Prince Paul Interview
by Adam Bernard

Prince Paul will never read this. Sad I know, but the fact of the matter is Paul simply isn't interested in what people have to say about him. "I'm not interested in myself," he explains "I guess I am to a certain extent I'm just used to, historically, it's usually the same thing, Paul's crazy, he made a crazy record and this what he used to make a crazy record. I already know I'm crazy to a certain extent, I've read it enough times. 'Should we like him or shouldn't we like him?' It's either he's really cool or he's a butthole who should really get a life." He continued, adding "I don't even read reviews anymore. I don't own any Handsome Boy review, and 'Politics of the Business,' I got killed on that record." While he may be ignoring this article, and every other article about him, he's still reading up on other recording artists, saying "I read about everybody else." The fact of the matter is, even if he isn't reading about himself, others should be because most people's preconceptions of Prince Paul are off, way off.

The first misconception about Paul is what many think he listens to. He notes "(people) expect me to listen to stuff that has to do with flower power. People don't realize I'm a b-boy first, from back in the day b-boy, not a doo rag and a mock neck spinnin on my head, not like that. All that street stuff, I'm used to it. Cats braggin, 'don't step to me or I'll do this to you,' I like that man. I like arrogant MC's, but who can hold it up. Someone like Slick Rick in his day, Big Daddy Kane." The bragging about one's mic skills aspect of rhyming is something Paul feels needs to be resurrected. "Who's like that nowadays?" he openly ponders "they can say I'll shoot you, but not out rhyme you, or out bling you but not out rhyme you, but not make a better record than you. They're not saying that they're good at their profession. 'I'm not as good at my given profession, but I own more jewels, or I'd shoot you.' Hopefully it'll get back to where MC's think they're the best in the world rather than 'I've got more than you.'"

With a dearth of the kind of MC's Paul enjoys listening to available it should come as no surprise that his latest project, "Itstrumental," is predominantly an instrumental album. At first Paul was hesitant to embark on such a venture. "I kind of approached it like you want me to do this record? Me? I wanted to leave it to the cats like Pete Rock and cats who make beats that people can vibe to. I make beats that are a little quirky to most people but I felt OK I'll meet the challenge."

"Itstrumental" turned out to be more a compilation for Paul, who explains "I got a bunch of old beats that span from the 80's I took a lot of songs from 1988 to 2000 / 2001. 'Boston Tops' was my new song. I laid 'em all out and was like wow these are cool instrumentals, but they're probably too boring to the people at large, let me add some hooks to them. The hooks became other stuff and the other stuff became other stuff."

With so many different songs pulled from different times in his career he notes that production-wise the album contains "a little bit of everything. 808's 8 track cassette, Pro Tools, RZ1, MPC2000, it's all over the place. A lot of it's mixed down analog, though, I really wanted to alter the sound a little bit. I mixed it down analog and put it on a DAT. I got a reel to reel. I kept it reel with two e's and an l." He explains his decision to go analog saying "I didn't want everything so articulate. I kinda want things to blend together," adding "I wanted this to have a certain feel, I didn't want it to have a glassy feel and sound real sterile. Cats will make stuff on dirty equipment then throw it on a computer to make it clean, like clean dirt. You can't beat the old equipment sometimes, or combining the new with the old and that's what I do with this album."

As with all his other albums, Paul says he didn't do "Itstrumental" to gain a huge audience. He explains "it wasn't like 'wow the kids will love this one.' Just like all the other stuff they'll be extreme, either you get it or you don't."

The idea of getting it is even an aspect of the title of the album, "Itstrumental," which, as Paul points out, people who've actually read his vinyl will remember from way back in the day when he decided to put itstrumental rather an instrumental on the B side of one of his earlier records. "Nobody noticed," he laments "nobody looks at that unless you're like DJ Shadow. Most kids said 'ah whatever,' so I didn't want it to go to waste."

People not getting some what he's doing is an aspect of Paul's career that he's become accustomed to. "I never expect people to get my stuff," he explains "that was my hurting point back in the days. I just don't expect it anymore and usually kids who do get it are about as crazy as I am. Which is nice because that means that they actually sit down and think. If you have any type of sanity it means you've been programmed, society has programed you heavily, no wait, the radio has programmed you heavily."

At one point in time the radio was also broadcasting some of Paul's most well known work, the production on De La Soul's classic album "3 Feet High and Rising." The mainstream acceptance of that album came as a shock to Paul who remembers "when I did '3 Feet High' it was never a record that was targeted at pop culture or top 40 or top 10 it just ended up there. It was bizarre. After that whatever pop things it had about it I could never figure it out. Shortly after Russell Simmons told me 'Paul you make pop records make me a pop song.' I don't know how that happened, we didn't use the formula for pop. We stuck with whatever made what kind of fan base we had. If there's a fault in the pop zone I'll embrace it, I'm not mad at pop I just don't know how to make it."

It's a bit odd to hear a man who's been producing records for over 20 years openly admit he doesn't feel he knows how to make a pop record, but according to Paul his creative process isn't one that would necessarily give birth to pop success stories. "My creative process is weird," he explains "a lot of times certain songs are either made out of some type of stress, some type of sadness or some type of 'man this will bug everybody out,' or when my son comes in who's 13 shakes his head and I say 'oh yeah.' I get a lot of kids that come up to me and say Paul you'll like this it's different, well just because it's different doesn't mean it's good."

Being different has certainly been a key aspect of Paul's career. He notes even his way of scheduling things isn't usual for someone in the entertainment industry. "Some people have Blackberries and electric devices. I use the old school school calendar that you get from the public school cuz I've been seeing that since I was a kid. It's always worked."

Not only has his school calendar always worked, Paul's always worked, whether it's De La Soul, The Gravediggaz, Handsome Boy Modeling School, The Dix, or something under his own name, Paul is always working. His main key to success, in his mind, is that he tries "not to do two projects at the same time."

With so many projects under his belt during his 20 plus years in the industry it would be hard to not want to figure out one's place in music history, but Paul says it's not a huge concern for him. "I don't know what I should be viewed as," he explains "I used to care about a claim and where I sat as far as how I should be respected, hopefully respected at all. Honestly I'm just glad to have a job in 2005. My goals are very simple. A lot of cats want their own clothing line, I just want the ability to make the records I want to make which are pretty bizarre, and make sure the lights turn on." He continued , adding "just as long as I hold some type of respect somewhere to someone and still make a living, I'm pretty happy. If you really think of it 85 was my first record, it's 2005, I've lasted 20 years. I'm not braggin but wow how did that happen because I defy everything that's commercial and everything that should be lasting long so for me to have a job is still amazing and I've seen so many people come and go who were huge, who wouldn't even talk to me but now they aren't doing too great and I've kind of transcended that. To see guys who've had Benzes and awards be on some milk, bread and eggs makes you go wow thank God."

Twenty years is a long time to be working in Hip-Hop, however, and Paul openly admits he sees retirement as a possibility. "I plan on retiring at some point," he notes "and maybe sooner than later and what's going to determine what I do is when I make that thing that shakes the world and I haven't made that piece of music yet where I say 'yeah that's what I'm talking about' and totally shock myself and make an impact on the world at large. Once I do that I'll be cool. I'll probably stumble on it."

For now Paul's still behind the boards, no doubt working on his next project that will either confuse or enthrall you. What would really be enthralling, however, would be hearing he took the time to read this article.