Seems like a great move for Abstract Rude and very similar to the one made by Del The Funky Homosapien and Def Jux. Hopefully, everything will work out and he can finally get the recognition he most certainly deserves. link (via)
Tell us about the new record.
You know its been interesting. Though I’ve had a few cool campaigns before, this’ll probably be the most thorough as far as trying to get the most out of this whole independent scene. The cats at Rhymesayers seem committed to trying to do as well they could do with this project.
Are you working with any of their producers?
Not for this particular record, well sort of because I’m working with Vitamin D for this record ( but no Ant, etc.). I knew about [Vita] through this crew he used to be down with called Source of Labor from Seattle back in the day. They used to come out to all the Project Blowed events back in the day. Then I found out that he co-produced Gift of Gab‘s solo record with Jake One. I was happy and honored to get a chance to work with him. He gave me like sixty beats to listen to, and I quickly saw that there was a whole world we could explore. Really it’s been two years in the making. Mainly that’s because of location and the way that we’re doing things. We’re both busy dudes trying to stay at it.
A lot of cats were rapping back then and a lot of cats have come and gone since. How is that you think you were able to maintain a state a relevance after all these years?
Well you don’t necessarily have to make a thousand songs. Some people make the same impact off of ten. Not to say that me making a thousand makes me more noble, other than the fact that it gives me a lot of practice (laughs). There’s a lot of different routes and paths to get to the same goal that we all have which is to get your music heard, get your message out there and making a living doing it. When you come form that underground school, there’s an emphasis on not compromising what you’re about. Somehow me and other cats like Acey, 2Mex, Busdriver, Awol, Medusa, we’ve somehow done all those things and stayed active enough to stay relevant and spread out wide enough to keep it fresh and stay out there. Its also about understanding what its really about, which is connecting with fans and staying true to the brand that you put out there even as you evolve. It’s also about putting stuff out there all the time. You got the solo records, the ATU stuff; the mix cd’s that I’ve put out, the Haiku D’Etat stuff the A-Team stuff, Codename Scorpion and all that. It’s about diversifying. Just following a natural path. A lot of that stuff was just freestyled and we just stumbled into it. And luckily we’ve been fortuitous.
see also:
Del’s 11th Hour Pushed To ‘08, Coming Out On Def Jux
