Kool Keith Interview July 24, 2001
By Daniel Ranson

This interview is copyrighted by the writer above. Big up to him for letting KoolKeith.co.uk have this.

DR: Esham can you tell me how you met up with Kool Keith?

Esham: Well actually Kool Keith was putting together his new album Spankmaster. Through a partner of mine we got the record and we decided to put the album out, so that is kind of how I hooked up with Keith, by helping him put Spankmaster out. Then in return Keith did me a favor and hooked me up with the Warped Tour and got us out here on the road and we have been rolling together ever since.

DR: Can you tell me what the difference is between playing the Warped Tour and the usual shows you do?

E: The difference is this is a straight up punk rock show and we are the only hiphop acts on the bill. We are like the extra spice added to it like Emril (famous New Orleans TV chef) we kick it up a notch outside of the norm of what you would usually hear (at Warped Tour) like punk rock bands, we just something different upset the monotony of the punk rock shit.

DR: Esham you also have a new album out can you give me some info on it?

E: My album is called Tongues it came out June 19th. The album is about a guy who is trying to get closer to God speaking from a person who never existed perspective. It has a lot of songs on their, their are no samples on the album everything is played with all live instruments. Its all-good Tongues is the best album out there you guys should go get it…. Well actually here is Kool Keith…..

Kool Keith makes his entrance carrying a several box of Churches chicken onto the bus.

E: He brought everybody some food cause he is like daddy around here, he got to go do the grocery shopping and everything.

Keith sits down at the table and begins eating fried chicken and we begin the interview.

DR: Is there anyone who has more albums than you?

Kool Keith: Yeah Esham probably has more albums than me.

DR: How many do you have?

KK: Twelve albums, no fifteen albums.

DR: In your opinion what is the current state of hip-hop music?

KK: Poor right now. Poor because of the lack of innovation nobody is trying to do anything new, everybody's trying to be a thief with their sound right now. It's a very trendy monotonous confection, repetitious visual videos. The state off hip-hop is poor.

DR: Are there any artist out there who you like right now?

KK: Yeah there are a few artist out there but I am totally insulted because I feel a lot artist out there now are not being original, they are trying to be like someone from the past. Nobody is doing something new, everybody trying to be like something old. So it's hard for me to like somebody cause they not original.

People trying to be like Bootsie, people tying to be like Jimi Hendrix, people trying to be like they are not rappers, people trying to be gangsta. There is nobody.

DR: I have been to two of your live shows and both times you threw fried chicken and juice into the audience. How did this get started and how come u continue to do this?

KK: I bought Chinese food one day and threw the chicken into the crowd. I thought about it and one day I went to a Chinese restaurant and bought fifty dollars worth of chicken and I threw them out without juices and it was cool, and I stared putting in Capri Sun's together and I started putting them in zip locked bags and I did this at one show and it was weird and I was like wow cause the people really liked that part and it was fun and I kept doing it ever since.

DR: Who has the best fried chicken?

KK: I think Churches and Popeye's, and KFC use to be up there but really Kansas is the best at one time. Popeye's is the best.

DR: Last time I saw you live Kurt Master Kurt was behind the turn tables now you have Evil D. I also noticed that Spankmaster is your first solo album that did not have Kurt on it. Is there a reason for this and do you plan on working with him in the future.

KK: I kind of let Kurt take a break. I took a break. Automator took a break, cause we were all getting our sounds mixed up with each other and we couldn't get no real focus on, people in the audience couldn't get a real focus on who was doing what sound. People thought Automator did a lot of stuff, people thought that Kurt did a lot of stuff. People thought I did something for Kurt. People thought it was too mixed up so I decided to take my production and tried to separate it so the audience can get a clear picture of the production I am doing so you see with Dr. Dooom and with Black Elvis and Spankmaster I did myself.

DR: Do you play all the instruments, and which one do you play?

