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Interview: Peanut Butter Wolf

A chat with the founder of Stones Throw Records about signing Madlib, releasing J Dilla, and his documentary which streams Thu at Shelter
Last updated: 2015-11-09


Peanut Butter Wolf is the founder and A&R guy for Stones Throw Records, the legendary West Coast imprint that released, among many others, albums by J Dilla, Madlib and MF Doom.

PBW started Stones Throw after his collaborator MC Charizma was killed in 1996. The label was set up to release posthumous Charizma material but soon found a roster of underground hip hop artists, eventually signing Madlib and MF Doom, and releasing their joint 2004 album, Madvillainy. Later came J Dilla's Donuts, widely hailed as one of the best hip hop cuts in the past decade and one of the few albums to ever score a perfect 10/10 from Pitchfork (upon it's 2013 rerelease).



Dilla died of a rare blood disease soon after the release, but Stones Throw has lived on through the tragedy, going on to release albums by other masters of unnatural, offbeat hip hop and countless other genres, such as Dam-Funk, J Rocc, The Stepkids and Aloe Blacc (he who needs a dollar).

Stones Throw remains a label of enormous importance in hip hop, as well as many other scenes, largely because of the stewardship of Peanut Butter Wolf. He's here for a DJ set on Friday night at The Shelter with Quality Control (100rmb, surrport from HBD, Ceezy and Monk) and Thursday night he'll be at the Shelter from 9pm for a screening of a new documentary about the history of the label. That's called Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton: The History of Stones Throw Records. It's 30rmb to go in and see that, more here. But first, a little chat with Peanut Butter Wolf ahead of his trip.

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SmSh: So give us a very quick history of Stones Throw: who started it, where and to what purpose?

Peanut Butter Wolf: It was started in 1996 by myself in San Francisco to put out the music of Charizma (who was a rapper I made beats for until he was killed at the age of 20) and to put out music by other local rappers I was interested in at the time like Homeliss Derilex, Rasco and Encore. A couple years after starting it, I signed Madlib as a rapper/producer and from there, things continued to evolve and I moved to Los Angeles and started hiring people to work for me.

SmSh: You’ve found enormous success and respect since then, but you've always maintained a point of difference with the label. Would you say you’ve kept things “underground” or is that a meaningless word?

PBW: I think the word "underground" still means something to me. It doesn't mean how successful you are. There are underground artists like Wu Tang Clan who are hugely successful, yet never made a commercial pop song; so you can make underground music and still have millions of fans. Public Enemy proved that in the '90s, as well. Velvet Underground made a huge, lasting impact on pop culture for over 40 years so far thanks to just one album they recorded of alternative music.



SmSh: Tell me about your current roster of artists. Who’s the next release and what’s their story?

PBW: There's a lot of new artists. I'll always forget someone when answering this question, but Boardwalk is a group whose album just came out a few weeks ago and then there's Jonwayne, whose album came out this week and Vex Ruffin comes out in the next few weeks. And I can't forget about The Stepkids and Myron & E and Steve Arrington, who all came out earlier this year. And 7 Days of Funk (Dam and Snoop) comes out next month. Everyone has a different story so I won't get into that here.

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SmSh: How about the documentary, Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton. How did that come about and is it a play to bring you more attention, or just show people the differences in the way you work?

PBW: The film idea didn't come from me. It came from a couple of guys in France who met with me and also from a couple of guys in Los Angeles. I'm not quite sure of their motivation, but I'm glad it came out and yes, I like that it brings more attention to the label and more importantly, helps people understand why Stones Throw is what it is.



SmSh: What do you think of the state of hip hop in 2013. Is there much out there that you hear and instantly like? Do you think it’s headed in an interesting direction or swamped with money and bullshit?

PBW: I think hip hop made money from the first day it was released on record. "Rappers Delight" was the first rap record ever and was one of the biggest selling songs of that year. I bought it as a kid and everyone I knew did the same and memorized every lyric, even though the song was 15 minutes long. And there have been huge pop stars in rap ever since. Whether it was dancing rappers like Hammer and Vanilla Ice or gangsta rappers like Snoop and 2Pac and Biggie or braggadocio rappers like Jay Z and Eminem, rap has always made money and there's always been underground rap as well.

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SmSh: When you first heard The Unseen, or Donuts, did you know what you had on your hands, or did their reception take you by surprise?

PBW: With The Unseen, I knew it was the most awesome thing going on in rap at the time, but I didn't think that many people would appreciate it as much as I did and I was actually right. It took a long time for it to grow on people and, even then, it didn't make as much of an impact as I thought it should. The average person who claims to like hip hop doesn't know that record. It was never as popular as, say, Dr Octagon or The Gorillas at the time, but to me it was something truly special. Don't get me wrong, there are people out there with a Quasimoto tattoo, so the people who like it, really like it, but to this day, I'm surprised there's not more Lord Quas fans.



SmSh: With the re-issue of Donuts this year, how do you feel about the album all these years later? Is it pure pleasure, like it is to so many of its audience, or is it a bittersweet album for you, having known Dilla personally?

PBW: It's definitely bittersweet. He was very sick when he finished that album. When he first gave me the original demo for it, he was in my car (and so was Madlib) and we were all record shopping. I told him I loved it and wanted to release it as an instrumental album as is (because I think he originally made it as a beat tape to give to rappers), but when I asked if I could release it without rappers on it, he said in that case, he'd go back to the studio and work on it some more. From the time of our initial conversation and the time he turned in the final version, was about six months and in those six months, his health took a turn for the worst. He died a couple days after we released the record.

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SmSh: On that note, what have been the pivotal moments for the label, the times when everything changed with a single decision or release?

PBW: Pivotal moments were discovering and signing Madlib, moving to Los Angeles and hiring two guys to help me with the label, convincing Doom and Dilla to work with us, convincing rappers Mayer Hawthorne and Aloe Blacc to do albums for me where they sang and didn't rap, and getting to release Dam-Funk's debut album around 20 years after he started making music. From a personal standpoint, releasing music from every genre, whether or not the Stones Throw fanbase would like that. If I only released hip hop records, I'd regret it, personally.



SmSh: And what about the worst moments?

PBW: Worst moments are every time I sign something that I know is great and it doesn't sell units. I don't wanna mention names because I think every artist has a chance to sell units in the future, so why risk hurting their future? Of course losing Charizma and Dilla were horrible, but no need to talk too much about that.

SmSh: What are you expecting from China? You have any time to hang out here or you just touching down for the show?

PBW: Never been to China before, which is crazy to me because I've been to Japan like 10 times. I don't know what to expect really, although people I know who've been tell me I'm gonna love it. I hope I'll have time to hang. I haven't seen the itinerary yet.



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See him Thursday night at the Shelter, with this screening of the new Stones Throw documentary (30rmb, more here), or watch him DJ on Friday night at Quality Control (100rmb, more here).

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