Prince Paul: MC
March, 1999
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Prince Paul: (P): Yeah my start with Stet started in '84 actually, yeah it was a while ago. I met them while battling some DJ's up in Brooklyn and they approached me, looking for a DJ for their group. They had just won some contest, I think Mr. Magic Rap Attack contest or something like that, and they needed a DJ because they were trying to get a demo done and shop a deal and wanted to complete the group. I was at the right place at the right time more or less, it was cool.
VV: You grew up in Long Island, are you still living there?
P: Yeah, I love Long Island man, nice quiet trees and kids playing, you don't get too many shoot outs. I was living in East NY for a little while and that was a little too wild for me. You had to like redo your path every time you go back home, "Hey it's 4 o'clock, he's coming this way, aight c'mon."
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P: Nah, I knew Maceo for a while and we was working with this kid named Gangsta B, who didn't quite work out, but Maceo said he had a crew and whatever you'd want to do we'd be down to work with you.. and this is when I had the first record with Stet and he brought me over a tape and I was like "This is no joke," and told him to bring them by the house and seen who it was I was like get outta here.. cuz we all went to school together. I was like I didn't know they rhymed! People at school you least expect to rhyme and we put a demo together and took it to Tommy Boy and Tommy picked it up. They had a few deals but they decided to go with Tommy Boy.
VV: Was the demo a back room type of demo or a studio production?
P: We actually went to a 24 track recording studio up in NY where I recorded all the Stet stuff. So I figured we might as well record it done, you know what I'm saying, so when we take it there we keep all the money... you know.. the $200 they gave us. (Laughs) Yo, budgets were low back then. When I was in Stet I remember I got $600 and I was like I can buy me a VCR, and what else, my 2 Technics cuz 1200's were like $200 back then, not any more man.
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P: The artists usually call me up, which was good. I try to be accessible, not like call my secretary, call my boy, it's like people can approach me anytime anywhere, my number has been the same for like ten years so people just get my number and call me up.
VV: When you work on other projects how do you get involved with the sound, as far as like if an artist comes to you and says I want you to produce this record or this song, of course they have in their mind already what it's gonna be, but you as a producer you come in and you're like well.. I wanna do this... ?
P: See on my record there's no compromises you know cuz it's my record. But when I work for other people I usually tell them how I hear them, especially if I'm a fan I can kinda listen to the rhymes and stuff and say this is how they sound the best, therefore this is what I think will work,, and that's how I usually operate but I like to compromise and have them give me an idea of what they want.
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P: That was more like a glorified production deal, I had my Doo Doo man label. That was my slogan, the logo was real graphic man, you can take it from there, I should start it up again. (Laughs) I don't know, during that time I think I came to a realization of how the music industry is. You know cuz I didn't come in here with the intention of making records, I mean I joined Stet and we was like we're gonna make records, not like "Hi, I'm Prince Paul, here's my 8x10 glossy, here's my bio, and here's a tape of my tunes." I was just like "Wow, I just love DJ'ing and being around." My whole thing was I do for you and you do for me but as time went on I got really successful and success kinda dwindled, the same people you call on and the same record execs "Tell him I'm not in," and call people like "Yo man, come down I'm shooting this video" are like "Ah man I'm kinda busy man." But I realized it operated like that so it kinda threw me for a loop, that's the reason the gravediggaz came out more or less. The whole thing was like I'm gonna get some brothers who are going through the same crap if not worse and we're gonna make this angry record. It was a vent record, that's the only way I could operate was through music. If I reacted off the actions it wouldn't be a good thing.
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P:I did the first one, I produced most of it. And the second one I just did a skit. But my whole thing was I wanted them to focus on what they wanted to do more. I was changing at the time, getting into other things, I'm not one to bump heads creatively with other people. I keep moving. Same thing with De La Soul, you get to a certain point and I don't want to impose my ideas, I had that done to me when I was in Stet so I refuse to be that man to prevent people from going where they want to go.
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P: (D) To tell you the truth I got to call up the Grammy people and find out. All I remember is like last year, sitting on the toilet and moms was like "Hey, did you produce the album Roll With Chris Rock?" and I was like "Yeah mom, I think you won!" I was like, well, it's time to get up. (Laughs) Ran upstairs and the phone started lighting up.
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P: I hope you run the short one cuz the long one is too long. I think the short one really represents more of what I wanted to show, like the fast cuts, trailer style. The long one, we ran out of funding, it's rough when you're trying to milk a few g's to make a movie. That's why I'm trying to get the rest of the funding now, and if worst comes to worse we'll have it go straight to video, and if worst comes to worse comes to worse.. It'll just be a cool soundtrack. I'm trying, I'm new at this, I'm not gonna front at all.
VV: Go through the story line for me for Prince Of Thieves.
P: Young man trying to get a record deal with the Rza, he needs x amount of dollars to get the demo done, asks his friend for some help. So his friend introduces him to the underworld where he meets Mr. Large, who is Chubb Rock, who is like the crime ring leader, Big Daddy Kane the pimp, Everlast the cop, Sadaat X and Xzibit the convicts, Chris Rock and De La the crack heads, Biz Markie, Buckshot, Blackmoon and a whole bunch of people. He goes through all this turmoil and controversy and all it is, is he basically has a chance to make decisions of whether he should go bad or go good which is eventually his demise.
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P: Umm.. working with Dan the Automator, we're doing this thing called Handsome Boy Modeling School, which is an array of wild songs. I don't know how to describe it. The Good The Bad and The Ugly which is me, Automator and Mike Simpson on Dreamworks - more like alternative type album. I'm working with J-Live on London, The Last Emperor, Del the Funky Homosapien, Tragedy on Gee Street, and a new Chris Rock album. People like me again, so I need to take advantage of it while I can.
Interviewer: Lee Evans
Camera: Chris Atlas
Photos & Transcription: Lee Evans
Editor: Catherine Lee
© 1999, 2000 Evans Media Group, Inc.