DJ QUIK  (December 2004) | Interview By: Lil Jay for Westcoast2k

      

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Westcoast2k.Net - What's crackin Quik, its an honor we can do this interview.

DJ Quik - Thank you I appreciate it.


Westcoast2k.Net - How was the House Of Blues show the other day?

DJ Quik - Oh you missed it? It was fonky! It sounded great, it was loud & clear. We had like the best equipment and I had real musicians on stage. It was dope for real. Chingy was there too.


Westcoast2k.Net - You gonna have any more shows in the near future?

DJ Quik - Oh yeah, probably so, I'm sure.




Westcoast2k.Net - OK so, to me, my personal opinion is that the name DJ Quik should be up there with the Dre's, the Timbaland's, and all them as far as getting recognition. And what I never got is why that never really happened?

DJ Quik - Wow, thanks Jay. That is partially my fault, because I didnt know enough about the business to make sure that my first recording contract was straight, and it was a deal that I could live with. But it ended being a deal that I couldn't live with. Because I got sold like cattle when I first got my record deal. And back then contracts where kinda terrible, you know? They sucked. As far as Profile, it was so hard for me to get out of that. I couldn't so I got caught. I figured if you can't beat them join them. So now, I'm a record company now. I learned from what they taught me, and I'm not gon' pass the buck. I'ma do it the right way, the way record companys are supposed to do it.




Westcoast2k.Net - Was that maybe one of the reasons that you decided to retire 2 years ago?

DJ Quik - Yeah. That was part of the reason. I just couldn't escape that contract. Basic contracts are supposed to be like 6 or 7 years, or 1 year with like maybe 6 options. The contract I was in was like a 10 or 11 year contract. You know? I wasn't getting paid and I wasn't happy at all. And plus I was going through a bunch of shit. But I'm not there any more, I dont think like that anymore. Im an executive now.


Westcoast2k.Net - It only made sense, you love it too much to just leave it alone dont you?

DJ Quik - Thanks for knowing that. Yeah music is my motivation in most cases. And actually, the music that I do sometimes motivates other people so I gotta stay musically motivated. And when I can't make people dance anymore that's when I'm gonna quit. But long story short, it was just because of the deal that I signed when I was a kid. I didnt know any better, and it just lasted too long. Like if I could have rebounded in 97, 98, then I probably could have been there with Dre. But then I had some personal family problems happen that kept me stuck for 7 years, you know? My best friend got killed. But my music is based on longevity.


Westcoast2k.Net - What motivated you to keep doing it and come back, after going through so much like watching your homies die. But then come back with all that energy again?

DJ Quik - Wow, honestly? Just not wanting to leave a loser. Cause if I would have quit I would have lost. I would have left a loser. That's like leaving Las Vegas with all your money gone, and all your jewelry pawned and you gotta go home broke. I can't leave broke, I can't leave unhappy. So I just got back in the laboratory and I just started doing other things, started doing everything different. I respect and I miss my boys, but I use them as motivation to keep going cause I dont think they would have wanted me to stop. I think they would have wanted me to take it all, and take my rightful place. What you think next year I'm about to do?


Westcoast2k.Net - Drop a classic?

DJ Quik - Not jus that, Ima put out some Grammy-Award winning type shit. Cause this music is fly, the lyrics is...Im telling you! Listen to me on the new 2Pac "Loyal to the Game" album.


Westcoast2k.Net - Yeah I heard it man.

DJ Quik - You heard it? And you liked it?


Westcoast2k.Net - The remixes where tight. The Raphael Saadiq, the Scott Storch and yours I liked.

DJ Quik - Thank you. Yeah I liked all those too, all the remixes. And I like 2 of the ones Eminem did too, though.


Westcoast2k.Net - I wasn't feeling them too much. Not to diss Em, but it was mostly because of they shit they did with Pac's music. You heard how they made Pac say their names like he knew them before he died?

DJ Quik - Yeah... (laughs)


Westcoast2k.Net - Thats fucking up his legacy, they are changin history.

DJ Quik - I know, thats messed up huh?


Westcoast2k.Net - I remember back in 2001 or 2002 you said you're never gonna do the Greatest Hits thing, because when people put out Greatest Hits its over. What made you change your mind?

