Underground Report (Blaq
Poet & Busdriver)
The month of May can be categorized as a reflection of the grind – a new wave of work ethic in Hip Hop that transgresses the outdated stereotypes, the emulation of past precedents and the exacerbation of the safety net. 2009 has followed the largely innovative 2008 while surpassing it in quest for creativity, authenticity, and intermixing of genres, all of which allow for further transgression of Hip Hop’s established bounds, allowing artists to pave the new wave and strut what their mama gave them. The Underground Report features two artists who are incomparable in their approach to Hip Hop yet both have something fruitful to offer to their own fans: Blaq Poet and Busdriver.
As New York’s Blaq Poet readies for his Blaqprint release, HipHopDX catches up with the battle rapper from Queensbridge whose dark side and honest delivery drew support from none other than DJ Premier (who executive produced Blaqprint). A veteran of the culture and a warrior in The Bronx/Queens battle of the '80s, it is no surprise that Blaq Poet regularly enlists none other than the veterans of rhyme (including Marley Marl, Freddie Foxxx, KRS-One) in his choice of collaborations, which is elaborate in his previous work. In the Blaqprint, Poet paints a picture of his story, which he asserts is a similar tale of many young men growing up in the projects. DX probes further with Blaq, as the veteran offers advice to the youngsters, explains his love for boom-bap, and vindicates why he calls them “bitch.”
HipHopDx: Blaqprint’s content illustrates hopelessness and negativity. Is that a fair description?
Blaq Poet: No. Blaqprint is…streets. Hip Hop with street reality. All mixed in. Everything is not "shoot-em-up, bang-bang, kill everybody." It’s not all about the drugs. It’s all about hood tales. And bragging a lot on a lot of songs – all of that that’s part of Hip Hop; telling people I’m the best. But it’s mostly hood tales and things that go around in the hood, every hood around America. And if it sounds like I’m trying to be negative or trying to stay negative, if you’re a real dude and you from the streets, you gonna know what I’m talking about, you gonna appreciate it. If you’re not, you’re not gonna get it.
DX: You refer to women as bitches often enough in the album. Why is that?
Blaq Poet: I mean you got ladies and you got bitches. You got niggas and you got homeboys. It’s the same thing. [Laughs] If a girl acts like a bitch then she’s gonna be a bitch in my eyes. And I’m not being disrespectful, some girls want you to know, “Yeah, I’m a real bitch. Don’t fuck with me ‘cause I’m a real bitch.” [Laughs]. I’m talking to the bitches when I say “bitch.” And when I’m talking to the ladies, I let them know I’m talking to the ladies.
DX: In comparison, do you refer to the ladies as much as you refer to the bitches in your album?
Blaq Poet: Nah, ‘cause I haven’t gotten to that point yet. I’m still referring to what they show me they are. There’s still a lot of bitches in the world.
DX: I think you’re hanging around with the wrong crowd.
Blaq Poet: [Laughs].
DX: DJ Premier executive produced the album. Your involvement with him goes back to the Y2K album, with Screwball. What is it about Preem that makes you want to be a part of what he does?
Blaq Poet: He makes the beats that makes me want to rhyme. He has the funkiest beats I think in the game right now and he makes me want to rap. The beats that he makes, the hardcore beats, you never know what he’s gonna come up with but you believe it’s gonna be creative, it’s gonna be gritty.
DX: What do you think is about Blaq Poet that makes Preemo want to be a part of what he does?
Blaq Poet: Preemo got a dark side like anybody. I think I bring out his dark side. [Laughs] He likes the hardcore and he knows I come through with that hardcore, no doubt.
DX: What is it about boom-bap that makes you a continuous believer?
Blaq Poet: It’s the boom-bap, boom-boom-boom bap. [Singing] It’s the old school feel of the boom and the bap. You can even hear it in the beats that the new guys are making. They got the boom bap in their beats, every beat has the boom bap in itself. It’s all about the head nodding and the boom bap that makes you want to just start shaking your head and start coming up with lyrics and rhymes.
DX: Why do you want to preserve that?
