Matthewmaticus – Q&A Interview
Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? How long have you been making Hip Hop?
I am from Cleveland, OH (West Side). I’ve been making hip-hop on-and-off for years, but I just returned to the music about 2 years ago after a lengthy hiatus from recording and performing. I dropped my first project, The Job Will Not Save You, in October of 2014 and it’s been a frantic schedule of releasing music, shows, and hustling/grinding/promoting ever since. It’s HARD out here as an independent – but nobody’s out here pimping me, either. I made a conscious decision this time to keep my circle tight. It means more work for me, but it also means more quality control and fewer distractions.
What influences you in making Hip Hop?
Man, my influences are so broad. In a hip-hop sense, I’m influenced mainly by the hip-hop I first fell in love with – classic, mid-90’s stuff ranging from Outkast, to De La, to Wu-Tang, to Jay, Mobb Deep, Nas, The Roots and the whole Soulquarians/D’Angelo/Erykah massive, the whole Rawkus massive, all of that. I’m also a big music head in general, so I think a lot about different kinds of soul, jazz and rock music in how I approach things too. Bill Withers. George Harrison. John Coltrane. Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices. David Bowie. Shuggie Otis. All these folks are bouncing around my head as I make music. And I’m just inspired by new music coming around. When I hear what Kendrick does, what D’Angelo did on his last record, what Freddie Gibbs does, what other acts in rock and other genres do – that all inspires me. I just love music.
Describe your music, and what separates you from other MCs?
I’m not sure how to answer that, because it almost feels like something others would answer better – how can you answer a question like this about yourself?. For me, I think my music is soulful, is carefully-crafted, is lyrically dense without being too pretentious or off-putting, and I feel like the beats/flow/lyrics always have enough raw, head-nodding, funkiness to them to translate to many different groups – a core hip-hop audience, a clubby/rap audience, an indie/hipster type audience; I feel like there’s something in there for all those groups of people.
Who have you collaborated with? Who would you like to collab with in the near future?
I’ve consciously made a decision not to load my first few small projects with collabs. So many artists come out and, on their first (few) project(s), they have a ton of guests. I feel like at the end of those projects, you don’t know the actual artist whose project it is. I want people to know me as an artist first – then you can meet all the homies, see who I respect or who respects me, etc. The only folks I’ve done formal collabs with so far are Mitto, LMarr, and Jermiside.
I’m getting ready to start a new series of releases, dropping a single a month for the next year, and many of those are going to be collabs. I know, for sure, I’ll drop records with a few Cleveland/Ohio artists. I have a few other regional/national artists I’d like to get on those records.
I’d love to do a record with Freddie Gibbs, with Purity Ring whom I adore, with Adia Victoria who I think is amazing, Kendrick Lamar, De La Soul, Big Boi from Outkast, Bilal, Killer Mike, Vast Aire, Mos Def, and O.C. O.C. has always been a hero of mine. I listen to Jewelz at least once a month – underappreciated CLASSIC! Everyone talks about Word…Life for good reason, but Jewelz is one of my favorite late 90’s records along with Liquid Swords, Cuban Linx, De La Soul Is Dead, etc.
Your definition of “Underground Hip Hop”?
To me, underground or indie music is just music that hasn’t been discovered yet by a large audience, or that may lack the logistical support of a major or a large indie. I’m not dogmatic or class-ist about music, or about what underground means. That whole underground vs. mainstream, player vs. backpacker mentality, it really hurt hip-hop in the past. I’m over it. Music is music. Some of the greatest, most innovative music being made is very corporate and very mainstream. Some of the most boring music being made is underground. And vice-versa. I just love good music.
Production wise, who are your influences? Who does your production?
And who would you like to work with?
I don’t produce myself, although that’s my goal for 2016. I always have tons of ideas. I am such a huge music head/nerd and so I’m always hearing sounds. I annoy my beatmaker friends by constantly suggesting records to sample. It’s time to put my mind to good use in this area. I have a background in jazz, so I understand music well enough to be dangerous.
On The Sanctified Tape, this French guy Banyan, who I found online, did a bunch of the beats, “RTA”, “Saeta Screamin’”, and the first part of “The New Bang (Outro)”. I also got a beat from Mounika, also foreign, LTHEBLACKPRINCE, Blair Norf, and I mined the beats for “Bobby (Is My Cousin)” from some old Madlib beat tapes I found online. Madlib is the God. He, Dilla, ?uestove, D’Angelo, Erykah, Q-Tip, the Wade Bros of Organized Noise, Large Pro, Pete Rock – they set the template a lot of us are still chasing. So blessed to have those folks to show us how to bang this drum.
Any current or future projects you are promoting?
Right now I am hustling The Sanctified Tape and hoping to get a respectable indie to get involved and give me some logistical support. I’m not looking to get rich, but I’d love to quit my ‘real’ job and join the circus for a few years.
I’m also about to start a series where I release a single at a regular interval (probably the last Friday of the month), monthly, for a year. I want to take more time to develop my first album-length project after a mixtape and the two EPs I’ve dropped, and so I feel like doing this single-a-month strategy will give me that time.
Can you give us a brief description of the creative process of The Sanctified Tape EP? Also/ tell us a little bit about the concept and idea behind your Album/Mixtape Cover Art.
After I finished my first project, I decided to do a twin set of EPs, The Devil Ish Tape and The Sanctified Tape. The Devil Ish Tape was about injustice, iniquity, evil – celebrity worship, the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, things like that. The Sanctified Tape was about salvation. I was thinking a lot about records like A Love Supreme and All Things Must Pass, where these artists (Coltrane and Harrison) were trying to redeem themselves and/or praise the Creator through the music. I was trying to do that. I was meditating on my soul, on righteousness, on being upstanding, on where I’m going as a person. It’s a spiritual suite, but there’s too many four letter words for it to be considered some kind of religious record, haha.
The cover is an old picture of a decommissioned Cleveland rapid train car (Cleveland doesn’t have subways, y’all) from the late 60’s/early 70’s. I just loved the brilliant yellow car, by itself, in a post-industrial scene of decay that is haunting but beautiful. Not to sound too weird, but the image spoke to me and what the project was about for me – trying to notice that something is brilliant and special amidst so much desultory decay. The back cover is a variation on an old Cold Crush flier from back in the day. Both of them were done by DJ Watson (https://twitter.com/djmrwatson), a DJ and designer who is based in Brooklyn, NY, whom I’ve been friends with for longer than both of us can even remember.
Where can we find your music and info?
Get with me at www.matthewmaticus.com, my website which was built and is maintained by my other half, Kimika Hudson. You can get with me on Twitter and The Gram @matthewmaticus, on Facebook at facebook.com/matthewmaticus, You Tube, all that. I’m everywhere.
Any shout outs?
Yeah – peace to anyone who loves new music who shares this project with your people. Spread the word, baby! Like the old Johnny Cash song said – I’m building this Cadillac one piece at a time. So LET’S GROW! Le Schwerve forever.
