Judge Mental: I know that you’re very renowned as being one of the biggest crate diggers in the game. I was just wondering if you could talk about the importance of digging.

Count Bass D: Well I’ll say one thing about digging. Because I’ve talked about this a lot before. It’s about the records that you flip. And make into records that other people want to buy. Because half the records that Dilla used, or that Pete Rock used, nobody would buy them except for the fact that Pete Rock used it. So it’s a situation where people say they’re digging and what not, but they don’t even dig anymore. The just go from blogspot to blogspot, downloading a whole bunch of stuff where the cover looks weird and flipping it that way. But the situation is that… how many records have you taken from a dollar record, and flipped it into a record that people are willing to pay $30 or $40 pr $50 for. That’s the next step.

Anybody can just be a collector, just go into a city and buy up a whole bunch of things. We talked about “leveling the playing field,” the playing field is never leveled as long as some people have, and some people have-not. People talk about the Roosevelt Convention and Prince B had, and a lot of other people had not. So he would come in and buy up all the records. And that’s what a lot of people do now. They have. So they go on the internet and buy up one of these little books and buy all the records in it. And they can’t flip it, can’t program anything. But it’s all good. Like I said, there’s a cast of characters and then get bored with it. They’ll be here for a few minutes. Make a lot of noise. Be on the cover of URB. Then two years later, you never hear anybody talk about it again. There’s no shortcuts to this, and people haven’t learned that yet.

Judge Mental: You talk about the importance being flipping the record, and how it’s not what you have, but what you can do with it. Do you ever just go in with the intent of just finding something to listen to? Or are you always focused on finding that break, or that little sample?

Count Bass D: Well that’s the point. You are the avid listener. And because you are the avid listener, as you listen something sparks your ear, and THAT’s what get’s it started. So for somebody to say that they just grab a record, and they take their thumb and keep it on there, and break it down down down until they find something til they find something they can loop. That’s why on so many of these records, you find that the sample comes from side 1. Because people don’t even listen to side 2. By the time they hear that first little Rhodes, it’s like “man, I gotta chop that up right now.” So if you’re an avid listener and you actually study the music, you’re not just listening to it to say “yo i got this this that and the other.” Your actual music and your arrangements will show it. So you actually gotta be a listener, and not just a loop digger. A lot of people take what Madlib was talking about out of context. He’s more like a loop discoverer. He might sample one track off that album, but that’s not necessarily his favourite. So that’s that about the crate digging. It’s about what you can do with it, and showing your skills with it. Or taking something that everybody else has used and bringing a whole new approach to it. Pete Rock did that a lot too. It’s like, when he used Impeach the President. The way that he did it this one time. Thousands of people have used that, but he still found a way to be creative with it. That’s what’s important. That’s what’s impressive to me. People have incredible collections, where they’re all in the perfect sleeve, and all in the humidor room. Makes no difference to me. Rupert Murdoch could just buy up every record in the country and just be the illest crate digger of all time. So what? What can you flip. It’s not just a matter of of having records. Either you’re an ill DJ, or you’re an ill beatmaker or else you just got a bunch of records. That means nothing to me. Radio stations have a bunch of records, so what.

Judge Mental: So I know that you’re currently working on a project that’s not sampled stuff. It’s actually an EP of live instrumentation. And I know that you’ve been playing instruments your entire life. How is the process different for you doing something like that, as opposed to chopping it up on the MPC?

Count Bass D: Well the thing about the MPC is the discovery. You don’t really know how something is gonna sound until it goes through there. You sit down at a piano, aside from a little bit of difference, it’s all gonna be the same. The notes are the same no matter what. With the MPC it opens up the music theory so much more. And that’s the reason I was drawn to it. And that’s the reason I went towards that music. Based on my age, and the time period when I was born, and what I felt like I could bring to the whole world of music, as opposed to trying to do something that’s what Herbie Hancock, or Chick Corea, or Paul Chambers have done before. I would be just like a lot of these other jazz guys walking around in a circle, doing the same thing that Miles did in the 50s. Which is nonsense, because Miles wouldn’t be doing that these days. When he passed away, the last thing he was doing was making hip hop. So what does that say? That means its sufficient for me. If Miles was trying to do it… And I know I can make better hip hop than Miles could. Period. So why would I try to do jazz? I know I could never make jazz better than Miles Davis, but I know damn sure, I can make hip hop music better than Miles Davis. He couldn’t touch me on no beat machine. But I couldn’t touch him on the trumpet, I understand that. I stand by that statement, and I don’t know why anybody would deny that. I’ve already proven that on many albums. So I’m gonna play to my strengths, instead of doing something that everybody else has done. That’s why I decided to shut down the instruments. You start working with cats like Victor Wooten and Branford Marsalis… what the hell are you gonna do? They the best at that. So don’t try to do what they do, try to do what they can’t do.

