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DJ Quik's stories behind the classics
DJ Quik Tells All: The Stories Behind his Classic Records
BY DAVID DRAKE | APR 24, 2012 | 3:26 PM |
Compton-born DJ Quik has been a force in hip-hop since the late 1980s. While he may not be the platinum hitmaker he was during the 1990s, he’s still a passionate sonic artist who's blazed a creative path that allowed his music to evolve into a very personal sound. Quik’s gone through several distinct phases, working both in the spotlight and behind the scenes, and Complex caught up with him last week to speak about all of it in detail.
“I don’t even talk to my mom this long,” Quik quipped as he went deep, connecting what he was doing musically to some of the key moments in his own remarkable biography, going into detail about what equipment and techniques he used, and speaking on all the people, places, and especially his own mindset during each recording session. Quik broke down everything from his sudden superstardom with the song “Tonite” to his mid-career collaborations with artists ranging from 2Pac to El Debarge, and even some of his little-known contributions to massive hits by the likes of 50 Cent and Rakim.
Quik even spoke on the money, the girls, and the street drama that surrounded him throughout his music career, and how his work with Dr. Dre helped him deal with some of the tragedies he’s witnessed over the years. After this epic interview, two things become quite clear: First, Quik is an open book with a very precise memory. And second, his impact on hip-hop history is both truly profound and largely unappreciated. Until now, that is...
As told to David Drake (@somanyshrimp)
DJ Quik "Born & Raised in Compton" (1991)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: Quik Is The Name
Label: Profile
DJ Quik: “I got an SP1200 drum machine and a 4-track Tascam recorder, a little cassette recorder. I went from making mixtapes to getting a drum machine and producing my own songs. After about a year on the SP1200, going through different tape formulations. Just listening to the way frequencies in my voice respond to certain tapes, I figured I was in there.
"I've got a good formula that my people close to me like—because I didn't have a big fanbase, it was just me, Playa Hamm and Tweed Cadillac, who was my rap group homies. And this one other guy named Theron. He used to give me old records to sample, old James Brown and the JB's soul records. So I fell in love with that record my mom used to play, Isaac Hayes “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic,” and I never forgot it.
I bought the N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton album and just scratched 'Born and Raised in Compton' because I felt entitled to use it. And Eazy E and them didn't have a problem with it; they never sued me.
"So when sampling became all the rage, even before Biz Markie got sued for it, we just sampled everything we could. And it wasn't even thinking about commercial success or nothing. We just sampled all the records that we liked. And that track in particular, it just made me feel like a god. Like on top of the world. It just sounded big. Even though it wasn't on the radio, even though I didn't have a record deal. It was just something about that track that moved me.
“So I went on ahead, and even though I'd already moved out of Compton by 1987—I was living in Los Angeles, South Central as they used to call it—I wrote it in 1988 and 1989, I was just depicting what I remembered from Compton. And at the same time I was watching N.W.A. blow up.
"So I bought the N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton album and just scratched 'Born and Raised in Compton' because I felt entitled to use it. And Eazy E and them didn't have a problem with it; they never sued me. Dr. Dre and Ren they never got on me about it. They actually liked the record.
“'Born and Raised in Compton,' it was cool to be able to vent because the reality was, when we moved out of my mom's house in Compton I had left some equipment there, and my records there, and I was trying to find a place to live. We were getting shuffled around. I was like 16, 17 years old.
"This motherfucker named Leroy—we used to call him Skillet, Barbecue, because he was so black and ugly. This motherfucker broke in my mama's house and stole my equipment. So when I go in there and see my equipment gone and our house had been ransacked—what kind of shit?! When you've got bars on the window, how do motherfuckers still get in your house and steal your shit?
"I had worked hard to buy that equipment. I worked odd jobs, I sold crack, weed. I did everything I could to get that equipment so I wouldn't have to keep doing that shit. And for this motherfucking ingrate, this motherfucking hoodlum, to break in my mom's house, to desecrate my home, step on my fucking records. It was the ultimate disrespect to me.
I worked odd jobs, I sold crack, weed. I did everything I could to get that equipment so I wouldn't have to keep doing that shit. And for this ingrate, this hoodlum, to break in my mom's house, to desecrate my home, step on my records. It was the ultimate disrespect to me.
"And I'll go as far as to say this too because can't nobody touch me: after he did that shit, he motivated me to write that record. And he, being the idiot that he was, he kind of gloated about it. He had this sense of almost pride that in some kind of dark twisted way, he helped to propel me into stardom. But as the streets would have it, everybody hates a thief, and everybody hates a snitch. I got news that he got shot and ran over by a car. And I was very happy to hear that.”
DJ Quik "Tonite" (1991)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: Quik Is The Name
Label: Profile
DJ Quik: “That's the biggest hit I've had, chart-wise, in my career. That was my second record that impacted at radio. And it was a quick record— we threw a house party, and I woke up throwing up bile. Like I drank that much. We drank vodka straight. I didn't really know how to drink back then. I was what they called a lightweight.
"I used to drink Old English 800, half a 40 and I was cool. But when we started making a little money, doing little DJ gigs, I was DJing, selling beats for $200 apiece. I was hanging out with motherfuckers like John Boylan, who produced Boston, that 'More than a Feeling' record. I went to his house in Beverly Hills to hang out with him.
When we started making a little money, doing little DJ gigs, I was DJing, selling beats for $200 apiece.
"He taught me, he showed me how to have a home studio and make it work. He showed me all these hundreds of millions of record sales and plaques, and he had them all on the floor, they were in the closet. It was like no big deal to him.
"I kind of adopted that style, after I sold my hundred million records—I just put the plaques on the floor, like 'I don't feel like hanging that shit up' Mission accomplished. I did what I was supposed to do.
“I have a different writing style than other people. I write from the total experience. I try to get my fans to look at it from my point of view. I almost talk; I don't even rap. I felt that I wanted people to relate to me and I wanted to relate to people. Through all the records that people like from me—even as simple as they might be—some people was like 'Quik can't rap,' or this or that and the other. I always felt that I was making a connection. I can feel good if I listen back to my record and understand where I was coming from.
“[I was] Hanging out with motherfuckers like Suge Knight, when he was Marion, before they started Death Row, hanging out with D.O.C. And some of the people that he brought from Texas out here. There was a cool little movement of music going on back in 1988 or '89, where you could be up in the studio with Mario 'Chocolate' who ended up producing 'Ice Ice Baby' for Vanilla Ice.
