Audio Dino 5
"What About Ten"

When it comes to hip-hop producers, Prince Paul is right up there with the best of 'em. He may not get name-dropped as much as some of his peers, he may not be as famous, or as rich. But in terms of body of work, dude is untouchable.

Over the last 20-plus years, he has concocted countless classics, from his early days DJing with Stetsasonic, through the first three De La Soul albums, and envelope-pushing conceptual records with Gravediggaz, Handsome Boy Modeling School, and The Dix. He has worked with artists as diverse as Big Daddy Kane and MC Paul Barman, Chris Rock and Princess Superstar.

Through it all, his music has never gotten stale, as he constantly reinvents himself and keeps pushing his sound further. He also injects a healthy amount of humor into his beats -- something that is almost nonexistent in hip-hop in 2008.

Here, he discusses his latest endeavor, Baby Loves Hip Hop, and gives us some insight on his many upcoming releases.

Prince Paul: Sorry, I couldn't answer the phone. I finally got to a place where I could actually sit and chat. MP3: No worries man, thanks for calling back. I appreciate it. Not a problem. If this line is messed up, I'll give you another number to call me. OK yeah, hopefully it'll hold up. First of all, I just want to talk about the Dino 5 thing, because I know that that just dropped. The Baby Loves Hip Hop project, how did you get involved with that and how did that come about? Well, more or less, Andy from the label had called me a little over a year ago and said that he has this thing that he put together. I guess the kids and his Baby Loves series. He said he's doing a jazz version, a disco version, so forth and so on, and he wanted to do a hip-hop one. And he asked me to produce it.

So yeah, cool, you know, I've always wanted to do a kids record. I've done songs here and there. Like SpongeBob and Dexter's Lab and stuff like that. Did some stuff with Nickelodeon but I've never, like, full-out did an album. And I was kind of testing myself and I figured this would be at least a chance for me to really test my production skills. But I figured if anything, kids will tell you if something's wack. You know what I'm saying? Right away.

They pull no punches, and plus I wanted to make something that I felt that parents wouldn't mind, because you know, being a parent myself, man, there's some songs your kids listen to... You're like "Oh, God! Cut it off!" You know, real corny or real bad or, you know, especially with hip-hop stuff, it's just horrible. So yeah, I took the challenge, and that's how it more or less came about. Nice. And in terms of assembling, you know, getting together Chali 2na and Mecca and Scratch. Was that all you bringing the team together yourself? Or did the label already have those guys in mind? Well, you know, when Andy had approached me with the concept of doing Baby Loves Hip Hop and then initially saying, "OK, I want to do it similar to how you did [1999 concept album] A Prince Among Thieves." It was like, how are we going to do it, if we're going to have characters? And he came up with a dinosaur character. That the voice has to, more or less, portray what a kid's thought...what they would look like.
So I was, like, well, OK, you have a big dinosaur. Hmm, you know what? Chali 2na, that would be perfect. OK, you have a friendly dinosaur. I worked with Wordsworth a thousand times. I know he's all right and he's always on point.

So the female, [we were] thinking, thinking, thinking, and then Andy came up with Mecca and I was, like, "Yo, she'd be perfect," you know. And then as far as Scratch is concerned, initially I was gonna ask Biz but I couldn't get the schedule right and Andy had worked with Scratch before. So he had suggested Scratch, and I was like, "Perfect, that'd be fine." And somehow I defaulted to be the DJ. Excellent, man. So I assume you're happy with the finished product and how it came out? Yeah, what really made me happy is just the response that I've been getting from just, like, kids and parents and, you know, some of the reviews I've seen and some of the, you know, the little kid Web sites. Where I see, parents are writing about the songs... Not actually people who review it, but people that actually had kid-tested it and said that they didn't mind listening to it as well as playing it for the kids. And the kid enjoys it and blah, blah, blah. So it makes me feel good more so than anything.

I do, like, a lot of things and not too many things get me, like, "Oooh!" But this actually got me like that, just to see that kids actually enjoy it. Which, it sounds hokey and corny, but it's all about kids. No, that's cool though. I mean, like you said, kids are not going to pull their punches, you know. So you know that they mean it. Oh, no, if they don't like something, they'll tell you to put on Hanna Montana in a minute. [Laughs] [Laughs] Yeah, totally. Now I also wanted to ask you about the project with Bernie Worrell, the Baby Elephant stuff. What can you tell me about that? When is that coming out and what's the back story behind that? Well, sadly enough, the Baby Elephant album has been out since last year [Laughs]. It has? On what label? It came out on... It was an independent thing. This guy owns a label called Godforsaken Music, I believe is his record label. So it was a super-duper independent release and I more or less did it because, one, I mean, the guy had approached me, his name is...aw, man. When you work with so many people, you forget their names. Well, when it comes to me, I'll, you know, divulge it. But yeah, he had asked me if I was interested in producing Bernie or working with Bernie. Because he was doing a documentary on Bernie Worrell. I heard about that. Yeah, I've talked to Bernie, like, and Bernie doesn't remember, like, in the early '90s. Like, somehow I got his number and I called him up, "I'd love to work with you and blah, blah, blah." And he was nice since then. So I was, you know, just from that one experience and being a super-duper-duper big fan. Him being one of my major influences. I thought, yeah, why not? I'll tackle it, you know.

