Rick Ross and Aaron LaCrate for RMXXOLOGY

Yeah, she helped guide me toward some people that she thought would be interested. Everybody I talked to were big fans of the label, whether they’re new DJs or been around a little bit, they all had specific tracks they really dug and wanted to get into. It’s been really cool since a lot of these guys are starting to blow up like Aaron [LaCrate] and this guy Don Rimini in France. Me and LaCrate started a division of Delicious called Delicious Gutter. It’s for the more aggressive, electro beats that aren’t really fitting for Delicious Vinyl. Don Rimini is our first bastard child [laughs]. He’s really talented. He just played me a bunch of new stuff he’s working on and its just exciting to see a kid whose always been a really good DJ all of a sudden start doing production and getting booked for all these tour dates. We’re booking dates in September in L.A. with him. That’ll be dope.

Mm-hmm. What makes a good remix? It’s elegant fine-tuning that expands into a groundbreaking, unforgettable one-night stand. [Laughs]

That’s my quote… That’s how I answer that question. I like considering really good remixes like really amazing one-night stands, you know, because that’s what it is.

He has good instincts and he’s right: there’s a point with DJs, whatever you’re spinning, it’s good to know all the possibilities that are out there. One of the things we did when we were coming up as DJs was go through all the music -- rock, punk, soul, funk, hip hop, some disco -- and you find the gems. You’ve got to go to school a little bit to really bring it, otherwise you’re just rockin’ the hits. Part of being a really cool DJ is figuring out ways to mesh really cool old classics with new hot fire, and that’s the essence of what I was trying to with this project. All these songs are big floor hit songs anyways -- “Wild Thing” and “Bust a Move” -- so it wasn’t that I needed to make more dance or club oriented records, I was just looking to deepen and widen the mix to a more alternative take on these classics, and specifically have some of the latest sounds added to see if we could make it really interesting. If they weren’t cool, I wouldn’t put them out. There were a couple mixes that came in and were just not our style, they just weren’t right. It wasn’t like I was doing this to just let anything happen; they always have to have a certain style, a certain cool new vibe that would make me and the guys and everybody at DV really want to put it out.

It’s an honor. Of five labels in America that have been around as long as us, and they’re all five of my favorite labels -- Sub Pop, Matador, Touch and Go, and some others -- all my favorite records are on all those labels, definitely, my favorite bands came from those labels. It’s a testament to entrepreneurship and sticking with a vision of wanting to put out cool records that you would play yourself -- that you love -- as opposed to doing it for some weird end game. It’s always been natural and interesting for us to go, “Oh we’re into this record, let’s try to put it out.” And that’s what we did originally with Masters of Reality, this Rick Rubin record from 1989 that was kind of lost, but that we essentially bought off of Rubin and re-put out because it was such a great record. There are other artists too like Fatlip who my brother [Mike Ross] stuck with for 10 years after he was kicked out of The Pharcyde. He nurtured Fatlip along through some tough times while he put together his solo album. In a lot of ways I consider my brother a patron of hip-hop; he’s got some really deep love and commitment and is very loyal to certain producers and artists that have come through the house of Delicious. It’s been great for us and it’s been great for those artists too.

Yeah. It’s just a gut feeling sometimes where you’re like, naw that’s not it, that’s not going to be something we can go to bed at night being really proud of. It’s always been that easy, much to not our financial betterment. [Laughs] And that’s okay. You take your shots we always felt like just go for the shit we really believe, and that there’s no reason to do this if we’re not doing it that way. That goes back to what Aaron is saying which is, you’ve got to understand your own filter a little bit, you’ve got to know when to walk away from something, and you’ve got to know when to really embrace it. For a lot of people, that’s not an easy thing to get in tune with. I really believe that’s one of the things, even with DJs, or learning about cinema or about great art, you need mentors. You need people to kind of coach you through it.

No, not at all. That’s why I tell people to file this record under electro jams/hip-hop [laughs]. Hip-hop is just so middle of the road right now, especially American hip-hop. There’s nothing that’s come out that’s even remotely exciting to me, personally. The DJs that I started getting into two years ago were guys that I found were like old school hip-hop enthusiasts that were looking for this early ‘90s sound and they reminded me a lot of the early days. I found a couple DJs over here who started doing remixes for me on Fatlip’s record and they just had a natural organic interest in hip-hop that wasn’t trying to be some syrupy crunk shit. Our label has never really been about gangster rap or any of the higher profile style hip hop. The crossover shit was amazing but it was fun and it had a sense of humor. Hip-hop just in the last 10 to 15 years isn’t about that at all; it’s all about money and other stuff. I just feel like lyrically it got really weird. Hip-hop had to always be about really dope lyrics and there are still a lot of guys dropping really great lyrics, it’s just… I think it’s exciting because now a lot of the hip-hop cats are looking at dance hall and electro and more minimal freaky club sounds that are more experimental, coming from around the world. It could make the music fresh again in a way we haven’t ever seen it that way.

