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Interview Podcast

MP3.com: What's up, 9th? How you doing, man? 9th Wonder: Hey. How you doing? Good. How about yourself? All right. Well first of all, let's talk about the new album. It's heavily anticipated. A lot of people have been waiting for this. I'm sure you've been waiting for it and must be psyched for it to come out. What can you tell us about it? Man…it's definitely a boom-bap record, man. You know, that's what I do. And I don't shy away from what I do. Everybody else—every producer gets to do what they do, so I want to do what I do. So it's a boom-bap record, a majority hip-hop. There is, like, one R&B joint on there, a lot of artists from Vandalizm from St. Louis, there's Royce Da 5' 9", Naledge, [Kidz N The Hall] all the way to Mos Def, Jean Grae and Joe Scudda. Like, there is so many artists on there, known and unknown. I don't think it's a situation of whether they're mainstream or underground. There is known and unknown as that's the new way of thinking. So I'm proud of the record that I put out, that's out there, or it's going to be out and there's no changing it. So I have to accept whatever criticism comes along with it. And all of the artists on there, the guests, did you already have relationships with most of those guys before or is it people that you reached out to specifically for this project or what? The majority of them, I had relationships with. I think that's very important now in music and in the industry. The industry is very cliquish, which means people deal with who they know. And they maybe strive to try to deal with people that you really don't know but you have a musical respect for. But sometimes that's not reciprocated. So you have to deal with the people that you know that's going to work with you without a whole bunch of haggle. And trying to do that and find the talent can be tough at times. But I think I've done a good job with just working with people that want to work with me. And that's what Dream Merchant is. Right on, man. And now you were just talking, you know, instead of underground versus mainstream, it's more just known versus unknown. You're somebody that's worked with cats across the board from Jay-Z and Destiny's Child and mega, multiplatinum, Billboard top artists, as well as dudes that aren't as well known whether it's Skyzoo or Murs or this and that. Is that something that—I mean, it doesn't seem like it should be such a big deal but it also seems like it's very rare. There's not a lot of people that are working both sides of it like that. Is that something that you've always wanted to do or is that something that you just—being in the position that you are in now, that once you were able to, you were like, "Yeah, let's go for it." Well I mean, I look at it from the situation that maybe what the state of music is now, but I look at it from the situation where, I came up in a time where there was not underground advantage. Right. It was either good music or bad music. Yeah, totally. Either you sucked or you were good. And at the time, we was lucky enough to see the record sales reflect from that. If the album was good, it sold. If it wasn't it didn't sell. Like, you know, and just watching Premier and Pete Rock for so many years, I've seen Premier work with Group Home and then turn around and do a joint with Jay-Z. And then, you know, Pete Rock is saying, "wait." Like, he did a Nas. And then he'll turn around and do a Heavy D record. It could have been Blue Funk or Nuttin' But Love. Like, on the Nuttin' But Love album he did, what, "Black Coffee" and a couple more joints.

So I look at it the same way. It's not necessarily a situation where it's mainstream or underground. I look at it as music first. Now what happens when the music is released, or the promotions of the music that's being released, that's what's changed the tide because I hate to see if Skyzoo would have came out and he did 500,000 the first week and then what is he then? Is he a mainstream artist? Right, exactly. He's not changing his music up. Right. He's not changing his music. So I think it's a situation of a sensibility, what changes—how people perceive you as opposed to what you talk about. And I just chose to deal with—I chose to, and I was chosen to deal with people whether on both sides of the known/unknown fence because at the end of the day, Jay-Z, Destiny's Child, Mary J. Blige, Murs, Skyzoo, M.O.P., you name it, Jean Grae, Buckshot, we are all great fans of music and we want to make good music. And that's why, you know, I work with the people that I work with. I also wanted to—I know that you, aside from producing and making records and whatnot, you're also teaching, like, a hip-hop history class? Yeah. Is that still going on? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was lucky enough to become one of the artists in residence at North Carolina Central University. It's a historically Black college in Durham, North Carolina. Actually it's the school that myself and Phonte and Big Pooh, that's where we met. That's where you guys hooked up, right? Right, mm-hmm. And I, myself, along with Play, from Kid n' Play and before we even got there, Branford Marsalis was the, he still is an artist in residence. He teaches a quartet class or a quintet class over there. Yeah, he teaches quintet over there. So it's a class called "hip-hop in Context: 1993-1997"—I'm mean 1973, I'm sorry, 1973. [laughs] Yeah, I was going to say… Yeah, and I'm saying, "What's the problem, yo? That's a short time!" No, it's 1973 to 1997. We talk about the beginnings of hip-hop in the Bronx from Kool Herc to all the Discos to…then graffiti art, like SEEN and cats like that. And we take it all the way through the '70s and '80s and all the way until the '90s and we end it with the day when Biggie died. For a lot of us, the day that Biggie died is like the end of an era for a lot of us, and that may be due to our age. But a lot of us, that's the end of an era for us. So the students get a kick out of it. A lot these