What about all of EPMD's Parliament influenced shit?
EpMD's production isnt West Coast biting.
Seriously - EpMD were rhyming over ZAPP beats around the same time NWA were just figuring out there were better ways to go than recording Fat-Boys-style covers of "Twist & Shout."
And my point of bringing up EPMD was what makes a beat "West Coast" back then? I'd have to go with what the artist(s) sampled (or the instrumentation), because that's the only determining factor. West Coast was heavily influenced by boogie and thick basslined music (as well as LA dance music of the 70s and 80s) type stuff, i.e., Zapp, Roger, Parliament, Funkadelic,George Clinton, Lakeside, Solar label type stuff, shit like that.
EPMD put that P-Funk in the forefront while most cats were doing James Brown. I cany recall Ice-T/Rhyme Pays having too many Zapp claps up in the mix. NWA & The Posse wasnt as Mothershipish as ePMD - IMO.
The West really mined that ZAPP/P-Funk shit after EpMD emerged - on a pop landscape. I dont know if there are Local Black Exp 12"s that predate EPMD in terms of those samples.
Oh yeah in terms of early E/W fusions I like the NWA/EPMD BIg PayBack Video which is the first time I saw NWA. Ralph McDaniels Steez. That video didnt get much play due to the gunplay/shooting range. I love it.
Found that interview I did with Ace. Here are the relevant parts:
[The Symphony] was career milestone number one. Milestone number two was doing the Brand New Heavies song. That was the springboard that got me the deal at Delicious Vinyl. It was meeting the people from Delicious Vinyl to do that song that got them considering me as potentially moving over to become an artist on their label. I guess milestone number three would be me making the decision to do a remix for ???Jeep Ass Niguh,??? which became the song ???Born to Roll,??? which suddenly introduced me to a whole new audience in the South and the West and the Midwest. All of a sudden I had a record that was being played on every station in America several times a day. That was the first time that had happened in my career, and all of a sudden I???m doing shows in Las Vegas and New Mexico and San Francisco, where people there had never even heard of me in a lot of cases.
What was it like when ???Born to Roll??? blew up?[/b] It was crazy because I had never had a record on the radio like that. I had had mix shows and somebody might throw your record on the midnight mix or whatever???I was used to that kind of spins. But to be in L.A. for a week and hear your record every half-hour???it almost got annoying after a while! At one point I was coming from a club and I turned the radio on, and they were playing it on The Beat, and I was like, ???I don???t wanna hear that,??? so I turned to Power, and Power was playing it. It was crazy, yo, but that???s what it was about. That was my first time really experiencing that. It was fun, it was cool, and like I said, a whole new audience got exposed. A whole section of the country had never even heard of me. They didn???t know anything about ???The Symphony??? or Marley Marl or any of that stuff. Then all of a sudden, I was able to go to Z90 in San Diego and do an interview with a cat who would ask me, ???How does it feel to have your first record out???? and I???m like, ???Yo, this is my third album.??? I dealt with a lot of that kind of stuff???people not knowing the history, just knowing that they liked that record. It took some getting used-to. I was more used to the Slaughtahouse fans who knew every song on your album, knew the words to album cuts. For the first time, I was doing shows at these pop-like clubs. They were playing techno and stuff. They???d shut off the techno, I???d get up and do my song and get back off, and they throw the techno back on. It opened up a whole new can of worms for me, and I embraced it, it was an experience, something I can share with those new up-and-coming artists that I???ll work with when I get behind the scenes.
Did you feel pressured to reproduce that?[/b] There was major pressure from the label when I was working on the Sittin??? on Chrome album to try to duplicate it???almost to try to chase that song, which has never been my M.O. I???ve always been like, ???That was that, and let???s move on from there.??? But they came to the conclusion that this is what I should do, and I was in agreement like, ???If you guys really feel like we???ve got a platinum record if I do this, let???s go for it. Let???s make an album that caters to the car culture that has just discovered me. If you guys feel like you can take it to that level, then I???m cool with that.??? I knew I???d hear some drama from my original fans like, ???Ah, it wasn???t about all of this, blah blah blah.??? I mean, the car thing was me regardless. That wasn???t fake, that was really me. I was just never the type of artist to embrace it and do a whole project based on that. I???d do a song, but???Sittin??? on Chrome, I tell everybody that was the compromise album???. That was more of a contrived album, an album that was made from my brain instead of from my heart. It was a calculated, ???OK, ???Born to Roll??? was about cars, and it blew up. Let???s do another joint with the same sort of synthesized sound and make it about cars, too.??? That???s how that song was born, as opposed to, ???Let me listen to some tracks and find tracks that inspire me lyrically to write a song and just make that song and not think about who it???s for, how it should do on radio, who should like it, who shouldn???t.??? Too much thinking.
