WYDU Mid Way Report Day One: Top 10 EPs

Wait? What? We are half way through the year? Ya gotta be shitting me.... Well crap, I guess that means I should get my shit together and do my "Half Way There" post that covers all my favorite releases as far as EPs, Instrumentals albums, and full fledged albums (I haven't decided if I'm going to waste my time with a mixtape category, I'm getting to really hate those things for the most part). It's an excuse to come up with some lists, what can I say? It'll be a week long thing, as I try to bang out a bunch of posts over the weekend so I can catch up with other shit that I need to do, questions, type out interviews, bios, and assorted other things. I never get caught up, it never stops.

Today, well kick out the top 10 EPs for the first half of the year. I love a good EP, something I can sit down and a half hour later, when my ADD has totally kicked in, I can move on to the next thing. In this age of shortened attention spans and the shuffle button on the iPod, not many of us can sit down with the same album over the hour and just listen to it. Yes, I do have my listening sessions each evening, but I usually end up doing something while I'm listening, whether it be surfing the net, organizing files on my computer or doing what I'm doing right now, working on the damn blog. Plus a lot of EPs can be found for free on the net. Myself personally, I'd rather listen five or six songs from an artists, than a cat rhyming over every classic hip hop beat, 10 songs that weren't going to make the album, for 25 songs on a mixtape that I will probably never listen to, so I appreciate the free EP as a marketing tool a lot more than the mixtapes in most cases.

When I started thinking about the EPs of the first half of 2009, I was kinda disappointed. I was thinking they were kind of slow, but when I sat down and pounded a list, I had a hard time. There were several EPs that I had to leave off that contain good music. Overall, it was a strong crop of EPs and like I said, most of these are free music, released by the artists to just keep their name out there. Without further ado, here is the "Top 10 EPs for the ADD Inflicted of 2009"

10. (TIE) ScholarMan - A Meeting With Andre Kostelanetz

Sounds Like: Hip-Hop meets classical music, which is what it is, ScholarMan rhyming over beats made from the music of the late Russian composer Andre Kotelanetz.

Summary: While my knowledge of classical music doesn't run all that deep, I do have some knowledge of it. My Freshman year in college, I had to take a Intro To Music class, which basically covered the history of music. They made us buy this 10 tape collection of different periods of music, and the way I got through it was to listen for stuff to sample for a hip hop beat in the whole thing. So basically, I've had a fondness for tracks that use the classical/orchestrated vibe, and that's all this EP is from WYDU favorite, ScholarMan. "A Meeting With Andre Kotelanetz" was a brain child from ScholarMan after listening to a record from the late composer. The beats are nothing short of great, with lots of strings layered over hard drums. On the mic, you know what to expect from ScholarMan with his monotonous flow, which works quite well with this type of project.

Favorite Tracks: "Well Orchestrated", "Not Give Up"

Website: http://www.scholarman.com/

http://www.mediafire.com/?yj25c45gtvr

Read More: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=36881

10. (Tie) Serge Severe - Orangutan Slang EP

Sounds Like: Straight up hip hop beats & rhymes. No gimmicks, no cutesy dance moves, just Serge kicking lyrics for days over solid beats.

Summary: Earlier this year, my man Gen Erik of Animal Farm let me know they were going to be in Boise to do a show. I told him I'd bring some cats and check it out. The day of the show, he emailed me saying he wasn't going to make it, but check it out anyway and he'd make sure we got on the guest list. He said half of Animal Farm would be along with fellow Focused Noise artists, Mic Crenshaw and Serge Severe. After waiting around for ever and putting up with a HORRIBLE turnout, we caught Serge's set and I was quite impressed with it. I'd already known about him through his Concrete Techniques LP from last year, but its good to catch acts live. Soon after, we ran a WYDU Spotlight on Serge, and with that, we posted up his free Orangutan Slang EP that shines some light on tracks that didn't make the Concrete Techniques project. Why not, I'm not totally sure, because there is some great tracks on this project. It has no gimmicks, just an MC rhyming over the beat, so for those of you that need flash with your hip hop, this isn't it. Those who just want rhymes and beats, this is what you seek.

Favorite Tracks: "Knock Knock", "Microphone Mandhandler", "Wit The Flow" (WHY OH WHY is this track so short?)

Website: http://www.myspace.com/sergesevere & http://www.focusednoise.com/

http://www.zshare.net/download/5893630387c8f549/=

9. Whygee & Sunkenstate - Suicide Watch EP

Sound Like: Throw some raw dinginess sound of Black Moon, toss in some numerous early 90's hip hop and add a dash of the 2000's in it and you have yourself some dirty, dusty hip hop for the 2000's.

Summary: Could it be that I show Whygee, Sunkenstate & Kid Hum a little "hometown" favoritism (I consider Denver my second home)? Nah, they deserve all the shine that I've given them over the last six plus months. I would put Whygee up against any MC from any hotbed of MCism and I'd put Kid Hum's beats against anyone elses out there as well. The Suicide Watch EP was shipped over to me by either Kid Hum or Whygee (I can't remember which one now) in late December, and after listening to it, I was very impressed the EP that they had crafted and the fact they were from Denver was an added bonus. The EP has steadily gained plays from me over the past six months, an opposite of what usually happens.

Favorite Tracks: "Cops & Crack", "Adam & Eve"

http://www.zshare.net/download/510280740a49f25a

Websites: http://www.myspace.com/whygee & http://thenameswhygee.blogspot.com/

Whygee EPK




8. Common Market - Winter Ends

Sound Like: A new millennium, northwest version of Native Tongues. Yes, it's a big compairison, but they deserve it.

Common Market are favorites of many of the underground blogs, such as WYDU. Producer Sabazi is quickly becoming one of the best underground producers east of the Pacific Ocean. The EP, Winter Ends, picks up where their full length album, Tobacco Road, left off with dope beats and thought provoking lyrics. Scion tackles everything from suicide to cheating death itself. Probably not your typical hip hop subject matter, but that's what draws me to their music. Coming in at five short and quick songs, Winter Ends still packs a punch and get you geeked up for the next release they plan on dropping.

Favorite Tracks: "Escaping Arkham", "Brasso"

Purchase: http://www.hyenarecords.com/catalog/commonmarket/thewintersendep

Website: http://www.myspace.com/commonmarket



7. Mouth Blocks - It Takes One To Know One

Sounds Like: A white version of Breezly Brewin' over butter smooth beats

Summary: (Yes, it's a cheap rip off of last Friday's post, but you get the jest). Long time WYDU readers will recognize this Yonkers MC, Mouth Blocks. We did a WYDU Spotlight on him late last year and the dude's EP stayed in my rotation for a few months after that (which is no small feat). Well Mouth Blocks is back, with another EP, this time totally free. Produced by Evolve-One, the smooth mellow beats are perfect for the ruff, yet smooth flow of Mouth Blocks. Lyrically, he won't "wow" you, but he brings stuff to the table that most cats can relate to. The songs are all under three minutes, so those with the short attention spans can whip right through a song and the EP in no time flat. Cats that get down with rhymes about just trying to get through life will no doubt dig this little EP. It comes highly recommended by myself and WYDU...

Favorite Tracks: "Can't Deny Me", "How You Doin, My Friend"



Welcome! Sit down, have a glass of lemonade, and while you're at it, sample some of our fine rap music, aged underground in dusty electronic equipment according to a cherished week and a half old family recipe. Imported directly from our very own slum in Yonkers, New York, in conjunction with California's Evolve-One, this rap music meets the highest standards in excellency set forth by Local 108 Crossing Guard's Union. We're so confident that you'll enjoy Mouthblocks' free download of "It Takes One to Know One", that for a LIMITED TIME we're offering a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE, if you enclose three fortune cookie fortunes in a S.A.S.E. addressed to yourself, and text 07734 07734 to Mouthblocks' disconnected cellphone. (offer only valid on Christmas day to residents of Puerto Rico)

Oh, yea, haters can suck an egg and critics get the di-dick. And if that makes me a jerk, well...

IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE

Kind Regards,
Silvio Zwoechenko Head of Marketing Baby Grey Productions Yonkers, NY

Download: It Takes One To Know One for Free: http://mouthblocks.com/

Other Websites : Check: myspace.com/mouthblocks and babygreyproductions.blogspot.com


6. Ill Poetix - The EP

Sounds Like: "The Real Shit", with horns, classic hip hop production done by a mad Scott, Sci-Fi, and the MCs are part of the reason why you should always check for music you've never heard of before.

