Yes, yes Peeps,
We have an exclusive for all you Primo fans out there. Below is the full uncut transcript of a recent interview with the Production great, he covered his production methods, views on the current scene, touring plans and a load more. The published article appeared in last Tuesday's Metro. You can also read it here:
Big Shout to Raving Rahul on the hook up.
What are your Touring plans?
Doing Europe, Asia did the same as last year. End of year, it’s a money maker and we get to promote music we got coming out on my label yearround recs. Have a release by NYGz out last October and we’re working on new album, pros and cons, produced totally by me.
Dropping an album for Black Poet, out in January, so we’re touring now so he come back out in January to promote that. Spread it around.
Poet’s out with us. Really really good album, real hardcore, back to the traditional style of what we like, hard beats and hard rhymes.
Have you Changed your production methods?
I like to stick to tradition. Very obscure samples, where people who are fans try really hard to search for them and figure them out. There are a lot of websites right now that try to cater to what I sample, I like the fact that it makes them search, they see how deep I go. Some of them say, aw man I had this record.
Producers are like wow it’s right under my nose. So it’s kind of a challenge and fun, but also comoplicated – part of being a producer. Love the art form, of sampling, still play instruments and respect musicians, coz without them we wouldn’t have anything to sample.
So you prefer to dig crates?
OH ABSOLUTELY. I have not changed that AT ALL. I still do that the same way. I don’t go online, no that’s not my thing, I go and buy records and hope that I find something that I can twist and convert into a hip hop formatted beat. You have a lot of cats that go on online and friends of mine, do that Alchemist does it, showbiz does it, find samples and manipulate them in a way that I appreciate, but I’m used to digging on records, whether it’s dirty or clean, and let the brain go to work on looking for something unique that’s going to fit the sound I’m looking for – usually I hear a sound in my head first then I try to find the sound to match what I’m looking for.
I have plenty of drums, chop em down, extend em. Look for new drums. I’m a drum person, that’s my thing, I like to play drums, that’s my trademark – people say I know from the way the drums came out it was you, or how the beat drops, it’s me.
So really the sample can make the same drums sound different and that’s down to the ear. Some people try to copy me, it’s still competition and I want to win every time and take that first place.
For me it’s just fun, using a drum machine and sampler to make beats. I’m 42 year old, I’m proof age is no limit, if you still want to do it.
What do you think of the current obsession with autotune?
T Pain brought it back out, Kanye, doing the whole European thing, well it’s called European style but it’s not but that’s down to Cher’s Do U Believe, everyone jumps off something that becomes popular and tries to extend. Kaney is one of the best producers of the new generation. It’s really good – chosing his words quickly – that he dares to be different and I heard his whole album sounds like that. Everyone is doing it. I WILL NOT DO IT. I swear to god I will not do that. I’m gonna stick to my script.
The fact is that hip hop came from the ghetto, someone has to preserve the origins of the music, those elements, even if the mainstream goes in other directions.
I was raised on the original hip-hop style from NY, I like that traditional style to still exist. Hip hop came from the ghetto and someone has to preserve the origins, even if the mainstream goes in other directions. Artists like Jay Z are not in tune with the streets because of their success and tax bracket.
They don’t have people around them telling them what’s really, really proper because they’re not in that world anymore. They still represent hip hop to the fulluest extent, but they don’t have the same advisers, so to speak, in their circle.
Me, everyone around me is so hood and so ghetto, and at the same time, so am I. Even though I’m originally from Texas, and ride horses, I’m country but ghetto.
Oh shit the AC/DC album is out buy that! Sorry… I’m an ACDC fan and I’ve been waiting to get it
Someone has to do that style, that’s where I come in. If that style goes away then hip hop will decline. Major label department it sounds like it’s over and hip hop don’t sell like it used to it. But in the independent world, it’s fine, where we originated. Hip hop is fine. It’s not taking a slump, now we cater for our market and we don’t care about outside our market of original hip hop. We don’t count them.
Kind of like being a member of a club house. You know what it takes to have a membership if you don’t represent that membership, now you’re just people we know.
Blaq Poet brings back the rawness, like KRS One, Marly Marl, Kool Moe Dee, hardcore yet lyricist, lyrics make you go wow. Complains about things I complain about, so he’s a voice for me except I can’t rap, and he’s a voice for a whole bunch of people.
No one right now is daring to do that. Said on song we did
Poet’s coming. Remember the days of NWA, that’s real, that’s cutting edge, didn’t care about radio, didn’t care about anything – cared about making music that catered for people who didn’t have anything.
Those people need to be counted too. Poor people need to be represented not just the rich and middle class.
