Ayatollah – The Unkut Interview

Queens-born producer Ayatollah has laced tracks for everyone from Tragedy to Screwball to Mos Def to Cormega. We caught-up last week to discuss his early days on the come-up, auditioning beat tapes at Rawkus Records and a random Happy Days connection. His latest project, Box Cutter Brothers 3, is out now with Drasar Monumental.

Robbie: What was your inspiration to make music?

Ayatollah: My older brother. When I was younger he used to take care of me, and he was a b-boy. He was like my super hero. He listened to a lot of hip-hop, breakdancing and things like that. I admired him, he had a major influence on me – the way he dressed, the music he listened to – I just thought he was really cool. He would wear the sheepskins and the suede Pumas and Kangols. At school I was always into art, so after going to junior high school I got into the whole graffiti thing. Graffiti had a big influence on me making music.

After the graffiti I got into the DJing. I started DJing from ’89. I bought turntables, I started collecting records [and] I started doing parties. I started battling other DJ’s, competition-wise. When I met Jam-Master Jay, rest in peace, was quite a major point in my life. Getting to ask him questions about DJing and Run-DMC – he actually took the time out to answer my questions. I met him at random in Queens, on 165th Street and Jamaica Avenue. It’s a huge shopping area for a lotta people on Queens. There came a point in my DJing career where I was like, ‘I don’t just want to play the records anymore, I wanna actually produce the records.’

Did you start looping on pause tapes or did you have a sampler?

I had a little rack-mount sampler. It sampled for like six to seven seconds and it didn’t have any drum pads. It was just something that looped, but each time you over-looped it, it lost quality. You could only over-loop it four times before the quality got not too good. It worked for a couple of years for starters – some of the beats weren’t bad, believe it or not. It was a brand called Digitech.

What was your first big break as far as getting into the business?

A DJ friend of mine had introduced me to Tragedy – at the time he was Intelligent Hoodlum. Tragedy was looking for a DJ to go on the road with him and tour with him and I kinda auditioned for him at my house in Queens. He liked it, so we did shows and we traveled. It was quite an experience for me.

When was this?

This was Saga of A Hoodlum [era]. I was in the studio with him when he was recording that album. He let me sit in on the studio sessions and see how the process of making records actually worked. That’s what pushed me into wanting to produce tracks as well, I liked the creative process of making music.

What was the first record you produced?

I had produced for this artist by the name of Bee Why. He was an indy artist, we put out a couple of records. My producer name wasn’t Ayatollah at that time, it was DJ Kool G [credited as Gee The Nutty Professor on the singles mentioned]. I changed the producer name, I thought it was a little cheesy. [laughs]

Was ‘Ms. Fat Booty’ your first big hit?

That definitely was the first big record – if not the biggest – that made an impact on everybody, as far as radio and video airplay.

How did that come about?

I would go up to Rawkus Records with beat tapes that I made in my house. I lived in Queens and Rawkus Records was in Manhattan so I would take my beat tapes and beat CDs over to the label. At first they were a little hesitant, ‘cos they were doing a lotta records at that time. After a while they saw that I was persistent, so the A&R’s were like, ‘Even when we’re busy and we tell him to come back, he comes back with more music! Let’s give him a listen.’ So we were in the conference room – all the A&R’s were there, I was nervous – the owners of the record label was there and they played the music. Everybody was bopping their head, they were all kinda surprised. Talib was there and he came in the office and said, ‘What is that?’ One of the beats on the tape were ‘Ms. Fat Booty.’ They let Mos Def hear it, he liked it and we made the song!

Which machine were you using for that?

The Akai MPC-60 II. I still use that machine to this day.

Did everything change once that song blew up?

I got a lotta calls from different MCs – Talib Kweli for example, Pharoahe Monch, Styles P – various artists were reaching out to me like, ‘We like your music, we wanna work with you.’ Kool G Rap, Rakim, Slick Rick, Canibus, Shyne. Some of the Wu-Tang Clan members, Screwball, Cormega. It was really cool.

I loved that Screwball record you did, ‘When The Sun Goes Down.’

You remember that? That’s old, that’s like 2003. I’m gonna listen to that after the interview, I haven’t heard the Loyalty album in years.

Were you in the studio for that?

Yeah, I was in the studio with all of ’em. They were dope. Even Blaq Poet on his own is still doing it.

What are three favorite beats for other artists?

I would have to say hands down ‘Ms. Fat Booty;’ second would be Masta Ace ‘Hold U’ with him and Jean Grae on his Disposable Arts album; the third one would be Rakim ‘A Cold Feeling.’

What was the Rakim song recorded for?

It was meant to be for the movie soundtrack The Wash, but they didn’t put it on the soundtrack so I think it got bootlegged and put out as a record.

What was the motivation behind your instrumental albums?

I had a lotta music that nobody heard. I like doing instrumental projects because you can be more creative with the music.

Who do you have the best chemistry with in the studio?

Mos Def is cool, he’s super easy to work with. Cormega is one of the easier ones to work with. Tragedy, Royce Da 5’9″, Masta Ace.

If you could remake ‘The Symphony,’ which four MCs would you have on there?

One of them would be Nas, second one would be Roc Marciano. Third one would be MF Doom and fourth would be Common.

You worked with the late Sean Price. What are your best memories of him?

Sean P was just a cool cat. I was in the studio when he and I recorded. We actually recorded a lot of songs, people just haven’t heard them. He was just a cool dude.

You also worked with Killa Sha on ‘A Thing Called Love.’

He was a little guy, but he was so, so dope as an MC. I worked with him as a musician, but at the same time he was my friend. He’d come by my house and hang out, we’d watch TV and movies and we’d eat food together and tell jokes. It was more than just music.

He told me he liked really big women.

Sha was a funny guy! [laughs] I don’t know why, but he liked big women! That was his thing.

Hey, whatever works! Do you have a lot of unreleased music that you’ve been holding onto?

Yeah. I’ve got a couple of songs with B-1 that nobody’s ever heard before. We’re going to try to put together an album. That guy’s an amazing MC. He’s rhymed with Kool G Rap and Nas, Large Professor produced him. Xtra-P is one of my idols.

How did you meet Drasar for the Box Cutter Brothers series?

MF Grimm connected us together, he introduced me to Drasar. He’s the man behind the Box Cutter Brothers! I spoke with Drasar tonight and I was like, ‘When do we start Box Cutter 4?’ And he was like, ‘Now! Start sending music for the next one tonight!’

Have you got any funny digging stories?

One time I was in the Village – Soho, Manhattan – I had a couple of record spots I used to go to. One day Henry Wrinkler came into the record store where I was digging for records, and he was buying records! I turned around like, ‘You’re The Fonz!’ I shook his hand, I showed him the records I was buying, he showed me his. [laughs]

What was The Fonz copping?

He bought some Simon and Garfunkle records, he bought some Beatles albums. He told me he liked folk music.