Summary: I get a lot of music in my inbox and I honestly try to listen to most of it. I love finding new music. Sci-Fi (who should be familiar to those that jam Tha Connection releases as he has done several songs with the NY crew) hit me up about a three man crew out of the States named Ill Poetix that he was doing the production for. The trio was is also on his Advantage Music Group label and wehn I checked out a myspace page link he gave me, the song "The Touch" was the first track I heard and I was immediately hooked. The thing is, it's not just that song though that is dope, all five tracks should be on a person's iPod, but you will be seeing "The Touch" high up on the year end list for my favorite songs. Comprising of MCs The 4th, 808 (Stop 1) and Ivisuai, the group is definitely a group that I will be waiting impatiently for new music from.

Favorite Tracks: "The Touch", "What Y'all Waitin' For"



Free Download

Websites - Ill Poetix: http://www.myspace.com/wwwmyspacecomillpoetix
Sci-Fi: http://www.myspace.com/scifi1000
Advantage Music Group: http://www.myspace.com/advmusic1234


5. The Physics - High Society

Sounds Like: A combination of a lot of jazzy groups you've heard before and nothing like you've heard before. Upbeat, jazzy, and generally feel good music.

Summary: The new free EP from The Physics barely sneaked in under the deadline and I've been playing it almost daily since Tunji from Inverse sent it to me. Representing the great Northwest, a region I call home and always anxious to promote the great music coming out of the area, The Physics drop a fun, jazzy and catchy album (check "I Just Want To Beat" and tell me you weren't singing it afterwards). After doing some research, I noticed they had a full length release in '07 that completely got by me. If it's anything like High Society, it might be worth tracking down.

Favorite songs: "I Just Want To Beat", "Good"

Websites: http://www.thephysicsmusic.com/blog/

Click on the album cover to download High Society for free!!

Two years after the release of their critically lauded full length debut, Future Talk, Seattle-based hip hop group The Physics are back with June 2009’s release of High Society, an eight track EP of new material representing a natural progression both musically and personally. Steeped heavily in references to jazz and soul, Just D’Amato’s production (alongside Phee Dill & Dyalect) provides the smoothed-out backdrop against which lyricists Thig Natural and Monk Wordsmith (absent from Future Talk but a notable presence here) do their thing and do it with skill. Featuring guest appearances by beastly Seattle MCs Language Arts (“Back Track”) and Macklemore (“Good”) as well as one of the year’s most buzzed about local duos, the fresh-as-all-hell females of Thee Satisfaction (“Radio Head”), High Society dims the lights on the laidback aesthetic established in Future Talk and invites the listener to get real grown—and enjoy it. While this EP may feel like a main course, don’t get it twisted: it’s merely just a taste of what’s to come, a prelude to an additional as-yet-untitled release slated for later in the summer.

4. Brother Ali - The Truth Is Here

Sounds Like: Political, lyrical, assertive, underground, all over thick bass lines and catchy loops.

Summary: I'll admit that I'm not usually a Brother Ali fan. Yes, I like Ant's beats, and I think he is one heck of a lyricist, but his voice usually ends up grating on me before the end of an album. This time around though, I was impressed enough with everything else involved that it made his voice easier to get with. It's not even that it's an EP, it clocks in at nine songs, it's just good music all the way around, with "Palm The Joker", "Philistine David", "The Believers", and "Baby Don't Go" all getting extended plays from me this year.

Favorite Tracks: "Philistine David", "Palm The Joker"

Website: http://www.myspace.com/brotherali



3. Spork Kills - Beaches Love Us

Sounds Like: The Ventures meets Billy Joel meets Louis Logic (before he "became" Louis Dorley)
Summary: No, it's not the new Louis Logic project. It's the Louis Dorley and Beatman & Rockin' project. When one reads the biography of their latest EP, Beaches Love Us, one has to kinda wonder how something that is a "live band that fuses 60s surf rock with balkan, afro beat and hip hop styles," will actually sound. The answer? Pretty damn good, if you have an open mind when listening to your music. It's something different and the fusion of the smorgasbord of musical flavors works really well. Coming in at a mere four songs, it's like a good carnival ride, just when the good part gets going, it's over. That's a good sign though, wanting more. True, you have to have an open mind when it comes to Louis' new direction, but for those of you that listen to more than hip hop or at least can respect other musical sounds, Beaches Love Us is a fun EP to listen to. You have to wonder what a whole album will be sounding like, hopefully we won't have to wait too long.

Favorite Tracks: "Black Widow", "Blast From The Past"



Website: http://www.myspace.com/sporkkills


2. Has-Lo - You Can Live Thru Anything If Magic Made It

Sounds Like: The RZA had a son with a Ninja princess and gave him an MPC to play with

Summary: I'm not sure if I should call this an EP, a remix project (which it clearly is I supposed) or a mixtape. I will call it a damn good effort. We all knew Has-Lo could rap, and if you were into his music at all, you had heard his production, but did you really KNOW he could produce? Well, Has made sure you knew it after releasing his free EP, You Can Live Thru Anything If Magic Made It. Taking some hip hop classics, personal favorites and other goodies, Has made them his own by putting some of his dusty analoged funk on them. Tracks like Big Pun's "Leather Face", Ghost's "Love Session" and Nas' "Shootouts" all get bottom heavy, pounding drums boost from Hassy Davis. What's next? Time shall see......

Website: www.myspace.com/loreso

http://sharebee.com/ad4bc117

01 Intro
02 Big Pun - Leather Face (has-lo remix)
03 O.C. - Time's Up (has-lo remix)
04 Royce Da 5' 9, Elzhi & Supastition - Best To Do It (has-lo remix)
05 Cormega - Montana Diaries (has-lo remix)
06 Interlude #1
07 Ghostface Killah - Love Session (has-lo remix)
08 Sean Price - Onion Head (has-lo remix)
09 Common - Chi City (has-lo remix)
10 Nas - Shootouts (has-lo remix)
11 Outro
12 (Bonus Track) Tree Woodz - Move the Crowd (has-lo remix)

1. Poorly Drawn People - Motion Not Emotion

Sounds Like: Jim Morrison came back to life and started a rap group
Summary: Sometimes I worry if my personal interaction with artists sometimes skews my view of their music. Case in point with Poorly Drawn People, which is the group Storm Davis is a part of. Storm is an MC that I've had a good blogger/artist relationship over the past two years. I like dude cause he reminds me of my good friends and of someone that I would get a long with real well. So when PDP dropped Motion Not Emotion, I gave it a listen, and actually was planning on being harder on it than the average submission, just because I didn't want people to accuse me of favoritism (not that I give a rats ass what people think). After the first listen though, I knew that this was a good, nah it was a GREAT, release.

I hated to include this as an EP, although that's what the four man group of Storm Davis, Reason, Dox, and DJ Sterbyrock label it. The truth is, this is one of my favorite projects of any sorts this year. I've been blasting their music since running across Storm Davis' solo album, Kegstand Poetry for The Recovering Alcoholic, back in '07. We started talking and he let me know about the rest of his crew. From there, PDP's mixtape, Nothing Stays Gold, dropped in 2007 and last years Shoot For The Stars, Hit The Ceiling got major play on the iPod/car stereo, discman, computer and home stereo.

Well, they graduated from the mixtape scene to an EP, but it's got the flavor and cohesiveness of a full fledged album in the form of Motion Not Emotion. Coming in at tweleve songs, you get the typical PDP tongue in cheek humor, John Friesz name drops (props to whoever knows that name), missed women (and it's fuckin' annoying....listen to the song) and sound drops from "Better Off Dead", the classic 80's movie. They take everything you liked (or will like) about their mixtapes and put it all on one project. If you have heard them in the past, this needs to be heard. If you haven't heard of Poorly Drawn People, then you needs to hear this.....

Favorite Songs: Stress Filled Days, Might Blow Up, Ain't Hard To Make a Million Dollars, Stealer's Wheel, Better Off Dead, Motion Not Emotion

If you download it (and this is a totally legit download) and you like it, hit up them up and purchase a hard copy, you know those disc things that you can play in those disc thing players. Or just cop a shirt....either or.

