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…
Filed under: Album Reviews
Panacea – ‘Aim High’ & ‘Square 1′
taken from The Scenic Route (Rawkus, 2007)
It is entirely coincidental that this second installment of recently slept on releases features another one producer/one MC outfit, but it is perhaps indicative of the success that the formula can bring to those who eschew current trends within hip hop. The Scenic Route dropped on Rawkus (not a bad year for the label…) at the beginning of September, and although it garnered a brief fanfare from a couple of disparate corners of the internet around the time, it amazes me that an album of such quality fell victim to the fierce and ruthless momentum of the blog scene. As with Travel At Your Own Pace, The Scenic Route is a work that clearly engages with boom bap aesthetics, but it does so in an exciting and engaging way that feels remarkably original: if you’re sleepin’, consider this a friendly wake up call.
K-Murdock’s production style has developed substantially since the crew’s first release, a well-judged blend of punchy drums and richly textured samples that gradually mutate as each track progresses. His flair is demonstrated by the incredibly spacious quality that his soundscapes possess; the result is a sensation of the beats almost wrapping themselves around you, permeating all of the available space in which you dwell. ‘Square 1′ is one of the tracks in which this quality is most fully realised, a truly beautiful composition that demonstrates K-Murdock’s production style perfectly. The combination of organic sounding samples with electronic touches manages to achieve a satisfying balance, and it provides the beat with a modern twist that feels right at home when punctuated by the aggressive drum track. ‘Aim High’ is another of my favourites, a seriously jazzy number that is propelled forwards by its energetic drum track whilst maintaining a smooth, laid back vibe through astutely chosen samples. Both are fine examples of the delights to be found here, and they demonstrate K-Murdock’s skill at combining a range of sample sources into remarkably coherent end products that still bang.
Raw Poetic’s contribution is also significant. A relaxed, conversational style is the perfect match for K-Murdock’s production, and he is skilled at weaving together a range of images when constructing his narratives that give his rhymes serious depth. He’s also able to switch up his style when the beat demands it, and his lyrical gymnastics on ‘Between Earth And Sky’ prove that he is no one-trick pony. Unfortunately for Raw, I find that really my focus lies in the beats on The Scenic Route, although this is as much a result of my own personal preferences as anything else: his performances on the album are as accomplished as you’re likely to hear this year.
It’s not all perfect though, and there are a couple of missteps. The electronic element to the songs can prove overbearing at times, the most fitting example being ‘Pops Said’, which feels a little flat when compared with the lusher textures to be found elsewhere on the album. Still, there is very little here that could be defined as categorically skippable, and a sense of consistency and variety is successfully maintained throughout.
In a recent review in Hip Hop Connection, Hercules Rockerfella (yea, I wish that was my name too) commented that what is saddening about Panacea’s sophomore outing is that it is unlikely to find a wider audience outside of the hip hop community, as its potential fanbase are still ‘too busy blindly collecting J Dilla paraphernalia’. This is a real shame, because it is exactly this brand of modern hip hop that I would feel proud to be representative of the contemporary culture. The Scenic Route is soulful, beautiful music that deserves to transcend the confines of genre: cop it.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Although certain album releases get more than their fair share of exposure around these internets (American Gangster being the obvious flavour of the last fortnight or so) there are an even greater number of LPs that only muster a brief mention or two before sinking rapidly into relative obscurity. This is in part reflective of the sheer volume of easily accessible releases kickin’ about at any one time, but also of the resistance of bloggers (myself included) to cover anything that is already deemed to be old news, even though old news in internet time could mean a time frame that is measured in units as small as hours. This is a damn shame, because in this hectic climate of quick fixes and a relentless focus on ‘the next big thing’ there are often albums of serious quality that really don’t seem to get the credit they deserve.
As a result, the next couple of posts here at FDB will focus on recent full lengths that have struck me as grossly under-represented by the blog scene, and which deserve further exposure despite their moment in the virtual sun having already passed. Nothing exclusive here people, just some recommendations that may have understandably flown under your radar as you duck and weave your way through the vast and treacherous skies of an ever-expanding blog scene.
Many Stories To Tell – Y Society
Y Society – ‘This Is An Introduction’ & ‘Scientist’
taken from Travel At Your Own Pace (Tres, 2007)
About six months ago I was briefly obsessed by some guy referring to himself as ‘dopegraffhead’ on YouTube. Having rampantly digested each and every one of his videos in which he recreated classic jams with incredible deftness behind the boards (you can watch them all here) I was left wondering if he might translate these skills into his own production work and officially release something. Sure enough, last month saw Travel At Your Own Pace, a collaboration between the man in question, Damu Tha Fudgemunk, and one of my favourite active MCs, Insight.
