TheThrowAwayDays: I was digging for some dirt on you, I was hitting everyone up and no one had anything bad to say about you. I'm like, "yo man, give me an embarrassing story, did he like pee is pants in 7th grade or something?" No one had anything. I hit up, Stein, JT, Homeless, everyone.
BAKER: And no one has anything? I'm surprised Stein of all people, cause if you asked me embarrassing stories about Stein I could run through a bunch...
TTAD: Well actually originally Stein said he'd hit me up after work but never did.
BAKER: Honestly, he probably fell asleep. So if you wanna try and call him and dig up some more dirt, some fresh dirt, you can probably do that now.
TTAD: Nah it's alright, we'll just keep going. How has Youngstown been like the mecca of Eastern Ohio shows?
BAKER: I think it definitely started with MC Homeless. Homeless has a lot of connections. Even just bringing Aceylone and stuff like that, yeah that was one of the raddest thing that has been done hip hop wise in this town. We put together that hip hop fest a couple years ago. That was cool cause there was like no scene for it. So that combined with the fact that at least for a while I was basically running a venue and was able to book whoever I wanted. Anytime a touring rapper would come through we were able to set something up. It didn't really matter, I would hook up people of all scales and levels of fame. You know what I mean, like Aceylone played there, and people like Ceschi, Bleubird, and Louis Logic and stuff. But also just like JE double F, and HW and people who have played there are sort of like more on our level you know? It was a good network thing to be in the center of, and if definitely payed off because I got to play with all those people. That was really cool.
TTAD: Do you think now that you're not working at Lemon Grove there will still be stuff like that coming through Youngstown?
BAKER: Yeah, I hope so. Well like Jeff (JE Double F) is coming back in May. We were able to set something up at a bar I work at now, called U Pie(University Pizza). It's a lot different than Lemon Grove. It's got a way more low key vibe, yanno. Lemon Grove was huge, sometime it was an awkward place for shows because you'd have so few people actually watching a show and so many people making noise at the bar.
The cool new venue in town, the place that I'm really trying to get to book more indie hip hop shows and things like that, is Greyland, that's where I'm doing the album release show. It's a friend of mine from the band Modern Life. Rocko opened this store downtown, it's like a vintage shop that has clothing and a pretty solid record collection. I got like Husker Du record and stuff there, and it also has a lot of local art and things like that. The space is really rad, it's just a cool place that has a really nice aesthetic now. We still charge a cover, it's BYOB. It's a solid system there and good people running a sound. Between all those things to me it's the best direction to go now that I'm not associated the Lemon Grove. The fact that the current place I'm working, I feel like I don't have the free reign to book whatever I want. I don't have the same job there, I just bartend.
TTAD: How come you quit your job at the Lemon Grove? I haven't talked to you since that happened.
BAKER: Well, it was kind of a mutual thing. I was sort of "demoted" I guess is the word for it. I wasn't told what the reasons for it were. There were a lot of things at play that weren't necessarily just business or whatever without getting into it too much. I don't wanna talk shit or anything. There was kind of a mutual like, "we don't you to work here," and, "I don't wanna work here anymore." Both of us were just like "fuck you." It wasn't a friendly split for sure.
The thing that really happened was that MC Homeless retirement show. That's when shit really hit the fan. There was a ton of damage done to the stage, people broke all kinds of glass and stuff. Also it was my birthday and I was blackout drunk. People were buying me shots all night, I had no idea of where I was or what was going on, it was the drunk you get maybe once a year where you have no clue what's going on. And Lemon Grove kinda blamed me for all the damage that was done to the stage. I was like,"I didn't do it you can watch the tapes," but at that point things had kinda soured too much. And they were like, "don't come back," and I was like, "I don't really wanna come back."
But like i said I'm booking some shows at Greyland, not just my show, I'm working on some other shows. I'm not bummed about losing my job at Lemon Grove. I was bummed for a couple days. but really it was a high stress kind of environment, there was a lot of tension there pretty regularly. Now I just got a regular ass job where I show up and I work and I don't think about it anymore, which is nice
TTAD: You've been working on your new release Baked for like 2 years. Is it pretty different from what you initially thought it would be?
BAKER: When it was first conceived I was on tour with you. We were coming back from New Hampshire when we stayed at Eyenine's house. We were coming back that morning and I was listening to the demo that one of the few guys who did all the production on my album, Marcus, who has a project under the name, Freeze Tag. He gave me a demo of their stuff months before he put anything out. It had this really different kind of sound, and I kinda wanted to rap over it. His style had this really vintage, really cool, chill music, but kinda upbeat. Like you kinda wanna dance, but it's not dance music per-say. But it's real bright and poppy, and that's not really the kind of music I'm drawn to. But in listening to it I thought it would be a cool different thing to start working with them. A different sound, at least different than what I've done.
Throughout the course of like a year and a half that we were really actively working on it. Then the last few months have been getting things together, like mixing and stuff. As far as the creative side of it, it definitely changed throughout the course of making it. Not just me, but the fact that I was working with the same producer the whole time, yanno? I would bring ideas to the table, like I would wanna do a beat like one way Like at times I wanted to do something upbeat and poppy, and there were times I wanted to do something really fuzzy and bass heavy, like swaged out beats. I think on the record there is a nice mix of the two, a nice balance. But definitely things changed in terms of what was inspiring us. It was like a year at least of solid production.
TTAD: You're pretty hip to a lot of the "new school" rap coming out, what are your thoughts on that compared to more conventional "underground hip hop?"
BAKER: I think I listen to ASAP Rocky more than Aesop Rock. Like I don't listen to either very regularly, but I've listen to ASAP Rocky's new record more times than I've listened to Skelethon. I don't know why necessary I'm drawn to it. I love Danny Brown, but I think even though he's a lot more conventional, he's a really good live rapper, he's got a lot of power voice and stuff. He just has like a really traditional approach to rapping. Like he doesn't rap over his vocals, which is something I absolutely can't stand, and it happens a lot.
I went to see ASAP Rocky and Danny Brown a few months ago, it was a really good show, but Danny was the best live performer out of all them. And that's important to me. I like the beats and production of mainstream hip hop more than anything. I love the the stuff that Blue Sky Black Death works on, with guys like Nacho Picasso and Deniro Farrar. Their rapping styles, their emcee styles are a lot more conventional, the content is a lot more conventional. But the production has that really erie atmosphere quality. I dunno like Blue Sky Black Death is a good example where it's like Fake Four collabs with mcs who would probably never put anything out on Fake Four.
TTAD: When you wrote From California you were living on a hash farm. What did you do all day when you lived on a hash farm?
BAKER: Well I was there for a month and half, and for a few weeks when I first got there it was late March and I was far enough North that it was pretty damn cold up there in the mountains. It was pretty cold so I got to sleep on the house for a couple weeks, then he kinda kicked me out into the yard to the tent. So I was in the tent and that was interesting because it was cold as shit, but I was close enough to the house I could pick up the wifi. So I was like on the computer and I was working on beats and stuff at the time. A lot of the lyrics I didn't write till i got home though, I'd say like 50/50. I wrote half there, and the other half I wrote at home when I had time to think about it. But the production was done almost entirely in California and that was what was kind of cool about it.
Like a typical day was like I'd wake up at 9 or 10, have breakfast, smoke like a really fat joint, or a bunch of hash or something like that. Then we would proceed to go to work, which is like when you really put in a full days work. We had to be out for 8 hours. I was there early spring which is hash production because the crops aren't really growing outside, and it's to cold for plants so we made hash. We'd do that for 8 hours a day, and then just a lot of smoking weed. I did a lot of just hiking around and stuff. I came across a fresh pile of chewed up gnarly bones that like mountain lion or something ripped apart and licked them clean. I showed up 20 minutes later, kind of freaked me out. but it was cool. I was in a real remote area. my cell phone just didn't work for like 15 miles. It was kind of liberating that way, I only kept in touch with people when I wanted, and the rest of the time i was dealing with solitude. That was cool, and that kind of affected a lot the album. Like I didn't even have guests on the project.
TTAD: I think that's pretty much it, unless you wanna leave us off with an embarrassing story since i couldn't dig one up…
BAKER: …Alright, well… I dunno… I dunno how embarrassing this is. I was in Mexico one time and when we got off the plane and we were taking a shuttle to the hotel and the guy was talking to us about how we shouldn't drink the water because it's got a high mineral content that's to high for our system. Not like it's full of contaminates or bacteria, but we're just not use it's just minerals and shit. And my dad is all arrogant and shit like, "I'm not worried about it," so he's drinking the water, and convinces me to drink the water. Then one day, I ended up doing some day drinking it was like 100 degrees, and I was all hot and exhausted, and I just felt all dried out and shitty. I went inside and laid on the bed and was listening to music, and just started shitting my pants like crazy. My brother who I was sharing a room with was in the shower, so i couldn't' go to the bathroom, so i ran down the hall past where my dad and my other brother were sharing a room and I left my underwear in the janitors closet in a plastic bag because I didn't want to leave it in the room and have them know I shit my pants.
TTAD: That's pretty good one, poop stories are all pretty good.
BAKER: Yeah you're gonna scrap all the other stuff in the interview.
TTAD: Haha yeah, this is the interview. The one time Baker pooped his pants.
Baker
http://staybaked.bandcamp.com/
http://www.facebook.com/BakerStayBaked
https://www.facebook.com/BakerTheRapper
interview by Cody Jones/Stillborn Identity
https://www.facebook.com/stillcody
stillbornidentity.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/stillborn-identity
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stillborn-Identity/154438521280723
https://www.youtube.com/user/stillcodentity
@CodyJonesSTLBRN
