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| interview mit slug | |
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Gift Of Gab interview. undergroundhiphop.ch exklusiv. geführt von renzo, fribourg, 19.06.2004 sprache: englisch.
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Gift Of Gab, Fri-Son (Fribourg, 19.06.2004) Am 19. Juni 2004 hatte ich die grosse Chance mit einem der versiertesten Emcees der Independent/Underground-Szene zu sprechen: GIFT OF GAB von der Oakland-based Crew Blackalicious. „Blazing Arrow“ war wohl das Release, das die Fangemeinschaft ein wenig gespalten hat, da es das erste von Blackalicious war, das auf einem Major (MCA) erschienen ist. Laut der Aussage von Gift Of Gab, erhielt Blackalicious die totale Kontrolle über die Produktion von „Blazing Arrow“, also lag es nicht am Label, dass das Album so tönte wie es tönte. Es war die Idee von Chief Xcel und Gift of Gab, dem Album mehr ‘Action’ zu geben als das bei den Vorgängern „Melodica EP“, „A2G“ und „Nia“ noch der Fall war. Wo man auf „A2G“ permanent ins Staunen über die lyrischen Fähigkeiten von Gab geraten kann, offenbart „Blazing Arrow“ doch einige musikalische Schwachpunkte in meinen Ohren. Die erwähnten Schwachstellen nennt Gift Of Gab Risiken, die Chief und er auf sich genommen haben, um ihren Sound weiterzuentwickeln. Auf jeden Fall war das Blackalicious Konzert für den Samstag Abend im Fri-Son angesagt, und da ich mich am Freitag im Kongresshaus am Nelly Furtado Konzert eingefunden habe, musste ich am darauf folgenden Tag eine Schweizreise antreten und nach Fribourg fahren. Schöne Stadt, nur so nebenbei bemerkt. Blackalicious haben sich mit dem Release von „Blazing Arrow“ wie Dilated People und Jurassic 5 durch ihre hochwertigen Releases zurecht auch einem grösseren Musikmarkt präsentieren können. Um zu erfahren wie sich die Entwicklung der letzten Jahre auf Gift Of Gab ausgewirkt haben, sprach ich mit ihm im Fri-Son. Zu meinem Erstaunen ist das Schwergewicht Gift of Gab absolut down-to-earth, eine ruhige Persönlichkeit, die ihr Charisma nicht erst auf der Bühne entfaltet. Ein weiterer Grund, warum ich mich mit Gift unterhalten wollte, ist das kommende Release seines ersten Soloprojekts, das er unter seinem Pseudo Gift of Gab veröffentlichen wird und das den Titel „4th Dimensional Rocket Ship Going Up“ trägt (26. Juli 2004). Der Titel impliziert ungefähr das, was den Hörer erwarten wird. Musik in der vierten Dimension. Musik, die über dem Leben steht, aber das Leben als Inhalt hat. Musik, die das Leben im spirituellen Sinn sieht. |
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Renzo: First of all, thank you for having some time for undergroundhiphop.ch... |
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Gift of Gab: Well, thank you! |
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Yesterday, you did a show in Zurich: how was your impression of the gig and the crowd? |
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| Yeah, it was excellent. The crowd was off the chain. The city itself, yesterday, was like my first time, really being able to spend any time there. We got in the day before yesterday, and we was able to look around and stuff like that... | |
| Did you go out on Thursday night? Or did you stay at the hotel? | |
| Yeah, it was really dope. Like I said, it was my first time really spending time in a city. I think it’s one of my more favorite cities in Europe now. | |
| You started making music very early in your life. When exactly did the whole Blackalicious story start? Was it 1991? | |
| No, actually Blackalicious started back in 1987. | |
| So it started when Chief Xcel and you met in High School? | |
| Right. | |
| But you did not have the name Blackalicous back then? | |
| No, we didn’t have that name but it was Chief Xcel and Gift of Gab. Back then we had other names but still it was Blackalicous. | |
| What attracted you to the hip hop culture back then? | |
| Back when I first started to listen to rapmusic? Just the energy of it, just the whole... When I heard a rap song, when I saw somebody breaking or when I saw graffiti it made me feel alive! It was just like, I wanna be a part of this, you know what I mean, just the rush, just the rhyme records, the hip hop records alone, just the rush that you would get from it. | |
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Was it hard for you two to start out the whole thing back in the early 90’s? Los Angeles and the Bay Area always had a strong support for independent artists like Aceyalone and the likes... |
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| In terms of becoming a rapper? | |
| Exactly, like making your tracks and finding a label that is willing to put that record out... | |