Clearly rooted in boom bap aesthetics, Travel At Your Own Pace is a fine example of how to use the past to your advantage whilst avoiding an end product that is entirely derivative. Damu’s beats contain all the hallmarks of hip hop’s golden era, but their rich texture and infectious head-nodding vibe mean that there is enough here to keep the formula feeling modern and fresh. ‘This Is An Introduction’ is one of the clear standouts for me, featuring a couple of tasty loops, a perfectly executed scratch chorus hook and a hefty dose of reverberating horns all backed up by a drum track that has a satisfying punch. Fortunately, it’s not the only cut to savour here, and it is a general indication of the consistent quality you can expect from the album as a whole: just check ‘Scientist’ and ‘Setting The Example’ if you’re looking for the proof.
It’s always pleasing to see a one producer/one MC effort in these days of jam-packed production rosters and multiple guest verses, and Insight holds up his side of the bargain admirably. A tight flow and energetic delivery are the key features of his style, so much so that the content is somewhat lost on me: it’s the inherent musicality and sense of passion in his rhymes that captivates me above anything else. Having thoroughly enjoyed Insight’s previous outings on wax, it’s great to see the Bostonian MC still killin’ it over some dope production in 2007.
With very little skipping material and a sense of real cohesion, this is an album that has stayed in rotation for me for months (how many albums have done that for you recently?!). Chisel out a window in your hectic schedule and give it a well deserved spin: although this may not be ground breaking material, I have enjoyedTravel At Your Own Pace as much as any other release this year.
Buster Williams – ‘Vibrations’
taken from Crystal Reflections (Muse, 1976)
Big L – ‘Put It On’
taken from Livestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous (Columbia, 1995)
Given that I’m now approaching the one year mark in the blogging game, I’ve been feeling a little reflective of late. Although I feel I’ve covered the majority of my favourite artists during this period, there have of course been others who have slipped through the net one way or another. One such artist is the late Big L, who to my mind was undoubtedly one of the most naturally gifted MCs to emerge from the New York scene during the dying phases of the golden era. Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous ranks as one of my favourite albums from the DITC camp, an unforgiving portrayal of ghetto existence whose success relied on both exceptional production work and L’s inimitable attitude and swagger. Of course, the album is not exactly one for the faint of heart, but it executed that gritty mid-’90s sound as well as any other album from the era, and twelve years on its status as classic material remains fittingly intact.
Today’s beat deconstruction focuses on the album opener ‘Put It On’, a Buckwild produced number that served as the perfect introduction to the album as a whole. Although the adage ‘they just don’t make ‘em like they used to’ is perhaps somewhat played out when referring to a genre which seems caught in a constant state of reminiscence, it rarely feels as applicable: ‘Put It On’ embodies a bangin’ simplicity that will sadly never be seen again within the genre.
Buckwild finds his inspiration in Buster Williams’ ‘Vibrations’ track taken from his 1976 release Crystal Reflections, a smooth jazz/funk cover of a Roy Ayers cut that features a vibes track as its central melodic focus. Although the opening section of the song will seem immediately familiar, it is in fact the octave jump that leads into the section at the 0.31 mark that forms the backbone of ‘Put It On’. The sample contains a multitude of components: vibes, Williams’ deftly executed doubles bass, rim hits, synth strings and a subtle Fender Rhodes track, although in reality it is only the vibes, strings and bass that feature prominently in Buckwild’s beat. Naturally, the drums hit hard, and despite an extremely simple kick pattern they provide the song with a tremendous sense of momentum. Indeed, I find it almost impossible to understand how anybody could listen to this song with their head still: this is boom bap at its absolute finest.
When paired up with the Kid Capri chorus shouts and Big L’s rapid fire braggin’ verses, the track succeeds in taking itself up yet another notch. There is something particularly cohesive about the feel of ‘Put It On’ as whole; the track is a perfectly balanced mesh of beats and rhymes that is truly infectious. Grab your neck brace and indulge yourself people: things really will never be the same again.
Filed under: Miscellaneous
Compass Film Festival – 3rd/4th November @ The Watershed Cinema, Bristol
Rhymes Of Resistance – 31st October @ The Kuumba Centre, Bristol
A little off the regular hip hop tip I know, but I wanted to hip people to something else I’ve been involved with of late. My girlfriend Samantha works her arse off year round to organise a film festival which is now in its second year, and this time around I’ve pitched in by helping put together a night entitled ‘Rhymes Of Resistance’. The evening will feature performances from three local spoken word artists as well as an open mic session, so if you’re in the Bristol area tomorrow night come and check it out. The evening takes place at The Kuumba Centrein St. Paul’s, starts at 6pm and ends at 9pm. This will be followed by an after party at Mackies bar around the corner on Cheltenham Road. Beats and rhymes aplenty: it’s ‘Hip Hop Halloween’ people. I’ll be the guy looking stressed/nervous/euphoric depending on how the night goes down, come and say hello if you’re about.
The rest of the festival is taking place at the Watershed Cinema this coming weekend, have a look at the website and see if something tickles your fancy. Hope to see you there.
