SPEC-BOOGIE--INTERVIEW AND MIXTAPE

If I haven?t said this before, I?ll say it now: Pharrell?s ?In My Mind? sucks. I mean, it?s really, really, bad. In fact, after I listened to it I thought it was so weak even the beats were bad.

Then someone contacted me with ?On My Grind.? Loosie Music artist Spec Boogie snatched the instrumentals from Pharrell?s ?On My Mind? and rapped over pretty much all of them. Turns out, the beats ain?t weak?it was just what Pharrell did with them. Spec Belafonte is a little like Gift of Gab or Abdominal, but not quite as quick or deft and much grittier. There?s also guest shots by Von Pea and DonWill of Tanya Morgan, Elucid and Virginia?s own Che Grand, who shows some chops here.

Best part about it: Totally free, dude. Check it out.

Spec Boogie ? ?On My Grind? (entire album). Alternate album link.

Tracklisting:

01 Got It Like That 2:03
02 How Does It Feel? 2:14
03 Raspy Shit-Spec Boogie 3:33
04 Best Friend 4:22
05 Number One (f. Von Pea) 2:54
06 Show You How To Hustle-Spec Boogie 3:34\
07 Baby (f. DonWill) 2:12
08 Stay With Me (f. Elucid) 2:50
09 Take It Off 1:42
10 Keep It Playa (f. Che Grand) 4:02
11 I Really Like You 3:13
12 Young Girl (f. Takenya Quann) 3:09
13 You Can Do It Too (f. Cyren Young) 5:22

I liked it so much, I sought out my first interview with a rapper.




Here it is:

Interview with Spec Boogie!


EKKO: I?m digging the On the Grind mixtape. Thanks
for agreeing to answer some of our stupid questions. First, let?s get a little background. I understand you?re Brooklyn based? I grew up in Bucktown, went to Edward R. Murrow.

SPEC BOOGIE: Thank you for listening, man. I was born in California and raised in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn from the age of 3. I went to a high school in Manhattan called Art & Design.

EKKO: I know it well. How long have you been in the rap game?

SPEC BOOGIE: Well, I started rapping in the 3rd grade. I have a cousin who was the neighborhood DJ back then and he encouraged me to write. He?s also the reason I?m into sneakers so much. I didn?t start putting stuff out ?til high school junior year, which was almost 10 years ago. My friends and I would sell mixtapes called ?Summertime Sex?. We?d go to different summer schools with a boombox just to talk to girls and sell tapes. Loosie started four years ago when I moved back to NY from school in Philly and started working with Bennie Guinness. Now Loosie is myself, Ben, Von Pea from Tanya Morgan and Elucid.

EKKO: That?s what Ludacris says you gotta do: Get your own label and own your own publishing. Who do you see as your audience?

SPEC BOOGIE: I don?t know, I don?t think about that. Not to be a dick or anything, I just think you limit yourself when you try to cater to a certain audience. You never know who will or won?t feel it. I?ve always tried to respect the listeners? intelligence; I think it?s possible to make a good song that reaches people without dumbing it down. I never dumb it down, even when I?m rapping about dumb shit. I?m not one of those ?rap over your head 10 dollar word just to show off my vocabulary? types either, I just try to speak to people at eye level.

EKKO: It shows, the not dumbing down I mean. That kind of thing might not get immediate commercial success, but . . . Although, that could be changing. Do you see the digital/blog culture changing how hip hop artists get fans, distribution, deals, etc.?

SPEC BOOGIE: Oh, of course things have already changed a great amount. A lot of power has been given back to the artist to be self-sufficient. The best thing about the impact of digital culture on hip hop is that it?ll force cats to really step up their live shows because CD sales are going to continue to decline. The only reason CD?s are even still sold is because generations like ours are still holding on to them -- it?s important to us to feel a cd in our hands, read the liner notes, wrestle with the packaging. But a kid who?s 12 or 13 now doesn?t feel the need for that; they don?t have a story about the first 12? record that their parent bought for them (for me it was Superman). As soon as someone figures out a way to bring that feeling of getting more than just the music with a digital purchase, CD?s are done. Do they even press CD singles anymore?

