Chasee: How you been, man?
CW: I’m doing very well. More than anything, just enjoying being a husband and a father to my two sons.
Chasee: That’s great to hear man. Last time we talked, everyone was focused on releasing the Group Home album and you guys were preparing for the Guru tribute party in NYC.
CW: Yeah, that’s right. We had just released the Group Home album, which was a very special project. I linked up with Lil Dap and Melachi just after Guru passed and we decided that we would release a tribute album to Guru and dedicate some of the proceeds from the album to his son, K.C. We released the album in September of 2010 and in April of 2011, we made a formal and donation to Guru’s son of $5,000. It was a great experience and we really don’t feel that Guru’s contributions to music – not just hip-hop, but music – were properly recognized when he died.
Chasee: That’s great that you were able to support Guru’s son from the sale of the album. Did you know Guru?
CW: Yes. I didn’t know him well, but our paths crossed in the hip-hop and film business many times over the years, and to this day I stay in contact with DJ Premier and Phat Gary from the Gang Starr Foundation. I would say that the most formal interaction I had with both Guru and DJ Premier was when I A&R’d the Training Day Soundtrack in 2000/2001. They turned in a great record called “Tha Squeeze,” which I pushed to get on the soundtrack, and ultimately it was really, really well received.
Chasee: Yeah, that was great record. I was listening to the Statik Selektah mixtape, The History Of M.O.P., and he said that the song “W.O.L.V.E.S.” featuring Krumbsnatcha and M.O.P. was the first record you A&R’d for Priority Records. Can you tell me what that was like?
CW: Ah man. For me it was crazy. I got to New York in approximately 1993. I lived in downtown Brooklyn, and somehow I ended up with a cassette tape that had a knife on the front, and all it said was, “M.O.P. – How About Some Hardcore.” I fell in love with this group instantly Their music transcends typical gangsta rap. Their music is more cinematic, more Francis Ford Coppola in that it really takes you there; it’s so good and so real that it’s dangerous. It glorifies street life with no intention of doing so at all because the way they make music about street life is so damn real. So fast forward from 1993 when I was dead broke to 2000 when I was Director of A&R at Priority Records in a cab on my way to Chung King Studios to A&R my first record ever…I remember it like it was yesterday. For one, I had no idea what these guys were going to be like, who was going to be there with them, or what the environment was going to be like–back then anything could happen in the studio. Two, I was not secure in my abilities like I am now, meaning at that time I was not totally secure about how good my ear for hip-hop really was, so I was really just acting on intuition and instinct about the music and about the idea I had for the track which would become “W.O.L.V.E.S.” To sum all that up, I was nervous as hell.
Babygrande Presents: The History Of M.O.P. Mixed by Statik Selektah (Sparta In Stores Nov. 22nd) by Babygrande Records
When I got to the studio, I met Billy, Fame, and Rock Logic, who to this day is their engineer, and we clicked instantly. I loaded the Nottz-produced track into the boards, Krumbsnatcha’s verse was already on the track, and having seen the Training Day movie, I explained to them the direction we were going with the track. All I really remember from there is the first day, Billy and Fame listened to the track for hours and came to me and said, “we’re going to sleep on this, we’ll be back tomorrow.” They came in the next day and laid down their verses effortlessly. After that, they left it to Rock Logic and I to mix and arrange the track, and that was one of the best experiences in music that I’d ever had. Fame and Billy had their laid their verses, but they also laid their adlibs, which for M.O.P. is the cornerstone of what makes them unique, and their engineer Rock Logic is the man who takes the chaotic layers and layers of verses, hooks and adlibs, and assists them in creating their signature sound. If you really listen to M.O.P.’s music, there’s nothing like their sound in all of hip-hop; it’s 100% unique. And that’s so important to understand about M.O.P.; their sound is original and unique. I’m saying all that before even getting to how unique their voices are. I’m talking about their delivery and the way they arrange and structure their songs. Then when you factor in their voices — forget it…M.O.P. is, in my opinion, undoubtedly one of the most important hip-hop artists of all time. So I’m in Chung King Studios in my 20s, A&Ring my first song ever for a major label…and you know the budgets were big back then…Rock Logic and I worked on that song for a full week. And when we were done, we had a great song that really captured the essence of the movie, Training Day, without being dead-on and corny. And through that process I also formed some kind of bond with the M.O.P. family that, later on, would pave the way for Sparta.
