link: http://www.examiner.com/hip-hop-music-in-national/q-a-with-j-zone-part-2

Q&A with J-Zone (Part 2)
Sherron Shabazz
Hip-Hop Music Examiner

In part 1 of my Q&A with emcee/producer/author J-Zone, we discussed player haters in Hip-Hop, the art of digging for records, the genius that is Willie D, and publishing his book, Root for the Villain: (Rap, Bullsh*t, and A Celebration of Failure).

In part 2 J-Zone ranks his albums from best to worst, discusses his desire or lack thereof to get back into Hip-Hop, speaks on the passing of Heavy D, and explains why you should root for the villain.

SS: How would you rank J-Zone’s albums?

J-Zone: Favorite to least favorite? I don’t know if I could do it because I made it. There are different memories associated with each one. My personal favorite is Chief Chinchilla but that sh*t ain’t for everybody. I like To Love A Hooker because it’s different, but that ain’t for everybody. 1. Chief Chinchilla/Live at the Liqua Sto 2. To Love a Hooker 3. Boss Hog Barbarians with Celph Titled 4. A Job Ain't Nuthin But Work 5. A Bottle of Whup Ass 6. $ick of Bein' Rich 7. Music For Tu Madre 8. Pimps Don't Pay Taxes 9. Experienced! 10. Gimme Dat Beat Fool.

SS: It was funny to me when you wrote about cassette tapes in the book because I used to walk around with a bag of tapes that made noise everywhere that I went. That bag of tapes became a bag of CD’s but now I have an iPod, but now even my f*cking iPod is old! The best thing about the iPod is having all of your music in one place. You’re going to have to give in and get one bro. I would recommend it.

J-Zone: I got one. I got a Shuffle. It has no screen. It made me mad because you couldn’t find nothing. My mother gave it to me and I just didn’t use it. I got the tape deck in the car so I’m good to go.

SS: Do you find that your tapes get chewed up in the car?

J-Zone: Nah man, I take good care of my sh*t. I take real good care of my tapes. I got tapes that I made in the sixth grade that I still got. I always put them back in the case, I’m very serious about my tapes.

SS: I know you’re a sports fan, what are thoughts on the NBA lockout? {Note: This interview was conducted before the NBA labor settlement.}

J-Zone: F*ck it. Let ‘em not have a season. I’m a high school sports reporter. I cover basketball for a job. A lot of the guys are too buys profiling and partying. Back in the day when I was watching the NBA they played like they hated each other--the Bad Boys, the Bulls, the Knicks, the Lakers. Now you see these guys play a game and two minutes later they’re partying with each other in South Beach. Let them not have a season, f*ck it. The NBA got soft. And not just because you’re from Chicago but the only person I wanted to see this year was Derrick Rose. I know two people in the NBA, Tobias Harris and Charles Jenkins. I wanted to see them because they went to high school out here and I covered them. I want Tobias and Charles to have careers, but for the most part I don’t give a f*ck about the NBA.

SS: We lost Heavy D recently…

J-Zone: Yeah man, that’s tough.

SS: Real tough. It seems like he was one of those guys that everybody loved. He seemed like a good dude. Speak on Heavy D and give me some of your favorite Heavy D joints.

J-Zone: With Hev, first off his passing hit home with me for a couple of reasons other than music. I grew up between Queens and Westchester County which is north of the Bronx. Hev was from Mount Vernon which is in Westchester County. When I was coming into the Hip-Hop sh*t in the late 80’s and early 90’s the boroughs ran everything. Long Island was getting on the map, but a lot of artists hadn’t come out of Westchester. It was like a stigma, like it was the suburb and too nice. Westchester was the redheaded step-child of New York. When Hev came out of Mount Vernon he was one of the first to put the county on the map. His hit song was Moneyearnin’ Mount Vernon. I was living in Westchester at the time and it was like, you can do this. You don’t have to be from the Bronx or Brooklyn to make noise. There’s not that many artist that you can’t dislike. You might not like his style but you can’t dislike him. He was likable in every regard and he made music that spanned generations. My mother is a Heavy D fan. His music spanned generations and in Hip-Hop that’s rare. You can play his stuff at a barbecue and the 5-year olds, 18-year olds, 31-year olds, and 60-year olds will all be alright with it—that’s rare. I can’t think of too many people that were able to do that.

