And even though we continue to encompass our overall thoughts on hip hop’s terrible state as it pertains to the mainstream, let’s be more intelligent in specifically differentiating releases as good as this, far away from that grouping and give praises when praises is due. With Layover, Encore’s praise is due. Produced by Jake One, singer Nathan Thomas drips his soulful sauce while gracing the hook with smoothness to Encore’s “The Schizm”, a rich groove, sure to keep the club hot and sweaty. Much like the ingredients that made up Talib Kweli’s “Waitin’ for the DJ”, ‘underground’ would hardly be the correct label to quickly attach to this track, as Encore spits universal lyrics aimed at reeling in a nice catch. When he pours his heartfelt emotions on the parental dedication “My Way Home”, Jake One’s light keyboard touches and solid bass meshed with Encore’s lyrics provide a combination poweful enough to make listeners reflect on their own loved ones: “I’m never gonna forget where I came from, I came from you so I’ll always find my way home / You gave me life, you gave me love…”

       When heavy-hitter Pep Love crashes the recording booth on “City Livin”, hard knock fans need not worry, because this stage-wrecking track produced by Architect perfectly suits their razor-sharp rhymes, thanks to it’s looped, wide-orchestra trumpet sound and well-timed vocal samples from Group Home. Whether it’s on the climactic “Faithful”, again featuring Nathan Thomas’ soulful treatment, or the witty construction of “Real Talk” featuring Ladybug Mecca, Encore most likely will create a nice buzz with this LP. But like so many potent, independently pushed records, unfortunately he may not receive the major props he deserves. But support from the fans can change that…. after all, what good is an ‘encore’ if it doesn’t come from the public?

Thank you.

For those of my guests that don’t know who you are do you want to go ahead and do a quick introduction of yourself?

Yah, my name is Encore The Essence. I’m part of the Executive Lounge. I had an album out in 2000 called “Self-Preservation”, it was on 75 Ark with Dan the Autmator, you may remember him. I had a single on “Handsome Boy Modeling School” record and now I got a new album coming out in February 2004 called “Layover” with the Heiroglphics Imperium. Big Up  to Heiro.

Especially at this show, they did a good job on their set…following up Little Brother, [who's'] performance was also dope. I’m gonna hit with the questions, considering you’re a busy man and all. When and how did you first get started with hip-hop? The very beginning…

The very beginning of hip-hop was probably…I had “The Breaks” 45 with Kurtis Blow, “The Breaks”. That was my first introduction to hip-hop. That was like, wow! Actually my neighbor had one, I saw his record and I was like, “Ah man, I gotta get that, gotta get that!” I picked it up, from there it when on and on.

You started off as a fan and a listener like everbody else…

Just Like everybody else, man.

Did you start off b-boying before you picked up the MC’ing game or did you DJ first, or has it always been MC’ing?

Back when I started doing it, we tried to do everything. But I was pretty much the bboy at that point. I was like poppin’ and everything, much more of a popper than a breaker.

I gotcha. Do you think artists these days, or up-and-comers these days, like the roundedness that you have as an artist coming out a decade ago when you got your start?

I think you can’t help but do that [now]. There’s so much other shit, so many other things going on, it’s hard to focus…you pretty much have to focus on one thing to be good at it now. Back then it was in infant stages and you had to do everything. It was just more of just a natural thing to do everything. Now it’s like, “Okay, I wanna be a rapper.” Or, “I wanna be a DJ.” And the level of the game has stepped up so much in everything that you can’t…you have to just focus on one. Even, like, bboying…bboys, the stuff they’re doing now, it’s so far ahead of the game now, from what I was doing. Like, you have to be doing just that now, that’s life now.

It’s kinda similar to sports, how we used to have more multi-sport pro athletes, but now the level of competition is higher. It’s very analogous?

Exactly.

Do you think coming from the Bay Area — originally being born in Palo Alto, and being raised in Milpitas ( corrects pronunciation…”yah south bay”) — has had any impact on your style, be it MC’ing or hip-hop in general, and on your success?

Yah, I think so. Being from the Bay, we have your Too $horts, your Richie Rich’s…but at the same time, when we were listening to hip-hop, when I was growing up in high school and junior high, we were listening to Too $hort and KRS-One,  Ice Cube and Rakim, 4N5 and Big Daddy Kane, you know we had this big mix, where I’m sure on the East they were just listening to East Coast music. So we had the wide range of East Coast / West Coast. I can tell my style…I can tell when I do certain things with my lyrics, I say, “okay, that’s a Too $hort” or “that’s a Cube”, maybe something real subtle, but maybe something I wouldn’t have done if I was just into one Coast. But being from the Bay, you were forced to listen to everything

They didn’t have the scene when you started that the East Coast had so you were a little more influenced than [the East Coast was]?

