West Coast Connection Forum
DUBCC - Tha Connection => West Coast Classics => Topic started by: Lunatic on October 13, 2008, 08:27:28 AM
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The guerilla funk MC took time out of his busy schedule to speak to Raptalk.Net about his upcoming "Acid Reflex" album. Fans are sure to enjoy this interview and as we get really heavy into the album and discuss many of the lyrics, messages and statements Paris makes throughout the project.
You know we had to get into the political race where Paris ofcourse makes some very good points
This one is for the smart and conscious heads.... Enjoy!
Read Interview Here: http://raptalk.net/website/content/view/940/54/
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Great!!! Gonna read this later on. Props, Lunatic.
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Great!!! Gonna read this later on. Props, Lunatic.
oh man, u are going to LOVE this one!
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Your interviews get better and better with each one. this one, great informative questions and answers. Paris was speaking the real on alot of different topics. Definitely copping Acid Reflex when it drops
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i read it earlier 2day, that dude def kickin some knowledge az alwayz good interview. Ima cop his album when it come out even tho i got the leaked version, but i support good music n thats what he puts out.
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D: I appreciate that! Paris sure can talk! lol..he sure was!
Nem: Thanks!
keep the feedback coming!
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thanks for the great interview 8) i appreciate that you went deep with the music part :)
other recent Paris interview ( with the exception of 1) were very disappointing on that point :P
as always, i respect Paris' honesty, his consciousness and level of self reflection ;)
RAPTALK.NET: Your answer plays perfectly into my next question. The track has a real old school feeling to it. How is that you’ve been able to maintain such a consistent sound throughout your career and still remain relevant?
I appreciate the sentiment. Staying true to what I do. I think when people look to me for the music I make; they look to me for a very specific sound. They look for socially relevant content. They look for music that is consistently along the same vein of what they’ve come to expect; rarely do you get surprises from me. I pretty much stay in my lane when it comes to what I do when I make Paris records. The music is almost always funk and rock inspired hip-hop and the words always reflect the times. I always reflect the needs for continuing the fight for social justice and for wanting to see us do better.
RAPTALK.NET: Rarely do we get surprises from Paris, but I think your one of the few artists out there that has a fan base who doesn’t want or need any surprises. You give them what they expect of you. It’s always creative and unique in its own way.
Thank you, I appreciate it. There’s no worse feeling than taking another artist’s project that you love and followed there entire career; getting home and they go off and a tandem that is so far removed what you expect that the project falls flat for you. Ofcourse everybody wants to grow and as an artist you want to grow and do different things and experiment with different sounds and techniques; ofcourse you wouldn’t be an artist if you didn’t want to grow - but never lose sight of what people are into you for. I always keep that in the back of my mind. For the people who have followed me my entire career, and dig what I do – I mean I’m almost four million records deep independently, I have to recognize the fact that they expect certain things of me when I make records; I always keep that in the back of my mind. I always keep that in mind.
RAPTALK.NET: The second track on the album is entitled “So what” and you show off your storytelling skills on this one. Tell us how you come up with the concepts for your music and do you feel like today’s hip-hop artists lack such story telling abilities?
Not necessarily; there are plenty artists who tell better stories than me, honestly (laughs). Again, I wanted to create music that has this ongoing threat of consciousness throughout it. It could be a kind of story telling song like on “So what” which basically showcases different scenarios in a community and the pressure that a lot of people feel within’ the context of our community. It could be something that is just an up-tempo, feel good song like “Don’t Stop the Movement.” There different approaches to getting to the same place – and really that place that I’m trying to get to, is make life affirming music that people can feel good about and I won’t be ashamed of in a few years. I can say I did my part. There are hella’ people in the game that can’t say that. There are tons of folks that make music when they look back on in a few years and wonder what the hell they were doing. The shit that they talk about is stuff they’ll call into question when they get a little older or wiser; they’ll look back on it. A lot of things are going on not only in hip-hop, but in entertainment in general that people will look back on and wonder what the hell they were doing.
RAPTALK.NET: Especially artists who just follow trends.
Yeah; or reality show hosts (laughs).
yep, that's why we love Paris :laugh: ;) 8)
he definitely hit the nail on the head.
a lot of artists better take notes; there's plenty of room for innovation within the comfort zone.
certain ingredients need to be there, otherwise you're not able to build( or maintain) a solid fan base.
RAPTALK.NET: That’s very honest of you to admit you wouldn’t be doing it today if you were a new artist trying to break in.
