Firstly thanks for taking time to do this exclusive interview for www.HipHop4Days.com. Let’s start at the beginning. How did you get into making music and when would you say your career started?
I got into it at an early age. My dad was a musician, so he’d always have the latest gadgets and stuff like the early synths, and drum machines, so I started messing around with those when I was about nine or ten. Got my first sampler in ’88 so I started makin’ beats then. It was a Roland S550 mono sampler. I’d been a DJ years before that. Started in 78 playing at school parties, and kids Disco’s. Got heavy into mixing, and won the Norwegian DMC battles in 88, and 89, so producing was just the next level of mixing to me.
From when you started to now, what you consider being your biggest tracks or releases?
The biggest as far as featured artists is “Underground” from my new album Destiny. Features KRS-One, Ras Kass, Joell Ortiz, and Kool G Rap. My most well known is probably either “Narrow Grave” by AOTP, or “Roll Out” by D-Stroy, or maybe “Boot Rap” by Mark Deez featuring Kool G Rap, and Canibus. My own favorite releases is my albums Renegades, Untouchable, Victory, and Destiny.
How would you describe the music that you make?
Cinematic new school boom bap.
Have you done many collaborations, if so who have you worked with and what was your most memorable experience?
Yeah, I’ve worked with probably close to 200 artists now, maybe a little more or less. Most of it in recent years have been via the Internet but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have fun with the people you work with, like Mark Deez, and myself we had a lot of fun in the creative process of making his album, “The Oracle”, so that was great. As far as actually teaming up with people in the studio it’s been a while, but Maylay Sparks, and I always had a great time in the lab, and also workin’ with Easy Mo Bee was a great learning experience.
Hip-Hop is changing all the time. How do you feel about Hip-Hop in 2010, who are you feeling and how is the game treating you?
There’s Hiphop, and then there’s Rap music, two different things. The bad side of what it is now is that wack artists sell more records than dope artists, and that a lot of people have this delusion that the more money you make, and the better position you have on the hit charts the better you are which is of course bs, I mean, that’s all got to do with promo, and who’s the puppeteer pullin’ the strings. If you have the support of the people who run the music biz, The Illuminati, The Freemasons, and what have you, then you will have commercial success. You have to go through them for that though, and a lot of artists do have ties with them without even knowing about it. Don’t matter if you got the best music on the planet if you don’t have their support. But Hiphop in 2010, it’s a really great scene with a lot of talented artists so we have nothing to complain about. If you go back to the 90′s and pull out your favorite records from that era, then do the same with the music that’s out now you might find that both the production, and rhyme skills are better now. Sometimes I think people are so busy complaining they don’t actually hear that Hiphop has advanced. It might not be as original now however because the 90′s laid the groundwork for what everyone is doin’ now. The game isn’t treating me well cause I’m not in bed with The Illuminati, but the Hiphop scene is treating me real well, and I feel I’m being recognized for what I do. There are some haters of course but that’s jealousy, and jealous people will say anything to make someone look bad. In this biz, I’ve been called everything from a genius cause I have my own styles, and make great music, to a Nazi simply because I have White, and Norway in my name, and some of my album covers were red, black, and white (laughs). All good at the end of the day. People talk. I create. All in all Hiphop is treating me great. I’d say it’s 80% love, and 20% hate.
Tell me about the label you’re with, even if it’s your own label. Tell us who is involved and how many people behind the scenes are helping you?
It’s called Uncut Productions, and it’s my own label. I release my own producer albums featuring various artists on it, as well as I signed Mark Deez, and Infinito 2017 to one album deals last year. They already been released. Mark Deez – The Oracle, and Next Universe – Classic Regulations. I’ve also released The Pizdamen’s album, “Red Stars”, in 2005. I’m running the label myself with no help from others, but Foundation Media in New York are helping out with online distribution on some of my releases.
The music industry is changing from CD’s & Vinyl over to MP3, stores are getting closed and on-line shops are starting up. Do you think CD’s are dead or do you think it depends on the genre & artist?
