Roblo
Interview by Black Dog Bone
From Murder Dog Vol 14 #2
We’ve had a certain sound in the Bay for a long time. Recently we’ve seen the sound change. The people who are really shaping the sound are the producers. The Hyphy beats are very different from the slow Mobb beats.
Hyphy is really not nothing new to the Bay. Hyphy is a style. Like Hip Hop—you dress Hip Hop, your lifestyl
e is Hip Hop. Hyphy is a style of dreads, Hyphy is
a style of music, it’s a way of life too. What they do is they threw the name
Hyphy on it, but it’s been goin on for years already. As far as Mobb music, it’s
always been around, always will be around. But it has to put a new name on that
too. As far as me, Roblo got a new style that’s unheard of. It’s still Mobb but
it’s unheard of.
Do you do Hyphy beats?
I got tracks where we wasn’t thinkin about nothing like Hyphy, we was still doin us, but it ended up bein in that category of Hyphy. The sound has been around, it just hadn’t been promoted or labeled as Hyphy. Since it has, it has a lotta room to grow. It’s got bigger.
You were probably doing some Hyphy style beats, but they weren’t called Hyphy. It was just the atmosphere in the Bay.
The atmosphere. When we went in the studio every day, if we was feelin Hyphy we made a Hyphy beat. That’s just how it was before Hyphy became the name of the music. It was Hyphy in the streets before it was Hyphy in the music. Then it came to the music, got incorporated with the music. It came together.
Do you think the kids in the streets played a role in shaping the sound?
For sure. That’s where it came from, bein Hyphy in the streets. They took it from there to the studio. Like Mobb. We always been Mobb in the streets. Any problem any of my niggaz got we show up like a mob, 30 deep. It’s always been big like that. When we go to the studio after a little fight or a shoot out or something, we probably gonna be rappin Mobb. We feelin the Mobb music. You can’t really feel no pain in Hyphy. Just jump up and down and get Hyphy. But Mobb music is for real, it’s pain and a lotta feelin in that.
But you can talk about the serious shit on a Hyphy song too. You don’t have to just talk about going dumb. If you listen to Dancehall music from Jamaica they’re talking about gangsta life and about the streets over a dance track.
Right, up-tempo beats. I have some of that up-tempo beats in me, but we still keep it Mobb. It’s always got feelin in it, people can relate to it from all aspects. Somebody that’s Hyphy can be on a Mobb song, they’ll calm down. You don’t get Hyphy to that.
A lot of artists in the Bay are afraid to identify with the Hyphy movement. But that’s the only thing that’s got the world looking at the Bay right now. They’re not looking for the old Mobb sound anymore.
Hyphy is a way of life. It reminds me of what is African. The African life when people was dancing to the drum, feelin themselves, feelin their inner souls and all that stuff. It’s like tribal music. I’m more for that than anything else, myself. Anybody can go in there and make a Hyphy beat. Take a Hyphy 808 drum with a clap, with a snare, with an easy Hyphy sound. Mac Dre was the originator of that shit. Actually Dre created that himself. Where it says “produced by Mac Dre” on his album with the Hyphy horns, that’s Hyphy. Dre did that. Dre was the one that really got that started.
Mac Dre really started what we call the Hyphy sound.
Real big. Plus he put a lotta artists together before he died. He got Keak and everybody together. He wasn’t callin it the Hyphy sound. It was just feel-good music.
At that time the Bay was real serious and Gangsta. There was not humor or fun in it. But Mac Dre lightened everything up because he was just clowning. That opened a lot of doors for the Bay.
That’s big. Showin out. Out here we can dress up how we wanna dress up, act wild, be free. Just like bein in the tribes. You wanna dress a certain way, you dress how you want, play with your dreads, show you how free we is dancing like this too. If we had all the tribal things with luxury out here, we’d be dressing like the tribes too, if we were raised like that. It’s not a difference. The only difference is the style of clothes. When it comes to the music and the overall vibe, we’re just bein free, bein Hyphy, jumpin up and down to the beat.
That’s what I see in Hyphy. It’s going back to our tribal roots.
To the roots, exactly. Where I get my music from, when I grew I was listening to Rock music, Rap music, Jazz, hit classics. My pops used to sing with the Temptations before anybody know who they was. I’m talkin about on the corner in Detroit city, Motor City. That’s where he was raised. I got a lotta my flavor from the East Coast. Then I grew up on Too Short, C-Bo, Ice Cube, NWA, all this shit that we needed. That incorporated into my Mobb sound. Everybody, when you’re goin through a lotta struggle you’re not gonna be jumpin up and down and gettin Hyphy. It’s a lotta different markets out there that certain labels are gonna have to touch.