KK: I played all the instruments. I played bass guitar, I play off the keyboards, I even blow the trumpet sometimes, but I play lead guitars and bass and play keys. I have basically produced my last four albums.

On Sex Style I was more writing rhymes than producing. On Dr. Octagon I produced Blue Flowers and Girl Let Me Tell You, and the rest of the beats were Automators and I just got more separate with my production, and I play a lot of instruments and got back into production.

DR: On the sleeve of the Spankmaster album there is a message were you shout out Atlanta, what is that message about?

KK: Well people in Atlanta know about what's going down right now. The conspiracy when I watch MTV, and its really weird I am starting to see people from the south know that musically I created the wig. I seen a few people trying to do what I was doin, but in Atlanta I seen an individual person down there actually duplicate my image on MTV and took a lot of stepping stones. And it got to the point now that I was doing my record and I see people duplicating me from on down the line, a couple of people, but now its ridiculous I've seen so much obvious duplication. After Black Elvis came out I was wearing a wig with some glasses. I've seen rappers wearing my drill glasses, glasses you would wear if you were drilling. Then I see a person with my wig on. I have seen a person with my cape, and there is a person in Atlanta and MTV supports this person like he is original. MTV which I am very shocked at knew I was the innovator of wigs, capes, and stuff and I couldn't believe their going to let someone get away with that duplication like that. It was a shame; I am ashamed of the duplication. The thing I am surprised about is that somebody would get on stage and act like it was something new that he invented. I've seen quite a few rappers right now wearing wigs and glasses and doing weird stuff with capes. I am duplicated so hard that it is obvious that I didn't know there was that much stealing in the music industry at that time that I am shocked by how robbed I am of my image. There is a guy in Atlanta that steals my shit all the time.

Jackie Jasper: You have been calling yourself 4001 since 1994-95. Eminem is wearing his wig. That whole week when everybody laughed and clowned it, how come they're not laughing and clowning it no more? How come it is cool all of sudden to wear the wig? It's cool to wear the cape.

DR: Can you talk some more now on the MTV conspiracy that you mentioned?

KK: I think MTV basically is still a supportive station of my stuff. They played (Dr.) Octagon, but I think MTV still fails to realize I created a lot of the talent that they have coming through there channel. I gave a lot of group's ideas to be distinctive and different. MTV has know for a fact that I feel MTV was just not supportive when I did Plastic World for Sex Style when I came out with my video. They were not there for me as much as I thought they would be, they had always showed me love, but they gave me a pinch of love by putting me on late at night on 120 minutes and throwing me on Amp at four o'clock in the morning. I think they could have showed a little better appreciation.

According to the artist that stole my stuff, they would rather put artist, and interview artist and showcase artist and debut artist on regular television in prime time spots that took my shit. It's more like I felt that that part of the support wasn't there. There was so many people trying to be me, but they had their stars that were trying to be me in prime time slots, having interviews with artist that actually were just doing things already did five years ago fives years ago, and I felt insult and lack of respect. I was totally insulted, because when I did my weird thing they weren't there as much as I thought they would be. Now when everybody else does their weird thing, they are all over it now, and for a corporation of people who knew that I did that, and the people at MTV were aware of that. It's so obvious the industry and the record companies know. When you look at labels, and they know they when they have somebody who is trying to be like Kool Keith, or they are trying to do what I am doing, but I was just totally insulted by MTV with the support that I have received. I am so shocked and overwhelmed with the lack of support they gave me when they have many artists coming through their channel trying to be me. I thought that was a dis. Its like letting the new guy come out and he's trying to be like James Brown with the cape on but you didn't put James Brown on TV, and you never mention him. I think they basically participated in adding a lot of knowledge negatively to kids about artist they broke through their channel and the media that they were the innovative people and stuff like that and people will die in history not knowing that I created a lot of that shit. I am just more shocked that they would go out and do something like that, and people are supportive of that. I know that it's a political world that we live in and its about money, but were is the fucking integrity. You don't go and steal the fucking piano from Ray Charles and try to duplicate it, and try to duplicate another Ray Charles and say this is the man, and put out a false betrayal to millions of kids across the country and say “that's the guy, he's a legend and he started this and this guy will go down and history as he's the best and he's the guy who was the first to were the wigs and capes and the guy who did this and he's the guy who did that”, when I did that shit. You know that's what I feel, and I think that that's just fucked up. That's some fucked up shit to do. It's fucked up.

