HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! We keep our The Whole 9 interview series going into 2016, and our first interviewee is Rochester, NY beatsmith Kidd Called Quest. He’s making dope music since around 2011, working with emcees like Rapper Big Pooh, Reks, PH, Skyzoo, Craig G and a slew of others throughout his career. He recently released his latest project, a compilation Put Your Headphones On 2, the sequel to his 2012 release. This album features Vic Spencer, Termanology, Scotty ATL, Wara From The NBHD and others. In this interview, we talk about the release, the standout tracks, what got him into music, the first piece of Hip Hop he ever owned, Rochester, his Top 5 favorite samples and what’s next. For more on homie, check him out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Bandcamp. Check out the interview below.
the9elements: You just dropped your new project Put Your Headphones On 2. How did this project come about?
Kidd Called Quest: The whole idea originally came up back in the fall of 2012. I started recording a few songs for the project but was not happy with the production I was making, I wanted Put Your Headphones On 2 to have a whole different feel than the first album, the sound was still very similar and sound the same.
Also during that time Azariah and I was also working on the first Young, Black and Gifted project Long Time Coming, most of my focus was on that project so I ended up scraping the idea and putting it on hold. When the idea came back in 2014 I decided not only will I make the production harder and sound different but this time around instead of putting well known established artist on the project, I decided to put the main focus on the dope up in coming younger artist.
I started getting some of the features and songs done I was like 8 joints in, I was originally going to make this a EP but once again I put the project on hold because I was working on the Young Black And Restless project with King Righteous and I was so happy with how the music on there was sounding I pushed Put Your Headphones On 2 a little to the side. Also at the same time I had a lot of people asking me when will I do another Put Your Headphones On project , that’s how this project came about.
T9E: How was it putting this project together? You have emcees like Termanology, Vic Spencer, Reks and Scotty ATL among others on this.
KCQ: This project really was a lot easier putting together than the first Put Your Headphones On because I already had the ideas I wanted to go with and I knew what direction I wanted to take the project. Plus a lot of the songs was already recorded back in 2014, few of the songs where already released on previous projects and some we went back and touched up. After everything was done I was happy with how the whole project came out and sounded, I think I did a better job on this one than the last Put Your Headphones On.
T9E: Pretend I haven’t heard this project. Name a track you would recommend that would have me hooked.
KCQ: The one song I would recommend for you would be The Return Of The Rochester Royals, because if you want to know about some of the city sports history the song pretty much break down some of it. A lot of people don’t know that the city of Rochester had an old NBA team that would become the Sacramento Kings. Before the name became the Kings, they were called The Royals. It’s funny because, when we dropped the song there was some people from here that ain’t know that Rochester had a NBA team that beat the Knicks, in a championship back in the day. The song also talks about and let people outside of the area know that Rochester has the same problems going on here to just like all the other popular bigger cities we always hear on the news and internet. This whole song was really inspired by the Return Of The Crooklyn Dodgers 95 that was produced by DJ Premier. I had this idea in my head for the longest when we did this it was going to be used for my next EP project Gun Powder 2, with rapper Ice Grill.
T9E: Being that I have heard this, the joint that knocks for me has to be Nothing Like It, which features Ryshon Jones outta Philly. How did that track come about? Did Ryshon hear the beat, or did you have in mind when making it?
KCQ: Ryshon Jones was the first artist I reached out to when I started back up on the idea. My people was telling me about him I heard some of his stuff and was like, “Yo dude is nice!” I hit him up and got back to me that same morning and said he was down to do the song. I had a few beats already made but I ended up coming across this record with a gold cover that had this sample on it that sounded crazy, I scrapped the other beats I was going to send and started to chop up some breaks and laid down the whole drum pattern I had the idea sound in my head how I was going to flip the sample. I wanted the beat to fit and sound perfect for Ryshon I went back and started to chop up the sample.
I was aiming at making him something that sounded soulful, dark, gritty and had a hard feel to it once everything was done I sent the beat he said he was feeling a lot he had a idea for a song. He sent me everything back that next day. When I got it to the studio engineer Paul played the guitar in the beat that made the song sound on some next level stuff.
T9E: Let’s talk about your musical history. How did you get into making music?
KCQ: Back in 1999 I started to write rhymes and rap with a few of his neighborhood friends over industry instrumentals. Finding instrumentals was nothing for me because my brother had tons of records I would go and fill up a cassette tape with as many beats as he could. When i was 13 I began learning how to make my own beats. My brother DJ Sight had an old Casio keyboard, but he never used it. So I used to go down into the basement and start messing around with it, started playing all kinds of different melodies on it. From there on I just stuck to that keyboard for about seven months. It was with that keyboard that I learned how to layer sounds and put melodies into patterns and count out bars.Then, I got the Yamaha DJX2, which was another keyboard that had actual real sounding drums. It was nice because you could tweak out all the sounds and make them hit as hard as you wanted. It also had a sampler on it.
