Photo courtesy of Black Magic Noize
Rapper MADSHROOM MC and producer Wolftone collaborated on a new album that’s part horror and part Hip-Hop. Borrowing its title from the 80s horror film “An American Werewolf in London” an “An African Werewolf in Brooklyn” comes to us courtesy of Black Magic Noize.
An African Werewolf in Brooklyn is a 12-track album produced entirely by Wolftone. The project features guest appearances by Araless, Ceschi, AJ Suede, The Maya Experience, and Lost Minded Poet.
The Real Hip-Hop talked to MADSHROOM MC and Wolftone about how they came together, the world’s history of violence, and their new album, An African Werewolf in Brooklyn.
TRHH: Explain the title of the new album, An African Werewolf in Brooklyn.
MADSHROOM MC: It’s the collaboration between me and Wolftone. Me and Wolftone met in Seattle — I’m originally from the northwest. I got this pack of beats from Wolftone before I left and it turned into a concept album.
TRHH: You guys worked together previously?
MADSHROOM MC: No, this is our first time.
TRHH: What was the process like doing An African Werewolf in Brooklyn?
MADSHROOM MC: Got a lot of beats from Wolftone and then I would record over what I had from him and then send them back to him and then he’d remix the beat. If we kept the original beat he’d end up mixing and mastering it later on. We just did it all over the internet — sending songs back and forth.
TRHH: How is doing an album like this different from doing a Black Magic Noize album?
MADSHROOM MC: First of all, like it being a concept, it’s like a culmination of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and An American Werewolf in London. It is based off the transformation I’ve had since I’ve been living out here in New York, in Brooklyn. So, living through the experiences and then writing each song two or three times it was real personal — a lot more personal and intimate.
TRHH: You have a song called “Four Horsemen” that when listening to it only true wrestling fans would know you’re talking about Ric Flair. Why’d you decide to write a song about Ric?
MADSHROOM MC: [Laughs] Living out here in New York there’s been a lot of times where it’s like I’m alone and I’m going through it. I actually had a really bad back injury where I couldn’t lay down, I couldn’t bend down, touch my toes, I couldn’t stand up straight. I had to sleep in a chair with my feet propped up on the bed for weeks. It was wild. The concept of the album too, I was kind of going through my childhood memories and things that brought me to where I’m at.
I loved wrestling as a kid. I had started watching wrestling promo videos before work in the morning to get my day started and there was one of Ric Flair’s wildest outbursts and that video was just next level and it was amazing. I learned about he broke his back in a plane crash. So, just the way his flair was, and just how over the top his character is and his personality is, and then the whole both of us having the crazy back injury, it felt right.
TRHH: How did you injure your back?
MADSHROOM MC: So, I’m an art handler for work. I fell off the loading dock in this weird way. I slammed all of my weight onto my right knee and it just turned into a whole trickle-down effect. I kept walking on it and working and stuff. I was working two jobs at the time too, so between working both jobs and stuff and not actually resting, I ended up messing it up really bad.
TRHH: Did you require surgery?
MADSHROOM MC: I didn’t do surgery, but I was in physical therapy for six months. Physical therapy, getting massages, it was the whole nine.
Wolftone: That’s no joke.
TRHH: No, no, that is awful. It could have been worse though, right?
MADSHROOM MC: Yeah, it could have been way worse. I could have broke it [laughs].
Wolftone: I just hurt my back literally last weekend. I just tweaked it out and I had to call out of work. I couldn’t lay down, I couldn’t do shit, but I took arnica and it worked.
TRHH: Really?
Wolftone: Yeah.
MADSHROOM MC: I need to try arnica more — give that another shot.
Wolftone: Yeah, it actually worked. I was surprised.
TRHH: So, you’re not a current wrestling fan, right?
MADSHROOM MC: I’m not keeping up with current wrestling, unfortunately.
TRHH: Okay, so who were your top 5 favorites when you were a kid?
MADSHROOM MC: Oh, man, Rey Mysterio was one of my favorites, for sure. Goldberg, Ric Flair, Booker T and Sting or Undertaker.
TRHH: You’re young, man. Ric Flair is like two generations before those guys.
