Del Tha Funkee Homosapien Interview
August 2006
MVRemix: So how do you view yourself? What is Del's opinion of Del?
Del: Good question... Well, I feel like I did do a little, but now is the real deal. I know music pretty good now, so it's
all at my fingertips, plus I use the computer almost exclusively to do production and I also know how to mix records myself. So I can do it all here - I did "11th Hour" all here with Matt Kelley's help to mix the thing.
MVRemix: When I interviewed you in 2003, you were learning music theory. Three years later, and after seeing more of that on the "11th Hour" DVD - how well developed would you say your knowledge of music theory is?
Del: Pretty damn developed. I could, with a textbook, teach a class.
MVRemix: Do you feel you have much more to learn?
Del: Of course! I really don't know hella much, but I know the foundation which is a whole lot.
MVRemix: The album was scheduled to be released in 2003, three years on how has the record changed?
Del: Just tightened the bolts a bit, and as I learned more about music theory and could apply it, I just cut some shit and developed newer things. Plus I kept stuff current sounding too... even though I'm a 70's cat, I didn't want shit to sound dated.
MVRemix: Is the album now complete?
Del: Pretty much. But you know, I always to the last minute gotta add if I feel the vibe to do so. Keep shit current depending upon what's happening out there.
MVRemix: How many tracks has the tracklisting gone through? How many songs have been recorded?
Del: Man, I done did hella tracks bro, a lot I kept for Achilles' Heal, others are just laying. I produce a lot of instrumental shit that never will hit no record, I just like to make music.
MVRemix: Were the track snippets on the DVD from the final album?
Del: Nah, like I said I do a lot of stuff, so they were just some that the homie Grant liked and asked to use with the sound for the filming. We worked real close on that DVD, and I appreciate that outta him like hell.
MVRemix: What happens to the Del tracks which aren't set for anything - do you have any intention for them - maybe a hope that one day they'll be somewhere? Or are you content with them just existing for you?
Del: I'm content with them just for me, but I really wanna release a instrumental album, even though commercially they don't do well at all. But fuck it - I make shit that is a complete musical statement in itself, so I find it hard to rap to them.
MVRemix: Is that just a hope or are you trying to make it happen?
Del: I can do it, we got Hieroglyphics Imperium, but it's something I would want to do right; have a theme, you know... Not just shit slapped miscellaneously together.
MVRemix: What prompted the DVD?
Del: It just kinda formed from Grant doing filming on the road, then him kicking it at my house and seeing how I was living. He found it interesting.
MVRemix: Were you skeptical at all about featuring your mother and home so prominently on the DVD?
Del: Nah, 'cause my Mom is cool and the house I stayed in I moved away from that witch [ex girlfriend] that was fuckin' with me... Before we killed each other for real.
MVRemix: Out of curiosity, were you with her in January of 2003 when I met you?
Del: On the road was she with me? If so, that was her dumb ass, yeah.
MVRemix: Do you two communicate at all anymore or is everything cut off?
Del: No correspondance - at all! Or she'll get scalped man! I'm not playin' at all. I was at war, so I had to move under the advice of my lawyer. She was a real hoe though, and a bitch. Did anything bad you could think of.
MVRemix: Do you feel that impacted any of the "11th Hour" material?
Del: Shit, my life! I just ain't the same. Traumatizing. She tried to kill herself twice in my garage - hang herself! The secon time she nearly did it! I mean mad, mad capers! So I'm not friendly at all towards hoes. Women? That's different.
MVRemix: It's kind of hard to jump subjects from that, but how accurate do you feel the rest of the world's perception of Oakland is?
Del: Well, I never thought about it really. I guess it's accurate enough, but there's a tradition of funk out in the bay that go back far. Sly and them is the main dudes that really set it off from here nationally, but the Headhunters are from here as well... Tower of Power too.
MVRemix: What about along the lines of it's reputation in terms of violence?
Del: It's accurate I guess... We got some nuts out here, like that bitch I was just talkin about. I mean, "City of dope, couldn't be saved by John the Pope." There it was. Them zombies ain't went nowhere.
MVRemix: A lot has changed since your last releases do you feel Hip Hop as part of today's culture is more benefiical to society, or misunderstood?
Del: I feel it's entertainment first and foremost, and in that light, yes, it's beneficial to us. But at the same time, musically, all music is kinda lacking due to the fact that everything is based upon Hip Hop, and Hip Hop is based upon older shit in general. But that has changed. Now the cats coming up are basing they shit on say, Biggie for instance. Which ain't bad mind you, but shit, understanding music is lacking sorely and you can hear it. But those who can do more just clean up, it seems.
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