It comes from not taking things too seriously and trying to find some sense of humor in the art. What kind of cool gag could you pull off? Even when they started the label, the logo is a guy eating a record. Tone Loc’s first video “Wild Thing” was a spoof on Robert Palmer. There were just ways to add a little bit of wit. You just want to add something with a little twist. That’s what’s fun about the Delicious Gutter; Don Rimini is coming with this heavy dance music but he also has this playful presentation and a sense of humor, and his lyric lines that he drops on his beats that doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is important.

LaCrate is 60-years-old!

[All laugh]

Don’t be fooled by that baby face.

For me it was one of the classic labels from the early ‘90s that was well branded and it had great party records and great pop-y hip-hop records that not a lot of people could pull off. They could make fun pop records that had hip-hop sensibility and they could also go and make a heavy rhyme experience and be the ultimate of the underground hip-hop… classic albums. They could dip in and dive and do whatever they wanted, basically, and then have The Pharcyde, which brought them back up, and then Masta Ace … they did whatever they wanted to do but it was all dope and it was all different. It was all respectable. That’s what it meant to me as a kid. I played all those records; I was buying all those records when I was a young DJ. So for Rick and I to link up has been like two powerful forces coming together in a sea of ignorance. And we’re changing it step-by-step, interview-by-interview… [laughs] we’re educating the youth.

I consider LaCrate one of the great educators of the 21st century. [Laughs]

I’m a young prophet. Infinite wisdom for my young age. [Laughs]

In one word, the wackness. [Laughs] You just can’t let yourself go out like a sucker. That’s my answer.

I think with Delicious Vinyl we’re sticking with the original philosophy of what the label was. Certain people can get away with certain things because of who they are and how they are, and what they take seriously, also what quality of work they produce. Delicious Vinyl set a standard and we’re sticking with that. It’s not a matter of making a good or bad remix, it’s sticking with a standard of creativity that I also have for myself. I think [RMXXOLOGY] is a great project and I’m excited to be a part of it. My thing is small and it’s growing, and with us teaming up on this project, the name Delicious Vinyl brings a certain customer base, and what I’m doing brings a certain customer base, and in between the two there’s a real relationship. My whole thing goes back to hip-hop. People throw me into some sort of hipster category but it’s not really so. This Baltimore club thing, me growing up as a kid was hip-hop, our version of hip-hop was club music and it definitely wasn’t what it is now. I’m not knocking what [club music] is now but it was a very street movement and that’s what hip-hop was. Delicious Vinyl took that and put their spin on it like I’m taking club music and putting my spin on it. We’re all just trying to make things better.

Yeah, this guy Breakbot took Fatlip’s song into a deeper emotional space than the original version, which was kind of a little depressing [about being] an outsider and a loser. This French producer brought this key ‘70s happening feel to the song that took it to a deeper level. That to me, that and its instrumentals, is the most interesting version of all the remixes. Hot Chip did the same thing with The Pharcyde’s “Passin’ Me By.” You can’t really remix “Passin’ Me By” because it’s such a sacred song, and they really broke it down and made it almost like a religious hymn… like a church choir anthem… and that was exactly what I wanted to present because I didn’t want to go out like a sucker on a “Passin’ Me By” remix.

Nowadays everything is a mashup. You might as well remix your own records before someone else does. In the words of Mike Ross, “Whateva, Whateva."

[Laughs]

We actually did the Gutter version of that first, which was a crazy, drum heavy, pounding remake that was much more chopped up. It was a really cool mix; I think it’s going to have it’s own shelf life and everything. We banged that one out and then we were like, “Wow, this vocal is just…” and we wanted to redo part of the song “Samir’s Theme” that was part of the Milkcrate Records catalog, which I always felt was an amazing beat but needed a vocal. I was out in L.A. hanging out with Rick one day and I was playing some of my Milkcrate Records stuff and he heard “Samir’s Theme” and was like, “Wow, this is amazing. Instead of just making a brand new track we should do an official legal mashup between Young MC and ‘Samir’s Theme.’” It’s not exactly to say we reconfigured the beat but we flipped it up and made it fit the vocal a lot better and the song structure. It was about taking the best old school vocal and adding what I think is one of the most innovative and craziest dance records of the past few years. The result, I think we tapped into something that hasn’t even had its effects yet. I really think it’s going to be one of those records, like “Bust a Move” or “Wild Thing,” that is going to be around for a very long time and going to pop up in a whole hell of a lot of places. It’s going to keep living.

