Features

ThaFormula.com - I guess let's talk about what the reaction was from a lot of people concerning the last interview we did about this nerd rap?

J-Zone - Well I had a couple of people come up to me in the streets and at shows and stuff sayin' "yo, I read the interview you did and I agree with what you said." But you know people would email me like "yo such and such kids are sayin' this about you on the internet," and people agreed and people disagreed. So you know anybody who agreed with me, dope, and everybody who disagreed that's cool too. You know everybody is entitled to their opinion. I'm NOT mad either way. But I heard people were getting real bent out of shape and upset about it and going on and on and you know posting on message boards like hundreds of messages about and just going on and on and on. Like I heard people took offense to the shit and it's like all it is is an opinion on rap music and if one persons opinion on rap music is enough for you to get bent out of shape then you got to find a hobby man. It's just my opinion on Hip-Hop. So what I listen to E-40 and the records I make aren't like E-40's. If you gonna get mad, come on man. Anybody that got bent out of shape about it, I mean you gotta find a hobby or somethin' man. It's only rap music man, calm down.

ThaFormula.com - Now recently you told me you were tired of rap. What did you mean by that?

J-Zone - I just feel like a little bit, uh I been going full steam since I started like with the first EP 'til now releasing stuff and doing it and it's kind of like I just feel like all my life I was just a fan and I made the music on the side. It's kind of like I'm grateful to be making a livin' doing what I love to do and that's what I always dreamed of doing since I was young, but then when it becomes a living there is so many other factors that come into play. Like there might be a week where I just don't want to deal with it. In other words when it come time, uh when rap music becomes you're bread and butter it becomes a job and sometimes the fun aspect come out of it and it's like that's why when I make my records I don't give a fuck what nobody thinks about them cause I do these records for therapy and fun. That's always what rap music was about. I'm happy to make a living I wanna do it, but when I came up all the records I listened to even the cats that were serious, and I said this in the last interview, guys like Public Enemy and X-Clan, their message might have been serious but they were making records that were entertaining and enjoyable. I'm trying to have fun doing it but then sometimes you lose the fun with all the politics. It's just not the same anymore. There is just a lot of politics in the game and it takes the fun out and you just wake up sometimes and you're like "I just wanna get away from rap music for a minute." Like I just wanna go watch a basketball game or just go on vacation or just do some other shit man cause you feel discouraged or sometimes you might feel like your fans don't relate to you or you don't relate to the fans so you get hip-hopped out.

ThaFormula.com - I understand exactly what you sayin' man and feel the same way when doing interviews. Sometimes I don't feel like doin' it cause it's just not the same no more...

J-Zone - I'm not gonna sit up here and gripe about the state of Hip-Hop because no matter what anybody says rap will never be what it was 12 or 13 years ago, face it! If you think it is, you're foolin' yourself, but the difference between me now and when I made my first album is you know me just complaining about it on records really isn't gonna do anything to change it. Because unfortunately, the future of rap lies in everybody's hands. From the kid just making a 12" that sells 500 copies to Nelly. Everybody plays a part in what's going on and you can't hold the future of something. Everybody is responsible so all you can do is just make good music and you're doing your part and that's what I'm going to do.

ThaFormula.com - Looking back Zone when you think about it, were you happier recording your first EP or are you happier now?

