Black Spade
Interview By Porschia Baker
Some folks call him Stoney Rock or Veto Money, but you probably know him as St. Louis lower case native black spade, an honest musician owning up to his who’s who of influences while giving way to his supreme album to serve with love! Black spade, an 80’s baby, bringing smooth laid back Hip Hop music that blends through, below, above and across all genres. From production to rapping and singing, black spade, on Om Records’ Hip Hop label, displays his versatility throughout his debut album. With its juicy mango sweet layered sound and biting political commentary, To Serve With Love is all spade. black spade is some of that off the radio goodness. Proving there is another side to St. Louis’ music.
Nu-Soul: What was your first introduction to music?
black spade: My old dude bought me this Kiss guitar, at the age of three. [I] was mimicking him and was mimicking something off the radio, with a joint in his mouth. Pretty much that was the introduction, right there.
Nu-Soul: I know you play a keyboard, but do you play other instruments?
black spade: Yeah, I play the keyboard and sometimes the acoustic guitar, but the acoustic guitar was really what I picked up first. After my little toy Kiss guitar, I got an acoustic and then some broke Lead guitar. It’s pretty much, since five I’ve just been making music that I thought was music. I took lessons, but I don’t really read music or anything like that. You could never tell, if I played from them.
Nu-Soul: What kind of lessons did you have?
black spade: I took guitar lessons. I took theory and piano theory, in school, a couple times and still don’t know jack. Pretty much those types of lessons, but it’s strictly by ear and what I make that day, whatever comes out.
Nu-Soul: So, if you just hear something, then you just play it?
black spade: pretty much whatever I hear in my head.
Nu-Soul: When did you know music would be your thing?
black spade: I’m thinking seventh grade or sixth grade. Cats used to rap in a circle and I used to beatbox because this other dude was doing a terrible job at it. I tripped off stuff like that and when Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff had this dude beatboxing on one of their albums, plus I’m a fat boy. So, I’m kind of like the king of beatboxing around the hood. After that, just I just started rapping and getting into music. My first time producing, was like 14 or 13. My homeboy got a TS10 and Panasonic, for Christmas, and [I] starrted messing with the ASR and coming up with all these little wild sounds. That’s how I started producing.
Nu-Soul: Did you save those beats you made? Can you go back and listen to them?
black spade: A couple friends got certain ones and they tend to play them, when I’m around, but I don’t have any of it. It’s crazy. The guy, who I started out on his equipment, still has music that I did over his house.
Nu-Soul: Does your style, then, sound similar to your style now or has it changed?
black spade: I don’t know. I guess it changed. I can tell definitely that through time it changed, but it’s pretty much still me.
Nu-Soul: Did you ever veer away from music and take up another interest?
black spade: Well, I tried to go to school. I didn’t really want to go to school, for music. I didn’t like the whole thing. I had a choir scholarship other than that I was going to school, for fashion merchandising, then got sided tracked, when I put out a 12” inch vinyl called the “Two Step.” That was my first vinyl that I ever put out. So I kind of stood away from school period, but now I tend to even it out because now I take fashion as an art form. I may make a couple jackets, put them on consignment and call it a “One Up” series. I kind of even do music and that now. So I have don’t have to stray away music. I can just do both well.
Nu-Soul: Are the jackets a limited quantity?
black spade: Some of them are just one ups, you know what I’m saying. It all comes from me basically. It’s like going to a beat machine, like I go to the sewing machine. I may go to the good will, get some scraps and chop a jacket up until I see a jacket; till I see a bomber type jacket and it is what it is. Whoever wants to buy it or get. It’s just like that.
Nu-Soul: Do you want to have a line of jackets?
black spade: Fashion period. It becomes like that, but I’m not really sweating it. Like I said, I’m just taking it as an art piece because it is art.
Nu-Soul: When did “Two Step” come out?
black spade: That was 99’. I call it the soul era, Dilla era, D’Angelo era and Hi-Tek. So, I was really on that tip hard. The “Two Step” came out and I was with these guys called Soul Tide. It was like the mega Wu Tang of soul good times groups because it was a good 30 or 25 of us that would actually go on stage and perform.
