Interview in Clout #8 | Click here to purchase this issue!
By Donovan Hurst

K. It was pretty cool. We worked on this soundtrack shit. We were doing some shit for the movie. One of these Adam Sandler
movies. "Grandma’s Boy".

D. How many tracks did you do for it?

K. We did one; one special one. It was pretty cool. It was me and Kurt. [kutmasta kurt]On that particular beat. Recently me  and Kurt haven’t collaborated for awhile.

D. Since what? You did that Diesel Truckers with him, right?

K. Yeah, Diesel Truckers, then I went to the left again.

D. To the left?

K. I went and did Lost Masters, the LM II.That’s a new wave production.

D. What do you mean "new wave", like dance stuff?

D. Is it mostly you rapping, or are you just playing the producer role?

K. Well, I like rapping, you know, that’s what I do. My fetish now is doing beats because it’s cool to be able to fit your  own picture   behind you. I remember the times when I couldn’t program a beat. You see I was a dope MC who went through
beat foundation suffering. I always had the dope rhymes, but my thing was……

D. Trying to fit them to other peoples’ beats?

K. That, and then I had other people who didn’t want to make beats for me, so I had to live through those crises also. It
was me as a rapper and not having beats, which taught me how to write without a beat. Most rappers need the music to write  to, I have unfortunately learned how to program and train myself for years, to write without a beat. With the crisis of
the beat making times right now, you know, you got people that don’t wanna give you beats, people who will give you beats
if you’ve got a deal,and people who might give you beats on the strength if they like you. I ran into all these types of
people trying to put music on a string like a carrot.

D. Just trying to lead you along?

K. Yeah.

D. Do you think that comes with the continual growing popularity of Hip Hop?
 
K. Yeah, so I had to go through every type of producer. The producer who doesn’t wanna give me beats, the producer that
needs money first to work with him. I went throughthe producer who feels like I should rap on his beats, the producer who
wants to give me happy beats, and the producer who wants to call my career and tell me how to rap on his beats. I went
trough every type of producer possible in the music industry.

D. You didn’t just lay the pimp hand down and be like, "Muthafucka, I’m Kool Keith!"?

K. I caught the ‘vapors’ producers, the ones that are ready to work with you after you get a big contract, then they’re
ready to work with you.

D. Well that’s what they say, if you want something done right, do it yourself.

K. I figured I’m gonna start learning. I’m gonna start sitting behind all these instruments being that I was a player for  a lot of music anyway.  I was playing little musical sounds and keyboards for years.

D. Oh yeah, I didn’t know that about you.

K. Yeah, I was the man behind the Ultra base lines. I was the musical key notes. Ced and Moe and them was all programming
and togetherness, you know. But I was still the man putting toppers on the stuff, you know baselines and whatnot. I played
the baselines on a lot of records, even when I did Dr. Doom. Spankmaster I did, and I was a big part of Black Elvis.So a lot of people forget about my production. They just think or figure that somebody else did it for me. It’s like, people don’t
know any better. You know people will judge an album that I did, and they’ll be like, "This album don’t sound like this,
this album don’t sound like that. I think that he could’ve done this, and I was expecting this type of delivery from him."
It’s funny because it’s beats and stuff I had done ghostly and just used other names. It like, when you look at Black Elvis,  people loved the album. It’s funny because the critics; I used another name, There was so much ghost producing on that
album that we changed out names. Niggas was called other names so what happened is that everybody liked the album. When you
put your name on something they automatically got a chance to say something. I told muthafuckas I’ve been on albums, as
John Doe and they don’t even know.They’d be like,  "Yo, I like that beat. That was a hot record. That was a hot album. I
think Spankmaster was a hot album" They don’t that I did that shit and they mine.

D. You’re just putting it out to put it out, not for any kind of recognition of sorts.

K. Yeah, what I do is camouflage myself because the critics mind only says, " Kool Keith can’t produce.", but dam near most
of the record they like I did something with besides rapping. I was the big baseline guy on Blue Flowers and people like it
to this day because of the bubbly baseline. (Keith imitates baseline) I did the baseline. The Automator did the drums but I
came up with the baseline because he didn’t really care about keyboards when we was working on that album. I said, yo, let’s  put this shit on top of this record.

D. Do you prefer that, keyboards and live instruments as opposed to Pro Tools or samples?

K. Well, these guys call theyself artist, but…..  I’d rather have Bootsy Collins respect me. When I see George Clinton I want  him to respect me; I don’t want to be a sampler. I don’t want to go down in history as a sampler.You know, you listen to a
jazz band or Earth, Wind, and Fire and they have they own sound. My point is, I don’t want to sound like an array of people,  and it seems like a lot of people in the industry sound like somebody else. They’re trying to put themselves on a base, or
a foundation of somebody else. They’re zerox copying a blueprint of somebody’s music. Everybody’s doing like, "Well this
sounds similar to something that’s hot already. This is cool. We can do 20,000 records that sound like Michael Myers is coming.

D. So you think it’s getting to be a little too formulaic these days? You know, not too much feeling when it comes to Hip
Hop or Rock and Roll too , I mean it’s all about the same.