J-Zone - Well I think right now is funny you say that because I think about all 4 of my albums and I think about the ones that I had the most fun doing and the first one and this one were the ones that I had the most fun doing. Like more than the second or the third. The first one was the most fun because it wasn't meant to come out. It was a project for school. It was me making beats and callin' up my friends and guys from college that was rhymin' around the way. I put them on it and I hadn't planned to make no money off of it. It was just a straight up project. It was almost kind of like innocent fun just makin' rap records 'cause I like to make them. I didn't have no fans to impress. I didn't have no record labels breathin' down my neck. I didn't have to push no first week units. I didn't have to release no single material, no clean edit, none of that shit and you know it's kind like when I came out with "Bottle of Whup Ass," I kind of like set a cult following from the first one and I had to deal with the sophomore jinx. I had to get used to building a chemistry with Hug and Shid so I was under a little pressure. The third one was like my first full-length album release so I had a lot of pressure on it and I went through a lot of bullshit with a lot of different record labels trying to get it put out and I was going through a lot of different shit, so I just felt pressure. But with this new album I really just, uh I wasn't even plannin' on doing an album. I just said "yo I'm gonna go in the basement and I'm making whatever I wanna make." I'm wilin out! Musically it's like a 180-degree difference from "Music 4 Tu Madre," but in terms of attitude it was the same thing. I was just like "yo I'm going to get the guests that I wanna get, I'm makin' the beats that I wanna make, I'm doing exactly what I wanna do and I had mad fun making this record. Like this is the most fun I've had in 5 years. On one hand I just feel out of it and Hip-Hopped out, but on the other I'm really happy with the album and I had a lot of fun working with everybody on it and you know that's really all I can do. It ain't gonna be 1990 ever again so all you can do is try to have fun while you here, make the best records you can make, and just uh for anybody who's willin' to make dope shit, reach out to them and we will make dope shit together.

ThaFormula.com - It gets hard sometimes to accept the fact that the golden years of Hip-Hop are gone for a lot of people man...

J-Zone - Yeah, cause when I was comin' up every dime I made if it wasn't going to get some equipment, it was going to get a record. It was like if you look at 1991, every week a record came out and you know the biggest dilemma was like "Yo do I get Cypress Hill or do I get Tim Dog?" Do I buy Niggaz 4 Life or do I buy UMC's?"

ThaFormula.com - And you knew damn well that eventually you would get them all...

J-Zone - Yeah, eventually you would and whatever I couldn't get I put it on my Christmas list or I got it for my birthday. Every week there was mad shit and this year it's like I don't think I've bought any albums this year. I maybe bought 2 rap albums this year. The game has changed man. There is too much at stake, there is too much money to be made. Big labels ain't taking risks no more. There's no more like control, or its like people are just puttin' out whatever, like demos. Like somebody will get a beat machine and have it for like 2 months then press up CDR's and just sell them and I mean I'm not knockin' your hustle but you got to like at least learn the basics of how to make records before you come out. Back in the days when people came out, you could tell they put some time in. It wasn't just like in your bedroom make a CDR and put that shit out.

ThaFormula.com - Now I know this time around you had major distribution through BMG. How was their response to this record?

J-Zone - They liked it a lot. I actually had a meeting with them. They get a lot of releases every month and I'm like "what the hell is gonna make mine any different from anybody else's?" So I figured "ok, I'ma go in there and have a meeting." So I pretty much went in there, I had my fur coat on, I had my little stage outfit on and you know I just did my biography live. I just brought pictures, my first business cards when I was like 18. I brought my first demo, my first record I produced, brought pictures of my ride and played "5 Star Hooptie," you know just to get them familiar with me and you know it went over real well. I got to meet everybody personally so it was cool with them and I felt like I needed to do that because its easy to get lost in such a big chain. BMG is a big system so if you go in and let them put a face to the name it could really help them sell your shit more. Like you know, "I met that cat, he's cool you know order his shit." So I felt that was a good move and they seemed to be excited about the record so hopefully we can keep on movin' it.

ThaFormula.com - Now let's talk about the "Choir Practice" track and how it was originally supposed to go down before you got J-Ro and King Tee?

J-Zone - Well I've always been a fan of a lot of West Coast rap artists. I like shit from all over. I'll listen to De La Soul and Biz Markie but I'll also listen to Tweedy Bird Loc, MC Eiht and 415. So you know I had been talkin' to you about it and I was like "man I want to get a joint with some West Coast guys on it," but I wasn't even gonna rhyme on it. I was just like "yo I wanna get some West Coast cats." So my first move was B-Legit 'cause I'm a big fan of The Click. So I got at my man Mike Nardonne who used to work up at Jive and he had Legit's number so I got in touch with Legit, I sent him the beat for "Choir Practice" shit and a couple of other ones. He was like "yeah I'm feelin' the beat, let me get back to you," and you know time was just going by. Then he was like "yo I lost the CD," then he was like "I found the CD," and like then he got busy doing some other shit. That was like in November of 2002 and before I knew it, it was February 2003 and the rest of the album was done and I had to hand it in March so I was like "what the fuck am I gonna do?" I got to get a West Coast joint and you had been tellin' me about Hittman and Hittman is a genius man. I loved his shit on that Chronic album and I was like "hell yeah!" So I called him up, I built with him, he was mad cool. I sent him the beats and you know he picked the "Choir Practice" beat.

ThaFormula.com - So Hitt was the one who chose that beat?

J-Zone - Yeah, cause I put 3 beats on there. Hitt picked the actual beat for "Choir Practice." There was 2 other beats on there but he picked that one and I was like okay! 'Cause at that point it was kind of disorganized. I was like alright so it was gonna be Hitt. I decided to rhyme on it 'cause I knew time was winding down and I said I need one other West Coast cat and I was like "yo whatever beat Hitt picks is the one."

ThaFormula.com - Were the other 2 beats that you sent on the album too?

J-Zone - Nah, they weren't. I just never used them. It was just crazy. I put the ball in his court. I'm like whatever Hitt picks I'ma write to that beat. I'ma let him write and then I'ma try and get another guy and we had been talkin' about King Tee. So Hitt was writing to that shit, I wrote my verse. You gave me Tee's number and I got Tee. It took him a while to get back to me but then he finally did, he was cool on the phone and everything. I sent him that beat, he felt it. He was with it so I was like great, King Tee and Hittman. So like a month rolls by and I mixed the rest of the album and you know the deadline was close and Fat Beats was on my ass and I was trying to get at Hitt and I was like "yo give me the bar count and he was like "yo I'll call you back," and that's the last I heard from him. I just didn't know what was going on and then Tee called me and told me "yo the verse is ready." So we dealt with all the paperwork and everything like that. While that was going on I just couldn't find Hitt and I had to get it done so I was like damn! So I asked my man Danja Mouse, he had just put out an album with Jemini the Gifted One and he had The Liks on his album and I was like "Yo, I wanna get one of the Liks on there if I can," and he was like Tash is out of town but I can call J-Ro. He called J-Ro and J-Ro just happened to be in New York. So I mean just by coincidence this happened and he remembered the show we did together in Long Beach last year with AC The Program Director. So I called him up and he's like, "yo I'm chillin' up in Harlem and I'm here for 2 more days, what you wanna do?" So I drove to the city that night and gave him the beat and he liked it. He wrote to it and 24 hours later he was at my crib. He knocked that shit out, bang and you know J-Ro laid his verse, I put my vocals on it the next day and then I was just waiting for Tee, and you know King Tee is a hard cat to find…So it's like you were trying to find him, I was trying to find him and I had to get that verse, so I had to call AC The Program Director to get him. 'Cause AC is the only person I know that can find somebody. If you need to find somebody, AC will find him. So like I'm eternally grateful to AC 'cause he was the one who got in touch with Tee and his manager and if he didn't help me out it probably would have never happened. So I mean AC was a big part of that. He called up and I guess he got at Tee when I couldn't reach him and then Tee called me up like "Yo I'm sending this shit out and he sent it out Airborne Express. But then he sent it to my P.O. Box and it got returned 'cause they can't take Airborne Express and I was like, "yo what happened?" He was like "Yo man! The shit came back, I was in L.A. doing a movie with Xzibit, I didn't know it had come back." So I was like "Ahh come on man, you got to get it to me!" (Laughs). And then he just Express mailed it to my house. I got it, and I finally knocked it out. AC came through, he helped me out with that and that song was done finally and then 2 days later I go to my PO Box just to check it and there it is, Hittman sent me the Acapella to my PO Box and I hadn't spoken to him in maybe like 2 months and like there it was. I didn't even know it was comin', it was just there and I was like "God Damn!" I had just handed the album in to get mastered. It was a dagger in my heart cause when I played the CD the verse was SO dope. Hittman murdered the beat. The verse was sick and there was just nothing I could do with it. I had already handed the album in to get mastered. But I called Hitt up and told him thanks anyway and I still wanna work with him on some shit. There's a lot of cats out there that I want to do some shit with. I wanna do some shit with MC Eiht, Threat was incredible. Of course I'm trying to get up with The Penthouse Playas cause they were dope and they still are dope. Playa Hamm has still got it. A lot of those guys still got it and I just think its a shame they're not putting out no music.

ThaFormula.com - Now I remember you talkin' to me recently about how you started interning at studios in the early 90's. What was up with that?

J-Zone - Well I had 2 internships. My first internship was when I was 15. I interned at Powerplay Studios out here in Queens. I used to come see my Grandmother out here in Queens on the weekends and you know I wanted to get in this rap shit so I looked at the back of all the rap records I liked and they all said Power Play Studios, so I called up Powerplay and I was like "yo, I wanna speak to somebody about internships." They said just come by so my dad drove me over there and when I was 15 and I got it. All I was doing was sweeping floors and shit, but at that point all I had was some turntables and I was just mad hungry, like Mecca and the Soul Brother had just come out! You know, Cypress Hill's album had me hyped too. So I was interning there and Akinyele and Large Professor were working on the "Vagina Diner" album and Roxanne Shante, Kool G Rap, and Grand Daddy I.U. were working on "The Bitch Iz Back," which was Roxanne Shante's album where she was dissin' all the female rappers.

ThaFormula.com - So you got to see Large Pro and Ak recording Vagina Diner?

J-Zone - Yeah, I was in that session. I was 15 at that time. I was just a gofer like they would just send me to the store to get shit and they let me sit in and he was working on that song "I Luh Her." He was doing that and I was like, "yo this guy is gonna go to jail!" 'cause he was rappin' about kickin' the girl in the stomach and all that crazy shit. But I was mad nervous like Large Professor was there and I was like "yo that's the guy from Main Source!" So I asked him, like I wanted to get a SP1200 and at that time they were discontinued so he was like "they don't make these no more." I was just trying to talk to him, but he kind of brushed me off a little. I mean he wasn't rude cause I was like 15 and I didn't know shit. I didn't have any equipment I was just dumbfounded by that. That internship lasted maybe a month and a half and I didn't really learn much cause I was too busy throwin' out trash, but I got to see part of history and I knew from then on that this is what I wanna do.

ThaFormula.com - What about the Roxanne session?

J-Zone - I didn't see that session but I remember in the lobby Grand Daddy I.U., Kool G. Rap and Roxanne Shante were there and they was just cracking jokes on each other dissin' each other and Roxanne had her little son with her and he had a gold chain on. He was a little boy and he had like this rope chain on and I'm like a geeked ass 15 year old who didn't know what was going on. I was just like wow! this is crazy, then 2 months later her album comes out and then the next summer "Vagina Diner" came out. Rob Swift was there too. He was the DJ and there was like a Pac-Man arcade there and he was playing the Pac-Man game when they weren't recording. It was just crazy. That studio was mad cool 'cause I didn't know shit about music. I was just a 15 year-old kid that was like put me on! They put me on 'cause you know I was willin' to sweep floors and go to the store but that lasted a month and half 'cause then I had to go back to school.

ThaFormula.com - You had another one right?

J-Zone - Two years later I got my second internship at Vance Wrights VDUB Studios. Vance Wright was Slick Rick's DJ and his studio was up where I was stayin' at in Westchester. I started interning there when I was 17 and that's when I met Greg Nice and Grand Puba, cause Greg nice was workin' on the "Jewel of the Nile" album at the time and grand Puba was workin on "2000" and this producer named Mark Sparks he was a guy from North Carolina, he was doing stuff for Nice and Smooth and Grand Puba and he wound up doing shit for King Tee actually a year later. He did shit for YZ and he was doing shit for a lot of people. That's when I started getting real deep into records and shit. Like Mark Sparks had all these weird samples and like drum sounds. Amil used to come through and record demos.