You know, I took it more on a thing of learning. It was like free college for me. Cuz a dude like him is just so accomplished, and he's the guy who arranged a lot of music for Parliament-Funkadelic, and, you know, played keyboards flashy on so many songs, so, man, why not? And that's how it more or less came about, man. It was, like, probably one of the best, I think, production experiences I've had. Because, like I said, one is learning stuff and him unlocking a lot of questions, like, I've had about recording with Parliament-Funkadelic. Like, how they did stuff and, you know, it's, like "Wow!"

Just when you thought you've learned, you know, a lot of production things, here comes Bernie Worrell, who doesn't necessarily say, "OK. Here's the new computer program." But just, like, basic arrangement, advanced arrangement, layering. It all just kind of got lost, I guess, in today's music. Like, he kind of blew my mind with it. That's cool, man. And are you guys, you know, hoping to work together again, at any point? I mean is he still doing stuff, or what? You know, it was weird, because we finished the album. Actually me, Bernie, and my friend Newkirk worked on it, who, you know, is my other production dude on this album. And it got weird between the label and his management and then the whole thing got weird. You know, like, Bernie and us, we're all cool. But they just had a conflict of interest on how to do things. So that kind of halted really promoting the project and going out and doing live performances and da, da, da. Because there's things that they need to squash so, you know, and in true Prince Paul fashion, it's off to the next thing. [Laughs] I hear you, right on. Now, you know, also last year, you were popping up on The (White) Rapper Show on VH1. I wanted to ask you two things about that. One is, you know, are you going to be involved in the new one? Miss Rap Supreme or whatever? The one looking for a female rapper.

And then the other one is, are you still in touch with any of those cats? I mean, I see John Brown popping up on the Internet now and again. But, like, Shamrock and all the other ones, I haven't heard anything, any sort of follow-up story. Are you over that, just a one-off thing? Or are you involved with any of their new stuff or what? Well, just to answer the first question, as far as the new one, the Miss Rap Supreme, no, I didn't actually do that one. [Laughs] I'm surprised they even asked me to do the first one, you know. I saw the Ego Trip guys in LA, and I think this is after they recorded the new one and, you know, it was, like, "Uh, yeah, we shot the next one." Now it was, like, "Don't worry," I wasn't that... Not that uptight about it, right? Yeah, you know, I mean, I love the guys at Ego Trip and I think they're great and all that. I mean, doing the show was cool, but the fact that they kind of threw me in pop culture for two seconds, today's pop culture. People who didn't know me, and then when I went to Wal-Mart it was, like, "Hey, you're Serch's sidekick." [Laughs]

And I didn't really want to go down being that guy. So it was kind of cool to get the exposure for two seconds. But, you know, it is what it is. And as far as the second question, seeing the guys from the show. Like, I've seen no one. You know, to be honest, watching the show, I watched and seen those things for the first time when America saw it for the first time. I never saw cuts of it. There was a lot of things that was on there that I thought that was going to be on there, like, stupid stuff I said that was edited.

So you know, yeah, I was more or less like a work for hire, you know. "Hey Paul! OK, end of the day, punch the clock." I'll be honest with you, that's what it was. Good opportunity, you know, but it is what it is. That's cool. I mean, obviously you're not trying to make your life's work on, like, VH1 reality shows. You know, if VH1 reality shows, like, was able to retire me, maybe I would. [Laughs] And I like VH1. It's funny, I just filmed something for VH1 yesterday. It was something about top 100, I think rap records or rap songs, something like that. So I mean, it's cool, I'm glad they ask me occasionally. But, you know, it'd be nice to have my own show. That'd be sweet. So now I want to talk about your own, whatever projects, whether it's solo stuff or collaborations, you're working on now. I spoke with Del, I don't know, a couple of months ago, and he had mentioned something about a project with you and Dave from De La and Mecca. I wasn't sure if it was really happening, happening or if it was just him talking about wanting it to happen. But he said something about Modest Millionaires. Is that a reality? Yeah, I mean, something like that, you know, we're still kind of getting all the fine print finished on. But yeah, it's something that will happen. Or I'm looking forward to happening. Everything's not totally concrete yet for me to even be like, "Yeah!" And then somebody says "Yeah, I read that you had this thing and..." you know, and you have to explain why it didn't happen. Or it not even why it didn't happened or you know, "Well, it changed," you know. Yeah, so I have to, we continue to work on it but, I mean, adding on that to the Del family, the Hieroglyphics thing, I just finished an album with Souls of Mischief. Souls of Mischief, yeah. How did that come out? You know, I haven't worked with a group in years, and so I asked them if I could produce their next record, because I haven't heard nothing from them in a while, collectively, and I always liked them. And we did it. I like that album a lot. I'm not going to lie. Like, you know, lots of [big] producers are like "Yeah, cool, whatever." But I think within the last year or so, two years, like, I've been putting out stuff that I actually like. And this Souls album isn't bad, you know, it's a throwback.

