The Dirtbike albums make some kind of sense to me but I can easily understand why they might not make sense to anyone else. It’s all about context. And back when I made these albums (‘08), I didn’t feel obligated as an “artist” (barf) to put things into context for anyone. I wanted to make challenging music. With that came the expectation that the listener might have to do some work to fully understand what was going on and if they were unwilling to do that work and were left confused, well, too bad for them. That’s basically the definition of pretentious.
So here’s the context:
I wrote and recorded the Dirtbike albums immediately after moving back to Canada following six years in Paris. Those six years were an almost-complete immersion in art. My years with Claire (my ex) were particularly intense. Her great-grandfather was Francis Picabia, who was a prominent figure in the Paris art scene in the early 1900s. His legacy loomed large in Claire’s life. Her mom worked at the Louvre. Her sister worked at one of the top theaters in Paris. Seemed like there were always famous actors and playwrights and filmmakers around. You could barely move around our apartment for all the books. We didn’t have a TV. We didn’t listen to music on the radio. I knew more about the popular culture of the 1920s than that of the current times. I was completely out of touch and I couldn’t have cared less. I didn’t even have a phone!
Around this time, I developed a new kind of relationship with hip hop. I didn’t so much care about hip hop artists and products. I started thinking more about hip hop philosophy. I was thinking about what it all meant and the ideas that drove the art in its early days and its evolution through the 80s. I read a lot of philosophy books back then so I guess that’s where all the deep thinking came from.
You know how Westside Gunn pushes his music as high art? My approach was different but I was pretty much on the same tip at this point. I wanted to make hip hop music that was worthy of the Musée d’Orsay. I was much more concerned with beauty than dopeness.
I had also become an extra-deep record digger during my time in Paris. I wanted to make use of all the amazing records I was finding and after what happened with the Situation album, I didn’t even want to bother trying to get away with sampling on my records for Warner.
Another driving force behind the Dirtbike albums was wanting to work with my friends. So almost every moment on all three of those albums is a collaboration with someone I had met in my travels over the previous few years - my ex-wife, people I toured with, people I met at festivals, etc.
So in 2008, I was on some other shit, as they say. I had a lot of ideas. I felt completely unwilling to compromise on those ideas and I figured Warner wouldn’t or couldn’t support those ideas. So I went rogue! I was so determined to do what I wanted to do, I decided to make it a rule for these albums that I wouldn’t sell them or promote them. I didn’t draw any attention to them at all! I was happy to just let them exist. I didn’t care if anyone found them or not. The work would be its own reward.
Another thing worth noting is that the Dirtbike albums came out of a challenge I gave to myself - to make three albums in three months. I started Dirtbike 1 in September of 2008 and gave myself until the 30th. On October 1, I went to work on Dirtbike 2. On November 1, I went to work on Dirtbike 3.
Side note - remember the band FannyPack? They once came for me from the top rope in an interview in Spin magazine (or it could have been Rolling Stone). It was really weird because I had never crossed paths with them. But they went out of their way to say something along the lines of “Buck 65’s lyrics may look nice on paper but they sound terrible”. I laughed it off at the time but now I can understand why they and other people felt that way. I made an effort to write beautifully (not saying I accomplished that) and wrote songs about paintings and silent-era movie actors and tightrope walkers and fashion designers. Not everyone’s cup of tea! That’s fine. I wonder what FannyPack is up to now.
Several years after the completion of the first three Dirtbike albums, I recorded Dirtbike 4. There’s not a ton to say about it. It’s pretty much more of the same thing; maybe a slight improvement on the first three. Less collaboration. I’ve uploaded it to Bandcamp. Get it here.
Oh! One thing I do want to point out about Dirtbike 4… You know L.H.O.O.Q. by Marcel Duchamp? He drew a mustache on a print of the Mona Lisa and presented it as a new original work. Totally badass. I asked myself, “what would be the musical equivalent of that be?” What I came up with was the John Lennon thing.
The next album after Dirtbikes 1, 2 and 3 was 20 Odd Years. There are a few songs on that album that I’m okay with and there are a bunch that I HATE. We’ll get into that one next.
Until then…