MADSHROOM MC: I had to watch his old videos and stuff and I saw the video of him running in with the baseball bat researching him and stuff. But yeah, that’s the era I’m from is all those guys.
TRHH: You’re like 90s, okay. Yeah Ric Flair was at his best in the 80s — that that’s my era. God, he was so good. You know what’s disappointing? Growing up and learning that most of these guys are racist [laughs]. It’s the most disappointing thing, man.
MADSHROOM MC: There was this one wrestler who pulls this black kid out of the crowd and told him if he bounces the basketball five times he’ll give him $100 or something. And then he kicks the ball from the kid. You’ve seen that video?
TRHH: Of course. That’s Ted Dibiase. That’s not what I’m talking about, that’s for TV, I’m talking about real life. Ric Flair is a racist in real life.
MADSHROOM MC: Ah, man. I was hoping he wasn’t. I was really crossing my fingers [laughs]. You’re breaking my heart.
TRHH: I’m sorry to drop that news on you.
Wolftone: I mean everybody knows about Hulk. That’s the culture, right?
TRHH: I think it’s just we’re talking about 70-year old white guys in the South. They’re probably gonna be that way. A lot of guys I grew up watching when I was a kid are just scumbags. I still think Ric Flair is the greatest of all-time and that song was very cool to me.
MADSHROOM MC: Were you were a wrestling fan at all Wolf?
Wolftone: Yeah. I was a 90s kid also, so I knew what was happening during that era. Gotta shout out Shawn Michaels of course and then Macho Man.
TRHH: Those are some of my favorite guys, man. Ric Flair is number 1 and Shawn Michaels is number 2 on my list. Both phenomenal. Have you ever seen their match that they had at WrestleMania 24?
MADSHROOM MC: I’m definitely going to YouTube it.
TRHH: It’s a masterpiece. It’s so good and the story going in was if Ric Flair lost he had to retire. He was 59 at the time [laughs]. But they told a good story and it was such a good match. I highly recommend that.
MADSHROOM MC: I re-watched Mankind and the Undertaker in their cage match.
TRHH: Hell in a Cell.
MADSHROOM MC: Yeah, I watched that not too long ago.
TRHH: Not a good match but brutal. Brutal stunts, man.
MADSHROOM MC: Brutal, yes. Insane.
TRHH: Unnecessary, but hey, we’re still talking about it and that was what, 26 years ago?
MADSHROOM MC: Something crazy like that.
TRHH: You have a song called “History of Violence” that speaks on mankind’s propensity for violence. You say “So as long as humans are on this planet and alive/There will always be a handful worthy of a genocide.” I agree with you, but that sure sounds bleak. Why is peace such an impossible idea?
MADSHROOM MC: The people who are about peace, and just want to be left alone, and build the community, and do their thing, I mean unfortunately the opposite is going to exist in my opinion. I’m one of those people I don’t gain anything from putting other people down. I don’t need to put somebody down to feel better about myself or feel I’m getting somewhere in life. But then there’s other people who are like that and those are the people who are running the world right now.
In that song too it’s like “our world leaders played chess with real life soldiers.” There’s so many people out here calling these shots on making these decisions on people’s lives, but those decisions don’t apply to them. They’re tucked away safe in bunkers. They’re not the ones getting shot at, but they’re the ones who are manufacturing these bombs, and manufacturing these drones, and seeing that they’re operating, and paying the wages of all the people that operate them, and things of that nature. And then you have me. I don’t wanna kill nobody [laughs]. I don’t know, I guess that’s my two cents on it.
Wolftone: I personally think that peace can be attained, but it would require an opting out of what currently is. And to attain that on a global scale is probably impossible. I’m more for localization and decentralization in general, and just a separation from the state as a whole. Because they have the monopoly on violence. The reason that they have power, or perceived power, is because we as the collective believe in authority. That there’s people to follow to do these things for us that we ourselves can actually do. But it would really require a lot of internal work to be able to do the community work. So, that’s where we’re at. We’re completely traumatized as humanity right and how do we heal and how do we get through everything that’s happening right now?
TRHH: That’s a giant reset. I can’t even imagine it. Wolf, on that song what I love about it is the vocal sample. Without snitching, what genre did you find that sample from?