Blaq Poet: That’s the era I come from. That’s the best years in Hip Hop. I really want the young good dudes to hear and see how we was doing it so they can improve on it, make it better, make it iller. We want them to build off it…
DX: You’ve done collaborations with a lot of OG’s like KRS-One, Marley Mar, Freddie Foxxx. Judging from that, is it fair to say that you’re attempting to conserve an art form prevalent in the '90s?
Blaq Poet: If I’m doing it, I’m doing it not knowing I’m doing it. I’m doing it just because I love it, that’s what I love. And I want people to continue to go on with that. but I also want people to get creative too. Don’t just stop at the boom bap, expand on the boom bap.
DX: What do you mean by “expand?”
Blaq Poet: Like Kanye [West], he has boom bap in his beats and all that but he also gets creative. He might sample something a little different – just different forms of sampling and different ways of making beats. It’s all boom bap, but I just want people to make the new boom bap, call it the “new bap.” [Laughs] I don’t want people to get stuck in one era; I want that era that get spread and expanded and people just take it to where it’s never been before.
DX: What would the “new bap” be composed of?
Blaq Poet: The youngsters. The youngsters doing what we did and doing what we did and building off of it. I can’t even explain it; it just has to be done. It would be the hardcore, the hard base; then live instruments mixed with sampling. Keep me interested, I’m a fan of this too. I love listening to new stuff and checking out the new dudes and all that. I just want them to keep me interested.
DX: Any new dudes you’re checking for?
Blaq Poet: I like Cory Gunz [click to read]. That’s my youngsta from New York. Cory Gunz is gonna have them wylin'. Ain’t too many, man. [Laughs]
DX: You stated that availability of Internet and technology increased people’s desires to pursue Rap. Why is Hip Hop and Rap so appealing?
Blaq Poet: It’s an outlet to just let loose. Everybody got things on their mind, stresses. Even if you want to have a party, a good time, then you can just let loose, Hip Hop is the best way to let your hair down. [Laughs]
DX: Why is it appealing for a career choice?
Blaq Poet: It’s like the NBA these days and professional sports – it’s a multimillion dollar game.
DX: How is it affected by the recession?
Blaq Poet: People are always gonna want to hear good music and always wanna hear their best artist and eat good food. So I don’t think the recession really bothers music or food. [Laughs] People are always wanna eat good and people are always gonna wanna hear good music.
DX: What is the essence of Hip Hop?
Blaq Poet: Graffiti, turntables, deejaying. Beating on the wall. [Laughs] You might have your homie beat on the wall while you spit some rhymes. You feel it in your bones. It’s not a money thing, it’s not a being cool thing, it’s something you feel.
DX: The changes we see today reflected in mainstream Hip Hop – can we call it “evolution?”
Blaq Poet: No doubt.
DX: Why?
Blaq Poet: Everything evolves. Hip Hop is no different than anything else. It’s gonna evolve and come back to the same way it was before and evolve from there. So it’s gonna stay evolving and getting different and staying current at the same time. Hip Hop is crazy.
DX: What keeps you rhyming?
Blaq Poet: I keep going ‘cause I grew up with music. When I hear a beat that makes me want to rap, I’m gonna always want to rap to it. It just gets me open. it’s something in my blood; when I hear it, I want to rhyme, I want to rap, I want to say what’s on my mind and express what’s on my mind.
DX: Anything you’d like to add?
Blaq Poet: I’ve been doing this for years, years and years. And I’m gonna keep doing it until the wheels fall off of it. And for the O.G.s out there, if ya’ll are gonna make the joints, then make the songs that youngsters want to hear or you’re gonna die off in the "Jurassic Rap Park." Or you’re gonna stay current and pop off like I plan to do. And to the youngsters, pay attention to O.G.s ‘cause the O.G.s are gonna break it down for you the right way to follow. If your Hip Hop starts at Lil Wayne, you gotta do some history and find out what’s going on. I talk to a lot of good dudes in Europe and a lot of dudes in America and the average European 17 year-old knows more about Hip Hop than the 20 year-old American kid. [Laughs] What’s going on here? There’s a problem.
DX: Good advice.
