CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR COPY OF PRINT ISSUE #8, WHICH FEATURES THIS INTERVIEW WITH BLUEPRINT IN ITS ENTIRETY!
IN CASE YOU WERE WORRIED, 8,000,000 STORIES WAS NOT A ONE-TIME THING. RJD2 AND BLUEPRINT ARE BACK ONCE AGAIN AS THE INCOMPARABLE SOUL POSITION. ONLY THIS TIME, WE TALKED TO THE WORDSMITH-- BLUEPRINT-- ABOUT RHYMING, RADIOHEAD, AND EXACTLY WHY THINGS GO BETTER WITH RJ AND AL.
Vinnie Baggadonuts: Most of the MCs and producers I interview talk about a moment when they realized they wanted to be a part of hip-hop. Do you remember yours?
Blueprint: I think it was maybe in 1997 when I would hear a lot about independent 12\" records coming out; stuff like Company Flow, Natural Resources, and The Juggaknots. It made me feel like that was something I wanted to do, or at least that there was an outlet for it.
VB: Did you decide right then and there that you were going to follow your own path and not be an industry puppet?
B: Oh, I think I decided that before then even.
Both: (laugh)
B: I was like, \"I don’t know what I want to do, but I don’t want to be around that element.\"
VB: And you’ve done a good job staying that way. Do you want to remain that way, or would you be totally cool if Jay-Z asked you to come over to Def Jam Left?
B: If I don’t have to change what I do. Major labels themselves aren’t necessarily bad. I think what’s bad is how extreme the pressure is on the artists, feeling like they have to change. There are people who are majors, but they have an underground mentality, like OutKast, Common, or even Kanye [West]. They’re doing sample-based music, looping, using breakbeats... they’re doing very creative music, and they’re doing them on major labels. If I felt like I was doing music that was catchy enough where I felt that I needed that big vehicle behind me, and that I didn’t have to really change or insult people’s intelligence, I’d sign.
VB: As you go on, you seem to be doing well-- putting out projects you want to put out, and each one’s different-- does that just solidify your philosophy even more?
B: Yeah, exactly. I used to be a computer programmer. And when I looked at this as a career-- going on tour and trying to make some money-- success to me, at that point, was every month I didn’t have to go to work. So as long as I’m putting out records that people are responding to, I don’t care about the numbers. I’ve validated doing this by the fact that it continues to be my job.
VB: That’s really good, man. Now, you’re a producer and an MC. Did one come first?
B: I started freestylin’ first-- me and some friends of mine in college, who wound up being in Greenhouse Effect. We weren’t really serious about it at the time. The only reason I did beats at the time is, we went to a really small school where no one was even aware of the science behind it. So I decided to pick up a sampler, and from there, I just started learning. I was more serious about production first. Now, it’s different. I think the rhyming part has gotten much more publicity. But my production body of work has gotten so much bigger.
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