By Bill Heinzelman
DJ Babu is a man of many tasks. As one-third of Dilated Peoples, the California based underground group, Babu has shared duties as the crew's DJ and producer. With four successful albums under their belt, Dilated is one of the most revered and well-known indie groups in hip-hop. During the underground hip-hop boom after the turn of the century, Dilated was one of the few groups to maintain a successful career on a major record label. But as their record sales declined, Dilated eventually parted ways with Capitol Records. Now the trio is focusing on their solo records before reuniting in 2009 for the next Dilated Peoples album. Besides his work with Dilated, though, Babu is one of the great turntable technicians in hip-hop. As a member of the DJ crew, The Beat Junkies, Babu has won the Vestax World Championship and various International Turntable Federation titles. With a longstanding career as a DJ and producer, Babu is set to release his new compilation album this month entitled Duck Season 3. The LP features original production by Babu and guest appearances by artists such as M.O.P, Bishop Lamont, Little Brother, MF Doom, Sean Price, and Kardinal Offishall. UGO spoke with the DJ about his new project and the future of Dilated Peoples.
UGO: What was the thought process or vision going into Duck Season 3?
DJ Babu: For anyone who is not familiar, the Duck Season series started off many years ago on a completely different label with a completely different strategy or approach to it. It came out on a record label called Sequence. He loved what I was doing, he definitely heard what I had done with J-Rocc off of Soundbombing 2, my name was hot because of the impact I was having with the Beat Junkies and the battle scene. I was just starting to get with Dilated [Peoples], so he really loved what I was doing, and really, the premise of his label was doing a lot of licensing and clearing songs to do compilations. So for him, it was a no brainer to get with someone like me and get me to select a whole bunch of cool songs and do it in a dope format, give it a theme, yada, yada, yada. That's where it started from. Really, early on there, I snuck one or two songs that I exclusively made just for the album. The second album comes, I'm into my second album with Dilated, so I definitely caught the production bug. I'm over here trying to catch up to Alchemist, Evidence, and Joey Chavez. I was spending mad loot on my record collection, trying to thicken up my crates and get my skills tight. So the next one I was feeling myself more and I produced about half of the album on Vol. 2 and licensed the other half. From then, I took a long hiatus. I got caught up with Dilated, Likwit Junkies and the Babu [DJ] gigs; just life, having a child. So the third one took awhile to come out and on top of that, Sequence, the original label, folded. So I also had to find a new home. I've known my man Devin from Nature Sounds for years, even before he had started Nature Sounds. I had met him through High Times, actually. I had been keeping abreast with his label and he's always been a big supporter of my music. So when I knew I was free, he was the first person I popped at. I loved what he was doing over there and I had already had the whole vision for the next one - it was going to be the full evolution of the series. At this point, I was feeling really confident at what I wanted to do. I wanted to give them the same format, mixed with the filthy, Beat Junkie classic DJ style, but I wanted it to be my producer album in disguise as a mixtape. So this one, I produced all 19 tracks. I'm really proud of it, man. It's all my blood, sweat and tears. I laid it all out as much as I could as a person who doesn't have a voice. I tried to give everybody a little bit of everything, work with as many artists as I could on my limited or no budget. I really tried to get creative and bring the best out of all these MCs I worked with. So I'm real nervous and excited. I can't wait for people to hear it. But I'm putting it all out there, man. I think it's 19 of the best joints I've accumulated the past year, two years of working on this records. I'm just glad I made it. I was doubting myself too for a second. But I think it's better in the long run. It really made a difference when you hear the record. I've just gotten so much better since the last volume, as far as DJing and being a producer.
UGO: This seems to be your biggest album, especially in scope. Is that a fair assessment?
DJ Babu: I think it definitely it is bigger, but on different levels. Sonically it's obviously bigger. Like I said, my whole process of making tracks and how they finish has become a way bigger ordeal than it was four years ago. The artists I'm working with definitely add a certain mystique to the songs. I really reached as far as my arms could reach to work with a cat like a Bishop [Lamont], or MF Doom, or M.O.P. I definitely wanted to challenge myself and put myself in positions to work with people I admired and thought would be dope collaborations. A lot of it was jumping in and out of myself as a producer and jumping back into DJ mode to try and think of things as a DJ. I wasn't trying to go too broad with it, the shit is still pretty damn filthy. It's still me making records out of records with ill scratches and ill rhymes. I feel like everybody on there is a legend set in stone or they're on the cusp of some new shit and really blazing their own lane. Everyone on every song has a definite purpose.
UGO: How much of the album was done working with artists in the studio and how much was just emailing beats over?
DJ Babu: Off the top of my head, I can't really count, but I know it's at least half and half. In a perfect world, I'd be able to be in the studio with everybody in the flesh and have no limitations on time. But I think in this day and age, I think you have to be prepared to get pro-tools sessions in the mail, upload links and download links form Yousendit[.com], and communicate over the phone and convey your ideas and try to produce a cat over the phone. It's just the reality of the situation. I remember back in the day I remember sending a VHS digital tape from the ADAT to a homie. You'd Fed-Ex it, that was the fastest thing to do. Now, it's like, I just sent you the track, do it in your Pro-Tools and send it back to me. But I definitely prefer to work with people in the flesh. I think that's a strength in my game. I try my best to create a fun vibe with the artist and have him excited to be there and excited about the track, wanting for him to bring his "A" game. I'm really not at that point in my production where I have the luxury of a Dr. Dre or a Madlib where they can sit back and people will bring there A+ game because they are in the presence of greatness. You're an MC and you set into the room with Dr. Dre, you're on time, you're sharp, you're taking your best rhymes from the last five years. But if you work with Joe Schmoe, some fools will be like, they're doing you a favor. So for me, I have to find the best of both worlds. Everyone who came through - fools coming through for no cash, working off favors, trading beats for raps - on each song I got to where I wanted it to be, whether or not I got to be there with the person or not. The tracks I did get to be there in person with - M.O.P, Bishop [Lamont], A.G., Evidence, Defari - where a lot of the homies who were around the way. It doesn't make a difference to me, [though]. Give me your A-class raps in a Pro-Tools session and I'll make shit right.
