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Long read but a good one...
I Bolded the parts about Just Blaze...
http://www.abcdrduson.com/interviews/feature-vo.php?id=196
I Bolded the parts about Just Blaze...
http://www.abcdrduson.com/interviews/feature-vo.php?id=196
How can you introduce yourself to the readers who might don't know you?
Bink!: I guess you can call me, one of Virginia's finest. I'm Bink!. Known for most of my work on the Roc-A-Fella with Jay and with Mr Cheeks. I've started in 93 with Teddy Riley. I guess I'm an OG now. I've been doing this thing since 16 years. I feel old.
A: What was your musical education growing up?
B: Oh man, you know, the transition from Church to the streets. I started playing drums in Church from 8 years old to 14 years old. Then I thought that I was too cool to go to church. Through the course of the year in high school, I always had a little drum machine and I started to make that transition from just doing it as a hobby to really liking it. So I really started to make music after I graduated from High School.
A: What made you want to be a producer instead of a rapper or a deejay?
B: I mean, actually, I used to rhyme back in the day. I was a die-hard hip-hop fan since the early 80's. From me playing drums in church, I used to get paid every Sunday and the first record I bought was Run DMC's '30 Days'. Every since then I had love for the whole culture of it. Friends of mine and myself used to have a break-dance crew and we went from the break-dance crew to the rap crew, doing the beats and doing the cypher on the corner. I really lived it.
A: Do you still have some tapes where you are spitting on them?
B: Nah…you know what? I used to do some mixtapes back in the days and I rhymed on the intro of them or stuff like that. That's how I really built my name in Virginia. We were just selling mixtapes back in the day.
A: How was the Virginia scene back then?
B: Some people call Virginia "Little New York" because of when the whole crack/drugs thing came in to play, a whole lot of people from New York migrated down here plus Virginia is a real military place so we have people from all over the place. There were a lot of New York cats who came through there. And fortunately, a cousin of mine who is from Brooklyn, his name is Dion, he would bring me Chuck Chillout and Red Alert's tapes because he used to spend every summer at my godmother's house. I was just sitting and listen to them for hours. Every place you go, everybody got their own classics. I used to learn about a lot of artists they didn't play in Virginia just because of the demographic of it. New York is where it started so you had a lot of exclusive underground hip-hop that I was exposed to early.
A: Who were some of your earliest influences on the production tip?
B: Rick Rubin, Teddy Riley, Buckwild, Pete Rock, Lord Finesse, NoID, Dre and a lot more. My favourite was Tribe Called Quest. I was a die-hard Tribe Called Quest fan. Ali Shaheed and Q-Tip, I still love their productions until this day. I learned a lot from those cats.
A: Is there someone in Virginia who inspired you back then?
B: Yeah, because actually Missy Elliott and Timbaland were two of the first to really make it on to the music scene from Virginia. It was definitely inspiring to see them do their thing with Jodeci back in the days. Watching their growth gave me a lot of hope to pursue my dreams as well.
A: You said earlier that you were working with Teddy Riley right?
B: Yeah! The first record I've ever done in the music business was 'Don't Leave' by Blackstreet in 93.
A: How did you hook up with him?
B: Teddy Riley had a studio on Virginia Beach. I was in a barbershop called Triple Play. He was getting a haircut and I was in the studio upstairs from the Barbershop. I just happened to be upstairs banging out one day and he heard me. He came upstairs and he asked me to play him a bunch of beats. I played that 'Don't Leave' beat and the rest is history.
A: What have you learned working with him?
B: He's a perfectionist and one of the most talented producers I've ever witnessed or known in my life. He's like a keyboard-god. A lot of people don't know the stuff he did earlier in hip hop: Doug E Fresh's 'The Show' or Heavy D. A lot of stuff he did was just epic and big. His mixing skills are just incredible.
A: Is this because he was "the keyboard-god" that you have decided to rely your work on sample?
B: No, no, no. Sample is just a part of the hip-hop culture. This is how it started. If you can play keyboard, that's a beautiful situation, which Teddy could do, but I don't play like him. So I was like the Lord Finesse type of guy, D.I.T.C., Buckwild and all those cats, just digging in the crates.
