By Adam Figman
Taking a break from promoting his late 2008 release The Death of Adam, 88-Keys was cool enough to hop on the phone with me and catch me up on his life-post URB’s cover story last November. As the producer of classics like Black Star’s “Thieves in the Night” and three songs on Mos Def’s Black on Both Sides (along with his own solo material), 88 has plenty to brag about. The New York native also just got off tour with college sensation Asher Roth and lonely stoner Kid Cudi as a part of the Great Hangover Tour. We spoke about the reception of the album, the difficulty of deciding what clothing to bring on the road (especially when you own almost the entire Ralph Lauren collection), and bridging the gap from old-school to new-school hip-hop fans.
URB: So where are you at now?
88-KEYS: I’m at the crib right now, trying to get things together for this show tonight.
URB: Cool, so how’s the reception for the album been?
88-KEYS: Oh man, the reviews have been awesome. There’s, like, nothing short of a 5-star review, like literally, you know what I’m saying? So it’s all good. But now it’s just trying to get people to know about the album, even though the album came out back in mid-November.
URB: Yeah, I noticed the video just dropped the other day for “The Friend Zone,” so it seems like the buzz has definitely continued and picked up since the album dropped.
88-KEYS: Oh yeah, definitely.
URB: I know you were producing for years, but on the album you’re rapping too. What made you decide you’re gonna pick up the microphone?
88-KEYS: The rapping was only supposed to be for stage show purposes only, you know to put me more into my album for when I’m performing. My album was initially supposed to be mainly instrumental, with a few features on there, and I didn’t have a voice on there with the exception of one song. But then when I’d go out, on the tours I’ve been on so far, I would scale back to have to DJ my set. I felt like the next time I go out I want to make my presence more known, so I came up with some raps for it. So long story short, Kanye heard the raps that I came up with, and he suggested I put them on my album. I was like, “Nah, because the album’s already done.” It was mastered twice, and it came out to my liking. But yeah, he just saw greater potential if I’d put those raps to my album and stuff like that because he really liked the raps.
URB: One thing that I really love about the album is that, even though you’re mainly a producer, it doesn’t come off as a “producer album” that’s inundated with guest spots and posse cuts. Were you conscious of that when you put it together or is that something that just kind of happened?
88-KEYS: When I was working on my album, I just took my favorite producer albums and I really nit-picked those. Like, I love all the producers’ albums that I base my stuff off of, but I kind of did it the opposite way. I took each album and tried to figure out what I didn’t like about each album, or what I felt was lacking on each one of those albums. So basically I just applied what I thought was lacking on other albums and put it on my own album.
Leave A Comment!