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Q&A - LA VIDA |
May/June 2008
Smooth Operator
Hip Hop’s BabyBash |
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| By Ramiro Burr |
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Photos courtesy of J Records |
IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHO POP SINGER/RAPPER BABY
BASH IS, YOU ARE HANGING OUT IN THE WRONG
SPACE ON MYSPACE. BASH’S MYSPACE PAGE
REGISTERED MORE THAN 5.1 MILLION PROFILE VIEWS
IN THE WEEKS BEFORE HIS CD, CYCLONE, RELEASE,
MAKING HIM ONE OF MYSPACE’S TOP LATIN ARTISTS.
BORN IN VALLEJO, CA, TO A MEXICAN MOTHER
AND ANGLO FATHER, BABY BASH GREW UP
LISTENING TO THE URBAN MUSIC THAT WAS PART OF
THE LOWRIDER CAR SHOW SCENE. HE COUNTS
ROCKER TOM PETTY, FUNK MASTERS SLY & THE
FAMILY STONE, R&B LEGEND MARVIN GAYE
AND RAPPER TOO SHORT AMONG HIS VARIED
INFLUENCES. AFTER WORKING WITH CALIFORNIA
GROUPS LIKE POTNA DEUCE AND LATINO VELVET,
BABY BASH RELOCATED TO HOUSTON, WHERE HE
MET RAPPER SOUTH PARK MEXICAN AND BECAME
IMMERSED IN THE GROWING HOUSTON RAP SCENE.
IN RECENT YEARS, BABY BASH HAS SCORED
SEVERAL HITS, INCLUDING SUGA SUGA, SHORTIE
DOOWOP AND OBSESSION. HIS PREVIOUS ALBUMS,
THA SMOKIN’ NEPHEW AND SUPER SAUCY, HAVE
SOLD NEARLY A MILLION COPIES. THE FIRST SINGLE
FROM HIS NEW CD, THE TITLE TRACK,
CYCLONE, MADE THE TOP 10 ON
ITUNES' HIP-HOP CHARTS. IT ALSO
QUICKLY GENERATED A COMBINED
750,000 DIGITAL SINGLE AND
RINGTONE SALES.
IN A RECENT INTERVIEW WITH
RAMIRO BURR, BABY BASH TALKED
ABOUT HOW ONLINE PROMOTIONS
AND DIGITAL AND RINGTONE SALES
REPRESENT A NEW GOLD RUSH FOR ARTISTS TODAY.
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Latino Future:You recently had
promotional success with
MySpace.com andYouTube. How
important is that technology to
artists today?
The young kids are all
downloading [music]
right now—MP3s,
iTunes. The new
technology is critical.
It is just another tool
for our promotions
toolbox. It is a good
way to promote, even if
you’re not on a big
record label. Now
[online and digital] are
critical because the
industry is crazy right
now; people ain’t
buying CDs. You got to
get your digital game on right.
Do you now consider the Internet
a basic component of your
promotional plan?
Yes, it’s a promotional monster. In this
day and age, people are more addicted to
the computer than to TV—and, on the
computer, [it’s free]. You just get out
there and push yourself and people will
see you. If you catch their attention,
they’ll check you out.
When someone hears my song for the
first time and [wonders], “Who’s this
Baby Bash guy?” they can Google me.
I’m sure that happens a lot. Then they
get to see me, maybe hear some of my
interviews and get to know me as a
person.
I grew up on R&B and oldies.
I never really grew up on the Spanish
side of music, so I didn’t want to jump
in…and use it as a trump card. I will
never disrespect the game like that... |
You always seem to have quite a
few musical guests on your CDs. Why is that important to you?
I like to mix things up. I always like
working with different people. I get tired
of a song with the same voice.
I like changes in the music, because
you can only take someone’s voice for so
long. On the single, Cyclone, it was Lil
Jon who came up to me wanting to
produce a song. Working with him was
a great experience.
Why did you think Lil Jon could
help you?
He put that crazy beat together. I met him
in Atlanta and he said he wanted to work
with me. It was all good and he liked my
style—and, of course, Lil Jon’s made a
lot of hits so I [said], “Man, it would be
nice for you to work with a Mexican one
day.”
He started laughing and the next thing
you know, he sent some beats. When I
heard that beat, I came up with a hook in
body like a...” I just started humming
to it and it stuck. If I can come with a
chorus and a hook early—right when I
hear a beat—pretty much those are my
hits. I just felt it right there and we just
recorded it. T-Pain happened to walk by
the studio and [said], “I like that. Let me
get on that.” It all happened so fast. Now
it’s taken off for me and I’m really proud
of the song.
How do you know when there’s too
many collaborators??
When every song has someone on it, it
turns into a compilation. I remember
getting criticized for that—but I [did] it
because I like a lot of other rappers, so I
always thought, “Get ‘em on the song.”
By the time I was done with the
album, I had different collabos on every
single song—but I would never take
[anyone] off a record. I’m a loyal guy, so
I just stuck with it—[and then] I cut back
on the collaborations.
What did you do different on this
CD?
I worked with different producers like Lil
Jon and Scott Storch—and J.R. Rotem,
who did Sean Kingston’s album. On this
one, I put a little more high-energy. I’m a
smooth cat by nature, but this one [has]
more club-bangers, more hard-edged club
songs. And Cyclone was my first one.
I still got my smooth, convertible,
drop-top, kick back with your chica type
music, but I also have a couple of clubknockers
on this one.
How was this a change compared
to your previous CDs?
Once you’ve had a couple of hits, you
have to step it up and get higher and
higher. [It’s] just like
baseball. If you hit 30
home runs one year, the
next year you want to hit
40. The year after that, you
want to hit 50.
That’s what I’m trying
to do—dealing with the
politics of music, the crazy
state that music’s in right
now, the egos and just the
craziness of the business.
When I first got into the
music business, all I knew
was that I was making
music. I didn’t know how
crazy it is behind the scenes. Once I
started finding that out, I started thinking
about stuff in a different way. I’m pretty
much a happy, humble guy by nature, but
I always feel you have to step it up every
album. I’m really happy with the way
this album turned out.
Any plans to release Spanish language
albums?
I don’t really [plan] to jump into the
Spanish realm. A lot of people jumped on
the reggaetón bandwagon just because it
was hot, [but] I’m not that type of guy.
I grew up on R&B and oldies. I never
really grew up on the Spanish side of
music, so I didn’t want to jump in and
use it as a trump card. I will never disrespect
the game like that and try to jump
on it just because it’s hot. I stick with my
own lane—and I’m happy about that.
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