Category: Atmosphere

Exclusive Premiere: Vanderslice – ‘Bone Museum’ feat. Vic Spencer + Interview

img_1099-1Today we’re premiering new music by Vanderslice, from the upcoming project, The Best Album Money Can Buy. Following on from the recent North American Money with Slug and Evidence, Bone Museum features brutal verses from the always-great Vic Spencer, over a sinister Vanderslice headnodder. Listen below, and keep scrolling to read our interview with the man himself.

Tell us about the new project, The Best Album Money Can Buy. There’s some heavy features on there. 

It took a few years to get together, I had no intention of doing a compilation. The feature game is stale and there are tiers. You can get the twitter guys who sell verses for 200 dollars, you can capitalize on people who run holiday sales, and what not. I just wasn’t interested in being a part of that musical miasma. It’s not organic, and at the end of the day if everyone can get access to something, it inherently loses value and becomes uncool. The Best Album Money Can Buy was done organically and that’s what separates it from the pack.

It has an interesting mix of guest emcees, from those doing great work right now, like Vic Spencer and Conway, to rhyme vets like Percee P. Who was the easiest and most fun to work with?

I reached out to Slug as I was going to do a small batch of 7” singles. Slug reached out to Evidence, we have a rapport at this point, we’ve done like 6 songs for various records and shit. They turned out North American Money, and then it was just on from there. They both showed me love when they really didn’t have to, and I couldn’t afford either one of em at that point. That was by far the best experience on the album, because from that song I realized that I had way more reach than I give myself credit for. It was the song that set the tone for the album.

Previous projects like Everything’s Awesome have alternated between tracks with vocals and straight instrumental joints. Is that a strategic decision, maybe because listeners can get bored of an album with no vocals?

That was a strategic decision, I like beat tapes, I like when the music takes you on a journey and all of the beats for Everything’s Awesome were made and chosen before we ever got any raps done. We had the Winning Team record with AWAR and he used a lot of the Everything’s Awesome Beats, AOTP used Broken Safeties, my man Maffew Ragazino rhymed on a few of ’em as well. We didn’t want to wait for those songs to come out, and we didn’t want to drop a straight instrumental tape, so we filled the gaps.

How do you decide which emcees you want to work with? Is there a wish list, or does it inevitably come down to schedules, availability and budget?

There’s a wish list. I crossed off all five of my top five rappers in 2017 into 2018. Prodigy, Ghostface, Percee P, Styles P, & Jadakiss all rapped on my beats.

Going back to instrumentals for a minute; I’m always keen to know if producers such as yourself see beat tape material as a way of showcasing your beats for sale, or as standalone works that don’t necessarily need vocals. There’s definitely a difference. How do you see it? 

I try and find a theme to follow. If you’re familiar with my releases we did a tape called Smuggle Rap. It was all rock & synth stuff and laced with 1980’s drug culture references, we’ve done two gospel tapes, and I don’t even like freelancing beats to be honest. If you got cash in hand we’ll work with you, but there’s no pool of beats to choose from, there’s no leases, or any of that bullshit.  I’m more in line with selling music not selling beats. I’d rather be an artist than a hustler. Producers are wack man leasing beats and selling meet & greets like they’re fuckin Quincy Jones out here. Don’t ever let someone sell you the dream.

Another thing I always like to ask producers about is their studio gear. Describe your basic set up. 

I use the MPCx and a prime selection of records. My man Steez plays keys, bass, and guitar. I pluck the samples, lay the drums, and do a mock up of the bass, or at least provide the vision and Steez bangs out the layers to give everything the necessary textures.

Now that The Best Album Money Can Buy is done and about to drop, what’s next after that?

