#30 - Pete Rock

of all time. Had an amazing conversation with him. A lot of dope stuff planned for the podcast, so we're gonna announcing in the coming days, weeks, etc. But look, I'm in can Coon kicking it y'all all enjoy you know this week we got Draco the Ruler on the way and working on some really, really big interviews, so appreciate everyone who locked in. Getting a lot of dope positive feedback from the j Mills interview from last week and even the Price interview from last week, so we

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Vapin at vapinclear dot com. You could also go to vapincbd dot com and get you some CBD cartridges, get you some lotions, get you something you know, some of that wellness vapincbd dot com. Keyword bootleg Care for twenty percent off. Pete Rock Ladies and gentlemen via zoom. His new project, Peach Strumentals, comes out Friday, but shout out to Pete Rockman. Let's get into it boutle care podcasts. We've got the legendary, one of the greatest of all time.

Pete Rock Peace Peace, What up bro man? And listen Pete Right, let me tell you something. When I was a kid, when you dropped your album, I think it was the Soul brother Brother Yeah, yeah, yeah, No, what was it? What was the album? You dropped your solo album and it was like ninety eight ninety nine, uh A Survivor, Soul Survivor. Yeah, that was the first time. Like I'm thirty three, so at that time I was

like twelve or some shit. But that was the first time, right, So I had come up on your ship without even knowing about the cl smooth shit, right, So I like had to go back and dig in. But I just want to give your flowers. Man, You're a legend. Bro. Welcome podcast. Thank you, boss man. You know what I'm saying. I love hip hop, brother, I love what I do. Man. You know it's as simple as that. Man, I met

you for the first time. I met you backstage at Rock the Bells with did you I have a picture with you and DJ Premiere Oh Okay, which is one of the most legendary photos I've ever taken. To have both of you guys together in a photo is a big deal, yo, talk about let's let's get in real quick. Just just you know, you're dropping a new project. Now it's all instrumentals, right, yeah, all instrumentals, no samples. I

got a band now. Shout out to the Soul Brothers, Doro, Jan Nick, Christopher McBride, Mono Neon, Jermaine Holmes, Marcus Machado, Big Yuki. The list goes on, man, you know, I like, I'm trying to be one of those great seventies bands, like like Cooon the Gang and uh right, it's it's crazy to hear you say you're putting out an instrumental album with no samples. Yep, no samples at all. I mean, listen,

a producer is a producer, man. You gotta be able to make music too, like without the sampling, you know what I'm saying. And these are all my ideas with the band just playing them over. Yeah, why why go the instrumental route as opposed to I don't know, but just your pete rock. You could get verses from whoever you want. You've done it before, so like, why just

do the full instrumental route on this go round? Because I want people to really fill the music without no noise on it at first, you know what I'm saying, money, because that's what happened with Donuts With Dyla, it was like, yeah, I don't even want to hear anybody rapping on donuts. You just want to press play on it and just vibe and just vibe, because you know what music is a vibe. It's medicine, it's heal, it's a healer. You know what I'm saying. So that's my job first, is

to do that for the people. You know what I mean. And you know you can bring the rappers in anytime. I'm ready to do something like that, you know what I'm saying. I got a whole bunch of that coming out soon with other rappers and with my own team. Who do you have? Okay, I want to get get to a few hours of your career. But out of the new generation, who who's got your attention? Chris Alda facts?

You know what I'm saying a lot of other people too, you know Action Bronson, you know all them type of cats, Freddie Gibbs, you know what I'm saying. Like people like that, I'm I'm that's that's that's my wave, That's my wave right there? Have you tapped in with the core day kid? Not yet? Know you got I feel like you guys, would you guys would make some beautiful music together? Man, your phone just just dipped out. You there, you're back, Okay,

you're back. I'm back. My phone died, man, I figured that's what happened. Yeah, I'm on my other phone now. All good man. Look, Pete Rock, we were talking about some of the newer artists that you were working with. You were saying, you love Griselda, Freddy Gibbs, have you You and Gibbs haven't worked together yet, not yet, but we're talking about it. We've been talking about it. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, No, I'm you know, if it happens, that would be dope. You know what I'm saying.

