Over at Cuepoint, I had the honor of speaking with Mayer Hawthorne and Jake One about their new collaborative album for Stones Throw, Tuxedo, dropping this March. Read on, true believers…

A Formal Introduction To Tuxedo: Mayer Hawthorne and Jake One

Prie writes: “A gift to all my supporters to hold onto until my new album comes in March.” Produced by Jake One, from the new album Please Pray coming March 2015.

Tuxedo: “Happy Holidays from Tuxedo. Original by some guy named Paul McCartney.”

From Stones Throw: Mayer Hawthorne (Aquarius) and Jake One (Taurus) – they are descendants of the one- word moniker family of funk, where you will find groups such as Chic, Shalamar, Plush & Zapp.

The duo is excited to release the upcoming album on Stones Throw Records, which also marks Mayer’s return to the label since his debut release of A Strange Arrangement in 2009. Until then, stay classy.

Check the tracklist, cover art, and video below. The album is due March 3rd, 2015.

1. Lost Lover
2. R U Ready
3. Watch the Dance
4. So Good
5. Two Wrongs
6. Tuxedo Groove
7. I Got U
8. The Right Time
9. Roll Along
10. Get U Home
11. Do It
12. Number One

Brother Ali tells us:

“As we embark on the War And Peace Tour with my brother, Immortal Technique, I’m excited to release a new musical project. “Left In The Deck” is a collection of 10 raw, grimy recordings made in basements and hotel rooms around the world. This demo-tape style release was produced entirely by Jake One. It hasn’t been polished up for the market or cleaned for the radio. These songs were left in their original demo form and are intended only for my family of direct supporters. The beats are grimy and I feel like this is some of the best rhyming I’ve ever captured on tape. I want to release this directly to you.

- Brother Ali”

Tracklisting:

Side A
00:00 Dial Tone
02:38 Grandma and Them
06:34 Digital Age
09:02 Never Stoppin
12:59 Not a Day Goes By

Side B
15:16 Well Okay
17:20 Steerange
20:06 Phantom Of The Opera
22:47 Rapper Thing
26:45 Devil’s Arms

New music from Portugal. The Man, that is.

J. Cole and Wale team up for this non-album collaborative track with Jake One on the beat.

Double dose of new cuts from Wale, the first comes from MMG’s just announced Self Made 3, featuring the unlikely line-up of Wale, Rick Ross, and Lupe Fiasco, with Jake One on the track. The second is Rihanna’s remix of “Bad”.

Jake One spoke on the origins of this track in our recent exclusive interview. Meanwhile, Slim The Mobsta joins Kendrick and Scoe to thank the good doctor.

Jake One sits down with HipHopSite.Com to speak on his just released LP with Brother Ali, Mourning In America & Dreaming In Color, working with Dr. Dre on Detox, Freeway’s next album, working with MF Doom, and much more.

HipHopSite.Com: First off, what are you using to produce?

Jake One: Pretty much, the foundation of it is the ASR-10. Then I got a bunch of vintage keyboards and other gear, I used protools as well, but mostly the ASR-10.

HipHopSite.Com: I was kind of joking with you on Twitter about Detox, because there are a few tracks on Brother Ali’s Mourning In America, Dreaming In Color that kind of had that big, apocalyptic Dr. Dre sound, which got me thinking, “Damn, he had to have played these for Dre, like ‘yo, do you want this?’”

Jake One: (Laughs) The only one Dre actually really recorded to was “Only Life I Know”, but a lot of those beats were made just for Ali, so he didn’t actually hear them. He might have heard the beat for “Mourning In America”, but it was a different beat at first, so maybe the first variation of it. “Only Life I Know” is definitely something he cut vocals to, but I guess he thought he didn’t like it, so… (laughs).

HipHopSite.Com: What has that process been like, working with Dre on Detox?

Jake One: It’s been dope. He heard some of my beats, probably in like 2009. He cut some songs to a couple of the beats, and he basically offered me a song deal, so I became in-house. So I would just kind of send him ideas that I was working on, and we’d go from there. I was only in the studio with him one time, mostly just dong it from home, so I’d hear what they came up with if I ever made it down to LA. He’s one my heroes, so him liking what I do is enough for me.

