knottwire.com:
Since you've had so much success with one particular artist,
in one particular genre, do you feel the need to recreate
your image in the public eye?
Krucial: No, not really.
I don't want to recreate my image. I am, however, working
with new artists now. I'm in the studio with Robert Randolph,
who doesn't do r&b - and I'm really looking to branch
out and show people that I just do music.
knottwire.com: Before
you were producing Grammy award-winning r&b, you were
a hip-hop emcee and producer in New York. Do you feel like
you've fallen into r&b?
Krucial: I mean, in a way
I felt like I kind of fell into it because it definitely wasn't
in the plan. God sets up things for you that you might want,
but you didn't exactly know to go about it that way to get
it. So that goes to the saying: "Sometimes you just gotta'
leave it in God's hands." The ultimate goal is: You want
to do music, and you want your music to be heard. I didn't
know how exactly to go about that. I had one plan, and it
ended up going another way. At first, I was a little intimidated
because I really didn't know r&b - I am all about these
beats and samples and whatever. Then I really took the time
to look at it and was like, "What am I sampling?"
I'm sampling the classic r&b and the classic soul. It
really just made me open my eyes more and see that I did know
more about music than I led myself to believe in the beginning.
knottwire.com: Starting
Krucial Keys and creating The Oven Studios - did that come
as a result of your success in the industry, or is that something
you had always planned?
Krucial: It's something that's
been planned on. I mean, in the beginning, I always was very
independent-minded and just really self-sufficient. To be
self-sufficient was important to me. I always had little pieces
of equipment to try to make music with in the beginning. In
the early days of just doing music and stuff, I used to always
have people come by to the crib and have ciphers and stuff.
Alicia was one of the people to come through. We would make
music in the apartment. From that point on, people started
seeing that we had something together. We decided: "Hey,
let's just be partners,” and from there we just always
kept investing in equipment. In all essence, I always had
my own studio set-up, so it only made sense when you start
growing, you grow with your set-up as well. So Krucial Keys
basically started like in ninety-six when we became partners
and doing music to work on her first project, which didn't
come out until six years later.
knottwire.com: What
advantages does owning your own studio give you?
Krucial: The obvious: Being
able to create music the way you want on your own time without
having the pressures of "Oh, we gotta' hurry up cause
we're booked in this time" and "This costs this"
- you know what I'm saying? Being able to have your own company!
As a kid, I always wanted to own my own business, and I always
wanted to do music, but for some reason in the beginning it
didn't dawn on me, "Hey, own something in the music business."
It's definitely an advantage to be a master of your own destiny.
knottwire.com: Does
it protect you from anything?
Krucial: It gives you a better
mind-state. When you're working for someone else's company
or you don't have that independent mind, you might water your
stuff down, or cater, or twist your stuff up, or compromise
a little too much in order to satisfy what the company wants.
Being the fact that when you own your own thing you kind of
keep that thing as it is. You say: "I'm putting my money
into it, and I'm taking the risk," and you feel better
about it. Win or loose, at least you did it your way. Whereas,
you know you don't wanna' do something that you didn't really
want to do, or you had no choice, and then it doesn't work.
Then, you're really double-kicking yourself. Plus, you owe
that company money. You know what I mean? So, it definitely
gives you a new point of view. I always felt like the new
stuff or the most creative and risky stuff comes from the
independents. The majors never take the chance. They only
take the chance on stuff that always works. In order to feel
free to do music, you kind of have to have that independent
attitude.
knottwire.com: Do
you think there will be a time when independents will never
need the major labels?
Krucial: Well, I've been
fortunate to be part of the best of both worlds with Alicia
being an artist on a major label. I have also put out EPs
on my own. Do you need a major as far as being a household
name quicker than taken twenty years? Yes, you need a major
to do that. Do you really need a major to make a living? No,
you don't. So, it all depends on what you're looking for.
With the technology today you can get your music heard internationally.
