Just Blaze Interview

Is there any one artist out there that you would give free
beats to?
Free beats? I don’t know. I mean, it’s not always about the money, but I can’t think of anybody.
To give somebody beats for free, it would have to be an independent artist who
doesn’t really have the money to pay me and I haven’t heard
any new artists that I would give a beat away to like that.
Obviously if you’re a major artist then I don’t have to give
you a beat for free, if you’re broke or have a low budget, we
can work something out if like you.

You can look at what I did with MF Doom. With the "Cookies
(Remix)” I just called Doom like, ‘Yo, I gotta beat for a
remix. Let's do it real quick.’ The stuff I did on Stones
Throw, I didn’t really charge them for that. That was like, ‘I
like your movement and I like what you are doing. I know that
you don’t really have the money to pay me like that. Let’s
just do some work together.’ I did that with Saigon at first,
like, ‘Take these beats and see what you can do with them.’ It
wasn’t like, ‘It’ll cost this amount of money.’ Sometimes you
just have to go in there and make that music. Money will come.


I know you’re a big MF Doom fan. Would you ever do any work
with Doom in the future?
If anybody could ever find him for more than five minutes.
Every time he turns up it ends up being an imposter. I don’t
know. Egon at Stones Throw said that he’s actually popped up
and he’s ready to work. It’s a possibility. Who knows. When I
was ready and I was really gung ho about it, he went into
hiding for a minute, which he does from time to time, even
from his closest friends. Even they can't find him. It’s not
in the plans, but plans change.

I remember Saigon telling me you played him some MF Doom
music. He had heard about him but he had never heard him. I played
him the remix I did and he didn’t get it. (laughs) But to be
honest, when my man Dave first played me Doom, I didn’t get it
either. I was like, ‘Turn this off!’ I didn’t appreciate it. I
didn’t like him until I heard the Madvillain bootleg, which
came out maybe a year or two before the actual album. I heard
that stuff around the same time when I met the dudes from
Stones Throw. That’s when I was like, ‘Wow.’ The beats were so
dope.

The stuff that I didn’t like was the Viktor Vaughn stuff. I
didn’t like any of that stuff at all and that’s what my man
was trying to push on me. I still don’t like that stuff and
it’s mostly because of the beats more than anything else. But
when he’s got some good beats, he’s money. It’s definitely a
personal thing. Sometimes the ’93 in me just wants to hear
somebody who has dope rhymes over dope beats without a
contrived hook or anything like that.


You’ve worked hands-on with the most commercially-successful
artist ever yet you’re a huge underground head.

I like what I like whether it’s mainstream or commercial or
whatever. I like a lot of underground stuff, but also to be
honest with you, there’s a lot of new stuff going on in the
underground. I have no idea what a Brother Ali or a Slug or
Atmosphere sounds like. The thing about me is I like what I
like no matter where it comes from. That’s not to say that I
don’t like those guys, but I don’t know their music. I’m not
the type that’s just like, ‘I'm gonna listen to these guys
just because they're underground or something.’ I spent the
last few days in my house analyzing the similarities and
differences between Modest Mouse and Franz Ferdinand. I just
sat in my house and listened to them for the past two days. I
didn’t even listen to any hip-hop except for this one beat CD
Madlib gave me five years ago. I just like what I like.

As far as the underground thing, I think people just use that
as an excuse. The term “underground” used to refer to the fact
that you haven’t broken through to the mainstream yet or you
weren’t necessarily conforming to the mainstream. It wasn’t a
style of music. It was just where you were at as an artist,
like, ‘He’s underground. He hasn’t broken through yet.’ Now
it’s “What kind of music do you do?” “I’m underground.” How is
that? How are you an underground artist? What do you do? Do
you rap underground? Shut up.

A lot of times people are underground because they’re wack.
They haven’t broken through and they probably won’t because
they don’t want to be the norm and they don’t want to have any
rhythm in their music and they want to go over people’s heads.
It’s like, ‘The lyrical syllable mineral is vital to the nth
degree of polyphonic rituals, inskimmittable!’ Shut up! You
probably won’t cross over and have any success outside of the
success that you’ve had.

There is no such thing as an “underground style”. Not when I
was coming up anyway. It was a place where you were at, like,
‘Right now we’re stuck in the underground but we’re trying to
break through.’ That’s what rap’s greatest heroes tried to do.
Big L used to be at the radio station with who? Jay-Z. Big L
was one of the underground heroes and him and Jay would go and
do the Stretch circuit and all of the underground radio
circuit. That was the thing. In the highlight of New York’s
underground scene, people were making good hip-hop but they
still had their eyes on the prize. I think what it turned into
is that people trying so hard to go against the establishment
that they’re turning into scientists. I don’t know. They go
over my head...and I’m a smart dude.


http://www.hiphopgame.com/index2.php3?page=justblaze


My Take

Seems like a real down-to-earth guy to me, helping Stonesthrow and all.
It's funny the way he talks about his DOOM experince, because that's pretty much how it happened with me too. I remember hearing these "out there" rhymes and just bein like wtf? Then I heard the Doomsday track and i decided to hear more.
Personal favorite DOOM album: Madvillainy (never was much of a Vicktor fan either)

As far as his definition of "Underground," I agree with him for the most part. I think a lot of times people do end up grouping underground together like it's some genre with standards. As for his views on it being just a break-through to commercial success...eh... I think he makes a good point, and a true one. But, sometimes I'd like to think that there are people out there that are just happy with underground, and not wack. Maybe I'm living in a fantasy...

All in all, I like JB's Music, I liked the fact that he was Star Wars fan since I am as well, but I now know for sure that he's good his head on straight, and hasn't been twisted by the industry.

Theme Song:
KRS-One- Underground