Well it depends on what your motivation is. I love music and I love hip-hop when it’s done right. I probably would do it, but I would not do it on the level that I’m doing it now. I just did a deal with Universal for Guerilla Funk so were distributed globally. There going to have different licenses in different countries for there specific markets. I don’t know if I could achieve that doing it if I was just starting. It’s easy for me to say OK I got this new Paris record, let’s ship it and ship X amount of units based on my previous sales and based on the fact that I have a name; but if I was brand new and coming out the gate trying to do it, the odds are almost insurmountable.
it's definitely great that he got that deal with Universal; i mean it's not like his previous records are extremely hard to get, but some spots don't have them.
RAPTALK.NET: On “True” you rap “I’m a threat ‘cause mainstream rejection didn’t spook me, rappers tried to make me switch and couldn’t move me.” Do you think rappers are too quick to conform to what’s hot and what the current trends are?
I think that’s so evident in the pool of producers that people pick from than it is the shit that they talk about. That’s the direction I see music go in. For a long time now, you’ve had a hand full of producers that are doing everybody. It started in R&B a while ago when Teddy Riley was doing everybody. Those same trends have become reflective in hip-hop. Now you have a hand full of hip-hop producers that do most of the music you hear on the radio and it suffers because certain trends develop that other people follow because they feel like they need to adopt these same techniques to be heard and to be relevant in the game; like this T-Pain talk box thing that I hear on everybody’s record now. That’s not necessary man. It dates you and makes all this material sound similar. I don’t need to hear Mariah Carey sing through the T-Pain talk box.
RAPTALK.NET: I interviewed an artist the other day that said when T-Pain did it, was creative and agreed that is now just getting out of hand.
That’s the point that I’m making. You have people that can sing. I don’t even know if Mariah did it, I’m just throwing that name out there. Really that effect is a pitch corrector for people that can’t sing; that’s supposed to get you in tune. The more gurgling and shit you hear, the more out of tune these people are signing when there are people that don’t need that that can make music that won’t irritate you; when I hear that now, I’m irritated because I’ve heard it too much. It’s something that people are utilizing as a crutch. I understand staying in your lane and wanting to be safe but what it boils down to is, what do you work for? Are you doing the art because you want to move people? Are you doing the art for yourself? Are you doing art for other people? Are you doing art because you have something that you want to say or are you just going along for the ride? That’s what it boils down to. I could make gangster rap records or party music all day long; whatever at the time was in vogue. I could have made those records all day. It’s second nature for me to make music at this point – I’ve been doing it for so long. If I wanted to chase trends and take the easy way out and make music just for the sake of making music, I could have sold even more records and gone even further in my career than taking the stance that I take which is really swimming upstream in this environment where it seems that people want to lose themselves
yeah it's a sign of weakness to jump on the bandwagon and a sign of selfishness, as they're trying to make a quick buck.
as a result a certain style gets milked to the bottom and starts to annoy you quicker.
and it amazes me when I hear people say that I’m capitalizing on misery with records like Acid Reflex, Sonic Jihad or Bush Killer; some say that I am capitalizing on this revolutionary thought that is these themes that I talk about. Like there’s some huge financial windfall by doing what I do. (Laughs) I’m choosing the hardest route to take when it comes to making music. When people say that, I just look at them like they don’t know what the heck there talking about.
RAPTALK.NET: That would be an incorrect accusation to direct at you.
I got it a lot with Sonic Jihad. People said I was capitalizing on the 9/11 tragedy and all this shit. I had a lot of people actually say that to me; especially with the album cover of the airplane going into the white house. I got questioned for it and accused of just trying to make a quick buck. Nobody has made a bigger or quicker buck than the US government when it comes to 9/11 especially with it being a self-inflected wound. I point to that fact; nobody has profited more off of tragedy than the US government.
yeah it's really sad to see how the messenger gets the blame; in stead of criticising the actual message, the messenger gets attacked, based on prejudgements.
i guess shallowness has the upper hand :-\
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^props dre-day for your in-depth comments on the interview!
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^props dre-day for your in-depth comments on the interview!
you're welcome ;)
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What the fuck!! I had written out a response to the interview late last night and then my computer connection crashed.
Anyway, props again for the interview. It was an excellent read.
A couple things that I enjoyed and/or stuck out to me were:
1. Paris mentioning that funk project he is working on with GC. I knew they were working on something but it should be interesting to see where they take it. He is also supposed to be working with Erykah Badu as well on a joint project. Well see if that comes to fruition.
