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DOGG POUND, September 1995
What's the name of your upcoming album and who's working on it?
Kurupt: "It's called Dogg Food, and Daz, Dr. Dre and DJ Pooh are all doing tracks. We don't know right yet what's all gonna be on it 'cause Dre is just mixing it down now."
What's the overall vibe?
K: "We just gonna give me and Daz raw and uncut. In the past we've been on Dre's album or on soundtracks, but this album is a lot of Daz's work -- it's giving him a chance to shine on the production and me a chance to shine on the vocals. We just want to give people more of a taste of that Tha Dogg Pound sound, and a lot of people are hungry for it. There's a lot of people also duplicating it, too."
Let's talk about that sound. You use a lot of live instruments on the album. How did you come with that?
K: "We don't use many amples, that's not us. Daz learned a lot from Dr. Dre., so a lot of our music will use live keyboards, guitar and bass. We rarely sample, and if it's a musical sample, we'll just play it over." Daz: "I usually come with a track and then I give it to my homeboy to rap over. I got a 24-track in my house and we lay it down 24 hours a day, and then when I'm ready I'll take it in to the big studio. It's all about original music, that's what's gonna get you outta your seat. Everybody keeps using the same damn samples, I'm tired of that; I want to hear some new stuff. Basically, I try and come up with my own sound using some pieces and bits of hip-hop hits."
How important is the sample question in hip-hop right now?
K: "Sampling is not creativity. Meaning that that's where rap kids get limitations put on them. You're not creating, you're taking what someone else has created. It's not music. It's not like the old school where you just had a breakbeat and a one-minute sample put in there. You just don't rap now, you have to make songs. And that's what we're into: making songs, not just raps. When you're live on stage that's when it's time to represent and deliver your skills, But when you put records out it's your job and your duty to sell records. You don't have to sell out to sell records, but you've got to make some good music, with good lyrics."
A lot of East Coast kids think that they're living up to the pure form of hip-hop culture, but it seems like a lot of their music is not coming across as much as the West Coast.
K: "Well, they are the pure form, but the thing is what does that mean? You know, what are you doing now? I'm originally from Philly, and I just look at it like this: why are you crying over spilt milk? Don't cry, put a hit out! No one is saying it didn't originate from the East, yet the way people are yelling you would think that people were saying that it didn't. They talk like someone is arguing with them. Ain't nobody saying sh-- like that. In fact, ain't nobod saying sh-- at all. The only people who have problems with it are the people that aren't making money. And that's one thing I learned on the West Coast: East Coast is more into rhymes, West Coast is more into business. I've been trying to instill that into Daz, that you gotta have a business head about this. Kids think they have to slay and kill MCs all the time but that's not the thing. You have a job when you get a record deal or you're gonna have no future. Some MCs don't think 'What am I gonna do when I'm 35?' Like me and Daz, we've got a label going called Gotta Get Somewhere records. And this is where a lot of MCs mess up; they look at the whole thing as a fad. It's like they put all their skills on this one record, like they're never gonna make another. They're just trying to cater to one crowd, but there's a whole world out there."
-- John Adams (Courtesy of Streetsound)
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