Interviewed by Shiyana Bellamy
Howsmyrolling: I see that you produced the theme for Tyler Perry’s House Payne. I spoke to Jon Connor recently and he spoke on doing scores. Do you believe that Hollywood should be prepared for Hip Hop taking over scores from producers like yourself?
Don Cannon: Oh yeah man, I mean it’s just not a fly by night scene. You know what I mean? You start to see a lot of them on these shows. I was just actually watching “Weeds” and I was surprised to see that Spider Loc had did one of the scenes for the “Weeds” show, which is pretty big. Especially for an up and coming artist on the West coast and the same thing with “Entourage” starting to put a lot of rap artists in the show. And actually letting them do those scores and things. It’s nothing new that I didn’t see was coming, I just wanted to venture off and do some stuff like that. You know and get into these movies and stuff; I think Hip Hop is one of the biggest music genres of influence. I feel like if we can get in and start doing some of that stuff we can help make the culture a little bigger.
HMR: You are working with Laws and mentioned “He is Hip Hop” What is your definition of Hip Hop?
DC: Well, if you know anything about the Hip Hop culture, you know first and foremost the number one rule is “true to self.” You know I’ve heard anybody from Will Smith all the way down to Kanye West and Jay Z; rapping Hip Hop is all about staying true. In this day in time, in the bad climate of music, so called “bad climate of music,” you know a lot of people tend to say or get inpatient. You know and try to run off and do things they’re not suppose to be doing or things that they wanted to do that didn’t work out for them and it’s out of character. You know what I mean and what I mean by that is, there are a lot of cats that stay true to form. Wayne is one of them, Kanye is like that, Laws is definitely one of those guys I consider that by no means would change his true identity in the Hip Hop world. You know just to succeed as a commercial artist or succeed in the rap world. He’s just one of those guys that’s just staying true. A lot of the cats in rap now have built characters and characters need a marching band behind them in order to win. Everybody character needs a theme song, but then you know it’s only for one season. A lot of these cats are doing it just for a season and Laws is one of those cats, when I met him that if anybody knows about his history, he started out with Rawkus back in the day battle rapping. Nothing has changed since then, you know he always grew up around the music he listens to. Electronic music, so on and so forth. One thing I noticed about him is that no matter what he raps over, he keeps it trill, he doesn’t water it down. So that’s what I meant by Hip Hop, that what he embodies as a rap artist to me.
HMR: Do you believe the state of Hip Hop has changed for better or worst over the last decade?
DC: It depends on how you take it, you know? From my stand point I don’t feel like Hip Hop is dead. I feel like there’s been a lot of characters in the past, maybe two or three years that have changed the game a little bit because it made music more about being a character and idol than actually the music. I don’t think it’s bad, it goes through phases. You know right now we going through a dance phase, you know for the past two years of people making dance records. You know I hear people lash out and be like “That’s terrible music!” and so on, so forth. It’s just like the disco era, everybody made the same music in the disco era and everybody loved it for about ten years. Music is art, if I filled it up on the wall and I call it “rap” then that’s what it is. So I don’t feel like it changed any, I just feel like its got its characters as it always has.
HMR: You were a little upset that you didn’t get recognition as one of the best mixtape DJ from MTV. Do you believe they will regret it in 2011 and why?
DC: Oh they’ll definitely regret it in 2011. But I want to state first that some of the people at MTV are some of my closest buddies, you know what I mean? Ramon and Sway, and you know Shaheem. Some of those cats up there are people that I see all the time, that we conversate about music that you know we have conversations. They love me you know what I mean instead, but you know its miscommunication. I feel like I did a couple mistakes in my life, you know this past year as well. Just staring into the music and doing so much music and work that I forgot to do things that those certain DJ’s on that list did. And that was just play the public, make sure their face is seen and you know all the stuff that you know we don’t think about sometimes, that artists when you’re in your house making five beats a day or six, seven mixtapes a month. And you know some of those things, I did as much publicity as I could but you know in this year they’ll definitely notice my face. (Laughs) Believe that.
HMR: What does DJ Kool Hurc, DJ Kid Capri and DJ Mr. Magic mean to you?
DC: They’re the pioneers, you know what I mean. There would be no me, there would be no Drama, there would be no Jazzy Jeff. There would be none of these guys without those cats. I’m kind of happy that I’m starting to see those guys and even Kurtis Blow, get their own Sirius Satellite radio shows or those guys of that nature to really do things like that. Even the passing of some the DJ’s, you they’re still the pioneers of this man and I feel like we forget where we come from. We tend to be like “Well, I invented that, I did that first!” But you don’t remember where we got it from. I have to dig up those guys man and rest in peace to some of them that have brought us up. Especially some of those rappers, I can’t really send my biggest tributes to these guys over and over and we can’t respect it. So, I feel like at some point I did and I’m glad that you asked that question so I can send salutes to that.
HMR: Some people believe it’s easy to become a DJ and just purchase a Serato. What do you have to say those who haven’t educated themselves?
