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3/6/2006 What's up Sol? Nothing much. I'm living it. How do you want to introduce yourself to HipHopGame? I'm 29 years-old, but I'm not an old cat. My beats are soulful. That's the first thing that I can say about my music. My movements are soulful with the guitars, and the bottom is Hip Hop. The drums are always going to be there. It's like Donny Hathaway meets Outkast. Stevie Wonder meets 8Ball and MJG. I just did two songs on Chamillionaire's album. If you listen to them, they're full of guitars and hard drums. How did you get your start in the game? I got my start with Dallas Austin and his brother, rest in peace. His brother came to me and he wanted me to hook up and build with Dallas. He came to me. I lived over in the hood in Southwest Atlanta. He brought me an SP100 and an MPC-62. He brought it to the hood. Everyone in the hood was like, "Why are they going to see Messiah?" He brought that as a gift and we started working together. That's how it happened. Dallas Austin has his company, but I was never a signed producer because I never wanted to sign with anyone. I was a drum major, which is why I did so much drum programming. I worked with Def Squad, EPMD…a lot of producers from back in the day had drums from me. I was making drums sounds. I worked with the big R&B groups, TLC, Boyz II Men, Madonna, Monica…we had a team of producers and DJ's and we put those things together. What's your most memorable experience working with artists like that? There are so many. Working with Dallas, you see everybody. Nothing surprises me now. You walk into the studio and you're liable to see Michael Jackson or Bjork. I worked with Bjork. I did a remix for the song "Possibly Made It." What's dope about Bjork is that she's a very experimental artist. I had an SP1200, a turntable, and an old James Brown record. I was trying to figure out how I could make a Hip Hop record for this girl. I took the James Brown record, slowed it down, and played it backwards. It sounded weird, but Dallas came in the room and said, "That's dope!" That was my most memorable experience because I was being experimental. I like playing stuff backwards with live cuts and hard drums. Good ol' Hip Hop. What do you learn working with Dallas Austin? He had all top-shelf stuff. He had all of the nicest equipment and we always had two or three of everything. I learned Pro Tools when it first came out. All of this helped me learn how to get the quality of my music sounding nice. I learned how to tweak snares and kicks. I learned how to sample. There is a science to sampling. It can't be too loud…there are a lot of things you have to do. What happened after you left Dallas Austin? I worked with Dallas up until '95 or '96, when I felt it was time for me to go out and do my own thing. One of the first things I did was hook up with the basketball player John Salley. He was out of California at the time. He wanted to do a label with me. I had a group named Mozae from Decatur. I had done an album on these kids. John Salley wanted to do a label and put the album out. We had distribution through Navarre. I was out in California a lot with him. It did pretty well. It was a very slept-on album. We did do a nice number for independent in 1997. That was real good for that time. After Mozae, I had a girl rapper that went and got a deal at Warner. Her name was Black Rose. That never came to fruition because they didn't know what to do with a Southern female rapper. All during this time I was still doing projects with Dallas and drum programming for some people. Around '99 I found this group called Jatis. They were like Outkast reborn. They were young cats from Southwest Atlanta. They had rhyme skills. We started putting dope songs together. Soon enough I landed a production deal on Loud. Steve Rifkind called me and wanted to do a deal for Jatis. Then Loud folded and Sony decided to take on the project. In that shuffle, we decided we wanted to leave and try to do it ourselves. We ended up leaving Sony and the guys started doing solo stuff. What do you see in Bobby Creekwater that makes you want to work with him? He's one of the better MC's in Atlanta. Sure enough, people will find out soon because he's a pure artist. He's not running around in the streets claiming he's a gangster. He's an MC. He writes. He's a very prolific writer, he has good sense, and he has a great voice. He's a dope rapper. What do you look for in an artist to make you want to work? I look for hunger. Jatis called me all the time and got on my nerves asking me to work with them. They are hungry artists. You find a lot of new rappers, and you ask them to rap, and they're rapping off the paper and it still takes them five hours to do 16 bars. If you rap, you don't need all that time. If you're battling, you have to rhyme on a dime. If you rap, you have to spit. That's what I liked about Jatis and that's what I look for in new artists. If you claim to rap, let's hear you rhyme. It can't just be words put together. It has to have content. If you're describing somebody, it has to be vivid. I want to know what you're about and what you're bringing. Who are you working with today that you're excited about? Chamillionaire. He's a real dope MC. That dude is a prolific writer. I did the song with him and Bun-B called "Picture Perfect." Bun-B is like the governor of the South. Scarface is on the other song I did with Chamillionaire. I also did a song for David Banner with Talib Kweli and dead.prez. It's talking about the n-word. It's real crazy. Those cats are MC's. How was it working with Chamillionaire on "The Sound of Revenge"? I'm not going to front. I didn't know he was as big as he was. I met him through Tahir. I met him and he was a dope rapper. He was at