That was me talking about the B’More Gutter project, the first full-length CD and mix that we distributed. That’s what put us back on the map and exposed the world to Baltimore club music and a whole new generation of kids to what Baltimore club music is. Even Spank Rock and all the Baltimore dudes thought I was crazy for putting this together. They were like, “You’re wasting your time, whatever, we’ll do it.” It was this vision that I had of my hometown and rebranding it, repackaging it, and bringing it back to life. The music is not new. It’s been around for 15 years and it hasn’t gone very far. So this was my way… I’m a hip-hop kid and grew up in Baltimore, grew up around club music, and I know what it is and I know what it isn’t. I wanted to make a joke of a hip hop mixtape format with shout-outs and two or three original tracks and then we mixed together the most popular club songs of the day and it just so happened it was the formula and right presentation that blew that up. That’s probably a lot of the reason I was on Rick’s radar. It got tons of remixes and tons of industry… everyone thought that Spank Rock and Amanda Blank were signed to me and it opened up the floodgates of that city. I wanted to turn the typical mixtape on its head, take dance music, mix it hip-hop style… Mixtapes at this point are just about breaking new artists so we broke Spank Rock and Amanda Blank and in a sense, broke myself. It was well packaged and it did its job, but it was also kind of a joke with the shout-outs and all that over the dance music. It had never really been done before.

[Laughs] I crack me up.

My whole life has been like that. To make it out of a city like Baltimore you’ve got to deal with a hell of a lot worse than petty politics and little kids who are new to everything, and know they’re new to everything, so they’re afraid of anyone who’s a scholar compared to them. That’s just youth, rebellious youth, they want to do it their way and in the long run they will end up wising up, I feel. That’s why I don’t even acknowledge it. People are like, “Why are you so quiet about so many things?” Because it’s unprofessional. We make the best music, period. We focus on making the best quality of music. Debonair Samir and the artists I’ve signed are very happy to be working with me. They’ve been working with me for eight years now and don’t have any complaints against me. The whole thing -- people criticizing each other over this music and who can do what and who can’t do what -- it’s ridiculous. I refuse to comment on it because I think it’s a new genre that’s getting attention and the fans of it are starting to destroy it and they don’t even realize it. The kids who like it the most are. They need to get out from behind the computers and go to a club in Baltimore. You might rethink your entire life. If you love the city of Baltimore so much, don’t talk about me, go vacation there [laughs]. It’s just idle male gossip. I don’t go on the Internet like that. I don’t go into chat boards. I spend my time making and creating stuff, I always have. I do that for myself; I don’t do that for people. I don’t do that for anyone; I do that because it brings me joy. I do what I do for myself. If other people choose to enjoy it, that’s wonderful. As far as this little bullshit scene of people that are criticizing, I know for a fact that I’ve been in this game longer than anyone. I know if I wanted to I could shred everyone of them in a debate one on one. But the thing is I choose to speak to people I respect.

Yeah, exactly. The thing that gets me is that I’m still probably the one person from this city who grew up there who has kept a spotlight on that city for years now.

Exactly. Me and John Waters. I just feel that if you grew up in Baltimore, and you care about what people in Philadelphia say, and you think that’s the route, that’s the people you want to be down with, then really you should just move to Philadelphia. The people that are my friends, I support them through thick and thin. I’m smart, I’m good, I’m a shrewd businessman, I win at what I do. I want to win; I’m competitive. But I will draw the line. I would never go around and make up lies about the competition.

Yeah, I have integrity and none of them do. And that’s why I feel at the end of the day, none of them will be successful. Ever.

Yeah, we have sort of a sub label called Delicious Gutter. Basically what that is, my working with those guys went from just them calling me up to do a remix to really me being involved in a lot of the project and Rick and I becoming good friends and speaking with him on a daily basis about everything on this project. I think they saw the level of dedication I had to my work. The evolution was, I had discovered this kid Don Rimini from Paris who I had remix a Verb record and I was like this kid’s just too good. I’m the type of person where I just immediately linked Don Rimini up with Delicious Vinyl… like this kid has to be on this project. He has to remix a record. He remixed “Bust a Move” which I think is one of my favorite records. His remix is one of my favorites on RMXXOLOGY. Just pure talent. He’s still building his name but musically, he’s there, he’s beyond there. And I’m trying to lend him a hand and expose him. Don Rimini was a fan of mine and he loved Delicious Vinyl so when it all clicks like that, the next thing to do is to keep working together. If there’s not mutual gain, as you can see, what happens is it all falls to shit.


For more information on Delicious Vinyl, RMXXOLOGY, and Delicious Gutter, go to www.deliciousvinyl.com.