DEVIN interview HERE!

[Crenshaw_blvd]

ThaFormula.com - Now you're first album was a great album. Did it do what you thought it should have done?

Devin The Dude - Nah, not really but it was cool. It was a good chance for the people to hear me. The album was a growing process. It was my first solo album and people were even wondering,  can I even do it? But you know blessings started coming and certain people started coming to help me out. Scarface put a lot of work in with me. In '94 I was in a group called the Odd Squad and Dre had heard of us then too. During the first Chronic tour they said they was listening to the Odd Squad album. Him and Snoop and all that were hip on us then. It was real underground. We was just talkin' about pussy and getting high as fuck and havin' a good time, and it was cool. It was just word of mouth people hearin' us and just blessings started coming man. People started callin' us for stuff. Scarface he asked me to do a hook for him. Him and Ice Cube did a song and I was blessed on that one. He gave me an opportunity to get heard on that one, and since then I was workin' and never stopped working in the studio. Music that's first and foremost. We love music and while we was working, Scarface was like "what do you think about doing a solo album?" So I was like maybe it can work and we really worked hard and had a lot of fun doing it. It came out pretty decent. We didn't do a video for it or nothing. I was just blessed to have a first solo album and people said the response on it was cool. The few people who did hear it.

ThaFormula.com - Now it seems like everything comin' out the South is all bounce type music, but you came with something different.

Devin The Dude - Well there is a lot of different stuff happening in the South. It's not just that. There is a lot of stereotypes on how things happen and that's cool to because we have a known sound like most cities have there specific sounds but within that city there is a few different people doin there own thang..

ThaFormula.com - So you really had no plans on doing a solo album?

Devin The Dude - No not really at first. I always wanted to, but it was like I always wanted to build enough listeners or what have you. who liked what I was talkin' about to make an album.

ThaFormula.com - Were you expecting anything with your first album or was it just whatever?

Devin The Dude - I felt like I do on this second album. I just want people to like it or to say is it cool, or what songs I should do a video for or what songs I probably should have chilled with. I like the response, whatever it maybe. Just to have the opportunity to sit here right now and make a second solo album is a blessing for me, and then being asked for by Dre and Scarface or havin' an opportunity to do a song with Ice Cube and Too Short. That's all the people I listened to back in the day right there.

ThaFormula.com - Some people look at you like the next Too Short. What are your thoughts on that?

Devin The Dude - That's an honor to say right there. But there can only be one Too Short, Dre and whatever.

ThaFormula.com - Now you worked with N.O. Joe on your last album and that was definitely Gumbo Funk at it's best right there.

Devin The Dude - Oh! you know about N.O. Joe! Yeah! He's got the funk right there.

ThaFormula.com - Man I haven't heard Gumbo Funk like that since the Geto Boys back in the day.

Devin The Dude - Uh oh! Yep and come on now it don't stop! Since you brought that up, that track there (untitled track blaring in the studio) was on an instrumental beat tape that N.O. had and I think he had Face listening to it for his Untouchable album. We was listening to it and every time that song came on it was real raw, but I just had to rewind it every time I heard it. I knew that I didn't have no dibs on it so I would just listen to it. When it came around to it and I went to help Face with his album and he chose all the songs and we went back to that and I asked him if he was gonna use that one. He didn't use it, so I was like whoa! I had to use it. I called up N.O. like "what's up with this beat?" He said it's cool, so I wrote like the first verse when I went out of town to visit my mom and like a month or 2 later I had a verse and a hook and I had pretty much said everything I had wanted to say. So I just brought that little bridge back in, "Say whatcha wanna" so it sounded like one of those songs from back in the day how they used to arrange songs cause I like the old school type of ways of doing things in the studio. So it came out real tight.

ThaFormula.com - So did you study what was going on in the studio before you started getting in to it?

Devin The Dude - Yeah, hands on mostly. I went to the Art Institute of Houston right before we got signed like in '92. But as soon as we got signed I fucked around and quit. I should have stayed, I wouldn't be in here knockin' over beers and shit! HA!HA!! Nah, but it was a cool experience man and the knowledge they gave is all about really just your music, and your love for it, you know. How you just love the music really, because a lot of people are in the music for different reasons and there is a certain reason you got to be here to last! And it's getting' kind of wild with the way rap is going.

ThaFormula.com - Have you started to see any Devin biters out there or people following your style?

Devin The Dude - I take it as a compliment because the shit can drive a muthafucka crazy if you just let it. See, blowin' up to me is just everybody feelin' the same way at a certain time and that's not the way it is all the time. You blow up at that specific time cause that's what's going on or somethin', but later on it probably dies down some. If I could just make a song that just sits right there in the middle or just lasts forever, that would be cool. I don't wanna just blow up and then just fall down. I like to have music out there and just last really. I wouldn't mid just havin' a hit or something, but I don't think I would go in the studio and say, "OK, today were makin a hit", "Whoo! We're gonna blow up around this muthfucka!" (Laughs)

ThaFormula.com - So what's going on with the new album. What are we lookin' at right now?

Devin The Dude - Well right now we got Bob Brown over there (glancing across the mixing board) on the knobs. The original Bobby B (Laughs). He's mixed about 14 to 16 songs so far. Production wise I got my homeboy DJ Domination of the Geto Boys, Coffee Brothers, matter a fact let's take a little pause for the cause and check out a little something and come back to this?

ThaFormula.com - Oh without a doubt.  Be sure to check back here Wednesday for part 2 with Devin, as we discuss the Up In Smoke Tour, hookin' up with Dre, and more on his upcoming album! We also bring you another exclusive Formula Interview

[Dogg_Pound_Gangsta]

tight interview homie.

[the408figga]

they done delayed this cd a gang of times... wonder when it finally drops

[mell_man]

I been wondering the same thing!  It was supposed to have dropped in the summer of last year.  I'm feenin for some dude!

[Jome]

 I'm feenin for some dude!

Different strokes for different folks

[4 KiN L]

why do they never put up the whole interview?? they always do it in parts...cos they wouldn't see him twice to have interviews this short...cos spoken this is like 3 minutes of an interview!! check back for part II...it's to make sure they always have visitors....but i must say it does work cos i always end up checking back!!

[Jome]

why do they never put up the whole interview?? they always do it in parts...cos they wouldn't see him twice to have interviews this short...cos spoken this is like 3 minutes of an interview!! check back for part II...it's to make sure they always have visitors....but i must say it does work cos i always end up checking back!!

True propaganda
Woof