Louis Logic

This interview is between Hugz Boss and Louis Logic. The interview was conducted on June 26th, 2000. Louis Logic is a very well known rapper on the Underground/Independent scene, he recently dropped a dope 12" 'Loud Mouth'/'Secret Agent' and is working on several forthcoming projects. Why Hip Hop ? Actually, it wasn't something I wanted to go into initially. I sort of stumbled into it, I was just rapping and stuff because I was a fan and eventually what ended up happening was I formed partners with somebody, we were like a little group. Then, we had a fall out. He went and pressed up a record and I'm such a baby that I was like "If he's gonna make a record, I'm gonna make a record!" So I went out and recorded my first song ever, shortly there after it got played to that kid L-Fudge who was on Rawkus. He then decided that he was gonna do a song with me because he liked the one that I had done and the rest is history. Before you knew I had a piece of wax out. How did you hook up with Celph ? A reviewer who wrote for URB magazine, this kid named Meddafore, contacted me and told me that he know a kid that made beats, and was real dope, and, if I was interested in finding some production he would definitely put me down. He had just written a review for me so I was definitely psyched to take his help. He has been a helpful influence. So, he pretty much connected me with Celph via email, the next thing you know we were on the phone building and now like I'd say we're pretty good friends. Cool...now the question which was one of the reasons I set this interview up is I wanted to clear up the rumours surrounding your newly found problems with JJ Brown. We've heard you aren't talking because allegedly you put out your new CD which has beats by him without either informing him or paying him whatsoever. Can you clear this up ? Here we go boy, the roller coaster ride start. [pause] Okay [pause] I need a smoke for this, haha. It's ridiculous man. Anybody who is at all familiar with the Superegular record that I put out, that had J-Treds on the A-Side 'General Principle,' there was a remix, on the B-Side, of a song that was on my first record. A song called 'Punchlines.' Well, this fellow Pen-State Alumni, a little Indian kid by the name of Shanti did the remix. I had been friends with the kid for, I'd say, 4 years. Now we've had our little moments, I mean like a little shit talking here and there, whatever. But, nothing real serious. As it turns out, I've been kind of broke lately, trying to scrape by. The starving artist type, need for rent, whatever, amd I was in need of a little money. So, I talked to Celph who is a very intelligent, resourceful guy and we came up with the idea of releasing a compilation on CD-R of all the previously released material which was already available on vinyl, but not CD. So, it was a limited thing, you know, do it yourself, right out of the home operation, nothing real big. Nothing that was gonna generate some insane dollar revenue that people were gonna be jealous about. It was just a one off thing to take care of a specific problem. My rent problem. Well, I wake up one morning and I had a phone call on my answering machine and it's JJ. He's making threats at me, and cursing at me, talking about I cheated him out of money and that I'm not giving him his credit for his production and that he's gonna have a lawyer do whatever they have to do to shut down Superegular. My label and Jedi Mind Tricks' as well. So, of course I'm like "Whatever," I'm knocked out on the couch when I hear this message. He called early and I was still asleep, I woke up like half way through it and I thought he was kidding. I mean I've been very good friends with JJ for at least a couple of years, we've nursed each other through broken up girlfriends cheating on us and shit like that. We were like friends, it wasn't just a music thing. I picked up the phone mid-message, and I thought he was kidding. Then it started to sound a little bit serious with all the cursing at me and him making threats. So, I pick up the phone and I'm like "Oh, you fuckin' tough guy, who you talkin' to?" and things like that. Just like breaking his balls a little bit, just to see where he was coming from, if he was serious or not. He then hangs up the phone after stuttering a little bit. And I'm like "What the...?" So I called my manager, I have my manager call JJ. When my manager gets back to me he tells me that JJ has been corresponding back and forth with Shanti, who has been telling him a series of untruths about me that all equated to the fact that I have been cheating JJ out of money and credit. To list them off; first: Shanti tells JJ that he was in Fat Beats, in New York and he tells JJ that he saw a copy of my latest single on Bronx Science; 'Loud Mouth.' JJ had produced that A-Side, now he said that he saw a copy of it that was a White Label and didn't have any production credits on it. So, a) that was a promo copy. None of the promo copies have production credits on them. Buds (Buds Distribution) doesn't do that, it's just the artist and the song name. That's just the way they do it, not my choice. He calls up JJ and is like "Yo, he put out that record and didn't give you credit" etc. etc. Then, co-incidentally, that CD ends up online. Shanti calls up JJ and is like "Get online right now, Lou put out his full length album" [laughs] "He put out his full length album and he didn't give anybody any credit, and he didn't tell us that it was coming out." Which is totally untrue, almost none of that stuff that's on there is even gonna be on my full length. It was just like I said, it was a very limited, home, mom & pop only probably not even more than a couple hundred units thing. So there was that, and then This little guy, Shanti, takes it upon himself to tell JJ that I sold over 10,000 units of the 'General Principle' single, which wasn't true, and that I got my money already. And he starts asking JJ "Did you see any of that money?" and of course, JJ's like "No." So he starts freaking out, JJ's at the point where he has done a beat or two for a major label project, so he recently established publishing. And, he goes on about how he wants his publishing on everything thats come out and how I've cheated him out of that opportunity by releasing these things without telling him etc. etc. So, basically what ended up happening is...Why? I don't know because I can't see what Shanti stands to gain by doing this to me. Especially seeing as I've been a good friend to this guy and I guest appeared on his single that nobody wanted to press up the first time around when he tried to pass it out to people. He tried a few different distributors whose names will go unmentioned who didn't like it. I mean essentially what they told me was they laughed at it, they didn't like it at all. I did a song with him, he added it to the package and now all of a sudden it's gonna be distributed. After that this guy turns around and does this to me, he's calling up JJ with my name in his mouth telling him all this stuff about me which is untrue. And then JJ, I've got my own reasons to be mad at him. This guy never even called me to ask me whether or not these things were true. He just assumed they were and started making threats on my answering machine. So now I've got Ikon, from Superegular and Jedi Mind Tricks, shitting a brick. He thinks that JJ's threatening him with law stuff and he's not someone who takes lightly to threats. So he's talkin' about firebombing JJ's house and stuff, I'm like "Calm down, we're gonna find out what happens and whatever." JJ didn't wanna settle up with me, he didn't wanna discuss it with me and find out whether any of this was true or just unsubstantiated rumours. He wouldn't get on the phone with me in person, he just kept leaving messages when I wasn't around. Shanti was ducking me and acting like he had moved out of his parents house, so that he wouldn't have to talk to me on the phone. I emailed him and he sent me this huge sob-story that was like 2000 words long about how it was not his fault etc. etc. And that if I would've handled my business practices better this never would have happened. Of course, JJ wouldn't have had anything to question if he wouldn't have shown up on his email or on his phone with a list of things that I'd done to screw JJ over. So, the guy who was supposed to be putting together my entire album, and by that I mean when all the cuts were finished, even the ones that other producers had done, they were gonna be getting sent to JJ's studio so that he could put it together with interludes and everything and make it a full album. He's not doing it now. He won't even talk to me. So, I have Shanti to thank for this and I have every intention of repaying him for his services to me, haha. And there will be a diss cut, there will definitely be a diss cut. Looking forward to it. I couldn't tell you why this happened to me, I don't want to sound like I'm telling my sob story and pulling out the violins. But, I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything to anybody and I have no idea why this happened to me. It was all just a big misunderstanding on JJ's part, and on Shanti's part, it was a straight up backstabbing. I don't know what he thought he was doing or what he thought my reaction was gonna be, but I mean judging from what I'm telling you right now, the reaction is not gonna be good. So, what's the status with the CD at the moment? Are they still being produced or what? Yes, but on very limited quantity. We're doing like 10 here, 20 there. This isn't like some full scale operation and these are songs that have already been milked for most of their value anyway. There's a few new exclusive things on there, but they have nothing to do with JJ or Shanti. It just turned into a much uglier situation than it needed to be. As far as I can see, account wise, I have done both of those guys favours to help them get their names out, and apparently it wasn't that appreciated [laughs]. Do you see any possibly resolutions with JJ or not? You know what, I'm a business man, I'll work with JJ. I'm not taking it personally that JJ wouldn't take my word for it. I am a little insulted, but it wouldn't prevent me from doing something with JJ in the future. So, it's up to him. If he wanted to reconcyle with me I would certainly reconcyle with him. He's a talented kid and I don't think his complaints were invalid had what was said been true, which it wasn't. But he never bothered to find that out. He started shooting his gums off before he even asked. Whats up with the Black Tibetan Knights..I heard it was supposed to be you, Ikon and Apathy, any details you can give me? That was an idea that Ikon came up with, and I guess it was something he'd referenced