was kind of like a double standard: you looked at the package and think one thing but when you open it up you got a little bit more.
FDB: I guess that contrast is fitting with the name of the album as well, where you’re still paying tribute to more street level records but offering something different musically.
M: The funny thing about the album title was that we came up with it on a tour bus with Teddy Riley. We were on a promo tour with Wreckx N Effect, Teddy and a few other guys and Teddy listened to a few tracks from the album. He was like ‘wow, it’s kind of real laid back and smoothed out’. I was like ‘that’s not really what I was going for!’ but he was like ‘nah, it’s laid back, but it’s hip hop, jeep bangers’. That’s how the name was born.
FDB: I know you posted a credit on the Yall So Stupid album around the same time.
M: Yea, I did ‘Plant’ and ‘Bootleg Beatdown’ on that album.
FDB: Did you have anything more to do with those guys because they were on Rowdy as well, weren’t they?
M: When we were mixing the album they came in and they asked us if we did production for anybody. At that time, we didn’t really like to work with other people that much because we were so concentrated on the concept of the group, but when they asked I offered them a few beats and those were the two that were on the album.
FDB: Did you post any other production credits at that time?
M: Yea, I worked with Missy, Timbaland’s first two albums, SWV. I did a lot of R & B work after that because I was trying to work with other rappers but for me, I gotta get motivated to work with certain cats and sometimes their subject matter just doesn’t do it for me. I wanted to challenge myself and go in a whole different direction, that’s why I didn’t do a lot of rap production at the time. I also worked with Medina Howard, did a remix for MC Lyte, a few other bits and pieces as well.
FDB: So what have you been up to since then?
M: I kinda faded into the background. I had a couple of songs with Elektra, I did some Keith Sweat stuff, some LSG, stuff that’s out there but I’m not the cat to get in the videos and shout my name so if you don’t look at the credits you’re not gonna know.
FDB: Do you approach R & B production in the same way you do hip hop?
M: It depends. With Missy, she’s kinda abstract. Getting with her was a challenge because she doesn’t like you to do any pre-made beats, so that made me work on the spot with a concept. She wants to be a part of the whole situation. Working with her got me motivated and inspired, because let’s say she’d be on a Stevie Wonder vibe but on that day I might be in Jimi Hendrix mode! [laughs] To have to turn it on and off, it takes your production to another level. It’s still sample based but there’s a lot of instruments as well.
FDB: Do you play any instruments?
M: I play the guitar a little bit, the keyboards a little but. I wouldn’t say I’m a keyboardist but I can play enough to get the job done.
FDB: What about Izzy? What happened to him?
M: He fell back for a minute. He started up an internet company that he’s working on now. He still always rapped, that wasn’t the problem, we just felt like we didn’t really get the just-do we deserved. Instead of being angry, it was just time to tackle something else. But now, we’re like seven songs deep on a new joint so we’re just going to keep going.
FDB: Is the way that you work together still the same?
M: It’s the same, it hasn’t lost a thing. People are gonna think ‘wow, I can’t believe they didn’t drop a second album!’ because it’s still timeless stuff… maybe this one will last another ten years! [laughs]
FDB: How would you describe the sound of the new album?
M: Wow… I would call it more heartfelt in terms of concepts. We’re not talking about money or anything like that, we’re talking about the regular working class guy that’s still trying to pay his bills. Those are the people we’re trying to reach. It’s still sample based but it’s a new twist on the samples. I’m chopping up a lot of breaks like you never heard ‘em before. That’s going to be the main theme of the album.
FDB: When are you hoping to have that done?
M: We want to finish by the end of the year, so we’re trying to get it out during the second quarter of next year. The thing is that we’re fifteen years on, we’re grown, and we want to do it because we feel like there’s people out there who we left a void and we just want to add on to whatever we had back there, I’m not trying to really make any new fans. That was the real motivation for the new joint.
FDB: I can’t wait to hear it. Have you got a distributor lined up?
M: Nah, we’re gonna do this one independent. We may get some international distributors, but now with the internet you don’t need to get bogged down with one situation or one label. I know it’s going to be a growing process, a tour here for a month or two, a tour somewhere else, so to be stuck in one situation… we’re not a million a week group. I don’t think a label would be into us.
FDB: So what role do you see the internet playing in this one?
M: We’re gonna set up a website where you can go and download the album. But just as far as getting out to people it’s just so much easier, you don’t even have to leave your living room to meet new people. We don’t need to waste a load of money on posters and stuff like that like when we first started.
FDB: And what do you make of the internet hip hop scene? Is it something you regularly engage with?
M: I love it because it educates cats that don’t know. People often don’t know the history of certain types of music, and I think the golden age era hip hop should be the blueprint for any type of hip hop that you’re doing. That’s when you had so many different styles, so many different artists, but we were all in one big pot. You didn’t feel like you had to be one way. Now you have a Jadakiss, a 50, but it’s pretty much the same pot. Back then you had Slick Rick, BDK, Kool G Rap, KRS One, Public Enemy, Black Sheep, Pete Rock, Gangstarr, all different styles and we all loved ‘em. We all took something from everyone of those artists but now there just isn’t that versatility that you got back in the 90s.
I think what people like you are doing is such a great thing because you’re giving away so much information and educating people. I was blown away when I saw what you’d written about us because it made me feel like we’d accomplished something and that people had absorbed our music. That made me feel good! [laughs]
FDB: That’s great, thank you. So who are you still checkin’ for nowadays?
M: I like Common a lot, I love his music because he always brings that punch with the lyrics and his production never lost a step. I like Kanye… I love something from everybody. I may not like the whole album, but there’s definitely something I love from everybody. I like Just Blaze, Dr Dre of course… loads of stuff. The only thing I’m not into is the empty raps, you know the snap raps, it’s good for some people but it’s not my thing.
FDB: Thanks again for taking the time out to chat man.
M: Thank you, I appreciate it.
Big shout out once again to Majesty for filling us in on all of the ins and outs of Contemporary Jeep Music and things to come in the future. To say I’m excited about the prospect of new material from the duo is such a ridiculous understatement that it’s not even true. Keep your eyes and ears peeled people, we may have our hands on a few exclusives here at FDB in the near future…
FROM DA BRICKS 