BY THUTO 'THE REAL DEAL' MALI
To kick off the final round, as we left round two with The Alchemist, if is straight over to Just Blaze. I took a peek at your Myspace page – interesting. There was something that really got me intrigued, you wrote: “I’m still trying to figure this all out myself, you may think I have made it... I haven't. Whatever it is you think I've made... or wherever you think I have made it to. Let me know what or where it is…” So where do you see yourself and your amazing journey thus far?
Just Blaze: “I am still on the path, I am still trying to figure it out, and like all of us if you had told me 15 years ago that I would be where I am at now, I wouldn't have believed you.
“Who knows where I will be 15 years from now? I didn’t really have a plan, some of us set out with the goal that I need to be a super star, or a super MC or a super DJ – whatever. Me, I am just going wherever I end up. Wherever I end up, is where I am supposed to be. I have had certain achievements but I don’t feel like I have “made it” as much as I have done, there are so many things which I haven’t done, and there is so much more that I am capable of, so I am still trying to get there”
The Real Deal: 2010 was a very year for you with a whole list of project already under your belt, talk to me about what’s next for Just Blaze?
“I am working with an artist and good friend of mine by the name of Jay Electronica, and we had a great record earlier this year called Exhit C. I knew it was going to be something special but I didn’t know it was going to do what it did. I don’t want to say that it broke down a lot of doors but, it set a foundation for some real hip hop to come back to the forefront and set off a chain reaction of all this interest in hip hop on a higher level.
“I just made some music for the new A Team movie”
The Real Deal: Did you meet Mr T?
[laughs] “No, but we were trying to get him to come down, we were having a release at a club that I DJ at and I was like, if you guys really want to get this right, come down, bring the van and Mr T and set up outside.
“One of the newest video games that is out right now, Street fighter 4, which always sell loads of copies, this is probably like the twentieth version of it. I just did the ad campaign for that. It is not like at this point we don’t know that hip hop sells, but it’s cool to see real hip hop art, in terms of music, graffiti, with in such a mainstream product - I think is cool.
“I don’t look at it as selling out, I look at it as using your god given talents to further yourself and further the culture. It introduces us to a whole new audience that didn't exist before, so that’s cool.
“I am working with T.I on his new album and a movie that he has coming out soon. Probably the biggest thing, but we are not taking about it, is probably Eminem’s new album, I did a couple of records on there – that’s all I really want to say about that, as we keep that stuff under wraps.
The Real Deal: Is diversifying the way to keep hip hop alive?
“It dependent on what you want out of it? For me I was happy when I first started out, well…OK I was just in a house making beats and that was it.
“Now you have staff, people that work for you, people that I depend on, so to keep that operation up, I have to diversify. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining, I love it, but sometimes it is nice when you can just do thing at your leisure.
“I do well financially, but I don’t do that well where I could say, ‘I am not working for two months and still pay everybody, so you got to diversify and do different things.
“Doing something that you’re good at and that you love, I never want to do something purely for a cheque, because money comes and money goes at the end of the day. I think that I have been able to maintain that and still branch out, so you definitely got to diversify.
The Real Deal: Back to you Alchemist, in your opinion, what is the way forward for hip hop?
The Alchemist: “I think that rap is so big; that there are so many divisions, that I don’t even know what is anymore. There are some groups that are considered rap, I am rap, we’re all rap but I wouldn’t even put them [in the same category]. For a while I dabbled with the thought that we need a new name for what we do? This stuff that is considered rap now days, it’s not that I don’t like it, it is just not the same thing we do.
The Real Deal : What would the new name be?
“I don’t know, but I don’t think it should be any names really, it should just be like, what is music? What is art? Is this an album; is this an art project, what is this?
“Blur the fucking lines between art and music, and in order to do that, you have to blur the lines between some of these corporate business concepts applied to music – fuck all that and blur the lines. That is the type of shit that I am on right now, that is the type of shit that I relate to, so that is where we I am at”
The Real Deal: In 2009, you brought us ‘Chemical Warfare’ so what’s new for 2010 and beyond?
The Alchemist: “I have a group, with an artist by the name of Oh No, he is actually the brother of Mad Lib, one of the greatest of all times and he is one of my favourite legends. But I and No collaborated from out of no where, and got a group together called ‘Gangrene’, we have just finished that album and I am really excited about it.
“I went under, I am on another path right now, just trying to do some dirt and throwing shit against the wall. This is where art gets nasty, I just don’t care, because the way that the business is right now, the majors are lost. They’re so focused on this one little circle and it is so much bigger”.
As I pressed stop on my beloved, and well travelled mini disk recorder, I was filled with excitement and hope. There you have it, directly from the heavy weights in this game, it is about keeping hip hop as it was originally intended, as a means of true expression, innovation and forward movement. Peace!
LONDON:
Dates: Saturday 28th May 2011
Times: 10.00pm – 4am
Venue: Plan B, 148 Brixton Road, London SW9
Support: Spin Doctor, The Last Skeptik, Mr Thing, Classic Material & Main Squeeze.
Tickets: £12 in advance / £15 on the door (if available)
Saturday- http://tinyurl.com/6zye43
BRIGHTON: in association with Coalition
Dates: Bank Holiday Sunday 29th May 2011
Times: 10pm – 3am
Venue: Coalition, 171-181 Kings Road Arches, Brighton BN1 1NB
Support: Spin Doctor & Rusty Ryan
Tickets: £10 in advance / More on the door if available
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