Recommended by a friend at work, who is always turning me on to great authors and great music.
Haven’t had a chance to read any of his gritlit, but wanted to do some prelim research on him. Found a great interview with him, full of one-liner gems, and this video:
So I started out wanting to go to the Ghostface show.
Then I wanted to go to the Ghostface show for free.
I kept hitting up the people at Def Jam to get on the list and it occurred to me that in a recent interview, Ghost said he had only been to the Def Jam offices two or three times the whole time he has been signed there. Plus, I remember when I was trying to line up an interview with Juelz, that Def Jam was telling me that they didn’t know how to get in contact with him. The Dips are known for switching management like I change underwear (a few times a year), but it seemed crazy they couldn’t get in touch with their own artist. I think once I lined up the interview, I might of even hit up Def Jam to give them Juelz’s PR chic’s math. In any event…
Then I wanted to meet Ghost.
It occured to me that J-Love might be DJing, and thought that a Ghost + J-Love interview for the next issue would be dope and give me some leverage, so I hit J-Love with the idea. He was with it, talked to Ghost and we were good to go.
So the show was last night and in typical rapper form, be there at 9, we will do the interview before the show, turns into standing there for two hours, no time before the show, we will do it after. (What this usually turns into is rapper X is too tired/left/we will do it another time.) So me and Sean (sorry Tom) are at the backdoor to the venue with J-Love, Ghost and entourage. Security is patting down people and I hear the typical request.
“Guys, if you have any firearms on you, you are going to have to leave them back on the (tour) bus.”
A few people got out of line and headed back to the bus.
From there we are stuffed into a hallway staging area. Ghost, J-Love, entourage, me and Sean. J-Love jumps on the tables, Ghost runs out already on level 100, crowd goes bonkers, and we take sidestage, me taking pics, Sean filming. Watching shows from that perspective never gets old. Seeing what the artist sees, seeing how the entire place rocks with him, mouths every word, feeding off the energy, you can see how that shit is magical and enticing. Ghost TORE through his catalog, and that was that.
Post show, Ghost signed autographs, and titties, and then back to the bus. Much to my surprise, I was able to get the interview. Somehow I ended up on the bus. Somehow I ended up in the back of the bus. Somehow I ended up in the bedroom-esque suite in the back of the bus with just me, Ghostface and his woman who spent the time massaging his feet. I knew dude was tired and trying to get outta there, but every time I kept trying to be polite and rap up, he kept telling me I could ask more questions and take more time. Full details will be in the next issue, but I have to say meeting one of my favorite rappers of all time was not a disappointment. Dude was not giving canned answers, was not rushing me, was not on some typical rapper bullshit. Granted, I was only with him for a half hour or whatever, but I didn’t get the sense he was playing the role on any level, which I definitely get with most people I interview.
It was a crazy experience.
There’s a few standout moments that owning a rap magazine really has its perks.
This was definitely one of those nights.
As someone who has done a bunch of interviews, I always try to go for good questions. Not the same 20 questions that have been asked and re-tread in a thousand other interviews someone has done. As someone who also loves to read and is eternally fascinated with artist’s creative the process (almost more-so than the product) but is completely turned off by high-brow, self absorbed, intellectual babble, I think Bat Segundo is perfect. The show consists of extremely well researched, astute and insightful interviews by Edward Champion.
The Bat Segundo Show is a cultural and literary podcast that involves very thorough long-form interviews with contemporary authors and other assorted artists.
I stumbled across it when looking for interviews with WTV (here and here), and now I am pouring through the catalog of podcasts. The selection of people is amazing. It sounds like the interviews take place in a cafe, and there is great ambient (but not distracting) background noise. Champion knows not only who he is interviewing inside and out, but their body of work as well, so he is able to ask pointed questions.
Standard questions that have been asked of guests over and over are avoided, whenever possible.
Not only is this appreciated by the listener, but many of his guests seem surprised (I’m sure after suffering a litany of boring interviews) as well. Champion is also not afraid to ask tougher questions, or try and elicit an answer if the guest seems squirrely. Not that he is trying to blindside them or it is in an aggressive manner, but it certainly is not only softball questions either. All of which make for an interesting interview, as opposed to simply an interview. Not only is this the aim or sound like a nice blurb on his About page, but Champion succeeds with an extensive collection of interviews. I often find myself googling his guests, so it’s a great way to also find new authors and new books.
There’s a lot to take away from Champion’s interviews. Not only about his subjects, but stylistically how to do a great interview, and the result.
Ed also does a companion blog that is full of jewels too.