We have a lot of beats on AWAR’s Spoils of War. We did the songs with Scarface, Anthony Hamilton, Cormega, Styles P & Jadakiss so we’re excited for that. We have a 7” ep called the Trendsetter which features Ty Farris, Vic Spencer, G Perico, Daniel Son, and my man Capo. We produced an ep for my longtime friend Verbal Tec which is a completely different lane. It’s much more soulful and he’s a black nationalist but I’m super proud of that shit, it took like 9 years to make. We also produced a project with Diabolic coming out on Coalmine Records. All of these are done too they’re in the tank so we’re gonna be busy.

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The Best Album Money Can Buy is out July 12, and you can get it here. Follow Vanderslice and Vic Spencer on Twiter. Interview by Grown Up Rap Editor Ben Pedroche. 

Interview: Blueprint

Blueprint 'KNC' 4x6 FlyerBlueprint has become hugely respected on the independent hip-hop scene, thanks to a string of solid solo releases and collaborations, going back to 1999 and his debut EP as part of Greenhouse Effect. More recently he has garnered praise for his Super Duty Tough Work podcast, alongside his long-time friend and collaborator, Illogic. He is also releasing his first feature-length film this year, King No Crown. We caught up with him to discuss the project, his disciplined work ethic and the benefits of being able to speak openly and honestly. Interview by Gingerslim.

Your new film, King No Crown, is due for release soon. Can you give us a little bit of background on the project? 
I started wanting to try my hand at making a movie around 2012 or so and, even though my first few attempts didn’t work out, I kept my eyes open for any projects that I might be able to execute. My initial idea for the King No Crown movie came to me around the beginning of 2015, about five months before the album was released. The first thing I did was have a friend do an interview with me about topics from the album and from being an independent artist in general. When I saw how well that came out it gave me the inspiration to try a little more, so I had my guy Mario follow me around with a camera to track some of the action as I prepared to release the King No Crown album. At first, it was just supposed to be around 20-30 minutes, but as I started getting into it I saw that it had the potential to be much more, so I decided to dive deeper into it and really bring it to life as a full-length movie.