Gnotes – ‘Check Dos’ & ‘Dodgey Bullets’
taken from Rhymes And Beats (Gnawledge, 2007)
Gnawledge Records (stream available for Rhyme And Beats)
Although I’m lacking the exclusive angle here (Tree Beats has already commented on the album over at his spot), I was privileged enough to be able to have the opportunity to chat to Gnotes, an up and coming MC from Boston, about his new album Rhymes & Beats over the phone this week. Although some of the album isn’t exactly to my taste, an overall sense of quality and detail coupled with standouts such as ‘Check Dos’ and ‘Dodgey Bullets’ mean that you’d be a fool not to check it out. The above link will take you to the Gnawledge Records website where you can stream the album in its entirety and if you’re convinced then it’s available on Amazon.
From Da Bricks: Congratulations on the album man, I hope it all turns out well for you.
Gnotes: Thank you very much man, I put in a lot of work on that album and it seems like people are starting to give a good response back, you know what I mean?
FDB: I know you’re from Boston and you obviously have quite eclectic taste in music. What were your early experiences of music?
G: I started playing the guitar when I was ten years old. I was listening to a lot of different music before I started listening to hip hop, so when I was young I was playing punk, garage type stuff and grunge. I really got into hip hop when the west coast thing started blowin’ up, so it was really Dre and Snoop that turned me onto the whole artform. From there, a lot of my influences are from the older cats on the east coast, Pete Rock and people like that. Once I got into it there was no turning back!
FDB: I noticed as well that you have had several releases out before now, but I haven’t ever caught wind of them. Can you talk me through some of those earlier releases?
G: This is the fourth release that Canyon [Gnawledge Records founder] and I put out, but it’s really the second strictly hip hop album. The first album was entitled Broken Spoke, that was a hip hop album cut from the same form with a lot of world influences, but it was kind of just a stepping stone. We put that out in 2004. From then we did a spoken word album that was kind of just a collection of poets who were all competing in slams and stuff, and we had some musicians on it as well. I did quite a lot of guitar on that album. That was primarily Canyon’s brainchild. The third album, Inthrumental, was essentially a hip hop album but it was basically dusty breakbeats with a lot of live instrumentation. There’s no words on the album, it’s strictly musical, some sample based material, lots of live trumpets and I play a lot of guitar and do the MPC drums and so on. So the album before this was essentially a blank canvas, almost lounge music.
FDB: So how did you hook up with Canyon and Gnawledge in the first place?
G: Canyon used to be a journalist and he was reviewing a poetry slam that I was doing, and my Broken SpokeLP was essentially recorded by then. I was looking for a way to put it out and trying to start my own little independent label. Canyon was coming from the other end of the spectrum. He was looking to start his own record company but didn’t really have an artist to work with. The two of us got together and it just worked out really well: we had a lot of the same goals, ambitions and influences. Shortly after we met one another we put out Broken Spoke and travelled to Cuba for the tenth annual hip hop festival, and really just the type of work ethic that he has and the way that I like to work… we just vibe really well together.
FDB: You’ve already mentioned about some of your different production roles, for the new album can you break down the production? Is it lots of live instruments, MPC based, and do you still use samples?
G: It’s a little bit of everything. There’s four outsourced beats on the album out of fourteen. Personally, as a musician as well as an MC, I take a lot of pride in making the music. I think you lose a sense of soul when you have producers and rappers who haven’t even met each other paying for music, ya know? There’s a lot of sample based stuff, although I try to chop it and make it as obscure as I can. I have a lot of Latin records, a lot of old Brazilian music, so for example ‘Samba Tryst’ is based around one of those old Brazilian songs. From there, I put it in my MPC, cut it up and put the drums over it, and then almost every track I put live bass and guitar on it as well and as much as I can I get Afro DZ Ak to come and play trumpet on the track ‘cos I feel it adds a lot of life to it. Any track you listen to the skeleton is probably from a sample and then layer it up from there. The sample used on ‘Throw Ya Nickels Up’ is a cello and then I added live bass, drums from the MPC and live guitar. There’s a mix in each of the tracks.
FDB: Obviously you do rhymes as well, so when you’re thinking of the concept for a track is that the rhymes that come first and then the beats or the other way around?
G: It kind of varies with the projects. With this album I really focussed on the music. Primarily what I’m doing now is making a beat and then from the emotion of the music I go from there for the topic of the rhymes. Sometimes the sample I use may give me a framework to go with. For example, ‘Missing You’ was a Charlie Pride sample that says ‘missing you’, so that kind of speaks for itself in terms of direction. I primarily work on the music first, then the rhymes and then go back and rework everything.
FDB: So do you still see them as on a level playing field for you personally? Are you still involved in spoken word at all?
G: The spoken word scene got pretty tired for me pretty quickly to be honest. Being lyrically taut is a huge requirement for me, it’s just that being an instrumentalist means that I want the framework I rap over to have some musical substantiation. That’s the key focus for me. It’s not that I focus less on the rhymes, but I think it’s more important to get the music correct. You know, once I’ve done a song I rework it 15 or 20 times until we get it right, and that’s the role that Canyon plays. He’ll listen to a song and say whether the snares are too loud, maybe I’m emphasising the wrong word or he might question what I mean in a particular verse and then we’ll go back and re-record it. I probably recorded each song on the album at least 7 or 8 times.
