What’s your take on the mainstream fame that has blown your way, being featured on Mad Men, CSI and many other media programs? I remember while I was attending University of Colorado in 2004, my friends and I viewed you, Aesop Rock, C-Rayz Walz and other Def Jux artists as part of the “underground hip-hop” scene. Now being featured in these bigger projects, it seems you sort of went outside the proverbial indie box and now are more mainstream…
Remember, I want to point out here, that you admittedly said in this that this is something you and your friends in Colorado said [laughs]…
Yes of course…
So I think that’s an important distinction that you are making. It draws into a perspective that there are these kinds of terms that we have to make up for ourselves. You’re right, saying that my records have a higher visibility now as opposed to in 2002 or 2003. With that said, none of those things that you mentioned happened because some bigwig lawyer or bigwig agent or an A&R record guy took me in and made me do it. The Mad Men guy came to me and same with Wells Fargo and CSI. All of the stuff that you mentioned came from either me or the label that put the record out at the time, saying, “Listen are you interested in this or these songs?” So, in that sense I don’t feel like there is any difference in terms of the scale or scope, but that’s not the right way to put it. I guess I’m saying I work with the same resources I did when I began and that’s how I feel about it. I don’t feel like I have any bigger guns behind me now then say, I did in 2002. That’s really just an artifact of staying around and sticking it out and making records on a consistent basis and as weird as it seems, places like Hollywood and TV Land pay attention to little shit [laughs]. It’s true.
What other projects do you have in the works for the New Year? Any collaborations or productions on your or anyone else’s albums?
All of the above! I spent a lot of time recording in the last 2 ½ years. I basically work every day on the label stuff or producing new music, so I’ve got a lot. I currently have at least one record under my belt that I want to release under another name. I’m almost done with a collaborative record with one of the guys who is on the new album. I’m really excited about that. But it’s a different kind of thing, it’s more of a traditional collaborative process where I’m doing the instrumentation and production and he’s doing the vocals and lyrics. And after that I’d like to jump back in to the mix. The next thing I’d like to tackle is to produce another record. I’ve tried to release instrumental versions of the vocal stuff like I did for The Third Hand and have a plan similar for The Colossus where all the instrumental songs get exchanged for new songs. So half of the album would be instrumental versions of the vocals songs from The Colossus and half of it would be brand new songs. So, all of these things are things that I will be working towards releasing on the New Year.
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