INTERVIEW : BOBBY KONDERS
Interview by : Benoit Georges
on Friday, October 15th 2004 - 12 689 views
DJ and producer Bobby Konders is one of the links connecting hip-hop to the Jamaican music of the dancehalls. His radio show "On da reggae tip"‘ broadcast on Hot 97 in New York and neighbouring states since 1992 has broken down musical barriers by popularising reggae and ragga among the hip-hop audience.
This Yankee, a Brooklyn native, celebrated the 14th anniversary of his label Massive B this year, more than ever the reference label for reggae made in the USA. At the head of a six-person collective, Bobby Konders is busy on every front: a travelling sound system for Labor Day, weekly club nights, international tours and production (notably the Rah Rah Riddim last year).
On the phone, he tells me: ‘"can we do the interview in my car? I've still got a lot of promotion to do for my party". As we settle into his 4x4, I quickly understand why he needs a big vehicle: the boot and the back seat are full of posters, flyers and CDs. There is even a bucket of glue...
Reggaefrance / It's crazy, after 14 years you're still the one out on the street. You must have some long days!
Bobby Konders / You amaze me! My days never end... I've paid youngsters to put up the posters and hand out the flyers but they don't always do the job. I prefer to see for myself. Now we're going to drive around to see if all the posters have been put up, and if there aren't any or they've been covered over, I'll put up new ones. Wait, pause it, I'm going to check whether my flyers are in here. You see that hair salon there? Yeah, they're already in. (As we pass the shop, people call out to Bobby and honk their horns). You have to know the street, the places where the girls go, you see what I mean. We don't sleep, we're on the street and people love Massive B. They love Massive B, because they know Bobby Konders from Brooklyn, and I've been known on the street for 20 years, they know I'm not a showbiz star, I entertain people on stage when it comes to playing reggae but they can approach me in the street, talk to me. I'm not someone who puts on airs, I like people, I entertain them... And that doesn't stop you making money, you know how it works!
What were your first contacts with Jamaican music?
It goes back to the 70s, with the Studio One sounds. Here we always had pirate radio or alternative college radio, even public stations, that played that kind of sound. I liked it but that came later. Back then my friends weren't really into it and we all rushed to hip-hop at the end of the 70s, when it started.
What are your foundations in rap, precisely?
First of all, when you hear about Bobby Konders some will tell you: he's a reggae DJ. Others know, for example, that I've produced house, others know that I even did hip-hop and reggae/hip-hop. I like all styles of music, I'm not closed-minded, I like Fela, Gil Scott-Heron, Patsy Cline and country music, I like music, all styles of music. Now as for hip-hop, at the end of the 70s I was a teenager and it came from the street, it was THE new thing. I remember I had all the first rap records, before the Sugar Hill gang, I had: Funky 4+1, Kool Kyle the star child, Spoonie Gee, the Treacherous Three, all the original records. I had tapes, the Zulu Nation tapes, and all those sounds. Those are sounds that came out, I'd say, between 1978 and 1980.
What do you think of the new guard in New York?
I don't approve of all their lyrics, but that's American society: we perpetuate violence... That's what the young ones feel and at the same time they perpetuate that violence and that gun culture. I have to say I like 50 Cent, but then there are so many terrific rappers in New York... I'm talking about the dance sounds because when we play in front of the youth in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Harlem or anywhere, we have to play hip-hop, even if it's a Jamaican dance. Same when I go to universities, I give them the Sizzla, the Bounty Killer, but you have to play hip-hop... And as for the dances, it's Lil John's sounds that drive people crazy in New York, it's real “party music”! After that I don't care where it comes from, if it kills then I play it, whether you're Jamaican or not that's not what matters. Massive B, the sound, comes to entertain people, we can play “foundation” music, we can play “hype hop” music, we adapt to the crowd. Our first love is reggae, but in New York if you want to last you have to be versatile. You play for a West Indian crowd but there are Haitians, people from Trinidad. You have young and old Jamaicans who like hardcore... so you have to be versatile because sounds that get stuck on one thing just end up out of work! It's a kids' thing and kids control the street.
Your radio show “On da reggae tip” on Hot 97 made its mark and is still at the top, is that where Massive B was born?