A: What are some of your favourite music to sample?
B: Definitely the 70's. From 69 to 77-78 where all the soul music came from. Once it got to the 80's, which a lot of people are sampling from now, a lot of the soul just wasn't there anymore. The synthesizer was just coming out so a lot of people who used to play live instruments kind of strain away from the live instrumentation to try the synthesizer's sound which I'm not really a fan of. I love the organic, Curtis Mayfield or Barry White type of music. You know Skull Snaps, The Dramatics and the Escorts. I love that type of stuff.
A: How often do you shop for records?
B: I don't really shop like I used do. I just try to buy somebody's whole collection. But now to be honest with you, I am on those blogspots really heavy getting records.
A: Is it OK for you to sample MP3?
B: I mean it is definitely a lot easier to sample from a record because you can actually see the groove to the record, the break and all that and you can't see those on the mp3 so you actually have to skim through the whole record and any producer would tell you that this is the worst part in producing: sitting down for hours just going through records.
A: Has the sample clearances law affected your work?
B: I'm not going to say no because it has affected my work to a certain extent. In the music game, you have a lot of leaders that a lot of people follow and do what everybody else is doing. There's not a lot of artist like OutKast. OutKast can't care less about what the rest of the industry is doing, they are just staying true to their selves. But right now, since they are so many new A&R's, artists are just doing the same thing over and over again. It's hard to see and hear how the face of music is changing for the worse and not for the better. I really feel like real music is coming back. I'm really gravitating more to the whole rock and R&B thing opposed to rap because rap is real funny right now to me.
A: What are some of your sampling techniques?
B: Both beat and sample are real inspiring to me. If I ever come across new drums, it would just inspire me to do a new drum track first or I can start with a loop first. There's really no particular way how I do a beat. That's how it comes to me. Sometimes I spend time at watching TV and hear a commercial and just ran downstairs and just put something together because that's just something I hear in my head.
A: Do you play or use any live instruments?
B: I play a lot of things. My main instrument is drums but I play keys too even if like I said I'm not a Teddy Riley. I can get the job done to a certain extent. I play guitar a little, you've heard it in a lot of records that I've done but just not knowing what I did actually.
A: Are you trying to learn some more?
B: You know what? I want to go back to school for music's theory. I'm around a lot of ill musicians so I learn a lot from them. They teach me a lot.
A: How would your describe your sound?
B: I would say my sound is aggressive, soulful and real theatrical. That's why I have over 15 movies in my discography.
A: How different it is to produce a song for a movie and a song for a rap album?
B: A soundtrack is mainly emotions that you are dealing with, you are not really considering anybody's voice over it. You can really get creative with your music opposed to trying to get a format in your regular/traditional song format that you would do for an artist. You are a lot freer when you are doing songs for movies.
A: Would you say that producing tracks on soundtracks helped you into your approach of making tracks for rap albums?
B: See, the thing is I haven't had the pleasure of actually being hired to score a movie yet. I scored the intro for Jay Z's "Hard Knock Life" flick back in 1998, which ended up being a Beanie Sigel record.
A: Can you define your role as a producer?
B: The producer is like the ringmaster of a circus. He's like the head-coach of a football team. Everything is up to you. You place everything where it needs to be. You have to make sure from start to finish everything is in its right place. Like you said, there's a difference between beatmakers and producers. There are a lot of beatmakers out here.
A: How do you separate those two?
B: A beatmaker is somebody who just produces a track and gives it to the artist and let the artist do what he wants to do with no input whatsoever. A lot of people I work with respect my opinion and we go in studio together and we bang out the song from the bottom to the top.
A: From a producer's point of view, what do you think about the fall of Scratch magazine?
B: I'm not even shocked about it. The game is entirely different from when I got here. Let's just say that. I came in the game in 93. It was so many labels where you could try to shop your music to and now 16 years later, everything has been consolidated. It's just like the real world. Everybody is merging together and firing half of their staff. A lot of people are not buying CDs and magazines like they used to. So I'm not shocked that it folded. It's unfortunate but I'm definitely not shocked.
A: Nowadays, do you tend to make music for yourself more than for the people?