before on Jedi Mind Tricks projects, probably on their first album like using that phrasing, I think it's actually the Black Tibetan Magicians or something like that. It is something that we're planning on doing. It might have a different name by the time that it actually does materialize. Apathy, Ikon and I have discussed it and we are going to do it, it's just that right now we're up in the air on who exactly is going to produce it. Especially now because we had one beat set for it, and JJ was the producer. As you can see that thing has reached much further than just me. Wait, no it was Tibetan Black Magicians. But if anybody is up on the current development as far as Jedi Mind Tricks stylistically speaking...it probably won't be that anymore. I think they're moving towards just spitting some street stuff that isn't too over people's heads. They'll always have a little math and science in it because that's their thing. I think that they're trying to simplify it a little bit for people and just getting back to spitting like battle rhymes. So I think that they might even change the name of that project when it does come to fruition to correspond with that new change and protocol in terms of rhymes. I know Ikon has a project coming out called 'Vinnie Paz,' it's gonna be on Direct. It's like a street record but it has a Jedi Mind Tricks spin to it. There's still some intelligence behind it and the ever present sort of apocolyptic-holywater style that Jedi Mind Tricks and Ikon are credited with trademarking. They're mixing a little bit more of a rougher street element into it also. I mean, Ikon is a [emphasizes] huge Kool G Rap fan, so there's gonna be some street stuff for sure. And I think that will probably impact the Tibetan Black Magicians project. It will happen, and it will be the three of us. Probably Stoupe's gonna end up producing it now. Which should be delicious because Stoupe's beats are definitely out of control. I'm sure Celph wouldn't mind in getting involved in that as well and he's definitely held in a high regard with Superegular projects. I know they look forward to employing his talents on upcoming stuff so... Is the material you recorded with Chops ever likely to surface ? Are you referring to like the super old stuff? Yeah.. Like the old demo's that I did with him ? Yeah... Uh......no. [laughs] It can never surface, anybody that does have a copy should send it back to me right away as it is very embarassing and old and humourous aswell. Chops and I recently got a chance to build again, mixing down a single that will probably come out on Bronx Science. It's gonna be this kid, Big Jim Slade as the producer, Mountain Brothers on the record as well as another Philly group; Name, whose front man, Grand Agent, people have heard of probably. He did a joint with AG and has an album coming out soon. He's on it and then there's a song with Grand Agent and myself. So, yeah I did get a chance to build with Chops recently. Hadn't talk to him in some time, since we were room-mates. Not on some un-friendly stuff just didn't work out as room-mates. We're definitely still friends, he's a good guy. Maybe in the future I'll do something with Chops, I don't know. Who are you planning on collaborating with and who would you like to? Who would I like to ? I'd definitely like to do a joint with Em. I think he's like the greatest dude, but he's definitely a big fish, and unless I find myself a home on a major that probably won't happen. But I would also like to do something with Thirstin. I dig him a lot, I think he's one of the few people who distinguishes himself so well as to have created a character. It's almost as like he's like a cartoon or something, he's so animated. I also would like to do something with J-Zone, his beats are bananas yo. I'm hoping I can link up with him. Currently I am looking around as far as what I'm gonna be doing with my full length album, because I'm not so sure I want it to come out on an indy or not. So I've been talking to some A&R's and whatever, whose names will go unmentioned, just to investigate the possibilities. So anybody I do work with, it could turn out to be an opportunity because it might end up coming out on something a little bigger with more exposure, more copies, you know, spread more. That's the goal in the end you know. We all just want more people to hear our music, and maybe even make a nice living off of it. So you're not waking up in the morning to go to a miserable day job, you know ? We could all do without that. Spend our time just doing Hip Hop. What are you working on right now ? Actually I'm working on like a few things all at once. Right now I'm putting together my full length album which will probably not come out on anything until I find a good home for it that I'm comfortable with. It'll definitely be with Superegular, I don't want anyone to be misinformed like those guys are my family and I will definitely not leave them behind. So even if it did come out on a major or something, I would do it through Superegular. I will not forget those guys because they're responsible in part for whatever notoriety that I've been able to get for myself. In the meantime, I plan on continuing to drop material. I'll probably do an EP by myself, a Louis Logic EP, that will have some guest appearances and stuff on it because my album isn't going to have any guest appearances. There's