Right now, I'm more concentrated on because I see cats as busy. So I'm doing, you know, my own stuff with my artists. Amir, who's gonna be really me? Amir? Okay? Yeah? Hey? You know what the album I really loved was the record you and Smoke did it put out together? Yes, Don't Smoke Rock. Don't Smoke Rock? Was crazy? And then you put the instrumental album out. What would you guys do a sequel to that? Of course? Has that been

talked about it all. Yeah, we talked about it. Yeah, I think I think that in the Smith and Western Shore. I feel like, like, you know, it's funny because you got you've you've been doing these joint projects, and I feel like this year and last year we're really kind of like the wave of like artists fully tapping in with a producer. You know, hit Boy did his thing with Benny Fred did his thing with Alchemist. You know,

Conray did something with Alchemist. Who's somebody who you would like to just zone out with and do a whole album with that you haven't yet? Ghost Face? Ghost Face? Oh yep, that would be legendary. Well we have you have you guys spoken about that? Ever? We talked like a lot. We talked like a lot all the time, and you know what you have to see, man, ghost Face would be insane. Yeah, he's my personal top five. Ever, my personal you know what I'm saying. Like yet my

personal list too. There's two lists, right, there's like your personal list and then like the list that you you know, the like. So when people be like, what's your top five or top ten? Man? I got top twenty, man, It's like, what are we talking about? Were we talking about like everyone's list or like my favorites, because there's like a difference my security list, my most important list

has Jada kiss on it and ghost Face. That's fair gods, Okay, okay, yeah, ghost Face the most consistent, uh, one of the most consistent rappers ever discography wise, album for album he could go against it's like him and yeah, yep, so do And I know, like if we ever work together, it would be so easy. Is it easy to work with Pete Rock? Yeah? How fucking yeah, I just the most you know what, you know what, you know what, It's

easy to work with me when you respect me. Okay, So you got to make sure that the artists understand, see, because I think that that's an important thing to say, because if someone's gonna do something with Pete Rock, they gotta understand it's a full collaborative process. You're Pete Rock. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, you can't. You can't be disrespectful to my, to my to the way I do, you know, to the way I'm great right, Because I do feel like like guys like yourself, guys like Primo.

I wish that there was more of records like the record you do with Dizza. I wish that there was more. Like I like, I can't tell you how excited I was when you did the joy with with with Ye and when you had when when you were in that pocket where where Ye was doing the Good Friday Records and you were working with Kanye. Yeah, I was just so excited because I'm like, this is what I want to hear Pete Rock and Kanye. Why didn't happen sooner?

You know what I mean? It would have, but you know like I look at it like you could just set it down right there. Thank you, Thank you. I look at it like, you know, like he's from my school and that was bound to happen regardless, you know what I'm saying. Talk talk about that era where you were tapping in with Ya and and and the Joys. Those are my two favorite Kanye versus probably ever. Thank you when he said, uh, the Holy Trinity, a bad bitch and a bag some hennessy, I see my only enemy.

Let me tell y'all something about Kanye on the lyric tip Homeboy's nice. He's super nice that I will not never take that away from him. And he's very talented, you know, nah, for sure. Man. Was there any record you did with you that we didn't hear? Yeah, I did a I laid about eight beats, but I think he might have went in on more than just one, right, but I never heard it, and I doubt if he's using anything. But you know what I mean, right right, right,

right right, all right? So so you got the you put the band together. We're getting, uh, some some great instrumentals, some great music, uh from you? The person who haven't let's talk about you, and and and and and and why why haven't we seen a verses with Pete? I feel like I feel like you're the obvious guy to do one. As far as the producer, I wouldn't mind seeing you an alchemist. I mean, I put it out there already, man, But nobody's biting, so it's all good.

How how how dope was it for you as a fan of the culture to see there is a primo battle. I liked it. I liked it, you know what I'm saying. But I just felt that there was a lot of things that needed to be rectified with the way it was coming over the Instagram. And oh, definitely, yeah, there was some that was before they were doing them in person and it was a big production. Yeah yeah, you get out in and out, and you know, it was a lot of it was just a lot of stuff

that needs to be fixed. You know what I'm saying. Let me ask you this, Pete. Do you feel like you're underappreciated as when it comes to hip hop overall? Do you feel like you get your flowers you deserve? I feel like I get my flowers sometimes. You know what I'm saying. You know, I really I really don't care, man, You know what I'm saying, because I love music. Regardless of how people were people on the place, I don't

care about that shit. You know what I'm saying. What I care about is what's already up there in the sky. It's already everything I've done, man, is on top tip. So I'm not mad at nobody or nothing or Cat's not recognizing you know my talent. You know what I'm saying. But you know, real people know what time it is. You know what I'm saying. That's real people, Real people know what it is. I'm not bothered by none of this shit because I have real talent. Yo. What I

