Wednesday, September 30, 2009
PRICELESS CREATIVITY IN BARCELONA
So my lil brother did this in Barcelona and I really love this pic. It reminds me of the glow in the dark tour. Great thing about this pic is they didn't use no special camera with a crazy megapixel or any special lighting, haha, dude just did, so I guess I should also give credit to the person that took it, great job, great eye. This is priceless creativity at it's best. Shout outs to my lil man!!
COMPLEX INTERVIEW: EMILE ON THE MAKING OF KID CUDI'S ALBUM
The man sometimes referred to as “The Urban Gentleman” has previously worked with Raekwon (”Ice Water”) and Obie Trice (”Wanna Know”), but it’s with Cudi’s project that Emile is truly making a name for himself. After producing the majority of the A Kid Named Cudi mixtape with Plain Pat, Emile shifted his focus to work on Cudi’s studio album. (The trio have since started their own indie label, Dream On.) On Man On The Moon, Emile’s touch is apparent from start to finish—he produced “In My Dreams (Cudder Anthem),” “Soundtrack 2 My Life,” Solo Dolo (Nightmare),” and “CuDi Zone.” In this exclusive interview, Emile breaks down how each track came to fruition, and also talks about the first night he met Cudi…
Complex: So starting from the first track—”In My Dreams (Cudder Anthem).” How did that song come about?
Emile: It’s like the way we did all of our records where we started with nothing, and we were just kind of listening to different sounds and different music. I hooked that beat up pretty fast and I’m pretty sure that Cudi freestyled that whole thing. For a lot of songs we did he would write out the verses on his Blackberry or whatever phone he was using at the time. With that one, he just went in the booth and freestyled it and nailed it. We were always planning on redoing it or having him “officially” do it. But yeah, it was just like that first take was the one that stayed on the album. That was off the top, kinda ill.
Complex: Did you guys plan on starting the album with a gloomy beat like that from jump?
Emile: Actually, that was more of Cudi’s thing. He had in his head what he wanted to start the album with. Like way back it was a song called “Bigger Than You,” which some people might of heard because it leaked. It was a really dope record. “Bigger Than You” was actually the first record me and Cudi ever did together. It was on the first day that we met, we cut that song. Once we cut it, he was like, “That’s the intro to my album.” It stayed that way for a while, but that record was cut a long time before the album was ever done, so eventually it kinda faded out. Then we did this “In My Dreams” record and he was always kinda stuck on that being the intro. He really liked this part that I played which is the little melody part where he actually sings, “You’re in my dreams.” He always liked that and was like, that’s dope for the intro. So that’s how that kind of happened.
Complex: You said you recorded “Bigger Than You” the first day you met Cudi. When exactly was that?
Emile: 2007. Some point in ’07. Maybe summer of ’07 or fall of ’07, it was a while back.
Complex: The second track on the album is a lot of people’s favorite: “Soundtrack 2 My Life.” I remember Cudi spitting it as a freestyle on 106 & Park, but the lyrics were a bit different. Talk to us about that track.
Emile: It was probably around the time that 106 happened, I’m not 100% sure, but I would guess it was probably around the 106 time. I think probably one of the reasons why the lyrics got fucked up is because it’s kind of like a head-nod type of record and I remember the crowd started clapping all fast to speed it up and shit. That record started with me just kind of on the keyboard just playing shit. When he heard something he liked, he would be like, “That’s dope.” It would just be like some chords, then we’d kind of build it around that. It wasn’t like, I’d have a beat done and be like, “What do you think?”
Complex: Right.
Emile: It would always just start with nothing and then build into a beat. That was one of those records we cut all in one night—which is rare, because usually we would spend a few days or a few different sessions per song, but that one we just did in one night because he was just determined to get it done.
Complex: To me, it’s one of the records that really gives a glimpse into his life. Is that what he aimed to do?
Emile: I believe so, I mean I don’t really ever ask him why he writes shit or what he wrote. I just kind of take it for what it is. I want to say he had the chorus first, he probably put the verses around what he was saying in the chorus and what he had in his head for the chorus.
Complex: And it all came out in one night?
