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7/12/2007 What’s up?  I’m pretty good.  Are you happy with how your new album Version came out?    Absolutely. It’s just like anything. You listen to something a lot and you work on it for a long time and then you get sick of it. But on the whole, yeah, I’m really proud of the record.  You have a lot of covers on Version. What inspired you to do that?    Basically, I was DJing and I just got bored of the music that I was playing. There just wasn’t quite enough stuff to play to make me excited, so I started making my own shit. I think some people would just make mash-ups, but because I have a tendency to geek out to the highest degree, I ended up making an entire album of covers. The first cover I did was for a Radiohead compilation of covers. I did that just for them. I had a lot of fun doing it. For about a year up to that, I hadn’t really been working on music and I was bored with it. I was thinking that, ‘Hey, maybe I’m just not that good at this and I need to find another way to make a living.’ That was it. That’s how the album came about.   How did you approach covering Radiohead’s “Just”?    At first, I just said, “Yes” when they asked me to do a cover. It’s like when you’re in school and you raise your hand after the teacher asks a question and you don’t even know if you know the answer to the question yet because you’re too eager. At first, I was like, ‘Fuck, what did I get myself into?’ For the first couple of weeks, I was trying to see how I was going to be able to put it together. What I did was I just kind of found a beat that I liked on the MP and I started reconstructing that beat. Instead of strumming the chords, I tried to change it into a more James Brown-type of record. I was trying to figure out how I would get across the energy of the heavier guitars and I tried that with horns. It was the blueprint to the record. It started with that and it just kind of came together by accident.  You covered the Kaiser Chefs’ “Oh My God” with Lily Allen. How did that come about?  At the time when we did it, it was one of the first songs that I recorded vocals for on the album. Like the other people on the record, the first three or four times that Lily sang it, she was just trying to get to know it. I told her to switch up the melody and take it where she wanted to. She changed up the phrasing and put her own thing on it. I remember hearing it for the first time and saying, ‘Wow.’ Not everyone could have done that like she did. That song can have its own place. That’s what happens with great covers, I think.  There are some great covers. Stevie Wonder doing “We Can Work It Out,” there’s just something about the way that he sings it that makes it his own. It would be hard to argue if the Beatles’ version or Stevie Wonder’s version is better, but it just becomes its own thing and it kind of finds its own place in the musical universe, which is kind of what you hope to do.  How much attention did you pay to the sequencing of Version?    As a DJ, it’s important for me to have a bit of an arc like when you put together a set. But we’re also in an era where people listen for your stronger tracks or “big singles” and they have to be near the front. I listened to the record for the first time this weekend as it was sequenced and it felt good.  Did you ever expect Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” to blow up the way it has?    Not really. I never really expect anything to blow up. Not because I’m hugely modest or whatever, but just because you never know. I think writing songs and saying, “That can be a huge hit” is a dumb attitude to have. I remember playing it back for A&Rs and one was like, ‘Whoa, play that again.’ I thought it was good and we just made it in the room together. The A&R told me it was going to be huge and I said, “You think so?” I was kind of like, ‘If you say so.’  I think the whole reason that Amy’s whole record has just done really well is because it’s been awhile since anybody, English, American, black, white, whatever, has made a really honest, great soul record with live musicianship and made something that just feels timeless. That’s the whole thing with Amy’s record. She has a great voice and she writes great music.   Did the music for “Rehab” come together naturally?  Yeah, it did because we were walking down the street and she said, “My family, at one point, they tired to make me go to rehab and I was like, ‘No, no, no.’” I was like, ‘That’s catchy. You should maybe write a song about it and turn that into a song.’ She wrote it and it sort of came out as a slow blues thing because she writes all her songs with just pretty much her guitar. I just felt like, ‘Oh, let’s put some claps in,’ and we made the beat go into a ‘60s funk, Beatles-y type of beat. That’s how the song came together. It was pretty much natural. All the songs were. Each day Amy and I would work on a different song. She would play me a song she had written already and then I would just fuck around with the chords and all that by myself until I found an arrangement that I liked. And then she’d come in the next day and tell me if it was working or not.  