So Calm and So Cool, He’s the Dude

He’s like the re-rebirth of cool. The way he talks, raps, sings, just his overall being, Devin the Dude is one a smooth motherfucker. Even though weed, women and wine are sins by book, by song there has never been another who spit soul so pure. So pure every rapper from De La Soul to Dr. Dre had to get a couple kilos. So pure that after 10 years in the game his style has never gotten stale and stays fresh with a flow that is anything but clean.
It started with the Odd Squad and the ‘94 classic Fadanuf Fa Erybody, followed by Scarface’s Facemobb project. In ‘98 Devin went solo for the first time with The Dude, and four years later came back with Just Tryin to Live. Now it’s 2004 and with the last album still in my deck, he hits us with To Tha X-treme. Yeah, the cops are still pulling him over looking for weed and believe that he’s still breaking freaks every day of the week, but that’s just the Dude. Another day, another story, another song.

To Tha X-Treme, it’s here, who do you got on there this time around?
Well I got EightBall on there. I got a wide variety of producers on there. I got a cat named Uno, from Compton, he lives in Houston now, he did the title track. I got named Corey Mo from Houston, he did the single “Anything.” I got Luster Baker, DJ Domination, Rob from the Odd Squad, Mr. Mixx from 2 Live Crew he’s on there. I did a couple tracks myself. I got Mike Dean. So, yeah, it’s a lot of producers actually.

No Odd Squad cuts?
Aww, man. We gonna try and save some of that for ya. Probably come out with an Odd Squad album before you know it.

You already started to work on it?
We’re brainstorming and getting some stuff together.

When did you guys sign with Rap-A-Lot?
‘93.

Were you a group before then?
Nah, actually, like I met Rob in ‘89. I knew Jugg Mugg from back in the day, he was like an old friend of ours we used to pop and break with.

So it was a hip-hop thing that brought you guys together?
Yeah, we got together and just started vibing and coming up with songs. We didn’t even have a name for the group or anything, we were just doing it for old time’s sake. We started getting a little deeper as far as the music goes and with the song writing. We came up with a few songs, and put some packages together, and we got signed to Rap-A-Lot through a friend who worked there.

A lot of people think that album is a classic, do you look at it in the same light?
Aww, man. We had a lot of fun doing it. Yeah, man, I consider that a classic. We had a lot of fun, a lot of brotherhood happened at that time. It was a lot harder to shop your music too.

You can hear in your songs that you really love music, and you’re not just doing it as a hustle. Is that something that younger cats might have twisted?
Well, yeah, but you can’t really blame nobody. That’s really the message these days. It’s all about what you got, and what someone else don’t have, that’s just how it is.

For someone who grew up with hip-hop, does it bother you that’s what it’s come to?
Nah, man, as long as they just keep it alive it’s all good man. Just keep it alive.

What do you think is the biggest façade about the rap life?
Well, you make an album, you make a million dollars. You know you just go in the studio one day, and come out with platinums and nicks. It’s not as easy as people may think. It’s easier to get in the studio now with ProTools and the different programs they got for the computer to actually go put it down, but that hunger has still gotta be in you. You still gotta strive for the nice production. You gotta strive to get the people to hear it. You gotta hit the streets to be seen. There’s a lot of work involved.

Do you think you’re slept on as an artist?
Nah, man. I don’t think so. A lot of people was telling me I’m underrated, or I’m the underdog or stuff like that. That’s just letting me know they’re listening, and they hear it. I don’t feel like the underdog. They’re giving me the props that way, so it feels real good.

Would you consider yourself a poet?
Well actually I was looking in this dictionary for names and I was wondering what my name meant. I looked up Devin and it said a poet. I guess I was a poet, and didn’t even know it. I consider everyone a poet in some sense, and everyone’s voice is an instrument one way or another… Your words can carry out a lot of power, and a lot of weight. Sometimes you gotta hear stuff that doesn’t sound too positive, but all in all it is, like it can be used in a positive way.

You drop a lot of game in your verses, is there one person who passed it down to you?
I got a lot of uncles man, one in particular named Uncle Terrel. He really gave me that fire, and the ability to not be shy. I used to like to sing and rap and stuff, but I didn’t really like nobody to hear it. He heard it one time and then every time he’d be in front of his friends or his girlfriend or whatever, he’d ask me to sing this, or rap that. I was willing to do it, and the little response, the little smiles I would get, meant a lot to me.

When you write songs do you ever consider that what you’re writing, say for songs like “Tough Love,” could change someone’s perspective, or are you just out there spittin’ it?
A little bit of both, man. I gotta try to look towards the future, and what people might say about it, but that’s kinda hard to do, too, and can leave you with some writers block right there. You just gotta let it all hang out. “Tough Love” actually came from my older cousin. She was like, “a lot of things around here revolve around relationships, you gotta do some stuff about relationships because that’s a powerful thing nowadays. A lot of people just out there saying anything, but if you just talk about some relationships, and what’s going on, they might do something.” I thought about that, and a year later I remembered it and started doing songs like “Tough Love” and “WXYZ.”

Would you encourage your kids to get into music?
Yeah, we’re just trying to get together as far as schooling and everything. They’ll probably have three or four jobs before they decide what they really want to do. I don’t want them to get something now, and cling on to it and think that’s what their lives revolve around. A lot of doors might open for them in different situations. Of course they like to listen to music, they love to write, and I wouldn’t mind backing them up if they wanted to do that. All in all I want them to see what’s out there, and get out there and absorb everything.

Did you used to sing them lullabies when they were younger?
Yeah I used to when they were little babies, once they’re older than like a year and half, it’s like “aight go to sleep baby.”

Do you go digging a lot?
Yeah when it’s time to really go in the studio, and search for something new. That’s always fun to do, the digging. Digging in the crates, that’s real exciting right there, you know every song could have something in it, and every album has like 10 songs you could use.

Do you make a lot of stuff that doesn’t go on albums, or beat tapes or anything?
Well yeah most of the time when we do an album we do at least like 25 songs, and pick out of those. Some of the songs that don’t make it on there I’ll probably chop it up some other way, or use a verse here or use a verse there, or just hold onto it until something comes along.

What kind of equipment do you guys use?
Mostly live stuff. The MPC is pretty cool, we can run it through those, the 3000, 2000, 4000. A lot of rack mounts, modules and stuff. Vintage boards, a lot of Rhodes stuff.

Do you play any instruments?
Nah, I like to just arrange for the most part. I like to get the tempo together, maybe get the skeleton as far the beat going. I always have guys to go to that can do it a little better than I can, and I can get them to patch it up.

Seems like you’ve been getting hit up for a lot of guest spots lately.
Yeah, you know, I get quite a bit, from the majors to the independents, it’s all love every time someone asks for it.

Do you ever turn anybody down?
Nah, not really man. Unless everything wasn’t set up on their end I guess, but I’m willing to just be a part of whatever’s going on.

Did you ever think that people would be paying you just for hooks?
Nah, I just knew when we started doing, as far as the Odd Squad back in the day, a lot of people would be like, “man the way you be doing those hooks, I like the way you do your hooks man, maybe one day we can hook up and do something.” I was like, oh yeah, what about the verse man [laughs].

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