(CLICK TITLE 2 READ GENERAL STEELE of SMIF N WESSUN Interview @ THE LIBERATOR BLOG)
In a hip hop era where Eminem battles Mariah (again) and young gunners fight with old rappers for air space and relevance, Boot Camp Clicks’ independent minded leader Buckshot could care less about anything outside of his label Duck Down Records. He has seen and done way too much to still be labeled ‘underground,’ but it is what it is, and industry politics go down on Main Street. Buckshot and hip hop pioneer KRS-ONE will release ‘Survival Skills’ on 9/15 precisely because rappers need staying power to deal with being subjugated by concert promoters and underappreciated by the next hip hop generation.
Mike TV spoke with Buckshot following his scathing rant about supposed mismanagement of the star studded, annual Rock the Bells Tour. Buckshot clarifies his points but doesn’t back away from his original premise. He also runs down the all star team of ‘Survival Skills’ producers, explains the idea behind My.DuckDown.com, tells why he can never be stopped by corporations, and claims that Fantastic is bigger than Jay-Z.
MIKE TV: In your opinion, what percentage of hip hop artists can really put on a great show?
BUCKSHOT: 30, LOL. I probably would say bout 30.
MIKE TV: I listened to your interview about Rock The Bells; when it comes to RTB do you know there to be a major difference between the actual checks for rocking the main stage & rocking the paid dues stage?
BUCKSHOT: I don’t know what everybody – aaaaw shit! I see that I just turned this until a whole thing.
MIKE TV: LOL, you definitely did.
BUCKSHOT: Nah-nah-nah, it’s all good. I don’t know what people get individually, but like I said Chang has a hard a job. I think they should be a little bit more informative. You know how you send out a flyer and people say ‘you didn’t let anybody know!’ And you say ‘yes I did – I sent out flyers;’ well those ain’t good enough. Stop thinking that everybody know because you sent something out; you think everybody got the picture. You can’t do that. You can’t say ‘I told everybody they can’t wear shoes. I sent out a letter; you didn’t get the letter?’ No! And you didn’t put it in the billboard and you didn’t make it apparently known.
MIKE TV: You’re saying they should have been more specific that there would be two stages simultaneously?
BUCKSHOT: Of course! I had a lot of people who did not know that they missed Buckshot; I had a lot of fans that came to the RTB show and was like ‘what you mean you went on?’ I’m like ‘I went on already;’ they like ‘I was over there watching such and such; I didn’t even know it was going down like that.’ You can miss your group that you paid to see!
MIKE TV: Do you think your rant about RTB hurts your chances to make the tour next summer? Do you even care?
BUCKSHOT: You know what? I really – to be honest with you – and that maybe makes them upset; maybe it’ll hurt my chances of doing that, but anytime anybody make me think that I gotta apologize or fear – and they didn’t do this; I’m just saying if it becomes a case of what you just said - if anybody takes a strike at me, all I know how to do is take a strike back. You know what I’m trying to say to you? I don’t got no drama with RTB, but at the same time, if anybody act funny to me I’m gonna speak on it. And there was nothing specific like that besides the fact that a lot of my fans didn’t know that it was a split stage, so I’m just explaining that and expressing that and then right away it becomes, ‘Oh you’re expressing something?! Oh Buck ain’t happy!’ If you jeopardize me being on RTB because of personal issues then the public will know about that. I’m not there – Chang ain’t paying his money to see me, the public is.
MIKE TV: So you don’t think it’ll hurt you to miss the tour next year?
BUCKSHOT: I’m saying…I’ma tell you that you don’t seem to realize who you’re dealing with man; I’m the only person on this earth like me, so that means if you kick me off something…say if you kick me out the same way the industry did – kick me out the circle; I’ma just be right outside the circle bussing my same rhymes. You can say ‘You not allowed to come in this little square with the orange.’ Aight, I’ma go outside of this square with the orange and I’ma be rapping for the people in the street. And they gon be like ‘We reppin for Buckshot; we watching Buckshot in the street right now.’ Nobody’s gonna say that if I’m not on that tour next year it’s gonna have an impact on the fans knowing Buckshot; at the same time, if you kick me off that tour or if you have something to say to me because I’m making an expression…that’s capitalism…I mean that’s communism. That shit is wrong! We not living in a communist state; this is a state of freedom. I can express the fact that people expressed to me that they were confused about the back & forth stuff; I may have known about it but they didn’t know about it.
MIKE TV: You said ‘Fuck Live Nation!’ What’s your problem with Live Nation?
BUCKSHOT: I said that because I never was the dude to be in school and be quiet because the principle said so man. Word up! If I got something to say I’ma say it and everybody else gon be like ‘Oooooow. You bought to get kicked outta the school now.’ That’s my whole life man!
MIKE TV: My question is what’s your motivation behind saying that?
BUCKSHOT: The fact that…I think something was said like if you guys take that attitude, ‘We the muthafuckin corporate whoop-dee-whoop, and we’re the ones that are gonna dictate how shit go! So Buckshot is saying he has a complaint…we have a complaint in section D25 sir with a guy named Buckshot. Really? Fuck em! Get rid of em!’ And I’m like yo if you think it’s gon be that easy, it ain’t gon be that easy. And if you think people are afraid of you because you control every and any place where people can perform at…I don’t care. Like I said, hip hop started on the street corners; you just taking me back to the beginning stages when they wouldn’t even let us – when they wouldn’t let Run-DMC and certain people into the opera house.
MIKE TV: So you’re saying it’s the same theme dressed up differently.
BUCKSHOT: It’s just dressed up differently. If you don’t allow me to perform in the Hammerstein Ballroom or the House Of Blues because some interview said Buckshot was like ‘Fuck that; I’m not the one and if you think I’m the one then fuck you,’ then I’ll go outside the House Of Blues and have a cipher right outside of there, word to my mother. If police come and it be a riot because Buckshot performing and the fans love the action and they love the excitement of this whole shit going down - it’s damn near like the show outside is better than the one inside - then they can go to hell. I’m the one for that; I’m the Sean O’Conner. I’m down to set it off man. I don’t care about no corporate company; I’m not afraid of them; I never was.
MIKE TV: Why are you confident that a collab album with a hip hop veteran & pioneer like KRS-ONE will make a serious impact in 2009?
BUCKSHOT: Because when we get on that stage we gonna show other people that emceeing means to master the ceremony; we taking hip hop back to the very beginning where people used to be like ‘Get outta here with that shit!’ You know how hard it is to fight through that? Then we got to the point where we got comfortable; then we got to the point where we felt like ‘Y’all better know what hip hop is!’ And once that happened our skills started to fall off – our integrity, our discipline, our patience, our style, our creativity – everything started to fall off. We started feeling like ‘We got this.’ But then we saw that we didn’t have this, so me and KRS-ONE said we gonna take it to the point where…if you don’t know me when I do that stage show, I’m here for those that don’t know me; I’m here for the ones that’s like ‘Make me smile duke!’ Those are the ones I perform for.
MIKE TV: Who are some producers you hired for ‘Survival Skills?’
BUCKSHOT: Black Milk. Coptic Sounds. It’s an incredible team. 9th Wonder. Illmind. Havoc from Mobb Deep. Everybody that I hired – anybody that I brought together to form a team - all got the same criteria and the same respect and love for hip hop and the boom bap in they own way. It’s a collaboration of all the producers that respect the game – not disrespect it like ‘That game ain’t nothing; let me make a million dollars and then suck off.’ That’s not respect.
MIKE TV: Why have a contest which requires producers to remix old classics? Is the strategy to re-introduce your hit songs as Duck Down picks up newer, younger followers?
BUCKSHOT: Two things: to get the followers or fans to know about the history of yesterday and at the same time getting them involved and being a part of the project today. See it’s about making the people apart of the project and making them apart of hip hop. Go watch Breaking one and two [or] Beat Street and see how we used to all be a part of one. We all was one; we all was a part of this community, and now it’s almost like you gotta have permission to knock on a nigga door or it’s gonna be a problem. So me and Kris is just saying, ‘Look, let’s take it back because we already going forward; you came from ’86; you was there with Rakim; you was there with Slick Rick; you battled MC Shan. Buckshot came out with Wu-Tang; I struggled and made a spot for New York City with an independent label when Snoop Dogg had Interscope and Death Row – the most majorest system in the whole world at the time. So it never was an easy fight for me or Kris.
MIKE TV: We’re definitely right in the middle of the digital age of hip hop distribution & promotion; as an innovator & experienced artist & business man, what do you think will be the next effective way to take advantage of hip hop’s global appeal?
BUCKSHOT: The fact that I’m gonna show the young people how to network society. It’s all about the network in society, and the young people are the network because, while older people are so busy doing jobs and working and lifting boxes and moving tables and having conferences, younger people are talking to each other, chilling, hanging out, getting involved. So it’s all about them and it’s all about capturing them. So when you go to My.DuckDown.com it’s a way for my fans, fans who don’t know me – kids all across the world, kids in Africa, kids in Asia – it’s a way to give them a voice; they don’t have to wait for anybody anymore. If you have good content all you have to do is upload it on My.DuckDown.com; my fans will see that and other fans will see that and when they start to say ‘Who’s this guy?’ Then it dictates how you move on the Duck Down ladder. So if I’m looking at My Duck Down and some guy named Mr. Spears, or whatever, is starting to get a lot of attention then I need to look at that because the Internet represents the people; the people gotta log on and be interested, so you can’t really fake too much of that. If I see a big interest from somebody on My Duck Down I’ma move em up to Duck Down.
MIKE TV: That’s similar to what Steele tells me he’s doing with Bucktown USA.
BUCKSHOT: We’re all one unit, so anytime one of us speak…we’re all in the same room –the same platoon at that – especially Steele; me and him work side by side with each other on the regular, everyday, so Steele is establishing Bucktown in a way that I’m just super proud of because he’s doing it. Anything you see with Bucktown it’s strictly Steele; they’re leading the charge on that. I like when people get involved; if you’re not interactive then what are you doing? Don’t be stuck up and don’t try to be like a lot of these fifty year old rappers that are out of tune with the hood, so they gotta steal from people that’s in the hood. They gotta go out and send what they call “feelers” to be like ‘What’s poppin right now? Well we got this and that. Oh word, word?!’
MIKE TV: Testers, lol!
BUCKSHOT: Testers and shit; ‘Well we got Buckshot out there; he’s really doing his thing.’ ‘Oh word – word?! Shorty doing his thing? That’s what’s up; what’s his single sound like? Oh word? I’m feeling that. Go get me a beat; let me take shorty shit; he ain’t doing nothing. He a shorty anyway.’
MIKE TV: LMAO. That sounds like a skit – a video in the making. What’s next Buck?
BUCKSHOT: Make sure you support the Buck Bag that’s coming out; the bag will be coming out closer to school season. It will be out in the winter. Support the Buck Bag because we’re tryna empower people to do more than just rap and stop being emcees and rappers and producers and start to get into product; make your own book bag…can’t nobody do that like me though.
MIKE TV: LOL.
BUCKSHOT: Where’s our rappers with they own toothbrushes? Why we still got Oral B? Where’s our rappers with cleaning products? Why we still got Mr. Fantastic? Mr. Fantastic is bigger than Jay-Z.
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