Chaps: Introduce yourself, crews, affiliations, and discography.

Joe Dub: Joe Dub / Old, no longer Young, Joseph. Workforce, Dub Brothers, Pain Killers, Love Bomb, San Francisco Street Music, Asita Recordings, La2thebay /Invisible Enemy. “Summer Fling” and “The Walk,” those are the most recent releases, but there’s twenty years worth on top of those.

Do you think that having three names is confusing for people to keep straight?

Yeah I guess for people just becoming hip to what I do it can be confusing, but at the same time there are different sides to me. As dumb as it sounds, each name kind of represents a part of me. I got this song on my new album I did with Omid where I address that, I say “I’m Young Joe when I’m drunk… Old Joe with my love… Joe Dub to my homies… Joe Bell’s all the above,” so I guess “Summer Fling” falls under the name Young Joseph. It’s a very immature album content-wise, a lot of womanizing and teenage shit. “The Walk,” which was under the name Old Joseph, is more grown up, what I’d like to call mature music. I’m not the same person I was four years ago, I’m older, I’ve smoked thousands of cigarettes and they’ve aged me, I’m Old Joseph now. I don’t even feel young anymore; I cough when I breathe… hahaha.

Do you like rapping or producing better? Explain.

Honestly, I used to prefer rapping over producing because I had fools like Alex75, Deeskee, Liferexall, Antimc, and Subtitle making beats for me, which made writing raps easy. It brought out the most in my pen, I had to stay par with the quality that they were bringing. But lately I would rather sit down and make a beat than write a rap. I mean producing, to me, is a challenge. I mean one day I’ll have to work on something for Ellay Khule and really have to tap into his sound and who he is as an emcee, and I mean if you’ve heard his shit, there’s no limit. So it’s a challenge trying to find something you think will not only go hand in hand with whatever style he’s bringing to the table, but also accommodate that style and help to make it shine. And then the next day having to do something for my homegirl, Topic, who’s on a different side of the map, who demands a distinct sound of her own. Producing is really where my heart’s at lately. I spend equal time doing both but I really spend my days fine tuning beats, gettin’ em to fit the person they’re for.

What do you use to make your beats and where do you draw your inspiration from?

At this point in time I’m using an MPC 2000XL, Fender Rhodes, and various percussion instruments. Inspiration, it comes from the music I listen to daily, it comes from the eventful snippets of my life. I sit in one room and listen to records, go to the next room and watch the SF Giants game, go to the next room, read the message board disses toward me, then go into the lab and record what I learned that day.

It seems that you are concerned with people not hearing your music. What are you doing to get your music out there? Are you on the back burner?

Haha man, I’m caught in that twist. I mean, honestly, I don’t make my music for anyone but myself. There are a lot of lines in my shit that my closest friends get, but to the average listener it’s foreign. I’ve always made my shit that way, super personal. I mean I release it, so I kind of want it to be accepted, but at the same time I limit the distribution of my releases. I don’t care if I sell 50 or 500. I mean I hope to sell 500 so I can make my money back, but after the turn over I don’t care. I’m a believer of good music and I feel good music will run its race, find its audience, and settle down and be loved how it should.

What is a day in the life like for Joe Dub?

Wake up… smoke… shit… Lauren… shower… beats… liquor store… eat… beats… liquor store… eat… liquor store… sleep… can’t sleep?… liquor store.

What inspired you to put it down on the rhyme and the beat?

On December 21, 1985 my sister was murdered. On December 26, 1985, I recorded a rap song dedicated to her and from that day on I made it a point to extend her life through my words. I’ve never stopped and I won’t stop until I am stopped!

What is your favorite track you have made and why?

Probably the song I made for my sister five days after she passed, it was the most personal shit I’ve done. It was the first shit I wrote.

Hip hop is full of crazy shit. What is the craziest thing you have experienced?

Well hmm, let’s see… though they might not sound too crazy. Me and Subtitle smoked weed with two white broads on a muni bus in SF. Me and P Minus were left stranded in LA by Linda Tripp and I ran up on him donned in a ski mask and pretty much put him on PC. Um I mean these stories are funnier if you were there, I ain’t really trying to bust out names.

I also role with the top down in the summer and the top up in the winter. Why do you think that hip hop is universal worldwide?

It’s spoken in relative tongue. It’s a fusion of many genres of music with the whole break beat boom, the whole record craze. I think it’s opened a lot of people’s ears to artists as well as styles of music a lot of people would never be exposed to, rap is a gigantic cauldron, a stew. We appreciate all, and our words touch most.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be, and why?

Either in the SFC or in Hawaii. SF for obvious reasons, it’s my hometown, there’s the Giants, the 49ers and an incredible line up of fuckin’ ill ass musical acts coming through on the daily. Hawaii, if you haven’t been here it’s pretty much what you imagine, five minutes from the most beautiful beach you’ll ever see. I mean look at my back yard. We got Banana trees, Avocado trees, Lemon trees. Man I’m too drunk to remember the rest but that’s not all. It’s paradise out here, clean air, peaceful. I’m trying to get someone to join me out here. You wanna move out here?

Are you sinking or swimming?

I’m sinkin’. I can’t swim. When I was like nine or ten I was posted in the middle of Clear Lake on an inner tube, my boy Eric came swimmin’ up underneath me, overturned the inner tube. I sank to the bottom of the lake and well, frankly, I haven’t swam since.

