ARTFORM

Hi J, how are you doing? First of all I must tell you this is your third interview with our site, which gives you a place in the ARTFORM Hall Of Fame. I know it doesn’t sound too glamorous but anyway… thank you very much, it’s not easy to find artists as approachable as you.

Proud to be in the hall of fame. Thats the only hall of fame I'm in, so it's an honor!

Well, let’s focus now. It seems that 2006 is going to be a busy year for you, so let’s start with your first project this year, The Bo$$ Hog Barbarians album Every Hog Has Its Day. It’s been a few months since the album dropped. How do you feel about the final result and about people’s reactions?

I was very happy with the results. It was exactly what me and Celph planned it to be. It's what we're known for, but with a twist of that old school west coast influence that you wouldn't expect two east coast dudes to have. We got a chance to actually make the music that we play in our spare time which was different and dope. The response was mixed. I saw some praise and some hate. We even got 1 star out of 5 on some website! That was hilarous, I like that. I'd rather be loved and hated...no inbetween. A lot of people just didnt get it cause they have it set in their mind what they want us to sound like all the time, and we just make whatever the fuck we feel. At the end of the day we loved how it came out and thats all that matters cause you cant please everybody.

What about the sales of the album? Now and then I read on websites the soundscan numbers about sales and some ot them look very poor. I mean, when I talk about these numbers with some friends they don’t believe they’re so low. Do these numbers reflect the real sales? Because, in that case, I guess underground artists don’t get too much money from their albums.

Soundscan and sales are different. A lot of small stores that sell our music don't do soundscan so you dont see those sales. But then again you're right. Records aint sellin like they used to. Thats why I press all my cd's myself and am not signed to a label. It's easier to make money when you get 8 to 9 dollars a cd as opposed to 1 to 2 dollars like on a label, and thats if you even get any money. I know guys that never got paid for their albums. The only disadvantage to doing albums independent is you have to pay for the manufacturing yourself. But once you sell 500-600 copies, you made your money back. But overall, nobody sells like they used to.

At least you drop this album on your own label, which gives you total control and all the money too. Do you feel comfortable doing all the stuff necessary to drop an album or would you rather to be in a big label with a lot of people doing those things for you?

Nope. I love doing this myself. Its a lot of work. Im my own publicist, label, financial backer...its hard work, but I want total control on everything. If it fails, I take the blame. If it does well I get all the praise and money. I sell direct to my distributor and the main sites. I have total control. My music means too much for me to leave it in somebody elses hands. I dont dis labels, cause some people need em. But I dont tour as much as other artists, music is my job and I aint lazy, so I will spend 10 hour days on music. 5 in the studio, 3 on the internet, 2 runnin errands and mailing out shit. I love it. If I'm havin a hard time makin a beats, I'll go do a mailout or go approve artwork or something. I love being in control of my shit, cause even if it dont sell that great, nobody can take anything from me. Its my music and my investment.

As your previous albums Every Hog Has Its Day is full of comedy. A few weeks ago I was reading a Prince Paul interview where he said that Hip Hop artists don’t want to be funny anymore, that everybody wants to be hard and being funny isn’t hard. He even mentioned you as a example of an artist that brings humor to the rap game in these days. Do you agree with him?

He's right. Its not cool to be funny. You gotta be a thug or a super punchine lyrical battle rap mixtape dude or some science space rapper or straight emo. Bein on some funny clown shit just aint popular. Thats why I've shifted my focus to instrumental albums. I'm all about beats at the moment. Im not rappin for now cause after 6 albums, people just dont get it. Im not saying I'm retiring, but for now I gotta put rappin on hold. I just feel like people ain't feelin my style of rap now. But things go in cycles, who knows.

Speaking of Prince Paul, we can bring another of your projects for this year, To Love A Hooker, a concept album. As we can read at your website, www.zonesite.net, this is an instrumental album, the soundtrack to a movie that hasn´t been filmed. Can we say this is something like J-Zone’s A Prince Among Thieves? Can you give us more details about this album (storyline, relesase date, etc)?

That's exactly what it is. Think Prince Among Thieves but with no rapping on it. The beats, concepts, storyline, characters, scene descriptions in the liner notes...it's all there. I made clips from the movie too, where all the characters talk except for the main character whose name is Kenny. Its about a dude whose wife leaves him and he goes out to a strip club and meets a hooker/stripper and falls for her. He winds up gettin in some trouble, haha, Its really just a make your own version of a concept album. Somethin people hopefully have fun with, both my music peers and fans. Louis Logic said he may wanna try to do it, its a challenge. It comes out in August 2006 on Old Maid Entertainment.

But this one it’s not the only instrumental album we’ll be able to listen in 2006. In fact, before To Love A Hooker, we’ll have the oportunity to listen to Experienced, who has you sampling songs from classic rock artists. I must admit I was surprised the first time I knew about it. How do you come with this album? Can you tell us some of the artists you sampled for this one?

Haha, I only sampled one artist. Ya gotta hear it and find out! I just did it for fun and to pay tribute to him. It's mad short, under 20 minutes

Experienced will be basically an unofficial album, and you even encourage people to download it from file sharing software. Well, this is not an easy thing to see nowadays, giving away a free album. Why are you dropping it that way?