Websites: http://www.poorlydrawnpeople.com/
http://www.myspace.com/motionnotemotion

http://www.sendspace.com/file/7mflik

01- Stress Filled Days [04:11]
02- Might Blow Up [03:50]
03- Aint Hard To Make a Million Dollars [04:25]
04- A Quarter Milli [00:38]
05- Sawbucks and Fins Ft ESH [04:33]
06- Stealers Wheel [03:30]
07- Elmer’s Lament Ft Labeless Illteligence [04:03]
08- Celebrity Rehab [03:39]
09- Way With Words [04:36]
10- Better Off Dead [03:42]
11- Static [04:20]
12- Motion Not Emotion [05:56]

Read More...

Summary only...

Spork Kills: An Interview with Louis Dorley Part Three

Today, we have the final part of our three part interview with Louis Dorley aka Louis Logic. Today, he talks about his new project with Denmark, Beatman & Rockin', known as Spork Kills. The press release for Spork Kills states:

"Madness! It can't be true!" This was the headline in world news when it was announced that someone had finally found a way to fuse rap and rock without sucking. The year was 2004 & unsuspecting indie rap renegade, Louis Dorley née louis logic, was about to step foot into another routine overseas collaboration, this time with Copenhagen production syndicate Nobody Beats the Beats. As fate would have it, the engineer who was to record this magical session fell ill and was replaced by flamenco guitarist extraordinaire, Laust "Juelz" Jeppesen. It was a classic case of loathe at first site when the two discovered they shared the same disdain for the monotony of 1994 rap revivalists. Three hours and one run of the mill rap song later, plans for a secret summit were orchestrated to invent something the hip hop world hadn't seen in years: The Next Cool.

In attendance at this freak show power summit were Jeppesen, Dorley and former hitman turned teen idol, Rolf Sigurd Heat. The discussion began simply enough with the objective to shun all things reeking of regimented rapping and banal beat-smithing. In no time the ill fated trio had whipped up a helping of original, sample-free, live music smacking of an early Roots album outtake. It was then that they realized they must go further. Their travels took them into unfamiliar territory, hacking their way through the overgrown forest of 50's and 60's white music "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" style.

At first, it was the ooze of sleazy lounge lizard jazz, which gave way to circus like waltzes and even histrionic Anglo spy scores. Then, born in the wake of a series of personal tragedies, sanctimonious late night speeches about reaching true potential and ice cold beers, the first Surf Rap song in the history of mankind materialized. Naturally, as was the case with man's first walk on the moon, something so exciting could not simply be explored once. Or rather, it could, but this trio was determined, neigh, bent on reshaping the rap game into something silly enough to enjoy once again. So it was that in this the year of our lord 2008, Spork Kills would rise to fame as the Fathers of Surf Rap.

I've always been a firm believer that just because something is different and original DOES NOT automatically make it good. I'm a big fan of things being original, but only if it's done right, which means that it's still good music. Too many times, I hear something is "the next thing", and it falls flat on it's face. That's so not the case with Spork Kills. While the hodge podge of musical styles might initially throw up a yellow flag to some, the sound they have conjured up is natural, unforced and very original...in a good way. It might not be for everyone, but those that have an open mind, enjoy good music, or just listen to a wide variety of music will dig their new EP, "Beaches Love Us."

Things are starting to look up for Lou and the Spork Kills project. The group just recently got their video on MTVU and received rave reviews and hopefully will be moving up the music channel's ladder of musical channels. The video consisted of several cult classic movies such as The Shining and even Teen Wolf. Lou talks of going back over to Europe to get things set up before releasing the full fury of Spork Kills on the states. Hopefully, Lou who is growing as an artist and a person, reaches his full potential with this project, which could turn out to be something special, and not just in the rap world, but in the music world.




www.myspace.com/sporkkills
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Spork-Kills/29475779234

Part Two: http://www.wydublog.com/2009/05/spork-kills-louis-dorley-interview-part.html
Part One: http://www.wydublog.com/2009/05/spork-kills-artist-formely-known-as.html

W: You eventually get over there, and what happened?

LD: They had a few sketches they had started by the time I got there. They played me a sketch; it's hard to call them beats, cause they are not really beats in a traditional sense. They are rock songs if I wasn't rapping on them. Anyway, we are sitting there and he hits play and this surf beat comes out and I was like, "WHAT THE???? Oh my god dude, this is innnnnnncreeeeeeedible. Holy shit, this is so cool man! Why has no one done this before?" It was so vintage too, so I asked them how they got it to sound so vintage. They researched and studied how they made these old records. They used the old techniques. They didn't record into the board, they didn't record into a software directly, like Pro Tools or anything. They used mic amplifiers, they bought as much vintage stuff as they could. They bought tube powered amplifiers and microphones. And they would mic them four or five feet away from the amplifiers, so it'd catch all the room noise and really do it like they did it in the 50's & 60's. It would give us this really vintage sound. They used real vintage guitar pedals and guitars and stuff.

We ended up writing a song to the first sketch that night. No one's heard that one yet, but I honestly think that it might be one of our first break through singles. Then we made two more on that trip, one is "Spits", which should show up somewhere. We made an appointment for another session. I came back and we made three more songs, two of them are on Beaches Love Us, the EP. Both "Black Widow" and "Blast From the Past". The third time, we made "Night of the Hip N' Dead" and the "Business or Pleasure". By that time, we had eleven songs that we loved. Theoretically we could have put it out as an album. We decided to make an EP and put some of it out there. Then a video director reached out to me and had a real promising situation that he brought to me. I was supposed to do a tour, and this was in May, so I asked the group I was touring with if they could book the tour and I could fund a trip to LA before the tour started. I would need three or four days to shoot the video then the tour would start in LA. So we made a video for "The Night of the Hip N' Dead", and I'm happy to tell you, Trav, that I'm getting my first video ever on MTV. I just found that out like four days ago (Trav's note: this interview took place in March, it's already on MTV now).

W: Awesome!

LD: It has to start on MTVU, which is not as exciting as being on MTV or MTV2, but it counts.

W: Hey, it works....

LD: Yeah, we have to possibility of moving up to the bigger MTV networks, if the video is successful. I've never had a video on any incarnation of MTV, so this is a great break through and I've very excited about it. It's the first time I'm going to be exposed to a bunch of people who wouldn't have any idea of who I am.

W: That's good though....

LD: That's one of the things that has been happening with the Spork Kills project though. Because it's so different and it's still very fun and very catchy, I'm finding that people that other wise wouldn't pay attention to me are raising their heads and taking notice. We even got interviewed by Vice magazine, who are usually the snobbiest jerks in journalism business. Whether or not we'll actually make it into the magazine, I don't know, but the fact that they sent someone to interview us in both Copenhagen and New York really surprised me.

W: Are you finding that it's more of the indie crowd that is following you now or...

LD: It's a mixture. It's what I always wanted. I'm finding hip hop heads who are totally down with it and want to go there with me and sing this records praises and push it out there and promote it. Then I'm finding people that don't care about hip hop at all are totally into it and calling it hip hop music that they would actually listen to. It's been exciting for me. I wouldn't try to convince anybody my sole purpose to try to gain fans that wouldn't normally listen to hip hop...I mean, yes, I do, but that's not the point. I do like the idea that I might make a good ambassador for hip hop music. To show people that might not otherwise give it a chance that there is hip hop that you might like even if you don't like what you think hip hop is.

W: That's a good thing, because I tell people that I listen to hip hop and they always reply back, "That radio shit?", and I'm like, "nah, nah, nah."

LD: And often people don't know what you mean by that, they are like, "Well, then what?" Ya know?

W: Exactly, they are like, "There is more than that?" I'm like, "Yeah, there is a lot more than that."

LD: Ah man, there is so many little subdivisions of hip hop anymore, that it's ridiculous.

W: It's crazy, it really is. Going back to the Spork Kills EP, I was reading the press release for it, and it mentions that Spork Kills is a combination of, among other things, Surf Rock and Balkan music.... before we jump into the Surf Rap thing, and excuse me for my ignorance on this one, but what the hell is "Balkan music"?

