You founded The Beat Junkies in 1992 with the thesis that the turntable is an instrument, do you think progress has gone as far as it can now?
With technology like Ableton and Serato you can still do so much, I think you should be like Superman now with all that, but I think there is always room for improvement, there is always somebody better. I have seen A-Trak so many times, he is so crazy, and is like a rock star when he is DJ’ing, but I have seen him DJ since he was thirteen or fourteen years old and I trip out seeing him play, he just keeps flipping it up, it’s never enough. Another person would be Gaslamp Killer. So I see these guys and they are almost like serial killers on turntables, especially Gaslamp, he looks crazy, but I just love how he spins and the energy. Grand Wizard Theodore back in the day thought all that could be done with scratching was done, he would never have thought someone like Q-Bert would come in and take it to another level. You can make the most amazing sets now if you just take the time. There is always somewhere else to go with it if you have the brain.
Do you get to record with any of the Beat Junkies much?
Off and on. Everyone is so on their own schedules, it is hard for us to link up. We always talk about doing a record and making music, but in the end someone is going on tour, or has a project, it never works out, but we DJ together all the time. I think we are going to book a little tour as well soon, DJ’ing is a no-brainer with each other.
[youtube url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIR0elMAplY&rel=0 ]
One of the greatest things you ever did with Babu was your Soundbombing II mixtape for Rawkus in 1999.
Oh my goodness, yes, that was a wonderful thing. How could we say no to doing a mixtape for Rawkus at that time? That came about because those guys came to LA all the time, and me and Babu were working at Fat Beats the record store, and lots of people came in there, around 1998 – 1999, and those guys would come through all the time, Mos and Kweli. I guess the owners Brian and Jarret from Rawkus liked us and wanted us to do the next Soundbombing. When we finished, they loved it so much they said we should do Soundbombing III, but in the end we didn’t because other people felt they should have someone new. We were pretty hyped and it was a good paycheck too [laughs].
Mixtapes are such a currency in hip-hop; and though some tenets of hip-hop have changed,the mixtape remains a kind of currency of reputation, why do you think this is?
It is the quickest way to get music out – there is no red tape, and no label to go through,there is no clearing of samples, and you don’t have to do anything except approve artwork, and sometimes you don’t even have to do that. They are so accessible on a street level. You also get your quick reaction, you get everything. It’s the street aspect.
In that sense, Gregg ‘Girl Talk’ Willis is using something so synonymous with hip-hop to do something slightly different, though again, it is about that street level of art, the accessibility, the playfulness.
Girl Talk is crazy, a thousand things in almost two seconds! The last thing I heard was Feed the Animals. That is short attention span theatre right there. It satisfies a certain thing in people, he’s nuts.
Another person widely regarded as “nuts” is the brilliant DOOM, who played here recently.
Oh crazy DOOM, they let him in the country, huh? He is just plain crazy. I am surprised he is getting in to all of these countries. He is a real nutty dude. He is really a villain. He doesn’t take that word lightly, he will steal something from you if he really wants to. When he was in LA he used to show up at my house at four in the morning. His studio was a block away from my house, and he knew I was always up at that time, so I got a couple of late night visits from him and he’d be like ‘yo Rocco, what’s up son? I knew you’d be up’. He’d come with his boy, and ask to borrow records, or ask if I could record something for him. I am a music go-to guy for all of these guys, DOOM and Madlib. I’m the reliable one. He is a crazy guy, but he is a real nice guy as well.
He is kind of a strange anti-hero, and has a different kind of reputation.
He has been working on that image forever, that’s him. He makes sure people knows what he’s like. I love his rap, and I like when he was sending out fake people as him in the States, then in that song he says ‘I’m performing, but at the same time watching’, and I’m like ‘okaaaaaay, I see where you’re coming from, you’re crazy’.
