The Honey
Onyx
Del The Funky Homosapien
Peanut Butter Wolf
Pharoahe Monch
Mix Master Mike
Dj Craze
Eve
Lyrics Born
onyx
By B-Peasy
If they weren’t telling us to Throw Ya Gunz, they were teaching us how to Slam. Hands up who remembers Onyx.
No? Well let’s refresh the memory: Sticky Fingaz, Fredro Starr, Sonee Seeza and Big DS formed in 1989 and went on to become one of the most successful hip hop acts of the ‘90s – yes, they hail from New York. Fifteen years later and the group have released a DVD aptly titled 15 Years Of Videos, History And Violence.
“It’s a documentary made for the Onyx fans,” Starts Sticky Fingaz, “And hopefully we get some new fans along the way. Every video that Onyx has done – and they all digitally remastered and uncensored and every solo video that me and Fredro have done and they also have an hour and fifteen minute documentary following Onyx from our early stages to our current stages. It shows us interacting with other artists like Biggie Smalls and Treach from Naughty By Nature and Jam Master Jay and Method Man and Redman and Ja Rule and Russell Simmons.”
The real treat for fans is the DVD showcasing footage with the G-Unit mogul 50 Cent, along with a never-to-be-released track with Biggie Smalls (RIP).
“He was on a track called React and the video was an ice hockey video. And this is before Fifty was big; this is before Eminem signed him, before all that. This is when Fifty was fat. And he’s chubby. This was a long time ago.”
“Man, I think Puffy got that track (with Biggie) hidden somewhere, I don’t know. I don’t even remember how the song went or anything I just know the song was hot. Even Biggie said the song was hot in the documentary. I don’t know what happened to it. I have to go hunt Puffy down and get that song.”
But it wasn’t Fifty or Biggie that was Sticky Fingaz’s standout moments. It was his time spent in the recording studio with Jam Master Jay.
“We’re in the studio with Jam Master Jay and we’re recording some song and we just joking around and having a lot of fun. He has this doll up in my face saying, ‘This is Pippy, this is Pippy, this is Pippy’. And we start play fighting. That’s probably one of my fave moments. It makes me smile. You know, when Jay passed away he basically bought us into the game.”
Sticky Fingaz was bought into the game at a young age, joining Onyx in ’91 thanks to his cousin Fredro Starr. The wordsmith has never looked back, going on to rap and act in various TV shows and movies.
“You got to understand that when I joined Onyx I was the youngest in the group, even when I signed to Def Jam Records, I signed illegally because I was only 17 years old. I didn’t really ever introduce myself to hip hop because I am hip hop.”
Look out for Onyx’s new album the Cold Case Files coming out in August.
“It’s called the Cold Case Files. Basically its 16 tracks we’ve never released back in the day. So we’re going to release them now and all the tracks are remixed and remastered and it’s funny because most of the tracks we got from back in the day – they didn’t have CDs and flashdrives and stuff like that. All we had was Datsun cassette tapes. So most of the stuff we found are all cassette tapes off Fredro’s brother who’s kept over the years. And it was good to hear these songs because I was like, ‘Wow, I didn’t even remember recording this songs’. It takes you right back to the ‘90s. All the songs are hot and I’m saying, ‘Damn, why didn’t these songs make the album’? Now we’re going to release them.”
Anything else in the pipeline Sticky?
“I finished directing my own movie and it’s called A Day In The Life and all of the dialogue of the movie is in rap. That’s coming out through Lions Gate in November or December. I have everybody in it: Fredro Starr, Robert De Niro’s daughter Julia De Niro, Mike Williamson form The Wire, Korrupt, Ray Jay, myself and it just goers on and on and on. The character list is retarded.”
