New Buckshot interview

[Elano]

HipHopDX: You’ve got Survival Skills coming out on September 15. What was your mentality while recording this project?
Buckshot: [That] we’re going to war. When it comes time to doing something that I’m faced with pressure or discomfort, I always remember and say to myself that, "I’m a general in a boot-camp, and I can’t fail that position as a general no matter what I may personally feel." What I personally feel has nothing to do with my position as a general, so as a general, even though KRS-One is the man [and] I respect him, and he’s a legend and I’m a student of KRS-One, I’ve got to get in there and bring back that trophy. I’ve got to get in there and assassinate that mic. I’ve got to destroy that bunker. I have to be a general at the end of the day.

DX: You’ve worked with KRS-One a couple of times before. One thing right off the top of my head, the “5 Boroughs” back in 1999. Why record Survival Skills now? Is this album a reflection or statement of where Hip Hop is nowadays?
Buckshot: Yeah it is. Of course it is, and it’s a creative version of allowing that. Yes it is...1000% yes it is [a reflection of present day Hip Hop] because we could’ve been putting the album out, but we didn’t. It wasn’t time. We didn’t think about it; we only knew that we were going to rock shows together and we only knew that we were going to do certain things together, but we never said that we were going to do a whole…album together because it just wasn’t in the air.

DX: And with this album, what kind of a statement are you making? I know with the single “Robot,” you and Kris kind of cleared up a lot issues about the use of Auto-Tune.
Buckshot: It is, and how about this: we are moving so fast with technology that even that [“Robot”] campaign is over if you peep it. Even the “Robot” campaign is over. It’s like that campaign is done. We don’t need to talk about it. It seems like it just got here, but that [campaign] is over because everybody is already starting to saturate the concept of‘ "Don’t become a robot" or "Down with Auto-Tune" or "Down with people trying to follow the same trend," and all that. Even that’s already kind of settled in. But the album represents me and KRS-One telling people what it takes now to survive. You need to have skills. What does it take to survive in the business where whole record companies are swallowed up… everybody’s just swallowed…[but] Buckshot and KRS-One are somehow, someway, still here.

DX: And with that, what are those skills that you feel an artist needs to survive and continue to resonate with an audience as you and KRS-One do?
Buckshot: Respect…that’s the number one main jewel. Respect. You’ve got to have the patience, the discipline and the obedience, and that’s one of the jewels that I would tell people, and then respect, because I respect KRS-One to the next level. I respect those who came before me and put it down to the next level, and that’s why I think that my industry [with Duck Down Records] is the way it is, so I can constantly say, in the words of Warren Buffett and certain other people, "If you [constantly] surround yourself by those that are greater than you, then you have no choice but to become great." It’s not even like you have a choice. The only time you have choice is when you stop hanging with them.

DX: And going off on that, is that part of the appeal of working with KRS-One?
Buckshot: Yeah, just being able to just…it’s more of a thing like, I know when I’m around him, I’ve got to be at my best because he’s somebody like me who can peep somebody when they’re not at their best, so it’s like, just be at your best. Subconsciously, he’s doing the same thing…so we’re both feeding off of each other because we both respect each other. It’s not like Kris is like, "Nah, that’s Buckshot, he’s the little homie, he knows how it is." He respects Buckshot’s stage shows and the same thing goes with Kris [for me]. So I think, like I said, keeping an open mind and having respect for the people who have [come from the past], because that’s what makes classics. That’s what makes a legend. A legend is somebody who defines a time and a year.

DX: Definitely. And kind of with that and what you were saying before about how a song will kind of burst one day and then the next day the campaign for it is over, do you feel this is going to change the way people are look at the music industry and the way fans and artists and even labels interact with one another?
Buckshot: Yeah, yeah. I constantly keep saying to everybody, "If you don’t know what to do, you’ll be apart of seeing it being done." You know? If you don’t know what to do, you’ll be apart of it being done. That’s simple and plain. So that means, if you don’t do something, it’ll be done for you. [Laughs] So yes, Hip-Hop [has] changed slightly because of out tolerance to stuff like that and our tolerance levels, and all of that affects business, it affects everybody. But I’ll tell you: step it up. That means, you know what? Make another single. Make another song. Get in there and make something fire. Come on and keep it going. We’re not in the ‘80s or ‘90s where only one record would last for a whole year. Step it up.

DX: And at the same time with that idea, though, it kind of seems like the music is being cheapened, not necessarily to make –
Buckshot: It happens. What you’re talking about here is the Bon-Ton effect. Now that Bon*Ton or Wise Potato Chips wants to put out more potato chips, they’ve got to skin the potatoes; they’ve cut down on the grease…because they’ve got to make more. So whenever you [increase] quantity, you always exchange [that] quantity for quality. It’s very, very hard to get those two to be together. You understand what I’m trying to tell you? So like I said, when it comes to quality, real Hip Hop is still out there. You’ve got to go get it, though. It ain’t going to fall in your hands like it did back in the day. You have to go get it.

