We speak to Diabolic about his upcoming new album with producer Vanderslice, Collusion, out later this month.
You and Vanderslice have been down for years but have never made an album together until now. What made you guys feel that the time was finally right?
I’ve known Matt Diamond at Coalmine Records for years as well – he does publicity for my other projects. He had mentioned the idea to me and it was a no brainer. I ran it by Slice and he was in so when Matt was ready to move forward with it, it was as natural as Roy Hobbs knocking the cover off of a baseball.
That said, your solo catalog is pretty small anyway considering how long you’ve been in the game. It that a strive to maintain quality over quantity, unlike a lot of artists who over-saturate by flooding the scene with too much music?
Yeah, that’s a big part of it. I always managed to maintain an allure of mystery through the years and it helped me build a solid fan base in a weird way while managing to stay busy. The other side of it was being trapped at Viper Records. That situation was way too stressful for my taste and it resulted in a lack of productivity for everyone on the label. After I left a few years ago, it was a learning process on how to release music on my own. Now I feel as though I have better grasp of it which is why fans will see three projects out of me in 2019.
The title Collusion has a political overtone at the moment (in fact, as I write this, its only a couple days since the Mueller report was filed, seemingly clearing the orange tyrant of any shady business with Russia). The album gets political at times. Care to speak on any of the issues covered?
Haha. The title came to fruition more because I’m a smart ass more than anything. I also figured it’s one of the most searched words on the internet at the moment so it would play well with the algorithms in this future world we’re currently living in. I understand people’s reasons for disliking the president, but I also knew from the start that the Russian Collusion story was complete nonsense so it’s a good way to mock it.
Your previous records were self-released on your own label, but Collusion is out through Coalmine Records. I’m interested to know what the advantages of being on a label are these days, in a world where releasing music is easier than ever.
I was on Viper Records for my first and part of my second albums (I left with my masters prior to releasing the second) and ended up releasing the second one on my own which went well while being a major pain in the ass. Matt and Coalmine Records is about the only label I’d work with based solely on his integrity and work ethic. We’re friends outside of it so breaking bread isn’t a problem and I know he’ll work twice as hard as anyone else including myself while not fucking me over monetarily. It allows me to release more while taking some of the weight off of my shoulders.
There’s some dope looking versions of the album dropping on wax. How important is it for to give fans a decent, collectible physical product?
Honestly, that’s all kind of new to me and something Matt’s been teaching me a lot about. Vinyl has sort of become like collecting baseball cards these days. It’s dope. In the future I’m definitely going to make it more of a focus.
Going back to Vanderslice, his beats are straight up, true-school Hip-Hop, which suit your emcee style nicely. How do you guys tend to work? What’s the process?
It tends to be harassing him for more beats about three minutes after he just sent me some [laughs]. It was a piece of cake and pretty natural. We’ve been friends for about 20 years so communication and trading ideas is nothing. He sent me stuff, I wrote to it pretty quickly, hit the lab, and then Scott Stallone out in Philly handled all of the mixes which were spot on first round, otherwise it was minor changes.
Now that you and Vanderslice have your first full-length collaboration in the bag, can we expect more from you guys together?
Yeah I’m sure we’ll reconnect for something. Whether it’s a whole LP or just doing music in general. And if it sells the way it could, we’d be stupid not to.
Lastly, tell us your favorite joint on the album, and why?
I like the single, Think of That, a lot. It was actually supposed to be an interlude beat and ended being the last track I did. I asked him to send me some shit for an interlude, he sent me that, I was like, “there’s no fucking way I can not rap to this sh*t.” There’s a few on there that I really like though, it’s tough to say. I’ll let the kids decide what I like the best for me.
https://soundcloud.com/diamondmedia360/diabolic-vanderslice-think-of-that
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Collusion drops April 12 on Coalmine Records. Order from here. Follow Diabolic on Instagram. Interview by Grown Up Rap Editor Ben Pedroche.