The Block is Hot As Hell

Manhattan native Blockhead is about to drop a new instrumental album, and ya best ta check it. But first, I’ve got a little check list of things for you to do. Watch the video below to hear him talk a little about it, then listen to the unreleased "NYC Bounce" (maybe the best song on the album), and then read the full interview after the jump.

Read, watch, listen. That’s the theme of the day.

Preferences and Professional Ish

Blockhead’s music is a staple for many downbeat and underground hip hop heads, but he isn’t messing with any of that.

Granted, his instrumental joints are a natural addition to that "Ninja Tunes sound" that thrills downbeat fans. And he also produces the beats for some of the idols of underground hip hop cyphers like Aesop Rock and Cage. Nonetheless, he just isn’t feeling that kind of music.

"I don’t need to listen to a thousand white rappers tell me about their feelings. I just don’t care," he told me in a recent interview. "Underground hip hop can be really pretentious and kind of selfish."

"I know that Aesop is a very influential dude to a lot of underground rappers," he went on, trying to advise kids coming up on the circuit. "But at the same time, I think that even he’d admit that he’d rather they listen to old Rakim than him to get their influence."

True to his statement about his preference for commercial hip hop - if he had to listen to something new - a tinny Clipse ring from his celly interrupts us a few times during our discussion.

Okay, so if not underground hip hop, then what about downbeat, you might ask?

Nope.

"I don’t listen to downtempo music, I just make that kind of music sometimes," Tony Simon says.

In fact, if it wasn’t for one of his earlier labels asking him to make an instrumental album, he never would have done so. "At that point," before Music By Cavelight, his  first full length instrumental album, "I’d listened to the Shadow album maybe twice."

Regardless of who’s idea it was to explore instrumental work, Blockhead is keepin’ it movin’, On Wednesday, he kicks off a two month tour in Philly to promote his new solo joint called Uncle Tony’s Coloring Book, which drops next Tuesday.

A departure from his other solo work, his new instrumental album is more uptempo than the others. His reasoning behind this move was to "broaden the spectrum of what people might expect" from him.

"I got kind of pigeon holed after my first album as like downtempo and depressed guy," the former, self professed "wack rapper" says. "I’m just not that dude." While a little faster, the album does continue much of that melancholy vibe which put him on the map.

Unfortunately, the album will only see limited release. Between only 5,000 and 10,000 copies are slated to be pressed, it won’t be released in Europe, and iTunes will not be carrying it either. That’s the problem with making an album composed entirely of samples. His label doesn’t want to deal with the heat. "They’re just scared," he admits.

Adding to the troubles, his work for Aesop ran into sample problems too. "We had to totally rework four of the seven beats I did," he tells me.

But Uncle Tony will be farther under the radar than the Aesop album, and that’s actually the way he likes it. The smaller distribution lets him choose the samples he wants to, without having to deal with the legal troubles he might otherwise encounter. "When I made this album, I didn’t really intend it to be a big release. So, it’s kind of working out exactly how I thought it would."

To see all the video clips of the interview, click here.

Thanks to JayCut for providing gear.

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