Sunday, November 29, 2009

Another Good Pete Rock interview

Robbie: You worked with Marley Marl all those years on the radio. What were some of your best experiences from those days?

Pete Rock: Just having the opportunity to play good records, and even some of the demo’s that I’d been working on and stuff. Flip a few of those in there. It was a good opportunity to play good music remixes, demos and actual songs.

How come you guys never made any songs together in the studio?

In the beginning stages with CL, I came with an idea and he basically brought it to life for me, and he did a joint for me and CL. It was something called ‘Lethal Weapon’ that never came out.

Did you used to work with any neighborhood guys before you met Corey?

I was working with some guys in my neighborhood, but when I met CL in high school I felt like he had a distinctive voice and he didn’t sound like anybody.

I liked that line in “Till I Retire”: ‘You made Pete Rock? Go make another one!’

[laughs] I kinda borrowed that line from Jay-Z. I thought that was clever when he said that.

Did you learn much from Marley in terms of production techniques?

No, not at all! No, no, no. I learned how to produce all on my own, man. Eddie F, who was the DJ for Heavy D, he used to show me how to set-up how to sample your sounds. He definitely showed me how to do that. Then everything came easy.

Was the 45 King a big influence on you?

He was definitely in my top five producers. Howie Tee and Marley Marl was my two main ones, but 45 King was definitely in there. I liked all his beats. As a matter of fact, I used to listen out for his beats a lot when I deejayed on the radio back in the day.

He was the first to really bring the horns out.

He used to do it in Queen Latifah stuff. He was one of the main ones, when I used to hear the horns and stuff, I was like ‘Well, OK, see – somebody is doin’ it’, but I wanted to do it in a stylish way. Not saying he didn’t do it in a stylish way – he definitely represented that a lot with Lakim Shabazz and all that stuff he was doin’. Even his own stuff, the beat albums he used to put together and stuff like that. The Marva Whitney sample, you know the James Brown [imitates 'The 900 Number' horns], that was something that blew my mind too when I heard that.

Obviously you’re spending a lot of time by yourself working on beats. Is that solitude something you enjoy, or is that one of the downsides?

Nah, it’s never a downside to that. When you by yourself you’re just doin’ whatever, whenever, without no one telling you what or how to do it. Just having fun.

So have you had situations where you’ve had to put a beat together in the studio when then artist’s there? Do you feed off their energy?

I don’t even recall never doin’ that like that. I think I made all my beats at home, and I would just play beats for cats. How I did it for artists was come with a cassette full of beats and play some beats. They would like what they hear – they would pick it! I never really made-up a beat right there in the studio. Maybe once or twice but I can’t remember, it was so long ago.

Songs like ‘For Pete’s Sake’ had so many different loops coming in, it was really ahead of it’s time in terms of how sophisticated it was.

Yeah, I love that song. Just that whole album, man. I listen back to it and I’m like ‘Wow, I was doing some shit back then!’ When I did Mecca and the Soul Brother I was very vibrant – my mind was keen and sharp with the way I wanted to lay it down, in a way where no one had ever done it before. I could tell because after that album I was getting so many phone calls from rap artists, from fans, from producers, from just people wanting to know me…it was just crazy. Everybody’s tryin’ to compete with me on the beat tip but I wasn’t really doing it to compete! I was just doing it ‘cos I love doing it! Loved the way that I perfected the sound that I have, and not sounding like someone else.

Do you have any friendly rivalries with other producers?

I probably like Premier as one of my friendly rivalries. But as far as competing against, in New York? That’s it! I don’t really compete like that. I guess if you call making beats and just being consistent is ‘competing’, then that’s what I’m doing. I’m competing with the old guys and the new guys, but there’s not many guys from my era producing right now. From the 90’s or whatever. There’s still people that can make beats – it’s just being consistent and puttin’ the music out, you know? Like me? I put out an album once every year-and-a-half, two years.

There was an interview that Kanye West did in Scratch magazine where he was talking about ‘I’ll sample drums off a Pete Rock instrumental if they’re open’. That was kinda funny to me.

I believe it! I hear my snares out there, and I’m like ‘Wow, that’s fuckin’ crazy, man!’ I feel like that’s lazy shit. You obviously don’t love it as much as I do, because for you to not go out there and find it on your own…you’ll find so much if you just take the time out to go dig, man. We do all the hard work so y’all can just snatch our records up and listen for open snares and kicks? That’s some wack shit. I respect cats that come with their own sound. Like Dilla was the master at that – having kicks and snares. I just recently learned that he always two-tracks his beats – he never gave-up any separate sounds, which is a great idea I think. He didn’t want to put his kicks and snares out there so people could steal ‘em.

