AllHipHop.com: Big Boi, on “Reset” you have Khujo and Cee-Lo who are rumored to have beef due to the break up of the Goodie Mobb. Were there any problems getting them together to do the song?
Big Boi: Actually they got a lil something goin on but it ain’t really nothing. Basically it’s like, Cee-Lo wants to step out and do his solo thing, and Gipp wanna do his thing, and Khujo gonna do his thing. So it ain’t no real beef <I>beef </I>like that. But to do the song “Reset” I wanted to have an old-school Dungeon Family type feel to the song and I wanted to get Cee-Lo and Jo, and I woulda had one more on there like T-mo, but the song was too long, so we just kept it like that. It was actually love. I had told both of them about it, cause there was the whole sub rift thing going on, but they was like, ‘man, whatever. Cool folk, we family’. So they let it happen. But, we gonna have to sit down and talk to them and try to see what’s goin’ on with the Goodie for real.
AllHipHop.com: Ya’ll did a lot of production on your albums. Andre, you produced your whole joint? How long have you guys been producing, and what made you decide to jump it off on this album?
Andre: It’s not common knowledge but we’ve actually been [producing tracks] since ATLiens. Like “Elevators” and “Extra Terrestrials”, those were some of the first beats I ever worked on. And so now, since it’s not under the same name or companies, people think we just jumped and produced our own albums. And Big Boi has been producing tracks since that time as well. It’s funny cause for us it ain’t nothing new! It’s just different names.
AllHipHop.com: Big Boi, you worked with Jigga on his last album, and he’s featured on your side of the album on the track “Flip Flop Rock”. I’m sure ya’ll are aware of his plans to retire. Do you think he’s really throwin’ it in?
Big Boi: As far as Jay-Z retiring goes, this is ‘bout what, the third time he done retired, right? Raheim the Dream retired bout two or three times, Too Short did bout two times, I think this is ‘bout Jay-Z’s second or third time retiring. Michael Jordan retired like two or three times. You never know what they’re gonna do. Good artists, musicians, lyricists, the whole nine. I dunno if it’s to wake people up like, ‘This is my last one. You better go out and get it.’ Or if he’s like, “F**k it. I don’t wanna do it no more. I made my mark”, you know what I’m saying? But there’s always something about it that might bring you back to the game. So you know, you could retire and jump back in whenever you feel like it. So, much love to Jay-Z.
Dre: We ain’t retiring no time soon, but I definitely don’t wanna be no old man rappin.’ I will tell you that! I’m only 28 but boy, sometimes them rhymes get rough. Sometimes you gotta find something to talk about. And that’s when you get the ‘woobitydoopty and dippitydipty’ on the microphone. I think certain things can drive you to retirement, but at the same time, certain things can bring you out of retirement too. So, I mean, I don’t think he’s lyin or that it’s just a bullsh*t line, I think at this point he really feels that he wants to do something [else]. But man, sometimes you can be at home watchin’ a video and be like, ‘Maaaan these n##### are really bullsh*ttin on the microphone’ and that will be the day when you’ll be like, ‘Lemme say something’. And that’s when you come right up outta retirement. You never know.
AllHipHop.com: What’s up with Killa Mike, Slim Cutta Calhoun, and Konkrete?
Big Boi: Killa Mike is workin on his album right now. It’s comin along and it’s harder than a b####. My boy Ray from Organized Noise is heading up the production on it right now, he’s like about four or five songs in, but it’s like Killa Mike, so hard. Slim Calhoun, he’s collecting tracks, I think he’s a track collector now. And we tryin to get it together with him. There were plans to send him to the West Coast to work with DJ Quik and E Swift, somebody like that, to try to give him a different feel. Cause he’s in Atlanta and it’s hard to get him to go in the studio when there’s so much jumpin’ so we gonna have to send him out of town to work. Konkrete’s album is about 80% done now. What we bout to do is go in and lay the hot sauce on it; all the music and everything, and kinda like, pull it together.
AllHipHop.com: Big Boi, for the brothas, who is shorty in the video for “The Way You Move?”
Big Boi: That’s like, a friend of the family, really. That’s my kid’s auntie. I ain’t chop her though. She’s like real cool. You’ll see her soon though, she gonna be out with us in a minute when we hit the road. Her name is Toi Johnson. She was in XXL and King magazine.
AllHipHop.com: For the both of you, what is your favorite track that you’ve done out of your entire career? And what has affected you most through your evolving from <I>Southernplayalistic…,</I> your first joint, to now?
Dre: To ask what’s a favorite track, that’s gonna be very hard to answer because it changes from time to time, and album to album. Right now it would be this album and I would have to say, (chuckle) “Spread”. And to answer the other question, honestly, I would have to say time has affected me the most. No event has really shaped the sound, it’s really just been time; time on the road, time growin up, time seeing different things; listening to different types of music; influenced by different sounds; it’s just time.
Big Boi: Same as Dre, just time, experience, fatherhood, everything. From relationships to family life, to drugs and alcohol. Not the hard drugs though, you catch my drift? And really just God, ya know? We just take it day by day, we don’t make it premeditated or we gonna do this one day, or we gonna crank it up like this. You just go in there, and you do it. And you know, things will come out right. And when the Lord calls for you things will happen. You have to just have faith and believe. And when you believe (Dre starts singin the “Sounds of Blackness” song, “Optimistic” in the background), you never know what you can achieve. One day at a time, right? And you know, it don’t hurt to go to church every now and then. Just get on your knees and pray and do what you gotta do. It’s all about hope and just believe that you can do whatever you wanna do. You just gotta be serious about it. Feel me? And my favorite track goin down right now is “Ova da Woods”. That’s my favorite. Them raps on there was so hardcore.
