" The Phil Most Chill Interview"

Face the facts folks, most so-called Hip Hop dudes could care less about the artform....Many are content to abandon their morals, and quickly { sell out } as soon as the opportunity presents itself.....But Philadelphia's "Phil Most Chill"/ Soulman/ {insert one of his many aliases here} is cut from a different cloth.....It is obvious from his blogs, music, productions, etc, that this brother lives and breathes this Hip Hop shit.....And as a writer for Rap Sheet { Soulman's World Of Beats} he was breaking down the science of sampling before you beat nerds even had a clue.....So without further delay here is the interview I conducted with " Baritone Tiplove " himself.....

1. {HHBF}... The first production I heard from you was "On Tempo Jack", it sounded like you were using the SP 1200...What equipment were you using back then?

(PMC}....I had a real low budget set-up, just a Casio R-Z sampling drum machine and a Tascam 4 track Portastudio. All I could sample on the Casio were short little sounds, which I usually used for the kicks, snares, 808's etc...All the longer samples and loops I had to fly in on the 4 track, straight from the turntables.....I was suprised to find out later how many other producers had the Casio R-Z too. I knew right away when I heard De La Soul's "Daisy Age" off the "3 Feet High" album that Prince Paul was using it.....

2..{HHBF}....Philly is known for it's pioneering D.j's....Who is your favorite Philly D.J. and why?

...{PMC}...Well I gotta say the homie D.J. Cash Money, but Philly is full of legendary D.J.'s..I kinda feel bad to leave any of the other dudes out....Cash is like me, though....He's into the record collecting real big, plus he's into stuff like rare videos and toys from the 70's, all this nostalgia stuff, and I'm into all that, too...I saw some stuff over Cash's crib that I have never seen anywhere else....

3...{HHBF}.....Juice Crew Or Wu-Tang?

...{PMC}....Aw man....I can't even pick between the 2...I guess Wu put out more records, but ain't much out there topping the best of the Juice Crew...Kane's first album? G Rap ? The first couple of Biz albums? Wooo...Hard to beat that...But ultimately, I gotta say it's Wu Tang...There's just a much larger output of unbelievable dope joints coming out of the Wu camp...I even like some of the slept on later Wu-Tang albums, like Master Killer's joints....

4...{HHBF}...Out of all the places you have been, what country/state had the flyest records?

...{PMC}...I honestly never did a lot of travelling for records, so I don't know....I guess I'd say New York had the most ill records, but I've dug most extensively in my own area, which is the Southern to Midwestern Pennsylvania area, and I've caught a ton of crazy records around here....I used to hit up all these little out-of-the-way townships, college communities, whatever, and I used to come up on a lot of good stuff......

5...{HHBF}.....85 or 95?

...{PMC}....Even though I'm an 80's guy, I gotta say 95...I didn't particularly like where Hip Hop was going in 1985, other than a few certain groups and certain dope records..Overall, it was some drum machine bullshit going on that I wasn't feeling, plus a lot of wack ass rap dudes too in my opinion....The old school was falling off and becoming dated, Sugarhill couldn't keep up with the times musically, cats were on some ol' t.v. theme song shit, everybody was doing "Roxanne" records....A lot of rap and bullshit was going down...I honestly thought rap was over, until dudes realized they could actually rock those old school breaks on records, full loops instead of just little hits over drum machines...Once they figured out how to recapture that original sound of Hip Hop, like in late 86-87-88, that's when the shit was on again......
1995, I can't even remember what exactly was hot right then...I know the signs were there that things were changing, though. There probably was a lot that I didn't like in 95', too...But for the most part I think that real shit was still rockin things...Primo was killing it......wasn't 95' the year of "Cuban Linx" and "The Infamous" and all that?....That was definitely a great time for Hip Hop, probably the last days, to be honest...I got married in 1995 too, so I better say that was a good year......

6..{HHBF]...Do you think Mumia Abu Jamal will ever be released from prison?

...{PMC}...No, I can't see that ever happening...I'd be shocked if that happened..

7...{HHBF}...What other types of music are you into besides Hip Hop?

..{PMC}....Many, many different genres...Sweet soul, psych rock, lite rock, jazz, some folk, some reggae, modern soul, funk, easy listening, some lounge...I get into whatever hits my ear at the moment...Some people probably think I'm closed minded because I have pretty strict opinions about what is and what isn't Hip Hop..But I am very open minded about music..