We had a scene, it was just a different scene. It was just more open to listening to different things because we weren’t living the New York life, we were living the Bay Area life. I’m influenced by a lot of East Coast lyricists as far as far as styles are concerned, but as far as what we talk about and what influences us on a day-to-day life, it was Bay Area stuff. It was Bay Area things.

I was noticing when I was looking up history on you that you had help in the beginning by being introduced to Stones Throw co-founder Peanut Butter Wolf through your guys’ mutual friend Charisma, who passed away back in ’94. Are you looking forward to their album finally coming out? I guess it’s coming out right about now.

Yah, it’s actually funny. I just found out about it right now, when I was on tour. I haven’t talked to Wolf yet about that. But I’m definitely juiced about that, man. Charisma was, Rest In Peace,…to me, when people come to me looking for who Charisma was, he was in that Big L, Mad Skillz vein, where he had the punch lines and that high voice. He was them before them, not saying he was doper than them or anything like that, I’m just saying he was them before they even came out, or before I ever heard of them.

He had a major impact on your career — do you figure?

He had an impact on me…cuz we went to high school together, and before I was even rapping seriously, he already had a deal. I learned a lot from him about how the record industry worked before I even got into the industry myself. It was real weird cuz he had gotten and dropped before anything was even going down with me.

Before you were even on the radar…So he was kind of a mentor and a friend?

Yah, the thing is, we weren’t cool for a little while in high school. We played YBA basketball when we were real young and then we didn’t keep in contact. Then in high school there was a period of time where we weren’t even cool because he was kind of arrogant at some point in time cuz he got the deal and he was like, “I’m dope. Nobody else can fade me.” And I wasn’t really like into rapping as much then as I was when I started getting into it seriously. There was a period of time where he got a little arrogant, a little cocky with everybody. So me and him weren’t cool, but we ended up squashing stuff maybe a year before he passed. We were actually gonna start working on music together, but it didn’t happen.

So it’s kinda fortunate you got to squash things before he ended up passing away.

Yah, but it wasn’t anything like a Nas/Jay-Z type of thing, we just weren’t cool on some friend levels. We weren’t cool for a minute, then we squashed it and it was all good.

Good deal, we’ll move on. Is there any particular reason why you chose to go with Heiro on their new label, Heiro Imperium, as opposed to sticking with 75 Ark for another EP or album with them?

Part of it was timing, 75 Ark was actually folded. I actually got out of the contract because of that. Automator was  gonna start another label, I still think he’s gonna start another label. He signed to MCA and MCA, and he was having issues with MCA. And the timing was good. Me and Domino (of Heiro) had been cool for a while. I used to go over to his house, we’d watch football games and everything. And he was like, “You should just do something with me.” And I was still working on my album independently, and the timing was like, “Okay, let’s do it.” I feel like I’m a direct descendant of Heiro. Even though we’re all the same age; you know, Heiroglyphics, they’re like the direct lineage from De La and Tribe and the whole Native Tongues thing and brought it to the west. Anybody on the underground, on the West coast, that came out after or during the time of Heiro is linked to them. You know I’ve always been a fan, I’ve had Pep on my last album. It was pretty much like we were family anyway. ( It fit well.) You know I was worried about the business aspect of it, you know, I don’t want to mess any business up or friendships up over business stuff. But it all worked out and it’s going well for me right now, for all of us right now.

Did they have any sort of creative control with you or did Domino just stand over it as a business perspective and say “maybe do this, maybe do that” because they have the experience of however many 12″s and numerous albums they’ve put out over the years, or was it mostly just a business…

He pretty much knew where I was coming from with my album; my album was pretty much done before I even handed it to him. I mean it wasn’t mastered or anything, or mixed, all the songs were pretty much done though. He pretty much knew that I’m coming from — I’m part of Heiro — but I’m coming from a different angle than Heiro, I’m just bringing a different element to the label. So he was pretty much like, “okay”, and pretty much put it in my hands as long as I was breaking the bank on the budget.

You worked exclusively with three producers on this album: Vitamin D, JakeOne, and Architect?

