Situation is an album I made with the renowned DJ Skratch Bastid. He made most of the beats and did the cuts. He and I go way back. We both came up in the Halifax hip hop scene.
Paul (Bastid) and I wanted to make a good old fashioned hip hop record. So we did it the traditional way: all the beats Paul initially made were 100% sample-based. As I recall, the original plan was for the album to be billed as Skratch Bastid featuring Buck 65. The thinking was that if it was Paul’s record, it could come out on an indie label and wouldn’t be part of my deal with Warner. That way, maybe it would be easier to pull off what we wanted to do vis-a-vis the samples. A smaller release might have allowed us to fly under the radar.
At some point along the line, the idea shifted to having Warner release it. I’m not sure whose idea that was but it wasn’t mine. Paul and I figured it would be a challenge to clear all the hurdles with regard to the samples. We didn’t realize how much of a pain in the ass that would be.
Situation was recorded THREE times. First, we recorded demos in Paul’s apartment in Montreal. Then we recorded the songs “properly” in a pro studio. Then Warner said, “we can’t do this”. We couldn’t get clearance for a bunch of the samples and we didn’t have the budget to clear most of the rest. So we had to re-write and re-record most of the album with musicians.
Guess which version of the album I like best. If you guessed the original demo version, you’re right. I spoke to Paul recently about those original demos and the sample-based version of the album. I think we’d both like to share those recordings but it’s tricky business from a legal standpoint. It might be impossible. Maybe one day we’ll find a way. I’ve decided to roll the dice with the demo posted above.
DJ Signify contributed a few beats to the album. Cadence Weapon contributed a nasty-ass verse to the song “Benz”. My friend Felix did all the amazing artwork for the album and the various singles and whatnot. A few years ago, his house burned to the ground and all of that original art was destroyed - along with everything Felix and his wife owned. I’ve known Felix for a long time. I’ve known his wife - Laura - even longer. She used to help run the Four Ways To Rock label and made the trip with me to Scribble Jam in 1998. Laura and Felix are two of my favorite people in this world. We get together for movie nights and barbecues on a regular basis.
Side note: Just before the release of Situation, I recorded a mixtape-thing called Strong Arm that I sold on tour. The idea was that instead of rapping over instrumentals of other hip hop songs, I’d rap over instrumentals from as many different genres as I could find. The first song on the ‘album’ is called “Dang” and I rap over a song called “Let There Be Drums” by The Incredible Bongo Band. They have a place in hip hop history. The drum break on their song “Apache” is one of the quintessential b-boy breaks. Foundational. Anyway, at the time, I included “Dang” in my live set most nights. When people from my label heard it, they liked it and suggested I include it on the Situation album. I explained that the instrumental came right off another band’s record - uncut! - and that getting permission would probably be impossible. The label said, ‘can’t hurt to try’. So my people got in touch with The Incredible Bongo Band’s people. The IBB camp came back saying that they negotiated with Nas a few years before when he sampled “Apache” for his song “Made You Look”. They said they were going to charge me the same amount they charged Nas. I forget the number, but it was very high - way, way, way beyond my budget. So I said thanks but no thanks. To my absolute shock, the IBB people called back a few months later, asking if I still wanted to use “Let There Be Drums” and offered a much lower price. I had enough money left in the Situation budget to make it happen, so the deal was done. I still can’t believe that happened. I just straight-up rapped over their whole song!
Situation is fine. It’s a concept album. It tells the stories of a bunch of inter-connected characters, set in the year 1957. I think it would have been better to not make a concept record. I still think it was a bad idea to release it on Warner. My rapping is decent, I think. The songs are alright but 15 years later, none of them really mean anything to me on a personal level. I guess that’s the way it goes sometimes with concept albums. You know how I feel about the gravel voice. If I were to do a ranking of the albums I recorded for Warner, it would probably be #1 or #2.
After Situation came the first three Dirtbike albums. Maybe I’ll knock those off as a group in the next post.
Until then…
