It's April 16, 2024, 02:53:23 PM
Few careers in hip-hop are as long-lasting and respected as that of The Chocolate Boy Wonder aka Soul Brother #1 aka, simply, Pete Rock. Since breaking through as a producer on 1991’s All Souled Out EP, Rock’s albums, remixes and compilations have gone on to become some of the most classic music in the genre. He recently released Soul Survivor II through BBE/Rapster Records, an album featuring Talib Kweli, RZA, and former partner C.L. Smooth among others. Allhiphop.com sat down with Pete in New York to discuss the new album, the state of rap, and how one of the most anticipated reunions in hip-hop came and went. AllHipHop.com: How did the collaborations on Soul Survivor II come about? When you make a beat, do you have a particular MC in mind? PR: That’s basically how it works for me. When I’m making beats, I'm always thinking of the person who would sound good on it. As far as them being with it and being down with the project, they was with it and I’m real happy that they’re a part of the album as well. So, y’know, it just made my day. AllHipHop.com: How’s your relationship been with BBE? PR: Uh, I mean, I’ve been the one to basically promote [the album]. BBE approached me, but I’m doing all the promotion myself. I'm the one putting my own money into blowing up my own project. I don't really have that much support coming from the label. But as far as Rapster goes, they’re the ones that really was behind me and really helped support this project. AllHipHop.com: Do you ever read reviews of your albums? PR: Uh huh, but I don’t really care what people write about anything. I’m just really into doing my music. [Whether] people like it or they don’t like it, it’s all good. It doesn’t matter. AllHipHop.com: One review of the new album said that where it seemed you force-fed big names together on Soul Survivor, the new album has you working with rappers who vibe with your sound. Is that a fair assessment? PR: I don’t agree with that at all. I don’t think I force-fed anyone. [Soul Survivor] was just an album that people were excited to be on. I heard a lot of the compilations that were coming out at the time and they were plain and I just felt like starting the Soul Survivor series to where it’s exciting and people can pop in the CD and just be excited from beginning to end. Y’know it’s funny how they talk about force-fed when we feel like, as consumers, we’re being force-fed this music on the radio that you hear every single day that’s not even relevant to kids. And some of it’s good and some of it’s very irritating and they don’t give you a chance to even let a record sink in, y’know? They just keep force-feeding you and pushing it on you and pushing it inside your brain. So, if anybody’s being force-fed, it’s us, the consumer. AllHipHop.com: I’ve read a couple of reviews that call this your “comeback” album. PR: It ain’t no comeback. That’s just uneducated people talking and writing down certain things that they don’t know nothing about. They haven’t been following any interviews, they haven’t been following any music, they haven’t been following any history. So an ignorant person who doesn’t know is gonna say something like that. AllHipHop.com: Do you think it’s just lazy journalism? PR: Yeah. They don’t know who I am. And if they do, they couldn’t tell you the first thing I’ve done. You ask anyone who makes a comment to you like that, you ask them, “Could you tell me about Pete Rock? Could you tell me about a record he made?" and see what they say. AllHipHop.com: Up until the late 90s, you’d see a lot of classic hip-hop albums coming out, whereas now it's primarily single-oriented. What do you think caused this change? PR: I think people are putting records out just for the money. That’s why their music sounds so fucked up. Nobody’s putting their heart and soul into the music. It’s about the music, not about the materialistic outside of it. [When] people do it for that reason, you can tell and hear it in the music, like there’s no soul in it. There’s no type of blood, sweat and tears going into it. AllHipHop.com: Will we ever get back to a time where this emotion can be felt in hip-hop? PR: As long as brothers like me are still alive, yeah, we'll go back to that and we’ll put that back out there to the people. Kids gotta learn somehow where hip-hop is. AllHipHop.com: Do you think you’re critiqued unfairly because you’ve earned a certain status in hip-hop, as if people are holding you to a higher standard than other, less experienced, producers? PR: Well, if I am critiqued, it’s only by the ones who’s really controlling the music right now. To me, they’re only letting one type of music through, they’re not letting through hardcore hip-hop, real hip-hop. Whether it sounds popish or radio-friendly, that’s the only thing today that people want to hear. They don’t want to hear the talent, the raw talent, that goes into hip-hop music and the different things we can do with it. AllHipHop.com: But the album has, if not radio-friendly, certainly club-friendly songs. That must’ve been a conscious decision. PR: Yeah, but just to keep current with what’s going on and let people know I can do the current stuff too. But my heart is into hip-hop. When I’m creating an album I always know I have to put something on there that people can feel, radio-friendly wise. AllHipHop.com: Have you heard any of Danger Mouse’s Grey Album? PR: (Dismissively) Yeah, it’s okay. To me, these remix albums, you get one idea and you just take it overboard and a lot of it ain't hot. Some of it is and some of it isn’t. I haven't really listened to the Grey Album, maybe one or two cuts. I just like [Jay-Z’s] Black Album, all that extra remixing shit to me, you can’t even fuck with that shit. AllHipHop.com: There’s an album out now that puts the Black Album over your instrumental album Petestrumentals. PR: Yeah, I had no involvement in that. No one cleared it with me to put that out there like that and I didn’t even do that. You want a real remix album? Let’s talk about it. Let's try to make something great instead of slapping beats together or getting Joe