And that was all live musicianship on “Rehab,” as with Amy’s whole record. I worked with some musicians that just helped to bring it to life.  Jay-Z rhymed over “Rehab.” What does that mean to you?    It was amazing. Since you’re a kid, it’s like…I started DJing the year Reasonable Doubt came out. That kind of thing, like having Jay-Z over one of your tracks, it’s just that dream that you assume will never happen but you think about it. It’s not like I got out there with a beat CD and hustled my stuff, but I played beats for A&R people and it’s just funny that in this past year I stopped focusing on hip-hop and I worked with Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen and Ghostface jacks a whole Amy Winehouse song and Jay-Z raps over “Rehab.” The time I stopped focusing on hip-hop, it comes to me. It’s amazing having Jay-Z over one of your tracks. It’s one of the most flattering things you could have.  How’s Rhymefest’s sophomore album coming?  It’s pretty much done. I’m going in the studio this week to record some stuff. I’ve heard most of it and it’s pretty amazing, man. There’s this amazing song with Kanye and Marsha from Floetry. There’s a great song with Lil’ Jon. Cool and Dre gave him a track called “Hold On” that I think is great. There’s really good stuff on it.   Were you happy with how Rhymefest's debut album Blue Collar did?    I was happy with how the record came out but it didn’t really sell well. I want for Rhymefest’s sake that it does more because he’s a real artist. He’s talented. If he has a slow build to his career, he’ll be making important records for as long as he wants to. The thing is, his first album didn’t sell well but it’s a slow build. I think that it’s because he is a real artist that I don’t worry about him. An artist like Rhymefest will always have fans because the fans are always going to want to hear what he has to say. This record was his commercial breakthrough.    Saigon signed with Allido Records before he signed with Just Blaze. Where would Saigon be today if he was still signed to Allido?  I was the first person he pretty much worked with when he got out of jail. The thing is, we were a young company and we didn’t have a lot of money to resign Saigon and Rhymefest. I love Saigon. He came to my mom’s house for Christmas last year. It’s just that Rhymefest is a little bit outside of the norm musically, so it made more sense that him and I stay together. Saigon, I haven’t heard any of his new music but he’s an incredible MC and I hope that when his stuff comes out, people will be up for hearing it.  An up-and-coming artist, Wale, just went on tour with you overseas. What kind of potential does Wale have?    I think Wale’s incredible. Honestly, I just heard his music and started playing it on my radio show. I just got an unlabeled MP3 and I loved it. I started playing it and then I got a call from Wale’s manager about playing it. I have an amazing 11-piece band and traveling show that I tour Europe with. I wanted the hip-hop element to be as spectacular as the musical element. I asked Wale to come on tour. He was amazing. We’re in the middle of hopefully working out something right now. I’m really excited about his music. It’s kind of like a cross between a Lupe and a Lil’ Wayne. He’s a really clever dude with substance and plus he’s from D.C. He’s exciting and that’s what I love about his music.  Where do you want to take Allido Records in the future?    Just keep signing artists that I really love. We’re working on Rhymefest and hopefully Wale. In the beginning, when we started, we had a couple of artists and J Records went out on a limb doing a deal with us, and now everybody is looking at what we’re doing here as the next movement or whatever it is. It’s an exciting place to be right now. Record sales are down and the industry is kind of scrambling around, but I think if you have good music, the people are going to want to hear it.  How are you gauging the success of the US release of Version?  Well, when I made it I didn’t have a deal and I was just making it because it was music that I liked, so anything beyond that is a plus. But the fact that it’s already gone gold in the UK and that people really seem to be feeling it, it’s exciting. If it does well, cool. If not, then I’ll just keep producing tracks for other people.  What advice would you offer to up-and-coming DJs and producers?    I think it’s an amazing time to be an up-and-coming DJ or producer because with the internet, you can put out your remixes online and if it catches fire, it can be amazing. People are really doing amazing shit in their bedroom. People ask me to check out their music on their MySpace and it’s a lot easier than getting a demo in the mail. I can just click and hear somebody’s stuff and if I like it, I try to respond right away. I try to offer encouragement and constructive criticism and that’s about it.  What do you want to say to everybody?    Buy my album.

By Brian Kayser

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