DR: You are currently doing two cross-country tours simultaneously, the Vans Warped Tour and your own Spankmaster Tour. What's the difference in playing these two tours?

KK: There's no difference. The Warped Tour fans are the same, they're cool punk rock kids, but they even know a little better than most cause the media can expand at such a fast rate. It (the media) can lie quicker through television to seven million people, when I have to travel to thirty-two cities in a certain amount of time to tell the people the truth when TV can expose the fucking lie in one day and tell the world this is what's happening. The Warped Tour is important for some kids who try and know any better they are going to learn what's happening.

DR: What is the difference between your fans and fans of other so-called mainstream and commercial rappers?

KK: The funny thing about my career is that I have eclectic fans that like what I do forever as a cult following type of fan base. I have fans that are very secretive. I probably have black fans, people the critics write about and they say that "well Keith has sunk into a certain audience." Allot of people buy my albums, but they wont tell me. Allot of black people buy my albums, allot of black groups buy my albums, allot of MC's buy my albums. Allot of people who that I wouldn't imagine have my albums, Michael Jackson probably has Spankmaster, Elton John might have bought it. Allot of the rock groups have allot of my albums, so it goes to tell you that Alice Copper could have Black Elvis, but its just the point that people are so confined right now they will keep things a secret and there are still allot of secret things going on in the world people are more or less not wanting to tell you they have your product cause they have to get ideas. I buy other peoples albums. You cant go without buying other peoples albums because they have to know what their competition is. You see I know people have my records because they are trying to be me, how can you be someone you don't look at. Without me they couldn't be them, its like if I didn't come out with an idea and nobody could make an idea, so its like an idea comes from something they have seen. It's like you see the latest sneaker out on someone else's feet your going to go to the mall and buy the Nikes too and then try to get out there and try to walk around so kids can see it first and they think you had them first when you might have seen them from a guy downtown who already had the sneakers. I have been in many cities where people ask me "Hey here you get that hat? I am trying to find that hat." Then you gonna find the hat and turn around and lie and make it look like they got the hat first. Its the same in music people look over you shoulder and steal something they sell. Like you come out with a cape on and a blond afro and somebody hears that and comes out tomorrow on MTV or BET on a big show or a big billboard awards show and come out with a cape and afro and the world thinks that was first. They see it because everybody is not home. They cant put the Warped Tour on TV, so when a act comes out here and do something different a little local person can come around and they can steal an idea and take it national and they can take it to television. They can come see a club performance by a group doing a local gig and take their act, that's how allot of these acts are. You have allot of acts out that probably stole allot of stuff from the main groups that are out, the main rooted groups and they take it national. Allot of groups that are signed to the record labels have stolen allot stuff from allot of the local groups that didn't get a deal yet. They go to the club and see this guy that people don't really know. Marilyn Manson probably seen a guy who lived in his city with a painted face and dressed like that and started (dressing that way) and he just got a record deal first. The guy that originated it is probably saying, "Hey he stole my shit, before that guy came out I was doin that shit way back when he first saw me and I had my own band playing." I here stories like that all the time. You know life goes on, its just those guys don't have a quicker outlet and wit the record companies and media and television combining together conglomerate with money and you know whatever and if that is the way to get a lie across is to tell it you. So if you are at home watching TV and some guy stole your idea and talking to millions of people across the country lying to fuckin people, and I feel that what I really got caught up wit about allot of the media is that they act like they don't know that I did something. If I see Prince I am not going to go paint my guitar pink and get me a pink outfit and do my hair and sideburns like him and then try to go on networks that know about this already. I'd look like an asshole. But you have people that are actually doing this, and it not like if I was in Europe somewhere and somebody said "I never knew he did that," but people in America know this so that is the most insulting thing right there. That's why when I look at certain cable networks, even BET and MTV, they know about it, the stuff I do, they may act like they don't but they know. Its a shame that people would get up their and let somebody impersonate you like that. That's like impersonation. If somebody came and did a show and looked like you ain't you going to tell the real person I seen a guy somewhere trying to be like you. So its the same thing, but people are now today fooled, they don't really care so its kind of fucked up.