Long before Hot 97, I was a DJ on WBLS and I played house, reggae and hip-hop, very different mixes. Around 91/92, I really got into dancehall. Before that it was Bobby Konders of Massive sounds and I was an American DJ. I was the first Yankee DJ to put reggae and dancehall on a big station in mixes of American music. I was one of the first Yankee DJs to play dubplates! And then my heart switched completely to reggae and dancehall. It became Massive Sound System. And then Massive B, the sound system, is an international sound, and the public approves of us. That's how I introduced Burro Banton to the public. We got to know each other at the end of the 80s and we started recording. Now he has fans all over the world, we enabled him to stay in the game thanks to Massive B. He enabled Jabba, my partner, to learn the ropes with Massive B. Jabba was a kid from the Bronx of Jamaican origin and you can see his progression, starting out as MC for Massive B, now he's a promoter, he produces videos... he's become a personality. Massive B is something to be proud of, many sounds have come into the business and gone again... We're known all over the world, we can play killer dubplates from any artist, Bounty Killer, Half Pint or Supercat, we have all the dubplates and then our own productions. I took that direction and that's where I've been for 14 years now.
In the meantime you became a producer and not just a DJ, why?
Let's say it's a logical next step. I hung around in studios, I've always done lots of remixes and I still put them out. I had worked with Supercat on remixes, notably. Now for the label, I've always loved “foundation” music, “foundation” reggae, and that's the kind of music I wanted to produce on my label. But I still do “hype-hop” riddims, usually one “hype-hop” riddim a year. Over the years I've produced a great many tunes with a lot of artists on this label. We also released Nicodemus's album, Burro Banton's album, I'm going to put another one out soon, and then all the “bashment” stuff, we have the Heavenless riddim out right now with Sizzla, King Kong, Burro, Morgan Heritage, Bounty Killer, and then the Rah Rah riddim that's doing great in the street, I can tell.
Can you tell us about the Massive B artists?
On Massive B I've recorded people who have always encouraged me. Well, I can also do tracks with one or two artists here and there... But when I say encouraged, I'm thinking of people like Nicodemus, Burro Banton. Half Pint, who recorded a lot for me, helped me get the label started when we did “The winner takes it all” 14 years ago. Anthony B has always sung for Massive B. Chronicle, I introduced him with “My god”. It was a song I'd heard on a Metromedia Skyjuice dubplate where he said “My sound is the greatest”... I had the idea of turning it into a song about God, like a blessing. We put it on the Sick riddim and it gave him a real boost! I really like 80s dancehall, which is why I recorded artists from that period. When I was in London in 91/92 I met King Kong. He came to see me in New York in 1997 and I told him: “now I have a label and riddims to record you on”. He recorded Rumble jumble life for me, and it's a beautiful hit. Of course when you think of Massive B, dubplates and 45s, you think of Bounty Killer and Elephant Man. We made Bounty Killer fashionable in New York in the 90s. My first track from him, Suicide or murder, is a duet with Jeru da Damaja. We helped Elephant Man start his career. He began in '95 doing rapped styles, we recorded him on dubplates, on 45s and you can see for yourself the level Elephant Man is at today: he's a superstar. Thanks to that we're connected with Vybz Kartell, you know Bounty Killer, Eli, Kartell, that's the Alliance and they're connected with Massive B, it's a bit like a family. Sizzla came to see me to voice and we did a few tracks, Morgan Heritage, they're Brooklyn artists so they did tracks for me.
And what about local artists?
We help to promote local artists. I did Red Fox's first productions. I produced Dem a murderer for his ragga/hip-hop album on Elektra. We boosted Yankee B, he landed a deal, I produced hip-hop tracks for him and then he more or less became a Christian... I was among the first to produce Mad Lion, same for Shaggy. Shaggy and I are good friends. So you see we've helped local artists. After that there are so many artists here that you shouldn't record just for the sake of recording. You have to do it thoughtfully.
As a producer, what do you think of P2P and downloading over the Internet?
Fuck the internet! No seriously we have a site, www.massiveB.com, that's cool. But there are sons of bitches who download like crazy and these “pussies” claim to be music sellers, you can't take people for fools! Sell mixtapes, mixCDs, but you must not download songs directly and sell them! Everybody gets by as best they can, that's OK, I know what that's like and I accept that. But if you sell downloaded CDs, you fuck up not only the business but the whole music scene. That's real.
Do you still make mixtapes?
As soon as I put out a riddim, I make a mixtape, it helps to promote it. But it's a double-edged sword because in the end it doesn't make kids buy records, it's the selectas and the collectors who buy them. If we didn't have these mixtapes, the public would go back to compilations. So we've always made mixtapes and we always will because if you're not in the game, they drop you... I do it to promote the artists, the labels, the sound systems, to promote ourselves and promote everybody.
Thank you.
One love and peace in the street, all over the world, this was the Massive B family, Bobby Konders and remember that it's entertainment. To the young rap crews: it's entertainment, don't believe the lyrics, don't believe the style, most rappers are not gangsters. So go to school and listen to your parents!
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