appreciate about you is you're extremely unfiltered on Twitter. Yeah, your Twitter is going up, Yeah, because you know, I'm just trying to show people that, you know, there's a real side to me and that you know, even with the disrespect, I really don't care about that. You know what I'm saying. I'm saying things for me and for people who agree with or disagree in a respectful way, not in a disrespectful way, because you could disagree, but

you don't got to be disrespectful. I think that that's something that we've lost sight of, right, is that you if you know, if you don't see eye to eye with someone, I feel like in twenty twenty, is automatically

an enemy or really really contentious conversation. Like you could be texting somebody and somebody will take you take it totally the wrong way because they can't see a facial expression or you know, they assume that you're getting at them, you know what I'm saying, Even like, even like if you have any sort like you know, I don't fuck with Donald Trump, right, I don't. Yeah, yeah, right. I voted for Joe Biden at the same time I have

my critiques of Joe Biden too. It's like you did I see on your I saw, I saw some things you've said. But what's crazy is you can't say those things out loud without without people coming at you like bro like yeah, Like It's it's almost like you can't even critique people anymore. I don't care, yo, Yo. Let me tell you something. In the beginning, I used to be like, oh my god, oh my god, oh he just called me this, He just disrespected me. But I

see what it is, man, I see these low lines. Man, they just like to comment to get that that that, you know, so they could go back and run back and tell it for yo. I was arguing with people like yo, yah da da da, and then he gets some followers behind that. Yeah. It's almost like there's people who wait around online all day to be offended. It's like, what are you doing with your life? Were you're just sitting on Twitter waiting and waiting to get offended. They

not doing nothing, you know what I'm saying. So that's another thing that's in thought. You know, like all these cats ain't nobody. They just home rubbing on their peas right right right right right right here. Yeah, I saw, Hey, give me your honest thoughts. I really enjoyed. I saw you tweeting about the Tyson fight. I really enjoyed watching. First of all, Mike looked nice. Yeah, he looks sharp.

Let me tell you, man, I look back on both of them dudes careers, and I look at how they used to just dance on people like Roy is the best boxer dancer ever, you know, back in his heyday. Of course, even them giving this us, you know, giving us this fight. Now it's like it's well appreciated because it's great entertainment for the times we're in. Man. We need some type of picker upper, you know what I mean. Yeah, I thought they did a great job. Whoever the Triller

people are they did? You know, even the Jake, the Jake Paul shit, you know that was that was That was crazy. That was crazy. And I mean I love Nate Robinson, He's a nick you know what I'm saying. But when you when you pop in that ship and you ain't backing that ship up man, and you you you really not going back that up, man, that's a people disaster. We have a Did you pay attention to the Grammy nominations? No? So the Best Rap Album category this year was extremely It was some real hip hop

ship that got nominated. Yeah, something online I know. Freddy Gibbs got nominated. Freddy Gibbs got nominated, Royce the five nine got nominated. J J Electronica, uh NAS for King's Disease and uh and this kid from LA named d Smoke. I'm wondering. D Smoke is really dope, talented kid from Englewood out here in LA. He's uh. He was on that show Rhythm and Flow on Netflix, but really fucking amazing artists. I'm wondering though, what was your favorite album

of the year of this year of this year. Oh, it's so good. It's so good, yo. Tell me how crazy see the Fhara con speeches on there and how it leads into bus of spasm. Man, people are so afraid of the truth, bro, you know what I'm saying. And that's one thing I commend about bust the rhymes, like you know, doing this album. You know what I'm saying, because it's real times right now, and you you know, to say to do something else other than something real,

you know, ain't the move. You know what I'm saying. So ELI is the best album in twenty twenty. Yo, It's crazy too, because it tells you how important it is to make timeless music because a lot of this album, some of these songs are ten years old, yeah, and the fact that they still resonate right now, like and then so you're a part of the intro talk about how old that record is. Man, nineteen ninety two, and you know it was you know the joint I did for Nasen. He brought it back on some next you

got the I thought it was dope. He gave you the feature like it's a feature in Pete Rock Love. I love Buster Rhymes. We have a really good relationship going back since nineteen ninety one. So that's my guy, you know what I mean? And you know, shit, man, Look, there was a lot of great music that came out, you know what I'm saying. But the way some of the music that you hear, there's no real structure on

the album. This bust. The album has structure. M it's front to back, front to back, and you can tell that Buster cares about his audience. You could tell that he made this album for them, and you could tell that he is a hip hopper in his heart. All the way he took he took the time on this album, and in an era where no one takes time on their projects. Everybody's just rushing and throwing stuff out and

there's no rush to throw music out. I want you to take me back to obviously you're a part of my favorite album ever, Illmatic, which is probably if you were to, you know, interview one hundred taste makers and hip hop, it'd probably get the most first place votes. You know what I'm saying. I think it's probably undisputedly that's amount Rushmore album. Yes, when did you first meet Nas? Nineteen ninety on ninety one when I was hanging around with Large Professor and the Queens shout out to Large

