Interview w/Stat Quo & The Alchemist! (Future Projects, Dr. Dre & STATLANTA)

[Rebel]

To "Re-Up," in drug-dealing terms, means to replenish your drug supply for your customers. So, in Hip Hop metaphor terms, it means to bring back that dope s**t. This time it is Eminem doing the re-upping. We recently sat down with Alchemist and fellow Shady/Aftermath rapper, Stat Quo to talk about the album. Stat and Alchemist kept it "200," and spoke bluntly about the music business, joining Shady/Aftermath, and future projects that they both have coming up. I also learned a bit about what it takes to get an Alchemist beat, but I'm going to keep that info to myself...Check it out, and get your (re)-fill.



SoundSlam: What is it about Alchemist that makes you want to put out an album with tracks from him, and without him you feel the album is incomplete? Why do you want his music so much?

Stat Quo: Alchemist is dope. Some producers, you do dope records on their s**t. Every time I do a song on his beats it's always crazy to me. Why am I going to go away from that? He got a soul to his s**t. Everybody will make their sample from the past, but there's a swing and a soul that Al got. And I f**k with Al as a person, so that makes it even better.

SoundSlam: Have you noticed a difference in his style versus the beats you will get from Eminem? I read that this album in particular, The Re-Up project, was produced by Alchemist and Eminem. What's difference in their styles?

Stat Quo: I think Al, his tracks are a little bit more soulful. Em chooses to go with the more dramatic hard s**t. Al does that too, but me personally, I like the little soulful thing he does. The s**t comes out hard. That's the difference in my opinion. Em's s**t's kind of real, 'get-on-the-motherf**kers-and-vent,' very aggressive. Al's s**t is aggressive, but it's aggressive in a different kind of way.

SoundSlam: Alchemist, you worked with people like Eminem, 50 Cent, and Aftermath for this. Then you also work with someone like Evidence, and Dilated Peoples. How important is it for you to maintain connections with people all over the Hip Hop spectrum?

Alchemist: It's just something I do. I do this cause I love to do it. Plus, you're talking about people I have relationships with as my people. Music is just something you do like you eat, sleep, and s**t. It's just an extension of what I do everyday. Hold on one second...

Stat Quo: He's s***iing.

Alchemist: I think it's beautiful that I'm even able to maintain that. I don't know why a lot of other people don't. Maybe it's just the fact that other people don't have connections that are so unrelated like that, so it might seem like it's hard to do. But it's really easy, cause this s**t is all rap music. We're all related in a way. Plus if it's not dope, if you're not my peoples, I'm not f**king with it anyway.

SoundSlam: I saw something on TV a while ago. You were talking about how initially you were balancing school and other jobs while focusing on music. You said at first you didn't want to put all the pressure on music to have to make a living on music. How important was that when you were starting your career in helping you to maintain an enthusiasm and creativity in terms of making music?

Alchemist: It was important, but it wasn't something where I consciously made that decision. It was like, 'yo I love doing this.' I wasn't doing it just to eat. Then I realized just by being a student and a sponge, I'm looking at people who are falling off, or who weren't making it, and that seemed to be the reason. They were in it for the wrong reasons, and money had a lot to do with it. I figured, well if you could find a way...Cause a lot of people are like, 'I got to make ends meet.' Their music starts reflecting that. So, I'm like, 'you know what? As long as I can have ways to make ends meet, and have a little bit of music, I'm going to do this music thing because I love it.' And I still do it because of that. And you could tell. There's some people that do it who are motivated by the money, and they're big time. Much respect to them, but everyone has their own way or formula, and that's how I do my s**t.

SoundSlam: What made each of you decide to be a part of this project? Why did you guys get involved?

Stat Quo: I got involved because I'm signed to them. I don't like anybody. And if I wasn't signed to them I wouldn't be on this s**t. Naw, I'm just kidding...Naw, I got involved for obvious reasons. Em's dope. I knew Al was doing most of the beats. I liked the beats. Initially it was supposed to be a mixtape, somet s**t motherf**kers were just going to throw out in the streets. But the music was coming out hot, and it was like, 'damn. Why don't we just put this s**t out?' That's how it came down. As an emcee, you always want to be a part of great s**t. Like I just said I want to be a part of Al's next CD that he puts out. Whenever there's some dope s**t coming out, you want to be a part of it. It makes you step up as an artist because you want to have one of the dopest songs as an artist on the album. You want to be a part of that great s**t, so the same thing with this.