DR: I once read that Black Elvis would be the last persona that you would create, and now we have the Spankmaster. Was there a reason for you creating the Spankmaster persona and can you tell me about the Spankmaster album?

KK: On the Spankmaster album I got into a different sound. I think I pulled out a more like one-two monotonous beat type of style. I got more into a funky pattern and more bass lines then ya see on allot of my album. I didn't grow up listening to a lot of the jazz records so my whole persona of a lot of my albums are still based around funk bass lines, allot of deep rooted sounds, more driven bass lines and stuff like that, and futuristic sounds. I think that's where allot of the critics get messed up cause they say well I didn't do a album with the most distinctive type of drums and the album didn't have a bunch of different elements thing really can you combine to a classic jazz album, it should have been more like urban sounding, it should have been something more like Thelonius Monk samples and stuff like that, it wasn't meant that way I wasn't a jazz artist. I think in comparison people felt like I should have been in a era like that but that's not my era, I came from funk era and people don't understand that I am like a new wave Mass Destruction, I am a new wave has been confunksion, I am a new wave next level slave, a next level arcade. I am not Charles Mingus, I am not Thelonious Monk, I am not Herby Hancock, I am not into the Elements maybe that is on the more on the like underground side, I think my stuff is more different than what people call underground, I think its more of a bass driven formula I didn't base myself on allot of loops and stuff I didn't want to be a loop guy, I didn't want to have to say I need a jazz loop on the album, its wasn't made that way it was just made different from any other album I did. All the albums I made were different because I didn't make each albums to compare to be better than each other. I didn't make Matthew to say that like Matthew was suppose to be better than Dr. Dooom, Dr. Dooom was suppose to be better than Black Elvis, Black Elvis was not suppose to be up to par or be better then Dr. Octagon, it should be the top best record I ever done and the critics kept goin. They all to me are all different records none of them are better than each other none of them are worse than each other, they were just different records, they were more like records distinctively made from the industry itself and distinctively from each album. Sex Style doesn't sound like Black Elvis, Black Elvis doesn't sound like Dr. Dooom, Dr. Dooom doesn't sound like Dr. Octagon, Dr. Octagon doesn't sound like Spankmaster, Ultramagnetic doesn't sound like Dr. Octagon. None of those records were made elementally to top like each other. I didn't go into the studio and say,"well you know the critics said Dr. Dooom was great and you know I have to top that with something better","I didn't come with nothing as great as Black Elvis, and that I think Dr. Octagon was the best and Spankmaster didn't live up to par to Black Elvis, or Dr. Octagon". Those records are not to be classified and rated together for the critics, they were just separate records. I would never compare none of those records together, they were just different, Matthew was different, I mean all those records were different. All the Ultramagnetic albums were different, Critical Beatdown was different. People got caught up into what I was making was to be better than the next, I never tried to top none of the albums. Listen to all of them, I think they where just classified as one from what I made. When I made Black Elvis it was history. When I made Dr. Dooom it was history. Its just what I did. I didn't try to do Dr. Dooom part two or Dr. Dooom part three, Black Elvis part three, part two, ya know Spankmaster part one. I didn't means it to be nothin like that or other wise I would have did volume one and volume two. Those albums were not made to compare for critics to even rate for sound and critics don't even know how to judge none of my albums because the albums were just too new, the sounds were just too different. They are not in the genre of time right now, its ahead of its time. I listen to everybody's album that has come out since the millennium, I don't think I heard anything that's groundbreaking that's brand-new. Everybody's more into a conformed sound right now everybody's using the same keyboards, the same sounds. Everybody right now that is coming out in the mainstream or commercial has just a certain amount of sound, everybody's using the same stuff. I bought a spree albums since Spankmaster was released on June 23rd (2001), after June 23rd I have bought a spree of albums from R&B to rap and I haven't heard anything advanced, nothing at all, even rock. I just didn't hear nothing that was brand new of anything new coming out. When I play my album I hear twenty tracks of brand new cuts. The average record that