Professor now that this was? Was this around the time Live at the Barbecued release or was it before that? It was it was around that this around that time? And and did that before that? And when you're working on Illmatic, when you're working on with Nas, are you like aware at the moment? Because I feel like so much we're we're living in the moment, so sometimes you don't realize like the history were a part of or or like like, were you like aware at the time?

Are you conscious of like, Yo, this ship is like this is going to change hip hop. Well depending on who got the beat, and anytime I'm working with him, you know, something good is gonna happen. So that's basically what that was. And when I when he heard the beat, it triggered something in him and you know, he on the spot. He came up with the hook and he was like, Yo, I want you to I want you to say this hook. I want you to sing this hook. You know, did it. I ain't want to do it

at first, but I did it. I ended up doing it. Yeah, it's crazy because I also feel like you don't get you don't get enough. You don't get props as much as you should as a also as a as a as an artist, I mean as a producer. You know. I just feel like as an artist as well, I feel like you don't get the respect. Maybe I'm not supposed to be getting all this respect and stuff from like, I don't know, I don't care, bro, you know what I'm saying, because you know what people are gonna be

who they are. It's all good man. You know, you got people out here who are clueless on what Pete Rock has done. You know how important he is. All that you know what I'm saying. And then you got people that show love. You got people that's like, yo, you are that nigga? Still you know what I'm saying. And hey, man, you know it is what it is. You know what I'm saying. I'm not I'm not mad at nobody. You know. There's so many dope people that producers,

rappers that I want to work with. Still, you know what I mean? Yeah, I would love to hear the Freddy Gibbs for me, would be would be would be special and listen, I would put my foot in that one and the and a ghost Face A ghost Face project would be fucking insane to that that put two feet in that. I feel like you've you've definitely probably answered who are your favorite producers of all time? I want to know who do you think is the most

slept on? Two or three producers? Ever? Two or three producers you mean, like two or three producers that that you think deserve to be in more conversations, because I do think there are a lot that are you know, I think large professors one of them. I think there's a lot. But like, who do you got in that in that? In that list? Black milk, Black milk is so cold. Black milk needs more props. You know what I'm saying. He's dope. You know what I'm saying. So dope.

And I don't know if people up on vitamin D, but he dope too. Oh my goodness, he's a He's one of my new favorite dudes. Yeah right, Yeah, Darrenger's dope. The Griselda guy, he's he's great. I think, like, yeah, d gets it in. You know what I'm saying. But I was an Alchemist fan. You know what I'm saying. Of course alc Man, Yeah, yep, Alchemists and you know everyone else. I'm a fan of all producers. It's not a fan like Ninth one. Everybody. I like everyone. You

know what I'm saying, is there. I'm gonna say Dila and mad Lib on my two favorites. Yo, How crazy were both of those mad Lit projects with Fred? Wow? Stupidity? Come on, man be having joints man beat. I heard. I heard he made a lot of bandana on an iPad, which is crazy. He's played me so many joints and sent me so much stuff. We talk almost every other day. And then you know, when I tell people that they're like I can't get him on the phone for nothing,

I can't find him. That's all right, Yo, do you like shout out to mad Lib? But do you think, like how often do you cause you know, I always I heard this story that Kanye once snatched drums from Doctor Dre back in the day, he probably did. How often do you like as producers share like sounds or like, have you ever hit somebody up? Like, Yo, where'd you get those drums? No? Not not Pete Rock. I find my own kicks and snares. Man, I got. I'm a dig I'm a heavy digger man. That's all we do.

When as soon as we put the needle down where we don't you know, we're looking for samples. But sometimes when we put the needle down, you hear a popping ass snare bop, you know what I'm saying, or I had or you know, right, make snares some scratch, homie. Let me ask you this because in twenty twenty, how are like, like, what what do you use to make beats? Are you using like like this? Because obviously times have changed, technologies change. Back in the day, we used to carry

records when we were DJ. Now we don't need records. How are you still using your old school equipment? Are you on like reason pro tools? Like what are you using or vinyl forever? I'm not a digital motherfucker. You know what I'm saying. You ain't digital at all? You haven't. You have a compromise on that. Do the digital work, don't get it fucked up? Right? I do that shit. But I'm when I'm home, man, it's it's viinal man.

