The smallest professor that you’ve seen thus far has a huge sound
Small Professor has been steady making high quality beats for a while now. I couldn’t help but tell myself, “It’s about time,” when I heard that he was working on a project with Detroit emcee, Guilty Simpson. The raw sound from Small Pro and grimy flow from Guilty mesh to produce a filthy Hip-Hop album that may incite illegal behavior from the listener.
Peep our short interview with the talented producer below.
How did you guys come up with the theme and title of the project?
The theme of the project was something that I don’t think was intentional. When we started out working together on this particular project, Guilty asked me if I wanted him to touch on any particular topics or themes, and I asked him to go with where the beats took him. It just so happened that the beats took him to themes such as robbery and being on the run, and when I received his songs back, I heard a story in there that would be clear with the right arrangement. The original title was Get That Pay, named after one of the first finished songs he sent me, but it just wasn’t sitting right with me; I like to imagine that part of my brain continued working on finding a better title while I did other things until “Highway Robbery” came to me out of nowhere. And so it was.
Where do you look for inspiration to produce your beats? I was informed that one came from a well known GZA track.
I get a lot of inspiration for my beats just from listening to a lot of different kinds of rap music and music in general. What starts out as me trying out a new technique or sound sometimes blossoms into an entire project or beat tape. I think that what it really boils down to is that I get bored very easily and always like to try out something new. I also am very lucky to have some friends who are dope producers in their own right, such as Y?Arcka, Castle, Has-Lo, Zilla Rocca, and others who continually push me to be the absolute best I can be.
Which track was the most fun putting together?
The track I had the most fun putting together was “Go” featuring Elucid and Castle. It was a beat that I was very glad Guilty picked in the first place, because it’s something new from me stylistically, but I really liked how it ended up. The three rappers featured on the song are quite different from each other, and if you’re familiar with all of their work (which not many are), it might seem like a weird union, but it totally worked when it was all said and done.
Is there another producer, dead or alive, you would like to work with? Any you would avoid working with and why?
The producer I most would like to work with would be Madlib…just to get an inside glimpse of his process and daily routine when it comes to making music (in general, and not just beats) would be simply priceless. I don’t think I would turn down the opportunity to work with any producers unless their attitude is funky. Nobody wants to work with funky producers if it’s the bad kind of funky.
Once upon a time, Dr. Dre said he was gonna put out an instrumental album called The Planets. What do you think it will sound like if it ever comes out? What would your Planets instrumental album sound like?
I don’t know what a Dr. Dre instrumental album called The Planets would sound like, but I know that it would sound amazing, if that makes any sense. If I did an album called The Planets, it would be very slow and eerie sounding with lots of empty spaces and deep 808 kicks, just because I put them in everything now. Thanks, Lex Luger.
Do you ever get producer’s block? What do you do to get over it?
I very rarely get producers block. When I used to get it a lot, I think it was because making beats was not something I did every single day; now that it is, the creative juices are always flowing and it’s not too hard to find something, anything to chop into pieces. When I do get producers block, I may just make a skeleton of a beat with just drums just so I’m still doing something music related, or I’ll recreate a classic instrumental, like GZA’s “Shadowboxin”, or try my hand at J Dilla’s chop for “Little Brother” by Black Star for the umpteenth time (still haven’t been able to figure it out, that or Gangstarr’s “Full Clip” beat).
What’s next after Highway Robbery?
Next after Highway Robbery is a project called Cool Tape, Pro, which will be released on cassette tape and is a half rap, half instrumental album. The rap side of the project features some of my favorite rappers such as Has-Lo, Zilla Rocca, Curly Castro, and Castle rapping on beats from two instrumental projects I released in 2012 called Cool Story, Pro and Cool Haiku, Pro respectively, and the instrumental side will be new and unheard beats from the sessions of the aforementioned projects. It shall be glorious.
For best results: Blast Highway Robbery at night or inside during the day, with the blinds drawn.
Stream/purchase the project below. Then hit the jump for the initial inspiration behind the artwork and the following sketches that came before the final product. Artwork provided by Andres Guzman.
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Bryan Hahn (@notupstate)
