|
|
|
Here's what happened when I managed to grab PBW for a few words in his suite at The Novotel complex a couple hours before the Bristol leg of his recent UK tour. It's a bit of a rushed one as Peanut Butter Wolf only had fifteen-twenty minutes to spare if he was to have something to eat before doing the show. I tried to cover as much ground as possible regarding the label, his artistry, his collaborators and his love of wearing open-toe sandals with white socks so let's see how far we got…
Yo this is PBW with UKHH. Peanut Butter Wolf on UK Hip Hop for Stones Throw Records - that's www.stonesthrow.com
First things first, did you ever think you'd get to 101 releases?
Y'know, I never really gave it much thought which is probably why I was able to keep going. I've always had a real laid-back attitude with the label. I've always been confident because music's been such a part of me for so long that I never really thought about ever doing anything else. But yeah..#101 just kinda crept up on me before I knew it. The label's been around for eight years but the past two or three, have been a lot more productive in terms of putting out more releases and having people working with me and stuff - the first years was kinda all by myself..
Are you surprised you've done so well because, in the meantime, over the past eight years, labels like Loud, Rawkus and other bastions of Underground/Independent hiphop have come and gone and come back again -
And even Tommy Boy's struggling…
Why do you think Stonesthrow's still going then?
I think it's still going because we've been real conservative with our spending. We never tried to over do it with promoting too much. We kinda are comfortable with the audience we have and we just let the music speak for itself I think.
And whose idea was it to celebrate this anniversary with the videos - because I know in the past you've put out The Jukebox 45s and other kinds of interesting promotional ideas.
Yeah I mean..we've been doing videos all along and we've had very little luck getting them played so we just decided it was time to compile them all. There's probably around fifteen-sixteen videos that we have now so… And then I realised that we were approaching our hundredth release so we thought we'd make it our 100th anniversary. But then we made it "101" because in the US, "101" is the introductory college course title - is it the same over here? Oh, OK: some places it's different…
You say you've had trouble getting them played….Are you aware of people like Peter Agoston who does the Culturama thing over there in the Bay Area?
That's true. I think…I don't remember which ones but I'm sure he's done a couple of our videos. And we get played on websites and of course the small regional shows. It's just some of the larger mainstream shows haven't really ran them.
What with running the label, have you ever felt that you've been held back as an artist? Has the business side got in the way? 'cus your last record was…five years ago?
One thing I noticed on the DVD and the mix CD is the inclusions of other genres - I don't know what you'd call it…"Electro College Rock" or summat? Is that a deliberate decision by you to try and mix up the genres and go outside "hiphop." Because most compilations out there are quite insular and tend to be protective of the genre?
Right. The mix CD as an example, I just tried to put some of my favourite moments from the hundred records as well as some of the stuff that was "a hit" hehehehe - I use that term relatively. I just buy all kinds of music and I release all kinds of music. What started as a hiphop label, is changing - Well I think I'm always going to put out hiphop - I love hiphop so I can't imagine completely turning my back on it - but at the same time, there is a lot of other stuff that I'm into as well.
One thing that strikes me about yourself and Stonesthrow as a label, whereas other deejays and other producers like to keep their sources secret, you guys seem to celebrate the heritage and your sources - hence you've got the jazz and funk group documentaries on the DVDs and of course, you put out that Blue Note remix composition. Again, is that a deliberate thing? Are you proud to admit all your sources or are you more anal and secretive about beat-digging and stuff?
Nah..When I go record shopping, whoever I'm with, if I see records I think they'll like, I pull them out and say "you should listen to this." But I understand the Old Skool aesthetic of covering your records so nobody can read the labels or whatever.. But nah, I enjoy sharing music and I feel I have enough music to the point where I don't have to worry about somebody stealing an idea. I can always go somewhere else with my ideas.
Have you had any chance to do any record shopping here in England?
Yeah, every city that I've been for this tour, I've put a couple hours aside heheheheh.
What's been your favourite spot so far?
Actually I've found things in every city so… I'm afraid to single any one place out.. I've spent about £100 in every city on records. I mostly buy 7"s 'cus it's a lot easier to transport them when you're buying a bunch of 'em. So…thinking about it, I bought my biggest stack of 45s in…Manchester - so I guess that's the answer to your question
Is that for listening or with a mind to using them for compositions and mixing?
