J.Period Talk's Best Of Mixtape Origins, Working With Q-Tip, Possibly Busta Rhymes

J.Period is always thinking two steps ahead; always thinking about the “next evolution.” It’s partly why his Best Of...series has completely remixed the impact of the mixtape. Each release is much more than just a collection of dope songs. They’re more like sonic time capsules, blending awesome music with exclusive interviews adding unprecedented depth into the artist behind the mic. They’re entertaining and edutaining all at once. What started with his 2004, Best Of Nas mixtape has evolved into last month’s impeccable Q-Tip feature, The [Abstract] Best, J.Period’s Live Mixtape with Black Thought and, as he states in this interview, possibly film.

BrooklynBodega.com caught up J.Period following the 7th Annual Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival and discussed the origins of his unique mixtape series, his experience working with Q-Tip and the “next evolution” as he sees it.

Brooklyn Bodega: I think the work that you’ve done has redefined the mixtape. Your mixtapes are a lot more than just a dope collection of songs. They’re a dope collection of songs with all the right elements to make them edutaining at the same time. The Michael Jackson mixtape really gave insight into his creative process. This Q-Tip tape, The [Abstract] Best, showed all types of new perspectives.

J.Period: Honestly, the mixtapes themselves are as much educational for me as they are for the listener because I’m always learning while I’m doing them. I do so much research into these people’s lives and their influences and inspirations that I learn a tremendous amount about them that I didn’t know as well. So, that’s the dope part for me as the creator of them.

Brooklyn Bodega: Take us through the process. How does this actually work? Are you spending lots of time interviewing people? Are you spending hours looking online?

J.Period: With someone like Michael Jackson, I’m finding things. In the early days when I did the Nas mixtape which was the first one, that came out of me being at a listening session. That was literally the one that sparked the whole idea. I was sitting there and all these college radio DJs were interviewing him and I was thinking how ill it would be to tell his story through his own words and his music. That Best of Nas mixtape became the blueprint to what I’ve now sort of expanded on and kind of twisted and turned and done more with to the point where now I actually get to sit down with the artists. They’ve already heard what I do so they already know. That’s given me unprecedented access to a lot of these people. When I did the Lauryn Hill mixtape, only a small portion of that was actually me getting her to actually sit down and co-sign it and the rest was me digging things up. I’m at the point now where I did the John Legend and The Roots mixtape, and not only did I interview John and members of The Roots, but they actually gave me the session files from the album. That’s actually a tremendous honor, to actually to be able to create on the level that they’re creating on with the elements that they’re using.

Honestly, the whole idea is to pay homage to the people that inspire me and going deeper than your average mixtape. For most people, a mixtape is just a bunch of songs put together. For me, it was always something that allowed me to take bits and pieces from everywhere. Sampling issues don’t allow you to do that on records. But a mixtape is open season. You can do whatever. Really, I do it all from a fans perspective because I’m a fan of Hip-Hop first.



Brooklyn Bodega: They really run like documentaries. Have you thought about visualizing these?

J.Period: Yeah, you know, I’ve talked to a number of people. Garth Trinidad, who is a radio DJ out in [Los Angeles], and I have been talking about bringing it to the stage. He calls them audio documentaries. That’s his thing. I’ve even spoke to Michael Rappaport when he was working on the [A Tribe Called Quest] documentary about bringing some of the elements from the Q-Tip mixtape to the screen. That didn’t happen for clearance reasons, but I think that’s the next evolution. Really for me, it’s that and then it’s tackling the legal hurdles of convincing a company that what I do with their catalog has an audience. That’s hard because they see 500 thousand downloads and think people take it because it’s free but they’re not going to pay for it. I really believe that this sort of level of music and the kind of people that want it are real fans. I think those real fans will pay money for it.

Brooklyn Bodega: Fans still pay money for concert tickets and T-shirts.

J.Period: I also think they like something that they can hold, like this The [Abstract] Best flash drive. It’s a flash drive, which is something digital, but it’s also tangible. I still think that, like all the collectors items I have from when I was a kid and still have all over my studio as inspiration, like physical CDs, people still like that.

Brooklyn Bodega: How was it working with Tip on The [Abstract] Best?


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Classic Dirty Harriet: Rah Digga Interview

Critically praised album, Dirty Harriet in 2000. Critically praised album, Classic in 2010.

Two for Two.

16 years of kicking shine snatching verses and guest appearances rocking right next to the messiah of shine snatching verses and guest appearances, Busta Rhymes (as part of the Flipmode Squad), never ever sounding secondary or over matched in comparison.

Lyrically, Rah Digga’s record is flawless.

There aren’t many Emcees who’ve commanded the microphone; commanded respect like the Newark, New Jersey native. Male and Female. There aren’t many Emcees who can withstand a ten year gap between releases and still move a crowd off tracks dropped over a decade ago. Male and Female.

On Thursday night, in front of a jam-packed audience in Brooklyn’s SouthPaw performance venue, Rah Digga did just that -- raucously overseeing the sea of flip cams and point-and-shoots, incomparable Emcee skills front and center.

It was a clinic, really. It was Classic Dirty Harriet.