If you could make a super group (a hip hop all star team), as captain who would you select in addition to yourself as the starting lineup and why?

Shit, let me be arrogant for once. It would be Workforce, myself, Radioinactive, Subtitle, Xololanxinxo, Liferexall, Omid, and Premonition. Why myself? I don’t know why… haha. Radio? He’s an under innovator, dude’s inspired a grip of fools unintentionally. Sub? Man Gino’s the most eclectic, put together fool I know. He’s doing some shit I won’t think about until I’m 35. Xinxo? That fool’s one of the purest poets, king of words today. Liferexall? Both one of the most underestimated rappers and producers on the west coast. Me and this fool really share a lot of music together Omid? This is basically the most progressive producer, in my opinion, out west. I mean shit, “Beneath the Surface” was tight but look at Monolith, light years ahead of where he came from. And Premonition? Dude’s gotta be one of the cleverest braggadocio emcees I’ve heard.

You are coming off the very successful ” Painkillers 7. ” What is next?

I got the new album “Pooretry” which features a lot of folks. I decided to make this one a lot like “Noise Pollution,” strong guest appearances and solid producers. The cover art is on some shit, some wood cutting. I’m satisfied with this one more than any other before it.

Why do you think people relate to your music so easily?

Because I talk about everyday shit in an everyday way, no sugar coated reality. Really though, I’ve heard some flattering things. I’ve had one person tell me that while homeless the only possessions they held was a walkman and my tape, and the tape got them through their days. I’ve also had one man tell me that he was hooked hard on drugs and that listening to one of my albums prompted him to go straight. That’s the most humbling shit I’ve ever heard. That’s worth more than a dyed green piece of el-presidente.

How would you describe you music to someone who has never heard it?

Sit in a pub, drink one with me, chop it up for 5 minutes and you’ve heard one song. It’s me, nothing special, but true individual. My raps are my acts, I’m chill.

What is something that you wish you would have known along the way that would have made things easier for you?

Nothing, nothing is easy. If it was easy it was a trick. Learning things the easy way, nah I learned everything the hard way and I’m glad I did. I’m a hard head, I learn the hard way.

Is “Summer Fling” a metaphor for hip hop? Or am I reading too much into that?

Summer Fling was a goodbye, it was a final goodbye to a part of my life. The part that womanized, cruised clubs for girls, bounced from one bed to the next, and I decided to put that part of my life away. That was basically a goodnight kiss to that part of me that I was sick of, thus the change from young to old.

Did you not miss a step by jumping from young Joseph to Old Joseph? What about middle aged Joseph?

Nah, once 25 hit young became old, there’s never a middle. You can’t ride the fence, it’s either high or low, and at this point I’m low, old and grey.

Do you have any stories, shouts or things you want to say?

Buy what you want, don’t bootleg. Appreciate the originators; no one gave Dolphy the credit he deserved for exposing Coltrane to that aggressive sax playing. Rap has the same icons, learn your history, its one thing to know the music it’s another to know where it came from. One love… bunder 5.

Chaps: Introduce yourself, crew, affiliations, and discography.

Mindbender: The name’s Bender. Mindbender. I’m down with the Nextraterrestrials, a cross Canada crew of artists, producers, dancers, drug addicts, and dreamers. I’ve been a part of the SBU albums “First Great Pyramid” and “Mental Reverse/Spiritual Rebirth,” and I have made a few projects myself, including “Mindbender In Another Universe,” “Fantasyland Before Time,” and “Beautiful Mutant.” I have been on hundreds of songs, but you gotta find them for yourself, there’s too many to list. I feel like that old American President sometimes, like “I have not yet begun to rhyme.”

You have just released the double CD “Beautiful Mutant.” Why did you feel the need to release it as double album and not two separate releases?

Because at the time, I was rushing to be the first solo Toronto emcee to release a double album. There was one other double album from Toronto to my knowledge, but it was a compilation by the group GCP. But now that it’s out, I’m so beyond what I was doing then. It’s funny to listen back to it, and it’s even more funny to hear people bug out over this project because it was being written in 2002 while we were releasing “Fantasyland,” and I already knew that album would be too much for some people. “Beautiful Mutant” was done in early 2003 and wasn’t manufactured for public consumption until May 2004, and it still sounds good and even futuristic, some of it. It’s funny how music works. I say all that to say that the main reason I did “Beautiful Mutant” was to put my name in the category of all the great emcees who have double albums, like Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Jay-Z, and Nasty Nas to name a few. To do a cohesive, complete, no-filler, historic double LP is something I believe all the greatest of all time emcees need to do, but Big L and Big Pun didn’t have the time to make them.

Does the Mutant disc represent one side of the man known as Mindbender and does the Beautiful side represent the other side? If so, what do they say about Mindbender?

They both represent me. The idea was for people to begin realizing they contain both beauty and ugliness inside them and their actions, that people are made of diverse elements, and people should remain aware of this fact. Also, “Beautiful Mutant” refers to how beauty is in the eye of the witness. How there is a woman in the world that only you see the beauty in, some people see a witch with warts and green skin but you see a super model with a cocoa butter complexion and flawless features that make your heart beat faster. Everyone is a beautiful mutant. Human beings are the most amazing creatures. They are all slightly different and more unique than snowflakes. One day we are full of beautiful love and helpful care, and then we can be brutally selfish and manipulative mutants for years in a row. That’s life, especially my life.