DJ Quik - Well I wasn't playing with the retiring thing, I mean I had quit. I lost a lot of things and I realized that I didn't wanna die and I didnt wanna lose no more friends for trying to keep it real, and do bad business. So I realized that I would just be better to quit. And I talked to Profile about it. Actually I tried to put out a record independently, but it didnt work. I got greedy about the money at that point. It was like 'Just give me the money, I wanna be rich and famous now.' And I just didnt care. And I was with a record company that didnt care either, "Bung hole" Records. You know, "Bunged-hoe" Rercords, whatever you wanna call them. They did a real terrible job, we all did a bad job. I went out on tour though, I went and promoted the fucking record. But it just didn't turn around like we wanted it to turn around and I realized that Bungalo couldn't do their thing like they said they would. They just never told the truth about anything, everything was done so sneakily and shitty.

"How did I [heal my mind]? Thats the best question in the whole world. You know how I did it? I broke all the bonds with all the negative people that I had. Every last one. I had no negative people around me no more. No haters, no people that be like 'Yo we go fuck that nigga up for you Quik'. And I'd just be like 'You aint gotta do that man. Why dont you all just kick it here and have fun man. Play this music man. Here play my X-Box. Why y'all wanna go fight, why y'all wanna go shoot? What the hell y'all gonna prove with that? Man, kick it! Refuckinlax. Read a bible, read a book! Fuckin re-cap in the head stupid! And you might learn something.'" — DJ Quik

Westcoast2k.Net - Kinda like Death Row was? At least thats what they say it was.

DJ Quik - Oh no. They could never be another Death Row. Death Row was smart. Death Row was brilliant. Suge was never sneaky, Suge would just tell you if he wasn't gonna pay you. He wasn't sneaky, they didnt do that kind of sneaky stuff. Bungalo was criminal shit, it was just wack dogg. But I leave that alone, I'm passed it. If I had not gone through that I wouldn't got the experience, you know? So I'm glad I got the experience, because now all is well. But for the most part I went on and put out a Greatest Hits cause I admitted that I was defeated, and I just tried to go somewhere and figure out what I would do for the rest of my life if it wasnt music.


Westcoast2k.Net - How did you heal your mind after going through so much in your life?



DJ Quik - How did I? Thats the best question in the whole world. You know how I did it? I broke all the bonds with all the negative people that I had. Every last one. I had no negative people around me no more. No haters, no people that be like 'Yo we go fuck that nigga up for you Quik'. And I'd just be like 'You aint gotta do that man. Why dont you all just kick it here and have fun man. Play this music man. Here play my X-Box. Why y'all wanna go fight, why y'all wanna go shoot? What the hell y'all gonna prove with that? Man, kick it! Refuckinlax. Read a bible, read a book! Fuckin re-cap in the head stupid! And you might learn something.' So it was like that, my thing was that I got away from all the negative people. Cause I tried to help all the negative people, and that pulled me back too. I started them to just be positive about shit, but you can't when they're all held at being negative. Now they are all gone, and I'm surrounded by...actually I'm really alone these days, because I'm a unique individual and there is not many people like me. And somebody would probably bore me to death.


Westcoast2k.Net - Yeah I was wondering about that, because we don't really see you with the Hi-C's and AMG's anymore..

DJ Quik - All gone. They are all gone. And it wasn't personal. It was like... Hi-C is like a brother to me, but we just grew apart. I grew apart. Me & AMG dont see eye to eye as much as we used to because he's got things he's gotta do. I got a family I gotta support, and I got a company I gotta run. So anybody thats not about helping me get to where I gotta go for their own selfish reasons, I can't be involved with them at all. I wanna see Mad Science at the top, Top 3 label on the West Coast within a couple years. Because I'm doing the right things, Im signing the right artists and I'm motivated by the right things. Namely one, God, homie. I mean, not to be all religious, but had I not just given all my faith to my creator and said I'ma let you lead and take control and show me what I need to be doing with my music and with my family. When I did that and just started being silent, all the answers started coming. All the answers are in silence, you know?


Westcoast2k.Net - So that was a process of months? Or even years?

DJ Quik - Yeah, ever since like 2000 is when I really got focused. When I turned 30 I was like Yeah now its time to go on with the rest of my life.


Westcoast2k.Net - So you feel and think different than a few years back?

DJ Quik - Yeah, hell yeah! 94, 95, 96, 97. When I was doing "Safe & Sound" records in 95 and being a angry little gangbanger type of dude. Man I'm not him no more, I grew out of him. I was a troubled youth, you know? I was troubled because I had a short attention span, and it was just too easy to get me in trouble. Now, my steps are guided, and I got a lot of real focused people around me. And all is well. I got a record company for gods sake. A real record company, not a Bungalo, you know?


Westcoast2k.Net - You said you broke all the bonds with people around you. Was Suga Free involved in this, or was the fall out about something else? Cause to tell the truth, this made me sad because you two clicked together like nobody else. What is the real deal?

