By Odeisel
Buckshot Interview Part 1 Click To Hear Interview
From Nervous beginnings, the MC known as Buckshot has been through all the trends of the last two decades as both an artist and as an executive and has managed to flourish as both. He recently sat down with Planet Ill to give us the lowdown on his staying power as well as a few choice comments on everyone’s favorite Brooklyn rapper. Read on.
Planet Ill: What was the impetus in forming Duck Down? Why not go the major label route?
Buckshot: I’m the type of person that goes for what I believe in.I was always the individual. I had a lot of major offers; I went to a lot of major meetings. I went to Def Jam; there’s a famous story that Chris Lighty always tells, I can literally quote it because every time I see him he tells the story, “I tell everybody when I talk to them that Buckshot is the one that got away from Def Jam.”
When I first dropped, I had a hot album, and Def Jam approached me and asked me did I want to sign with them. I said if you can’t give me everything that I need and I want then I won’t sign. And they refused to acknowledge me as a label or a team; a label with a team. They said we’ll sign you as an individual but not your people or your production. So I walked away. That’s why I never went to a major label. They couldn’t respect the fact that I was coming as an independent because no other artist did that. Not Wutang, not Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, EPMD, nobody came how I came. The only other person that came how I cam was a gentleman from the south who goes by the name of Master P.
Planet Ill: In 15 years what changes have you noted in the musical landscape and how has Duck Down adapted to those changes?
Buckshot: Duck Down is a really intricate mind machine. We knew; we always stay ten steps ahead of the game. That’s why simple and plain why Duck Down can operate now and that’s the reason why we will be operating in the future. In 1995 we knew that the future was going to operate like this, and we had a lot of innovation. So we created www.duckdown.com In the year 1995 and no one was even thinking about dotcoms and internets.
MySpace, Facebook, none of that existed in 1995. There was no site that you see now that existed in ’95 besides the major sites and they were just starting to come up. We had a connection and a relationship to the internet when it was first being born [commercially]. So the internet recognizes us as one of its children in a sense and says ya’ll have access to information and things on the net that people still don’t have access to because all they do is type in what they need. But they don’t type in what’s accessible. You guys [Planet Ill] do and that’s why you stay a step ahead of the game that’s how you stay a step ahead of the labels.
There’s labels that have shut down from MCA to SRC to KTEL to Geffen; just so many record labels. All these labels close down. Major Labels. Major CEO’s. Major staffs have been shut down over night like an abandoned building because they don’t know how to operate in this new system. We operate like a chef in a restaurant when it comes to this system because we’ve been doing it that long.
Planet Ill: your initial rush primarily consisted of all Brooklyn emcees. Beginning in ’05 you came back with the Triple Threat package and then you opened up your ranks. What led to that decision?
Buckshot: We always knew that as Duck Down we were going to go in this direction. We always knew that as Duck Down we were going to sign different artists, and put out as many people as we possibly can that want, need, and would like to be a part of this entertainment industry. We knew that we were going to do that because we knew that the majors was falling because they weren’t listening; they weren’t giving chances. So we knew that but we had to strengthen ourselves as a label in every format before we could go outside and start signing other people it’s like we have to make sure that we had the system down pat. Boot Camp was the sacrifice for that. That’s why we call it Boot Camp because we had to make sure that we were on a mission. We knew that our mission was to perfect the system In order to do that we had to be military minded. Duck Down and Boot Camp worked together as a unit to perfect this whole thing.
That’s the reason that Duck Down was able to sign Kidz In The Hall, because they mastered the system on their level. Give us $100,000 and I’ll show you. I’ll show you $100,000 on what I did for $10,000. You give me $2000, and I’ll show it no different than $20,000. That’s just our style of doing things, and that’s why major labels didn’t like me because they were like, “we’re putting gout this façade that we’re putting gout all this money and we have to use all this money, and here’s this little guy from Brooklyn running around telling the truth and pulling the blanket from over people’s eyes and showing them that they don’t really need none of this stuff because that’ show we make most of our money.”
It’s like a phone company where they have back up fees, termination fees and extra interest fees and over coverage, you don’t see all of that when you see the Verizon commercial, you just see I want to be down with Verizon. That’s all you get and that’s how the record labels are too.
Planet Ill: What’s your favorite album from the Duck Down collection?
Buckshot: BDI Thug is my personal favorite album because I like the music and all that, but I like the freedom that I had on that album. That album allowed me freedom and that’s why I did it like that. That album sold 60,000 something copies and I did that album right after I left Tupac, like right after ‘Pac died. I was really going through a lot emotionally and mentally. I did that album as a release of what I was going through and it felt really good because when I did that album I was allowed to be Kenyatta Blake. Kenyatta Blake and Buckshot are two totally different people. Not really, but the public has made Buckshot what they want to make him, and I don’t want to rain on your parade by showing you who I really am in a sense because not only are you not ready for that, but at this point if you think you know Buckshot then fine, but you’ll never know Kenyatta Blake. That’s who I am as an individual.
I started a lot of stuff and people may not know because I start it and just move on. I started the backpack era. That was something we did around the way and if you look at “Who Got The Props” video I’m wearing a backpack because that’s something we did around the way. Puffy and all these other individuals these people would have on suits and Gucci ties, and I would come Polo down; Polo and Guess. That’s why you hear on “Who Got The Props,” Guess and ‘Lo from head to toe to let you know.
I never wanted to glorify the street life. The difference between me and Jay, is that in the 80s Jay was a hustler. In the ‘80s. He was not a hustler in the 90s, none of that. But when Jay rhyme, you would think this n***a was a hustler today. Still. And it’s like you still don’t peep that you using that old formula and people don’t peep that. You saying “I’m a drug dealer, I’m this I’m that” but you only saying that because that’s what sells because people are out there doing that and they’re going to buy it. I know that too, but I refuse to start saying “I’m a booster, we steal clothes, n***a!” Put it in the bag to me is put it in the knapsack and get the fuck out the store so I can get around Franklin Ave and get that guap.
Me getting on the mic and talking about I got boosters and I rock nothing but the best Polo and Guess, nothing but the finest wears all the time, blab la bla we smoke more weed than the average Jamaican, all of that, I decided to balance it and put a little bit in there because it’s a reality, but try not to glorify it because there’s gonna be other kids behind that trying to glorify that. And it’s not like I don’t want them to follow my footsteps, ‘cause I don’t, but at the same time, Hip-Hop is a vehicle of expression. So I don’t want you to express the same thing that I’m expressing.
Hip-Hop is a rent a car vehicle for life, no one can own me. All you can do rents rent me. All you can do is keep me clean and respect me so when you bring me back I can be somebody else’s shit.
Planet Ill: What is your favorite line from your catalogue?
Buckshot: Everybody got a label or a mixtape. Saying they getting money but next week they back to they shift and break, till they back shift and break. People want to get big overnight thinking like it’s lifting weights.
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I respect the work that Buck shot has put in. How ever that stuborn single mindedness that him and so many others of his era share is the reason he is washed up. I mean he is still nice. But no body is realy checking for him. and they should be. This is all his own fault. You cant live in a bubble of what you see your self as. What a person sees them self as is usualy not what they are or what other people see them as because they are in that bubble feeling themselves way to much. Is he the last one to know he is not on top, or even close. These dudes kill me.