STAR TRACK VOYAGER
Sep 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Kylee Swenson
Ali Shaheed Muhammad has been the quiet one. In A Tribe Called Quest, the distinctive rhymes of Q-Tip and Phife Dawg first got people's attention. In Muhammad's later band, Lucy Pearl, ex — En Vogue vocalist Dawn Robinson and former Tony! Toni! Toné! musician/singer Raphael Saadiq took the spotlight. And with D'Angelo's 1995 hit “Brown Sugar,” the singer's muscles and sexy, classic soul voice, rather than Muhammad's songwriting and production contributions, commanded notice.
But Muhammad's not a four-time Grammy nominee for nothing. Music was an early revelation for the producer. At 8, his uncle — and now his manager, Michael Jones — taught him to DJ. Although his first turntables were chintzy plastic jobs, he learned how to match beats well before obtaining the revered Technics 1200s. At 13, he was turning knobs and pressing buttons on keyboards. By 18, Muhammad was in Tribe, releasing People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (Jive, 1990) by 20. Within several years, the group would reveal itself to be one of the most influential and intelligent acts in hip-hop.
After five albums with Tribe and one with Lucy Pearl, Muhammad's game hasn't dropped off. For his first solo album, Shaheedullah & Stereotypes (iMusic, 2003), Muhammad called in some friends, including Stokely Williams and Chris Dave of Mint Condition, Chip from Fu-Schnickens and singer Sy Smith and rapper K Jay. But for the first time ever, on Stereotypes, Muhammad steps up to the mic, rhyming on “Industry/Life,” “I Declare” and “U Suckas,” singing on “Matches — Don't Play” and “All Right (Aight),” singing background vocals on “Lord Can I Have This Mercy?” and offering spoken word on “The Cow.” It's a little surprising that he just pipes up now, considering how strong his rap flow and lullaby-sweet his singing voice are. But his DJ and production skills are, after all, what got him here. And his ideas in that realm are well worth hearing. But you may have to wait a bit to hear the record. A well-substantiated rumor has it that A Tribe Called Quest is reuniting for an album and tour in 2004. So it's possible that Muhammad's October release date will be pushed to fit with the press craze of Tribe.
DEEP IMPACT
Muhammad is a spiritual guy. A Muslim, he sees a pretty heavy connection between music and spirituality. Just as many songwriters wrote music inspired by the events of 9/11, Muhammad's album took off from the same springboard. “It started August of 2001, before the terrorist attacks,” Muhammad says. “I just felt like the energy and music in certain parts of the world were antihuman. And I felt that our government was not really acting on behalf of its citizens. So I wanted to make something that would say that. As it turned out, September 11th happened, and I think — especially after what took place — it was important for me to be a little more verbal and show a side of Islam that wasn't being portrayed. I think a lot of Muslims are very quiet about what took place. Maybe some Muslims just want to distance themselves from those Muslims who were acting against Islam. And it may be just better to be quiet as opposed to say something and stand out. But for me, I think that the Creator has given me a voice, and I just want to do something positive with everything that I do musically. Whether that is showing me in my Islamic culture or speaking out against oppression against the people of Tibet, that's how I want to take advantage of those lessons that I have.”
With his deep point of view and a mission to relay it in musical form, Muhammad got the album rolling after a couple of coincidental meetings. For the song “Put Me On,” which features guest vocalist Stokely Williams, Muhammad completed the vocals pen-pal-style: After running into a friend of Williams', Muhammad sent him the song, and Williams recorded vocals and sent it back. “Lord, Can I Have This Mercy?” with rapper Chip of the Fu-Schnickens, was more of a random occurrence. “I ran into Chip on the street one day,” Muhammad says. “He was like, ‘Yo, what are you doing?’ I was like, ‘What am I doing? What are you doing?’ The Fu-Schnickens was the first group outside of Tribe Called Quest that I ever did any production on, so it was kind of coming around back to home again. So he came by and did his thing. And what he put on there was just amazing. Everything just flowed.”
PLUG-IN OR PLAY?
As of late, Muhammad has been trying to balance engineering with musicianship. Sometimes, there isn't enough time in the day for both. “A challenge for me is going from programmer/producer to musician,” he says. “So I try to spend more time playing as opposed to getting deeper into the technicality of it.”
