Ayatollah's parents like his beats

El_Mezcalito

haha ... check out this interview from hiphopgame -- The legendary Queens producer is back with his second instrumental album in less than a year. HipHopGame caught up with Ayatollah again for another great interview.What's up?I'm chilling, man. Everything's good.You got your second instrumental album, Listen, out now. How's the album doing for you?I believe it's getting a decent response. It's what I expected it to do. I just wanted to put out some beats for my fans and give them a listening experience.How did you want to make Listen different from Now Playing?I really just wanted to put different genres of beats on there. I just wanted to add more variety to them. They weren't as hardcore on here. They're more spacey, vibe-like sounding. It's something the chicks could throw in their systems at the same time the dudes can too.Nobody can ever say your beats don't have a soul vibe to them. What's the difference between having that authentic soul sound and a fabricated one?You have to grow up around it. You can't get soul overnight. Your parents had to be around it and your grandparents had to be around it. It's not something you can buy at a grocery store. You had to be around it. Soul is embedded in the person. It's deeper than the music. It's invented in the individual.I got a lot of my soul from my parents, my mother and father and my grandparents from the stuff they used to listen to and the stuff they talked to me about. They plugged me in on the soul vibe. As far as the soul vibe goes, I have to give it up to my mom and my dad and my grandparents. They grew up in that soul era where soul was damn-near all you had other than your pride and dignity. What they experienced is coming out in me via the music.What do your parents think of your beats?They love it. They love it. My family loves it. They can't get enough of it because they hear it and they envision what I went through and they envision what they went through. I'm not saying it's all been bad or it's all been good, but they envision it in their music. They can put the music to a time in their life and it will match perfectly. It's like a soundtrack to my family's experiences as well as mine.How do feel about the authenticity of all the soul beats out there today?To be honest I don't even tune into a lot of the music that's being played right now. I try to stay in my plastic bubble. I'm like the boy in the plastic bubble. I feel like if I tune into too many things I may lose my focus. If I'm not listening to my own music I'm not really listening to anything else. I listen to a lot of other genres other than hip-hop. I listen to jazz, funk, trance, electronica, rock. I listen to a lot of other stuff that's not rap music. I draw a lot of my ideas off different genres of music.How important is it to be able to appreciate other genres of music as a producer?It's good to expand past what you know because it opens your mind to different music and different sounds, different cadences and just different varieties. It's kind of hard to explain. I know when I play certain music, I just get a feeling like, Wow, that sounds incredible to me. I just draw off what I like to listen to. I can't really explain it. It's hard to explain. It just comes out when I'm behind the actual drum machine. It's hard to explain. It really is.Did you get the response you wanted from Now Playing?I got a good enough response from Now Playing that I could put out another instrumental album after that. I wanted to have enough of a response to keep putting out more albums and I've learned that. I hope I pleased the fans as well.Have you been working with Cormega lately?No. He just finished that project up with Lakey. We speak but we just have to bump heads and throw ideas at one another. We didn't abandon it. We're just doing other things. We just have to sit down at the table, formulate and come up with plans.Is there a reason you weren't on Lake and Cormega's My Brother's Keeper?No. I could have submitted music but I never did. I kind of missed out on that project.A lot of people would say that your sound defines Queens. How do you feel about that statement?I don't know. To keep it real, I'm not the first producer to do what I do so I can't take the full credit that says I define the Queens sound. There are other producers before me who have done the same genre of beatmaking. I just took it to a different plateau. There's Marley Marl and he's been doing it years before me. I can't take that full credit because it would be disrespecting people who came before me.You're also working with EMC???Yeah! That's going to be a hot project. Those are artists I've known for quite awhile. Those are real emcees. We chose to work together because we bring fresh ideas and fresh styles to the tables, me