ThaFormula.com - Amil from Roc-A-Fella?

J-Zone - Yeah, this is when she was makin' demos. She used to roll wit this cat named Greysun. There was a group called Greysun N' Jaysun back in the day and that was Vance's group, they were on Atlantic. But Greysun and Amil were makin' records together at one point and I did a beat and they rhymed on it as like a demo. I was like 17 at that point.

ThaFormula.com - So you were doing beats already at that age?

J-Zone - Yeah, I started doing beats right after my Powerplay Internship. I bought my first sampler at the end of 1992. I was still 15 then.

ThaFormula.com - So you started making beats during the Golden Era?

J-Zone - Yeah, I was fucking around on little bullshit samplers in '91 but I got a SP1200 and started making real beats November of 1992. I had saved up some money and got a SP1200 and I started making beats at the end of '92. When I started making beats the big thing to do was like the Pete Rock shit. Like everybody was samplin' like jazzy baselines, filtering echoed horns.

ThaFormula.com - Did you make some beats like that?

J-Zone - I still got demos of me rappin' in '93. I was 16 years old. I have beats where I just sample like breakbeats and I took like jazz baselines and I would just sample like funky horns.

ThaFormula.com - Are they wack or are they dope now that you listen to them now?

J-Zone - The beats are actually pretty good for a 16 year old. The beats sound like beats that would have been on like "Slaughterhouse" or something like that. They're just like upright baselines and like drum breaks. Believe it or not and this will blow peoples minds, back then I was strictly a battle rapper. Just rappin' about how good I was. 'Cause I hadn't gone through nothin' yet. I was 16 like what the hell could I rap about? So I mean I was doing battle raps and you know I was doing these demos and how I met Vance Wright, uh my homeboy met him and he called me up and he was like Vance Wright Slick Rick's DJ has got a studio there go check it out. So I brought him one of those demos and he felt it and at that time I was 17 and I was just hungry. I was like "I don't care, I'll sweep floors, I'll run errands and do what I got to do as long as at the end of the day you can get me like an hour in here to learn," so Vance Wright was really my mentor. He showed me the ropes. I met Greg Nice at that point and he was tellin' me stories about how when Nice & Smooth was signed to Fresh records one day he showed up at the office and like the gate was pulled down. The label closed and no one called him and told him and he was just sayin' "yo this is a fucked up business," and I was 17 and Greg was tellin' me this. This is when "Old To The New" and "Blunts" was out. This is like Spring 1994. Actually the first record that I ever released was in 1995. This guy named Preacher Earl. He used to roll with Nice & Smooth.

ThaFormula.com - He was on that Nice & Smooth track "Down The Line" right?

J-Zone - Yeah, he did a record I produced it. I was like 18. I have it here. I still have a couple of copies left. In '95 Greg Nice had a label called Divine Records and he put out a 12" by Preacher Earl and my man Baby Draws did one side and I did the other and the song I did with him was called "Fool I Gotcha Back." This was in '95 and I was still in High School. I did that record for Preacher Earl and made about 100 dollars off of it 'cause it was promo only but it was my first record. The record was promo only but if you can find the CD it says "Produced by J-Zone for On Point Entertainment," because Vance Wright's company was called On Point. It was like a compilation on Divine Records. At that time when I made that beat the record I was listening to most was "Main Ingredient" by Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, so the beat actually sounded like a Pete Rock beat.

ThaFormula.com - So what exactly do you learn from Vance Wright himself?

