The other night, me and about 100 other tastemakers, industry heads and stans went to an undisclosed location to meet Beanie Sigel and hear a preview of his upcoming disc, The Solution. Let’s just say that at the rate the Roc is going this year, Memphis Bleek is due to release the label’s equivalent to It Was Written. While ya boy almost got played, Def Jam assistant/homie Kris T Styles (told you I’d drop the shout-out!) got homie to chop it up with me for about six minutes. Sorry, I couldn’t get into detail about the impending Dynasty 2 record, why his verse on “Ignorant Shit” was so short, or his golf gangsta with Scarface. But I got this.
Comparing The Solution to The B. Coming
Beans says: If I could say it in one word, I would say, “Complete.” I think my last album was on the verge of being a classic that I was trying to create, [but] I didn’t have enough time to finish it because of my legal situation and I had to go away. But I did record enough music, and had enough music to where an album could still be put out. But I’d say this album is complete, from front to back, every track. You can put it in your tape deck, and you can listen to it from front to back without having to forward it or skip to your next one. I look at my records as my kids, and you don’t pick your favorite child. So if you talk to some people, they’ll pick their favorite records, but this is the album that I think that you can put in and just let play.
URB says: Agreed. The Solution definitely plays like a matured, upgraded version of his last album with its even dose of club bangers, gangsta posturing and meaty (pause) testimonials.
On his and Freeway’s lack of Just Blaze and Kanye West beats on their new albums
Beans says: It wasn’t a decision that I made, it was just how it happened. When I started my album when I came home, I decided to work with two main producers, which were Andre Harris and Vidal Davis, better known as Dre and Vidal, because the state of hip-hop that I thought it was in was that there was a lack of character. Everybody was doing the same thing repetitively, and I wanted to make real music. I didn’t really want to work with all the producers that everybody would normally work with. I’ve never done that with any of my albums. I gave Kanye and Just Blaze their first looks from off the Truth album, so when I started this album, I went in the studio with them, and they recorded most of the body of work. Them and two other producers that they had under them, Alex and Harry, two young kids, and they white boys that are only 18 and 19. That’s where the songs you get, like the “Judgment Day” with the Ozzy sample, the “Hustlas, Haze and Highways” with the live jazz joint. They did that because they play live instruments, there’s only three samples on the whole album. And everything else was played live. It wasn’t a conscious decision where I wasn’t going to work with Just Blaze and Kanye; it just happened to work out like that when I got with certain producers, and I just worked with them. I believe in if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and the songs just kept coming. They were on deck, so that’s how it happened.
URB says: We don’t buy it, with the two knob twisters being so instrumental in the previous albums’ successes. But oddly enough, they aren’t missed: Bink Dogg, Chad Wes, and Dre & Vidal more than ably shoulder the load.
On the Roc boys’ relationship with each other
Beans says: Everybody’s cool, we all good. From me to Kanye, me Jay, me Freeway, everybody’s good. Everybody.
URB says: Not really, considering this freestyle he had performed about 30 minutes earlier.
On auditioning to play Biggie in an upcoming biopic about the Brooklyn MC
Beans says: I would really go in character. If I had to shave the mustache and do all that, I would do it. I was hesitant at first to play that role, because from me in a fan point of view, who would I want to see play Biggie? And if it were somebody who I thought, I would feel offended…I heard—and this is no disrespect to him—I heard Sean Kingston went out for the role too, for the Biggie Smalls opp. To me, I would’ve been offended if he would have got that role. That’s no disrespect to Sean Kingston, but the character of Biggie, from the music that he made, and the person that he was, I couldn’t see that. So I just looked at it like, Who else could play the role of B.I.G. like me, if they were to use a rapper to play that role? I would put 150 percent, 200 percent behind it, whatever I had to do to get it off. I would definitely make sure people know the difference between Beanie Sigel being on the screen and Biggie Smalls.
URB says: Guerilla Black wins voice- and looks-wise, but Beans seems to have the persona down pat. As long as it’s not Mr. Beautiful Girls, we’re fine.
On the much-requested Jay-Z/Beanie Sigel/Scarface LP
Beans says: Me and Scarface…Me and Jay, Jay is so busy, it’s hard to lock him down. But that’s probably the next project I’ma work on, [one album with] both of them.
URB says: Better late than never…as long as it actually happens.
Leave A Comment!