Metal Lungies

You’ve likely scrunched up your face to one of MoSS’ beats at some point. His grungy, rasping backdrops have found their way into the hands of Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Joell Ortiz, and Sean Price; and as DJ Premier’s right hand, higher profile placements are in the cards. MoSS’ ear for the obscure and his heavy metal upbringing serve him well on his new album where he provides a uniquely discordant rock-inspired stage for an explosive Eternia.

In our interview, MoSS discusses his musical roots, the circumstances that kept him from getting credited for a placement on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II, and what it’s like being DJ Premier’s right hand man.

Eternia & MoSS – At Last is out now.

ML: What kind of music did you grow up on?

Moss: I don’t know how old you are, but I’m in my thirties, so I grew up probably in the early stages of hip-hop. It just so happened that my neighbor was Roxanne [Shanté]’s cousin. So he kind of introduced me to hip-hop at the time. So he bought me Whodini’s Open Sesame album for my birthday. That was grade school days, I was dubbing stuff off the radio, and I remember that’s when Juice Crew was dropping and I think [MC] Shan was dropping and LL [Cool J] was gonna drop Radio a little after that. I grew up on that, but I was also a big rock guy. I played hockey living in Canada, so a lot of the guys I was playing hockey with, in the dressing room, we were listing to Iron Maiden, Metallica, ACDC. I’d make my own little tapes and I’d have Juice Crew, and then I’d have Metallica, and the next song after that would be a Whodini song, and then it would be Iron Maiden, and then it would be Newcleus “Jam On It.” “Jam On It” was one of my joints back in the day. I’d say, primarily that’s what I grew up on as a child. And now I’m just really open all fronts of music. I just really enjoy music.

ML: As a producer, what do you look for in an MC and specifically, what drew you to Eternia?

MoSS: Obviously, lyrics and content are important. But I think more so, I look at an MC like an instrument. For me, an MC could have the greatest lyrics and this and that, but if they don’t have a hand on the music, it’s not going to work. For someone to work with, I look for someone that’s going to sound right over my music and will be able to use their voice as an additional instrument to my music and keep the emotion that my music has. And in general, if I listen to anybody, even if I don’t work with them, that’s usually what I look for. When you listen to a song and it sounds like somebody remixed, it’s just not fitting. I like music with synergy. What drew me to Eternia was I saw her perform live. I was on tour with Masta Ace, eMC, Marco Polo and Torae and Mr. Attic. I was doing a beat show with Marco and she opened up for us in one of the cities and when I saw her perform, I saw her energy. Right away, I knew that if I did the right type of backdrop for her, that she would fit over my music. The best feedback I get is from MCs that go hard on songs or spit with a lot of emotion. I got a lot of credit for stuff I did with Ghost[face Killah] and stuff I did with Obie [Trice] and a lot of those guys are just spitting. I heard kind of a female version of that and that’s what attracted me to her.

ML: What do you think has been your biggest placement to date?

MoSS: Probably [Ghostface Killah’s] “Kilo.” I think in general, journalists and DJs and everyone in the industry and fans in general — people respect Ghostface. I did “Have Mercy” on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… 2 but the problem with that was I gave that beat to Raekwon back when he was on Universal like five or six years ago. And so there was confusion leading up to the album and by the time they figured out I did the music and they contacted me to do the paperwork, the artwork had already been submitted and so my name didn’t get in the credits, but I got my money and I got my publishing and all that, but I guess that placement didn’t necessarily help me. I’d say “Kilo” and the stuff I did with Obie [Trice]. Even though I didn’t get placements through Shady Records, what that did was, it introduced me to my current manager, which in turn basically got me where I am today.

ML: What does a cosign from DJ Premier mean for a producer?

