Whattup? Welcome to “Answers for Questions”. You, the good people of the internet, asked me stuff so I answered it. I can always use new questions so don’t be shy. Ask away. Send me questions to phatfriendblog@gmail.com or leave them in the comment section below. Please be creative. A few of this weeks questions are kinda boring music questions. I’d rather you get weirder. I know you can do it. I believe in you!

have you ever gotten into a protracted internet war, on a forum or on twitter or anywhere? Like, just went back and forth with someone until you both looked like idiots. I used to engage in these in the early internet days, but there was something on the Hiero Hoopla forum in…2001 or 2002, I’d say, that was just demoralizing and definitely made me look like an utter asshole. That’s when I learned the best response is to say nothing, and to never read the comments.
Oh lord have I. For as long as I’ve been on the internet I’ve been getting into those.
I used to post of this newsgroup “Rec.Music.Hip.hop” in the 90’s and early 2000’s and I’d get into flame wars on a regular basis. I even got into it was Sole and Pedestrian from Anticon before any of us were even remotely known.
More recently, I’ll get into back and forths with people on facebook cause , i dunno, i have this thing in me that I can’t let someone being overly dickish just slide. Like just shitty remarks with no purpose other than to be shitty? I react. Probably cause I would never seek someone out (especially a stranger) and say something like that to them.

For instance, I got into it with some girl on twitter cause she made the mistake of @-ing me in a vitriolic attack. For some reason, she felt it necessary to alert me that I was human garbage. The part that annoyed me was she didn’t explain what i did. It was just a blanket statement. Oh, and she blocked me so i couldn’t even ask her what I did to incite such anger. This kinda shit happens sometimes and I’m stubborn enough to not let it slide. So, I retweeted her and wrote some snarky thing. Problem is, my fans then launched an all out attack on her , which wasn’t really my goal. I just wanted answers. Keep in mind, this girl had 11 followers. So, it was kind of a dick move on my part but, at the same time, people need to be responsible for the actions. I think folks on the internet forget that there are real people on the other end of those screen names. Just cause I have a little notoriety doesn’t mean I will just accept some person I’ve never met telling me I’m a piece of shit. It’s not like I’m a kardashian and people aren’t groomed to hate me. I’m a nobody really so when someone reacts that way, it’s out of nowhere.
Anyway, eventually, she reached out to me on facebook and we talked it out. I took down all the posts and that was that. Turns out, she was offended by this very blog. OF COURSE SHE WAS. But it’s all water under the bridge now. Gotta say, I don’t regret it though cause I bet she never @’s someone again , thinking it’s all good to shit on a stranger.

Hi; you probably answered this one already, but:
Do you have a track of your own or somebody else that you feel that you’re into for the longest time of your life and still enjoying it everytime you’re listening to it? If so, which tracks are those?
/ basically which is your oldest favourite track from yourself and anyone else to this day?

These are two very different questions. Cause I definitely don’t listen to my music the way I listen to music made by others. I have a much deeper appreciation for other peoples music and, therefor, there are going to be tons of old songs I’ve loved for 20 years. Meanwhile, with my own music, I’m pretty much sick of it all (the older it is, the less I wanna hear it) and can’t listen to the old stuff with a discerning ear cause it’s not like I listen to it for enjoyment. It’s almost impossible for me to listen to it without a critical ear.
That said, there are some tracks that come on that I can get into hearing.
“None shall pass” with Aesop, “A better place“, “Roll out the red carpet“. Those are all old ones I hear and I’m like “ah, that was pretty cool”. But I’ll be damned if I ever put them on to simply enjoy as music.

So Blockhead, you’re easily one of the top producers out there right now. Your ability to concentrate on detail and make elaborate soundscapes without it sounding cluttered is something that gives your instrumentals a lot of character and spunk. The twang you have in your music is fucking naughty, like the garbage pale kids of 1950’s BK combined with Fat Albert of the 70’s. Very bad ass, lucid, funky shit. So while I’m geeking out over your whole discog, I want to know what hip hop albums make you completely geek out. So what are your top 5 favorite Hip Hop albums, production wise?