Onyx: 15 Years Of Videos, History And Violence is out now through Grindin’.
del the funky homosapien
By B-Peasy
Del The Funky Homosapien (remember him?) has been spitting rhymes since the fourth grade. It’s probably why his talent with the English language has landed him relatively high up in the hip hop food chain. As front man for the legendary Hieroglyphics, working closely with Gorillaz on the smash single Clint Eastwood, his science fiction adventure Deltron 3030 that he orchestrated with Dan The Automator and Kid Koala and now, he drops his album Eleventh Hour on the Def Jux label. It’s been seven years between albums and projects but suffice to say, the Bay Area pioneer is back. So, why the long wait?
“Partially, because I was studying more about music theory and trying to get my act together – that was part of it,” Del explains. “That probably would’ve been achieved quickly if it weren’t for the other things in my life that were basically there to make me work harder. Without going into to much detail because it’s kind of too terrible to talk about, it was hard work to try and keep out of trouble, you know what I’m saying? Try and keep everything cool. It took years to get that straightened out. Trouble is easy to get into but it’s hard to get out of.”
In his seven-year absence, Del taught himself music theory, a complex series of lessons that explains the mechanics of music and how it actually works. He applied this theory to make his recordings simpler, more powerful and understand other musicians.
“I was interested with a lot of black musical styles from the blues on up and I wanted to learn more about that. So, if I could just have that within my realm of activity and really understand it. To be able to understand it those things I had to know music theory. I couldn’t understand what other musicians were trying to communicate to me if I didn’t speak in their language so I had to learn that first.”
Despite the many shining moments in Del’s life or his many masks – Del The Funky Homosapien, Del-Tron, The Gorillaz, Hieroglyphics – it’s his new solo endeavour that means the most to him.
“The Eleventh Hour holds a lot of meaning for me because I really had to work at it. Kind of bring everything together the way that I always wanted to do it. I feel like I’ve done that with this album. So it kind of means the most to me out of all of them. This is the one where I had to prove to myself that I can do this.”
“I guess I have a unique way of looking at things and talking about things. I kind of got like a funky attitude. I keep it funky with you. I’m going to be real with you. I’m cool but I’m not going to go for no bullshit. And you can kind of see that with the sound of my lyrics. You get the idea that I’m a cool person, I talk a lot of shit but I don’t think anybody ever gets the feeling I’m a bad person or an asshole. You kind of get the feeling you don’t want to be fucking around with me, I’m not playing you know?”
Having the English gift on his side from an early age, it clearly runs in the family – his cousin is renowned gangster rapper Ice Cube. Together they worked on Ice Cube’s Amerikkka’s Most Wanted circa 1990. Can we see another Del/Cube collaboration?
“I’d love to do collaborations with him. He’s working on his new album. I’m not the type of person that’s going to push it cause I don’t want him to get the feeling that I’m the type to run up on him, begging him, because I’m sure he gets that all day, every day. For me I miss being able to do that with him because he used to be hella fun.”
Eleventh Hour is out now on Definitive Jux through Inertia.
Peanut Butter Wolf
By B-Peasy
All condiment and animal jokes aside, what do you say to the guy that has the dopest line up on hip hop’s most auspicious label? Nothing, just ask him how that happened. For Stones Throw founder Peanut Butter Wolf (born Chris Manak), it’s just a reflection of his personal taste.
“Yeah. I’m not trying to diss anyone else, but my roster is the best for my personal taste. I guess it would have to be though, huh? I guess that’s why I’m always so bitter that they aren’t more popular than they are.”
Rival labels must be reeling at the Stones Throw roster: Jaylib, Madlib, Aloe Blac, Doom, Oh-No, Percee P, Guilty Simpson and of course, Peanut Butter Wolf.
“I got mad taste I guess,” Wolf goes on, “Seriously though, I just pursue what I like and it usually works out. I just followed my heart like Napolean Dynamite.”
Peanut Butter Wolf has picked his artists wisely – so many varying styles executed so well over various productions from the likes of Madlib and Oh No to name a few.
“With Madlib, he and I were just sitting in a room one day and I asked him who he wanted to work with because he has so many damned beats that our immediate crew could never write songs to all of them. He said Doom and Dilla and that’s what we set out for. Oh No is incredibly slept on and talented as well. I’d call him the most underrated producer of our time. He should be in music magazine headlines every month.”
Despite the hugely popular artists (J Dilla, Madlib and the hybrid of Dilla and Madlib – Jaylib) on the label, the late J Dilla’s protégé Guilty Simpson’s recent release Ode To The Ghetto has been receiving adverse reviews. Is that because he’s not your traditional Stones Throw artist?
“The great thing about Stones Throw is that there is no ‘traditional Stones Throw artist’. The only thing that everyone on the roster has in common is that I like their music. Guilty is a guy who I was really interested in after Dilla put him on a song on the Jaylib album. I asked Dilla who that was and he told me. Dilla always spoke highly of Guilty, but when I did a show with Jaylib in Detroit and Guilty performed live with them and I got to witness him live firsthand, I knew he was not your run of the mill MC.”
Since his last artist album, the ’99 classic My Vinyl Weighs A Ton, Peanut Butter has slowly inched away from producing; favouring touring and DJing instead. But like his contemporaries DJ Klever and DJ Craze, is the Wolf on the electro and Miami Bass tip too?
“Well, I love electro/Miami Bass as well. I got tons of rare mid 80s west coast and Miami electro for example, but I guess I love a lot of things. That’s the main reason why I came up with the idea to spin seven different kinds of music for seven nights in a row in Los Angeles last year. I definitely like doing themed mixes like my mix of all cheesy cover songs or my mix of all older female rappers or my Evil 666 mix or my Spiritual 777 mix. My latest mix is called Area Codes and is all older hip hop from different parts of the US. Every song is from a different area code.”
Always ahead of the game, he’s also mixing with video instead of records.
“I’m buying a lot of video actually. More than records lately. I love spinning with videos because nobody else is really doing it yet.”
THE WOLF BARKS…
Why do you call yourself Peanut Butter Wolf
Because it sounds better than Veggiemite Wolf.
What other toast toppings combine well with animals to make phenomenal music?
There was a Jelly Dog that came out a while after me. I was surprised and halfway flattered.
Any up and comers on the Stones Throw label we should watch out for? Here’s your chance to plug…
Since you called me out with the plug, I won’t do it. I know people will go to our website after reading this anyway, so it’s all good.
Will there ever be a Stones Throw kick as you’re a sneaker head?
“I like shoes (my distant relative started Ferragamo), but I’m not a collector with them like I am with music. We did a Stones Throw dunk a couple years back though in conjunction with Quasimoto. We have some offers from some other companies to do shoes, but we haven’t really figured out what we wanna do yet.”
Crumpet Asks. Pharoahe Monch Answers.
By B-Peasy
As stated in his MySpace blog Pharoahe Monch answers to anything:
Faroe Monk, Pharo-Hee-Munch, Furry Monkey, Faroa Mahnk. Of course the correct pronunciation is Farrow Monch. Even I stand corrected. So how did the Queens-bred rapper with a birth name of Troy Donald Jamerson get such an interesting name?
Thanks to a bad haircut and a childhood taunt from his sister Monch was dubbed Monchhichi after the too-cute Japanese cartoon character. He took on the Pharoahe prefix after meeting future Organized Konfusion partner Prince Po(etry).
“Yeah the Monchhichi,” Monch recalls when speaking on the line from New York before he goes on, “You know the guy really messed up my haircut, the kids were teasing me and they gave me that nickname. I was a clown, so it was pretty funny to get one over on me.”
Like most rappers, it was through (art) school that Monch caught the hip hop bug. Immersing himself in the whole graffiti, breakers, deejaying and emceeing gambit, he formed Orgnaized Konfusion in 1989, releasing three albums (Organized Konfusion, Stress: The Extinction Agenda and The Equinox) before splitting after their final album in ’97. Monch, who still remains friends with Prince Po, is coy when asked if a reunion is on the cards.
“Who knows what the future holds.”
