|
|
|
Q: OK,…Ummm.. - and I don't want to get into this if it's a fawny issue - but are you still cool with the Anticon lads?
A: Yup - uh-huh - incredible! - but DJ Supreme was waaay ahead of his time. It blows me away when I listen to some of his stuff from back in like 88?
As he explained during the interview, Buck 65 has a stack of albums out there so if you haven't already got joints like the
Hip Hop classic
Vertex or last year's outstanding
Man overboard, get out there and buy them! Unfortunately, on the matter of his imminent signing, Stinkin' Rich is still playing his cards very close but rest assured, ukhh.com's already preparing the thumb-screws and wrack in case he insists on holding out for too much longer… © Copyright 2002, CD Goldie for ukhh.com
interview 0111 added
23.06.02 words
Sumo KaPlUnK
A: There was a while back there where I wasn't really speaking to anyone from Anticon. It just seemed like there needed to be a little bit of time for things to settle or for things to cool off or something. Since then however, I've spoken to most people who are connected with Anticon. I was drawn to those people in the first place as friends so I like all those guys as people. I respect them as artists as well - it's just that a time came for me -and it was really a simple matter for me where - 'cus you know I've been making music for a long-long time - and I've always done it almost entirely alone only with the odd exception - I've never really had too many affiliations with crews or anything of that nature - I always preferred being a loner. A point came where I thought it was strange and dangerous I suppose to be associated with a larger group with whom you're not necessarily always going to share all the same views - especially since Anticon seems to have a manifesto - they seem to have their own platform - and even if they don't, they're definitely perceived that way. A lot of people see them in a certain way and not all of that fell into line with my own thinking for myself. And so a point came where I thought the thing I'd prefer to do is I should go back to the way things always were before and really just be the lone wolf that I always was…just go back to being this solo guy so that's what I've done. That's what I've done and I'm happy about it. Everything since is fine and I've spoken to Sole and Dose recently and we're still all friends so…
Q: So does this show tonight mean you've signed to Warp offshoot UK's Lex records
then??(www.lexrecords.com)
A: No.. My performing at this Lex night tonight is just another friendly gesture I suppose. I guess Tom at Lex is just familiar with my stuff and likes it I suppose - and actually Boom Bip and I do a little collaborative piece which we took a run-through tonight and he heard that I was coming to Europe to do some shows and so he stepped in and offered to have me for this night which I appreciate because we were trying to secure some night in London for the tour but having never performed here before - well it's a bit of a trick getting a foot in the door I suppose - so I'm glad he gave me the opportunity and I had a really good time so..
Q: What is your label status at the moment?
A: My label status…my label status at the moment is a little bit Ummmm- there's a curtain over my label status at the moment but there will probably be some official statement about my new arrangement soon.. I can tell you that it's a pretty big deal - it's a big situation - it's a move that I feel good about - I guess I can probably offer you this much, the plan that I have to come over here to live for a while, that was an idea that was put forth by my new label. That's like an arrangement that they've made - they're going to set me up here; find me a place to live, cover my rent for me and all that sorta thing - needless to say, the new group of people I'm with are very committed to helping me out and just seeing me get out there on the level where perhaps I should be. They've made a really strong commitment to me to just help… News of that will be made official probably by the time this tour is over… That's when I'll have some solid news for you..
Q: Will Square be coming out first or will you be doing the reissues first?
A: I believe that both
Square and my entire back catalog are going to be released very close to the same time and that should be within the next couple of months. The back catalog goes from
Weirdo Magnet which is a collection of songs that sorta seep through the cracks going back as far as 88 and then up until around 96, and then,
Language Arts which I recorded right after I compiled
Weirdo Magnet the first time around so I probably recorded that around '96 and then
Vertex, man overboard and
Synesthesia as well -
Mr Spleen: Will they be on wax too?
A: On wax? I would assume so yeah.
Q: Will you be reediting or doing anything to change the originals?