B: I've always made music for myself but it's nothing like having somebody to appreciate what you do. It's no better feeling like it's incredible when an artist is on stage at a sold out show and people are singing his song and screaming his name. I love that part of the game when people tell you that they appreciate what you are doing and that they feel what you are bringing to the game.
A: I've heard that at some point in your life you were an A&R. What have you learned from this experience?
B: I mainly took that job just to see what goes on in that huddle. I always want to know their process in picking and signing who they sign. Even that changed today. Back in the day you could bring your artist in a record label and have to sing or rap right on the spot and he can get sign off the strength of that. Now, the labels don't really care about how talented you are, you better come with that record that they can move out with right now. You can be incredible but if you don't have that record that reflects that, they are not moving. It's a different day.
A: What was your feeling when you have quit this job?
B: It was a good experience. I met some cool people and I learned a lot of things. It was good to see and to witness how they go about making these decisions.
A: Would you do it again today?
B: I mean yeah, definitely ! The music game is really slow so anybody who's willing to pay you, you'd better accept it.
A: To me, one of your trademarks is that you have some crazy drums pattern in your sound. Is this something that you have from your church background?
B: Definitely! My mother was the choir director at the church that I played at. She really taught me how to play my role as a drummer so I just took that with me to the game and added my little spin to it. A lot of people have changed the way they program since I came in.
A: Do you really pay attention to your drums or is it something that it is natural to you?
B: It's definitely not something that I was doing with a conscious effort. It just comes out that way. That's the difference between me and other people who are trying to mimic that sound.
A: Back in 2000, Jay-Z dropped "The Dynasty", an album that introduced your talent alongside those of Just Blaze and Kanye West. How come we didn't find you on every Jay albums after that?
B: I did "The Blueprint" which was right after that but I kind of shadow away from the whole Roc-A-Fella scene because I was actually mimicked by somebody within the camp. It doesn't feel right with me just because I'm from the old school and taking somebody else sound or style or whatever which was called "biting" back in the day is real personal. In the new school, there's no such thing as "biting", it's about getting a check. That's what I hate about the game. The whole creative side is not here anymore. There's not a lot of people who make you want to go home and turn your machine on when you have listened to their music. A lot of people that you hear out here, you are thinking that you are hearing one person and it is somebody totally different and it's OK. Back in the day, people used to get shot and beat up over stuff like that.
A: Who was biting your style?
B: I mean, that's obvious, you can tell me that!
A: I would say… Just Blaze?
B: Of course! You are the type of guy that pays attention to details. The average fan or the average consumer, they don't really care about who got what from who. That's not their concern. If the record is hot, it's all they care about. But if you are a fan of music, and you have really followed the game, then you know what I brought to the game and what people borrowed from me since I came in.
The crazy thing is that I used to be cool with the guy. Just Blaze and me were cool at one time doing the whole "Dynasty" and "Blueprint". Once it got to the point where he was taking what I was doing, it doesn't fit right with me. He ended up signing to Gee Roberson and Hip-Hop who were A&Rs for Roc-A-Fella. Once I wasn't really feeling what was going on, they kind of let me behind and I pursued my career in other places.
A: So you 're any longer cool with Just Blaze, right?
B: We definitely don't talk [laughs]. But when I first met the guy, he sounded like Swizz Beatz! That's the irony to the story. He's the only guy that I've heard in the game taking from so many producers. He's starting to come to his own now a little bit but even now he's more sounding like a Toomp or a Drumma Boy. He does what's hot and that's the part of the game that I told you I don't agree with. I'm not going to do something because everybody else is doing it. He's infamous for borrowing from people, that's his M.O.. He's a talented guy, I might say but he hasn't brought anything to the game that he has come up with. That's the only thing he's missing: his own sound.
A: What's up with Kanye? Are you cool with him?
