Author Topic: Chris The Glove Taylor Part 3 interview (Read 375 times)

D-Nice · « **on:** April 08, 2012, 11:13:18 PM »

http://illuminati2g.com/site/2012/04/08/chris-the-glove-taylor-part-3-interview/

Part 3 of our interview with Chris The Glove Taylor we discuss RC, Aftermath producers, Dre’s selection process of artists and much more.

Here is part 2: http://illuminati2g.com/site/2012/04/06/chris-the-glove-taylor-interview-part-2/

That leads perfectly into my next question. Why do you feel like RC’s album never came out on Aftermath? He seemed to have alot of potential and he fit with that whole R&B direction that Dr. Dre was going with the label.

Ok, now you done hit the motherload with that question.

Laughs

There are 2 approaches that I have to that. First off, if RC would have come out, R. Kelly would not be what he is today. RC was all of that, a cross between Musiq Soulchild and R. Kelly and Musiq sounds ALOT like RC. We knew even back then alot of artists were listening to our records because alot of them would come up to us and tell us they did. The reason that I think a album never came out is because…, well you have to understand the label back then did not even have a name.

It did not get a name until right before we started pressing up copies of the album. Dre was thinking about some names but he had not decided on anything yet. We knew that the name of the label was going to have to do with his actual name. For instance, and I don’t know if people know this or not but Death Row was originally Death Row Entertainment which the first 3 letters are DRE.

Never noticed that, very true.

Aftermath was A for Andre, so we knew him and we knew the eventual name was going to use would play off of that. Before the name even came about, Dre was trying to delegate the daily operations to different people, no different from a label, President, Vice President, etc. I believe that RC got lost in that pull and tug struggle of power to appoint people to their positions. Imagine Dr. Dre and all of us producers crafting a R&B album with RC, that would have been off the charts bruh.

He was like a singing version of Snoop and 2pac mixed together because he could sing about whatever. My personal opinion is that it got lost in the shuffle and he did not get his just due. I mean he worked with everyone inside the label and out, but he never got the studio time with Dre that he needed to create a album. When Dre worked on a Snoop project, it’s Dre and Snoop everyday, same with any other artist as well.

Same with a Dre project, those people working with him will be around him all the time. RC did not get that kind of time and attention and that is why that never came out.

Yeah Aftermath never really had a R&B division or star artist. I mean Truth Hurts album did ok but the sample lawsuit for So Addictive killed any momentum for that album. That is pretty much the only thing missing from the label is a monster selling R&B album.

Actually RC was supposed to be the first R&B artist on Death Row. In the midst of our group Po Broke N Lonely, we were signed with Ruthless Records and between us leaving that label and not having another label to go to, and doing the Deep Cover soundtrack, cats were really trying to get their careers going.

I was always cool because I am a producer, but the other members wanted to get on, which is understandable. RC had some people wanting to sign up and we were a phone call away from not even putting out our last album with Twisted on it because he would have been signed to Death Row. He decided to stay with his boys and we decided to do our own thing and this was BEFORE Aftermath.

Then he came back, Dre had to go at RC twice and the second time he got him but he never put him out. It almost makes you wonder if Dre just wanted to sign him just to shelve him. That is the other part of the story that I feel sometimes because I believe if Ruben would have come out the way that we had planned on doing it, he would have been a big star and it would have challenged other people’s stardom.

A R&B star is different from a rap star, well at the very least back then. Today you have big rap stars, more so then R&B, but before that, it was the other way around. R&B stars were getting all the women, had the fly videos and sold out shows, and rap was just a afterthought. Even after Death Row unless you were 2pac, Snoop or Dr. Dre.

Another singer that Dre had for a while was Dawn Robinson from En Vogue. Was there ever a album completed on her and how did it come about that you worked with her in 2002 on her self titled album to do the mixing on it?

When we did the Zoom record, Dre back then was thinking about signing her. She laid down her vocals and Snoopy was saying about her that why does Dawn sound like all of En Vogue all by herself?

Laughs

He was like damn she is off the hook. From when I was there, we wanted her to be more of a homegirl and she wanted to be more of a diva. That is the only way and the best way I can put it and we wanted more of a round the way girl persona with her.

