Apollo Brown Interview (October 27th 2014)

Apollo Brown is a producer with a rep. When you check out an Apollo Brown album you know what you are going to get: dusty samples, boom bap drums, dope beats.  He has already worked with a who’s who of top MC’s from O.C. and Guilty Simpson to Chino XL and Ghostface Killah. Now he has teamed up with west coast veteran Ras Kass for the collaboration album Blasphemy. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Apollo and put some questions to him about the new album as well as some of his previous projects.

Interview conducted by Pattch82 (pattch82@gmail.com)

Interview Date: October 27th 2014

PATTCH82: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me…

APOLLO BROWN: No doubt man, I’m just sitting here sorting out a few things.

P82: So first off, the Blasphemy album is due to drop officially tomorrow (Oct 28), can you tell me a bit about the album?

AB: Actually we dropped it five days early man so it’s been out since the 23rd.  It’s due officially in stores tomorrow definitely, you know the physical in stores everywhere. As far as iTunes and getting it online, it dropped, it’s out. So yeah it’s been out this week, it’s out.

P82: What kind of sound or feel were you aiming for with the album?

AB: Just like your typical Apollo Brown man, I try to get people feeling. I try to give people the most feeling I can give them because that’s the music I like. If it doesn’t have feeling then I don’t want anything to do with it.  The album has a political undertone, it has a religious undertone and it’s basically Ras Kass doing what Ras Kass does best and Apollo Brown doing what Apollo Brown does best, and the two coming together for the perfect marriage.  It’s a rollercoaster man, the album goes up and down and it gives you a bunch of different feelings but comes together very consistent. It’s raw hip-hop at its best man.

P82: How do you feel it compares to your previous records?

AB: Umm I don’t compare it man, I don’t compare it. I always tell people that my albums are like my children. I love them all equally, but differently. I can’t really compare them because it’s all different MC’s, all different artists, they all have different paths that they’ve walked. My job is to give you as much feeling as possible so you can feel it and it takes you places when you listen to the music.  So yeah I can’t really compare them, it’s just as good. I have equal love for all of my projects.

P82: What was it like working with Ras Kass?  Were you actually in the studio together recording?

AB: Oh of course man, of course. I can’t do it any other way. It’s just one of those things, when you’re making a full length album I feel like you have to get in the studio, you have to feel each others vibe. I wanna see his face when I play him a beat, I want him to see my face when he comes out of the booth you know, spitting a hot 16. We need to be there together to feel each others vibe and tell each other the rights and wrongs and give each other our true feelings about what’s going on at that moment. I can’t really do an internet album when it comes to a full length LP. Working with Ras was easy man, we both had a common goal in mind to make good music, and that’s what we did.

P82: You can always feel the chemistry on your albums, you can tell that there’s no verses being emailed back and forth, etc…

AB: Yeah because I don’t just work with anybody man, and I don’t just send people beats.  I wanna get to know the person that I’m working with away from music. Not just a business standpoint but more of a personal relationship. So that’s what I do with the people I work with and that’s why it comes natural when we make music.

P82: How did you initially hook up with Ras?  Did he reach out to you or vice versa?

AB: Actually we were mutual fans of each other, we knew each others music but I reached out to him. I wanted to do an album with him so I reached out to him and everything went from there man. We talked, we built, I went out to LA, he came to New York. He came to Detroit. We met each other out in the Czech Republic, we’ve been hanging out a lot over the last few months man, and also when making the record. We made the record over the last five months or so. It was easy man, I just had to hit him up and he was down from day one.

P82: I’ve had the album on repeat since I got the promo copy, for me its right up there with your previous records.  Do you have any favourite tracks from the album at the minute?

AB: I can’t even give you a favourite track either man because it changes day to day. It changes with my mood man, it depends on how I’m feeling that day, how I wake up. If I’m listening to the album my favourite track is always different depending on my mood. And I hope it’s like that with everybody else too you know, I don’t see everybody gravitating towards one track and that’s a great thing. When you ask the fans what is their favourite track on the album, and everybody gives you something different, that means I’m doing something right. That’s a great thing to me.

P82: Do you use the same studio setup to make each project?

AB: Pretty much. We recorded this one out in LA. Usually I record in Detroit, this one we recorded in LA. As far as the beats, yes same studio setup. As far as the mixing and mastering, same studio setup. I use three different studios. I always use one studio to record, I use another studio to mix and another studio to master. And if you wanna count making the beats, that’s a whole other studio. I like to have fresh ears, I use the same engineers for each process, my mixing engineer is the same one every time, my mastering engineer is the same one every time. My recording engineer is usually the same one every time, it was different this time. But, I like to have three different engineers, three different sets of ears and three different sets of opinions and ideas.

P82: What kind of equipment do you use to make your beats?

 AB: I use CoolEdit man, CoolEdit 2000. It’s an old program, came out in 1997, I’ve been using that ever since. I incorporate other things as well like a Roland XP-50. I incorporate a lot of other things but my core program is CoolEdit.