8...{HHBF]...Tat Money or Code Money?

...{PMC}....I don't know much about Code Money, so I'll take Tat Money because I know that dude has always been a beast on the tables...Plus he used to sell me beats at the "Funkomart" record store back in the days....

9...{HHBF}.....Are you D.J.ing out publicly as of late?...

...{PMC}.....Nope.....I don't know how many people know of me are aware, but I'm really not a D.J...I guess that's strange for a person who has as many records as I do, and have a reputation as a mixtape dude....But to be honest I have rarely ever played out...I don't like D.J.ing at all because you have to cater to the crowd, and I just have the wrong temperment for that...My attitude is "fuck ya'll", I'm not going to play the new Rhianna record, I'm sorry......

10..{HHBF}....HaHa, If you could change one thing about the music industry of today, what would you change?

...{PMC}.....Hmmm..I guess just find a way to eliminate illegal downloading of Mp3's..Probably just get rid of Mp3's altogether..I love the technology as a collector of music..But as somebody who used to make money selling music, MP3's killed everything...It's not profitable anymore, everybody just get's shit for free now,,,And I don't blame them, I do it too...

11...{HHBF}...3 Times Dope or Steady B?

...{PMC}...3 Times Dope..EST was the first rapper from Philly that I really respected as being nice on the mic...No disrespect but at that time I thought Steady, Schooly D, and some other people, made banging records, but were not that hot lyrically...I liked the beats more than the rhymes on a lot of joints....I always thought Steady had some hard ass beats...Matter of fact, I did a version of "On Tempo" with famous Philly studio engineer "Joe Da Butcher" because I wanted him to help meget my beats banging as hard as Steady's joints were...

12...{HHBF}....What is the Hip Hop scene like in Philly these days?

...{PMC}...Oh, I'm the wrong person to ask about what's going on now...I'm an old head..I don't even check shit like I used to...Knowing Philly though, I'm sure there are some talented people out there getting it in...

13...{HHBF}....Favorite Hip Hop memory?

...{PMC]....Way too many to name, but for the sake of the interview I'll say it was a jam in 1980 with Bambaataa, Cosmic Force, Funky 4, Disco 4.....I had been to a lot of jams before that, but that was the first one I remember where I was really fimiliar with all the Mc's and D.J's...Before that I may have seen some known dudes, but I wasn't really paying attention, it was no big deal to me.....But by 80, seeing the Funky 4 standing on top of lunch tables rocking rhymes to the B.T. Express, seeing Jazzy J cutting the hell out of The Sequence's "America" jam, seeing Red Alert behind the tables with Bam and them.....There is no substitute for that experience, no matter how many rap history books a person reads or how many old school disco rap 12's a person listens to...I feel lucky, word up...

14...{HHBF}....Since you are a father I have to ask you, do you censor what type of music your children listen too?

....{PMC}....Of course...My kids are 9 and 6, so really all the music they hear is what me and my wife are playing in the car....I don't want them listening to the so-called Hip Hop stations too much because the content of a lot of these songs is crazy..I guess I sound mad old, but whatever...It doesn't matter if the curses are edited out, it aint hard to fill in the blanks...The subject matter is still what it is, clean version or not....

15...{HHBF}....Thank you Phil for answering my questions, I have a million more but I don't want to jam you up too much brother....Let the people know about some of your current projects..

....{PMC}....There will definitely be some more Phil Most Chill unreleased stuff from the late 80's coming out in 2009....I did a mix featuring about an hour's worth of my unreleased songs that was supposed to come out in Japan in conjunction with a box set of Phil Most-related T-shirts, but I don't know what ever came of it...Maybe it got released in Japan and I don't even know about it...I got paid regardless, so I'm not worried one way or the other....I'm also working on new rap stuff, got a couple E.P.'s I did with Bankrupt Europeans that I guess is coming out on Traffic next year...The Philly Phil Old School Jam L.P, the Dilla beats L.P, The lil dudes don't want it L.P......Who know if anyone will ever hear that shit? And I'm still doing the THAT REAL SCHITT blog.......I'm always staying busy with something......

Well it's time to shake the spot peoples, make sure you check out Phil's blog, and that "Lo-Fi Theory" album, as well as his many other releases.......Peep