A: I recompiled
Weirdo Magnet from it's original form because when I originally recorded it, it was on very-very scrappy gear and so the sound quality on it was quite bad. For this bigger, wider release I just wanted to clean it up so I fixed it up and just made it sound a bit better - I did add a few new things to it - and like I mentioned earlier, I've basically overhauled
Synesthesia all together. It's almost like a different record completely now… I may perhaps have to take a close look at a few moments on my older records as it pertains to samples because there are one or two samples on my old records that are a little bit too recognizable from bands that have a very large profile and I could be asking for trouble by putting them out on a large scale. So I may have to make the unfortunate decision to cut a few things just to protect myself there. I haven't made any decisions on that yet tho -
Q: How do you feel Square will fit in with the rest of the
Language Arts series?
A: I feel that slowly but surely I've been building on something with that whole series and working towards a perfection that I've had in mind with regards to what I want to do with
Language Arts and
Square is the closest I've come yet - I know everybody says their latest record is the best - usually that goes without saying in fact, it would be quite unfortunate if someone did not think like that - but based on the feedback I've got from the few people that have heard it already, including DJSignify whose opinion counts for a lot with me (he's one of my best friends and he always offers to everyone brutally honest criticism) it's his favourite one yet - he told me he thought it's a masterpiece - those are very strong words to me but I am very proud of the record…
"...I'm older than most people I know making
Hip Hop. I suppose you gain a little bit of wisdom from experience...."
I think that in terms of what the format of the
language arts albums are, that continuous mixtape type format, the transitions between pieces are like the smoothest and most thought out so far. The record flows very well. I think the production is also much-much better. There's actually a slightly higher degree of production values with this one. I went into a studio and made some efforts to make the album sonicly, sound as good as possible. The scratching has of course been stepped up from
Man Overboard because I've practiced a lot so that's just a natural progression I suppose.. As far as the writing and composition of the songs are concerned, there's a lot of stuff that I'm very happy with there. On the one hand there's still a lot of very personal things there - I think it's a very thoughtful and may be at times a "pretty" record - some might say that it's going off over the horizon even more so than I may have done before… I think that in many ways, this record is more
"Hip Hop" than some of my other stuff. In a lot of ways, there are things that have a very old skool feel on it - just with some of the production touches here and there - I think a person who has an extensive knowledge of old-old skool
Hip Hop like from 79-81 era Hip Hop will have a special appreciation for what happens during
Square. There's also a lot of referencing to that era in the lyrics on the record so hopefully that's some indication to you of how it sounds?
Q: Cool - cool! Well It's freezing out here so I should really let you get back to the party inside Plastic People - is there anyone you wanna biggup on this worldwide basis? -
Lady Cook: Oi! Hang on! Have you asked him if he's heard any UK Hip Hop and if there's any artists he likes yet!?
Mr Spleen: SFDB Records!! Gwan! You love us!!! Yeeeeah!
A: SFDB? Yes of course! Hehehehe - I've heard plenty - I'm a pretty big fan of Hijack -
Mr Spleen: What about Son of Noize?
Lady Cook: What about Gunshot??
Lady Cook: He's still doing stuff - he's living in Germany still making music -
A: Yeah I read something about him recently - but yeh, he's incredible!!! But sadly it's pretty difficult to hear UK
Hip Hop in North America. Not a whole lot of UK stuff makes it over there - especially to a degree where it has a decent level of vizibility. You'd have to be really really trying hard to dig for it - you'd have to be visiting here or deliberately searching online to find a lot of it. By and large, what comes to mind from over the last couple of years would be Roots Manuva of course who I like and some of the emcees who have worked with DJ Vadim and that sort of thing…
Q: Did you check the Gorrilaz project? 'cus that features like Phi Life Cypher -
A: Yes - uh-huh. Very dope! I also like and have a lot of respect for the Scratch Perverts…But I'm always anxious to learn a lot more and explore UK
Hip Hop far deeper. One thing that I'm sure of 'cus I've heard this from a lot of people is, people in North America find - what's the word I need to use? - they find it very hard to adjust to music from around the world that is in English but has a non American accent - or at least an accent that North Americans are not yet used to. It's strange because if you hear foreign language
Hip Hop, somehow it doesn't sound so alien and I don't know why that is. I've sorta observed it this way and many people I know have felt the same way - it's a very strange
phenomenon. When you hear Australian
Hip Hop for example, it's got a very strong accent and that's something most people in North America are just not used to hearing that much. So it takes a bit of getting used to I suppose. I can definitely say that I haven't heard enough UK
Hip Hop. I really want to hear some more - I'm very interested in investigating what goes down here. But in my observations, what I've heard and what I've read,
Hip Hop here is I think by and large, in many respects, very much the same as it is in America. You have the same strengths and weaknesses and the same ups and downs. I have no personal interest in any sort of "Thuggish" music what so ever and I don't care where it comes from - and I know that there's thuggish music here. That fony-baloney stuff doesn't interest me what so ever. In fact, I like very little North American
Hip Hop as it stands. I listen to Simon & Garfunkle more than I listen to Hip Hop
records these days.