Nu-Soul: Is it still in circulation?
black spade: I have a few copies. Last Winter Music Conference I gave Jonathon [McDonald], from Om, a copy and another cat, from the label, a copy. Yeah, there’s still a few copies floating around.
Nu-Soul: How did you get hooked up with Om Records?
black spade: It’s funny because I don’t know. Not even Sean [Richards] can even tell. All I know is Sean was like they’re interested. Then Jonathan knew the Nicolay project. Pretty much I never really know how they found out. It just all worked in.
Nu-Soul: Where there other offers?
black spade: There were other cats, but I guess it just wasn’t looking right. There were other cats trying to get at me, but this one seemed right. So, I kind of rolled with this one.
Nu-Soul: I read that you’re connected to New York and a few other places. Are you native to St. Louis?
black spade: Yeah, I was staying in New York for two years. Rent was so high, but I’m born and raised in St. Louis. Pretty much that’s where I’ve been at the last couple of years. Sometimes in stay in LA and shoot the breeze there. Maybe, I’ll go back to New York this summer and chill just chill.
Nu-Soul: When did you begin to serve with love?
black spade: to serve with love started in 99’. I wasn’t until I met Sean that it really started coming more and more to light. The title: Sidney Poitier is my favorite actor. “To Sir, With Love” is one of my favorite movies. So I jacked the title from that. [The album is] talking bout serving music with love period. I’m just showing you my love for music. It’s got an array of different type of tracks on it. It has a little love break down of the typical relationship then I’m just showing love throughout the whole album, as far as different beats and different songs. It’s just basically showing I’m serving the music game with love.
Nu-Soul: I really like the album. I have a few favorite tracks, like “Her Perfume She Wore,” “Evil Love” and “The Ship Has Sailed.”
black spade: I mean Prince is one of my favorite artists. I’m always trying to find the sound he used and Kurzweil 2000 tends to make that happen. The keyboard that I use was made in ’94, but I can make any Prince type sounds just about. “Her Perfume She Wore,” I can’t even explain that track right now. “Evil Love,” I know I wanted to make some real sloppy Sa-Ra type of stuff. “The Ship Has Sailed” is talking about the labels and how they get a new person next year and there’s always somebody that they’re jocking for and then two years down the line that cat could be so cliché and the next thing you know they’re pretty much gone. Nobody’s checking for them no more. I snagged the [I’m sorry your ship has sailed part] from a Cheech and Chong movie. I just basically played around with the sense I wanted it to sound real 80ish. “Lavish Life” is basically saying okay do you want me to join ya’ll in living this lavish life that ya’ll thinking your talking. That’s why I say “I want to take from the rich and give to poor. So we can buy fly ish at the corner store” and all that stuff like that. Okay, “Evil Love.” Have you heard “Evil Love?”
Nu-Soul: Yeah, I have. I had my friend translate the French woman speaking, in the opening, because I couldn’t understand it. I like that track.
black spade: That’s when I was living in New York and I was living in Williamsburg. I don’t know if she was breaking up with her boyfriend, on the phone or whatever. He was a friend of a friend and I was like could you break up with me on my phone, on my voicemail. She was like cool. My boy taped it and some how sent it to my Gmail. I was able to download it and put it in the album. I knew I wanted it like that because it was probably something Prince probably would have did, just like in Cherry Moon. Pretty much it’s called “Evil Love.” It’s talking about breakups and the beat breaks up. The beat is barely on track, but it’s still there and you can still vibe to it. That’s the whole deal.
Nu-Soul: I like that you’re honest about your influences. Some people don’t own up to that.
black spade: It’s all music. Music is there to put out and to get out to other people. True, money plays a part because you can go broke, but I don’t know. It’s fun to me still. I try to get it to the people and see if people like it and build, with other people, with it. I definitely got to get overseas and build with people over there. I got good friends over there.
Nu-Soul: Have you performed over there already?
black spade: The only time I been overseas was through Red Bull [Music]Academy and they called us back to do a compilation; me, Steve Spacek, Om’Mas from Sa-Ra, Aloe Blacc, a friend of mine Adi Dick and The Mizell Brothers. Everyone was talented. That was my first time going overseas. It was Cologne, Germany.
Nu-Soul: Did you arrange and produce your entire album without any outside help?
black spade: Yeah, pretty much I knew that I had something to say and pretty much produced the whole album. With the helps of background vocals, Coultrain. That’s my partner and best friend. He’s definitely one to watch out for. Plus, my homeboy recorded a lot of the stuff because I knew I wanted it be kind of grimy. I recorded it in my friend’s basement. Then with “Her Perfume She Wore,” the Stevie Wonder type ish at the end [my friend] Cedrick Noir did it. We got this project coming out called the Hawthorne Headhunters. That’s another project coming out. You can look forward to that. It’s basically me, Coultrain, Proh Mic and Ced No.
Nu-Soul: Did you do any production on Coultrain’s Adventures Of Seymour Liberty album?
black spade: No, no this one. Me and this guy, Kenautis Smith do a lot of Coultrain’s music, but the album he has out now was a certain project. My friend Kenautis basically recorded all of to serve with love.
Nu-Soul: There’s 19 tracks on the press release version of to serve with love, but were there more tracks that you decided to not include?
black spade: Yeah. I don’t think when the album comes out, that nineteen will be on the tangible album. Pretty much, you’ll have to get it off line and I think it will be cut down to fifteen. I’m always changing. So it’s music that I’ll revive over and over, like “Her Perfume She Wore.” “Lavish Life” I changed twenty times. I even wasted money doing a [track] that I thought I was going to have for the album. I did it up in New York. I thought that was going to be the one, but at the last minute I changed it. I mean, it’s like that when you’re producing and you’re an artist as well.
Nu-Soul: Well, I got lucky then because the album I have has nineteen tracks. The last track is “Where I’m Coming From.”
black spade: Yeah, yeah and unfortunately we going to keep that one for Itunes.
Nu-Soul: Do you feel that you’re a perfectionist because you keep changing the album? Do you have any gripes with album?
black spade: I don’t know, man. I’m always my worst critic. I just started being comfortable with singing. I’ll see somebody and be like man if they like the stuff they doing, then I know they don’t have a problem with what I’m doing, but when they hear it, they just listen. Later on, they’re like that “Evil Love” is hard. “Evil Love” I didn’t think was going to make it. Thank God for Sa-Ra and Prince because that’s definitely where I was coming from because Sa-Ra, I don’t even think they know how good they are. They still are dope. Om’Mas Keith, I used to ride with him and see what he did at the Red Bull Music Academy thing. Dude plays a lot of instruments. He definitely has got the funk in his fingers.
Nu-Soul: Is there a possible tour coming up?
black spade: Jonathan, from Om, mentioned possibly a tour with Blu and Waajeed, but I’m not sure yet. I’ll know by April. So far it’s just me and Blu, but we don’t know if the Waajeed thing is legit. I’m praying that it is. I’m praying that it goes right.
Nu-Soul: Describe your style for folks who aren’t familiar with your music.
black spade: My sound man, it ranges. It definitely lives in Hip Hop and it branches out to electro. It can branch out to soul as well. It’s hard to explain, man. It’s just good vibe music, I guess. Those are the elements, funk, soul, Hip Hop, electro, because I’m into everything, from Dilla to Prince to Kraftwerk to Radiohead to Rock ‘n’ Roll. You know what I’m saying. That album was just the introduction. I made so many things after the album was done. I couldn’t even label them. Sean was getting made [and telling me] man you got to slow down because we haven’t even promoted this album yet. After the album, I started doing different kind of projects. My producer name I go by is Stoney Rock. I had an album I was doing [called] Stoney Rock sings and it’s got different type of songs on it. I did a whole EP, with Coultrain, called Side Effects, that he couldn’t put out because he’s just doing stuff. I was [in LA] right before Thanksgiving. I spent a good two months, me and Coultrain, at my friends crib in Hawthorne just recording. That’s how we do, when we get together because you’ve got all these heads in one room. So there’s constant music being made. We all just vibe. Just talking about, I can’t wait to get back to LA.
Nu-Soul: That’s a gang of energy!
black spade: Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. Right now, definitely the money, but the energy that you get from it. Right now I’m still just having fun.
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