Emile: Yeah, in one session. Pretty much the whole thing too, which is ill because usually I go back and play around with the beat a lot. But that was literally pretty much hammered out. The only thing that was different on that was I had my boy Morgan play guitars on the outro. Like right at the end when his voice starts echoing, I had these guitars I added to the outro. But other than that I was pretty much done in one session.
Complex: So “Solo Dolo” is a track that leaked before, but without any strings. How did that song come about?
Emile: That’s my favorite song. I remember that session was just me and Cudi in the studio and I have a big record collection, we were just listening to the record that I got the sample from. I just had it playing in the background, I wasn’t really listening to it for samples necessarily, we were just kind of listening to some things and we both heard that and were like, “Oh shit, that’s dope—what if we took that sample and just slowed it way down?” So we just took it and slowed it way down, then I just kind of built the beat up around it and put some synths in it. There’s like this one weird little dreamy synth thing on the chorus, that was Cudi’s idea that he kind of had in his head. I just found the right sound eventually and added that in. Then I beefed it up with these 808s, I added some synths, and I added a couple things but I was really like, man this would be sick with a really big orchestra on it so let’s not add too much of anything and just get the ill arrangement and the ill strings on it. That’s probably my favorite song, I think what Cudi did to that is so fucking ill.
Complex: Yeah, he killed it.
Emile: When we did that, I was like, “Holy shit, he’s going in.” I think just the way his voice sounds, there’s like this low tone that he hits. I’ve had engineers ask me if that’s an effect I put on his vocals but it’s not, he’s got this low tone, it’s almost like adding bass to something but it’s in his voice. That’s in the chorus, that chorus to me just sounds so big. It’s sonically a big hook because he’s got that super sub-harmonic low voice in there. There’s no effect on there, there’s no auto, there’s no tuning, there’s no nothing. I tend to add a gang of shit to my music and my tracks, I just kind of love that overproduced vibe sometimes. But that one, his voice was so strong on that, it was just like, let’s just leave this wide open and then have the orchestra just come in and do some things on it. Larry Gold just went in on that, it sounded big and cinematic but sinister at the same time. It was perfect.
Complex: For “Cudi Zone,” I remember Cudi saying he had the first verse done, and then eventually finished the second verse at a later time.
Emile: He had the verse forever and me and [Plain] Pat were like “’Cudi Zone,’ what’s up with it?” and Cudi would just blow it off. So me and Pat were just like, fuck man, this record is so dope but it went on so long that I started to wonder if this monster of a record was going to be on the shelf, just like if it was ever going to get finished. A long time went by, and he just wasn’t going to force it. Cudi doesn’t force his stuff when he works, it’s either going to happen or it’s not going to happen. Eventually one day, it was real nonchalant, months and months after we had this record and he was just like, “Oh yeah, I got the ‘Cudi Zone’ verse.” I almost didn’t believe him, I was like, word? Not only did he come in forever after we did the first verse but he did the second verse and it sounded like he did it the exact same day he did the first verse. The tone was cool, everything was cool about it. It was like OK, shit we’re done. Sweet.
Complex: Now how much of a time span went on between the first verse and the second?
Emile: Man…we did “Cudi Zone” and “Solo Dolo” I think back-to-back in like two days. It had to have been six months, I don’t know exactly. It was a while, I’m going to guess between four and six months.
Complex: Going back to the origin of your relationship with Cudi’s relationship, how did you hook up with him? Did Pat bring you in later or did you and Pat find Cudi together?
Emile: You know what, I heard “Day ‘N’ Nite” on Cudi’s MySpace and was blown away by the record. It didn’t even have that many plays on MySpace yet. I don’t know how I stumbled across it, but I stumbled across it and heard it. The second I heard it I was like, “Holy shit!” I looked around on his page and saw [Plain] Pat on his top friends list. Me and Pat have had a long relationship, we’ve always kind of worked together with him being an A&R and me as a producer. So, I hit Pat up and was just like, yo there’s this cat with this song that has you as one of his top friends and this song is just like the illest song ever. Obviously he had started to work with Cudi, and was like, “Yeah, yeah that’s my guy we should get up.” I said bring him by the studio, because I think some of the new beats I got are pretty well-suited for him, we should do some shit.