comes out now is just fifteen cuts on a album, everybody's ya know is tryin to do two brand new records that sound like some totally like some distinctive new Kool Keith shit. They will to do two distinctive records but the rest of the album goes back down hill, it goes back down till they cant maintain the consistency. I can do two songs, I can do a whole album of consistency, I can do a album that like fifteen or sixteen tracks that are like, track one is distinctive, track two is distinctive, track three is distinctive, and it goes uphill, track four is distinctive, track five is distinctive, track six is distinctive, track seven is distinctive in concentration, but I think a lot of other people cant do that. They try to do two brand new beats that nobody heard. OK the get the two beats, but then their album slips back up and they start making some simple shit again. I listen to the formula and everybody tries. Take the millennium everybody got caught with 2001 and 2000, everybody tried to go millennium go fast. What happen was 1999 ninety percent of the industry was (19) 74, everybody was still sampling Johnny Taylor, everybody was still tryin to be retro. So when the ball dropped everybody panicked. I was already doin millennium stuff from god knows when, since before the ball dropped, Black Elvis was out way before the ball dropped, Dr. Dooom was made before the ball dropped, the stuff I did with Tim (Ultra- Big Time, released in 2000), Analog Brothers was all made. The Millennium came people panicked and tried to make a new record, Everybody said "Well its 2000 the ball dropped its time that everybody went back." It was one thing everybody was looping records with sampling and stuff and kept sampling and looping old records which didn't match the times, so when the ball dropped everything supposedly went futuristic, so everybody rushed and started to panic and make new records but they wasn't sounding that good because they rushed. Its fucked up, it back fired, everybody started tryin to make new records, tryin to come up with "oh that the new sound","thats distinctive", everybody tryin to come out wit a beat, but it was rushed, when I was already doin some new millennium shit and pioneering and on some super millennium shit. I was doin some new millennium shit in the nineties and the eighties and the super millennium shit was just starting when Dr. Dooom and all that stuff was coming out and when I was doin it people it was like "awe I cant fuck wit that," and then when the millennium came the critics and stuff started saying that everybody's albums where sounding old and 1999, and when everybody came when the ball dropped people panicked everybody rushed out and tried to buy some new distinctive keyboards and try to make some new records and new sounding shit, so when people would say "oh that album sounds like the next shit" and it was too late. I been doin next millennium records when people rushed. They did not know what the fuck they where doin. They were buying these brand new keyboards with these futuristic sounds and they did not know what the fuck they were doin. They just bought it for the time being because the millennium dropped and they rushed out to try and buy these new sounds and they did not know what the fuck they were doin when I was doin it all along and they could say "well this guy knows what he is doin, he has been working at it even if it sounds fucked up, he knows what he is doing and if it was an innovative record that he was creative". I knew what I was doing and I always had then in me. So that's what kills me is that these networks and organizations they seen me doin this stuff for years. People at like MTV, BET, the radio stations, I was sending these people records threw the mail and to college radio. They knew what the fuck I was doing but they want to wait and politically bring out new acts and make people think they are new acts when they aren't new acts, they wasn't making millennium shit. That's what happens today and people are going to waste their money. I bought thirty or forty CD's (pointing to a large stack in a corner) and they are all bullshit and I am ready to throw them off the bus when I get home, cause I wasted my money. I bought your albums this month, July (2001),R&B and rap sucks for this summer. Nothing new came out. I bought everybody's album that was suppose to be released at this time of the summer and I haven't heard nothin new that sounded like Spankmaster. You get a few haters reviews from people. I was disappointed in the progression of the music it sucks. People going to wonder later when the go buy a CD for 18.99 at Tower or Wherehouse and then when they get home and they are disappointed, they'll appreciate my records. They will appreciate the stuff that I did later on until its too late. In 2007 when you are playin Spankmaster and it sounds still brand new and the record you bought, that everybody showed the video for, made you go buy and it is dated.