HipHopSite.Com: So you ended up producing this track for Rick Ross’ album, “3 Kings”, with Dr. Dre and Jay-Z. It’s definitely one of the most talked about hip-hop songs of the year. Tell us about how that all came about.

Jake One: It’s funny because, I made the beat after hearing Drake and Just Blaze’s “Lord Knows”. I just wanted to make something with that vibe. Every once in a while I hear something like that I like – and it was kind of bugged out, because I had been sitting on that sample for a minute – so I ended up making the beat, and sent it down there. I think it was going to be for Kendrick first, but Kendrick decided not to use it. So Dre went to Miami to work with Ross and then I got a call that Ross was going to put Jay on it. I wasn’t even privy to all that shit, it just happened. It was pretty crazy, it just dropped, it’s big record. It’s ill to just go to places and just hear your shit playing all the time. It’s not something I’m used to. I went to New York and I was just hearing it everywhere. There’s a couple of songs I did for 50 maybe, but not like this.

HipHopSite.Com: So originally “3 Kings” almost went to Kendrick, and you recently collaborated with Kendrick on this track with “Scoe”, “Thank You”, which is a tribute to Dr. Dre. What’s the story behind that?

Jake One: It’s kind of funny, because I made the beat and didn’t even think of that angle, I didn’t have Dre in mind. So I sent it to Dr. Dre’s A&R, and he didn’t take it, but he put it to the side. So he manages Scoe, and they came up with the record. And then Kendrick got on there. It was done a while ago.

HipHopSite.Com: Did you have any work on Kendrick’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City?

Jake One: Nah, I didn’t do anything for his album. Before Section 80 came out, I gave him some beats to mess with, but we just never all the way connected. He was just running around after that, I don’t think I ever sent him any more beats after that. It’s funny because I probably listen to his shit more than anything, but I’m not sure I had the right shit for what he’s trying to do. I’m going to be anticipating the album just like everyone else. I definitely would like to work with him in the future though.

HipHopSite.Com: So back to Brother Ali, you guys definitely had a chemistry on Mourning In America, Dreaming In Color. He kind of has a style where he just gets on a beat and just rides it, but I felt you two were really in-sync on this album. What is your creative process with him like?

Jake One: I’ve known him for a long time, but we never worked together this much. I would send him beats, and he would come out to Seattle, and we would kind of cut like a demo version of something, and then we would decide on what we wanted to make sound tighter. We had 60 ideas like that, he just kept recorded. We just narrowed it down – there were some songs that I liked that didn’t even make the album – better than some of the ones on it.

The thing about working with him – and I’ve never worked with someone like that before – he is so concerned with what he is saying, that the music is secondary. And that is what is important to me, so we had a little tug-of-war on that kind of shit. I haven’t worked with anyone that works that hard at what they do. I was also one the first times that I made beats specifically for somebody, rather than making beats just to shop, or whatever. I didn’t want it to just be hard beats, because thats not his strength – he’s got different styles. Something like “Letter To My Countrymen”, I made specifically for him. Normally, I wouldn’t make a beat without a snare, but that’s just what it seemed like it needed to be. A lot of stuff like that. We took probably way too much time to put it together.

HipHopSite.Com: So you said you did like 60 tracks. Do you think we’ll see those tracks end up on other projects?

Jake One: I don’t know. He put out that mixtape last Valentine’s Day with some of it – and some of those beats were sold to other people, but there’s still a lot of ideas and songs that might get resurrected for something. I think he wanted to make a statement on this album, and I think he wants to ride it out pretty hard, so I’m not sure what the next thing is. Whatever the next move is, he needs to move on it faster this time. It’s amazing how much he sold his first week, given how much time there was since the last record.

HipHopSite.Com: So, are working on Freeway’s next record?

Jake One: Yeah, I think it’s being mixed in the next couple of days. I have like 8 tracks on there. He’s got some shit on there. Just Blaze is on it, Bink – pretty much what we want him to do.

HipHopSite.Com: One of our forum users, Freshman_Woes, asks “A few years ago, Jake One mentioned that he was working on an album with Vitamin D. Is that still in the works?”