That’s when I first was introduced to sampling because I was always curious as to what that button did. There was a song off of Canibus’ first album called Honor You, that was playing and the sampler picked up about eight seconds of the guitar part. I didn’t even know that the loop was recorded when I saw that the memory for the sampler was full. I didn’t know what that meant. I thought when the loop was playing that my CD was scratched up, and that it was skipping on the sampler. I was like, “What the hell is going on here.” It took me about five minutes to figure out what I did, and that’s where the whole sampling thing came from for me. in 2002. I got a summer job and saved up about $800 to get my first real sampler. I winded up getting jerked for it. I bought the Korg ES1, which was a phrase sampler. So, I took it home and, at this point, I was fairly familiar with the ins and outs of the different gear out there, but I couldn’t layer anything on it. I thought to myself, “well I can either just struggle with this piece of equipment or try to master it, or I could just go get what I actually need.” I ended up exchanging it for an Akai S20, a generic version of the MPC 1000. No metronome or nothin.
I ended up growing out of that and needed more. My man Divine started to show me how to use the MPC 2000, I started catching on quick and was in love with the MPC. I wanted the machine so bad I got myself a job at McDonald’s to save some more cash. I was working my ass off there and I almost got fired because I would sneak in like twenty extra hours a week there, just staying on the clock and pretending I was still scheduled. I ended up saving up what i needed and brought my own MPC 2000.
T9E: What was the first piece of Hip Hop you ever owned? Doesn’t have to be music either.
KCQ: I would have to say the Fat Boys movie Disorderlies. That and the Geto Boys was the first Hip Hop groups I was introduced to.
T9E: Let’s shift this to where you come from. You rep the city of Rochester, one of the roughest cities in New York state. But cats like Emilio Rojas, JD Riggz and High Caliber Music are among those who have come out of there. You actually have HCM on That Pack, which featured a sample of A Day In Life from Les DeMerle, famously used by Buckwild on OC’s Time’s Up. Anyway, describe Rochester’s Hip Hop sound?
KCQ: I will say that Rochester’s sound is a mix of everything we have a lot of talented artist and producers up here, Just like any city you go to there is always the trend followers doing whats hot on the airwaves and there is always the group of artist that’s original and do them and try not sounding like the person. Upstate NY definitely has some great talented Hip Hop artists.
T9E: In honor of Jadakiss’ recent release Top 5 Dead or Alive, I’ve been asking people to give me their Top 5 lists, but with a twist. So to you, give me your Top 5 Favorite Samples.
KCQ: Damn this going to be kind of a tough question to answer. (laughs) My first pick will be Bob James’ Nautilus. Number 2 would be Issac Hayes’ Walk On By. 3 would be Cortex Huit’s Octobre. Number 4 goes to Kool and the Gang’s Summer Madness and number 5 is Al Green’s Love and Happiness.
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T9E: So with 2016 officially here, what’s next for Kidd Called Quest?
KCQ: Just going to stay focused and keep thing moving and keep grinding.
T9E: Yo good lookin out on taking the time to do this. Any last words?
KCQ: I would like to give a big shout out to everyone whose been rocking with me since the beginning of this long grind since day 1 and the new people just tuning in. I would also like to thank all the supporters, all the blog sites, DJ’s and all the talented artist I’ve worked and made good music with. I would also like to thank everyone who was apart of this project.
Big shout out to Golden, Azariah, Verse Essential and big shout out to Coach P, Destroy, King Righteous, Trey Ezim, Jason Curry, Pounds, Boom Bap Nation, Snacks 7, Midnite, Nikal Fieldz, Hassan Mackey, DJ Chris G, M Dot, Coop, HCM, DJ Enuff, Opie, Curt Laisi aka LI, DJ Sight, Kidd Fame, Jerry Epps and DJ C4 from Red Channel Radio out in Boston. Moz, Mark Flag, Solo Vibes, Ty, DJ C Jones, Singapore Kane, Big Shug, DJ Ease, DJ Tim Tones, Kahlil Womack aka K Off Beat, Brandon K. Mcneil, DJ Works Hard and Back N The Day Buffet. Brandon White, Record Archive, House Of Guitars, B$, Got Beatz Crew, E More,D Rock,The Teamsters, High Def, Tragic, Tone Fazoolz, God Illest Joe, Justin Bale from Smoke City Records, Daneja Mentale, Divine God Allah, Justice, Shane Walker, Michael Rose, Scotty ATL, Fisher, The whole D.I.T.C. crew, The Teamsterz, Dre Bon, Skandolus, Real, Ice Grill, DJ M80, Laundry Xes, TG, Foul Mouth Jedi, LeunAtic, Rashon P, REAL, Trife The God, Tommy Whispers, Kryme Life, TMF, Von Dutch, Slim Chance, Vic Spencer, Jordan Lee, Ishmel Raps, S Eyes, JB, Fisher, G Nyce, Bac Spin, OOh Child, 585,Lil Eto, Chup and everyone out there that rocks with Kidd Called Quest. Peace!
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