records, when they came out, they wasn't even born or they were maybe 3 or 4-years old. And I think we kind of beat the kids up for not knowing who DJ Premier is and not knowing who Pete Rock is. But we need to start looking at how old these records are and how old these kids are. These kids are 18 years old. Some of these kids were born in 1988. Yeah, sure. I mean, do you expect them to know what's on Daily Operation? Like, I mean, seriously, when Daily Operation came out, some of these kids were three. Like, it's kind of hard for them to grasp it and plus our media outlets are not doing a very good job of showing the kids what they missed. Yeah, if you're lucky, you get one, kind of old school drive show on a Friday or something like that and that's about it. Right. Right. Exactly. And students are suffering. So that's what the class is for, to educate and show them what they missed and a lot of the students, man, they really, like, they really take it all in because they're really like, "Man, somebody is actually taking the time to show me what I missed instead of beating me up saying, 'Ah, you don't know about real hip-hop.' Well then show me! Show me what real hip-hop is." And so that's what we do everyday. That's awesome, man. There definitely needs to be more of that. Are you still doing—I know that there was a while you were doing sort of a touring club night as well, sort of like golden era type of thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm President, CEO, of a company called the True School Corporation. And what we do is we cater to that particular demographic. We say 25 to 40. I mean, that changes, every year goes by, that changes like the drinking age. Sure. Like, I mean, you walk in the convenience store and it says, "If you were born before this date," it's like we've got to have that… Yeah, totally. One of those calendars on our web site. But the True School Corporation is basically for people that are old enough or people that can understand the music that we play. A lot of people, you know, even your young, "I'm a real hip-hopper," type of dude, they don't understand why you would play "Mad Izm" one hour and then the next hour you may be playing New Edition and then the next hour you may be playing Bananarama. Like, they don't understand why. But that is all of the music from Rap City to Video Soul to Video Vibrations to Midnight Love to Yo! MTV Raps to Friday Night Videos to The Box to Uncle Ralph McDaniel, like, all of that music comprised, Pop-Up Video, all of that music is comprised of our childhood and some of our adulthood. And that's what True School is. So we feel, we try to stick to that formula because you can get the records and stuff or you can get, you know, the stuff on the radio everyday. You don't have to look for it. Yeah, right. So this is the stuff that you might have had an old CD or a CD book that you had when you were staying with some girl and you all broke up and the CD got thrown out the window. And you never know what people go through in their lives how CDs get missed and how music gets missed. So that's the demographic that we cater to. Right on, man. That's cool. Now, I also wanted to talk to you, I mean, you were known when you came out and first started to get a rep or whatever, you were using Fruity Loops [audio software]. And I lot of people I think looked at that and saw, "Okay. Wow. 9th Wonder is making this dope music just with a pretty straightforward computer and Fruity Loops." I think it's fair to say that you inspired a lot of aspiring beat makers, guys who started making beats because they looked up to an artist like yourself. Do you feel like—is that something that makes you proud that you might have jumpstarted a lot of cats' interest in this or is it something that you have sort of mixed feelings about because there are so many, so many, so many people that's trying to do it now? No, no. There are a lot of things in this world and we as artists do a lot of things that can influence somebody negatively to do something. I mean, there are so many rappers out that can—that say they don't influence the kids, but they do. Yeah, absolutely. And whether they want to take the responsibility for that or not, whether they want to say, "Well it's the parent's job," whatever they want to say, well, you have a part in that. Now, it's not totally up to you but you have a part in that. I can honestly I am happy for the fact that I have influenced a kid to stay in his house and do something and be creative. If it takes a kid to follow me in my footsteps and get a program and stay locked up in his room and go get records from his uncle or go downstairs and pay—and start to pay attention to the records that his mom had that he thought there was nothing on them, that's a whole world of—you know what I'm saying? That's a can of worms you can open up for a kid, a creative can of words you open up for a kid. There's nothing more beautiful than a creative child. Yeah, no doubt. There's nothing better to see than a creative child, to go over to a child's house and go in their room and it's like, "Man"—or look on their wall and say, "Man, you drew all these?" Like, there's nothing better than to see that and if I've had a part of having a say in a kid or kids getting together and downloading—I get so many kids hitting me on the Internet. I get so many adults that are hitting me on MySpace to say, "I've always wanted to do beats. I've never been able to afford an MP or something. I've always wanted to do beats. I've always had this in me and I wanted to get it out and I never had the courage to use Fruity Loops until you did it." I mean, you just can't beat that. Yeah that's pretty awesome. You know what I'm saying, you just can't beat that. So I don't look at it as a negative thing at all, man. People are going to talk. People are going to say, "You know, that's the part of being an artist. You have to take the good with the bad." And I fell into the trap when I first started out and trying to answer people on the Internet