For deejaying and listening yeah. Not so much compositions but for club use and mix CDs. I'm working on a mixtape right now. Madlib started a mix CD series and has asked me to do a mix for that so… I'm going to take that seriously…
Are you expecting to get hit with a huge excess baggage fee?
Yeah…I'm not sure how we're going to deal with that now but I'm sure something will work itself out at the time.
Seems to me, a lot of the stuff you've signed to your label is ad hock or experimental and there always seems to be that sense of the unpredictable. Would you ever sign a group who came to you with a complete Public-Enemy style ethos and like a ready-made, fully-formed group or are you more interested in this whole Madvillain, ad hock projects that could go in any direction?
Are you asking would I sign somebody who already has been successful on their own? Is that what you mean?
Well not necessarily about being previously successful - more like if somebody brought you the complete package. It seems to me, from a lot of the releases, Stonesthrow output is a lot more experimental and unpredictable?
I gather Dudley Perkins is Declaime and obviously Quasimoto is Madlib - and I know you did this on one track but have you thought about doing a full alter-ego project?
Well I've been talking with Madlib about doing a singing album and having him produce it. We've both thrown that idea out there but we gotta pick the songs: I'm not a song-writer so it'd have to be covers hehehehe.
And coming back to the DVD, I especially like the footage of the live jam session. Has your attitude to sampling
Changed over the last few years? On the one hand, a lot of people have been caught for sample-clearance and yet, on the other hand, people like Dangermouse have made a point of sampling the most well-known stuff they can find like the off-limits EMI catalogue. So has your attitude to making music and producing changed in recent years?
What's Stonesthrow got in store for the rest of the year - now that you've just released the Oh No album and are about to drop the 101 DVD/mix CD?
Yeah the DVD comes out in November. The beginning of next year, we're going to be putting out Medaphoar, Quasimoto as well as Percee P - and can't forget Koushik hehehe - he's the secret weapon right now..
Who's this "Dooley_O" bloke? I saw him on the end of the DVD's extra material and lots of people have been mentioning him to me but who or what is he?
Dooley_O is a guy from Connecticut that Egan has known for years and years I guess. He was a producer/rapper/deejay that worked with Stezo. I guess he discovered the drums that were used on the Stezo song - I forget the name of it but Gang Starr ended up sampling the Stezo song. And to this day, a lot of people are still using those skull Snap drums. But Stezo yeah, he's actually still recording and I think he has something coming out with Lewis Recordings right now which is based out here.
Are you working on any new battle tools or break records?
Nah.. We put out the Super Duck Breaks volumes 1 and 2 and then the Hamburgger Hater breaks was something I did with DJ Romes. And actually, they used that for The Beastie Boys' Ch-ch-check it out. I guess they got the beat for their single from the Hamburger Hater breaks because they called me to find out where we got it from. As far as new stuff? We got approached by Blue Note to do a Blue Note battle record in conjunction with Stonesthrow so we have their catalogue and we can kinda make a battle record from that. We're considering doing that because it's something different, but generally we've slowed down on the battle records.
Any plans for collaborations outside the known Stonesthrow camp? Anybody unusual?
Is there any chance of some sort of Likwit crew extended-family-reunion project coming out On Stonesthrow? I mean, I know the Liks say they're disbanding but you've got all those talented people and Madlib's profile just keeps rising and rising. So any chance of something happening?
I mean, anything's possible……We haven't really talked to them about it. We're doing so much stuff as it is right now. I know Madlib and E-Swift were talking about collaborating so….maybe soon…
How do you feel about the massive acclaim that Madlib's been getting recently. He's been around for a while doing relatively the same stuff but his profile has just sky-rocketed of late. How do you feel about this; personally and professionally?
Personally for me, I'm glad to be a part of it. I'm still frustrated in that I feel that more people should be working with him than there are in terms of successful emcees. De la soul had him on a couple tracks and I had a talk with Pos' about it. Pos just understands Madlib's talent but for every one Pos, there's ten people who don't.
What can we expect to see and hear from you tonight? A straight deejay set or?..
Yeah it's a straight deejay set. I'm doing all 7"s but pretty much from all different styles of music. But I will play a lot of hiphop 7"s as that's something that not too many people do.
Have you got any set-pieces planned?
I have a lot of stuff worked out that I do but I always bring like twice as many records as I need so I can go in any direction I like on the night.