I’m just sayin that we shouldn’t be closed minded. If we keep doing the same thing the music just gets stagnant.
It is. A new generation needs to represent. Like me, I had the Mob Figaz. I grew niggaz up in the studio. I was the one that pushed my buttons recording and doin the beats. It wasn’t the music I was makin for my bro, it was how much different music I could make. PK would be like, you’re talkin about hella beats. I got all different styles. I don’t just come with one style of music.
You have a darker sound in your music and I like that. Your music could still fit in with the Hyphy movement. You show a different side of it. You’re the artist and you’re free to make it however you want.
Some of the up tempo beats that I have could be used for radio play and would bring that artist a hit. But even if they pick it, are they gonna do what it takes to get on that radio? That’s what I go through. Half of the people that pick my beats, they wanna cuss and do this and that, they don’t even wanna make a radio song. That’s why my shit don’t get on the radio. Back in ’05 I had 3 or 4 songs on the radio. I have up tempo beats and all that shit.
What are you working on now?
I just finished up an album with Rydah and FedX. I produced that and we’re finishing up Jacka’s album right now.
That last Jack album was a classic.
A classic. Thank you. What’s takin so long for that to fall through with a major? We been tryin to do this major thing for years. What it is is promotion.
Who are some of the hottest new producers in the Bay?
In the Bay Roblo is the one with the samples. That’s from my East Coast influences. Traxamillion, he does a great job with the Hyphy shit. Droop-E got a good sound. He’s doing good. Rick Rock got a nice up-tempo song, he’s hot. Traxx is cool. I like Traxx and Traxamillion.
What are some of the albums you’ve heard that impressed you lately?
Bavgate is cool. He got a good production selection. I like how he chooses his beats. I like Bavgate. I like Hussalah for production selection. His new album is coming out soon. We’re still mixin it down, tryin see how we’re gonna promote it.
Hussalah had an album done before he got locked up?
Yeah, he got more than one. It’ll be out this summer. It’s gonna be hot. He got Kool G Rap on there, Too Short. Lotta good shit on there.
Interview by Black Dog Bone
From Murder Dog Vol 14 #2
We’ve had a certain sound in the Bay for a long time. Recently we’ve seen the sound change. The people who are really shaping the sound are the producers. The Hyphy beats are very different from the slow Mobb beats.
Hyphy is really not nothing new to the Bay. Hyphy is a style. Like Hip Hop—you dress Hip Hop, your lifestyl
e is Hip Hop. Hyphy is a style of dreads, Hyphy is
a style of music, it’s a way of life too. What they do is they threw the name
Hyphy on it, but it’s been goin on for years already. As far as Mobb music, it’s
always been around, always will be around. But it has to put a new name on that
too. As far as me, Roblo got a new style that’s unheard of. It’s still Mobb but
it’s unheard of.Do you do Hyphy beats?
I got tracks where we wasn’t thinkin about nothing like Hyphy, we was still doin us, but it ended up bein in that category of Hyphy. The sound has been around, it just hadn’t been promoted or labeled as Hyphy. Since it has, it has a lotta room to grow. It’s got bigger.
You were probably doing some Hyphy style beats, but they weren’t called Hyphy. It was just the atmosphere in the Bay.
The atmosphere. When we went in the studio every day, if we was feelin Hyphy we made a Hyphy beat. That’s just how it was before Hyphy became the name of the music. It was Hyphy in the streets before it was Hyphy in the music. Then it came to the music, got incorporated with the music. It came together.
Do you think the kids in the streets played a role in shaping the sound?
For sure. That’s where it came from, bein Hyphy in the streets. They took it from there to the studio. Like Mobb. We always been Mobb in the streets. Any problem any of my niggaz got we show up like a mob, 30 deep. It’s always been big like that. When we go to the studio after a little fight or a shoot out or something, we probably gonna be rappin Mobb. We feelin the Mobb music. You can’t really feel no pain in Hyphy. Just jump up and down and get Hyphy. But Mobb music is for real, it’s pain and a lotta feelin in that.
But you can talk about the serious shit on a Hyphy song too. You don’t have to just talk about going dumb. If you listen to Dancehall music from Jamaica they’re talking about gangsta life and about the streets over a dance track.