Complex: Did he bring him by right away?
Emile: We didn’t get up until a few months after that. I think Pat was doing the Graduation album with Kanye at the time and I was doing this album out in England. Then I think Pat might have hit me up and brought Cudi to the studio. On that first day we cut “Bigger Than You.” I remember I was playing them mad beats, and he liked the beats but it was the sort of thing where you’re playing an artist mad beats and they’re like, yeah that’s good, that’s good, but you know when somebody really wants something, things get done. The artist hears something and they’re like, I’m getting in the booth or I’m writing right now. When you’re in the studio that either happens or it doesn’t. That wasn’t happening and I was just like, fuck it, lets just make something from scratch. And that kinda just sent the tone for how we did everything. The way we did “Bigger Than You,” that very first record, it was a sample and we were just listening to records and he was just like, “Yo that’s crazy” and we built it up. That’s kinda how we did everything from then on.
Complex: You’re one of his managers. How did that music relationship turn into a managerial relationship?
Emile: Yeah, well it’s co-managing with Pat. Pat was always the original manager and when Cudi started coming to the studio we started working a lot, it was just an organic thing that happened. His buzz started getting bigger, we put the mixtape A Kid Named Cudi out and the next thing you know I had a million people hitting me like different labels and people I had different relationships with trying to get meetings and set up meetings and that kind of stuff. It happened naturally over time, the music kind of blended with the business. We just kept it moving.
Complex: Now the “Browski Room,” the place where the tracks you did for the album were recorded, is that your personal studio?
Emile: [Laughs.] Yeah. I mean I never had a name for my studio and we got a lot of inside jokes and that’s one of them.
Complex: You’ve worked with a lot of other artists, but is there something about Cudi that stands out to you?
Emile: The creativity, the harmonies, the melodies and just the fact that he manages to be completely original and be like an underground artist, but has melodies that appeal to everybody. I think that’s the trick. A lot of people are very underground and stay that way because they don’t appeal to the masses. Or, they appeal to the masses and real music heads can’t appreciate it. A lot of the time it’s one extreme or the other and Cudi kind of manages to fit in both categories and that’s the ticket.
Complex: Did you or Pat or Cudi ever feel like this album was too bold for a debut album? It’s not the most Hot 97-friendly record…
Emile: Yeah I mean, that wasn’t even needed to be thought about. We’re not the type to even really give a fuck about all that. It is what it is. Like when you hear “Day ‘N’ Nite,” you know it’s incredible but it’s not like a generic radio record. It just so happened that the people heard it, and loved it, and it managed to find a place in our world. I never even thought about it, I think we knew what we were doing was good and wherever it fit in, it fit in.
Complex: So now with the album done, what are you working on now personally? Are you working with any other artists?
Emile: Not really. I started to get back in the studio and cook up quite a bit and I’ve got in with a few artists to record a few things which is all good, but we’re really pushing this Cudi album hard so I’m spending a lot of time doing that. I’ve been getting back in the studio myself, personally just kind of alone, making tracks and things like that.
Complex: You’ve had big records with Obie and others before, but do you view this as a breakthrough for you?
Emile: Yeah, definitely because I feel like this is a new sound for me, it’s really producing. It’s not making a beat, sending it to an artist and having them record a song to it—which I do a lot of, that’s fine and that’s cool. That’s how a lot of stuff gets done in rap. But it’s not nearly as fun as truly starting from scratch with an artist and developing a sound. That’s what I’ve always wanted to do and this was an opportunity I had to actually do that.
Interview by Joe La Puma.
Via Complex
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
CONSEQUENCE FT KANYE WEST AND JOHN LEGEND - WHATEVER YOU WANT
Good music family!! And here's an oldie "Grammy Family"
Fire!!
