ThaFormula.Com - Why did you decide to remix the Nas “God Son” LP?

9th Wonder - I didn’t have nothing else to do man.  I was just making beats man.  One thing I learned about this game is that if you just do something just to do it, big things will come out of it.  I didn’t know that then, I was just doing something man.  My man Bumrush brought the acapellas by the house so I remixed 1 song, then two, then three, next thing you know by Monday (and I started on Saturday) I had 11 songs remixed.  So I wasn’t really doing it to start some trend.  I was just doing it to be doing it.  But I was having fun man cause its about having fun.  So we put it out and next thing you know I’m in Japan like a year later man signing it for Japanese kids, which is amazing how your work travels without you.  That’s because of the Internet man.

ThaFormula.Com - Even though you got great reviews for your work on The Listening, were you surprised that you weren’t getting hit up afterwards for beats and were you wondering if and when it would eventually happen?

9th Wonder - No I didn’t get hit up right away back then, but man a lot of my friends even now say “why cats ain’t hittin’ you up for beats like that?” I mean I can honestly say I’ve been fairly lucky with the projects that I’ve end up on.  I would say out of the 4 to 5 major projects I’ve been on, 3 of them have been because of Jay-Z's co-sign.  He requested me for the Destiny’s Child record and he also requested me for the Mary J. Blige record.  But at the time, I was just happy to be doing beats man.  I was happy to be a beat maker and I wasn’t really concerned about cats hittin’ me up.  I was just concerned about how I was gonna pay rent.  So when I really stopped being concerned about when I’m gonna get the big beat, that’s when the Jay-Z thing came out of nowhere and that’s how its been for me.  When I stop worrying about something out of nowhere it comes.  So everyday is a surprise for me bro.  

ThaFormula.Com - I remember you saying that you felt that someone had to be born with the skill for engineering and mixing, how important is that to you?

9th Wonder – I’ve always been a firm believer of god given talents.  Its good to have the big boards and all this and that, but when Phonte (Tay) first recorded the joint he did with Kev Brown a while back, me and Tay would sit and talk and say “yeah man that dude records everything on a 4 track.”  I thought it sounded incredible and that told me that you don’t need all that equipment to make something dope.  So that comes with engineering and mixing.  “Murray’s Revenge,” “3:16,” “The Listening,” all that was mixed on Cool Edit Pro.  While some people think that the mixing don’t sound good, if you talk to your average cat on the street, he ain’t gonna know no difference.  That’s Hip-Hop though man, taking something and turning it into something bigger.  Making the SP do something its not supposed to do.  Making the MP do something its not supposed to do.  Making Fruity Loops do something its really no supposed to do. That’s why I feel that you have to be born with the gift of ear, simple as that. 

ThaFormula.Com - Who amazed you when you hear how they engineer or mix something down?

9th Wonder - 3 people. The guy who does all of (Doctor) Dre's mixing, I forget his name. Young Guru, like to watch him in the studio man, you’ve got to look at the albums he’s mixed. “Blueprint,” “The Black Album,” “Kingdom Come,” the Diplomats records, Freeway’s records, Beanie’s records. He has a whole sound to himself. He did almost all of De La Soul’s last record (Grind Date). So Guru is another guy.  Eddie Sanchez, DJ Premier’s engineer. That guy! The way he makes Premier stuff sound New York dirty like that.  When the big engineers turn the knob its like “wow, its sounds a whole lot better.”  Engineers come in and shine it up for the showroom.  They know what they are doing cause there is a skill to that.  One thing I like about Jay-Z man is that when he laid his vocals to “Threat,” he turned to me and said okay, I’ma lay the vocals and I’m gonna let you do what you wanna do to it, and I’m like “okay.” What I did was me telling Guru what to do, like “do this and do that.”  But I don’t take no credit away from the producers or the engineers, everybody has a part.

ThaFormula.Com - Are you still sampling from records only or have you changed the process of it over time?

9th Wonder – I’m still sampling records man. A lot of cats still don’t understand the whole “how does he do it on fruity loops?” type thing or “I heard he samples off of MP3's.”  You know they still don’t get it, but I shop for records like everybody else. 

ThaFormula.Com - How do you look at the whole vinyl and Serato situation DJ wise.  Are you with the vinyl or have you transferred to Serato?

