Triller: Mr. Blakes

How did you and Adrian first start working together?

Adrian went to UT, too. Circles are pretty small. Like you were saying, there is a disconnect maybe between indie rock circles and everyone else, but in terms of jazz and funk and Latin and all of that, everyone knows each other. There are only certain venues that are open to certain types of music, so everyone crosses paths and collaborates. On our upcoming World Trade album [with local rapper/producer Element 7D], we have Adrian on there, D-Madness on there, Gary Clark Jr.

Who played on [anticipated single] “New Big Idea”?

The only live instrumentation on that song is Gary Clark Jr.

Just the guitar?

Yeah, everything else is just Element in the studio by himself. As soon as we decided to do the project, he made that—I wasn’t even there when he did it. He just pulled it out in one of the sessions and said, “This is the theme song.” And he was right. So he went to Chick-fil-A and I wrote the song and he came back and added his parts to the hook, added his verse.

Where does the name World Trade come from?

The concept of the album, which is: what would you trade the world for and how would you do it? And how easy or hard it would be for you. So the group name just kind of fit that.

What concepts within that theme are you addressing?

Whatever it is to you that’s more important than material, physical and natural things. Everyone has a different definition of that. There’s one song on there called “Betrayed,” that’s a tribute to the Scarface and Gangstarr song “Betrayal,” and it’s about how everybody’s been betrayed and most people have betrayed other people and a lot of times that is the reason you’d be willing to trade the world, because you know that human relations are fallible. People are wishy-washy, and not people like people other than us, but people period. It happens all the time.

Are any of the other Whut It Dew guys on there?

Nobody’s on World Trade except me, Element, and this woman named Rochelle who sings on about four or five songs. But Rapid Ric does all the scratches on the album. That counts. And I’ll definitely be on those guys solo projects. Me and Chalie Boy have always talked about doing a whole album together as a duo. And I talk to Mike and Gerald a lot, I try to help expose them, they’re already doing what they do, they’re already extremely talented, whether they know me or not. Sometimes you have to reach across what people perceive as boundaries.

I think it’s interesting how fluidly those collaborations occur.

Musicians are musicians. And all those classifications and boundaries rarely come from musicians, they come from outside people who get paid to be experts. The first thing with music is the sound – you get to the content eventually, but that’s not what you’re listening for. The sound either grabs you or it doesn’t. Like that Spoon song, “Underdog.” I don’t know one word of that song, but I like it. Or “Let’s Talk About It,” by White Denim. I don’t know one word of that song, but I sing it every day. It has nothing to do with the content. It’s good music man, just sound. And when you get to the point that they are analyzing your lyrics, you should feel really lucky.

How come there’s such a disconnect between the rap and indie scenes in Austin? It seems like they could intersect well, but a lot of the people on the other side don’t even realize there’s a real rap scene here.

They don’t care. I think when people are looking for that kind of thing, they’ll find it and have the opportunity to build it up to more than it is. But it all kind of starts with intent. It’s not like, in New York, Cam’ron just beat some dudes over the head – they wanted to hear it so they started listening.

Because South By and Fun Fun Fest and the scene here carry so much clout outside of Austin, it seems like that is almost where it would happen for Austin rap, that there would be a groundswell out of that community and the blogs.

I wouldn’t mind, man, but they’re not listening. I’m sure they’d like “Southern Man,” “New Big Idea.” Only blogger that’s really on my stuff is-

Matt Sonzala?

Matt Sonzala. Ever since I met him he’s been all about it. He’s moving to Austin right now.

It’s too bad there’s not more conversation between those two communities.

It is too bad. I was just thinking about that – I did a lot of work at ACL for Dell, interviewing artists. It’s like a whole new world, you know? Black people don’t go to ACL. And it just opened my eyes a lot – is this what it takes? I started listening to the bands and hosted a few afterparties and I thought, “Well, if I have to, I’ll find a few of these bands I like and collaborate with them.” I liked White Denim, a lot of personality and good musicianship. But I have to keep listening, man, a lot of these bands, even though I work at a music channel, I barely know about them.

So after this weekend’s shows, it’s just studio time?

Studio time and family time. A lot of responsibilities just having a family. But at this point, I’m being an artist on my own terms. There’s really no carrot to chase, just make this stuff and build out from there.

So how far is [full-length solo album] Too Selfish at this point?

Probably about half way – my management wants to put it out by the end of the summer, beginning of the fall. They want the EP first. And that’s another thing I learned at ACL – as I’m reading through these bios and all this stuff about these rock bands, they put out an EP whenever they want, whether it’s for free or it’s for sale. And then the songs that people gravitate towards will end up on the album. It’s kind of a nice little market test, because it’s a different time than 7 years ago when I first rapped on a record.

How's your rapping changed since that first record?

I haven’t changed a lot, it just comes a little quicker. The first record I was on was Nick Nack’s “Listeners.” I guess I was more word-y and less musical. I mean I could rap, it was musical, but now it’s more like really specific to whatever the specific track is. The lyrics come second nature but what I’m really thinking about is the rhythm and the way that it fits into the music. So it hasn’t changed much, I’m just more efficient now. I can say more with less words. And I’ve become more colloquial, rapping more in layman’s terms. Just talking on the mic. Before, you know, there were battle raps involved and a lot more aggression and disdain. Now it’s more: this is me, take it or leave it. When it’s critical, it’s more tongue in cheek, so there’s a lot more balance. When I listen to old stuff, it makes me feel like, “Man, I didn’t even know what I was doing, I was just rapping.”