Music > Interviews

Big Daddy Kane

The Adrian Flux Waterfront

by Lizz

20/04/17

Big Daddy Kane, ladies man and one of the most influential and skilled golden age rappers ruled the roost in Brooklyn back in the mid 80’s. Since then he’s released solo albums, been a film actor, featured in Madonna’s Sex book, posed for Playgirl and worked with all the greats including 2Pac, Tribe Called Quest, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, MF Doom and Jurassic 5. He even allowed a young Jay-Z to jump onstage for a few minutes whilst he changed outfits back in the day. A hip hop hero, his poetic lyrical content and fast, confident flow are simply second to none. Kane is visiting Norwich this month on one of only two UK dates, so I caught up with the man himself to talk about The Get Down and what No Half Steppin’ actually means.

Your hip hop story really seems to have begun in 1984 when you became friends with Biz Markie. You and some others were instrumental in the innovation and development of hip hop and you are incredibly influential to subsequent generations of artists – but who was influencing and impressing you when you first starting out?

I guess my early influences in hip hop would be Grandmaster Caz from The Cold Crush Brothers, but I was also a fan of the Furious Five and Spoony Gee.

In 1986 you became a member of the Juice Crew which was led by Marley Marl – how did you find the transition from rapping with friends to being on stage and performing?

Well before I had a record deal I was going from project to project, block party to block party battling other rappers, and sometimes I’d perform at parties in Brooklyn as well so I was already quite experienced by that point.

Which line that you’ve written are you most proud of?

It’s probably a line I wrote for the song Mortal Kombat, “you little son of an o-bit-uary column”. It sounds like I’m gonna curse and then I switch it around.

I really like that I can understand your words when you rap – this is surprisingly rare! When you were first starting out, how did you develop your own personal style so that you sounded unique and stood out in the burgeoning hip hop scene?

I thought that it was real important that people are able to really hear what you’re saying so they can relate to the lyrics. I was one of those artists who didn’t want the track to control me – I wanted to control the track.

You’re a really fast and intricate rapper. Did you have to train yourself to remember all the words to your songs or did that come pretty easily to you?

Nah, I mean after you say something to yourself several times it gets embedded, just like learning schoolwork.

The fashion style of the late 80‘s and early 90’s with the velour track suits and rings. You still look like an amazingly stylish guy, and I understand your dad was a stylish man. What’s would you say your ultimate outfit from over the years has been?

Hmmmm. That’s kind of hard to answer – I’ve had way too many outfits that I’ve really loved!

Have you got a massive wardrobe?

No I don’t think, because normally ever year I clean stuff out and donate it to charity and just buy new clothes.

Your debut album came out in 88 and it had Ain’t No Half Steppin on it. There’s even a hip hop night here in Norwich that’s called No Half Steppin! What does No Half Steppin’ actually mean though?

Oh it means that you have to be dedicated to what you’re doing and can’t do a half assed job, you can’t just start something and not finish, or get involved in something just to be a part of it rather than to win at it. You’ve gotta go for it, and go for it all the way.

You’ve had several albums out, the most recent in 1998. What have you been up to since then?

I’ve been doing a lot of other stuff as well as making music –film and other stuff like that. I still appear on other people’s projects – I’m on Saigon’s last album and I just did something with Bootsy Collins.

Do you still write words for pleasure?

Yeah, occasionally. If I’m sitting around and I get an idea in a hotel or something I’ll type it in my phone.

How do you go about choosing the right samples for tracks? Is it that you hear a song and want to make a song around that sample, or do you search for samples to put inside a song? I’m thinking of Smooth Operator and how the samples in there are so key.

It’s a bit of both, absolutely.

Is there a chance of you making another Big Daddy Kane album, and if so what sort of route do you think you’d take musically? You featured on a Las Supper album four years ago which was incredibly funky, soulful and upbeat, and I wondered if that’s something you might take forward.

Yeah that’s a sound that would really sound better with my band so to do stuff like that. Other than that I don’t really have any plans to put out another project. If hip hop took a direction that I was comfortable with then who knows, maybe. At the moment I’m just letting the young cats do what they do.

Are there any current MC’s that float your boat?

I like J. Cole, I like Logic and Kendrick Lamar..there are a few out there.

Do you think the fun has gone out of hip hop these days?

Back then hip hop was something new. Now it’s the biggest selling musical genre and it’s a corporate thing now. It’s more about the business than the actual culture these days. So, you know, that takes away from the fun and the originality and the whole soul of it. You have to conduct business and sell music

Have you seen the TV show The Get Down which is about the start of hop hop in New York? What did you think of it?

Yeah I’ve seen it. I liked it, it’s interesting. I see a lot of stuff that’s fabricated for the purpose of television but at the same time it brings back memories for me, just talking about the basic sound and what artists did back in the day.

I’ve read that you have always wanted to battle with Rakim and KRS-One – why have you picked out those two as worthy contenders?

I never said Rakim, but everyone else wanted me to! Yeah I always wanted to battle KRS-One because I always thought he was a great battle MC. He really had great battle skills. Rakim is a great lyricist but KRS-One is a battle MC.

I guess you need different skills to be an outstanding lyricist or battle MC.

You have to really have that mindset to be a battle MC. You have legendary champions from Sonny Liston to Mike Tyson who knew how to come in the ring and deliver some truly heavy blows to know you out with. But then you have people like Muhammad Ali or Floyd Merriweather who know how to enter with a sweet science and take you out of your game.

You’re only doing a couple of dates in the UK and we’re very lucky to have you coming to Norwich. What can we expect from your show?

We’re gonna have some fun, revisit all the classic material, and not just the singles – we’re gonna do some favourite album tracks as well. We’ll be hoping for an energetic and enjoyable night.

Big Daddy Kane plays the Waterfront on 7th May. Tickets available from ueatickets.ticketabc.com