K. But people pay rock, you know what I’m sayin. It’s just that people feel like they can get away with something. It’s like  Reggaeton is just one beat but people are getting high and they drunk but they don’t realize it’s just one beat at the end
of the day. You know they going to the bank with maybe 7,000 of these records created but when you start to really realize
while sittin in the corner of a club and listen, it’s all one beat. It’s different artist, but it’s just one beat.

D. Yes but, that’s club music, like house music and what not. It’s all one beat, that’s why DJ’s can match it so easily.

K. It’s like with Reggaeton , you could make 17,000 songs, but at the end of the day it’s the same program. (Keith imitates baseline)  People try themselves and everybody wanna fool the consumer and make it seem new. You know, everybody just putting a
different topping on it. It’s like when a dub comes out, Big Youth raps on it over Peter Tosh, or Shabba Ranks raps on it,
you know, to me it’s just a dub. Record companies try to market them a separate records like they all doing something
original. It’s not really original, to me it’s all a dub. There’s 17,000 rappers out right now doing dubs.

D. With that said, who is your favorite rapper out there right now?

K. I listen to…I like DJ from Hustle and Flow. (Laughs)

D. you were sayin that you play a few different instruments, can you ever see yourself doing any "live band" shows?

K. Naw, I don’t really like shows with live bands. I think the "band" has taken a lot away from rap itself, being that rap
worked so hard to come from nothing. With the struggle streetlamp culture in the Bronx and people like Kool Herk went
through to create the art, why should they water it down with keyboards and trumpets? Instruments are good in general, but
I’m sayin five people supporting one rapper and carrying your everything, I don’t need it anymore. I’m beyond that. I think
that the promoter game right now helps to take a lot away from rap too. All these hippie
kids are booking and trying to book shows with nothing. It’s like back in the day
when I was makin records with Ultramagnetic, a promoter would send a limo, give us
five star hotel rooms with a Jacuzzi bathtub, and plane flights. I mean this is way
back, when I was doing shows with Eric B. & Raakim and Ultra. We would get top serloin
steaks for lunch, go to dinner with the promoter, then they’d  take us around to a few
clubs and maybe to shake hands with a few people in the hood and talk about the show.
On top of that we’d get whatever we wanted to drink and maybe even a haircut in any
various city we were in. I mean these were straight hustlers, any hospitality we needed
or could imagine, we got. Even a girl if for the weekend if need be. These guys would
make sure we got on stage, make sure we got paid…in advance, and give you some extra
money to go back out to do another song.I ‘m talking ’bout the 80’s, "88, and "89".

D. But then again, rap was pretty new to the "mainstream" back then though?

K. But I’m jus sayin the hospitality of rap was that it was ok to treat you like a rapper,
you know? Then the promoter would take care of everything around the board, everything.
Now you got these hippie ass college promoters and all you lil’ botanicle garden, flower
growing people who are jus getting into rap trying to book Talib Kwali, Souls of Mischief,
Black Sheep, and Tribe Called Quest for under a G. They don’t want to pay the groups upfront,
they want you to get in a van to get to your destination, and then they got some dirty ass
dressing room for you to chill in. But man, back in the days you had clubs with nice ass,
brand new speakers, you know, hustlers wanted to show off. They’d have the dope dressing room
with the sick bar built in and crazy mirrors all around; I’m looking at how back then was more
futuristic than this future. I mean, my boy who works at a booking agency said he’s ashamed
cuz you got all these people who are destroyin rap trying to these crazy package deals, don’t
get me wrong. Acts wanna come, some of these acts will get on a plane and come. But, nobody
wanna fly out anywhere to hear some bullshit when you can barely pay for the plane ticket,
you know? I ain’t getting no limo. I ain’t getting a clean ass dressing room, no lobster
dinner, or no girl for the weekend, and you wan’t a three hour show.

D. I feel you on that one, but on the other hand someone could read this and think, "Keith’s all about the money."

K. It’s not even about the money, it’s about the respect. You’re gonna pay The Foofighters
their full pay, why not Rakim, why not Big Daddy Kane? Why shouldn’t Grand Master Flash
get paid 10,000 to spin? He deserves it, he’s Grand Master Flash! They wanna get everybody
to split up two grand…Nice & Smooth gonna get 300, you gonna get 300, and so on. They tryin
to call you and work some budget.

D. Well it’s a business of supply and demand so they understand it.

K. Exactly. If you get a shithead on the phone trying to bargain, it’s time to just hang up.
They’re lowering the standards and the funny thing is these people think they’re helping rap.
Y’all are destroying rap really because you’re fucking up artists’ first impressions and their
mentalities. Besides that you got alot of these underground rappers who can pack a show like
sardines, they can pack a show so tight that you can’t even squeeze in a can of chicken noodle.