If you like... If you're into early '90s hip-hop, or late '90s to mid '90s, it's a throwback record, then you'll love this record. If you're into the fast-food music of 2008, then you won't like this record. [Laughs] It's a straight-up, like, you know, it's one of those records. And does it have a working title, or a release date? No, not that I know of yet. You know, there's still, like, a few loose ends as far as business is concerned. But I don't know if they came up with a title yet. I have to talk to them. But you do every track on it? I actually do it with them collectively, you know. Some of it's my music, some of it's what they submitted. But it's me just fine-tuning everything. So it's like, "All right, here's the track," and then it's me kind of manipulating it and making it how I would want to make it for them. It was a cool process, because we had lots of music that everybody had came up with and then we all, you know, just by voting, OK this beat's good, this beat's good, this beat's good. This one's wack, this is wack, wack, good, good. Taking the best out of it and then me chopping it and demolishing everything. Nice. That sounds good. I'm looking forward to hearing that, man, for sure. Oh, man, I just...I'm scared to see what people's reaction is going to be to it. Because actually, I like it, you know. But there's a lot of stuff I like that people haven't liked, you know. [Laughs] Who knows? I also wanted to ask, are you still doing any stuff with Automator at all? Are you guys still working on any projects? Now Handsome Boy kind of came to a close... What is this? This is 2008. So probably, like, 2006 or 2005. I don't remember exactly when. But yeah, it came to a close, man. You know, I retired the moustache. You know, from Handsome Boy to ugly man, I gave up the playboy lifestyle. You know, it was just time. It was at that point. The Handsome was fun while it lasted. Right on. Now, a couple of years ago you had the Hip-Hop Gold Dust record that had a lot of stuff, you know, either unreleased or very limited release and just sort of going through the vaults. Were you happy with how that came out and do you have any intentions of doing something like that in the future? I assume you must have ridiculous stashes of unreleased stuff. Yeah, I mean, I guess actually the first thing, yeah, I was happy the way it came out. When I make records like that, being like Gold Dust and Itstrumental and The Dix, and all the other weird stuff like that--I don't look at it going into marketplace to make a serious impact. It's just, you know, it's like one of those creative, silly things. Like, ooh, this would be funny. Let me see what people think.

You know, it's kind of breaking out and having fun with your friends and making stuff up. So with that in mind, the Gold Dust thing, yeah, to me it was perfect. It was just music that I had, that, you know, you just hold onto and as a producer, a lot of times you go, "I'm holding onto this!" And you think about, for what? You know, like, what's going to happen to it, you know?

So I read this article with the drummer, Idris Mohammed, the jazz musician, and he was talking about, like, music he had, and this is what sparked, this is what changed it for him. He's, like, "You know, I'm holding on to all this music, and I tried to release it. Because when I die, they're going to release it in a way that I wouldn't want it released anyway. They're going to mess it up. So while I'm living, I might as well..." I mean, I'm paraphrasing, of course. "I might as well put it out the way I want it to be put out." I was, like, yeah, he's right! [Laughs] I have lots of stuff and I've discussed it with Antidote, with the label. But I'm not sure if that's the next thing I want to do. OK, gotcha. Now I also wanted to switch lanes for a minute, just to get into, in terms of actual gear, when you're in the studio, when you're recording, whether it's just you working on stuff by yourself, or working with a group or working with another artist. Obviously, the technology and studios have changed dramatically. Even in the past, like, 5 or 10 years, let alone 20. Are you still partial to the old-school gear? Or are you all computerized now? Or a combination of both, or what? My setup is a combination of both. You know, I use whatever the project calls for. If I'm saying, OK, I want to try and do something that's more what today is. All right, yeah, obviously I'm going to need... I'm going to really just stay heavy on the computer and computer programs and, you know, software and new sounds on the computer.

Or if I'm saying, OK, well, I'm doing this Souls of Mischief record. OK, I'm going to break out the SP-12 and the ASR and the MPC and, you know, I'll record part of it on the computer. Because computers are so easy to record, you know. But then, OK, I want to dust it out. So I'll mix it down on quarter-inch tape, or, you know, then I'll take it and put it on DAT, you know. Whatever type of vibe I'm trying to get, you know, off that project, is where I go.