9th Wonder - In my opinion Serato was created for one reason and one reason only.  I am tired of carrying 10 crates to the party. I am tired of getting my crates stolen.  That’s why I’m using it.  I’m tired of carrying crates.  There is nothing like coming in doing the party and then packing up and leaving in a matter of 15 minutes.  As far as vinyl, I know a lot of storeowners who have shut their stores down because cats have stopped coming in to buy CD's and records but that has a lot to do with the Internet man.  That is a lot bigger then vinyl and DJs.  But it’s up to us, who I like to call the “True School” generation of music heads to kind of hold it to our heart man.  We need to stop trying to be friends with kids and show them the righteous way to go.  If all a kid knows is Serato then show him something else.  That’s why I started teaching Hip-Hop at the University.  It is up to me to tell that kid what is really going on.  Yeah you might see me using Serato, but I need to tell them the reason why I’m using it.  I’m not using it to enhance my DJ’ing skills, I’m using it because my back be hurting and I’m tired of carrying crates.  But I tell a kid before he gets on any DJ machine, learn your rap history.  Learn that there is two versions of “Gin & Juice.”  You need to know that before you pick up any kind of wax.  We need to start telling kids what it is.

ThaFormula.Com - With the way Hip-Hop production has changed since you first stepped on the scene, do you feel pressure to keep up with today’s production?

9th Wonder - No, I don’t because there is a generation of people that is out there that is my age and your age who still love soulful, jazzy loops and beats.  We are still out here.  If we are not, that means that nobody was born between the years of 1968 and 1980.  The problem is the radio does not speak to us.  The radio is geared straight for kids.  The sound they use, the stuff the talk about in their songs, although I feel like some kids don’t need to hear that.  It is geared for ages 12 to 20.  BET’s target market is girls ages 12 to 16. So my job is to get the people that I grew up listening to music with, the same guy that I sat with in 7th grade class listening to Public Enemy with is the same guy I’m trying to reach ‘cause nine times out of ten, he thinks the last De La Soul album is “De La Soul is Dead.”  There’s a generation of people out there that wants the music that Little Brother makes, they want it.  Are we put in a place where they can get it, no. Do you know why? Because they got kids now man and they got husbands or wives dealing with real life situations.  They don’t have time to sit on the Internet, they don’t have time to see what’s on Sandbox Automatic, they don’t have time to got to the record store.  All the time they got is to run into Best Buy, look under New Releases and leave, that’s all they got.  But what’s under the new release rack?  It ain’t Dilla, it ain’t Madlib, it ain’t Little Brother, it ain’t “Kids in the Hall,” it ain’t none of that.  It wouldn’t have been Common either if Common wouldn’t have gotten on Interscope and did the joint with Kanye.  Am I right?

ThaFormula.Com - Yeah, that's true... 

9th Wonder – It’s not to denounce Kanye or Common at all.  All I’m saying is that there is still a generation, or there is such a thing now as “grown-up rap music.” There is such a thing now.  Rap is 33 years old, so as long as I can still pull the loyal A Tribe Called Quest fans who don’t know where Tribe is right now, I’m cool.  That’s a whole new market, that’s a brand new market. That’s a true school market.  For me, if a kid tells me, “9th you talk like somebody’s daddy” or “your beats sound old or dated,” well at least I’m acting my damn age!  That’s for damn sure.  And if you say I’m acting like somebody’s daddy or my music sounds old like somebody’s daddy, somebody needs to show you what a daddy is.  So that’s my point.  I don’t have to change nothing.  If I’m gonna change my stuff up man, I’m doing it cause I want to and I’ve always been like that.  That’s how I got to where I am, doing me.  But I notice everyday, there is a 34 year old woman or man saying “man you make the beats that I’ve been missing.”  I’d rather be a role model to a kid and try to show them where my generation is instead of trying to bring my generation to kick it with his.  Nah!  It don’t work like that.  It didn’t work like that with my parents.  When you were little and your parents would have a cookout, what music was they playing. Were they playing rap music?

ThaFormula.Com - Hell No...

9th Wonder - Hell no, they told you to “take your music and go to the bedroom with that, out here we are bumpin’ this, we don’t bump that.  You go with your friends to bump that,” but now you got cats my age, they playing what the kids are playing.  NO!!  You don’t do that.  You tell that kid the real, “yeah you are “Chicken Noodle Soupin’” and all, but what we out here playing is EPMD, either you can get with it or you can’t.  Take your little ‘dancey-dance’ music or whatever you call it and go in the bedroom.  Out here we listen to Salt-N-Pepa, Mary J Blige, EPMD, Guy, New Edition, etc. That’s what we’re playing out here.  We are grown and that’s what we do.”  So that’s where I am with mine.

ThaFormula.Com - Are you the type constantly making beats 24/7 or only when your feeling it?

