Exclusive Interview with QDIII
Producer - Soundlab
Interview Date 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, February, 2002

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Interviewee: Producer……………………… Quincy "QD3" Jones III
Interviewer: HitEmUp.com Founder………………… JON PETERS
Transcription: JON PETERS

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: Why don't we start off by you telling us a bit about you and your background?

QDIII ~ A: About me and my background, basically you know, I'm a music producer, and uh I started doing production when I was 16 and I'm 33 now, so I've been doing it for kind of a minute.  And um, I grew up in Sweden, in Stockholm, Sweden.  Started doing hiphop out there, started going on tours as a break dancer, believe it or not.  And um, from there I moved to New York, and started doing production for like, people Te La Rock, and um, I did a lot of work for Sleepingbag Records back in the day.  And then I moved to LA, in about eighty-88, and um the first people I met out here was WC and the Madd Circle.  And through them I met a girl named Terry B and uh, she signed with Dr. Dre back in the day, it was on Ruthless.  So I did her whole album over there, and that's how I kinda got hooked into the west coast scene. And uh, you know, from doing that work, one thing just kept leading to another.  I worked with Everlast, I worked with Ice Cube, you know, and then eventually, Tupac.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: Your originally from Sweden, I'm from Canada myself.  Something I've noticed especially on the internet, is that people feel you need to be from States to quote "be a real hip-hop fan."  What are your thoughts on that?

QDIII ~ A:  Um, I think that, the European fans have another perspective of hip-hop, this is just my opinion though, you know what I mean.  But like, when I was growing up, it was harder to get your hands on stuff, so I paid more attention you know what I mean.  Like I would listen to every Madtronic record that came out, every Just Ice record, and just sit there and analyze it.  And like, if there was an article on them, I would read the whole thing you know, I wanted to know more about the background.  But I think, in the States, they focus more on like, what's current, and what's hitting right now and they don't even care about the culture, as much you know what I mean.  So, in a sense, I almost feel like the European fans are more, uh, educated about the culture as a whole, as I think in the States we sometimes take it for granted cause it's right in front of us.  But I'm, it's more of a business here, where I think the culture means more in Europe, you know what I mean.  But it's probably because they don't have the same type of access to it you know.  So, I'd say that to me, anybody that can relate to the music, is in there in my books.

HitEmUp.com ~ : I think part of it too is that people associate, being a thug with rap music, so people from the States tend to generalize and think maybe people from other parts of the world don't have it rough or can't relate to the music because of that.

QDIII ~ : And that is dead wrong.  I mean you know that.

HitEmUp.com ~ : I do, yeah.

QDIII ~ : You can go to Brookston, you can go to Paris, Sweden.  We got projects, we got murders, we got gangs, we got all that stuff you know.  Not that that's a good thing.  But it definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely exists everywhere.  It's just different forms of it you know what I mean.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: For those who don't know, what tracks did you produce for Tupac?

QDIII ~ A: Um, to name a few I did To Live & Die in LA, I produced uh, Lost Souls, Letter to the President, Tear Drops and Closed Caskets, Friends, Niggaz Nature, uh, there's a few more, Heaven Ain't Hard to Find, um, and a few others.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: How did you hook up with Tupac?

QDIII ~ A: Um, you know what, my sister was engaged to him, and uh, right when he got out of jail, he was on BET playing his album and I was like, damn.  I mean, those tracks are incredible, I had never heard anything like it.  I think he played Life Goes On, and he said you know, I'm almost finished my album, and I was like, man I hope I can get a track on their.  So I got his hotel room number, and I slid a tape under his door and he called me back the next day and said you know that's exactly the type of music I'm looking for.  And they actually took one of the songs off that album to put on Heaven Ain't Hard to Find on All Eyez.  And then uh, we just jumped in the studio like every other day and just started doing more, you know what I mean.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: What was it like working with him?