No I don’t think CD’s will fully die. They said the same about vinyl when CD’s came around, so there will always be collectors who like to own physical copies which is why the sales of vinyl is increasing again. Not in big numbers though, so let’s not fool ourselves either, I mean, digital is the market nowadays, but you never know when that will change. People might get tired of the Internet in a few years from now then everything returns to physical, but yeah it looks more like the net’s killin’ all physical stores. Not many of them left now. Illegal downloading is a problem but also a benefit. It’s good promo, but kills record sales, still you can’t stop it unless you stop the Internet which will not happen, so you just gotta deal with it. Hiphop’s been hit the hardest. Say like, Country music, that’s a genre that still moves mad units of CD’s.
So where are you from exactly and have you ever done any local gigs?
I’m from a small town up in the mountains of Norway named Geilo. Population is about 5000 people or so, but it’s a winter sports resort, so in the winter there’s a lot more people. It’s more based on families now though so there’s no clubs anymore, but there used to be, and I played here a lot back in the days. From the early 80′s til the early 2000′s I did DJ gigs here on the regular, but I quit DJ’ing live in like around 2004. Damn, it just struck me that I’ve mentioned this city in a lot of interviews now so they should fuckin’ start paying me for the promo! Hahaha. But you know, this is a great place to live, but if you’re not involved in winter sports you don’t really get recognized for what you do all that much. I will though. It’ll probably be after I’m dead but I will. Haha. Thanks to everyone from here who do recognize though. It’s been a very small but live Hiphop scene here. Not that many people, maybe about 20 or 30 at the most, but several of us have been makin’ some serious noise on the Hiphop scene in Norway, and worldwide.
Have you done any big gigs or played live with any big artists? If so tell us what is was like and what playing live means to you.
Yeah a lot back in the 90′s in New York. I opened up for Busta Rhymes, and Leaders Of The New School, Jay-Z, Gangstarr, Boogie Down Productions, and many more. My biggest gig was opening up for BDP at The Ritz in New York rockin’ the tables infront of about 5000 Hiphop heads including a lot of the old school legends in the audience like Afrika Bambaataa, Jazzy Jay, and Ultramagnetic MC’s freestylin’ on the mic while I rocked the tables. That was when “Fuck Compton” was the hottest record in NY, so Tim Dog got on the mic, and rocked it live. I’ve done 1000′s of DJ gigs over the years like that. I could write a book series about all the good shit that’s been goin’ down at gigs over the years. I used to love playing live, and the energy you feed the crowd, and they feed it back at you, and so on, but it came to a point where I felt I’d done it all, so I quit, and I don’t miss it, but have a lot of great memories from it.
Hip-Hop is sometime viewed as negative music and in the media often gets a raw deal. Do you think that Hip-Hop should be more positive and that artists have a responsibility to the youth?
You gotta look at where Hiphop is originally from. It’s from the streets of The Bronx, New York, and it was started by gang members, so it’s not a culture for the faint of heart you know what I mean, but also, it was started to give kids something to do instead of killing eachother through drugs, violence, and crime. Hiphop is a way for kids especially to express their energy, positive and negative, without hurting nobody, but through art, music, and dance. Hiphop is life, and it’s everything, and so it’s not gonna be all pretty. Art imitates life imitates art imitates life, and so yeah it can have a negative influence, like I’m not a big fan of the materialistic kinda Rap music of later years where it’s all about bling, cars, cash, hoes, and all that, but it portrays the time we live in as well. All that materialism, and all that don’t give a fuck ism is unfortunately the sign of the times, and Hiphop is honest, so you can find that there too, but we can change. As long as we’re alive we can change ourselves, Hiphop, and the world. What world do we want our kids to grow up in? I bet for most parents it’s not the duckface, and that gangsta shit? Cool, so get busy changing it. Raising the youth is the parents responsibility, and not the artist. The artist only talks about what life around him inspires him to talk about.
Can I get all the You Tube URL Links to all your music videos please?
I got a Youtube channel at:
http://www.youtube.com/TWSUncut
Can I get all your website links, facebook, myspace, reverb nation, twitter, etc.
Yeah. First, you can buy all my albums here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/the-white-shadow/id275601519?ign-mpt=uo%3D4
Then, check out:
http://www.myspace.com/whiteshadowofnorway
http://www.facebook.com/whiteshadowofnorway
http://uncutproductions.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the interview, GLO! Peace.
Interview by Stuart Pattersonhttp://hiphop4days.com/2010/12/02/the-white-shadow-interview/
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