But plug-ins and effects still have their place in Muhammad's mix, as with the chimey effect on Sy Smith's vocal in “Honey Child.” “I used a plug-in from Pro Tools called Resonate [Digidesign Reso],” Muhammad says. “I wanted to do something real different with her voice, and I found something, and I was like, ‘That is exactly what I wanted.’ It was kind of a challenge for the engineer [Tim Donovan] because it's very high-end. And Sy has a very high, delicate voice anyway, so EQing to the point that it wouldn't pierce the ears was a bit of a challenge.”
Another Muhammad trick is a play on the reverse effect. “The reverse thing isn't anything new to people,” he says. “You hit the reverse, and it automatically flips the audio file and plays the file backward. But what I started doing was, when it played it backward, my start point was now my end point. And my end point became my start point. It changes the chord structure. So what was once on one now becomes on the four. And what I started doing was playing my chord structure backward so that when I hit the reverse, it played in the sequence that I wanted it to play in. But it still had that backward effect.”
PROGRAMMING EMOTION
Oftentimes, what the listener gets from a song is much different than what the artist who created it had intended. With Muhammad's opening track, “The Cow,” and subsequent song “Lord Can I Have This Mercy?” a scissorlike beat goes throughout the first and into the second song. But instead of sampling the sound of scissors, Muhammad actually had something much more profound in mind. “I was listening to Me'Shell Ndegéocello's last album, and I just liked the movement, the motions of the colors that were going on in what she was doing,” he says. “I just started playing with this little string line that was in my head, and then I built a beat around that. I was thinking of a heartbeat, and I was thinking of slavery. To me, the beat is like these chains moving in rhythm, like the slaves are marching. So that steady, bumbump is just the heartbeat, the light that continues through that struggle. Sometimes, I just sit there and program a beat, but sometimes, when I do get back into being creative without being technical, I'll think of something like that, and it will just hit me.”
But generally, so that he can get on with the business of coming up with chord changes and melodies, Muhammad lays down the initial beat quickly with stock sounds on the Korg Triton. “I just try to find some simple stock sounds and get a basic pattern down,” he says. “And then I can start building my chords on it. Afterward, I'll go back with the stock drum sounds and tweak them. I have 16 tracks' worth of sequencing. And I put every sound on a different track. I do that because I may have one kick just going straight quarter notes and I may have another kick that's moving in a different time. I have them on different tracks so that I can move the rhythms around.”
Despite that the sounds in the Triton are sample-perfect, Muhammad still treats them with EQ and effects to suit the song. But sometimes, he avoids EQing them on purpose. “On a song like ‘All Night,’ the high is not cut off at all on the kick,” he says. “I left it straight. And I used to always hate kicks like that. But they have their presence depending on the type of sound you're trying to draw. And I don't want everything to sound the same. A lot of people cut the high end down on their kicks to make the kick really stand out on the bottom end of it. Sometimes, I don't want to do that just because I know that that's what a lot of people are doing. I try to think inside and outside the box.”
STILL A DJ
Muhammad is a little sick of being called “DJ,” as that's been his assigned label since the late '80s. So he's breaking out of it somewhat by only scratching on one song on Stereotypes. “For ‘Tight,’ I was scratching the chorus of K Jay just going, “tight, tight,” Muhammad says. “He originally rapped it, and I just took his rap off and scratched those words back in. Thanks to the world of CDJ-1000s, I just mixed it, made the vocals how I wanted them to sound, made a CD of it and then scratched that in.”
When Muhammad spins DJ sets live, he uses the Pioneer CDJ CD turntables and the Technics — but he's definitely feeling his CDJs. “As each generation passes, whatever is the staple for that generation becomes the foundation for that generation,” he says. “So like people my nephew's age, I'm pretty sure the 1000s are going to be his life. He listens to CDs. He doesn't walk around carrying vinyl. He's 8 years old, and this summer, I'm going to teach him how to mix the way my uncle taught me when I was his age. Me, personally, I love the sound of vinyl. Just picking up vinyl, looking at it, reading it, the picture's blown up more. There's a little more of a feeling to it. But the convenience of the CD turntable is just unbeatable.
“But one thing about it I don't like is that there's a technique to make sure that your needles aren't skipping. And you don't have to learn that. When you're back-spinning and scratching, sometimes … the needle jumps. So you might have too much of a heavy hand. So that means that you have to lighten up your glide a little bit or grab the record in a different spot. And that's something that you learn. With the CD turntables, you don't have to worry about anything skipping unless you have a bad CD.”
THE DEMON MUSE
If you're lucky, the more diligent you are about working on music, the more ideas will descend upon you. Fortunately — and not so fortunately — this happened to Muhammad with the song “Matches Don't Play,” which has the most infectious bass hook on the album. “One night, I went to bed at four o'clock in the morning, which is almost my normal time,” he says, “and this bass line would not leave my head. I had already been up for, like, a day-and-a-half, working on some other stuff. And I said to myself, ‘Yo, you really need to go to sleep.’ But this bass line and Indian chant would not leave me. It was haunting me. I just put the pillow over my head. And the next thing I know, it was six o'clock, and I just sat in bed hearing the whole song. So I just got up, and I went downstairs and was like, ‘Okay, just record the little Indian chant and that bass line.’ Then, I was like, ‘You've got it down. Now go to sleep!’ At 12 o'clock, my business partner walked in the door, and I was pretty much finishing the second verse. I didn't sleep.”
Other times, the ideas don't come so readily. And beyond the initial growth spurt of inspiration, it's sometimes hard to come up with the rest of the song. For Muhammad, to get out of writer's block, he walks away from his everyday stimulus. “Sometimes, I leave [the song] alone and listen to other things that I wouldn't normally listen to: Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald, something that's not my everyday music. For example, for the song, “Lord, Can I Have This Mercy?” I was listening to this African artist Issa Bagayogo. I took his guitar rhythms and transferred that into a hi-hat rhythm. So it's like, ‘Let me stop here because I've hit a brick wall and listen to something else that I wouldn't normally do and apply it differently.’ So if Ella Fitzgerald was singing some melody, imagine that melody, take the rhythm of that and make it a kick pattern. Everything I do is an inspiration off of something else that I've heard — everything.”
Muhammad also develops ideas from listening to more contemporary music that is outside the scope of hip-hop and R&B. “With Coldplay, there's so much spirit within the heaviness of that piano when [Chris Martin] is playing and so much space. The drummer [Will Champion] doesn't get in the way. But everything he plays is right — same thing with guitar and bass. It's a lot of atmosphere, so much room for breath. And to me, Basement Jaxx is kind of like dance gospel to an extent because of those handclaps. When they come, it's that stomping of the foot. So I identify with that. My favorite song is ‘Breakaway.’ That bass line of ‘Matches’ is not the same thing, but almost in the same family.
“I love music; that's the bottom line,” Muhammad continues. “We should all try to broaden our horizons and not stick to just what we know. I was the type of kid in Brooklyn who was always like, ‘Let's go to some parties in Manhattan.’ It was like, ‘What? Are you crazy?’ When you're a teenager, that's not normal thinking, especially if you don't have family in other boroughs. I was just like, ‘Yo, let's jump on a train. Let's just roll!’ It's just a natural progression for me to be an explorer.”
THE POWER BEHIND STEREOTYPES
Akai MPC2000XL sampling drum machine/sequencer
AMEK 9098 mic preamp: “I think one of the most important pieces in a home studio to have is a really awesome mic pre. A lot of people I know just go directly into their digital interfaces without really pushing it through a dope mic pre. The reason I'm so hot on this mic pre is that it would be the equivalent of me going to an SSL or to a big studio.”
Apple Mac G4 computers (2): “I've had Macs since '89. They just put out a G5 that I'm real mad about 'cause I just purchased another G4.”
Avalon sp737 mic pre
Clavia Nord Lead keyboard
Digidesign Pro Tools software
Fender Precision fretless bass
Fender Stratocaster (Japanese issue) guitar
Korg Poly-61 keyboard
Korg Triton keyboard
Mackie HR824 monitors
Pioneer CDJ-1000 CD turntables (2)
Roland Juno-60 (missing in action): “There was this band in my neighborhood that borrowed the Juno-60 from me and never returned it. I know they tried to reach me, and I had a phone number change, but I'm still living in the same spot. And I'm real pissed off at those guys. I've got a real frown face 'cause that Roland 60 is real hard to find. I have a real attachment with that keyboard.”
Roland VS-1880 digital studio workstation (for the road)
Smith & Wesson handgun (a little joke here): “I have a Smith & Wesson for anyone reading this interview who wants to come knocking on my door thinking that they want to come pay Ali a visit.”
Technics SL-1200MK2 turntables (2)
Vestax PMC-06ProA DJ mixer
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