Words By Corey BloomGraphics By P.

Every self respecting hip-hop head has their favorite Pete Rock production. They have their favorite song, beat, remix, maybe even a favorite verse and chances are if asked it wouldn’t take them long to answer. Chances are if there’s any hesitation with their answer, they’re mentally thumbing through of the numerous classic contributions Pete has made to the game and given a second I guarantee they’ll come back with not just an answer but an articulate justification for their pick.

For over two decades Pete Rock has been an architect of the music, creating a sound and feel that we associate with the real. His work helped shape what many consider the golden age of hip-hop, and therein influenced every generation of producers to follow. The man has genuinely dedicated his life to the beats, and while his story already reads like that of a legend it is still being penned with no intention to end. On the cusp of his third solo album, appropriately titled NY’s Finest, Pete speaks with pride and excitement. His passion to create and deliver good music still burns hot inside of him. Instead of getting complacent in his success, he finds ways to challenge himself and keep up with the times. The name alone is a testament of consistency and quality, so there is no question why he is NY’s Finest.

Pete Rock!

TSS: What’s going on man? They got you pinned down for a full day of press today?

Pete Rock: Yup. All day (laughs).

TSS: How does that feel? Is that an aspect of things you don’t really miss?

Pete Rock: I like it. I do miss it, you know. I used to do interviews from like 10:00 am to like 7:00 pm. But you know, I’m excited about this release so it’s all good.

TSS: That’s what’s up then. I wanted to take it back first and ask some questions about how you came up. I know your father was a DJ, and you grew up watching him and had access to his collection. How instrumental was he in you becoming a DJ?

Pete Rock: Well you know, he’d just play the records that he had, and would tell us how big and popular the artist was. At that time I was all about James Brown, but I paid attention to everyone, but James’ music just stood out.

TSS: So would you say that he groomed you as a DJ, or was it just a general passing down knowledge of the music?

Pete Rock: Nah, he wasn’t preparing me to be a DJ, I took it upon myself to want to know more about it. He definitely showed me the way though. He was my father so you know, he was a DJ and a record collector, so growing up with that in your household, certain things start to happen. I really loved music, and I just wanted to dive right into it.

TSS: Everyone has a story about their parents turntable, and to what degree it was kept off limits from them. Being that your Dad was a DJ and had a different understanding of the turntable, were you allowed to use it or were you like the rest of us and kept at arms length?

Pete Rock: Nah, actually my father would put up boxes to block me from going in the living room and touching his records. One day I was in there and I stacked up like a 45′ tree. He had so many records I was just stacking em up, stacking em up. I got in trouble for that (laughs), but you know I didn’t break em or anything, I was just in there making a mess of everything. I was like three years old at the time; that’s one of those funny family stories.

TSS: How did you take what you learned from your father to becoming a DJ yourself, and applying that to what was going on with your peers and rap at that time?

Pete Rock: I think that has a lot to do with being around my cousins and stuff like that. They were real into: my cousin Floyd was in into, he DJ’d and had a little crew, Trouble T-Roy’s brother Gary was into, and his brother Hev (Heavy D). For me, that’s where the DJ aspect came about. They taught me how to scratch, how to switch the record back and fourth, stuff like that. I’m a fast learner, like I could do whatever you showed. I got hooked though. I remember one day at my cousins house, and no one was home, but I went down to the basement and turned all the equipment on, and when they came home they found me down there DJ’ing. I didn’t have my equipment so you know, I was always wanting to go down there to hear music and DJ. It’s funny cause they’d be like how did you get in the crib? I’d be like, I just walked in through the back door. Sometimes they’d leave the trapdoor to the basement unlocked so I had to sneak in that way.

TSS: So basically you just found a way regardless then to get to the music?

Pete Rock: Yeah. My love for music took me to some weird places.

TSS: I imagine your family was able to understand what you were doing in a way that other parents didn’t?

Pete Rock: I think so. I mean in the 80′s my father had every rap record that came out. We were in the Bronx, so he had to have it. I learned a lot from my father, and just people form the neighborhood. This guy Eric J., he was like a mentor to me. He had gotten into like bass guitar and stuff, but he was a DJ from the old school. He used make break tapes and party tapes. I learned from all of that, and I always wanted to be a part of that. I would DJ with him out at certain places and get noticed in my neighborhood, doing my high school parties, and just house parties, that’s how I got my name known in my hood. Just doing hood shit and my big break came.

Pete Rock!

TSS: Which came with joining Marley Marl as a DJ for In Control?