Right, up-tempo beats. I have some of that up-tempo beats in me, but we still keep it Mobb. It’s always got feelin in it, people can relate to it from all aspects. Somebody that’s Hyphy can be on a Mobb song, they’ll calm down. You don’t get Hyphy to that.
A lot of artists in the Bay are afraid to identify with the Hyphy movement. But that’s the only thing that’s got the world looking at the Bay right now. They’re not looking for the old Mobb sound anymore.
Hyphy is a way of life. It reminds me of what is African. The African life when people was dancing to the drum, feelin themselves, feelin their inner souls and all that stuff. It’s like tribal music. I’m more for that than anything else, myself. Anybody can go in there and make a Hyphy beat. Take a Hyphy 808 drum with a clap, with a snare, with an easy Hyphy sound. Mac Dre was the originator of that shit. Actually Dre created that himself. Where it says “produced by Mac Dre” on his album with the Hyphy horns, that’s Hyphy. Dre did that. Dre was the one that really got that started.
Mac Dre really started what we call the Hyphy sound.
Real big. Plus he put a lotta artists together before he died. He got Keak and everybody together. He wasn’t callin it the Hyphy sound. It was just feel-good music.
At that time the Bay was real serious and Gangsta. There was not humor or fun in it. But Mac Dre lightened everything up because he was just clowning. That opened a lot of doors for the Bay.
That’s big. Showin out. Out here we can dress up how we wanna dress up, act wild, be free. Just like bein in the tribes. You wanna dress a certain way, you dress how you want, play with your dreads, show you how free we is dancing like this too. If we had all the tribal things with luxury out here, we’d be dressing like the tribes too, if we were raised like that. It’s not a difference. The only difference is the style of clothes. When it comes to the music and the overall vibe, we’re just bein free, bein Hyphy, jumpin up and down to the beat.
That’s what I see in Hyphy. It’s going back to our tribal roots.
To the roots, exactly. Where I get my music from, when I grew I was listening to Rock music, Rap music, Jazz, hit classics. My pops used to sing with the Temptations before anybody know who they was. I’m talkin about on the corner in Detroit city, Motor City. That’s where he was raised. I got a lotta my flavor from the East Coast. Then I grew up on Too Short, C-Bo, Ice Cube, NWA, all this shit that we needed. That incorporated into my Mobb sound. Everybody, when you’re goin through a lotta struggle you’re not gonna be jumpin up and down and gettin Hyphy. It’s a lotta different markets out there that certain labels are gonna have to touch.
I’m just sayin that we shouldn’t be closed minded. If we keep doing the same thing the music just gets stagnant.
It is. A new generation needs to represent. Like me, I had the Mob Figaz. I grew niggaz up in the studio. I was the one that pushed my buttons recording and doin the beats. It wasn’t the music I was makin for my bro, it was how much different music I could make. PK would be like, you’re talkin about hella beats. I got all different styles. I don’t just come with one style of music.
You have a darker sound in your music and I like that. Your music could still fit in with the Hyphy movement. You show a different side of it. You’re the artist and you’re free to make it however you want.
Some of the up tempo beats that I have could be used for radio play and would bring that artist a hit. But even if they pick it, are they gonna do what it takes to get on that radio? That’s what I go through. Half of the people that pick my beats, they wanna cuss and do this and that, they don’t even wanna make a radio song. That’s why my shit don’t get on the radio. Back in ’05 I had 3 or 4 songs on the radio. I have up tempo beats and all that shit.
What are you working on now?
I just finished up an album with Rydah and FedX. I produced that and we’re finishing up Jacka’s album right now.
That last Jack album was a classic.
A classic. Thank you. What’s takin so long for that to fall through with a major? We been tryin to do this major thing for years. What it is is promotion.
Who are some of the hottest new producers in the Bay?
In the Bay Roblo is the one with the samples. That’s from my East Coast influences. Traxamillion, he does a great job with the Hyphy shit. Droop-E got a good sound. He’s doing good. Rick Rock got a nice up-tempo song, he’s hot. Traxx is cool. I like Traxx and Traxamillion.
What are some of the albums you’ve heard that impressed you lately?
Bavgate is cool. He got a good production selection. I like how he chooses his beats. I like Bavgate. I like Hussalah for production selection. His new album is coming out soon. We’re still mixin it down, tryin see how we’re gonna promote it.
Hussalah had an album done before he got locked up?
Yeah, he got more than one. It’ll be out this summer. It’s gonna be hot. He got Kool G Rap on there, Too Short. Lotta good shit on there.