I'm hanging out with all these OG-ass gangbangin'-ass drug dealer fly-ass rich motherfuckers. And I ended up just being like one of them. And I made 'Tonite' gloating about that.
"I'm hanging out with this motherfucker, I'm hanging out with all these OG-ass gangbangin'-ass drug dealer fly-ass rich motherfuckers. And I ended up just being like one of them. And I made 'Tonite' gloating about that shit. I'm having money—you know, I ain't got no job, but I'm having money—and I'm honing in my rap style. You know what I mean?
"I'm pretty lucky in a lot of senses. Because I could have gotten killed living the lifestyle I was living. But the shit turned into money. And 'Tonite' is the coming-of-age song. And everybody reaches that plateau when they get their proverbial cherry popped. Alcohol, growing up, bitches and shit. It was a great time. Debauchery at its finest.”
DJ Quik "Jus Lyke Compton" (1992)
Producer: DJ Quik, Rob "Fonksta" Bacon
Album: Way 2 Fonky
Label: Profile
DJ Quik: “Now fast-forward from the time my first album hits the streets and started to propel and sell. I'm on a tour bus, I'm being told 'Congratulations!' I'm like, Why? They're like, 'Your record just hit gold this week, so they're going to have a party for you.' Here I am, all I really cared about was getting back home to get to my equipment.
"Back then, I couldn't afford to have a studio on the bus. So I was homesick for my music. Because I just wanted to make more music. I wanted to make another whole album. Like, why are we still touring? They're like, 'Your record is still sellin.' I'm like, I want to go start on Way 2 Fonky.
I was representing the B card pretty tough. Like, I wasn't a super-banged out gangbanger.
I was representing the B card pretty tough. Like, I wasn't a super-banged out gangbanger, but some of the Crips in some of the places I was going kind of wasn't having it.
"During the time I started the record, at the end of that tour, some crazy shit started happening on the road. I was representing the B card pretty tough. Like, I wasn't a super-banged out gangbanger.
"I was letting it be known, I was wearing Chicago White Sox hats with the little red in them, Chicago Bulls gear. That was about the time Michael Jordan and them started to come into prominence, so it was just an all-around good time to rock red.
"But some of the Crips in some of the places I was going kind of wasn't having it. Me being as naïve as I was to the fact that gangbanging did just go a little bit farther than California. And to go out of town and see that motherfuckers really didn't have nothing to lose, and to witness these crazy riots at the end of our shows.
"I'm thinking, I'm not invoking all of this violence, it ain't me, this is a movement bigger than me. Because they're like, 'Quik started a riot last night.' How did Quik start a riot when all I did was get on stage and rapped? I didn't even say 'blood.' It was my cousins and the fucking idiots that I had with me on stage. I'm not gonna say their names, but these motherfuckers was real gangbangers.
"I'm trying to get them record deals and get them out of this shit. But they want to sit on stage and fuck my shit up, throw glass bottles into the audience—you know, real irresponsible shit. Getting me sued, getting me arrested. I gotta fight lawsuits and shit.
“For $81,000 in 1991 I had to pay this lawyer in Denver as a retainer fee for a misdemeanor. They were just using me because I was a celebrity. It was all blown up because I was popular. If I had been a Joe Schmoe little ignorant motherfucker from the hood, they would have thrown that shit out of court. Just some mayhem or whatever and it would have been done.
"But because it was me, they made a big fuss out of it. And the motherfuckers that I had with me, these bastards didn't even come back to court out there in Denver with me to go support me even though I gave them a lifestyle, these ungrateful sunofabitches didn't even represent.
"So 'Jus Lyke Compton,' I wrote that because of the shit that I experienced, the murder of somebody outside of one of my concerts at a club in San Antonio, Texas, which—by the way—Shaquille O'Neal was present at, before he got signed.
“And primarily it was just me giving a very visual assessment of the year prior. And regretfully so, too. When I listen back to that record now I don't think I had any choice but to do that record.
"If there was anything I could change, I probably would have added more stories to it. But it was already four minutes long. I mean, I rapped so long on that record that I would have to take the hooks out. And I shortened the hooks!
"The hooks are not the normal eight bars, like most choruses are eight bars. Those choruses are four bars because I had so much to talk about, and there was some shit I left out. But again, it was my naïvete. You are who you associate yourself with, and motherfuckers next to you can truly sink your battleship, literally.”
DJ Quik "Way 2 Fonky" (1992)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: Way 2 Fonky
Label: Profile
DJ Quik: “I wrote that honoring Roger Troutman. At that point, we still loved 'More Bounce to the Ounce' so that was kind of a bite. I started to be vocal in my diss war—that I reluctantly got dragged into—with MC Eiht. I didn't diss him, and I never wanted to diss him, but I guess when you become popular like that, you become a target.
I started to be vocal in my diss war—that I reluctantly got dragged into—with MC Eiht. I didn't diss him, and I never wanted to diss him, but I guess when you become popular like that, you become a target.
"That was the beginning of me shouting at him: stay off my dick, leave me alone, I'm balling. I've got two records that just went gold, one of them on its way to platinum. And here I come just last year, a year and a half ago, I didn't know where my next Happy Meal was coming from.
"I wrote the music all by myself. I was doing a lot of that back then. I was a songwriter, I didn't even realize that till now, with the publishing checks that I get now.
"I was just a songwriter, I was pretty much writing songs that would pay my way for the rest of my life. 'Way 2 Fonky,' I'm proud to admit, was the beginning of my funk music ambitions.”
Penthouse Players Clique f/ AMG, DJ Quik & Eazy-E "Trust No Bitch" (1992)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: Paid The Cost
Label: Ruthless Records/Priority
DJ Quik: “Imagine being in the studio with Eric Wright at his prime, when money didn't matter. Where it was like, you know, you've got this guy—I was a little bit star-struck. Like, this guy likes me? This motherfucker sells a million records a year, probably more than that. He's grossing a little over a million dollars a month. And he's hanging out with me!
"He's coming to the studio, we're smoking weed together, we're talking about the bitches we hate—bitches that we really love, but they don't respect who the fuck we are, so we're putting them all in records and shit. And hanging out.
