EROTIC D (PART 2)  (July 2008) | Interview By:

      

We talk about working on the D.O.C.’s Helter Skelter project, who Erotic D’s influences were, the people he’s ghost-written for, and much, much more! Don’t miss out on Part 2 with Erotic D!

 

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Interview was done by phone in June 2008

Questions Asked By: Chad Kiser

Erotic D Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here
 

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Read Part 1 of This Interview: Here
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Dubcnn: You had mentioned that you did some ghost writing for some people, is there anybody that you can mention or let us know?

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit, I done wrote for all kinds of motherf-ckers like DOC, MC Breed, and some of Dre's artists. I just put my all into their work because they were breaking me off nice, helping me get my paper right. See, a lot of times people would hire me to produce and didn't realize the writing skills and then they would want me to write something for them. I wrote on Helter Skelter, I wrote on a couple of MC Breed's albums; I am drawing a blank right now but there are artists that are out right now that I done did work for. I done helped a few artists get deals with Warner Brothers and different things like that because I didn't want to be no artist. Before then, my thing was to help n-ggaz get deals. Really, I just wrote for DOC, MC Breed, and Dre, or whoever they would tell me to write for.


Dubcnn: We started out you were talking about cats like UTFO and Run DMC, who were your main influences that got you into producing?

In the beginning I was writing before I was actually producing. It started out basically with Run-DMC, but then I got really influenced by LL Cool J because his first record dropped; so I would have to say those two because I just liked them n-ggaz word play. Any record I do there’s always real raps in there no matter what it's; just real street and gangster shit cause that’s where I came from. I am a believer that you should always have skills and not just but up there saying shit.


Dubcnn: I read an article about you being fascinated with sound and how it fits with the story of a movie and subject matter and how you think an album should make people see what they are hearing so you always put little scenes between tracks to let the movie kind of see if you can score a soundtrack.

Would scoring movies still be something that you would want to do?

It’s something that I got to do even if I have to pay for the movie *laughs*. Scoring a movie for me would be like imagine growing up movie around and not really having a life long friend. As an ARMY kid we had to move almost every year because my pops would get his orders so I didn't know anybody for long periods of time. So, all I had was movies to watch and TV shows because I never wanted to get close to any of the kids because I knew we would be moving in a few years. So when I was watching them movies I seen how the music was setting the scene, you know? If somebody about to die, I already know what kind of music is going to be playing before it happens. If somebody wants to be funny then the music has to be comedic. So I just started relating sounds to life like that.

To me music tells us how to feel or we play music to tell how we feel or what kind of mood we in cause one of them two is going to happen everyday of our lives. When it comes to wanting to score a movie I just feel like that is some of the most greatest talented shit you can do. If you have five to ten seconds to create a chase scene and can pull it off that is dope to me because that isn’t a whole lot of time. If you have a theme song that people can recognize as soon as it comes on and want to see your TV show that is incredible to me. You don’t have a lot of time to do that shit. So yeah scoring a movie or a TV show is something that I really want to do I also say that is something I can do until the day I die.

People are under this dumb ass assumption that we can't do hip hop 'til we die which is bullsh-t. I know one thing you can do is make music for the masses until you die because there is no age restrictions to making music but you might hear people saying he is too old to be talking about that shit. When it comes to sounds and music there ain’t no restrictions on that so with the music and the TV shows that is something that I feel I can do until I die. I ain’t never had a regular job no nine to five and don’t plan on doing one as long as God keeps giving me the talent to make music. Usually movies are scored by orchestral cause I want to be able to work with a full orchestral and get to know where the sounds in my keyboard come from. Just really understand how all the instruments work so I can say I remember the day that dude was playing the violin, the piccolo for me in this movie scene. It’s about creating something out of nothing.



Dubcnn: You had a TV show at one time called the Erotic Hour, so is the TV thing something you are trying to get back into or continue doing.