that I didn't even know, and I had to kind of grow out of that and say, "You know, people are going to talk, man." And you've got to keep it moving. That's all I've got to say. Absolutely, man. I just want to touch just a little bit on Little Brother. I know that you've got one track on the new album, right? Mm-hmm. What can you tell us about that track? Uhhh…[laughs] In all fairness to Phonte and Pooh. I don't…they…all I will tell you is the track is dope. It may seem vague but just out of respect to them and what they have planned for the album they want to put out, I'm not going to speak on it. No worries. I'm not going to speak to every…until it's time for everybody to hear it and then people can say what they want to about it then. But it's out of respect for them and how they want to push their project, I'm not going to speak on it. Right on, man. All good. I just wanted to ask you, two more things. One is, aside from the Dream Merchant: Volume 2, what other projects are you working on? Are you doing beats for the new Jean Grae record that's coming out? Maybe? Maybe. I mean, to be honest with you, me and Jean Grae have Jeanius and we have another album called The Phoenix, which we've been working on and I don't know about the new one, Prom Night. I'm not really sure. Buckshot and I have finished our second record. Yeah, does that have a street date yet? Sometime in January but I may…I will say that I might want to try to release it on my birthday, which is January the 15th. But I will say that this is…and I love all of the records that I've done. But I'm, this second Buckshot album is something I am proud of that I can say I am proud of it just as much as I am proud of The Listening. Mm-hmm, nice. That was the album that gave me—that showed my range or whatever and I think this Buckshot album will show the range that I have. And also the next Murs record, which his entitled Sweet Lord. Nice. I think this is Murs' and I's best record to date. Best album to date. I think we get better with every album, which is a good thing. And then there is the Wonder Years, which is like Dream Merchant's Yang, you see what I'm saying. Okay. Like, it's more R&B than hip-hop. But it's really a hip-hop for parents. I mean, it's a hip-hop for parents record. If you're a parent of hip-hop…hip-hop is that old now that now there are parents that love hip-hop, this record is for you because this way you could play this record around your kids. This is not a Kidz Bop Nickelodeon record. This is a record that… You don't have to worry about the lyrics and stuff. Exactly. This is a record you can play around your children. And what I wanted about it was to still have the funk and the soul in it, you know. Nice. So that's what Wonder Years is. Cool, man. It sounds like you've got a lot of stuff on deck. So last question, this is something that I ask everybody that I talk to. Everybody wants to be a rapper, be a producer, be a mogul, start a label. Everybody wants to get into the game one way or another right now whether it's just putting stuff on their Myspace page or throwing out CDs or whatever. What advice—you're somebody that went from doing it yourself to getting a big rep to doing a lot of big projects on a wide range for a lot of different artists. What kind of advice would you give to the young cats out there that are trying to do that? Man. Know your—learn your….kids think that history is not important to know exactly where they're going in this music thing. And cats refuse to do the research on what they want to be. If you want to be a producer, research all producers, not just Pete Rock and Premier. I mean, research Quincy Jones. Research Bert Bacharach. Research Norman Whitfield. Like, research all producers and what they did in the studio and some of their studio techniques and stuff like that. I'm still researching producers to this day. That's one thing.

Another thing is, too, it's going to happen for you when it's supposed to happen. That's the one thing I learned from…I was with Erykah Badu this weekend. We did a record together for her new album coming. And she had a concert in Raleigh this weekend and she was telling, she had a meet and greet afterwards. And she was telling her fans, you know, her fans were asking her questions about her career and she was like, "You know, the universe works in a funny way. When it's time for you to go, the green light will come up. When it's time to stop, there will be a stop sign. You might not understand why that is but if it's supposed to happen to you, it will. If it's not, it won't." A lot of people don't hear that. They might be thinking, "Maybe well, you know, if dreams can come true," Yes, dude, dreams can come true. But the dream that might come true for you might not be the dream you were dreaming. You see what I'm saying. Totally. So it's like—you know, and just be hot, man. I think that hip-hop has lost its way just letting anybody in. [laughs] I feel you, man, definitely. It's like we lost our way of letting anybody just enter, that anybody can do this thing. Like, no. Anybody can make money. And you can money off of anything these days. I've watched TV enough to see that, to say, "Who buys this stuff?!" But somebody does. Yeah. Right. So anybody can make money. Anybody can make money. Everybody cannot make a great hip-hop record. They just can't. Everybody can't do it. No doubt. They might make money and make millions off of what they made in the studio but will it be deemed as a great hip-hop record that stands the test of time? No. Everybody can't do that. And I think we need to start looking at that. Right on, man. Well so what's the release date for the new album? October 9th. The 9th on the 9th. October 9th. Yes, sir. Excellent, man. Well I look forward to hearing it. I've definitely—I've heard a couple of tracks so far that I thought were dope and I definitely look forward to hearing more, man. Thanks a lot for taking the time the do this, man. And good luck with everything. Thank you. All right. Take it easy, 9th. Peace.