P82: You are one of the most consistent producers around right now, you seem to improve with every release. Do you feel you are still learning the craft?

AB: I appreciate that man. I don’t think you ever master it man, I’m a student every day. I’m definitely game to learn whatever I can learn every day and soak up anything I can soak up from somebody that knows more than me. I don’t care if you’ve only been producing for one year or three months or whatever, if you know something that I don’t know and you’re willing to let me in on it, I’m willing to listen man. I’m a student of the game and I’ll always be a student of the game.

P82: You said before that you have worked with quite a diverse range of MC’s from Guilty Simpson to O.C. and Ras Kass… What kind of quality does an MC have to have to make you want to do a full length album with them?

AB: The chemistry is big and I don’t work with anybody that I’m not a fan of. Conviction man, conviction is big. I want the MC to really believe in what he’s talking about, in what he’s saying. A great delivery, great content and just having that enthusiasm and that conviction behind your words that make people feel it every time you spit. That’s really big for me man, that’s probably the number one thing.

P82: I wanted to ask a couple of questions about some of your other projects too if that’s OK?

AB: Yeah that’s fine.

P82: The Lose You track on Dice Game samples a Carolyn Franklin song and it’s one of my personal favourites. Are these tracks that you were aware of at a young age or things that you have found when digging for samples?

AB: I dig all the time man and I just collect samples.  I kinda stockpile samples. I put them on my external and whether I’m travelling or I’m at home I just go through them and find things that fit the sound or fit the mould of what I’m going for on an album and work on it. That definitely fit the mould of what I was going for. I love going to dig and I love just chopping up a sample man, creating my own melodies and making people feel certain ways when they listen to it. I don’t dig much on the road, I dig mainly at home. I make beats on the road every now and then, if I’m gone for a long time like Europe or whatever. I don’t really dig on the road. I’m in Detroit so I have everything I need right at my finger tips.

P82: Are there any particular places you go to dig?

AB: A big spot for me is Record Graveyard, that’s a spot that I love digging at. I got a couple of other spots that are kinda secret that I can’t really divulge. Street Corner is a good spot to go dig. Record Graveyard is a great spot man, and it’s near me but I got a couple other spots that not too many people know about.

P82: What do you look for in a sample?  Is there anything in particular that catches the ear?

AB: Just the feeling man, the feeling of the song, the feeling of the notes. The instruments, I look for a lot of organs, I look for horns, just instruments that kinda catch my attention. When I’m looking for a sample, when I’m digging I’m not listening to the record, I’m looking for key words on the back like crying or lonely you know, depression, tenderness, stuff like that. Things that kinda stand out that I know might have some good feeling to it.

P82: When you are making a collaboration album, do you give the MC any direction on topics or what a certain song should be about?  Or do you let them interpret the beat in their own way?

AB: Nah I don’t like babysitting MC’s man. I don’t want them to babysit me, I don’t want them to tell me how to do something so I’m not going to tell them how to do something. We’ll come together and when I make a beat a lot of the times I’ll put a hook on it and it kinda tells you where to go with the beat anyway. Even the feeling of the beat kinda tells you what to do, where to go. The beat will speak to you and it’ll let you know what to talk about. The MC’s I work with, they’re professional’s man, they do this for a living. They know what they’re doing, I don’t gotta babysit them and they know they don’t have to babysit me. So yeah, definitely let them do what they want to do.

P82: I read an interview that you did around the time Trophies dropped where you said that the full album was recorded in 16 hours… Do you always tend to work at a crazy speed like that?

AB: The way I do things is get it all recorded. The recording process is usually a short process, getting something recorded in a week or so because it’s already written. I give the MC months to write the album, to write what they wanna write and do their thing. And then we get together in the studio and record it. Usually I’ll block out a week of time in the studio so we can record the album. It just so happens that O.C. came in and got like 12 songs done in 8 hours and then came back the next day and in 4 hours he got the rest of the album done. And it was just ridiculous but he’s been doing this for like 20 plus years, he knows what he’s doing. He’s pretty good at one-takes. But yeah, I try to get things done in a decent amount of time. You don’t wanna take too much time making an album you know, you don’t wanna take a year, two, three years making an album because your moods change, your tastes change. Things that you recorded early on you may not like any more. You’re gonna want to re-do something or change something, or you don’t produce the same any more, you don’t rap the same any more. A lot of stuff happens within a year so I like to get albums done in four to five months.

P82: How long did Blasphemy take from start to finish?

AB: We took about five months to make that album from start to finish. I like to make the albums in a quick amount of time but still have the same quality; you don’t want to sacrifice quality. Take longer if need be but you don’t want to sacrifice quality and I don’t think I do. Ever.

P82: Are there any of your projects that you wish had gotten more shine when it dropped?  Any that you feel were overlooked at all?

AB: All my projects got a good amount of shine; I wish that maybe The Brown Study got a little more shine. Brown Study and Daily Bread, I wish those got a little more shine. It actually picks back up a little bit, they’re picking back up. People are going back in to my catalogue and looking for things and listening to stuff that I’ve done before, people who are just now learning about me or just now coming up on Apollo Brown music. So yeah it’s starting to do well again but I wish those two got a little more shine because they’re amazing albums.