WILL'S WISDOM
Saw this on my boy's blog and I thought it was so powerful. I've seen the Tavis Smiley and Charlie Rose full interviews before but not the other ones, but this combines all the wisdom and knowledge into one video, really powerful and moving too. Enjoy and hope you take something valuable from this.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
DIGITAL ARTIST JOEL DOS REIS VIEGAS
Joel Dos Reis Viegas Graduated from CFT Gobelins (Paris) with a degree in 2D/3D animation, Before becoming a concept artist he benefited from having a strong animator background. With over 5 years experience in the video game industry and more in the animation field, Joel is now an accomplished artist and a co-founder of STEAMBOT Studios, a collective of artists and friends whose goal is to push the boundaries of concept art further. www.feerik-art.com
MUSIC VIDEOS
MR. HUDSON - WHITE LIES
KANO - ROCK N ROLLER
MELANIE FIONA - IT KILLS ME
BIRDMAN FT DRAKE AND LIL' WAYNE - MONEY TO BLOW
ENJOY MY FELLOW MARTIANS...
KANO - ROCK N ROLLER
MELANIE FIONA - IT KILLS ME
BIRDMAN FT DRAKE AND LIL' WAYNE - MONEY TO BLOW
ENJOY MY FELLOW MARTIANS...
KERI HILSON COVERS MR. HUDSON'S SUPERNOVA ON LIVE LOUNGE
Damn, this is serious. I think since I found this last night, I've watched it more than 5 times and also let it play in the back while im doing other things in the crib. This sounds so great. Keri just went up a couple of notches in my book!!
MERCEDES BENZ - CLK GTR
Back in the late 90s the cream of the crop of Mercedes Benz was the CLK GTR which was virtually street legal race car. These street versions you see here are replica versions of the GT1 class machines that competed and took the championship in 1997. Each vehicle was equipped with a 6.9 liter V12 pumping out 612 horsepower mated with sequential six speed transmission with paddle shifters and carbon fibre brakes. Only 25 vehicles were made with only 5 roadster versions, which pretty much means that these CLK GTRs are the most exclusive supercars on the planet.
Unfortunately for most of us, we would never own these, but for some lucky few these two examples in roadster version and coupe version is going to auction at RM Auctions on October 28th. Both of these vehicles are brand new and have not been driven except for delivery which means that these are as original as it gets. RM Auctions estimates that these will go under the hammer for the third of its brand new price that can only be good news for couple of car collectors with deep pockets. Via Autoblog
Thursday, September 24, 2009
JAY-Z ON OPRAH
This is a good look for hip-hop!! Jay keeps pushing the envelope and setting the bar high for other rappers.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
ALPHABEAT - THE SPELL
My boy sent me this and I gotta say I'm feeling it big time. It has a new fresh sound to it but also a throwback feel. Never heard of this band prior to this but i'm definitely going to do my research. Check them out. P.S by now, y'all can tell my musical taste is really broad and weird at the same time.
LEVI MAESTRO
So, I don't really know much about Levi Maestro but I know dude is a genius. I always peeped the lil videos he does and they're pretty interesting and he always manages to have fun. What I didn't know is dude collaborates with huge companies on all sorts of different business ventures. I think all bloggers should kind of pay close attention to what this dude does, I know I'm going to. Peep the latest episode of "Maestro Knows" and for more info and old episodes of Maestro Knows, go to levimaestro.com.
Maestro Knows - Episode 9 (Nike Campus) from Maestro Knows on Vimeo.
KANYE WEST X LADY GAGA "FAME KILLS" TOUR PROMO
Fame Kills from kwest on Vimeo.
The creativity on this tour is going to be amazing!!! Gotta get tickets for this joint!!
CINNAMON CHASERS - LUV DELUXE
Cinnamon Chasers - Luv Deluxe (Official Music Video) from Saman Keshavarz on Vimeo.
Well directed video.
MR. HUDSON AT THE RVSP GALLERY
Mr Hudson performs "supernova" @ RSVP Gallery from Superfun on Vimeo.
I'm really looking forward to "Straight no chaser".
CONGRATS TO KID CUDI
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
JAY-Z INTERVIW WITH OPRAH
At 13 he was selling crack. By 30 he was a hip-hop legend—having gone, in his words, “from grams to Grammys.” Now Jay-Z charts his escape from the hard-knock life, describes the reunion that healed the wounds of his childhood—and even reveals the standing Sunday date he has with what’s her name.