2. Lunatic, I'm glad you brought up the quote from Get Fired Up about Cribs and "shootin pool with no motherfuckin books in sight." He makes a good point about people on the shows like this and that is they are mostly cookie-cutter people. Nothing resembles reality for the most part. And the viewers are hypnotized into thinking ignorance is really bliss. and I don't use the term hypnotized loosely.
3. Lunatic, you didn't ask him my question >:( Just kidding ;)
4. Paris had said that the reason for the album push back was because he needed more time to do interviews, tour, promote and shoot a video. Well the latter part is the best part because the video is now available to view and it's one of the most unique I've come across in quite some time. Even people whp don't like his music can probably dig this one. Here is the link for "Dont Stop The Movement: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gmJqzEVKwoU The video can also be viewed on his home page: http://guerrillafunk.com/
If anyone could place the actual video in the thread feel free to do so, that way we don't have to open a new window every time we watch it. I have yet to figure out how to directly post videos ???
5. I also agree with his thoughts on Barack Obama for the most part. It's rather strange that Obama is being endorsed by the all the Washington elites and insiders. That is not a good luck because it implies status quo perpetuation. Fuck that. not to mention his voting record is atrocious.
I had typed out more last night but it was late as hell so I don't remember everything and will not attempt to emulate that initial post. Not to mention I had just read a 260-page book prior to the reading of the interview. If I was on Cribs they'd see copious amounts of books ;D ;)
Oh yeah, if this thread received the same number of views and replies that Game, 50, TI, Kanye, Cube, Snoop, Dre and other threads receive then I guarantee we would be better off as a whole. But no, the sheep flock to the trends, controversies, gimmicks, quotes, rumors, etc. Hip hop has become National Enquirer-esque. That's a big mistake for the art form.
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Laconic, read this: http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=104193.0
:)
anyway, about the sheep; i know why you and D~Nice really want more people to check out Paris' music, but as i've said so many times before, quantity don't equal quality ;)
some sheep deserve to get slaughtered.
so i'd suggest that you keep providing the platform ;)
there will always be a few people that want to give Paris a try.
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Laconic, read this: http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=104193.0
:)
anyway, about the sheep; i know why you and D~Nice really want more people to check out Paris' music, but as i've said so many times before, quantity don't equal quality ;)
some sheep deserve to get slaughtered.
so i'd suggest that you keep providing the platform ;)
there will always be a few people that want to give Paris a try.
Thanks for the link. I'll have to look into that when I can :)
And you're right-quantity doesn't equal quality. However, IMO the music people listen to sincerely reflects the their views on life-whether they be social or political issues. With that said, it's not hard to reach the conclusion that most people are indifferent or completely apathetic to what's going on. When the masses of people continue to do so, it effects my family, my friends and myself. I, as well as everyone else, only gets one go around at this life and we're all in this together. Therefore, my previous statement that we'd be better off if there were many replies and hits and purchases to relevant and revolting music today is substantiated. I'm pretty much saying that I know what's coming towards us and so many don't even know or don't even seem to care. So yeah, the sheep will definitely be slaughtered but so will the non-conformists. The more aware we are=the better for everyone.
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Laconic, read this: http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=104193.0
:)
anyway, about the sheep; i know why you and D~Nice really want more people to check out Paris' music, but as i've said so many times before, quantity don't equal quality ;)
some sheep deserve to get slaughtered.
so i'd suggest that you keep providing the platform ;)
there will always be a few people that want to give Paris a try.
Thanks for the link. I'll have to look into that when I can :)
And you're right-quantity doesn't equal quality. However, IMO the music people listen to sincerely reflects the their views on life-whether they be social or political issues. With that said, it's not hard to reach the conclusion that most people are indifferent or completely apathetic to what's going on. When the masses of people continue to do so, it effects my family, my friends and myself. I, as well as everyone else, only gets one go around at this life and we're all in this together. Therefore, my previous statement that we'd be better off if there were many replies and hits and purchases to relevant and revolting music today is substantiated. I'm pretty much saying that I know what's coming towards us and so many don't even know or don't even seem to care. So yeah, the sheep will definitely be slaughtered but so will the non-conformists. The more aware we are=the better for everyone.
oh yeah i wasn't saying that your statement was false, but when looking at the game topics for example, you can't say that the number of views and replies also translate to high sales; the popularity is only connected to a certain extent.
shallowness in general is definitely affecting us all and it's time for a change, so the corporate rap machine must collapse and independent music needs to be supported more.
hence i said, that you should continue to provide the platform ;)
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cheers for the interview homie
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props to all for the discussion!
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props to all for the discussion!
anytime ;)
on a side note, it would be interesting if Paris signed up here :laugh:
it'll never happen but still ;)