You mentioned Dilla. His passing must have been….

Devastating.

So you knew him personally?

Yeah, man! I knew him for a good three or four years before I knew he was sick! I was blown back by that, man. I never knew he was sick – he always kinda hid it from me. His music will always be alive and well, and I will make sure to that. He was one of the greatest, man. He was the greatest to ever do it, for the new cats. And for his mother to tell me that I was his favorite producer – I was like ‘Wow, that’s dope, man’. He really took it there. He kinda broadened me and opened my eyes again, and got me standing up straight on my toes, ‘cos that dude was really serious with it.

The fact that he was still working on music in hospital…

Making beats in the hospital! Yeah, man. That’s beautiful.

I know how influential James Brown has been to you as well.

Oh, man! I was standing right next to his casket. I went to his funeral – just standing there, lookin’ at him for a good hour. It was crazy. He’s been an influence to everyone. He’s the reason for hip-hop music – period! That’s it! He was it! He created ‘Boom! Bap!’ He created that! He made that. I have the DVD where he breaks it down how he figured out how to make the drum beat! He figured it out. It’s ill, man. I love watching that DVD. It’s called Soul Survivor, and it’s about James Browns’ life.

I noticed on the new album you flipped a few well-known breaks and loops. Is that a deliberate thing to show-off your chopping skills? Like on ‘914′ with the ‘UFO’ and ‘Skull Snaps’?

Erick Sermon did a beat on Redman’s album like that, and that was one of my favourite beats that he did on that album, and I just kinda re-did it. But he had ‘Atomic Dog’ in his and I didn’t really want to use that same sample.

That’s kinda been killed that sample. There must be certain record that you don’t want to touch anymore.

Not even that, it’s just that they’ll come for you. I’m always the person that likes to find break beats that no one has, and make beats with ‘em and put ‘em out there. That’s like a big high for me to go and dig for records all day – for hours – getting dirty and dusty and wearing mask and gloves, just to find these gems of music and make them into beats and put them back out. You can real sick from the bacteria around the records and stuff. The dust gets in your nose, your eyes…you’re fucked-up.

You’ve actually gotten sick from that?

I have before, but I’ve learned a valuable lesson to wear gloves and a mask.

Do they still have record conventions in New York?

You mean at the hotels? Yeah, it was beautiful. I used to go in there and rack up! Big time. I’d see other producers as I’m leaving and they’re like ‘Damn! I might as well turn back around and go home!’ [chuckles] I was walking out with huge amounts of records – huge amounts.

Did the dealers try to over-charge you once they knew who you were?

For certain guys it is [a problem]. Not for me though. I go in there and focus, knowing what I want, get it and leave! I don’t really like to be in a place like that with all kind of different other producers in there, doin’ the same thing I’m doin’. I like to be by myself in there, so I was only going to those conventions for a little while.

You don’t want anyone trying to bite what you’re buying.

Then you got ‘em lookin’ over your shoulder, seeing what you’re tryin’ to buy. ‘Get outta here!’

Didn’t Prince Be from PM Dawn try to reserve everything at those things? What’s up with that shit?

He used to do that a lot. I’m like ‘Dude, you’re not even a producer! I don’t see a track record of anything you produce, any beats that you’re makin’ for anybody. Why you in here, buying-up all the beats and records and shit? If you’re not doin’ nothing with it!’ What used to make me mad was that at a record convention, you see a record, and then the guy that’s selling the record tells you ‘I’m holding that for somebody’. You know? ‘I’m holding that for PM Dawn’. Like ‘Who the fuck is PM Dawn?! Yo, I’m Pete Rock, dog! Give me that fuckin’ record!’ I don’t care about no PM Dawn.

[laughing] The guy sampled Spandau Ballet!

I stopped going to them things. I just dig on my own right now. If I’m travelling to a town, like if I’m in LA or something I’ll call Madlib up and we’ll go dig. Some shit like that.

You were using a lot of Fender Rhodes around The Main Ingredient era. Do you still use any live instruments on top of stuff?

I like the bass guitar. I always was fuckin’ around with that when I can. But I make all my basslines up myself. Everything that you ever heard wasn’t a loop – that was me. I’m humming it in my head and then I just play it out.

Can we talk about INI a little?