J-Zone - Vance taught me how to engineer. He just taught me all the basics of engineering. Him and Marks Sparks taught me about how to program drums 'cause before that I was just pretty much loopin' drums. I was just findin' breaks. I was into the Beatnuts shit and the Black Moon shit cause they pretty much had drum breaks and they would loop them. Like when I was around 17 I used to go to this thing called the Roosevelt Record Convention and they had like Q-Tip, Pete Rock, Buckwild, DJ Scratch. All those guys used to go there to get rare records and like what I used to do when I started finally makin' money engineering at Vance's, like on Saturday's I would do sessions and then Sunday mornin' my dad would take me to the convention and I'd blow all my money on records. I would just go there and ask the dealer who was this guy named Phil the Soul Man, he used to have a table there and I used to be like "yo Phil, play me a record with a drum beat on it, and whichever one I could afford I would buy it. So I was just buyin' up drum breaks and shit. Mark Spark and Vance Wright knew a lot about records so they was just tellin' me about shit and you know I would go to the convention lookin' for records that Mark Spark told me about. But they taught me really how to program drums. Like before that I was just pretty much loopin' up breakbeats. But then Vance and Spark taught me how to program.

ThaFormula.com - What happened to Vance man cause I haven't heard nothin' from him in years?

J-Zone - Vance just moved to Atlanta and he's a family man now. He just dabbles in music. He doesn't really mess with it that much. He did half the beats on the first Slick Rick album and never got any credit and then he did most of the beats on the second album, "The Ruler's Back." He did beats for like Positive K too. Vance just pulled me in off the streets when I told him I just wanna learn and it's funny man, 'cause actually when I was in my senior year in High School instead of going to the prom, I did a Grand Puba session. Like Grand Puba and Stud Doogie came to the studio to record some shit and instead of going to my prom I went to that cause at that point I was just like, uh you know I grew up on these guys shit and just to have a chance to work with them, I mean I gave Puba business cards, I gave him beat tapes, he never called me back but you know I was a little 18 year-old kid. I was a scrub, but you know I recently did a show with Puba in London and he remembered me, it was crazy and we were talkin' for like a half hour. So it was cool just comin' up at that time. I started making music towards the end of the golden era when there was still some good records comin' out so I got to meet a lot of the guys you know who are responsible for that shit. A lot of people didn't really know that about me but that was like my early years. Everybody knows that "Music For Tu Madre" is my college senior project, but I had been involved in music since I was like 15 years old.

ThaFormula.com - It's funny how no one really knew that about you man...

J-Zone - Yeah, even C.L.Smooth used to come to the studio because he owned a car wash across the street. Like this is after "Main Ingredient." There was a lot of shit that people don't know. Like a lot of people used to come through Vance's spot to do shit. I had a chance to meet these people and it was cool.

ThaFormula.com - Did you hear any classic dope shit that never came out in there?

J-Zone - Oh yeah man. There was a Slick Rick song called "Behind Bars" and the version that was on the album was kind of weak. There was two versions but Vance did one that never came out. That shit was probably the most ridiculous beat I ever heard and it never came out. Greg Nice only worked there for a short period of time, he was there for like the summer of '94 and then he would come back. Vance was a real dope producer but he just never really got his shine. But Vance was the first guy who had me start doing a lot of changes in my beats. I got that from him because if you listen to Slick Rick's early shit like especially the second album as he's tellin' the story you're hearin' like sound effects, sirens goin' off. You hear all these sound effects and noises in the background and it's almost like he didn't even sequence them, he just flew them in with his hands like on the sampler and I know that if people listen to my stuff a lot of times I'll just throw mad sound effects in. 'Cause he has like that Bomb Squad era influence.

ThaFormula.com - So you purposely make your shit sound like it's all over the place?

J-Zone - Yeah, I do that because I always liked Bomb Squad and Vance used to do that. I came up on the tail end of an era where people were doing that with their production and I still kind of do that. Like nowadays people don't really do that. Some people do, but it's not common so what I like to do with my shit is like what I did with "5 Star Hooptie," I had all the little car sounds comin' in and out. I like to listen to what the rappers sayin' and I try to find sounds that compliment that.

Be  sure to join the over 300,000 Industry Heads that have signed up to our exclusive mailing list!!  Click here to join and receive exclusive interviews only available to members. Leave contact info ( name & email address) at info@thaformula.com and we will contact you to confirm your membership.