So, you know, of course I love the older stuff, because it's more hands-on and it's catered to your feel and, you know, and a lot of times great music is made by mistake. So you're more apt to make mistakes on the older equipment, than the computer. But, you know, I use both, whatever's easier at the time or whatever, like, makes the sound pop like I want it to. Cool. Now on a similar note, I know that you still DJ all over the place and, you know, you've been doing that for a long, long time. Nowadays everybody...well, most everybody, and anybody under, like, 25, 30 years old, is doing the whole Serato thing and rocking the laptop. I know Jazzy Jeff is a big fan of that and a lot of the older cats have gotten into that. Do you still mess with vinyl when you're DJing? Or have you made the transition to Serato? You know, honestly, like, I've been using Serato probably heavy for the last year. Right before then, I got into spinning CDJs. And in some instances I'll connect CDJs to the Serato. You know, just to make everything totally foolproof. [Laughs]

And, you know, and there's been on occasions, man, where people, like, OK, you know, it's like, "We don't have this, we don't have that." You know, you're not going to bring the interface with Serato, it was like, spin wax. Yeah, I spin wax, but wax is a rarity. I've definitely gotten into Serato. It makes life so much easier and, you know, whenever something calls for a particular thing, like, for example, I spun this club in Manhattan, maybe, like, a little over a month ago and man, you know, I mean, usually I spin, like, classic hip-hop, older stuff, whatever. But it was a real, like, a real glassy crowd. So it was all new fast-food music. And so I had to go digital, I went into the files, for like, what's popular now? Like, Soulja Boy, you know. And luckily I made sets up for it. So you know, if I had to carry wax,if didn't carry Serato, it would have been a wrap. I don't even know if they press that kind of stuff on wax these days. Yeah, I don't think so, man, to be honest with you. I also wanted to ask you, nowadays, it's like everybody wants to rap. Or even everybody wants to make beats or DJ and whatnot. As somebody that's been doing it for 20-plus years, I'm sure you get asked this a lot. But what kind of advice would you give to the young kid that's in high school today that, you know, they want to be rappers, they want to be producers, they want to be DJs? You've seen some highs and some lows and different industry trends and whatnot over the years. What would you say to the next generation? I would say probably ask Puffy. I can't even answer that question. [Laughs] Cuz you know, honestly, I don't know what it takes anymore. Everything's changed so much and the doors is closed in a lot of areas and what used to be open before. You have the ability to put yourself out, be it through MySpace there and everything else. And people can hear you and then you can get signed from that. So it's, you know, honestly it's changed so much for me. Like, as far as getting into the business and establishing yourself, I wouldn't have a clue.

And this is being honest, you know. Today, I'm like, hey, you got to ask Puffy. [Laughs] Or ask G-Unit, or somebody, you know, I couldn't tell you. It's just weird the way everything goes down now. It's a different world, definitely. Yeah, I can't even say, like "Go with your gut, be original," and be this and that, because you could do that and never get signed, nowadays. You know what I'm saying? So that would just be a waste. I mean, for the upliftment of the art and everything else, I would say yeah, go that route. You know, but as far as, like, getting signed and getting on and doing everything else, I'd say, you know, ask one of those dudes and pray to God and work hard. [Laughs] Combine those elements and you should do good. That's what's up, that's good advice. So what should we be looking out for? I know the Dino 5 is out, the Baby Elephant is out. Souls of Mischief is coming soon. What else can we look forward to from Prince Paul? You know, I'm working on this thing with Dave and Del, you know, that might happen. Or, not might happen, but you know, it'll happen in its time, and there's another project that will follow that afterwards called Happy Black. [Laughs] Which, I can't really divulge what it is just yet. But I'm really looking forward to that one as well. That should be, you know, from here on out, man, I'm just trying to make really…well, I've always tried to make good music but, you know, stuff that definitely make one eye open wider than the other, like "Hmm, all right." That sounds promising, man. Is there anything else you'd like to say to the people that's going to be checking this out? Yeah, oh, yeah, let me add one more thing. I'm doing this movie, called Pressure Cooker. Yeah, it's a documentary, me and my friend Newkirk. So that's what we're kind of getting in on now. So that'll be coming out, hopefully, I don't know, maybe later this year.

But I guess to impart words to everybody is, you know, do right and pray. [Laughs] That's all I can say. And don't smoke crack, you know. You'll be OK. Right on, man. Well, thanks a lot for taking the time to talk to me Paul. I definitely appreciate and I look forward to hearing all the new projects. Not a problem. Oh, thanks, thanks a lot man. You have a good day. All right, you too man, take it easy. Take care.