I just found a copy of that mix-cd that I once had, then lost, then looked for with no luck for quite some time until yesterday.
It's a special one because the guy selecting those tunes is DJ Hen Boogie, the DJ/ producer behind the short-lived San Jose duo The Dereliks that released very few materials that I cherish (the westcoast super-classic "Turn On The Wheel..." EP with the infamous 3-different hand-written back label, then a full album on cd a few years with older material- another one that should be on wax, just sayin, and a few month ago recently an EP with some demos on Chopped Herring).
It's special because yet it's another compilation of "breaks used in rap" I always came back to this particular one. There's ton of dope stuff in there, lots of stuff you probably never heard of, and he only uses super small parts of each record, which is at the same time fun (you'll find yourself hit the rewind button a lot, what's this one again.. c'mon, I know it!), frustrating (we want more!) and kind of overwhelming (needs multiple hearing to get the whole thing).
But yeah, I'm delighted I found it back and I wanted to share it with you. Hope you'll enjoy.
No tracklisting on this one.
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I interviewed him through e-mail the same year that mix-cd was released (2005) for the french webzine (now defunct) hiphopcore.net. Here's a very slightly edited version:
Tell us about your
very first contact with the hip hop world.
Wow, well I guess my first experience I
remember other than hearing "Rapper's Delight" was the first record I
bought with my own money which was "the Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on
the Wheels of Steel" I purchased it
just because I saw it was on the same label as the Sugar Hill Gang record. I remember when I first heard it I thought
that here was something wrong with the record because I had never heard
scratching before (Laughing)
But I remember playing that song over and
over again and wanting to figure out how it was done.
It's funny because as I say all of this I
realize that I was crate digging back then as a kid. You know?
Like checking out who was on what label and stuff.
What about your beginnings, Star Records, how you met Iz
and decided to start the Dereliks?
That's pretty long one. (laughs)
Well I was djing and I just really got the
bug to want to make the music I heard so I saved up my money and got a Roland
626. back then the 808 Bass sound was
the thing so I would try and run the Low Tom sound through the mixer and make
these wack drum patterns. But you
couldn't tell me then that I wasn't about to blow up.
So I kind of just put the music making
aspirations on hold and just kept spinning.
This one place I would buy records at all the time called Star records
basically was the hub of hip hop for years.
I never expected or thought I would ever work there. But it was one of the first DJ Counter models
so you had to give utmost respect to the person working the DJ counter. It was like they were the Guru of all music
information, you know what I mean?
So one day I hear they are hiring and I
came in and the owner loved me. There I
was thinking that it was because of my music knowledge but it was because I was
a big guy and she thought I would look pretty scary behind the counter
(Laughing)
Later I find out that it was actually a
combination of the two. You know what I
knew and my stature. Then I found out
the person I was replacing was Peanut Butter Wolf. He wasn't PB Wolf then but you know what I
mean.
So as I am working there the experience is
priceless you know what I mean? I mean
everyone came through. Artists on
labels, upcoming artists, you name it. I
was the "hip hop" guy there so I got to hang out with a lot of people
I don't think I would have ever met.
So while I was there I got back into making
music by going to studios that had the equipment I couldn't afford and working
with my good friend Ed Main on music. It
was a big progression from the old drum machine days but it still was missing
something.
I always talked to a bunch of people and
one day this dude came in who knew I was doing music said he knew of these two
dudes who need music. I met them and the
other guy was ok but Iz had this rap he did, that coincidentally became our
first song. That blew me away. I felt
bad but I got with Iz and said I could see working with him but I didn't see
much of a future with the two of them as a group. He actually had only started working with the
dude maybe a month before that so he didn't feel very committed to staying with
him.
So we kind of just looked at how we were as
dudes and we realized that we didn't really fit in with what was going on at
the time and we were cool with that so we were trying to come up with a word
that said all of that. So that's how we
came up with the Dereliks.
So we just clicked right away. It was weird because it just all came
together like that you know?
As
the Dereliks you released the infamous A Turn On The Wheel... EP which is now
very sought after (I saw a copy reaching 110$ a few days ago on eBay).
You released on a quite small label, Low Self Discipline, and I was wondering
if the opportunity of signing with a bigger label didn't show up?
Plus you had contact with people like Peanut Butter Wolf, etc..
Same with Change For The Bus Ride Home album released on Sublevel... It's
a classic to me and not too many people know about it.
Yeah it is a trip people want to pay that
much for it.
I don't know man I mean I'm torn because
it's flattering but I just think people tend to try and capitalize on things
when it's never the artist that gets the credit or compensation for it. But man, I wish there was a record I wanted
so bad to pay $100 for (laughing)
Anyways we put that out through this dude
named Brandon who found out about us from a demo review from Bomb Hip Hop
Magazine. He was the A&R for some
label and when they passed on us he basically quit and believed in it so much
he wanted to put it out. So basically
what we set out to do was to put out a classic piece of material that would be
a sought after item. So to actually do
what you set out to do means a lot. you know what I'm saying? Especially since this music game is so hit or
miss.
We definitely had labels approach us but we
would have ended up like all those other groups that came out with one album
got dropped and never heard of again. I
mean who knows maybe it would have blown on a whole other level but I like how
we did it. It just means more when you
can accomplish your goals on you own you know?