As for songs, if I had to pick a Heavy D song there are a couple of them. I always liked Flexin’ and Let it Flow from the Big Tyme album where he was rhyming, straight up. It wasn’t a club joint or a ladies joint, he was showing us that he could really go. I always liked Letter to the Future on Peaceful Journey. Don’t Curse was good, Here Comes the Heavster from Blue Funk, I liked that one. There’s definitely a handful of joints. It’s a major loss. I was blown away, Joe Frazier and Heavy D on the same day, that was crazy.

SS: It’s incredibly sad. At 44-years old? And of all people, you know what I mean?

J-Zone: Just goes to show you, man, at anytime… and the funny thing that’s ominous is I followed Heavy D on Twitter that Monday and a day later? Word? He’s not one you would expect. He appeared to be in good health. He’s not somebody you think would go that young. There is no reason or rule behind that, man. I was looking at the Big Tyme cover and two of these guys are gone young. I remember when Trouble T-Roy passed back in the day, it was like damn! He died in 1990. It was a freak accident, they were on a stage or something and somebody threw a barrel at him and he hopped over it and fell back. They were just joking. Two months after that the DJ from Wrecks-N-Effect got shot. Heavy D and Wrecks-N-Effect? Not that death discriminates but those are two groups that had nothing to do with anything negative or violent. Then MC Trouble died months after that! It’s like they died in three’s.

SS: The chapter where you detailed your retirement from rap was sad to me but you had a different response. Talk about what you were feeling at that time.

J-Zone: It was like a sadness, when you feel like you’ve hit rock bottom. It’s something that you’ve sacrificed, loved and done for so long. I was almost mad at myself. I’m a fan before all that producing and rhyming. I’m a die-hard fan. I know groups from Chicago that you might not know . I’m a die-hard Hip-Hop fan. Even in the earlier chapters you read where I’m in high school working in the studio I was so hyped! It was 18 hours a day I was constantly going. I allowed some of the business stuff to mess me up a little bit and detour my confidence but when the passion itself was gone it was like, damn! Sometimes you just gotta laugh at stuff. In the end I was already kind of done with it and my digital distributor pulled all my stuff off of iTunes and said, “You ain’t selling, we’re dropping you.” My CD’s and records had to be destroyed and I had to sign off on it. At some point you have to be able to find humor in it.

I’m still alive, I can still do music as a hobby, I’m writing, I’m doing different things, I had a career! I learned in the end when I stepped out of music and looked at it from the outside looking in, I was like OK, I didn’t sell a bunch of records but I got a chance to work with people that I grew up admiring. I never thought Masta Ace would be in my basement, I never thought Pete Rock would be in my house, I never thought I’d have Too $hort on the phone. I got to go to Switzerland, all over Europe and Australia to do stuff I loved doing and I’m alright with that. In terms of the failures and frustrations you just gotta find some humor in it. My achievements, no one can take them from me. I just had a different approach for it. OK Chief Chinchilla sold 47 copies last month, I love that album, it’s hilarious, but no one wants to listen to nobody rapping with the helium voice and rapping about beer for 30 minutes. I kind of laughed, it’s funny. When I was able to step out of it I was able to get a clearer scope of what’s going on. It wasn’t as grim to me when I stepped out of it. When I was in it, it felt grim.

There’s nothing to be upset about. It happened, it frustrated me at the time, music ain’t what it used to be to me, but I’m just happy that I’m a fan again. At one point I wasn’t interested in music at all. I’m digging for records again, I’m listened to music again, I bought a drum set and I’m learning how to play the drums. That’s how it started; I had to take it back to the 1980’s. It started listening to funk records, getting into sampling, I had to reset and start over to find the appreciation again. I don’t have no regrets and I’m happy about it. I could have just crumbled and been moaning and groaning but sometimes you gotta make the best of a situation and find a positive out of it and that’s what I did.