The first time the hip-hop artist and record executive Jay-Z witnessed a murder, he was 9 years old. It was 1978, and in those days, he was known as Shawn Carter—a quiet kid who lived with his mother and three siblings in a sprawling housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.
“That was my apartment right there—5C,” Jay-Z told me one afternoon in August as we strolled the sidewalks of the Marcy Houses. “Navigating this place was life-or-death.” He wasn’t exaggerating; as the crack epidemic took hold in the 1980s, 13-year-old Jay-Z began selling drugs. His father had abandoned the family when Jay-Z was 11. And like many of his friends, he found his role models in the neighborhood dealers. “On the streets, you had to operate with integrity,” he told me. “If you broke your word to someone, he wasn’t going to take you to court—he was going to deal with you himself. So it was here in the projects that I learned loyalty.”
It was in the projects, too, that he began rapping. Around the neighborhood Shawn became known as Jazzy—a reference, he says, to the way he carried himself: “like an older guy, like an older spirit.” He gained a local following after he started selling his own records out of his car. And in 1996—disenchanted with the small-time label that finally signed him—he launched his own label, Roc-A-Fella Records. Later that year, Reasonable Doubt hit stores nationwide, and Jay-Z (the play on Jazzy he’d adopted after that name started to feel “too glittery”) was on his way.
Since then, Jay-Z has released ten solo studio albums (the most recent, The Blueprint 3, debuted on September 11, 2009). He has sold more than 30 million records, won seven Grammys, and built a business empire that includes the Rocawear clothing line and Roc Nation entertainment company. In 2004 he became a part owner of the NBA’s New Jersey Nets.
In December he will turn 40, and in recent years his focus has been on more than just his career. In 2003 he reconciled with his father, Adnes Reeves, shortly before Reeves’s death. That same year, he began to put his wealth to good use, founding the Shawn Carter Scholarship Fund for disadvantaged and formerly incarcerated youth who hope to attend college (though Jay-Z never did time himself, in 2001 he pleaded guilty to stabbing a record executive at a Manhattan nightclub and was sentenced to three years’ probation). In 2006 he teamed up with the United Nations to raise awareness of the worldwide water shortage. And in 2008, after six years of dating, he married the singer Beyoncé Knowles.
After our walk through the Marcy projects, Jay-Z and I visit a three-story row house a few blocks away. The house used to belong to his grandmother, and until he was 5, Jay-Z lived here with his parents, three siblings, and extended family. As we sit on the front stoop chatting (the same spot where, Jay-Z says, he spent long summer evenings “just chillin’”), the passersby who spot him form a crowd on the sidewalk; several boys climb the iron fence that surrounds the property. “Is that really Jay-Z?” one boy says to another. “Yep—and he’s from here,” the other responds.
Sitting on this stoop, it’s stunning to think about how far Jay-Z has come. Not only is he an entirely self-made man, he’s found his great success doing exactly what he loves. He is thoughtful and intelligent, a reader and a seeker. And in between telling me how he survived life on the streets, how a scolding from his mother helped him fall in love, and even how he and Beyoncé managed to keep their wedding small and private, he explains why he cares so much about connecting with kids who remind him of him—kids he hopes will point to his photo and say, “I can make it, too.”
Oprah: So tell me how you got into the drug dealing.
Jay-Z: It was natural.…
Oprah: Because drug dealers were your role models. There wasn’t a teacher or a lawyer or a nurse or a doctor or an accountant in the neighborhood?
Jay-Z: Well, we were living in Marcy by then, so, no. And if anyone did become something like that, they moved out. They never came back to share the wisdom of how they made it. If anyone made it, you never knew it. That’s why I’ve always said that if I became successful, I’d come back here, grab somebody, and show him how it can be done.
Oprah: So by the time you were 13, this was a way of life. Did the lifestyle frighten you?
Jay-Z: No. It was normal. And at some point, you become addicted to the feeling. The uncertainty and adrenaline and danger of that lifestyle.
Oprah: This is where we differ. This is where we differ. Because I’d be very scared! Weren’t you shot at three times—within six feet—and you lived to talk about it?
