Statik Selektah is very selective. The Boston-bred deejay-turned-producer has upheld the forgotten theory that "if it sucks, don't play it" along with "if it's dope, it doesn't matter." Besides touring with A Tribe Called Quest and G-Unit, the radio personality has flooded the streets with top-shelf mixtapes that have broken records in the mainstream and underground alike.

Now with debut album Spell My Name Right, Statik takes his diverse tastes and blends them together for 21 tracks of unique collaborations, high and low profile emcees and hard-knocking beats from the mixtape mastermind. With 12,000 units shipping, Statik Selektah is putting up impressive numbers as the album drops. He tells HipHopDX about his Hip Hop history research, transitioning into production and the methodology to his tape-rewinding collaborations.

HipHopDX: What let you know that now was the time to test the waters as far as an album goes?
Statik Selektah: Really, the mixtape game is messed up. Whenever I do mixtapes, I try to make them like albums anyway. I think I’m just gonna keep doing albums instead of mixtapes. I still get to work with artists really close – actually closer than ever. Plus, it’s the same concept, just making real records. These are 100% real records as opposed to something being a blend.

DX: How do you work an album differently though? You’re going through official distribution channels now.
SS: It’s a lot different. I have a distribution deal through Traffic. They handle pretty much the pressing. We shipped 12,000. That’s really good for an independent release. I’m not really sweating Soundscan at all, ‘cause I know I’m moving a lot of units overseas. Even over here, a lot of the mixtape spots are gonna be bootlegging it. The internet downloads are crazy. I’ve been on different websites, seeing thousands of downloads. It’s really more about people hearing my production and what I’m trying to do with it. It means a lot more than the actual sales. But I think we’re gonna do pretty good.

DX: In a situation like yours, I think of 10 years ago when Funkmaster Flex and DJ Clue were going platinum more or less doing the same thing. They benefited greatly on worldwide exposure. What is it that you want out of album-making?
SS: It’s always good to get props. Aside from that, I want a lot more work production-wise. I just did two more joints for Consequence’s next album, I did two joints on Joell Ortiz’ Aftermath album. I did a bunch of shit for Termanology and Reks’ albums. I just want more people to acknowledge the production side, ‘cause the deejay side, at this point, has been established.

DX: Showoff Records is your imprint?
SS: Yeah, Brick Records is Karma and and Papa D’s label. Showoff is mine. The distributor is Traffic.

DX: What future do you see?
SS: We’re definitely gonna have a label deal within the next six months, a major distribution deal for the label. Reks’ album is gonna drop in February. Term’s album won’t be on Showoff, but I’m A&Ring it for Showoff. After Reks, we’ve got Granite State with another twelve-inch coming. I’m probably gonna drop another album within six months. I’m definitely dropping at least two a year.

DX: Isn’t there something that makes you want to work a project harder, instead of saturating the market so heavily? Right now, a major online store is sold out of your album, but you’re telling me about the next…
SS: I’m gonna work this album! We’ve been doing a whole east coast tour; I’m about to go to Chicago, L.A. I’m gonna continue to work this for at least two months, promoting it. By that time though, you’re gonna start to hear new records from me. The problem is, the internet has completely smashed peoples’ attention span. You drop an album now, people listen to it, they listen to it so much, and that’s it. It’s not like they went out and bought it. They downloaded it two weeks before the album came out. When it drops, they go, “Oh, that shit’s old.” It’s ridiculous. If that’s how people are gonna be? Personally, I think I made a top-notch album. I think you could and should listen to it a year from now. But for the people who aren’t like that, I still wanna keep them full, so I’ll keep feeding them.

DX: Starting with the intro of the album, many of us have heralded DJ Premier as the best Hip Hop producer of all time –
SS: -- He is.

DX: You almost seem like the first mixtape deejay, since Tony Touch, that’s really got his support like that. Where does that come from?
SS: We help each other out. I’ll give him some exclusives, he’ll give me some exclusives. I help him out sometimes on the business side of things, with the internet. He’ll help out my artists like Termanology and Reks. It really comes down to our friendship; we’re pretty tight just off of our taste for Hip Hop. We just a lot in common. Premo’s a really good dude.

DX: When Jay-Z hopped on the Talib Kweli “Get By Remix,” the boundaries of Hip Hop were shattered. You’re seemingly doing that with some of these collaborations. You’ve got Evidence on there and you’ve got Uncle Murda on there. How do you see the bigger picture?
SS: [Laughs] To me, it’s Hip Hop – good quality music. I don’t care if it’s Uncle Murda or Evidence, or if they’re well-known like a Q-Tip or relatively unknown like a Granite State, it’s all Hip Hop. If I can make a good record, it’s going on my album; I don’t really care who’s on it. I try to show that. I put some of my people on, but I also kept it [full of] pretty well-known artists, just to show that people can hang with them and underground cats can still make good music. Especially with a lot of deejays nowadays, a lot of them are corny to the point where they’re playing their artist only, and they don’t play up and coming cats and they don’t give a lot of people a chance. I like to show that there are cats coming up now who can hang with the best artists. Continued on page 2 »