BrooklynBodega.com spoke with Digga following her headlining “Ladies First” performance (sponsored by Forever Fresh and Brooklyn Bodega) and discussed how rhymes are still necessary for longevity, the “Cowboys” studio session with The Fugees, how Q-Tip saved her life, and more.

BB: Hip-Hop has been competitive since the beginning. It’s competitive at it’s core. And I don’t know if there are a lot Emcees that approach rhyming from a competitive perspective the same way anymore. For me, the first time I was introduced to you was on “Cowboys” [off The Fugees album, The Score]. And I think about “Cowboys” and I think about Dirty Harriet and I think about Classic which just dropped last year, and I think about your entire career in Flipmode rapping next to Busta Rhymes and I don’t have a situation in my head where you’ve lost on the mic rhyming next to anyone else, or when you’ve come up short lyrically. And then I look at you tonight, literally rocking the crowd on some Emcee-shit, which doesn’t really exist in the same way anymore. It seemed so innate as if it was second nature.

RD: How does that happen?

BB: Yeah.

RD: Well, I’ve been doing this for a long long time and my biggest influences were KRS-One and the Juice Crew, Kool G Rap. Kool G Rap taught me how to rhyme. KRS-One taught me the delivery. Rakim [is how] I adapted that whole serious tone. So, a culmination of all of those artists combined really formulated the “Rah Digga” that you know today. And it seems to standout in 2011 because Emcees just don’t rock like that. They just don’t make my kind really too tough [anymore]. Or they’re there [and] they just don’t get that exposure. It was different in my era because that’s all Hip-Hop was. You couldn’t be corny. KRS-One might bum rush you off the stage.

BB: Like he did to PM Dawn

RD: Exactly! So, I feel like now -- I don’t know at what point the flood gates opened and allowed all this corniness in and all the lyricists kind of got put into this little "Backpack [Rap]" bunch or whatever -- but, I mean, I do what I do. I’m not going to waver from that and I will spend the rest of my life campaigning that lyrics do matter.



BB: “Sad story. / Even the awards done dropped the category. / These rap bitches corny.” Those are weighty bars.

RD: It’s true. You know, one of the things that people say a lot is, we want to blame the labels for not signing the females. And we know what labels want to do with the chicks: they want to glamour everybody out and make them show off their bodies. We know this to be the case about labels, but in the same token, females got to step it up too. I don’t believe in giving girls passes just because they’re girls. I hate when I hear, “She’s dope for a female.” What exactly does that mean? Does that mean she’s [actually] corny? Does that mean she would be corny if she was a dude? I don’t get that phrase. They’re getting a pass because they are a girl? I just feel like a dope Emcee is a dope Emcee. A wack Emcee is a wack Emcee. Either you’re dope or you’re not dope and it shouldn’t matter if you’re a dude or a chick. I don’t believe in, “Oh, her verse was hot. Give her a break.” I think you’re either dope or you’re wack.

BB: But that doesn’t seem to be the rule for anybody anymore. Guys or girls. Now it’s like if you’ve got the right producer and you’ve got the right hook, then the in between doesn’t as make as much of a difference.

RD: I don’t believe that. I tell everybody that, at the end of the day lyrics matter. If you want to have longevity in this career, you have to be fresh too. You can be a superstar but people don’t become superstars [without being fresh first]. Jay-Z had to be fresh first. Nas had to be fresh first. Eminem had to be fresh first. Lil Wayne had to be fresh first. I feel like all of these iconic figures in Hip-Hop, they had to be fresh first. And as music transitioned and their circles transitioned -- they experimented and did other things musically -- I feel like it always boils down to lyrics. If you expect to be around five, ten, twenty years from now, you still have to be fresh. I feel like those artists that find that hit record that just takes over real fast, they also disappear real fast if they’re not fresh. When you become that artist, you’re only as good as you’re last record. You can have that hit record at that moment and get shows as long as that song is on the radio. Or you can be an artist like myself and still get the crowd rocking off an album I dropped eleven years ago.

BB: It was evident tonight. Cats were literally rocking along to Dirty Harriet.

RD: That’s right.

BB: Does it feel good?

RD: I love it. It makes me feel good that I made that impact on people and I know people always expect lyrics out of me. For whatever reason, the bar of rhyming is just way up here for me. I can’t do all of these happy go lucky songs and experiment. People will be mad at me for doing stuff like that.

BB: But you understand that, right? You understand what you represent. All of what you said two paragraphs, three paragraphs ago is exactly [the reason].

RD: I know. I know. I do.

BB: I want to ask you this acknowledging everything you just said about [how] you don’t look at [emceeing] from a gender based perspective, but I’ve always wondered you’re response to this statement: If Rah Digga isn’t the greatest female Emcee, then she’s the closest one.

RD: Are you asking me if I agree with that statement?

BB: How do you feel about that statement?

RD: I agree. I agree. I feel like there is no female from my generation that still rhymes like I rhyme, I’m sorry.