UGO: With that being said, what song was the toughest to complete where both of you were trading ideas back and forth and it was really tough to get on the same page?
DJ Babu: All of the songs... the best case scenario for me is when something happens quickly, as far as picking the beat, everyone agreeing this is what the song is going to be called or the approach, and everyone putting their heads down - you're going to write, I'm going to find cuts - that should happen in the first half hour to me. For most of those songs, that did. But the initial excitement should happen within the first half an hour you guys are listening to music and vibing out. After that, there's something going on. You guys aren't feeling each other, you didn't play the right beats, this guy didn't get it, you didn't give him what he's looking for, whatever. But the toughest track for me was probably [the one with] Evidence, the dude in my group. Not even difficult because he's a difficult dude to work with, but he's such a picky perfectionists type of dude. For him, he doesn't want to fuck around with people unless they're bringing their A game. Me and him both knew we were doing a song for Duck Season 3, but I'm talking about months of playing him all my beats that I thought were my hottest beats over and over. Then, finally, I said, "This is the one, just rap on this one." He had some reservations about a synth or something, but I was like, "Dude, trust me. The format is there, give me a 24 and a 24, and we're going to call it "Whatever Its Worth," and we're going to do a real old school chorus." So he was like, "Okay, let's go." So we finally did it and it was all good. But for us to finally agree on what song and what it was going to be was a pretty hard one. Sometimes being in a group, it's like we're in a relationship for so long, we're standing so close to the paintings it's hard for us to sit back and really look at things squarely. But Ev definitely makes me step my game up every time we work. He's a blessing to have around.
UGO: How would you describe the product aesthetic on Duck Season 3? Is it at all similar to the Beat Tape album you dropped last year?
DJ Babu: I think a phase of it... the Beat Tape was definitely a phase I was going through. That was a bunch of beats that I made within a span of six to eight months. You can kinda hear chambers I was going through. The majority of this album is stuff that's a year to two years old, stuff that I knew, after I made, it I was like, "I'd love to make this on Duck Season." But I don't know, man, day to day my style changes. Some days I just want to be straight filthy and loop eight bars off a record. Sometimes I don't even want to touch samples - I'll try to get lucky and stab at some cords and stuff and make something happen like that. I think I'm still a student at this [and] I'm constantly evolving. I'm still really hunger just to get better at what I do. But I think Duck Season 3 is definitely a really good look into what I've been into and what my sound has grown to within the last year or two. I got a couple things from the Beat Tape that turned into songs on the album, but I definitely got newer things like that Ev joint, the Bishop joint, stuff that was made a little later when I was flipping shit harder.
UGO: With the way media is being consumed and promoted these days, it is easier or harder to release an album now in comparison to when Dilated Peoples was signed to Capitol Records?
DJ Babu: A lot of both. I think on a practicality level, it's tremendously easier. Technology cut out the middle men. Fuck signing to a big deal with a label unless they are giving you the world. But between MySpace, Facebook and Youtube, you can really go hard from the privacy of your own home. There are numerous cats out there who have done that. But everything has another edge to it. At the same time, if you come from a different era and you play by a different set of rules, you gotta adapt and realize how things have changed. The new way of things may be foreign to some people, from how a record gets made to how it gets promoted. Across the board, everything has been affected by technology, the economy, and the recession. So I think it's everyone's duty to stay abreast to things and stay true to what they were brought up doing. It's something I always strive to do. I'm just not ready to be considered an old school cat. I know I've been in this long enough, I've earned a few stripes, and people might even call me a vet; but in my mind, I'm still looking to learn. I'm still looking at what my idols have done and I'm no where near where they were. So I know I've got miles to go.
UGO: What's the status of the next Dilated Peoples album?
DJ Babu: To be honest, we are really enjoying our time off of Capitol [Records]. And also contributing to that, us being a group that is blessed enough to tour year round whether we have a new record out or not. We are really enjoying being able to enjoy when we want to, going out and making our own records and having our own space. Ev definitely set the bar high with the Weatherman [album] last year, I'm coming out with Duck Season 3 this year, and Rakaa is in the midst of working on the Crown of Thorns LP. We are all giving each other space while at the same time really supporting each other. We are all really excited for each one of our projects and we all help each other on each one of our projects just like we would on any Dilated project. So we are trying to get all of this off our chest first and come back sometime in 2009 with a new Dilated record - at least done studio wise. We're not sure where our home is going to be or what we are actually going to do, but we aren't even that far [into] yet. We are just enjoying making our new solo records that we could never do under the constraints of Capitol [Records]. It's cool. We can still go out and do Dilated, do our classic songs, but show all of our new material at the same time. Dilated is bigger than just a band at this point. It's a crew. Ev and Rak are my brothers. We have all come to the realization that Dilated is bigger than three of us individually. It's always something we are going to nurture and maintain over the years, but at the same time, being in a group, sometimes you have to go and do you for a little bit. Sometimes you have to find out that you got a good thing right in your lap. Sometimes you need to step away and see what you got. We always do that and come back to Dilated with a clear mind. We never want to do a record for the wrong reasons, just to pay the bills. We all really want to know we are doing a Dilated record because we are having fun and the chemistry is still there. Right now, like I said, everyone is just having fun.