Alchemist: For me, it was also since I've been down with the camp officially, being Em's deejay. Everybody knows I do my thing as a producer. We hit the road last year, but I wanted to do some music with the camp. So this was the first opportunity. Like Stat was saying, we were just doing it for the streets. It was like no stress. I knew Stat was going to body the beat when I gave it to him. There was no pressure involved like how are we going to come with the right record to impress a million people. Let's just make some s**t. My favorite s**t is usually the mixtape stuff anyways, cause it's got less pressure. I think that's how the songs just came out authentically dope. The top of the of the food-chain, and the machine that we're a part of was like, 'let's eat off of this.' I can't be mad at that. If it had been in the streets, it would have been hot.

SoundSlam: When you first got introduced to the Shady camp you were the tour DJ. Was it hard for you to be patient before it came to making the music?

Alchemist: Oh yeah, everyday. I think that's part of the reason that I got the job. I'm not the cut, slice master on the 1's, and 2's. I don't think it was my skills on the tables that really got me the job. I think it was one, my relationship with everybody from day one, the fact that I was capable of holding down the position technically, and three it was the fact that you could trust me. I've been with Em on numerous occasions. I never pushed him, 'check out this beat.' They know that about me. By me playing my cards, opportunities arise. And I knew they would because of the reputation and my name. Plus the fans, I know the fans of me or Em were just waiting when they heard that Al was going to collaborate with Em on a tour. So it was like, 'yeah it'd be dope if they did some music together.' I knew it was a matter of time. But being a part of these kinds of teams that are just so huge, I just gotta sit on my hands. Believe my hands are making the beats while I'm sitting on them.

SoundSlam: Stat, you said that when dope s**t comes out you want to make sure you're on it. Atlanta has captured the country's ear so to speak, but you decided to sign with Shady/Aftermath. Did you think about staying in town with Jermaine Dupri, or Jazze Pha, or DTP?

Stat Quo: They didn't offer me enough money. HAHAHA. How about you're the first person I ever kept it 200 with right there? Listen, everybody's like, 'yo, you went out of town.' They didn't offer me enough money. That's what that was all about. They didn't offer me enough money. It was the best move for me, and plus I like Dre and Em as people. I'm not saying I don't like Jermaine or none of them, but if you like somebody as a person, and they offer you way more money than everybody else, what the f**k you going to do?

SoundSlam: It probably makes you like them a bit more too.

Stat Quo: Hell yeah. It makes you feel like they like you more. They liked me the best. I just went with who liked me the best.

Alchemist: Money's a good way to show who likes who more.

Stat Quo: A check.

Alchemist: You like me definitely more if you're coming with more bread.

Stat Quo: I believe you. You can tell me you like me, but if you offer me way more money...I mean way more money. Everybody else wasn't even close. Then I felt like a lot of the situations of people trying to offer me bills was based off of them motherf**kers knowing I was going out of town. I had been doing my thing. Don't get it twisted. Motherf**kers knew who the f**k I was. Sometimes they only love you when somebody else loves you.

SoundSlam: When you guys work together do you trade secrets? Will Alchemist teach you how to produce, and you give him some tips on flowing? Does that happen?

Stat Quo: Matter of fact, I don't trade no secrets cause Al's a dope emcee. The only thing I didn't like about his last album was that he didn't rap enough on it.

Alchemist: Hahaha. You know what, Stat did put me up on some techniques that I use to this day. We were doing a song and Stat was like, 'I got to make my face different when I do this part in the hook.' I was like, 'oh that's ill.'

Stat Quo: Oh yeah, Dre taught me that.

Alchemist: Stat gave me a couple Dre techniques.

Stat Quo: Al, you need to rap more. You're bulls****ing.

Alchemist: I got some records I got to play you. Believe me, you'll be proud.

SoundSlam: I interviewed Evidence a while ago and he said that you guys were working on an album where he does half the beats, and you do half the rhymes, and then you guys switch. Is that coming together?

Alchemist: Naw. We were working on stuff, but it didn't make sense. That's my man though, he's working on a solo project.

SoundSlam: You guys talked about the mixtapes, and mixtapes have less pressure. You can just get them out a lot faster and directly to the people. Were you happy it was decided to make this a full album, or did part of you want it to stay a mixtape?

Stat Quo: Me, I was happy as f**k. I knew I was going to make some money.

SoundSlam: I like you, man. You got a very blunt answering format.

Stat Quo: I'm keeping it 200.

Alchemist: That's real talk. I ain't gonna lie.