FDB: Can you tell me a little bit about ‘Throw Ya Nickels Up’, the first single from the album?
G: That’s a more political track. I try to walk the line between mentioning socially relevant topics and being too overbearing. Music is a celebration and the last thing you want to do is put out a song that’s just a downer [laughs]. You want something that challenges people’s intelligence and avoids just stating the obvious. ‘Throw Ya Nickels Up’ is a politically driven song, I think instrumentally it kind of pointed in that direction. The drums are huge and then once I put the guitar in the hook it just seemed like a motivation for a ‘power to the people’ type of song. There are 4 or 5 tracks on the album that are very politically driven but it also walks the line between mentioning what I do as well.
FDB: You have a lot of collaborations on the album. How did those relationships come about?
G: Afro DZ Ak plays trumpet and he rhymes on one of the tracks. He played 7 tracks on Inthrumental, the two of us met and just instantly clicked. He’s on kind of the same vibe as me, he’s an MC but also an instrumentalist, so he plays piano and trumpet and I do guitar, bass and drums so the two of us have actually worked together a lot and I’m producing part of his album right now. Kabir, who features on ‘Tower Of Babylon’ is an MC from the Boston area who I met through music and is a great friend, very talented guy who has been around forever and put out a number of records. They’re all kind of driving from the peace poem, revolutionary segment of my peers. I have friends who are just straight rappers, a little bit more hood style, but the people I was looking for with this album were socially relevant and intelligent. Noni Kai, she sings on ‘We Can Roll’ is a singer from a band in Boston called The Eclectic Collective and she was actually just at my apartment working with another musician and I was writing ‘We Can Roll’ at the time and I just stole her for a minute and got her to sing and it worked out beautifully in just one take. The final collaboration is Elemental Zazen, another very talented cat from Boston who has a new album coming out soon. He’s actually the MC in another band that I play for, so when I’m doing a live show I’ll do a set with my DJ and then I do a set playing guitar for Elemental Zazen as well.
FDB: You’ve toured with some big hitters recently like Devin The Dude and CunninLynguists. What was that experience like?
G: It was great man. Devin The Dude is one of my favourite MCs so the opportunity to do anything with him is great. Obviously he’s a much bigger blip on my radar than I am on his. I saw him a couple of days ago in Boston and he’s an unbelievable cat, a great person to work with, just a really talented guy. It was just a pleasure. As far as touring and playing shows goes that’s my love, so being able to rock a show with the CunninLynguists who I’ve been listening to since I was 16 is a big step forward for me to be able to get my name in the same ring as people who I listen to.
FDB: Is there any potential for collaboration there do you think?
G: Yea, I mean Elemental Zazen has already worked with Kno from CunninLynguists as he produced like three songs on Elemental’s album that’s coming out. Much like anything else, a lot of this business has to do with networking and I really do hope to have Kno make some tracks for my next album. The more people I meet in the game who are further ahead than me and more established than I am the better. They all seem to treat me with respect because they know I’m coming from a pure place with the music. As long as I continue to put out quality work there’s no reason why I couldn’t get some bigger names on my next release.
FDB: In a more general sense, what do you make of hip hop at the moment? Do you still have a lot of time for people making music now?
G: I think if you talk to any MC who is cut from the same cloth as me the first thing they’ll say is ‘fuck the industry’ and stuff but I think if you look at any music whether it be punk, rap, rock, folk or whatever the stuff we are spoon fed through MTV and the radio is garbage, so ultimately it’s up to the listener. If you love the music then you find other artists who aren’t being shoved in your face with huge cars and half naked women on it: you can find beautiful music. The thing with hip hop for me is that the way it is marketed is really destructive socially. Essentially what you have is a black artform, and I realise I’m saying this from the perspective of a white MC that is now characterised by really strong stereotypes and destructive messages being sent out about the urban community that is being consumed by wealthy, middle and upper class white kids who kind of see it as their dose of reality. Unfortunately when you look at the music the labels are putting out it really just perpetuates a lot of stereotypes and a lot of negative things: that’s my biggest problem with it. But you know if I’m in a club out dancing and I hear a commercial song it can sound good, there still needs to be a niche for that, but it’s shame that it strangles everything else with stereotypical rap bullshit. I don’t hate it, it’s there and it exists in all genres. It’s a testament to how powerful hip hop can be that it’s on loads of commercials and I still have a lot of hope and I think the listenership are getting tired of all that bullshit too and seem to be leaning towards more emotive, constructive and positive music.
FDB: Obviously your main point of focus at the moment must be Rhymes & Beats, but have you got other projects lined up?
