LimeWire Music Blog

Remember the scene in Network when Howard Beale asks people to raise their windows and yell, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore?” Revered rhymologists KRS-One and Buckshot have had it up to here with commercial rappers with subpar skills. Instead of complaining, the duo linked up to come out with mics blazing on their star-studded new album, Survival Skills, featuring cameos by Mary J. Blige and Bounty Killer, as well as production by a Who’s Who of underground hip-hop, including Black Milk and Atmosphere. In this EXCLUSIVE interview, LimeWire Music Blog spoke with Buckshot during a break in the studio and got his take on Survival Skills, Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3, and how he goes about running his ten-year-old indie hip-hop label, Duck Down.

You and KRS-One really come up with your lyrical guns blazing on Survival Skills. Where did the concept for the album come from? Was it the byproduct of pent-up frustration?

Buckshot: It’s a little bit of everything. Hip-hop is a sport and a culture, you know? When you’re involved in any sport, any time you hear other teams doing things brings out the athlete or competitor in you. There’s the fan in you that’s happy and there’s the athlete in you that makes you feel that you can do just as good or better. I was just reading the Jay-Z article in XXL; I bought it because I’m one of those guys who wants to support everybody. I read the article, and it’s a real tricky article because there’s one part in the article where Jay says, “We didn’t get featured artists that already had a name like Mary J. Blige. We didn’t want to do something like that…” Obviously, that had nothing to do with me, or the fact that she is on our album… Me and Kris’ whole thing now is — and he’s got twentysomething gold and platinum albums since 1986 — he’s been on [VH1's] Hip-Hop Honors… But the bottom line is that sales don’t help you. Selling 30 million albums can’t help you when you’re [performing] on stage, especially for commercial rappers. Jay is a commercial MC, and there’s no doubt about it. There’s something funny about a guy who goes back and tries to look like he did when he was hardcore. I mean, I give respect to my dude but I think it’s about going further. “Look at me… I’m wearing all-black. I’m taking it back to the streets.” You can never take it back to the streets. And then when you listen [to Blueprint 3], it’s a commercial album. I don’t want to call it weak, but if it had to stand up to Survival Skills, Jay-Z would be weak, not like some corny shit but weak as in soft as there are a lot of R&B songs, slow beats… he’s got a lot of s&*t that if it wasn’t Jay-Z, [true hip-hop fans] would go, “Yo, get out of here!”

But wouldn’t you agree that when an artist is selling millions of records there is often the dilemma of how to maintain that audience?

With hip-hop, it ain’t even about big. Tupac sold records, and he never changed. Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Death Row never changed. It’s up to [the artist] to decide what they want to do. Then there are some artists who will do whatever it takes to become big by any means necessary, and I’m gonna get big my way and those are the Biggies, Dr. Dres, Method Man, Wu-Tang, et al. None of those people said, “I’m gonna put on something that’s not me even for a month just to get sales, and then I’m gonna go back to me and tell people I had to do that to sell records.” That’s not hip-hop. We’re not trying to save hip-hop, because it never went anywhere.

“Everybody has something unique. With all the famous rappers I’ve mentioned, I always tell kids they can become one of us by sounding like none of us.”

True, it hasn’t gone anywhere. I think your personal commitment to keeping Duck Down going for ten years is testament to that.

I think before you judge Duck Down’s success, become successful at what you do, not what we do. We’re not just into just into selling records, and that’s why Duck Down has been around. And we chose not to take the regular, obvious route. If you’re a famous rapper, you get a label and then a clothing line. Get out of here! That’s as cliché as anything else.

You’ve been working on Survival Skills with KRS-One for a while. How have you been able to balance making music and running the label?

Everything I do is based on a decision. We don’t have to lift weights and do physical and tangible things to make a decision. We basically have to have a smart mind, intelligence and knowledge. When you make a decision, it’s a mental thing, and I have enough neurons — and all of us have them in our bodies — to go on for years. So it’s what you decide to do. If Noah [Friedman] at Duck Down comes to me about an artist, I’m gonna make a decision. If it’s something about Buck Bag, my luggage line, I’m gonna make a decision.

But being involved in making music is a different regimen that doing business. How do you find the balance between what you just talked about and creating your own music?

Because music is a feeling, and the minute you think about it you’re not doing music. Thinking and feeling are different. I could express everything I am going through in my music, and people are attracted to Buckshot because we give them another option besides the Jay-Zs, the Kanye Wests… Kanye West started out as an MC who represented hip-hop, then he hit big and had “Jesus Walks” and College Dropout, he was spitting lyrics and he was underground. Now that motherf*#ker’s whole atmosphere is in fashion, drag queens, and chandeliers, you know. And that happens to a lot of artists; they do that and that’s a choice to go commercial and make commercial music. Some people are just not commercial. That’s all I’m saying.

Speaking of choices, you made some nice selections in terms of the producers you worked with on the new album. How did you connect with them?

I’m a criteria producer. I produce according to the criteria. So if I’m making a tribute album to the ’50s or ’60s, then I’m going to make something like that. If I’m dealing with KRS-One where I’ve gotta have boom-bap and hard shit, I’ma go get that. With Kris, I knew he was the master of boom-bap, so I knew that I couldn’t come with anything but that. Some producers think they got it, but it’s one thing when you’re putting on those beats and they shake the whole room and people come in from the next room and ask, “What’s that?” That’s how I judge beats. If it grabs me that way and others, then I know I’ve got something. Ill Mind, Black Milk, Coptic, Khrysis, 9th Wonder…everybody came and put down who they are in hip-hop. Why aren’t none of these producers commercial, but they are successful at making hot beats?

Because they all have their own sound and need to make beats for MCs like you and KRS-One.

Exactly! That’s what it’s all about. You try to be humble, but being humble can hurt you. Humble is like a sword; you need to know when to protect and when to cut. At a time like this we’re kinda doing both and it irks me every single time that commercial [artists] take what underground [artists] blow up with or set off.

I have to ask you about the collaborations on the album. How did they come together?

It’s funny that if you group all of these people together they are “bigger” than Buckshot or more popular. But yet all of them came to do the album for me without a dime being presented upfront at all. Everybody got on there because they respect the culture and have a genuine love for Buckshot and KRS-One. The reason we got Mary J. Blige is because she works out to an album that I put out called The Formula. I told her husband, Kendall, that I’m working on an album with Kris and it would be an honor to get her on there. He spoke to her and she came over and we knocked the song out in the studio.

So it happened in an easy way.

That’s what I’m saying. We couldn’t even afford Mary J. Blige! Mary, Pharoahe Monch, K’naan, Smiff-N-Wessun, Talib Kweli, Bounty Killer, and Atmosphere…it all came together. Everybody has something unique. With all the famous rappers I’ve mentioned, I always tell kids they can become one of us by sounding like none of us.

Good point.

Thank you! I want to give a special, special shout-out to LimeWire. I’m in my man’s studio right now, and that’s all he will use. Respect due!