You have been in hip hop for a long time. How has it changed over the years?

I can’t describe it all here. I am not aware of a subculture that undergoes as much rapid and mind-blowing change as hip hop music and culture, and as the years go on this culture evolves and mutates and splinters off more and more every day, until it’s all just one huge confusing mess of beats and rhymes and capitalist products from a million different places. Hip hop changes like every week. Sometimes a few times each week. The regions change, the power players change, the trends change, the vocab changes, the X factor changes, the lucrative hit formula changes, the followers and leaders change… hip hop changes so much that it’s just comedy to watch now. You just have to be you, and change at your own pace. One thing that drastically changed for the worst, in my humble opinion, is that the new kids just getting into hip hop nowadays care less and less about what hip hop came before them. In the early 90’s, heads were respectful of the late 80’s emcees still in the game. Ask a kid from 2000 who Mic Geronimo was, he not only has no clue, he doesn’t even care, and thinks he’s cool and better off not knowing his hip hop history. Makes me wanna puke. I want to change it where new people in hip hop don’t get full respect from the vets until they do the fucking knowledge on the sacrifices and songs that Kool G Rap made, Big Daddy Kane made, Compton’s Most Wanted made, 2 Live Crew made, MC Lyte made, Public Enemy made, Geto Boys made… so many forgotten legends, it’s tragic. Rock music doesn’t forget as easily, plus they have oldies rock stations that play Grateful Dead and The Doors all day. Maybe it’s all the weed hip hoppers smoke, ha ha! Redman and Cypress Hill, your influence has fucked up the game forever! I remember the days where weed and alcohol weren’t so prevalent to an emcee’s image and their lyrics. Redman ruined my childhood as much as he saved it, ha ha!

How would you describe the new album to someone who is not familiar with your previous work and would your description vary if the person had only heard SBU?

It’s creative hip hop, period. It’s not too far out, and it’s not too traditional. Each song is its own journey and has its own meaning and purpose. There is not a single second of filler or nonsense, and it’s all new school originality. The music is unique and thoughtful enough for people to listen to it multiple times and get new thoughts and vibes each time, but not too far out there where they can’t take any personal relations or emotions from it, which I’ve been known to do sometimes. This is balanced, genius-like insanity. Listen to it all and then debate with me if you feel otherwise. I think this is some timeless dopeness.

You are not a typical Toronto emcee. How has living in Toronto helped or hindered your career?

Hurt. Well, no, I suppose I have been the beneficiary of some wonderful blessings in my life from living in Toronto that I wouldn’t get living anywhere else in Canada. But if you mean money, power and respect, then living in Toronto has not helped me get up, get out, get something substantial, and then go worldwide. I really should take some of the responsibility for that, like it could be I need to be more motivated and driven since I’m doing something that no one else has ever done in this country, so I must blaze my own trail and break down new doors, but Toronto is not very kind to it’s own homegrown music innovators. If I lived in Montreal and could do the Kid Koala thing or come from Halifax and be a wicked and weird rapper like Buck 65, then I could enjoy this Mindbender niche more, and not mind living in Canada where the people are so timid and reserved. But living in Toronto is not easy, it’s expensive, there’s lots of politics in the scene, and it has NOT progressed as fast or as far as it could, and should. It’s a peaceful war going on outside, no man is safe from, you can run but you can’t hide forever.

What are your short and long term goals, in hip hop and life?

Become a rich revolutionary. Expose the corruption inside capitalism and Christianity and introduce new options of systems for the masses. Teach everyone to discover their inner Godlike powers before they “die.” Do tours around the world, record videos, make songs with my favorite emcees and producers and hip hop heads. Make a lot of love to a lot of beautiful women, and be honest with all of them about each other because I don’t really believe in monogamy or marriage. I also want to make the perfect hip hop album in the new millennium, if it ever could be made, ha ha!

What needs to happen in order for you to meet those goals?

I need more money, power, respect! I need friends in high places. I need visionaries with me on my team. I need focus like Jay-Z. I need inspiration and motivation. I need no opposition or resistance to my movements. I need to destroy my own oppressive inner demons to even take the first step toward any of this, though.

A new SBU album is right around the corner. What can people expect with that release?

Something different and more powerful than anything out there now. Some crazy intense shit that is politically, emotionally, spiritually, lyrically, intellectually and harmonically more impressive than 95% of the hip hop you can buy today. This shit is explosive. You will either love it with your heart or hate it with your head, but it’s some sick shit. Long time fans will not be disappointed in waiting eight years! We are on all the songs together, for the first time ever. Eighteen tracks of Supreme Being Unit madness. Believe me, you are not ready and will never be ready. I’m not even ready, but it’s coming anyway.

What do you think about the current state of hip hop in Canada?