SS: Do you get the itch to rap and is there any chance you’ll release another album?

J-Zone: I don’t think so. I really don’t see myself getting out on the stage and rapping. Beats, it aint what it used to be but every once in a while I’ll go down there and make something funky. I did a joint for an album recently. Prince Paul called me earlier in the year and said he needed some beats for some stuff. It ain’t totally out of the picture but the point is there has to be passion. I know what it feels like to be passionate because I made ten albums. Until I’m hungry on that level I’m not going to put nothing out. I could sit up here and try to do it to make money and just because I had a career but that ain’t no service to nobody. How many artists have we grew up admiring are making a fool out of themselves by doing an Autotune track or whatever? I’d rather just go out knowing that everything I did was true to what I wanted to do and I didn’t rap for a check. I’d take a bullsh*t job before I un-do what I tried to create by arbitrarily releasing stuff. When the passion gets to where it needs to be then I’ll do some stuff.

SS: Would producing an entire album for an artist be considered chasing a check?

J-Zone: If I’m into the artist, no. I was talking to Prince Paul about something that never materialized but I was ready to do it! He came up with this crazy concept but the guys involved were busy and it didn’t happen. Right now I’m not doing any music. My MPC is in a bag, it’s not hooked up. It’s all about motivation. Every album I made I wasn’t supposed to make it. Music For Tu Madre was supposed to be my last album. A Bottle of Whup Ass was supposed to be my last album. Pimps Don’t Pay Taxes was definitely supposed to be my last album. $ick of Bein' Rich was going to be my last album rapping, then A Job Ain’t Nuthin' But Work came out . This is the longest I’ve gone without making an album. I really feel like I’m moving in another direction. If I got inspired I’d do it. The key is “inspired”.

In order for me to make music I have to be hungry and I have to have the mentality that I want to destroy everybody. I approach music like I’m playing ball. I respect everybody’s stuff. Back in the day when Madlib came out with an ill beat, it was like, man he’s killing it! It could be J Dilla or RJD2 coming out with a beat and I’d be like, damn, I’m slipping, I gotta go in the studio and I’m going try to destroy everybody . I’m going to go in there and I’m not coming out until I got something that’s going to destroy everybody. It’s like friendly competition. Being hungry I’m going to prove everybody wrong. I didn’t make the top 10 producer list? Alright, watch this! That’s what kept me going, the love for music and the hunger—a killer instinct. That has to be there. Making beats for a check is not how I operate.

SS: If you had to pick one, the MP or the SP?

J-Zone: Whoooooo! Ah man! Why you gotta do it to me! Every J-Zone record that ever came out except for the Preacher Earl single I did in ’95 was an MPC record. That’s my machine and that’s how I found my sound. But the SP is what I got started on. You mean for me or just in general?

SS: For you.

J-Zone: For me I gotta go with the MPC ‘cause that’s my trademark machine. Overall sound and signature, the SP. I know that’s a weak answer because it’s not going either way. I’ll go MPC but damnit the SP, in terms of the sound ain’t nothing touching the SP. Just look at the resume. Look at how many records were done on the SP. Look at the sound of those joints.

SS: With less sampling time.

J-Zone: Yeah! You know what, f*ck it, the SP. I gotta go SP. I made ten albums, none of them on the SP but I still gotta go with the SP. When I was using the SP I was a wizard, man! You gotta understand, with ten seconds of memory I was playing record on 78 and slowing them back down… you don’t understand… I gotta go SP! F*ck that, scratch that, SP all day, man!

SS: What’s the message that you want readers to get from Root for the Villain?