DR: Is there a new Black Elvis album in the near future?

KK: I have put a hold on Black Elvis because I am working on some artists that I want to put on some Kool Keith type production and whether its a singer or somebody different I have a big plan. I finished working on my new album after Spankmaster. I have a lot of things planned and I am just being careful because I have allot of time. I have been creating brand new stuff, and I haven't heard nothing to compare to it, I hear no comparison, nothing at all out there in the market place musically and innovative, I have to challenge myself. I don't have another album to listen to to say "I have to make something better than that, I got to cop that album it sound so dope on the radio." I have nothing to listen to but my own albums. The competitiveness goes down cause I have nobody to listen to. I try to buy everybody's CD's but I don't get know motivation because the music is too simple and old sounding. A lot of these cats albums cannot even withstand Black Elvis. You can play fuckin allot of my other albums. I don't even have to put out Spankmaster. The allot of the albums out now don't even sound as new as Matthew, so I mean I listen to all the texture of my tracks and albums and allot of albums out there don't even match the stuff I did a long time ago, people still haven't conquered Sex Style. They can barley even deal wit KutMasta Kurts production. His production of Masters of Illusion is different from my production, but I haven't even heard a lot of people doing something near what he doing, and let alone they haven't come near my realm of production which is even higher. I haven't heard nothing my sounds are not really that duplicated. I don't see allot of people doing my music, cause they cant catch my music. I hear everybody else on each other on the same type of texture, cymbals, keyboards. In the long run years from now your kids will be listening to Black Elvis, it will still be innovative. I can ride around in 2009 and still bump Black Elvis in my brand new Mercedes Benz. Its still fucked up cause we are not matching the time, what kills me is ya know we are way into the millennium, everybody has new cars, new navigation this new navigation that, reclining navigation bucket seats, and new cars, Sony this and two way pagers, but when we come to listen to our music its slow we have to be behind musically. It doesn't match. Why ride around in a fuckin 2002 brand new Mercedes Benz listening to some 1974 sounding shit and that's what everybody is doin and its fucked up. Ya know I would love to be in a brand new car with something futuristically matching the car. People are behind they will get in the car and fuckin start playin fuckin Alice Cooper, its just old stuff, you just have to move on, its no millennium what. Everybody tryin to come out "millennium new stuff, brand new". Nothing is brand new.

DR: How do you feel about Napster and other file sharing on the internet?

KK: I think Napsters has taught people how to not spend money on albums, I think they simply has made more people not supportive. Bad enough you got a lot of artist out here who need fuckin video and television and every type of support. You don't fuckin give away peoples albums on the internet, its like you see, you have a lot of fans that don't buy records, so its like you know that's the worse fan, basically because it doesn't help you , it doesn't give you know points no more, it doesn't give you points to add on to yourself. I mean people talk but you have the worse fans ever, and you know they want you to blow up, but they wonder why you are on the charts or yet they want you to blow up and they wonder why you are not on the charts and they don't buy your records they tape it, they dub it. They can also be selfish cause when they do blow up they are mad. It's like people will go see a guy playin in Ray's Bar, fifty cents a night, but as soon as Ray get a chance to play, that people love Ray in the bar and they're like "Ray your good, you should blow up, you play every night for fifty cents in a little bar, on the guitar your nice Ray".