BB: Ending this where we started, and again, thank you for your time. There aren’t a lot of times that I get a chance to talk to someone I’ve thought about since I was 14 years old. And again, it all started for me with “Cowboys.” What was so dope about “Cowboys” was that it was like “Brooklyn’s Finest” on the female tip.




RD: That was "Jersey’s Finest!" [Laughs]

BB: Yeah! It was “Jersey’s Finest”, that’s exactly what it was! It was “Brick City’s Finest!” I was born in Beth Israel Hospital!

RD: Wow, me too. [Laughs] I think everyone from Newark was born in Beth Israel! [Laughs]

BB: Word up! And I think about the back and forth between you and [Lauryn Hill].

RD: We were doing it.

BB: What was that [studio] session like?


READ FULL INTERVIEW @BROOKLYNBODEGA.COM

Lauryn Hill -- Buyer Beware

In retrospect, it was my fault.

All the signs were there, loitering for the better part of the aughts, screaming out like nicotine warnings from the Surgeon General.

“Hazardous For Money Holder”

“May Complicate Checking Account”

“Purchase At Your Own Risk”

I should’ve seen this coming from satellite distances. I should’ve mentally prepared myself for another craptastic outing from one of the most important, yet consistently most disappointing performing artists in recent Hip Hop history.

I should’ve predicted that Lauryn Hill would shit the proverbial bed -- again -- during her highly anticipated set at the 2010 Rock The Bells Festival.

But I didn’t.

Instead, I trekked to New York City’s Governor’s Island packing a pocket full of unqualified expectations, impatiently awaiting my first live show from the Illest Femcee Ever.

And to say Lauryn Hill is anything short of the Illest Femcee Ever is asinine. It’s more than just the indelible nature of The Score and her solo, seminal offering, The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill. It’s more than her pristine delivery and ridiculous word play and Mike Tyson-type power punchlines like “even after all my logic and my theories / I’ll add a mutherfucker so you ignant n***** hear me” that seamlessly ooze into the air like lyrical incense yet remain potent enough to floor the most elite of emcees. It’s more than her world class vocals and her ability to touch heavenly octaves, stirring souls and shaking asses simultaneously, through every syllable sung.

It’s more than that.

Lauryn Hill’s resolute standing in Hip Hop is cemented in what her music represents. At a time when females in rap subjected themselves to extreme sexual exploitation (some more willingly than others) as a means to progress in a male dominated and rapidly commercializing industry, L Boogie sold over twelve million copies of her 1998 solo album by embodying an image overtly contra to the status quo.

She wasn’t boasting about how she can “make a Sprite can disappear into her mouth”. She was imploring women everywhere to “watch out [because] some guys are only about that thing”.

Through her uplifting hymns, visceral rhymes and the rare creative trifecta of singer/songwriter/producer, Hill defied industry pigeon holing, crafted timeless music that connected with people worldwide, sold millions of records and earned millions of dollars. She graced Time Magazine and Newsweek and landed on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. She broke all kinds of Grammy records for nominations and awards. She became an international sensation while staying true to herself and the integrity of women everywhere. She kept it real.

She kept it Hip Hop.

But a funny thing happened on the way to ubiquity.

Before Lauryn’s stardom swept the globe, her own personal sideshow crept into the rumor mill. Reports of a torrid love triangle between fellow Fugee, Wyclef Jean -- whom she “clandestinely dated” for years while in the group -- and former University of Miami linebacker, Rohan Marley, raised eyebrows across the industry. When word of Hill’s pregnancy spread -- as this 2003 Rolling Stone investigation describes -- “the Fugee camp wondered whether the baby was Marley’s or Jean’s”.

At the same time, a rift formed within the group. Following the success of The Score, Pras and Lauryn supported Clef’s solo project, The Carnival, “emotionally and creatively”, with both members making guest appearances. But when Lauryn began working on a project of her own, Clef failed to return the same support. Not only did Clef’s disinterest frustrate Lauryn, but reportedly, it drove her to stamp an end on the creative battle the two maintained since first teaming up by crafting the ultimate album, free and clear of her bandmate’s assistance. That album was The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, and not so ironically, it settled the score.

But where Lauryn Hill of the 1990s was exalted for her timeless talent and trend bucking bravado while her personal demons remained on the fringe of her reputation, "Ms. Hill" of the 2000s has pulled a complete image 180. Her otherworldly talent is now on the outskirts of her career, supplanted by a completely puzzling void of new music, a perplexing array of enigmatic (re: poor) showings and enough speculation into her personal life to render her timeless music almost an afterthought.

Her 2001 MTV Unplugged No.2 “performance”, for example, offered less of the empowered individual who exuded confidence in every bar previously and more of a broken spirit embattled by the confines of extreme success. Not only was her unhinged performance released as a twenty-two track double disk that, to this day, remains a commercial failure (moving less than 600k units in eight years); not only was it contextually lathered in self-loathing and industry resentment and depressing enough to invoke thoughts of suicide from the listener -- but from a talent perspective, Ms. Hill appeared to be a fraction of her former self. Her voice was excessively raspy, if not broken throughout, and her acoustic guitar playing was overtly amateurish, seemingly relying on the same three chords for the duration of the album.

And that was just the beginning.

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