*Photo by: Snapkracker
Interview w/ Buckshot (Black Moon & Boot Camp Click)
By: Justin Rizzio

During the mid-nineties, hip hop was filled with names like Gangstarr, Wu-Tang, Biggie, and of course, Black Moon and Boot Camp Clik (BCC). Now, years later, some of these artists have parted ways, moved on, and even passed, pretty much removing any chances of being household names in today’s hip hop climate. But some artists on the other hand, suffered some of the most trying times and still never gave up the struggle to keep their place in the spotlight. One of these artists, in particular, is Buckshot. Just when it seemed like all hope was lost for the BCC, Buckshot revamped his Duckdown imprint and delivered us some of the best hip hop records put out in the past decade. During his recent tour promoting his newest album, I sat down with the BDI Thug himself to find out what exactly is in “The Formula.”
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215hiphop: So, the new album, The Formula, just dropped. How’s the response been so far?

Buckshot: As an independent label, the response has been off the hook. So far we’re up to like 7,000 records. If I had 7,000 t-shirts, and I sold them out of my store, would it be a good week? We alright, we good as far as the numbers. Things are changing. A few years ago we would have sold much more. We’re in the digital era right now, so we’re dealing with that.

215: Is it true that 9th Wonder had the final say on which tracks actually made it onto the album?

Buckshot: I guess you could say that because every song we did, was used on the album. We did not do a bunch of songs and pick through the best. If that don’t stand good with certain people, then I’m sorry. Every time we did a song, we would play it for people after. Whatever the response was would determine if it was a go or not. We did the album like that.

215: And it only took a week to complete the record?

Buckshot: Yeah, it took a week. I mean, I did three songs just last night. I was living with Tupac for a while in the 90’s before he died. That was Pac’s minimum. That was nothing. Three songs in a night? You’re lazy. That’s why Pac got hundreds and hundreds of songs because he was on what I’m on now. We’re in the digital era. I could just write my song, hear the beat, record it, and put it on CD right there. Let’s go to the next.

215: What would be some of the differences working with 9th Wonder be compared to working with the Beatminerz?

Buckshot: It’s funny. Both of them have similarities. They both like to make beats centered only around Buckshot. Evil Dee and Mr. Walt really like to go into samples that you can’t really get. 9th Wonder does the same thing. They flip samples you can’t find. Or, if it’s a sample you can find, they’ll flip it in a way you can’t flip it. That’s what Beatminerz and 9th Wonder do.

215: Your last two solo albums have received much more praise from fans and critics than 1999’s BDI Thug did. Why do you think that was?

Buckshot: ‘Cause BDI Thug was purposely done to be like “I don’t give a fuck.” I never talked about this in an interview. When I did BDI Thug, I was under the influence of Pac just dying. I made that album with production from a new era of producers. I had different people with me and BDI Thug, if you look at the concept, represented I don’t give a damn. I’m not here to satisfy nobody. I think it wasn’t a good mind frame at the time. BDI Thug sold 60,000 copies. So at the end of the day, an independent label selling 60,000 copies…you do the math at ten dollars a pop. That’s not bad. As far as the music, a lot of people wasn’t in tune with it because it wasn’t the average Buckshot. Can’t fault people for that.

215: You had a Just Blaze track on that album and that was almost 10 years ago. What would it be like now if you tried to get at him?

Buckshot: I speak to Just all the time. Me and Guru (Jay-Z’s engineer) is tighter than tight. Me and Guru go back to splitting nickel bags in the studio. Me and Guru go back to the days when Kanye West used to be in the back room producing beats on a little MPC and the bullshit equipment they had in the back because the front room was being used by D-Dot. So, again, Just Blaze and I go back to that era. If you listen to that album, the song with Just Blaze represents the fact that I am gonna work with new producers that got that fire. Ya’ll didn’t know it at the time but then years later Just Blaze came out and blew the fuck up. That shows you that my ear wasn’t wrong. I knew he had fire back then, it just wasn’t a fire people were used to.

215: When Duck Down did it’s Triple Threat campaign, it was almost like a BCC comeback. How does it feel to come out and still be accepted 15 years later?