| Yeah. You know, it all just evolved. Like, the reason I started rhyming in the first place was, like, I was a battle emcee, and back then, you know the way we used to do it back then, I wasn’t even thinking about making records, I didn’t know if I ever was going to make a record. It was like this is what we did, like playing sports, playing hoop, you know. I was a battle lyricist for a long time and then around ‘88/’89 I started writing songs, I started writing concept songs, you know, more so than just battling other emcees. And from there it just gradually happened; the people I met in my life, you know, everyone else in the Quannum crew, and just running into this pool of talented people, me and Xcel meeting in High School and everything just kinda evolved, almost like „divine intervention“, almost like it is supposed to happen like that. It’s not just like one day I was just like. I wanna be a rapper today, I wanna make records, I wanna make a living off of this. And don’t get me wrong on this, I always had dreams about it, you know, I always felt like it would be nice though. It sort of just unfolded. I think that though, and this is one thing I tell people who are getting into this as artists: ‘You have to love what you do in order to maintain in this, especially in this industry because it’s like you gotta want it whether you wanna make a living at it or whether you won’t make a living at it. It has to be like a passion’. You know what I mean? | |
| From the bottom of the heart! For your upcoming solo album ‘4th Dimensional Rocket Ship Going Up’ you’ve worked with two new producers from Seattle named Jake One and Vitamin D. How was it to work with them? I mean, Seattle and Oakland are two different worlds, speaking of rap... | |
| Yeah. We travelled back and forth to see each other. It was a good experience. For me, it was really about growth, you know, ‘cause when me and Chief Xcel come together, we come together as Blackalicous and that’s the chemistry of Blackalicious - Gift of Gab and Chief Xcel. With this record [4th Dimensional Rocketship Going Up], Jake One and Vitamin D produced it. I was more like the director, I was more like: ‘Hey I wannit to sound like this. And then when it was time to put the order of the songs together, it was like, that’s how I wannit to be. It was kind of empowering that I was able... you know... and I think it’s more healthy for Blackalicous ‘cause right now, we’re working on a new Blackalicous album called „The Craft“, it’ll be out in early 2005... I think it makes the group stronger when the members of the group give each other the space they need to be able to go out and create their own visions and then come back to the group. | |
| Did chief Xcel put out a solo album yet? | |
| Actually, Chief Xcel did a record called „Tribute to Fela“ which will be coming out probably on Quannum Projects in the next couple of months. And also he and Lateef the True Speaker have a group called „Maroons“ and they got an album called „Ambush“ that’ll be out in September. | |
| So you’re still with the guys from Quannum? | |
| No doubt! | |
| It’s like family for you? | |
| Definitely! Always, for life! | |
| How far could the Quannum Projects profit from DJ Shadow’s success... You know, I’ve been listening to DJ Shadow some years ago and I thought he was an Englishman, just because of the sound he did... That was not that typical hip hop that I was used to in 1996... I kind of felt that that type of music emerged out of England... | |
| Well you know, DJ Shadow, he was a big part when Mo’Wax was really, really doing their thing. He’s the one who kinda set off that whole thing for Mo’Wax, up in London. | |
| Mo’Wax does the distribution for Blackalicous in Europe, is that right? | |
| Right. In America it is Quannum Projects. | |
| Is it a distribution deal that you signed with Epitaph? Like Atmosphere or Eyedea & Abilities? | |
| Exactly. It’s only a distribution deal between Epitaph and Quannum. | |
| I really liked it when I saw your name in the list of Epitaph bands. It’s a great thing what Epitaph is doing at the moment. | |
| No doubt! | |
| What would you say is the difference between you as Gift of Gab and you as a member of Blackalicious? | |
| I would consider it two different sounds. I feel like the difference between the Gift of Gab album and the Blackalicious album is with Xcel’s production: Xcel’s production is so grandiose that sometime you don’t even need lyrics for it to be a good song... I think that with Vitamin and Jake, it is more straight-forward hip hop to me... | |
| But also „Blazing Arrow“ was more straight-forward than „Melodica“, „A2G“ or „Nia | |
| Definitely! | |
| What about Cut Chemist? Do you collaborate with him nowadays? | |
| We’re gonna do something with him on our new album. We’re gonna do a song with him and ?uestlove and they’re gonna be battling each other, beat-wise, and I’m gonna be rhyming over the beats that they’re battling to... | |
| What would you say is your personal development over the years? I think that earlier in the days of Blackalicious there were more constructed tracks like „Alphabet Aerobics“ and the likes... Are you trying to make your lyrics more accessible for a broader audience? Or was it just the way „Blazing Arrow“ had to be? | |
| So, you are saying that on our new album there isn’t any tracks like „Alphabet Aerobics“ or „Chemical Calisthenics“, right? | |
| Right... | |
| It’s like that.... Different music brings about different things. I never try to outpower the track but then I always try to do what the track calls for. If I sit down with a producer and we think about a concept, like let’s say we do a song about algebra, then I say, okay that’s the zone I’m going into. But if I hear a beat in my head, then I just hear a flow to it, all I really try to do is follow the music with the lyrics. And sometimes it will take me into more complex places and sometimes it doesn’t have to be complex, it can be a little more straight-forward. I’m gonna always travel style-wise, I’m gonna always be into styles, new styles and travelling and invent new things. | |