B: Yeah! Kanye and me were very cool. When he first came into the game, he would really pick my brain. He would call me and ask for my opinion on a lot of stuff. I'm on of the first person he rapped for before and I was impressed because that was the first time I actually see a producer makes the transition to a rapper and he was really nice at it. He caught the bus to my house like back in the day, way before he got the money and we used to do what you call beat-bars. We would play beats back and forth in a friendly competition. It's a good thing to do. You always want to keep somebody around who is just as good or better than you because that's the only way you can grow. Playing beats to Kanye back then was really inspiring because you can't play nothing wack because he gonna play something hot. He felt the same way about me so that kept both of us on our toes. It keeps your skills sharp.
A: What do you think about his last album "808's & Heartbreaks"?
B: I love it! He has really good production. You can't front on the music. It's quality work.
A: Speaking about other producers, what do you think about other producers from Virginia?
B: Timbaland is my favourite producer ever just because he has no rules. He doesn't stay in a box. If it sounds good to him, then he does it. Missy and him are power duo because they make people go like: "Whoa! What has made them do that?" There are a lot of people in the game who are just scared to do things that anybody else isn't doing. Everybody now is 808'd out [laughs]. 808 and handclaps. Timbaland can make a beat out of anything.
A: My favourite producer out of Virginia is Nottz.
B: Oh yeah, Nottz is definitely one of the best. We actually come together. Nottz and me used to put our beats on the same tape. Darryl Sloan was managing both of us. He's still managing Nottz today. I still keep contact with Nottz until this day. He's definitely an ill dude. He reminds me a lot of J Dilla.
A: To me, he sounds like the perfect mix between J Dilla and Dj Scratch.
B: Exactly! I really see you keep your hear to the streets. I like that. It's dope when somebody interviews you and actually knows the music and I can tell that you really know this.
A: There is this video of you, Joe Budden and Royce in your studio and you are playing a track that you say need to be on The Blueprint 3. Have you submitted it to Jay?
B: Oh my God, it's like… Jay is like a unicorn to me right now. I just can't find him. He's been on the road a lot out of the country. I haven't got a chance to get at him yet. A lot of people hit me up about that track. They really like it.
A: Almost every beat you play in both videos are crazy.
B: Thank you! I appreciate. Actually, there is this one beat where I play guitar, drums, organ and everything in it. That's what I was telling you. I play a lot by ear but I'm nowhere like my keyboard player that I use but I can pull out stuff like that.
A: I like that one that sounds like Haitian music.
B: I see exactly what you are talking about. Are you familiar with a website called PMP? I'm on it! A good friend of mine by the name of Conrad Dimanche started the website. They got me out there and I got the track on it. You can check it if you want to hear it. You are from France, aren't you?
A: Yes, I am.
B: My cousin is a famous jazz musician in Lyon. His name is Sangoma. He's incredible. Every time he comes to the States, he teaches me different groove, he's into the whole African drumming thing and other things he has learned over there in France. I've been dying to come over there. My sister, who is a singer, did an album with him and it's really dope.
A: Have Joe Budden and Royce picked any of those beats you played?
B: They haven't picked anything yet. We started one joint though with Royce & Joe but I'm waiting on the other cats from Slaughterhouse to come over here and finish it.
A: I'm going to name 5 of my favourite tracks that you have produced and I'd like to know if you could share any story about either the making or the studio session for them:
Kurupt - 'Girl Iz All Pause'
B: The Kurupt's situation… You know the other record I did on his album is called 'Trilogy'. My manager at the time gave Kurupt a DAT of the 'Trilogy' beat and he immediately went to the studio and he did like a hundred bars down here. We were supposed to mix it in Philly. I came down there to mix the record with him. He wanted to spit the vocals over. We all agreed that it didn't sound better and that we wanted to keep the original. So we had like four hours in the studio. I was there, Nate Dogg was there and Kurupt was there. I did 'Girl Iz All Pause' on the spot. We had that record done in three hours. It was crazy how we ended up making that record.
A: What's crazy to me is that 'Trilogy' sound like a back to the 'Kuruption' album type of joint while 'Girl Iz All Pause' sounds more like a West Coast Banger.
B: Yeah and you know what's crazy? It's that 'Girl Iz All Pause' didn't get any love over here. When I went to Cali, I would hear that song on the radio everyday. That's another track where I play all the keys on it. There's no sample in it.