Do you know how ego trip magazine got a hold of the Biz puppet from your video?[/b] I just found out how they got it. I used to be managed by Empire management, which is the same management that handles Gangstarr, Premier, and Guru. Upon leaving Empire, when they weren???t managing me anymore, the doll was in their office. Sacha Jenkins told me that his girlfriend was working up there, and she told him the puppet was there. It was getting abused on the regular???artists coming in and punching it, the nose was falling off, it was a mess. They were about to move offices and were gonna throw it away. And he was like, ???Naw, that???s a part of hip-hop history! That puppet has some value.??? So he rescued it and refurbished it and basically staked his claim on it. I wasn???t looking for it. For me, at the time, that doll was representative of labels putting their influence on your music. [???Me and The Biz???] was never my idea or anything that I wanted to do. I went along with it.
The song, or the video?[/b] Both. I didn???t want that as a single. Warner Brothers basically said, ???This is the single we want to go with. If we don???t get this as the first single, then we don???t know if there???ll be a second single.??? They laid it out there like that. What am I gonna say? I pretty much felt powerless about the whole situation, so I went along with it. I just didn???t feel like that song was representative of the songs on my album. It was kind of a humorous, fun, light song, and I didn???t have any other songs like that, and I was like, ???You???re gonna put this out, and it doesn???t even represent the album.??? But I didn???t have much say, so they started to run with it. At first they wanted Biz in the video, and I???m like, ???Well Biz is not on the song,??? and they didn???t even know that! I don???t even know who came up with the idea of doing the puppet thing. It was a thing I went along with, but around the way, I???m getting jokes! [Clowning voice]???What???s up with the puppet, man? That???s kinda corny, yo, what???s the deal with that???? I got major jokes because of that. When I didn???t have to see the puppet ever again, I didn???t want to see it again. But now, it???s come full circle and I can appreciate the fact that I???ve gone past that and that???s just one chapter in my career. But at the time, I felt like that was gonna sum my whole career up???I was always gonna be known as the cat with the puppet. Luckily enough I was able to make other marks in my career beyond that, so it didn???t really blemish my career they way I thought it would. And now I want the puppet! Now I want to bring it on tour with me. I can???t bring it on tour because it???s on loan at a museum in Washington or Seattle???some hip-hop museum. I really wanted to bring the puppet on tour with me, but the puppet???s already engaged! He???s got work already. The puppet???s on tour. I???ll have my manager call his, and we???ll see if we can get it done.
that's the article I referenced earlier in this thread. you did that? sweeeeet.
Yessirrrrr, that was me way back when. The whole interview was pretty cool, but I was kind of surprised at how he responded to the Biz puppet question. I only asked the question as sort of a jokey postscript to the interview, figuring he'd give a short answer and that would be that. Instead, I got a big explanation of what the puppet represented to him and why he resented it. Interesting and unexpected.
Yessirrrrr, that was me way back when. The whole interview was pretty cool, but I was kind of surprised at how he responded to the Biz puppet question. I only asked the question as sort of a jokey postscript to the interview, figuring he'd give a short answer and that would be that. Instead, I got a big explanation of what the puppet represented to him and why he resented it. Interesting and unexpected.
I really wanted to bring the puppet on tour with me, but the puppet???s already engaged! He???s got work already. The puppet???s on tour. I???ll have my manager call his, and we???ll see if we can get it done.
Comments
EPMD put that P-Funk in the forefront while most cats were doing James Brown.
I cany recall Ice-T/Rhyme Pays having too many Zapp claps up in the mix.
NWA & The Posse wasnt as Mothershipish as ePMD - IMO.
The West really mined that ZAPP/P-Funk shit after EpMD emerged - on a pop landscape.
I dont know if there are Local Black Exp 12"s that predate EPMD in terms of those samples.
Oh yeah in terms of early E/W fusions I like the NWA/EPMD BIg PayBack Video which is the first time I saw NWA. Ralph McDaniels Steez. That video didnt get much play due to the gunplay/shooting range. I love it.
[The Symphony] was career milestone number one. Milestone number two was doing the Brand New Heavies song. That was the springboard that got me the deal at Delicious Vinyl. It was meeting the people from Delicious Vinyl to do that song that got them considering me as potentially moving over to become an artist on their label. I guess milestone number three would be me making the decision to do a remix for ???Jeep Ass Niguh,??? which became the song ???Born to Roll,??? which suddenly introduced me to a whole new audience in the South and the West and the Midwest. All of a sudden I had a record that was being played on every station in America several times a day. That was the first time that had happened in my career, and all of a sudden I???m doing shows in Las Vegas and New Mexico and San Francisco, where people there had never even heard of me in a lot of cases.
