by Alex Shtaerman
A lot has changed since Enta Da Stage dropped in 1993 but in 2005 the BCC continues to build. I remember watching BET over ten years ago in my bedroom waiting for the top ten countdown to wind down, ’cause I knew that’s when I would get to see the Black Moon and Smif ‘N’ Wessun videos. The only question was who would be number one? On that particular night it was Smif ‘N’ Wessun with Bucktown – but of course Black Moon was in the number two spot. Whether it was Black Moon, Smif ‘N’ Wessun or Fab 5, Boot Camp was that blunted boom bap shit everybody wanted to hear; you’d turn it up loud and vibrate your cheap speakers. That’s the way it was in 1994.
In 2005 Brooklyn’s first family prepares to take back the streets. The plan is simple: Triple Threat – three new albums in three months. The first wave of the offensive will ensue in April with the solo debut of Sean Price (aka Ruck of Heltah Skeltah). Sean P’s Monkey Barz album will be followed in May with the release of Buckshot’s Chemistry LP, a record produced entirely by rising star 9th Wonder; then in June Smif ‘N’ Wessun return once again to bless the fans with their highly-anticipated third album Tek & Steele: Smif ‘N’ Wessun Reloaded. On the eve of the invasion we had a chance to speak with the Boot Camp General himself. In a candid interview Buckshot talks about everything from the state of Hip-Hop today to the fate of the yet to be released One Nation album, a record which Buckshot, Tek and Steele recorded with Tupac Shakur prior to his passing in 1996.
See pictures from New York show with Buckshot, KRS One and Grandmaster Caz.
Read review for Black Moon’s 3rd album Total Eclipse.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Your new album Chemistry is entirely produced by the 9th Wonder; how did the two of you originally meet and decide to do a whole album together?
BUCKSHOT: Well, truthfully that was on the strength of Dru; Dru-Ha brought us together. 9th always had fire beats and we’ve always been respecting him in my camp; he was one of Evil Dee’s most favorite producers. Being that his name was always circulating, Dru just made the marriage happen and brought us together and introduced us as far as really bringing me down there; actually he brought all of us down there. It was just a project but we ended up doing an entire album. That’s why we called it Chemistry ’cause it was just something that came together.
RIOTSOUND.COM: How’s the Chemistry LP going to be different to the blueprint you’ve established with Black Moon and Da Beatminerz, what can fans expect from this album?
BUCKSHOT: The Chemistry album, the good thing about the production is that it’s like the millennium reminder of the Hip-Hop era Da Beatminerz put down. So it was more like [9th Wonder] was like a child of Beatminerz in some sort of fashion. Beatminerz was really puttin’ it down when he was coming up, so obviously that affects you because with everybody that just naturally happens. It is just a blessing with that type of production because it is going to be similar but different because it’s made from his point of view and it’s done in the fashion that a lot of kids that’s coming up today and don’t know Beatminerz, they love it; they love 9th production and they’ve never heard Beatminerz before.
So it just happens to work because it’s a chemistry that works positively and not in a negative way where it’s like 9th beats are just so different from the Black Moon albums that even though he’s a good producer – like Pharrell is a good producer but I couldn’t do a whole album with Pharrell but I could do a whole album with 9th Wonder because his beats is what’s good with my rhymes and we just have a good chemistry. The beats are going to be hard as usual; it’s just going to be a level where we keep stepping it up.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Duck Down is coming out with three albums in three months; being that along with Dru Ha you head the label, how involved are you as far as what happens with Sean Price’s album and Smif ‘N’ Wessun’s new album; do you oversee those projects?
BUCKSHOT: It’s a big molding, my part is unseen – me and Dru have a chemistry as well. Dru does a lot of the day to day, he’s in there everyday doing stuff that is very important, a lot of things that I may not be able to get to. I’m doing things over here or I’m doing other things creative wise, so that’s basically how we keep our chemistry together, we each put our pieces in. So I am involved with it in every form and fashion, creative wise and otherwise because we all build as a unit and less as “oh, he just does the marketing, I don’t speak about that” type of attitude.
RIOTSOUND.COM: In light of 5FT’s legal situation, is Black Moon going to be recording any new material?
BUCKSHOT: Yea, we’re going to release some new material. C-Murder, I don’t know how he did that shit but I know C-Murder just did an album [from jail]. Most people find a way to technically do verses from the system and make it sound good, somehow someway. So hopefully we going to get some verses from 5FT and do the same thing as nice as we can. But we definitely going to have another Black Moon album, that is beyond a shadow of a doubt.
RIOTSOUND.COM: The Boot Camp has now been a fixture in Hip-Hop for over a decade; going back to the early ’90’s, how did Black Moon first come together?
