INTERVIEW :: Conversation with WAAJEED

Last December, I sat down with friends, one of my favorite producers, WAAJEED (PPP, Bling 47) & Devin "Pan" Barrett, my buddy back from the time when we both used to write for TRACE magazine. Detroit-bred Waajeed has been making music for over a decade, after putting his first love, painting, aside yielding to an even greater passion for the art of beats. His first album B.P.M.(2002, Bling 47) has been a sought after collector's record. His Triple 5 Soul Volume 3 mix he made back in 2005 is one of my most-listened to mixes-it showcases more of Waajeed's Kraftwerk/Cybotron/Detroit techno-inspired roots. He gained international fame with his band, the Platinum Pied Piper that he formed with multi-instrumentalist, Saadiq and Tiombe Lockhart (see post below) on the vocals. Their first album Triple P (2005, Ubiquity) featured collaborations with heavy-hitters, such as Waajeed's close friend Jay Dee, SA-RA, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Steve Spacek and Invincible. In 2007 he released a compilation called The War LP, meanwhile working on PPP's second album. PPP dropped their second album, ABUNDANCE (Ubiquity) last year, which featured the multi-talented Coultrain both as a song writer and vocalist, and Karma on the vocals. If you haven't heard the album, definitely cop the Offical PPP 'Abundance' mixtape, or even better, buy the album on itunes. Most recently, he has done remixes for a variety of artists, such as Mayer Hawthorne, ONRA, and La Melodia (all of these artists have been recently featured here). Waajeed is a real comedian and one of the most hard-working & authentic cats I've met in the music industry.

photo courtesy of Dustin Ross
Good (Prod. by Waajeed) by hypedog

The interview was completely spontaneous, I just started rolling since I wanted to share the convo. Waajeed touched on his plans with his new solo album and his label Bling 47, which is currently expanding into a documentation project of super-exclusive Bling 47 activities including rare, behind-the-scene footage, unreleased tracks and other goodies. I was curious about the chances of him getting back to painting and about who to watch on the New York & LA music scene. Not surprising, he shouted out the Benji B show as his #1 resource for new music, one of my definite favorites as well (He put me on a lot of artists originally, including Dam Funk back in 08) (See post below (Interview w/ Jay Electronica) for more).

Dec 2009, Dubspot, New York
From his bio
"Waajeed was studying art and djing in and around the local music circuit before he has gotten himself into full time music production. Waajeed was an executive producer on Dwele'sRize, which ultimately led to Dwele getting signed to Virgin Records shortly thereafter. He has been a close friend of Slum Village since its earliest days, DJ'ing for them on their earliest tours, convincing the group to release their first album/demo, Fan-Tas-Tic (Vol. 1), choosing the group's name, and introducing them to fourth member Elzhi. Waajeed's productions have led to him working with some of the industry's most respected artists such as Roy Ayers, Radiohead, and many others
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