Go to any hip-hop show and almost everyone from the artists performing to the audience congregating will at some point repeat these six words: Hip-Hop is not on the radio. While this sentiment for better representation and balance is echoed by nearly everyone in the hip-hop community, there is at least one DJ from Los Angeles, California who believes the platform has tremendous value for the Hip-Hop culture. On Jan 20, the dirty science practitioner will release his first instrumental album (L.A. Radio). With the album being completely comprised of samples from L.A. radio it isn’t an exaggeration to say that this is a project that will redefine how we look at instrumental albums. URB caught up with Exile to find out more about the concept behind L.A. Radio, to discuss his next project with Blu, and to take a trip down memory lane and re-examine his Root Down Soundclash battle with Oh No.
URB: Who were some of the artists who inspired you as you early on in your development as a producer and a DJ?
Exile: LL Cool J was one of my earliest influences and DJ Pooh, and the list goes on and on.
URB: What was it about LL Cool J that inspired you?
Exile: It was the first hip-hop album I bought, LL Cool J Radio, which is kind of interesting because that is the title for my latest album, LA Radio. He had the right mix of songs for kids to get into. I actually got that Sex Pistols tape at the same time as I got the LL Cool J record.
URB: LA Radio is your first instrumental project. Was this the first concept that you came up with or did you have other concepts in mind before deciding to go with this one?
Exile: Before all of this, I was just concerned with making songs, having well produced songs with vocalists. I just felt that making an instrumental album was the next logical step for me, and I wanted it to be different than any other instrumental out, so I just came up with the idea of just sampling everything off of the radio; I have sampled off the radio before but never the whole record before. I thought I can make a record all off the radio and use every sound that it has to offer, from the static to changing the dials to the frequencies that I used; I even used the tuner as a turntable and the volume on the boom box as a scratch fader, and did scratching at the end of a song called ‘Mega Mix.’ Aside from all of that, I didn’t want to make an album that just displayed my skills as a beat maker. I wanted it to tell a story. I felt that I was able to achieve that through manipulating vocal samples and sometimes I wouldn’t even have to manipulate them; I would just wholly agree with their message; I think that is what is cool about an instrumental album; I can have just a phrase that will get your mind set up in a certain way and then you will have instrumentals to develop your own thoughts; when you are listening to an MC, they are taking you along for a ride. They don’t give your mind a chance to think until the song is over and with an instrumental album it gives you a chance to come up with your own ideas.
URB: ‘We’re In Power’ marks your debut as a music video director. Why did you decide to shoot the video in stop-motion?
Exile: My friend is a photographer, and we just went for it. I can’t even really say. It was just a stream of creativity. I was just moving stuff, and he would take a picture, and eventually we found a rhythm and story just formed around it. I knew that I wanted to have a speaker cross on the album cover and a monk praying to the speaker cross. In the process of this short film, you can see the speaker cross being formed, so it just all came together. I always loved the rocket video, and I have always been a fan of stop motion, and I have seen some ill Frank Zappa shit, so we just went for it.
URB: Do you have any other plans to direct videos?
Exile: Definitely
URB: Any for this album?
Exile: Maybe. I would definitely like to do one stop motion video a year. At the very least I am going to do another Exile Radio album. I plan on doing more of these albums.
URB: How long did it take to make the music video using that process?
Exile: It took 6, 7 hour days.
URB: Going back to the speaker cross and the monk, why were those images that you wanted to provide?
Exile: If you watch the video, I accidently blow up one of the speakers, and the television comes and kind of uses their fear of me to get them to join him, so it says something about organized religion or even like the government or whatever, so they form this cross trying to get me to praise it, and I am not with it, so I take the radio and put it over the television, which I guess could communicate being an individual and just praising what you want to praise and as far as the speaker monk, they are just tied into the whole fantasy world that is tied in with the cross; they are kind of aliens that praise sound. Sound is their god.
URB: That theme of speaking out against the government or the control of the government is something that appears throughout this album, is that something that just came to you as you were listening to the various samples or is this a idea that you wanted to bring forward?
Exile: I had an idea that I would be able to find samples that would be relevant to the world just by listening to the radio already and it was a little bit of that and having things come to me. I wanted to show all sides: both evil and good. I would just turned on the radio and as much bullshit or commercialism and shit there is definitely even balance between some really dope and spiritual things and there is organized religion as well, which I disagree with to some degree, but even within that there were a lot of messages that were similar to things that I believe in my spirituality that I was able to manipulate and make it still communicate the freedom through spirituality and not religion, you know.
URB: How long were you compiling samples for this project?
Exile: I would do a little bit of recording samples and then recording just into the MPC. When I felt like making something I would just turn on the radio until I found some things I could work with. I would usually record just to record.
Exile ‘Milli’ Video from Jonathan Kim on Vimeo.
URB: Looking over your track listing, especially the track ‘God is Sound’, have any of the MCs that are close to you said, ‘Hey, can I rhyme over this track?’
Exile: Oh yeah. There is talk of doing a vocal version of this album. People have seemed to be drawn to this track. It is defiantly one of the more special ones on the album. From the speech from Allen Watson to the vocal samples that fit perfect over it; I actually cried tears of joy while making that beat.
URB: Was that one of the songs that took the longest to come together?
Exile: It was pretty free flowing. It wasn’t one of the harder tracks to make. It just came together.
URB: Who are some of the MCs that might rhyme over the vocal version?
Exile: Definitely the homies like Blu, C0$$, Aloe, Fashawn, J.O.H.A.Z., Jay Mitchell, and then there might be some extra goodies with people outside of the camp.
URB: Would you produce additional tracks for that version of the record as well?
Exile: Nah, I would probably just modify the production so it is more open to their vocals, but I might because have some extra shit; I have a lot of leftovers from this album actually.
URB: Have you thought about doing a radio album for another city? Maybe a New York Radio?
Exile: That’s been in the thought process. We’ll see.
With this [project] I don’t know what I am going to find and in addition to not knowing what I am going to find I find shit that I am not normally looking for; there is an amazing amount of time you get to spend with artists and philosophers and activists. Hip-hop was made from nothing, and I think I ran with that spirit on this album by making it totally off of the radio. I think that is very hip-hop [laughs].
URB: It seems like this was an incredible learning experience.
Exile: I defiantly learned radio really represents humanity because it is about something that somebody learned whether it be something that is spiritual, political, or about money.
URB: On ‘Mega Mix’ you pay tribute to some hip-hop’s fallen heroes, like DJ Dusk. Late last year the Root Down Sound Clash DVD came out. What are your thoughts, if you have seen it, looking back on your battle with Oh No?
Exile: I wish I would have ran more live shit. There is a part where a play drums for a little bit and I wish I would have ran with that more, but I am now, so it’s good; it’s a learning experience. It was a wonderful time; I am so honored to have been a part of it.
URB: Can you remember what was going through your mind at that time?
Exile: Do they like me [laughs]?
URB: You know watching it, it really seemed like you guys didn’t want the battle to end. There is a point near the end where you say, ‘I can do another beat’
Exile: Yeah, it was so much fun man. It was fun to have these people watching you and loving it. We shared that experience with the crowd. There is a thin line between performing and enjoying yourself in vanity. I think what separates the two is making a connection with the crowd.
URB: You and Blu have an upcoming show with Wale at the Key Club on the 29th of this month. Have there been any discussions about you working with Wale and what is next for you and Blu?
Exile: There have been talks about doing something with Wale; it hasn’t happened yet, but I am sure it will. There will be another Blu and Exile project. I think after Blu does his next album, whatever his next album is, we will do ours. We might start working on it this year, but I don’t think it will be released this year.
URB: What was it like working on the Below the Heavens, C.R.A.C., and Johnson and Johnson all around the same time?
Exile: Well we were working on Dirty Science before any of those records and Blu defiantly helped me out with that album, organizing and shit, so we were working on Dirty Science and Below the Heavens about the same time and it was great man; we would just stay up all night talking about what we wanted the album to be. It was cool kicking it with a young energy; when we first met he was like 19 and was 25. I started chilling with Ta’Raach here and there, and I brought him over to meet Blu, and they hit it off and they ended up doing their own album and at the same time he was working on the Johnson and Johnson project as a mixtape that was to be in support of Below the Heavens but then it just ended up being its own album. It was cool that’s the way I work. I have like three, four other projects I am working on right now. I am working with this cat out of Fresno named Fashawn. Once again, it’s great to work with someone who is excited to learn. The record is called Boy Meets World, I produced the whole thing, and we have been working on the album for about a year. Aside from that I am working on an album with J.O.H.A.Z. from San Diego or a group with him called Jack Savage and it’s the darker side of hip hop. I have my own album done called 4 track mind and it’s me rapping. It’s a dirty grimy tape sound, and I am currently working on a tour with DJ Dave. I am really trying to make the MPC work as a live instrument to the best of my ability. We are putting together a live MPC show that won’t be irritating. They can watch it or dance to it type of shit.
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