Stat Quo: This is a business. Look here man, I love emceeing. Do not get it twisted. I would rap for free, cause I did for years. Look here man, I got a kid, man. I got a little boy. His name's Zaire. He doesn't give a f**k about mixtapes or anything. You know what he cares about? Applesauce, he cares if I get the s**t out of his diapers, new clothes, all that s**t costs. I got to buy that s**t. This is what I do for a living. A lot of people come up to me, 'Stat, get on this. You get on this thing...' I tell them how much I want to get on it, they look at me like they're mad. I'm like, 'damn dawg, this is my job! This is what I do. I get paid to do it.' It ain't like I stand to benefit off being on your song. I'm not going to benefit. It's different. Me getting on an Alchemist record and not paying, or he not paying me, that's cool. I'm going to benefit because motherf**kers are going to check for Alchemist, that's one. Two, me doing Al's s**t for free, Al's going to turn around and give me a beat for free. We can do that. It's like a bartering system we got going on. But if you emcee, and I ain't never heard of you before, then you coming up, you just want me to get on your s**t and then it's trash, and you're going to get mad at me cause I'm telling you I want such and such paper, get the f**k out of here. This is a business. This is a business. To bring it all the way back around to why I'm happy this s**t is coming out, I need the money. I can take money and do some other s**t with it.

Alchemist: As simple as that.

SoundSlam: OK.

Alchemist: The only reason I was mad was because I put this s**t together. When I do the mixtapes I use a lot of samples that I don't clear. So it was like, 'man I got to clear samples.' That comes down to another money issue.

Stat Quo: Oh yeah. It's kind of f**ked up.

Alchemist: It's all good. We still freaked it though.

SoundSlam: What are your goals for after this album? Do you have plans thinking this album's going to come out and set up future projects?

Stat Quo: Somebody said some s**t about tours, but I guess that's going to depend on how successful the album is. That'll be great.

Alchemist: Yeah. It would be dope to hit the road with this. It will be good for the album and everybody to just take this on the road. We'll see what happens, I don't know.

Stat Quo: Then I'm going to put my record out.

SoundSlam: Statlanta right?

Stat Quo: That's always a great look, finally. Who sang that song, 'finally it has happened to me. Right in front...' who sang that song?

SoundSlam: I don't know. Alchemist should know, he's the record guy.

Alchemist: I got to dig into my files kid. I know the song though.

Stat Quo: Yeah. That finally happened to me, right in front of my face. I'm so excited. I think that's what she said on the hook.

SoundSlam: What are people going to get from Statlanta?

Stat Quo: A whole lot of s**t. It's crazy dawg. Look here, I've been working on this album since I've been signed here, and I'm just now getting done. A lot of people be like, 'yo, you took so long.' But, you know. The problem with a lot of these motherf**ker's albums is that they don't take time to do them. It sounds like you did that s**t in three days. You got two hot singles, but you have no substance to the record, nothing! It sounds like you didn't take any time. Me, I recorded all these different songs. I sat back and picked the ones I loved. I recorded at least four or five albums worth of material. I got that much music. I've taken the best out of those songs and created my first album, which is sort of like a compilation of my life up this point.

Alchemist: Did the Scarface song make the album?

Stat Quo: Yeah, that's on there.

Alchemist: I love that. The Stat Quo album is retarded. To me the only problem you got, what you going to keep?...The records you got already, I'm mad as s**t that they're aren't out already. Let's go.

Stat Quo: "By My Side" that's on the compilation, that was a throw away song. Alchemist heard that and was like, 'WOW! What the f**k?'

Alchemist: I don't understand it...I think it's cool they're getting this album out in the first quarter cause next year I'm coming with my album. Stat's coming with his. Next year, we're flushing the toilet next year.

SoundSlam: Is your album going to be similar to the last one you did?

Stat Quo: He's gonna rap more.

Alchemist: That's the only thing I might switch up. The formula is there. It works. We came fresh off the independent thing, we did almost 200 (thousand). Just hooking up with Em, that pushed me back a little bit. The album is retarded, it's called Chemical Warfare. It's coming next year.

Stat Quo: That name is the s**t. Chemical Warfare?! UHHHH. I love it. Whoooo, that's nasty.

SoundSlam: He really wants to get on that album.

Stat Quo: That's hard as f**k.

Alchemist: Stat Quo might have the best song on the album like last time.

Stat Quo: Ahh, don't give me that.

Alchemist: That was my favorite song.

Stat Quo: That song was hard. You had a lot of s**t on there, Al.

Alchemist: We were supposed to do a video but I was just fresh in the loop and I didn't know what was going on. It's on now.

Stat Quo: We'll get one this time.

Soundslam.com

Look out for Stat Quo's Shady/Aftermath debut, "STATLANTA", to drop in the first quarter of 2007. The new album is Executive Produced by Dr. Dre & Eminem.