HYPETRAK 专访 Pusha T - 谈论与 Kanye West 合作以及新专辑《King Push》

大概在去年的这个时候，Pusha T 的个人首长录音棚专辑《My Name is My Name》已上架数周，这张由 Kanye West、Just Blaze、No I.D.、Swizz Beats 等数位金牌制作人打造的专辑被多个权威媒体评为年度最佳 Hip-Hop 专辑。而当各大电台还在循环播放专辑中的主打歌曲、乐迷仍意犹未竟之时，这位来自弗吉尼亚的说唱歌手曝出自己的第二张个人大碟《King Push》制作已进入尾声，而以上两张专辑名字就犹如 Pusha T 的宣告一般，King Push 是时候从 Pharrell Williams 与 Kanye West 的光环下走出，去创造属于自己的未来。在韩国首尔的 House of Vans 活动中，HYPETRAK 有幸专访到了自今年二月就开始不间断巡演的 Pusha T，向读者分享了与 Kanye West 合作的幕后故事，更独家揭秘了《King Push》专辑中的细节内容 ；在谈到自己的音乐理念时，King Push 用「Microwave Music」（微波炉音乐）这一相反术语来诠释其个人音乐对于时代意义的追求，而不是昙花一现的「微波炉音乐」；最后，当提及自己的现场表演时，GOOD Music 代表人物表示希望可以通过自己的激情和舞台风格，让那些对他音乐一无所知的人也能感知、体会到其旋律、歌词背后所传达的深层意义，感同身受他对 Hip-Hop 的激情与挚爱。感兴趣的朋友可以前去 HYPETRAK 阅读完整专访内容。

First time in Korea? What’s it been like, any initial thoughts?

Definitely my first time in Korea. Man I did not know what to expect, but when I got out there I could tell the love for hip-hop is like A-1 out here. Like every record, and I did a discography of old school Clipse, to Good Music tracks, to mixtape records, to My Name is My Name; they were word for word with me, and it was incredible.

Being in Asia and getting a good response, is the Asian market somewhere that you may want to further tap into, maybe collaborate with artists here?

Yeah, you know I’m totally not opposed man. It’s so funny because through social media there are always a couple people that I sort of gravitate towards. Doc Nation is one of them man. I had no idea that he was over here so as soon as he found out I’m coming over he hits me up like, “Yo, where’re going to meet up!” So we finally met and just on an artistic level it’s just sort of dope to see the creativity that other people come with, and to just see the fanfare and get to link up with other creators. It just doesn’t have to be music, I’ve seen guys on the side of the stage that were just paining some crazy shit, and I actually wanted to go over there and look at it, but I didn’t get the chance to. It’s just dope to see the creatives, man.=

How do you approach music now compared to back when you were working with Pharrell and all that? Do you have a completely different mentality towards music now?

It’s not a different mentality; I’m sort of afforded the luxury of no compromise. I think that’s simply because I came in the game with Pharrell on unorthodox records that happened to hit, so people always look for “different” from me. It doesn’t necessarily have to be radio driven records and things like that. Or working with Kanye is the same thing; it’s like man, I get to drop records like “Numbers on the Board” and it just sort of crosses demographics and just touch the college-type kid to the kids in the streets, to the hipsters, to the suburban white kids who are just into pure hip-hop. I don’t know…maybe it’s the fan base that they (Pharrell, Kanye) — who were my executive producers at the time — bring to the table as well as what I’ve already accumulated by myself.

Kanye’s a quite powerful and influential figure. What’s it like working with him? Does he give you space to do your thing as well, or is he mold your art into the boundaries of his ideology?

He definitely gives me room to do my own thing, but he’s one of the harshest critics. You have to come with your A game. I go and present him music when I’m already happy with it, and I can look at him in his face and say, “That’s raw”. You know what I’m saying? When I tell him, “This is what I want to say, and I want to say it like this”, he respects that.