INI was a group that just didn’t progress on Elektra records due to switching of presidents. Sylvia Rhome came and then all hell broke lose. She fired a lot of people and didn’t put my project out. They only released an INI single and bootlegged the album. That’s how it got bootlegged, then people got copies of the album and tried to put it out, but certain songs are false, and the way they did it the quality’s not there. There’s none of the interludes that I put with the album out there, they’ve only got the regular stuff – and they don’t even have the whole lot! Of all the bootlegs, that’s not the whole album at all, period.

So the BBE version wasn’t the real one either?

Nah, that was something that I gave them to try to make amends with the group, to try to get them some money. But it didn’t really work out that way, they did some shenanigans with me. I didn’t have proper management at the time, so I was kinda out there like that but I quickly got myself together and picked it up.

What went down with you and BBE?

They’re a bunch of bootleggers. They only do that for people in the States. They never worked with anyone from London, persay. They only did that to people like us, like Dilla, myself, Jazzy Jeff, whoever else did records for BBE. Myself and BBE didn’t have such a great relationship. I don’t know about everybody else, but me and BBE didn’t have a great relationship at all.

You must be one of the most bootlegged guys out. How have you dealt with that?

The bootleg guys don’t have nothing else to do but jerk-off all day. So they jerk-off and try to make money off of people. That’s all they’re about. It’s like a bug that just won’t go away.

Have you thought about putting out unreleased stuff from your vaults to beat the bootleggers?

Oh yeah. Actually, I’ve got stuff unreleased that I’m not putting out until the right time comes along. I’ve got a lotta stuff.

As a fan, what’s been the biggest thrill between working with Public Enemy, Run-DMC, KRS and Rakim?

The most intriguing was Run-DMC, ‘cos they were the biggest rap group – period. Somehow we got to work together, they requested to work with me and I was really blown back by that. We got something good out of it, ‘cos at the time their last album didn’t do so well, but ‘Down With The King’ did a lot for them so I was proud of that project. I got to work closely with Jam-Master Jay – actually him and me working together on the idea.

Have you turned down many people for remixes if you weren’t feeling their stuff?

There was things that I turned down, but basically everybody I worked with is everybody I’m feelin’! There are people I wanna work with, too. LL Cool J, Beanie Sigel, Big Daddy Kane…even KRS-One right now.

Because you’ve done a remix for KRS but not an original song.

A hot joint, like a real concentrated record, I would like to do with KRS-One.

‘Game of Death’ with Roc Marciano was a really different style of beat for you.

That was an old rock record that I had. I felt when I put the beat together, I kinda heard his voice on it. I like that song a lot. I was introduced to Roc Marcy through Busta Rhymes. He and Busta had been friends for years, so he introduced me to him and we kinda clicked. I put them [The UN] on my Petestrumentals album just to get them heard.

The whole landscapes changed, since major labels aren’t really calling the shots anymore. Independents almost have as good a shot getting the music out there now.

That’s the way to go, man! The majors really don’t know what they’re doing as far as how to market this type of music or how to market the artists. Hip-hop is black music, and not to say in a discriminative way, but it came from blacks – actually, it came from poverty-stricken communities that had nothin’ to do! And we just created something called hip-hop!

There’s a lot of young cats that’s working at these record labels that don’t really know the music.

A&R’s are too young to understand the music. They don’t really know their history in hip-hop and they’re working in these offices depicting and trying to tell people how to make their music, which I feel is a disgrace. You’re working in the world of hip-hop and don’t know nothing about it? Then you shouldn’t be working. Know your history! Know what you’re talking about. Use your ears. If you have a good ear for music – use it! Don’t just sign anyone. The way to go is to go independent, ‘cos you’re free as a bird to make your music the way that you wanna make it! The way that your soul is telling you to make it. That’s important, man. In the independent world, you can still get your music out there just as well as the majors, but the good thing about it? You see a lot more of your dollar! With a major, they recoup the money.

Those old deals just seemed so ridiculous…

They give you the money that they want you to make back for them. They give it to you, whether it’s a $500,000 studio budget – they give you that and they wanna make back double, triple that. If they give you that much money and you don’t bust a grape? Then they’re gonna drop you!

How was Dante Ross to work with in the Elektra days?

We was young cats, so we really didn’t know the business too well. We were kinda confided in those guys, so there wasn’t really no bickering. I guess towards the end of the deal, maybe a little bit. If I can recall, maybe we used to bicker a little bit but it wasn’t nothin’ major.

Do you feel like hip-hop’s become too smoothed-out?

