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Spotlight: Kwame

Kwame The Known Genius
There are many ways to look at the art of making music. In the realm of hip hop or new era soul, we tend to build things up at a surface level without digging deep into the details of what is really going down.

Not to say that the imagery of successful black men and the sonic excess that supports their assumed luxury is a bad thing. As the comedian Chris Rock once said (artist like) ‘Jay-Z (are) the Tony Robins’ of the black community, often inspiring those with little or no means to go for theirs.

But again we cannot deny the details of the art form. And there is perhaps no better producer to discuss the finer points of the details with than Kwame.

Known to many as the brother who used to bust the polka dots or the boy genius rapper who blew up off a record that was actually titled “Kwamé the Boy Genius,” Kwame now stands as a bonafide hitmaker for artists such as Mary J. Blige, Lloyd Banks, Tweet, Will Smith, LL Cool J, and others.

When we recently spoke we covered a lot of ground, but one response in hindsight stands out brighter than the rest when it comes to how and why he does what he does.

“When I first started out, I was influenced by a lot of artists outside of rap. I was into Stevie Wonder and Prince for example. I used to read the liner notes and stuff like that and it would say ‘written, produced and composed by “that certain person.

So in my mind I was like ‘ok, this is how it’s supposed to be done. ‘To me you had to do and play everything to be an artist that is just how it was. It is really more a matter of me just following what I saw.

It was never a situation with me where I needed a producer. I mean back then if you were hip-hop… that meant so many different things. You knew how to play instruments, you knew how to DJ, you did graffiti, you did all of that. At that time it was taking it all and putting it into one pot. That is how you put it down.”

Now don’t get it twisted Kwame is far from the grey haired old dude on the hill flipping birds at the young dudes because he feels that things were better ‘ back in the day.’ Far from it. As a matter of fact, Kwame prides himself on knowing when to turn on and turn off his history button.

“I pull history down only when the time is right when I am working with somebody. I like to treat it like musicology. I don’t always jump right on the old school banner. That would make no sense.

I don’t want to be Papa Kwame. I’m trying to have the same mentality as the new school to be honest with you. There are so many different forms of the new school that I want to understand them all. Just like every good rapper, and I really want to stress good rapper,…knows the history of this music.

I don’t care if they are 18 or if they are 30, it’s only the whack rappers who think that this all got started with (somebody like) Chingy. That is not where it comes from. It’s my job, when it’s needed to be like ‘hey that’s Stetsasonic’ or something like that.

That’s when I will get old school on you is when it comes down to helping somebody expand. Let me give you an example. I am working recently with this young lady and I used a Wu Tang record for a song. She said ‘that sounds like a 50 Cent beat.’ Everybody in the room is looking around about to die laughing. I was like “let’s not laugh at her. Let’s sit down and let her know where this is coming from.”

So once it was over with, she understood how by dropping this record she will automatically have an extra 500,000 people who are appreciating her for using that record that way.

That is an advantage to her because by doing certain things a certain way and singing certain lines a certain way, she brought the old school and the new school together. That is how you make it happen.”

Making it happen has never been a problem in his case, as he not only has several records that he is working on, but Kwame has several artists that he is set to bring into the spotlight. Yup, Kwame is about to begin his mogul thing.

“A lot of people like to speak on who they are working with at that time. I got on this record or look out for that and that’s cool. I’m doing a lot of that myself but my first priority and my main focus is my artists.

I am setting up their showcases and making this year totally about putting out the music that I would like to see put out. That is my dedication and that is my focus.

As far as big names, I am doing the Ja Rules, the Chris Browns, 50 Cent, Mya, LL Cool J… that to me is commonplace. I can’t break out the pom poms …I am starting to get bored with just that.

It’s like musically, I have been a bachelor for so long that now it’s time for me to start thinking about a family. I want to build a legacy. I want to get into other working situations like movies scores, commercials, and all of that.”

To many aspiring producers what has become commonplace to Kwame is more or less considered to be living the dream.

But if you look at where dude is coming from in terms of his continuous growth you will see that he is somebody who seems to view things by way of the next level and the next challenge, and from that you can take a lot of perspective and apply it to your own tactics.

“I think its important to have a understanding of where you are at all times. Anybody can get to a higher level but they cannot get there if they think they are already there.

