What inspired the Think Differently movement?
One thing that a lot of writers that interview me forget is that everybody on that project is unsigned. I mean it's mind-boggling that brothers like GZA, RZA, Ras Kass...everybody on there is unsigned and independent. I wanted to bring that whole world together.That's why folks like Ghostface didn't make the cut?
Exactly. I could have had Ghostface, Method Man, Redman, but those guys are on Def Jam. You know I'm A&R'ing the Ghostface and MF Doom project for Nature Sounds. That was my concept as well.What's the title for that project?
Swift and Changeable. That's the working title. That album was supposed to have been out a year ago, but Def Jam shut us down with that.For those who don't know, what exactly is an A&R?
A&R is Artist & Repertoire. A&Rs basically capture an artist's sound, the real good A&R that is. Don't get me wrong, you've got a lot of A&Rs at these labels that don't do anything. So, the real good A&Rs arrange and sequence the album, pick out what artists should be on the project, even down to the production. The first record I A&R'ed was Masta Killah's album (No Said Date). Then I did the Black Market Militia. Then I started doing mix CDs for Sandboxautomatic and Hiphopsite.com and all that. That's when I came up with the idea for Think Differently. I was looking for that RZA sound circa-90's. A lot of Wu artists didn't really wanna be on that sound, but, I kept telling them that's what the fans want. It ain't really about you as an artist, because you're making the music for the fans. You don't really make an album for yourself, you know what I'm saying?Right, unless you're going to buy 1 million copies of the album yourseslf.
Exactly! I never understood that logic. So I kept telling them "this is what the fans want to hear you n***as on again. Plus you've heard all the Wu n***as matched up together before, but you've never heard GZA and Ras Kass. That's another thing I was trying to accomplish.I've always wanted to hear GZA and Ras Kass on the same song. Those were some dream collaborations.
Exactly, imagine how I was feeling in the studio putting everything together. It was unbelievable for me, and everybody kept asking me: "How did you get these guys together?" even with the Doom and RZA. I knew that would have the internet going nuts. I said: "I'm not going to put RZA on a Doom beat, I'm going to put Doom on a RZA beat," especially since Doom is a big Wu-Tang fan anyway. So, he jumped at the opportunity.Is the second Think Differently compilation going to be on Babygrande as well?
Basically, it's on Think Differently Music. Babygrande is really a distributor, but, they handle all the marketing and promotional aspects of the record as well. I knew I would get the results that I wanted from Babygrande. Plus, I signed GZA over to Babygrande with a label deal, and I'm doing his record as well. Chuck Wilson [Babygrande CEO] did a phenomenal job with the project. A 50 Cent CD might be hot in the 'hood, but, during that time, my CD was the hottest thing out within the underground. N***as were talking about my CD more than the DangerDoom(The Mouse & The Mask), more than the GZA/Muggs sh*t(Grandmasters), just because I had so much more to offer on my compilation. The DangerDoom was basically Doom rhyming over Danger Mouse beats and GZA rhyming over...I had so much more plus I had GZA on two songs on my record. So, I told people my record is a great listen. You can put it in and play it to the end if you're a fan of these artists.Or a fan of good music, period.
Yeah, exactly,if you're a fan of good hip-hop - the real elements. I made it a point not to do a lot of the songs with hooks. I thought a lot of writers would say something about that, like it wasn't structured. I wanted to do it like we did it back in the days when n***as went in and just rhymed. F**k all that "Yo, I need you to stop here." You got more than 16 bars? Kick that sh*t. Don't stop. That's that structured format that's killin' us - 16 bars, hook, you know what I'm saying? I wanted to lose that whole concept.Many people have structured 'ears' so to speak. If your goal is to reach a lot of people, don't you think that breaking that structure could prevent you from doing so?
Nah, not at all, because I'm familiar with the hip-hop audience, you know what I'm saying...