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Here's another couple interviews with David Axelrod, he really pulls no punches when it comes to stating his opinion. Here are a few choice quotes: (BTW, anyone know what Diamond D song he is talking about?)
http://www.socialstereotype.com/_/Interviews/Entries/2005/9/13_DAVID_AXELROD.html
David, what do you think of people sampling your records?
David Axelrod: To tell you the truth I’ve only heard a couple of my samples from Dr Dre and Lauryn Hill, that fucking bitch. She’s pathetic. She tried not to pay anybody. She wasn’t even going to pay the two guys who made her record!
What about Dre?
Dre sampled this tune of mine called “The Edge” and used it in his song “Next Episode”. That album is the largest selling CD I’ve been a part of. It sold something like 15 million copies. The money was coming in from every direction. Dre is so cool the credits say ‘Music: David Axelrod’. That was very hip. He’s coming with a greatest hits album and “Next Episode” is going to be on it, which will make EMI very happy and it will make David Axelrod very happy.
How many times have you been sampled?
Every fucking rap artist has sampled me, except Eminem damn it! Wu Tang, Jay-Z, Ja Rule have all used my stuff. As far as I know I’ve been sampled 89 times, and they’re just the samples that Paul McCartney’s company MPL owns. Sir Paul is known to be a pretty frugal man, and his ex-brother in law John Eastman is exactly the same way. If they paid me everything would be cool.
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http://www.longhousepoetry.com/axelrod.html
CA: What do you think of sampling? You were you pretty much resurrected, maybe I don't wanna say that-
DA: That's a good term, though. Yeah, I feel like Lazarus myself, so why shouldn't you use it.
CA: Sure! So sampling-- you said "a machine can sound like the blues but it ain't the blues."
DA: That's right.
CA: So first of all, why would DJ Shadow or Dr Dre would choose you to represent their beats?
DA: Because I make good music, and they want good music. What they do with it, some people irritate me, but some people do it so well. I mean, I really wish I would've thought putting the intro behind where the orchestra first comes in the way Dre did on Next Episode. That was really hip.
CA: What producers do you admire today?
DA: Sure. I like Scott Walker. Scott Walker is great. And Dre is great. For godsakes, Dre is a great producer. And Diamond D. Diamond D did something, it was so hip, he took a track-- I think it was either from Songs of Innocence or Songs of Experience-- then he took a guitar from another track, on the same album. And where he put the guitar, it sounded so good. If they're creative, if they have the imagination, they can do anything, and it comes out right. {DJ} Shadow's the same way. Shadow's a great guy, Josh is a great friend. His wife is my manager.
CA: Do you think Dre and Shadow saw you as an obscurity and that's why they pulled you out?
DA: No, not at all. Josh has been mentioning me in interviews since '96. I think I met him in the year 2000. Might've been back in 1999, now that I think about it...It was, yeah. We had a mutual friend who is a great friend of his and became a great friend of mine, so this guy brought {Shadow} over.
CA: So how does your royalties work now? If Dre uses a sample of yours on his song, and it gets played on the radio, how's it work?
DA: Oh man, listen, it's been great. Dre's album sold eight, nine million copies or something like that, and you think I'm gonna complain? On that, I got fifty percent because he used all my music-- he just looped it...Knock on wood, it was very nice. I love Dre. I'm in love with Dre.
CA: You see him often?
DA: Nope. Now that I think of it, I've never even spoken to him.
CA: Don't you find that odd?
DA: Nope, nothing in this business is odd, because the business itself is odd. Just to be in it you gotta be weird. I have been {in the business} for years. I've been getting royalties since the 70's. {People wanting to work with me} picked up in 1999.
Cool stuff.
Patrick
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