Jay-Z: That was divine intervention. Divine intervention, and nobody knowing how to shoot.
Oprah: What happened in each situation?
Jay-Z: It was one situation, three shots.
Oprah: So he was a bad shot.
Jay-Z: Well, no one really practices shooting a TEC-9 machine gun, right? And when you’re a kid, with little bony arms—no wonder nobody could aim.
Oprah: Many of the little boys who grew up in the Marcy projects are either in jail or dead. Why do you think you got to grow up and buy your mom a house?
Jay-Z: There’s the gift, there’s the spirit, and there’s the work—all three have to come together. If one of those things is off, it can stop you from becoming who you were meant to be.
Oprah: When I met you a few years ago, we discussed our disagreement over the use of the N word and misogynist lyrics in rap music. Do you believe that using the N word is necessary?
Jay-Z: Nothing is necessary. It’s just become part of the way we communicate. My generation hasn’t had the same experience with that word that generations of people before us had. We weren’t so close to the pain. So in our way, we disarmed the word. We took the fire pin out of the grenade.
Next: Jay-Z on the wedding–>
Oprah: We all carry memories that are triggered when we return to a childhood home. What are your fondest memories from here?
Jay-Z: Outside in front is where I learned to ride a bike. I learned to ride a ten-speed when I was 4 or 5. My uncle gave me the bike, hand-me-down, and everyone used to stare at me riding up and down this block.
Oprah: You could ride a ten-speed when you were 5?
Jay-Z: I was too short to reach the pedals, so I put my legs through the V of the frame. I was famous. The little kid who could ride the ten-speed.
Oprah: Wow. That’s one great memory. Any others?
Jay-Z: The boat. For some reason there was an abandoned boat on this block. We used to play on it all the time, every day.
Oprah: You know, I also grew up poor, but rural poor is different. Did you feel poor?
Jay-Z: Not at all. Probably the first time was in school when I couldn’t get the newest sneakers. We didn’t have elaborate meals, but we didn’t go without. We ate a lot of chicken. You know, ’cause chicken’s cheap. We had so much chicken—chicken backs, chicken everything. To this day, I can only eat small pieces or else I feel funny.
Oprah: That’s too much chicken in a lifetime. So when you were 5, your family moved to the Marcy projects—and then your father left when you were 11. When you look back at that, what did your 11-year-old self feel?
Jay-Z: Anger. At the whole situation. Because when you’re growing up, your dad is your superhero. Once you’ve let yourself fall that in love with someone, once you put him on such a high pedestal and he lets you down, you never want to experience that pain again. So I remember just being really quiet and really cold. Never wanting to let myself get close to someone like that again. I carried that feeling throughout my life, until my father and I met up before he died.
Oprah: Wow. I’ve never heard a man phrase it that way. You know, I’ve done many shows about divorce, and the real crime is when the kids aren’t told. They just wake up one day and their dad is gone. Did that happen to you?
Jay-Z: We were told our parents would separate, but the reasons weren’t explained. My mom prepared us more than he did. I don’t think he was ready for that level of discussion and emotion. He was a guy who was pretty detached from his feelings.
Oprah: Did you wonder why he left?
Jay-Z: I summed it up that they weren’t getting along. There was a lot of arguing.
Oprah: And did you know you were angry?
Jay-Z: Yeah. I also felt protective of my mom. I remember telling her, “Don’t worry, when I get big, I’m going to take care of this.” I felt like I had to step up. I was 11 years old, right? But I felt I had to make the situation better.
Oprah: How did that change you?
Jay-Z: It made me not express my feelings as much. I was already a shy kid, and it made me a little reclusive. But it also made me independent. And stronger. It was a weird juxtaposition.
Oprah: I’ve read that when you were 12, you shot your brother in the shoulder. Did your father’s leaving have anything to do with that? Did it turn you into the kind of angry kid who would end up shooting his brother?
Jay-Z: Yes—and my brother was dealing with a lot of demons.
Oprah: How old was he?
Jay-Z: About 16. He was doing a lot of drugs. He was taking stuff from our family. I was the youngest, but I felt like I needed to protect everybody.