Blaq Poet: Thanks a lot. And I will try to clean it up…
As we move over to the west coast, we come across a not-your-average rapper in every sense of the phrase. He goes by Busdriver and his style cannot be described (or confined) in a set of particular explanations encompassing meticulous notions of Hip Hop. He can rap fast enough to lose himself in his rhymes, and at times, enlist fast-paced sounds of electric melodies which lead to particular songs sounding like they are products of a never-before heard Hip Hop musical. His upcoming album, Jhelli Beam, illustrates just that while also painting a picture of yet another artist who chooses to transgress stereotypes, boundaries and expectations. DX sat down with Busdriver to discuss diversification of L.A.’s Hip Hop scene, the eroding of the underground and the silly title for a rap album.
HipHopDX: What’s a Jhelli Beam?
Busdriver: It’s a silly title for a rap album.
DX: What does it mean?
Busdriver: It doesn’t mean anything. I feel like there are really poor names that keep my life floating or keep certain facets of my life above ground and it kind of hinted towards that. But the main reason, it’s a silly title – and I spelled Jhelli Beam like a jhery curl, I was my attempting to be funny.
DX: You state in the introduction to the album that conscious Rap failed us. Elaborate?
Busdriver: I’m partially being facetious; I’m being a baby. Sometimes I feel that champions of consciousness moved on to more pressing matters like career advancement or attempts at garnering street cred, and some of the high minded ideals – the whole civil rights movement message that you get from a lot of the key conscious rap guys, it kind of rings false, it comes across as sloganeering. And now we kind of reached a point where people involved with conscious rap have moved on. Not everybody of course, but a lot of people have moved on to a post-Kanye era. But that’s really not true, I was being a baby. I mean I wasn’t really a fan of the message in conscious Rap anyway; maybe in the early '90s I was, but it became kind of outmoded. It’s just me showing the eternal pessimist.
DX: What rappers are you referring to?
Busdriver: Whatever. Common [click to read], [Talib] Kweli [click to read]; anybody like that. But it’s not really true. It’s not wrong; it’s the right choice…whatever people are doing. But honestly, I don’t even know what people are doing, I don’t even listen to what people are doing. So I’m kind of assuming things. I’m showing traces of mad-rapper haterism. [Laughs]
DX: Is it safe to label Jhelli Beam a Hip Hop musical?
Busdriver: I wish it was true. Jhelli Beam musical starring Hugh Jackman. That would be great. It’s not a musical…
DX: I don’t think that was your intent. But there are excerpts of it reminiscent of a musical – but a Hip Hop version.
Busdriver: I would love that.
DX: Why aren’t you concerned that your lyrics are overshadowed by your rapid delivery at times?
Busdriver: I never had too many people take what I say seriously. So it’s me kind of being hell bent on out rapping my own self. I’m not too worried about my rapping overshadowing my lyrics; they complement each other and are all conducive to the experience of listening to one of my songs. I have a variety of approaches…I mean if I was more studio-raised, I would probably be – there would probably be an emphasis on the lyrics or something, but fortunately my approach cultivated over hours and hours of playing live, open mics. So I have a disposition to attempt to impress…I internalize those techniques and stick with them. If I was smart, I’d pace myself and make more grand stance, a little bit more, but…
DX: What was your goal for this album?
Busdriver: I wanted to unlearn some of my concerns in attempt to make a marketable or half-heartedly successful album, and in so doing, I wanted to get back to – not my roots – but just not be so self-conscious and not try to please so many pockets of people ‘cause I feel like I did that with RoadKillOvercoat and I think we did a decent job but I didn’t want to do the same thing. I wanted to get in the mind-set that I was in early 2000 with so many records like Temporary Forever and stuff and I wanted to go for it and act like I was fresh. I was just trying to re-discover my attack and a way to re-discover my passion I thought I had six years ago. And I did. I think it worked as far as I’m concerned. I mainly needed to do that to prove that I’m not getting old. [Laughs] To prove to myself that I’m not dying.
DX: I want to touch upon L.A.’s Hip Hop scene. It’s been largely diversified in respect to both fans that support the music as well as the variety of styles incorporated within it. What is the explanation for that diversification?
Busdriver: It’s a large sprawling mass of city so you have many different pockets of people who cultivate their sound in different eras. Another thing is that convention of L.A. became something people involved in Rap music, who adamantly fought against the conventions of L.A. Rap, which became gangster Rap. So you have many pockets of people trying to cultivate this other than – or honestly doing what’s other than. You have different types of people who are not, to take on the subscribed L.A. style so L.A. has a history of that. And I think there’s more freedom, there’s less pressure to abide by certain things. I feel like in New York if you don’t hold dear a certain cluster of conventions, you kind of feel on the outside and in L.A., you can feel that way too but you can be on the outside by yourself and be fairly comfortable with everything.
But honestly I think with L.A., a lot of the Hip Hop stuff has taken a turn for the worse. The only aspect of it is that all the beat guys in LA have really stepped up and the whole movement in production is on the verge of having a real impact. And a lot of that stuff is heavily Jay-Z-influenced [click to read], but it’s turned into something else, and it’s bleed into the electronic music world so I think that’s really interesting.
DX: How has that affected your place in music?
Busdriver: Well I don’t feel tattered to the Rap world, I don’t. And it’s not because I think my music is so good that it’s other than, I just don’t feel tattered to it. I feel more an allegiance with young people trying to do shit rather than just guys rapping and tapping on a beat. I think there’s an ethic at the base of what I’ve grown up doing and what I like that speaks louder than the genre than I’m supposed to be catering to or supposed to be perpetuating. And I think that’s really good because it leaves me open to befriend other people who are really good and who cater to my sensibility of more than your average rap guy. I mainly work with people who do electronic music and people who dab in other genres. I think because I’m fortunate enough to actually open to the idea - and I don’t see it a stretch or a leap or something other…I think most rap guys are keen to point out when they’re doing that other shit and I don’t have a sense of that. I don’t see it as being so out of balance; so there aren’t as many boundaries and I’m happy to be doing what I’m doing. And I like to meet people who like doing what they do.
DX: If there is no “underground,” why do we still refer to it as such? This column is named the Underground Report after all…
Busdriver: I think there’s less of a form for it now. I think in rap when the independent scene has really kicked off, it kind of negated the “underground” scene. What I mean by “underground”, I mean we don’t have records, people who are selling CD-Rs/mixtapes, people who are rapping in open mics or rapping in really tiny clubs, without deals and publicists and national profiles…I just think there’s less need for that now because you have so many groups who nationally get that push, so many groups who are better or mirror local guys. I mainly mean when there’s no underground, there’s no local.
As New York’s Blaq Poet readies for his Blaqprint release, HipHopDX catches up with the battle rapper from Queensbridge whose dark side and honest delivery drew support from none other than DJ Premier (who executive produced Blaqprint). A veteran of the culture and a warrior in The Bronx/Queens battle of the '80s, it is no surprise that Blaq Poet regularly enlists none other than the veterans of rhyme (including Marley Marl, Freddie Foxxx, KRS-One) in his choice of collaborations, which is elaborate in his previous work. In the Blaqprint, Poet paints a picture of his story, which he asserts is a similar tale of many young men growing up in the projects. DX probes further with Blaq, as the veteran offers advice to the youngsters, explains his love for boom-bap, and vindicates why he calls them “bitch.”
HipHopDx: Blaqprint’s content illustrates hopelessness and negativity. Is that a fair description?
Blaq Poet: No. Blaqprint is…streets. Hip Hop with street reality. All mixed in. Everything is not "shoot-em-up, bang-bang, kill everybody." It’s not all about the drugs. It’s all about hood tales. And bragging a lot on a lot of songs – all of that that’s part of Hip Hop; telling people I’m the best. But it’s mostly hood tales and things that go around in the hood, every hood around America. And if it sounds like I’m trying to be negative or trying to stay negative, if you’re a real dude and you from the streets, you gonna know what I’m talking about, you gonna appreciate it. If you’re not, you’re not gonna get it.
DX: You refer to women as bitches often enough in the album. Why is that?
Blaq Poet: I mean you got ladies and you got bitches. You got niggas and you got homeboys. It’s the same thing. [Laughs] If a girl acts like a bitch then she’s gonna be a bitch in my eyes. And I’m not being disrespectful, some girls want you to know, “Yeah, I’m a real bitch. Don’t fuck with me ‘cause I’m a real bitch.” [Laughs]. I’m talking to the bitches when I say “bitch.” And when I’m talking to the ladies, I let them know I’m talking to the ladies.
