It’s been a long time coming for the Sound Providers. Six years after dropping their debut on wax, “Dope Transmission” b/w “The Field,” they finally get their proper chance to show and prove. Their full-length debut, An Evening with the Sound Providers, draws the listener into a simulated performance at an intimate club as producers Soulo and Jay Skills drop an engaging sequence of their signature, jazz-infused hip-hop. Even with Profile no longer in the crew, these beat diggers took the initiative and invited some of hip-hop’s finest, including Asheru of Unspoken Heard, the Procussions and Little Brother to name a few, for a virtual night of cool-out music. Let the evening begin.

HipHopSite: In 2001 when “Who Am I” dropped you guys were four singles deep, but you still weren’t able to put out an album. How does it feel to finally be able to drop an album in 2004?

Soulo: It feels pretty good man. It’s a long time coming. The four records we put out with myself, Jay and Profile, we were just kind learning our way on the music tip. And the three of us getting together recording was a little experimenting session. It feels pretty good. I wish we could of put it out a while back, but things happened and we just made things happen in the lab and we have a new album for 2004. It’s a long time coming and we’re real hype man. We’re real proud of it.

HHS: How did you first make the connection with ABB (Records)?

Soulo: The “Dope Transmission” 12-inch we put out by ourselves and then we took it down to Fat Beats (in L.A.) on consignment and Beni B (owner of ABB) walked in the next day and picked it up. We had a contract number on there and he called us and he’s like, ‘Yo, I’m digging you guys’ music.’ And he was pretty much like, “I’m offering a production and distribution deal.’ And so that’s pretty much how it came about.

HHS: So Quarternote (Records) is just you guys then?

Jay Skills: Yeah.

Soulo: Yeah, it’s just us.

HHS: When did you guys decide to create the album as if it were a live performance, with the interludes and all that?

Jay Skills: Kind of as it went along. We kind of had an idea for the title a while back: An Evening with the Sound Providers. And then as it went along we thought, ‘This would be a real dope show.’ Pretty soon it was like, ‘Why don’t we just format the album as though it all happens in an evening?’ It kind of makes sense that way.

HHS: Did you guys have any shows in mind that you wanted to emulate?

Jay Skills: I think both Soulo and myself had a mental vision of what the club was supposed to look like, who was supposed to be there and how big it was…

Soulo: The whole vibe.

Jay Skills: The whole vibe. I don’t know if it was any particular show that we had ever been to, like ‘Yo, it will be just like that night,’ but more just like this sort of utopian idea of what a dope show would be like.

HHS: Did you guys always have cats like Asheru and Little Brother in mind for who you wanted to work with on the album?

Soulo: Actually, when we first started working on the album, Little Brothe–we hadn’t even been put up on their music yet. All along me and Jay said, ‘Okay, we’re going to do this album,’ and we kind of just put together a wish list of the cats we would love to have on it and pretty much everybody came through for us. Asheru, we produced a cut on Unspoken Heard’s album (Soon Come) and that cut featured him and Blue Black. And we’re huge fans of Ahseru as well so of course we had to hit him up and get him down on a cut. That’s pretty much how that worked out.

HHS: In the song notes, it seems like Asheru was definitely the most into it, like he was just down for the song from the get go.

Soulo: Yeah, Asheru was real cool about it. We hit him up and we were like, ‘Yo, we want you to get down on the cut for this album,’ and he was like, ‘How do you want to do it?’ He was real open to us sitting down and building from scratch whereas with other cuts we kind of just game them to ‘em and then when they came back we incorporated scratches after the fact–they didn’t have a whole lot of input. Asheru was like, ‘Naw, we’re going to do this one together.’ He was with the theme we came up with and he’s like, ‘I’m real hype on this and I can definitely write some dope shit on it and yo, let’s make this happen.’ That’s pretty much how that went down.

HHS: Soulo, I know you don’t consider yourself an MC, but do you wish you could of rhymed a little more on the album this time?

Soulo: Actually, I wish I could of rhymed a little less on the album (laughter all around). I’m not an MC man for real. I’m serious on the beat tip. I had written that song (“Never Judge”) a while back for a little project way back in the day that actually lead to me meeting Jay back in ’95/’96. I wanted to have as many cuts on the album as possible. We wanted to get as close to a real album as possible and not so much make it a producer’s joint. I just thought, we’ve got to put this down and I ran it by Jay and see what he thought and he though it was straight and so I put it out there. But rhyming is tough man, making beats is a lot of fun (laughing). I give them a lot of credit–all the dope MCs out there ’cause that shit isn’t a walk in the park.

HHS: Right, right. On the production tip I know you guys draw inspiration from Pete Rock and Large Professor, but what about the original music that hip-hop is sampled from? When did you guys first collecting records and really go beat digging?

Soulo: Go ahead Jay.

Jay Skills: As far as really collecting old school breaks and stuff like that, it would probably be for me around ’92. As far as listening to hip-hop and just buying hip-hop, it’s been pretty much from day one. That’s how you buy hip-hop records. But as far as trying to actually dig and find samples and find records with stuff on it, probably like in the early-90s. And just like anybody who starts out digging for records, there’s a real learning curve. So you have to find a bunch of real stupid records at first. Somewhere in the mid-90s I feel like I really started to understand what I was doing and then by the time we had stated the Sound Providers stuff up I felt like I had a real good understanding of where we were going and it was just a matter of finding the records after that. So it was in the early-90s, but it’s a progression. It’s hard to count the first couple of years because you’re just stumbling around like an idiot, buying records that you’re real mad about later on.

HHS: What were some of the first ones that you bought?

Jay Skills: Just stupid stuff. You go through and you buy all the CTI (record) catalog because that’s what everybody says to do. It’s not that they’re bad records, it’s just that theyÂ’re sampled to death and you’re not going to be able to use them. And then there’s the classics that you have to have that are so expensive, but you don’t want to spend thirty of forty bucks on the record so you have to skip it for the mean time ’cause you’re just looking for samples and you’re not really trying to build up your library so much. It’s kind of funny how that changes on the beat tip–like what you buy ends up changing because pretty soon there’s only a limited amount of records that you’re still interested in buying’

HHS: Yeah, and a lot of producers in hip-hop basically get lazy with researching what people have used and they wind up using the same loops over and over. How do you guys avoid that cycle?

Soulo: Man, if we find something that somebody’s obviously already using, we’re obviously not going to touch it–period. I guess we’re just kind of looking for a different slant or vibe. Me and Jay ran into each other a coupe of times. If we stubble on something that somebody else is already using, then, it’s out of the question. That one rule separates us stepping on something that anybody’s already done.

HHS: And when you guys both lived in San Diego you went to L.A. sometimes just to dig right?

Both: Yeah.

HHS: What was that like?

Soulo: It was cool. The pickings are kind of slim in San Diego man. There were a couple of cats out here who had a big head-start on us and a lot of other cats had to migrate outwards to get the type of records that had the same type of sound, the vibe that we wanted. It was cool. It was kind of an all day task. We had a spot together, an apartment, and we’d get up at five in the morning and hit the road yo and get there at like seven all tired. Shit was a mission, but you gotta do what you gotta do. It’s even more so now–at least in San Diego. I know Jay has better luck out there in Florida. Spots are going fast.

HHS: In Orlando???

Jay Skills: For real, there’s nobody digging for record in Florida apparently. Or if they do, they’re not looking for the same records. I come up every time I go out out here now. It’s like a double-edged sword. I love living in San Diego, but I’m buying a lot of records right now.

HHS: They’re like virgin spots right?

Jay Skills: Yeah, and I bring a portable (turntable) with me and the people at the record store think I’m a genius, like they’ve never seen that before. I’m like some fascinating dude who knows what records he’s looking for. If they dig, they’re looking for different stuff apparently.

HHS: On the albums’ song capsules, specifically for “Autumn Breeze” and “Pacific Vibrations,” you guys talk about the influence that San Diego has on you, climate-wise and the city itself. But do you think that living in San Diego overall really influenced your sound?

Soulo: I think so man. It’s so scenic. You’ve got a breeze going, the weather’s dope 365 days a year and it just kind of puts you in a super cool-out mood. That’s kind of reflective in a lot of the stuff that me and Jay put together. I totally think so–100-percent. If I was born and raised somewhere else I think I would most definitely have a different sound. It’s real easy to tap into the real buttery, soulful, just cool-out type of vibe out here.

Jay Skills: It is, and if I hadn’t been outside of San Diego, I would probably say, ‘Yeah, it kind of does,’ but I’ve lived in Florida now for a while now and I’ve lived in L.A. working as an (sound) engineer for a while so I really get to see, man, I’m 100-percent influenced by living in San Diego. There’s no question about it. As soon as you get away from it, you realize how different life is outside of San Diego. Everybody’s influenced by where they’re from whether they realize it or not. So the weather and the vibe and the people and everything and just the music we grew up listening to in the local areas all had a huge impact.

HHS: Was there any other crews in San Diego, on the MC tip?

Soulo: There’s a lot of cats. Just like any city there’s a lot of cats. Honestly I haven’t been around for a while. Pretty much I’ve been just trying to put out records in the lab and haven’t had a chance to check the scene. But there’s definitely a scene out here–there’s a lot of cats out here.

HHS: So what happened to Profile?

Soulo: It was just kind of a matter of heading in different directions musically and otherwise and it kind of got to a point where he was trying to head in one direction and me and Jay were headed in our direction. And us being three grown-men, we decided, all right, go ahead and do your thing and we’re gonna do ours and that was pretty much the gist of it.

HHS: At what point did that happen, around what year?

Soulo: I would say right around the time when we did the cut with Grap (Luva). The foundation was becoming a little shaky from that point on. The album that we actually put together was actually supposed to be the three of us. At some point you just have to be real about it and realize that we’re headed in different directions and so we gotta keep it moving.

HHS: Yeah. So what can we expect from you guys next? Are you going to drop a 12″ from the album?

Jay Skills: Yeah, there’s actually two 12s from the album: the Little Brother cut (“Braggin and Boasting”) was on one and so was the Maspyke cut, the “Throwback.” And there’s a second that will come out probably April or May.

HHS: Yeah, I’m definitely feeling the one with the Procussions (“Five Minutes”) the most. It’s just incredible.

Soulo: Yeah, right on. Thanks. Yeah, that’s one of our favorites for sure. That’s one of the cuts that Jay sat in and recorded from beginning to end and it came out really dope. We were hype on it.

HHS: Do you guys wish that you could of worked more closely with some of the artists?

Soulo: Most definitely, because that’s (“Five Minutes”) one of my favorite cuts and it’s probably because we were actually there. I wasn’t there but Jay was there in the flesh and they were all building and bouncing ideas off of one another and everything else was kind of long distance. Although all things considered I think things came together really well, that’s the best-case scenario and we definitely wish we could of done it on that tip.

HHS: Yeah sometimes it works long distance but it’s always better to be up close and personal.

Jay Skills: Yeah just from being there you can kind of help steer things in the direction you want or maybe stop things from getting out of control if you didn’t want it to. It’s not like you’re just sitting there telling people what to do, but just by being there, it’s real easy to steer a session the right way. Just by being there. With the Procussions there wasn’t any of that required, it was just more a matter of saying, ‘Why don’t we do this here, and lets drop out the song out here, we’re going to bring back the host of the album for that’–just being able to format things and make the logistical things happen to where just the little things you don’t really notice, but in the end it makes for dope song.

HHS:  Yeah, definitely.

Soulo: You really can’t beat interaction. That’s the best-case scenario.

HHS: So who else would you like to get into the studio and crack out a song with?

Soulo: A lot of cats. Who would you say Jay?

Jay Skills: I’m a big fan of Akil from Jurassic 5. I think homeboy’s real dope. I mean all of Jurassic 5, but Akil is real dope to me.

Soulo: Kevin Brown. He’s a really dope producer, but on the rhyming tip that cat is real nice too. We actually tried to hit him up and get him on the album but it didn’t work out, but we’re still looking forward to doing something with him so that’s something we’re going to peruse.