Hip-hop has changed, and it’s changed into a way where it’s now about politics and money. People are in this to make a fast buck now. You can tell and you can hear it in the music – it doesn’t come out as good. People don’t put enough effort in their music and their songs. They just slap some shit together and try to get it done as fast as they can possibly make it happen. I believe in putting a little more effort into your music. That’s why the music is the way it is today, because there’s not enough effort. Not enough time spent on it. I don’t need anymore props. All I need is to make this music and give people hit records and give ‘em the type of beats that I think will help them win. My whole goal about this whole thing is just to make good hip-hop music again and good lyrics for the kids to listen to.

I heard you had a falling out with the YG’z and they chased you out of a party?

Chasing me doing what? Nobody was chasing me, shit. I had a fight with somebody back then, and I knocked the person out and ran! I wasn’t being chased. The cops were coming and I ran! Some jealous guy trying to test me and show me up in front of people, and I punched the guy right in his face. He fell to the ground and I just turned around and ran.

But was he part of the Young Gunz?

Nah, it was a good friend of mine, actually, that I grew up with. He’s passed away right now…I wanna actually actually say ‘Rest In Peace’ to him. That was just a small little neighborhood thing that happened, that type of thing is always going on. That comes with the territory of music, when you’re successful. You have certain things that you deal with, on a certain level. Jealousy and envy. You know the story.

What’s pissing you off right now?

Just the subject matter that cats talk about on their records. They don’t really talk about nothin’. Not that I say the records have to be preachy, but be clever with what you say! If you want to make fun little bubblegum rap music for the little young kids then that’s a certain kind of rap music, but if you callin’ that overall ‘real rap music’ then you’ve got your definition twisted! Just put the real elements of music in your songs.

What are you loving at the moment?

Just believing that the Giants are in the Superbowl, that puts a smile on my face, and just feeling like we’re getting’ ready to have a black president – that puts a big smile on my face.

Do you think white America’s ready for a Black president?

I think we’re ready for a Black president. I think we’re ready for a president that’s gonna give us change. Anyone besides Bush right now [chuckles]. The president we’ve got right now – we’ve gotta get rid of him. Get him out of office, ‘cos with him in office we got attacked. That kinda shook New Yorkers up.

Nobody really talked about that on records all that much.

Yeah but it’s kinda offensive to the families who lost people in that tragedy, so people don’t really touch on the subject. It was devastating to New Yorkers, it kinda blew us back. I’m not saying the have to talk about that, but there’s things goin’ on more important than the materialistic stuff that comes with this rap shit.

It seems like nobody’s really touching on any political things now.

It doesn’t even have to be anything political! You could talk about a little bit of political stuff, but what I’m saying is make clever records. Even if you have a dope story you want to tell, tell it in the right way. Tell it in a way that the audience would be interested, and do it in a clever way to a dope beat that people are gonna like.

Has having as family changed your outlook on music at all?

Just made me become more of a man. With a family you’ve got to be responsible to two young children – I have a daughter and a son that make me a proud dad. I’m lovin’ the fact that I have a family. The support feels good, I love it. It makes me more aware and more serious about life and trying to teach your young youth what life is all about. Things in it, people in it. Teaching them everything! From the birds and the bees to anger and happiness and jealousy.

I found the hardest thing was never getting to sleep in anymore.

Yeah, you don’t get that much sleep anymore, you get about four, five hours of sleep a night.

Did you ever have a shitty little sampler before you got the SP?

Pause button! Pause button was how it worked for me [chuckles]. Pause button action at my house – tape decks an turntables.

How would you like to be remembered?

Remember the music that touched your soul, and remember the record ‘Reminisce’, and how it made you feel when you first heard it. That’s how I want people to remember me.

Alchemist Making Hold you down

I just found this video of Alchemist and Prodigy making the song 'Hold you down'. I always liked the song so i thought this is definitely blog worthy!

Monday, November 23, 2009

Dope Pete Rock interview

What up people? I was digging threw some blogs and i found this Pete Rock interview on my dude Science omega's blog. I thought it was a really good read so i decided to post it. After you read it you can view his blog at http://WWW.scienceomega.blogspot.com
"They don’t know what to do with the (sample) time. They just find the loop and keep moving."

