What happens when the man behind the music steps on stage with a mic in his hand? Sheer brilliance, that’s what. 88-Keys, beast of beats/producer turned rapper/singer/collaborator brings the listening public a whole new sound and concept with the release of his debut album, The Death of Adam. On it, 88-Keys explores the journey of a man’s pleasure. With the support of a musical genius like Kanye West, listeners should expect the very best. Even if you think you’ve never heard of him (because 88-Keys claims that no one reads album credits anymore), you’ve heard his music. Mr. Keys has laced tracks for Blackstar, Beanie Sigel, Musiq Soulchild, Macy Gray and several other heavy hitting recording artists. Not only will we follow Adam’s voyage in The Death of Adam, but we’re also listening to 88-Keys’ metamorphosis into hip-hop greatness.

Danielle Young

How did you come up with the name 88-Keys?

Actually, the Large Professor gave me that name, back when I was 14 or 15 years old. Back in the early to mid 90’s, I used to help my friend John Carrero sell records—like old vinyl. One of our clients was Q-tip and he started to come over to the crib and buy records; one day he brought Large Professor with him. I was working on a beat on the ASR 10 keyboard and Large Professor walked in freestyling. He didn’t know my name—no introduction or nothing, and he said, ‘We got 88-Keys on the grand pian’. I felt like he was talking about me. So I said when I get in the game, I’m going by 88-Keys because I got it from the great one.

What made you go from producer to rapper?

Kanye West. He encouraged me to do it as a profession. Initially my album was supposed to be mainly instrumental and a few features sprinkled here and there. I went on a tour with Common and Q-Tip—it was the 2K Sports Bounce Tour and I was the opening act. My extent was scaled back to having to DJ my set.  [I] couldn’t perform anything because I couldn’t get any of my features to come out on the road with me. I’m on the main stage with a microphone—you know—[getting] the crowd hype. I played music that I like and for the last 15 minutes of my hour set.

I would play excerpts from my album. So I felt like the next time I get this opportunity to go on the road, I don’t want to be someone that doesn’t have material. I want to put myself more into my album, so I came up with lyrics for two of my songs, which I only planned on using for stage performances only. Kanye asked me to play my album for one of his friends.  [While] I was playing it, I pulled Kanye to the side and told him I had an idea how I want to freak my stage show if I get on stage again. I told him I had lines for the instrumentals and told him one rhyme and he was like ‘Ooooooh, that’s dope. You got another one?’ I spit him another one and at that time, I only had two. He was pretty much floored and told me I was a thousand times better in rapping. You know, all in a day’s work. *he laughs* From there, that’s when the light bulb went off in his head and he went into cheese mode and came up with all these ideas for me. He eventually asked and convinced me to let him executive produce my album.

How do you feel you come off on your album, The Death of Adam?

I’m way more vocal on my album in all aspects, not just rapping. I’m doing some singing—which I never thought I could do, besides the shower—some dialogue, it’s just a lot more me as an artist. To my surprise, the very few people that have heard it are taking to it rather well. They all think that I had a ghostwriter. It’s not even written. It’s all freestyle off the head—every single lyric, I freestyled straight into the microphone. I’m not going to say it was one continual, press record and I spit. It was a few takes, but nothing was written on paper.

How do you categorize your sound?

If I had to, I’d put it in the real dope category. You got hip-hop, rap, soul R&B, rock, alternative rock, country and real dope.

I've heard of that before.  Not too many people in that genre.

...Who’s in there…….Andre 3000 is there…..A Tribe Called Quest is in there. Tokyo Police Club. And then 88-Keys. The real dope genre.

On The Death of Adam, we’re introduced to Adam. But who is he?

Adam is pretty much any male figure whom you’ve heard about or come across in your life. From your father, grandfather, uncle, cousin, homeboy.

Is it a play on Adam and Eve?

It’s a play on that. But Adam represents today’s man. Maybe not all men across the board, but every single male in existence—past, present, future are all Adam one way or another. I’ve been Adam at one point. I’m still Adam now. Adam is that guy everybody knows. You’ll see what I mean.

How did you come up with the concept?

It all started about two years ago when I first started working on that album with this one beat. It was the ninth beat that I made for an album (not just this one). I was chopping up this sample that kept saying ‘Pleasure Pleasure.’ It sounded good, but was annoying at the same time. I couldn’t chop that word out. I don’t loop up samples or anything like that since I was 15 years old. Everything I do is a sample chop and I couldn’t chop that part out, so I was thinking, how can I make this beat a concept or song that will make people laugh or have them enjoy it. So, what brings me pleasure? Family, money, Polo clothes…hmmm none of those were sticking. So I thought, ooooh I know what brings me pleasure—vagina.