As soon as Ray gets a chance to play at the coliseum people don't like him. They don't like him, but they always say ":Ray you should be large Ray you good, you should play, your better than, your better than fuckin Marilyn Manson Ray, your better than fuckin Alice Cooper, your better than, your better than, you better, you should be large". Then when Ray gets to Nassau Coliseum people don't like Ray. So it's hypocritical, it's fucked up, nobodies happy. Ya know you support Ray when he was in the bar, you went to a few shows. When Ray got big a more mass appeal of people know about him and they bought the record and then Rays at Nassau coliseum and it could cost $50 to $75 dollars and people laugh. Why? Cause they wanted Ray to blow up? Here's the point they don't want Ray to blow up but they want Ray to blow up. It's hypocritical. People are selfish and they want you to keep it at a accepted rate. You know Ray has some twelve guitar players, whose on television, hot, you see him everyday, but people felt like Ray was something of a hidden secret, like he is their secret, like Ray is a secret, like "you guys should here this guy named Ray play he's really good, he's a good guy, guitar player you know", but it's more of a selfish thing, like the guy doesn't want to tell him about Ray cause he's so more intimate with Ray, only they know Ray and cant tell nobody. They are just not supportive I think Napsters proof of that. I mean I went to a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, I was hearing people going they don't like them, they don't like the Californication (record). A lot a fans don't understand that people grow after awhile, like where does the truth end, is he loyal is he like, when you grow he doesn't want to grow. Regardless you cant make the same music that you had made in 86, like an Ultramagnetic fan will just have to take to the chest, because I am not going to make another Critical Beatdown, I would be stupid to try to do it again and you get fans that may get stuck into one thing, and they cant observe you gradual transition. Its complicated, you cant go on, you just cant do it its complicated.

DR: Is their anything you want to say to your fans? Do you have anything new coming out soon, anything for us to look forward to?

KK: I am just working on some groups now. I am gonna come out with some acts that are big that are different. I am gonna take a change. To my fans I feel like thanks for the support for listening and observing and stuff, but right now there is more stuff to come ya know. You guys just need to be able to recognize different stuff without the media telling them. That's why I respect the Warped Tour, I think its cool its not all advertised out and stuff.

DR: Would you play on the Warped Tour again?

KK: Probably, maybe so I think its not a bad thing, to me its just very fun. Its not a bad thing its organized and its fair basically groups can go on at 3 groups can go on at 4, you might headline one day, tomorrow you might not headline, tomorrow you might go on with a big act in front of you, tomorrow you might have a big act follow you behind you. Its fair basically a lot of tours are not fair, they just like "this guy should be headlining all the time, this guy is the best, he should get the best treatment, the VIP, his record comes on everyday at 8:30." Here nobody cares everyone is just having fun, you know you can play while there are motorcycles jumpin around, people skate boarding, or togetherness, learning bout twenty things at one time instead of fuckin looking at some boring guy headlining wanting to take over the show.

DR: What acts do like from out here (New Orleans).

