thaFormula.com - Now Hip-Hop is something you wanted to do since the mid 80's, when you look back at how long it's taken you to get where you are at now, are you happy with things?

Phat Kat - Yeah man I’m elated with it because I stuck to doing what I love to do man and I never compromised my manhood or morals or anything.  I love doing what I’m doing and it’s a blessing that I’ve been able to stay ahead of the times.  So yeah, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

thaFormula.com - If you could start over again but with the knowledge of everything you have been through in the industry would you have still chose to do this?

Phat Kat -  Yes, I just would have fine-tuned my strategies a little better.  I would have recreated the wheel.  

thaFormula.com - As someone who has been there from the beginning what is the background of the Detroit sound?

Phat Kat - The Hip-Hop community in Detroit when it first started was real small and we was like the outcasts of the city.  If you wasn’t kicking the gangster rap or any of that type of stuff then we was considered the outcasts, but we always was lyricists so when cats from the city would hear us they would look at us like we were trying to sound like we were from New York.  By hearing that so much over the years, it just made us aggressive.  that’s why when you hear a lot of MC's from Detroit rhyme, it sounds like we are mad because Detroit is a cold city and we had to be extra aggressive to get our point across.

thaFormula.com - What has been the biggest influence though of the sound, I mean who influenced the sound of Phat Kat, Jay Dee, etc.?

Phat Kat - We were influenced by techno.  I was born and raised on it, we all were.  People call it techno, we call it booty music.  It was always heavy bass influenced.  We grew up off of the techno and we were real big on Kraftwork here.  That’s why you hear a lot of synthesizers and crazy sounds in our music. We always was lyricists when it came to MC’ing, but we like we was heavily influenced by the techno sound.  A techno joint would come on and you would find us rapping to it.  So that's what influenced cats.

thaFormula.com - Before you and Dilla (Jay Dee) got a deal with Payday Records how long had you guys been shopping a demo?

Phat Kat - Actually, that was the first demo that I ever passed off to somebody.  I mean I was making music before Dilla.  I was already recording before me and Dilla ever met.  But when I met Dilla the chemistry that we had was just crazy. Still to this day and I can’t explain it and I don’t think its matched by nobody right now.

thaFormula.com - So that first single you and Dilla put out under the group “First Down” was the first thing you guys ever recorded together?

Phat Kat - Yeah, that was the first joint me and Dilla ever did. When me and Dilla crossed paths, that was when we did “Front Street” and “A Day with the Homies.”  Then we did another song called the “Main Ingredient.”  We did like 4 joints.

thaFormula.com - So you guys dropped your single with Payday, how did the single do?

Phat Kat - They put the single out and right after they put the single out, the label folded.  

thaFormula.com - You know a lot of people got caught up in that Payday folding situation…

Phat Kat - Yeah man.  Everybody was on that label.  Jay-Z left.  Jay-Z paid for his own video during that time.  It was Jay-Z, Jeru (Tha Damaja), Showbiz, this group called UTD (Urban Thermo Dynamics) and I think Mos Def was in that group, WC and the Madd Circle, Group Home, and us.  They had some dope artists.

thaFormula.com - When Payday folded, how big of an impact did that have on you?

Phat Kat - I was like “damn, if shit like this can happen, we got to make it to where we are doing this shit ourselves so we ain’t got to worry about labels folding and all that crazy stuff.”

thaFormula.com - What did you do from there?

Phat Kat - During that time the Slum (Village) thing jumped off and they went on tour and every tour that Slum did, I opened up.  So I was on the road with Slum and I was still recording. So when that was done with, me and Dilla went into the lab and all that stuff was done from scratch.  Like a lot of the music that me and Dilla recorded was uh, I never got something off of a beat tape.  He never wanted me to rap off of beats that he already put out .  So everything we did would always be new so he would do it right on the spot in the studio.

thaFormula.com – How did you guys end up putting the “Dedication to the Suckers” EP out and was (DJ) Houseshoes a big part of that?

Phat Kat - Actually me and Shoes put that whole thing together.  Me, Shoes and Brian Gillespie.  He's another cat that we all used to kick it with. Blue Collar records was the little thing that Brian had and we knew that they was putting wax out.  We just couldn't sit on that EP so we was like “we gonna make up a Houseshoes recording thing and throw it out there and see what it do.” 

thaFormula.com - How big of a part did Houseshoes play in the whole scene for you guys?