DC: I use to feel some type of way about it, but I learned to really go with it because there are certain people that are actually prodigies at selecting and DJing. I’ve seen them over and over again, I’ve seen people that picked up a Serato two years ago and become one of the top Dj’s out now and are actually good. But I can’t really comment on somebody just picking up a computer or Serato and DJing. What I can comment on people that think they can pick it up and think that it’s going to come to them naturally. Certain people, they were born to do it, they just never realized it until they picked up a Serato and did it, and there they were. And there are some people that think they know what they are doing and don’t. So, don’t think you can do that, but you know I can’t really disrespect those people that really did that and turned around and did something with they selves. I got to big up DJ Holiday which is one of those guys that I watched and picked up Serato three years ago and you look at him now and he’s all over the place. He’s doing well, same thing with the other younger cats I know, DJ Infamous and some of these other cats around ATL some of them picked up and actually knew what they were doing. Now as far as learning the history of turn tables and the stuff that I use to do when I was young, you can’t really learn that without going back and trying. But it’s too hard now for those guys, the only cat that wants to be a DJ and try to come up now, can not sit back and say “I’m a go back and get some turn tables.” Because where you gonna find the vinyl at? It’s a different day and time, like you can’t learn certain things all the time. So, Serato helped those guys to be who they are. I know a cat that recently just went to DJ school because he picked up Serato, you know he’s doing clubs, but he wants to learn how to DJ. He can’t do that by coming over to Cannon’s house and be like “Yo, you got to show me, ‘cause I started on turn tables.” He’s not even gonna grasp that effect because he’s got to sit there and learn a whole new technique. It’s like trying to dunk without laying up or trying to cross over without dribbling. It’s not gonna happen, you can’t go all the way back, he can’t start now like, “Damn, I got to go back to turntables!” and learn speeds because speeds is different on Serato’s now. The turn tables was on speed, you ain’t make it, you ain’t make it. (Laughs)
HMR: Well, you mentioned two very important people from Philly a few minutes ago. You went to Atlanta Clark, what made you chose coming down South and instead of staying in Philadelphia?
DC: The real answer to that is I wasn’t good in school. I was super smart, I went to a fairly popular business school in Atlanta which was Roxboro High and I also had a chance to win some accounting awards, things like that just ‘cause of stuff that I liked or naturally came to me through my mother. I did fairly well on the SAT test, it was like, “Yo what am I gonna do?” You know in the neighborhood we were living in weren’t good for me to stay in. So, it was like, “Should I really leave Philadelphia?” or should I stay and grasp. You know when I was coming out of high school, Philly was getting popular. You had Beanie Sigel, you had Jill Scott, Musiq Soulchild, Jazzy Jeff was up and running with his whole situation. The ROOTS was having their second album out, actually their third album out. It was really growing, so it wasn’t really a good decision at that time ‘cause I could have been making soul, but I guess you know as GOD had it my faith was to be in Atlanta. I winded up going to school, I could have went to Hampton or the other schools. I was like let me go to Atlanta; I guess that was the best choice. I never even seen me going straight to Atlanta like, “Yo, I’m gonna do music.” You know what I mean? Like some people be like “Yo, I’m gonna move to New York ‘cause I’m gonna be a publicist” or I’m gonna be this that and the third. So, I winded up just coming to Atlanta on a whim like s**t, I’m gonna go down there and see what’s going on. And there you have it.
HMR: Who are some of your musical influences?
DC: I would say Jay-Z is one, Kanye’s definitely one. I just listen to a lot of music, like my whole ear has changed. You know in the past, you’d look for one rapper or producer, but I get different things out of different places now. I just picked up Rolling Stone; they got the top 500 songs of all times. In that they’ve got Jay-Z narrating the whole thing and explaining to you each song and what each artist did when they made that hit record. Me reading that for the past year and half, I started really focusing on people I never focused on like Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and The Beatles. You know I’m just back tracking on a lot of that stuff, to figure out how they made hit records and how their thought patterns was, you know a lot of those writers. I like Dream he’s a fantastic writer, I like Ne-Yo one of my favorite writers. Those are all the people I really pour inspiration from, is people that I look at like “I want to make hit records like those guys.” As far as artists coming up I’m really feeling is Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, Pac Div, just people that’s really, like when we first started just “True To Self.” Just people having fun, you know Hip Hop isn’t suppose to be all up tight and you know so opinionated. I know us Hip Hop people we’re rebellious, we gonna argue to death on who’s better Pac, Nas, Biggie, Jay. After a while it gets old, ‘cause it’s like everybody’s gonna get a chance and back then it was a thousand rappers. You had LL, Big Daddy Kane, Heavy D, Rakim. I didn’t get to see those days when they was arguing who’s the best. I like to take a page out of everybody’s book; you know I listen to everybody’s music. What I don’t do is listen to the bulls**t I’ll tell you that much. (Laughs)
HMR: In Don Cannon’s world, what would be the first thing people have to do in the morning?
DC: First thing I notice in the past five years is you gotta eat breakfast that’s what gets your brain running. Before that the actual prayer is first, that’s a given, then breakfast. Then about twelve, one o’clock get on your job, get on your business. I mean this is in my world, some people do a nine to five, but one o’ clock starts the day. Get to your beats, go through your sounds, get to your turntables, get to your camera, whatever you got to do that’s in entertainment get right to it at one o’clock and don’t stop til’ you burned out for the day.
HMR: Well, that’s an interesting world. Now to wrap things up, what can we expect from you in 2011?
DC: I guess it’s too early to say right now, like I said before I’m going to intensify the mixtape game. I’m gonna go really super hard. I feel like a couple publications picked up on things like XXL picked up five or six of the tapes that I had out this year. I just want to try something new; I just want to hopefully change the Hip Hop game someway with these mixtapes. Definitely look for some hits, as the music climate starts to get a little better, you’ll start to see records. I know for the past two years I’ve had ten, twelve records that’s still waiting to come out. You know what I mean? (Laughs) I don’t know how it is now with people doing albums. Are they really worried about radio records or they just trying to put some music out and not worry about selling records? But definitely more hits, I can’t say I’m a go too much outside of that. Maybe a couple TV appearances here and there, a couple collabs with some clothing brands, but that’s probably gonna be the focus of this next year. I don’t really want to draw out too much and go outside of what I’m doing right now.