QDIII ~ A: Incredible.  The first time I ever worked with him we did like 3 songs in one day I think.  And um, took us 5 hours to get those 3 songs done.  And normally when you work with rappers, like you give them beats and they go home and write to it, come to the studio and punch it in and do all kinds of overdubs and stuff like that.  With Tupac, you know, he would just listen to the song maybe 3 times, like max, listen to the whole song 3 times, and um, he wouldn't tell anybody what the songs about or anything, he would just go in the booth, read it for the first time out loud, on tape, go do one more track, and that was it.  The song was finished, you know what I mean.  So it was real like, it was incredible.  I've never been able to, to look at production the same way again, because he showed me that, you should just do whatever comes out of you and don't think too much about it you know what I mean.  Just do, like even as a producer he was like, don't fuck around with the kicks and don't do this, you know just put it down and lets go, you know what I mean.  So, just from seeing that, it changed the way I look at production.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: How would you describe Tupac?

QDIII ~ Q: As a person?

HitEmUp.com ~ : Yes.

QDIII ~ A: I would describe him as, just from the time I worked with him, I would describe him as somebody that, even though you don't know him well you trust him automatically because, whatever he felt would come right out, so you know he wasn't the type of person that was going to look at you and not say something, you know what I mean.  So by that, you know your dealing with somebody that was either all up, or all against you, you know what I mean.  And if he was all for you, he felt that he had your back and there was nothing to think twice about.  You know, he seemed real straight up about everything.  And I would say that rings true for every area of his life, he was just like, a very truthful, straight forward, stand up person.  Somebody who's words meant a lot.  You know what I mean?

HitEmUp.com ~ : Definately.

HitEmUp.com ~ : What's your favorite Tupac track?

QDIII ~ A: Ooh, I would have to say that my all time favorite is probably Dear Mama, I know that's kinda like, a cliché, but, I just felt that the first time I understood Tupac was the first time I really understood how deep he was.  You know what I mean.  And since then, I have a few other favorites, like um, This Ain't Livin, you know I like the lyrics, um, I like everything he ever did to tell you the truth, but I like his introspective songs the most, slow, like real deep ones.

HitEmUp.com ~ : Yeah, I agree completely.  It was actually Dear Mama that really got me into Tupac, because I mean, I grew up rough and it was a song that, I really related to as well, and it also showed me, you know the Thug Life persona of Tupac was one thing, but the song really showed to me how deep and intellectual he was.

QDIII ~ A: Exactly, like he is the first, to me, him and Scarface were the first rappers that did a song that, that you could just sit back to and me like "man", you know what I mean.  Like, it gave you emotions inside.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: So lets talk a bit about the upcoming documentary Thug Angel.  There was rumors that Afeni was going to stop the release.  Is it still going to be released in April?

QDIII ~ A: Uh, yeah.  To the best of my knowledge it should be, yeah.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: What happened with Afeni?

QDIII ~ A: Nothing really happened, actually, we were gonna, we started this together you know.  Um, you know Tupac and our family, and we were pretty close you know.  And uh, when he passed away, me, my father, Afeni, and the estate were going to put together a film and a documentary.  Um, we even talked about taking over the record label at one point, you know.  And then um, you know, time went on and things changed, and Afeni decided she wanted to do a piece with MTV.  Which was cool, you know what I mean.  We kind of separated.  And uh, that was pretty much the end of it, you know.  So nothing really happened that I can really think of, more than that she decided that she was going to do hers and that was that.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: Is it going to be released internationally?

QDIII ~ A: Yeah, absolutely, world-wide.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: And it will have the same release date?

QDIII ~ A: Uh, to the best of my knowledge it should be within the same month, yeah.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: You mentioned that you have over 70 minutes of new Tupac footage and that your going to put it all into the one film.  Can you tell us a bit about that and what we can expect to see.

