~GS16~

Alchemist - Chemistry 101

Interview By: Melanie J Cornish



1999 was the year and the album was Murda Muzik, grimy, gritty New York Hip-Hop at its best. It could be said that it was this album that launched the career of a ‘white Jewish boy from Beverly Hills’ who was previously affiliated with Dilated Peoples and Cypress Hill before DJ Muggs hooked him up with Mobb Deep.

Since then Alan Maman AKA Alchemist has been concocting infectious beats and contagious rhythms in his lab which have allowed him to work with a slew of A-List artists. He admits to being a creative mind that has to feel to craft and by surrounding himself with the best, it allows us nothing but greatness.

Alchemist Quote[Here he talks about his Shady involvement, the Re-Up, DJing, and he allows us some insight to just why New York encouraged the meticulously crafted beats we heard back in 1999, that allowed his name to become one of the most sought after to grace production credits for the new millennium.



Nobodysmiling.com : This album was possibly the project that...How many tracks have you got on the Re-Up, four is it?

Alchemist : Yeah four.

Nobodysmiling.com : People are waiting on this, not just because it is Eminem affiliated, but because it showcases the new Shady artists. I mean what can we expect from this project?

Alchemist : I mean it is something that was necessary and needed to show the versatility of all the different artists that are coming up on Shady; you know everyone is dope. I mean it is hard when you are on a label with 50 Cent and Eminem, you know it is hard to get that shine sometimes. So musically he decided to do a mixtape for the streets and that is up my alley and I am sown with the camp. I mean I have always been down with the camp through management and I have been Em’s DJ now for over a year. So I was just waiting for a time to collaborate musically, you know I mean we rock on the road but really my thing is the studio. We started out doing the mixtape for the streets and that is what I love doing most, you know you can just make some hot shit, samples or whatever, it just doesn’t matter.

I went in and made some records and it was special, we all made three or four records and put them together and it was dope. So the decision was made, because it was all new stuff, to put it out to the stores. It still has the quality of a mixtape. When you get a product from Shady you are used to having this huge radio record, this was more a case of talented people who are all self-contained, I do beats, Em does beats in addition to everyone else in the camp; like Denaun who is incredible as a producer. Basically it was something we needed to do; celebrate our own and have an opportunity to put the new artists next to the ones that are already established.

Nobodysmiling.com : You have pretty much stayed with the same artists throughout your career; you know they always come back around to you when they work on new projects. How was it for you working with new artists, those you haven’t worked with before?

Alchemist : It is always exciting to be able to try something new. You know at one point working with Mobb Deep was new. As we grew and we develop, you know it just happened that I came up and was branded with Mobb Deep. You know tomorrow I might meet two new artists and there is always a chance to crack the ice. It really wasn’t the case of the artists on Shady as I am affiliated through Em and management. As these guys came up and before their deals I was already working with them because lets say you have an artist, you know Ca$his had already come to my crib and done some songs already like a year ago; also Stat Quo, Bobby Creek. So these are all my people through just being affiliated and having already worked and you can tell in the music too. It is not like I just sent them a beat and they rhymed on it but we never met.

Nobodysmiling.com: From your point of view do you think that you need to work with someone in the studio as opposed to emailing beats?

Alchemist : I would rather be in the studio and work with the artist as I feel that is the best way to do it. You know sometimes situations don’t allow it, so we work around it and we do what we can do to make it special. But for the most part the best stuff comes around when we are all together. You know collaboration of the minds, just the energy, it becomes a little more special than people in their own rooms working and emailing back and forth. But then sometimes that works too. I feel like the fans can, but nine out of ten times, they cant, because you know I will test it on people and they don’t know the difference. You know I will play a song from two years ago and a song from last week and people cant tell the difference either. Or I play them a song that we all did in the studio together and then one that we did through e mail and they might get it wrong.

Nobodysmiling.com : (Laughing) Please tell me all the Mobb tracks were done in the studio.

Alchemist : (Laughs) of course, of course. You can tell. Everything we do we do together. You can tell, you know when you are all together and you know, we meet somewhere in the middle when you are collaborating with other creative people.

Nobodysmiling.com : One of my favorite beats of all time is ‘The Realest’ as when you hear that on mixtapes today it is still so current.

Alchemist : Yeah it was like it just fit into that time and everything. You know I still remember the time when I found that sample.

Nobodysmiling.com : Yeah I was going to say, where did you get your inspiration from for that beat, as it is so gritty.

Alchemist : Yeah, I mean just being in New York at that time. New York still had a certain edge to it; you know it was a time in New York to how it is in the South. You know when things are cracking down there like they are a kid down there now could end up turning into a beast. When I moved to New York it was really special, you know when I was waking up, the air was different, your surroundings are different. We really achieved a lot with that album man; you know everyone was feeling good at the time. It was just that time and it really fit in. When you are living in a town and being a part of a time or an era when everyone is being creative, you do raise the level of each other.

You know the studio we used to work at, Busta would be there. I would see Nottz and the Teamsters coming through and we were all new producers and looking for opportunity and Busta would be in the back room working, we would be in this room and it was just like I felt we were all raising the level of each other by being creative. Like in the South, they are really having their time, because the next person is coming with a hit and inspiring the whole movement and I think that is what it takes, not just one or two people in the same surroundings.

