 I heard the track you guys came up with, "Night Vision," wasn't the original tune you had in mind for Ike. True?
Yeah, I had written something else, and he just wasn't feelin' it, you know what I'm sayin'? He couldn't vibe off it.
So what's going through your mind: you've got him in the studio, and he's not into the track. Were you sweatin'?
Nah … I already knew in the first 20 minutes it wasn't working.' I could tell. And so … I just have too much respect for the man to push it. I just said, OK, let's do something else. And I said, "What if we do something and use one of your old songs?" And he immediately was into that, so that's what we did, we used something from "Shaft" ("Walk From Regios"). I just told him to kick the narrative like he was walking through the ghetto at night, and I think you can hear how good that shit came out.
You also worked with Premier on a couple of songs. You guys are obviously very tight, but is your studio relationship any different outside of Gang Starr?
Well … it's a little different, but at the same time, we have a real formula. He gets a beat, I get a title, and boom! Usually I just write right in the studio, and he just leaves me in there with the track runnin.' Now, what was different on this album was, with Gang Starr records, he stays in there with me and makes sure the track is how he likes it. But this time, he left me alone to do the vocals. And fortunately, he liked the result.
Because if he didn't…?
We'da definitely been doin' 'em again. (laughs)
Over the past ten years or so, there have been recurring "positive hip-hop" movements. You had the Native Tongue movement, the Arrested Development school, and so on. You and Premier have been lumped in with folks like this for years -- people who have gotten rave writeups, but who, in a lot of cases, haven't had very long careers. How do you react when the comparison's made?
Well, I definitely like being mentioned in the company of the people whose names you just mentioned -- and I'd go even a little further back, to KRS-ONE, and knowledge rap. But the thing is -- the difference is -- like Rakim, I like to keep it street, keep it kinda rugged. Definitely, with hip-hop, the connection with the street is vital. And that's what keeps you from sounding like you're preachin', which is the problem with some of the positive stuff. But another thing, too, is that in order to have the longevity, you gotta be a fan, a fan of hip-hop. You can't just be listening to your own stuff, because then, when the game evolves -- and it's continually gonna evolve -- you're trapped. All you know how to do is the same thing you've been doin.'
 It seems, though, like there are more of what you'd call "positive" hip-hop artists now than ever before -- people like Mos Def, Talib Kweli, the Roots on the East Coast; people like Jurassic 5 on the West Coast, to name a few. And a lot of them seem to have picked up some cues from Gang Starr.
Yeah, I'm a big fan of a lot of those people, like the Roots, who are on this record. The great thing is, when I meet a lot of these new guys, they be givin' me mad love. Now, you get somebody whose stuff you love, and they express that love back to you -- that's a beautiful way to start workin' together!
Even though you're getting ready to take this new Jazzmatazz album on the road, you've got a new Gang Starr album on the way. What's the story with that? The scoop is, maybe D'Angelo will be making a guest appearance on a Gang Starr joint.
We'll go back in the studio after the holidays, in January and February, and try to get it out sometime in 2001. And yeah, we're hoping D'Angelo'll be on there. I got Preem workin' on his manager (laughs), so maybe it'll happen.
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Dan LeRoy is the music and entertainment writer for the Charleston Daily Mail. He serves as an associate editor for Grafitti, a statewide entertainment newspaper, and has also written for several music-related publications including Launch.com, Boston Rock, and Lexicon. |