Jerry Barrow:

About a year ago Super-Producer Pete Rock invited me into his home to talk beats, his upcoming album, New York’s Finest, and why some people said he didn’t make “T.R.OY. “

It’s late January 2006 in the city that never sleeps and a restless gathering of fans and critics are waiting to meet their doom. In the cavernous belly of the Nokia Theatre Pete Rock is charged with moving the crowd between performances by Little Brother, Big Daddy Kane and MF Doom. After spinning some of his requisite classics Soul Brother #1 brings things back to the future with “G’s Up,” a track he’s produced for Jim Jones. But as the broken piano comes through the speakers, the anti-establishment crowd isn’t drinking the Dip Set Capo’s Kool-Aid. A smattering of boos echo throughout the venue but Pete is undaunted, “You gotta respect it cuz it’s me though!” he counters from the stage, headphones dangling off of his neck. Reluctantly, the haters about-face and give the legend his due props.

“They probably didn’t like Jim Jones, but it’s all good. He has a following that’s incredible,” Pete says months later from the comfort of his home studio in Spring Valley, NY. “It’s good to diversify. I’d like for the fans to support anything they see my name on.”

Judging from his recent output, Mr. Phillips is like Dondi in the rail yard trying to put his name on everything moving. Dipset, 50 Cent and The Black Eyed Peas have all gotten the soul glow in the past year, along with Ghostface, Raekwon and the BCC. In an age when the phrase “bringing New York back” has become cliché, one of the architects of that sound simply wants to lead by example. So after 2004’s Soul Survivor 2 Pete is readying his latest project, New York’s Finest.

Pete Rock: I’ve been working on this album for almost a year now. It’s called New York’s Finest. I did a song with Styles and Sheek called “914” a song with Jim Jones called “We Roll.” Gotta joint with Papoose, Red Café, Slum Village, my man Rell. I always liked the way he sang. And I gotta couple of solo joints. I’m also working with DOOM, Ghostface and Inspecta Deck. Plus I have a song with Raekwon and Masta Killa called “PJs.”

JLB: I noticed for that one you flipped the same sample Large Pro did for “Mad Scientist.”

PR:Yeah, that’s from the album for the movie Dune, David Matthews did the scoring. I just felt like when I did the beat, I had the CD and Rae heard it. He really did his thing on that.

JLB: You have a lot of collabs with Wutang cats…

PR: It’s a respect thing. They love my music and I love the way they spit. Plus, I’ve always made beats like that, but I didn’t stress the Al Green and Anne Peeples like RZA and TRu Master and 4th Disciple. We was always on that same level of thinking.

JLB: Right, on “Head Rush” from Soul Survivor 2 you really channeled that Shaolin sound.

PR: When you’re a connoisseur of records you know what they use when it comes to making a Wu street record. So I found this old Mavis Staples record and chopped it up. It had those sounds like what they use. I EQ my stuff bugged out, just to bring the sounds out.

JLB: How did you make it?

PR: That actual beat was made in the SP, so before I sample the music I EQ it first, so it sounds fatter once it goes in the drum machine. When I mix it in the studio I add a Tube Tech EQ or some effects to make sound more ‘out there.’ It was perfect for RZA and GZA to get on that.

JLB: What about the Flaming Embers joint you flipped for “One MC, One DJ”

PR:I was just having fun with it. I like Skillz and we were way over due to do a joint. I think Diamond heard it.

JLB: I want someone to do Diamond’s “Sally” over.

PR: I got that record. I could definitely re-do that. I got the drums, the loop…I’m making over Dougie Fresh’s “Rising To the Top” for Jae Millz and he’s trying to get Doug E on it. I’m just perfecting the beat, making it sound like it did. You have to sit and listen to the record for like a month, study it. Get the elements and arrange it. It was a bad beat.

JLB: What hardware did you start out with?

PR: I started with the SP 12 first, with no disc drive or anything. Saving sounds on a separate disc drive. Then I got the 1200. I used that until 2000 and I started buying new equipment. I bought the MPC 2000, 3000, 4000…but I liked the 2000 the best. It’s like the SP with more sample time.

JLB: How did you manage to get so much sample time out of the SP?

PR: Just spinning records on 45, then slow it down in the SP. But when you do that this ringing sound comes out, I had to EQ it out. I’d sample it on 45 then slow it down. I would sample it, chop them into little pieces then save them all. That gives you a little bit more time. The SP has a crunchy sound in itself. The drums and kicks hit really heavy coming out of the SP, more so than the MPC. But I’ve got my MPC sounding like an SP. With a lot of EQing.

JLB: Do you think having all of that sample time in the MPCs and computers now has made it too easy?

PR: They don’t know what to do with the time. (laughs.) They just find the loop and keep moving.

JLB: Do you remember the first beat you made?