And even like certain forty five parties, I may pop up and do I'm bringing a little box out of vinyl. Damn the forty fives. It's a beautiful thing. Man. Are you do you have anything else that you have in the can right now, Pete, that you're working on outside of this instrumental project is about to drop. Yes, a whole bunch of stuff, A whole twenty twenty one is gonna be an awesome you know. Can you kind of

give us any sort of hints? I got my band, Pete Rock and the Soul Brothers album we're working on right not the Peastrumentals three. They're they're they're featured on that. On every beat they're playing over every joint that you hear.

Right then, we drop an album, right and then my man the Mayor comes the rapper the MC, and we got a mixtape coming out called Worth Its Weight and Soul where I just just taking anything Rick James outstanding and fat back then and in certain you know, obscure beats and mixing it all together and you know, give

people a feel of who this guy is. And you know, it's just one of those things that you could just it's a mixtape, it's free and you could just like kind of jam to it and lyrically do this dope. How what is your temperature on hip hop currently? I feel like it's been in a dark place and I feel like things are starting to turn around a little. It's starting to turn around. So my temperatures right now,

it's sixty five degrees. Okay, you're not freezing. No, I'm not freezing, but I'm in the middle somewhere, you know what I'm saying, And I'm trying to get to the heat. A couple of years ago, you might have been freezing. A couple of years ago, I was. I was in an igloo. Shit was rough, ship was rough, I was angry and upset. You know what I'm saying. You know,

because I can't stand whack beats and lyrics. I can't. Yeah, it's it's like some some some somewhere down the line, this this like idea of like super overmodulated just very just just just a lot of this ship that was coming out just sounded like noise bro exactly, man. And it was just like, I know, I was angry in the beginning because it was going over my head like damn, these guys ain't learned. Maybe we got to reteach them. Mmmm.

And then I snapped out of it, you know what I'm saying, and was like, all right, you know, let me just put some music out and see who bites. That's fair. Hey, when you worked with with ya on the Joy were you were you in? Was that when you did you go to Hawaii for that? Yes? I did? What was that? What was that? What was that trip? Like? What was it like being out there working on history?

Because obviously that ended up on Watched the Throne? But you know that was my beautiful dark twits, the fantasy you know sessions yep, yep, yep. And it was great. I mean, ship, that dude is living like a prince, you know, at least on the Hawaii side. I've been to his malleible, but that was that No, no, no, that was Russell the comedian. I went to hang yes in Malibu and he told me who lives around him and near him? And I think jay Z lived down the street and Kanye lived over there and so so.

But anyway, we was in Hawaii and had a huge you know, it was it was great. I had I had fun. Yeah, it was crazy because at that time, he brought Riza into the fold. He brought you into the fold, and it was like finally, like this, this is the people we want to see Kanye work with. These are the people who inspired him. Like I laid I laid eight beats. I laid eight of my own beats, you know what I'm saying. And and it just we narrowed it down to one, right, you know what I'm saying.

That's crazy. Yes, but I mean, you know, I had so much fun. I met that was my first time meeting Rick Rose, Rick, I mean Rose, you know what I'm saying. I met Kick Cuddy that day. Yeah. I met John Legend and his wife that day. Wow. Yeah. And while we were working all day and then Kanye had these little pieces of paper up all over the studio saying no Twitter, no Twitter. Yeah, that tells you how how long ago it was, because now would be

no Instagram. Yeah. I remember he did something like that online where he talked about you know, and then when I went over there and it was in the studio, you know, he had it all over the studio. Were you were you there to witness Rick Ross laying down his verse for Devil in a new dress? No, I didn't. I didn't see that go down because that that's one

of my favorite versus. But look, uh, the project comes out next Friday or tomorrow or tonight eleven, December eleven, so next Friday, yes, the volume three mm hmm and then and then twenty twenty one, so much more coming what I can't wait to start. And there it is, Hey, hey, hey, and and uh shout out your artist amir, like how can we find him online? And all that just we could tap in with him. He goes by a m x x R for showing on Instagram with you know,

periods between each syllable. All right, my g will Look, I appreciate your time and and and thank you for charging your phone up. Yeah, and you also you know, go on my page if you want to hear like two clips of the mixtape. You'll see you'll see the cover with me and him on there. Are you gonna be doing a vinyl pressing it all? Yes, yep, boom go support man, have fun with it. You know what I'm saying. You got to peep rock. Thank you for your time, bro, God bless you kids. Yes, sir, all right,