ARTFORM

Hi Blueprint, thank you for taking some time to answer these questions. Could you give –for those who don’t know- a brief description of who you are?

My name is Blueprint, also known as “Printmatic”. I rhyme and produce. I’m a part of the groups Soul Position with RJD2 and Greenhouse Effect with Manifest. I’m also the founder and president of Weightless Recordings.

First of all, let’s talk about business. If I’m not wrong, Weightless was created to put out your work for a group of friends. Did you expected such a great growth when you started?

True, weightless was created primarily to put out my crews records because there wasn’t anybody else around to do it. We really didn’t have any expectations for it when we started it, and we never thought we would still be around after this long.

I suppose the beginning wasn’t easy. Who started the business with you?

The beginning was the roughest part because I was working 50 to 60 hours a week and was doing everything. I was booking shows, writing press releases, maintaining the website, dubbing tapes, handling artwork, and trying to be our publicist at the same time with no help. All the member of Greenhouse and Illogic kicked in to financially start Weightless but we weren’t even an official business then and I was doing everything. Later on when we actually got some distribution for our records and made a little money we declared ourselves a real business and me and Jermain (manifest from greenhouse) became co-owners and partners in Weightless. Right now, he and I still handle the majority of tasks for the label but we do have some people who help us out.

Is Weightless basically focused on putting out music from your crew or are you planning to deal with other artists you feel, I mean, becoming a bigger label signing people from other places?

Primarily we were focused on just putting out our own crew records, but we’re going to be changing that in the coming year. It’s still crew but we’re going to be releasing some material from Jakki The Motormouth of MHz, DJ Przm, and CJ the Cynic. We’ve wanted to do it for a while but you have to be at a certain point where people can really see the benefits of doing something with you. We’re not a label that can do everything for somebody but we think we can at least provide a platform for cats to get their music out and learn from.

At first you were basically known for being a really good producer, making beats for Illogic’s albums and then you started offering us some of your work as an mc. What was first for you, producing or rhyming? Are you planning on focusing on one of them or are you going to keep on doing both?

I was rhyming first, and I only started doing beats because we really didn’t have anybody else to do them for us. If there would’ve been anybody around us who did beats I never would’ve tried. It worked out for the best because now I look at production as something I will be involved in for a longer amount of time than rhyming. I’ve got my first instrumental record coming out this fall and I would like to eventually move towards production and instrumental music and away from emceeing as my primary way of expressing myself.

You’ve been involved in a lot of projects in the last few years, so let’s talk about them. I suppose the first one was making beats for Illogic. How do you remember working on Unforeseen Shadows?

That was the first album I did where we kind of declared that we were going to make an album. Everything prior to that was just us doing demos and songs, packaging them up, and then putting them out, but it changed with Unforeseen. We thought about what we felt made a good album and tried our best to pull it off. I felt that it was my first real opportunity to prove myself so I was doing some experimenting and the beats vary a lot. More than anything I remember it being fun because there were no expectations.

Around that time also came Then Greenhouse Effect album. Any comments on this project?

That record was more like demos and songs. We weren’t even really thinking about an album or an EP, we were just thinking about selling our music as some upcoming shows we had. It would be a lot different if we were thinking long term, but I chalk it up to paying dues.

And finally, in 2003, your first solo album, The Weightroom. Was making a solo album one of your goals when you started? Are you satisfied with the final result of this album and with people’s response?

The Weightroom wasn’t really supposed to be seen as a solo emceeing record—it was supposed to be seen as a solo production record, kind of like Soul Survivor by Pete Rock or In Control by Marley Marl. Unfortunately some people didn’t understand that and were disappointed by the number of guest appearances on the record. Then they complained that I should’ve rhymed more, but I didn’t feel that was the intent of the record. I just wanted to prove that I was one of the best out there at rhyming and producing and I think I achieved that. Plus, I knew that the Soul Position album was coming out and I wanted people to know I did beats to before it came out because I knew a lot of Soul Position fans would be new and wouldn’t know. I’m happy with the record and how it turned out.

After this album, you surprised everybody with Soul Position, a project with one of the most acclaimed producers, RJD2, who is also from Ohio. He made the beats, you made the rhymes. How did it started? Did you know each other from the past?

Me and RJ are both from Columbus so we were a part of the scene there and were crossing paths all the time. We did a show together and I think he had just started hearing some of my work, and then he asked me about doing some songs together. The first songs we did were “Just Think”, “Final Frontier”, “Share This”, and “Look Of Pain”. We liked them so much we decided to do more and become a unit.