PR: It was some James brown shit and taking his snares and kicks. I worked on Groove B Chill’s album when I was 17, the Starting From Zero album. That was the first shit I did by myself. Then I started doing remixes, then All Souled Out,
Mecca and the Soul Brother, Main Ingredient, Soul Survivor, Soul Survivor 2 and Petestrumentals, now N.Y’s finest

JLB:That’s a lot of history you just glossed over lol

PR: That’s just to let people know that I have a passion for this beatmaking. I ain’t going nowhere.

JLB: Are you incorporating more software into your set-up?

PR: I (use) Pro Tools and Logic. It’s fun and fast. Very different from working on a two-inch, but it cuts through all that work. My MP is hooked straight into the Pro Tools. I don’t mix here in my house. I have an engineer ten minutes from here or in Manhattan at Chung King. I’m still a vinyl cat though when I DJ. I think Serato is a cool new way to do parties, but I’d rather a record skip on me than something totally just freezing on me. There’s nothing like vinyl to me.


JLB: How important is the DJing in your production?

PR: Very, it’s like A to B to C. DJing is just another form of producing. You scratch and the beat is going back and forth, it’s manual looping.

JLB: A big part of your career is doing remixes like “Shut Em Down,” “Jump Around,” and “Jussummen.” How do you approach it?


PR: First I get the tempo of the original beat and then I’ll mess with stuff I have and see what sounds the best. I had the bassline and drums of “Shut Em Down” already, then I just started adding (things)…I had those “Long Red” drums, the
“clap your hands to what he’s doin…” I used that a lot, maybe four or five times, like “Return of the Mecca,” but it sounded so good. I had that in a crate of records. Bambaataa and them used to (use) back in the day. No matter what snare you have…if you have a dope kick and snare with “Long Red” behind it, it makes the beat sound bigger.

JLB: I was just listening to David Axelrod’s “The Smile” and there was so much stuff you could use in that record. What made you take the very end of it for “Strange Fruit.”?

PR:I was on some gutter sh*t and those pianos sounded so eerie. When I sampled it I turned up the gain at the end where it’s fading out and eq’d it so it would sound like it was still going. I loved those pianos that much and they weren’t anywhere else in the record.

JLB: Now Large Professor said flat out that you produced “T.R.O.Y.” Why do you think a controversy was started over who produced it?

PR: People just put stuff out there. Haters. I know (people) wish that they heard what I heard. Cats had the record before me! He put me on to the record. He was like ‘yo, you got this?’ I took it home and heard the “Similak Child” loop but I
was like ‘they ain’t use this.’ I even had Tom Scott tell me that was dope.

It’s pretty warm inside of Pete Rock’s house but I still manage to get a chill. Sitting in a discrete corner of his den/ studio is a dusty SP-1200. Getting nosy I lean in to read some words written on a piece of tape: “Grap, touch and die.”
There will be no fire sale on Ebay anytime soon.

JLB: You and DJ Premier both sample Jazz but there is a difference in your approach…

Pete Rock: I noticed with him he goes for the darker sound, I go for the dark and soulful together. I have some muddy beats, but I like to bring out the soul. My drums are more to the point, his are more hip-hop. I try not to give the kids these days too much heavy snares cuz their ears seem so used to the prepackaged drum sounds.

JLB: So I hear that you’re working on a remix to Bob James’ Nautilus?

Pete Rock: A good friend of mine reached out to me and worked with Bob James. He introduced me to the whole project. The one song that’s been sampled by a hundred thousand producers, he asked me to remix. I think I have a way of doing it. I did Nautilus one way that never came out, so I may use that and
add on to it. If I could just have a drum loop going I’d sample that whole record.

JLB: Ghostface got you back on Hot 97 for a minute with “Be Easy” but I still like “The Game” from Soul Survivor better.

Pete Rock: Yeah, that was this orchestra from this famous conductor. Producers have it. If you’re a digger you know what it is.

JLB: You haven’t used the horns as much in your recent productions…

Pete Rock: I wanted to try something new. I was known for that and I didn’t want people to pigeon hole me.

JLB: When it comes to “T.R.O.Y.” Everyone gets into the horns, but the drums were crazy. It’s like the pattern doesn’t repeat.

Pete Rock. I programmed it in segments. I think I had 7 or 8 different drum segments. You just put it in song mode. If CL’s first verse is 20 bars, you make five different segments for a 20 bar rap and put in acrobatic stuff where you think it’s needed. When you put them together that’s what makes it sound
phenomenal.