So, vagina is the main catalyst for the album, that’s crazy!

Imagine how I felt when God delivered it to me like a lightening bolt.

God uses the word vagina?

See, I didn’t actually hear the word. I heard the description. I knew exactly what he was talking about. I followed God’s guidance to a “T” with this album. It’s not sexist. There is nothing really new under the sun, but the way my story plays out—especially since it’s set to the backdrop of Real Dope music—I Hope people will get something out of the message.

So we can expect all the songs on The Death of Adam to relate to vagina?

Blatantly and not so blatantly. The album is a story line. It follows the plight of Adam trying to get some. He dies at the end—I know that’s a spoiler—but it’s how he dies. Each song is part of the story, but not like other ‘themed’ albums. Each song progresses the story.

What are you trying to accomplish with you music?

With this album in particular…I definitely want to get a message out to people. One thing that I feel is missing in society (not to be feeding stereotypes) but in most urban communities that I have come across, the family unit is d*mn near nonexistent. There are a lot of one parent households. More power to them because you have to have at least one parent to raise kids, but it would be a heck of a lot easier if both parents were under one roof in unison and harmony. I’m married with two daughters so far. My wife and I are fairly new parents with a two year old and a three month old, but we’re running it like clockwork. We work well together and with the kids. I want to bring that family unit back.

Two, people that think they are my biggest fans think that the last thing I’ve done was on MosDef’s album or Black Thought back in 1999/2000. I’m hoping this album lets them know that I never fell off to begin with. I guess to them I laid low for a while, but this will be the return of 88-Keys of Locksmith Music. I want to let these people know that not only can I make really good beats, but I can put an album together. I got beats, but it’s probably in your best interest to hire me to do an artist’s album instead of one or two placements on it. I can bring so much more to the table when it comes to producing artists. I’ve always had ideas like Adam, but I didn’t have the voice before.

Also, thirdly, I’m trying to bring support for the artist back into existence. Hopefully a lot of cats won’t download my album for free. Nowadays, nobody cares about album covers and the artwork that goes into it or even reading credits, which is why people think that last thing I’ve done was 1999/2000. I’m campaigning for that, standing on a soapbox.

Kanye is your executive producer on The Death of Adam, but were you doing any producing?

As executive producer, he stopped in and polished things off. He was hands on without being hands on. He helped me restructure the album as far as the sequencing of the songs. He weeded out songs that were not necessarily fillers, but he felt didn’t have to be there to tell the story. My album went from 21 songs to 14 songs. So he made it short, sweet, simple and to the point. As far as hands on involvement, he’s only on one song vocally. It’s a song called “Stay Up (Viagra)”. As far as production, I produced the entire album from top to bottom, with the exception of three songs that I co-produced. One song was co-produced by this rock group Shitake Monkey. They’re in the real dope category too. Another song was co-produced and co-written by one of the members of Shitake Monkey—Electric Pete. He has his own little side group of production and writing called Lynn and Wade. They’ve worked with Jennifer Lopez and Lindsay Lohan. Another song was produced by Brook D’Leau.

Has it been someone that you’ve idolized as a producer or rapper in the game?

Oh yeah - Q-Tip. He’s just my hero. He opened me up to rap music in general. I’ve always liked hip-hop before Tribe Called Quest. But once they hit, I needed to be a part of rap somehow. I started loving it when Big Daddy Kane, DeLaSoul and Jungle Brothers came out.

What does hip-hop mean to you?

It’s just a culture of self expressive people. It’s beat, rhyme and life. From music, to the style of dress, hip-hop is universal and I’m glad to be a part of it.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Be honest with yourself. If your stuff is sounding really whack, either give it up or work to fine tune it. Stay focused on what it is that you’re trying to do. If there are people telling you that your stuff is really whack and improvement is out of your reach, you should give it up instead of forcing it. You shouldn’t have to force it. If you feel like you have to force it, you probably shouldn’t be in it in that capacity.

When does The Death of Adam drop?

October 28^th is when it drops and the first single drops before that. We’re in the works with the first single’s release [“Stay Up (Viagra)”]. It should be soon, but I don’t have a street date for that as of yet. I have a mixtape out called Adam’s Case Files. People can get that from my myspace page www.myspace.com/88keys.

Stay posted for 88-Keys’ listening party on September 4^th!!