DJ Quik - The real deal? It was really just about me taking a loss. I've spent the life money on that Suga Free project, the last one. And I figured, if I dont stop spending this money now, and I haven't seen a dime back even at this point, if I dont stop spending this money I'm gonna be affording a money pit, and I didn't wanna do it. It just became too high maintanance. Its like... I can't babysit dudes that are older than me. Thats just unethical, its retarded. So I stopped babysitting and I shook. He's gotta go raise himself, and they gotta get music the best way they can, but they're not gonna steal any tracks from me, and not pay me for them.


Westcoast2k.Net - So you been hooking up with bigger artists like Ludacris, Chingy, Jay-Z, and Beanie Sigel.

DJ Quik - Yeah I'ma keep doing stuff for the Roc, thats my family.


Westcoast2k.Net - Since you're doing stuff for bigger people, you're making the big money now?

DJ Quik - Exactly. But Jay, it has no bearing on money, it has no bearing on I'm not producing the homies no more. The point is that its time for me to expand my horizons. And just because I see people around me not grow, that dont mean that I'ma stay subjugated just to please them and not grow with them, so we can all just be one big flock of not growing people, like midgets. I can't do that, I gotta keep growing. And the more I grow, the more I see clearly the people that don't wanna grow with me, and the more space I have to just naturally put between us.


Westcoast2k.Net - But why were you so hard on yourself?

DJ Quik - You wanna know why? Because I couldn't get out of that contract of Profile Records.


Westcoast2k.Net - So it was not just messing up your music, but your whole life?

DJ Quik - Yeah it was. It was all based on that. I couldn't get free, I couldn't sign artists, I couldn't really do any collaborations because they kept me on suspension as in means of not giving me my royalty change. So I was just stuck between a rock and a hard place. My whole life was a catch 22, at that point.




Westcoast2k.Net - I still have a tape with all those sick ass radio drops that you recorded back in the day. Do you remember them?

DJ Quik - Oh yeah, hell yeah! Of course I do, and them was like my favorite songs of all time, but it was just radio drops!


Westcoast2k.Net - There was this one drop where you had a line that went "I'm no longer a supporter of East Coast rap". Its obvious that all this changed, but I was wondering what was going on through your life at that time?

DJ Quik - I was a angry gangster rapper. I was a pissed off gangster rapper, wondering why people couldn't see things our way. I was biased, I was just all banged out. I thought it was all about me and mine. Fuck everybody else, until I got out of this region and went around the world and saw that 'Uhhh, I was wrong'. And it takes a humble guy to admit that he fucked up. And I did, I fucked up royaly. I'm not proud of it, but it was all part of me growing, it was part of me growing without real good advicers around me, without a lot of good things to focus on to keep me moving forward and positive. All the shit I was saying was bullshit. I became a product of my environment.


Westcoast2k.Net - Do you listen to some of that stuff you did?

DJ Quik - Its hard to listen to some of it right now, cause that's some angry shit. And it brings back the worst memoriess. Like I had to go to a psychiatrist sometimes to reprogram my past. To be honestly told that I was wrong.


Westcoast2k.Net - So tell us a little bit about the new album?

DJ Quik - Man, expect the unexpected. It's a real good sounding album. Like we took our time with it. Its funky, its the right collaborations. I mean Wyclef, my boy Shawn [Anthony], they helped, Chingy helped. And its like new funky shit, with no real inspiration from what's going on in the market today, or not like we going to listen to old records and say 'Lets go bite this or sample that'. It's just some new good shit. I mean, if it wasn't for the keyboards and shit getting better now, and sampling rates going up higher, we probably couldn't bring any of the records that we have and know we can do. Keyboards have gotten better, samples have gotten better, so naturally as a progress my music has gotten better. But it's some funky, simple, futuristic, space age type of shit based on music that was predicated on all of our ancestors. Its like its going all the way forward equally as its going all the way reverse, so its like good ankered futuristic music. Thats the best way I can describe it to you. But the production didn't change. I'm a basic drum specialist, thats what I do and its gonna stay like that. But expect funky futuristic rock & roll music on this new shit.


Westcoast2k.Net - Are you still rockin the talkbox on the album?

DJ Quik - No no, I left the talkbox alone out of respect for Roger. People should also stop too. Like I hear things that come up locally here on the radio with people using the talkbox, and they don't do it the way they're supposed to do it sometimes. So to me, talkbox is personal, and I put it down out of respect for Roger Troutman.


Westcoast2k.Net - Alright Quik, thanks for takin the time to do this interview.

DJ Quik - Aight Jay, thanks for havin me.