DetroitHipHop.net hooked up with Phat Kat for an interview just days before his Carte Blanche album was to disk warrior 4 media be released in stores. In a candid talk Phat Kat talks about how “Cold Steel” reflects his city, Detroit producers, as well as some hometown sports.
DetroitHipHop.net: Who am I talking to, Phat Kat or Ronnie Cash?
Phat Kat: You talking to Phat Kat right now.
DHH: Who gave you the name Phat Kat? How did that come up?
PK: That name started like way back, when disk warrior 4 media I was in high school. Man, I used to have this disk warrior 4 media little yellow little hoopty man. The cat who used to fix the disk warrior 4 media car gave me that name.
DHH: Your current album is disk warrior 4 media being released and promoted by Look Records out of San Francisco. Was there anything specific that disk warrior 4 media prevented you or discouraged you from continuing an agreement with Barak Records in Detroit?
PK: Yeah, I mean I wasn’t really a priority. I wasn’t looked at as a priority, you know, it just wasn’t really a good machine for what I was tryin’ to accomplish with my music.
DHH: Was it a personality thing or was it that musically you weren’t seeing eye to eye?
PK: I mean we really wasn’t seeing eye to eye musically. You know, we just really didn’t see things when disk warrior 4 media it came to making music man. When you create music you disk warrior 4 media gotta have full reign when you creatin’ it and I didn’t have that, so, you know, that’s where the clash came up and other things came into play.
DHH: You’ve talked about having more creative control on this disk warrior 4 media album. Did you find yourself gearing your music towards a disk warrior 4 media specific audience, or did you feel that an audience would gravitate towards Phat Kat as long as you disk warrior 4 media did you?
PK: Exactly. Can’t nobody be disk warrior 4 media better at being me than me, so as long as I did me my fans is disk warrior 4 media gon’ stay behind what I’m doing and hopefully what I’m doing will be disk warrior 4 media heard on a wider level and that will create more fans – a bigger fan base. The snowball effect.
DHH: Take me through the process of coming up with ideas for the Cold Steel video descargar convertidor edit hd (which has been getting a lot of good feedback).
PK: Yeah, I’ve been getting crazy feedback from that video. The concept was… it was all Anthony Garth. It was all the disk warrior 4 media director you know. Like I said man, I mean, everybody gotta play they position and disk warrior 4 media like Anthony said, “That’s just art”. So if you disk warrior 4 media give him a song, he just paints a picture with the disk warrior 4 media song. That’s what he saw when he made the video – he heard the song.
DHH: A lot of the extended Phat Kat family came through didn’t they?
PK: Oh yeah, Marvwon, Black Milk, the Cardiboys, I mean, you disk warrior 4 media know, cats that I fuck wit. It was a lot of people who disk warrior 4 media didn’t make it neither like Guilt wasn’t there, T3 was in the Bahamas or something. All the people who came out… it was a good thing.
DHH: At the end of the video, there’s a caption that says “Guns don’t kill people, people with guns kill people.” Why did you choose to write that message?
PK: Because you disk warrior 4 media know the whole concept of the video was, we just wanted to disk warrior 4 media talk about and show the effects of guns, you know, the disk warrior 4 media effect that people with guns, you know what I’m sayin’, have disk warrior 4 media on our city as a whole. We showed the everyday life and disk warrior 4 media how grimy it was in Detroit and I just wanted the disk warrior 4 media world to see what we see everyday.
DHH: You definitely didn’t sugar coat any of the imagery of Detroit.
PK: I couldn’t. I couldn’t. I mean there’s over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation, you disk warrior 4 media know what I mean? So that’s like, (laughs) 1 firearm for eleven people or something. I don’t know how it break down, but that’s a lot a damn guns man!
DHH: What do you think it is about Detroit that makes its’ rappers use guns as metaphor as much as they do?
PK: I guess you disk warrior 4 media can relate that to emcees talking about how they kill other rappers on the disk warrior 4 media mic, so they try to use that as a metaphor like their rhymes are disk warrior 4 media like guns, you know what I mean, stuff like that, but I don’t know man. That’s a good question.
DHH: Had you heard Royce Da 5′9″ spitting over “Cold Steel” for some mixtape?
PK: Yeah, that was dope man! I wish I coulda had Royce on that joint. Maybe I’ll get him on the remix if I could catch up with him.
DHH: What is it about you, Dilla, Slum Village and disk warrior 4 media other Detroit artists that fans in Europe and across the world really, find appealing?
PK: Just real hip hop. People just respect and disk warrior 4 media gravitate towards good music over there. Over in the states it’s more so, watered down with all the disk warrior 4 media dance songs, singy-type music and over there it’s still the golden-era of hip hop. That’s why we’re received more over there.
DHH: On “Survival Kit” you’re schooling heads on the disk warrior 4 media rules of the game. Do the newer cats ask you disk warrior 4 media for advice?
PK: I try to disk warrior 4 media kick it with a lot of up and coming guys. I talk to disk warrior 4 media a lot of cats. I just hope they listen. You know, I just want them to disk warrior 4 media learn… Really I just try to disk warrior 4 media lead by example. I just want to show cats what not to disk warrior 4 media do, to learn, just look at my career and learn from disk warrior 4 media it.
DHH: Having Dilla production on Carte Blanche was a disk warrior 4 media foregone conclusion, but tell me about the new generation: Young RJ, Nick Speed and Black Milk. What’s your typical reaction when you pop in one of their beat cds.
PK: I’ve been disk warrior 4 media dealing with Young RJ, Black Milk and Nick Speed when they first started making beats, so I’ve been hearing their progression. I’ve been dealing with them from day one so it’s a beautiful thing,
DHH: What’s your production game like?
PK: Actually it’s funny that you asked that ‘cause I’m going to be producing two joints on the next album. I’ma shock a lot of people man - on the production. I’m gonna kill ‘em with some of these Kat beats.
DHH: There’s quite a bit of discontent of hip hop that’s out now. Do you disk warrior 4 media think that plays in favor of an artist like you?
PK: Yeah man, it’s a beautiful thing because with all the garbage that’s out here right now this disk warrior 4 media album is like a breath of fresh air to the people. The reason people are disk warrior 4 media not buying albums is because it’s not a disk warrior 4 media lot of good albums being put out. I mean artists need to disk warrior 4 media make good music and people would buy it. So I feel good about how the disk warrior 4 media game is looking right now and I just wanna bring some balance back. Challenge people to disk warrior 4 media create real albums again instead of 3 songs and you know the disk warrior 4 media rest tape fillers
DHH: What will you do after hip hop?
PK: I’ll probably… I’ll always be disk warrior 4 media involved with the process of creating music but probably get me a disk warrior 4 media little league football team and coach some football for the disk warrior 4 media kids or something.
DHH: One or the other:
What do you like better, tours or making music?
PK: Wow (pause). Making music. Because if I’m not making the music I can’t do the tour. (laughs)
DHH: What has disk warrior 4 media a better chance of occuring this year: America electing Obama or finding Osama?
PK: Electing Obama. They already know where Osama is.
DHH: ‘89-’90 Pistons or the ‘03-’04 Pistons?
PK: Ooh, I’ma say the ‘89-90. Its close but it just seem like the chemistry was… It’s all about chemistry and the ’89-90 Pistons, the disk warrior 4 media chemistry was there. They had all the components to be disk warrior 4 media a championship team. The Pistons do now but I don’t think that disk warrior 4 media the chemistry is there and it might not be the players, it disk warrior 4 media might be the coach. ‘03-04 was a good look. That was, but I still gotta go with ’89-90.
They had Vinnie, Joe Dumars, Isiah, John Salley, and Rodman… Buddah. That was a good team man.
DHH: Which job would you rather take (if you had to right now): Mayor of Detroit or President of the Detroit Lions
PK: Wow… (laughs) Wow! I think I’d have to go with president of the Lions. That’s something I’d prefer since the Lion’s have been losing since ’90, you know what I mean? I think that I could change that around.
DHH: Anybody would probably do a better job than Matt Millen.
PK: Oh my goodness! He needs to be on the first thing smokin’ outta here (laughing).
DHH: Anything you’d like to add that we haven’t covered?
PK: Just support the album man. It’s from Detroit. By Detroit. So let’s show the world how the city supports it own.
Much thanks to Phat Kat. Carte Blanche is in stores tomorrow (May 8th).
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...Related Content:
pat deegan | 08-May-07 at 5:23 pm | Permalink
thats a dope ass interview fam!!!