INCENDIARY INTERVIEW ADRIAN YOUNGE - "I WANT TO BE PIGEONHOLED."
The bullet just missed Domino, but he had gunpowder burning his eyes, so he thought he was a dead man. The Souls thought so too: this dude was trying to kill off all the Souls Of Mischief!
Ever since jettisoning hip hop-sampling in '97 to become an analog recording aficionado,Adrian Younge has diligently moved against the currents of modern music consumption, embracing and reigniting its old ideals. Best known for scoring Blaxploitation spoof Black Dynamite, Younge immersively discovers and recreates sounds that made the golden-era of hip hop essentially a fucking ginormous Stargate-portal to all musical realms of the 20th century.
Recently ,Younge has found a way to rekindle both his hip hop genesis with his love for the obscure and hidden. He helmed Ghostface Killah's LP Twelve Reasons To Die and created a rapopera with the mighty Souls Of Mischief, whom Younge idolized growing up. Yep, you heard me correctly: a friggin' RAP OPERA. As Incendiary stops by Amsterdam to meet with Younge, it becomes apparent this musical tour de force has plenty of ambition left.
IN: Do you still remember where you were the first time you heard Souls Of Mischief's 93 'Til Infinity?
Recently ,Younge has found a way to rekindle both his hip hop genesis with his love for the obscure and hidden. He helmed Ghostface Killah's LP Twelve Reasons To Die and created a rapopera with the mighty Souls Of Mischief, whom Younge idolized growing up. Yep, you heard me correctly: a friggin' RAP OPERA. As Incendiary stops by Amsterdam to meet with Younge, it becomes apparent this musical tour de force has plenty of ambition left.
IN: Do you still remember where you were the first time you heard Souls Of Mischief's 93 'Til Infinity?
AY: I was at high school in '93. I remember watching the 93 'Til Infinity video, I was just trippin' out on it. The thing about that time is, I look at '93 as the pinnacle year for hip hop. 36 Chamberscame out that year too, so I was a big time Wu-Tang fan. By the same token, Doggystyle became a big thing too, so I was a big Snoop fan as well. But the difference between those two albums and 93 'Til Infinity is that - as much as I love the music - I couldn't personally connect to Wu-Tang and/or Snoop, because I wasn't a gang banger. I didn't sell cocaine, you know, that wasn't who I was. But when I saw that Souls Of Mischief video, it really struck me. Because they represented my lifestyle, which was basically a hip hop kid coming from the suburbs. It really spoke to me. I was really into clothes and talking to fly chicks. Lyrically, they were just phenomenal. It was insane. I've listened to 93 'Til Infinity so much, I know every word on the album.
IN: No easy task.
IN: No easy task.
AY: Yeah, it was a dream come true even get into contact with them to maybe do an album.
IN: How did this collaboration materialize exactly?
IN: How did this collaboration materialize exactly?
AY: Basically, it happened on the heels of producing Ghostface Killah's Twelve Reasons To Diealbum. A-Plus hit me up and said Souls Of Mischief would be interested in me producing an album. I was like "holy shit!". Producing Twelve Reasons To Die, I focussed more on Ennio Morricone, vintage Dario Argento horror scores and RZA-type stuff. This was a new plain for me, a new pathway of sound for me to engage in. If I wanted to make an album with Souls Of Mischief, I wanted something that channelled golden-era hip hop, which is from '88 to around '93. At least how I look at it: A Tribe Called Quest', Native Tongues, De La Soul, Black Sheep and Souls Of Mischief. Then we go back to their source material, the stuff they sampled, it's the music between '68 en '73. Jazz, funk, psychedelic dark soul. I wanted to create kind of a hybrid between that 90's golden era Native Tongues-hip hop sound back to late 60's, early 70's psych soul and jazz…and bring it forward to today. That was all the stuff I was meditating on when the Souls hit me up. I obliged and the five of us started talking. And a few days later we started working on There Is Only Now, it's history now.
IN: When I listen to There Is Only Now it, it feels like this rap opera. And to me, that's kind of unchartered territory. I read some interview with the Souls where they said something in the vein of the album being loosely based on their own career trajectory. Is There Is Only Now like a dramatization of that or entirely new fictional story?
IN: When I listen to There Is Only Now it, it feels like this rap opera. And to me, that's kind of unchartered territory. I read some interview with the Souls where they said something in the vein of the album being loosely based on their own career trajectory. Is There Is Only Now like a dramatization of that or entirely new fictional story?
AY: Well the story is based on a true incident that happened to them. On the first track Time Stopped, the Souls were at a parking lot in the middle of the night. Around 4 AM, some dude jumped out of a black truck and went up to (Hieroglyphics -producer) Domino told him to "get the fuck on the ground!". Domino looked at him like, "what!?" and the guy shot him in the face. The bullet just missed Domino, but he had gunpowder burning his eyes, so he thought he was a dead man. The Souls thought so too: this dude was trying to kill off all the Souls Of Mischief!
Read the rest of this interview HERE!
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