OKP: Dr. No's Oxperiment dropped at the end of July. Satisfied with the results?

OH: I feel good about it. It definitely feels good to have something out besides a compilation album or a rap album. I'm getting a lot of good responses and good reviews on it.

OKP: When did you put Dr. No together?

OH: That all came together back in March 2005. I was hard on the MP at that time.

OKP: 2005? What was holding up the release?

OH: I was doing all kind of production for people (at the time), and I was more worried about that work than getting this project out. When I was doing the beats (for Dr. No), it wasn't planned like, "Ah, this is the instrumental album I want to come out." It was a beat tape. And not even a beat tape. More or less, I was just having fun and it happens to be a beat tape.    

I gave Stones Throw more than one [tape], actually. They could've dropped either Dr. No or this other thing I flipped, which is all African Juju shit. And when they said they wanted to drop the African, I was like, "Well, let's do the Dr. No one first," because that way I'll know that it will come out.

OKP: There's a weird variety of samples on Dr. No. How'd you come across the records?

OH: My man Egon was playing some Turkish joints at a club gig, and I was like, "That's the sickest shit on Earth right there. Either you gotta flip it or let me rap to it!" From there, he was like, "I'll hook you up. Whatever you want, just come on through." I linked up with him and got all kinds of music. At the time, I didn't necessarily know I was going to release it as a real project; I just making beats I wanted to rap on. I turned it into Stones Throw, and Stones Throw was like, "It's solid. Let's move."

OKP: It sounds like you've been really productive recently.

OH: When I was working on the Dr. No beats, I did a gang of ‘em. Like 28 came out, but I did damn near 60 beats. I have a whole other Dr. No 2 album that's just ridiculous, it murders the first one. People need to call Stones Throw for that. Let ‘em know.

(T.M. note - You can e-mail the Stones Throw staff at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Ask them about the African beat tape while you're at it.)

OKP: You must work all the time to get all this material out.

OH: I don't get writers block or producer's block because I won't stay on it thirty days out the month. I'll put a week in a month; but if I put the week in, I'll have 60 beats. I might write a whole album, because they're all different anyway. Boom, I'll have the beats and the album, and it's like "Shit, might as well work with some other cats." After that, I'll go play a video game.

I'm like the video game man. I'm more into collecting games than I am into making music, so my collection's absurd. I've got a whole room dedicated to this craziness. An arcade, mother boards from all the different systems hooked up to 128 inch screens. I spend Gs on games at a time. After I beat a game, my ego's boosted and I'll go make a crazy beat. It's a crazy process, it doesn't wear itself out.

OKP: A couple of tracks on Dr. No definitely got my attention, like "Alarmsss" (number 7). I was having real difficulty figuring out exactly what sounds were on that track. It sounded like a swarm of bees or a NASCAR rally...

OH: On one of the records, I heard a sound that sounded like some alarms, like *WHIR-WHIR-WHIR* So, I slowed the sound down and made different levels of that sound.

OKP: So all the different things we're hearing is just the same sound processed a couple different ways?

OH: Yup. Just trying to be creative. I'm just trying to have fun with it. That's the main goal of any beat I make: I'm trying to have fun with it. Whether it's the simplest beat with just some drums, or the most intricate ones with some keys played and horns. As long as it's fun. If it's not fun, I'm not messing with it.

OKP: Do you think that you have a trademark sound?

OH: Not yet. I feel like I'm still evolving. I chop, but there are a lot of cats that chop. And I got my shit from Premier, straight-up. I listen to Pete Rock and Premier, Madlib, Kankick, Jay Dee, all the OGs... Dre, Quik. That's what I grew up off. I'm not intentionally trying to make a beat like cats, because I'm trying to be on some straight different shit. Every time I make a beat, I'm trying to make it different from the last one I did. I erase all the drums, and all that. I don't even have drum kits like niggas be having. People be having drum kits and shit, like "Let me go to this special disc that has all my drums on it, so I can make the beat like 30 times faster!" I don't got all that shit. My MP doesn't even save, I gotta do ‘em all straight up. I'm on some hip-hop shit.

OKP:  You mentioned a couple of producers that were influential for you.

OH: We can break ‘em all down. Premier - that's the rawest cat in hip-hop. Who makes a rawer beat than Premier? No one. There's cat's that're on the same level of rawness, but when it comes to that street-hop? You want that shit? That's Premier. You get the cuts, you get everything. That's full-blown hip-hop. I was raised off of that shit.
    

Pete Rock? Same thing applies. Except, he can handle all the mellow too, he can handle the crazy intricate basslines and filters.
    

You add Madlib to the game? Shit, I grew up with the dude. I was always in there. Everything's clownin' with him. He'll use a snare that's so muffled that you can't hear it. But the beat is so crazy, you can't deny it. The shit is raw. ‘Lib handles everything.
    

Dilla? C'mon, man. That's was the OG drum programmist, basslines, music... raw, mellow. He's fuckin' the ultimate. He definitely opened up doors for me.
    

Alchemist. Alchemist is an OG, too. Dude's a legend. You listen to his shit? His shit is hard, crazy hard, ridiculous hard.
    

They're all aspects of me. All them make me, too. I'm trying to be on all that, but I'm adding fun to my shit. My shit's pure fun, that's it.

OKP: You come from a musical family - your brother, your parents, etc. etc. Do you think you could have ever been anything other than a musician?

OH: I'd probably be a video game programmer. Who knows? I could've been a director, doing videos or movies. I've got cameras, editing equipment. I'll do it myself. I've done videos in like a day. Mad work. Crazy work. All day, sitting there doing all them edits and filmed it the same day. Did all the filters to the video. Color corrected it. Hey, I never went to school for none of that shit. You just do it, ‘cuz that's the motto. You can't have no limitations on your brain unless you put ‘em there.

OKP: Do you play any instruments?

OH: Not straight up. I wouldn't say that I'm a keyboardist, and a guitarist, and a bass player. But I can play those instruments. I'll play ‘em on my lonely, or while I'm making beats. But I don't be out there on a stage and part of bands and stuff. ‘Lib did, though. I was on the video games and messin' with them little females. I was wildin'.

OKP: Do you see live instrumentation as being a key part of your sound?

OH: I add keys all the time. It just depends on what the beats call for. If, one day, I'm like, "I need to get on my Fender and get crazy with it real quick," I might do that. One day, I might be like, I don't wanna make beats with the MP, and I don't wanna make ‘em with Reason, I'm gonna make ‘em with a CDJ. I'ma clown with the CDJ, make beats with the CDJ. I'm just trying to be creative and have fun. It's a form of meditation. It puts me in that consciousness state where I need to be. Because it's an evil world out there, a very evil world. You gotta get past all that shit. Music keeps your soul good. You can keep good vibrations with music.

OKP: Evil world?

OH: If you've been blinded this whole time - which a lot of people are - one day the shit's gonna pop off and cats are gonna be like I told you so and a lot things are gonna crack. Shit's been happening Look at all the wars, look at 9/11, look at all the things that's been happening. It's an evil world, it's being controlled by people that's evil.
    
OKP: Do you see your music then as fulfilling a bigger purpose?

OH:    Every person I come into contact with knows it, put it that way. If you listen to my music, any of my homies - Declaime, Madlib - any of us, you'll hear it in there. You can listen to Wu Tang and hear things, real spit! You gotta take it for what it is. But when it pops off, you gotta adapt to situations. That's what I do with music. The industry is boo-boo? I adapt to it. I make myself not have to worry about that. Like, "Oh, I HAVE to get a project out." No, fuck that. I'm gonna do music regardless.

OKP: How much does being a young father have to do with your perspective?

OH: Man, it grows you up. You gotta start working, can't hang out with your friends like you wanted to because you're tired. I had three jobs at once, goin' shift to shift and shit, not even sleepin'.

OKP: What jobs were you doing?

OH: I was working in hotels, just truckin'. All kinds of shit, it doesn't matter. The last job I had was working with mentally disabled citizens. I did that for seven years along with doing all that other stuff. AND dealing with the family. AND dealing with all the evils in the world. And doing my production. And playing my games. You gotta maximize. There's 24 hours in a day. I don't really have time to be chillin'.

OKP: You might have heard about the all the controversy swirling around Lupe Fiasco recently. He took a lot of heat for some things he said about "Midnight Marauders"; but there was one point that I think he was trying to make that a lot of people didn't pick up on, namely, that hip-hop heads that grew up outside the East Coast have different ideas about what the "classic" hip-hop albums are. Any thoughts?

OH: [Growing up] I was mostly on that East Coast shit. I used to hear Run DMC being played by my brothers and sisters. But, yeah, NWA's "Straight Outta Compton," DJ Quik, Too $hort, Snoop Dogg. "Doggystyle?" I'm like fuck that, that's the shit. I was heavily into the whole Death Row Movement. I was a big Pac fan. I liked the Midwest scene - I was banging Common back in the day. Ice Cube, "AmeriKKK'a's Most Wanted." Souls of Mischief, Hieroglyphics. They big movements. Pharcyde. Freestyle Fellowship. All that shit made Oh Nizzle.
   