LD: (Laughs) I'm glad you asked man, see that is a good question. When I say this stuff, I just assume that people know it, or they are going to google it or whatever. And they should know about this, because it's an exciting part of what's happening in our mixture on any Spork Kills record.

Balkan stuff is typical of eastern European region, very Russian sounding. It easily has really laggy timing, like a tango or something like that. Tangos are just something that is a bit more popular sounding from that region. Balkan uses a little different instrumentation and Tango isn't Balkan. But they both kinda sound like (maheeerrrrrrrr, maaaaaheeerrrrr sounds). It's a dragging and tension, it's almost like eastern European gypsy music. There are a few indie rock bands out there that use Balkan. One would be Gogol Bordello; Beirut did a ton of Balkan stuff on their first album. Also a group out of Denver, DeVotchKa, which does a lot of Balkan sounding stuff.

In our particular case, we've done a lot of Balkan trumpet and piano stuff. Here is a good example, if you listen to the second verse in "The Night of the Hip 'N Dead", it has a Balkan horn and piano section in it. So if you are curious, you go back and check that out, and you'll hear this little piano bar that's like (starts humming out the keys), the pauses and delays are really dramatic. It's something that is quite common in that type of music.

W: What about all the other hodge podge of musical influences that can be caught in the Spork Kills project?

LD: We also infuse some Afro-Beat in our music as well. You can catch an example of that at the end of the song, "Black Widow", with that multi-layered trumpet section that finishes song out. Then there is the surf element of course.....

W: Do you own any surf records? When I read that description, it took me by some what of surprise....

LD: Only stuff that I ended up digging up after the fact. For research and reference more or less. I've listened to a lot of The Ventures, The Dakotas, more of the instrumental stuff for some reason. When Laust and Rolfe were concocting this stuff, they wanted to show me something that they had in mind and directions they wanted to go as well as what they wanted to do as far as mixing and creating a sound for it. I wouldn't say historically, I was in to surf records. I wouldn't call the Beach Boys a surf group, they were just called the Beach Boys. They had some surf influence in them, but they are more like the American Beatles than a surf band. I'm a huge Beach Boys fan. I also like some indie groups that are influenced by that type of sound, like The Shins, who are obviously influenced by the Beach Boys.

W: I remember when I was young, my mom bought me a Ventures tape, and I thought it was pretty cool, so I've always dug the surf rock sound. There is another cat, Tone Tank from Iller Than Theirs that has an EP with the surf rock influence...

LD: I've heard of the name, but I'm not familiar with their music.

W: The EP was all samples from surf music, if I'm not mistaking.

LD: What's his name?

W: Tone Tank...

LD: Oh, someone sent me a link to that once and I checked it out. I thought it was cool actually. I'd love the dude to get wind of what I'm doing and to hit me up and talk. I did appreciate and respect what he did with it. The only thing different with his was it was only surf and it was only guitar and there wasn't really anything added to it. It was literally a surf instrumental with him rapping on it. I still dug it and I thought it worked really well. He's the only other example I've heard of.

W: You two are the first ones I've heard of on that context...

LD: A fan of the Spork Kills project from Belgium sent me a link to that. I haven't said anything about it to Tone. I don't want to start any shit up, I don't want him to think I'm like a biter or something. I don't know what kind of dude he is. In my mind, we should be allies. We both did something that was very different.

W: I've never talked to them personally. I know they are part of the Nuclear family and close with Junk Science, who is signed to Def Jux, so maybe if you are still cool with El-P, you can reach him through that way or something.

LD: I think I'm still cool with El-P. That whole situation made our relationship a little different, but we've ran into each other since and he bought me a couple drinks.

Going back to Balkan, which I hope I explained well enough....


W: Oh yeah, totally.

LD: It's really crazy music man, I'm surprised more hip hop people don't fuck with it. It lends itself very well to hip hop. Here is something that might inspire your curiosity; A lot of the early J-Zone stuff with all the cooky sounds and stuff going on it, a lot of that was Balkan.

W: That makes sense, since he is a little eclectic on his samples and stuff. Speaking of J-Zone, I was talking to him and I mentioned that I was interviewing you and he said, "Yeah that EP is great, but I keep telling him to take it over to the European market." He would basically go on to say that American audience wouldn't/couldn't appreciate the music and that it would do better in Europe. What is your view on that?

LD: He is not wrong about that, that's what everyone tells me. A close personal friend of mine, I had a conversation with him before I went public with the Spork Kills project. I asked him what he thought of it, the first thing he said was “This is awesome, it’s really different and really cool, and I’ve always found what you do as really inspiring You just need to move to Denmark and tour this thing non-stop for a year and blow it up over there. Then you can come back here and you'd already have a jewel in the crown." I think this is where it's all leading, me going over to Denmark for an extended amount of time.

This has been a real illuminating interview, a lot of stuff is coming to light that I really haven't talked to anybody about yet. It's just timing, you happened to show up when I got more to say.


W: Good timing then. I'm assuming that you are putting a whole album out for the Spork Kills project then, correct?

LD: Well, I don't know actually. Obviously that is the intention and I've bent enough to say, Yes, we are, we'll find a way and I really do think this is a project that I'm getting a different and new kind of reaction out of people. This is the first record that I've ever made that if I go to a show or house party or anything that nobody knows me and I play one of those songs, people are coming up to me all night and asking me, "What is that? That is so cool!" I've never had music like that before. I've done some stuff that is pretty innovative that nobody else has tried. I've played entire tours and short sets that it's just me and a piano, no rappers have ever done anything like that before. But even then, people say it's cool and all, it doesn't get the same kind of reaction as the Spork Kills stuff does.

I get great reactions out of my live shows. I put a lot of energy into my stage show and that comes from touring as much as I have and having a great touring partner like J.J. for so many years. This new stuff though, it's so upbeat, happy and catchy. It instantly catches people. I've tried it several times, I've shown up at a loft party or something and plugged my iPhone into the mixer and played them the instrumental for "Black Widow" or something and people's jaws just drop. All night long they are asking me, "Where can I get that?"

So I feel like there will be an album. How it's going to happen, I couldn't tell you, but there will be an album. I'm fairly certain that the way it's going to happen is that I will be moving to Europe for awhile and touring like a nut there, putting out a full length album, then bringing it back over here.

W: Why do you think that European audience is much more open to different things than the United States is?

LD: For artists that have been touring over there the last fifteen years or so, this isn't really a secret. They know that European audience is a little more apt to seek out new things and decide for themselves what's good and what's cool. I think it's because the media and marketing machine doesn't work nearly as well on people over there as it does here. I don't really blame the kids here for not opening their minds and their ears. The system here is so effective. If you were a high school kid in the middle of nowhere and you didn't know all the words to the Lil Wayne songs, people would think you are a weirdo. That is a big part of going to a public school, is to fit in, so you can have friends, have a social life, get laid and all that shit. Over there, that's not as important. The machine doesn't work nearly as efficiently as it does over here. The kids are way more open minded to the concept of digging and seeking out their own music. That's a cooler thing to them. It's more important to them to know about bands that others don't know about.

I haven't actually made any concrete plans on what is going to happen next. We have been having doors open for us in the Scandinavian countries, that have never opened for me here. We found out just a couple weeks ago that a big Scandinavian commercial radio station is playing "Black Widow" in their rotation. When I saw the playlist, it was Depeche Mode, Franz Ferdinad, and Spork Kills. I think it's quite possible that J-Zone is right.

W: Did you release the EP on a label, or is it a do-it-yourself type of thing right now?



LD: I released the EP on my wallet. Which is a difficult thing to do, but I'm happy to say that my street team and my partners overseas, Laust and Rolfe have been a great team and we have been making great strides in getting the word out in this very poisoned music scene. We are getting attention and reactions out of people. It's been slow going, but it's beginning to work.

W: It did kind of sneak up on me. I consider myself a pretty big fan of yours and I didn't know about it until one of your people emailed me.

LD: There was never any official release date or any of that. It just kind of appeared one day. Instead of saving up a bunch of money then spending it on some big official release, we did a grass roots/ground up team of dedicated individuals who believe in the project and slowly pushed it out there. I owe a lot of what's going on in terms of notoriety that the project has been getting to my street team.

W: Let's wrap this up then, any last words or anything that I might have missed?