BUCKSHOT: I was a dancer, I am a child of Hip-Hop, I grew up in Hip-Hop and I grew up around dancing, linoleum, radios, LL Cool J’s I Can’t Live Without My Radio, I grew up on those things and that’s where I come from. I met up with Evil Dee, actually I met up with 5FT first; 5 is my dog, if it wasn’t for 5 there would actually be no Black Moon as ya’ll know it. 5 is the one who introduced me to Evil Dee and that’s in light of the fact that a person that I was running with had got locked up. Without 5 there would be no Evil Dee and there probably wouldn’t have been Black Moon ’cause I woulda never met E. So 5, small as he is, his name is Power because he represents power; something as small as his part in Black Moon plays the biggest because if it wasn’t for him there would be no Black Moon.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Before you started to rap, who were some of the MCs you looked up to and were a fan of?
BUCKSHOT: KRS One baby, Rakim, all the greats man. LL Cool J, EPMD was like gods for me, Kane was incredible. When I heard Special Ed rhyme I knew that’s what my life was going to be. I knew that’s where I wanted to be at when I heard Special Ed like three years before I came out. Those are the greats to me; A Tribe Called Quest, Q-Tip, these are people I looked up to as gods it felt like. To be able to just be involved in that world itself was enough for me and one day I will be able to affect the world and it just so happens that I got that opportunity.
RIOTSOUND.COM: As far as the state of Hip-Hop today, what do you see that’s positive and also what have you seen that’s not so positive?
BUCKSHOT: I think what’s not so positive is the loss of the creative voice or I think the loss of the choice. The loss of the opportunity to just get your options and say – you know what, this is what we want to hear and this is what we don’t want to hear. I think the fact that make it or break it, pump it or dump it, or whatever ya’ll version of giving two records a chance to battle it out each time on the radio; I think taking that away from the format of music just killed it. I think that’s the one thing that took a downfall right there. That change wasn’t so good because when you take away the people’s option to say we’re going to call in and say we like Who Got The Props over Ying Yang Twins; when you do that it’s not good for Hip-Hop.
When people [have a choice] it’s good and it gives people the opportunity to really feel like they are involved. But the minute you start making it so corporate where people feel like they are buying a metro card or a train pass or some shit like that if they get involved in it – then it becomes so systematic that the only customers you have left are the ones who are trying to do it themselves ’cause they still feel like there’s enough left in it where they can make themselves millionaires and all that. That’s why so many people turn away from music because there is a lot of people out there that are not trying to get into music, they just want to live and love music; so when you take that choice away from them they shy away from it.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Do you think in time outlets like Internet radio can bring more power of choice to the people and also allow some of the artists to be heard more?
BUCKSHOT: I can’t say, I can tell you that it helps and it’s a good thing and it’s a positive thing but I can’t say. I can say that I’m not settling for that though, I want my ear back just like ya’ll should want ya’ll ear back; all I’m saying is give us that spot again. The position of pump it or dump it, make it or break it – that’s something that the people deserve to have. Once you have that, no one can be mad at it. It’s like boxing; if you got in the ring and you got knocked out then no one can be mad at it. But if you can’t even give us a chance to get in the ring and find out, then that’s a problem.
That’s really it; I don’t think the focus should be on – well, could we start pumping up Internet radio. A lot of people may not have time to focus on that; they don’t have time to take something else out of their day. They get in their car, they turn on the radio and they drive to a location and whatever is affecting them in that car is what they consider is going on in the world. To beat that system you’re fighting against decades of a wall, each decade that goes by the concrete wall gets thicker and thicker, that’s how much wall you gotta break down – decades of people just getting in their car, turning on their radio and hearing it.
So I think we really still need to get our position in commercial radio too. But I do think that people who are true fans, those are the people who are supporting it through Internet radio and the people who buy the records, the ones who actually go and buy tickets to your show – those are the people who benefit and how we also benefit from Internet radio and that’s a super positive thing. Is it enough? I don’t think it’s enough but I think it’s a crazy positive thing.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Shortly before Tupac passed away he flew yourself as well as Tek and Steele out to California to record the One Nation album. At the time all the East Coast versus West Coast beef was going on and this was supposed to be an album focusing on unity. How did that situation come about and what can you say you took away from that time that you still carry with you to this day?
BUCKSHOT: That album was a real special album because first and foremost it was Tupac that aligned himself with us. He aligned himself with us, like we didn’t align ourselves with him – he as a general saw us as a platoon in the battlefield, saw how we was moving and respected our tactics of war and he aligned himself with us to make us as a unit, all of us, much more powerful. The album would have just represented the first step of a big relationship. So that album as far as what I take from it is you just gotta bomb first, like he always said; you gotta go all out, you gotta work non stop. In order to work non stop though you need a place to work and in order to have a place to work you gotta have a foundation. In order to have a foundation, you gotta take something, you know what I’m sayin’. So all that is involved in bomb first.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Given the current situation with Death Row Records, do you think the One Nation album will ever be released?