Jay-Z - '1-900-Hustler'
B: Aww man. I was at Baseline's studios and that was when Malik Sealy had just opened them. Rest In Peace Malik Sealy. I had chopped the Ten Wheel Drive sample up before. Jay was working in the next room. I called him in the room. I had the sample on the pads of the MP. I hit it and he was like: "Put it together!" I thought I hadn't put it together yet. [laughs] I put the whole beat back together and I came back like an hour later and said: "Listen!" He was like: "Wow! I need that right here."
A: Who is your favorite emcee over it?
B: That's the tough question but you know what? That was like Freeway's introduction. He did his thing up there. He really went in on that record.
Jay-Z - 'You, Me, Him And Her'
B: What's crazy with 'You, Me, Him and Her' is that, I was in Baseline again and I was working on that track for somebody else. I was in here banging the track. People always listen to my music very loud so Jay-Z came in the room and I didn't know he was there. I'm just here vibing out and banging this beat up. Then I turned around and Hov is walking around in circle, rapping to himself because you know that he doesn't write anything down. He just paces. It's like he's whispering to himself or something. I caught him doing that and I stopped the beat. He was like: "No, no, no don't stop! Let it keep going!" I pressed play again and he started rhyming to him again and he was like: "Wow my God! You got to bring it over here to my room!" And I was like: "@%++. Let's go!"
A: Who was supposed to be on that beat at first?
B: It was supposed to be fore Moka who was signed to Elektra Records and who was down with Missy Elliott back in the day. Between Jay-Z and Moka, no disrespect but it's like a no brainer!
Freeway - 'All My Life'
B: 'All My Life' was something that I did at the house. One of my producers Ty Dealz was messing around with the sample and he was kind of stuck. It was pretty much built around the horn blast. I threw that "tu-du-du" and the baseline and it was it. It was simple. The Freeway laid down his verses and Nate Dogg did the hook. I was in Miami at Circle House. They sent me the files back to mix it and that's when I re-programmed the whole record like the drums on the 'Going Back To Cali' verse.
Beanie Sigel - One Shot Deal
B: That was around the time Beanie Sigel was on house arrest. I drove down to Philly and I took my MP and some records. My cousin Bop and I went to Beanie's house. I stayed in the guest room for 2 to 3 days and we did a lot of records. 'One Shot Deal' was one of them and he really liked that record.
A: Speaking about the future, what are you working on right now?
B: My artists Chris Echols and B.Rossi that's one of my main focuses right now. I'm just cultivating a whole new vibe. That's why I did this video with Royce and Joe. I just want to let people know that I'm still here. I didn't lose a step! Everybody is pretty much gravitating over the same stuff over and over again. I'm always one of those guys who is always on the left.
A: Have you submitted tracks to any major artists lately?
B: You know what? I actually did but like I said it's just that people's ears right now aren't really opened to anything new. That's why you do your best work when you work with a real artist.
A: I saw a video for a track you have produced, the name of the track is 'Spot Rules'…
B: Yeah, that's my man Jae Ski. He's dope. He's one of those guys straight from the streets. He just talks about real street stuff. 'Spot Rules' is like our version of 'Ten Crack Commandments'. We got some more joints though. It's crazy! Really hard joints that people from the streets or people who have that type of background would get into. He did like eight years in the Federal Prison and he just came home. He has a lot to talk about.
A: His voice sounds like none other.
B: He has one of those types of voice where it is either you love it or you hate it. I don't know if you remember an artist by the name of Nine but he reminds me of artists like him who have a special voice.
I allways wanted to know what happened with Bink and Rockafella so this was pretty interesting to me...
U know I never really noticed it but Just Blaze is some bitting $+# $%#!$...
If u listen to some of his early stuff like...Beanie Sigel-Who Want What...Busta Rhymes-Street @%++...Busta Rhymes-Here We Go Again...and Big Pun-Off Wit HisHead they all sound like fake Swizz Beatz beats...
Also check out that LL Cool J song-We're Gonna Make It, that Bink did (Youtube is your friend) and see how Just Blaze bite the song for The Game's WhyWe Hate The Game...
Now Just is ridin that south wave...
Damn... Just Blaze = Jermaine Dupri