P82: I think that’s where things like Bandcamp come in handy. People who may just now be getting in to Apollo Brown through Blasphemy or Dice Game can then go back and check out the rest of your catalogue…

AB: Yeah yeah, that’s true man.

P82: Would you ever consider making a second album with an MC that you have already worked with, like a Trophies 2 or Dice Game 2 for example?

AB: I definitely would. This is something we would sit and talk about. I know the MC’s that I’ve worked with are doing their own solo projects respectively so I’m working on my own thing but I’m sure one of them, we’ll come back together and do something yeah.

P82: You dropped a couple of other projects in the last year or so… The Brown Tape was your vision of Ghostface Killah’s Twelve Reasons To Die album. I read that you were given only the vocals to work with?

AB: Yeah I was given the vocals to work with and then I had to pretty much score the vocals man, it was crazy.

P82: Did you have to change up your beat making process for that project?

AB: Yeah it was definitely backwards man. Usually you make a beat and somebody raps to it. I had the vocals and I had to make the beat to the vocals. I didn’t know the BPM, I didn’t know any of that so I had to literally make the beats around those vocals and try to make everything fit. It was crazy man, scoring vocals. It was a very hard album to do. The bars weren’t exactly traditional, it wasn’t like 16’s and 8’s, a lot of stuff was all over the place so it was definitely a hard album to do but it came out great.

P82: You also dropped the Thirty-Eight instrumental project. It’s got a real smoky seventies feel to it and it’s a really cohesive piece. Would you say that it’s up there with your other instrumental albums?

AB: I love instrumental projects man, I think they’re great. Sometimes they get used for the wrong things but other than that I love listening to beats and that’s why I make them. I know a lot of other people that love to listen to beats. That’s why I put out Thirty-Eight. Thirty-Eight is a little more themed than the other ones, it’s dirtier. A lot of those beats were actually intended for Roc Marciano. That’s why we gave everybody the 5 inch vinyl with the two songs on it just to give you a little teaser of what might have been if we did put an album together. I’ll probably end up doing another instrumental album in the next couple of years; I try to do one maybe every three years.

P82: Have you been working with any other groups or MC’s at the moment?  Any future projects that you can speak on?

AB: I have other projects yeah definitely, other things that I’m working on but I can’t really speak on them yet. But it’s gonna be a good year coming up, this year is already a good year but next year is gonna be a good year as well.

P82: Cool. I wanted to ask about the Gas Mask album that you dropped with The Left. What happened to the track that featured Kool G Rap?  It doesn’t seem to be on any of the digital versions online now.

AB: There was a track with Kool G Rap yes. We had a couple of issues with that song, with the sample. So we ended up having to take it off a few things man. All of the physical pressings and everything still have it.

P82: Getting back to Blasphemy, what has the feedback been like so far?

AB: Oh the feedback has been amazing man, the response has been overwhelming. Everybody loves the album so far, everybody has a different favourite song, and everybody is on board man. I expected a good response but I didn’t expect such an overwhelming amount of responses. It’s been a good ride, we had the release party in LA the other day, we have a release party in New York tonight. It’s just been an amazing ride so far and it’s only been out not even a week.

P82: I know you said before that you are a fan of Ras Kass’ older material. Do you listen to much Hip-Hop in general?

AB: I do man. It’s funny because when I’m in my truck driving around I’m usually listening to a lot of eighties alternative or a lot of seventies soul. I don’t listen to as much Hip-Hop as I used to man just because I’m in it and all I do I live Hip-Hop. So when I can get away from Hip-Hop, when I’m not working, making beats or whatever, I try to listen to other things man and listen to other music that I enjoy. I don’t listen to it as much as I used to no.

P82: In an old interview you mentioned not wanting to limit yourself to only Hip-Hop music. Have you made any ventures outside of Hip-Hop as of yet?  Is that still something you want to explore?

AB: I’ve done some R n’ B stuff and some soul stuff but I was actually just talking to someone today man, I definitely want to do a gritty soul album. I really want to do a soul album; it’s just finding the right singer. The right singer that complements it, that’s the problem so far. A lot of singers are really clean, I don’t want a clean singer I want a really dirty singer. So trying to find that is the issue but it’ll get done, it’s something I wanna do.

P82: Are you planning on doing any shows to support the Blasphemy album?

AB: Oh yeah of course man, we got to. We’re going to wait for the demand to get up a little bit and let it marinate in peoples heads and we’ll definitely be doing some domestic stuff and then we’ll go over seas. I’m always over seas so we’ll definitely take a ride over the pond and do some shows.

P82: Are you shooting any more videos for the album?

AB: Yeah we shot three videos two weeks ago and we’re shooting two more videos next week so we’ve got a lot of visual coverage on this album.

P82: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me, I hope the album does well.

AB: No problem it’s all good. Thank you man I appreciate it.

 

Blasphemy by Apollo Brown and Ras Kass is out now on Mello Music Group.