Photo courtesy of MAC Media
In the fall of 2013 producer Marco Polo returned with the sequel to his 2007 album, Port Authority, with “PA2: The Director’s Cut.” Released by Soulspazm Records, Polo described PA2 as “A culmination of thousands of hours of creative energy, manpower, crate-digging, knob-twisting, Newport-smoking and coffee-bingeing, to create an impeccable infrastructure of music that will resonate with Hip-Hop fans across the world.”
PA2: The Director’s Cut featured appearances by Talib Kweli, MC Eiht, Large Professor, Masta Ace, O.C., Rah Digga, Slaine, Styles P, Posdnous, Inspectah Deck, Ill Bill, Oh No, and Organized Konfusion among others.
Marco Polo spoke to The Real Hip-Hop about working with two of the all-time greats, Rakim and Big Daddy Kane, reuniting Organized Konfusion, and his album, Port Authority 2: The Director’s Cut.
TRHH: Was Newport Authority 2 just a collection of songs that had sample clearance issues?
Marco Polo: Some of them had sample issues. Some of them didn’t fit Port Authority 2. It was just extra material that I thought was dope that I wanted to put out.
TRHH: The last time we spoke you said you started incorporating virtual instruments. Is your approach still the same with just the MPC, records, and virtual instruments?
Marco Polo: Yeah. It really depends how I’m feeling. I have Native Instruments Komplete which is a sound library of tons of different sounds. Sometimes I’ll make beats just using those sounds instead of sampling records because I feel like those sounds sound like records [laughs]. If I feel up to putting the effort into composing something from scratch, because I feel like the method I’m using takes extra time, because I don’t like shit sounding clean. There are so many keyboards and string sounds and if the shit sounds cheesy to me I have to take extra steps to make it sound like something somebody would sample. I’m definitely incorporating new digital stuff and the sound libraries, but it’s also going to have the old school approach as well.
TRHH: A lot of producers are making sample-free music these days, probably for financial reasons. Can you ever see yourself taking that route?
Marco Polo: Yeah, but you would never know it was sample-free. That’s my goal. You already know it’s not good music when the first thing that jumps out to you is it sounds like somebody used a bunch of keyboards. There are actually a lot of producers out there making sample-free music and you don’t know. That’s what I strive for, to make some banging shit and you don’t know what the fuck the sample source is. I actually have. There are some joints on Port Authority 2 that are completely sample-free but you’re never gonna know and I’m proud of that shit.
TRHH: What was it like working with Rakim on ‘What’s Wrong’?
Marco Polo: I honestly wish I could tell you that we were in the studio together when that happened. He laid the vocals at his crib and sent me the song. We spoke a bunch of times, I went to Atlantic City where he was performing to finally meet him, but he did that at his own studio. I was introduced to him through Nick Wiz, so shouts to Nick Wiz.
TRHH: You also worked with another golden era legend, Big Daddy Kane, on Nite & Day, what was that collaboration like?
Marco Polo: It was the exact same thing because none of these cats live in New York. Masta Ace hooked me up with Kane. I got on the phone with Kane, sent him a beat, he knocked it out and sent it back to me. It’s not ideal. I’m the type of producer that hates that process. I like to be in the same room with people, other people don’t care. In certain situations, you take what you can and I don’t want to pass on working with Ra or Kane because I couldn’t get in the actual studio with them. I still think it worked out real dope.
TRHH: Has there been any discussions about working with them in the future?
Marco Polo: Yeah, Ra has some beats from me that he’s using for something. I haven’t spoken to him in a while, so I hope it doesn’t stop. I know Kane is promoting a brand-new project right now, but my door is always open to him. I actually feel like I owe him one. I would love to work with both of them, but definitely Rakim has picked beats from me to use for something, Kane, not yet.
TRHH: How’d the song ‘G.U.R.U.’ with Talib Kweli and DJ Premier come together?
Marco Polo: It started the actual day Guru passed away. The day he passed away I made that beat. That was on my mind and flowing through me energy wise and that beat manifested the day of his passing. I sent the beat to Kweli and I asked him, “Here’s the beat, all I ask is you do something with meaning to it.” Rappers will do songs talkin’, shit which I love, and then they’ll do conceptual stuff with meaning and is content heavy. I just wanted to specify to do a meaningful song over this beat because it meant something to me when I made it. He turned around and did a song about Guru and Gang Starr. I probably did tell him I made it when Guru passed and he probably ran with the whole thing. I didn’t even really ask him to do a song about Guru, I just said don’t do a song where you’re just rapping about nothing. That’s how that song came to be.
TRHH: Do you prefer rap that’s about something?
Marco Polo: No, I like it all. I’m all about shit talking. Listen to Double Barrel or The eXXecution album I did with Torae and Ruste it’s fucking sixty minutes of, “Fuck you, we’re the hardest, slap you around, and guns.” It’s just street shit and I love that, but you gotta have balance. For my producer albums that’s where I like to show my versatility. It’s not all one thing. I got hard shit, I got conceptual shit, I got love stories; I got a bit of everything. That beat meant something to me and you gotta tell people sometimes or else they’re not gonna know. Don’t just do a generic braggadocio battle rap song, do something with a concept and some meaning.
TRHH: On the new album you also reunite Organized Konfusion on 3-0 Clock. How’d you pull that off?
Marco Polo: Ha, well I’ve been working with Monch for a minute. I did a joint on the W.A.R. album and I’m three tracks deep on his new album, PTSD. He hooked that up. He hooked me up with Po. Pharoahe laid his verse, Po came through and laid his verse, and we just kept building. The next time Monch came through he did ad-libs and it just all came together. My boy Linx did the scratches and they showed up for me. It was a fucking dream come true, it’s Organized Konfusion. It sets off the album; the song is called 3-O-Clock. We just shot the video for it. Pharoahe made that happen.
TRHH: Tony Touch dropped an album and also Statik Selektah. Is there any friendly competition between you guys? Do you monitor what other producers are doing on their albums?
Marco Polo: I monitor what everybody is doing just ‘cause I’m a fan. I feel like you should make an attempt to stay connected to see what’s going on. It doesn’t affect my moves. As a producer, my goal is to crush everybody. I want to crush every other producer. That’s just friendly competition. It’s not in an angry way. You can ask Premier that, Statik Selektah, Alchemist, we wanna make shit to make other producers go, “Oh shit! I gotta go back to the lab.” That’s what we thrive on. Does it really affect me at the end of the day? Not in the least. I think we all have different approaches to making music.
TRHH: What makes Port Authority 2 different from the first one?
Marco Polo: For me, my production has grown so much since 2007. These are some of the best beats I’ve ever made. Sonically it sounds different, bigger, and fuller. Production is updated, bigger, and better. I think I got a whole fresh new array of artists on here and people that were on the first one. That will be for the people to decide. I got a lot of dope people on there. I got Organized Konfusion, Talib Kweli, Styles P, Alchemist & Oh No, Large Professor, Inspectah Deck, Tragedy Khadafi, Rah Digga, The Last Emperor, and Breezy Brewin from the Juggaknots. I didn’t do the same album again. I kept the same energy and spirit from the first one, but it’s a brand-new album.
Purchase Marco Polo’s Solo Discography:
- Canned Goods
- Port Authority
- The Stupendous Adventures of Marco Polo
- Newport Authority 2
- PA2: The Director’s Cut