The Penthouse Players Clique thing got a little bit messy because they brought ... killers, dope dealers, robbers into the fold. And it made for a pretty uncomfortable recording environment.
“I really wanted that to be more than just their album. The Penthouse Players Clique was my first group that I was in. They're actually the ones that told me I should do something with 2nd II None. I really didn't want to work with 2nd II None because they were stupid. KK was cool, but Dion was a hot-head.
"My thing was, I don't want to bring them too close to me because they've got issues. Every time they come to the studio they've got bullet holes in their car. We fly. I'm a fly motherfucker. I don't get shot at because I don't do anything for motherfuckers to shoot at me. But these motherfuckers is coming to the studio with bullet holes in the car and crazy stories, and when you're with them you get shot at because they have that ignorant thing about them. Player Hamm told me I should go ahead and sign them!
“I did that for them because I went solo after I started getting into it with Playa Hamm and Tweed Cadillac, I started growing, and I felt like I was growing at a faster pace than everybody else, but I wanted to bring them along with me because these are my homeboys, but they just weren't delivering what I thought everybody wanted to hear.
"The Penthouse Players Clique thing got a little bit messy because they brought what would ultimately be the protocol; you bring niggas from the hood into your business.
"These are pretty unsavory people. So Player Hamm and them are bringing some killers, dope dealers, robbers into the fold. And it made for a pretty uncomfortable recording environment.
“And me, in my heart, I believe that there could have been more songs on the Penthouse Players Clique album, I think that Eazy was just hot on me and signed them because of me. I'm just being real—I know that's what it was. Because he figured, Quik's got the midas touch, just let Quik do it or whatever.
"It ended up being a classic album, but as far as my standards, I think if there could have been a more comfortable work environment, not so much tension, not too much personal nigga shit.
"I think that could have been a much bigger record, a much brighter record, and a better-mixed record overall. But the experience, with fucking with Eazy-E? I'll be smiling in my coffin when I die. That was one of the nicest, smartest, most brilliant, most bright individuals I've ever come across.”
DJ Quik "Summer Breeze" (1995)/DJ Quik "Summer Breeze (Remix)" (1995)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: Safe + Sound
Label: Profile
DJ Quik: “I was a big fan of Philadelphia International. One of my boys had this guy who sang like Teddy a little bit—not really, nobody could sing like Teddy—but one of them churchy voices.
"I figured, if we can get away with the sample—if we can clear it or whatever—let's sample it, freak it, give it that thing. Because before that, the only other thing that got sampled by Teddy was 'Love TKO' with Ahmad, 'Back in the Day,' released on Jive Records.
I saw so much death I ended up drinking to suppress that shit. It was just too much. I figured, hell, I wasn't the only one who grew up in a neighborhood where that sh*t was prominent.
“That was back when Profile Records gave me a lot of leeway to experiment. But I prefer the original with the Jermaine Jackson drums and my boy Robert Bacon on the guitar. If you notice, all my records—even from the beginning—are tinged with death. I saw a lot of death.
"As a matter of fact, I saw so much death I ended up drinking to suppress that shit. It was just too much. I figured, hell, I wasn't the only one who grew up in a neighborhood where that shit was prominent. Not so much in L.A., as it was in Compton. But it was what it was.
"'Summer Breeze' was like an obituary. It was dark, it was sullen. And kind of, in a sense, melancholy. But I always kept a bright-side kind of attitude when I did records like that. Obviously, I don't do records like that anymore, because they're passe. Everybody's dying. Even I'm gonna die. I don't give a fuck no more. We can talk about the next record.”
DJ Quik "Quik's Groove III" (1995)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: Safe + Sound
Label: Profile
Dj Quik: “That's one of the most beautiful pieces I've ever had a part in. I mic'd the drums—that was my first time mic-ing real drums during the drum session. And arranging. Part of the idea came from my bass player. It was a song he was working on and I asked him to give it to me, and we sussed it out and made it into another thing.
"At that point, I figured that I could leave a legacy with this kind of music. Because all rap records date, people get tired of hearing your voice after a while. But music lives on forever. That's one of the records that I figured would be a capstone, in a sense, an important peg in my musical legacy. And I love it.
"To this day, when you put it on, it takes you somewhere else. That was like L.A. Jazz at its finest. That's when we were in the prime. Running on all cylinders. I couldn't be stopped. Three gold records in a row? I couldn't be fucked with. So why not stretch out and show homage to my favorite musicians, my jazz musicians. That's pretty much what it was.”
Danny Boy "Steppin'" (1996)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: It's About Time
Label: WIDEawake/Death Row
DJ Quik: “When I met Danny and them, they had that style. Chicagoans, they just have a thing. It's so tasteful and classy. It's not grimy. It seems like it could be, because Chicago's hood too. But it was just classy, churchy and vibey.
"So when Danny was showing me how to step, you know, back then, I was looking at his feet. And I started to do music to his dance steps. Him and his friend Stacy Smallie. I'm watching them groove, and it was incredible, what can I say? It was pretty awesome.
"I wrote the song to his dance steps. That's how it panned out. The tempo was up. It was moving, pushing. You could two-step to it. He pretty much taught me how to two-step.
"I kind of kept that. I inherited that. Any day now I can write a step record. Actually I got a record out called 'Get Down,' which inspired the DJ Quik gangsta slide. So steppin' is in my heart.”
DJ Quik "Dollaz + Sense" (1995)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: Safe + Sound
Label: Profile
DJ Quik: “In hindsight, I was really angry at that point. I started to get a little bit bitter. I started to feel like I was being taken for granted by the people around me. I started losing things. I was getting into unnecessary fist fights with these idiots in the hood. I'm pistol-whipping niggas now. I'm really out of my mind with anger.
I used to be in the studio recording that record with pistols around me. I'd have them up on the podium where the lyrics were. I'd have a Glock up there, or a .380, my little Taurus PT92, my nine millimeters. I was just on one, because of all the bullsh*t that my celebrity brought with it.
"But these niggas deserved it. Bitch-ass niggas trying to steal from me, trying to punk me and shit. I don't take that punk shit too well. I'd just whip out my pistol, and it's like, 'What you really want to do motherfucker? If you want to die, we can arrange that.'
"I used to be in the studio recording that record with pistols around me. I'd have them up on the podium where the lyrics were. I'd have a Glock up there, or a .380, my little Taurus PT92, my nine millimeters. I was just on one, because of all the bullshit that my celebrity brought with it.
