I did a European tour with Vakill, Louis Logic and DJ Equal and I just came home. The tour was dope. We got 3 totally different styles, but they worked well for the tour. I sold mad merch and the fans appreciate shit way more over there. A few days after I got back, the punk ass city towed my fuckin car! That's why I put "Bullshit City" on the album, fuck New York, I'm outta here the minute I make a million!

Your album "A Job Ain't Nuthin' But Work" is done and out, are you happy with how it came out?

Definitely. I'm happy with every album right after I make it and over time you start to have your beefs and start thinking about what you would do different. But thats the cool thing about every album. It represents where you are as an artist and person at certain points in time, and things always change. This is my favorite of my albums by far.

What's good with this album?

Self-produced as usual. I kept the guests to a minimum. Devin the Dude, Al-Shid, Celph Titled and my partner in crime, Dick $tallion. That's it. If you like
that crass humor, funny stories and more entertainment type lyrics, it's for you. If you want uplifting messages, you're assed out. The beats are more funk influenced this time around. It had like an edgier funk/rock type sound. Heavy bass, etc. I got pigeonholed with my old sound, so I switched it up a bit.

You've got Devin the Dude on the album, how was it working with him?

Real cool. We did the song through the mail, but he's a real cool brother. Easy to work with and crazy talented...and unfortunately very underrated. I suggest any self-respecting hip-hop fan buy one of his albums.

What is your live show like?

People say it's hilarious. You'll like it if you got a sense of humor. I got wild costumes, I got a lot of energy on stage, I fuck with the crowd and just try to have fun.

What car are you driving now?

1978 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, but that's only when I'm fantasizing. When I'm stuck in reality I got a 1999 Mazda Protege.

What's the best place to cop ice?

I cop mine from Pimpin Ron at Bling-O-Rama on Rockaway Blvd. I stay frozen, you petty broke bitches.

You have a different taste in Hip Hop compared to your fans, who are you listening to right now?

I mainly stick to old school rap, but in terms of new shit? Suga Free, Devin the Dude, the 213 album...I can't wait for the new Manny Fresh solo album and the Snoop album produced by the Neptunes. Manny Fresh is amazing, but people hate on him and I don't know why. Snoop works well with the Neptunes. The "Drop It Like It's Hot" is a dope 808 drum machine, old school type joint. I like that shit.

Who's your top-5 rappers?

All time? Damn...that's hard. Probably Kool G. Rap, Slick Rick, Kane, LL and Scarface. Honorable mention to Ice Cube and Rakim too.

Your beat game is serious, what made you want to start making beats?

Thanks. I was always into collecting old records, since I was 8 or 9 years old. I used to play bass guitar as a kid. I would get my parents jazz and funk records and copy the basslines on the records.
When I found a group I really liked, I strated to collect every record by that group. My pops would take me record shopping at the old record shops on weekends and I'd spend my allowance
on records. Around 1988, when 45 King and Marley really got into sampling, I started noticing the funk records I had gettin sampled in all the rap joints. I was so blown away by that shit that I
jumped into DJing and producing in the ninth grade. I eventually dropped the bass for the rap shit, but I still can fuck you up on the bass! Call me Bootsy, bitch!

What equipment did you start with?

My very first set up was a DJ set with this 2 second Yamaha keyboard that had a mic yoou could sample with. I'd put the mic to the speaker and sample shit. You could overdub on it, but if you
were off in the timing, you'd have to start over! When I was 15 I got an SP-1200. I rocked that for 5 years, and in 1997 I got the MPC-2000. I been using that ever since.

What did your first beats sound like?

Jazzy, cause that was the style when I started. Upright basslines, echoed horns, jazz pianos...Like Masta Ace's "Jeep Ass Niguh". Shit like that. Like that early Beatnuts type shit. I got demos of me at 16 rappin over stuff like that. I gotta dig them bitches up!

How has your sound changed?

Since I started, it's gotten more funk influenced. More bass heavy and I'm way more versatile. Less "cartoonish" I guess you could say, but it still sounds bugged.

What equipment do you use now?

MPC-2000 and a TR-Rack sound module with the Oxygen 8 Midi Keyboard. I use a CDJ-800 too, and I just got Protools like a year ago.

How long does it take you to make a beat?

The basic shell, about an hour and change. I save it, come back later and add little by little.

How do you know when you're done with a beat?

When I get eager to rap on it or when start thinking of a rapper I think would sound good on it.

You have some crazy samples in your beats, how and what sounds do you look for in a sample?

I can flip anything and make it sound crazy, but I usually look for sounds with character. Not necessarily loops, but sounds that sound unconventional and odd that I can flip with other sounds and make some ill shit.
Sounds that arent common, something different than your regular pianos and speeded up vocal loops.

What's the best sample you've ever found?

There's a few. I got some joints that's so ill I can't even flip em! The challenge of makin beats for me is to make shit better than what it already is. If I can't make it better than what it already is, I leave it alone. Most of my beats aren't even chopped from my best records, ironically.

What producers influenced you?

Bomb Squad, 45 King, Marley, DJ Pooh & Sir Jinx, Muggs, Dr. Dre, Premier, Pete Rock, RZA, DJ Quik, Timbaland, Prince Paul...they all influenced me at one time or another.

