Newsflash of the day: Van Hunt is an interesting cat. You’d get the first indication of that as soon as you hear the Dayton, Ohio, native blow. He’s one part Curtis Mayfield and another part D’Angelo, working ever so marvelously over a Mozart concerto. It’s all quite bugged out, but truthfully, many of those who took the time to actually listen to his self-titled debut in ’04 or the follow-up On The Jungle Floor two years later, dug what they heard. In fact, Hunt won a "Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group" Grammy in ’06 for the Sly Stone cover “Family Affair,” with John Legend and Joss Stone.

Another clear indication of Van’s individuality is in his content. Though he whispers sweet nothings in ladies’ ears like everyone else in the game, Hunt, 31, has little problem surrounding those swooning moments with more serious cuts about doing the right things in life and being your own person. The latter topic is addressed in earnest on Van’s latest disc, Popular. Umm, unfortunately, if you have your ears set on hearing this project, you’re gonna have to do some serious digging on the internet.

The new album was scheduled for a January release, but because of a label spat with Blue Note Records in December and his subsequent release from the imprint, there’s no telling when the Funk-filled jam will see the light of day. When we talked to Van in the spring about how everything played out, he was neither bitter nor beaten down. On the contrary, he was busy writing, recording and shopping with manager Randy Jackson –yeah, that Randy Jackson!- for a new deal. Where’s the time for sulking?

HipHipDX: Tell me about your LA show the other night.
Van Hunt: It was probably the best in this series of three. I did this place called the Temple Bar. We’re actually taking from those three shows, and these shows in Atlanta, and making a DVD.

DX: Who came up with the DVD idea?
VH: That was me, me and Randy.

DX: Is the animated Randy Jackson we see on American Idol and Entertainment Tonight the same one you know?
VH: You know what? The Entertainment Tonight Randy Jackson is actually a part of who he is. Anybody that knows him can tell you that he’s fairly gregarious. He’s very outgoing. He’s a country boy from Baton Rouge. He knows how to treat people very hospitable. He always does what he says he’s going to do.

DX: Why don’t fans have an album to listen to right now?
VH: I think that EMI, the umbrella label that Blue Note sits underneath, [had] so many problems right now that the pressure has [come] from the top down to the subsidiary labels like Blue Note. They’re just not able to spend money freely. When bunches get tight and politics come into play [there will be problems]. And my sound was at odds with the label’s pedigree. That added to the fact that they didn’t think that they had enough money to really propel my project to where it needed to be. They would consider my project to be a lil’ more pop than what their artists normally sound like. It would take a lil’ more money to promote me as opposed to their regular artists. They didn’t wanna spend it.

DX: There weren’t any worries about the relationship going into it?
VH: Certainly, on my part, there were. But they were able to persuade any of my doubts by telling me that they liked the album. They said that they didn’t actually have any comment on the album. That worried me as well. They said they liked it and didn’t have any critique on it. They wanted strings on a song or something like that. Other than that, I received no critique, nothing critical on the album. I thought [Popular] is a lil’ different than what they’re used to selling, but I knew that my next record was perfect for them. I was like, “We’ll roll with this and we’ll come out with the next record.”

DX: I’m one of the fortunate few with Popular. Will anyone else be able to get this in the foreseeable future?
VH: No, I have no idea what’s going to happen with Popular. They own the master on that. They opted to not sell it to me at a price that I could afford. They’ve got it and I’m sure they’ll come out with it when they deem it necessary and profitable.

DX: To make the music that you do, one has to listen to a lot more than Prince and Sly Stone. What other things do you contribute to your sound?
VH: It is something that must be intrinsic. Because I had an opportunity to listen to one of my 12-year-old demos the other day. Some of the material sounded as if it could have been a part of this newest record. So, while my ability or courage to articulate and express myself have grown, my ideals have remained full and intransigent. Also, how can you go wrong with examples of freedom at work like Zdzistlaw Beksinski, Zora Neale Hurston and Johann Sebastian Bach?

DX: Have you already found another label home?
VH: I probably won’t be signing with another label in the traditional sense anymore. I do have records lined up. I have two records right now that are ready. It’s just a matter of talking to different distributors, labels, about maybe licensing these records. [There’s] also a book of short stories that I’ve finished. Randy’s working with that, too.

DX: I did hear about that. Where did that love come from?
VH: It all started when I was going through a tumultuous time a lil’ over a year ago. I just needed something to focus on. I started writing and I kept writing. I let one person read it and they liked it. I let another person read it and they liked it. It flowed into that and became a book. It could come out in the fall but it may be the top of 2009 if I put out these other records. I don’t want to flood the market. Continued on page 2 »