Oprah: Was it a dysfunctional household?
Jay-Z: Looking back, I guess it was quite dysfunctional. But I didn’t have that feeling until I got into my early teen years, when we were living in the Marcy projects. That’s when crack hit my neighborhood hard and I started getting into mischief.
Oprah: How were you in school? I’ve heard that when you were in sixth grade, you tested at a 12th-grade level.
Jay-Z: I was bored and distracted.
Oprah: Did you like anything about school?
Jay-Z: I loved English.
Oprah: I know you love to read now. Were books part of your childhood?
Jay-Z: No. I don’t remember that.
Oprah: And I thought we had so much in common!
Jay-Z: I just daydreamed a lot.
Oprah: What about?
Jay-Z: Performing or playing baseball and basketball. I took my mind out of my environment, to the point where I wasn’t paying attention to what was happening around me. I still do that now.
Oprah: You didn’t listen in class, you didn’t read books—and you still tested as a 12th grader. You must have a naturally high IQ.
Jay-Z: Or I’m an idiot savant.
Oprah: So when did you start rapping?
Jay-Z: I probably started around 9—but I was just playing around.
Oprah: Were the rappers in your neighborhood your role models?
Jay-Z: The drug dealers were my role models. Rappers weren’t successful yet. I remember the first time I saw the Sugarhill Gang on Soul Train. I was 11 or 12. I was like, “What’s going on? How did those guys get on national TV?” And then, when I was a little older, a rapper from the neighborhood got a record deal. I was shocked. “They’re giving you money to do that?” Because by this time, the music had taken hold of the entire neighborhood. Just like crack had before, now this music had taken hold. Everyone was either DJ-ing or rapping.
Oprah: And rapping came naturally for you?
Jay-Z: It was a gift. I had a notebook full of material. It was just a makeshift thing—someone found some papers, put a paper clip on them, and made me a notebook.
Oprah: Please tell me you still have that notebook.
Jay-Z: I wish.
Oprah: When did you realize that rapping was a career possibility—after you saw Sugarhill on TV?
Jay-Z: Yeah—but I still didn’t really think it was a possibility for me. It wasn’t until Jaz got a contract that I was like, “Wow, this stuff is going to happen.” [Jonathan Burks, a.k.a. Jaz-O or Jaz, was Jay-Z's musical mentor.] And Jaz went to London to make an album, and took me with him. I was a kid from Marcy projects, and I spent two months in a London flat.
Oprah: So tell me how you got into the drug dealing.
Jay-Z: It was natural.…
Oprah: Because drug dealers were your role models. There wasn’t a teacher or a lawyer or a nurse or a doctor or an accountant in the neighborhood?
Jay-Z: Well, we were living in Marcy by then, so, no. And if anyone did become something like that, they moved out. They never came back to share the wisdom of how they made it. If anyone made it, you never knew it. That’s why I’ve always said that if I became successful, I’d come back here, grab somebody, and show him how it can be done.
Oprah: So you didn’t have even one positive black role model?
Jay-Z: Just my mom. She worked two jobs and did whatever she had to do for us.
Oprah: Did you aspire to be a drug dealer?
Jay-Z: Well, no. No one aspires to be a drug dealer. You don’t want to bring trouble to your mother’s door, even though that’s what you’re doing. You aspire to the lifestyle you see around you. You see the green BMW, the prettiest car you’ve ever seen. You see the trappings of drug dealing, and it draws you in.
Oprah: How old were you when you got involved?
Jay-Z: Maybe 13.
Oprah: Did you realize it could cost you your life?
Jay-Z: In my mind, that wasn’t risking a lot. You think, “If I’m living like this, I’ll risk anything to get more. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Oprah: You could die.
Jay-Z: Yes, but you don’t think about that.
Oprah: Were you seeing people get shot?
Jay-Z: Definitely—I saw a guy get shot when I was 9. And he wasn’t even a bad guy. His name was Benny. He was the guy who would take us to play baseball. We always believed he could have made it to the majors. He was that good. Some guy was chasing him—and then I heard a shot and saw him on the floor.
Oprah: So by the time you were 13, this was a way of life. Did the lifestyle frighten you?