J-Zone: Good question. The message is everything is in layers. Nothing is what it seems so dig a little deeper. If you have a hero, chances are he might be a scumbag. There’s always a story behind everything so dig deep for information and increase your attention span. In terms of success I want to make us look better at what we consider success. What is success? It’s a relative term. I believe as an artist I was successful, but judging by what the publishers told me and what people say, “J-Zone’s writing a book?!?!” What constitutes success and failure? Is it Twitter followers? What is success? The celebration of failure part is in our world my music career is a failure because it’s not up to standards that have been set but we have to question the standards. “I got 20,000 friends on Twitter, and I got things poppin’,” but if Twitter was to crash tomorrow would you have a fan base? I don’t know how many followers Necro has but he’s been in the business for X amount of years building up his label, ground up--Atmosphere, too. They used to do shows on the Chitlin’ Circuit and rinky dink clubs. If Twitter was to crash tomorrow and they lost all their followers within three weeks they’d have them back. I’m sure there is somebody on Twitter who has mad followers because he’s acting like an ass or buying followers. People are like, “Yo J, you should have way more Facebook likes,” but because I have 1100 people liking me on Facebook and someone else has 3000 does that make them a success and me a failure? What if they bought ‘em?

It’s a society of numbers and we have a strange contorted view of what success really is. I got a chance to make a living doing what I love to do. I got to travel to other countries doing what I love to do. I got to watch guys I grew up admiring become my peers. Now that I’m outside of the music business looking in I could look back and say that’s some successful sh*t. Did I sell a lot of records? No. Am I a millionaire? No. Do a lot of people nowadays know who I am? No. But how do we equate success? I think all of those publishers that fronted on my book because I didn’t have enough of a name made me really look at who has a right to write a book. Snooki can write a book and all she did was get on a bullsh*t show and put her titties and ass out and make an ass of herself and then she gets $32 G’s to speak at Rutgers and a book deal. Does that make her a success and me a failure? What about a guy that just goes to work everyday and supports his family but he’s got a lot of crazy stories and he writes a book? Is he a failure because nobody knows who he is? What about his story? What about the way he writes? Such and such might be a political leader in the community but like I said he’s got all this stuff going on behind the scenes that he’s talking against—he’s a hypocrite. He’s well dressed, clean cut, has an Obama haircut and a suit but does that mean a brother who owns his own business but has a raggedy jheri curl is a failure because he don’t have a grown man haircut?

I want people to reexamine success and failure and look at how we talk about it. I want us to think about some of this stuff and our expectations. With the economy we have you got people with double Master’s degrees and PhD’s and still working at Starbucks. I got a Bachelor’s degree from an art’s school which doesn’t mean a whole lot in the world, you might say I’m a rapper who has done this and that but are you more of a success than me? You work at Starbucks and I work in a school district that’s not paying me—we’re in the same boat. Everybody is on all this prestige and class and all that other sh*t but take a look around. If you ain’t in the 1% then we’re in the same boat. Who is to say who is a success and who is a failure? That’s really what the story is. To challenge what we’re told is the norm.

A 40-year old woman should not be sending me a text with a wink, I’m sorry. To me a wink means, OK I’m coming over with d*ck in hand! That’s what a wink means to me! I should not be getting OMG and LOL from a 35-year old woman. You’re sitting in a club texting and you should not be texting in a club. You could text from your house. We’ve become accustomed to this stuff because it’s the norm. It’s the norm to be an incessant texter, to talk in 140 characters or less, to act like an ass on Facebook, to move to New York and think that you can just take over a neighborhood that’s been there for years. Just because it’s gentrified and they put up a Whole Foods you can just walk around and be a f*cking asshole to people who’ve been living there. I go to Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago and people walk around like they own the f*ckin’ place. OK, walk three or four blocks in the other direction then. Go down north Wood Street and see if you don’t run into some Insane Latin Dragons or something like that who’ve been there for years. Watch your step. This is not a melting pot. This is all stuff that I have to talk about. Just look at this sh*t. Don’t get caught up. Everybody is just insouciant. They live in a bubble. We believe whatever is fed to us. I’m making fun of it and I’m being over the top, and profane and wild with the way I say it but look at the point. Sh*t is real.