Wolftone: World music, I guess, to put it ambiguously. I don’t really know what the genre would be, but definitely not western by any means. More Eastern European kind of influence. I really liked he bassline, actually, that’s the main thing. It just worked. That beat was actually a remix of the original song. There are several songs on the album that MADSHROOM had recorded over. Some beats I had already released in various ways on instrumental albums or whatever. He would just send me back the songs and I would just remix them. That’s how that one came together. The original beat I was trying to replicate, but just in my own way, I guess. That was a little bit more unique than the original. I was just trying to find something that would actually fit the subject matter in terms of the emotion, and I think we achieved that.
TRHH: The song “Revels Lo-Fi” was similar; was that someone singing or a sample?
Wolftone: Yeah, I mostly make sample-based beats these days. So, most of what you hear is going to be that. I wouldn’t say that particular one was the same genre as the other one, but it is interesting how the different vocal samples kind of work together like that. Those beats being in different parts of the album too, it kind of comes full circle on that sound a little bit, which is pretty cool. Didn’t plan for it to be that way or anything, but it’s really just the beats that SHROOM picked. That was one of the ones he picked.
TRHH: What’s in your production workstation?
Wolftone: I work with Ableton and I have a keyboard. I’ll just go digging for samples in any way that I can and I just flip it. I chop up the samples. I find my own drum breaks and chop my own drums. I do all that, so, everything you’re hearing isn’t just a loop all the time. Sometimes I really piece it all together.
TRHH: In slicer? What do you use to chop?
Wolftone: I’ve used the slicer for sure. Most recently I’ve been using Serato Sample. It’s been a really useful Plugin for me to just get it going right off the bat. just load my samples in and get to work.
TRHH: Yeah, it’s awesome. SHROOM, on the song “Sonnet of the Starving Artist” there is a line about people offering to pay you with exposure and you also speak about being paid very little at both of your jobs. It seems very frustrating. What keeps you going in the music industry? Why do you continue on?
MADSHROOM MC: The love, the passion. To be able to talk about the things that I got to talk about on this album and express myself the way I was able to was very cathartic, very spiritual. I’ve been a fan of Wolftone for years, so I’m glad we finally got to work together. And that’s something with my other friends too that make music, to keep collaborating with them. I love doing shows — I love performing. This feeling of completion that you get from it. That’s the other thing, too, I don’t want to be famous. I want more shows and I want people wearing my merch, sure, I want that. But I have no desire to not be able to go to the grocery store or something like that. I’m going to do it ‘till I die was what I was trying to say [laughs]. Regardless of what the future holds for me – it’s the love.
TRHH: Who is the An African Werewolf in Brooklyn album made for?
MADSHROOM MC: I love that question. I think it’s definitely for anybody into introspective music, northwest sound, paying homage to that classic, traditional Hip-Hop having something to say. People out there just trying to broaden their horizons with music, trying to hear new things, new sounds, trying new things, and thinking outside the box. So much music on the radio sounds the same. Mainstream media stuff is just the same recycled topics and things of that nature. That’s why I went out to make it so personal — part of it — tired of just hearing the same things all the time.
Any lover of horror — I love horror films and the genre as a whole, so, getting to play with that in a way it was a lot of fun as well. And trying to come with the sound that had a horror soundscape but wasn’t horrorcore music or me slashing people up and killing somebody every song. So, it was great, it was a great challenge, and it was a lot of fun. From my side, I don’t know how Wolftone feels about that.
Wolftone: I concur. It’s definitely touching more on like you said, the traditional Hip-Hop influence. That production is just one side of what I do. I definitely have more range than what you might hear on this project overall as a producer, but I think this project is cohesive from beginning to end. There’s a range of emotions throughout the project. There’s the sad songs, there’s the hype songs, you got everything in between. I think also the production helps to bring out MADSHROOMS full potential and it’s his first album in a few years, so it’s worth checking out.
Shout out to everyone in the northwest that’s always supported us and hopefully we can just lay the foundation for getting it out there more, because the northwest music scene does deserve shine as well. We just get neglected a lot in the overall landscape, so we’re here to just leave our mark and show what we’ve been doing, really.
Purchase: MADSHROOM MC & Wolftone in An African Werewolf in Brooklyn