new Masta Ace interview, he isn't completely retiring

[davida.b.]

Masta Ace: A Long Hot Career
Monday - August 09, 2004
J-23
First thing I’ve gotta ask is about your retirement, there seems to be some confusion surrounding it. Domingo told us that your words were taken out of context by another source. Can you clear things up?

I never used the word ‘retiring,’ I explained what my plans were and I think it was just interpreted as retiring. I certainly didn’t intend for it to come across that way and become like a hip-hop alert. If he would have just inquired a little further we could’ve avoided the confusion. When I said what I said it didn’t seem to catch him, he didn’t ask me to elaborate at all and then it just became this huge thing after we hung up the phone. It’s fine, it’s whatever. I guess to a certain extent you can call it retirement. I don’t like that word cause I am gonna continue to do music with other people, I’m gonna continue to write rhymes, produce, be imbedded in the music. It’s just as far as me putting out another full length album, it isn’t likely.

You have one of the best catalogs of music around, and your latest is no exception. Where does it rank for you among your work?

“Disposable Arts” has been my favorite album because of all that went into it. The fact that I was over five years since doing an album and I don’t think anyone expected much out of me. You know, coming back after all that time, I just had something to prove. I wanted to make that statement, that I still had some valuable things to say and I could still put together a good project. And Disposable made that statement. This album is a step behind in my emotional attachment, but I do expect bigger things from this album cause Disposable didn’t do as well as it should have. From a song standpoint, I gotta wait and let this one marinate a little longer. It is definitely between this one and Disposable though, cause it was a matter of having 100% creative control. I didn’t have one person say one thing to me during the recording process, I could do exactly what I wanted to do on those two records.

So that hiatus between “Sittin On Chrome” and “Disposable Arts,” what was the reason behind that?

I just got disenchanted with the music business. I had a 16 song album that was supposed to come out on Big Beat/Atlantic that got shelved and I was bitter and angry about that. It was about a year and a half worth of work down the drain and I felt it was based on things suddenly taking a more commercial approach. They wanted R&B slash hip-hop records rather than just hip-hop records. When they signed me they understood the kind of music I made and the kind of album I was going to give them and a year and a half after they signed me then all of a sudden their outlook changed. The rise of Bad Boy and the disco loops took over, and when I went to hand in my album they weren’t happy with it. They wanted something more commercial, more dance-friendly, more club-friendly, more in line with what was going on. It left a bad taste in my mouth. So I took a year or so and I didn’t do anything, I didn’t even write a rhyme. Then I started producing and began shopping some beats and eventually went full steam into the producing game. Then I went overseas on tour in 2000 and it sort of gave me a new found excitement for hip-hop and a new found belief that there were still people out there that wanted to hear me rap. I came back home in late 2000 and I made the decision that I was going to make another record.

While most artists get worse at their careers go on, you have gotten better. What is your secret?

Cause I am still a fan, I’m still a hip-hop fan. I still listen to the newest cats and the latest mix CD’s and I like to hear these young cats freestyling. I see the new energy and the new music you know, I don’t adopt what they are doing, but I use it as energy. If I hear everyone saying how hot so and so is, and I listen to him and I don’t think he is that hot then I am gonna use that energy. I feed off of that. So I just try and listen to as much music as possible and as much hip-hop as possible.

What are you feeling out there right now?

I just got that Foreign Exchange CD, I thought that was pretty good. I’ve only had listen but I liked it. Pete Rock’s album has been getting decent rotation with me, same with Jada’s. I haven’t gotten a chance to hear that Lloyd Banks album yet, but I’d like to take some time with that.

You seem to have great quality control on your albums, particularly in the way of beat selection. Your latest album features a lot of different producers but has a very cohesive sound all the way through. Is that something that comes naturally or is it a major focus for you?

I think that I know what I want the album to sound like and I pick the people according to how I want the album to sound musically. As I am picking tracks, I’m not picking them based on who did the beats, I’m picking them based on; does the piece fit into the puzzle I’m trying to put together? I want it to sound different but have the same feel. Ayatollah is one of my favorite producers, and he gave me more beat CD’s than any other producer on this album. I had a picked a track but I just couldn’t get the hook right so I backed off of it. It just goes to show that I didn’t throw an Ayatollah track on there because he is one of my favorites. It had to fit what I was doing, I had to get the right feel from it.

You have certainly worked with your share of legends over the course of your career, anyone in particular you haven’t worked with that you would like to?

Definitely DJ Premier, I met him and Guru in 1991 cause we had the same management and we traveled together a lot. But me and Primo hung out a lot, at each other’s houses and all that. But when it came to making music we just never got down for some reason, I just never got to rhyme over a Primo beat and I feel like I should have. Dre is another producer I would love to work with, not that it would ever happen.

Being a part of one of hip-hop’s most legendary crews, do you ever reflect on those days?

Definitely, I think back to those days all the time. I think about traveling with Kane to Puerto Rico, to Biz Markie at the Apollo climbing out of a giant nose to do “Pickin Boogers.” I remember the Cold Chillin Tour with Kool G Rap, Grand Daddy IU and the Genius. There is a ton of different memories that I have, and they are almost all positive. It’s weird though, I remember stuff from back then better than I do now.

Let’s talk about Marley Marl for a moment, there are people who seem to think you have a problem with him these days.

Well I sort of address that on “Wutuwankno” on my album, ‘I’m not sore at Marley/though I rarely ever see him and I call him hardly.’ But nah, I think where that comes from is that he was part of the group that re-released my first album on Landspeed. He ended up owning the rights to a lot of the Cold Chillin catalog and so, he made so money by re-releasing a lot of our albums and never came to see us. There is a mechanical royalty that is supposed to get paid out when records are sold and when the rights are sold but I never even got a phone call about it. But at the end of the day I’m not gonna allow that to get me so mad at Marley that I’m not going to deal with him. He has given me more than he has taken from me. I’ll always love Marley for allowing me to be a part of those early days, putting me on “The Symphony,” and putting me on his album. There is no telling if I would have ever had a career if it wasn’t for that.

Do you stay in touch with any of the guys from those days?

Nobody on a real regular basis. Every now and then I’ll run into someone, and I talk to Kane on occasion. But it was never really like that with us anyway. Back in the day I might call someone up and be like, what’s cracking tonight? You know, I’m performing at such and such club, cool I’ll come through. But when you got home it wasn’t like you would get on the phone and just talk. Well, I wasn’t. The only person I really had that relationship with was Mister Cee, Kane’s DJ. Me and Scoop and Scrap use to hang out for a while, we would go out to parties a little bit. I was more cool with kind of the peripheral cats, like Cool V, Biz’s DJ, I would hang out with him sometimes. So I hung out with the peripheral cats more than the artists. I think it was just more threatening, cause it was always competitive no matter what. Everyone wanted to have their own shine you know, like if I was gonna hang out with Biz, to certain extent I might take some of his shine or whatever. I can’t really figure out what it was but we never had that closeness that most people expected. But I’d say now I probably talk to Kane the most, I speak to Craig every now and then when I bump into him. Same with Biz, Kane, Craig and Biz are the only one’s I ever really run in to on a regular basis. The rest of them I really don’t see that often.

Many, including myself, put you quite high on the list of all-time greats. What is your place in hip-hop history?

I’ve always kinda left that up to journalists to collectively come up with were I belong and what my place is. I can’t decide that, it is up to you guys and the fans to make that decision. You guys decide if there is a place for me in this thing called hip-hop.

[davida.b.]

So, a Domination interview gets more than 10 posts, but a Masta Ace interview doesn't get jack posts?

[eS El Duque]

PROPS! nice read