LD: Yeah, just to reiterate to everybody, all these ideas and efforts to keeping experimentation and innovation of high art, the first and foremost priority, that's really important. I think everyone should read "The Fountainhead", by Ayn Rand. It's just a great example of that kind of thinking. I used it as my own bible in a sense when it comes to artistic integrity. The very spirit of how you should conduct yourself as an artist. Go out and read "The Fountainhead", so when you go out and make your art, you are making it with the highest principles in mind. Because it is worth it, even if it's your own perils at risk, it is worth it, at least I think so.

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Spork Kills: The Louis Dorley Interview Part Deux

Back with part two of three today. We continue talking about Lou's continued maturation within his music. While the Misery Loves Comedy album was that "WFT?" album for some, I find that the deep topics and complexed production make it one of my favorite albums of the decade. Some of Lou's longtime fans and fans of Sin-A-Matic weren't able to follow along. After hearing the changes on Misery Loves Comedy, the new sounds that are found on his group EP, Spork Kill's Beaches Love Us should surprise no one. We also discussed the now somewhat infamous Zipper Theater incident. People were quick to judge and it's a prime example of sheep following the sheep in some instances. Lou gets deeper into the story. We also start in on the origin of Spork Kills....which we pick up more in depth tomorrow on part three....




Part One: http://www.wydublog.com/2009/05/spork-kills-artist-formely-known-as.html

W: Wow, that does kind of suck, it's almost somber looking back at it. Let's see....(brustling of papers is heard)....where was I?

LD: (Laughing) Yeah, you might want to take bits and pieces of this so they make sense and it comes out more like an interview instead of a Louis monologue.

W: (Laughing) Yeah, I had kind of an outline for this interview, but that's been blowin' to bits already.....

LD: (Laughing hysterically by this time) Oh shit, you are welcome.

W: Fuck it, we'll wing it. Talking about how things turned out, how do you view where you are at now as far as your career?

LD: I'm kind of floating around. Now I'm like this loner, with no real alliance or allegiance to anybody. This cooky fan base that is comprised of the few kids who were able to tolerate and hanging from the very beginning. Some of the Sin-A-Matic kids, who are more or less hanging on to see if I revert back to my old self or see me do those songs at shows. Then you have the Misery Loves Comedy kids who were obviously much less freaked out by the Spork Kills project. I'm getting new fans that are like, "How come this guy isn't more popular?" That's kind of been the uncomfortable reality of my whole career. Having learned as much as I have about live performance and so many different styles of music and incorporating into my hip hop as well as being able to sing and play the piano while rap. People come to the show and they don't believe nobody knows who I am (laughs). It's really awkward to say the least.

I think that is the reason J.J. (J.J. Brown, Lou's partner on 06's Misery Loves Comedy release) and I aren't out there anymore touring, it just became too much for him. J.J. and I will always have something to do with each others career. But there are a lot of questions on whether or not we'll ever make anything together again and right now I can't really answer them. I think it became to heart breaking that we would play shows in front of thirty on bad nights to a 130 on great nights. You had kids come up at the end of the show and say, "I can't believe you aren't more famous, you should be on TV, winning Grammys and stuff. I just can't believe it! I'm so sorry my town sucks and no one is here." And I'd be in L.A., I mean really, what sucks about L.A.? It's the greatest city on the west coast. Nothing sucks about it, what sucks is the weird pocket that I worked myself into. That's what sucks. That's not anyone's fault. It's my fault.

W: I'm not sure if you even really want to talk about this or not. I'm sure you are probably sick of it, and I wasn't going to bring it up either, but you kind of alluded to it earlier. The whole Zipper Theater episode...

LD: Ah great, no, we can talk about it. I feel like in hip hop music, you don't get a lot of opportunity to stick your neck out for a cause, unless you want to be a political rapper type of guy like an Immortal Technique. I'm just not into that, I'm just not that kind of guy. Talking about situations such as that though, it helps get certain social aspects out in the open. So what do you want to know about the Zipper Theater thing?

W: We both know that hip hop is a male testosterone, homophobic driven kind of genre...I mean (as I start stumbling over my words and how I want to word the question)...

LD: Are you going to ask me if I'm gay?

W: No! No, no, no, no!!!!

LD: (Laughing)

W: It just seems like it was a big risk and could have been seen as potentially damaging to your career by doing what you did there...

LD: It was a risk. It was calculated risk and one that I planned to take. I knew what was coming as well. When you have a public career, even if it isn't as big as you'd like it to be, the stuff gets out there. I knew someone would be there with a camera. If they didn't put the pictures up and make copies of them, then I was going to put them up. Adam Bernard, who has a pretty popular blog himself, put pictures and wrote a good post about it. That's all it took. Then I shared my own pictures and my own version of the events.

W: Yeah, it spread like wild fire on the nets that’s for sure...

LD: Yeah, I mean you can read about it elsewhere, but I'll try to give you the stuff that you can't read about.

W: Alright....

LD: First of all, I was playing a show with Lady Rizzo, who has been on Moby's album, Yo Yo Ma's album, she's a cabaret and burlesque act. She's a singer and comedian with a background in musical theater. So instead of having her come to my world.... I mean, what, am I going to have her rapping which would have been.....

W: (Laughing hysterically)

LD: Yeah, see? I don't even have to finish that thought. The other act was an indie rock act that is fronted by a super tall, super feminine gay guy. I wasn't going to ask them to come to me. I figured I'd come to their world. Lady Rizzo was going to perform on a song with me, but I didn't really have anything that would be good for a female vocalist in my back catalog. I could have had her sing harmonies on "Great Divide" or something. I originally thought, "I don't have any female singing parts", then I remembered, "Yes I do, on 'Coochie Coup'."

W: (Laughs again)..... yeeeeaaaah.....

LD: Yeah, right. I thought, "She's not going to want to do that. She'll think that's disgusting." Being on Moby's album and Yo-Yo Ma's album, she was out of my league in a sense. I wasn't going to ask her to be on this disgusting porno song. I can see it, I insult when I send her the track and she hears it and has to learn the words. She is kind of a rascal; her show has a lot of below the belt humor in it. I was like, "You know what, musical theory people are way more adventurous than I give them credit for, I'm going to ask her to do 'Coochie Coup', but I'll tack something onto it to make it fun for her so she won't think it's just a senseless, misogynistic jamboree." I told her I'd do it in drag. Originally I was going to wear like a Little Bo Peep dress or something silly like that.

She said, "What do you mean 'in drag'?"

I said, "I don't know, I'll wear fuckin' sun dress or something."

She was like, "Oh are you going to shave your legs and everything?"

I said, "No, I want it to be funny, I want to still look like a guy. Like a guy that has no business wearing this stuff. I'm not trying to convince anyone that I make a good cross dresser, that's not the idea, I want it to be funny. Maybe I'll even wear a beard or a mustache or something so it just looks totally ridiculous."

She said, "Why don't you wear lingerie."

I replied, "Okay! I'll wear lingerie."

She told me she would pick it out for me, she had tons of the stuff. I would go over to her house and she'd pick it out for me. When I dressed up in it, I thought I looked mad "Rocky Horror Picture Show," right out of the show. I thought it was funny, I was down with it, and I grew up on that stuff. We rehearsed it a little bit and it was going good.

Night of the show came, and I was wearing a pink shirt. Actually I changed into it just before the song. I told the crowd that I wanted to wear it for the next song to show my sensitive side, to get in touch with the ladies.

Lady Rizzo said, "With a pink shirt? I think that's kind of a soft attempt, you can do better."
I replied, "What do you want me to do?"

At that point, she rips off my clothes and I have woman's underwear on and we go on to perform "Coochie Coup" together.

W: So people obviously didn't get the whole story behind it then?

LD: Exactly, all people saw on line were the pictures, dancing around in woman's underwear. Not even that really, I was sitting behind the piano. No one is talking about that, someone playing piano and rapping. It was, "Oh my god, Lou's a faggot, he's wearing woman's underwear."

Here's what so stupid and annoying about this. Of course everyone wanted to ask questions about it. I'd be on a tour somewhere, like in fuckin' Idaho or something, where a dude working at local radio would be pre recording an interview for his college show and he'd be like, "Uhhhh, ummm, okay, I'm going to ask you something, BUT you don't have to answer if you don't want to. I'm not trying to insult you...yada yada yada," and he'd give me this big thing, and then he'd say, "Okay, the Zipper Theater show...” and I'd be like (in an annoyed voice), "DUDE, WHAT? What about it?" And the poor kid is like all nervous and whatever....

