Photo courtesy of HiPNOTT Records
Emcee Von Pea and production duo The Other Guys (Mighty Joe and Isaiah) are back with their fourth joint project titled, “Putcha Weight On It.” The album’s title is an ode to a 1990 Big Daddy Kane album cut (Put Your Weight On It). Clocking in at just over thirty minutes, Von and The Other Guys take you on a rapid, yet ruminative Hip-Hop voyage that’s sure to please Generation X rap fans.
Putcha Weight On It is an 11-track album produced entirely by The Other Guys. The project comes to us courtesy of HiPNOTT Records and features appearances by Skyzoo, Donwill, Oddisee and Che Noir.
Von Pea and The Other Guys talked to The Real Hip-Hop about the creative chemistry among the three men, paying homage to the late, great MF DOOM, and their new album, Putcha Weight On It.
TRHH: Why’d you call the new album Putcha Weight On It?
Von Pea: For me just growing up a Big Daddy Kane fan that was like the first superhero to me. The first rap superhero was Kane being from Brooklyn. We initially started this in 2021, the pandemic we was coming out of, not even coming out of it, sometimes I feel like we still in it, low key. But trying to come out of the pandemic and the world was different and I don’t know, for whatever reason I just was like, “Hey, man, you gotta put your weight on it.” Just keep going and put your all into it.
That’s what it meant to me — it’s time to buckle down, put your all into it, get serious, and go hard at this thing. “Putcha Weight On It” just summed it up for me. What’s funny is Kane being a big fan of Rudy Ray Moore I got to admit, I didn’t realize “put your weight on it” came from Rudy Ray Moore until we finished mixing the album. The album was mastered and that was the first time I heard the Dolemite “Put Your Weight On It” joint. I was like,” Damn, we could have put this on the album,” [laughs]. That’s where it comes from though, for me it’s just like going all in.
TRHH: You guys have worked together on a few projects; how is this album different from an album like The Fiasco?
Mighty Joe: Well, sonically The Fiasco is a little darker, to me at least. We were kind of chasing a sound with The Fiasco. I think that this album is more of a mixture of The Fiasco and “To: You” together. With The Fiasco we were kind of chasing 95-96 Mobb Deep sound to give an example. With this one we kind of went back into our backpack bag and still did the similar vibes as The Fiasco. Also, I’ve had a couple fans even say that parts of this album sound like it could have been on a City for Sale as well, in particular one track “Bway and Myrtle.” That definitely I feel like could have been on City for Sale.
Von Pea: I remember when we was doing The Fiasco I kept asking for slower beats. I think one of the records we even slowed it down. Like after it was done, vocals and everything, we slowed it down.
Mighty Joe: Yeah, because prior to that we had been doing everything like super Native Tongue like 90-92-93 BPM’s. We probably went as low as the low 80s in the BPM’s, shoot, maybe even 76.
Isaiah: Definitely.
Mighty Joe: We learned a lot on that album. It was probably the first time we had done that.
Isaiah: Yeah, I definitely piggyback off Joe saying The Fiasco was darker. It was darker. I think a lot of times you’re just in a different space creatively, and so I think this is the evolution of all the projects previous.
TRHH: How would you describe the chemistry between Von Pea and The Other Guys?
Mighty Joe: [Laughs] Von Pea is how we got our sound. I’ll never forget we had gotten him and Don to do a feature and did a video for us.
Von Pea: On the ferry.
Mighty Joe: Yeah! I had already talked to him about doing a full album. Like I said, at this time we hadn’t worked with anybody of note. So, I asked him about doing a full project and he was like, “I’ll think about it,” which is smart instead of just saying “yes” which is something I had to learn later.
Von Pea: [Laughs].
Mighty Joe: We sent him one beat and it was “In Your Heart” and I think that’s what kind of sealed the deal.
Von Pea: Yeah, definitely.
Mighty Joe: Honestly, that is what kind of started the chemistry. We’ve done four albums with Von, so Von is like an unofficial third member. Anything I’m working with or anybody else we’re working with he hears the projects months in advance, maybe even years in advance depending on how long it is. So, Von is the chemistry. He’s a big part of the DNA of The Other Guys.
Isaiah: We’ve worked with a lot of different people and Joe and I always say he’s easily the easiest person to work with. Everything just meshes well and when he leans in creatively it helps us lean in creatively. It’s just like this good combination that’s just always worked from the beginning. It’s interesting because To: You was such a while ago that it feels like we can just mesh well sonically with his vocals.
TRHH: The single “Putcha Weight On It” dropped two years ago without Skyzoo on it. Why did it take two years for the album to drop?
Von Pea: A lot of life lifing. Family stuff, illnesses, deaths in the family, just life, man.
Mighty Joe: It was a lot going on I think on everybody’s end. Because I handle most of the business on the label my father passed last year and so that wiped a good six months out. I was done with anything music related for about six months. And then prior to that the Mind of a Saint run kind of set us all back — The Other Guys. And we were still working and developing the album as well.
That’s another reason why I like this album because this album took the longest and just like my partner Isaiah was saying, different sounds happen at during different times. We started this album in 2021, so sonically I was somewhere else than where he was maybe in 2023, or a couple of tracks that we even completed this year. So, I believe it actually worked out that we went ahead and delayed the album.
TRHH: OK, man, that got me emotional bro. I’m sorry. I lost my dad in 2009. It does not get easier, man.
Mighty Joe: What was unique about the situation with my dad is he wasn’t that old. He got early onset dementia. He was only like 62 years old when he died. He was actually a Tanya Morgan fan, which was crazy. I remember one time he didn’t even know I was listening to them years ago and he was like, “Have you heard of this group called Tanya Morgan?” I’m like, “Come on, dad!”
Von Pea: [Laughs].
Mighty Joe: He was a big Hip-Hop fan.
Isaiah: Yeah, big Hip-Hop fan.
Mighty Joe: To do Hip-Hop, run a Hip-Hop label, and the person that introduced you to Hip-Hop dying is a very unique situation. I couldn’t even touch a machine for a while.
Von Pea: When Joe was telling me his dad had passed that’s when I first found out my dad had got cancer. So, it’s like we said, just a lot going on. My pops is from Barbados and actually he’s there right now and it’s still going through a lot because it’s like, damn, what if this is like the last visit to Barbados for him? Life lifing, man. Life lifing. Sorry to get all..
TRHH: Nah, I asked the question. It’s all good.
Von Pea: My wife had to have heart surgery, so I was taking care of her for a couple months. I took a couple months off and was just doing that and wasn’t doing any music. Also, on a lighter side I went and updated my equipment and the shit wasn’t working right, so that threw me off for a couple months, too [laughs]. Trying to become Bob Power overnight.
Mighty Joe: And you moved. You moved a couple of times.
Von Pea: Yeah, it’s been a lot. I did move. I recorded some of this in the old apartment and then we had moved again. All to say we’ve been touching the album up over years, too. I think it worked out. The time that we’ve worked with each other we’re just able to get straight to the point like, “Actually, that hooked don’t work,” or “that verse don’t work,” or “I don’t like that beat.” For example, the Oddisee record I had like a more playful chorus and they had hit me up like, “Yo, man, Oddisee from the area. We got to take this serious. This weird chorus you got, do a real chorus.”
Isaiah: [Laughs].
Von Pea: Just stuff like that. So, the album kept getting better and better.
Mighty Joe: What’s funny is we did a record with Che Noir and it was probably the biggest record on there with 38 Spesh, that was originally a Von Pea beat.
Von Pea: It was “Lights On.” The Lights On we have now fits who I am way better because “Smooth Jazz” is more of like a hard record. That would have made more sense on The Fiasco probably, but the version of Lights On we have sounds more like some Von Pea shit, basically.
Mighty Joe: And I love both records, so it worked out.
Isaiah: Absolutely.
TRHH: So, when I think of producer duos obviously I think of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis or The Neptunes; what is The Other Guys’ dynamic? How do you work together creatively?
Isaiah: [Laughs] I’ll say this, I think the cliché thing to say is always. So, sometimes I’m literally just finding sounds to send Joe. I’ll have a collection of stuff and just send him sounds and samples — all kinds of stuff like that. And then sometimes maybe I’ll straight up sketch something and then ask him, “How do you think this works?” Or sometimes he’ll send me something and be like, “Yo, how do you think this works?”
I would say this, working as long as Joe and I have worked together I’ve learned a lot about the collaborative process — more than I’ve done anything else, even in life. I tell people, one of the things that I realized working with Joe and how we work is I never say no if I don’t have another option. I take that to life with me everywhere. So, the idea is, “Hey, do you want to do this?” and if I don’t have an actual substitution we’re doing it — that’s it.
Von Pea: That is how Tanya Morgan works, too.
Isaiah: Yeah, I don’t say no for the sake of no and Joe doesn’t either. I think that’s how we’re able to work in tandem and create a lot of times.
TRHH: What’s in your production work station?
Mighty Joe: The MPC is the center of both of our workstations. We actually use a lot of software as well, but that’s what I learned on. Isaiah didn’t really go into our dynamic, but we’re cousins and he actually taught me how to make beats.
Isaiah: [Laughs] He already knew how.
Mighty Joe: I knew how to turn it on and put sounds on it. That’s what we learned with and so now we kind of merge technology. We use the MPC, use a lot of VST’s, plugins, etcetera. And live instrumentation. I play the bass, I’m a decent keyboard player, and that’s pretty much our set up.
TRHH: Is it the 2000XL? Is it the 3000? Which MPC?
Mighty Joe: So, I started out on a 1000, he has a 2000 Classic now. Because I use so many VST’s now I switched to the MPC Renaissance back in 2013, we both did. We’re currently rocking the MPC One.
Isaiah: We even used ASR’s at one. Joe still has the ASR-10.
Mighty Joe: I still got a ASR.
Von Pea: I tried to steal it.
Mighty Joe: [Laughs] Yeah, we of run a lot of sounds through that because I love the analog sound. Even though we do use VST’s and stuff like that, the drums still gotta knock, it’s still got to have a hiss, I still love that sizzle.
TRHH: “Root For the Villain” is a song where you pay homage to DOOM and use his flow. What inspired you to give props to DOOM on this track?
Von Pea: Just how I opened it, I heard it last day of mast year which was 2020 and it just hit me hard. I’m a DOOM fan for sure, but I’m not like in the DOOM hives necessarily. But you know there are people that are fans and there are people that know everything, every song, blah blah blah. I’m not hive. First of all, I was terrified for this song to come out because I’m like, “Man, they’re going to hunt me down if this don’t come out right.” The DOOM super heads are going to hunt me down if I mess this up.
It just was knowing from a kid like one of my favorite songs was “Peachfuzz” from KMD. I was looking at one of the many De La Soul interviews and Pos was like, he was a fan of DOOM and didn’t even know it was a Zev Love X. I don’t even remember how I knew that, but I just knew right off the top that DOOM is my man from KMD. Even back to the Black Bastards album I just followed the story and knew that Subroc passed away, and that was his brother, and he disappeared and then came back with this whole new style. His story as a man was inspiring to me.
I just remember opening Instagram that day and seeing the photo of him in the backyard with the Knicks jersey and an announcement that he passed away. It just hit me hard. Other people were doing tributes, tribute freestyles and stuff, and I had one of the tracks that they sent me and I just wrote to it and left it alone. I was like, “I’ma record this, but I’m not going to put it out.” I recorded it and then I was like, “Man, I’m gonna send it and just see what they think.” They were fucking with it. They were like, “This is good, I like it.” At one point in one iteration of the album it was a hidden track because I was like, “Man, I just hope this comes across as respect and not trying to do whatever.”
It really was just being a fan, but also just his story as a man and coming back. A lot of times just like this whole music industry goes where you think you’re on to something and get knocked down. Even the story of this album, life starts lifing and you get knocked down for a second and you come back stronger than ever. That’s how I look at DOOM, honestly. Yeah, I was a fan of him as a man, just the perseverance, and of course him as an artist. I couldn’t do this impression without being a fan and studying even the way he pronounces things, the way he takes the breaths, and just trying to say words the way he does.
Mighty Joe: The way he did the mic, everything,
Von Pea: This was like an ode to DOOM just out of respect for him as an artist and even more as a man.
Isaiah: I think I can rightfully say we all really do like DOOM and are inspired by his creativity. It’s kind of funny because behind me I got a DOOM mask that my wife got me for last Christmas. Joe had actually put me on to DOOM. It’s funny, what I’ll say about DOOM, to me, from my perspective DOOM was like an NBA player where everybody will agree somebody like Jordan or somebody like LeBron or whatever could be the best player, but he’s not your favorite player. DOOM is your favorite player. DOOM is the guy that’s just like, “Oh, he’s on? He’s playing right now? Alright, let me check this out. Let me see what he’s going to do, he’s going to do something awesome!” That is DOOM. It’s always cool to do something that kind of supports that level of creativity that that kind of artist had.
TRHH: Joe, you said his mic?
Mighty Joe: Just the way that Von recorded it. I think I read a few interviews, at least early on that when DOOM was recording he wasn’t using a condenser mic, he was recording with a handheld mic. So, when Von sent me the first draft it had already sounded rough. I knew what he was doing. I knew where he was headed with it. Funny enough, he said that he was terrified of people hearing it and perceiving it the wrong way, me being an audiophile I was terrified that people who didn’t understand it would think that we messed up the mix or something like that. But I’m glad that people got it.
Von Pea: Word up.
TRHH: Well, for me even if it didn’t have the vocal thing at the beginning I would have got it. Just by the way he was rapping. It sounded like DOOM to me.
Von Pea: Nice. I will say a friend of ours, Don, one of our homeboys had hit me up. He’s like respectfully a huge music snob and he was like, “Yo, this is the best DOOM tribute I’ve heard, ever.” For him to say that is a big deal.
TRHH: There are a couple songs like “Lights On” and “Love Over Like” that have singing vocals throughout the verse. Take me into the production of those songs and why you used singing throughout the song?
Mighty Joe: If you’re familiar with To: You probably the biggest single on To: You was “In my Heart.” Love Over Like was supposed to be basically the part 2 of that. When we first started I was a huge Kanye fan and at that time he was using a lot of vocal hooks, so that’s basically what we were doing. That was actually our style. We were using a bunch of vocal hooks because what we were doing we were getting a lot of features and things like that, and so instead of actually having to get the rapper to do a hook or what have you, we would already have the hook in place with the vocal hook. So, basically, it’s a tribute to To: You in a way with going back to vocal sample hooks.
TRHH: No, but this was throughout the verse, right?
Von Pea: Oh yeah, that’s just that RZA.
Mighty Joe: We’re huge into vocal samples in general. Like a lot of oohs and aahs, that’s pretty much our style.
Isaiah: Yeah, that’s one of those things I think Joe and I conversed before about. Learning that the vocals can be another instrument.
Mighty Joe: 100% and what’s funny is when I first started making beats I had bought a KORG drum machine, because I was living in Virginia Beach, home of The Neptunes, Pharrell, everything. I had bought a KORG beat machine and I knew nothing about making beats. I was like, “This stuff doesn’t sound like the stuff that I like! I want to use voices!” I literally had to get rid of that and get an MPC because that’s how much I love vocal samples.
Von Pea: Also, when I’m producing I use a lot of vocal chops and stuff too just coming from the school of RZA.
TRHH: Von, on the song “Knew it All” you say, “They acting like this is their territory, the homies in the southwest tell a different story/The homies on the reservations tell a different story, I tell it how it is, really shit, this is a calling.” You aren’t heavy into politics, but you always drop gems here and there. Why is it important to you to tell it how it is?
Von Pea: Just like you said, not being heavy into politics but you get forced. You can’t avoid the bullshit. On Thanksgiving I’m headed to my cousin’s house and I go past a house that has a flag that says “We Took America Back” and I’m like, “the fuck?” Motherfuckers really think this is they shit and I’m like, this was never your shit. This was the indigenous people’s land — Turtle Island out this bitch. I just be speaking from frustration.
It don’t even be from proper knowledge, intelligence of the shit. I just be like, “fuck you talking about?” pretty much. I just be speaking from frustration. When you hear me say something about anything political, socio-political, or whatever, it’s just coming from a real place. Like Kanye said back in the day, “I’m emotional, I’m social!” That’s where that comes from for me, just the whole “taking the country back.” Back from where?
TRHH: On the song “Road Block” you have a rhyme where you say “Since a prodigy I knew that there was havoc to wreak/At my actual peak, I’m trying to rap with Tariq.” That’s so fire! That is an ill play on words and a statement about where you are as an emcee. Why do you feel like this is your peak as an artist?
Von Pea: Thank you, thank you. For me when I was saying that I was saying I’m not at my actual peak. I was saying I’m trying to get to the point where I could rap with Black Thought. I feel like he keeps getting better and better. I’m 44 right now, maybe he’s in his 50s and I’m like, “Yo, if I can continue to get better that’s what I’m going for.” Can I be Malik B, rest in peace, you know what I’m saying? So, that’s just me saying I got further to go. I’m still improving, or trying to.
TRHH: Who is the Putcha Weight On It album made for?
Von Pea: That’s a good question. Somebody else is going to have to answer that one ‘cause I don’t even know [laughs].
Isaiah: It’s funny, the real answer I think, even though it is cliché, is Hip-Hop fans. I think fans of work we’ve previously done and Hip-Hop overall. It is a Hip-Hop album through and through. It’s not trying to be another genre of music or anything like that. It is a Hip-Hop album and if you like Hip-Hop and boom bap then it is for you. If you don’t like Hip-Hop and boom bap then still listen, but it might not be your cup of tea.
Von Pea: For real [laughs].
Mighty Joe: I agree.
Purchase: Von Pea & The Other Guys – Putcha Weight On It