Schmo producers to put fuckin’ remix albums out. AllHipHop.com: What would you say to the people who put together that album? PR: Step your fuckin’ game up and make some real shit! AllHipHop.com: Which remixes do you want to be remembered for? PR: [Public Enemy’s] “Shut Em Down,” House of Pain’s [“Jump Around”], and Das EFX’s [“Real Hip-Hop”]. AllHipHop.com: Is there a difference between Danger Mouse chopping up different songs for a beat compared to someone who puts a cappella over one of your beats? PR: If I’m gonna do a remix album, every beat has to be different. It has to be dope. I gotta put my all into it to make it hot. I want people to talk about it forever and ever and when I’m creating anything, I’m always thinking, like, this has to be historical. This has to be so that 10 years from now, people’ll still be saying, “This shit is hot.” AllHipHop.com: Were you thinking that when making All Souled Out? PR: Yeah. When you’re making raw music, that’s automatic longevity. But when you’re making this crap that you hear today, 10 years from now, people ain’t even gonna fuckin’ remember this shit or think about it ‘cause it’s not classic. It’s just annoying. AHH: Are you surprised that a DJ can play “They Reminisce Over You” today and the crowd will still go bananas? PR: Naw, I’m not surprised. It makes me feel good every time I go to a club and hear my music and see the peoples’ reactions. That makes me feel like I’m doing my job right. AHH: With all the label shuffling you’ve dealt with, do you feel disgruntled with the business end of the industry? PR: Well, on the business side, there was a lot of things that I didn’t take care of in the beginning. When you come into the music business, you just happy to be in the business making money, making beats and doing what you love doing. I just thought I’d never get paid so much money for doing what I love doing. I wasn’t on top of it and people take advantage of you when you not on top of your business. I’ve learned a great deal from this business and now that I’m on top of my game, I plan on getting my just due right now. AllHipHop.com: What would you do differently going through all this again? Is it hard not to second-guess yourself? PR: First of all, I don’t have to second guess myself about anything. Period. Like with my music, I just want to reach the masses and reach the people. I don’t think about the outside world, but my fans. I just go in the basement, make my beats, change with the times and keep it going til rap is over. AllHipHop.com: In terms of the collaborations with C.L. Smooth, who approached who for that? PR: He actually approached me and wanted to be a part of the project as well as the last one. But I did think about him for the album because I thought we were gonna make an album together. So I thought let’s start by putting two songs on Soul Survivor II to warm people up. Right now, we just toured together, did like 30 shows, and I’m done. [The tour] was okay, but I felt that we could’ve done much better. AllHipHop.com: Were you surprised when he first came to you? PR: I mean, I felt like the fans wanted it so I felt like it would be a good idea but as we got to working, it just took a lot out of us being on tour. I mean, I feel like he should do his own project. That way, he’ll have everything he wants. [Since] we broke up, the time span between ’94 and now, he hasn’t done anything. He hasn’t put any records out there. So I want to see him do it on his own for once without me. AllHipHop.com: Would you do a track for his album if he asked? PR: Yeah, if he works it out with whoever signs him and they got a budget, yeah, he can definitely get at me. AllHipHop.com: What was your relationship with him while recording “Appreciate” and “It’s a Love Thing" for the album? PR: I mean, it was a regular working relationship, y’know? We did the music. He did two songs for me on my album. It wasn't nothing to it. We just did it. AllHipHop.com: Does seeing someone as talented as C.L. doing so little in music make you angry? PR: It doesn’t make me angry. It frustrated me at one point but you can’t make a person do anything he doesn’t want to do. So I had to keep putting stuff out regardless of us being apart. I felt like, I had to put an album out. That’s why I put the album out with Loud [1998’s Soul Survivor]. Then Petestrumentals. Now I’m on Soul Survivor II, which is my third project. That’s it. I felt like I couldn’t leave the people hanging. AllHipHop.com: When you started working on the album, was C.L. involved? PR: No, it was after. We talked on the phone a few times, I felt it would work, but (pauses) obviously it’s not gonna work out. That’s just the bottom line. I’m sorry to disappoint the fans but it's just gonna be Pete Rock til y’all get sick and tired of me. AllHipHop.com: The C.L. tracks are understandably getting a lot of attention, but this is, first and foremost, a Pete Rock album. PR: That was always a problem in the group. People was always checkin’ for Pete. The other person always felt like, “What about me?” With that, I’ve had to deal with that for years. He hasn't come out into the public and said anything to anyone [about this breakup]. AllHipHop.com: What would it take on your end to get back together or would you say now it won’t happen? PR: (Immediately responding) Naw, it’s not gonna work. Plain and simple. AllHipHop.com: Do you plan on continuing your relationship with BBE for future releases? www.allhiphop.comI don’t plan on doing another album with BBE after this. I’ll be a free agent. I just want to make sure that Soul Brother [Pete Rock’s own label] jumps off and I’m gonna put myself out on my own label, sell my album on my website, and if people want to get any Pete Rock music, they can just go to my website. AllHipHop.com: What do you have lined up next? PR: I’m working on Soul Survivor III for 2005 and a Pete Rock solo project where I’ll have at least 12 or 13 songs with me rhyming on every song. I’m doing a reggae project. I’m doing mixtapes. I’m doing funk compilations. I’m doing it all right now.
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