This is the next realm of hip hop to blow up on the planet, mark my words… we’re the next Chicago, the next Detroit, the next Atlanta even, but it’s not going to happen overnight, that’s for damn sure. It’s been over ten years since Maestro came out, and Canadian industry has taken only a few more steps forward as it has backwards. It’s heartbreakingly, amazingly slow and fucked up. Things don’t evolve as fast as I think they should, mainly on the industry level. Artists and fans are up on the new technology and the new information sources and the new options we have as consumers. We know what time it is. The labels don’t have a clue, they are still using a sundial, while we got psychic digital time code watches, ha ha. But overall it’s cool and I like the good things we have access to, but at the same time there is some twisted politics that make it hard to make the most of everything we have available to us. Vancouver’s problems and positives are way different than Edmonton’s, Calgary’s, Winnipeg’s, Ottawa’s, Montreal’s, Halifax’s and Toronto’s. No two cities have similar infrastructures or industries and they are so far apart geographically and business wise that I don’t even know how people make sense of it all. It’s got so much potential, but it’s still five years away from utilizing even half of its talent potential. I know way too many dope emcees who have no chance of making a living or a career in Canada and it’s pathetic. Should they move to America? Maybe! Sad but true. Fuck this nationalism shit. It’s about feeding your belly and having a roof over your head, much less moving forward in your career and not wasting your life waiting for your peers and possible business partners to fuck up your progress in every possible way. I’d rather someone be happy doing their dream in New York than them being slept on, broke and bitter in Toronto. I don’t know how long I can stay here until I take my own advice. Canada is okay though. At least we still love hip hop culture itself and people do things for the love occasionally. It’s not the same in America at all. At least Canadians still do things for the love of the art form, that’s a rare thing in America. Cash rules everything around them and their hip hop these days, and I don’t say this to encourage a brain drain, and I love Canada twice as much now that George W. Bush got “reelected,” but it’s fly or die, sink or swim: which one shall I choose?

Who do you think is really brining it in Canada?

There’s lots and I know so many people, some will get mad that I didn’t mention them. But let’s see, there’s so many I know that I like. I like LBA Crew in Edmonton, Conspiracy (Nextra!!!) and Max Prime are bringing dopeness. I dig Frek Sho’s music, I like Empire Crew, TSD, Tara Chase, Theo 3, Fatski, Smoke Stack, Slangston Hughes and Drastik Measurez, Rikoshay, my homegirl Eternia who’s in Nextra, like my man Stay, Boz, Kelron, Ndidi Cascade, Seo Lun, and my peoples all over the place. I like lots of cats, as I think, I remember more that I dig, like this sick emcee called Knamelis (pronounced Nameless), Sunny D, Dope Poets Society, Noah 23, The Goods, The motherfuckin Collapsyllables and Transit, Soliva Spit Society, Poor Man Militia, Symbolik Music Crew, Bishop, The Oddities, K-Naan. There are so many heads that I know that are dope, that are getting slept on like crazy. If I was a greedy A&R I would be a fucking millionaire by now, laughing at the labels, but I can’t exploit talent like that. It’s not in my heart. But still, there’s LOTS of undiscovered dopeness up here, to any American label cat who might be reading this, your Canadian subsidiary is NOT doing its job! Come scoop up the diamonds in the rough, they are everywhere I look and listen!

Do you think hip hop is better now or when you were a fan? Why?

It was better when I was a fan, but I didn’t have the benefits and access that I have now. I was more happy back in the day, but I was so naive, and didn’t know how real shit is. Hip hop now has lost lots of its internal love and the majority of industry people involved nowadays only want money from rap. It’s disgusting. But back then, lots of people couldn’t live off the money received from making rap music. Nowadays, people are stupid rich off it, so I can’t hate that either. The Cash Money Millionaires bought their whole project that they came from. I love hearing shit like that. That’s hip hop, fuck the hate. If you hate their music, you sell over 100,000 units independently in your own city/state/province, so Universal can approach you and give you a $150 million dollar check to sign, so you can get fat, dis your haters, and make hustler anthem music for the rest of your life! I want to make revolutionary action rap lucrative for me and my investors! If I can make that niche market today, then I’m happier today! There are so many more reasons why though. I could go on for days, but I won’t. I’ll just say I love the fact that rap isn’t over by now, and move into its insane future with joy and curiosity. It’s dangerous to walk forward while looking backwards.

What is Mindbender doing when he is not creating lyrical masterpieces?

Smoking weed, admiring women or having passionate sex with my girlfriend when we are not discussing the world, society, the future of now, religion, politics, the economy, race thoughts or thoughts on various cultures on earth. Or I am on the internet talking mad shit and spreading my hip hop thoughts to a bunch of fucked up motherfuckers who are slightly less insane and screwed up than me, ha ha! I’m on the internet a lot, absorbing the infinite information and rumors and lies and half-truths and timeless wisdom available. I also work at a food bank sometimes, and I explore Toronto for fun. I know my hood blindfolded. Oh, I read a lot of books, like four at a time, and I draw and record myself when I find the time. I try to live a simple life, and I want to quit drinking and smoking weed so much. This career is getting serious. All my idols stopped smoking weed, so I figure to get where they are I should follow their footsteps. Ghostface, Eminem, Snoop (he was clean and sober for a while there), Xzibit, Nas even said in a song “I’m smoking less,” so I want to just make my life a work of art that expands its colorfulness every day.

If you could assemble a hip hop team with yourself as the Captain who would be in your starting line up and why?

Man, that’s a fucked up question. There are so many variables. Underground independents? Major label stars? Basketball, hockey or football team? I guess Captain refers to the good ol’ hockey game, right? Okay… today this is what it would be, it would be different tomorrow, and this is by no means definitive (no pun intended!) El-Producto, RZA, Nasty Nas, Cannibal Ox, MF Doom, and Mindbender! We will rule the world! And the 5 on my bench, is Crooked I, Canibus, Royce 5’9” and Blackstar (Talib Kweli and Mos Def). Word up!