JLB: Do you still filter samples to get bass lines or play them out?

Pete Rock: Yeah, I still filter, but I make my own too, just hum some sh*t in my head and do it on the pads. And the filtered bass lines are just when I’m listening to music, and I hear something, then I use it…The SP 1200 has a channel assignment, I think it’s set-up 18 or something, it has channels 1-8, one and two are filters, 3-8 are separate tracks where you can break up the sample. I learned tricks of the trade and put maybe two samples on one channel. I’d use up a lot of tracks on the Neve board so it helps if you can juggle the music on one track.

JLB: So what happened with the reunion with CL?

Pete Rock: With Corey? Nothing happened. He’s one way and I’m another. I just want to do music and not deal with asshole shit. It’s just about the music and the audience. I don’t care about your materialistic life. It’s bigger than me and you. We don’t gel as individuals. I don’t like him and he don’t like me. When you start getting money and you don’t know how to be humble and be an asshole, then nobody’s gonna want to deal with you. When you work with someone, you just want them to respect you.

JLB: Speaking of respect, you had a lot of issues with your old label BBE…

Pete Rock: Oh, lawd have mercy. They are the worst record label in the world. They f*cked me on a lot of shit. They didn’t pay me my back end on Soul Survivor 2 and they put out Surviving Elements without my permission. Those were left over beats on a hard drive and Eddie took them off of there. The ill shit is when I mastered SS2 they didn’t even want to give me a copy of my own album. They were trying to tell me how to make my music. Ya’ll gave me this deal so I could be me and they violated me. So when I saw Peter Dockwell on a plane I
just started spitting on him for being a disrespectful thief. I ain’t put my hands on him. If I did that it would ruin my litigation. Now they trying to put out my best remixes or some shit. The Jeru and Gang Starr shit. Doing shit without my
permission and slapping my name on it. I’ve never done anything like that. Selling my old work. It was a wack time to be working with them.

JLB: You saw Eddie again at the release party for Dilla’s The Shining…

Pete Rock: I saw Eddie and spit right in his face. When you disrespect me like that you’re gonna get it back full scale. I went up to the DJ booth, got on the mic and had everybody say “f*ck BBE.”

JLB: You don’t think maybe that wasn’t the right place?

Pete Rock: Yeah, it wasn’t the right place, but he’d been sending nasty emails to my fiancée, the thievery, the hovering over my shoulder. All that just brewed up and it came out. If you feel disrespected and that person is standing right
there…it happens. It wasn’t the right place and time, but I wanted to let people know what type of dudes these are.

(Note: Due to legal proceedings, reps for BBE Records would not comment on their past relationship with Pete Rock but in a statement said, “We wish him all the best in his present and future endeavors.”)

JLB: You and Jay Dee were really close, what was it like working on “Once Upon A Time,” for that first Slum Village album?

Pete Rock: I remember being in the basement with T-3, Baatin and Dilla, buggin’ out and playing beats. They would rock certain songs in the D and the crowd would go nuts.

(Dilla) was my dog. He came to NY, we hung out. I went to the D with my brother and left me in his studio. He let me know how much he was influenced by me. His mother pulled me to the side and whispered, “you are his favorite.” He was really
humble. We could call each other anytime. Dilla would inspire me at times when I couldn’t make a beat. He’d play some shit over the phone and spark me up.

JLB: Do you think there’s a difference between Dilla and Jay Dee?

Pete Rock: Dilla is like the now version, the weirdness, the samples. The way he would do his shit was like, what? Jay Dee is the quiet cat in the Ummah making all the beats doing De La’s “Stakes is High.” Dilla is the Madlibish side of him. The Jay Dee part was his rhyming too. The way he’d make certain beats. He was cleaner. Dilla was the ill side of him. It was like Jekyll and Hide. He was just doing anything. I loved it. I’m listening to the work side in Donuts. The work was fuckin’ immaculate. The way he chopped shit and arranges shit and how he plays basslines was ultimate. I never knew he was sick, never told me…I found out through the grapevine.

JLB: You mention Jay Dee being Dilla’s rhyming side, but what about yours?

Pete Rock: I just do it for fun. I never took it seriously. But what I do take serious is the music. When I’m makin my music I want to make sure the right person gets on it. I gotta secret project with one of my DJ friends that can spit really well. It’s gonna be called Tango and Cash. I just got a beat from Dilla’s mom that I’m rhyming on. She’s doing a Dilla mixtape. Karriem Riggins and them are working on it out in L.A.