QDIII ~ A: Hey, lets just put it this way man, we had over 14 hours to choose from.  And basically what it was, was that um, myself and a couple of friends were, filming him from very early on, and um, we even have Tupac on film saying that this was going to be the story of my life.  So we followed him around.  So we have 14 hours of him, like at the gun range, we have him freestyling with Biggie, we have him on stage with Biggie, Puffy and Warren G back in the day, you know what I mean, when they were friends, and then, we also have like, him at Deathrow, him in the studio recording with different people, him writing lines, freestyling, you know, a lot of the musical stuff we couldn't use because the estate wouldn't license the music.  But um, all of the behind the scenes stuff we tried to include in the movie, and then whatever we couldn't fit in the actual movie, we put it in the bonus footage, see what I'm saying. So um, it's like Christmas you know, like, if you like Tupac, you'll be able to really get a good feel, of who he was as a person, not just like his record persona, you know what I'm saying.  And um, I think there was a lot more too him than people knew.  You know like, all the books that he read, like it's more than you probably think, you know what I'm saying.  And that's, that's the positive side of him that we try to bring out in the movie.  You know we had a lot of footage of him like, speaking on beefs and getting all into it, and we showed a little big of that in the film, but we tried to focus more on what people don't know about him, and maybe, at a later date, we'll do another film, you know with other stuff, but I just want people to understand who he was, before we give them the bullshit.  You know what I'm saying.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: Is there going to be a soundtrack accompanying the film?

QDIII ~ A: Absolutely.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: Can you tell us a bit about that?

q: Uh, the soundtrack is going to come out 6 weeks after the movie.  Um, due to time constraints.  And uh, basically it's going to feature, you know, friends, and family of Tupac.  Um, anybody that was down with him like Treach and Mac Mall and you know, whoever else that was friends with Pac, Shock G, that wants to be part of the soundtrack and just put it down, and we'll do it like a tribute album for Tupac.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: How active have you been with the new Tupac album?

QDIII ~ A: Um, I haven't worked on the new one.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: No?

QDIII ~ A: No, I think, to be truthful with you, I think I only have 4 songs left in the catalog that haven't been released.  So I'm not sure if one of those 4 songs are going to make it on this album.  Maybe at some point, on another album, they'll be there, but so far I'm not thinking they'll be on this one.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: So you don't really have any information on the album that you can give us?

QDIII ~ A: I've, I've listened to it.  You know, I've heard it.  It sounds really good.  A lot of Johnny J stuff on there.  If you like, I think Johnny J was one of the better producers that he worked with, and if you like his sound then your going to love this album.  It's definitely like the Johnny J/Tupac magic type stuff.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: Would you say there's more originals on the album this time around?

QDIII ~ A: Yes.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: Have you gotten any word for plans on singles or videos?

QDIII ~ A: Hmm, no, I heard that the Ronald Isely one was one of the ones they were considering.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: Is there anything specific that you can tell us about it?

QDIII ~ Q: About that song?

HitEmUp.com ~ : The song or the album in general.

QDIII ~ : Um, I would just basically say that it's a very Johnny J/Tupac type album. You know, when you listen to it's, it's just right there.  It kind of reminds you of, Until The End of Time, just the stuff that I heard you know what I mean.  Remind you of Until the End of Time, the originals that Johnny J did on there.  That's the flavor.  From what I heard, it could have changed since then.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: How do you feel about fans criticizing Until the End of Time for the soft production and R&B hooks.

QDIII ~ A: *Laughing* I was the target for a lot of those.  Um, you know what.  I think that, I can really appreciate, I can really appreciate um, people feeling that we should have just stuck with the originals, but the problem was that uh, some of the samples just wouldn't clear, you know what I mean.  And uh, in some cases there was so many issues with publishing clearances that it was just easier to just remix it, and um, and I don't think that we knew that people would be offended by that.  You know, and uh, to tell you the truth, I could have left it either way, you know, it wasn't like something that we were thinking, uh, lets make it better, you know, it wasn't nothing like that, it was just, you know people have heard the bootlegs, lets try and do something different since we have publishing clearances, and um, and uh, I guess certain people really didn't like that.  And I can appreciate that.  You know, it's like um, it's almost like, sac-relig to some people that messing with the tracks, I guess.  And um, I can appreciate their opinion, you know what I mean.