Who would you like to work with in the future?

Same cats I listed above, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Canibus, Redman, Saukrates, Marvel, Tara Chase, Ras Kass, Jay-Z, Twista, Nature, Common Sense, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, The Roots, Leaders of the New School (I would reunite them!) Hieroglyphics, and De La Soul, Special Ed, AZ, Lauryn Hill, John Legend, Kanye West… so many more… and to finish it off, I’d bite the heads off 3 puppies to make classic material with The Wu-Tang Clan. The day after I make a song with Nasty Nas, I might fly off the planet because I’m done my work here, but if I get to record magic music with Stevie Wonder it’s all over and I quit music. I would just listen to that every day and re-live the dream until they put me in a mental hospital. I would stay if that was the music they played.

Do you have any last words or shouts?

Shoutout to everyone in Canada building the unseen and unknown future of our little country. We have a long way to go, before we can stand on top of something we all can be proud of. America is so far ahead of us it looks just bizarre to compare, but we all really have a lot to do. We need more good managers, angel investors, booking agents, publicists, independent distributors, radio stations, magazines, fan-zines, websites, and more innovators! Canadians have so much freedom, Canada has so much un manifested potential, that it’s just tragic to sit here and watch my man Marvel not be able to live off his dope music. He was on “Hate Runs Deep” with Saukrates, for fuck sakes! Canada needs to learn to love their pioneers, and not let them fall off into poverty and obscurity. There is so much shit to still do around here but I still have faith for our future! If it’s not someone else who builds this country up to finally exist on the next level, it’s going to be myself, Adhimusic Mindbender Supreme. Check me daily on supremebeingunit.com and keep your mind open while you keep your head up. Pray for the children, and thanks to www.ugsmag.com for the support over the years, you cats have always been down with Supreme Being Unit and The Nextraterrestrials! Practice love.

Chaps: Introduce yourself, crew affiliations, and your discography.

Kirby: Yo this Kirby Dominant and I’m affiliated with Kemetic Suns, Living Legends, City Planners, My Nigga Pismo and my NYC homies The G*A*M*E Rebellion. My Releases include ‘Rapitalism: The Philosophies of Dominant Pimpin” (1998), Konceptual Dominance ‘Savage Intelligence’ (2000), The Dominant Mammals’ ‘Super Future Stars’ (2002), and Paranoid Castle ‘One Way Ticket’ (2004).

You have been holdin’ it down for a long time in the bay. Who did you draw inspiration from as a youngster?

When I was young I was inspired by groups like EPMD, Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J, Ice Cube, Digital Underground, Too Short, Ultramagnetic MC’s and Kool Keith, E-40, Hieroglyphics, and all Project Blowed shit.

How did you get your start in the rap game?

Well I actually did my first rap performance back in 1985. I was about ten years old and I performed at my elementary school to promote this new anti drug campaign that was sponsored by the Reagan administration called DARE. You have heard of it or seen cats wearing the T-shirts nowadays as kind of a joke. Well this is when the first shit stared. So anyway this girl’s mom came to class with a keyboard and made a beat and me and some of my classmates wrote an anti drug rap. That shit was dope, so after that I was pretty interested in hip hop, I wrote a few rhymes here and there over the years. Between that time up until I was about fifteen I would just freestyle and shit, mostly when I was drunk, but at fifteen or sixteen I start keeping a rhyme book. But I would have to say I really got into the rap game when I met my crew Kemetic Suns and the Mystik Journeyman (before the living legends). I met those dudes at my college radio station at UC Berkeley where I was a student. All those cats liked my flows so we would hang out in my dorm room just flowin’ and shit. Then after that I met the Grouch, Eligh, MURS and the rest of the cats that hung out on Telegraph Avenue like Hobo Junction, and that’s when I started getting really down with it. That was in 1994.

After dropping the classic ‘Rapitalism: The Philosophies of Dominant Pimpin’” in 1998, you dropped three group albums: Konceptual Dominance, The Dominant Mammals and Paranoid Castle. How come it has taken so long for a new solo album? Were these group experiences positive or negative?

Yeah it’s been taking a while for me to release a solo I know. It’s even hard for me to tell you why it is taking me so long. I think it’s because over the years I’ve been trying to find my solo voice, the Kirby Dominant sound if you will. Since 1998, after dropping ‘Rapitalism’ I’ve mainly been learning how to play the keyboard and produce my own beats and this has taken awhile. Getting into really different kinds of music and listening to a lot of artists that I feel are so talented like Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Prince, Jay Dee, and the Neptunes just to name very small few. But listenin’ to these cats made me want to get my weight lyrically and musically so I just don’t want to come out with just anything. But I do have three albums already made so don’t sleep, I have been working but my shit has to come out right. As far as the collabo’s are concerned those things where all just a matter of circumstance. Me and Koncepts actually had ‘Savage Intelligence’ produced and written before I even put ‘Rapitalism’ out. As far as the others they were all kind of unplanned. Me and Moka Only made ‘Super Future Stars’ in less than a week. When he came to visit me we didn’t plan to make an album but we started making songs on my 4-track, and that’s why the sound quality is shitty, because we didn’t know what we were doing. We was just rhyming in my bedroom. And the ‘Paranoid Castle’ shit was the same way. We did that in two weeks. I was coming to Saskatoon and Factor was like, ‘Hey, I got some beats you wanna do some songs when you come out?’ And then that’s how that happened, just a matter of circumstance, but I would have to say it was all positive experiences. I think recording The Mammals was the most fun because we just did it with no pressure.