MoSS: It’s interesting because now whenever I’m in New York and I’m around Premier, automatically, people want to hear my music — where before I had to pull their arm. So I think that’s obviously when Premier approaches somebody and I ask them to listen to my music, they’ll do it just out of respect for Premier which is huge. I’ve been very lucky getting some of the placements I have and I know this is going to sound really cliche, but I really got into the music industry because I just liked making music and I enjoy it. I never actually had any aspirations to be some major label big pop producer. I never thought that would be feasible. I’ve been doing it for awhile, I’m a bit older. So sometimes you sit there and you think to yourself, ‘what I am I doing?’ It’s not like I was doubting myself, but now and again you just have to look in the mirror. And when Premier came along and said some of the things he said to me and took me under his wind and befriended me the way he did — just as someone who grew up listening to him and watching Premier take off himself — it was just surreal. I don’t know how else to put it. It was just kind of surreal. Now it’s Chris to me, it’s my boy, but it’s one of those things where at the time, it just blew my mind. This is gonna sound really corny, man, but in some ways I looked at it like when it’s all said and done, in the back of my mind, I know that I’ve achieved something. When I get credit from my peers and credit from A&Rs and journalists — and I’m not taking anything away from a fan or a music enthusiast — for one reason or another, it hits home a lot more because someone who’s competing with me is telling me that they appreciate what I’m doing, so that means a lot.

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Havoc earned his place in the history books as the producer half of Mobb Deep. With their seminal album The Infamous, Mobb Deep helped define the emerging sound of New York rap with gritty soundscapes that evoked urban decay, crime, and hunger. Havoc tells ML about the possibility of a sequel to The Infamous, his tenure at Loud Records versus G-Unit, and that pesky “Shook Ones: Part II” sample.

ML: Pretty much everything after The Infamous was really dark and menacing, especially Hell on Earth. Why was everything so dark after The Infmaous?

Havoc: I guess that’s the mood that I was in at the time. Making the album, I guess I was really attracted to dark sounds. It just brought out the mood of how I was feeling.

ML: You’re still kind of doing that now. Is there a particular reason why you were attracted to that dark sound? Were you going through something in your life at that point?

Havoc: I was thinking about that recently, why am I so attracted to dark sounding music. I guess because it reminds me of the pain I went through growing up and the hard times and stuff like that. At this point, it just gives me a good feeling to remember it even though it sounds dark. But just to have that feeling around to remember the times.

ML: How would you compare your time at G-Unit to your time at Loud Records?

Havoc: Nothing compares to Loud, period. That was a whole different era, so I really can’t compare it, but I could describe each situation. Over at Loud, it was like home. Everybody was family, not to say that over at G-Unit, it’s not like family, but we was just coming into the game and everybody was learning it together. It was a real adventure. Everything was new, didn’t know what to expect. After Loud, things became more business than art, not to say that the art wasn’t as creative after Loud, but you get kind of jaded from the business after awhile, because now you’re thinking about coming up with this commercial single and blah blah blah, this that and the third. Over at Loud, we never worried about that, ever and that was that.

G-Unit is like a powerhouse. We went over there and we was welcome with open arms, but we had a job to do and that was just point blank period. At that stage in our career. Not to say that it was a bad thing, it was a good thing. I feel like we met up to the challenge. A lot of people hated on the situation ahead of time, but I try to understand why people did that and I’m not mad at them. I just only could do what I could do.

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ML was so taken by the beat-downs and property destruction in Marco Polo & Ruste Juxx’s video for “Nobody” that we called up Marco to get the scoop. He explains the inspiration for the video and dishes on his future projects.

ML: The two major themes I noticed in the video were wanton destruction and just walking around town being assholes. How did you guys come up with this?

MP: It’s almost like we took some inspiration from the original Redman promo from… was it 95? Google that shit. That was definitely the inspiration for this video. We just wanted to do something different. Ruste is a street dude. He’s not in this new hipster rapper circle, he’s from Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He has a story. It was something I thought made sense for him. We wanted to do something unique, because there’s so many videos that come out, it’s like what’s gonna make your shit stand out and set yourself apart.

ML: Did you picture any of this when you actually made the song?

MP: A little bit of it. Definitely the shoving and stuff, like when he’s knocking people over and stuff like that. I could never have pictured how all the effects would come out. Todd [Angkasuwan], the director, really went it in on the effects and took a lot of time making shit explode and all the people getting thrown around and smashing windows. I kind of thought it would look like that, but the final product was just great.

