DX: Why do you think it’s easier to introduce the element of Jazz and Funk to the underground level of Hip Hop as opposed to the mainstream?
Leon: People who actively listen to underground Hip Hop, usually there’s an understanding of records and where the music is coming from and that sort of thing, rather than it just being Hip Hop. So what we’re doing basically, for the most part, is making music that sounds like the music that gets sampled. I think people who listen to [underground] Hip Hop have more respect for where the music is coming from and actually listening to the music rather than just you know, listening to what’s popular so…

DX: Universal asked Truth & Soul Records to remix Amy’s “Love is a Losing Game.” Who worked on that piece?
Leon: That was actually myself and Jeff for the most part. And then there was an engineer who helped us with that. But we kept that one very simple. There weren’t too many additions involved in that one.

DX: Were you guys nervous when approached with the project?
Leon: Yeah, I mean kind of. That record, I like that record. The Winehouse album, not all of it, but to me, that was the best song on the record. So it was like “Fuck, out of all the songs to remix this one I actually like.” So we just flipped it, tried to take it like…and also it’s not like we’re gonna do another soul take on that; we had to take it somewhere else – I thought it came out good.

DX: Me too. What did you think of Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson’s work on the album?
Leon: Not too high on Salaam Remi stuff; but Ronson stuff is good. He just turned up the base, drums and snare and called it his own production but…I don’t know how much I want to get into that.

DX: As much as you want to. [Laughs]
Leon: [Laughs] I don’t know, I mean, I give him credit. That record’s pretty good.

DX: It is. What’s up with the current projects and collaborations?
Leon: We did some other remix for Universal. Last night we finished up this remix for a remix series they did. We remixed Diana Ross’ new song, which came out awesome. What else do we have? We wrote a song for that girl Adele. She’s got a record out in England right now, it’s huge. She’s getting a lot of press. I don’t know if you guys notice over here but she’s huge in England. We wrote the song. Our production didn’t make the record. It’s really dirty; that record sounds really clean…

DX: What else?
Leon: Ghostface sampled us. That was a good one. He sampled El Michaels Affair, this song called “Shaky Dog.” And we just did a project with Just Blaze. I haven’t heard what he’s done with it, but we did a live Soul track for him which was supposed to be used for that Saigon record – so I guess he cut it up and did something with it but I haven’t heard it yet.