Right

As opposed to be like say a diva, and I mean diva in a positive way. We kept clashing on that point, but after I left I don’t know what made the deal fall apart, because I felt like we could have come to a middle ground with her. Hell when we were working on The Firm album we flew Dawn out there to work on the album with us. She was on Firm Biz, so it was not a thing that we did not try to get her on projects.

Once I worked with Dawn we clicked and became cool with each other. As she continued on through her career and she would always invite me to come to the studio and once she got her deal and started working on her debut album, they called me in for mixing. I also mixed on the Lucy Pearl project that she was a part of as well.

Another group was called Warning, a female R&B group that Dre had put together. Did you do any work with them and did you work with Lord G as well?

As far as Warning goes, I never worked with them or know who they are, but Lord G, that’s my dog. That dude was one of the most sickest rappers that I came across in my career and for him to not have a big career by now it upsets me. That dude can kick lyrics on any level, gangsta conscious, spiritual and you can put that guy anywhere and he can start up a conversation with anybody and he will fit in.

He could be with the Jimmy Iovines of the world or he could be in the hood, he could just chill. I worked with him when he was in a group called Militia, and actually him and I put together a EP called Hot To Def.

When it came down to Dr. Dre picking artists for either Death Row or Aftermath, what in your opinion do you feel like were the contributing factors? For example he had Rakim for a while, which that made sense to everybody but it never came out.

There is 2 things that Dr. Dre likes. The one thing with that, for instance with Snoop that got him all on board with that, was that Snoop was hungry and down to do whatever. He would come to the studio at whatever time, it could be 2 in the morning and he would get there. He would catch a cab and we would pay for it when he got there, I mean he was hungry and Dre loved that about Snoop.

If you don’t have the hunger, he plays off your lack of hunger. It’s not that he would think that you don’t have talent, but talent needs to be coupled with something else. There are a lot of people in the world that have talent, you see talent on all these shows like American Idol, America’s Got Talent. But the reality is all those people do not win, and you need that lil extra sometimes to get you over the hump.

Hunger, and a willingness to do whatever it takes and some people won’t do that. They feel like they are so deserving because people have told them or they think they are so talented. I am not going to say anyone that Dre signed in the past was like that, but I know some people that I dealt with that were like that. Producers do a lot, and when we produce, 50% of it is helping the rapper get through rough spots. Try it like this or say this word instead of that word, and in saying that we don’t want to take claim on a song or take credit for it, but it is also a thing where rappers critique us as well.

A rapper might say hey can you change the bass to this, well to be honest most of the time we don’t listen to that shit!

Laughs

It’s about rhythm and flow and how it cycles together. We are hearing it and we are hearing instruments that we have not put in the beat yet and we know if the artist flows like this, it is going to make the song sparkle. It just comes from working with rappers and I will tell you this, some of the EASIEST people to work with were artists that were already superstars.

I would sit down with Nas and tell him to rap like this and he would have no problem with trying it. He was cool and he did not care because he was still hungry. But you get with some other cats, and some were nowhere near a level of a Nas would give me constant grief. I worked with this one guy, I’m not going to tell you his name, but he is a actor and he raps and he is pretty good, he reminds me of Mos Def.

So I am producing him and trying to help him with the song and there is a thing to where a rapper will be busting a verse and they think they are killing it but their pitch might be off and it does not sound right. No big deal it happens to all of us and as producers we have the bird eye view of things like that. We are listening and the rapper is rapping, you can’t hear and rap, so you do you and let us do us.

I stopped him a couple of times and asked him to change some things up and I guess after the 3rd time he got mad and said yo can you just let me rap and let me do me? I sat back in the chair and basically let him drive his own truck because you don’t have to tell me more than once. Needless to say that project never came out so I say that to say this, for all the future and aspiring artists out there, if you have a guy that as sold 20-40 million records sitting in a chair, maybe give him a little of your time and try their advice if they give you a suggestion.

Just because his name ain’t Dr. Dre or Quincy Jones, just remember those people worked with him for a reason so it would be wise to listen up. We have the birds eye view, rappers can’t rap and hear. Jay-Z is humble, Dre I used to produce him a lot and I would try to be hands off with him, but he would always ask my opinion on the track and how it sounds because he knows he can’t hear it. For a artist to have to come out the booth and listen everytime he finishes a verse, that’s does not make sense. That is why you need someone that you can trust to sit behind that board and help you through the project.