I got a TV show I am trying to deliver for myself right now. I am married now and lucky my wife that like bitches and likes to see me with other bitches. For all these years I have been able to survive in the game without having my name on the front or make a hit record without the necessity, I done made records because I been on this real life shit out here getting money with these bitches unlike these fake-ass n-ggaz who I know is fake saying they pimping n-gga I live the pimp life for real this last ten years. So me and my wife are talking about this TV show that we are going to try out online first called "US". Its really just me and her and cameras with us everyday whatever happens, happens you know what I'm saying. If she is just going to the gym then that is what it is, if we have a threesome popping off then that is what it is, that shit in on there. We starting it online and if that goes well then we take it to TV like my other show we going to have to tone some things down. Try to develop an audience for it on one of my websites first and then when we put it on TV people will have already known about it. That is something that is open to us all the time, with the history we got people are always coming up to me offering me stuff with TV but I turn them down.


Dubcnn: Let's get back into some of this Death Row situation. Actually did you ever write for Eazy and them since you came up back with them?

Yeah, I wrote for Eazy, I wrote a lot of shit for a lot of them dudes. I would turn the raps over and if they got used they got used and if not I didn't trip I would just used them for other shit. There was shit that I wrote all the way up until Helter Skelter with DOC I maintained my. Whenever ever they started fight I wouldn't end my relationship with either one of them. So when Eazy wasn't with DOC or Dre, I was still fucking with all of them. I wrote songs for Eazy after he wasn't with Dre no more but they never came out.


Dubcnn: What projects were you involved in with Death Row?

The first project was the Chronic record I was there before they got started I did music, mixed music and wrote songs for them and all that. By the time the record came out I had done bummed out yaw know what I saying. Somebody decided not to use any of my songs I don’t know who did or who decided what but the record turned out great but we had a nice one going ourselves that’s how that goes. Some people just don’t understand that they want to make it where they just want to say I did all of the Chronic. I did not do all that record flat out.


Dubcnn: Did you work on Doggystyle or any of that stuff?

The only way I was involved with that was there is a dude named Sean Thomas that used to play keyboards for me. I was taking care of the n-gga he was living with me and shit down here in Texas and he was saving all of my sounds in his keyboard because I didn't have one and didn't know how to play. So this n-gga asked to use some of my clothes to help a n-gga move in Arkansas, the next thing I know he up there with Dre and Suge them. He went up there the first time and Suge and them whooped a n-gga yaw know sent his ass back to Texas. By the time Doggystyle came out all the sounds that me and this n-gga had worked together to make to shock them n-ggaz with, that n-gga had used all of them. I got songs now that you would hear and be like ah that is the Murder was the Case the n-gga went up there and gave them a song that sounded totally similar to my shit. The same year I did it them n-ggaz put it out, I ain’t going to say with Doggystyle that I was up there doing music but I think that a lot of my music ended up on that motherf-cker due to this n-gga but at the same time I was still cool with them n-ggaz. When Suge first signed Snoop he called me up down here in Texas and played Snoops freestyle for me and asked me if I should sign him I was like shiiiiiit that n-gga is pretty damn good. I bet Snoop don't remember that, we cool now, but I bet if you ask him he wont remember freestyling over the phone he did not know who he was spitting for he just know Suge told him to spit to the n-gga on the other side of the phone.


Dubcnn: If you have anything back then that you can give up I don’t know what I would give to hear that...

I’m going to try to dig some of it up because me and my artist Six-Two, he be lying about he discovered him and shit. That n-gga been with me since right around the time I was doing Helter Skelter. He was 16 at the time and he had a group called Genocide. I was keeping in touch with them while I was doing Helter Skelter in Atlanta. Before I took him to Dre, Snoop and Daz came by my studio one day and we got to messing around and I have this track where me and Six-Two were rapping against Snoop and Daz. Man, that shit is dope! I got to pull that shit out and let n-ggaz listen to that. I got all kinds of shit from Dre and Doc, and a bunch of motherf-ckers you ain’t never heard of we ended up not putting them out.


Dubcnn: Damn, I would love to hear those tracks!