probably gonna be one guest appearance which would be me and Ikon on something like 'Rump Song Part 2' or a sequel to 'Factotum.' But I'm also doing an EP that's coming out on Superegular that's not just me, it's gonna be a team up. It's gonna be called 'The Odd Couple' starring Jay Love and Louis Logic. It's not the Jay Love that everyone knows from Large Professor and Masta Ace. It's an emcee out of White Plains, New York. Very dope. I think people will really be feeling it, I'd say 3/4 of the EP is done already. So it should be very soon that people will be hearing that. That'll probably be the next thing that comes out that I'm on. What about new Jedi Mind Tricks/Amry Of The Pharoahes releases? Do you have any idea when they're likely to drop or details about them? And whether you're on them or not..? Yeah, definitely. The Jedi album is all done, its been sent out to manufacturing and everything. It's gonna be coming out through Superegular/Landspeed on double vinyl and CD. It has got a slew of great guest appearances. I am on the album, they included the song 'Trinity' with L-Fudge and I. And they included this new song, I'm not sure of the title. I heard the album in its entirety but I didn't have a tracklisting when I heard it. But there's a new song that I'm on on the album. It's Ikon, Jus'Allah, me and a new guy named B.A.Barracus, who's probably gonna drop a 12" on Superegular also, and Diamondback of the Deadly Snakes on Tommy Boy is also on that song. The guest appearance list on that album is out of control and the beats are bangin'. They got Tragedy Khadafi on the album, 7L & Esoteric, Virtuoso, Bahamadia, Chief Kamachi. There's an Ikon/Chief Kamachi collabo on the album. I can't wait until that song comes out people are gonna be like "Dammmnnn." It's such a good song. Mr. Lif's on the album, J-Treds, Mr. Len from Company Flow, it's just chocked full of dope people, it's gonna be a good experience man. And that should be probably the end of the summer I'd say. Everyone should definitely keep an eye out for the Jedi Mind Tricks album, I'm keeping an eye out for it. I don't even have a copy of it. Is there anything you'd like to talk about that we haven't covered ? Yeah, you know what, there is one thing. I've been doing a lot of thinking about people coming up like on the underground, getting a little love on the internet and with indy records and everything and it seems like there's this weird backlash when people are able to expand into a bigger market and I think that's really weird. I don't see why the fans strike out against people if they're not doing something different, why diss 'em? But it seems like people are kind of snobby, they only like it if it's indy or whatever. I don't think it has anything to do with that, if you're a Hip Hop fan and you're really just about the music, why should it matter to you if suburban chicks in the middle of nowhere know what the record is. I mean you can't have all the good stuff just to yourself. And plus, if you were really a fan of someone, wouldn't you want them to be successful? It seems like kids want their artist to be like starving and such like. I see nothing wrong with someone making a living off of music if they're continuing to make high quality product. Who's gonna diss The Roots for instance? Those guys are Grammy winners. They're talented, you can't diss them just because they're big and they're all over MTV. So that would be my message. If you're really loyal to an artist, and they don't change their style up in such a way that compromises themselves, it shouldn't matter whether they're on an indy or a major and it seems like it does right now. Or, if they start experimenting with new styles, if it's not wack. Why diss 'em? My man Esoteric take so much flack over one little line that he put on his record. That one where he goes "You're calling me a backpacker, that's proposterous, I push a lex and rock thousand dollar watches." It's not untrue, like I'm friends with Esoteric. He does drives a Lexus and he does have a thousand dollar watch, and maybe they don't care about that. But it was funny. People dismissed it and tried to say it was like any other commercial artist saying "Oooh, I have lots of money." That's not what he was saying, he was saying it's ironic that people call him a backpacker when he has stuff which some of the artists who brag about having stuff don't actually have. Which is kinda funny. And I felt bad, because lots of kids were like "What, does he think he's jiggy now?" because he's not rhyming about double-tetra-hedron whatever anymore, you know what I mean? That shit disappoints me man, people can't rhyme about the same thing for the rest of their lives. I'm really concerned because I enjoy the love that I have gotten from fans who are in the know. And I'm lucky that they've gotten the few things that I've put out so far, but I feel they may not be there if I find myself like a major or something. And I wouldn't want that, I would hope that they would still be fans if I was still making good music. So that's what I would say, that would be the last thing I would say to any fans, if I have fans, I don't know if I do. I've met a couple of people who may qualify as fans, but I'm not sure. I find it hard to look at things that way. I'm a regular guy who gets up and goes to work to do a job.

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