DX: In comparison, do you refer to the ladies as much as you refer to the bitches in your album?
Blaq Poet: Nah, ‘cause I haven’t gotten to that point yet. I’m still referring to what they show me they are. There’s still a lot of bitches in the world.
DX: I think you’re hanging around with the wrong crowd.
Blaq Poet: [Laughs].
DX: DJ Premier executive produced the album. Your involvement with him goes back to the Y2K album, with Screwball. What is it about Preem that makes you want to be a part of what he does?
Blaq Poet: He makes the beats that makes me want to rhyme. He has the funkiest beats I think in the game right now and he makes me want to rap. The beats that he makes, the hardcore beats, you never know what he’s gonna come up with but you believe it’s gonna be creative, it’s gonna be gritty.
DX: What do you think is about Blaq Poet that makes Preemo want to be a part of what he does?
Blaq Poet: Preemo got a dark side like anybody. I think I bring out his dark side. [Laughs] He likes the hardcore and he knows I come through with that hardcore, no doubt.
DX: What is it about boom-bap that makes you a continuous believer?
Blaq Poet: It’s the boom-bap, boom-boom-boom bap. [Singing] It’s the old school feel of the boom and the bap. You can even hear it in the beats that the new guys are making. They got the boom bap in their beats, every beat has the boom bap in itself. It’s all about the head nodding and the boom bap that makes you want to just start shaking your head and start coming up with lyrics and rhymes.
DX: Why do you want to preserve that?
Blaq Poet: That’s the era I come from. That’s the best years in Hip Hop. I really want the young good dudes to hear and see how we was doing it so they can improve on it, make it better, make it iller. We want them to build off it…
DX: You’ve done collaborations with a lot of OG’s like KRS-One, Marley Mar, Freddie Foxxx. Judging from that, is it fair to say that you’re attempting to conserve an art form prevalent in the '90s?
Blaq Poet: If I’m doing it, I’m doing it not knowing I’m doing it. I’m doing it just because I love it, that’s what I love. And I want people to continue to go on with that. but I also want people to get creative too. Don’t just stop at the boom bap, expand on the boom bap.
DX: What do you mean by “expand?”
Blaq Poet: Like Kanye [West], he has boom bap in his beats and all that but he also gets creative. He might sample something a little different – just different forms of sampling and different ways of making beats. It’s all boom bap, but I just want people to make the new boom bap, call it the “new bap.” [Laughs] I don’t want people to get stuck in one era; I want that era that get spread and expanded and people just take it to where it’s never been before.
DX: What would the “new bap” be composed of?
Blaq Poet: The youngsters. The youngsters doing what we did and doing what we did and building off of it. I can’t even explain it; it just has to be done. It would be the hardcore, the hard base; then live instruments mixed with sampling. Keep me interested, I’m a fan of this too. I love listening to new stuff and checking out the new dudes and all that. I just want them to keep me interested.
DX: Any new dudes you’re checking for?
Blaq Poet: I like Cory Gunz [click to read]. That’s my youngsta from New York. Cory Gunz is gonna have them wylin'. Ain’t too many, man. [Laughs]
DX: You stated that availability of Internet and technology increased people’s desires to pursue Rap. Why is Hip Hop and Rap so appealing?
Blaq Poet: It’s an outlet to just let loose. Everybody got things on their mind, stresses. Even if you want to have a party, a good time, then you can just let loose, Hip Hop is the best way to let your hair down. [Laughs]
DX: Why is it appealing for a career choice?
Blaq Poet: It’s like the NBA these days and professional sports – it’s a multimillion dollar game.
DX: How is it affected by the recession?
Blaq Poet: People are always gonna want to hear good music and always wanna hear their best artist and eat good food. So I don’t think the recession really bothers music or food. [Laughs] People are always wanna eat good and people are always gonna wanna hear good music.
DX: What is the essence of Hip Hop?