What was it like when ???Born to Roll??? blew up?[/b]
It was crazy because I had never had a record on the radio like that. I had had mix shows and somebody might throw your record on the midnight mix or whatever???I was used to that kind of spins. But to be in L.A. for a week and hear your record every half-hour???it almost got annoying after a while! At one point I was coming from a club and I turned the radio on, and they were playing it on The Beat, and I was like, ???I don???t wanna hear that,??? so I turned to Power, and Power was playing it. It was crazy, yo, but that???s what it was about. That was my first time really experiencing that. It was fun, it was cool, and like I said, a whole new audience got exposed. A whole section of the country had never even heard of me. They didn???t know anything about ???The Symphony??? or Marley Marl or any of that stuff. Then all of a sudden, I was able to go to Z90 in San Diego and do an interview with a cat who would ask me, ???How does it feel to have your first record out???? and I???m like, ???Yo, this is my third album.??? I dealt with a lot of that kind of stuff???people not knowing the history, just knowing that they liked that record. It took some getting used-to. I was more used to the Slaughtahouse fans who knew every song on your album, knew the words to album cuts. For the first time, I was doing shows at these pop-like clubs. They were playing techno and stuff. They???d shut off the techno, I???d get up and do my song and get back off, and they throw the techno back on. It opened up a whole new can of worms for me, and I embraced it, it was an experience, something I can share with those new up-and-coming artists that I???ll work with when I get behind the scenes.
Did you feel pressured to reproduce that?[/b]
There was major pressure from the label when I was working on the Sittin??? on Chrome album to try to duplicate it???almost to try to chase that song, which has never been my M.O. I???ve always been like, ???That was that, and let???s move on from there.??? But they came to the conclusion that this is what I should do, and I was in agreement like, ???If you guys really feel like we???ve got a platinum record if I do this, let???s go for it. Let???s make an album that caters to the car culture that has just discovered me. If you guys feel like you can take it to that level, then I???m cool with that.??? I knew I???d hear some drama from my original fans like, ???Ah, it wasn???t about all of this, blah blah blah.??? I mean, the car thing was me regardless. That wasn???t fake, that was really me. I was just never the type of artist to embrace it and do a whole project based on that. I???d do a song, but???Sittin??? on Chrome, I tell everybody that was the compromise album???. That was more of a contrived album, an album that was made from my brain instead of from my heart. It was a calculated, ???OK, ???Born to Roll??? was about cars, and it blew up. Let???s do another joint with the same sort of synthesized sound and make it about cars, too.??? That???s how that song was born, as opposed to, ???Let me listen to some tracks and find tracks that inspire me lyrically to write a song and just make that song and not think about who it???s for, how it should do on radio, who should like it, who shouldn???t.??? Too much thinking.
Do you know how ego trip magazine got a hold of the Biz puppet from your video?[/b]
I just found out how they got it. I used to be managed by Empire management, which is the same management that handles Gangstarr, Premier, and Guru. Upon leaving Empire, when they weren???t managing me anymore, the doll was in their office. Sacha Jenkins told me that his girlfriend was working up there, and she told him the puppet was there. It was getting abused on the regular???artists coming in and punching it, the nose was falling off, it was a mess. They were about to move offices and were gonna throw it away. And he was like, ???Naw, that???s a part of hip-hop history! That puppet has some value.??? So he rescued it and refurbished it and basically staked his claim on it. I wasn???t looking for it. For me, at the time, that doll was representative of labels putting their influence on your music. [???Me and The Biz???] was never my idea or anything that I wanted to do. I went along with it.
The song, or the video?[/b]
Both. I didn???t want that as a single. Warner Brothers basically said, ???This is the single we want to go with. If we don???t get this as the first single, then we don???t know if there???ll be a second single.??? They laid it out there like that. What am I gonna say? I pretty much felt powerless about the whole situation, so I went along with it. I just didn???t feel like that song was representative of the songs on my album. It was kind of a humorous, fun, light song, and I didn???t have any other songs like that, and I was like, ???You???re gonna put this out, and it doesn???t even represent the album.??? But I didn???t have much say, so they started to run with it. At first they wanted Biz in the video, and I???m like, ???Well Biz is not on the song,??? and they didn???t even know that! I don???t even know who came up with the idea of doing the puppet thing. It was a thing I went along with, but around the way, I???m getting jokes! [Clowning voice]???What???s up with the puppet, man? That???s kinda corny, yo, what???s the deal with that???? I got major jokes because of that. When I didn???t have to see the puppet ever again, I didn???t want to see it again. But now, it???s come full circle and I can appreciate the fact that I???ve gone past that and that???s just one chapter in my career. But at the time, I felt like that was gonna sum my whole career up???I was always gonna be known as the cat with the puppet. Luckily enough I was able to make other marks in my career beyond that, so it didn???t really blemish my career they way I thought it would. And now I want the puppet! Now I want to bring it on tour with me. I can???t bring it on tour because it???s on loan at a museum in Washington or Seattle???some hip-hop museum. I really wanted to bring the puppet on tour with me, but the puppet???s already engaged! He???s got work already. The puppet???s on tour. I???ll have my manager call his, and we???ll see if we can get it done.
that's the article I referenced earlier in this thread. you did that? sweeeeet.
Yessirrrrr, that was me way back when. The whole interview was pretty cool, but I was kind of surprised at how he responded to the Biz puppet question. I only asked the question as sort of a jokey postscript to the interview, figuring he'd give a short answer and that would be that. Instead, I got a big explanation of what the puppet represented to him and why he resented it. Interesting and unexpected.