BUCKSHOT: Naw, I don’t think it’s going to be. Years ago I would have told you something else because I didn’t know; but right now I can tell you that album is not going to be released. It’s already dissected, there’s parts from that album that’s all over the place – we got a song on the Better Dayz album, at least; we did get track number seven on the Better Dayz album and that’s love and that’s a blessing. Because again, we could have been taken off totally and period and all that.
But it only strikes me personally because I know Pac did that, Pac did that album and he would’ve wanted that album to be out like that; I mean if he didn’t want it, he wouldn’t of did it. But the creator had bigger plans for him and you know what, that album won’t come out. But there’s songs here and there that you can check, like you said, on Internet radio and certain sites where certain people will have it even though you can’t really get it but it’s still out there.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Boot Camp just did a big show at BB King’s in New York, are there plans for more tour dates coming up?
BUCKSHOT: People could look more forward to us doing shows that is gonna be something that they really want to see. We got the Triple Treat package that we launching and that’s really the first and foremost plan. Triple Treat is what we promoting and that’s Sean Price, Smif ‘N’ Wessun and Buckshot and we are going to take that on the road; so a lot more people can look forward to seeing that package. Sean Price got a lot of hot joints man, he is really really an incredible MC, he’s really one of the most underrated, unheard but overspoken MCs, period.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Besides the Chemistry LP as well as Sean Price’s Monkey Barz album and Smif ‘N’ Wessun Reloaded, what else should fans be looking out for as far as Duck Down Records goes?
BUCKSHOT: We got a lot of projects that we dropping this year, we working with a cat named Rustee Juxx, as an matter of fact he did his thing on 106th & Park, BET, he blazed a couple of MCs down. He obviously didn’t take it to all six rounds but he bus’ his gun. But he wasn’t out to get a record deal ’cause he already on and doing his thing in Brooklyn. We working with a lot of artists though, we working with a couple of cats that’s doing some real soul food eclectic music, real underground, real sexy eclectic shit. My boy Big Brooklyn Red, he in Miami and he in Brooklyn; he got a big following on the show circuit tip, whenever he do a show he pack it in. He do it live with his band, his band is incredible and he’s incredible and he just real soul food. Real soulful brother, Big Brooklyn Red, he tight as a mutha.
I got other projects that I got through my label – the whole thing is I promote Duck Down as a label, Double D as a label is really supporting Hip-Hop and we doing our thing on the other tip too. We got DVDs out for all the sexy mommies out there and all the horny cats out there who like to see some double X rated Hip-Hop; we got that for ya’ll, keepin’ it street, you know what I’m sayin’.
Right now I’m working with Ray Benzino form The Source, I’m working real close with him, ’cause that’s my boy, Benzino is my boy, he bus’ his gun. As far as work wise, he really puttin’ down work. A lot people really don’t know how much work he put in for The Source and how much work he put in for Hip-Hop. Everybody get on him because they think he can’t rap and he just some bully MC that’s trying to get on to rap. But that’s not true, son is just a real dude who loves Hip-Hop and loves Hip-Hop so much that he feel like “look, I’m an MC in the name of Hip-Hop ’cause I love it; I do so much for Hip-Hop that a nigga could never say nothing bad about me on that Hip-Hop tip, like I’m some motherfucker who trying to get on who can’t rap”.
He loves Hip-Hop; what do you tell a nigga who loves Hip-Hop so much he is going to do it regardless of what people say and what people judge just ’cause that’s how much he loves it. If he wasn’t as known to Hip-Hop in other ways, I’d be like – yea, handle that nigga. But he gonna handle himself; [people] ain’t gotta be like – oh, you ain’t real Hip-Hop – get the fuck outta here, what’s that? That ain’t gonna add up, especially if he’s doing shit that is real Hip-Hop. Dave Mays and Ray Benzino was the foundation of Hip-Hop, no one can take that away. They [covered] Hip-Hop before any of these magazines, XXL, motherfuckin’ whoever. Before these niggas it was The Source.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Millions of fans around the world consider you a Hip-Hop legend; do you feel that stature in the day-to-day?
BUCKSHOT: In a way I don’t. Honestly, in a way I don’t. I do so much and I am so wrapped up in what I do; and that comes from my inner so I am never really focused on what comes with being a legend or someone who’s respected like that. I give praise to a higher power that people see me like that and I got a chance to make that impression on the world in this lifetime, while I’m living. I could have been fuckin’ somebody who cuts glass and that don’t mean that he’s somebody who deserves any less respect than I do, not at all; but, I still gotta put that extra but on there and say I don’t cut glass, I made the world know who I am before I leave this place.
And that to me is a blessing from the creator that not only did I do that but I also was respected as somebody who never went out with his pants down and that’s what made people respect me. Because I really am that way and I am not just trying to act that way; I really am a nigga who will never pull his pants down and that’s why I got my label and it’s been independent and I’ve never been on a major label because I will not let a nigga touch my cheeks for no album or no fame.
For info on Buckshot, Smif ‘N’ Wessun, Sean Price and the rest of the Boot Camp Click, stay tuned to www.DuckDown.com
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