Judge Mental: So what can we expect from this new record then?

Count Bass D: You just described it. It’s gonna be live music, not pro-tools style where I gotta go back and do a bunch of takes. When I did my first album, we hit record, then we hit stop after about 3 or 4 minutes. I’m playing pretty much the whole way through, a few edits here and there. But it’s not gonna be like, I put in the sample and I chop it up. I’m a player now, but I’m not like a player player. At the level I’m at, there are folks who are known as a player, and then there are folks who are known as a rapper/songwriter. So that’s more what I am. James Taylor isn’t like a shredder on the guitar, but he writes great songs, and people like the way that he plays. So that’s what I’m trying to do. Write better songs, my man Van Hunt helps me out a lot with that. Just as far as listening to him, and knowing who he is makes more sense to me. I’m going as a songwriter a lot more, and keeping it moving.

Judge Mental: What’s up with you and Insight?

Count Bass D: Me and Insight are continuing to collaborate on many levels. We’ve got this album we’re continuing to work on. But he’s rocking these iPhone applications, so we’re doing a bunch of things with collaborative efforts with that. So, you know just proving ourselves in a different type of skillset that a lot of other cats can’t really do. So look out for a lot of iPhone applications, and stuff.

Judge Mental: I know he’s working on that beat sequencer application, and you’re actually contributing a drum kit for that?

Count Bass D: Exactly. He’s got one app out right now that’s like a math puzzle. So it’s crazy. The technology keeps moving, so you just gotta keep up with it. Luckily we don’t have to spend too much time worrying about the music part of it. Cause we’ve done so much, we already know what we’re doing, which is good. We’re confident in what we’re doing. We don’t need to show it to 10,000 people like, “what do you think, what do you think, what do you think?” We make something, and if we like it we know it’s good. So we sort of move towards that direction, and do more. But also, just talking about the music side, it’s more branding now rather than trying to make a living from it. Cause the people have spoken and they’re saying, “we’re not willing to pay for music anymore, we think it’s supposed to be free.” And what can I do? I’ve made music for a lot of record companies that have taken advantage of music lovers. And I’m not just talking about people, I’m talking about people who actually love music, and really wanna see it go forward. But they’re not willing to take it any more. And it seems like the industry has just taken advantage of the people who just love music to the point where, they don’t want to have anything to do with commerce right now. So that’s just all there is to it. They still love music, but they don’t want to pay for it. So you gotta find other ways so that those kinds of people can help us out from a different angle.

Judge Mental: I had a question about you and how much of a family man you are. I mean, I can hear your kids in the background…

Count Bass D: I’m dressing them as we speak

Judge Mental: How do you manage to balance all that. To live a normal life, but be a kind of a high profile guy, and also still be very prolific with your work… how can you do it all?

Count Bass D: God. That’s it man. I don’t have any control over anything I do, any decision I make. I just leave it in God’s hands, cause I have no clue. If left to my own devices this whole thing will crumble. Cause it’s steps away from doing that any day now anyways. So I have to make sure I just keep that focus in my mind as much as I possibly can cause, that’s just my motto. I mean, I’m on my way to cub scouts with my son. I try and do all the family stuff with my kids, but I gotta also provide for my family. Do all the L7 stuff that all the other kids is doing. And that’s what I’m saying. I’m not necessarily 100% cut out for it. But I’m trying not to be like Marvin Gaye. I’m trying not to be like Bob Marley . I’m not trying to do like those dudes did. Because everybody loved the music, but at the end of the day, the families paid the biggest price. Fans got to see the shows, fans got to buy the music, see the face on the magazines, but family didn’t get a chance to see him too often. So I’m trying to flip it. But it’s hard. Cause this music industry, is not designed to keep your family together. It’s not that kind of situation. So you gotta do the best thing you could possibly do, and see what happens.

peace,
-the judge

Posted on April 20th, 2009 under Interviews, Music • Tags: branford marsalis, chick corea, count bass d, Crate Digging, herbie hancock, insight, iphone, J-dilla, james taylor, miles davis, paul chambers, pete rock, prince b, urb magazine, victor wooten. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback