| Nday Bizness: |
The name, Compton. When I first heard your name, I immediately thought okay Compton is from Compton, CA, but you are not from Compton? |
| Compton: |
No. The name Compton was given to me by the owner of the barbershop where I used get my hair cut every week. Since I was from Cali, Mac (the barbershop owner) started calling me Compton and at the time I didn't care. I wasn't big about letting everybody know my real name. So the people I met through the barbershop only knew as Compton. |
| Nday Bizness: |
Why didn't you want anyone to know your real name? Were you on the run or just being secretive? |
| Compton: |
Actually I have no problem with the people I know knowing my name, but I was introduced to other people (strangers) as Compton. So they know me as Compton, but they don't really know me. |
| Nday Bizness: |
So what part of Cali are you from? |
| Compton: |
Central Cali. Monterey/Seaside/Salinas/Marina/Pacific Grove/Carmel/Pebble Beach all which is Monterey county. PG (Pacific Grove), Carmel, and PB (Pebble Beach) are upscale coastal cities. PB is home to the famous golf course of the same name. |
| Nday Bizness: |
Thanks to Tiger Woods, I have heard of Pebble Beach, but how do you leave Cali to end up in North Cackalack? |
| Compton: |
Damn good question. Jeff [Blak] called one day and said you have a first class ticket to come check it out. I came for a visit and it was on. Southern women and the cheaper cost of living and the prospect of putting the cackalack Hip Hop scene on the national map. |
| Nday Bizness: |
So now you're in North Carolina doing what? |
| Compton: |
Living good and helping Jeff get things set up. I was a radio Dee Jay back in Cali and I wanted to do the same thing here, but they weren't into Hip Hop that strong. The local so-called "black" station was really just an R&B station with very little to no Hip Hop. |
| Nday Bizness: |
So you gave up a radio job in Cali to come to NC? Do you still have your license now? |
| Compton: |
I was on public radio something I did twice a week for the love of the game. And Yes, I have my radio operators permit. |
| Nday Bizness: |
How did you get into producing? |
| Compton: |
By listening and learning. Experimenting. I wrote and produced my first trac "Why Doves Fart" to Prince's classic "Why Doves Cry" in creative english class and still to this day it is played for the other students who take the class as an example. I was a percussionist in the school band. In college I majored in Comp Sci and as an elective I took a music class. In the class I had to produce a song. There was a drum machine, keyboards, and all sorts of instruments at my disposal. Working the equipment and learning how music is structured. |
| Nday Bizness: |
Are you strictly a Hp Hop producer? And if not what category of music would best describe your style if any? |
| Compton: |
I can produce anything from Hip Hop to Classical to Country to Rock. I am a music producer. Period. My style is whatever style you are playing me to produce for you. If by style you mean a signature sound like Swzz Beats or a Timberland. The answer is no. |
| Nday Bizness: |
Is there one producer or two that you listen to and that you would love to work with in the studio? |
| Compton: |
No!!! I have a few artists I want to work with, but there's no producer on the list. That's really unlikely a producer callabo? That'll neva work a producer's ego is to big unless you're partners. |
| Nday Bizness: |
Who are some of the artists on your list? |
| Compton: |
Let's see Miss Badu, Faith Evans, R. Kelly, Janet, Meth, Redman, DMX, Jay Z., Jill Scott. I would work with anyone if I sat down with them and we vibed, but for these artist I would drop almost everything else to work with them |
| Nday Bizness: |
You mentioned R. Kelly. He's a singer, but he also produces. How would that work seeing you said egos would clash? |
| Compton: |
I would want to learn how to write from him and then I would lace one of his songs with a phat azz beat. Guaranteed number one hit. |
| Nday Bizness: |
What do you mean? How to write? |
| Compton: |
R. Kelly's songs are simple yet skillfully produce. I want to learn how to write simple words like he does that touch so many people. |
| Nday Bizness: |
Speaking of production skills, which producer or producers do you feel are the best in the business right now? |
| Compton: |
Simple. The best producers are the ones that can produce ten songs with no song having the same sound. It's Versatility! |
| Nday Bizness: |
The So-called signature sounds? |
| Compton: |
Right! I can tell Swizz produced a beat from just hearing the first few bars. Samething for Timberland, but he's getting better at diversifying his sound altough the latest, Missy joint sounds like an earlier old trac). Dr. Dre beats are ultra simple loops with phat basslines and no two have that same sound. |
| Nday Bizness: |
But he's getting paid with those simple beats? |
| Compton: |
Yeah. Nuttin wrong with that. |
| Nday Bizness: |
What's your take on the Hip Hop scene at large? |
| Compton: |
Right now it's bullshit. Too much of nothing. Every label wants to have a rap act. I remember not to long ago nobody wanted to do rap. White boyz rapping. Ni@@as wit no skills rapping. Bitches rapping. Come on please. |
| Nday Bizness: |
But it is selling and if it sells labels are going to want to sell it. |
| Compton: |
True, but that doesn't mean we have to buy it. I don't buy it. The people buying it are the white consumers. They're like Mikey. They'll buy anything. The labels know that. |
| Nday Bizness: |
That can't be the truth or every release would go platinum. Right? |
| Compton: |
No. Marketing determines the selling status more so today than product content. Back in the day if you went platinum it was due to the undergound word on your shiznit. Now it depends on how your album is marketed. |
| Nday Bizness: |
Give me an example. |
| Compton: |
Take the Jill Scott CD. Very little major marketing. There's no flashy video. No over hyped full spread magazine ads. Which in my opinion was the best way to market that CD for her image. That CD sold and continues to sells because of the word of mouth. Now a whole lot of brothers and sisters know who is Jill Scott. She has talent. But in the rap world talent ain't enough. |
| Nday Bizness: |
I want to touch on that image thing, but first why isn't talent enough for the rap world? |
| Compton: |
Again it's too much of it. For another thing people do not listen to rap music. They party to it. Dance to it. Smoke to it. Ride with it, but they don't listen to rap music the same way they listen to R&B. Don't get me wrong. Hardcore Hip Hop lovers they listen. I listen. More white people buy Hip Hop nowadays simply because there are more of them to buy it. They tend to buy what they hear on the radio and radio is just a marketing tool. |
| Nday Bizness: |
Let's get back to that image thing for a minute. They say image is everything. What do you mean when you say image? |
| Compton: |
Look at Jill Scott. She's a beautiful woman. Now compare her to Whitney, Janet, Brandy, Monica, or Aaliya. What do you have? All good singers and they are built similiar with the exception of Jill Scott. |
| Nday Bizness: |
So for Jill Scott her size is her image? |
| Compton: |
Exactly. That's her image. You can't hide it. So did they market her image or her singing ability? They marketed her singing ability putting her image second and it worked for them. Chante Moore's appears to be neked in bed making love in her new video. The girl that's married to Grant Hill [Tamia] is in a pool with a torn shirt and panties. That's image marketing. You won't see Jill Scott in a video like that. |
| Nday Bizness: |
So in rap music is image everything? |
| Compton: |
Yeah at least for the white people it is. White boyz want to be gangstas. So they buy the latest gangsta rap from brothers like Jay Z or DMX or Fluffy [Sean Combs] not for the skills alone, but because they were on trial for this charge or that charge. I don't mean to insult those other MCs by including Fluffy in that grouping. I'm just making a point. |
| Nday Bizness: |
So they're just wiggers trying to be down? |
| Compton: |
First off, I don't use that term wigger as in white ni@@er. We don't use bligger as in black ni@@er. The term is ni@@er. It has no color distinction. The American Heritage Dictionary, one you can find in any government office, defines the word as: Offensive slang A Black or member of any dark-skinned people. A wigger naw I ain't feeling that one. |
| Nday Bizness: |
Okay. I feel you. So the white boyz just want to be down and in doing so... |
| Compton: |
And in doing so they are buying the music they hear on the radio from these so called gangsta rappers. While real artist with real talent go unnoticed except by the true hardcore Hip Hop Headz. That's why you have artist that constantly sell 200,000 to 499,999 units. They neva go gold. They neva go platinum. These are your true national underground Hip Hop artists. |
| Nday Bizness: |
They are also the first artists to get dropped from a label for lack of sales. |
| Compton: |
Yes. They are the first, but they are also the type of artists that make the labels the majority of their monies. The little sellers have less marketing and less budget alloted to them. These artists may not see any royalties for their work or very little, but they represent huge profits when all is said and done for their respective labels. |
| Nday Bizness: |
Ealier you called Sean "P-Diddy" Combs "Fluffy". What's with that? Why you playa hating on P-Diddy? |
| Compton: |
I ain't a playa hata. From day one Fluffy has lived off the work of others, like most labels do. The only real difference is he thinks he is good enough to get behind the mic. He can't rap. I doubt he could produce a beat from scratch and make it something. He sold out the memory of the late B.I.G to sell his album. The next album flopped. I hear he is about to get the boot from Arista and will soon end up on Clive Davis' New J Records. |
| Nday Bizness: |
Sold out the memory of Biggie? |
| Compton: |
Yes. "Missing You" sold that album. Not Fluffy's rap skillz. He then released the hyped up Biggie album which also flopped. Then the Lox jumped ship. Mase found GOD. Shyne is locked up. Black Rob is one step out of jail for life and G-Dep? |
| Nday Bizness: |
You mentioned Biggie. Do you feel the Late B.I.G. was the greatest of all time? |
| Compton: |
Hell no. How we measure the greatest of all time is not for me to decide. I know it's not Biggie. He was one of the best, but not the greatest. |
| Nday Bizness: |
What about LLCOOLJ? He claims he's the G.O.A.T. |
| Compton: |
(Laughing) That's funny. LL went from not living without his radio to needing luv to being bad to acting. Now during that transformation he tried harder lyrics. It didn't sell. So he went back to the lovey dovey lyrics which work for him. My girl has many of his CDs. I have one or two of his earlier tapes. LL as the greatest of all time. (again laughing) That's funny. Not true. Just funny. |
| Nday Bizness: |
Jay Z claims to be the greatset since the death of his friend Biggie. How do you feel about him? |
| Compton: |
I like Jay's word play. He is one of the best out now, and has turned things around since his Hawaiian Sofie days, but he's not the greatest of all time. He is one of the few MCs that I would buy if I didn't get his shiznit free. Rapping is about boasting. I wouldn't have much respect for a MC if he or she didn't believe they were the best. That's just part of the game. KRS One is one of the best. Rakim. Kool G. Rap. |
| Nday Bizness: |
Tupac. Is he the greatest of all time? |
| Compton: |
I would say he was one of the best of all time. And if I compiled a list of the best of all time TUPAC would be the first name I put on that list in capital letters and underlined. As a comparision, I buy everything Bob Marley. He died way too young, Bob Marley left us a legacy of music. He stayed in the recording studio. Tupac is to me what Bob Marley is to Rasta. Tupac's legacy of music speaks for itself. 30 or 40 bootlegs. Several official CD releases including two double CD releases with another on the way and still more. So Yeah! TUPAC WAS THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME and since no living MC can touch his volume and scope of work TUPAC IS THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
| Nday Bizness: |
Now, let's talk about your latest project "Live From Fayettenam" the Blaknote Records compilation. What's the status? |
| Compton: |
We are just about done. We have several tracs that we are putting the finishing touches on to get them just right. It's a Hip Hop album with a R&B trac or two to show our diversity. I say our meaning Kareem [Ready To Konnect Music] and myself. We have 18 tracs planned for the release. All new artists, a couple of which are signed to Blaknote Records, and a few other freelancers that we just gave a chance to get on and shine. |
| Nday Bizness: |
First Single? Release date? |
| Compton: |
The first single was to be a song done with this young lady, but she moved back to Texas. All we have is a rough freestyle outtake of the song. So we have to rework another trac for the first single and at this point I don't know which one. The first single will be out mid to late summer and the full joint "Live From Fayettenam" will be out late summer early fall. |