Blaq Poet: Graffiti, turntables, deejaying. Beating on the wall. [Laughs] You might have your homie beat on the wall while you spit some rhymes. You feel it in your bones. It’s not a money thing, it’s not a being cool thing, it’s something you feel.
DX: The changes we see today reflected in mainstream Hip Hop – can we call it “evolution?”
Blaq Poet: No doubt.
DX: Why?
Blaq Poet: Everything evolves. Hip Hop is no different than anything else. It’s gonna evolve and come back to the same way it was before and evolve from there. So it’s gonna stay evolving and getting different and staying current at the same time. Hip Hop is crazy.
DX: What keeps you rhyming?
Blaq Poet: I keep going ‘cause I grew up with music. When I hear a beat that makes me want to rap, I’m gonna always want to rap to it. It just gets me open. it’s something in my blood; when I hear it, I want to rhyme, I want to rap, I want to say what’s on my mind and express what’s on my mind.
DX: Anything you’d like to add?
Blaq Poet: I’ve been doing this for years, years and years. And I’m gonna keep doing it until the wheels fall off of it. And for the O.G.s out there, if ya’ll are gonna make the joints, then make the songs that youngsters want to hear or you’re gonna die off in the "Jurassic Rap Park." Or you’re gonna stay current and pop off like I plan to do. And to the youngsters, pay attention to O.G.s ‘cause the O.G.s are gonna break it down for you the right way to follow. If your Hip Hop starts at Lil Wayne, you gotta do some history and find out what’s going on. I talk to a lot of good dudes in Europe and a lot of dudes in America and the average European 17 year-old knows more about Hip Hop than the 20 year-old American kid. [Laughs] What’s going on here? There’s a problem.
DX: Good advice.
Blaq Poet: Thanks a lot. And I will try to clean it up…
As we move over to the west coast, we come across a not-your-average rapper in every sense of the phrase. He goes by Busdriver and his style cannot be described (or confined) in a set of particular explanations encompassing meticulous notions of Hip Hop. He can rap fast enough to lose himself in his rhymes, and at times, enlist fast-paced sounds of electric melodies which lead to particular songs sounding like they are products of a never-before heard Hip Hop musical. His upcoming album, Jhelli Beam, illustrates just that while also painting a picture of yet another artist who chooses to transgress stereotypes, boundaries and expectations. DX sat down with Busdriver to discuss diversification of L.A.’s Hip Hop scene, the eroding of the underground and the silly title for a rap album.
HipHopDX: What’s a Jhelli Beam?
Busdriver: It’s a silly title for a rap album.
DX: What does it mean?
Busdriver: It doesn’t mean anything. I feel like there are really poor names that keep my life floating or keep certain facets of my life above ground and it kind of hinted towards that. But the main reason, it’s a silly title – and I spelled Jhelli Beam like a jhery curl, I was my attempting to be funny.
DX: You state in the introduction to the album that conscious Rap failed us. Elaborate?
Busdriver: I’m partially being facetious; I’m being a baby. Sometimes I feel that champions of consciousness moved on to more pressing matters like career advancement or attempts at garnering street cred, and some of the high minded ideals – the whole civil rights movement message that you get from a lot of the key conscious rap guys, it kind of rings false, it comes across as sloganeering. And now we kind of reached a point where people involved with conscious rap have moved on. Not everybody of course, but a lot of people have moved on to a post-Kanye era. But that’s really not true, I was being a baby. I mean I wasn’t really a fan of the message in conscious Rap anyway; maybe in the early '90s I was, but it became kind of outmoded. It’s just me showing the eternal pessimist.
DX: What rappers are you referring to?
Busdriver: Whatever. Common [click to read], [Talib] Kweli [click to read]; anybody like that. But it’s not really true. It’s not wrong; it’s the right choice…whatever people are doing. But honestly, I don’t even know what people are doing, I don’t even listen to what people are doing. So I’m kind of assuming things. I’m showing traces of mad-rapper haterism. [Laughs]
DX: Is it safe to label Jhelli Beam a Hip Hop musical?
Busdriver: I wish it was true. Jhelli Beam musical starring Hugh Jackman. That would be great. It’s not a musical…
DX: I don’t think that was your intent. But there are excerpts of it reminiscent of a musical – but a Hip Hop version.