Buckshot: Out of control and beyond acknowledgment. To even become a rap artist at the level I hit is an achievement in itself. It’s such a privilege in the sense of seeing all the people trying to get there. I’ve achieved that through two successes. One, not only getting there, but two, I did it on my own with my team. When I say on my own, I don’t mean by myself. I mean not with the conventional ways through the big corporations that signed me. Like a basketball player only I created my own basketball team. We dealt with a lot of ups and downs, but that’s the reason why we’re still here. I love the fact that we’re still able to come out and excite people as a team and as a franchise. Plus, we got Kidz In The Hall right now. We got The Formula with 9th Wonder. We got Special Teamz representing Boston. We got Krs-One. It’s a beautiful time right now for Duckdown. They just did a poll at this distribution company and we’re like number 4 of the biggest true independent hip hop labels. Not only not backed by a major, but really in the stores dealing with the salesmen. Getting the POP done, getting the IO’s done. There’s not a lot of “Backslash Records” or “Killaboy Records” that even know about IO’s and POP. We really are a label doing that. That’s why doors are opening for us in the retail world. We’re becoming more of an entity and a franchise than just groups on a label.

215: You just mentioned Krs One; can you say more about that? I heard it was a Krs/Buckshot collaboration album.

Buckshot: Through the power of technology, you can go to YouTube and see a clip of the session that we did. We did a few magazine interviews where you could kind of get the sense of where the album’s going. In a nutshell; it’s a Batman and Robin album. It’s not an album where I signed Krs One. It’s not like that. There were a few people that put it out in the air like that. KRS has his own label. We collaborated together, with him under Duckdown, because we have the distribution deal.

We did an album together called Conflowsation. What makes the album special is that it’s a Batman and Robin album. It’s me and Kris going head to head on every track.

215: When Blackmoon’s Enta Tha Stage came out, you were sharing the airwaves with groups like Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep & Gangstarr. Where do you think you fit within today’s hip hop climate?

Buckshot: I fit in but in the situation I created. I’m relevant to today’s hip hop. Back in 1995, I did a live music project that failed and kind of blew up in my face. I did it the wrong way. But artists like Talib Kweli, Mos Def, The Roots and other groups came out later and opened the doorway again for me. You call those artists backpack rappers. Buckshot was the one that wore it first. I got a song called “Go All Out” on the new album (big up to Charlie Murphy.) He said Buckshot started backpack rap because I was in the video for “Who Got the Props” with a backpack that cost mad bread and nobody even knew what the backpack was for. The reason why they call it backpack rap is because Buckshot is an underground MC and he wore a backpack. So anybody that’s kind of “underground” is gonna be what they call “backpack.” They not commercial. They not for the strip club. So where do you put them? Buckshot created this world of unity.

Back in 1996, I’m taking you further, I said www.BBCworldwide.com,I used to always say that in my raps. That means that I been setting people up for the world wide web. We had that in 1995 if you look at the copyright. My point is, the marketing I do now is a world wide market that we created with Asians, blacks, Norwiegans, Germans, Puerto Ricans, Italians, hood people, people with money, skateboarders, dudes who smoke weed, dudes who bust shots, and dudes who don’t. We bring them all together. You see this; this is everybody. There’s dudes in here who carry the hammer with them and smoke weed. And there’s dudes in here who read college books. I bring everybody together. That’s the difference.

215: What’s the story with the girl who gets slapped during the adlibs on Enta Da Stage?

Buckshot: (Laughs) We were just having fun man. That was my man 5 wildin out. 5 is known as that dude. He’s 5ft. accelerator; so he accelerates the situation. That’s why when you see 5 on stage with Buckshot, he accelerates Buckshot. He’s like my battery. We had to tell him to chill, cause he was drunk. It was wild. Shorty didn’t get hurt. 5 was really drunk off the 40’s. We told him to do it as a skit and he did it and was like aaaggggghhhhhh. He was actually laughing when he did it, he wasn’t mad at her. You can actually hear him laughing.

215: What are some of your wildest memories when looking back on your career?

Buckshot: Some of the wildest things? Living with Tupac. I think that was the wildest thing. We spent everyday together. Just like me and you are right now, imagine doing this everyday for weeks. I got to know the individual and see and learn a lot. I would say that that was one of my wildest situations.

The next one would be firing my manager. I won’t say his name. If I didn’t fire him, there would be no Duckdown. This was ‘93. I fired my manager because he kept money from us from a show and then came to me saying Nervous Records wants a second album. I said if ya’ll didn’t pay me for the first album and didn’t give me money for the show, I’m not doing an album. That sparked the revolution and I created Duckdown. That was one of the illest times. I went through a lot man. I been through a lot and I go through a lot.

215: You mentioned Tupac, and I wanted to ask you about him. In your opinion, what would be some misconceptions people might have about him?

Buckshot: Without question, it would be that Pac walked around all day on some, “man I don’t give a fuck, I wanna murder niggas, I wanna kill niggas, shoot niggas, and I don’t give a fuck” and this that and the third. Pac was a spiritualist, a mentalist. Pac was not a killer thug street nigga. He was…but he was like the extreme of the rest of us. The ones that don’t have it, we just don’t have it. That’s one of the biggest misconceptions.