Ah yeah, you fucks with your boy and I am going to take care of you. I got record where you will be like he worked with that n-gga damn I wonder what that sounds like. See I don’t want to produce nobody that already sounds like somebody. I want a motherf-cker that sounds like some old school shit that we used to be able to get away with. I got a little project that I am working on that I will be sharing with you in the next couple of months I got a solo album that I am getting ready to drop soon so I will most def get you a couple of that.


Dubcnn: Helter Skelter, what’s the history behind that with you? Dre was talking about this record, before it came out were you supposed to be on that.

N*gga, me and Dre are so tight that I can get on any record that he put out; I just refuse to sit up under Dre like some of these n-ggaz. As far as n-ggaz not coming out I feel I get a better play from Dre because I don’t rely on Dre, so yeah I was going to be on Helter Skelter. You want to know some sh-t? At the time when DOC told me the record was going to be called Helter Skelter I felt really disrespected, but at the same time them n-ggaz broke me off really, really nice. I was getting paid for doing what I was supposed to. Dre hadn't put the record out yet and DOC told me straight up that he wanted to name the record that before Dre could so that was the only motivation behind that title.


Dubcnn: From that record, were some of those tracks old Dre tracks?

No, that was all me. I was in the studio for 8 months thinking how I can shock the world. The only thing I used was the original beat that came in by itself on the Brand New Formula, because Doc requested that. I just looped that instrumental, but all them drum breaks and all that was all live sh-t. I hired some of the best musicians I could find to play. The bass lines was live, the saxophones were live, the congas was my sh*t. 80% of helter Skelter was all live drums. We just mixed the sh*t out of those motherf-ckers!

I had five hundred thousand dollars so I didn't have to work, EVER! *laughs*. I ain't got to watch my mouth; I’m the captain of the ship. DOC gave me the keys and the concept of what he wanted and I created all that. He wanted to use a couple of old Dre tracks though and Dre put an injunction on the record which I was like God Damn there is a God thank you. Cause I don’t want to steal nobody music we ain't got to do that. There was one track he wanted to use called "The year after", bringing us back to the two faced n-gga Sean Thomas the keyboard, I let him hear the song and he played keyboards on the original song so he went back and told Dre before the record came out. At the time I was pissed of at him but I should have thanked him because that gave me a chance to remix the record.


Dubcnn: Did you ever get to hear any of the stuff Dre and Cube had cooked up?

Ahh, yea, fa sho! When I get to kick it with Dre I hear all kinds of shit that shit was dope, my n-gga.


Dubcnn: Do you know anything about a record called 'Gimme 50 Feet'?

No, When Dre do records he never really knows who the beat is going to be for; if it was for 50 Cent, Ice Cube, Em or whoever you know what I'm saying? So I might have heard the beat without anybody on it, but as far as a song ‘Gimme 50 Feet’, I don’t know anything about that. Dre don’t title his records while he is working on them.


Dubcnn: Do you know how far along they were with that original record.

I believe Dre told me that they didn't get to far cause conflict of whose label it was going to be on and certain things that Dre didn't want said and Cube wanted to be viewed as boss cause he is a boss, but the word I got out of Dre is basically they didn't get to far. They couldn’t work out the specifics.


Dubcnn: I know they had Natural Born Killaz, but I didn’t know if there were anymore?

Yeah they had a few more, but I don’t know the titles of any of them, but those motherf-ckers were ridiculous! They were dope!


Dubcnn: There are a lot of cats who would love to hear those tracks! I’ve wondered why, in this day and age, we don’t hear too many, if any, Dr. Dre tracks leak out.

One thing about Dre, if you let a song leak, you’re f-cked. He will cut your ass off. So being around him is a good spot for a career. He was having too many songs leaked. I heard recently that this cat Crooked I wrote a song for Dre and let it leak online and now Dre ain't going to use it. That is a great way to f-ck up a great publishing check!



 

Keep it locked right here for Part 3 with Erotic D - Coming soon!