Double O: Beats Beer Bink And Beyonce

Posted On: February 15, 2010
Posted By: odeisel
Comments: 1

By Odeisel

It’s hard out here for a journalist. Sometimes we get an interview subject, we ask open questions, and they clam up or are held in check by their publicist. Other times, our subjects may be drunk, stoned, or too tired to give good answers. Luckily though, we do have our moments when we get good subjects who can talk about different subjects frankly and honestly. Michael Aguilar AKA Double O is one such interview. Planet Ill chopped it up with the DJ and producer about music and the industry attached. Below are the results.

Planet Ill: Do you think that because the incentive to sell out or to make disposable music is lessened by the lack of sales?

Double O: Well that’s a loaded question because you are assuming that the people that make music that people don’t necessarily like, that they are selling out. I think that the reality is we are in a space that you have a lot of kids under 25. That their idea of what making a record is, is very different. They are 15 years old, 16, 17 or even 20 years old.

At the end of the day I don’t think Webstarr is doing something that he wouldn’t be doing if it was a different scenario for him, you know? He’s keeping it true to what he is, which is a DJ, a young kid; a kid that parties. You know I see it. I live uptown. I see what these kids do in the regular environment. They are big on dancing. They are big on all of those things. So really all the Webstarrs and even to a certain extent what the Ron Browzes of the world are doing are creating the songs for them to continue what they do and to do it to. I think that those types of records are not meant to be understood by people over a certain age so I can’t consider any of it at this point garbage or crap.

Planet Ill: Well I don’t really refer to those records because I agree with you as far as that music isn’t meant for you to jump to. But if you notice a lot of people, when they release mixtapes, it’s a different kind of album they release when it’s a mass release so in my opinion it speaks to what they think what will get them sales as opposed to what they think is good.

Double O: I think it’s a little bit of both. I mean we have to be for real. We have to be honest. The music industry is the NBA. You could be a street ball player forever. You could be the greatest street ball player ever but you will never play in the NBA if you don’t know how to play the NBA game. The industry is exactly what it is. It’s an industry that you can get paid for your art but you also have to be an investment that hopefully is making money for yourself and for the label. You should know going into it the same way you go into the NBA, there’s going to be a program that each team plays. The offense is going to play certain plays. The defense is going to have certain plays. You just can’t be free Willie crazy; trying to just show off natural talent that you can in a street ball game where there’s no real rules to adhere to.

So I feel like the mixtape circuit, and the mixtapes have changed, but the mixtape used to be the I’m just about to do the crazy 360 behind the look pass and if it works, it works and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t and then the major label release. But now it’s like okay I can still do the behind the look but for this I can get the dunk which is a little easier to do but it’s going to get a bigger splash because if you do an ill dunk it will always be better than the crazy pass or whatever. So all I’m saying is that there has to be a little bit of a give when major projects come around unless you are in a position where it doesn’t matter anymore.

There is a threshold; a point that you cross as an artist where you can kind of do whatever you want or do the same thing. Like Common. Common has a good, strong set of fans. He can do a Universal Mind Control or he can do another Electric Circus or he can do another Be. It’s not really going to matter because he can turn around if it does work than hopefully it will get him a few more fans but if it doesn’t work, it’s like okay I experimented. It didn’t work. Now I’m back to this other thing that you guys know and love.

I think that what happened this year is that the older heads realized they still had fan bases out there. They still had opportunities to make money without having to worry about the things they did when they were the hottest thing around. I think that’s where the difference came in. For Raekwon, people know who you are. You’re not going to … for me it’s like about being comfortable in that position more than trying to they to make a record. To me it’s like you’re Raekwon, you’re Method Man, you’re Ghostface. You’re never going to have what Wu-Tang had when it first came out or even when your solo albums first came out. That’s not going to happen again.

People know who you are but you still have a couple of hundred thousand fans out there that want dope shit from you. So rather than think I have to make a record that could work for the radio, they are thinking I just have to make dope records. And I don’t think back then it was a compromise. I just think what they were doing made sense for the radio back then. Like the “You’re All I Need” and all of that. That to me was still a situation that was organic and made sense. It got on the radio. This huge record with Method Man and Mary J. Because of that I feel like a lot of these cats feel like there are still fans out there.

I think some people thought a lot of older cats were sitting and thinking that if I don’t have the ear of the young people I don’t have the ear of the Hip-Hop consumer. And I think in 2009 there was the realization that, wait a minute, there are people that are 35 years old that are not listening to the radio, that are listening to what they have on their iPod, that have money to go pay $25, $30, $40, $50 dollars to go to a show. That is my fan. So I don’t have to worry about the HOT 97 crowd much anymore. They’re going to show me respect, but that’s all I need from them. I don’t necessarily need to be catering to them as let’s say a younger artist would who still needs that younger, casual listener. I think that was the big shift that happened. Because everyone that you are talking about, and this is only assumption, is from that older generation.

Planet Ill: What are your top five favorite beers?

Double O: Beers?

Planet Ill: Yeah beers as in booze.

Double O: Number one I don’t really fuck with American beer. That shit is disgusting. They make it so it only tastes semi decent when it’s cold and shit because otherwise it tastes like shit. But I have to say most of the Belgian white beers, like Hoegaarden. You know what, I’ll even throw Blue Moon in there. It works when they don’t have any other beers. I’m a fan of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. They have national beers. I like Heineken from Holland. Guinness isn’t really a beer, it’s a stout I guess but maybe you can use it. But honestly, I don’t really have five because I’m a hard alcohol drinker, so beer is just when nothing else going on.

Planet Ill: Or as a chaser?

Double O: Or when I just want to keep it light for that night. Corona is another drink that I like. I like Negro Modelo too. I like some of the Mexican beers as well.

Planet Ill: When was the last time you heard a record or a beat and were like damn I wish I did that as a producer?

Double O: I never really think like I wish I did that because it’s so dope. I try to separate myself from being in the driver’s seat sometimes when it’s just a dope record because then I can’t appreciate it. But shit that made me say wow was like… I still like “When They Remember” by Bink (See above video-Ed.). He did it for Freeway on Freeway’s Free At Last album. That shit was a bananas record. And then randomly, fuckin… It’s a Beyonce record. And the only reason why I say it is because it’s a beat I would have done. I probably have a variation somehow of the record in my stash because when I do a lot of pop music, it’s kind of like a very dark, distorted record. It was her single before whatever is out right now. It’s this “Sweet Dreams.” Like I’ve literally done variations of that record you know what I’m saying. There are a lot of pop joints I do that are very much in that space so it makes me laugh. But “When They Remember” was to me just so ridiculously epic. I was just like I’m so angry at Bink it makes me sick.

Planet Ill: So let’s get one statement that you would make that would be a cap on your career or that would define you as a musician. What would it be?

Double O: I guess I’m still kind of a student of the game. I think that I am always improving on where I left off on the last project or last album just by learning and trying to innovate on the design by just taking hints from and paying attention to what else is going on in other genres and in other forms of music. I think that is what always keeps me going forward. Or you could even just say just in general, an over achiever. I always try to strive to improve on where I left off. So that would probably be, over achiever is what it is. Even in life, I’m always trying to push to get to that next level.

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