Phat Kat - Shoes used to DJ at St. Andrews and St. Andrews was the spot on Friday.  We only had 2 spots that you could go and hear real Hip-Hop and that was on Saturday at the Hip-Hop Shop where Proof hosted it and on Friday at St. Andrews.  There was like 3 or 4 spots but those 2 were the spots to be.  But Shoes was one of the DJ's that was playing real Hip-Hop and if you had that banging shit you would go there.  Shoes was an intricate part of what we were doing ‘cause we would give shoes exclusive stuff that nobody had ever heard or whatever and Shoes would play it on Friday.  So people would come just to hear the exclusive jams that was getting played.

thaFormula.com - You dropped the “Dedication to the Suckers” EP and it sold like 10,000 copies,  how did it feel to see it sell that many copies seeing that it had been so long since you had dropped anything?

Phat Kat - It felt real good and it just let me know that the music we were making was timeless and people out there was listening.  I had an audience and people out there was listening.  So it was like a big confidence boost for me.

thaFormula.com - And from there you decided to start recording “The Undeniable” right?

Phat Kat - Exactly.  I landed a deal with Virgin UK.  Virgin was cool but it was the same thing as Payday man.  The guy that got me signed to Virgin got fired.  I was just like “damn this is crazy,” but the whole thing was that I still had the rights to my music and that's how I learned from the Payday situation.  Slum was with Barak and that's how I ended up over there and the album came out on Barak.

thaFormula.com - What was your situation like with Barak?

Phat Kat - It was frustrating.  It was real frustrating because it's crazy when your trying to run a record label in 2000 with 1983 label tactics.  The game has changed so you have to change with the times man.  The whole thing about being an artist man is an artist should be able to create art and the music is my art.  I mean you wouldn't tell Michelangelo to put a little green on the side of that painting.  You wouldn't tell cats like that to change their art so if you look at it like its art, it should be treated like that and what I mean by that is when you are creating, you should be able to have full reign over what you are creating.

thaFormula.com - So when the album dropped, what did it feel like to see your album out there knowing that it's not what you wanted and that you know you could do better?

Phat Kat - My whole thing was they didn't give 100 percent so I didn’t give 100 percent, but I gave enough to where my fans wouldn't be like “ahh man this shit is wack.”

thaFormula.com - A couple of years go by again and here you are in 2007 with the new album “Carte Blanche.”  After listening to this album once, I could already tell that you gave 100 percent on this record as it is a step above your last album.  Was this a situation where you were really excited in showing the people what you were capable of?

Phat Kat - Yeah man.  I just looked at the last album like a demo.  Like it was a real good demo.  This is really my first album, I’m just gonna be honest.  This is really Phat Kat’s first album because like you said man I had total control over every aspect of creating this album.  Total say-so over everything.  From how the levels sound to the order of the songs to the artwork.  Everything is all me.  So if this one don't do it, then it's my fault.  Let me drive my own shit.  I want to be the controller of my own destiny.

thaFormula.com - Were the Dilla tracks on the album something you had already recorded with Dilla or were they tracks that you never got to lay the vocals to?

Phat Kat - "Cold Steel" we had already done that.  That was already done.  The other joints was tracks I already had from Dilla that was never used.  I always had a crazy ear for picking beats and I just feel like I always had the jump on a lot of artists that’s out now.  I mean there are a lot of dope lyricists but they don’t know how to pick beats.  With the beats and the rhymes the beat has to complicate your rhyme.  You shouldn't have to force your rhyme on a beat and that was the whole thing man.

thaFormula.com - As far as Black Milk goes, do you think it's a little unfair that they have put so much pressure on him to become the next Dilla?  It seems like everyone is comparing him to Dilla and expecting him to be the second coming, how do you feel about that?

Phat Kat - I mean that's just people on the outside looking in.  On the real shit, Black has got some shit.  Wait ‘til you hear the next album.  Black got some shit for real.  He's so young, he is just steady growing and he is always challenging himself so Black is gonna be good.  There is a lot of producers here that are gonna start just coming out of the woodworks.  There are a lot of dope producers here in Detroit.

thaFormula.com - Now that the album is done and you are finally happy with the position you are in at the moment, how does it feel not having Dilla around to see you complete this project?

Phat Kat - I think about that everyday you know.  But Ma Dukes (Jay Dee’s mother) is here so everything I do I always take it by his moms and let her hear it.  As long as she is giving it the stamp of approval man ‘cause she knows how we used to be in that basement working, I'm at peace with it.  I mean I know he hears it.

thaFormula.com - Because of how downloads have destroyed the game and made it unable to really gauge how good an album has sold, how do you figure out if the project has been a success?

Phat Kat - It's never really been about sales to me anyway.  it's just always been about creating impact music.  As long as somebody can come up to me and be like “dog I’m feeling it” and just be respected, that's my money right there.

thaFormula.com - So who did you get production wise and can you break down the album for the people?

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