Donwill: New York Magazine Interview

NY Mag: With High Fidelity, which came first for you, the book or the movie?

Donwill: [Long pause.] I’ve not read the book. People keep telling me to; of course, the book is always better than the movie. There was a lot the movie had to leave out or imply that I would enjoy reading, so I’ll probably pick that up.

NY Mag: I was surprised by how much dialogue you recite from the movie. Was that always planned, or did you decide to add that later?

Donwill: It was definitely added later. When I sat down with the material it just felt like it needed a mechanism to push the songs along in order to gel with the story line.

NY Mag: Was it important to you to stay close to the source?

Donwill: That was why I did it, to explore the territory of really conceptually digging in — almost like a book report, if you will. I wanted it to be a wholehearted adaptation. At this point, if I did another conceptual album — I don’t think that I would do one, per se — but if I could do this one over, I would do the same thing, really skit-based. I enjoy that.

NY Mag: My sense is that your group, Tanya Morgan, is more or less a democracy. Is that true?

Donwill: I would agree with that. I would say we maintain a certain individual autonomy. Even with the group material, songs are submitted, even the beats. You can get outvoted on songs. They’re very much involved in my solo material. They’re my council of trust. When I finished the album, the first people to hear it were Von and Ilyas. Those are the two people I trust as my second set of ears.

NY Mag: Given all that, I have to imagine it was kind of satisfying to cast them in supporting roles on the song “Championship Vinyl,” and then later on, refer to their characters as “the musical moron twins.” Did they give you any dirty looks about that?

Donwill: [Laughs.] No, they didn’t. Sometimes as artists, man, we think we know everything, because we love what we love, and our tastes are our tastes. And in the group, we’re subject to each other’s tastes. Doing the album alone was like, “I can get all this singing and R&B on my album, and nobody can tell me I can’t.”

NY Mag: The album has a lot of guests. How do you approach people with an idea like this?

Donwill: I definitely had to kick it to them differently. Like, with “Ian’s Song,” it was like, "So, Opio, I want to get you on this song. But here’s the catch: You have to say the name Laura and you have to be named Ian." He was just like, “What?” But when I explained it to him, it turned out he liked the movie also.

NY Mag: Have you gotten any feedback from John Cusack or Nick Hornby or anyone else involved with the movie? Have you run into any kind of rights stuff?

Donwill: I haven’t. [Laughs.] I’m kind of just hoping it can get on-shelf before any sort of anything happens regarding that. But I want them to hear it. I want Nick Hornby to hear it. It’s not like a Warner Bros. release where 250,000 units are shipped; it’s a small independent release. I don’t necessarily see it being a problem. But I do understand how it could be a problem. (source)

Will The Real (MF) Doom Please Stand Up?

The question of ambiguity has surfaced yet again with (MF) Doom's recent show's asking the question, is this the real thing or not?

via New York Magazine

After a shaky, lip-synch heavy show in Chicago a few weeks back, the underground rapper DOOM is once again being accused of having sent an impostor to perform in his place. This is something DOOM can easily do because he’s never seen without his trademark silver mask, and has more or less been caught doing before. But the Chicago performance isn’t a clear-cut example. The promoters are convinced it was him, releasing a statement that says they “DO NOT have any proof that the person who performed was not Daniel Dumile, a.k.a. Doom. The show was legally contracted and paid for in full. The show was officially listed on Doom's website.” So, what's going on here?

One of the promoters, Harry Knuckles, explains further:

At no point did we have time to fingerprint him or draw blood for inspection. And IMO, seriously, the dood looked like him, like Zev Love X. yes it was pretty obvious that the guy was lip-syncing, but we can't say that it wasn't Dumile. If Dumile lip-syncs because he is too fat, alcoholic and out of breath to spit his own verse, I guess that's what it has come to now.

Comparing the YouTube videos available to what we saw from DOOM at the Pitchfork Festival, we agree with Knuckles that it was the real deal, just giving a lackluster performance. More interesting is the question of why people are so upset: More than any other rapper’s alter ego, DOOM — whose backstory borrows from the Marvel comics super-villain Doctor Doom — is explicitly a separate entity from Daniel Dumile. What’s the point of creating a character that wears a mask all the time if you can’t send out other people to play that character?

As Dumile has explained:

I'm doing the shows; the stage is my canvas; I'll put whatever up there for the visible eye … Look, was niggas rockin' or was niggas rockin'? See, I'm snapping niggas out of it.

And yet … this would be a good point, if everyone were indeed “rockin.’” If DOOM were able to cultivate a cadre of fakes to entertain the masses, that would be unprecedentedly dope — someone pushing hip-hop’s concept of the alter ego to its extreme point. At this point, however, neither the real nor fake DOOMs seem to be entertaining anybody. Meanwhile, DOOM gets to charge $39.50 a ticket thanks in part to people willing to pay in the hopes they’ll be the lucky ones to get the real DOOM. With that said, there’s no way we’re missing his show this Friday at the Nokia Theater. (another source to story - Brooklyn Vegan)

Sade: Hip Hop Chimes In About Sade's Greatness

via New York Magazine

Missy Elliott
Watching her sing "Smooth Operator" live! One of my favorite songs. She always sounds just like the record! I'm excited she's has a new album — that's my favorite moment, when I heard she was blessing us with her sound again!

Talib Kweli
My favorite Sade memory is watching her perform Love Deluxe in its entirety at Madison Square Garden. The band (Sweetback) was so tight, and even though she left her spot at the mike only a couple of times, when she did she was so sexy it was magical. I learned a lot about precision that night. There was not a note or move out of place.

Rakim
I grew up on soul music, but when my pops introduced me to Sade just before Diamond Life hit, it was a revelation. That voice and her style just took out even the hardest hood at the knees. "Smooth Operator" may have been a smash for everyone worldwide, but that was my track, and you can catch me referencing what she was trying to get across from Paid in Full up to my new album. Being in the biz for about the same amount of time, I respect and try to emulate how she floats above the industry ... one of the few that can do things on her own terms, knowing her fans will watch out for her. To this day, she's one of the artists I can listen to with 100 percent admiration. I can't wait to get my hands on this album and congratulate her for continuing to build her already iconic place in the world.

Tajai, Souls of Mischief
When I was young, her record was one of the few my mom would play that I would enjoy, too. As a kid, I’d want her to turn off her music so I could hear LL Cool J or someone like that, but Sade and Luther Vandross were two records I dug, too. Sade transcends the age gap. I’ve never seen her live though I’ve always wanted to. I also remember hearing rumors that (famous drug dealer) Felix Mitchell would fly out to Paris to see her shows.

Joell Ortiz
I always think of the song "Ordinary Love" whenever someone brings up Sade, because that song came out around the time my dad bounced. After he left, my mom used to sit in her room, getting high while listening to "Ordinary Love" over and over again for weeks. That was saddest time of my young life. Whenever I hear that song, I well up with tears."

Keri Hilson
My Dad would whistle Sade melodies randomly all the time. As a kid, I used to try to whistle along to "Cherish the Day" or "Sweetest Taboo." He was a real Sade fan and made me one, too! We couldn't be in his car even for five minutes without hearing her voice!

Kanye West
"THIS IS WHY I STILL HAVE A BLOG. TO BE A PART OF MOMENTS LIKE THIS ... NEW SADE ... HOW MUCH BETTER THIS THAN THAN EVERYTHING ELSE"

Read the full article here:
NY Mag: Vulture - Missy Elliott, Rakim, Talib Kweli, and More Talk to Vulture About the Greatness of Sade