Vitamin D, JakeOne, Architect. Architect was on my last album; he did about 99% of the beats on the last album. This one he does three. Jake does a majority of the album. Big up to JakeOne, Vitamin, Architect…but [Jake] does a majority of the album. And Vitamin does three songs on there was well.

What was the decision making when you decided to bring in JakeOne and Vitamin D? Obviously we’re happy, considering I’m from Seattle (interview originally broadcast at University of Washington’s RainyDawg Radio www.rainydawg.com), to see Seattle producers doing big things. We’re gonna try to have Jake next week to follow-up this interview.

Word, word. Basically Jake did a remix to a song that I did on Certified Records. Big up to DJ Fingers in San Diego. Yah, he did a remix for…( For the “Filthy” track?)…yah, it was either “Filthy” or “Ice Age”. He might have…he did two remixes. Anyway, yah, people were like, “you need to get with Jake.” But the crazy thing is, that remix, and you can tell him this, too, he’ll probably get mad but, I wasn’t even that juiced on that remix. I was like, “Okay, this is cool.” But you know what I mean, the way people were talking about it was like it was more. ( Like it’s an end-all, be-all. And you’re like, “nah, it’s alright.”) No, it was cool, I liked it, I just wasn’t as impressed as I was when I heard his beat tapes. What ended up happening is, his manager Walt, I know Walt. Walt hit me off with a CD, a beat tape and I was feeling it. And I said, “Man, Walt, let me get his number so I can chop it up with him.” Walt was kind of hesistant. He thought I was gonna get it over him on some pricing, but I just wanted to build with him. I’m the type of person where I just wanna build. So I was just talking to Jake and we just started building. We really started building, he was giving me other beats and stuff for listening to.

Was he the one that suggested Vitamin D, to suggest his stuff, or were you just familiar with him from coming through Seattle?

Well, Walt, he was at that time managing Vitamin D, too. He sent me Vitamin’s beats, too. I wanted to bring more facets to the game. It wasn’t any disrespect to Arc, that’s like my brother right there. But at the same time, what I like from Arc is a specific sound I like from Arc. And I didn’t want my whole album sounding like that. Because whenever I think of a beat from Architect, it has a particular vibe to it and I felt people were kind of pigeon-holing me as far as what they thought I was gonna be rapping over and what I like. And I was like I have more facets to my whole personality and if I want to use this music as a vehicle to get things off my chest and explain where I’m at at any given time in my career and my life, I need to have a little more well-rounded music as far as giving an over-all soundscape of what I’m about at that particular time. And having Vitamin and Jake helped me achieve that. Vitamin brings that vibrant, colorful shit…both of them, they both bring that colorful shit to my music. ( Both very happy-natured guys.) Yah, no, I shouldn’t say “happy rap”, but they both definitely have more color to their music. Where Arc brings me a more conceptual, a little more darker tone, at least that’s the type of music that I like from him.

This way you can show the more multi-faceted side of yourself, the artist known as Encore The Essence. What’s been the most interesting or fulfulling stop on the Full Circle tour so far?

Well, the tour has ended and the whole tour’s just been crazy; I’ve been places I’ve never been before. And the interesting thing is doing shows where you’re not sure the people even know who you are. Those are the crazy shows. It’s like — Ottowa, never been to Ottowa, and nobody knew who I was, but that place just rocked, that place was cracking. Toronto was big, Detroit was a suprise for me, Orlando was a suprise for me, Seattle was big, Baltimore was big, just a lot of random spots that I wouldn’t have expected…Cleveland was big for me, Austin was big. ( Sounds like it was all a success.) Yah, the tour as a whole was just real successful. It just worked real good. We had good people on the tour. I think it was just good for everybody, interacting. I was on the same RV as Little Brother and my man Z-Man. And it was like, we didn’t know each other at first, but we became a family. It’s crazy how you end up meeting people you don’t know if you’re gonna click with.

You gonna try to get a 9th Wonder beat for the next, next album?

I mean I met 9th before the tour. We’ll probably do something…I want him on there, and I know he wants to get on there, too. So I mean…he’s busy, he’s got a lot of stuff going on.

Sounds like it with all the stuff he’s got coming out. How did you end up choosing the name for your new album, “The Layover”?

Layover to me is kind of symbolic, cuz the direction of my music is a little more broad than on “Self-Preservation”. Like I said, I’m showing a little more facets to my musical tastes. Layover’s kind of like where you’re waiting for your flight, you’re siting there on hold, that’s what I feel like. This record is the limbo of where’s he gonna go with his music. It’s the middle between “Self-Preservation” and where I’m trying to take my music. I don’t want to be pigeon-holed, that’s the main thing I don’t ever want to do, I don’t want people to ever think when they hear an Encore record they’ve heard him all. So this like…I stepped out of my maybe my listener’s comfort zone, my “Self-Preservation” listener’s comfort zone with some songs, but I didn’t go completely out of that element. It’s not out of my element, it may be out of my listener’s element. It’s just a gradual step, and this is Layover, okay, I’m on hold, I’m just waiting here, I’m gonna get me this beat, til I really feel the fan-base is ready. But I’m still gonna take you a couple baby steps forward and then  when I actually take that flight, that’s when you’re gonna see me doing stuff, doing some different things. Basically people have to accept you, accept change from you and the change has to be done gradually, you know. I don’t want to hit people over the head with just some brand new thing, you know, and they’re not ready for it.

Other than showing your new side by bringing in new producer’s, Vitamin D and JakeOne, and showing a different style, be it a concept or your flow itself, are you bringing in any other MCs you want to introduce them to, is there any radical change between “Self-Preservation” and “The Layover” that listeners who have followed you would notice or that new listeners might want to look out for especially?

Well, the one thing is that I didn’t get anyone off Executive Lounge on my album, I wanted to get Turbin, big up to Turbin. I wanted to get Grand on there, but I couldn’t get them on there, just a time thing. But I got my man Arcee from Toronto, he’s on there. I have Pep Love on there, and I got Opio and A-Plus from Souls of Mischief on there, and I got Ladybug Mecca from Digable Planets on there.

A lot of folks from within the family and just the area, too?

Yah, what I wanted to do, and what I always want to do with any collaboration is, first of all, if I’m doing an Encore album, I don’t want to be loaded with cameos and stuff cuz then it’s not my album, it’s just an album full of people on there. And, two, when I do collaborations I want them to stick right, I don’t want to do a collaboration just for the sake of doing a collaboration, like the song I did with Pep. It’s about being homeless. If you heard [Pep Love's] “Ascension”, and you gotta go get “Ascension”, you know he’s good with concepts and I feel like I’m good with concepts. And I felt like, we did something before and we meshed well. Plus Pep, he’s a dope MC.

So you want them to kind of fit roles rather than being a compilation album?

Yah, you know, cuz that’s kind of the same thing with Mecca, the song I did with Mecca; it’s kind of like, I don’t don’t know if you remember Positive K song “I Got A Man”. Like you’re going back and forth with a girl, that’s how it is with Mecca. Like the first verse where we go back and forth, I wrote that whole verse, but I wrote it with her in mind, with her whole image in mind, and with her voice and style in mind and that just worked out perfectly. That’s gonna be the new single, it’s called “Real Talk”. I just want any collaboration I do, like his voice and his style will fit this beat perfectly, and I think will mesh real well with it. I don’t wanna be like, “Let me get Busta, cuz Busta’s dope, or because Busta’s known for the cameos.” I don’t want that.

You don’t want just name recognition. What would you say is your final aspiration, like your ultimate goal in music is?

My ultimate goal is to have a catalogue where people can say, “Okay, this is what Encore was on on this album.” Like you pick up Marvin Gaye’s “Here, My Dear” (?), he was going through some shit right there. He was tripping, he was about to go through a divorce and his drama. You pick up “What’s Going On?” and it’s like he was really into the war. I want people to say, “Encore, this is the vibe he was on on this record. He’s going through some things here. He had some issues he wanted to get off his chest.” Basically every album is “Self-Preservation” even if it doesn’t sound anything alike. Self-preservation to me is making sure that music is a vehicle to get things off my chest. Make me look back and be like this is a photo of where I was at in this particular period of time, I want to be able to capture that for me. So when I look back, I can be like, “2004, Layover, he was on this type of vibe. This is what he’s really about.” I want to be able to piece in memory what I was doing at that time listening to my music cuz ultimately it’s for me.

Sounds like a very good goal.

Don’t get me wrong, I want to sell millions and millions of records. I don’t want to give the wrong impression. But I want to try to be as honest as I possibly can, to my audience and to myself. That’s hard, as much people say “be honest” and this and that, it’s hard to be as open and honest to the public as you may want to be, but I’d like to try to do that cuz to me that’s when your best work is done.

Do you have any dream producers or fellow MCs that you’d like to work with in the future, like possibly the album after “The Layover” or any in the future, is there any super god MC that you want to work with or a DJ Premier-esque DJ or producer you want to work with?

I get asked that a lot, but it’s really hard for me to say that cuz it really just depends on the music…like I’ve always liked Digable Planets, but before Vitamin gave me that beat, I wouldn’t have really gone out of my way thinking I wanted to make a song with Mecca. You know what I’m saying…My idols are like Rakim, Ice Cube, Large Professor, and things of that nature but it really just depends on the music or the idea that I’ve come up with or idea that we’ve both come up with; it’s really just timing, how I’m feeling at the time. You know I’d like to say that I’d like to work with everybody, ideally I would. But I don’t want to work with them just to say I’ve worked with them. And I feel like sometimes that happens a lot.

We were just talking about your idols…what would you say your all-time favorite album is, it doesn’t necessarily have to be in hip-hop, it could be in any musical genre?

Um, wow, you ask me any other day I’ll probably tell you something different. Probably “Innervisions”.

Last question, non-musical related…you a basketball fan at all?

Big basketball fan.

Who do you thinks gonna take the championship this year, I know it’s early and there’s lots of injuries, but I’m a basketball fan so I’m always curious.

Purple and gold, baby, come on! ( Ah, man!) Haha. I grew up a…people always want to say, “You’re a fair-weather Lakers fan.” But I grew up with the Lakers man. I’m actually kind of pissed off they picked up Karl Malone and Gary Payton. I mean I love GP, I’d have loved to just had GP, but I can’t stand Karl Malone, I can’t lie.

It’s really funny, I had an interview at the beginning of the summer when both those guys had just been traded and that was with Aceyalone and he’s also a Lakers fan and me being in Seattle, being a Sonics fan, I was kind of pissed off losing Gary Payton, especially to the Lakers, cuz you know how everybody who’s not a Lakers fan feels about the Lakers.

Yah, exactly. But, no, I’m a die-hard Lakers fan. I know the ins and outs about the squad. I know my game. Ask Jake, that’s part of the reason that he and I get along so well.

Yah, he’s a fan as well, right?

Yah, me and him go at it. He’s a Seattle Seahawks fan and a Sonics fan, I’m a Lakers fan and a Steelers fan and we go at it.

You don’t love your Bay area sports teams?

I like the Warriors, but I grew up a Lakers fan. And I probably don’t like the ’9ers the way people don’t like the Lakers. But all my family’s from Pennsylvania so that’s how I’m a Steelers fan.

At this point you got any shout outs you want to do?

Just want to shout out “Layover”, February 2004, got my man A-Plus, Opio, Pep Love from Heiro, got my girl Ladybug Mecca and Arcee from Toronto. Want to shout out the Executive Lounge, Grand da Visitor, Architect. Big up to the Full Circle tour people, Z-Man, Little Brother. Vitamin D, JakeOne always. And it’s like that.

How did you get your start, what was the main thing that got you into this whole industry?

A Tribe Called Quest’s “Low End Theory”, Main Source “Breakin Atoms”, Gang Starr “Step In The Arena”, any number of Rakim’s albums, N.W.A…. just being influenced by and living the music.

So, after you did stuff with Wolf, then you hooked up with Automator, how did that happen?

I either met him through Peanut Butter Wolf, or Architect, my producer. He liked my stuff and everything, and he actually wanted me to do something on the Dr. Octagon album, but I kinda slept.

So do you have another album planned with 75 Ark?

I am working on a number of different projects. I am working on another album, probably for 75 Ark. I am working on an EP with my man Joey Chavez out in L.A., and I am working on another project with my man Turbin, it’s called Official Thoroughbreds.

Who is that project coming out with?

Well, the only thing that is solidified right now is the next album for 75 Ark. Everything else is I am just working on. My whole thing about music is just make the project, and then see what comes after that.

So, on your album, one of the deepest songs is “.084″, you speak on drunk driving. Is this based on a true story?

Well first of all I am glad, and I appreciate the fact that you like that song. But yeah, that was a true to life experience, basically everything that was in there really happened. I used to drink and drive a lot, and I got a D.U.I., and I got in an accident and everything. Thankfully, I didn’t get hurt or kill anyone, or anything, but yeah, it was definitely a true to life experience.

How did that experience change your life?

It was one of those things, where you realize that you can’t take things for granted, you have to be appreciative of what you have. People tend to take youth for granted… It’s not a matter of being paranoid, I mean, live your life to the fullest, but don’t take it for granted.

Your relationship with Architect, he produced the whole album. When listening to it, the chemistry between the two of you almost reminds me kind of like a Guru / Premier type of thing, where the producer compliments the emcee, and the emcee compliments the producer. How would you define the relationship? Is it the sort of thing where it’s just a known fact that Encore rocks on Architect beats, or is it the type of thing that you would pretty much just rock over whatever beats were on your plate?

Our relationship goes beyond music, we grew up in the music business together, but before that, we went to high school together, I am one year older than him. The majority of my albums will probably have a large amount of his beats on there, but I like albums to have an identity, rather than a whole bunch of elements put together. I mean, your album can have a whole bunch of producers, but they all have to mesh, and keep the same identity.

So it’s not like a compilation….

Right. A lot of people have a lot of different producers and it sounds all the same, or it’s just way too different, and all over the place. I think Mos Def’s album is a great album, it has all different elements, but it was done correctly.

Let me ask you this, and I don’t mean to offend you by asking this question, but Blaze dissed the album. Speak on it….

I mean, I don’t really have any response to that. To me, it doesn’t really effect me, it’s not going to go make me…. I think they said something about the beats, or something? I bust over the beats that I feel. This album is called “Self Preservation”, I created this album, thinking that this could be the last piece of work I ever did. I am not saying it is, but I could die tommorrow. I wanted to make sure that I was happy with it. I didn’t give a damn what anyone else was talking about it.

I was reading The Source, and they kinda dissed Cali Agents and Zion I. I think a lot of it has to do with that it’s not really an underground thing, but I think because we are young in the game, they only respect artist‘s who carry a lot of weight in the industry.

I think the politics issue is definitely there. For instance, like let’s take ******. He’s a good emcee, and I respect him and all, but his album was disappointing, it just wasn’t a 3 and a half. Of course they give it a 3.5. I think what happens is that they are in a position where they have to give certain albums certain ratings. It’s just become a game of like “Well, we buy ads, so now you have to respect us and give this album a four.”

On top of that, when they do interviews with these artists on these particular labels, the label will fly the writer out to these nice spots in the Bahamas to take pictures and everything. That’s cool and it doesn’t really effect me, but I gotta do what I gotta do. People were dissing D’Angelo’s album, and to me that was one of the best albums out! I don’t know….

I think you are right about the whole “weight” issue, you know? Are they rating the album or the artist? But eventually it will get to the point where Encore has built up such a following over, say, a ten year period of time, and at that point they will have no choice but to recognize that it’s dope. They’re like, “Well, we have to give something a two and half, so….”

Yeah, it’s a lot easier to give me a 2.5, than it would be to give ******.

Yeah, I mean because you don’t live a block away from their office to go up there and be like, “What the fuck?”

Exactly. But I think a lot of hip-hop heads understand that, so it’s really not that important for me to address it like that. I don’t really know any other places that have reviewed my album and dissed it like that, you know?

We gave it a good review, and I think Urb did too. I remember talking to a writer who I was going to have write an article for HipHopSite, and I told them I needed a review by Friday, and it didn’t show up that day, so I called them, and was like, “Yo, where is this review’, and they were like, “I’ll have it to you by tonight”. So I said, “Well what do you think of the album”, and they were like “I haven’t even listened to it yet, but don’t worry, I have written reviews in an hour before.” I’ve even heard magazine writers say they were on a deadline, and did a “fast forward review”, where they just skimmed through the tracks. I’m like, “Yo this is no way to review a record!’ If you begin to look at the album like it isn’t shit, you have already formed a bad opinion after one listen.

That’s a hard thing for me to accept. For music in general, not just hip-hop. I love music in general, and I really feel like you have to soak in music, you have to feel it. I don’t want to get on a corny level, but you actually have to be the music, before you can find a decent opinion of what you really think of the music. Unless a large amount of people dis an album, I don’t think heads really even care. I think they want to listen it themselves.

I think there is also the issue of who is the more credible source when listening to a “underground record”, Urb Magazine, or Blaze?

Yeah, and reading what they are talking about, like, “they didn’t have a club joint” or whatever. I mean the whole idea that you have to have a certain type of song is ridiculous. They didn’t just say that about me either, they said it about Cali Agents in The Source, like “they haven’t crossed the barrier”. The people that really create this little “underground” wall and this “pop” wall or whatever you want to call it, are the magazines themselves. It doesn’t even need to be that, because music is music. I read them, and am just like whatever, it doesn’t really bother me.

So let’s talk about the collaborations…. You hooked up with Pep Love on “Situation”….

That was like me and Pep running into each other like, “Yo we gotta do something”, so…. We are supposed to do something on his album too….

Then of course, you did that shit with Evidence of Dilated Peoples, “Filthy” …I was actually disappointed you left of the album, but at the same time I thought it was cool that you pretty much stuck with Architect for the whole album….

Yeah….I didn’t put “Waterworld” on there either, people were disappointed I didn’t put those songs on there. But I wanted I to do a whole new project, you know? I wanted it to be an album, I didn’t want to put stuff on there just because they were good songs, I wanted them to fit the album’s actual vibe.

So what albums do you have “in the deck”?

Right now I got, Common in there, Lucy Pearl, Dead Prez, some old Chaka Kahn, I listen to all kinds of shit. I think you have to be a little diverse to make quality music of any type.

Growing up on the West Coast, do you ever feel you have been neglected of the hip-hop culture that NYC breathes?

Not really, I mean, we lived it, we had our own spin on it. It originated out there, but we broke, popped and locked. We had a lot of emcees, Too Short, you know….. To me it is all hip-hop. Slick Rick could come out here, and do a show, and the kids would know all the words, just like they would in New York? We weren’t exposed to the historical battles or anything, but as far as music that was put down on wax, we got a large large does of it, not to mention our hometown heroes, Too Short, and down in L.A. Cube and Dre. I think overall, we have actually been exposed to even more hip-hop.

I feel you, you know when you are in New York, it’s like a whole other planet, and a lot of times, they just are not aware of what is going on outside of that planet.

Exactly. They just started to get more exposed to west coast hip-hop with the Death Row era, but we have been exposed to east coast hip-hop since the beginning.

How do you feel about the west coast scene right now and it’s future? I don’t know how your relationships with these artists like Rasco, Planet Asia, Dilated, Jurassic…..

Those are all my peoples. I love hip-hop, I love whatever we are doing out here. Of course you got wack emcees, but I would like to see us all succeed.

So as far as the scene on the west coast, do you think people will look back at groups like you and Jurassic like we look at artists like Marley Marl today…

That’s crazy that you say that because I was talking to somebody, and I was telling them that this period we have on the west coast, is kind of like that period that New York had from ’89 to ’91, where all these creative artists are emerging. I think we just need a few more albums under our belt, me Jurassic, Rasco, Dilated… one or two albums after that, people will recognize it just takes time.

Encore’s sheer lyrical dexterity is engraved over every verse of his debut, Self Preservation, as this effortless wordsmith conjures up images of a time when emceeing was in it’s purest form. The man behind the music, Architect, follows suite, as his crisp drum loops, and pristine samples show very little evidence of “contemporary” influence. The contentious “Love And Hate”, reiterates Encore’s traditionalist convictions, as he paints an affectionate/condemning mural of hip-hop with equal fervor; “Hip-hop’s my life/ no time for socializing/ I’m out here trying too keep the culture rising/ but every now and then you cat’s want too plant spores/ becoming cancer’s for everything I stand for.” With “.084″ Encore reveals how an arrest for DUI compelled him to reevaluate his lifestyle, and in turn lead him to embrace the Islamic faith. But while this enlightened emcee underscores his verses with those enlightened beliefs, he has not lost his taste for a wack emcees blood, evident by “Sporadic”, the Joey Chavez blessed “It’s Goin’ Down”, and the high-tech “Situation” featuring the Hiero crew’s slept on Pep Love.

While Encore’s debut contains virtually no filler material, his guests, and production occasionally suffocates his breathtaking delivery. Also, Encore has yet to find the delicate balance between underground and commercial, and what Self Preservation lacks is one track that that will garnish him any exposure outside of the backpacking element. Yet, even though Encore’s intentions are admirable, he should not prematurely pigeonhole himself into a strictly “underground” role, as he is just too talented not to be heard.

Encore’s debut proves that he is one of the most polished emcees to emerge from the flourishing Bay area hip-hop scene (along with Planet Asia). What is also proves is that a few alterations are needed before he ultimately realizes his vast potential. I for one cant wait for Encore’s encore (pun intended).