ML: I think what makes the video so funny is that you’re not really being rap tough guys, you’re just walking around town being assholes, kind of like the part of Fight Club where Brad Pitt tells them to go start a fight with a stranger.

MP: That’s exactly what it is, ’cause I’m not a tough guy. This is straight entertainment for me. People that know me know I’m not a tough guy, I’m not gonna hurt a fly, but we were trying to do some entertaining shit.

ML: I remember when we were trying to get you on our April Fool’s joke, you said, ‘No one would believe I’d harm anyone,’ but here you are tossing grenades around and slapping people in the face.

MP: I think that’s the funny shit. People know I’m not like that. Everyone loves a slap. People fucking love me slapping that dude in the video. That shit is hilarious.

ML: Whose idea was it to make the kids cheer when you slapped that guy?

MP: Kids get excited when they see someone get slapped. It’s the message of life.

ML: You worked with Todd before on the “Double Barrel” video. How did you originally decide to work with him?

MP: 100% Duck Down. They set up the “Double Barrel” video. Me and Torae had a little bit of a Los Angeles California run with shows, so while we were going down there, Duck Down was like ‘You have this off day and we have this director and he wants to shoot the video.” We were like, “Cool.” After Todd did that video and how we did that video and how dope it came out, he has won me over as my go-to guy. So when it was time to do the Ruste album, I was like, ‘We’re using Todd, we have to.’ And I plan on using him for whatever my next videos are as well.

ML: The special effects are pretty impressive. I imagine as an indie artist you have a relatively smaller budget for videos. Your videos are always pretty polished. Is there a secret to making great videos with a budget or do other indie rappers just suck at it?

MP: Put it this way, Todd pulled that video out of his ass. We have the same type of small budget that we’ve always had. So Todd is just a master of stretching things out and making it work. It’s just ultimate, ultimate respect for Todd for making that happen.

ML: The Stupendous Adventures of Marco Polo is your next release, but that’s a compilation. So what are you actually working on at the moment?

MP: Port Authority 2.

ML: All your efforts are going toward that right now.

MP: Hell yeah. Right now what I’m working on is that album, I’m working with Pharoahe [Monch] on his album, and I’m working with Scarface on his album. PA2 all day and it’s going to take a minute, but it’s going to be my pride and joy. It’s going to be my underground Detox.

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Marco Polo & Ruste Juxx – The eXXecution is out now

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The Clipse x Jose Canseco x Rob Dibble

On their newest album, Pusha and Malice of The Clipse upgraded their heartless drug raps to more responsible, introspective drug raps. The Clipse outdid themselves on Til The Casket Drops by successfully expanding their subject matter without abandoning the style that got them here.

Malice joined us to talk about coke rap, fried chicken, Jews, and money. Pusha must have been too busy moving keys.

ML: You’ve said this album is about redemption. Why did you need to redeem yourself. Were you feeling guilty about all the coke rap?

Malice: Nah, it’s not that I was feeling guilty about the coke rap, because that’s very much a real subject matter for The Clipse. I think I took on a responsibility, not just for myself, but just for music in general and I think that we just need to paint the full picture. And I think you should always paint yourself to be victorious and always come out on top. If anybody know the story about The Clipse, you know that we lost a lot of our family in ‘09 to the drug game. And when I say our family, I mean like people that we were with every day. Our entourage. Wherever you seen The Clipse, you seen them from our manager to entourages, everybody. We used to roll so deep, now it’s just four of us. We had a responsibility to share with our fans or anybody that aspire to be like The Clipse out there doing whatever they do to paint the other side of it, because we do have a pretty strong voice.

ML: Have you guys had any contact with Popeyes about a sponsorship?

Malice: Nah, from what we heard they don’t like us. They wanted to endorse us until they listened to the lyrics, then they was like ‘No, get these dudes away from us.’

ML: What kind of reception do you get when you roll up at a Popeyes?

Malice: Well at home, I don’t know if it’s Popeyes or it’s just the fact that they know us, but they’ll always sing the song every time we go in there. ‘Back by popular demand!’

ML: Where’s the best fried chicken in VA?

Malice: The best fried chicken in VA. I’m gonna have to give it up to Feather & Fin, man. Feather & Fin hands down. You must stop there anytime you’re in VA. Ask somebody about Feather & Fin.

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“Somebody else wanna tell this part? I always do this,” said Audible Doctor. Soul Khan reluctantly spoke up. “So a bunch of people worked at Fat Beats and that bunch of people would be us. And often, we would drink together. And when we would drink together, we would go around the corner.”

“You’re butchering it,” interrupted J57.

“I’m not butchering it, I’m giving the facts and the facts that matter, you douchebag,” retorted Soul Khan. “Right now, we are at 6^th Avenue between 8^th and 9^th Street where Fat Beats is located.”

“Come find us,” said Koncept.

“We’ll make it worth your time. Pause.” said Soul Khan. “On 6^th Avenue, there is a store with alcohol in it and we buy it from there. The owner–the proprietor of that establishment insisted that each beverage be placed in a brown bag, which I guess you could say is the etymology of ‘Brown Bag AllStar.’”

Six employees of Fat Beats, a New York-based record store, comprise Brown Bag AllStars, an indie rap group with an old school slant and a disdain for tired trends. Of the six of them, there are two DJs, two producers, and four MCs. After closing on a Wednesday night, Soul Khan, Koncept, The Audible Doctor, and J57 sat around in a circle, while DeeJay Element and E-Holla stood behind the store’s turntables.

“Brown Bag AllStars was a crew of people who would hang out here, drink and play music and that’s it. It was people who interned here, worked here and just friends of that really knew music,” said J57. One night, they went to a friend’s studio to record some music.

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Boston-born New York-based boom bap producer extraordinaire Statik Selektah took some time off to talk to us about The Pre-Game EP, his album 100 Proof (The Hangover), and the 5,000 other projects he’s working on.

Statik talks about his album’s dark sound, his record collection, and his upcoming single with Wale, Bun B, and Colin Munroe.

ML: Why did you decide to release an EP in advance of the album?

Statik: Originally, the album was supposed to come out in November and it got pushed back to February. I just really wanted to get something out this year for everyone’s that’s been waiting for it. So I took a couple songs off the album and did a couple new songs and came up with an EP so there’s something out at Christmas time.

ML: Why was the album delayed?

Statik: ‘Cause of the bullshit that goes on in this industry. There’s all these new processes with all this digital shit now where like certain distributors can’t get it in time. The way retail is now, there’s so much music being distributed that if you put out CDs on certain days, like, Best Buy won’t take it. There’s so much politics in it. And basically February 2 was the first date I could have that I knew my project was gonna get pushed the right way. ‘Cause, we could’ve put it out this year, but it would’ve got swept under the rug with everything coming out. Retail wasn’t gonna support it the way I need it to.

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Congrats to YelaWolf on earning himself a blurb and a big ol’ picture in the New York Times on Friday:

Doing the nasal Dylan impression on the hook, which turns “Subterranean Homesick Blues” more druggy, is YelaWolf, a white rapper from Alabama with a classic rock jones and a glorious, tinny drawl, as heard on last year’s mixtape “Stereo.” On his forthcoming mixtape, “Trunk Muzik,” he boasts, “Trashed off the glue you build an airplane model with/In the gutter like an empty PBR bottle is.”

But since everybody knows Metal Lungies has ten times the clout of the New York Times, YelaWolf called me from Juelz Santana’s video shoot for “Mixing Up the Medicine” to talk about his career thus far and his artistic direction. Not the bum ass Times.

ML: I heard a rumor that you signed to a major. What is your label situation?

YelaWolf: Nah, just Ghet-O-Vision right now. We aren’t signed with any major.

ML: Is anything on the table?

YelaWolf: I don’t know, man. I don’t even ask questions. I don’t deal with that shit after being at Columbia. I just kinda trust [A&R, producer] KP and [my manager] J Dot. They’ll let me know if something serious comes across the table, or else it’s usually just a bunch of talk and a bunch of letdowns.