When will the ‘Starr’ album be out and are you working on any other projects?

Well, I don’t know when ‘Starr’ will come out, but it will be done probably about time people are reading this. But it may take about three more months to come out after that because I am trying to put the most momentum behind it as far as distribution and promotion is concerned and that type of shit takes time, feel me. Other than that there are several projects in the works. I am working on the ‘Kevin Riley Experiment’ album. Kevin is an artist on my label Rapitalism and he’s my boy. He is doing all the production on the album and I got the lyrics on lock. I have another album I am doing with this dude Idiom Creek. (www.samplistic.com). We are making this really interesting experimental hip hop album, if you can even call it that, but that shit’s almost done. Our group is called Assistant Green. Be on the lookout as well for my other solo album ‘The Dominator: A Psychological Journey Through Egocentricity.’ That album is already produced and written, I just have to record it better. Right now it just in demo form, but that shit is gonna be dope. I’ve had that album done for a while. ‘Starr’ is actually a collection of songs that didn’t fit the theme of the Dominator album so that’s why I’m putting that out. It will give me more time to make my masterpiece.

Who are you working with on this album production-wise and are there any guests?

As far as the ‘Starr’ album goes, it is still a good album, I produced most of it myself. Other producers include Kevin Riley, Pismo, and DJ Roddy Rod from the group Maspyke, and the guest appearances include A-plus from Hiero, Ishkan from the City Planners, and Jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove. He’s dope, he’s played on Common and Badu’s and D’ Angelo’s shit but he’s won Grammys on his own shit too. So check for it. People should dig it.

Who would you like to work with in the future?

In the future I would like to work with producer out of Detroit named Dabrye. He’s retarded. His beats are so precise and intentional. Other than that there is nobody else I’m dyin’ to work with at the moment.

What do you struggle the most with as an artist?

I think I struggle the most with just getting my albums out to the public. Deal with so much competition, and a tight-fisted media, it’s hard to get in the mix, but I just have to keep at it and just keep trying to market myself better so cats can take notice of a player.

What drives you to create music?

I think I am driven by music itself. Hearing dope shit and all the different styles and genres of music makes me wanna jump in there and do it. Also all the people who believe in me and think I’m dope and show me so much love. It’s very inspiring.

What do you use to make your beats with?

Right now I use a Korg Trinity, but on my future projects I plan to use my Korg ER-1 drum machine and my Fender Rhodes as well as a whole bunch of other old keyboards I have. I’m really into playing my own music, I haven’t utilized a sampler yet.

How have things changed since 1998-2004?

Between ‘98 and 2004 besides eating too good and getting fat, I’ve been trying to develop myself into a full musician. I’ve been learning how to play the keyboard in order to produce my own music as well as trying to get into the many different kinds of music, and because of this I basically took a little bit of a hiatus. Although I have been droppin’ shit here and there, it has in my opinion been a solid project. So I have basically taken time off to perfect my skills as a beat maker and enhance my flows. But in doin’ this I feel that some of the newer hip hop heads don’t know who I am because of my break. A lot has changed even between 2000 and 2004. Kids that where ten in 2000 are now fourteen and are getting into hip hop, so many don’t know that I had an album in ‘98. I might be considered old school to those kids, which is crazy but things move so fast in this industry you just gotta keep it movin’. But I’ve been working these past years, so when I return I’ll let ‘em know.

You have worked with many Canadians like Moka Only, Factor, and DJ Murge. Why do you think you get so much love up North?

I don’t know why exactly. Maybe because my music is dope and they recognize the real shit. I find Canadian cats to be open and accepting for the most part, plus they are thankful that people come out to small places in the middle of nowhere like Saskatoon and rip shit. They appreciate that shit, unlike maybe in San Francisco where there could be three hip hop shows to chose from in one night so they are spoiled. But I love Canada and cool people, and the folks I’ve worked with out there were cool dudes.

Has working with so many Canadians been a positive or negative experience?

Working with Canadians has been really cool. I look forward to working with many more. Maybe I’ll get Canada citizenship out the deal. Ha Ha! Naw, but for real it was positive to work with dudes out there mainly because they come from a different background and have different influences to bring to the table, so in turn we learn from each other. I think that is most important.

In your opinion what are the similarities and differences between the Canadian and American Hip Hop Scenes?

I think the main differences that I’ve seen is that Canadians seem to support their local artist a little more then around my way. I seen dudes out there buying their friends CD’s and shit… but around my way niggas would rather buy a sack off of me then my music. Another thing is that in most of Canada, hip hop is new so the scene is young. Hip hoppers seem to be more enthused about the shit out there to me, and more chicks come out to the shows! But what is the same is that there is a lot of love for hip hop everywhere.

What do you like to do when you are not making music?

When I’m not making music, I’m hustlin’ trying to make money to put the music out. Or maybe watching movies or getting drunk somewhere.

What do you want to be remembered by after you retire from making music?

Well, I will be dead by then because I don’t plan to retire until then. But I would like to be remembered as someone very diverse. I want to be a person that has a dope volume of work without a whole bunch of bullshit filler albums to my credit. Just dope shit that is all different.

If you could assemble a hip hop team with yourself as the Captain who would be in your starting line up and why?