What happened with Iz? What do you think of his new group Tha High? Is there any chance to see another Dereliks album one day?
I think Iz and I both just got worn down by
it all. We were doing a lot of big
things but not getting paid for it. We
would pack a club to the point that they had to shut it down for fire hazard
reasons with people waiting outside and get paid pizza. We weren't very business savvy then. It made us more artistic but made us more
bitter at the end of the day.
I’m trying to see a situation that Iz and I
could come together on but it just doesn’t seem possible. I mean first and foremost there was a lot of
stuff recorded in between this time and “A turn on the Wheel” that no one
heard. How could anyone understand where
we would go unless you knew where we’ve been?
Me and Iz were like brothers. While we were doing the music he was living
in my mom’s house and he was like family.
But life went on. I did my thing
and Iz moved out and back to the old neighborhood and got with Tha High. Traxamillion who did the beats for that album
and also for Kaek da Sneak’s “Superhyphy” was part of our crew back in the day. We were grooming these kids and they were
pretty successful for what they did. So
it wasn’t like Iz just went off the deep end..he was just making neighborhood
music. That man has a daughter and had
to feed her dude so I mean you gotta do what you gotta to put food on the
table. I don’t doubt he could still
bring but there’s been a lot alof time and space between us so I just don’t see
it happening again.
So I think Tha High was an expression of
that. It's like you find out that your
girlfriend lied to you. The one you love
the most, you want to go out and just take it out on all the other females for
being hurt by it all. So personally I
don't fault him at all for how he handled it.
My coping mechanism was to close off and just make thousands of songs
and never let them be heard for years. I
just didn't think anyone deserved to hear it.
But I can say at least he never stopped which I can't say for me you
know? I mean I've been blessed that when
I was ready to return hip hop welcomed me back way more than I ever expected,
so I look forward to letting people hear what they should have heard long ago
and what I am doing now.
In the same vein you did a bunch of shows with Blackalicious, Black Eyed Peas
and De La Soul during the 90es, they all sound quite different now...
What
do you think about it?
I hope I don't sound the same now that I
did then (laughs). I mean there's always
an element of the person's original form in what hey are currently but I mean
as long as you don't get stuck in one state of mind I support it. Stagnation is the worse thing someone could
do to themselves.
That being said there's always something
magical about someone's first piece of work you know? It's when they are the hungriest and
artistically free. If you can maintain
that attitude of doing your craft like no one is listening so you don’t cater
to what ever you think people might want to hear it's always best.
But if you had told me that one day my kids
would go nuts over a Black Eyed Peas song I'd laugh at you back then. But they made their sound accessible to a
wider audience and I can't fault them for that.
It may not be the route I would take intentionally but if it happened
and I knew I was just being me and not formula based then I'd be able to live
with myself with that type of success. I
mean look at Arrested development man.
Speech basically sent up a prayer over a dope beat and it blew. So you can't ever really say.
Let's talk about records... What credits do you give to cratedigging as a producer
and DJ? What's the highest price you put on a record? Any nice anecdotes
about cratedigging?
Well definitely Peanut Butter Wolf because
he put me on to Ultimate Beats and Breaks.
It was nonchalant but after he told me about those I knew all I had to
do is find all the records that weren’t on there you know what I’m saying? But other than that man I’ve gotten so many
records just given to me for whatever reason from folks who were actually
there. It wasn’t like I went on a hunt
for the samples they found me. Most of
the stuff I didn’t even realize I had until listening to other tracks on the
records way later. That’s how the
FemaleFun project came about.
The most I paid for a record was $75 for a
Sun RA record. The 12” of Nuclear War
about 7 years ago. But other than that I
just don’t see putting a price on good music that high. I mean some of the biggest sampled classics
you can find in the dollar bin. It kind
of takes the fun out of it to pay all that money for something though. It’s like cheating. I’d rather tell a story about how I found
this record or that piece.
I still defy anyone to name all of the
samples on “A Turn On The Wheel” though.
That’s what’s been such a treat for me about it because most stuff on
there no one knows where it came from. I
like to keep people guessing like that.
I did get a few offers of money to let folks know what the sources of
some of the samples were. (Laughs) That between me and the records baby!
Can you tell us more about Nobody Beats The Boog?
Best way to describe it is me bragging
about some records I have. Not to be
conceited but it’s all part of it. It
also serves as a primer to those who never heard the originals. Most seasoned diggers would know a good majority
of them but I know they don’t know them all. I put some extra goodies on
there. But I fully hoped and expected
people to sample from it because I would rather hear some good music for a
change. (Laughing)
It’s just a fun cd you know. You can play it in the background or loud
too. I got a person who wrote me who
said she uses it for her dance class that she teaches her kids and they love
it. Another person said it’s like a hip
hop trivial pursuit game.
It’s one aspect of me and definitely not
the only one but it has opened a lot of doors for me definitely. So thanks again to Peter and DJ Fisher for
putting it out.
What advice would you give to young people that want to start a career in
hip hop?
Keep your nose clean, never stop, and don’t
burn bridges.
Thank you very much for your answers. Any last words?
Reputation is the cornerstone of success
