So when you have these beats you're taking around to Jay Z, to Kanye,
to J. Cole, artists of that calibre, how are you presenting them with this music?
What does that look like?
Now, it's different. Now it feels like I'm DJing, that's what everyone tells me.
I kinda just pull out my computer and I go: Are you ready?
Here we go. Where do you wanna start? And they go: what are you talking about?
I pick a point and I dive in and begin to just play music and I'm kinda working on it
as I play it. I never really finish a beat, that's why I call...
the timeline is the enemy. Once I get there it's over.
The clips is freedom.
So I kinda just use my own little ways and just play and play, and I say raise your hand
if you hear something. And it can go on for hours and hours.
And it's all about... you know, I have another philosophy - I have a lot of philosophies...
that...
you can have an idea and lose it in one split second.
And an artist will not be able to articulate that one split thing that's wrong.
One of my pet peeves I always hated was a person saying 'hey, you got some beats?'
No, I don't.
Do you have some songs?
Maybe I could produce your record, make your song into a produced recording.
Because, like I said, sometimes it can be a hair off on the tempo, it could be the wrong key.
It could be a wrong sound, it could be the wrong snare,
the snare could irritate a lot, it's so many little things that we go through with our habits...
of creating: we pull open the computer or whatever we do
and we start with the kick and the snare and a hi-hat, maybe.
Or we start with these chords, maybe. Or we start with these basslines, maybe,
but somewhere along this line, this wonderful idea, 95% of the time, it gets lost.
So, the problem solving philosophy is how do you not lose the idea?
Well, you don't lock in.
The one thing...
I was a DJ first, so the most important experience I got as a DJ was that
if you play the wrong record the wrong way,
everybody leaves the floor.
It won't be a hesitation. You'll get instant reaction to this situation.
As a producer...
people won't instantly leave, but they'll instantly shut down.
You play the wrong thing the wrong way, they tune out. Jay Z is the best example.
He gives most people 3 ideas' chance.
If you don't get it in 3 he'll... oh yeah, yeah, just leave those for me...
And he'll check out.
But more than anything I was always consumed the more I learned
by the concept of working on music until it's right.
And it's a difficult thing to know without knowing who's the artist,
what they look like, how they sound, what are they gonna say.
It's very much like scoring a movie.
How do you balance, I guess being...
cos' on the one hand you're a musician, on the other hand as A&R, as a creative,
you're helping other musicians navigate the industry.
And so how do you work with those 2 poles of what you do?
Well, it's really simple.
Once you get past what you do and you begin to get into why you do it,
it opens up and I think it's a little more clear.
So if you're making beats, that's what you do. Why are you doing it?
Well, hopefully you're doing it because either you're the artist
or you want to make a specific, unique sound that scores another human being.
So therefore...
that's the project, you know. It's easy to sit down and just make some good, cool music.
But it's hard to figure out a way to make someone care about yourself, if you're the artist,
or another artist, in a way that will impact culture, commerce...
humanity as a whole - music is a very important part of life and it scores everything that we do...
in certain ways.
There's not too many aspects of life that would be the same if we didn't have music.
You couldn't really go out to dance and there be no music, you couldn't really...
You know, romance would be a little more boring if it was silent.
You know, so that's what I mean by once you begin to take the ego out of it
and you start to realize what you are trying to accomplish, or should be trying to accomplish,
that's when it gets a little more interesting, a little more exciting,
and a little more work, because it entails studying people,
and studying emotional reactions.
I always had a saying with everybody I worked with, I said: the speaker never lies.
When you put the speaker on and something comes out, either people move or they don't.
Your explanation doesn't matter.
Your feelings and your intentions have nothing to do with the result.
The result should be that some emotional reaction occurs from that speaker playing.
So, these are just some of the principles that I've been using to stay around,
it's been over 25 years for me.
And it's really difficult to believe, when I look back when I first started,
a lot, if any of the people that I looked to as the top people
are just not around and current.
They're there, but to stay current is a really tough task. - Absolutely.