D. So who you working with mostly these days?

K. Seventh Veil has an album coming out with H-Bomb, Chilly Chill, Battlecat, and Snoop Dogg,
it’s a big compalation we made together with Ike Turner. We got a lot of people coming to the
table…Silk the Shocker’s on it, Jewele singing, Rasco, Kurupt, and we got beats from Scott Storch.  It’s a big TNT Bomb project that we got under the hat. We do our solo records too, we working
it all. We are not to be slept on, we’re making all types of connections to do different things.
I have a different range with my recording career. I got the stuff I do with the distinctive beat
people, you know, you got the Neptunes, Timberland, and what not that I do. Then I got my man on
the west coast handling all the international G-funk stuff that I rap on. We’re trying to corner
every lil inch of the market and have it all sewn up in those different genres.

D. Sounds like you’re keeping busy man.

K. Oh yeah. Then I still got those other projects where I still use my space shit, and there’s still
those people who ain’t satisfied until I use like 60,000 big words to rap with. That shit will make ‘em
have an orgasm, and I can still do that to, but I’ve been mostly writing ’bout my life. What I feel.
What I go through.

D. That sounds different coming from you, I haven’t heard too much of that.

K. Well I can’t fantasize and so people look at my vocabulary on a lot of my records and think that I
write very graphically. One minute I’ll do a whole album where I’m crazy cursing, then I’ll turn around
and do another album without cursing. It’s like when I did the personal album it was a great setup cuz
the world jumped on my four second feeling of doing an album with just a few loops that I played baselines
on top of, then I rapped over everything in a smooth R & B form. People liked it , but I think it kinda
backfired a lil bit, and it was something I just did, you know? I rapped about these internet guys who just
need to find themselves a girlfriend. They’re sittin around all day in these forums wondering…sitting around
grabbing their nuts. It’s funny cuz then everybody was wondering if Keith’s in love. It made rappers feel
comfortable, they felt like, "We could dis this nigga, he’s writing love songs. He’s chillin. He’s at a
standstill. We got him now." Then I popped out with Lost Masters II with a whole different fuckin attitude.
(Laughs sinister like) It was kinda like a setup, and muthafuckas ate my cheese. Rappers are like rats so I  dropped some cheese in the corner and they ate it up, then I dropped LMII; that shit got more cursing than  a little bit. It’s got all my emotions that just spilled out like an eruption of an orgasm. I felt like
after I finished that album up I jerked off hard. They thought I was so confined with this love album, which
I made to sell personally, but they got it as the eclectic collection that was fifty bucks. It through
producers off too cuz they thought I was just making love songs, rapping over some Luther Vandross type shit.  That’s why they should never know what to expect. Don’t be thinking I’m gonna wear a tie all year round like a smooth operator because I’ll fuckin shock ‘em. Lost Masters II came back with full fuckin cursin, beats that  are hard on every fuckin track, and now they’re scratchin their heads. The critics are trying to figure it out  themselves…everybody’s talking. They say that you’re a popular gut when everybody’s talking about you anyway.

On a different subject, everybody seems to have their own TV show, so where’s yours? Where’s Kool Keith television at?

K. I’m getting ready to do something. Those people that put out that other DVD I had are putting out a full DVD  type of movie. You get a picture of me in the whole kinda like a documentation type of thing. It ain’t gonna be  no short thing like twenty minutes or nothing, it’s gonna be dam near like a movie. There will be shit of me on
the tour bus, walking around LA, in New York walking around the projects, in the hallways, more real than the
average nigga. There will be stuff from tours in London, in Canada, and all over. Me shaking hands and hanging
out with the people I chill with like pimps and peoples in the street, you know, real culture. It won’t be me
riding around to different parts of the town sayin stuff like, "This is where I used to be. This is what I used to be."

D. Alright man I’m gonna wrap this shit up with a few dumb questions. Favorite food?

K. I like Chinese food.

D. Favorite color[s]?

K. I like purple and orange.

D. Favorite number?

K. My favorite number is #1, which I am.

D. What’s your favorite city in these United States of America?

K. My favorite city is New Orleans. Stay up all night.

D. What’s your favorite car?

K. A muthafuckin 442 Oldsmobile.

D. How ’bout your favorite candy when you’re high?

K. My favorite candy is a Snickers with the peanuts.

D. What’s your favorite song of all time? The one when you put on, then you just gotta listen to it for another  five times in a row?

K. My favorite song is "Are you single?" by Aurora.

D. How about your favorite DJ of all time?

K. Grandmaster Flash because he ain’t a pause tape muthafucka, he mixes. He don’t go recording niggas and just
making himself a DJ. He’s a D.J., he can actually cut, scratch, and cut.

D. What about your favorite rapper out right now?

K. My favorite rapper out right now is Keith.

D. Now name some of your favorite clubs you like to go to? Where’s always a good time out for Kool Keith?

K. My favorite club in New York is BB King’s.

D. How about in LA?

K. The muthafuckin Key Club.

D. What about the Mid-West?

K. The House of Blues in Chicago.

D. Alright man, I think we’re good. You got anything else you wanna say?

K. I gotta stay #1 in the rap lyrical range and I gotta stay #1 in the beat range. I feel good to be hoding both titles  of being #1, ain’t nobody gonna take the belt away from me. I got the belt forever so I don’t wanna ever see anybody try  to take it away. I’m like a Tommy Herns at this game, I’m laid back, I’ll just move around a little, then…