EKKO: Yeah, they do. I get them from time to time. Maybe it?s just for promots. What about the culture? When I was a shorty, we?d have block parties and we?d shout over Kool and the Gang or Newcleus. Now, anyone can get instrumental
cuts?Jay-Z even released The Black Album without the vocal track. Do you think the ease of it all takes anything away from the community-based nature of hip hop?

SPEC BOOGIE: You?re showing your age there, pops. Haha. I think that shit?s a little congested right now due to the convenience that the technology provides, but I don?t think it takes away from anything. If hip hop?s community base suffers that has more to do with the people rather than the technology or any trends.


EKKO: Denzel Washington, in Inside Man, improvised a line saying Hip Hop music is ?pure genocide.? He seemed to be talking about gangsta rap. What do you think of that?

SPEC BOOGIE: I haven?t seen that film yet, but I don?t agree with that statement. I think right now hip hop seems to be in a cycle of art imitating life imitating art. I find it really hard to grasp that there are kids out there selling drugs or being violent because of rap music, but I guess there are. To me that has a lot more to do with the breakdown of community and family. I grew up listening to the same music and watching the same videos that every one else did and the things they talk about or glorify were all around me but I never sold drugs because my pops would have kicked the shit out of me. That and I seem to have a strange kind of crack phobia, I can?t stand to be around the stuff.

EKKO: Well, personally, I think you should thank God for that fear. The drug game got me in a world of hurt and trouble several years ago. What do you say to the guys who think being ?real? means rapping about drugs and guns, even if that isn?t a part of your own life? Kanye recently said he raps about what real people go through. Where do you see your place in all that?

SPEC BOOGIE: I really don?t know, somewhere in there. I rap about what I go through and what I come from. Drugs and guns just happen to be a part of all that but I try to approach things from as many different angles as I can. As a listener and a fan all I ask from artists is that you be good. Whether you?re rapping about drugs, guns, love, politics, bodily functions, whatever. Just be good, have a flow, be clever. The only problem I have is when these artists are ?real? and ?rap what they know? when they?re in the hood or on urban radio/television but when they get in front of Bill O?Reilly or any other mainstream (read: white) media, all of a sudden it?s just entertainment and they?re no different than Arnold Schwarzenegger or Bruce Willis. It?s a weak cop out.

EKKO: On to the Grind mixtape, where you put your own rhymes over Pharrell?s new album. Great idea. Do you agree that Pharrell?s ?In My Mind? sucks? If not, why?d you spit all over his beats?

SPEC BOOGIE: It was such a spontaneous thing. I saw that all the Pharrell instrumentals were on iTunes so I copped it and told myself I?d write to as many of them as I could in a week just to test myself, I guess. I do it all the time. I think the first time was when the Chronic 2001 instrumentals came out. This is the first time though that I?ve gone as far as to record it and put it out. I used Pharrell?s beats because he made them available and it was recent. I wanted to write to the beats the first time I heard them so I didn?t even listen to the album until I was finished. I listened to it just today and I don?t think it sucks.

EKKO: I?m not gonna ask who your heroes are, ?cause everyone says the same thing (Biggie, Pac, etc.). But out of the guys active in the game today, who would you most like to share the stage with? What about battleraps:
Anyone you absolutely would not go against?

SPEC BOOGIE: As far as the stage goes: Busta Rhymes. Just to see if I can keep up, he?s a beast live. I?ve actually had the fortune to rock with a lot of the people I looked up to coming up so the list has gotten short. As far as battling, I don?t consider myself a battle rapper but I don?t think there?s anyone out there I couldn?t go against if it came down to it.

EKKO: Last question: How will you know when you?re a success (or are you already there)?

SPEC BOOGIE: I don?t ever want to know.

Read The Full Article:
http://berkeleyplace.blogspot.com/2006/08/spec-boogie-interview-and-mixtape.html

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