Undoubtedly one of hip hop’s most gifted lyricists, Monch’s solo career has soared, releasing the classic album Internal Affairs (boasting crowd fave Simon Says), following it up with the 12-inch Agent Orange in 2003. It was around the same time that Monch’s career stalled thanks to various record companies. After an eight-year hiatus, he returned with the long-awaited Desire, which took four years to come to fruition. During that time Pharoahe was getting fed up playing record-label-tennis.
“It was very difficult man, it was very frustrating. It was insane on my psyche, insane on my emotions. My stress level was crazy and I think it took good people and good inspiration that got me through that and it took a desire to get through it to help me make it through and that’s why I titled that album that.”
When it comes to waxing lyrical on Desire, Monch is like a late ‘80s, early ‘90s throwback – how hip hop used to sound. He doesn’t think his raps are political though.
“I don’t know if I’d call it political, I just think it’s social commentary, my feelings on what’s going with people and [the] government, you know, that’s not what the sum of the record is. But on the record it expressed that it’s really hard and I really think people are going to feel opinionated one way or another, which is good for hip hop.”
Monch’s career has also seen him ghost write for hip hop tycoon P Diddy on his Press Play album, along with Havoc from Mobb Deep. To say Puffy is commercial and mainstream is an understatement but Monch defends the claims.
“I think it’s a myth to believe that Puffy is not aware of who Immortal Technique is and [who] MF Doom is, you know? He’s always kept his ear to the pulse of what pop culture is interested in, which you have to do if you trying to be a mogul or sell clothes or if you want to know what kids are interested in. So, you know he’s been knowing about Pharoahe Monch and Organized Konfusion since the Biggie days. He approached this record with one-and-a-half different types of writers, I approached the record, as it being a huge challenge for me as I never did it before and I learned a lot; I learned a lot from him and I learned a lot about myself.”
Can we see Pharoahe doing a Diddy and amassing his own clothing label?
“I’m working on a clothing line right now called WAR, which is an acronym for We Are Renegades. Which is clothes for people who are artists and open minded and outward thinking and they’re not following the authority in terms of what is art and what is culture… Just free-minded people who are artists or beginners.”
MIX MASTER MIKE
By B-Peasy
Extensive touring is just how Mix Master Mike rolls. The turntablist, notably famous for being the Beastie Boys’ DJ and member of prominent but now defunct group Invisibl Skratch Piklz, has been touring – yes, extensively – for the past four years. This might explain why we’re yet to see an album since his last effort, Bangzilla circa 2004.
“I’ve been touring the last four years straight with the Beastie Boys and also solo. When the Beastie Boys stop, I keep going. It’s a great way to reach the kids.”
Having recently (very recently, he got home last night) completed a world tour playing everywhere from Dusseldorf, Germany to Manchester, United Kingdom all in the time span of a month; it’s Manchester, Berlin, Paris and Dussledorf that were his faves. However Mix Master Mike is all set to return to Australia for the We Love Sounds tour. And he’s excited.
“I’m very fond of Australia. I like to keep coming back as much as I can. I like the crowds; I like doing shows out there. I have a good relationship with the people out there in Australia.”
Touring aside, the skilled mixer still found time in his crazy touring schedule to work on an album coming out sometime this year.
“It’s going to be the same craziness; instrumental mayhem; crazy scratches, really pounding bass beats. Music that’ll get you from point A to point B in a split second. No name as yet however I have several floating in my head right now.”
Interestingly enough, he also found time to collaborate with English R&B singer-songwriter Joss Stone on her album Introducing Joss Stone.
“She was looking for me,” Mike explains. “Actually, she came to one of my shows with a good friend of mine Tommy Lee from Motley Crue, and he bought her to one of my shows; and she got inspired and she was like, she came up to me and said, “I’m working on a new record”, we exchanged contacts and the rest is history.”
Enterprises like collaborations (Ozzy Osbourne, Tommy Lee, Rob Zombie, Fela Kuti, Joss Stone), touring, the Beastie Boys, Invisibl Skratch Piklz, guest appearances, production, scratches, remixes and releases wouldn’t be possible had Mix Master Mike not been inspired by DJ Grandmixer DST on stage with Herbie Hancock who did a song called Rokit.
“That was probably the moment that changed my life,” admits Mike. “Musically I was watching him scratch live on TV and I just wanted to do the same thing but I wanted to create my own style from it and that was play the turntable as a progressive instrument.”
The first West Coast DJ to become World Champion by winning the New Music Seminar DJ Battle for World Supremacy in New York City has also been credited with inventing the Tweak Scratch and honoured with The Grandwizard Theodore Lifetime Achievement Award.
“It’s amazing,” Mike gushes. “I don’t do it to get the award; I do it because it’s like something I’m obsessed with. Like making music and all the other stuff, you know, getting awards for that, it’s just a bonus. It’s weird. It’s amazing to get awards for something you love to do. It’s a great thing – but weird.”
So has the god of the “turnies” invented any other scratching techniques lately?
“Oh, I’m inventing every day I touch the turntables. It’s funny I don’t name them anymore. They’re just all in my head now so there’s no particular names, it’s all about remembering them while I’m performing them.”
Mix Master Mike plays at We Love Sounds and various venues around Australia.
MIX MASTER MIKE’S FAMOUS LAST WORDS:
What mixing equipment do you use now? Two Techniques 1200s, Rane TTM 56 Performance Mixer, Serato scratch live now.
What do you think of Serato? I like it. It’s not 100 percent but I don’t think there’s a computer built on this earth that thinks it’s fast as I think. So I would say its 94 percent. It’s not 100 percent but I like how I don’t have to carry crates of records to shows now. That’s the best thing about using it.
Can we see the Invisibl Skratch Piklz (Q-bert, Shortcut, DJ Disk?) reunite? I think so; I’m not ruling it out. I mean it could happen. We’re doing individual projects right now but I don’t see why not.
How many records would you say you have? Close to maybe 20,000.
And where do you keep them? I keep them all in a locked cellar – at room temperature.
EIGHT MINUTES WITH DJ CRAZE…
By B-Peasy
Hip hop and D&B heads cry. Dance heads rejoice. DJ/turntablist Craze has reinvented himself – he plays Miami bass and electro these days, because he’s bored of his usual hip hop and D&B routine. Just bump his new album FabricLive 38 and see for yourself…
You’ve won so many titles: which one means the most to you and why?
“The third time I won the DMC was like the best. Nobody had done it, nobody has done it since and that’s the one that meant the most to me and put me in the books, kinda.”
No one stands a chance going up against you…
“No they do they just got lucky. You know right routines, right place, right year, right everything. You know everything was aligned.”
And it must be your good looks as well…
“Argh, yeah a little bit,” he laughs.
Do you get little trophies for them all? You’d need another house to keep them all!
“Yeah for the DMCs they gave me two gold decks and gold mixer, gold needles. So I got like six at home. It’s good.”
To a deaf person how would you describe the Craze sound?
“Well all you have to do is stand next to a stage because there’s a lot of bass involved. In every genre I’ve been in I’m always looking for a bass, always looking for a bass line. You really don’t have to hear it, you can feel it.”
How did you teach yourself to scratch?
“I was self taught. I was a little geek just watching all the videos. Going through them day and night just trying to emulate the style that they were doing and that’s how I learnt just buy copying.”
In your terms of what’s easier D&B or hip hop to mix/scratch/make?
“They all have different kind of vibes. For hip hop it can be done in two or three hours, it’s all about capturing the vibe. With drum and bass it’s a little bit more because it’s like you are taking them on a journey through a whole song. There’s a lot more production involved, more engineering involved. For the Miami Bass stuff, that’s easy, that’s like a vibe. You just catch it, you roll with it, it’s minimal beats, it’s not too technical, and it’s all about just capturing the vibe. With electro I’m having kind of a hard time making those beats, because those beats are crazy. But it’s all fun.”
So did you see predecessor’s Q-Bert and Grandmaster Flash and be like, “wow I want to be like them”?
“Hell yeah. I watched tons of Q-Bert, I watched tons of Roc Raida, tons of DJ Noise, Cash Money, Jazzy Jeff. I watched all of them. I studied them.”
You’re like a gymnastic on the decks – do you agree?
Laughs. “I don’t do front flips or back flips but, you know, I get busy on the decks. I like to keep it moving I don’t like to just stand there and just play out a long mix. I mix that, I try and throw in my little body tricks here and there, you know try and keep it fun for the people watching so it’s not just like an audio thing.”
What do people like A-trak say with your move to electro?
“I’m not really into electro like he is into it. I’m into more Miami Bass; B-more party stuff. We’re all kind of like in the same kind of mood right now, we all just want to dance. We come from a heavy turntablist hip hop background but we’re all on the same kind of speed right now where we just wanna get crunk.”
Fabriclive 38 is out now through Inertia.
EVE
By b-peasy
Who’s that girl? (La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la). Eve’s that girl. (La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la). She’s also the girl that’s had a stint in jail due to DUI, her own TV show aptly named Eve, a clothing line called Fetish and won a Grammy Award – and all by the time she blew out her 30th candles. Before this female powerhouse embarks on her tour down under, she takes time out to chat to Crumpet about her upcoming album Here I Am, which boasts a dream team line up of producers, enter: Dr Dre, Scott Storch, Timbaland, Pharrell and Swizz Beats.
“It feels good,” Eve starts. “I feel like I definitely have the all-star hip hop team behind me.” The super starlet makes it out to be like it’s no big feat to have the dream ‘producer’ team on her album.
“Most of the producers I know – all of them actually – I know. It’d be an easy conversation like, ‘Hey you want to get on the album?’ or a phone call that was made, and thankfully they wanted to work with me too.”
Here I Am ends the spell of her five-year drought and since her last opus Eve-Olution. Eve chose the title Here I Am to make a statement.
“I felt like I been away for a long time you know as far as albums go. I haven’t had an album out in five years so I wanted to make a statement and it’s like, basically, here I am. I’m back. I never really went anywhere, but it’s me. It’s all of me. No gimmicks. No bullshit. Here I am.”
And here she is, even though her album’s not. Here I Am was touted for a release in August 2007.
“Yes. We went back in, we felt like there needed to be more songs to make the album hotter and then some other things came up. We just waiting now on the finalisation of a date – but it’ll be out this year definitely. People keep asking me too, ‘When’s the album coming out? I thought it was coming out’ and I’m like, ‘It’s coming out this year, I swear’”.
Eve goes on to describe the premise of the album as mature, yet fun. “It’s a more mature album than any album than I’ve ever done. It’s a fun album; it’s a flirty album. I wanted to make something that people put on as they’re getting dressed to go to the club, or put on when you need to make your day better or if you’re driving somewhere and just want to hear a good song when you’re driving. Those are the kind of albums that I listen to. Albums that inspire me or make my day better or make me feel happy.” Bump the track All Night Long and hear the rapper go from spitting raps to singing. It was Pharrell that made her do something different.
“I definitely wanted to experiment and get out of my comfort zone. It was something at first though that I didn’t want to do, Pharrell actually talked me into doing it. But I’m happy I did it because it’s my fourth album, you know I can sing – I won’t say I’m like – well I can hold a note. I won’t call myself a real singer but… I just wanted to experiment and do something different and give people something different.”
She’s also given the people something very different in the way of an unusual (oh, who are we kidding? – hot) trend. The self-described pitbull in a skirt has started a ‘paws on the titties’ trend. Did you know a lot of girls are rocking it?
“Really?” Eve asks incredulously. “I was 18. I was super rebellious – which I still am – but it was a particular situation… But now they’re just a part of me I can’t even imagine myself without them. Now they’re just there.”
Catch Eve in her Here I Am tour around Australia in April.