Nobodysmiling.com : You have always stayed in the Hip-Hop lane; do you ever see yourself working on other genres of music which some may consider a sell out?

Alchemist : Yeah I mean that would be cool, it would be fun, but it would have to be something that I like. I would like to see how that would come out.

Nobodysmiling.com : So would you see yourself developing a pop act for example?

Alchemist : If it feels right. I am a real emotional person; everything goes on feelings. If it feels good, like this is something I want to be doing, then I will do it. I mean I am not afraid, I don’t care what anyone says because if I did I wouldn’t have made it this far, because I am a white kid who is Jewish from Beverly Hills and it would have never worked. If I was thinking about what people were thinking of me there is no way I would have made it this far. Like I said it is a feeling thing, how I am feeling at the time and if it inspires me.

Nobodysmiling.com : Do you feel that in Hip-Hop you have to be labeled a specific stereotype to move forward?

Alchemist : Yeah and a lot of people seem to believe it. You know maybe people read something and the media are saying this and that, or the streets and that’s how these stereotypes happen. But look at Premiere, he worked with Christina Aguilera on her album and no-one said anything. It was a dope project and he worked on it at the same level he does his Hip-Hop and it turned out dope.

Nobodysmiling.com : How hard is it balancing the DJing and the producing; now you are Em’s DJ?

Alchemist : Being a DJ for Em, you know being on the road is obviously the toughest job, but after that it is pretty easy as he doesn’t really tour that much. He doesn’t do shows that much, so it is a pretty easy gig. When you are on the road it is.

Nobodysmiling.com : Are you going out on the road with The Re-Up?

Alchemist : I don’t know what the plan is. I don’t think Em is doing anything, but we did talk about some of the guys on the label doing a few promo runs, hitting a couple of spots and getting out to Europe to promote the album. But it hasn’t been planned yet so I don’t know what is going to happen. I don’t know what the plans are for marketing and promoting this album, as it isn’t an Eminem release, but it is; it is a mixtape, but its not. It is going under E for Eminem in the stores so they will market it to his fans. I am curious to see what is going to happen.

Nobodysmiling.com : Now are you fully recovered from last year’s accident?

Alchemist : Yeah I mean I am not 100%, but I am pretty good. I am back, I am alive.

Nobodysmiling.com : Well that’s good to hear. What is going on with your label ALC?

Alchemist : I am still working with a lot of guys right now and I am not sure who is going to be the first to come out but everybody is dope. I am working on my album at the same time and it is just a case of trying to find the right home for the label. But that doesn’t matter as far as creation as we are still working, it is not official how I am going to distribute the label and the product, but I got a lot of things that are working, you know a couple of new artists I am working with and still enjoying it and having fun in the studio. I am still creating and growing in the studio with the music and not getting stuck, I feel that I have something of a name and I can help push that with the music at ALC.

Nobodysmiling.com : What do you look for, when you are searching for talent?

Alchemist : I am a fan, still to this day; I love new things, new artists, and new rappers. I love to see someone new coming up, so anything can inspire me. I write and I make beats; so anyone who makes me want to write a rhyme or make a beat, they are the kind of people I want to keep around me. Prodigy will inspire me to make beats by just being around me, I might even spark him on a rhyme sometimes as we make songs together. You know around him I know I have to go hard, there are times where I am working with him and writing a rhyme and he will go and spit his shit and I will just crumple up my paper, I can’t rap. Then there are times when he would flow free and I took it as real and there were times when I wasn’t able to compete with him and it was then that I realized we were raising the level of each other and I was only doing it because of his energy.

You know I would think I have to do my thing because I am on a track with P. That is the most fun as I am working on creating, all the records were dope and the records on this album, not one song is similar to the next. You know that song is about that and this song is about this. These days in the era of the freestyle battle and the mixtapes everyone’s rhymes are dope and their flow is dope but they are not really taking you anywhere and you might find a kid who is killing it but he will play you ten songs and they are pretty much saying the same thing. I feel like with Nas, Jay Z, 50 or with Em, those who are really great writers when they sit down to write a new song, In their mind they are thinking of every song they have ever written so they are not writing the same song twice. That doesn’t mean that if you are an artist you shouldn’t make fifteen songs that are all about the same thing, but when it comes down to putting the music out, you should just pick the best one or two.

Nobodysmiling.com : Isn’t that the reason why we see albums falling off, you know the standard of executive producing has fallen off?

Alchemist : The A&R’s also want singles, so they will go in and fish out all the hits, all these single attempts and you will only put out one or two singles. You know that doesn’t make for a very good album. It is like insurance. So your album ends up literally being a bunch of singles. When you think back to the old Ice Cube albums, Once Upon a Time in the Projects, it was just one verse right when the beat comes on, it was never intended to be a single it was made for the album and that is the type of track I am trying to make. I never stop anyone’s creativity when we are working; if he just wants to go ahead and rhyme about nothing, go ahead, but if we have thirty songs we just have to make sure we have the right one at the end. Creatively, I hate it when anyone stops me. I just stay on my roll and then we critique it later.