Although RJD2 made the beats, I guess you put some of your knowledge as a producer. Being also a producer, was difficult for you working as an mc with a producer? I also can imagine you learned a lot of things from each other.

It was actually the easiest project for me because it was the first time I could concentrate on just being an emcee and not worrying about doing beats. It freed my mind up so much. I had input on a lot of things in terms of the production because they needed to fit what I was writing but I wasn’t standing over RJ at all on the production. I wanted him to be able to show his own style of production and not influenced by my views.

This was all about the past. Let’s go now with the present. On November 2^nd it will released your second solo album, Chamber Music. Is it already finished? What can we expect from it?

Yeah, Chamber Music has been completed for a few months and is ready to drop. It’s an instrumental hip-hop record kind of like what DJ Krush, or DJ Shadow, or what RJD2 does. There are guest verses from Aesop Rock, Vast Aire, Illogic, and WindnBreeze. I’m very proud of it. I started it back when in 2000, but I put it on the backburner to work on the Soul Position stuff and to concentrate on furthering my emceeing career.

Why did you decide to include some vocal guests in this instrumental album? Is it a way to get more buzz Or you just think they fit well with the rest of the album?

I felt it worked within the context of the album because they’re not really traditional hip-hop songs. For example, Aesop only rhymes one verse and he doesn’t even appear in the song until about 3 minutes into the song. I wanted the verses to be a part of the song like a solo instrument, but I didn’t want the songs to be driven by the vocals.

Some people demanded more rhymes from you on The Weightroom, they wanted you to rhyme more over your own beats and it seems now this is gonna happen. We have some news about your next solo album on Rhymesayers, called 1988, out in early 2005, with you rhyming and producing. Are you working on it now? Can you advance us something about how it’s gonna be (any guests, concept of the album, beats)?

1988 has been finished since the beginning of the year, and I feel very good about it. The production follows somewhat of a theme, which is about the classic beats and breaks and rearranging elements from back in the day. I’ve got one song that I did that sounds like something the bomb squad would’ve produced, I have a remake of “tramp” that salt-n-pepa did back in the day, but in terms of rhymes it’s a more upbeat, brighter, happier version of everything that people have heard from me. I don’t have any real notable guest appearances because I didn’t want it to be about that. I wanted it to be a true solo record. I think it’s a record that really defines where I am now and it’s going to surprise a lot of people.

It seems there’s a great relationship between Weightless and Rhymesayers. They released the Soul Position EP and LP, they’ll release 1988, you’ve toured with them... How did you meet? Will you have more things together in the future?

We met the Rhymsayers people just through touring in the Midwest a few years back. Greenhouse and Illogic were starting to come up and they were getting out and about touring more, so we have always been cool with eachother. Those guys are good friends and good people. I don’t have anything scheduled with them after 1988, but I’m sure I will probably be touring with them in the future. You never know, I wouldn’t count out anything.

Talking about touring, are you thinking about touring Europe in the near future? It’d be great to see a Weightless show here in our country.

I hope to tour Europe in the future. My U.S. touring has been so consistent that it’s been difficult to really get over there. I was there in the summer of 2003 with Atmosphere and the response was great but I haven’t been back there since. Next year after 1988 comes out I’m gonna go EVERYWHERE! Europe, Australia, Asia, Canada—I’m going everywhere! I had some offers to do the UK this fall but it didn’t work out because I’m taking somewhat of a break to finish my next set of records.

Do you like to interact with your fans? Because I’ve seen you post a lot on the message board on the Weightless website (www.weightless.net) and also on other message boards from different sites. This is because you like it or because it’s important for you know other people’s opinion?

I don’t really care much about the feedback on my music. I just think it’s cool to be able to talk to people from all over the world with different opinions and to create an environment where people can talk about hip-hop but not have to deal with assholes. Plus I’m somewhat of a computer nerd so I’m always going to be checking out what’s going on in cyberspace.

Some short questions to finish: who would you like to make beats for?

Lord 360, Murs, I-Self from the Micranots, Jakki The Motormouth.

Who would like to make beats for you to rhyme on?

That’s a tough one. Probably DJ Przm, El-P, or Mr. Dibbs.

Favourite album this year –so far- (excluding Celestial Clockwork, haha).

Ghostface “Pretty Tony Album”

The next USA president will be...

Michael Moore!

Thank you very much again, Blueprint. It´s been a pleasure to make this interview for our site. Any last words?

Thanks for the support! Please continue to support weightless recordings and our artists. PEACE!

FER