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Pete Rock Interview
RnB/Hip Hop | Wednesday 10th August 2011 | Osh
One of the most prolific, respected producers in the Hip-hop world. Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you...MR PETE ROCK!
“Have passion in your heart, and never give up. Do your homework and teach yourself how to be real when you’re making music.”
Hey man how are you doing?
I’m good thanks.
What is your greatest memory?
When I first met Run DMC and Chuck D, and when I produced a beat for Public Enemy. That moment there, that’s when I knew I’d done it. They came up with an idea for me to produce Take and Steal. Next thing you know, we got on the phone and I said I didn’t want to do just one or two songs - I thought Pete Rock had a lot more to give - so I asked them to let me do the whole album. We did it and haven’t heard a bad thing about it yet.
Wow, and you play the classic good feeling Hip-hop sound?
Yes and that’s the sound that needs to be re-taught to the youth because the music today just doesn’t make you feel good. The lyrical content is like, “Yo, c’mon dude! You talking about your money, your chicks, your cars?!” It’s like ‘What are you teaching people man?!’ It’s a loss of identity with a lot of rappers in the music industry. That tells me that people are not happy with themselves and they follow instead of being leaders, so my thing is to put the right message out there and to change the lyrical content, talk about reality. All I want to do is bring back real music and teach kids not to be brainwashed and led astray by these rappers constantly talking about materialistic stuff.
Do you have a gripe with a particular artist out there?
Nah, just artists that don’t do the right thing when it comes to music, when you’re blessed with an opportunity like this. Money and greed are the number one problems in music today. I’m not pinpointing my finger at one person, I’m pinpointing my finger at every-f*cking-body who is doing that type of sh*t. That’s where I’m at with it, and whoever gets offended, that’s just your human reaction man.
Luckily, there are artists such as yourself and Nas who go against the grain.
Nas is the most talented rapper I have ever come across. He is very knowledgeable of the things he says and he is a very talented person. He knew that putting the Nigga album out would spark controversy, but he’s smart because he went head to head with these big publications. All these big shots have something to say which has given rap the spotlight, so now we can tell our history and what we’ve learnt and what we have seen growing up as kids. If I want to talk about the streets on my records, it’s not for anyone to get inspired and go out and rob or kill somebody. But then you have ignorant rappers that talk about sh*t like that and they don’t deserve to be in the game. What I do is the truth, what DJ Premier does is the truth, what J Dilla did was the truth, what Nottz, the producer from Virginia does is the truth.
Are there any new rappers that you know of that we should keep a listen out for?
That’s a hard question! I can’t really speak about up-and-coming artists because I don’t know what they’ve learnt. You gotta hear what they have to say first and then you can make your opinion on whether you’ve learnt something or you haven’t.
What advice would you give to up-and-coming producers?
Just have passion in your heart man, and never give up. Do your homework, listen to stuff that came before you, even before you were born. In that way you can teach yourself how to be real when you’re making music.
What are your fondest memories of the late J Dilla?
Just hanging out at his crib, in his basement...him picking me up from the airport in Detroit and just opening his arms and his home to me you know what I mean? I thought he was one of most humble cats I ever came across as a producer.
What is Pete Rock’s favourite Pete Rock song?
I cant really pick just one, but one that is really close to my heart is of course my signature song ‘They Reminisce Over You’.
Nice. Would you ever work with some UK cats?
I have in the past. I’ve done some stuff in Paris and Germany although I never worked with any rappers in London. I had an opportunity to work with Dizzee Rascal but our schedules are so tight that we never got a chance to do anything with each other. I’ve worked with Slick Rick, he was THE SH*T! His storytelling was just so historical and classic and he was a big inspiration for me growing up. When I got to work with him it was like ‘Wow, this is unbelievable!’.
It’s been a pleasure, just one random question: if you were invisible for the day, what would you do?
Um, I would raid every record store and take what I want! Only the expensive ones, the ones that jack up prices because they know producers that come in to buy music. So I'd go into those stores and just, y’know, rob them of all their records haha!