Well maybe I would have someone like Kool Kieth on the squad because he has the wisdom, because he’s a veteran, and it’s good to have a veteran on the team. I’d probably have somebody like Z-man or Busdriver on some rookie of the year shit. I like what they come with but can’t wait to see what they do later. Then I’d have Jay Dee on production because he could compliment everybody as well as score. And lastly maybe Mac Mall or Andre Nikatina because we could make an ill combination.

Do you have any last words, stories, shouts etc.?

I would just like to say that Saskatoon is the shit. I miss it out there especially this time of year when it snows. Other than that keep supporting and check out my site rapitalism.com. Peace.

Chaps: Introduce yourself, crews, affiliations and what you have done.

Omid: Omid, a producer from Los Angeles. I began making beats in 1992, started doing the Goodlife open mic in 1993, that’s where I met most of the emcees I work with today. I am in a production team with Nobody called “Bomb Zombies”.

Why did you change your name from OD to Omid? Was it to escape the shadow of Beneath the Surface?

I just decided to go by my real name, “OD” seems to have a negative connotation. I didn’t want to escape the shadow of Beneath the Surface, I was actually concerned that fans of that album might not recognize my name when I changed it, so I always try to put the “producer of BTS” near my name on press releases.

Was it hard to make music after the insanely successful Beneath the Surface?

It was hard to make instrumental music after BTS, since making a track for one of your favorite emcees is much more fun than having to make up a track that can stand on it’s own and not need an emcee to tell a story, so it took a while to get my beats more layered and to learn how to create more changes in the music.

If I was to say Beneath the Surface was your life’s work what would you say? (Please be nice, haha.)

That’s a compliment. I think I was lucky to document a very fertile scene that I loved and that was for the most part untapped at the time. I meet people all the time that tell me they were introduced to underground hip hop through BTS, so it’s an honor to be able to contribute that.

How did Beneath the Surface come together?

In 1996 I was in a studio where Fish, Riddlore, 2Mex, Peace, Sesquipedalian, and Longevity (Darkleaf) were all kicking it. I made a beat right there in the studio and the song turned out to be “What Up,” which was on the original version of BTS. I had so much fun creating that song and was so hype that some of my favorite emcees were down to record with me that it inspired me to make a full album where I get my favorite emcees together, including emcees that never worked together before.

You really hit the listeners hard with Distant Drummer. Where did you draw your inspiration from for that album from and how would you describe that album? What does it say about you?

At that time I was trying to figure out how to make instrumental hip hop and have it not sound like Shadow and all the other heavyweights of that genre, so I drew inspiration from a sci-fi novel I was reading at the time called “Hyperion,” so most of the songs are inspired by things in that book.

What did you try to achieve with Distant Drummer and did you achieve it?

For awhile I thought I’d never be able to complete an instrumental album, but I was able to do it. I’ve grown a lot since then and it’s easy now, but back then I was a little intimidated to do an album all by myself. The funny thing is, I like all the melodies and sounds and ideas of Distant Drummer, the only thing I wish I would have done better is the drum work! Fitting title, huh!

Do you think instrumental hip hop is well received by the masses? Is it possible for a producer to captivate the hip hop listener without an emcee?

Not as much as it used to be, because the market is flooded now by instrumental hip hop albums, so someone has to really do something beyond the norm to get noticed. But you can say a lot musically that you can’t lyrically through instrumentals, so you can reach audiences on different levels through the music.

Monolith is filled with feature emcees on half the tracks. Is this to appeal to a wider base of listeners?

Yes and no. For example the hymnal songs and the spoon of iodine song are cuts that I personally wanted to do, but songs like “Live From Tokyo” are attempts to reach a wider audience, even though the nature of the song isn’t exactly my favorite.

Did the short time between the release of Distant Drummer and Monolith hurt or hinder sales? In your opinion did one overshadow the other?

I was glad to do Monolith soon after, because I think on Distant Drummer I strayed too far from hip hop on some of the songs, so it was nice to bring it back on Monolith. I think I confused some fans on Distant Drummer.

What do you use to make your beats?

I use old vinyl, an ASR-10, a Yamaha CS-1 as a filter and for some sounds, and Protools to mix.

What is your favourite beat that you have produced and why?

I really like this beat I made on the new Ellay Khule record that is coming out next year, it’s called “Needle Skipping,” because it can be played at a club but it’s still creative and musical. I also like the “Who’s Keeping Time” beat, it’s cool to chill to.

What do you want to be known for in the perils of hip hop history?

I think that’ll be seen in the future, it’s hard to tell now, but hopefully as contributing good music to the art form.

What is the hardest thing you’ve had to overcome to get your music out there?

Record labels that don’t show love or interest, even though they put out artists that are influenced by your stuff or the Project Blowed / Goodlife scene. It’s all good though, it forced me to learn the business side of the game myself.

What are your strengths and weakness as a producer?

Strengths are that I’m diverse - in my humble opinion. Weakness is that I don’t make tracks as fast as other producers I look up to.

What motivates you to continually make music?

I love and breathe music, always have, always will. I always have a tune in my head.

Bus Driver suggests that “Underground hip hop happened ten years ago.” What do you think about that statement? What do you think about current independent hip hop?

I think he is referring to the fact that the Project Blowed open mic opened in 1994, which is 10 years ago, so [he’s] letting kids know that there are cats that have been doing this for awhile. Underground hip hop isn’t new. It actually started at the Goodlife as far as L.A. is concerned, in 1989.

