AllHipHop.com: After doing The Beatnuts for so long, you finally decided to drop solo last year with Psycho Therapy. What led to that? 

Psycho Les: To tell you the truth, that album has been around for like five years. It was just a lot of songs I had just laying around, so I threw it all together and just slapped it up. It’s not like I planned it like that, they were just songs I had already. Well I did create like three or four new songs, but the rest were done. It was all just ideas I had that I didn’t want to go to waste, so I threw it out there. 

AllHipHop.com: The Big City project you did with Problemz and Al Tariq didn’t make much of a national impact, but I imagine the support and NY and from your existing fan base was enough to satisfy you guys?

 
Psycho Les: That right there was me just doing Tariq and Problemz a favour. They was just doing nothing with themselves and they needed a deal, so that’s really how they got the deal, if I was involved in it. So I just did all the tracks and chilled in the studio, let them do most of the work. I didn’t want to get too busy, if you notice I was just slapping up a few verses and s**t. I wanted it to be mostly them so when they hit the road people don’t expect me to be there. I just created it so they could do whatever, and that would be there little spaceship to hit the road with. You know, my s**t is Beatnuts always and that’s what people are waiting for. 

AllHipHop.com: So what’s good with you and Ju Ju? I haven’t heard much about you guys recently. 

Psycho Les: Yeah, we’ve been on the road. We just came back from Japan, we’ve been everywhere. We were out there with Lord Finesse, Nice and Smooth, Showbiz and AG, O.C., the whole Diggin In The Crates. I can’t even believe it to this day. We had Diamond D, but he couldn’t make it cause his passport expired or some shit. Motherfuckers in New York was like “Yo, you need to bring that s**t to New York!” But you know, motherf***ers don’t want to pay that money. So you know, if they get that money, boom, they’ll get that real Hip Hop shit. But for me to watch [D.I.T.C.] performing was crazy, cause I’m a fan of this Hip Hop shit too. The club was crazy too, it was like a stadium and that s**t was packed. Like real s**t, you know? So we were on the road, but now we’re back home and working on this next album, trying to drop it for this summer. 

AllHipHop.com: Before we get into that, I want to talk about some of the work you’ve done. The best-known tracks you produced were probably on Mos Def’s Black On Both Sides, but I’m curious what made you start doing solo production outside Beatnuts? 

Psycho Les: Well we’ve both always done our own production. We’re both two producers, and we don’t always produce our own s**t together, you know? It’s not like I live with him, so I’m running around and whatever and if I bump into Mos Def and he needs a track I’ma bring it to him. Ju Ju too. You notice he’s done tracks for Ghostface or whoever, and I’m not involved. It’s all good. But when it’s Beatnuts, we pick each other’s beats. He’ll pick from my stash, and I’ll pick from his. That’s what we’re doing now actually. For this next album, forget it, it’s sounding crazy already. 

AllHipHop.com: How long have you been working on it already? 

Psycho Les: A few weeks now. We’ve already done a joint with U-God, we’ve got a joint with Keith Murray, we’re just trying to bring Hip Hop back on some real hard s**t. Not no happy s**t. Some real hard, crazy s**t. From the new cats of today, we’re looking forward to working with Cassidy, cause we’re in touch with his DJ and he’s going to make that happen. And we’ll bring in some more new cats too, keep it up to date. 
 

AllHipHop.com: It’s kind of a trip that you guys had Akon on a track from The Originators. That was the first time I’d heard him, and I remember thinking he had some potential. Was it crazy for you to see him blow up like he did? 

Pyscho Les: Well that’s the case for all our albums man. If you see every album we ever worked with, we always worked with the motherfuckers before they blow up. Think about it. When we did “Off The Books,” nobody knew who the f**k Pun was. After that, boom, the s**t took off. Same thing with Akon, same thing with every other joint. It is crazy, but shit just seems to happen that way.  

AllHipHop.com: It seems strange to me that more new and even established artists haven’t reached out to you over the years for tracks. You and Ju have always come with some of the best party and club joints out there. 

Psycho Les: Yeah you know everybody is looking for that other sound, that new sound of today. So, you know.  

AllHipHop.com: Do you get a lot of calls for beats? 

Psycho Les: Yeah definitely. A lot of underground cats are reaching out, so you know I f**k with them. A lot of unknown motherf***ers, I give them a helping hand. 

AllHipHop.com: I saw a picture of you wearing a Joker mask with a G-Unit shirt on your MySpace. Did that have any significance to it? 

Psycho Les: (Laughs) Naw. That s**t is funny cause I just happened to be wearing that shirt, and I was in a toy store looking at all these old school toys. So I put the mask on and took a picture, and I didn’t notice that I was wearing that shirt until after. But that made it even more funny to me, so I just threw that s**t up. 

AllHipHop.com: So what’s your schedule like now that you’re back from overseas and preparing the new album? 

Psycho Les: Now I’m just focused back in the lab, pulling records out that closet. That old s**t that I haven’t even heard in a minute, chopping s**t up and just trying to put something out for summer.  

AllHipHop.com: Do you guys still do straight samples? 

Psycho Les: Samples is number one for us, always. But as far as our sound, it’s going to be crazy. It’s big, we’re f**king with everything else. Whatever cats is using nowadays, we’re using all that s**t. It’s like we’re cooking the food on a new up-to-date oven. We’re taking it back to the grimy drums and hard samples. No happy music, just ugly faced music. When you hear that s**t you’re going to make an ugly face like “Yeah.” 

AllHipHop.com: So what’s your take on the production scene right now? 

Psycho Les: It’s all happy and hand-clappy kind of s**t. But that’s what makes me want to keep doing it. Young motherf***ers out there still want to hear our s**t, even they’re getting tired of all that s**t playing on the radio. 

AllHipHop.com: Which joints to you get the most response to on the road? 

Psycho Les: When we throw “Off The Books,” the whole place just loses it. But “Watch Out Now,” “No Escapin This” and “Off The Books,” those joints there. People just lose it and start fightin' in the crowd. That’s what I like, that energy s**t, we’re trying to take it back to that. That jump-up-and-down, wild-out-and-punch-somebody-in-the-nose-whatever music. 

AllHipHop.com: Are you guys going to hit the road again with this new album? 

Psycho Les: Definitely, we’re gonna go everywhere and promote the s**t out of it. It’s definitely going to be a better situation than when we had no money. We’ve got a plan man. The beats are there, everybody’s around us that wants to work with us and it’s love. So it’s going to be nothing. Everybody’s hungry and it’s that time again.

Beatnuts "Reign Of The Tec"

Beatnuts "Off The Books"