Lady Cook: Cannibal Ox?
A: But yeah, definitely Cannibal Ox! So…but like I say, I'm very much looking forward to coming over here and investigating both the London and British
Hip Hop sscenes much-much more…
Mr Spleen: I'd just like to say that when you check out all those UK Hip Hop records, if you like anyone, don't hesitate to say so because there'll be guys who will be prepared to tare off one of their own limbs to do stuff with you - we've got community spirit coming out our ears in UK
Hip Hop!
Lady Cook: And I can bake cakes! If you make a record with me I can bake you a cake which is taking things to the next level!! Most emcees can't offer you cakes! Like Chocolate-banana cakes!!!
A: Oooooh! I like bananas! But anyways…What was the last question you wanted to ask me again?
Q: Umm..Oh yeh; have you got any biggups, shout-outs and words of advice for young people that you'd like to give out on this worldwide basis?
A: Generally, I haven't been much of a name-dropper and I just decided that for once, just for fun, to do it on a song at the beginning of
Synesthesia …So most of the peple that are friends and within the business, I mention them during that song. But! After I did that song I realised I had left out Sage Francis! Sage Francis is someone who I really do respect a whole lot and he's a really good friend of mine too! Same goes for DJ Signify who I mentioned earlier - I perhaps speak to him on the telephone more than any other person I know… We talk about
Hip Hop for maybe 10% of the time and then we just talk about other things for the rest of the time. You know, I've been at this for a while now and I'm older than most people I know making
Hip Hop. I suppose you gain a little bit of wisdom from experience - well that's what They say anyhow isn't it? What I've learned in my personal experience with music over the past while is every time that I've let my guard down a little bit and offered a piece of myself on a personal level and allowed myself to feel OK about being honest, the results of that have almost always been very good. The feedback that I've had has almost always been overwhelming in it's positivity - peple seem to be very much supportive of that - much more so than I would have expected or thought when I was younger. I would've thought that being this honest was territory that you just shouldn't and don't go into - now, what I would almost pleed with peple to understand and accept is that it's OK to just be yourself and to talk about the things that you truly honestly think about when you're in bed at night before you fall asleep. It's OK to talk about the things you dream about, the things you like and the things you genuinely don't like. It just seems to me that by and large there's far too much nonsense - not just in
Hip Hop - in music in general. I think that most of Hip Hop is in real dire straits right now and so it would be good if some degree of honesty, innocence and integrity were to return to the music. I would just like to see more honesty in the music….yeah…more honesty…
Q: That's a beautiful note on which to end the interview….Hmmmm…Thank you!!
OK, this epilogue risks turning into a list of oscar-acceptance-Speech proportions but please bare with me. First and foremost a massive thank you goes to Richard Terfry for leaving his party/gig to step out into the freezing April night to answer my questions. I gather the tour went really well and so biggup everyone who attended the shows. I would also like to thank Gena, Ian and everyone connected with
buck65.com Thank you also to Tom Browne of Lex Records
(www.lexrecords.com) for putting Buck65 on the bill and putting Lady Cook and I on the guestlist. Finally, many-many thanks to my colleague
Lady Cook for coming along and giving me a place to crash.
-
Related Links:
