Last Friday, my feature on The Arabian Prince, a seminal and slept-on figure in hip-hop history, ran in the LA Times. If you’d like to read it, it can be found here. I think it does an adequate job of summarizing who Arabian is and why he’s important enough for Peanut Butter Wolf and Stones to release an anthology of his ’80s material. However, as my interview with Arabian ran well over an hour, a lot of material got left on the cutting room floor. So below the jump, here’s the full transcript of the interview, touching on the history of Los Angeles hip-hop, NWA and Arabian’s unfettered love for Spongebob Squarepants.
Download:
MP3: Arabian Prince-“Strange Life”
MP3: Arabian Prince-“Let’s Hit the Beach”
Q: How exactly did you get started on the path to producing and performing?
A: Back in the day, my father used to be on a radio station called K-ACE. I used to go down there with him when I was a little and they had a production room that was opposite the DJ booth. And I would just sit in there and mess with all the songs. Back then, they didn’t even have turntables, they just had these big carts and I would make mixtapes there and take them with me to school and sell them. I got popular with it and started DJing. Next thing I knew I was rocking bigger clubs here and there and then it got bigger and I was messing with Egyptian Lover and Uncle Jamm’s Army. By then, the whole thing got big. It went from 100 people to 500 people to dances at the Sports Arena with 10,000 people and the Convention Center with 5,000 people.
Q: Do you remember your first exposure to hip-hop?
A: This was really early on. We were in school and before hip-hop, DJ’s played the top 40 at the time which was Parliament-Funkadelic, Cameo, Marquez, Prince, Michael Jackson but also, Cyndi Lauper, A.B.C., Depeche Mode. You had like a huge gap in the type of music that you played and so that’s what we would play. We got the early hip-hop from the East Coast: Sugar Hill, Spoonie Gee and then Grandmaster Flash. Suddenly, everyone was like ‘Okay, they’re doing it with costumes on.’ At the same time in LA, we were doing these big parties with 5,000 to 10,000 people and we figured there’s got to be a way for us to get into the music business. So we bought drum machines and brought them into the clubs and people danced and then we started making up words and rapping and over the beats. Next thing you know, we’re making records.
Q: Where was this all going down?
A: This was all centered in
Q: How did you get into music?
A: I was always into music. My mother was a classical pianist and a music teacher and she was always into music. And I was deep into Parliament Funkadelic and Prince. I used to dress like Prince back in the day and then once I heard Kraftwerk, it was on. When I heard them, I thought now we can make sounds. I decided I’m going to make sounds like this.
Q: Was this around the time of “Planet Rock”
A: Yup, around the same time.
Q: What was it about Kraftwerk that set you on the path?
A: It was the rhythm. The beats and the rhythm are universal. That rhythm of “Trans-Europe Express” killed me but it was the beat of “Numbers” that set it off. But I was also into ABC and Look of Love. Really, anything heavy drum oriented.
Q: Where did you buy all these records?
A: Back then, we’d hit the swap meet to get all our vinyl. Everyone went to the swap meet. That’s where you’d get the cheap shoes and the white t-shirts, same as now, it hasn’t changed much other than the big difference was that back then that was where they used to have the record store, with all the joints you needed. That was where we got all our vinyl and all the new songs back in the day.
Q: What made the vibe in LA different from other places?
A: Well, I can only speak on it slightly since I was young and didn’t travel much. But LA was weird. There were so many different types of people into different things. In
Q: Was there one legendary party that stands out above the rest?
A: The legendary party had to be the Uncle Jamm’s Army Dance at the Sports Arena. There were 10,000 people and 100 speakers. It was just the craziest thing ever. People don’t believe this but it was so hot and humid inside that place that there was water from sweat three inches deep on the floor. You literally would step in puddles. It felt like the walls were sweating. It was nasty but it was so good though.
Q: What was the fashion like then?
A: Back then there was Club Radiotron and you’d go in there and see Ice-t and his homies, wearing gloves and leather and spikes. I was into Prince and I was wearing boots and tight pants and then there were the Michael Jackson fans. The whole Ska and Mod thing was in, with the checkered sneakers ands all the buttons and the white gloves. We were into all that stuff.
Q: What were the popular dances of the era?
A: The main dance that we did during was called Freaking. It got so out of hand that teachers would walk around with signs saying that kids couldn’t freak because it was too sexual of a dance for children.
Q: How did you learn to rap?
A: I used to do it in school. Early on, when the first East Coast records were making it out West, we used to sit in the bleachers before football practice and just battle each other.
Q: Was there a rapper you wanted to be like?
A: Nah, not really. I wanted to be like Prince. Most of my battle raps were about women.
Q: Was there a sense of excitement and possibility to hip-hop at the time, the idea that a new genre of music was just beginning to emerge
A: It was crazy because it was like, ‘who knew?’ If we knew then what we know now, we’d have been billionaires. But it happened so fast. We were DJing clubs and the next thing I know I’m on airplane going to a concert somewhere and there’s 5,000 people there to see us. It all happened so fast.
Q: Were drugs big in the scene back then?
A: I don’t even remember drugs being a part of it. People would drink 40’s definitely. But as far as drugs go, it was just young kids partying. I think that the music was up- tempo and fast and sexually oriented. People were thinking about getting women, no one was even thinking about drugs.
Q: How did you get started with Uncle Jamms’ Army?
A: I met The Egyptian Lover at one of those roller rink events. We started hanging out. I went to his house, he came to mine a couple times and we messed around DJ’ing and then we started doing events here and there. As things got bigger and we started making records, we’d just do the same concerts together.
Q: Did you think you’d be able to have a career making hip-hop?
A: I thought that I was going to play college football. But the next thing I knew, I was making records and traveling around the world. For me, I’ve always been more of a producer and creative person. I’ve never really wanted the limelight, it was fun it was cool but I’d rather be in the studio. That’s why a lot of people were like ‘Why have I never heard of you?’ It’s because I’ve always tried to keep myself out of the limelight. I just don’t care about that. I’m a creative person, I just want to do music, I like to see people party.
Q: Was there a friendly spirit of competition between you and The Egyptian Lover?
A: We were like brothers trying to figure out sounds. Even to this day, we still ask the other, what do you think about this sound and what about that sound. We’ve always been on the same wavelength. Same with Dre. We were always on the same wavelength. It was a smooth transition to go from the electro-funk into NWA.
Q: What was Dre like back then?
A: He was the same chill, cool, cat as he is now. Another studio rat and very creative guy. The guy loves nothing more than to be in the studio making beats.
Q: What about Detox? Have you talked to him about that?
A: Well, there’s supposedly 500 Detox songs. Let’s see which ones they use.
Q; How did “6 in the Morning”change things in the local hip-hop world?
A: It was one of the first hardcore tracks to come out and just like NWA, it put the focus on the stuff that was happening in the hood. People could be like, ‘ahh, that happened to me.’ It changed the vibe from happy music to more street, news oriented music.
Q: Who else was big around this time?
A: Rodney O and Joe Cooley. The Knights of the Turntable. There weren’t a lot on the West Coast guys that you were slept on. The ones that hear about on the West Coast were the ones doing stuff.
Q: Why weren’t there more people doing stuff?
A: It was just so early and it was so expensive to get the technology at the time. Drum machines and keyboards were expensive back then. Keyboards were like $3,000 and they didn’t have SP-1200s back then. I had some techniques and I had to build my own DJ coffin by hand, build my own speakers and I used a little radio shack mixer. In fact, I still have the original NWA mixer. It was from Radio Shack, a little Handi mixer.
Q: Who were your favorite artists of the era?
A: All my homies. Egyptian Lover. Dre. The Wreckin Cru. On the East definitely Flash, Bambaattaa, Sugar Hill. I was still deep into the funk though: Parliament and Zapp.
Q: How did you get involved in producing JJ Fad’s “Supersonic?”
A: Well, we used to drive out and hang with the girls in
But one day they came into the studio and I was like okay, you can make two songs, one of them was “Supersonic” and the other one was “Another Ho Bites the Dust.” That was a diss on Roxanne Shante. They wanted that to be the A-Side but I was like those girls can really rap, they’ll get you. I was like, let me do another track on the B-side, a little funk joint. So I did “Supersonic,” it blew up and they ended up making that the A-side.
A: No, I don’t sample. On my later albums, I did a little bit but for the most part I play everything.
Q: In New York, hip-hop was known for being spawned out of the parks and block parties. What about LA? Was it a similar experience?
A: Hip-hop spawned out of small clubs and the parks. Before Uncle Jamm’s Army got big there was The Cave, Marshal’s Ball room, Maverick’s Flat, the two roller skating rinks (Skateland
Q; Were you guys in Uncle Jamm’s Army competitive with the other crew?
A: Nah, that was the thin there was no sense of competition in LA. Everyone was family. Sure, there’d be minor beef between crews because Uncle Jamm’s Army and The Wrecking Cru and Z-Cars might have dances on the same night. But there weren’t any DJ battles or anything like that. It was really chill. The attitude was more about helping everyone come up.
Q: How do you reconcile that with the darker, more aggressive and angrier version of hip-hop that La became known for as the eighties wound down?
A: We did it. It was our fault. (Laughing). I always say that it wasn’t any bitterness. I remember me and Dre were driving in his car, an old Rx-7 with no back window. We were going to see JJ Fad before they became JJ Fad, all the way out in
Q: How did you guys meet Eazy?
A: Dre met him first and then I met him with Dre a few days later at his house.
Q: What did you think of him initially?
A: He was like ‘Hey, I got some money, let’s make some records, I was like cool. Let’s do it.
Q: Was there a steep learning curve in the studio? He’d never rapped before, right?
A: It was definitely a steep learning curve. At first, he couldn’t rap a whole sentence straight through. Early on, his timing was way off, so we learned to punch, punch rap punch rap.
Q: So what made you decide to join NWA?
A: It was all about the music. Once we found out someone would give us money to go into the studio we took advantage of the opportunity.
Q: Did you know at the time that it was drug money?
A: Yeah, he was still dealing. He knew. We knew. I was like we don’t deal so I didn’t care much. We were close with him, the cool thing was that he was trying to get out of that and I never once saw him deal anything or do anything around me. When you don’t see someone doing anything it’s different. Someone can be a stone-cold killer but if they’re cool with you, you just don’t see that side.
Q: How did Cube get into the mix?
A: Cube lived down the street from Dre. And he was with some other group CIA with Dre’s cousin. He’d gone to school in
Q: What about Yella?
A: Yella was in the Wrecking Cru and when Dre came over, Yella came with him.
Q: Were you guys all pretty close?
A: Me and Dre and Yella hung out pretty tight because we were the old school cats.
Q: Not so much Cube?
A: Cube didn’t hang out much early on because he was at school and he was also younger than us. Ren was younger than us too and actually lived down the street from Eazy, so that was Eazy’s boy. But when the group got together we would all hang and just mob to the swap meet.
Q: What about Jerry Heller? How did he fit into the mix?
A: Well, he used to manage a bunch of groups that recorded for Macola. That’s how we meet him. Once the record took off, he stepped in and was like…hey I can hook you guys up.
Q: Did you guys suspect that he might not be on the up and up?
A: Thing is, we were young. And Eazy didn’t care. He had money and was out chasing women, buying clothes and shopping. He didn’t care about who was watching the company. We were focused on being in the studio.
Q: How much were you guys getting paid.
A: It’d be like, ‘when are we gonna’ get some money? When are we gonna get paid?’ And he’d be like, go talk to Jerry. Alright. So Jerry would give us a little money. 500 here, $1000 there, but we never got royalties. It was never, here’s; your statement, here’s your check, it never went down like that.
Q; You always hear that old story that all Cube got paid for Straight Outta Compton was a Suzuki.
A: Yeah, that’s why I left. I was like, ‘I made more money as a solo artist and I’m over here, we have hit records and I still can’t get paid,. Everyone thought I was stupid, telling me but you guys were so famous. But it’s like what does fame have to do with having no money. Was I supposed to stay just because we were famous? Pay me. I’m a grown man. I could care less about fame. People care about the fame but they forget about the business.
Q: What about the other members of the group. Did you talk to Dre and Yella about it?
A: I talked them about it and was like, ‘we’re getting ripped off.’ They were like, ‘aww…man, we’re gonna get paid.’ You know. It was enough money where everyone was happy. I was the only one out of the whole group that was a solo artist first. Dre was in a group. Yella was in a group. Eazy had never done anything and Ren and Cube had never done anything. So I was the only one to know how much money we were supposed to be getting, because I’d been getting it. I knew that if I sold this many records and I got this and now we sold a million copies and weren’t getting paid. So I bounced.
Q: What happened when you did?
A: I just didn’t show up for some stuff and then we had a meeting and they were all out at Jerry’s house in Westlake Village, and everyone was sitting around and I was like ‘what’s up and they were like blah,blah,blah, blah’ and it was the whole divide and conquer thing and I saw how it was and I knew it wouldn’t last long after that. I knew I wasn’t long for the group and figured that the guys would figure out sooner or later that they were being ripped off and eventually they did.
Q: Did you hold a grudge against any of them?
A: I’ve never held a grudge against anyone. I don’t have any bad blood with anybody. I was like I’m bouncing. I was still cool with Dre and Yella. I even came back to do the next JJ Fad album. I just wanted to make sure I was taken care of. I didn’t want to get ripped off like that.
Q: What about the whole FBI “Fuck the Police” letter?
A: That actually helped. That letter and Tipper Gore on TV was actually the best thing that could’ve ever happened. When you tell kids ‘don’t buy this,’ they want it more. If they hadn’t done that, it would’ve still probably sold well but certainly not as well had they not blown things up.
Q: What was the reaction within the crew?
A: We were laughing about it. We were cool. We were young we didn’t care. We got more shows because of it.
Q: So how did the dynamics within the group break down? Was Eazy noticeably the leader?
A: Well, he was putting up the money. So yeah, he kind of ran it. But we were all equal partners, everyone was laid back and chill. There was no animosity.
Q: What’s the creative process like for you?
A: I just go home turn on my equipment and pick a beat. I work through sounds, keyboard sounds usually. Once I hear the right sound, it helps to mold the record. I used to have an 808 and a Yamaha keyboard and then I bough a Roland keyboard. When the samplers came out, I bought on emulator. I remember the first sampler ever. Dre was like ‘you gotta see this.’ But it only had, I don’t even want to say that it had 2 seconds of sampling time, it had a total of two seconds of sampling time. So you’d use .9 seconds at time, all you could get was orchestra hits, that was why the early electro hits relied so heavily on orchestra hits,
Q: Do you listen to much music today?
A: Not really. I don’t want to be subconsciously influenced. Instead I watch cartoons. I love Spongebob. I own every Spongebob toy known to man. I’m a creative person. I’ve got a new group called The Funky Little Anime. They’re like the Gorillaz. I really admire anything that somebody can come up with that’s simple and you can make a lot of money. Think about Spongebob. Someone drew a square sponge, added some white hair and boom a Billion dollars.
Q: Sort of like Soulja Boy?
A: For sure.
Q: What did you think of the controversy regarding Soulja Boy and Ice-T?
A: I don’t really know. I don’t think about it much.
Q: What was Ice-T like back in the day? Was he around the scene?
A: Yeah, we all used to hang. It was kind of funny. It was also rare that we all knew each other. As big as LA is, we were all from the same neighborhoods and the same area. In
A: When hip-hop came in it was KDAY and KKBT, the other station that was out for a second. KDAY was so cool because were they playing hip-hop. Before that we’d play stuff in the clubs and nobody knew what it was. They’d just dance and people had fun, they didn’t just wait around for a song to come on that would make them dance. When the radio stations came in, it forced us to have to put certain songs in our set lists. It was ultimately a good thing though.
Q: Did you have pre-arranged set lists?
A: Never. Not even to this day and I play everything. I play “Planet Rock” next to Thomas Dolby. I don’t care. Just the other day, I got an email from a cat in
Q: How does KDAY contrast with the nature of radio today?
A: As big as LA was, it was like a neighborhood radio station. They were very reachable. They always did events and you could get in and out and do stuff on the radio. I used to do voiceovers.
Q: What was the playlist like back then?
A: The Wrecking Cru. Egyptian Lover. Bobby, Jimmy and the Critters, Dream Team, Ice-T. Then they’d play other stuff, even early Geto Boys.
Q: What about LA in general? How do you feel the city has changed?
A: It’s gotten bigger now. Things are more segregated. This club plays this type of music and this one plays that. Whereas before, if you threw a dance people went there and had a good time. Now DJ’s play only one type of music and it feels segregated.
Q: When do you think this change took place?
A: I’d say the late 90s. Even though the mid-90s it was still all good. But after we left the scene and stopped making records and going on tour, it became corporate.
Q: Do you still DJ often?
A: I play at LAX every Sunday. They tell me Paris Hilton goes there and I’m like ‘oh ok.’ I don’t care, I play whatever I want. When I’m on tour I play an hour DJ set and a 45 minute live set.
Q: You just got from playing some shows in
Q: After leaving NWA, what did you do next?
I had a deal with Capital EMI for the Brother Arab album. I had a small hit called “She’s Got a Big Posse.” I toured on that. I did a follow up album. The album I did for them was called Underworld. They were scared of it. It got five star reviews and they never put it out. That was when I started to just get a bad taste in my mouth from the music biz and started my own special effects and video game company.
Q: How did you learn to do special effects and video games programming?
A: I’ve been a tech nerd since day one, always messing with equipment. When I was on tour with NWA, I gad one of the first lap-tops. I think it was a TI-99 and a Radioshack Tandy laptop. I taught myself how to code and do sprite Animation and stuff and was so into it that I started an animation company, I taught myself. That’s just how I do things.
That’s how I am. Now I’m trying to be a pro golfer. I practice 6 days a week.
Q: How did you get hooked up with Stones Throw?
A: I bumped into Peanut Butter Wolf a few years ago and honestly, I hadn’t heard of him. I didn’t know much about them. I knew of them and of their artists but like I said, I’m typically into my own stuff and try not to focus on other people’s music. He was like ‘I really want to do something with you, maybe do a single or maybe re-release some of your old stuff,’ and the next thing I knew they were releasing the anthology and greatest hits. I did some remixes and I’m gong to do some new stuff with them. I’m trying to finish up my Professor X album right now.
Q: What songs do you look most fondly upon in hindsight?
A: Like I said, I always hated “Let’s Hit the Beach” but ironically, is the song Peanut Butter Wolf likes the most. I’m working on this sick electro remix of it and I played it in
Q: What about the rest of the songs on the anthology?
A: “Strange Life” was my first single and it was done when I didn’t know what I was doing but it was one of the best things I did because it was kind of more new wavey and it sort of defied the time and sound. My favorite song out of everything I’ve ever done is “Innovative Life” and “Take You Home Girl.” The latter was just a song to me, with great singing in it. “Innovative Life” talks about me. I don’t try to model, I try to create new stuff, forge new paths.
Q: What do you think about the state of hip-hop today?
A: I follow it somewhat because I have to incorporate some of it in my DJ sets. I mean I love the crunk stuff. I love Lil Wayne but I can’t stand the cats who come behind him with the same sound. It’s like Akon came with a new sound and then everyone came with it. T-Pain did it and now everyone’s on the voicebox. Back in the 80s and the early days of hip-hop, you could define every rapper because they had their sound. Run DMC sounded like this. LL Cool J sounded like this. NWA sounded like this. I sounded like this. Beasties sounded like this. You could never find a similarity.
But the music’s gone full circle. I hear the new