As far as the Lupe thing, I agree on both aspects. I mean, I'm a super huge Tribe fan. "Midnight Marauders" is a fuckin' album. I remember Madlib got that shit for me and left it in the mailbox. That shit was non-stop banging, noooon-stop. That album will never die. That's a top hip-hop album, I kinda feel like you should know it. BUT, you can't knock [Lupe] for it. He could've maybe practiced a little bit more, but he still tried to get out there and do it. Ay, if he never listened to the album and he's still down to do [a tribute], that's respect.  Because if I don't know someone's shit, I'm not gonna do it, like "Nah. I don't care what kind of exposure it is. Fuck that. I don't even know that dude's shit."

OKP: Right now, when you're digging, is there anything you're looking for? Like certain eras or particular cover art?

OH: Not anymore. I used to look at it like I'm gonna limit myself to nothing over (19)80. But now, if I grab an 80s record, it's gonna be no different than if I grab a 60s record, a 70s record, a 50s record. Something from 1986 I sampled off a video game? It's gonna be the same. It's gonna have that boom-bap, that raw feeling to it. I don't limit myself, there's no limit anymore.
   

Even with years. Everybody does that: "You got stick with 78, 79..." I'm not gonna sit there and just do that. Same thing with covers, they're misleading. Oh No is limitless. No limits like Master P.

OKP: Has sample clearance ever affected how your music came out? Like not trying to build a beat off a sample because you didn't think you'd be able to get the sample cleared?

OH: Oh yeah, yeah, I've done that before. Sometimes you just don't wanna deal with clearing a sample, but you know you'll probably get sued for [not clearing it], so you leave [the sample] alone. Everything I'm trying to do is on some clearance. I'm trying to respect the artist and trying to learn the artist. Working with Galt MacDermot let me understand him and his music. You just have a better appreciation for the artist and his music. And then they have a better appreciation too, because they understand what you're trying to do: You're trying to bring them out on a whole ‘nother level.

OKP: Were you able to link up with Galt while working on "Exodus"?

OH: MacDermot heard the work I was doing and said, "This is crazy! How'd you put that together?!" So once he got his hands on the project, it was a go. I flew out to the East Coast to take some pictures. We chilled at his house in Long Island and we talked about all kinds of things. Mainly, we talked about rhythm. He was explaining it in some scientific terms. Some of it would just fly over your head.

OKP: What are you up to right now? Are you producing any new projects?

OH: I'm supposed to be on the road right now, trying to get some beats to Prodigy. I'm actually in the studio with Alchemist. Me and Alchemist are doing an album together. Both beats and rhymes, it's coming out crazy. Both on the mic, both on the beats.

OKP: So you're on the Jaylib tip on this one?

OH: It's more or less a group, rather than he's rapping to my beats and I'm rapping to his.

OKP: When's it dropping?

OH: Probably some time next year. We're already 12 songs deep already, and each song is crazy.

OKP: You must have other things in the pipes.

OH: I've been working on this Team Get ‘Em thing with Roc C. I'm on my MC stuff on that, and we've been getting all kinds of outside production on it too: Black Milk, Young RJ, Denaun Porter, Pete Rock, Madlib...

OKP: Who are you producing for?

OH: Like I said, I'm trying to get this stuff to Prodigy. The homie Sean Price picked some stuff. Guilty Simpson. MED, everyone from the crew. I just got a song with Lady of Rage and Miss Jade. Hooking up with KRS-One, that's crazy. Mic Geronimo.

OKP: One of the things I've always dug about writing for okayplayer is that they pretty much let me say whatever I want. So, now that I've got you on the phone, anything you want to put out there for the hip-hop community that you haven't said elsewhere?

OH: I'm  bipolar...
   
OKP: Really?

OH: I was diagnosed by a doctor. He put me on pills, and suddenly I was happy. I was going to work, taking care of my son... but noooooo music. I wasn't inspired to do music. I was on the medication for a couple of months, and then I was like "Fuck this shit." I couldn't drink and shit, couldn't go out in the sunlight at certain times. I'm like, "I'm cool." Took myself off that shit. That's mind control, that's bullshit. They got me for a second, but I wasn't on that bullshit. Doctor's prescribed me the wrong stuff before too -  heart murmur medication. I almost took it. His illegible writing almost cost me.
The body is a sacred tool that must be taken care of. You take advantage of it, you're going to lose it...

OKP: Anything else?

OH: I'm more than just Madlib's little brother. I've got shit that'll blow somone's head off.
 

- T.M. Wolf 

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