You can get your music heard easily without it being a high
cost. People get more into ways to buy music digitally. Digital
distribution is much easier, and it's less of a cost of actually
manufacturing CDs. That's an advantage. It all depends on
what you want to do, and what your in it for. If you want
to be a superstar always on TV, yeah, you could use a major,
but in this day and time you really have to kind of do it
first independently. You find your mom and pops or you just
go digital until you find it necessary to press up CDs. Once
you're doing your thing and you're moving units and your getting
all these downloads, then you attract the attention of the
majors anyway.
knottwire.com: You
have been working with some of those artists under Krucial
Keys for some time now. Do you find it a struggle to keep
them patient when they are so hungry?
Krucial: Indeed. It's always
a balance of what you're doing, but everyone needs to understand
the big picture. Really, we're focusing on just building the
brand and bringing the sound out more. It's all a set-up.
We put things on hold. Everybody wants to be out now, but
they trust what we're doing, and the set up is going to be
correct. The foundation and the artist development isthere,
which is almost absent in these days and times. It will be
well-appreciated in the long run.
knottwire.com: Now
Take da Hood
Back is an EP you came out with a couple of years ago
and an ongoing blog in the Krucial Keys web site. Explain
to people what it represents.
Krucial: Taking back the
control, the idea, and the concept. You know what I mean?
If you think about every prominent hood that's supposed to
be the most dangerous places, all those hoods used to be a
very prosperous hood. They used to be affluent. They used
to have a lot of jobs and different things. People came there.
Somewhere along the line, that has been taken away. Out of
desperation, everything got AWOL. Now, we got this generation
thinking that's the way the hood should to be. You got people
coming in and taking over the neighborhood doing whatever
they want. You got the police running rampant. You got all
kinds of everything going on in the hood. No one is really
looking out for each other. Really, that's what it's about.
Taking it back to the time where if you're cutting up, and
somebody saw you they told your mama. They told your grandmother,
and everybody is kind of looking after each other.
knottwire.com: Wasn't
there supposed to be an album coming out?
Krucial: I pretty much put
it on hold to get the production grind on. I didn't want to
be selfish to the other artists. I really want to make sure
that I keep my sound out there and keep the momentum going.
I'm in the process of keeping the Take da Hood Back
momentum going by doing documentaries on different neighborhoods
in America. We are going to start out with DVDs and eventually
work out into an independent film. It's still in development.
What really inspired me was all these DVDs in the hood talking
about different things in the hood. The whole concept is showing
things in the hood, but also showing other things like how
the hood got that way. You draw your judgment on if you are
proud of it being that way. We are in the whole process of
keeping that going. We're even adding soundtracks. We go to
different neighborhoods. We get local emcees, producers, artists
and poets. We give them a chance to be on the soundtracks
along with the DVD. We interview prominent people from the
neighborhood. So the Take da Hood Back movement is
still going.
knottwire.com: So
the album is no more?
Krucial: Well, the album
is pretty much going to start to be soundtracks. What happened
was I went to Medgar Evers College to do a show. For some
reason there was a typo, and everyone was waiting for the
Take da Hood Back documentary. I had professors come
up to me like, "Yo, I only came here to see the Take
da Hood Back documentary. Where is the movie?" And I
was like, “Wait a minute.” They misprinted; there
was another documentary, and it was my EP being featured,
but I said: "You know what? Since y'all brought that
up, that's what I should do." That's what really sparked
the idea and made it grow into something. That's what it's
really all about, man. That's the beauty of being independent.
You go out there. You get on the grind. You meet people. You
hear people directly. They give you ideas of what they want,
what they expect, or what they need. You just take it from
there and you grow. That's the beauty of it. It started out
as just an idea for an EP and then later be an album. Then
it turns into something bigger, and we are still making it
grow.
knottwire.com: There
are some prominent black leaders who argue that hip-hop is
perpetuating the decline of our neighborhoods.
Krucial: I don't think that
hip-hop is perpetuating it. I think hip-hop is just a reflection
of what's going on. You look at the late '80s and early '90s;
a lot of hip-hop was very conscious and very anti-violence
and anti-drugs. That is what was going on in the neighborhoods.