Pac was a Black Panther. Pac was into Malcolm X, black pride, Martin Luther King and Bob Marley. It’s funny that more white people flocked to Pac and that black pride aspect of him than black people. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an equal amount, but there’s just really a large amount of white people that flock to a person speaking about his black pride and struggles with, not to say hate, the white person. The struggles of saying it’s not you, it’s someone that looks like you that put me and my people through problems. If it happened to my people, I’m willing to forget it and move on to another level. But if it happened to me, it’s an extension that keeps it going. That’s what keeps us going with this whole black/white thing. In reality, Pac didn’t hate white people. He just didn’t like what white people had done. It goes both ways.

215: You’ve performed in Philly a number of times. What’s your take on our city?

Buckshot: It’s a good city. Tonight, the crowd is a little thin, whatever whatever. It’s a good city. I get a lot of love out in Philly.

215: Have you followed any news about the high murder and crime rates in Philly?

Buckshot: What’s sad is that the majority of the brothers out here are Muslim. So is it Muslims killing Muslims? Is it brothers saying the work Ak, but still stabbing each other in the back? I just wish in my heart, and to be practical, we can still have the same problems, but just don’t kill anybody. We can even talk about “I wanna kill you” and all that, but just stop for a second before it actually goes down. Please, don’t kill nobody. You’re making it worse for yourself, and you’re killing a person. We are the ones that will go there, we don’t play around. That “I will kill you in a heartbeat” mentality, I’m trying to tell you that I recognize what that does and it feels better when we don’t do that. Maybe you just feel better because you’ve been in a mode of anger and that makes you feel comfortable. You don’t even want to be happy anymore because you be so comfortable being angry. Unless another gully nigga tell you it ain’t got to be like that no more.

215: Do you think situations like the Shawn Bell case just further escalate that anger?

Buckshot: Of course it does. What we have to start doing is start moving with this day and time. I say to the people, and everyone that’s listening to Buckshot, and the youth, and everyone reading this interview, you have to start moving with the times. Meaning do not take old methods like marching, protesting…those were not the tactics used to free those police officers who shot a man. They used legal and technical tactics to do that. I’m saying that we have to do the same thing. We have to be able to look at the laws and know them. No more talking about the Emancipation Proclamation and you don’t know it. I learned law. I know law backwards and forwards. I know CPL (criminal procedure law.) I don’t know every state’s CPL, but I do know New York’s CPL. Take some time out to go get these books and just burn a spliff and learn the CPL. So when a cop come up to you, you can hit him with their language. Once he hear that, he knows if he don’t say the right thing, his job could be in order.

This nigga know my job?I’m telling him, “did I do anything”?

“We got a call saying there was a problem”

I said to him, “well who was on the callback”?

“How do you know that term?”

“If you don’t know officer, that means what was the complaint of the person you got the call on?

Can I hear the description on that? Can you confirm that callback?

I’m asking you and I’m documenting I’m asking you. When another cop comes, I’m gonna ask him and let ya’ll both know that I asked ya’ll so when you do your report, you can say he did ask us who’s on the callback.” When you do shit like that, you fuckin with theyshit. Now, if they try to slap you or push you against a wall, you go for their jobs. I got a case coming up, a real case like something similar. We’ll see what happens. If I’m just talking out my ass, or, if you know law it feels a little better.

215: What about Prodigy (Mobb Deep) getting locked up?

Buckshot: It’s unfortunate, cause Prodigy got locked up three times before with a burner. That doesn’t look good. Every cause has an effect. If I get locked up three times for a burner, I’m a have to do some time if I can’t prove I have a license for the gun. You can get a license, but the average nigga don’t want Feds investigating them for six months. So we’ll go, “fuck that license” and carry illegal guns. You can carry a gun if you carry $10,000 in cash everyday. Did you know that Mr. drug dealer? Did you know that by law you have the right to have a gun permit ? If you can prove you carry $10,000 in cash a day. All you need is a business on the side to do that. There are certain ways you can fight the system. Shawn Bell, we’re gonna suffer from cases like that. That guy that killed the Philly cop. Now all of a sudden everybody’s getting kicked in the face. Philly’s wildin’. As individuals, just stop for one second. That nigga that’s in a cop uniform is still a person at the end of the day. They might be a fucked up person, but it’s still a person. If you killed him because you had no choice, then you had no choice. The creator will forgive you. Feel me?

215: Last words?

Buckshot: Thank you for doing this interview. Philly, go out and pick up Duckdown stuff. Visit Duckdown.com. We got the new KRS album, Kidz In The Hall, Smif N Wesson, Rustee Juxx. Make sure you support the Duckdown movement. Thank you.

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