Jay-Z: No. It was normal. And at some point, you become addicted to the feeling. The uncertainty and adrenaline and danger of that lifestyle.
Oprah: This is where we differ. This is where we differ. Because I’d be very scared! Weren’t you shot at three times—within six feet—and you lived to talk about it?
Jay-Z: That was divine intervention. Divine intervention, and nobody knowing how to shoot.
Oprah: What happened in each situation?
Jay-Z: It was one situation, three shots.
Oprah: So he was a bad shot.
Jay-Z: Well, no one really practices shooting a TEC-9 machine gun, right? And when you’re a kid, with little bony arms—no wonder nobody could aim.
Oprah: Getting shot like that would be a wake-up call for the average guy. But you continued in the drug world.
Jay-Z: You want to shoot back. Well, maybe not everyone, but I did. I was angry.
Oprah: Did you go home and get a gun?
Jay-Z: Yeah. But the guy and I were actually friends.
Oprah: This is also where we differ! I don’t shoot at my friends. Did you ever make up with him?
Jay-Z: You can’t. You can agree not to shoot at each other, but you can’t be friends after that—unless the guy is your brother.
Oprah: You made up with your brother after you shot him?
Jay-Z: Yeah.
Oprah: So even after you went to London with Jaz, you stayed in the drug world?
Jay-Z: Right. Before I went, I spent a week making sure everything would be cool for when I came back. I was preparing to come back to the streets because I always had a fear that this music thing wouldn’t be successful. And since Jaz’s album didn’t work out, I did end up back on the streets. The same record label tried to sign me, but Jaz was the one who’d brought me in, and I felt that signing wouldn’t be loyal to him. So I told them no. I didn’t want to be involved with those record guys. They weren’t stand-up people.
Oprah: It’s ironic that you, a drug dealer, couldn’t trust the guys in the record business, as if they had no integrity!
Jay-Z: Exactly.
Oprah: How do you define integrity?
Jay-Z: As doing the right thing.
Oprah: Do you and Beyoncé have a pact that you just won’t talk about each other?
Jay-Z: Yeah. When you’re a public person, you have to keep some things to yourself, or else people will just—
Oprah: Eat it up. I know. But can I ask how in the world you kept your wedding a secret?
Jay-Z: Late planning!
Oprah: How many people knew?
Jay-Z: Very few. The sad part is that we offended some. But people who love you understand. Because at the end of the day, it’s your day.
Oprah: So here we are, talking on a Sunday afternoon. If you weren’t sitting here with me, what would you be doing?
Jay-Z: I’m gonna get killed for this, but I’ll tell you anyway. There’s a great pizza spot we go to every Sunday. It’s our tradition. It’s a small place in Brooklyn, you can bring your own wine, and there are candles there. It’s a nice date.
Jay-Z is slated to appear on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” Thursday, September 24th show.
JAY-Z INTERVIEW ON BBC
This is one of the best interviews I've seen, usually they ask him the same question but these were different and Hov gave him some pretty good answers.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
G.O.O.D MUSIC LIVE AT SPRITE GREEN & RSVP GALLERY EVENT (CUDI'S SET)
Cudi's Set Minus Day and Night from Brandon "N2ition" Riley on Vimeo.
Can't deny the talent people!!
CHARLES HAMILTON - THIS PERFECT LIFE
Tracklisting
1. Barbara Walters
2. Three Pound Bullet
3. Ghosts
4. Post Lynching Ceremony
5. All Alone (prod. Woody)
6. Cable in the Classroom
7. Baby
8. Reminder
9. Tears of Fire (ft. Crooked I)
10. Long Socks (ft. Show TuFli)
11. Rosado
What's good martians? Hope y'all had beautiful stress-free weekends! Well, here's the Charles Hamilton project that was suppose to be released way back but I got no clue what happened and in between that time, Drake stepped up, Cudi came in and Wale put in a lot of work, so I think a lot of people lost interest in Charles Hamilton and his work but I'm sure this is still a cool project. Free download so you can't go wrong with that, you aint got nothing to lose.
Download HERE
Saturday, September 19, 2009
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