“The reality was, I was getting off on a lot of niggas. Not just MC Eiht. I was getting off on my fake security motherfuckers, just the way the shit was going. The unsavory people that certain people in my camp was bringing around.
"I had good people in my camp like Top Dog Daryl Reed, who actually helped me write 'Dollaz and Sense.' Daryl is a co-writer, his name is Top Dog. He's like my personal assistant, personal manager. Just like my brother. He wrote the hook. He gave me the whole concept for it, and he listened to a couple beats and he picked the 'Dollaz and Sense' beat, he was like, 'This gonna be a hot record Quik. Trust me, this is gonna make some noise.'
"He was a player, he was one of them fly guys. He actually looked like Sean 'Puffy' Combs. He was one of them goateed...he used to hang out with Ice T, they was running buddies in the early '80s. He sat there with me. He watched how long it went.
“At the same time I'm writing that record, I've got people in my personal life I'm trying to help get on, and they're not helping me. We were just watching people use my situation. 'Dollaz and Sense' wasn't just about MC Eiht, it was about a whole bunch of people around that time. I was really on one.
"That was the time when road rage was popping real big. Whenever I was rollin' in the Benz or rolling in my Lexus or in my trucks—whatever. I always kept the pistol because motherfuckers would shoot you back then, just because they saw you. It was a real weird, dark time.
"I was just feeling all the angst of all of that aggression. That record still has all that aggression in it too. When I perform it today it doesn't hit as hard, because obviously I'm not that angry any more. But it's still a hit record. Point taken, fuckin' point taken. Long live 'Dollaz and Sense.'”
Tony! Toni! Tone! f/ DJ Quik "Let's Get Down" (1996)
Producer: Raphael Saadiq, DJ Quik, G-One
Album: House Of Music
Label: Mercury
DJ Quik: “If you listen, 'Let's Get Down' is a complete drum rip-off of 'Dollaz and Sense.” Because 'Dollaz and Sense' had blew up, I used the drums again on 'Let's Get Down,' and hit No. 12 on the nationwide Top 100 charts.
"That breakbeat is one of the breakbeats that I invented that I used on a 2nd II None 12” back on Profile for their song 'Be True To Yourself.' I used it on this European remix that I did. This long-form, long-edited—where I was in the studio splicing tape—one of them long breakdown edits. I fucked around, broke that beat down.
This is my drum break—back then I cared about my drum breaks. It was my sh*t. I invented it. I wrote it.
"Simon Harris, who had an independent label back then reissuing breakbeats, sampled my shit and put it on that breakbeat. I bought the album and he named it after one of KK's lyrics on there, 'Keep cool little girl.' The 'keep cool little girl' break. It ended up being on Mr. Grimm's 'Indo Smoke.' This is my drum break—back then I cared about my drum breaks. It was my shit. I invented it. I wrote it.
“Just to see how much it got used, and I never got—nobody ever came to me. Warren G never came to me like, 'Man, that was the shit.' He probably didn't even know where he got it from. It was used for 'Black Superman' by Above the Law. It was used on 'Shackles on my Feet' for Mary Mary, from my young producing protege Warren Campbell, Baby Dub.
"And it was also used in 'Home Alone' for R. Kelly, which is another record that I had something to do with that I didn't get credit for because I had some slimeballs in the game that were trying to capitalize on my sound and suspiciously left my name off of the credits.
"That's me playing percussion on the 'Home Alone' record—that's my bass sound, that's my synthesizer, which was a Roland JD800. That's my drum break, the 'keep cool little girl' break. It is what it is.
“But 'Let's Get Down' was fun in that after I heard the Sons of Soul album, by Tony Toni Tone, I knew I wanted to work with them. I wanted to give them a dance record, something funky and grimy. Right around 1994–1995 was the perfect time for something that was amalgamated like that. That kind of record where you've got this beloved R&B group and this fucking hated gangster rapper or party rapper.
"It made for a cool, not-so-aggressive, one of them let-your-hair-down, let's-party-till-we-get-drunk, bring-all-the-bitches-none-of-these-niggas, ladies-leave-your-children-at-the-nursery-so-we-can-slow-wine.
"Three men, nine women, that's how we used to like it back then. That was that kind of record. It was more for ladies. And if you listen to 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' by Nirvana, you can kind of hear some similarities. Don't tell anybody that though. Long live Kurt Cobain.”
2Pac f/ DJ Quik "Heartz Of Men" (1996)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: All Eyez On Me
Label: Death Row/Interscope
DJ Quik: “That was the stomp-down funky track—I'll put it to you like this. When I first did that track, I bought a little house in San Bernadino County. Just to get away from L.A., the spot was too hot. I moved away so I could write because my spot was getting blown up in L.A., Compton.
"I shook out there, built a little studio. Started making beats in there. That was one of the beats that would have been on Safe + Sound, but Safe + Sound was already pretty much done, so it was kind of hangover beat, just sitting there. I offered it to 2nd II None, because I knew it was hot.
The outfits we were wearing, the jewelry we chose, the way we felt when we went into the studio. That shit was such a lifestyle, man. It was incredible. And the 'Heartz of Men,' let that be an indicator of just how we was feeling. I felt like nothing could stop us now—only death.
"I hate to admit this, but 2nd II None either they were retarded or bourgie. They was like, 'We don't like it. We ain't feeling it.' I was like, Really? 'Yeah, we don't like that one. Make something else.' This is the same group that, when I look at interviews now, these motherfuckers tell everybody that they made the beats!
"Them and AMG. That's cool. If that's what it is, whatever it takes for y'all to get y'alls celebrity or fame, go ahead, I wish you luck. But they turned it down, declined that track, and I was like, so y'all don't mind if I sell it? They was like, 'Shit, go ahead.'
“So I packed up my MPC, my keyboards. Drove my happy ass to Can-Am studios and recorded it in Studio B with Dr. Dre in the back in Studio A. Motherfuckers heard that track, they was like, 'Damn, Quik funky.' Dre left for a little while so Studio A opened up. Studio A was the big room.
"My friend Warren came through, and an in-house producer over at Death Row Records who played the synthesizers on that record. Warren played piano on it. I played bass. We pretty much freaked the track and made it big. Put a two-track of it up.