G: Canyon is out in Spain at the moment on a Fulbright scholarship and his project is to record a multi-lingual, international hip hop album kind of tracing the roots of human migration through Spain and how that affected its music. So I’m actually going out there to record an album with a bunch of MCs from Spain, France, Morocco and really all over Europe and we’re starting that in January. Beyond that I’m doing other production work and playing with my band so I’ve still got a lot going on.
FDB: I wish you the best with it man.
G: Thanks man, peace.
Not only has it been a pleasure talking to artists of late, I also think that the increasing interview activity in the blog scene in wider terms is an interesting indication of the ever-growing profile of online hip hop spots. It’s good to see artists taking the time to engage with the internet heads… long may it continue. I’ve hopefully got a few more in the pipeline in the near future, so stay locked.
Make the most of the remainder of your Sunday: beer, TV and a comfy sofa is the order of the day round my way. That’s what Sundays were made for, isn’t it?
Motherlode – ‘Soft Shell’
taken from When I Die (Buddah, 1969)
Gangstarr – ‘Credit Is Due’
taken from Lovesick 12” (Chrysalis, 1991)
DJ Shadow – ‘Changeling’
taken from Endtroducing… (Mo Wax, 1996)
Although it’s obvious why some breaks have achieved such popularity, my digital digging sessions occasionally uncover a break that seems significantly underused. One such example can be found on a song called ‘Soft Shell’ by late 60s pop rock/funk outfit Motherlode, whose opening two bars feature what can only be described as digger’s gold. An initial snare hit seems to hang in the air for an extended moment, building the impact of the drop into crashing cymbal hits and pounding kick drums. However, despite its ripeness for sampling it has only been interpolated a handful of times, surprising given the potential offered up by Wayne ‘Stoney’ Stone’s beautiful drum track.
Of course, it’s not been totally overlooked, and the pedigree of producers who have used it speaks volumes about the quality of the break itself: The Breaks cites DJ Shadow (incorrectly), Preem and Lord Finesse as exponents of the sample. The only two instances of its use that I actually know of first hand are on Gangstarr’s ‘Credit Is Due’, the flipside to the ‘Lovesick’ 12” from their classic Step In The Arena LP, and DJ Shadow’s ‘Changeling’ taken from the sensational Endtroducing…, arguably the ultimate digging record. (Shadow has in fact used the song on two occasions, using the sax solo on his ‘duet’ with DJ Krush, ‘Duality’.)
‘Credit Is Due’ has to be one of the best non-LP cuts that Premier and Guru ever put together. Although Guru’s braggin’ verses are essentially standard fare, they sit particularly well here, the dark, moody quality of the beat providing the rhymes with a satisfyingly gritty edge. Preem does little more than loop up the first bar of the drum break and beef it up a little, but it is enough to provide the song with texture and depth. Shadow’s approach is far more intricate, with deft chops splicing the break into innumerable pieces, and this provides him with the opportunity to play around with it ad infinitum. Using an array of delay and reverb effects throughout ‘Changeling’ keeps the groove moving with variation, and it stands as a demonstration of Shadow’s innate production genius and his ability to transform music from the past into compositions that sound intensely modern. Indeed, it’s hard for me to believe that this record was made over a decade ago: whatever direction Shadow may be going in nowadays, Endtroducing… endures for me as an album that is truly timeless.
With regards to the break’s use elsewhere, I’m ready to be schooled. I’m sure I’ve never heard a Lord Finesse album cut that uses the drums, and they don’t seem to appear on The Nonce’s World Ultimate LP either, although this is not a record I know particularly well. If you know, let the geek in you free and drop a comment: from one geek to another, it will be much appreciated.
Midas Touch Live
Nas – ‘Thief’s Theme’ (Midas Touch Remix) (snippet)
Yesterday, I was checking out Nappy Diatribe which has got to be one of the funniest blogs out there and took a look at the footage that Humanity Critic had posted of a segment from Bill O’Reilly’s show. This experience struck me for two reasons:
1. As an outsider who has only a passing understanding of American contemporary culture and politics, I found it incredible that a ‘journalist’ on nationwide television is allowed to so strongly promote/condemn a political viewpoint. Having watched the original footage, I then checked out O’Reilly’s interview with Hillary Clinton’s campaign spokesman, the first half of which is a ‘memo’ in which O’Reilly slanders those on the far left. Believe me, I’m not trying to get involved in anything too political here, but you would never see a broadcaster on British TV speak in such a biased fashion. That’s not to say these points of view aren’t promoted over here, but they are promoted by politicians and those who are interviewed, not by those who should be seeking to provide an overview of the issue at hand. Maybe I’m missing out on the other programming that Fox offer which evens out this argument, but it just had an impact on me because you just don’t see such blatant propoganda like that on British TV.
2. Enough of that. Far more interestingly, they played a collage of clips that were meant to expose Nas as the gun-toting, crime-promoting villain that he is: a message that passed me by entirely as I heard a remix of his song ‘Thief’s Theme’ that banged hard. A little internet research exposed the remix as a YouTube only exclusive put together by a producer called Midas, a song which I have subsequently purchased from hiswebsite. This is a remix of epic proportions, and I can’t recommend that you cop it enough. It could almost be mistaken for a Premier beat, which you know is no bad thing. Enjoy the snippet I’ve provided here and then go buy it: you’ll be bangin’ this one for days.