Jake One: As with all things with Vitamin, we never finished. Some of those beats turned into other people’s songs. Like Freeway’s “She Makes Me Feel Alright” was for that. Also, we were just super-flagrant with what we were sampling, and he’s getting turned up on that shit, which makes me kind of scared to do it. We kind of had to go on the back-burner a little bit. A lot of it was taking real obvious shit.

HipHopSite.Com: Machiventa asks if there is a record with MF Doom still in the works?

Jake One: I’d love to, he’s just real elusive. Beyond elusive. He’s stuck over in the UK, I guess. He’s not even around America these days. I actually did a couple of joints with him, so we’ll see where those end up, but as far as a whole album, I can’t say.

HipHopSite.Com: Where do you expect those tracks to surface?

Jake One: I will probably use those for my album.

HipHopSite.Com: Tell us a little bit about that.

Jake One: Well, I’m maybe halfway done on that. Just waiting on people to send stuff back and that’s taking a long time. So I have so many other things that I am working on, so I can’t say when to expect that. The problem with me working on an album like that, is that I send someone a beat for my album, and then they want to end up using it for their project. And so then they are paying me, so how can I argue with that? So that’s happened a couple of times.

HipHopSite.Com: So who is on the album?

It’s the same cast of characters, and a couple of people you would not expect to be on my album at all. A little bit of everything. But like I said, I can’t even see the finish line. It was supposed to be out last year, but it just wasn’t coming together. I didn’t want to do another album with the same people, and I like a lot of these new rappers, and I want to have a lot of them on it, because that’s what I’ve been listening to. I’ve reached out to a ton of people that were excited to do it, we just didn’t do it. Part of that is being out in Seattle. I can’t just go down to the studio like, “let’s go to the studio tonight”, whereas if you are in NY or LA, people just fall through and you get shit done.

HipHopSite.Com: What else can we expect from you in the near future?

Jake One: There’s a couple of big ones, but I don’t want to jinx them quite yet. But I did a song for Game’s album that’s real dope, did something on Wiz’s new album, 50′s new album, Pusha T’s album. And I produced a lot of the new Mayer Hawthorne album, but that won’t be coming out for a minute.

HipHopSite.Com: Wrapping up, anything you want to add?

Jake One: I just appreciate all of the support on the Brother Ali album. Thanks for everyone who is supporting it.

Brother Ali’s album, ‘Mourning In America & Dreaming In Color’, produced by Jake One, is in stores now.

Single #3 From Fleeta Partee’s LIFEMUZIK EP, out on Itunes now. Sidenote, this has nothing to do with CT emcee, Apathy.

Scoe pays tribute to the good doctor on this homage produced by Jake One, featuring a bonus verse from Kendrick Lamar. We could see this being retooled as the last track for Detox.

Brother Ali might stir up Fox News with his new album cover for Mourning In America and Dreaming In Color. The album hits August 21, and is entirely produced by Jake One.

Directed by Dave Wilson.

Fatal Lucciauno’s sophomore album, Respect, will be released February 21st, but first, the Seattle emcee is excited to release his collaborative EP with distinguished producer and fellow Seattleite Jake One. Fatal and Jake are offering the EP, titled The Message, to fans free of charge.

For Fatal, The Message EP serves as his most personal work to date, showcasing a collection of stories that show listeners a deeper side of Fatal. “I poured my soul onto the songs,” explains Fatal. “The have-nots, the hustlers – we have real stories that transcend pain and beauty, and this music is a bridge to the new me.” In keeping with the personal nature of the EP, Fatal chose to keep features to a minimum. “If the person I had on the song wasn’t emotionally capable of reaching into their soul,” notes Fatal, “they aren’t on the EP.”

Jake One handles production for the EP, and the chemistry that the two developed while working on “Amazing (the lead single from Respect), is on full display throughout. “Working with Jake is the best; he don’t require shit, just that I be creative and honest in my music,” explains Fatal. “The Message couldn’t be illustrated without Jake One’s help.” And that message, says Fatal, is, “We are here – and we ain’t going nowhere.” But there’s more to the message than that, remarks Fatal, “and if you listen, you’ll hear it.”