What places did you intern at when you were coming up?

I had 2 major studio internships and one record label internship. I did Power Play studios in Queens in 1992. That was before I even had any real equipment. Akinyele's Vagina Diner and Roxanne Shante's Bitch Is Back were being recorded at the time. I got to see Large Professor work. I didn't do much there outside of wrapping cables and getting food for people, but seeing Large Pro work was enough to make me wanna take this shit serious.
My second internship was at Vance Wright's studio in New Rochelle, V-Dubbs, in 1994. Vance was Slick Rick's DJ. That's where I learned most of my shit. Engineering, how to mix, how to program drums as opposed to just looping breakbeats.
Vance and Mark Spark -a producer who did shit for Grand Puba, Salt-N-Pepa, etc.- taught me a lot. I got to engineer sessions with Grand Puba, Greg Nice and some local talent. I even did a demo with Amil back in 1996, before Roc-A-Fella. I wish I saved that shit! I produced my first record there too. It was Preacher Earl's "Fool, I Got Your Back". I was 18 then. He was rollin with Greg Nice at the time. It was promo only and I got paid $100 for it, but I was happy to have my shit on wax. That internship was major for me. I also interned at Relativity Records in 1999 for college credit, but they got taken over by Loud right when I graduated.

What did you learn from your experiences as an intern?

When Greg Nice asks for grilled turkey and cheese sandwich, get ketchup with it! Haha! I pretty much answered that in the last question, but I basically learned how much hard work is involved in the music. I also witnessed the drama of trying to shop your music to labels. I would do so many demos in there and the people would go try to get signed with no luck. Around 1996, I started to really get into Stretch and Bobbito's show and I saw that the best way to create a buzz was go independent and do it yourself. All the people at Vance's studio were trying to make demos to get signed and I learned real young that a change was coming. Put shit out yourself if you want it out. People would spend hours in there and a fortune in money makin demos, and if they couldn't get signed, they never came out. Fuck that.

Who are you working with now?

I'm working on an album with Celph Titled. We're both rapping and doing beats on it. A lil side project, it's gonna be that FUNK! I got calls from a few major artists, but I don't wanna blurt names and look stupid if it never happens, so I'll wait and see.
I did tracks on Casual's upcoming album as well.

What are your goals with your music?

To become a gazillionaire wouldn't hurt! Haha, but for real, as long as I can have fun and influence the next 15 year old kid like 45 King and those dudes did for me...and make a decent living doing it. Plus I get to work with all the people I grew up listening to and now we're peers...that's all the satisfaction I need. I'm still in shock from working with King T, Biz Markie, Masta Ace and all these cats. You can't take that away from me and you can't put a price on that. I'm gonna keep grinding cause there's always room for improvement, but I've already reached a lot of my goals.

Who would you like to work with next?

Suga Free, Slick Rick, Project Pat, Redman, MOP, Too $hort, E-40, Ghostface, Snoop Dogg...A lot of people you wouldn't expect.

What's the last beat you've heard by another producer that amazed you?

There's a joint. I think it's called "213 The Gangsta Clicc" on the new 213 album. I don't know the producer's name, I gotta look at the liner notes. It's got a Steely Dan sample/interpolation and some NWA samples in the hook. That beat is MONSTER!

We talked about college radio DJ's and how a lot of them suck, why do they suck so bad?

This is supposed to be college radio, meaning NO POLITICS. This ain't Hot 97! You won't play my record cause I didn't get it serviced by a promotions company? If I sent
you the record myself, that should mean even more to you. But half the records on these college charts aren't even in the stores! They're just payin $2000 to some company to servce it and the stations chart it. Save that shit for Z100! Some college DJ's are cool and play shit cause they like it. But for the ones that only play records that are serviced by a company...suck my dick with a cherry on top!

What problems have you had dealing with DJ's?

I've had 2 records of mine serviced to radio, "Live From Pimp Palace" and "5-Star Hooptie". They got charted. I took the contact info of all the DJ's that charted the records. I send them "SLAP" 'Q&A" and "Choir Praactice" and they don't chart them. Somebody even said "Q&A" wasn't mixshow friendly. What! None of my records are mixshow friendly! "Live From Pimp Palace" was 83 BPM and ya'll charted it, but that's cause Rawkus paid somebody to get it charted. College radio is supposed to benifit independent records. I say it all the time. The underground is a poor man's mainstream. You still got the egos, the politics and the cliquishness, but without the big money! If you're gonna be a ho, at least be a rich ho, bitch! That's why I roll solo and they can all suck my dick.

What's coming up for you?

The second single for A Job Ain't Nuthin But Work, which will be "Greater Later" featuring Devin the Dude. There's a remix as well, and an unreleased b-side called "The Art Of Shit Talkin'" check for that in early January. I just dropped the album instrumentals too.

Finally, the b-ball season is underway, who are your picks?

As of now, for The East, I got Miami and Detroit. The West, I got Dallas and I like Phoenix too. But the Jazz look sharp. I was never a Jazz fan, but they look tough man.

Interview by Brian Kayser
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