Chasee: I didn’t know it was like that. So how did you go from the Training Day Soundtrack to today where M.O.P. is putting out Sparta, produced by the Snowgoons, on Babygrande?
CW: The short answer is I really think it was destiny for this album to come out at this moment. The first reason is everything I told you earlier about meeting M.O.P. and how important that experience was for me. The second reason is my relationship with the Snowgoons, another group that’s really important to me. In 2007, the Snowgoons reached out to me and introduced themselves. I was immediately impressed by their work ethic, their production, and their ability to network internationally. I’ve always taken a lot of pride in Babygrande’s international approach to hip-hop. We’ve done records with artists form all over the world, and I personally have traveled to almost every continent of the world and experienced hip-hop culture first-hand. So when they contacted me and presented me with what would eventually become the German Lugers album, I signed them immediately. I think the other thing that was special about the Snowgoons to me was that I always had a connection with Germany because my aunt, Dr. Vivian Greene-Gantzberg, was a professor of German and Danish literature at Harvard and other colleges, so I grew up hearing about Europe and Germany in particular from a very early age. We released the Snowgoons debut album later that year in 2007 and it was very well received; and then it got even better with the release of their next album, Black Snow. One thing I appreciate the most about the Snowgoons, aside from their production, is that they’ve always been loyal to Babygrande through the thick and the thin; the good times and the bad times. In addition to just being a label that simply put out the records that they’ve made, we always tried to move their career forward with fresh ideas and unique relationships that Babygrande could bring to the table.
In 2009, we were working on Stoupe of Jedi Mind Tricks’ first solo album, and I reached out to M.O.P. to appear on that album which they did on the track Transition of Power. Through that experience, I reconnected with M.O.P. and made it a point to try and find a way to work with them on a full album ever since. I wanted to release what would become the Foundation album, but things didn’t work out and eOne, formerly Koch Records, beat me to it; but the most important thing is that I made my point and in late 2010, Billy Danze and I started talking seriously about finding a way to work together but we were both kinda stumped about what would be the best angle.
The perfect concept was right in front of me. To this day, M.O.P. travels all over Europe performing shows where they found an audience that in many ways has become more receptive to their sound than in United States. So when the idea came into my head to pitch them on the Snowgoons doing an entire album with M.O.P., I knew the fact that they were European would not be an obstacle – it would only be a matter of whether they liked the production or not. Ultimately, the Snowgoons sent Billy and Fame nearly 100 beats and they loved the production. Closing this deal was a very special moment for me and the company, particularly as we are just starting what will be a year long celebration of our ten year anniversary. We decided to make the album 10 songs with no features, almost as a challenge to make the music stand on its own and make an album with no filler. In the end, I truly believe all of these things that brought us all together brought forth a classic album, now called Sparta.
Chasee: The response I’ve heard to the singles that have been released has been amazing. Why do you think fans have been so receptive to the music?
CW: Aside from Billy and Fame just being master craftsmen at this point in their career, and the Snowgoons providing a perfect sonic landscape for them to lay their vocals over, I think the reason fans have been so receptive is quite frankly because this type of music is becoming an endangered species. We are truly in an era of pop hip-hop, so when you hear something as pure and street as M.O.P., you have to recognize it. Coppola’s masterpiece, The Godfather will stand the test of time because it is so pure, so real and so well crafted. Thats how I feel about what M.O.P. and the Snowgoons did this album.