What is your favorite thing about making music?

When sounds come together in a good way after hours of hard work, it all pays off once you create something nice.

What are you currently working on and when will we hear it?

I produced a whole album for Sach, formerly of the Nonce, it’s called “Sach 5th Ave.” Nobody and myself produced an album for Ellay Khule called “Califormula” which we are shopping right now. Nobody and I are also working on an album with Chris Gunst, former singer from Beachwood Sparks. I’m really excited about that.

Do you have any last words?

Look out for the Bomb zombies! omidpage.com

The triumvirate known as cLOUDDEAD has long since left the staggering yellow farmlands of the Midwest for bright sunshiny Bay Area blue skies. But how would this affect their sophomore and possibly final album, Ten? The group, for the time being, is defunct - so what will come next? And where do they get that wonderful noise? All this and more coming to a cLOUDDEAD interview near you…

Blake: Why has the group broken up? Odd Nosdam left halfway through production of the album, why did he decide to come back? How did it affect the environment and direction of songs and putting them together?

Odd Nosdam: We are taking an extended break from each other as friends so that meant we had to stop doing things like cLOUDDEAD. We still get along great as friends, we just don’t hang out at the same mall anymore. And I left before the record began. Four songs were eventually started by Why? and Dose one, which I later added my shit to once I rejoined the band. One of the effects of my leaving was the time it allowed us to develop individually while we procrastinated on working on new cLOUDDEAD material. Getting comfortable in Cali and doing our own records was very important to what Ten became. So once we matured a bit, we sat together in a room and agreed to finish the record and move on with our lives.

What is next for each member musically? And outside of music? Will Dose ever do another album with Boom Bip? Another Reaching Quiet album? What is the word on the Subtle album? Dose is doing a voice for a cartoon character, how did that come about?

Dose one: Subtle is next, dropping on Lex Records in the mid-fall. Singles, videos, stuffed plush dolls, tours in the fall and spring - the works. And in August, Jel and Dax and I are headed to sunny Munich to finish the Notwist/Themselves record. As for the movie, I’m actually the voice for a pair of cartoon eyes that hover just behind the walls of an awake woman’s home and head. I and her dead husband are the leading men and it is a full length feature film with animation animatronics and real live human beings. I begin recording mid summer. It’s called The Zoo Project. Hopefully Brian (Boom Bip) and I will do a record together one someday soon.

Why?: I am working on a new Why? record with the help of my brother Josiah and my friends Matt and Doug. It should come out in about a year.

Odd Nosdam: I’m in the middle of a solo record, which I hope to have done in a few months. Jessica Bailiff just recorded some vocals and stuff for my record. Jel and I are helping Mike Patton “finish” up the tracks for Peeping Tom by adding our production style drums and sequencing. Other than that just eatin’ a lot of vegan cakes.

What has been the most satisfying thing about making music for a living? Any stories to tell about moments you knew you had done the right by moving to Cali to do music?

Dose one: The human beings it has led me to and let me work beside. They are the only gauge I have for telling whether or not I am on the right track … fighting the good fight. Story: When I first moved to California. I was walking to the mailbox to drop off some bills and I saw Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Jamalski, and the dude from Tony, Toni, Tone all talking with one another beside a car in the parking lot near my house. I walked up and introduced myself as Dose, and said that I thought Del used to be dope and that Jamalski was pretty much wack and then straight up told Tone to talk to the hand. One thing led to another and I had all three of these fools yoked up and on the ground begging for mercy. I took their starter caps and Ipods and then broke south to max at the pad and fuck with some library books I’ve been meaning to fuck with.

The new album has a few motifs like animals and death; are there any reasons behind this?

Why?: These are just themes that sort of fell into place as we were writing the poems for the album. I guess we were just drawn to these subjects. We collect animal death masks and whatnot. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Did you write any of the album while traveling? I sometimes get that traveling feeling when I listen to it.

Dose one: Let’s see … yes. “Dead Dogs Two” while on the subway speeding beneath mighty Oakland. “Rifle Eyes” in a mini van on the Hood/cLOUDDEAD tour. The first line on “Son of A Gun” waiting in line at an airport in Minneapolis, MN behind a father son hunting team. “The Velvet Ant” in la la land during the Pyramidi video shoot and that’s that.

What influences your music the most? Are you more influenced by hip hop or something else?

Odd Nosdam: I don’t know. Hip hop is what influenced me to start making music; it was the music of my youth. I’m influenced by everything: life experiences, friends, family, depression, anger. I value all types of music, art, film and food.

Is there any song by cLOUDDEAD or off of other independent projects that you regret releasing and why?

Dose one: Yeah, the mash up that Nosdam and I did with “Inherited Scars” the Sage Francis song and that song with the hard-ass drums off the new Sting record. Not only was it a bit forced, but a lot of Sage’s styling ended up offbeat in the end cause pro-tools was all new to us at the time and shit. But, you know, time is money. Otherwise, conscience is clean and the Anticon section is overflowing.

How did you know it was time to pick up and leave Ohio?

Odd Nosdam: It only now feels like it was time for me to pick up and leave … it was all such a blur. I wasn’t ready in a lot of ways and have learned some valuable-ass lessons so far, but I just follow my instinct and the Bay felt right then as it still does for the most part. Thanks.