After this interview Pete Rock came up to my office and I did my impersonation of Bobbito Garcia where I played the track and Pete Rock stated the facts:

“1,2,3” Boot Camp Clik

That’s an MPC beat. You would think it came from an SP. They had a beat CD with my beats and sent the song back two-tracked. I mixed it and it was done. I engineer to a certain point but they had their own engineer. I told him ‘here’s the EQ, keep them at these levels and you’re good.’

“T.R.O.Y”

The guitar in the beginning is a funk group from Jamaica, Beginning to End. We put the echo on the horns. There are things we did to make people ask questions. We EQ’d it with the mixer before I sampled it, that’s how I got the drums to
sound like that. I muffled the part with no horns and that’s me going “ooooo” in the chorus.

“Down With the King” RUN DMC

Those same sounds came from the Tom Scott album.

“Carmel City”

I got the Rhodes from Milt Jackson. We did a version to this that no one knows about with Vinia Mojica singing the hook.

“The Game” f Raekwon, Ghost and Prodigy

This is one of my sh*ts right here. The opening is from Flash Gordon, when I was on Loud these dudes gave me the utmost respect. The only one that wasn’t in the session was Ghost.

“PJs” f/Raekwon

This is off the new album. This is a song I wanted to do…I had this beat made and it’s just been sitting there for a couple of years. The intro is from an old school 80’s rap record “Its Your Rock.” That was one of my favorite records.

“Jump Around” (remix), House of Pain

When they dropped the original they immediately called me. I did this and “Down With the King” in the same session.

"Jussumen” (remix) Das EFX

You can’t chop Lodi Dodi now. Sample clearance is a motherf*cker on that record! I’m never touching that record again. It’s such a classic record and they don’t want nobody f*cking with it.

“The Yearn,” The Lost Boys

I loved doing this video. Freaky Tah was still here. It was a great time.

“Juicy” Notorious B.I.G

I’m not really mad at Puff for that. I’m really only mad that Biggie isn’t here and I can’t do more stuff with him. It’s not my typical style, but when Big came to the crib I just had the drums playing from Ntume’s “Juicy Fruit.” He was like, “What’s
this Pete?” When Big was there, Puff was there…he saw the record spinning…it’s all good. I should have just known better. It was just a learning experience.

“Fly Til I Die” Talib Kweli and CL Smooth

I was in a good mood that day when I made this record. I put a lot of compression on the track to get all the noise out, so it sounds cleaner than usual.

“Fakin Jax” InI

That was fresh from the break up with CL. That first verse was talking about him. You can’t call yourself family then turn around and bite the hand that feeds you. That’s how that song came about.

“Be Easy” Ghostface

I went out to Staten Island and some studio on a dead end street. The first beat CD I played he picked 8 beats. We made 5 songs and he used 3. Somebody tampered the mix on this. It’s not Ghost’s fault though. I had more bottom on it. They flattened the drums a little bit. The kick drops out.

“Verbal Murder” f/ Common Pun and Nore

I got the Fat Albert shit off the Halloween Treats record. It sounds like its coming off the cartoon.

“Back On The Block”

This is when I tried to give CL a chance to rekindle himself with me. It’s something we did for Japan, but a lot of people in the U.S got wind of it.

“The Rap World” f/ Large Professor (from the High School High Soundtrack)

I did the drums, the bassline and the “Nautilus” chip you hear in the background. Pro added the “let me hear you say” and “in the world.” That was a collab that when it was finished we were like “oohh shit, son. You wanna rhyme on this?!” I hope we get to collab again. I’d love to.

“Once Upon a Time f/ Slum Village”

I showed him a few tricks like sampling two snares together. His ear was sharp.

“Revenge” f/ Grap Luva

Damn, you got this? I’m only on the hook on this. I did the beat. It’s the Tony Yayo sample but I just chopped it, (Roberta Flack’s “Feel Like Makin Love” used on “You Know you Don’t Love Me.” )

“G’s Up” Jim Jones

Jadakiss loves this beat. The intro is Dionne Warwick. When they play this in Harlem the reaction is crazy.

“Let It All Hang Out” Adore

He got signed to Atlantic and that was the first and last you heard of him. He was one of the first solo white boys to rhyme.

Pete Rock Soul Survivor Documentary

What up people? I was digging threw youtube the other day and came across this documentary of Pete Rocks album Soul Survivor. Seeing how this is one of my favorite albums i vote this blog worthy! If your a Pete Rock fan im sure you will enjoy this..