AVC: Big Shots doesn't really sound like a West Coast album.
PBW: We got criticized a lot because we sounded like we were from New York. Cypress Hill, that was another group. They're from L.A., but they had more of an East Coast sound, I guess. Most of the Bay Area stuff was the gangsta stuff that came out of NWA. Too $hort as well, I guess, but Too $hort wasn't really preaching gangsta stuff. West Coast hip-hop then was a lot more '80s funk-minded. The East Coast hip-hop went back to the '60s element. Kind of went all over the place, I guess. It's ironic, because in the '80s I was really into all that funk—The Gap Band, Parliament. I guess by the early '90s, I turned my back on it temporarily, but I love that stuff now.
AVC: Listening to Big Shots, you get this sense that it was made during the Wild West era of sampling. Before the Biz Markie lawsuit, you had albums like Paul's Boutique and 3 Feet High And Rising. It'd be impossible to make those albums today, because you'd have to clear every sample, and they would cost $8 million.
PBW: With Stones Throw, we've been lucky. We're under the radar to the point where we can put out an album like Quasimoto's and not deal with lawsuits and stuff. Quasimoto would never come out on a major label; it just wouldn't happen.
AVC: When you're working on an album like that, did you have to clear all the Melvin Van Peebles samples? It seems like once you deal with that, you have a whole lot taken care of.
PBW: We worked on that arrangement with Melvin, definitely. Madlib calls him the third member of Quasimoto, but I guess Madlib and Madlib are the first and second.
AVC: There's going to be a Madlib/Melvin Van Peebles album as well, right?
PBW: Well, they've talked about it, but it never. Yeah, Melvin's very intimidating initially. But you get to know him, and you realize he's just a sweet guy as well, I guess.
AVC: Did you see that documentary about him, How To Eat Your Watermelon In White Company (And Enjoy It)?
PBW: Yes, I did. Actually, I was at the thing. He kind of spoke at it in L.A., and then they played it. We went out to dinner with them afterward, and I felt like a celebrity.
AVC: So much of hip-hop culture comes from Melvin Van Peebles and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. You were talking about history working in —it sort of makes sense that he would have a huge hip-hop presence again, thanks to Madlib.
PBW: Quasimoto was just doing that album in his bedroom and not really thinking in terms of how it was going to be released, or if it was going to be released. The way Melvin found out about it, he did this play in New York where he did some of the songs from one of his old albums, and this young kid came up to him afterward and was like, "That's awesome that you did a cover of Quasimoto." "Who's Quasimoto?" He was really upset. He just felt really disrespected.
AVC: Why don't you produce for rappers anymore?
PBW: I just kind of got burned-out after a while. It didn't feel right anymore for me. I never wanted it to be a job, you know what I mean?
AVC: Do you still have rappers coming to you for beats?
PBW: No, not really. I don't feel like my production was ever really right for rappers, except maybe in the early days, in the early- to mid-'90s. But even when my solo album came out, I was just doing different kind of stuff.
AVC: The Bomb Shelter is an actual bomb shelter. How did you come to purchase a bomb shelter as your recording studio?
PBW: Our house was built in the Cold War era. And whoever built it made it all concrete underneath. I don't know how effective it would really be during a nuclear war, but it was built as a bomb shelter. That's where Madlib did all of his recording, and we just called it that.
AVC: Is there a weird vibe making albums in a bomb shelter?
PBW: Well, there's just a hell of a lot of privacy. There's no windows, and it's kind of underground. It just kind of has a basement feel. When MF Doom did the album with us, he ended up recording some stuff in the bomb shelter, and he liked it so much that he always wanted to record everything there, even though he can go to big studios now. He loves the bomb shelter. We would get him a hotel, a real nice hotel in Beverly Hills, and he would stay over at our house and be recording in the bomb shelter, and he would just sleep on the floor. He's basically a humble person, still. He hasn't let his success change him in that way.
AVC: The other big benefit is if there's a nuclear war and you're in the bomb shelter, you can totally survive that.
PBW: There's definitely a safety factor in there.
AVC: You mentioned before that Madlib didn't necessarily intend Quasimoto to be commercially released.
PBW: No, not at all. That was just his record that he made to keep his sanity, I think. When I told him I wanted to release it, he thought I was kidding or something. I guess he didn't think I would like that kind of stuff.
AVC: Why?
PBW: Because it was early in my relationship with him, and he didn't really know who I was yet. He just thought I was this real straight and narrow fellow. I don't know. I guess I'd have to ask him what he thought. For whatever reason, he just thought I wasn't going to get it.
AVC: When you first listened to The Unseen, did you think "Oh my God, this is fucking amazing. This will change Stones"?
PBW: I just found myself listening to it over and over again. I didn't really think in terms of what it would do for Stones Throw. I just always liked it. I loved it. I showed it to people, and they loved it. Some people didn't like it at all. I had some respected DJs in New York calling me, telling me, "Well, I like the beats, but I can't get past the voice, P." [Laughs.] Sucks for you.
AVC: How did the Adult Swim/Stones Throw collaboration come about?
PBW: We'd been doing a lot of stuff with them for years before that. Basically giving them instrumentals for their TV shows. One day they just approached us about doing an album. They wanted me to do a Peanut Butter Wolf album for them. I just thought, "Since I'm not really doing tracks, I would just do a 'Peanut Butter Wolf presents,' featuring all different people from the roster."
AVC: The MF Doom/Danger Mouse album has lots of cameos from Adult Swim characters. Was that ever an idea for the Stones Throw album as well?
PBW: Not really. I felt that they had already done it, so it wouldn't really make sense to do it again.
AVC: It seems like the Georgia Anne Muldrow album didn't get enough attention. Why do you think it didn't make more of a splash?
PBW: Quas' first album was kind of received the same way, at first. It took a little bit of time. Georgia's album, she just got the cover of Straight No Chaser, which was really great. They called and told us they wanted to do a huge feature and put her on the cover. We were surprised, not because her stuff's not worthy of it, because she gets slept on. But things are starting to pick up for her. I'm seeing her album on top 10 of the year lists here and there. Not as many as I think she deserves to be on, but…
AVC: A lot of indie rap labels sort of have their moment, then fade into insignificance—Death Row, Ruthless, Rawkus. Why do you think Stones Throw has managed to stay relevant for so long?
PBW: Well, it's only been 10 years, so you've got to ask me later. [Laughs.]
AVC: In hip-hop terms, 10 years is a veritable eternity.
PBW: I know. And I think we've been able to stay relevant for so long because we've been under the radar for so long. We never really became a household name like those other labels. I think our focus has always been more on the artist and not on the label.
AVC: How did Stones Throw's involvement with Jay Dee come about?
PBW: Jay Dee was someone I had known before I even started Stones Throw. I put out this record, Peanut Butter Breaks, in '94. This guy, House Shoes, from Detroit, calls me up and he wanted the record, he really liked it. He had a record store, and he started telling me about this guy, Jay Dee that made beats too, that I should hear his beats. Eventually, I put out a record of Jay Dee remixes. I did it with Jay Dee and House Shoes. We did it for Japan only. And it was basically a lot of remixes that got shelved from major labels. It was vinyl-only. We did a real limited run. It was on green vinyl. And that's kind of where my relationship with him began. I would get him some of our stuff.
AVC: Can you talk about what Jay Dee meant to you and Stones Throw, and to hip-hop as a whole?
PBW: I couldn't even answer that. Him and Madlib are equally like the gods of hip-hop, basically. I can't really say much more than that.
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