LYRICS BORN
By b-peasy
Hip hop’s premier multi-tasker Lyrics Born (born Tom Shimura) may have ADD of the music world. The gifted lyricist can’t sit still, hence the title of his upcoming fourth solo album Everywhere At Once. Having just returned back to the Bay Area from MCing for Pharoahe Monch at the recent Good Vibrations in Australia, Crumpet managed to pin LB down to chat about his faux-diagnosis of ADD.
Would you say you have ADD of the music world?
“Without a doubt. I mean in my opinion, you can’t be a good musician or a good artist without having ADD because you can’t stay in one place to long otherwise your art becomes stale. You have to have focus and disciple, but I get bored so easy, my wife gets so mad at me. I’m restless.”
Your music has always had a very distinctive flavour… What’s the vibe that you try to convey through your music?
“I’m just trying to have a good time. Quite honestly, I’m just trying to have fun. I’m trying to paint as best a picture as I can or give you a snapshot of where I am in my life at that given moment when I’m doing that album. So some of the songs are kind of deep, some of the songs are not deep at all. I can’t make an album that’s 14 of the same songs over and over and over again, to me that’s just boring, so I have to go in different directions. I have to explore a lot of different topics. I have to talk about a variety of things and express a variety of moods otherwise it’s just boring and it’s one dimensional – for me and the listener. That’s why you got songs like Hot To Def or I Like It I Love It which are kind of topical, but mostly just to have a good time. But then on the flipside you got songs like Do You Buy It or Whispers. I think it’s important for me to paint a picture with a lot of different colours. I listen to albums, when I make albums with the point of view of the listener. Knowing what’s out there, knowing that the listener has all these options, knowing what my track record is, it’s got to be exciting. And I don’t want to do anything if it’s not exciting, that’s the way I am. I want the listener to walk away and say, ‘Wow that was an experience’.”
You say your album Everywhere At Once is different because you’ve done the album without samples?
“That’s the perfect example. You know, is that with every album I’ve tried to set up a new set of challenges for myself. You know, I love working with musicians, I love working with people and I didn’t want to make another album where I’m just sitting in a cubicle by myself with a sampler and a bunch of records. That’s just not my style you know? And I did that for years and that’s great and I’m not knocking that for other people I just got to play on my strengths. I think that was so much fun for me to be able to do that, to get in a room with a bunch of guys, a bunch of girls and make music. I think I really fund my niche there. This record probably took the least amount of time out of any record I’ve ever made. In the past, with samples, I wouldn’t really like the song until the track was ready, but now because I was working with musicians I can interpret the ideas I had in my head so a lot f the songs were written in my head before I came to the studio.”
Was it hard to do an album without samples?
“For me it was easiest. Certain technical things are a little harder but for me I think this is my mode. And I love it because now I can say you put me in any production environment and I can make it happen.”
Out of all the rappers to get on your album, why Chali 2na?
“Everything depends on what musician I call, what singer I call, what producer I call, it really depends on the kind of song I want to make or what the track calls for. So that particular song I had already recorded my versus and I wanted the versus to be recorded and delivered in a certain way which is the way that I had I done it because I had already set the pattern and set the bar and I knew he could pull it off. He’s one of those MCs who – like me – you know the voice right away. He’s distinctive, and a great talent and he knows what needs to happen without any explanation because he’s so seasoned. I’ve known him for years, I love working with him.”
Will you and Lateef unite as Latyrx again? If so, when?
“I hope so; I really want to do. You know both of our solo career is so demanding, we talk about it all the time. I really, really want to.”
What’s been your fave project out of diet coke, Motorola, Nokia, vans etc… and why? You’re like a brand whore!
“I love when the music gets used in movies…again. It’s a trip to see your music used in a way you necessarily didn’t envision. It’s like when I’m in the movies and see one of my songs getting played I get chills. Like in Collateral, Fast And Furious – it just puts it in a totally different light.”
Everywhere At Once is available through Shock.