You’ve been involved in the creative world for years, was filmmaking just the natural progression for you from your interest in photography? Had you ever had a desire to make a film before this?
I think film was definitely a natural progression for me. Several years back, it really hit me how being a writer is my primary occupation and the only thing that really changes is the medium I use to tell my stories on. From music to podcasting, to books, and now to film; it just feels like natural progression to me. Naturally, there are a lot of technical things you have to learn to even be able to make an average film, but it feels no different than any of the other disciplines I’ve dedicated myself towards learning at a high level.
I didn’t own my own camera until 2011 and never had much of a desire to make movies prior to that. But getting a good camera taught me how powerful images and video are in storytelling. Once I saw that, I had to dive deeper into it.
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Now you’ve made the film, do you think it is something you will pursue further?
As far as I’m concerned, this film is just the beginning. It’s been such an inspiring experience to see my idea actually come alive on screen that I definitely plan on doing more films in the future. My second film has been started already, but I don’t want to divulge too much about it yet until it’s a bit further along. It’s definitely coming though and should hopefully be out within a year or less.
And do you think there will ever be a point in the future where you step away from making hip-hop to focus purely on another medium?
I’m a hip-hop head to the core, so I don’t think there will ever be a time that I stop writing rhymes and making beats. There may be a time when I do a little more film work than music, but music will always be a huge part of my life.
I know part of the film’s main theme is the feeling of losing time and I was wondering if that was always a feeling you’ve had, or something that was borne from your accident back in 2015?
For sure. The accident we had in 2015 was a huge wake-up call to all of us. Sometimes you can be so busy pushing forward that you can forget to celebrate where you’ve come from. But then when you have a near-death experience like that, you realize just how sacred life is and how we should be celebrating it more by doing what we love every day. I’ve always felt like life is really short and should be enjoyed, but having it almost taken away from you in the blink of an eye really reminded me of that more than ever.
Something that’s inspired me is your work ethic. You describe your days as being scheduled by social media time, studio time, reading time etc. I’ve heard artists like Oddisee say the same, and it’s this organization that has allowed you to do music full-time. Is it something you think a lot of artists overlook?
Totally. Most artists live by a belief that they should only work when they’re inspired, not when it’s time to work, so they reject structure. To me, having structure is what allows me to get so much more work done. I still goof off sometimes even with the schedule, but the schedule and structure are always there to remind me of what I should be doing, or more importantly that I should be doing something. There’s no way I could get the amount of work done that I do without some real structure.
Weightless has been the putting out quality music since its inception. What was your original vision for the label when you started it?
Thank you. My original vision was that Weightless would be the platform that none of us ever had access to living in Ohio. Most artists from big cities know what it’s like to have major labels and media near them, but we never had that. As a result, I just wanted Weightless to be that – a platform for us to put out our creative work.
Do you feel you’ve exceeded your expectations as far as that’s concerned and has its success given you a different vision for the future of the label?
The goals I set for myself at anything are always really high, so I never actually feel like I’ve exceeded any expectations. There’s always so much farther things could go, especially as media and what a label is keeps on evolving and changing every year. Once upon a time, we were doing CDs and tapes, then books and vinyl, next will be movies and who knows what else. I’m just happy to still be around, but I’m never satisfied.
I just wanted to touch briefly on the Orphanage as I think of you guys as one of my favorite crews that never really existed as a crew, if that makes sense. I was wondering if there was a desire among any of you at the time to actually sit down and make more music, or was it more of a spontaneous thing when you happened to all be together?
At the time we did the Orphanage project we were all super in love with the idea of being our own version of one of rap’s super-groups. So once we formed the group we all met up in Minneapolis and spent a few days there writing and recording. It was a great time and we were all excited about it. I don’t think we really understood the pressure that came along with being a super-group at the time we recorded the Orphanage project together, we were just having fun. Later on, we saw that having fun is cool, but we would be judged really seriously on whatever we dropped. And, with five different people involved, it would take a whole lot of work to make a cohesive album that fit all of our standards. The year after we recorded, things really started to take off for all of us, so that also became something that we would have had to balance if we would have ever picked back up the project. It was amazing to spend three or four days straight, sleeping on couches, and working on music with my friends, but I think we all understood that some of the magic and fun would be lost if we ever released the project.

You’ve always been very open and honest about your career, both its ups and downs. I was wondering if there was anything you might do differently if you were given the chance to go through it again?
Nah not really. Anything that went bad for me gave me an opportunity to learn something that I applied later. I’ve never really had any regrets about my career because I truly believe every decision I made was the best decision given the information I had at the time. So I would probably do everything all over again the exact same way if given the opportunity.
Sticking with that honesty theme for a second, we’re big fans of your Super Duty Tough Work podcast. What’s refreshing about it for us is that you don’t shy away from saying what a lot of people within the hip-hop media world are afraid to. Yet you aren’t doing it in a controversial way or trying to cause scandal. You are just saying what needs to be said. Is that quite a liberating experience?
Oh yeah. Being able to talk candidly about those topics is the most liberating thing for me and Illogic. So many artists can never truly say what they really believe because they fear backlash for it, but we’ve set things up to where our listeners have allowed us to just be ourselves and honest. When people first hear our podcast, a lot of them are blown away because they’re just not used to that level of openness. Then after they listen for a while they love it.
What’s next for you after the film has been released and the promo run is over?
Next up for me will be getting my next solo album, Two-headed Monster, ready for 2018 release. I’m putting the final touches on it now and I’m excited to get it out to the people.  After that should be the Soul Position reunion album.

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The King No Crown film is released on November 7, and you can pre-order a copy here. 
Gingerslim has been a hip-hop fan since 1994 and has written for various blogs and websites since around 2006. During that time he has contributed to style43, Think Zebra, Headsknow and Front Magazine. His main interests in rap are UK hip hop and the underground movement in America, with a focus on Rhymesayers Entertainment and the once mighty Def Jux label. He lives in Bristol and has a beard. All other details are sketchy at best. Follow him here.