So hip-hop is always a reflection. It's not the cause of what's
going on. It's always a reflection. The unfortunate thing
is there are still people that still feel like: "Yo,
we need to clean up the hood. We need to protect our children,"
but to the majors, it don't seem like it's very commercially
viable, so they don't promote that and push it. It's easier
to push the ignorance. It's easier to push the funny stuff.
knottwire.com: Do
you think there is still soul in mainstream hip-hop right
now?
Krucial: I think there is
not enough being heard. Mainstream is whatever is popular
at the moment. Right now, America is still a very gangster
culture. We like gangster movies. We like gangster rap. We
like gangster anything. It's always been that way. We always
like the bad guy. We always like the crazy guy in the mainstream.
God forbid something really bad happens; then all of a sudden
people want to hear what's really going on. Like during the
'70s, like during the late '80s, like during the '60s. Things
go in cycles.
knottwire.com: What
do you think about the surge of "Beat CDs" going
on in production right now?
Krucial: I think it can work
if the artist and the producer or beat maker have met before
and they know each other's style or vibe. If you never met
someone, it could still work, too, but you do lose something.
You do lose a lot. The unfortunate thing is that there are
thousands and thousands of beat makers, and there are only
one thousand producers. I think what happens is a lot of A&Rs
kind of look at it like that: "These are just beat makers.
We don't really need them to do a record." They don't
know the difference between having a producer to sit there
and say, “Yeah, that verse is hot, but you know what?
Maybe flow it like this,” or: “Maybe omit this,
and use this as a hook." It's almost like they are really
jerking themselves. They're not getting everything they can
get out of the producer. You lose something. I think sometimes
you can tell that. That is why a lot of these records don't
last. They don't have time to sit there and make it the best
record. Just like everything else now days - it's all instant
gratification. "Yo, you know what? I don't want to fly
this guy and book some time. Just e-mail me the beat, and
he can do it whenever he can." It could get records done
quick. It can get records done, but I think, personally, that
you do lose something. I think it does reflect overall. That's
why the music doesn't last. Some of the most creative stuff
and the best songs can come from an artist and producer just
having a conversation at lunch. They spark a great idea for
a song. If you're just sending tracks to each other, you might
not have that conversation that might have the great song
idea.
knottwire.com: Have
you ever produced a track without physically being in the
studio?
Krucial: I have sent tracks
out, but not really. I've been fortunate enough to be able
to, at least, get the artist in the studio. Sometimes they
might get a shot to do their thing and send it over, but,
at least, I had a chance to meet that artist and know that
artist before I just sent it out. It wasn't like we were total
strangers; we never even talked; we never even met. It was
nothing like that.
knottwire.com: You're
on the road and overseas a lot now. Are you finding the time
to make tracks?
Krucial: Definitely, I got
to keep that. I'm like an addict. If I don't do music in a
couple of days I get withdrawal. You know what I mean? I got
to keep something with me.
knottwire.com: What
gear do you use in those situations?
Krucial: I'll keep a laptop.
I'll keep the Digi 002 set-up with Pro Tools. Definitely keep
an MPC drum machine with me. That's all I really need to get
them basic ideas down. In my hard drive I just grab my files.
When I get to a studio, I just transfer it over and do what
I got to do.
knottwire.com: So
do you consider yourself a gear head?
Krucial: Of course - whenever
I could get something - you know what I mean? But it's really
about looking at it as an investment. It's not just “I'm
buying some toys" or whatever. This helps me do what
I need to do.
knottwire.com: What
kind of projects are you looking forward to in the studio?
Krucial: I'm just really
staying on the grind. Like I said, I am in the studio with
Robert Randolph.
I'm probably going to do most of his album, and it's really
coming along great. I'm really excited about him. I kid with
him all the time. I'm like: "I'm going to get you on
urban radio. Don't worry about it" (laughs). I just finished
doing two great songs with Anthony
Hamilton. There are a couple of new guys coming out. I'd
really like to talk about it after it's done. Just be assured
that you're definitely going to hear a lot more from Kerry
"Krucial" Brothers this year in terms of production
and songwriting. I am just really keeping that movement going.
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