W: Kinda like me? (Laughing)

LD: He'd be like, "Well....why did you do that? Everyone keeps saying and all, you know, like..uh uhhhh," and I'd be like, "What? Are you trying to ask me if I'm gay??? Is that what you are trying to ask me?" I thought the kid was going to cry. He's like, "No!.............Are you?"

W: (Laughing hysterically by the way Lou tells the story)

LD: And I'm like, "Perfect, you are the first person to fall into the trap." I tried it on you Trav, but you didn't fall for it. I'd tell him, "That is exactly what I wanted you to ask me, so I can tell you that I refuse to answer your question." Because I like it that guys are walking around wondering. People that listen to rap music should have to wonder about those types of things. They should think about these things. I don't even think it's the artist that should have to pay this toll of the history of homophobia or whatever, when the fans are okay with it.

W: To me, it seems like the ones that get so upset about it are the ones you should worry about....It just seemed really odd to me that everyone got so bent out of shape about that whole incident. I had to chuckle to myself.

LD: Some people were upset. Others were celebrating. They were singing to the high heavens cause they never liked me and it gave them an excuse to really bash me on line with some good pictures. If you google my name and go search in the message boards. There would be a post like, "Best five indie rappers of All-Time", and I'll be number four or something. Some kid would come along then and be like, "Louis Logic?!? FAGGOT!!!", then they'd post those pictures.

I just like the idea of if I don't answer the question; it plants a seed of doubt. I think rap fans deserve to have think about the idea that some of their favorite artists might chuck cock. It's a good thing for them to have to accept. It's a fairly close minded set of people. The only more homophobic audience than the hip hop audience is the reggae audience. Country? Shit, no way man, it's a blues influence and everyone in blues is a lesbian, (female voice from the background is heard) yeah, all the great singers. My girlfriend is over here chiming in.

So yeah, I don't answer that question. You figure it out, am I? Go wonder...I might be... I'm not saying I'm not...
W: (Laughing) Nice...Let's talk about the new project, Spork Kills, and how that all came about. I know Beatman and Rockin' had an album that you were on that came out in, what, 2006?

LD: Let's see...uhhhh.... math, I'm no good at it. Yeah, let's just pretend that we are certain it's 2006 so I don't have to hurt my head. They did an album called, "Who's Supa Now?", that came out on a Copenhagen based label that was distributed through Universal. They came from a huge collective called, Nobody Beats the Beats, from Denmark, Scandinavia and that whole region of countries in Europe. That bad is pretty big, as big as and mid level indie rock band here. They're pretty big over there. They were comprised of five different production entities. Beatman and Rockin' were a part of that. They used to be known as Nick Nack before they changed their names after a DJ from the states with that name became pretty popular.

W: How exactly did you guys link together?

LD: Long story short is, I was hired to appear on the Nobody Beats the Beats Vol. 3 album. The studio engineer didn't show up because he was sick. Sonny B, the founder of the label these guys are on, called up one of the band members to come in and fill in as engineer. It turned out to be Laust Jeppesen, who is one half of Beatman & Rockin'. We had such a good time hanging out in the studio and recording this song, that I suggested that we listen to some of his stuff and I maybe I could do another guest appearance sometime on one of his beats. He played me some of his stuff, and he plays this song with a Black Thought verse, and I was like, "Wait a second, I have heard this before, where I have I heard this?" It turns out that three years prior I was in Denmark and I visited someone’s basement studio and they were showing me some of their work and they had a Black Thought verse they were messing with. They were asking my opinion concerning the verse and the beat. I liked it, it was a really dope verse. Three years later, here I am, and it's the same guy. I recognized at that moment. I guess I didn't recognize him at the time, cause he was pretty much sitting the whole time in the studio. It was just so weird.

I told him I'd call him the next time I came back to Copenhagen. We could go back to his studio and create something just for fun, just jam or something and see if anything would become of it. So we got together maybe six months after that. I gave him a call and he was like, "I can't believe you are callin' man, I thought you were just being polite," and I said, "No, no, no, I meant it, I really wanted to do something." So I came to the studio and he introduced me to the other half of Beatman and Rockin', Rolfe. We started toying around. Rolfe was playing a little bass line and Laust was plucking' little guitar melodies. I'm really liking it and humming along and in two hours we end up slapping a song together from nothing. I'd never done anything like that before. There were no samples in it. It just happened so fast. From writing to recording, two hours. I was like, "Holy shit! We should make an album!" The song was actually pretty good. It sounded like something would have been on the first Roots album, it was really jazzy and live sounding. The only thing not really cool about it was stylistically it was boring. It was like everyone’s first impulse when they decide to do live hip hop.

W: Yeah, I've noticed that when it comes to hip hop and a live band, it always has that jazzy feel to it. I've always wondered what would it sound like with different elements tied to it instead.

LD: Exactly. We were like, "Let's keep going", and make it more weirder and different. We tried something that was really bluesy and rocked out. I was still like, "Okay, I still think this is standard fare. Let's push further." Then we made one that was really slap sticky; it almost sounded like it could have been a J-Zone beat from his early days. I was like, "Wow, this is really cool! Now we are getting somewhere." It was in a cooky time signature for rap at that time. Now a lot of people do 6/8 time. I was waaay into it. Then we made another one that was also in 6/8; it was kinda like spy music, but really cheesy, melodramatic spy music. It used Jazz principles and sounded like a 60's spy thing. I was thinking, "This is awesome!" It got really big bandy. We discovered what really worked for us. It was silly, melodramatic, dorky and kinda...white, for the lack of a better term.

A year went by, because J.J. and I were in the middle of wrapping up Misery Loves Comedy and we had to tour for that and my mom got really sick. I didn't want to fly overseas, because I wasn't sure what was going to happen. It was probably late 2007, like October, and Laust and Rolfe called me and Rolfe's mother ended up dying of lung cancer and my mother was so sick with lung cancer. I felt so bad having to hear that. My mom was in treatment for it and some it was successful, so I just felt bad for him. Then two months later, my mom died from lung cancer. At that time, I just wanted to go to Copenhagen. We needed to hug it out and cry and I we need to make this record cause I think it could be something amazing.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Spork Kills: The Artist Formely Known As Louis Logic Part One

Over the years, doing this blog has given me the opportunity to talk to many of the artists I grew up listening to and enjoying. Even some of my personal all-time favorites such as J-Zone, Milk D, and J-Ro have popped up on here as write ups, which in turn have lead to interviews. I have to say, it's always exciting talking to artists that you consider among your personal favorites. That happen again recently, as Louis Logic, now known as Louis Dorley contacted me about his new project, Spork Kills.

I've been a long time Lou fan, from the first time I heard "Logistics 101", to the alcoholic ode, "Factotum", which if I remember right, I first heard on either UGHH.com or HipHopSite.com back in the day. I then found them on AudioGalaxy or Napster, whatever file sharing network I was using at the time, and thus, my years of being a Louis Logic fan began. Over the years, I've matured (somewhat), and Lou's music has matured right along with me. His early stuff was straight up battle rhymes, punchlines, with the main topic being booze, women, and sucker MCs. Being in my mid twenties myself at that time, that's all I really wanted to hear out of my hip hop artists. His homemade release, Music To Drink By and Debacle in a Bottle were easily some of my favorite music to get drunk to.

As time went on and his first official release, Sin-A-Matic dropped, there was a noticeable change in some of his subject matter and music in general. I too was also going through some changes. The music was more mature, and so was I. No longer was my main concern on where I was drinking at that weekend. I had other things on my plate, other things that I needed to worry about. It was on Sin-A-Matic that Lou drops one of the best George W. Bush related songs in "The Ugly Truth". My lack of love for Dubya is something I've mentioned numerous times and also marks my interest in politics for the first time in my life.

Lou's next album, Misery Loves Comedy, was an even bigger departure from his earlier sound. The album dealt more with realtionships and other topics, more stuff that I myself always seem to be going through. For me, in my older age, it's important for me to find music that I can relate to, so while Lou's music and Lou himself was changing over the years, so was I. It's that reason why I still check for anything that Louis Dorley aka Louis Logic puts out. It's also why he was always on my short list of artists I'd like to speak to.

That's what we did, we had a chance to talk to Lou about so many things in this three part interview that will be going up this week. We'll start here, with part one, which Lou covers some of his earlier career.

www.myspace.com/louislogic
www.myspace.com/sporkkills




WYDU: What's good Lou? It is Lou still, isn't? I've seen numerous incarnations of your name as of late, what's the official moniker?

Louis Dorely: King Dorley, usually. Also sir, master, great one, I use all varieties of those.

W: Oh mighty great one?

LD: That works, you can improvise. Originally, my initial intention in choosing a moniker was to make it so no one had to call me by a moniker, hence working my given government name into my rap name. It just never worked out, of course everyone was bent on calling me "Logic", and I was like, "Oh God."

When this whole band thing happened, I was like, "This is nice, a band. I can take some of the ego out of this and make it a little more Marxist. I'll just be Louis Dorely." So far, I've almost no luck with that. Everyone has been fairly insistent on saying, "Have you heard the new Louis Logic project, Spork Kills?"....

W: (Laughing) Yeah, I've read that more than a few times.

LD: I'm not Diddy, I don't get away with changing my name every six months by doing a simple press release. I've got do this by cramming it down people's throats and not answering to Louis Logic if I want people to take it seriously. It really isn't a name change, it's more of a return to my real name that I've been going to slowly. I don't know if it will really ever stick, but I'll keep doing it. Maybe it'll become some kind of a joke at some time and that will work to my advantage, who knows?

W: So is Louis Logic dead then?

LD: I wouldn't say that he's dead. He's 34, he pays his own bills, he is fixing his credit, and he doesn't wake up with two hours of sleep after a night of drinking and feel revived anymore...

W: Yeah, I know that feeling...

LD: So yeah, he became Louis Dorley. He didn't die, he just changed.

W: I've listened to your music since "Factotum" and "Logistics 101" days, and I'm not sure I've seen an artist take the path of maturity that you have. From those early days to what you are now, I can't really think of anyone, that we as fans, have seen change so openly....

LD: I can't explain this. I think I'm getting a good sense of what you want to know. I think when we were talking off the record about the nature of the interview and that there would be some questions about my past and how it lead to the present and what's happening now, I think that little off the record discussion is exactly what we're getting at here. I can fill in the blanks with some of the puzzle pieces that lead me here, where I'm at today. There are a few key influences that inspired me to make some of the changes that I have and to grow as I have, although not all of my fans of my earliest work will consider it growth. That's just something you have to deal with an artist though, so I don't worry about that part.

W: Understandable.... I think to get a good grasp of what you are doing now, listeners and the readers have to know the path you took to get to where you are now.......

LD: Even from my beginnings with hip hop, I was always coming to it with the knowledge of a whole other world. It wasn't that I had hip hop pumped into me from the umbilical cord into the womb. It wasn't at all like that at all. In my house, it was very classic rock and 80's metal oriented. My older brothers were two Italian guys from Long Island (Lou was adopted). They weren't all that into hip hop back then in the 70's. I knew a lot more about Led Zeppelin, the Doors and Iron Maiden than I did rap music as a kid. My first ever hip hop record was "Roxanne, Roxanne" by UTFO. That record wasn't about the rapping or the beats, it was about the breaking for me. This isn't something I usually talk about when I'm asked about this kind of thing. When I was really young, I wanted to break dance for a living. I thought you could be a professional break dancer. I don't even know if there were people who made a living at breaking at the time, but I just loved it. I would to competitions and that kind of stuff. UTFO was just some stuff I liked to break to. Then I got a 45 of Newcleus' "Jam On It", some Fat Boys records, I just kept it moving. By the time I got into the 7th grade, I had spent three or four years being a hardcore breaker and hip hop head. Which is a lot different from the years as a little kid, all on a sugar high, trying to sing the lyrics to Queen songs.

I got really into skateboarding around this time. I had been skating for awhile already, probably about the time I was ten or so. By the time I was 13, I got good enough that I started making that my main priority. Skateboarding introduced me to punk and the stuff that birthed to what we know now as electronica, emo, and stuff like Erasure, The Cure, Depeche Mode and stuff like that. There was a three year chunk that I didn't listen to any hip hop at all. I listened to stuff that skateboarders typically listened to, and that wasn't hip hop.
From there, I ran into a skater who was a hip hop head and that was the first time that ever happened. By that point I was 16 or 17 and hip hop just over took me. From that point, from the time I was 17 to 25, I was just a maniac hip hop head. I didn't want to listen to anything else, I pretty much slammed the door on all other forms of music.

W: So going back to your somewhat gradual change over the years, was their any specific event or person that helped set the transformation in motion?

LD: I started rapping pretty seriously around the age of 19, by 24 I was recording demos and by the time I was 25, my first record came out, the "Logistics 101" record. And kudos to you for knowing about that. For me that is the start, that is step one. I spent years at being a hard beats, hard rhymes, punchline type of rapper. I would mix in some drunken stuff, some character type of stuff, but it was very traditional. I had meet JJ Brown, by this time and he was trying to break me out of my shell and get me to be more than just a punchline type of rapper. By that time I had made three or four singles. Around this time, Vinnie Paz introduced me to my first "hipster", Max Lawrence, also known as King Honey. He produced a few tracks off of Viktor Vaughn's first album. His family was a wealthy Midwestern family from Ohio. His dad was a brain surgeon and his mom was a lawyer. He was a Jewish kid, who was part owner of an art gallery. He was just a big time hipster. But he was just super cool. He seemed to know something about everything. He could make beats, he could play piano, he could do hip hop, electronica, he could do video editing, graphic design, painting, and he was good at all of them.
So Vinnie Paz introduced me to this kid. I used to hangout with him in his art gallery in Philadelphia, Space 1026. Max told me straight up to my face, "You need to stop listening to Eminem records, you are starting to sound too much like him." By this point I had written a lot of the Sin-A-Matic album stuff, but I hadn't recorded most of it. Max basically said to me, "Look, I like a lot of that stuff too, but when you go to art school, one of the things they teach you is that you got to hide your references better. Or you have to draw from references that are so far outside of your own medium, which it doesn't seem strange if their influence on your music is apparent. So why don't you put your Eminem records away and start listening to some other stuff. And put your Big L records away while you’re at it and your Lord Finesse stuff, cause you are bent on that."

W: I can see where this is going. Sin-A-Matic had some subtle changes from your earlier stuff, obviously, but Misery Loves Comedy was a lot more musical......

LD: Yeah, exactly. So that's what I did, I went back to my roots. I started listening to classic rock, singer/song writers and I never really looked back. That was probably around 2001, when I started to listen to other stuff and by 2003, that was it. I don't even remember the last time I bought a hip hop record after that. In the beginning, it was with function and purpose in mind. I just wanted to make great art, without sounding like the music of those who I listened to. Then it became something else. Then it was about trying to experiment in styles that I wasn't comfortable, and master them in a public setting while people were watching. I started taking voice listens and learning to sing. Then I became curious how music was written, and felt like charlatan for making money off of music when so many musicians had dedicated their lives to it, playing some instrument, going to school for it that were working in offices, being high school teachers. Here I am this guy, who knows nothing about music theory at all, and I wasn't getting rich or anything, but I was traveling all over the world and at least supplementing and scrapping by a living with music. It made me feel guilty. So I started taking piano. I always thought it would be cool to play piano and rap. Whether I could make it work, I wasn't really sure, but I thought it would be really cool.

My ex-girlfriend, who ended up becoming one of my best friends, she bought me voice and piano lessons for my 30th birthday. I got really, really, really serious about the piano. The voice lessons I took for like a year or so. I used that basically as a means to do vocal exercises, warm up and project so that I wouldn't hurt myself while I was touring. I didn't use that as specifically to improve my singing. I think it has improved a lot, people that listen to my records have noticed that I've gotten a lot better at it, but that's come more from studying famous singer/song writers and practicing. Piano on the other hand, I went to lessons for maybe a year to a year and a half. I would go twice a month and studied three to five hours a day. I'm probably down to an hour to two hours a day now, but I've stayed pretty dedicated to it and intent on perfecting as much as I could with the piano.

I think those things lead me in the direction that I took. You saw me make records that were just about beer and punchline rap. Then you saw me make a concept album that incorporated that kind of humor and character into themes. Then I took it back a little bit and made a super over the top, beer and battle rhymes record. Then I made a really grown up record about the really silly stuff in relationships. From there, since that time, I've been working that the next rap record I make demonstrates what I spent all this time learning while still being fun, catchy and innovative.


W: I'm guessing that's where the Spork Kills album came from then?

LD: Yes that’s how the Spork Kills record really happen. It's the end of my ten years of learning about rapping, performing live, singing, performing piano and music theory. I met the guys in Denmark and we started making this record. I remember looking back at it and thinking "Wow, this really does use everything I've learned over the last few years." So it's been an exciting time. It's really the first time I've ever made something that is a focused product of all these years of experimentation.

W: How do you feel about how some people will, and have, taken this change and evolution? Obviously, the core audience that came up with you ten years ago might not be hipped to this, or they could be like me and have grown and matured along with you. I mean it's like you said, you're an artist and you can't make everyone happy. Do you just kinda of move on and not let it affect you?

LD: Not always, it gets to me a little bit. I wish I could show them that there is something else out there besides people with cool voices being smart asses on beats. There is more to music than that. If you just open you’re mind and your heart to hearing it and being a part of it. It's just so hard to break a first impression. A lot who won't follow me on this wacky journey that I've taken, aren't really into other types of music to begin with. Or its that they into other types, but their whole thing is: "Be true to your origins." They don't like it that I've changed so much or they think that I'm desperate, that I'm trying any last ditch effort to be heard. The thing is with this record, it is being made with a higher principle in mind of trying everything that I've been afraid to try and making a more musical rap record. Something based in the principals of music theory, not just a cool loop that someone else spent all their time learning all that stuff, playing and then me rapping on it. Maybe you've noticed, I don't know. The Spork Kills record is not even a sample record...

W: I'm not always up on my sample history, but nothing caught my ear as being a sample, so yeah I noticed.

LD: There are reasons for all of that. I wish I could make those kids understand that, or make that matter to them. Sometimes it just doesn't matter, there is a sentimentality of what it is about an artist that you ended up liking in their first form that you discovered them in. I think Sin-A-Matic was the introduction to most people. Even the kids that were into me before the Sin-A-Matic album came out, there wasn't really a formed opinion out there, there wasn't really a formed collection of my music. You couldn't really say, "this is Louis' sound." All there really was at that point before Sin-A-Matic was two self-made CDs that pooled together all the guest appearance work that I had done over the five or six years that I was developing. They didn't really project a particular sound or style. It was tracks of me drunk battle rapping next to other MCs. Then when the Sin-A-Matic album came out, it was like, "Here he is. He has a personality and a style and a back story."

Once I changed from that, people were like "Don't do that! Where is Sin-A-Matic 2?" But I don't do that, I've never been about that. When I look up to an hip hop artist, it's usually someone like Outkast, who every time they make a record, they completely reinvent themselves. You are either with it or you are not. Me, I respect their boldness and how well they pull of each reincarnation of themselves. I didn't even really like the last one that they tried, Idlewild. I thought it was pretty unexciting and not a far enough stretch from the previous record. Or maybe even a regression. I still respect them for not just doing the same thing. They could have done another Love Below/Speakerboxxx thing, but together. That would have been a little different than what they done before. But they didn't do that. They wanted to do a bluesy, rag-time, musical type of thing, and I was like, "What are these guys thinking? This is crazy!" (laughing). But I like that about them.

W: So do you have any regrets in your career, with the way you've done things are handled them?

LD: Yes, I do actually, and it's a business regret. Maybe some people know about this, but most don't cause I don't talk about it too much. When the whole feud was going on between Weathermen and the Demigodz, I was trying to pull myself out of it. First of all, I thought it was stupid and I'm not a tough guy and I never claimed to be. I don't CARE what other people think of that. It doesn't matter if people think I'm a good fighter. I don't care if people want to call me a bitch or a faggot, I just don't care. I'm a grown man and I'm making music, I don't care if I don't fit into what you think from an ego stand point, I could give a shit about that.

So I wanted out of it. I tried to remove myself by not participating while they were all battling and try to punch each other and all of that. This one night, I was at a bar in Brooklyn and El-P came up to me with Camu Tao, who I'm sure everyone knows ended up passing away not too long ago. That makes this an even more particularly weird thing for me. Camu got really aggressive and in my face about the whole thing. I tried to talk my way out of it and saying to him, "Maybe you're not really paying attention to what's going on, but I'm the least involved member of my crew in this whole thing, cause I don't care. If it really bothers you so much, you should really go and talk to Celph about this." In part, I said that cause it's really how I felt and in part I really didn't want to get into a fist fight cause I hate fighting and I suck at it and he was like three times my size. I wasn't stupid and just wanted to talk my way out of it.



El-P is more like me in that aspect. We're grown men, we're musicians. He was like, "Camu, go sit down and relax. He is fine, he doesn't want any trouble." El-P and I sat down and started talking. He asked me what I was up to these days, and told me he had been watching what I was doing and really liked the Sin-A-Matic record and how successful it had been. And I had shopped that album to Def Jux, while it was still in its early stages. He told me then he was interested in it, but I could be waiting for a very long time cause he had his release schedule set for a year in advance. I was so hungry then and major labels were scouting me pretty hard, so I said "No".

This particular night, he is asking all these questions. I say to him, "Why are you asking me all of this?" And he says, "Because I want to know what you are going to do with your next record." Immediately, I asked him, "Are you trying to offer me a record deal on Def Jux?" He said, "So what would you say if I was?" I was like, "I can't talk to about this, and you know that. All my friends will say that I'm a trader and that I have no loyalty. They would make fun of me, I mean they call you guys nerds and all that. I just don't want to get in the middle of all that mess. I really want to though, I like your label. I think what you are doing is brave and your artists are experimental. That's more me. I don't even fit in with my own crew, I fit in way better at your place. But I just feel it's wrong." He said he figured I would say that, but he had to ask.

Looking back at it now, it was stupid of me. I should have made a grown man decision and just said yes to the offer. I should have made a business decision with my mind, instead of a boy decision with my heart. It's 2009 and none of the Demigodz talks to me anymore. Celph, Ap, and all the Army of the Pharaohs guys, none of them talks to me anymore. They think I'm a weirdo and a faggot and whatever. It's fine, I'm not mad about it, I don't even feel really bitter about it. It's just sad that that's why I said "no" to something that would have put me into Spin and Rolling Stone magazine. I feel like a fool for saying no to that. I never really talk about this when people ask me about it. This might actually be the first time I've spoke about it in an interview. I'm a fairly candid guy and open, but I usually skipped over this if anyone asked me something that might lead to that story.......(sound of dogs parking in the background)

W: Sorry man, one second......(screams "SHUT UP" at the dogs)

LD: (Laughing) Well played, sir!

W: Sorry about that man...

LD: No problem man, I got three dogs, so I understand. I thought you might find that interesting. That's my regret. And there are two reasons. One, it would have exposed me on a much bigger scale to an audience of people who would have appreciated the changes I have gone through. I'm sure you are no stranger to the concept that the Def Jux audience is way more hybrid and mixed than most hip hop label's audiences. There is a lot of punk kids and indie rock kids and hip hop kids that love it, which is a WAAAAY better fit for me.

W: Yeah that would have been a nice fit...

LD: Yeah, it would have been a much better fit than where I am now. That's why I regret that decision cause it would have changed things. It may not have been a cure all, but it certainly would have changed things a bit for me, if I had said "yes" to El-P's offer. Then there is the fact that the people I said "no" for, they don't even really talk to me. There is only one of them that doesn't talk to me because he just doesn't like me and that's Apathy. Celph and I are still friendly. We talk on the phone maybe once a year and he's excited to talk to me. It's more about friendship though with Celph, we have no reason to talk about music. We drifted so far apart musically, there is just nothing to talk about. Esoteric doesn't return my phone calls or emails. I've called him with business opportunities before, "Hey someone wants to book both of us. We'll get a bunch of money and a free trip, wanna come?", and he won't even return my call. I know he's not mad at me and I'm not mad at him, but that's the crowd of people I defended. It just sucks.

TO BE CONTINUED.......

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