with the beats and them with their lyrical acrobatics. We just do what we do best and it sounds hot.You don't work with too many artists.I've just been a fan of Masta Ace from day one when he was in Juice Crew. It's a privilege for me to actually work with that dude, first of all. He's in "The Symphony." He did one of the hotter verses on "The Symphony." I'm not saying all the verses weren't hot. And Punch and Words are like the dynamic duo. I like what they do and that's why I'm a part of it. That's where I'm at.What other artists are you working with?I just got a call from Sean Price. He's supposed to be coming over today in three hours. He's coming over to hear some new music for his new album Jesus Price. I got some stuff with Punchline and some stuff with Ladybug Mecca from Digable Planets. I'm really focusing on the instrumentals. I'm trying to build my catalog up with that and give them to my fans. I think they really enjoy them. I'm still working with artists. That never starts. There are plenty more artists I'm working with, I just can't name them now because my mind is racing with ideas. Big names as well as small names, independent as well as major.Will you and Tragedy do more tracks?I would like to. We just have to sit down and devise a plan to make a successful record or album, if that may be the case. We just have to sit down and discuss where we want this album to go if it were to come about. We would have to sit down and conceptualize an album. I would love to. That's what I'm in it for. I'm in it to make records. I'm in it to make music. I'm in it to work with artists who master the music I make.What do you remember most from your days as Tragedy's DJ?We had some wild days running around. I learned a lot about the music industry. I remember him saying, I like what you're doing but you might have to come to the dark side. I remember him saying that but I didn't know what he meant. What did he mean by "dark side"? After running around with him and doing studio sessions, performing with him and all that, now I understand what he meant. The music industry is crazy. It's not all dark but there are some dark sides to it. I learned a lot from Khadafi. I have to give him his just due. We rocked a lot of shows. I remember we rocked The Tunnel. We rocked Jack the Rapper, the Summit in Atlanta with Cypress Hill. We did a show with Wu-Tang Clan when "Protect Ya Neck" first dropped. That was at The Tunnel. They were jumping on stage with swords and all that. We were like, What is going on here? I met a lot of interesting people and had interesting experiences. I wouldn't change it for nothing.Were you officially asked to join the Xecutioners?We had a sitdown years ago when they were the X-Men. A friend saw us DJ. We went to Roc Raida's crib. We all sat down. It was me, Roc Raida, Rob Swift???basically the whole squad. They were like, We like the way you DJ. Do yo
u want to be down with the clique? Me and my man were trying to make our own thing pop off, no disrespect to them. We didn't end up going with them. I still DJ. I still do my thing on the turntables.The scratch is a lost element on beats today.Yeah. I'm going to keep it alive.Are you still in touch with Marley Marl today?We still bump heads but it's rare. I'm a phone call away if he ever wants to get in touch. We run in the same circles.Do you have another instrumental album on the way?Yeah. I have another one dropping later this year, like November or early December. I don't want to give that title away yet. It's dropping in November or December. I'm trying to make my mark just doing instrumentals at this point in my career. I want to switch it up. I love working with artists, but I want to switch it up from what everybody else is doing. I've always done that.What advice do you have for young producers?Stay creative and don't limit yourself as far as ideas are concerned. Keep your mind open. If you're making beats for people in the industry, you should have a manager and lawyer. If your music is top-notch, you can't lose. You definitely can succeed. And stay humble.What do you want to say to everybody?Thank you for the support. All my fans and listeners worldwide, thank you. For the people who don't know about me, I'm dropping albums. I hope y'all enjoy it. I'm not going to stop. I'm going to keep going. I'm like the Energizer Bunny. I'm going to keep going. (laughs) I'm going to keep it going. I also thank the labels who have the confidence in me.

El_Mezcalito

my parents *say* they like my beats... but sometimes I think they're just saying that.

what do your parents think about your beats?

meistromoco

my parents *say* they like my beats... but sometimes I think they're just saying that.

what do your parents think about your beats?

yeah, your mom likes my beats too.

El_Mezcalito

oh shit!!