We Goin' IN » Alexander The Great

Alexander the Great Interview

seven3zero — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:00:44 +0000

You just released The Susan Sarandon Story mixtape, which features an array of quality guests and some of your best beats. You must be pretty proud of the project.

Yeah. I definitely am. A lot of it is songs that were already out or are coming out. I just had a lot of music sitting around and I felt like people didn’t really know my body of work or they weren’t really associating different joints I did for different artists, so I just really wanted to put one cohesive thing together.

Do you think people will realize all the songs you’ve done as a producer now?

Yeah, I hope that not only that, people know me for different works that I do. I want people in California who hear about me from working with Fashawn or A1 or Omar Aura to hear about the music I’m doing with Steven King or REKS or vice versa. I’ve got stuff in the works with people in Detroit that I essentially cold-called because they had never heard my music. I’m kind of all over the place.

A lot of your songs feature more than one artist. Is it ever a challenge making cohesive songs with so many people involved?

Yeah, it’s very difficult. I don’t like to do it online. I literally like to have everyone in the same place. I would say maybe only two or three of those records on the tape, I’m just trying to think off the top of my head, were done with people in different places, saying that I may have not been there for part of the recording process. Being there, you get to add your input and you’re taking yourself from being a beatmaker to a producer, if that makes any sense.

Is it ever hard giving constructive criticism to established artists, especially with you as a relatively new producer?

Yeah, especially if you’re in a session with someone you’ve never worked with before and you admire them as a musician and you think they could have done it better or done something different or you have a different idea. It takes a certain personality but I think that the music just comes out way better and I think most people will listen to criticism, if they’re smart, at least.

What are you most proud of on The Susan Sarandon Story?

One of my favorite songs on the mixtape is “The Masquerade” by Hadji Quest. I’m really proud of that because that’s a perfect example of what we were just talking about. Hadji Quest is the homie from Brooklyn and he’s got a project coming out and Statik Selektah did most of the production on it. That song was essentially just one verse and I had gotten really attached to the beat because I played this guitar riff at the end and I arranged it a certain way. I told him we couldn’t just have one verse on there. I told him to come over to my house and we would figure out what we should do for the hook and he should write a second verse and he should write a bridge. We crafted the song around a certain structure and Statik made the cuts and the song sounds fantastic. The other thing about it is that no one’s ever heard his music before. That’s the first song that he’s released, so to have that song be the first song released and have it be a song that I’m so proud of, I was really happy with that.

And you’re doing more work with him, right?

Yeah. We’ve done probably fifteen or twenty joints, but I’m not sure how many. I think there’s only ten or twelve joints on his project that he has.

Why did you name the mixtape after Susan Sarandon?

That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? I’ve been working on my full-length and I was going to use some of those records. But the musical direction went elsewhere, so I was thinking if I should scrap these songs or whatever and I decided to put them out and I didn’t know what to call it so I went to Twitter of all places. I asked my followers what I should call this project and YC the Cynic, who’s the homie, said I should call it The Susan Sarandon Story. So that’s how the title came about but what he didn’t know was that I was looking for something very weird and along those lines, but it also just kind of worked because I happened to go to school with Susan Sarandon’s daughter and as far as having any ties to the music or the content is zero. And it really is, you know, this is not an album. This is a collection of songs. When I put out a full-length and when I eventually get the project out, it will definitely be more of a complete project. But this is just something I wanted to get out to get people more familiar with me. I wanted to throw a weirdo name on it and let’s just run with it.

Could this parlay into a ping-pong match, with Susan Sarandon and her connection with the ping-pong club SPIN?

I would love so. I would love so. It’s funny. If you search her name, a review for my project actually comes up on the first page. Maybe she sees it. That’s some high end, snobbery side of ping-pong, right? Like people riding horses and drinking champagne in between ping-pong matches?

I don’t think it’s the kind you’d play in your basement.

I don’t know if that’s me.

You’re also working on a project with Chaundon. How’s that coming?

It’s done. It’s actually been done for four or five months. He flew out to New York for two weeks, knocked it out, went home, I got the mixes done and that’s it. It’s a good project. Ten songs.

You do a lot of work with Steven King as well. What can we expect from you guys?

He just dropped an EP called Distribution Habits. He’s of course on the Kool G Rap record with Rustee Juxx on my project. The EP was produced by myself, Harry Fraud and Statik. The album is pretty much done. We need to get a couple more songs mixed, but the LP is done. Ill Bill has a record on there. I have records. Fraud has records. There’s a Statik record that Term is on that is crazy. We actually just did a couple joints with REKS and Steven King that are out of control. That album is coming. That’s hardcore, gritty New York rap.

How’s your official compilation coming?

Good. I’m like, four or five songs deep. I’ll probably over-record, but it’s going well. You’ll see a lot of the same people on this project as The Susan Sarandon Story, but it’ll be missing a few and I’ll be adding a few people.

How do you balance which beats go for the various projects you’re working on as well as the ones you sell to artists for their projects?

Up until more recently, I have been more of going along with I’m just going to make a ton of beats and send them ten joints when someone asks for beats that I think they’ll sound good on. But lately I have been, sort of, as I’ve been crafting beats, who I would maybe try to craft this more specifically for, do that, and then send that to them. Sometimes I just know immediately, whether I hear a sample or once I start chopping it up. I’ll know, hey, this is for so-and-so.

As far as selling beats to random people, I’m really trying not to do that. I’m not trying to do the random I don’t know you-type of music anymore.

Can you take us through the making of an ATG beat?

For people who listen to The Susan Sarandon Story in their entirety, they’ll notice that the only track that has no samples is the last track with REKS and Lucky Dice. And that came about just from a guitar riff that I was playing. If you hear any guitar in my beats, it’s usually live guitar that I’m playing. So if I’m doing something that’s sample free, it’ll start with a guitar riff and then craft it around that. And those beats are always special to me so I always put a little bit more into them, I think, as far as time and self-criticism and perfection.

As far as a sample joint goes, it usually starts with the sample and I usually hear something right away that makes me want to chop it up. I’ll chop up the sample and arrange it in the way that I want or the way that I hear in my head and then start attacking the drums and just digging through drums and trying to find the right drums, which can take anywhere from a minute to 30 minutes sometimes, figuring out the right drums. And then once I have the basic structure, I might start thinking about song structure and how this would be presented as a song and how it can build and how it can move from start to finish and that process can take more time than it took to make the actual beat. A lot of times, once someone takes a song, I like to think they’re more like skeletons in the sense of once somebody decides to go in on something, if I hear changes to be made, I’ll go in after the fact and try to make it sound better. And now, of course, is the big component of bass. I like to play basslines on my bass guitar, if I can, but sometimes the samples have it.

What element does the live guitar bring to your production?

I think it adds a more universal sound. I think whether I’m playing with samples or playing guitar on the beat, I think the guitar is one of those instruments that’s sort of understood everywhere. Sometimes it sounds crappy but sometimes it can take emotional songs to either higher or darker places. The guitar is one of those instruments, it just breathes. It cries. What is it? “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”?

What other equipment do you use when making beats?

I use a midi keyboard and as far as production, I’ve been making all my beats in Pro Tools and Reason, so if I’m doing any synth work, I’ll use Reason as sort of refiltering before Pro Tools. I used to use solely the MPC and just pack everything in Pro Tools and do all the mixing in Pro Tools, but it just got to be too slow for my work ethic. It would just take too long to do everything. I’m actually looking forward to seeing this new MPC that they got, to see if it works anything like they say it does. I actually kind of jacked that move from Statik. I was making beats on the MPC and I started watching him and I saw I could get a lot more work done if I just used Pro Tools. You do lose the pads, the feeling of the pads. I do miss it, but I’m just way more productive.

What other projects can we expect from you?

Omar Aura has his mixtape coming. That’s coming soon. I didn’t do all the joints on there but me and him are doing an EP after that is released. There’s talks of other EPs with people but nothing has come to fruition. Hadji Quest’s project is coming out. Curtains has a new project coming out. I don’t know what the date is but I’m on that. I think I have five songs on that. Just a lot more of the same, just trying to get placements up and trying a lot more to do these producer-artist projects because I had a great time doing it with Chaundon.

@heroicvillain

Singapore Kane And Friends Fulfill Our Need For Hardcoreness

JPizzle — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:04:57 +0000

Here’s a dope new joint by Singapore featuring Stephen King and Certified 1Huned produced by the ill ATG.

Singapore Kane “U Want Hard Core? (Give You What You Need)”feat. Stephen King and Certified 1Huned

East Coast/West Coast Killa Collabo

JPizzle — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:17:27 +0000

Here’s the new A1 mixtape produced entirely by our man Alexander the Great. A1 repping the bay and ATG repping NYC combine to drop an ill release. Download, bump loud and enjoy.

A1- Keep Coastin Mixtape

A1 Is Nice

JPizzle — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 01:13:32 +0000

If you’re not up on A1 yet, peep out his video for “Keep Coastin” and get schooled. This is dopeness right here. Produced by our man Alexander the Great as well.

A1 Brings The Real

JPizzle — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:49:28 +0000

This is a new joint off A1′s new mixtape “Keep Coastin” coming December 21st. The mixtape is entirely produced by Alexander The Great for Heroic Villain Records. If this is any indication, it should be a real banger!

A1- I’m Broke (Prod. by ATG)

Wednesday Realness

JPizzle — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:34:50 +0000

Everyone really does there thing on this track. Shout out to ATG on the beat as well. Shit is bonkers.

Ghetto- Everybody’s Struggling feat. Big Twins and Hectic (Prod. by ATG)

White Chocolate and the Soul Berries!

JPizzle — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:14:49 +0000

Straight up, the title and content of this new project by our family Whatzisface and super-producer Alexander the Great are so dope I don’t even need to come up with a clever post title!

If you don’t already know Whatzisface or ATG download this and get schooled. Trust me you will not be disappointed

“White Chocolate and the Soul Berries”

Its Good To Be A Fiend

JPizzle — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:00:32 +0000

Here is the anxiously awaited ATG mixtape filled with insanely dope remixes. I’m definitely an addict and its good to be a fiend! Tracklist and link are below:

01. Introduction
02. Hip Hop – Royce 5’9″
03. MOP – Pounds Up
04. Brother Ali – Talkin’ My Shit
05. AZ – Never Change
06. Blaq Poet – Rap Addiction feat. Lil’ Fame & Shabeeno
07. Phat Kat – Cold Steel feat. Elzhi
08. Jadakiss – Kiss Of Death
09. Consequence – Turn Yaself In feat. Kanye West
10. Afu Ra – Mortal Kombat feat. Masta Killa
11. Smif N Wessun – Crystal Stair feat. Talib Kweli
12. AZ – Doe or Die
13. Inspectah Deck – R.E.C. Room
14. Frank N Dank – Shut It Down
15. Common – Chi City
16. Freeway – How We Roll
17. MOP – Roc La Familia feat. Memphis Bleek, Beanie Sigel & Jay-Z

“Alexander the Great-Maybe I’m An Addict Mixtape”

Alexander The Great Does Justice To A Preemo Beat

JPizzle — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:18:25 +0000

Here’s the final leak before ATG drops his “I’m an Addict” mixtape tomorrow.

Royce 5’9″- Hip Hop (ATG Remix)

Alexander The Great and Brother Ali Talk Shit

JPizzle — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:54:52 +0000

Here is another dope leak from ATG’s new remix mixtape “I’m An Addict” dropping this Friday. Here is the tracklist. Looks like its gonna be a banger!

01. Introduction
02. Hip Hop – Royce 5’9″
03. MOP – Pounds Up
04. Brother Ali – Talking My Shit
05. AZ – Never Change
06. Blaq Poet – Rap Addiction feat. Lil’ Fame & Shabeeno
07. Phat Kat – Cold Steel feat. Elzhi
08. Jadakiss – Kiss Of Death
09. Consequence – Turn Yaself In feat. Kanye West
10. Afu Ra – Mortal Kombat feat. Masta Killa
11. Smif N Wessun – Crystal Stair feat. Talib Kweli
12. AZ – Doe or Die
13. Inspectah Deck – R.E.C. Room
14. Frank N Dank – Shut It Down
15. Common – Chi City
16. Freeway – How We Roll
17. MOP – Roc La Familia feat. Memphis Bleek, Beanie Sigel & Jay-Z

Brother Ali- Talking My Shit (ATG Remix)

I Love The Sound of Gunshots In the Morning

JPizzle — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:33:35 +0000

Here is a seriously dope Alexander the Great remix of M.O.P.’s “Pounds Up” from ATG’s upcoming remix project. This is some hype shit for the morning! Also, here is the info on the remix project itself:

“On September 25th, Heroic Villain Records & So-Gnar.com will be releasing the newest FREE mixtape from producer Alexander The Great (ATG). Having worked with Kool G Rap, Big Twins & GODpt.3 from Infamous Mobb, Reks, Crooked I, Murda Mook & more, as well as getting spins on Sirius/XM radio from legendary producer DJ Premier, the buzz around this up and coming producer has grown significantly in 2009. While taking a break in the recording process for albums from Oakland rapper A1 and Brooklyn artist Steven King, ATG has teamed up with So-Gnar.com & Heroic Villain Records and are bringing all the fans a free remix project. With remixes from artists such as Kanye West, Talib Kweli, Common, AZ, Royce 5’9, Jadakiss, MOP, Inspectah Deck, Jay-Z & more, ATG has chosen to pay homage to those that inspired him to start producing and is sure to keep making noise within the industry. Attached is the first official leak from the project, “Pounds Up”, from Brooklyn rap veterans MOP. The as yet untitled mixtape will be available for free download on September 25th on SO-GNAR.COM and all major online mixtape websites. In the next two weeks, So-Gnar.com will be leaking 3 more tracks before the official release of the project.”

M.O.P.- Pounds Up (ATG Remix)

Ancient Conqueror Gets Gully With The Remixes

JPizzle — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:46:57 +0000

Here is the first leak from Alexander the Great’s upcoming remix project. The great one has been releasing serious heat lately and we are excited to hear more.

Inspectah Deck – R.E.C. Room (ATG Remix)

Steven King Gets His All You Can Eat Buffet On

JPizzle — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:55:39 +0000

Here is the release of the anxiously awaited new Steven King mixtape. Hosted by Statik Selektah and featuring production by our man Alexander the Great. Get your eat on!

“Steven King-Eat Like A King hosted by Statik Selektah”

Steven King and Kool G Rap Get Heroic Then Villanious

JPizzle — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:00:38 +0000

Damn, Steven King and Kool G Rap Go IN on this one. Peep and enjoy.

Steven King – Heroic Villains feat. Kool G Rap (prod. by ATG)

Onyx Vs. The Clown from “It.” Who Wins?

JPizzle — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:13:39 +0000

Sonny Seeza of Onxy fame gets down with Steven King for a battle royale against the creepy clown from “It.”

Sonny Seeza “We Got Next” feat. Steven King (produced by Alexander the Great)