NO I.D imparts Some Knowledge, Talks about his influence on Watch The Throne
Tendai Chisvo Filed Under: Labels: NO I.D
No ID chopped it up with the good folks at Complex. Long Interview, but this part I particularly enjoyed.
What kind of knowledge do you impart on the young guys like Big Sean or J. Cole when you work with them?(For the full Interview)
Quality and cohesion. Just being able to make a project that makes sense as a whole product. That’s hard nowadays because that’s not the corporate view. That’s not what the company will say. They’ll say, make a smash around the world.
I bet Quincy Jones never gave anybody a beat in his life. That’s really not the role of a producer, to give somebody an instrumental and say, “Write a song.” I’m sure he didn’t say, “Yo Mike, I got this beat. You should put a scary guy at the end and it’ll be something like ‘Thriller.’” That’s just not really the historic way records are made.
I would say, “Look at the people you like the most, who sell the most over years and years and stay around. Are they the people that make the biggest smashes around the world? Or are they the people that put their heart and soul in their music and made a cohesive presentation of that?”
What A&Ring should be: helping set-up a process, a template, in order to get the best out of the label and the talent. What a producer is, it’s like, “Okay, let me take that and take it to the fullest extent that it can be taken and make it fit at the same time.” A lot of times people will say, “Do you have a beat?” I’m like, “No. I don’t have any beats. Lets make some songs.” It’s a process that’s long been left out of our music.
Rock-n-roll and country, they make songs. They’re not passing instrumentals around. They don’t do that. They don’t say, “Hey, write to my beat?” I don’t even know what you call it in country. [Laughs.] It’s like, “You got a song? Produce that song.”
It seems like you’re hinting at the difference between being a beatmaker and a producer. A beatmaker may make some sounds, whereas a producer is actually in the studio and works almost in the capacity of an A&R.
Absolutely. I’ll say this: I bet Quincy Jones never gave anybody a beat in his life. That’s really not the role of a producer, to give somebody an instrumental and say, “Write a song.” I’m sure he didn’t say, “Yo Mike, I got this beat. You should put a scary guy at the end and it’ll be something like ‘Thriller.’” That’s just not really the historic way records are made.
It’s a process that should really be discussed, envisioned, and executed in stages—not just, “Here’s the beat. Write a song. Okay, there it is,” and then all the other songs, the producer didn’t have anything to do with the process. I think that’s why albums don’t sound as good today.
If you were in the studio, and you met with a rapper for the first time, and they asked for a beat, would you not give them one?
It depends on the situation, but I would frown upon it. A lot of people I work with don’t understand it and they think maybe I’m Hollywood. They walk out afterwards and they say, “Man, this guy didn’t even give me no beats.” But the people that I do work with and exercise these principles with, we get the best results—all the time.
I’m not trying to work with everybody anyway. I’m just trying to work with who I can work with. It’s not like I’m trying to get a beat to everyone who’s popular. It doesn’t matter. It’s like, “Do you want to work with me, and discuss music, and try ideas, and spend more than a day or two?”
I bet Quincy Jones never gave anybody a beat in his life. That’s really not the role of a producer, to give somebody an instrumental and say, “Write a song.” I’m sure he didn’t say, “Yo Mike, I got this beat. You should put a scary guy at the end and it’ll be something like ‘Thriller.’” That’s just not really the historic way records are made.
I would say, “Look at the people you like the most, who sell the most over years and years and stay around. Are they the people that make the biggest smashes around the world? Or are they the people that put their heart and soul in their music and made a cohesive presentation of that?”
What A&Ring should be: helping set-up a process, a template, in order to get the best out of the label and the talent. What a producer is, it’s like, “Okay, let me take that and take it to the fullest extent that it can be taken and make it fit at the same time.” A lot of times people will say, “Do you have a beat?” I’m like, “No. I don’t have any beats. Lets make some songs.” It’s a process that’s long been left out of our music.
Rock-n-roll and country, they make songs. They’re not passing instrumentals around. They don’t do that. They don’t say, “Hey, write to my beat?” I don’t even know what you call it in country. [Laughs.] It’s like, “You got a song? Produce that song.”
It seems like you’re hinting at the difference between being a beatmaker and a producer. A beatmaker may make some sounds, whereas a producer is actually in the studio and works almost in the capacity of an A&R.
Absolutely. I’ll say this: I bet Quincy Jones never gave anybody a beat in his life. That’s really not the role of a producer, to give somebody an instrumental and say, “Write a song.” I’m sure he didn’t say, “Yo Mike, I got this beat. You should put a scary guy at the end and it’ll be something like ‘Thriller.’” That’s just not really the historic way records are made.
It’s a process that should really be discussed, envisioned, and executed in stages—not just, “Here’s the beat. Write a song. Okay, there it is,” and then all the other songs, the producer didn’t have anything to do with the process. I think that’s why albums don’t sound as good today.
If you were in the studio, and you met with a rapper for the first time, and they asked for a beat, would you not give them one?
It depends on the situation, but I would frown upon it. A lot of people I work with don’t understand it and they think maybe I’m Hollywood. They walk out afterwards and they say, “Man, this guy didn’t even give me no beats.” But the people that I do work with and exercise these principles with, we get the best results—all the time.
I’m not trying to work with everybody anyway. I’m just trying to work with who I can work with. It’s not like I’m trying to get a beat to everyone who’s popular. It doesn’t matter. It’s like, “Do you want to work with me, and discuss music, and try ideas, and spend more than a day or two?”
How did you affect Watch the throne?