Busdriver: I would love that.
DX: Why aren’t you concerned that your lyrics are overshadowed by your rapid delivery at times?
Busdriver: I never had too many people take what I say seriously. So it’s me kind of being hell bent on out rapping my own self. I’m not too worried about my rapping overshadowing my lyrics; they complement each other and are all conducive to the experience of listening to one of my songs. I have a variety of approaches…I mean if I was more studio-raised, I would probably be – there would probably be an emphasis on the lyrics or something, but fortunately my approach cultivated over hours and hours of playing live, open mics. So I have a disposition to attempt to impress…I internalize those techniques and stick with them. If I was smart, I’d pace myself and make more grand stance, a little bit more, but…
DX: What was your goal for this album?
Busdriver: I wanted to unlearn some of my concerns in attempt to make a marketable or half-heartedly successful album, and in so doing, I wanted to get back to – not my roots – but just not be so self-conscious and not try to please so many pockets of people ‘cause I feel like I did that with RoadKillOvercoat and I think we did a decent job but I didn’t want to do the same thing. I wanted to get in the mind-set that I was in early 2000 with so many records like Temporary Forever and stuff and I wanted to go for it and act like I was fresh. I was just trying to re-discover my attack and a way to re-discover my passion I thought I had six years ago. And I did. I think it worked as far as I’m concerned. I mainly needed to do that to prove that I’m not getting old. [Laughs] To prove to myself that I’m not dying.
DX: I want to touch upon L.A.’s Hip Hop scene. It’s been largely diversified in respect to both fans that support the music as well as the variety of styles incorporated within it. What is the explanation for that diversification?
Busdriver: It’s a large sprawling mass of city so you have many different pockets of people who cultivate their sound in different eras. Another thing is that convention of L.A. became something people involved in Rap music, who adamantly fought against the conventions of L.A. Rap, which became gangster Rap. So you have many pockets of people trying to cultivate this other than – or honestly doing what’s other than. You have different types of people who are not, to take on the subscribed L.A. style so L.A. has a history of that. And I think there’s more freedom, there’s less pressure to abide by certain things. I feel like in New York if you don’t hold dear a certain cluster of conventions, you kind of feel on the outside and in L.A., you can feel that way too but you can be on the outside by yourself and be fairly comfortable with everything.
But honestly I think with L.A., a lot of the Hip Hop stuff has taken a turn for the worse. The only aspect of it is that all the beat guys in LA have really stepped up and the whole movement in production is on the verge of having a real impact. And a lot of that stuff is heavily Jay-Z-influenced [click to read], but it’s turned into something else, and it’s bleed into the electronic music world so I think that’s really interesting.
DX: How has that affected your place in music?
Busdriver: Well I don’t feel tattered to the Rap world, I don’t. And it’s not because I think my music is so good that it’s other than, I just don’t feel tattered to it. I feel more an allegiance with young people trying to do shit rather than just guys rapping and tapping on a beat. I think there’s an ethic at the base of what I’ve grown up doing and what I like that speaks louder than the genre than I’m supposed to be catering to or supposed to be perpetuating. And I think that’s really good because it leaves me open to befriend other people who are really good and who cater to my sensibility of more than your average rap guy. I mainly work with people who do electronic music and people who dab in other genres. I think because I’m fortunate enough to actually open to the idea - and I don’t see it a stretch or a leap or something other…I think most rap guys are keen to point out when they’re doing that other shit and I don’t have a sense of that. I don’t see it as being so out of balance; so there aren’t as many boundaries and I’m happy to be doing what I’m doing. And I like to meet people who like doing what they do.
DX: If there is no “underground,” why do we still refer to it as such? This column is named the Underground Report after all…
Busdriver: I think there’s less of a form for it now. I think in rap when the independent scene has really kicked off, it kind of negated the “underground” scene. What I mean by “underground”, I mean we don’t have records, people who are selling CD-Rs/mixtapes, people who are rapping in open mics or rapping in really tiny clubs, without deals and publicists and national profiles…I just think there’s less need for that now because you have so many groups who nationally get that push, so many groups who are better or mirror local guys. I mainly mean when there’s no underground, there’s no local.