"When Tupac got out of jail days later, we didn't even know he was getting out of jail, because Suge did that shit in private. He didn't even tell anybody that he was in New York so we just had the studio running.
"The fuckin' door flies open, we're in the kitchen playing Mortal Kombat, it's Tupac Shakur, hooked up. Fresh outfit and shit. I'm like, 'What the fuck? Nigga you're supposed to be in jail.' Who gets out of jail? That's what let me know that Death Row shit was powerful.
The door flies open, we're in the kitchen playing Mortal Kombat, it's Tupac Shakur, hooked up. Fresh outfit and shit. I'm like, 'What the...? You're supposed to be in jail.' Who gets out of jail? That's what let me know that Death Row sh*t was powerful.
“So I'm like, well, since you're here, I've got something I want you to hear. I played one for him. He's like, Alright, whatever. I play 'Heartz of Men' second. He grabbed a notepad, he's like, 'Quik, let me go back and fuck with Daz. I'll be right back.' An hour later, he finished the song in the back—by this time I switched back to B since Dre came back.
"He came in B, sat down with a legal pad, a fuckin' ink pen, a blunt, lit up. Wrote that motherfucking song right in front of me. This is where I blew it. I didn't have a video camera. I blew it. I took it for granted. I figured, we're going to live forever—who cares? It just doesn't sound as sweet coming from my mouth as it did the experience of seeing him go in there and obliterate that fucking track like he did. You know?
"The outfits we were wearing, the jewelry we chose, the way we felt when we went into the studio. That shit was such a lifestyle, man. It was incredible. And the 'Heartz of Men,' let that be an indicator of just how we was feeling. I felt like nothing could stop us now—only death. I was really wound up into the production back then. I was fucking wound up. I was going for it.
“As fate would have it, I recently went and visited 2nd II None and visited them in their little situation, wherever they're living. No cars; these guys pretty much fucked off their celebrity. I added insult to injury by telling them just a few days prior, my lawyer emailed me and told me his favorite song of the week was 'Heartz of Men.'
'You guys turned down some serious records. And right now, you guys don't look like you're in the position to turn down your collars.'
"So I opened up the email, and he said because it just netted you blank-blank-blank-blank-blank in residual royalties. So I look at this big-ass royalty check, and the first person I think of is Tupac. The second person I think of is 2nd II None. I just tell them, 'You guys turned down some serious records. And right now, you guys don't look like you're in the position to turn down your fucking collars. Y'all should have took all that shit, took everybody's money, and laughed all the way to the bank.'
"Let some of these hip-hop artists who have fallen on hard times, let them serve as a lesson or an indicator or how not to do hip-hop. Whether it's gangster rap, pop, swag, whatever it is.
"Let some of these people be a testament of when keeping it real goes wrong, like David Chapelle says. Them keeping it real just cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties that I collect. I hope you print all this shit.”
DJ Quik f/ El DeBarge "El's Interlude" (1998)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: Rhythm-al-ism
Label: Profile
DJ Quik: “God as my witness, I was driving my Corvette up the hill today thinking about El's lyrics. Yesterday was Marvin Gaye's birthday, and because Marvin Gaye and El Debarge used to hang out, whenever Marvin Gaye's birthday comes around I think of El really strongly.
"I was thinking about how that was such a multi-arranged record. Back then, people weren't even doing breakdowns and changes. That record had three totally different energies in it. Three totally different breakdowns. What a fucking awesome record. And he nailed that shit in one take. Just to see him croon—that's what a fuckin crooner does!
I used to cry to y'all records when I was little, when a bitch broke my heart. To be in a studio with him, watching him get down, it was phenomenal. What can I say?
"And here I am, for the first time in my life, working with a crooner! I was over the moon. I was elated! This is the shit! This is what the fuck I'm supposed to be doing, working with this motherfucker and potentially his brothers. Like, let me do a Debarge album! I know how to write that shit!
"I used to cry to y'all records when I was little, when a bitch broke my heart. To be in a studio with him, watching him get down, it was fucking phenomenal. What can I say? I smiled all the time, I stayed high off the best motherfucking weed, and drank the best alcohol and swam in the pool and threw parties.
“With the Rhythmalism album, even though it didn't have a home because Profile was going through something and I was fighting them for back royalties and they had me on suspension because they didn't want to pay me. I understood, those were some big checks, I wouldn't want to pay DJ Quik either.
"I was in a comfortable place because I was producing records for Suge, who was taking care of me. I'm producing records for other motherfuckers. So I had a production life outside of my artist life that was actually more fruitful than me being an artist.
"So as that record sat in limbo, I start throwing parties. I had Digital Underground over, we throwing these crazy-ass pimp-of-the-year parties and shit. Bitches running all through the house naked and shit. It was just debauchery! I had the time of my life working on Rhythmalism.
“And I hope it came through on that record. Rhythmalism is a little bit blue, a little bit hypersexual, and I can see how—because I started fucking with my androgyny a little bit. Because hanging out with El, and hanging out with the people he had around him, like the bitches—they made me feel not so rough-around-the-edges.
"I think that's when I lost my rough edges, I lost the gangster shit and became like an R&B pretty boy, and almost gay. Motherfuckers was like, 'Man, you look kind of gay on that cover.' And I was like, Fuck you—I'll kill you. This is musical expression, bitch! Fuck off and die. But looking back it wasn't real blue.
"The name Rhythmalism alone tells you what I was doing. I was mixing up rhythms. I was meshing R&B with hip-hop and jazz. And a little bit of comedy. I love the intro on Rhythmalism. The Rhythmalism intro is funny as shit. I'm trying to do rock and roll-grunge-metal and end up dying at the end of the song, hyperventilating, passing out.
“El Debarge, that record was really about him. I was going for Q4, I was going to do 'Safe & Sound 2,' after 'Safe & Sound.' But when I met him—I met him at the House of Blues. He was everything that I thought he was, just seeing him on TV and listening to him on the radio.
"He showed me what I was doing wrong. He would stop me like, 'Naw, man you're fucking up.' I needed that. He taught me how to be a better producer. How to be more multi-faceted. Taught me arrangement and shit. Right now I'm a beast!
"Even though our music is passe. Right now, if this was still the gangster rap era, I could produce a record that's so fucking awesome it'll rival all the big hip-hop records. And it's just because of some of the techniques that El Debarge taught me.
