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88-Keys - The Death of Adam
"In a nutshell the album is about the power of the vagina and how it ceases control over every living thing in the universe."
Producer and rapper 88-Keys has worked with everybody from Blackstar to Kanye West. And now his debut album, The Death of Adam, dropps Nov. 11. He took the time to tell us a little bit about the album and the early days.
La Famiglia- What were some of your early influences in music?
88-Keys- Early influences in music, definitely would have to be Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest, Pete Rock, Diamond D, Souls of Mischief, they all influenced me to do what I’m doing today.
La Famiglia- What influenced you and made you decide you to get into music and production?
88-Keys- I think it was more of a calling, I kind of happened to cross it. My first recollection of me starting my career was purchasing Roy Ayers, “Everybody Loves the Sunshine”, the original album on vinyl. When I first heard the song I thought I was listening to a remix of Brand Nubian’s, “Everybody Loves the Sunshine”, thinking that some old guy is singing on their song. Which in turn was the complete opposite. So then I went and found the album and listened to the album straight through and I started to hear more beats jumping out to me from the original song. Then I always felt like “Everybody Loves the Sunshine”, could have been flipped a different way not knowing what a producer was or what looping, or any studio equipment was. I was like fourteen or fifteen years old at the time.
La Famiglia- When you were younger your family didn’t really understand or support the idea of following a career in music, is that correct?
88-Keys- Yeah, it was the complete opposite. I came from a family of medicine so they wanted me to be a doctor or at least something that they felt were professional. Like a lawyer or…yeah those were pretty much the only two choices I had at the time was to be a lawyer of a doctor. I couldn’t do either one, well I could of if I had it in my heart to do, but I just didn’t.
La Famiglia- How do they feel about it now?
88-Keys- Oh man, they love the choices I made in life now. In turn I ended up being able to take care of them and help out with the family in certain ways. And now with my new awareness they are starting to see the accolades that I’m getting beyond just my friends giving me a shot out on their album credits. Now they’re starting to see me online and in print and stuff like that. They’re starting to hear me on the radio so now their like, “He’s finally arrived, he’s made it!” I kind of feel that way too, so it’s all-good now. I love my mommy and daddy.
La Famiglia- You've got a little bit of a production record. You actually did some work on the old Blackstar project. How did you get you're foot in the door?
88-Keys- Kweli, I met Kweli I believe it was at a Roots Session…man what year was this? I want to say like ’97, ’96 or something. Actually no, I met him at a Lyricists Lounge session at the studio, I gave him a beat tape, and we exchanged numbers. Mos, I met Mos Def through Sean J Period. He used to come to the studio and just sit in the corner and zone off or what ever. Then I started bumping into him at other people’s sessions like the Bush Babies sessions, and I think he swung by the Artifacts sessions a few times. These were all sessions that I was part of their sessions as an onlooker. Then I just started seeing Mos Def pop up a lot and eventually I gave him a beat tape was at the “Stakes are High” video shoot for De La Soul. It was all history from there.
La Famiglia- What trials and tribulations have you gone through during your career and what have you learned from them?
88-Keys- Ah Yeah, damb near my whole career! A lot of things held me back from getting back from getting more work. Had I had a chance to do it over I wouldn’t have done it any other way. One thing was a phrase my manager coined called “A basement Mozart”, where it got to the point where I was selling beats often in the late 90’s early 2000’s or so, and I started to be more and more critical with my own work. I would make beats everyday and I had been doing it since I was fourteen or fifteen years old. It was a question of me making beats, it was a question of me having confidence in my beats.. I started making beats and thinking, this beat wasn’t as good as the last beat I sold, so I would have to pretty much out do myself. Which is a healthy mentality to have, to be in competition with yourself, but I didn’t give anybody a chance to hear my stuff. So, I would make beats and critique myself, I was my own worst critic. It wouldn’t get beyond the four walls of my studio.
La Famiglia- Tell us a little about your new album, The Death of Adam. What inspired this project?
88-Keys- The name of the album is The Death of Adam. This is my up coming debut album. In a nutshell the album is about the power of the vagina and how it ceases control over every living thing in the universe. But more directly it follows a story line that follows my man Adam that past away and all this stuff he went through chasing after it, and leading to his downfall in the end, he died. Hence the title, The Death of Adam.
I was inspired to make this album by the first beat that I decided to keep for the album. Which was a song called, “Displeasure In It”. I had an album deal with another company and while I was working on a brand new piece of that I made about eight or nine beats for that album and I had came across this one sample. I was chopping it up and it kept saying, Pleasure, Pleasure, Pleasure in it. The beat was dope, but it was real monotonous and tedious. I was like how do I give this beat a meaning? I have to make this beat a meaning. So I just racked my brain and was like what brings me pleasure? You know….Sex…the vagina brings me pleasure. So, I wound up giving that song that meaning. The very next record I picked up to sample, it turned out the subject matter went back to relate to that. God was like, this what the album needs to be about so I scrapped all the other beats I made and started the album with those two beats.
La Famiglia- What other artists are on the album?
88-Keys- I have Shitake Monkey, this rock group on there, J Kutty, Phonte of little Brother, Kanye West, & Redman, and a few others.
La Famiglia- Do you have anything you would like to say to the people about this album.
88-Keys- Yeah, especially with this album and the mixtape, Adam’s Case Files, I’d like the people know the amount of work and creativity I put into crafting each beat. The beats themselves, minus any features or any vocals that I may of done, with the exception of two beats on the album, they actually tell the story by themselves as instrumentals. The songs piece together as a story, no stones were left unturned, and I think everyone’s going to get, when they get it.
La Famiglia- Do you have any advice for aspiring artists?
88-Keys- The one thing I like to tell people, just to beat the late 90’s phrase to death, but just keep it real. And keeping it real, a lot of people over look this part of keeping it real, but you have to keep it real with yourself before anything else. If you’re working on music, and your stuff isn’t good, work to perfection. Work to try to make your stuff sound better. If it gets to the point where you are like, I want to do this as a career move, or I don’t want to do this because I need something to fall back on. If you’re going be half way in and half way out, you mind as well just get out. You gotta be in it to win it. You really have to keep it real with yourself, if you’re talent isn’t there then you have to find a different way into the music industry if that’s something your really want to be a part of.
88-Keys Official Myspace - www.myspace.com/88keys
Decon - www.deconrecords.com
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