For one I can't really sell it like that cause its unofficial, but I think it's kinda cool to do something for fun as a side project and give it away to my fans amd music peers. It's something different and limited, it helps keep things fresh for me. I've grown to see that we're in a new era and people just download music now. Instead of tryin to fight it, I figured I'd take an album that I cant really sell big units of and encourage people to get it anyway they can. I did it for fun, as a tribute to my favorite rock artist and for people to enjoy, not to get paid. But I wanna get paid on To Love A Hooker, so buy that!!! Two copies!!!

Apart from these albums, you’re also producing a lot of tracks for another artists, the list is indeed really long (The Alkaholiks, Sadat X, Apathy, Akrobatik, Del, Vakill, A Plus, Outerspace, Awol One, Vast Aire). How do you contact them? Did you know them before or did they ask you for some production?

I just added Juggaknots to that list too. I knew most them dudes for years, but I met AWOL through a booking agent, Akrobatik is on Fat Beats, Sadat I met thru Peter Agoston from Female Fun Records but we both are deep into high school basketball in NYC so I see him around, I never met Del but he picked a beat, and I met Outerspace through Vinnie Paz.

Talking of these beats you’ve produced for these MCs, which one do you think is the best one? I’ve only heard the tracks you did for Awol One and Sadat X and I must admit that this one for Sadat X is fire.

Thanks. The shit I did for Akrobatik is a pimped out banger, shit is mad hard, one of my favorites. The A Plus beat is mad bugged, some porno music shit.

I´ve read a couple of interviews where you said that just now you’re not thinking about doing another album as an MC. Are you serious about this retirement? What or who could you rethink about it?

I don't wanna say retire cause I said that in 2001 and made 3 more albums after. So if I say it again, people will think it's a publicity stunt. But I'm done with rapping for now. I don't see myself doin anymore solo albums again, or at least any time soon. I'll still do shows overseas though.

Well, anyway, if you left apart the mic it seems that you’ve looked for another ways to get your money. Apart from producing for other artists, you’re also making music for other things like tv ads, even for porno movies. Is this your professional future?

Yeah. If I just did TV shit, pornos, made beats and DJed regularly, I could be happy with that.

Leaving the future aside, let’s talk something about the past. When A Job Ain’t Nuthin But Work came you have a song talking about your albums. Could you make a ranking of them in order of preference?

That's hard because I like them for different reasons. Pimps Don't Pay Taxes flowed the best and Huggy and Shid were great on there. The concepts were the best I ever did, but in retrospect the beats showed no growth cause it sounded too similar to Bottle Of Whup Ass, and Bottle Of Whup Ass was my least favorite. A Job Ain't Nuthin But Work had the best beats and I took on most of the rapping myself, so it was a personal success for me. Tu Madre was the first one, so even though I feel I outgrew it a lot, it will always be special to me. I guess I would rank them over all from favorite to least favorite:

A Job Ain't Nuthin But Work
Bo$$ Hog Barbarian$
$ick Of Bein Rich
Pimps Don't Pay Taxes
Music For Tu Madre
A Bottle Of Whup Ass

Personally, Pimps Don’t Pay Taxes is my personal favorite (well, I guess this is true for a lot of people and I guess you’re bored to hear it). In this one Al-Shid and Huggy Bear were a part important on the album as part of the Old Maid Billionaires. After that Al-Shid appeared in a couple of songs of your following albums and Huggy dissapeared. What can you tell us about them? Are they still making music?

Al-Shid is doin his own thing and got his crew and doin his own beats. Check his myspace page out. He's in my top 8. My page is www.myspace.com/jzoneoldmaid. There's a song on his page with Huggy up now. Haven't spoke to Hug since 2003, but I hear he's chillin, doin his own thing.

Apart from being an MC and producer, you’re also do shows as a DJ. How is a DJ J-Zone show? Could you pick up 3 songs that always –or almost always- sound in your shows as a DJ?

Theres 4. "Bitch Betta Have My Money" by AMG, "Action" by Orange Krush, "Ain't No Fun" by Snoop Dogg and "Talk Like Sex" by Kool G. Rap

And now, let’s forget about music for a while. What about a little of basketball? Obviously you’re a big basketball fan. Any comments about the NBA this year? Did you expect Miami would win the championship?

I originally picked Miami to win it, but I thought Detroit and Dallas would take it as the season went on. Dwayne Wade is a true great player, cause he pretty much did it by himself. I'm surprised they beat Dallas.

This year we have also the World Championship in Japan. In the last Championships (Olympic Games, World Championship) the USA Basketball Team couldn’t be in the first place. Man, what’s up with that team? It’s full of great basketball players but they get beaten too often. In my opinion they don´t play as a team and now the difference between USA basketball and the rest of the world basketball isn’t so big as it used to be. Do you think they’ll win this year? I think we won’t see any Dream Team anymore.

USA will lose cause they don't play as a team.

We’re reaching the end of the interview. But before we finish, I’d like to ask you something that Spanish fans would like to know. Are you going to make another European tour this year? Will you return to Spain?

I will be back for a European Tour in the fall. I hope to see Spain again. There was a receptionist at the hotel in Madrid, she was the finest girl I ever seen. Im comin back to marry her! Back$lap is comin for you girl, if you're readin this!

Well, that’s it. Thank you for your time man, it’s always a pleasure to have you here. See you when you come back to Spain.

Thanks. Yeah!

FER