"Songwriting, basically, him and Clive Davis taught me songwriting. That's me listening to Clive Davis, my boss, El Debarge my fucking homie, and listening to Top Dog who gave me that hit 'Dollaz and Sense.' Unfortunately he got murdered when we was recording it, but Rhythmalism is all that. Rhythmalism is pretty much my favorite album, because it's all over the place with arrangement but still constitutes one sound.”
DJ Quik "We Still Party" (1998)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: Rhythm-al-ism
Label: Profile
DJ Quik: “I did 'We Still Party' after my friend passed away. My boy Daryl Reed got murdered for nothing. Somebody in my family got on meth and killed him. I didn't know what meth was. I didn't understand cocaine and meth. I just didn't get it.
"You can smoke a joint and the high lasts twenty minutes until you come back to normal. How long do you want to be high? Who wants to be perpetually high? Fuck that shit. You still gotta come down, or you can't enjoy your high. You gotta start from sober.
"Anyway, I wrote that song for him, to stand in the face of motherfuckers that was trying to kill our joy, that we're going to party until we die. You're not going to be able to stop this fun. I've been doing that shit ever since, and that song's fourteen years old.
"When I get off the phone with you, I'm about to mix some Ciroc berry drink, I'm about to smoke a motherfucking blunt, and I'm about to play my Fender guitar through my Fender amp. Imagine that."
DJ Quik "Thinkin' Bout U" (1998)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: Rhythm-al-ism
Label: Profile
DJ Quik: “My friend Kenneth Crouch, who's one of the most revered piano players in the world—played with Eric Clapton, played the Michael Jackson review, the one without him where all the celebrities were there, he was the main keyboardist. He wrote the track, he gave it to me on DAT.
"I took the DAT to my studio, and instantly heard those lyrics, because of his piano playing. He's my favorite piano player, period. That song just wrote itself. I remember being in the studio, getting out of the spa with my wet-ass hands on the tape machine, and listening to that track and writing that story about the love I lost, the girl who didn't want me because she didn't see the bigger picture, forest for the trees or whatever. Look at me now.
"I wrote it very quickly. I stood there in my wet, dripping, Michael Jordan basketball shorts, because that's all I swam in back then. Wet jheri curl. Chlorine water in my studio, rapping that shit. It went down how it sounded. No extra overdub tricks or whatever. Just kind of an honest one-take pass. Bitch, I'm ballin' now, bitch I'm ballin'! You should have fucked with me, bitch. I'm ballin'!
“'Thinking Bout You' was totally 100% musically written by Kenneth Crouch, who's the nephew of Andre Crouch, a revered gospel artist with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Greatest pianist that I know, right down to this day, synthesizer player, everything.
"Unfortunately the credits on the album didn't reflect his writing, so I've always had to apologize to him for that because I left that in the hands of the staff at Arista. I turned in the credits, and somehow it slipped through the cracks. But totally written by Kenneth Crouch. All I did was lend the lyrics.
“I was outputting what I was taking in. I was listening to some jazz, even though jazz was to me a little passe. Sometimes music is too smart for people. And you don't want music that's too smart. I was listening to a lot of Parliament Funkadelic live albums, as opposed to just the studio albums that I grew up with—just to see where they were gelling at, where they weren't gelling.
"What made grooves loose and what made them tight, and how long they could stay locked and all that virtuosity that went with that shit. I was just trying to be a virtuoso piano player. Virtuoso bass player, guitar player, whatever, and kind of match that shit. I got a chance to practice on there. I like the futuristic synthesizer sound on that song 'No Doubt.'
"Back then, nobody was really doing that kind of freaky shit with the Merlin Jupiter series synths. It was a super-experimental, totally risky record, but Clive liked it, and that's all that fucking mattered.
"My fans liked it. I signed a lot of those motherfuckers and sold a lot of them. We might have to do a revisit at some point. Rhythmalism 2. I still have all that fucking skill, all that equipment. All those sounds. I figure we can make it happen.”
Suga Free f/ AMG & DJ Quik "Inside Out" (2006)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: The Features, Vol. 1
Label: Siccness
DJ Quik: “That wasn't never supposed to leak because it wasn't finished. I was trying to find somebody to sing the hook, and we finished the record. Because Suga Free loved the 'Watching You' record. And he was playing Odyssey, he was like: [sings] 'When you're sticking to the script, and she's urging you to hit, you better fight it. Don't give up!'
"I never knew if that was a man or a woman singing because the videos didn't—there was a girl in the group, but the guy always seemed like he was singing. Ultimately I think it was the guy with the 'fro with the mustache that was singing that shit. And I imitated it. I was just imitating it to have someone sing it for real. I gave it to Suga Free as a work in progress: 'Let's finish it, write your last verse, and we'll be done with it.' He was like, 'OK cool.'
“A little while later I hear it on the radio. I'm like, 'That's a reflection of me! That's not even supposed to be out, that's a work in progress.' Because of that record, I don't let anything leave the studio. There aren't going to be any more mistakes. Ain't nobody going to be going through my vault leaking shit.
"If it's not complete, and it's not finished, and it's not going to Bernie Grunmand's and being mastered by Big Bass Brian Gardner, you probably won't hear it. No matter how good it is, how game-changing, or how wack it is, you're not going to hear it.
"I had that talk with Suga Free. I've forgiven him for it, and we're over it. But that right there, if we could have a do-over, I would love to have finished that thought. Because it was just a thought. And we did it so fast! It was about an hour's worth of work.
“I sequenced the beat. Just added a new bassline so we wouldn't have to clear all the music, get a better publishing split because we didn't use the whole thing. I knew we were going to give up the chorus. But I would loved to have finished that.
"Maybe one day in the future, if I could find someone to sing like that, we'll recreate that whole song. Because [Odyssey's] 'Native New Yorker' was a hot-ass motherfucking record, man. [Sings] 'You're a native New Yorker...You're no tramp like you're no...' That was my shit!
"And 'Inside Out' was a treat off of that album. Do you remember the group Kleeer? On that album they had 'Intimate Connection' and 'Tonite.' Me doing 'Tonite' and Dr. Dre doing 'Intimate Connection' for rap records would ultimately keep Kleeer getting paid for the rest of their fucking lives man. They're paid! These motherfuckers are getting million dollar royalty statements. It's great."