DX: And that’s actually one of the things that I really love about Duck Down Records…because you guys are always maintaining a presence out in the world, in the industry and on all of these blogs, but at the same time, you’re not sacrificing the quality of the music in the slightest degree.
Buckshot: Word up. Word up, and I just thank the Gods above for the fact that they just give us the energy to keep doing that. We have a site called MyDuckDown.com where kids can go, people can go, adults and everybody can go to this site and put up their music, put up their videos and put up their content so that we can become part of this network without feeling like, you know…I created that system so they can feel comfortable.

DX: It feels like with the advent of the blogs and how they’ve been used for music, it feels necessary for an artist now to have some sort of interaction with fans.
Buckshot: Of course. I mean, it’s just like I said, interactivity [with an artist] is a way for a fan to know and feel that they are apart of what they support. Often, a lot of times, fans never used to know that they were apart of what they [supported]. That’s why when you go to a spot, the people would be yelling and going crazy, and the fans would be like, "Can I touch this person? Can I talk to this person?" And nowadays, you can actually do that. Nowadays, you can actually be involved in that and you can actually do that. I think that’s a great thing. I think, again, I keep telling people, a lion is the king of the jungle, and you can either feed the lion or you can be eaten by the lion. That’s up to you. That’s your choice. I choose to feed the lion as opposed to being food for the lion.

DX: And in discussing how the industry has changed, nowadays, I guess in the more mainstream model, it feels like the game is built for artists to be lasting.
Buckshot: A certain amount of time? What do you mean?

DX: It doesn’t feel like the mainstream, commercial industry right now…is built for artists to have that lasting effect like the artists in the ‘90s and ‘80s, where they’ve been able to last because the industry’s been so built around continuing their legacy and creating their legacy. Nowadays, it feels like when someone signs to a label, it feels like, "Oh, I’ve got to have a single and make sure I have a single every year," and then usually, it doesn’t ever work out like that.
Buckshot: That is true. I don’t know the response to that because what you’re saying is true. Like I said, it almost becomes like, how do you respond to that knowing that…there really is no response to that because you dropped a jewel there and explained how [in] the music industry, the time span has been cut off because peoples’ attention span is really short. And you know what, the corporations never were down with us. They only got down with us in the ‘90s. Remember, Hip Hop started in the ‘70s, and then in the ‘80s, it became a creation. In the ‘70s, it was an idea; in the ‘80s, it became a reality to the world. But in the ‘90s, it became a reality to the corporate companies. Corporate America only grasped a hold of Hip-Hop during the ‘90s, and then after the 1990, corporate America didn’t know what the fuck to do. They didn’t know a thing about it. That same year corporate America really started to take over Hip Hop, Buckshot, Master P and a few other people came in with that same impact of saying, "No, y’all are not going to do this. Y’all are not going to take over Hip Hop so much. We’re going to create our own labels and show you how it’s done." And they couldn’t compete with us as independent labels, because they may have the money, but they don’t have the mind. The money can’t do nothing for you without the mind.

DX: It’s like there’s a difference between being apart of the music industry and being so tied up in the music like yourself and knowing exactly what the people want and giving them that, versus appealing to Hip Hop, like all of those McDonald’s commercials and what-not.
Buckshot: Yo, McDonald’s [is] so hilarious. I love embarrassing [they are]. I love how they be embarrassing themselves, and they don’t care because they’re not embarrassing themselves, they’re embarrassing the actors who say, "I take money to do this." There are actors that say [they’ll] take money to say, "Oh yeah? You ain’t going to grab my McDonald’s burger." You know, "Oh yeah? [Sample] this!" Ziggy-ziggy-ziggy, and it’s so embarrassing.

DX: That’s actually the exact commercial I was thinking of.
Buckshot: Yo, I hate that commercial. I hate it. I hate it so bad, I don’t know…I think a lot of people hated it because it’s so embarrassing. It’s such a buttermilk-version of Hip Hop.

DX: Yeah, I know. It’s disgusting…well that’s all the questions that I had for your today-
Buckshot: Can I add something?

DX: Yeah yeah, go ahead.
Buckshot: We’re living in the world [and] we are the John Connors [from the Terminator films]. We are John Connor. John Connor represents us as a people, and that’s what that movie was trying to tell you, that we [are] John Connor. John Connor was the person that built the terminator, and he had to be the same person to come back and destroy it. Well that’s we are: we’re building the Internet, we’re building the terminator, and eventually, we’re going to have to come back and destroy it, so just recognize that.

DX: Yes, definitely. And so you feel like with this album you kind of have to destroy what the model of Hip Hop id now, but also rebuild it anew?
Buckshot: I think so. I hope so. I really hope so…before, we used to lack something. We had the right music, but we didn’t have the business. Well, they messed up when they linked up KRS-One and Buckshot, because Buckshot is the business. Yo, I eat, crap and breathe business. So when you put that mind frame together with a creative mind frame like KRS-One, you’ve got a ticking time bomb. Let’s see if they stop us now.

[Elano]