Politix Magazine Interview with Thes One

Interview by: Chris Craft

Date: July 2002

Beats for bin Laden

Around what year did you all first get into hip hop?
Thes One: Honestly, it was around '84 when I first started getting into hip hop.. That would make me what.. 7 years old... Both of my parents worked so I had to be in this afterschool program at the park... All the leaders of the program were b-boys so they like put us in training.

You guys sample a lot... Are there any samples out there that you consider untouchable.. that you'll never use?
Thes One: There's definitely some songs that shouldn't be sampled. There's some songs where if you try to sample them, you wouldn't be able to capture or translate what that song represents. It's just a personal thing. Take 'In a Silent Way' by Miles Davis for instance, I just can't sample that. That was some of the first electronic/jazz/rock music to ever come out... It came before 'Bitches Brew'.

What record labels have provided you all with the best samples?
Thes One: There's a lot and I don't wanna put myself out there like that but you can peep the song '43 Labels I Like' from our second album.

Have you ever run into problems with clearing samples?
Thes One: Well even though we're independent we're a producer's group so we're gonna continue to sample. But whenever we sample, we give credit where credit is due. We'll even mention the artist's name in the song or what not. I know whenever I read the production credits of albums, I'll read for example what song Pete Rock sampled and I'll go out there and look for it. On this new album, we cleared two song successfully. Another issue is when these companies have the publishing rights of the original artist and they swindle the artists of their money. I'd rather not clear the song if Seagrams is collecting all the money. Ideally, I would like to hit off individual artists, like say we took a drum loop or a guitar, I would like to go directly to that person and clear it with them and hit them off with the money. We can just list his name.

How much money would it take for you to make one beat with strictly casio sounds and release it commercially?
Thes One: You know what? I'd do that shit, but under a different name. You see, the commercial cats have no ethics at all, they don't have to worry about having quality music. They just do it to make money, they don't care. Give me $300,000 for that one track and then I'll use to the money to release a gang of quality independent records.

Are there any producers today who don't sample whose music you enjoy?
Thes One: Yeah. What it is, people like Stereolab and other non-hip hop stuff. I like The Roots and they don't necessarily sample. It's just hard for me to get into music made with those patch sounds. Those sounds were made somewhere in a lab and they're too perfect. It's not a perfect world man, I like things skewed a bit.

How do Los Angeles locals react to y'all's style of music?
Thes One: Honestly, people are starting to come around. I know it's not like the rest of the west-coast hip hop but I don't see why we can't be the west coast version of Pete Rock or the Beanuts. Out here, people are used to the electric sound, the electro-pop inspired music. Me and Double K came up listening to more of the New York hip hop coming up and it has obviously influenced our style.

I peeped the cartoon on y'all's site, what political messages were y'all trying to get across?
Thes One: (Laughter) None, we're really just some clowns man. For everyone that knows us they know that we're some clowns. We just like to fuck around man and have a good time. 'Cus man in my neighborhood there's problems. We just like to get away from it all because at home there's always something going on to be down about. There's so much that can go on in this world, someone can drop an atom bomb right now and we can't do anything about it. We're just trying to get a laugh and create an escape.

You think bin Laden would enjoy y'all's music?
Thes One: I think he could get into the rhythms for real. Now I don't want to catch no death threats like Eminem though, I guess when I go overseas I can't eat at the late night kebab spots, but I'm not trippin' man. On the real, I know it's only a small percentage of them that are wild like that, we don't trip, but that's the good thing about America, all races and colours are in one area. We're all American and we all love hip hop.

Do you all really think Osama is that bad of a guy?
Thes One: (Laughter) Man I don't know, as far as his music taste, I mean I think if dude had a studio, they would like that beat. You know I custom made that beat for him, Osama likes that Gap Band loop. He's a rider man, he's a gangsta.

Do people in L.A. even concern themselves with all the terrorism stuff... 'cus ya'll seem so carefree?
Thes One: I think for a while they did. People in L.A. have kinda' forgotten about it but I was watching CNN the other night and they were reminding the people of Los Angeles to not get caught slippin'... That's why I try to keep all my relationships on good terms man 'cus you never know what could happen, I never leave my house on bad terms.

Aight, tell us a little bit about the new album.
Thes One: Well, I tried really hard to bring new records and samples that haven't been heard before. Bringing heavy new drums. We ain't really talkin' about nothing, just filling the void.

Are you going to be touring?
Thes One: Yeah, we're about to leave on tour with J-Live and Ugly Duckling. We start on July 11th.

Any chance you'll hit Afghanistan?
Thes One: (Laugher) I don't know. We've been in some places that look like Afghanistan, that's as close as it gets. We've been treated like we were in Afghanistan... German and French customs are harsh.

What other PUTS or outside projects y'all got in the works?
Thes One: Well we've been busy with the album. Double K has been workin' on this new CD with this crew from his hood called The Brother Load and I'm thinking about doing a couple of theme projects. This one project I'ma do is gonna be an ad agency album with fake products and stuff. It's gonna be deep. It's gonna be based on this movie 'Putney Swope' about an advertising agency that was owned by the Black Panthers.