I hate these questions. No offense meant, I just mean that “top 5” list questions are really hard and then tend to be constantly changing. I don’t have definitive top 5 in anything. Although, I’d probably put “top five questions” in my top five of “questions I dislike”.
But, I’ll throw a bone…this is in no way definitive. I will 100% stupidly forget some great album but I’ll just rattle off 5 albums who’s production changed the game for me
1)Black Sheep: Wolf in sheeps clothing
2)NWA: Efil4zaggin
3)Group Home: Living proof
4)Jungle Brothers: Done by the forces of nature
5)Aceyalone: Book of Human language

If you could make a pineapple appear anywhere in the world at a time of your choice where would you put it?

You can describe a situation rather than a specific place at a specific time. For example: In someone’s bed right before they wake. In the hands of an NFL running back right before he catches a touchdown pass.

In your moms ass right now , obviously.
No, just kidding.
Hmm…It’d be cool to have one appear , growing out of Donald Trumps ear in the middle of a debate. I’d say his mouth but that would make his head explode and it would be gross to watch. Like “Scanners” but with a pineapple.

What’s billy woods like in real life? He seems intense. Have you ever seen his face clearly, or are the promotional photos/music videos like that because he permanently has a black bar over his eyes/blurring effect following him around?

Woods is the man. I’ve hung out with him a bunch. He’s a super friendly, funny and smart guy. You know, i’ve met a lot of rappers over the years but he’s one where I very much felt a bond with immediately. Like, we’d be friends if rap didn’t exist. He’s the type of guy who will call me with a specific music based question and we’ll end up talking on the phone for an hour about everything but rap.
I fully get why people would think he’s intense (his music certainly is) but, in person, he’s a very chill guy.
Oops, am I supposed to not let that be known? Shit…maybe i should have lied about this one.

Block, who do you think did the mentally disturbed, drug-addicted white boy steez the best? Eminem, Cage or Slaine

Without question, Cage. Eminem was amazing and also troubled but Cage did it in an abstract way that kinda set the bar. Em was more about the rapping and flow patterns while cage was just a fucking weirdo who actually rapped like a person on the drugs he spoke about. I don’t think Slaine even enters the conversation.

Well, fall is here. Like a motherfucker. To all you people who live where seasons don’t exist, i salute you but I also say that hoodie weather is the best.
Anyway, this is “Answers for questions”. You send me stuff to answer and I oblige. If you’d like to join in, I’d love you for it. Send questions to phatfriendblog@gmail.com or leave the questions in the comment section below. Get creative. Get weird. This week is a good example of someone (one guy in particular) bugging out about questions. Follow this lead.

Hey Blockhead, have you heard of the whole facebook dislike button thing? And they’re marketing it as empathy instead of negativity or something like that.

…please write about this haha.

Yes I have and I’m wringing my hands in excitement for it. I have a feeling it’s not gonna happen cause the backlash has been pretty hard. There’s no fucking way the people at facebook are gonna give people that option and have the balls to say it’s empathy based. Sure, when someone posts about a death of a friend, i’ve always felt weird about “liking” that post and I suppose a “dislike” button would work in that particular instance but…jesus christ. What about the other 95% of the time? I can’t even imagine what my facebook music page with look like it. People are already so free with what huge dickheads they can be, that button would make it open season. Basically, it would turn facebook into youtube comments. Yes, this sounds horrible but there’s something very wild west about it all so I’m down to see what happens.
one thing is for certain, if a “dislike button” emerges, there will be a spike in facebook related death. Murders, suicides, and other. Mark my words. People take this shit VERY seriously.

Do you prefer binge watching TV shows Netflix style or week to week the more traditional way?
I like when netflix drops a whole season cause I can burn through it all at my leisure. It especially great for when I’m on the road and have lots of downtime.
That said, I’m also fine with things being weekly cause it gives me something to look forward to. It makes the show an event.
I mean, let’s be real, I grew up well before DVR or tivo existed so I’m kinda wired to wait for shows. The netflix shit is just extra to me.
That non-precise answer was bought you by me being a libra.