| You're not trying to stick to the style you „were“ famous for? | |
| Exactly. | |
| What emcee or producer would you really like to work with in the future? | |
| Dr. Dre... | |
| Really? | |
| Yeah, I’d really like to do something with Dre. Emcee? KRS-One, Rakeem. | |
| Your most interesting collaboration? | |
| That was Gil Scott-Heron. Definitely. Just to have the opportunity to work with someone like that who has influenced music so much. It was an honor. | |
| Well, you worked along Ben Harper who I really great, and also Saul Williams... | |
| That was great too! With Ben Harper, that was a really dope encounter because we flew down to Los Angeles and got into the studio and just did the whole song, finished everything. Everything just kinda fell together... | |
| What were your strongest musical influences? | |
| Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster, Melle Mel, Kurtis Blow, The Fat Boys, Run DMC, Whodini, LL Cool J, MC Lyte, etc... | |
| Did you get the chance to see some of them live on stage? | |
| Definitely. Well, not people like Melle Mel and them, I haven’t seen them. But I’ve seen Run DMC live, LL Cool J... | |
| In the future we will be pleased with „The Craft“ as you told me earlier... Are there any other side projects or ideas that you are following at the moment? | |
| Probably. But right now, I’m really focused on the Blackalicious record. And then, once that happens, you know, there’s a lot of people who I would like to work with, it’s definitely a lot of producers out there that I like to do a little EP or a mini-album with. And then after that, we’ll see where it goes... | |
| If you had to describe the idea or philosophy behind your music, visions and projects as an artist, what would you say? | |
| I think that I’m blessed with the gift of rhyming. It’s a lifestyle for me, it’s a discipline, just like being a martial artist or a samurai swordsman. It’s like I try to write 16 bars every day, even if I don’t feel like writing because at the end of the day, is kinda like, God has blessed me with something and I have to use it. If I don’t use it then I’m not... It’s almost part of my relation with the creator. I just try to dedicate myself to the craft in everything I do, in the way that I live. | |
| On your new album you drop the line: ‘I found religion’... How important is religion in your life? | |
| Music for me comes from the spirit-world. It comes from nowhere and then it materializes through you, through who ever plays the instrument or sings the song or rhymes the rhyme. Music for me is really a relationship with the creator, it’s like my religion. I don’t really believe in religion, I believe more so in spirit. If I had a religion, it would be emceeing. | |
| So, that’s kind of the topic that stands behind „4th Dimensional Rocket Ship Going Up“? | |
| That’s right. | |
| What was the feedback you received on „Blazing Arrow“ like? Some of my friends who really liked the early material by Blackalicious found „Blazing Arrow“ too straight-forward... | |
| Not really. We didn’t really get a lot of that. People showed us love. I was really glad cause we took a couple of risks on the record. I think that’s what music is about, that you always have to go back and remember the bases and where it comes from but then I think it’s equally important that you go out and explore and evolve, and take the music in places that it hasn’t going yet. | |
| One thing that I’m very interested in are the college radios in the United States of America. What can you tell me about their purpose for independent artists? | |
| Yeah, college radios is really dope, especially if you’re an indie-artist. It is like, college radios will play your record. And in America, I’m sure it’s the same way out here, it’s just political. All the major labels have the radios locked, so if you’re an indie-artist and you try to get your record played on a radio station, even if it is an excellent record, they’re not gonna look at that, they’re gonna look at what label you’re signed to, how much payroll is involved. It’s getting kind of corrupt. College radios open up that avenue for indie-artists that make their own music and have their own or independent label to be able to get their stuff played nationwide cause all you have to do is send it in. You could be anybody, just make a demo-tape, send it in and if they like they’ll play it. So you can get exposed nationwide with the college radios. | |
| Well, in Florida there’s a kid named Benefit who evolved through college radios and internet downloads... Have you heard of him by any chance? | |
| Really? Nah, I don’t know him... | |
| What do you think about people downloading your stuff and not buying it in the stores? | |
| These people gotta look at the artist’s side. We try to make a living at it. It’s like someone gave you the keys to the store. You just go in and take the product but the people who did the product, who spent their energy on doing it, they don’t get anything. | |
| Thanks a lot for having time for me. Enjoy yourself. | |
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Links zu Gift of Gab:
www.blackalicious.com / www.quannum.com
/ www.epitaph.com / www.phonag.ch |
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