I should have guessed that was what you’d say, you’re one of those musical producers. Hip-hop royalty.
“Have passion in your heart, and never give up. Do your homework and teach yourself how to be real when you’re making music.”
Hey man how are you doing?
I’m good thanks.
What is your greatest memory?
When I first met Run DMC and Chuck D, and when I produced a beat for Public Enemy. That moment there, that’s when I knew I’d done it. They came up with an idea for me to produce Take and Steal. Next thing you know, we got on the phone and I said I didn’t want to do just one or two songs - I thought Pete Rock had a lot more to give - so I asked them to let me do the whole album. We did it and haven’t heard a bad thing about it yet.
Wow, and you play the classic good feeling Hip-hop sound?
Yes and that’s the sound that needs to be re-taught to the youth because the music today just doesn’t make you feel good. The lyrical content is like, “Yo, c’mon dude! You talking about your money, your chicks, your cars?!” It’s like ‘What are you teaching people man?!’ It’s a loss of identity with a lot of rappers in the music industry. That tells me that people are not happy with themselves and they follow instead of being leaders, so my thing is to put the right message out there and to change the lyrical content, talk about reality. All I want to do is bring back real music and teach kids not to be brainwashed and led astray by these rappers constantly talking about materialistic stuff.
Do you have a gripe with a particular artist out there?
Nah, just artists that don’t do the right thing when it comes to music, when you’re blessed with an opportunity like this. Money and greed are the number one problems in music today. I’m not pinpointing my finger at one person, I’m pinpointing my finger at every-f*cking-body who is doing that type of sh*t. That’s where I’m at with it, and whoever gets offended, that’s just your human reaction man.
Luckily, there are artists such as yourself and Nas who go against the grain.
Nas is the most talented rapper I have ever come across. He is very knowledgeable of the things he says and he is a very talented person. He knew that putting the Nigga album out would spark controversy, but he’s smart because he went head to head with these big publications. All these big shots have something to say which has given rap the spotlight, so now we can tell our history and what we’ve learnt and what we have seen growing up as kids. If I want to talk about the streets on my records, it’s not for anyone to get inspired and go out and rob or kill somebody. But then you have ignorant rappers that talk about sh*t like that and they don’t deserve to be in the game. What I do is the truth, what DJ Premier does is the truth, what J Dilla did was the truth, what Nottz, the producer from Virginia does is the truth.
Are there any new rappers that you know of that we should keep a listen out for?
That’s a hard question! I can’t really speak about up-and-coming artists because I don’t know what they’ve learnt. You gotta hear what they have to say first and then you can make your opinion on whether you’ve learnt something or you haven’t.
What advice would you give to up-and-coming producers?
Just have passion in your heart man, and never give up. Do your homework, listen to stuff that came before you, even before you were born. In that way you can teach yourself how to be real when you’re making music.
What are your fondest memories of the late J Dilla?
Just hanging out at his crib, in his basement...him picking me up from the airport in Detroit and just opening his arms and his home to me you know what I mean? I thought he was one of most humble cats I ever came across as a producer.
What is Pete Rock’s favourite Pete Rock song?
I cant really pick just one, but one that is really close to my heart is of course my signature song ‘They Reminisce Over You’.
Nice. Would you ever work with some UK cats?
I have in the past. I’ve done some stuff in Paris and Germany although I never worked with any rappers in London. I had an opportunity to work with Dizzee Rascal but our schedules are so tight that we never got a chance to do anything with each other. I’ve worked with Slick Rick, he was THE SH*T! His storytelling was just so historical and classic and he was a big inspiration for me growing up. When I got to work with him it was like ‘Wow, this is unbelievable!’.
It’s been a pleasure, just one random question: if you were invisible for the day, what would you do?
Um, I would raid every record store and take what I want! Only the expensive ones, the ones that jack up prices because they know producers that come in to buy music. So I'd go into those stores and just, y’know, rob them of all their records haha!
I should have guessed that was what you’d say, you’re one of those musical producers. Hip-hop royalty.
For the latest news on Pete Rock’s releases and tour dates check out www.myspace.com/peterock
