Guru Interview
So you're seventeen days into the North American tour, are you sick of
hearing about jazz vs. hip-hop yet?
G: No, not really. I haven't heard too much of that, actually.
How about the crowds, what would you say the breakdown is like?
G: It's a lot older than you'd think. People coming from both the jazz & the
hip-hop crowd. It's the same in Europe, you got the Gangstarr-heads who are
like 'Yo where's Premiere? where's Jeru?' But at Gangstarr shows you got
people yelling 'Jazzmatazz'.
Are you and (DJ) Premiere working on the new Gangstarr album yet?
G: No, not yet. We got the Group Home album coming out in November. The
newest single is "Living Proof" and it's got a video. Ill shit -- fatter
than "Supa Star"!
For real?
G: Yeah. I produced one track, this other kid did one and Premiere did the
majority. The shit is incredible.
Is that on Ill Kid?
G: No, not now. It's on Payday, which is owned by our manager. Ill Kid
Records is kind of my tool. You know it's better than shopping demos. Both
Group Home and Jeru were on it to begin with, but it's not really a label
yet. After that we got Bahamadia -- who's on Jazzmatazz II -- in
November. Premiere produced three tracks, I did three, Joe Johnson who
produced Scarface did three and The Beatminerz did some, so you know there's
gonna be some crazy beats on that shit.
Tell me about the crew you got with you?
G: Well we've got Sean-ski on the tables, and he's been with us since the
days. He was on the back of "No More Mr. Nice Guy". We don't have anyone
running around using our name and not doing shit. There are no 'yes-men',
that gets you in trouble. Look at Tu-Pac; that's why he's in jail. I feel
blessed that I am surrounded by people that I can trust.
About five years ago I don't think anyone in hip-hop would have believed
that there would be some hard shit goin' off in France and Japan. You've
toured over there and you were responsible for exposing MC Solaar to North
America, what is it that's given rise to this movement of international Hip-hop?
G: That's because (in France) they've got some serious problems in their
streets and ghettos, and hip-hop is just an expression of all that. You
know, especially there and in Holland with the kids from Surinam. I went to
a showcase with groups from Holland and you wouldn't even know it was
European. They were using turntables live, no DAT's -- that shit's fat!
Has it been hard to resist the New York sound of late? With everyone going
"hardcore" in their lyrical content as almost a response to West Coast?
G: Naw, it's not a matter of "going hardcore". If you come off and it's
real, then it's real. The whole thing is it's not what you're saying, it's
what's felt by what you're saying. A lot of guys talking a lot of shit, but
you can't feel it.
But what about rappers like KRS-One going back to street-style?
G: Well that's dope. That's how hip-hop started, ya know. What you got going
on is the next level. See, gangs ended in New York when rap started, so
we're beyond all that. That stuff got to the West coast later and they
interpreted it in their own way. I'm not saying that they ain't got there
own shit out there. If you go there you feel it, because everything is
spread out. Whereas in New York everything is on top of each other and so
you get a more 'dirty sound'. And they got the more 'sunshine' sound out
there. But I like it all.
So you dismiss that whole 'East Coast versus West Coast' thing?
G: Well, that ain't my vibe anyway. My vibe is universal. If we stand around
worrying about shit like that, what if a race war jumps off or if they try
to shut down rap? Where are we gonna be? There is a lot more serious shit
than that.
With Jungle being labeled the 'UK Hip-hop' and your use of UK artists on
Jazzmatazz projects, how do you look at Britain as a rap artist?
G: Understand, when we first started out I had two jobs on the go. If your
record isn't selling well you do what you can to pay the rent. Our turning
point was really with "Jazz Thing" in 1990 (featured on the Mo' Better Blues
Soundtrack) and we started to tour a lot in Europe. Each time we went around
we got to know the artists so that when I put this Jazzmatazz thing together
we had a pool of artists we'd been exposed to that we could get involved
with. You see the smartest thing Premiere and I ever did was when we decided
to keep Gangstarr as a nucleus and then have our own production companies
separately. A lot of groups split up, but this kept us together.
Yeah, well that is a shame about Pete Rock and CL splitting up.
G: Yeah, so for us it was the logical thing to do because all the separate
things we do bring strength back to the Gangstarr foundation. Gangstarr, the
philosophy is one on one, dialogue with the urban youth...it's like "this is
you and me here", you know, "what's going on with you, this is what's going
on with me." Jazzmatazz is generations and cultures and all of that. But it
is still a dialogue. And that's why I don't curse on Jazzmatazz, because I'm
not going to curse at my uncle or my father. There are some things we need
to talk about in our community, and so Jazzmatazz is important indeed.
How much has Donald Byrd had to do with helping you realize that you are the
one to do all of this, you know, to initiate this generational dialogue?
G: Just the way he talks to me. When we first met it was like, pow,
instantly we had so many similar philosophies. The concept was lets get some
of these jazz cats to come in and play live hip-hop. All of these jazz
musicians view jazz as living music and so back in the 70's what were they
playing? Funk. So why wouldn't they want to play to the music of the 90's,
which is hip-hop.
It's all good. Donald got as intense about it as me. And it has been a great
learning experience for me, in terms of chord changes, song structure and
production. Now I can take this into my own work. I just did a remix for
Annie Lennox and I'm doing one for Jamiroquai as well for "Light Years".
It's nice to see the strength you and Premiere have with your organization.
G: Well you know, we ain't kids. The music makes you feel young right, but
we ain't kids. We're businessmen doing this and you gotta be organized or
you're gonna get stomped. It's our music and people gotta understand that we
need to have control.
But your still on a major label, how is that?
G: Well it's good and bad. EMI also has D'Angelo and his shows would be
about 70% black. Then you go to Jazzmatazz and it's 70% white. So I asked my
management to get us some shows with D'Angelo on our bill, yet it takes the
artist to initiate that cross-over because the labels don't know.
Finally, where do you want to be in 10 years?
G: I'm going to have a fat independant label distributed worldwide, possibly
distributed through a major. I can't see myself doing more than three or
four more albums though. I have a lot of other things I want to do. I'm
going to start of bringing out a lot of different of different producers
with their stuff and blowing up.
Luke McKeehan
MO' FUNK PRODUCTIONS