Funk Inc. – ‘Goodbye, So Long’
taken from Superfunk (Prestige, 1973)
YGz – ‘Ghetto Celeb’
taken from Street Nigga (Reprise, 1993)
Although the YGz EP Street Nigga has its moments, I can clearly see why the Pete Rock affiliated crew disappeared rather swiftly after their decent but unexceptional 1993 drop. Given that The Chocolate Boy Wonder handled the majority of the production duties, it’s no surprise that the majority of the beats bang here, and ‘Street Nigga’, ‘Ghetto Celeb’ and ‘Sumthin’ 4 Da Head’ all deserve to be viewed as prominent pieces in Rock’s expansive jigsaw of work.
The real problem with this release is the performances of MCs Kenny Austin and Tommy Guest, whose combination of pedestrian flows and complete submission to cliche puts the whole project at risk, and it is only through the production prowess of Mt. Vernon’s finest that Street Nigga is narrowly rescued from the jaws of total obscurity. ‘Ghetto Celeb’ represents the clear standout for me, a chunky slab of Pete Rock soul that is accompanied by some of the more palatable verses from Austin and Guest. Sticking to straight braggin’ verses suits them relatively well, and it means the crew steer clear of the ‘rhymes by numbers’ misogyny and homophobia that can be found in abundance elsewhere on the EP.
Rock gets his fingers dusty in the Funk Inc. back catalogue for inspiration here, jacking bass and horns from their track ‘Goodbye, So Long’ that appears on their fourth studio album from 1973, Superfunk. The original sample source is itself a joy, and its rumbling bass (played by Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson) and funky horn stabs are tailor made for a little Soul Brother reworking. Using filters to remove the organ and guitar tracks from the opening section of the song strips the break down to its core, and the reverberation added to the horns and the way in which they playfully rebound between left and right audio channels adds a welcome depth to an otherwise simple formula. It’s also interesting to note Rock’s sung hook at the chorus, a feature rarely seen in his work that adds another of layer to the composition that helps maintain its rolling, funky vibe.
Below par lyrics + above par beats: a formula so often seen in hip hop during the second half of the genre’s golden era and one that perfectly encapsulates Street Nigga. Still, at $0.64, there’s little excuse not to add this to your collection and its highlights, most notably ‘Ghetto Celeb’, are more than worth the price of admission. Pete Rock opening proceedings here at fromdabricks.com: who would have guessed it?
AK Skillz – ‘East To West’
taken from One Life Ta Live 12” (Tru Criminal, 1996)
Eddie James – ‘My Thoughts’(Unreleased)
Seth Marcel – ‘Hardcore’ ft. Aki
taken from So Necessary(Unreleased)
When I wrote my recent post on three producers who I wish I’d heard more from, little did I know that it would lead to not one, but two interviews with the artists I mentioned. I’ve waxed lyrical on two occasions about Eddie James’s work here at FDB on the sensational AK Skillz 12” from ‘96: both ‘One Life Ta Live’ and ‘East To West’ are truly slammin’. I had the pleasure to talk to him last week, and I really appreciated his openness and friendly, upbeat manner which made it a true joy.
From Da Bricks: As I said to you the other day, that AK Skills 12’’ has been one of my discoveries of the year. Does it surprise you that 11 years later someone living in the UK is writing about it on a blog?
Eddie James: You know, it’s funny because Skills [director of Tru Criminal Records] called me up and was like, ‘Yo, you’re never gonna guess what I’ve seen. There’s this blog, and it’s about you!’ You never really know… I knew that I was doing something special back then. I talk with Just Blaze who I met essentially through MySpace, and we had met a couple of times before but he didn’t know that I was the guy who did that record. I asked him for some advice, and he was like, ‘Is this the Eddie James who did ‘East to West’ on Tru Criminal?’ He remembered my name from then even though he didn’t remember who the other artists were. I haven’t actually heard ‘East To West’ or ‘One Life Ta Live’ since ’97/’98.
FDB: Can you talk me though the construction of those songs?
EJ: I was using an MPC 60 through college and I was a part of a group called Channel Three, kinda like Main Source in a way where we were all DJs and producers. When I graduated from college I couldn’t take the equipment! Syracuse is about four hours from the metropolitan NYC area, so when I moved back down I copped an SP 1200 and the 950. The problem with the SP1200 was that it didn’t have a lot of sample time, maybe a total of about ten seconds. For ‘One Life Ta Live’ I multi-pitched a note from a Minnie Riperton song or something like that. I just took the keys. Part of my thing is that I’ve always been known to have drums: neck snappin’ and clean. If you listen closely ‘One Life Ta Live’ reminds me of a Pete Rock track, and the high hat is one that got used a lot, taken from an O.J.s’ record called ‘Give The People What They Want’. Listen to that record and you’ll hear the high hats, that’s where everyone used to rape them from during the early ‘90s.