ML: So you were at Columbia originally?

YelaWolf: Yeah, ‘07 going in to ‘08 we signed with Columbia and we were there for a real short time before Rick Rubin came in and fuckin’ shut everything down. So me and KP and J Dot left as a unit and started grinding for the last couple of years on the street as Ghet-O-Vision.

ML: Killer Mike described you as a cross between Dungeon Family and Lynyrd Skynyrd. How would you describe your sound?

YelaWolf: That’s pretty good. That pretty much hits the nail on the head. I definitely derive a lot of melody from classic rock and as far as content goes, I derive a lot of my inspiration from MCs out the Dungeon Family of course. West Coast, Hieroglyphics and East Coast, BIG, Jay-Z, Mobb Deep, Group Home. Lyrics and beats, man.

My classic rock – I was born into that. That was just where I was at. I had a single mom, 15, 16, and she was really heavy into classic rock, so I was surrounded with that, but hip-hop came through– my mom’s boyfriend was touring with Aersosmith doing lights during the Walk This Way tour and when I was a kid they bought me a Run DMC t-shirt, a “My Adidas” CD and some Beastie Boys shit and that’s how a I found it. And then fast-forward, I just really fell into it along with skateboarding and shit, I just soaked up all this pop culture.

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I recently had the pleasure to speak with two of my favourite rappers, Masta Ace and Edo G., about their upcoming collaboration album, A&E. Ace and Edo spoke about hip-hop’s generation gap, how they’ve changed over the years and their opinions on Blueprint 3. It took a bit for Ace to join the conversation, so the first few questions are me talking to Edo.

ML: What’s the difference between working in a group dynamic and working as a solo artist?

EG: We’ve done the group thing before and I’m comfortable in the setting. It’s a little easier working with Ace because we’ve experienced a lot of the same things in the business. So we can really relate to each other on certain things. There’s no complications, we just do it organically. It’s less rhymes, you know? Less work. [laughs] With [Special Teamz], those guys aren’t that much younger than me. Just younger in the game. They were a little more unknown at the time, when we started. A lot of the earlier stuff with those guys, I was taking on the full weight of just using my connections to make stuff happen.

[A&E] was a lot easier because we had a whole team. Ace’s people, my people, combined. It was a smooth transition. We knew what direction we wanted to go with, we got signed.

ML: What does it mean for someone who’s been representing your city for so long to reach out to these younger cats?

EG: With the Special Teamz, it was something me and [Teamz member] Jaysaun had been working with for a while. We did two other groups that never came out. Special Teamz was originally called The Last Word, it had another guy. Then me, him, and Krumbsnatcha did a whole album which never came out. We ended up enlisting Slaine, we came across someone who knew him. We said, Let’s try something different.  We tried albums with two other artists that didn’t work out. Even though we came up with great material, we couldn’t all see on the same wavelength. So we tried Slaine, changed the name and that clicked from the first time we went to the studio. It was something that was in the works and it just took a while to find the right combination. I think it worked out well.

It’s tough to find the chemistry because you’re going to be with these people for months, if not years recording and touring and doing stuff together.

ML: After Roxbury 02119 came out in 1993, there was a really long gap – you were doing guest appearances and the like- but you didn’t put out another album until the 2000s (The Truth Hurts).

EG: That period…That was me finding myself, and going through transitions with different labels. It was me jumping on a bunch of different projects. A lot of compilation albums, a lot of features, so people could be like, “Oh, I heard that. That was dope.” I was doing these so I could get to the point of putting out another album.

ML: What was it like working on My Own Worst Enemy with Pete Rock (who produced 7 of the 10 tracks), as opposed to A&E and Stereotypez, where you used diverse cast of producers?

EG: It was good. It was tough…it took a couple years to get it done, with Pete living in New York and me living in Boston. At the time we were recording it, ’02 to ’03, the technology wasn’t as advanced as it is now. He wasn’t sending me mp3s online. Now it could get done much quicker, but we were literally going to New York and listening to beats. Every few weeks, going to his house and picking out beats then recording. It was a back and forth project. [Most important] was making sure the vibe was right. You can go and pick 10 beats from Pete Rock but I wanted to get the best stuff I could possibly get from him. It was a good experience, man.