What are your favorite four Times Square walking tours, and what are their themes? (Please limit your answer to FOUR walking tours)

Top of the list
1) “Guy Fieri’s house of horrors”. that’s the one where he personally walks you to all the abandoned store fronts that were once famous bars or restaurants. He takes you inside, falls to the ground weeping as the people on the tour sidle up next to him and take pictures while he sobs uncontrollably. It’s actually quite poignant. When it’s over, he takes your money, fries it and covers it in cheese.
2) “The bums of times square” tour
This is where the tour guide shows you the last remaining homeless people of times square. The tour is pretty much spent looking where they went. It’s kinda like a whale watch in that you’re not guaranteed to see one but the excitement is in it being possible.
3) “McDonalds- a walk through the past and the future”
This tour goes from the oldest to the newest Mcdonalds of the times square area. It’s more about admiring architecture than anything else. Also, every person on the tour is require to speed eat a 20 piece Mcnuggets at every stop.
4)”Where did the whores go?”
This tour is odd in that it’s stationary and takes place where ever there is available seating. The guide is basically an old , lonely hooker lover who complains about how Time square used to be crawling with purchasable pussy but now, look at it!

By what factor was Manhattan more “real” back in “the day?” To what percentage are you “feelin’ it” compared to years ago?
I’d say it 100% has to do with the people, culture, businesses and era. By all those factors it was “realer” back in “the day”.
I’d say I was feeling it about 90& back then. Now, I’m down to like 76%. Still, a pretty high level of feeling it, compared to other places I could live.

How many times have you been haunted by former New Amsterdam Governor Peter “Peg Leg” Stuyvesant in the last year? Is it still cool when it happens, or is it just getting annoying now?
Dude…like all day every day. The other day I was taking a shower and i felt a cold draft. Before could say “Peg leg” there was his floating body, all googley eyed at me while I rubbed some summer breeze body soap into my naked body. Dude needs to chill. It was cool at first, cause he’d pop up when I was just hanging out. We’d watch Married with children Reruns together but now he’s just getting weird.

Was Debbie Harry really your babysitter, or is that an unsubstantiated rumor I just made up and plan to circulate throughout the internet community?
That’s a lie that you just made up but feel free to spread it far and wide.

What’s up with that dub-L demo and how much did you have to do with it
You mean his album “Dub-l’s in town”?
Just some backstory, Dub-l was a member of my old rap group “The Overground”. He later produced most of Aesop’s “Music for earthworms”. At some point, he decided to rap on his own. We were all like “i dunno dude…” but he made this album… “Dub-l’s in town” that was actually pretty amazing. To most people, it would be incredibly offensive and even straight up bad but never has an album captured a man’s personality like that album. It was the most honest thing I’d ever heard. To be truthful, it’s a fairly despicable album but , if you know him, it’s s spot on that it’s hard not to appreciate it. It’s mad funny and a perfect character study. At the time, Dub-l was a coked out drunk womanizer with no shame at all. I mean, it was actually quite fascinating. But he made an album ABOUT THAT. Not only that, he was a hip hop producer so he knew some famous people. The album featured Professor X of the X-clan and Jemini the Gifted one. IT’s truly insane and available on I-tunes.
As for my involvement, I didn’t do anything on it , beatwise. I sang on a hook a little and dropped a verse on one song that wasn’t on that album. Jer (of party fun action committee) is all over it though. For a taste of what the album was listen to this or this and , most importantly THIS

Maybe this is a horribly uninformed question: how do you refer to yourself as a musician? Hip hop producer is your Wikipedia description.

I wonder what you think of the distinction between terms like “DJ” and “electronic musician” etc. One of my friends referred to Richard James as a composer, so I was thinking about that (I don’t disagree).

It’s funny cause I hesitate to call myself a musician cause I don’t play instruments. At the same time, I do create original content so I’m not just a producer. If it was socially acceptable and not completely pretentious to call myself “A musical collage artist”, I’d go with that but, you know, that’s fucking awful.
I’m not a DJ at all so I try and never refer to myself as that. Only time I fall back on that is when I’m on a plane trying to explain what I do to the chatty senior citizen I’m sitting next to, who feels the need to talk to me the entire flight. For some reason “DJ” translates better to old people than “Producer”.
So, really, there are many titles i could go by. Hip hop producer. Electronic musician. Guy who makes music on a computer. It’s all the same to me. The only people who give a shit about that kinda stuff are record labels , journalists and fans who are way too hung up on titles.