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Pase Rock: Exclusive Interview :: The Spank Rock hypeman gets his own grind going...again.

By Paul Glanting

01/15/08 :: URB web

With song titles like "The Motherfucking Rave is Over" and lyrics that demand the knickers go back on, one may be inclined to think Pase Rock is the hip-hop equivalent to the cranky old man living in the apartment unit below yours, whose always banging his ceiling with a broom and demanding that you "keep that goddamn noise down." However, URB caught up with Rock and found out that in truth, the Rapper/ DJ is eager to provide  

URB: Like most "new shit," you've been rapping and Djing for years.
Pase Rock: I've been really interested in music and youth culture my whole life (specifically hip-hop). I guess I started out as a fan just collecting records, dancing and learning how to scratch at a young age. I started rapping in high school. Got my first record deal at 15. Then I joined this group in Cincinnati called Five Deez. We made a few albums, toured the world a few times. I've been DJing a lot the whole time. Had some residencies in nightclubs, and threw a lot of successful parties and a hip-hop festival for almost 10 years. All good times. Still doing the same thing I was 15 years ago. It's crazy to think about really, but here we are.

URB: What inspires Pase Rock, whether it be music, movies, life?
Pase Rock: Inspiration comes from different things. you never really know. Traveling a lot is definitely inspiring. It's good to get out of your comfort zone and experience new and different things. I'm really into art, so I'm exploring the connections between visual things and audible things with the music I make lots of times. I like to picture my music as soundtracks to things that interest me visually, and vice versa.

URB: The branch of hip hop you inhabit, is largely powered by electro beats. What inspired artists such as yourself to stray from more traditional jazz/soul sampled hip hop ala' Tribe Called Quest,Pete Rock and more towards dance-based material?
Pase Rock: I wouldn't say it's "straying away" from jazz samples or whatever so much. Really it's all a matter of perspective. I don't like to differentiate, and I appreciate music as far as what's good and what's not good, and I think you'll hear a lot of different influences on my record. It's all just an extension of what I've been doing since like 1998 or so. Five Deez was kind of on an electro/ dance/ house kinda vibe as well, so to me it's just progression. Especially from a DJ standpoint. I've always played dance music since I started DJing, whether it's House or Disco or B-boy classics, I got into music via dancing and rollerskating, so that's the stuff I always gravitated towards. As far as "jazz samples" are concerned I think that a lot of that stuff—while very good—is sleepy and kinda boring. It existed in an era where everybody was smoking weed all day and wanted to chill. It was a different time, and unfortunately that time is kinda over. I think now it's a different energy. Cocaine seems like it's kinda the drug of choice now amongst todays youth (especially in the clubs), so they want cocaine music, or Oxycontin, Ecstasy music. It's sad to say, and it's really stupid and lame in my opinion. But hey, c'est la vie. Apparently the rave is NOT over...

URB: Lindsay Lohan's Revenge" I think, has a good duality to it. It's humorus, catchy and very danceable, but the reoccurring images of undergarments and that which is under the undergarments, make me feel like there's something deeper to it.
Pase Rock:I guess there could be something deeper to it. We were just really clowning around when we made that, but maybe there is some deeper subtext there. I hope so. It's really up to the listener I guess. I mean that's what makes good art, right? If it's deeper than the panties, then I hope it's wet. (airhorn, airhorn!)

URB: Subsequently, lots of your music has an ironic self-mocking tone to it. Songs like "The Motherfucking Rave is Over" and "So Fucking Disco" seem to be satarizing things such as the current revival of the old school as well as hedonism and self indulgence.
Pase Rock: I hope I'm not mocking anything sacred, but who knows? I dunno really. I just do what feels right. I say what I feel needs to be said, and hope for the best.  At this point it's just having fun and hopefully contributing something to the landscape. A lot of people are just taking and taking. I don't want to be one of those people. I want to add something, and hope that people enjoy it. Use it as they must.

URB: What's up with your label Fully Fitted? What kind of projects are in the works?
Pase Rock: Alex (XXXChange) is finishing up a new EP that we're doing with Turntable Lab. We have my next single coming out and a Devlin and Darko mixtape and those are just the immediate things. But that's just labelwise; we are doing other projects and things. A&R and stuff like that. Fully Fitted is a gang. 2008 heavy.

URB: Do you have a favorite artist to work with?
Pase Rock: Right now Eli Escobar. He's doing most of my album and is just a pleasure and delight as a person, as well as a musician and an incredible DJ. I'm not gonna namedrop too many other folks but lets just say my record is kinda guest heavy. At least that's the way it's looking right now. I'm working with a lot of newer artists that seem to be popping right now, as well as some amazing people that I've always admired, and I couldn't be more thrilled. I have to pinch myself every morning when I wake up. It's dope, or as the homie Ronnie Darko says, "TURBO!"

URB: And what's your dream posse cut, pick any four artists (dead or alive) to have lunch with then do a track with.
Pase Rock: Ha! I dunno. I think I've probably had lunch with the people I would name, and maybe I'm working on tracks with them too! I'd like to do some more stuff with Five Deez. There, that's four people.

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