HYPETRAK 專訪 Pusha T - 談論與 Kanye West 合作以及新專輯《King Push》

大概在去年的這個時候，Pusha T 的個人首長錄音棚專輯《My Name is My Name》已上架數週，這張由 Kanye West、Just Blaze、No I.D.、Swizz Beats 等數位金牌製作人打造的專輯被多個權威媒體評為年度最佳 Hip-Hop 專輯。而當各大電台還在循環播放專輯中的主打歌曲、樂迷仍意猶未竟之時，這位來自弗吉尼亞的說唱歌手曝出自己的第二張個人大碟《King Push》製作已進入尾聲，而以上兩張專輯名字就猶如 Pusha T 的宣告一般，King Push 是時候從 Pharrell Williams 與 Kanye West 的光環下走出，去創造屬於自己的未來。在韓國首爾的 House of Vans 活動中，HYPETRAK 有幸專訪到了自今年二月就開始不間斷巡演的 Pusha T，向讀者分享了與 Kanye West 合作的幕後故事，更獨家揭秘了《King Push》專輯中的細節內容 ；在談到自己的音樂理念時，King Push 用「Microwave Music」（微波爐音樂）這一相反術語來詮釋其個人音樂對於時代意義的追求，而不是曇花一現的「微波爐音樂」；最後，當提及自己的現場表演時，GOOD Music 代表人物表示希望可以通過自己的激情和舞台風格，讓那些對他音樂一無所知的人也能感知、體會到其旋律、歌詞背後所傳達的深層意義，感同身受他對 Hip-Hop 的激情與摯愛。感興趣的朋友可以前去 HYPETRAK 閱讀完整專訪內容。

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.