When was the last time you entered a deejay tournament or did any kind of competitive beat juggling?
I'm not really a "turntablist" or anything like that. I more of a bedroom/club deejay. I've never been in a battle but I think I kinda got thrown into that scene I think because I was on this album called Return of the dj several years ago - and maybe from just putting out the battle records and through being friends with a lot of the turntablists. But yeah, they would all kill me in a battle hehehehe! They were filming Scratch at QBert's house with him, Shadow and a couple other guys. They were on the Octagon, on the eight turntable setup and they were trying to get me up on there and I was like "no-no-no-no!"
Coming back to the videos quickly - and I gather DJ Shadow's done this already - have you ever thought about video deejaying?
OK, my penultimate question would be, is there a piece of music equipment that isn't around which you really want to be invented or which does exist and you want to be incorporated into the one unit?
One thing that has been invented but which is not really widely used yet is those turntables where you can change the pitch without changing the tempo and vice versa. I think that's really important - especially because I like mixing things in key. Like with a lot of my mix CDs, I'll use the Pioneer CDJ Cd turntables because you can do that. I heard that there's other turntables that can do that but no one really uses them: everyone just sticks to the 1200s.
And just very finally then, anybody you wanna biggup? Final words of wisdom? Anything you want to plug which you haven't already done so? Now's the time to get it all in…
Heheheheheh. Just go to Stonesthrow.com if you are interested in finding out more - and don't forget to pick up the DVD. "Words of wisdom?" I don't have any words of wisdom - May be you can offer me some?
Ummm….uhhh…ummm…Nope.
Hahahahaha! See!? How does that feel!? But thanks for having me.
© CD Goldie for ukhh.com - 2004
interview 0264 added
29.11.04 words: Sumo Kaplunk
Plenty
Plenty hiphop artists like to say they've been there, done that but the difference with San Jose's Chris Manak is that he has been there, he has done that - and what's more, he's still doing things and going places other hiphop moguls are scared to even imagine. Having started out as the deejay/producer sidekick to his mate Charizma in the late '80s, Peanut Butter Wolf made some impressive moves in the early-to-mid '90s: signing with Disney's Hollywood Basic imprint and producing Kool Keith's debut solo single. The sad demise of Charizma and the duo's poor treatment by Hollywood basic could have been the end of Wolf's career yet since then, he's gone on to excel as a club deejay, producer, label boss and all-round-good-guy. In light of this extensive CV, I didn't need to be asked twice if I wanted to interview the guy and understandably, I had reams of questions to put to him….
Yeah I really kinda switched gears. You kinda have to do one or the other to be real successful at it. For me, it's just I enjoy putting out other peoples' stuff. I'm thankful that I was able to be a recording artist as well and I have no regrets putting out the albums that I did as an artist but that's just a side to me that I'm happy to let go of. I do enjoy the deejaying, the travelling and meeting up with people and stuff so…
I mean most of the stuff yeah… I'm there when it's being recorded. Whether it be Madvillain or Jaylib or whatever. I'm always in the studio helping mix down and doing stuff like that. Some of the reissues I put out though, those albums were already finished the way they were. There's not really a hard rule with what I'll put out.
We kinda sample from whatever. On the new Quasimoto album, Madlib samples a huge portion of a Roy Ayres track. We contacted Roy, told him this and asked for his approval and asked how much it would cost. As Stonesthrow gets larger, we want to make sure we're fully collaborating with the artists that we sample from.
Ummm, nah. I mean the Percee P thing is unusual and outside the camp I guess. But Percee's done a couple things with us already (he was on the Wildchild album and on the Jaylib album) so we're working on this new album with him. I do want to do some more collaborations with Jay Dilla as well. We've been talking about putting out a solo album with him.
Yeah..well…whatever..but nah, I never considered doing that. [minor interruption as Alex, PBW's tour manager returns to take pics for me].
Many thanks to Mr Wolf for doing the interview and cheers to Alex (his tour manager) for taking the pics. The Stonesthrow 101 DVD/mix CD collection is out now. The DVD gathers together the label's most colourful and quirky videos along with some much-needed context and background into the label's guiding forces. The mix CD half of the collection finds Peanut Butter Wolf scattering gems from the label's past present and future amid classic funk, trippy electronica, golden era throw-backs and a handful of instrumentals from J-Roc, Cut Chemist - and of course, Madlib.
Related Links:
