Jurassic 5

0:00your friends going to get it back and forth. Yeah. Nice. Amazing. Tell me about the LAC back in the day when you started off putting a pocket on NWA. Is that what you guys were into? Were you listening more like soul funk rock? Well, I was listening to everything really, you know, because in the 80s you're speaking about I was listening to well, that's when I got into hip hop. Yeah. That's when I got to be a DJ. And you really do care as one that kind of stuff. Definitely I started out really getting into a group called UTFO. Makes Master Ice was my idol. He was like the dopest DJ. And then as years progressed I got into all different types of groups from L.A. You know, Boogie Boys and all kinds of different groups used to come out.

0:45Yeah, you know, all these little groups used to come out and do the thing and I'd go to their shows and you know, end up to be wait for sure, for sure that album threw me back. Like I had heard nothing like it, you know, and you know, I'm from the burbs. So for me I was like, wow, I'm from North Hollywood. So I grew up like, wow, like this is like raw. Like I knew at that point I was, I didn't experience a lot with other people who were experiencing in my own city, basically my own county. So yeah, everything. For me it was, I was listening to them, but I was also when I first started really getting into it. It was like mixed master spade, tidy tea, world class, wrecking crew. You had red cogs, these cats called Raph and Steinestow, Idol Kings. These were L.A. cats, Jazzy D, I.C. who, you know, wasn't, these were before like the

1:34N.W.A. Yeah, well, tell me who's popular and you were like, was it as big as people say it was? Because I mean, I was, I was, you know, what cop killer, cop killer is a different thing. I was later. There was later on. You know, uh, after police was fucked up. Police in the morning was the, yeah, it was the one. If you want to say anything, cop killer came after that. But like guys, he did six in the morning and when the N.W.A. first came out, they were dope, but I didn't lie. I said I used to say I didn't like him because like New York said he was, you know, kind of fascinated with it. I lived in South Central L.A. and it really wasn't fascinating to me because I knew a lot of friends who got what they were talking about was basically my life experience. So it was, you know, to hear it on record was a little scary for me.

2:19I used to be serious. I was really nervous and me and I kill used to talk about it all the time because he used to love it and I was like, man, that shit is scary. Why do you say that? Because why was it scary? Yeah, the cameras and it was like man, it's like at one time in L.A. doing 86, 87, 88. It's a lot. It's a lot lost a lot of friends, man. I kill both. Yeah. A lot of them in the gang and dope game was just incredible at that time. So to hear it on wax was just scary for me, man. It almost seemed like you didn't have out. It was just like you couldn't escape it. But they would dope, man. They would really dope. What, do you guys play any instruments? I used to play trumpet back. Yeah. You ever throw on a record here and there?

3:04Hell no. You don't want to hit much trumpet skills. That'd be dope if you still play trumpet. You're a little riff in here and there. Like, express yourself. I'm a drummer. Are you drumming on tracks? I use like parts of it. Like, you know, I'll use a kick or a snare sound, you know. I won't actually play a riff, you know. But I still play it and I have played with the group on stage. The power numbers tour I played a lot with cut when we did our DJ routine. Mm hmm. You ever play tour with live band? You ever try that? For J5, no. But there's been shows where the guys have gotten up with a live band. There's been a few shows, actually. Yeah. Working with Dave Matthews live band, obviously comes in the studio, records some stuff for the guys that helped work. Did he send the mp3s or how did it all go down? You're in the studio. Oh, nice. No, we flew to Seattle.

3:49We met up with him. We were all in the studio. We all sat there and worked out the song, did verses. He did the chorus. We interacted with each other. It was like, yeah, that sounds good. No, let's tweak this. Let's do that. So, no, it wasn't no fly to record that. We were actually all in the studio together working on it. So. Yeah, the core, the beat is a beat that I created. That's seven. Mark Seven said that it would sound good if Dave got on the hook. So we took the next level, offered doing a song with him and he said yes. And then I flew out to Virginia and tweaked certain parts with the band members. But like the main loop and the guitar parts is basically a beat I made in the drums. So he's not playing guitar? No. No. That's a sweet riff you made in that man. Right. So, well, yeah, it's a loop. But I mean the thing about it, it sounded like something he did.

4:35He then hit that he would do and that's kind of how it was born. You know, it was like, okay, we'll try this. And then, you know, there's other little guitar riffs that help pick up the main guitar riffs, you know, this and that. Yeah. That break assault, you get it. I guess. Yeah. Without cutting chemistry in the group anymore, what was the beat making process on this record different from the last one? Was it more of a collective effort? Has always been a collective effort or is it all you know? For me, that part didn't change a single bit because going into this record, even when a cut was in the group, we all wanted to work with outside producers because it was our fourth release and under major label release. And it was just kind of time to branch out and expand the brand so to speak. So, you know, he wanted it when he was in the group. So I can't really say how it was different. I still made, you know, like half of the record the way I would normally make it, this stuff

5:21I was feeling in it. The way I work as a producer is like, if hopefully my world in the MCs world can collide. I'm feeling something. I play for them and I'm like, come on, I hope you're feeling it. Yeah. Or crap out, you know. And so that's how it works on that side. So I didn't have to really go and make a jiggy beat or, you know, do something that was kind of out of what I normally do. Not that I wouldn't do that, but I just, it wasn't different. It was when I'm getting out of it. I was still able to be new Mark, you know. Yeah, definitely. What about the live show? That was a tough part. Yeah, I can imagine. That was the tough part. You know, to switch up a lot. No doubt about it. That was a tough part. There was a period of about two, three months where cut could do some shows, but then also you couldn't do some other ones and somewhere last minute I couldn't do it somewhere. You know, this show I can't do it a month from now.

6:06So it was tough for me because I didn't know how to work the show because everything that we had planned thus far was a two man thing that had to be, you know, in a certain thing. The two man thing. I only had two hands. So it was a lot easier after that period ended, you know, where I was like, okay, like, look, can we have it like go like this guys? And then like maybe say, no, we should put that song here. And then when I knew what the plan is, and you know, it was just me, then I was like, okay, and again, now I'm having the ball. And I don't want to say simple, but I'm definitely feeling comfortable and funky on stage. Yeah. Well, that's good. Do any of the guys jump on the other table? Do you still have another table set up and you spin some stuff or any of the guys spin at all? Well, I involve them in another and not in the turntables, but in something else, you know, on a drum machine routine that we do on stage.

6:52What's that? Well, it's actually interesting you brought up because the thing about it was when cut left, my original idea for a DJ routine was involving them. So like, okay, what am I going to do that's going to help make this as visual as a use to be. Yeah. So I involve them on the drum machines. And that was actually the original DJ routines. And in the drug, we do a drum machine routine with five drum machines embedded in school desks. Well, that's cool. Come to the show and check it. Because that's all I'm going to say because I really gave away too much already. A lot of bands in hip hop, they don't tour as much as you guys do. You're is very much touring band, much like a rock group. And I'm wondering, was that a consciousness to do? We got to get on the road. We got to get out there and get this to everyone as we can or like, but I don't know that's not a conscious decision. That's just something that you have to do when you put your record out. That's something you should want to do is go out there and touch as many people as possible.

7:38So that wasn't a conscious effort. It was just something that we knew we had to do. Just so happened that people liked what they saw. And so people kept calling. Yeah. And that's never a bad thing. So when you know the phone ring and like that, you got to do it. And you know, that leads to the word of mouth and people saying, hey, these guys got a great show and you should get them. And next thing you know it, it's just 10 years later. And here we are, wanted to band stick the tour like that. You know, so you don't really sit down and analyze it. You just kind of take the blessings that you get and then you keep rolling. But I've always loved about hip hop is the verbal flexibility, the vocabulary. It's all out there. You can freestyle here and there. Whereas a rock band, they don't do that live on stage. Now, do you guys change up the lyrics to songs all the time? Do you freestyle in the middle of songs and just kind of throw stuff here or there? Whatever you guys want to do it? We usually stick to the formula, but it has been time.

8:24Yeah. That's the word has happened. Yeah, we've we've empathized on a few occasions. So, you know, that's not something that we try to do because we pretty confident on what we already got laid down, you know, so we don't have to do anything extra. Some, you know, a lot of times. And what we usually do too is after all of the stuff is done, we use freestyle at the end, bring people out every, you know, if it's a city where we know the people that are MCs out there. So we do it like that. Like it's cool. Yeah. It's like an encore kind of thing. Yeah, like an encore kind of thing. Also, like, you know, like people say the little things count, you know, that's that philosophy is going to big. It's gone. It's gone a large distance for our stage show because without even knowing we've changed our show as times progress through a tour, like, like where we are, what we're at right

9:12now and this tour is not where we were like two tours ago. It's for just little things like mutes and sound effects in the way someone says something or the way someone ad-libs something and it ends up meeting a lot more. The little things like that really end up, you know, being a lot more entertaining for the listener and the viewer. Mm-hmm. Yeah. When you guys are writing a song, you got most of the time it's, you know, verse, chorus, verse and one guy does a verse, next guy does a verse. When you guys are like all together singing that like barbershop quartet kind of stuff, how is that written? Does one guy come with an idea and another guy just rhymes that next line and just comes off top of your head? No, we just kind of, it's not really a formula. We just kind of write what we write and uh... Well who writes that kind of stuff? All you got that kind of stuff? Yeah. Okay.

9:57Nobody is not one person that just writes and guy, I can't write for somebody because I don't know, you know, we got to come out. Well it's something like World of Entertainment. Well actually, I killed, wrote that. The whole thing. Yeah. I killed, basically, wrote the majority of that and then I remember when he was letting us hear it, every, you know, we put in certain lyrics but basically that song was already written. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I killed it written that one. That worked out and it was like, okay, you say this one, you say this, you say that and it would work like that. But that, I think that's really kind of been the only case where a whole song was written and we did it like that. Okay. Well good. Music kind of leads the way to like, you know, you can lay just something as simple. It's just a bar of music down or a bar of like rhyming or like, you know, and then they're

10:42like, wait, no, that's not a verse, that's a hook. You know, like, it's interesting because you can't really force music. It's going to tell you what it wants. Yeah, it always dictates the way it goes. From samples to playing, you know, piano, whatever it is, it's going to say, oh, I want you to go down this avenue and you try it and you're like, oh, there's something here or there's not, you know, but I think that's a big thing within the lyric, you know, process of the group, you know, something's like, oh, you should add live this or so and so should say that line instead of that person, you know. Yeah, does that happen a lot? People switching up lines all the time or is it basically, you kind of write your own lines and you do that. So yeah, you write your own stuff. Everything you heard from each individual was written except for like the world of entertainment. But every other thing was, you know, any verse you hear me on, it was just what I wrote, you know, and we just fitted to make everybody's stuff stick, you know, and built it, you

11:32to make it a song, you know, it's not no form. We don't go in there and say so and so got it right. Yeah, of course. I was just thinking like Jay Z goes in there and just freestyles his whole record, right? Do you guys, is it like that for you or is it mostly written beforehand? No, but no, we don't freeze. We don't get in the booth and just be like, okay, yeah. I mean, you can't do that. I mean, that's one person doing that. So I saw that. You know, I mean, if he has a concept, I don't think he just going there and just start rhyming. No, I mean, he's got an idea first of course. Yeah, yeah, you know, but when we do it, we have an idea, we write it down and then we go in there and lay it like that. Nobody just, we don't have four mics and it's just like, okay, we just go freestyle. Hopefully we're all a bit of tame and it's what happens. You know, it does. Let's talk about some new tunes.

12:17Well, not only for Todd will play them the last record, Canadian Girl Very Nice. Is that kind of what got you to think Dave should come on this record? Let's do some collabs because we got most deaf in here. Do that kind of stuff? No, I think the idea going into this record was time to just collaborate period with other producers and other artists because it was our fourth release and our third major label release. So it was time to like, you know, expand a little bit and show some growth, I guess. Mm hmm. That's really a little more mainstream success. Yeah. You know, good thing, bad thing. I think it's a great thing. I mean, all the groups we listen to growing up and we were kids were like Run DMC, De La Soul, Public Enemy, all on the radio, all top. Yeah, all hits. Yeah. All on video channels all the time. Yeah. And the concerts were 20,000 deep if you went to a Run DMC show.

13:03That was amazing. I can't, I don't have negative feelings attached to mainstream music I never have. Yeah. It's changing though. I mean, a lot of stuff is commercials and movie soundtracks where it's supposed to see these sales back in the day. But the thing about it though, even if it wasn't, it shouldn't have to be like that now in order for people to just say it's changing. I mean, you know, you never said that would rock. No, you do. I talked to a lot of rock bands and I say that because people used to say that was selling out. But now that's just, that's how you make money in music. I mean, that's not, you mean like being in a soundtrack or on a commercial or something like that. Now that's just that individual personal group's decision to do that. Has nothing to do because see people like to take their opinion and figure if you don't fall under the category of what they think you're selling out.

13:49No, if I'm happy with it and that's the big thing with black IPs too, people are like, oh, they're selling out by who's by who's admission. I mean, how do we know if they don't dig what they don't? They seem pretty happy. Yeah. So if they're happy, then why am I sitting around here on a one man or three man campaign to talk about how bad they selling out. Don't buy their records if you don't feel it. The idea is to get your music heard. Period. If you're a musician and you don't want your music heard, then don't press up a scene. Leave it in your bedroom and don't ever record it. Just freestyle all day long and don't record it. Just have fun rapping or have fun DJing or making beats or playing cello or whatever the hell you do and just chill and don't record it because once you record it, that opens up everything. That means that you should be able to get it to a record label, independent or major

14:34label. That means if a movie wants to pick it up in soundtrack, you better get it out there because you've already started the process of wanting it to be heard. So why don't you just continue it, finish what you started. That's how we look at it. You mentioned labels. You guys ever think of starting up your own label, getting some underground bands going, something like that, producing maybe other bands or the groups? Maybe individually people might be thinking that effectively is one unit. I don't know. Just to get the name behind it. But no, I think if you just do your thing, that name will follow you. If I put out a label on my own Jurassic 5, it's going to follow me anyway. We don't have to be a collective group thing in order. It doesn't happen. Because at the same time being a group, we individuals and we got different likes, we got different dislikes and people need to know that too as well as what we've done collectively.

15:22Plus we already kind of done it with the EP who was independent. Oh, wasn't it? Yeah. I love Concrete Back in her school yard. So yeah, there it is. That sounds kind of like, I'm wondering, I was listening to it the other day and I heard a little bit of Scarface on my blog in there. Is that there? Or were you thinking of that at the time? A little what? Scarface on my blog. Concrete School yard. The keyboard riff kind of sounds like it a little bit. We make Concrete School yard way before my blog was gone. We make Concrete School yard. Maybe he ripped it off you. I don't know. I'm not ripped off. I've seen it. It's similar. I mean, I was just, I know people when we did JU back in the day and then BNUS came out with off the books and they had the fluke part I heard people was like, they doing that

16:07fluke like y'all doing it. They turned for Lopez store. Yeah, they were like, yeah, I'm like, man, they just watch out now. Yeah, watch out. I was like, yeah, I'll do it. Watch out now. I'm sorry. Yeah. And people was like, oh, that sounded like the JU thing. And I'm just like, shut up. Yeah, people thought we sampled Bob Marley for JU. That's all kinds of stuff. You know, that's the good thing about music. I think that is a good thing about music. I think that is cool that there's no right or wrong answer. Yeah. It could make a situation extremely confusing if you're creating or it can make it really fun. Yeah. You know, it's good that there's no right or wrong answer and that's why critics make me laugh because they think they got all the answers. And in my opinion, the world would be just fine without them in the music industry would just be flourishing the same way. So it's interesting. Yeah.

16:52I was reading something about Dylan was saying in the last row in stone. I was saying that he doesn't mind writers criticizing his book because they're writers. They understand that, right? That's their profession. But you can't have a music critic because he's not making music. Like if Bob Dylan was criticizing music, fine. Because he does it and he's good at it and it makes sense. But anyway, speaking of songs that kind of reused radio on the new record sounds very familiar. Yes. Why does it sound familiar? Trash crew is the originators of that song. The beat or the melody of it being? Yeah. And yeah, yeah. The book is essentially the same from Crash Crew as well. I thought it's not a kind of weird though. Same melody, you know. So yeah. Nice. It's kind of new meets old. Yeah. Cool. Just you and I kill on future sound.

17:38Well, it made the idea for that. Why does the two of you, why didn't you get the Ozenwell? Well, it's just slightly with the power numbers when we more did high fidelity and Charlie and I killed did some of us. Just felt right? Yeah. Me and I killed, hadn't had the opportunity to do a song together yet because we originally, before we became Jurassic Five, it was me and him and another brother who passed away. So that was never on record. So we decided to do future sounds for this record because me and him never did it. I've done a song with a seven. I've done a song with Charlie. Charlie, you know, and now I kill him seven never did a song. So maybe that's the next go around. But you know, so it was the opportunity. It was the opportunity and the time came. I thought it worked out really, really, really smooth.

18:24Really smooth. Really smooth. You ever think about Robin? You ever try and get him to run some stuff? No, I goof off in the studio with this guy. We get our freestyle off as you were talking about before and then they become skits. That's what happens with the freestyle. I know I'm a complete idiot on the mic and I got to keep that in mind. Just remember that. I don't overthink it. I ask every bend. Five questions, five quick questions. One more answers. I plot our CDs. I plot CDs for me because I use CDs in production. So let him hear McCartney. Shit. Paul because he's still living. McCartney. Not after his wife gets done with it.

19:11Yeah. Yeah. So double McCartney. Alright. Pock or Biggie? Biggie. I have to save pop. Alcoholic marijuana? I'm going to have to save none. Don't do it. Um, neither. One word, Jurassic Five. Hopefully. That's a positive word. I like it. Just like the title you had before. It was like it could happen. For the record. I like that. I liked it could happen. One word. It's tough dude. Flexible. Nice. Thanks guys. Thank you.