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Co$$ (or Cashus King) is a rapper from South LA whose name first began to circulate last year alongside more well-known underground artists like Blu & Exile and Shawn Jackson. Since dropping his mixtape Tomorrow’s Yesterday in February, Co$$ has begun to step out of his crew’s shadow and carve out a niche for himself on the West Coast. His debut album Before I Awoke, coming this Winter, features production from Exile, but is based around and a host of exotic unknowns from as far as Rotterdam and Finland.

ML: How would you describe your sound?

Co$$: As far as my style, I haven’t taken much influence from many artists. It might be subconsciously, like I’m rapping like artists but I just consciously don’t recognize it. I’m really doing me. It’s 100% me. One of my favorite lyricists is Ras Kass and another one is 2Pac and another one is Black Thought, but I don’t think I rap like any of those MCs. A lot of people say I sound like Ras Kass as far as my cadence. I don’t think I rap like him schematically or flow-wise.

ML: How would you describe your production? [AaronM] called it a “futuristic thump.” I called it a psychedelic-type sound.

Co$$: I was blessed to link with a producer out of Finland named Fonetik Simbol. He’s kind of like the Premo to my Guru, but when you hear my solo project, the foundation of it is going to be this production team out of Rotterdam called Spaceship Status. They’re really on some spacey-meets-Dr. Dre-spacey type shit. I don’t think I put too much of the Spaceship out there, so you guys haven’t gotten a taste of that sound, but you guys got a nice taste of the Fonetik sound, which is similar to the Spaceship sound. It’s kinda like eclectic in a way, but it can gel in with the commercial sound. Like they bang hard but they’re also very soulful. I’m big on soulful. Anyone that knows me as an artist will tell you that. I love soul samples, I love live-instrumentation, but then I like that West Coast flavor too. So I would describe it as a mixture of soul, what I call outer-space, and the West Coast, the G-funk vibe. My goal is to do the next project with Flying Lotus. I think he has the sound that I’m looking for. Or Exile. I’m supposed to do my next album with Exile

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On his rainy album release day, Blaq Poet dwarfed the ragtag Fat Beats crowd, which consisted of sun-starved rap nerds, basement producers and rambling old-heads — all in tow to get their CDs signed or just catch a glimpse of a Queens-bred rapper who braved the bridge wars when he was 16. Low-key, businesslike, and perhaps even a little bored, Blaq Poet spoke to Metal Lungies about his career, his musical tastes, and his newest album Tha Blaqprint, which is produced almost entirely by DJ Premier.

ML: Who are your all-time favorite Queens rappers?

BP: Queens rappers? Run DMC, LL, Mikey D – he’s a old school dude, people don’t really know about him too much – The Rhymin’ Wizard Sudan – it’s a lot, but I don’t remember ‘em right now.

ML: Is there anybody in Queens we should be checking for? Newcomers?

BP: Coming out of Queensbridge, you know, The Mighty SSR, Little Young Boys, Crime Fam, they coming up – there’s whole lot of little dudes coming up, you just gotta check for them real hard.

ML: You were in the Bridge Wars, the most legendary battle ever. Do you think beef today is dead? I haven’t heard a good diss track in a long time.

BP: Nah man, beef today is not dead. But, you know, it’s more serious, it can get realer faster. You know you got the Internet, so you can have beef with anybody. Instant beef. Before you had to earn beef, but now it’s instant beef.

ML: But do you think diss records are dead?

BP: Well, no no no. Everybody’s got something to say. If you have beef, you have something to say, you gonna say it and that’s gonna always be interesting to hear.

ML: You’ve worked with Pete Rock and Marley Marl. What’s unique about working with Premier?

BP: Everybody’s different, they got their own different shit. I learned different techniques from all of them. Everybody’s real different. Premier, he’s more of a magician with records. His instruments are the records.

ML: What are your favorite Premier beats of all time? Read the rest of this entry »

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