KK: I buy a lot of local stuff, I was a big NO Limit (Records) type of guy. I like The Mac, I like a lot of shit, I bought Mia X album, Beats By The Pound I listen to a lot of fuckin shit. You know I like,,,,my boys from New Orleans, Carl and them, you know Carl he goes to LA sometimes he plays in a group I forgot their name. I listen to more bass driven stuff like a lot of the hip hop stuff. I think hip hop doesn't motivate me cause it more like jazz and loops and more retro, I cant get into it. I think I am more future of anything I would listen to, like drum and bass, something that is going to make me want to go into the studio and make something future. I cant be sitting behind, and I cant have divine inspiration either, ya know jazz is cool, but we are in 2003, its not about an old man playin a horn and lookin like Sammie Davis Jr., its cool its respected. I have been doing this for god knows when, and I have been trying to move on, and that goes for the critics. You can make a futuristic album track for track brand new shit and people may have something negative to say about it, but you can make jazz records, old records, use a lot of old jazz loops, throw a couple of rappers on there, with a lot of corny, predictable beats and you have a classic album. Ya know what I think it is is a lot of critics are more still caught up in nostalgia and I am futuristic and what happens is people try to mix my music up with nostalgia. Its not about nostalgia, I am futuristic and unpredictable I don't have to make a nostalgic album, I don't have to make a more old fashioned classic type of album with violins or make the sound all trippy trippy or eclectically weird. You don't have to make an album like that to be considered great, you can make a futuristic album and be considered great. Ya know you don't have to make something that's "oh he took this from a record from 1962, oh he took that from a record made by John Write(sp?) in 1938 that's incredible that's classic". That's not classic that fucking copying somebody else's shit. Being innovative is the best, making some brand new shit, like when people see you later on they can well at that time, like George Clinton he made something real like his older shit. I don't want ever in life to have artists come up to me and say "hey you made it cause you used my record ten years ago" I don't need that that's why I make my own music, I want to go down in history as the person who makes my own music. When I look back at myself I can say I was myself , I did myself, I sang, I created myself, that was my music, I can say I have a sound. You can say Temptations their sound, The Gap Band had a sound, rap now is about, you know even rock bands have their sound, but I am not going to be like all these groups now are basically, they have ten to twenty producers on one album that's not a sound that's buying, that's buying an all-star album. That's not even pure music that just an album from fuckin everybody that's scattered production. I could have had big name major deals in the past and big money deals but I turn them down cause of my integrity. At the end of the day I can go make an album and hire you know, I could get an album deal tomorrow with Epic Records and go hire Mary J Blige to sing on it and go hire Fred Durst to rap on a track, and go get Timberland to do one of my tracks, get Jermaine Dupree to do one of my tracks. I could get Dru Hill to sing on one of my choruses, I could go and do that and it would be considered a classic and I am a classic guy after that. Its cool and it's a bunch of names and its a quick blow up thing, but does that make me classic at the end of the day? If its cool to people in the world that's a classic to them. You know you got some eclectic sample or you got some old guy to sing on your album or you did a track with Al Green or you did a loop with him and its classic, that's a classic record,,, that's not a classic, there's nothing creative about it. That's why I am basically like really annoyed, I am like totally numb to this there's nothing brand new about it. You know making tracks off Al Green and people are living off that. Its like the networks don't see it. So that's why I look at a lot of network and organizations of people and when people come into their radius and into their whole area and try to be me but still shake my hand. They still try to be me and still shake my hand. Ya know record companies got my pictures, staff people got my pictures on top of their rolodex in their offices, A&R guys got pictures of me in their offices, but will they come to me and acknowledge me of my services to the industry ,,,but they will have an artist that coming out and sounds like me faster than anyone else's. "Kool Keith is in my office hey hey hey hey hey give him some juice," ya know I could be sitting up at any label, but they wont do real honest opinions of me. They will lie to me, go get an artist who looks like me. That's why I don't fuck with that stuff. Why smile in my face, shake my hand and offer me a Snapple's, and as soon as I leave your office you want to go out and find an artist that's trying to be me, your not my friend. That's how I feel about MTV, its like are you my friend, are you going to invite me up and give me a Snapple, and say hi to me and let me meet the staff, and then have artist comes up there and be on TV with make-up tryin to fuckin do what I did and people telling me "oh I love your stuff, I have been a fan forever, I love your stuff forever". Then they have people come up there and fuckin duplicate my all they things I did and you know it. That's fuckin bad when you know it. That's like going out with a girl with gonerria and you know she has it and she is going to burn you.

Daniel Ranson