Photo courtesy of Saga
Producer and emcee Saga has returned after a two-year break with not only one album, but two. Black Label Saga Volume 1 & 2 are releases created for boom bap enthusiasts. Throughout each volume Saga delivers an equal amount of freshness and grit on both the beats and the rhymes.
Black Label Saga Volume 1 & Volume 2 is produced by Cuth, DJ Skizz, Duke Westlake, Trox, and Saga himself. The albums feature appearances by Mac Montana, Iceburg Snub, Adonis, Noyz, and LeZeppo.
The Real Hip-Hop talked to Saga about putting spirituality in his music, his upcoming projects, and his new albums, Black Label Saga.
TRHH: Why’d you call the new albums Black Label Saga?
Saga: Because you have white label and then you have black label and Black Label as a brand references my personal taste. My personal collection that I’m now making public for a wider consumer. So, let’s say it’s just really particularly curated as a sound and as a brand.
TRHH: Why haven’t you released new music in the last two years?
Saga: Man, it’s been two years, huh? It doesn’t feel like two years. I don’t know, man, just life, kids, family. It’s not that I haven’t been working on things, I’ve been working on things, but it’s that final push of finally putting everything together and making it work instead of just throwing things out randomly. You could just throw things out, but what’s the point?
All these projects I have in the works right now, that’s been a buildup of the past two years. So, it’ll be busy for the next year. The rhythm is a little bit different for what I’m doing and the way I’m doing it, so my turnover is now a little bit quicker. It doesn’t feel like two years to me. I feel like I’ve been working on music and just haven’t dropped anything. Time flies, man.
TRHH: Why’d you decide to drop two volumes of Black Label Saga back to back?
Saga: I just kept making joints and they were working together. By the time I was done with this streak I was on of creativity and productivity I had 21 songs. The attention spans just don’t demand 21 songs. I wouldn’t listen to 21 songs on an EP. Or I’d listened to some of it and then I would wanna flick through some of it. I wouldn’t really sit and let it saturate in my ear and hear it. It would just be something fleeting, so I wanted to do something that people could kind of take their time and focus on.
So, let me release one, let it marinate for two weeks, give people the chance to listen to it, then release two. And the anticipation for releasing the second one is people are curious if the second one going to be as good as the first one. Which one do I like better? So, there’s that also. It’s another added level of curiosity for an audience. Which one is better? That’s why I did it.
TRHH: The albums have a spiritual vibe to them with songs like All Praises Due, Over Everything, and Born Alone Die Alone. Have you always been religious or spiritual and were you in a certain space that made you write these particular songs?
Saga: I’ve always been spiritual. I wouldn’t say religious — never religious. I didn’t grow up in a religious household. I’ve always been spiritual and I’ve always found it important to incorporate that into whatever’s happening. My albums are my own integration. It’s my own, it’s myself, I’m not putting on airs. No street tales or other people’s stories. It’s basically my opinion and my observations with the added spiritual take on it. So, there’s some kind of value, there’s some kind of my own personal value system, and then it’s got my perception of the world, how I feel about things.
Why would I talk about anything if it didn’t incorporate God involved? Why would I talk about finances or why would I talk about anything material? That’s always what I appeal to — my higher self, a higher source, it’s not just me. I don’t want to be ego based like that like the world revolves around me. I’m kind of an anti-atheist. Not that I’m against atheism, I’m just saying I’m anti-atheist within my own world.
TRHH: The Interludes throughout the albums give them a different feel. Why’d you decide to sprinkle thoughts in between the songs?
Saga: It’s always the argument do you put an interlude at the beginning, do you put it at the end? You don’t want people to be committed to an interlude, just let them be committed to the song and if they want the interlude they can listen, if they don’t, they don’t have to. I don’t want to force people to commit to an interlude. The interludes are like little lulls in the drama. it’s a little bit of space — gives you a minute to let things breathe. Some of them have the messages. The one talking about one of the biggest problems in society is father’s not picking up the slack and doing what they should. I mean there’s enough argument to go around both ways, whether it’s moms or dads, but for that point it was particularly fathering.
Even on “Have You Ever Had” the first song on Volume 1, the second verse is pretty directly about my father and my relationship with him. And how humans are still subject to the rules of the animal kingdom in a way. Even though we elevate ourselves above it, we’re still subject to it. So, I’m the young lion and my father’s the old lion, that’s why I say that in the song. The old lions’ winter is the young lions’ summer. It’s weird, man, it might not resonate with everybody but sometimes you feel like maybe your parent doesn’t want you to excel beyond their growth and development in the world. It’s sort of like “I’m here, you stay right here.” That’s a very personal verse on that second verse of the first song.
TRHH: I can’t imagine why a parent wouldn’t want their kid to do better than them. I’ve heard that a lot from people though.
Saga: A lot of times you hear it with mothers and daughters. More often than the other way around I think fathers with sons. I don’t think it’s really between mothers and sons and fathers and daughters. It’s usually the equals like the male and the male or female/female. I think it’s ego based, it’s shortcomings, it’s a fear of exposing of their inadequacies. We all have them, but to acknowledge them is to deal with them. Or even just lean into it, man — nobody’s perfect. I know for my kids I really want to see them excel way beyond anything I do.
TRHH: I like the bass on the song “No Shine.” Is that a sample or something you played?
Saga: That’s played.
TRHH: Played on a keyboard or on a bass guitar?
Saga: No, that’s a keyboard. Most of these basslines on this particular project are played as far as my production, I can’t really speak to the other production. I think a lot of the Cuth basslines are played. He plays those synthy basslines, so I think those are played too.
TRHH: On the song “Born Alone Die Alone” you have a line where you say “Some people choose to lose their life over losing their patience.” Explain that line.
Saga: Because people don’t know how to wait and just don’t have the patience to take their time with things they take unnecessary risks, they do things prematurely when they’re not supposed. I mean even losing your patience with somebody in the street, you start flapping your gums to the wrong person and it’s just like why? For what? There’s a pettiness to it. It’s sort of anti-spiritual to be petty in a way. Why be petty over things? We’ve always heard those stories growing up of people shooting people because they stepped on their sneaker or they look at them in the wrong way. It’s all based on discipline and patience. Patience with yourself — that’s another example — if you’re not patient with yourself you’re going to do things that you’re not qualified to do just yet.
I’ll give you just an example of anything like even kids who ride the subway roofs, that’s a dangerous thing. You’re not a stunt person. That stunt person wouldn’t even do something like that. We’re not qualified to do certain things and then here we are. I think for young people losing your patience is wanting to do things before you’re ready, before your time. We all have to pay dues, no matter what. In any discipline that we’re in, whether it’s a career-oriented discipline, arts, it could be anything physical like if you’re in combat sports or anything, you’ve paid dues. You just can’t be crowned king of the mountain from the jump. You have to get your ass kicked a little bit and there’s a lot of lessons in getting your ass kicked. You learned from that.
TRHH: You have some projects coming up after Black Label Saga. Talk a little about those.
Saga: I have a project called “Best Story Ever Told” with this kid Mac Montana. That’s an EP — that’s six songs all produced by me. And then I have another one with Iceburg Snub called “Regatta.” That’s kind of a summer anthem thing. That’s about 7 songs right now. Then after that I have this project called “Iron Age” with my man Noyz. A 15 song LP, I did all the production, and he and I flow back and forth on every song. And then I have my solo project, another 12 song LP it’s called “Neon Slum” and then after that I have an album called “Piranha Head” with producer Trucks. He’s from Portland originally, but I think he’s currently in L.A. Piranha Head will probably wind up coming out around early December.
TRHH: That’s a lot of work, man.
Saga: Yeah, the flow states are getting real dope. Just the way I’m able to produce, and write, and then record. I mean in all reality, if I didn’t have all the other things going on in my life I could really just sit down and make a whole entire song a day. From production, to writing, to recording. You do it for so long that you become really proficient. You know exactly what you’re doing. Once you find that right sound, that right sample, the drums are swinging right, then things just come.
You have to trust the skill level that you’ve developed up to this point, even if something doesn’t necessarily feel 100% like it’s cracking. Do it and listen to the next or listen to it two days later. Your ears hear things differently from one day to another, especially if you’ve been in the studio all day and you’re listening to the same thing over and over. Your brain is not even registering the parts. It just becomes like noise. So, give yourself some space with these things.
So, do them, just keep doing them, man, and then go revisit them like a week later and see. I’ve been surprised, man, I just did this one track, I made the beat probably like a year and a half/two years ago. It’s kind of like a weird interesting beat that didn’t have drums on it, but I was playing a synth bassline. It had these really eerie sounds and was very spacy sounding too. I remember finding the track and I was like “Damn, this is fire!” Me and Noyz were working on the Iron Age project, so, I presented it and said “Yo, check this out.”
I played it and he goes “Yo, we gotta do that,” so we did that and that joint came out fire! So, my point is, sometimes you gotta throw things in the stash and pull them out when the time is right. Sometimes the timing is not right for certain things and you have to have faith in that too. When it’s ready, it’s kind of ready. It’s never my thing to force myself. I gotta find the muse. I gotta find the flow state.
TRHH: Who is the Black Label Saga series made for?
Saga: I mean that’s really made for like the heads, man. The people who understand. When you listen to the project it probably hearkens a little bit back to really 90s boom baps. It’s not like “Wisdom Wears the Crown” where it’s a concept or “Guttersnipe.” If you like Pete Rock and you like Preemo you’ll like it. And then Cuth and Duke Westlake who did some of the production on there, they add a different element to the sound as well compared to my production. So, it’s boom bap-ish. That song “Born Alone Die Alone” do you understand where it comes from and why I made that? Do you know the sample?
TRHH: Nas, right?
Saga: Yeah, AZ and Nas. I flipped it. I will do that on a project. It’s sort of a nod to my favorites. That’s the AZ joint that Nas is on and I flipped it and then I took the “born alone die alone” that’s in the bridge in the end and I put that at the beginning of my song just to say like it’s not a bite move, this is a nod to a legend that always inspired me and I always loved that joint.
Purchase: Saga – Black Label Saga Vol. 1 & Black Label Saga Vol. 2