FDB: It’s interesting that you’ve picked Pete Rock because the producer it really reminds me of is Buckwild. Would you say that’s a fair comparison? Has he been an influence on you?
EJ: Buck is my friend man. There were only three producers responsible for the Tru Criminal movement: myself, Buck and Domingo. I really loved Buck’s production on the AK Skillz track that was on the EP. It was a hard, hard record.
‘East To West’ was one of the first times I ever used the 950. It was simple, the drums were hard and the melody was soft. My father was a jazz artist and so I got a lot of my influences from his records. Pete Rock flipped the same sample and he used to play my record followed by his on the Future Flavas show with Marley Marl. We did the same thing with it, filtered it and let it run. AK was great on the vocals again and it feels like we were doing something special at that time.
FDB: Whatever happened to AK Skillz? I heard at one stage that he’d done a little time in prison. Is that right?
EJ: Yea, he did some time. AK was a strange guy man. He was good people, but he was the type of person that would talk in riddles all the time. You never really knew what the hell he was sayin’! [laughs] When it came to rhymes he was incredible. He reminds me of Nasty Nas, but you know the early stuff. If you listen to his verse on ‘Live At The BBQ’ it really reminds me of AK, you know the Queens rappers, they have the same cadence. Unfortunately, the streets are the streets and some people can’t get out of it. I haven’t spoken to him in about eight years bro. I wish him well, wherever he is.
FDB: How did you hook up with the Tru Criminal label and get your start in the production game?
EJ: The guys who ran Tru Criminal were my college buddies. We all went to Syracuse together and they kinda brought me along with them. I’m actually from Syracuse so I wasn’t actually in the tri-state area so it was hard for me to get a hold and compete with the producers. I used to DJ a lot in battles and stuff like that, and I knew I could do the scratches that Jazzy Jeff was doing and I carried that approach over to production. If your beats didn’t sound remotely like Pete Rock, Extra P or Ali Shaheed Muhammad then you really wasn’t doing it right. It wasn’t like I was bitin’, but any person who says they’re not a reflection of somebody then they’re fucking lying.
FDB: I guess that’s the nature of all art. There is always a basis on things that have gone before.
EJ: Take someone like Timbaland. He’s one of my favourite producers but there’s someone in the UK he’s jacking samples from: I don’t think anybody is truly original. I’d like to think of myself as a good collage of a lot of producers.
FDB: How come the label released such a limited amount of material?
EJ: That whole movement came at a time when things were changing. The music changed around ‘97/’98: I’d say Puffy really fucked shit up! Really, that’s when underground records started becoming really underground. Tru Criminal actually got a deal with New Line, and received some national coverage on some Rush Hoursoundtracks.
For me, I started to produce for some other groups like Born Suspicious who were Derrick Coleman’s cousins from Detroit. Derrick was also a friend of mine from college. Those records were alright, but nothing really to go crazy about.
FDB: It’s clear from your MySpace and your more recent material that Dilla has been a big influence for you. What do you think it was about his production style that made it so special?
EJ: The first record of his I ever heard was the ‘She Said’ remix for Pharcyde. That record really hit me. As well as that there was Beats, Rhymes & Life, which to me was a fucking incredible album. A lot of people say it’s too dark for Tribe, but that album is incredible. I knew there was something different about their sound: the melodies were still the same but the basslines had more sub-bass that really attracted me to it. I checked the insleeve and saw that some cat called Jaydee had been involved in the production. My old manager used to work for Jive Records and I can remember meeting Dilla years ago at Battery Studios while he was working on the Keith Murray record. He had a sense of not really giving a fuck when it came to basslines and drums. I used to quantise my drums just to be on the safe side but he was the first producer to not really do it and if you listen to his music the bass kicks are sometimes a little bit off or maybe the high hat, but always on time and the basslines were just incredible. I’d never heard anything like it, and from that point on I was a fanatic. I finally wound up meeting him again because we recorded at the same studio in Detroit. He was a constant professional and just a good person man.
The music speaks for itself; the guy was way ahead of his time. Everybody is using the hard kicks and the claps now but if you listen to the Slum Village albums he’s rockin’ those same claps that everybody eventually used. The D’Angelo Voodoo album uses a clap that ended up on everybody’s records like three years ago. The Trakmasterz ran that clap to the ground! I saw him work as well and at the beginning it sometimes looked like a song wasn’t going to work but when they were finished they were incredible.
FDB: According to Discogs your output is limited to that Tru Criminal phase, but what else have you done between then and now?