HitEmUp.com ~ Q: What were some of the samples that couldn't get cleared.  Was it true that Whodini, wouldn't give sample for the Friends, or rather give clearance for the Friends sample?

QDIII ~ A: I wasn't in charge of clearing the samples, but I know that it's always easier to um, to wrap up an album if you don't have samples.  And I think it was um, it was personally a convenience, a matter of convenience that we did it, you know what I mean.  But a lot of fans were offended by that.

HitEmUp.com ~ : *almost interrupts* Sorry, go ahead.

QDIII ~ Q:  You said people were offended by that?

HitEmUp.com ~ A: A lot of people weren't so much offended, as they were disappointed I think.  Um, it's almost like, you know, when Tupac did it, it was Tupac that touched it and when people took it and changed it all around, it wasn't like Tupac was speaking to them anymore.

QDIII ~ : I see.

HitEmUp.com ~ : That's my take on it.

QDIII ~ : Well it was funny because, I think the reason that friends change, you know, is that um, it was going on the Deathrow Compilation, and Hutch came to me and was like, you gotta change the beat.  And I was like, why?  Cause I liked the original, you know what I mean.  And he was like, well, the original sounds old, you know, times have changed and you know you need to get with the new stuff.  And I was like, damn you know, that's crazy.  So he went ahead and remixed that one.  And um, from there on it was kind of in the back of my head you know, ok, it sounds old, well lets try and update it a little bit you know.  And um, it just kind of spiraled from there.  It wasn't any deeper meaning, really behind why we did it, to be honest, you know.  Just trying to get the album done, and people had their opinions.  But also, also like, if it's remixed by producers that didn't work with Tupac, I can see how that would be unorthodox, but you know, I think that most of the remixes that have been done, by myself, and DJ Quik, and Johnny J.  Those are songs, that, you know, that if Pac were alive, lets just say he was, I think these are the people that he would still use, and those are the tracks that he would have rapped on anyway.  You see what I'm saying.

HitEmUp.com ~ : Yeah, I agree.

QDIII ~ : So you know, I don't want to offend anybody, but I think that's probably the truth.  And uh, you know, everything else is open for speculation.

HitEmUp.com ~ : I think part of it to is that, Tupac fans now, we're still looking for somebody to come with that old sound, to come with what Tupac had, and all the new stuff is kind of being shunned almost, it's a lot different now, people aren't as into rap now probably as they were back then, a lot of Tupac fans that is.

QDIII ~ : Really?  So to tell you the truth, I can appreciate that because I think it's, I'm up in the school of, like, I think you know, I think Tupac was the greatest rapper, and I think he had the greatest records of all time, there's no disputing that you know what I mean?

HitEmUp.com ~ : Yeah.

QDIII ~ : And I think that beyond the music, um, the spirit that he had, and the messages, if you really listen to his record he was like honest, you know what I mean.  He wasn't the type of person that would get on wax and like, um, lie and make himself look bigger or better than he was, he was telling people all his faults, he was telling about his short comings, and he was also talking about what he was good at, or mad at, or sad at, whatever, it all came out, you know what I mean. So, I think it goes way beyond the music and I think that he did do some of the best music there ever was in the rap game, and, the problem is a lot of the record companies like, oh we need to update it you know, we need to compete with what's going on right now, and I think that's where some of the changes come from too, you know.  I'm not saying Amaru did that, but that's the general state of the business, you know what I'm saying.

HitEmUp.com ~ : Yeah, I think so too.

QDIII ~ : And then, the pressure, influences, like even the producers, or the labels to try and come with something new and maybe even selling themselves short not knowing that the people really want to hear the original shit you know what I mean.  So, it's a lot of factors man.

Note: I'd like the make a recommendation if anybody reading this would like to take the message to the Estate.  Put out a double disc, the first disc containing originals, the second disc containing remixed and update versions of the originals that were on the first disc.  You satisfy the original Tupac fans, compete with the current times, and keep both old and new school Tupac fans happy.

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