2nd II None f/ DJ Quik "Up N Da Club" (1999)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: Classic 220
Label: Arista
DJ Quik: “Somehow, they ended up on Arista with me. Their deal got bought by Arista from Profile, like me. Every now and then they'd tuck their tail and come ask me to do a record, and be really apologetic: 'It's not gonna happen again, we're not gonna trip.' But it was all a fucking ruse. They were gonna be idiots anyway.
"So I took a guitar part that I rehearsed with Stan the Guitar Man Jones, who played on my 'Tonite' record. He also played on 'Gangsta Gangsta.' I met him through N.W.A. He played on all their early shit, like 'If It Ain't Rough' on the Eazy-Duz-It album. That was the first time I heard rhythm guitar on a hip-hop record. They were ahead of the game. Dr. Dre was ahead of the curve. I fell in line.
"I figured I could get some of that too. That could add to my musicality or whatever. So Stan gave me that guitar part, I wrote the synthesizers, the chorus. I had my brother Will Hudspeth and this girl named Tamera who was a songwriter for Deborah Cox, and she was one of Big John's artists back then—Big John was a big publishing dude—she sang the hook, and I gave it to them.
"It did pretty good, people liked it in Miami. I started to get Miami fans, because it was a breezy groove record. And the timing was good, and the hook sounded original. [Sings] 'Up in the cluuub!' Ironically enough, I would later help Dr. Dre with the drum sounds on 50 Cent's 'In Da Club.' So I guess I was born to do club shit. ”
DJ Quik "Pitch In on a Party" (1999)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: Balance & Options
Label: Arista
DJ Quik: “Basically the 'Bounce Rock Skate Roll' drum break—the actual drum break—with a couple of melodic Rhodes chords. We call it, finger the notes in succession. So just a couple of Rhodes chords. Wrote a hook that I thought would make sense.
"If you listen to it and look at the video, I was kind of over partying at that point. It was cool, but it was like, the things that could go wrong with throwing what we used to call house parties back then, now they call them kickbacks, the kids.
"It's so funny—that was a song about the personal kickbacks, incurring all the costs to having these parties to celebrate. Because my thing was always celebrating. I don't know why I was so crazy about celebrating.
"I guess I was just happy to be alive, going up through all that fucking trauma, all the traumatic shit growing up watching people get killed when I was 14. I even seen a dead body when I was eight years old. Who wants to see that shit, know what I mean?
"So I was doing a lot of that kind of music to offset the darkness that was going on, because we were losing people back and forth. I was going to so many funerals. Some funerals I didn't even go to, I was like, 'I'm burnt.'
“So my thing was, 'Let's party, everybody bring some shit, bring some food, I'll get the liquor, I'll buy food. I've got my fucking $10,000 speaker system in the house. Let's turn this motherfucker out until the cops come.' And that's kind of what it was. I threw some of the best parties ever, until when I got tired of people stealing shit or breaking my shit, or I'm trying to get fucking wine out of the powder-blue carpet.
"When people started asking me 'So when are we throwing another party?' I said, We ain't throwing no more parties. 'What??' We ain't partying no more, that's it. I got kids now. I can't party. I'm married. I can't even kick it. Motherfuckers like, 'Aww fuck that!' People get mad and shit.
"That was Balance & Options, which was the record that didn't sell as much as the other ones. Music started to change. Downloads came in around that time, that's when the MP3 thing started to explode, more than just Shawn Fanning and Napster.
"People started stealing music and the business was changing. Couple years after that Arista went through a big change. I went through a big change, I wanted to go independent. That song kind of ushered in my second career, or that album did.”
Snoop Dogg f/ DJ Quik, Mausberg & Warren G "Don't Tell" (1999)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: No Limit Top Dogg
Label: Doggystyle/No Limit/Priority
DJ Quik: “Warren G inspired that record. Snoop called me—I had always wanted to work with Snoopy. And I think me being a Blood—just because of how much of a Crip he was and how much of a Blood I was—I was just a little leery. I thought he wouldn't want to fuck with me.
"But when he's like, 'Yeah, cool,' I put the gang shit aside, what my background was. Went out to his crib and started woodshedding with him, building beats, took my equipment and we start smoking and we just started grooving.
"In some ways we're a lot alike. We love soul music, we love 808 drums, and we love that gangsta shit. It's pretty much what it was. I introduced him to Suga Free, who was an artist of Tony Lane's.
"Mausberg, who was another artist of Tony Lane's. He fucked with them. He helped them get on. Put them on his record, gave them full blast, gave them a couple of bucks and shit. I was like, 'Wow. Get down, Snoop.'
“But that's Jewell, with her good-singing ass on the hook. That's a fine motherfucking woman too. She was as much responsible for the G-Funk era sound as Nate Dogg was and Warren was.
"That was pretty much an ode to G-Funk. I love that record, it's all syrupy. It's funny, my music now isn't that syrupy. My music now ain't that pretty, because one really popular guy told me recently—well, he's not really popular, but he was part of a major group on the West Coast scene back in the '80s—but he told me, 'You're a great producer, you're one of my favorite producers. But your music is too pretty. That's the problem, that's what holds you back, that's what keeps you from blowing up.' I'm like, 'Hey, I can accept that. That's your opinion, I love it.' And then I started doing even prettier records. [Laughs.] Like 'Fuck you!'
"In reality, that was a pretty record. Like the arrangement of it, just the way it felt, kind of like those Blue Note records, trumpety, synthesizers and shit, the Ark Odyssey sound. Just a real smooth—could have been jazz, could have been 94.7 The Wave kind of music. But Snoop and them put the edge on it. It fit Snoop's voice like a leather jacket fits me.”
Suga Free "Why U Bullshittin?" (1997)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: Street Gospel
Label: Polygram Records
DJ Quik: “At that point we were trying to cut costs in the big studios because we didn't need the big tape machines any more. Everybody was dumbing it down to DA-88s and their own little shit.
"So I set up shop at a house in Compton and did Suga Free's entire album in the garage, like a garage band. And nobody knows the difference. You can't even tell because I'm such a great fucking engineer. Everybody's trying right now—I was just mentoring some kids trying to produce, and everybody's so crazy about Dr. Dre's mic path, like 'we need his mic chain, that Dr. Dre mic chain. Can you tell me what it was so we can buy it?'
