|
MVRemix: Do you think that success and credibility are mutually exclusive?
Casual: I don’t think they are exclusive. It depends on how you measure success. I could consider myself as having a good rap career because I haven’t worked a hard labor job since I was 16 years old. I’m 30! That’s a 15 year or more career. That’s success right there, but if I had a pension or retirement fund, that’s something completely different. I am successful enough to live, work, and support my family with something that was once my hobby.
MVRemix: Has being a father altered your approach to creating hip-hop music?
Casual: Always. It made me throw away a lot of the BS. I try to latch down at being a more serious artist. I examine myself. I ask myself, ‘What are the things am I trying to say?’ Being a parent will change you by having more or new responsibilities.
MVRemix: What is hip-hop lacking?
Casual: It is always lacking originality, but that is not because of the heart of hip-hop. Basically, all of the corporations and mainstream media affect the minds of the young or aspiring artists who want to do hip-hop. I’m glad I came up in the era that I came up in. Back then, the radio wasn’t supporting hip-hop. I had to dig through crates and examine what was really dope by myself. I wasn’t forced into liking a song on the radio that is played 40 times. We don’t let the youngsters listen to the radio. When they do listen to the radio, they hear the same song 30 times in the same day. No matter what song is or who the artist is, the song becomes hot because of that. If they didn’t like it before, they like it now because of the repetition. If they really want to be a rhymer, they are going to start looking up to people who really aren’t the top choice picks.
MVRemix: Any non-Hiero collaborations coming out?
Casual: I’ve been on the road lately and working too much. I don’t remember. Wait! I’m trippin’! I just did one with The Wu-Tang Clan on that ‘Think Differently’ album. I have a song with Masta Killa, Tragedy-Khadafi, and Roc Marciano. Roc is raw.
MVRemix: Who have you been listening to during the last couple of days?
Casual: I-Tunes. I buy all of the top albums. I only buy the actual CD if I know it will be dope. Now they are making music so convenient, so you don’t buy the bullshit. You can turn on the computer, go to I-Tunes, and buy what you want. One problem with that is the record company has to have enough money to be featured on the front page of I-Tunes. The companies control all of that. If I’m an artist who doesn’t have a budget to get on I-Tunes, I’m losing out on a whole new genre of money that’s out here. It’s crazy, man! I’ve been buying what’s out. I’ve got everything from Little Brother to Jay-Z. I put my music on party shuffle, just to keep it cracking on my computer. I don’t even sit down and concentrate on the record. I just like listening to new music.
MVRemix: As a producer and emcee, how have you evolved?
Casual: As a producer, I haven’t been producing as much as I used to. Evolution in production is far easier to describe because we are not really instrumentalists. Basically, if I switch from an MPC to something else, you can tell that it sounds different. I just switched up equipment. How much you sample effects your sound too. I’ve been trying to put samples in my production too. Production can’t really go through a complete evolution at the point where I’m at. I feel like a master, like a 6th level black belt. I just want to take a piece of clay and mold it to sound completely different from what I’ve been doing. That’s how I view creation. The older stuff, that people are fascinated by, doesn’t thrill me anymore. We need to find the ‘Fear Itself’ album for 2005. I want some young dudes to come out with an album today so I can admire it. I’m not trying to recreate myself as someone 17 years old. Now, I’m 30 and a whole different person now. I want people to hear that I’m wiser and sharper. You can hear it in the album. You can hear it in the rhymes. There is a lot more depth and more clarity in everything I’m saying.
MVRemix: On Guru’s ‘The Street Scriptures’ album, Talib Kweli states that Pro-Tools made producers lazy. Do you agree?
Casual: Yeah, definitely. Technology is the art of making things easier, but all things aren’t supposed to be easy. You aren’t supposed to just turn on a computer program that has every song. That’s not the art of what we are doing. We are supposed to go to the record store, find the rarest record, and turn it into a hip-hop song. Computer programs now have 20 million breaks. Half of the art was simply timing. Let’s see if I can get this one record to go on-beat with this other record. Then, let’s add a drum loop from another record. The final result will be my song. That’s all timing. Now, they have programs where you don’t even have to be on time. You can play it close to how you like it and the computer will fix it. Technology is messing up a lot of things, not just hip-hop.
MVRemix: What’s next for Casual?
Casual: I’m doing some videos and I’m about to put out a new album quick. We have the O.C. album coming out on Hiero. We have a bunch of stuff. Del’s coming out with a new record. A-Plus is coming out. We’re supposed to have another Hieroglyphics album next year. We stay busy.
MVRemix: Any final words?
Casual: Thank you, Todd. Thanks for supporting Hiero. Check out Casual’s ‘Smash Rockwell’ album.
| 