9th Wonder - The way my life is set up now, I get in when I can and I say that man with the deepest sincerity because I got babies man. I got a wife and babies.  I’ve seen “Behind the Music” and all this and that and I stand on it like a rock right.  Every time Christmas comes around or around early December, I shut it down, because I’m a country boy man.  I’m a family guy and I’m a country boy and I’m the master of my fate and the captain of my soul, which means I’m going to do what the damn well I please, so therefore nobody is gonna tell me, “okay you got into this game and you know what to expect.”  No, that’s what people are telling you.  I’m gonna do what the hell I wanna do, so if I feel like I haven’t played with my babies in a week or if my little girl wants to talk or play a game with me, things can be put to the side and I mean that with all of my heart.  Family first.  I remember an interview with Dre where he said he did the parties and all that.  It’s about his family and nothing stops for his family, nothing!  Everything shuts down and that’s how I am, so you know cats can say what they wanna say about that.  That’s me, if you can deal with it, you can.  If you cannot you cannot.  Now, there have been nights I will go in the studio, and I’ll get in a mood and a groove and we will work, work, work.  But still, sometimes I bring my wife or baby with me.  But now I record at home, so now we’re really in the house.

ThaFormula.Com - Do you bang out the beats and move on or are you more of a slow perfectionist type producer?

9th Wonder - One time I pumped out like 19 to 20 beats in like two days.  I’ve done that from time to time.  I’m the type that makes a beat and moves on.  But what I’m learning now is that there is nothing wrong with adding live instrumentation.  But I want my live instrumentation to sound like it fits.  I’m not just gonna put live stuff over my beats just to say its live.  I wanna put stuff over my beats that fits.  Maybe a funky bass line or something like that.  That’s me.   So I may put out 5 or 6 beats in like 4 or 5 hours.  I will say this though, and Primo had said this before, “If I’m looking for a certain sound, I’ll go through every record until I find it,” I have done that.  I have caught myself doing that.  Other then that if I’m just in my room making beats, I’ma just make beat after beat.

ThaFormula.Com – What’s your thoughts on the difference between a producer and a “beat maker,” is there a difference?

9th Wonder - There's a difference.  A “beat maker” just makes beats, a producer constructs the song with the beat that he made.  A whole song, like “nah don’t say that, say it like this,” or “maybe the hook can go like this.”  That’s what a producer is to me.

ThaFormula.Com - So what would you consider yourself?

9th Wonder - I'm a producer.  I learned how to produce records by watching artists, by watching Destiny's Child, by watching Jay-Z, I’ve learned how to produce records.  You know, making big hooks.  I’ve learned that by watching them. 

ThaFormula.Com -Before you finally got a chance to watch these people, did you think you knew everything you needed to know about being a producer?

9th Wonder - No I didn’t.  If somebody has been where I haven’t been, I keep my mouth closed and that’s something I learned from my parents. They’ve been where I’m trying to go.  If you sit down and shut up and keep your mouth closed you might learn something.  See what I’m saying? That’s how I am with mine and that’s what I did with Jay-Z and Beyonce.  I could hear elements in their music that I may be missing.

ThaFormula.Com - So are these people on that mainstream level more talented then you ever imagined?

9th Wonder - Yeah they are.  You have to really analyze what you think talent is.  I mean putting together hooks and stuff is hard man.  That’s a hard thing to do.  To put together something that don’t sound cheesy and come up with your own sound is something that is very hard to do.  For somebody to say “I know that’s a 9th beat, I know it,” well then that’s exactly what I wanted you to say.  I sound like me, I don’t sound like everybody else.   Let me tell you man, everything changes when you get in the studio man.  Like when rappers young and old come up and say “I’m hot and I can spit and I can do this, put me on, etc.,” when you get in a studio in front of a microphone, everything changes.  It’s like playing pick-up ball and playing in front of 20,000 and a whistle. It’s a different ballgame.  Playing under the whistle is something totally different.  Also and I wanna say that I don’t think everybody on the Internet is lost, I’m not saying that. But the Internet has made everybody a critic.  Nobody is a fan anymore.  Its like, “oh it wasn’t mixed right” or “you know what’s the Soundscan numbers?”  Man when you and I were coming up, nobody cared about that.  All we wanted to know was if it was hot.  Everybody is an A&R now and nobody enjoys the music.

ThaFormula.Com - Yeah, that’s why I had told Phonte I thought it was a trip how before “The Minstrel Show” dropped, dudes and magazines were hailing it a classic, then after it dropped and didn’t sell what was expected, all of a sudden it magically turned wack? 

9th Wonder - Yeah, I had a kid on the Internet one time tell me “yeah I like the Common album, but if I go to school and see some girl walking down the hall singing it, I ain’t gonna like it no more.”  Ain’t that crazy? That's crazy.

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