EJ: Since then I’ve gone onto work with the likes of Jadakiss, Joe Budden, Obie Trice and my cousin Seth Marcel on On Point Recordings owned by Derrick Coleman. Seth is one hell of an MC man. I was working on a project with him that started in 2000. I didn’t really do that much between ’97 and then. I was still working in the industry, I worked for Def Jam for a while, and I just compiled a library of beats. It’s not like I hit hard times, but it was just a funny time and a lot of guys didn’t want to hear the backpack shit at all. People were sampling big ‘70s records and I just wasn’t with that shit, but I was always producing. Unfortunately the Seth Marcel record was never released. About 2003, a lot of money was spent but no real results followed so it never came out. I did a couple of remixes, like I did a Britney Spears ‘Toxic’ remix, and I worked with R Kelly’s old group Public Announcement; I did a remix for them that featured Big Daddy Kane. It’s just been a case of odd production jobs here and there.
I’m now working with someone called Candice Jones, and I think she’s going to be that one. It’s kind of funny, you go full circle from hip hop to R ‘n’ B but I keep the same approach to making music now as I did in ’97. She’s gonna be my claim to fame, for real. I’m doing about 50% of the upcoming album, and I think she’s also working with Raphael Saadiq on the project right now. There’s also somebody called Sinatra who I’m gonna be working with and he is definitely going to be somebody.
I also do music for television; I’ve been doing that since 2004. I license music for different shows like the Oprah Winfrey show, CSI, MTV Cribs… different avenues bro!
I got a wishlist of people I want to work with in the future when I finish my projects. I got the right person to broker my tracks now in Skills so I’m trying to get on some bigger projects. More soulful, you know like Angie Stone, hopefully Bilal and maybe Common, so I’m just trying to get with the right guys.
FDB: How do you view the culture in this phase of its development? Where do you see it going from here?
EJ: Hip hop is definitely not dead! It can’t be dead. Kanye sold damn near a million copies in a week. Two months prior to that Finding Forever was the number one record in the country. I mean Finding Forever? Common?! Two weeks after that Ear Drum was number two. However, things have changed man. The A & Rs pretty much want to be the fucking artist now, and they glorify some of the fucking shit coming out now. I guess it’s a reflection of our youth right now; I DJ and sometimes I find myself playing bullshit records. All that South shit I just can’t get with it at all. I like some of it, I like T.I., I like Jeezy because they keep it real gutter and I can believe them, you know what I ‘m sayin’? I like UGK and Eightball. I can fuck with that because they’ve been doing it for a long time but all these other guys, I don’t even know their names, but it’s fucked up. But then you look on any corner, every ‘hood and the suburbs and this is what young people are listening to man. I guess my shit is old now, our shit is old. Finding Forever and Ear Drum, there’s the hope right there. Common sold like 200,000 records in the first week, that’s pretty amazing.
There’s only a couple of producers in the game now who I’m really checkin’ for. I still think Dr Dre is amazing, I don’t care what anybody says. His shit is always cutting edge, his drums and basslines are crazy, you know that theatrical hip hop that he does. I put him high up on a pedestal. I think Madlib is absolutely incredible. I heard bits of the Percee P jump off, I got the India Beat Konducta album. It pisses me off all the Dilla fans who hit him up on his website like ‘we miss you’ and ‘you were fucking God, but where the fuck were these people when he was alive and doing it. It’s the same thing with Madlib, he’s big amongst his community but to the masses it’s like, whatever. I guess you’re never really nothing until you pass away. It is fucked up.
FDB: Just to wrap things up Eddie, I know you’re a family man now. How has that affected you as a musician?
EJ: I appreciate you saying musician because I like to consider myself as one. I had to cut the sampling out because a couple of times I did do some work and I got taxed on it and in about 2002 I started playing keys. The whole family thing really hasn’t really changed my approach because I find myself still listening to the same shit. The good thing is that I’ve matured a lot and I think my music is now as mature as it’s gonna get. If you listen again to ‘One Life Ta Live’ or ‘East To West’ I had the same approach: if it’s ’97 or 2007 I still have the same approach. I call it ‘hard love’, hard drums with melodic keys and that has always been my approach.
I had a death in the family when my son Morgan passed away in 2005. The record on my MySpace page called ‘Perfect Angel’ is dedicated to him.
FDB: I’m really sorry to hear that.
EJ: It was a crib death, and if there’s such a thing as rock bottom then that’s it. I guess if I can get through that then I can get through anything. My music has gotten a little more meaningful now, and with the next body of work I do you’ll see a growth in it. It’s still gonna be the same hip hop shit, R ‘n’ B or whatever. Children will do that to ya. As long as my four year old keeps bobbin’ his head when he comes in the lab then I know I’m doing alright.
FDB: It’s been really great to talk to you Eddie.
EJ: It’s good to talk to you too man, stay blessed.
Let’s hope we hear more from Eddie in the future and that he gets the recognition he deserves. I’ll be hipping you to anything that he drops, and make sure you go and check out his MySpace and show him some love. Damn shame that Seth Marcel joint never made it out: ‘Hardcore’ is real tasty street record. Props to the man for sending me over some of his unreleased material as well; I hope you enjoy them as much as I have been.
FROM DA BRICKS 