Right

The main thing in his selection process was they did not have to be the best looking, they had to have the drive and the hunger to want to be the best artist they could be. Dre was signing unknown artists all the time, he was not just signing people with a buzz. He was just looking for people that was tight and had drive, I can’t put that any other way. I was not around with Rakim and Dre, but from the outside looking in, it looked like it was not meshing all the way.

I ran into Rakim in the streets a few times and we talked. He had nothing but love for Aftermath and he was loving being in LA and it never seemed to work out. Dre is a perfectionist, more so then any other artist that I have ever worked with. I am as well and if we aren’t feeling it, it won’t come out for whatever reason.

Fast forwarding to now, it seems like every 3-6 months or whatever the timeframe is, Dre is constantly production staff or the artists that he is working with. Why do you think that is and what are your thoughts on the current roster at Aftermath?

Well who is on Aftermath now?

That’s a good question. For me I mean Slim The Mobster but his last project only had a Dr. Dre feature and no Aftermath backing. Eminem, 50 Cent which is joint with Em and Dre,

But on the back of his album it still says Aftermath.

True, your right.

Ok then he is Aftermath. Em is there, Dre is there, who else? You have 3 superstars right there but who else? Bishop Lamont is not there anymore.

Nah

Kendrick Lamar is not signed there (interview done before Kendrick signed) but he has a huge buzz right now. I could not tell you right now who is on their roster. The thing with Dre and switching up staff, this is what happens, a guy like say Scott Storch works with Dre, and his camp is mystery because at times no one knows who does what.

Dre does a lot more then what cats have given him credit for and I am kind of sick of all the talk. Yeah I know me and him have had are issues regarding that but that’s me and him. The rest of the world, don’t fuck with him, that’s my boy, that nigga is tight. You have people like Scott Storch and what happens is people tend to use Dre as a springboard and that is why I mentioned Scott.

Scott started as a keyboard player, then became a super producer. He was always doing beats but after he started working with Dre, that is when he started getting phone calls and getting a lot of work. He got some hit records off of that but just like 50 Cent said Fat Joe thought Lean Back was In Da Club. It was not!

In Da Club led to over 10 million albums sold, Lean Back was a nice record that they played on the radio a lot. The album did not even go platinum, you see what I’m getting at?

Yeah

Other cats tend to get with Dre so that they can springboard their careers, but Dre does not have a problem with that. He is just trying to get his thing going and you need fresh ideas all the time, but the problem is you have to have forward thinking people. A lot of people work with Dre are thinking for themselves in the long run and how it will benefit them. They get in there and agree with everything he says.

Bud’da, he was tight and I don’t think he was trying to springboard but he starting popping and blowing up and he had to do what he had to do, so I don’t put him in that category. Mel-Man I don’t put in that category either, I put him in my category because he should have gotten more credit for what he contributed.

I think he got co executive producer credits on 2001 and I felt like that was more from Dre saying dick in ya mouth Glove, this could have been you if you stayed.

Wow

I mean for real man, Mel-Man don’t mix or A&R as much as he does banging ass beats and tight ass samples, that nigga is tight. And he can rap, a lot of people don’t know that (laughs)

Right

I feel like I contributed a lot to him being there, but Dre was letting a lot of people go and I was not going to be doing all the god damn work and we really needed someone else in there putting in work as well. I told Dre we need to put Mel-Man on bruh. Look at what it did for him, as of now I don’t know what happened with him but I don’t think that they work together now. I feel like it is not so much Dre switching up, it’s more like a basketball team. Players come in and come out and you can’t sign anyone long term because of free agency.

If they find something else cracking, they gone. This guy told me one time Glove your dope, but you were doper with Dre. I said you know what I can’t even be mad at you for that because it’s true. I used to tell producers all the time that were getting cocky, let’s turn off all the power in the studio and see who come up with a beat first.

These cats can’t even get the juice going in the studio, and they have to have a 2nd engineer in there to show them how to do what. I am an engineer too and I would challenge anybody, Dre too. No one would ever take me up on my bet because they knew. Whenever they would get cocky and talk shit I would say that and nothing would be said and I would say then shut up and go make a beat (laughs).

Tune in to part 4 of our interview with The Glove as we discuss his unreleased material in the vaults and much more.