Launch Interview with Thes One

From: Launch

Interview by: Launch

Date: 10th May 2002

A telephone chat with Thes One from LA hip-hop duo, People Under The Stairs, revealed a US hip-hop scene desperately in need of risk takers and a bit of Brit spirit.

But first we had to touch on records. Vinyl is without doubt a wife to Thes One and Double K, or maybe more like a harem, since Thes puts their combined total at somewhere over 15000 discs. Here's what he had to say...

I'd like to kick off by talking about records
Thes One: Good, great.

I know that's a subject that's close to your heart. How many records do you have between you?
Thes One: (long pause for thought) Probably somewhere over 100 crates. I don't know if a crate is a standard measurement in Europe but in America it's about 150 records.

Whereabouts do you keep them all?
Thes One: (Laughs) We've both got them in various places. I got a lot of mine talking up two rooms of the house that I live in. Double K's got records in his room and records in his garage and records at his Mum's garage and... he's got records everywhere.

How long has it taken to collect that many?
Thes One: For me, I've been collecting since the early nineties, more seriously towards the late nineties. The last couple of years has just been kinda out of control.

What five records that we haven't got should we have?
Thes One: If I told you that I'd be giving away my most guarded secrets - I really would rather not say.

Five artists?
Thes One: I really would rather not say. There's a variety of reasons. One is, of course, the publishing companies and the record companies that own this stuff have made it impossible for us to clear it properly. It's their fault. And because of that, if I start talking about that sort of thing then I'm putting myself at risk. And, believe me, if there was a way where if I used a drum break off a record and I could make sure that I could give the drummer who played the actual break a thousand bucks - I would do it. But clearing a record doesn't always equal that. The actual dude who played what you cleared doesn't get shit, ever. I'd rather stay away from that whole thing. It is very competitive and you got to be careful 'cause anyone can make money off you still.

Presumably the average People Under The Stairs record is made up of thousands of samples?
Thes One: Close to it, yeah.

Surely some are more prominent than others; some are not the sort of thing that you have to clear?
Thes One: On this album everything that we used was pretty obscure. That comes from us being more mature with our beat-digging and also being conscious of putting ourselves at risk.

Would you say that you find most of your inspiration in record shops?
Thes One: No, inspiration comes from the city we live in. Everything about it. The food, the women, whatever man, you name it.

What's the scene like in LA at the moment?
Thes One: It's alright I guess, not like it is in Europe. If you live in the UK you got top quality hip-hop acts, people that I would pay to go see at any moment coming through every week. In little-assed towns, towns like Leeds, Nottingham. Little towns. And in LA I can't remember the last time that a group I wanted to see came through town. It just doesn't happen that often. That, of course, helps create a more energetic scene, the kids come and look forward to it, go out and buy albums. They're breakdancing, grafitting, DJing and all that. Being out here is like what the scene was for us back when it was dope in the nineties.

If you had to mark out a particular period in hip-hop's long history that you see as its most fertile, what years would you go for?
Thes One: '90-'95 - it really got to the top and then disappeared, fell off the face of the map.

You're really talking about the period of Pete Rock, D.I.T.C. and so on...
Thes One: D.I.T.C., Beatnuts, Pete Rock, Fellowship, Pharcyde, Souls Of Mischief - everyone was contributing to it. After that I don't know what happened. I think that it was about the time that Puffy started Bad Boy... I dunno? People started making substantial amounts of money out of hip-hop and driving Bentleys and all of a sudden, if you were on a major label, they expected that of you. So everyone that we looked up to started getting dropped. The type of music that the producers were making, like Pete Rock and the Beatnuts and stuff, wasn't making money for labels. They realised, 'hey, if we do this jiggy crap, then we could be making millions'. So everything changed.

At the same time there was a certain amount of cementing going on in the underground.
Thes One: Yeah, during that period people were fortifying because they didn't just want to drop the torch. We've come so far to this point we're not going to let it go out like that, on 112 and Ja Rule and shit. It's time for us to pick up where these cats left off and put it out ourselves and stuff.

Over the past three to four years the underground has had a very clear identity. It's been focussed around labels like Rawkus and so on.
Thes One: Well, it was at the beginning. But when you have things like that happening - like that label - anytime a corporation or a big label that controls more than one outlet has a lot of say in what goes on, then you start to get all the underground records sounding the same. So, that's not good either.

Do you feel that's happened, that there is a sameness to the underground sound?
Thes One: Oh man, definitely. It's killing itself as we speak. Unless people are willing to step forward and say - 'this is me, this is the type of stuff I want to make and I don't care if you like it' - then things are only going to get worse.

Who do you feel is taking that step at the moment?
Thes One: I think that Ugly Duckling are sticking their neck out, we are, I think there are acts in the UK and Europe who're doing that like Roots Manuva, Ty and Rodney P and all these cats.