URB: He basically let you be you.
AWOL One: Yeah, there were a couple of times where he told me I should say this or I should take something out. When it came to that, he really did have a big impact. He actually did an intro for the album that we didn’t end up using because it kind of didn’t fit the album. It was hardcore on some stomping shit. He was cool with not using it in the album, but I might use it for my shows.
URB: Any talks about working with him on his next project?
AWOL One: Yeah, I have already laid some scratch vocals over some tracks, so there will be some future collabos.
URB: Staying with Xzibit, a couple of his Likwit crew buddies appear on the album.
AWOL One: Actually, I did that cut even before X decided to take on the project. I hooked it through Jizzum because he was mastering Tash’s album, and Tash is a cat that I have been wanting to work with for awhile. A lot of people think X hooked that up, but Jizzum hooked that up. On “Don’t Waste the Wine,” Jizzum brought him over and he laid some verses for “Darkness,” but the beat didn’t really fit his style, so Factor through on the “Don’t Waste the Wine” and Tash wanted to get on it, and he said he would record it when he went out to Vegas, and once he got out there, he called me to say that E-Swift wanted to jump on the track, and I told him that would be ill, so that’s how that track came together.
URB: It looked like there was a Alkaholic/Likwit crew reunion.
AWOL One: [Laughs] I guess drunken raps meet drunken raps.
URB: What can fans expect from the next Shapeshifter Crew album?
AWOL One: We have done 10 or 11 cuts so far, and I would say we are about 50 percent done on each of the songs. For my record release show at the Knitting Factory (July 19) for Owl Hours we are going to do a Shape Shifter reunion show, which will probably be the first show we have done in close to two years.
URB: It seems like with most of the projects you are working on there really isn’t a sense of pressure to live up to any specific expectations because Owl Hours sounds completely different than your last project.
Awol One: You mean like I gotta use auto tune on every song or something [laughs]. Me and a friend were talking about putting out a secret auto tune EP just to fuck around.
URB: But it wouldn’t come out under the name AWOL One?
AWOL One: Maybe, unless it was dope then I am claiming it [laughs].
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