You have a lot of young producers that don’t know this. Pookie form around the block is not Dr. Dre. I’m not Dr. Dre…yet. I am at where I

am at and I always aspire to be on that next level. But I take it one level at a time.

There was a time when I would not trust myself to engineer my own records. I would show up with my records and the engineer would set everything up. I used to sit in front of Pro Tools like ‘what is going on?’ I don’t do that anymore, because I constantly evolved.”

Evolution, some say, is how we came to exist on this big-ass rock to begin with. But what about the rap game? These days our brightest veterans proclaim hip-hop dead in the interest of sparking dialogue. But where does today’s subject see the state of things as they stand now? What about the young guns coming in?

“There are a lot of different styles coming in for different reasons. You got a lot of artists that are coming in just to turn drug money into something cool but (rapping) may not be in their heart like that all the way.

For some see it like a million dollar hobby. That’s fine but another thing that I try to do is make the most out of whatever natural ability is there and break it down to teaching them their publishing so they know what is what from every (angle).

You have to accentuate the positives. Some people should not write their own raps. Some people should not try to produce themselves. Just find out what that artist might be capable of and run with it.

I can say that my biggest investment was my gear. It might not be the same in terms of value 17 years later but that investment helped me a lot.”

And with the word gear, we now roll into the tech portion of the show. Kwame has always been a little bit ahead of the pack when it comes to how his records move and what they sound like. I used the example of Tweet’s “Turn The Lights Out” to ask why his records have their own flavor and set of rules.

“I like that record too. But, I have to say in a lot of cases, my biggest asset is also my biggest downfall. I don’t think I could just do an eight bar loop and keep that as the constant pattern throughout a whole song.

I like different sounds and I like to switch things up, a lot of times even where you have different patterns in different breakdowns. I need a bridge or a change or something.

When I make tracks, I am doing them without vocals so it has to keep my attention. I like to direct the song to where the vocals will coincide with where I wanted them to go. The vocals are basically the last instrument added to a record.”

But what about the rising producer who is not always allowed studio access when vocals are cut over their tracks? What can they do to “direct” the song?

“You would be surprised sometimes how I am not there when vocals are done. It could be schedules or any kind of reason. So I have to make sure that I have done my job so well musically that when those vocals are cut everything will stand up regardless of what the situation is.

As a producer, my music is my representative. They can try to manipulate things in Pro Tools or whatever but that simply can’t be done (without messing everything up). It can but it would take up so much time.

I would say over the past year most of the records that I have done have been mixed in my own personal studio. I believe if it’s not broke, don’t fix it and I have gotten everything to a certain quality that why would anybody want to mess that up?

I know a lot of younger producers make that ‘it’s just a demo’ excuse but that needs to stop if you are for real. You have to deliver.”

Conversation coming to a close, I chose to end things with a look inside one of the biggest controversies of his career: the truth behind his contributions to the Lloyd Banks smash “On Fire.”

“Ok, this is what happened. First of all 90% of what you hear on that track is mine. I gave them the track while they were on tour over in Germany. It got cut or whatever and I heard that (Dr.) Dre wanted to be part of the mixing process and so did Eminem.

Then I guess Eminem felt that he wanted to add some different elements to it which was always more than fine with me. Do whatever you have to do to make it a hit record. Just give credit where credit is due. As a producer outside of your fee, your credit is what makes you and keeps you in the game.

So that is where the problem comes in. When it first came out, it was produced by Eminem and then it became Eminem as a co-producer, and it just went back to what it was supposed to be but … don’t put me through that.

That track was the one that brought me back, you know, as a national force, so I needed to get my credit. I can’t say it enough times, the song came out hot. I love it. I have no problem with what Eminem and Louis Resto, his instrumentalist, did. Louis added some keys and those embellished hits that you hear.

But you know what? I am man enough to say that. A lot of super producers… big name guys will never admit that they get help. People will call and ask you to come through because they can’t get a drum pattern quite right or you can eve be just at a session and you help out.

It happens all of the time but I know what I am and the validity of what I do. I know what that song did for that record and really that’s all that matters.”

Adrian Glover (a.k.a. K.O.B.R.A.) is currently 50% of the urban production team The Association. Look for his upcoming work as part of The Audio Assassins on the debut album from 2XL Neighborhood Rapstar due out on February 20 2007. Visit him at www.myspace.com/beatsbykobra or www.beatsbykobra.com.

By Adrian Glover on 1/16/2007[read on] [6 comments]

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