"My thing to them is, a mic chain is a mic chain. A mic chain is not going to make you a hit record. It's how you use whatever fucking equipment you've got. Whether it's a $10 mic or a $10,000 mic. A piece of equipment has never made a hit record. It's all about riding levels, same as riding a motorcycle. It's inertia. You get a signal moving nicely and you don't touch it any more. If it sounds good and it's got no static in it, leave it right where it is.
“Back then I was using Neumann mics, taking Neumann mics home, but I say that was impractical, because the cheapest Norman mics back then were like $3500 to $4000. I was using two pre-amplifiers like TL Audio, before Avalon came out, I ended up buying Avalon too. But real tubey mic pre's, and did the mix between set, class A discrete and solid state. That was my thing.
"I was into the way things sounded and behavior. So that was a good record because we did it and it sounds incredible. And it was recorded and mixed in my homeboy Black Tone's garage.
“That record is based on 'Heartz of Men'—the drum thing. I wrote the crazy bassline. I think we were burning out the funk shit. Dr. Dre is doing a lot of Moog, Warren G is doing Moog, all of these other artists are doing Moog. Above the Law, AMG, everybody is doing the Moog sound. Even on the east coast, Biggie and them were doing Moog, Diddy, Moog. Outside of Wu-Tang clan and other more hip-hop affiliated groups.
"So I got into like Indian music. I started experimenting with the sitar. And even though it was a sample of a sitar, I changed the notes to where it only pitched in like halfway, played in between the notes. That's how you get that twangy movement in the sitar.
"I appreciate that record because to this day it sounds great, and it's totally influenced by Indian music, Bollywood. I helped usher that in, I was the first to mix that with hip hop and make it palatable for my hip-hop fans."
8ball and MJG f/ DJ Quik "Buck Bounce" (2000)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: Space Age 4 Eva
Label: JCOR Entertainment/Interscope Records
DJ Quik: “I had just bought this little drum machine and I was pulling sounds out of it and putting them in the MPC, and was just quirking around with them. At that point I was going minimalist, just trying to take it back to the drums, no synthesizer, no bass guitar, no guitar, no keyboards, none of that shit.
"It became a record about sound effects, just like a double-time bounce record. It was a throwaway to me. I wouldn't have rapped to it, I wouldn't have used it. But I got in the studio with 8ball and MJG for the Space Age Pimpin' album, and they heard it.
"I played one for them, and then I played that one. 'What you doing with that?' I was like, 'This is junk, I'm about to delete this shit!' And they was like, 'Hold the presses! See Quik, one man's trash...' So I recorded it. They recorded their vocals. I record everything now, because I missed a lot of shit.
"I could have had my video camera rolling back then and had some footage of some of the most epic sessions. All that Tupac shit. Anyway, they loved the track and I got on it with them. They inspired me to write to the motherfucker so I did. Mixed it for them, sent it to them.
“I love 8ball and MJG. If they ever wanted to do something again—I've been hanging out with Young Jeezy too. I've been giving him beats and shit. But this time, I would like to go to where they're at.
"I don't want them to come to L.A.; L.A. doesn't really have a culture. L.A. has lost its soul. Musical vibe in L.A. Isn't the same. We don't even have a real radio station. When it comes to R&B and all that, the signals is all scrambled.
"I'd like to go down south with them. I'd rather go to Memphis and work on it. Because that way, I could capture or be inspired by what moves them. What the sound is right then and there at that time. To me that's what great musicians do.
"That's why they stay on tour, the ones that are healthy enough to do so. We go out and we move around. To be like little antennae. To pick up on signals from people and try to give them energy and music.”
Erick Sermon f/ DJ Quik & Xzibit "Focus" (2000)
Producer: Erick Sermon, DJ Quik
Album: Def Squad Presents: Erick Onasis
Label: DreamWorks
DJ Quik: “Roger Troutman sample—Erick Sermon wanted me to do it. I was going through my own Roger Troutman phase, like where he would be in the studio experimenting, all the time. Knew what he was doing, knew how to record. He was just born with it. A total geek in that world. That's what I was doing.
"I'd learned the talkbox, enough to impress him. He even liked the way I did it. He knew that I wasn't stealing from him, but he knew that I was inspired totally 100% by him. That was fun.
"It's always fun working with Xzibit because Xzibit has one of the easiest voices to record. He's got one of the easiest vibes to capture on tape. If that is what the goal is, is to still capture energy on tape, Xzibit is great at that.
“And Erick Sermon is one of the reasons I'm even in this business. Not because of the album Strictly Business and the 12” that came after that, which is to me, one of the greatest-sounding 12”s of all time, 'So Whatcha Saying.' Not just because of those records.
"When I went on my first tour, I supported them in some cities. And hanging out with him and Parrish, they taught me how to be frugal, how to keep it business, how to save for taxes. And even though I wasn't the kind of guy that would be out there spending $30,000 to $40,000 every two days on the road, they told me that I had to account for that shit.
"They taught me to get an accountant, they taught me to be wise, with taxes and all that shit. I owe a great debt of gratitude to Erick Sermon, not just for calling me for that record, but just the game that he shared with me back then. Being as smart as he is. What a genius. Long live Erick Sermon.”
DJ Quik f/ Wanya Morris "50 Wayz" (2002)
Producer: DJ Quik
Album: Under Tha Influence
Label: Ark 21 Records
DJ Quik: “It would have been dope had Paul Simon let me use the track. The intentions were good. I was geared to clear it, pay, change lyrics, whatever. He didn't want anyone to use it. I was like, Mr. Simon, for real? It was a great record. I would give 100% of the publishing.
"I don't care, I lost my best friend and he was dope. I can't do it with my music alone. If I can do it with your music, I think I'll leave him a legacy, like people will know that this guy was top tier.
"Paul Simon said No, and I had to respect that. I respect it to this day. I played it for Dre, and he gave me his honest opinion. And without saying it's not as good as with the sample, he said, 'The real drums make a difference don't they?' I was like, 'Yep.' I said 'They won't let me use it.' We left it at that. I left it, and I felt deflated because that would have been really important.
"But then again, it wasn't supposed to happen because it played out the way it did. Maybe I read too much into music. I can't separate myself from it. I'm not the kind of person who can just say, 'Yeah, we did that beat, and it didn't work, but this one did pretty good!' I'm passionate about music. I try not to be! But I'd only be kidding myself. That's my real passion.”