Pete Rock: Yeah kinda, but before that when Heavy D got his first record deal. Through that I was able to do more with music, and explore more, and just hang out with him and go with him when he was working with the different producers. I went with him to Marley’s house, Teddy Riley’s house, and I would just sit back watch and learn. I could learn just by looking. If you just showed me what you were doing, I could learn it.

TSS: So you were just playing the cut?

Pete Rock: Yeah, always in the cut. The quiet little dark skinned kid in the cut, just wanting to know what was going on.

TSS: 2008 marks your twentieth anniversary since you first started working with Marley. I know you were in it before, but it’s just crazy that you’ve been working as a DJ that long and are still out touring the world as a DJ. It’s a whole other accomplishment on it’s own I think.

Pete Rock: Yeah, and I love it. I’m 37 now and started in the business very young. I was 15 when I did my first project and, when I was 16, I was co-producing for Heavy D. Then, I was producing on my own when I was 17, which was a project with this group Groove B Chill. My work started getting noticed when I was signed to a production company that Eddie F put together called The Untouchables which helped me get work and get my beats heard. The rest is history.

TSS: It seems nowadays cats come in the game and buy an MPC or cop whatever computer program and take on a “producer” role from the start. It’s interesting to me that cats from your generation, the ones we look to as the greats, got into production after coming from a DJ background first. What do you think coming into production as a DJ establishes in person?

Pete Rock: Yeah, it’s different now. DJ’ing to me was important. Me, I wanted to know every angle of it. From that it evolved into production; it was a natural progression. It just happened like that for me, and being a big fan of Marley Marl, I was just watching how he did it, and of course he was a DJ first so you know. It’s just different now though, most of the time DJ’s just DJ, and producers just do production.

TSS: In your opinion how has your sound evolved throughout your career, from the beginning up to now?

Pete Rock: Just always being versatile, and giving people every angle of beats that I can give them. As far as not pigeon holing myself to one sound, and being able to do pop records, R&B records, and still do street records, I’ve been able to do it all.

TSS: Throughout it though, all the versatility, there still is that Pete Rock sound though. You hear it, you feel it…

Pete Rock: And a lot of people try to get that sound, and a lot of people do that sound that I do. Kanye West, Just Blaze, Swizz Beats, people like that have that raw hip-hop feeling, and the best way to describe it is that ‘Pete Rock sound.’ Hi-Tek, J Dilla, all them, they’ve all told me I was a heavy influence on them.

TSS: I think it’s interesting that you personally would recognize that ‘Pete Rock sound’ in other people.

Pete Rock: Yeah, it’s dope though. It makes me feel like my work wasn’t done in vain.

TSS: We talked about that consistency in your sound, is there a method or a formula that you have followed throughout the years?

Pete Rock: Yeah I guess, but it’s changed a little bit. I’m working with more keyboards and stuff now, whereas before it was strictly samples. Now, I’m mixing the two together.

TSS: Is there any other instrument you mess with other than the keyboard?

Pete Rock: The bass guitar, that’s really it. But with keyboards, the Rhodes, the Juno, a couple other ones.

TSS: No drums?

Pete Rock: Um, I don’t play them, but I can play them. I’m not as good as I should be though.

TSS: How much are you affected by the current sounds on radio and all that?

Pete Rock: Big time. The way rap changed over the last few years, it affected me in a way where I had to do something new. That’s basically it. I had to step my game up, and try to join the new wave and get down with that new sound.

TSS: So is that was made you pick up that board then?

Pete Rock: Yeah, I was kinda saddened by how rap has taken a different direction, but I think it’s coming back to the way it should be. It’s a slow process, but it’s coming.

TSS: It’s funny that you say that because I wanted to ask you if you really feel it’s accurate to say that hip-hop has gone in cycles.

Pete Rock: Um, there have been times where I felt like it was going that ways, but as long as my heart burns for the passion to make music…I feel like even if it’s not alive around you, it’s alive in me. At the same time, I don’t think hip-hop has gone away. It’s still here, and while it’s still here we need to steer it back in the right direction. Get it out of the wrong hands, and get it in the hands and put it in the hands of someone who cares.
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Pete Rock is preparing for the release of his new album, NY’s Finest, on February 26th via Nature Sounds records with appearances by Wu-Tang’s Raekwon and Masta Killa, Papoose, Little Brother, and Redman. A special iTunes version of the album will also contain a bonus track with Slum Village.

For more info, visit www.myspace.com/officialpeterockpage.

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