anderswolleck

Back in the 80s Blueprint grew up listening to R & B music at home and singing in the church choir. He even was in a Boys II Men type group called All Day. But now Blueprint is best known for teaming up with RJD2 for their Soul Position records. Since then both have done their solo albums and Blueprint has brought us back to the old school with his 80s inflected album appropriately titled 1988.

Buy 1988

Daniel Robert Epstein: What are you up to today?

Blueprint: I got a show tonight in Ann Arbor at One Be Los release party. Im going to get on the stage and celebrate a little.

DRE: What inspired 1988?

BP: Just some old music tapes I had lying around. I had a van with a broken CD player so I started breaking out all my old tapes. It was a lot of shit that I hadnt listened to in a long time and I figured that if someone could bring this shit back in a cool way I felt it would work.

DRE: Its new music too.

BP: Yeah, more than anything its more like the production from that era. Like the feel of it especially in terms of speed and brightness of the music.

DRE: Where did the old tapes come from?

BP: They are all from when I was growing up in elementary and middle school because Im kind of old school myself. I heard this stuff and I did one song in that style so I did a second one. That was when I started calling it the 88 style. I wondered if I could do a whole album with it so I started getting more serious with the beats and the production of it. Pretty soon I was like seven songs into it and the rest was history.

DRE: What albums were on these tapes?

BP: Stuff like Paid in Full by Eric B and Rakim, Stetsasonics In Full Gear and some Run-DMC stuff.

DRE: How old are you?

BP: Im 30.

DRE: Are you sorry you missed that era?

BP: If I had been totally into this music back then I wouldnt be doing what I am doing now.

DRE: Did you use modern equipment for the album?

BP: I am but Im doing some things to make it sound grimier and analog.

DRE: Is that hard to do?

BP: Once youre used to doing clean beats it kind of is. A lot of the records I was sampling were kind of grimy themselves. They werent these crystal clear pop records.

DRE: What kind of stuff did you sample?

BP: I dont think there is anything on the record that came out after 1975. Its a lot of soul psyche rock like funk.

DRE: Is this a big style change for you?

BP: Oh definitely. The Soul Position stuff I did was real personal and dark. It was shit I had to say and get out of my system. But I think when people see me live they dont necessarily get that impression. Im all about people dancing and having fun. Im damn near doing standup comedy on stage but my previous records dont necessarily reflect that while 1988 does.

DRE: Have you gotten past making your work so personal and now you are trying to experiment?

BP: Yeah, I think the personal stuff was a phase I had to go through and now I want to write the best song possible. I want to be known for catchy songs, good beats and good ideas. Like not rhyming for two minutes before the hook comes in. There will be personal things mixed in along the way but I dont want it to be so introspective that someone may feel closed out when they listen to it.

DRE: Do you feel that some of the stuff you are talking about has been lacking in hip-hop lately?

BP: Definitely. On 1988 there are probably only two or three beats are below 85 bpms. The rest of it lingers around 100 to 110 bpms. You dont see that in independent hip-hop. People do their acapellas for an hour then they get all personal or political or angry. They want to set themselves so far from the mainstream they forget that you can do it all. They realize or dont care that you can talk about serious things while being creative and upbeat.

DRE: Youve been doing this professionally since 2002, what did you do before this?

BP: I was a computer programmer, a senior systems analyst. But I resigned to do it fulltime.

DRE: Did RJD2 doing solo albums inspire you?

BP: We were doing them at the same time and neither one of us had deals. When Dead Ringer came out there were at least six beats on there that I could have rhymed over on a Soul Position album. We definitely inspire each other but its not like I saw RJ blow up and I wanted to do it. I just wanted to work with RJ because he was dope. None of us had any idea he was going to blow up.

DRE: How difficult was it finding someone to release 1988?

BP: Not very. I shopped it a little bit but there was a lot of interest because the Soul Position album did good.

DRE: Are you going to do your live shows in an old school way?

BP: Yeah for the release party my DJ and I wore some old school Adidas sweatsuits and some fat gold chains.

DRE: How was producing 1988?

BP: It was the first time I ever produced an album while rhyming on the whole thing. It was a lot more work but I liked it because I had more control. I didnt have to worry about anyone else but at the same time there was more risk because I had no one to blame it on.

My dream was to have some guest stars like KRS-One or Nice & Smooth but I couldnt afford it. Also I have no idea how to even get in touch with them.

DRE: Are you producing anyone else now?

BP: Theres a guy named CJ The Cynic that is on the last track of my album called Kill Me First and he and I are finishing an EP I did all the beats on. I also just finished an album with my group, Greenhouse Effect, which might come out next summer.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck