60 RAPPERS IN 60 DAYS: Kwamé

By Keith Murphy
The polka-dot genius is making a comeback on the mic

Before Kanye West there was Kwamé. Like his cocky, trendsetting Chicago counterpart, Kwamé showcased his strikingly diverse talents behind the boards and on the mic as a 16-year-old Queens, N.Y., native, with his groundbreaking albums Kwamé the Boy Genius (Atlantic, 1989) and A Day in the Life: A Pokadelick Adventure (Atlantic, 1990). The style-conscious MC, who turned the hip hop nation on to polka dots and blond-streaked high-top fades, proved himself a witty lyricist and an innovative producer. He even survived an unprovoked, potent punch line from The Notorious B.I.G. on the classic track “Unbelievable” (“Your life is played out like Kwamé, and them fuckin' polka dots…”). Indeed, Kwamé had the last laugh as he went on to produce for Mary J. Blige (“L.O.V.E.”), Lloyd Banks (“On Fire”), Will Smith (“Switch”), Pussycat Dolls (“Bite The Dust”), and Christina Aguilera (“Understand”). Kwamé Holland, 36, is in the studio working on his first solo album in 15 years. If he can rekindle his own genius, the rap vet may find himself in the spotlight again, too.

VIBE: What are you producing for right now?

Kwamé: I’m working on Cee-Lo’s new project and I’m doing a lot of film work. The latest movie I’m working on is Sandra Bullock’s The Proposal. And I’m getting ready to start work on the film Step Up 3. And I’m working on music for Skillz, who people know from the year-end rap-ups. But no one has really sat down to give him the direction that shows just how talented an MC he is. I like taking on projects like that because it’s unexpected.

You’ve been working on your first solo album since 1994’s Incognito. What inspired you to come back to the mic after years as a producer?

I think as an MC at heart you never give up your love for doing your craft. I’ve been producing for the last several years. You miss the mental rush of creating projects for yourself. My assumption is when a lot of cats [come back], if they haven’t had a record out in a while, they try to reclaim something that they had back in the days or they want to prove to everybody that they still got it. I don’t come with that in my mind. I just want to have an outlet to express myself.

How does a Kwamé album sound in 2009?

I’m a very musical person, so I want to be able to infuse all the musical genres that I have been producing. I want it to be very cinematic and I also want to bring, much like Slick Rick said on his last album, the art of storytelling back. I’m a man of the world, so everything doesn’t necessarily have to be about the hustle and the trap. There’s an audience out there in between what the kids are listening to and what the adult-contemporary audience is listening to. And every genre of music caters to that in-between crowd. If News Kids On The Block come back with an album, it’s not seen as strange or a big deal; the same for a veteran rock ’n’ roll artist. It’s only in rap and R&B that it’s so stigmatized to be from the so-called old school as an artist. I want to break down that stigma. I don’t have a title for the album yet. But now it’s picking up.

You were one of the few hip hop artists early on that utilized R&B production and melodic hooks back in the late ’80s and early ’90s. What inspired you to take that chance?
It was based on me listening to the radio. Back then, rap records couldn’t get played early in the morning. They had to be played after 6 p.m. So let me start creating records like “Only You,” where I can turn on my radio at 8 a.m. and the radio programmer will think it’s an R&B record, but really it’s hip hop.
Early on people thought that Hurby Luv Bug (who manned the boards for Salt ‘N’ Pepa, Kid 'N Play, Heavy D, and Dana Dane) produced your music. But soon folks started to realize you were producing and rapping on your records, which was a rarity.
People thought that because Hurby was my mentor. He was the biggest producer for hip hop at that time, so it was one of those political situations to where you are attached to Hurby. But the cool thing about the first album is that it was done before I even got a deal. I had a job at a C-Town grocery store and I saved up my money. I went to this studio in Queens called the Music Building and I dumped all my change on the table like, “How many hours can I get with this money?” And they gave me six to eight hours worth of studio time on Christmas Eve, 1988. So from Christmas Eve to Christmas day I literally recorded my first album. I did six of the eight songs during that one session. I got my record deal with that demo. I was just a kid.
What do you remember about recording those first two albums?

That rappers took pride in being individuals. Back then it was more like, How can I be true to myself and at the same time stand so far apart from everybody else? At that point in time if you were producing your own records you were not thinking about producing someone else’s records because you didn’t want anyone else having your sound. It was everything down to our style of clothes and music to how you performed onstage. That individuality led into the sale of the records.

So the Kwamé−polka-dot image wasn’t an accident?

Well, the irony is that was never a preconceived image. The polka-dot look was a monster that took on a life of its own. I was always the GQ kid. I didn’t wear the sweat suits and the fat gold ropes and all that kind of stuff. But how it evolved was I wore [polka dots] on the back of my first album cover and I wore [them] in one scene of my first video. And from that point, when we went on tour in every city, we went to all the guys and girls who had on polka dots. There were also dudes that had the flat tops with streaks in their hair. It was more of a fan base thing. Once I saw that the fans were latching on to it, I just ran with it. But it all goes back to being an individual.

Who are your top five MCs of all time?

That’s easy. Kool G Rap, Slick Rick, Melle Mel, Jay-Z, and then it’s a toss-up between [Big Daddy] Kane and Rakim.
Hey, that’s cheating.

[Laughs] The reason why I’m quick to give that answer is because I have this argument every single day in the studio between me and my engineer or any rapper that comes in. As a matter of fact we had the biggest argument yesterday over whether Biggie was a great lyricist or not. It turned into a three-hour argument [laughs].

How can anyone have an argument about Biggie not having skills?

I know right? I was trying to convince my engineer, yes, Biggie is a great lyricist. Biggie was able to take everyday situations and make people feel it. But he was still lyrical.

Who are your five favorite producers right now?

I don’t check for flash in the pan producers who are hot at the moment. The producers I really check for are the top guys. My favorite producers are The Neptunes. For me they have never done me wrong, ever. Their diversity is just crazy. I really love Kanye and I mess with Timbaland because of his diversity as well. Then you have DJ Toomp, and of course DJ Premier. I don’t care if he hot right now or not. Every rapper that has some sort of hip hop in them always has one Premier song on their record.

What do you love about hip hop right now?

I like the fact that even though hip hop has become this big corporate monster, it’s still taking whatever you have dealt to you and flipping it and making it fly. That’s all hip hop is. It’s the kids in the most ghetto neighborhoods in the world. I can go around the world and tell somebody I listen to hip hop and they know exactly what I’m talking about. It wasn’t like that when I was younger. People were looking at me like what the hell are you talking about? But hip hop is now worldwide. It is it’s own culture, language and fashion. That’s what I love about it.