Stankonia. He was cool. I started researching him and he had a cult following. I started listening to his music. The kid was nuts. He called me and said he wanted two joints from me and it came out crazy. He's mad busy out there doing his thing. How was it finding out Bun-B was on your beat? They sent it back to me and I went nuts. I was real happy to see them on it. I didn't know he was going to put Bun-B and Scarface on my songs. This kid is almost platinum, too. Do you wish you could have been there for the recording of it? Yeah. Totally. But what it does, regardless of that, is it opens the door for me to work with these cats now, because they wouldn't have rhymed on the beat if they didn't think it was dope. The beat I gave Chamillionaire had the same Isley Brother sample from a UGK album, so it made sense to give it to an artist from Houston. How involved were you in dead.prez's "Hell Yeah" with Jay-Z? Not very much as far as Jay-Z being there. I missed when he came in to spit his verse. I heard he came down to the hood to do his verse. I was living in New York at the time. DP is my family. I did a lot of their underground albums. I did "When Mama Cries." "Hell Yeah" is like a rock song with a Southern feel. I used a lot of guitars and rock shit. I wanted it to be cutting edge because it was Jay-Z with dead.prez. People didn't think Jay could get on that level. How did you get down with dead.prez? We ran in the same circles. I was in the Rocksteady Crew and I'm head of the Zulu Nation in Atlanta. Being a part of Zulu Nation, you run into a lot of politically active cats. I did a show with Jatis and dead.prez was on the bill. I got to meet up with them. My wife also went to college with them and Common. I wanted to connect with these cats and I gave them some music. From that point on, we kept in touch and I would shoot them music. I'd see them if they came through and vice versa. We had a studio together in New York. We have that vibe when we work. How's dead.prez's music sounding now? I moved back to Atlanta from New York, and so did stic. M's stuff is dope and it's getting ready to drop and stic's music is getting ready to drop. Stic has a more universal sound. He's from Florida and he also sings. He has that Southern feeling. He's working closely with The Outlawz. I think people are really going to love it. They are serious individuals and that's why I work with these cats. I love the music and anybody that loves music like I do, I'm going to be down to do music. What are you responsibilities in the Zulu Nation? When we started it down here, it was to give kids direction. We have meetings every Wednesday. I would bring together young people from 13 to 40. We would deal with certain subject matters in the community or Hip Hop or in the planet. We'd do parties, go to Zulu anniversaries in New York, go to Rocksteady events…we'd arrange for the kids to do and set up some businesses. A lot of the young Zulu's came up and are in big positions right now. So you've seen a lot of positive effects? Oh yeah! It's great to see kids doing positive things for themselves. A lot of them were influenced by Hip Hop, whether they grew up here or went to college here. How should Hip Hop and politics mix? They're inseparable. You can't get by it. Listen to KRS and PE. It's a responsibility. You seldom hear about it today. Some MC's have a voice, but you don't really hear it from rappers today. If you're not talking about your community, then you're not doing justice to the people that listen to you. We're the voice. The strongest voice on the planet is Hip Hop. You could hear a rap on a tampon commercial. That voice should always be together. If you're not saying anything, what's the point? What equipment are you rocking on today? I use one of the original SP1200's from back in the day, and the MPC-2000XL. I use the Triton Extreme. I have a lot of guitars and bass guitars. I have some percussion to get that live feel. I record to Pro Tools. I have a lot of live instrumentation. I always keep my turntables near and a stack of records because I'm always digging in the crates. What's the most important element in a Sol Messiah beat? The soul. If it doesn't move you and I don't move you and make you say, "This music makes me feel good," then it's not my beat. It's very soulful. It's not too abstract. It's the movement and the soul. Stevie Wonder's movements make you feel a certain way. That's the most important element. Why should MC's want to work with you? You're going to get a song. If you wear 34X30 jeans, you wouldn't buy 36X28. I'm going to tailor the song to fit you just right. The beat is going to be fit perfectly to that rapper or singer and it's going to match. It's not going to be purple shoes with a green shirt. I make songs for the artist. What's coming up for you? I got some songs coming out on this Bobby Creekwater album. I also have an instrumental album that's just now dropping. It's called "Supreme Beats." I also did an album called "No Wrappers." Rappers were getting on my nerves for shooting and pimping all the time. I wanted to make an album that you could clean up to on Saturday morning. I got a deal with INGrooves. It should get a lot of places. It's a lot of live instruments, hard drums, hard basslines…The next one is called "The Art of Instrumental." That's just what they are. What do you want to say to everyone? If you love music, if you actually love music and what we do, because music is the soul…the reason they call it soul music is because soul music is the people. If you really love the music, support it. Some people only deal with one type of music. Good music is good music. If you really love music, support the music, because music is the soul.

By Brian Kayser

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