If DJ Mustard has it his way, his brand of turn-up inducing production will command Hip Hop for the next 10 summers. It’s part of the reason why he named his album 10 Summers. During a recent listening session for his Roc Nation debut album, held during the Los Angeles stop during his headlining “Brisk Bodega Tour,” Mustard explained that the album needed to move at a club-like pace with several skits supporting the concept. Unfortunately, selecting the perfect interludes not only delayed its release, but stunted the underlying party, party, party vibe.
“I don’t want my albums to be skits all the way through,” Mustard explained. “I just thought I’d switch it up and that’s what slowed my album down really ‘cause I was thinking of it as a club aspect, so when you in the club you can’t just play a slow song right after a fast song. Something has to be in the middle of that to break it down, so that was like my translation to breaking everything down.”
That’s just one of the things HipHopDX learned during DJ Mustard’s 10 Summers listening session. Here are five more:
Sample Clearance Issues Kept Kendrick Lamar Off 10 Summers
DJ Mustard Says: “Yeah, it was a Kendrick hook but it just didn’t get cleared for some reason. I don’t know. The song just didn’t get cleared. I don’t know what happened, it just didn’t get cleared, though [laughs]. I don’t fuckin’ know.”
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10 Summers Originally Had A Radio Station Concept
DJ Mustard Says: “The album is supposed to be like a radio station. I felt when I had the skits in the middle of it, it kind of fucked up the flow. The first skit is a skit about a dude being in the car and every station that he changes is playing one of my records. So Tinashe—they end up changing the radio station, Tinashe’s on the radio and it’s a song that me and Tinashe did. And Tinashe is basically singing about—she tried to have a boyfriend and knew he was just doing whatever the fuck he wanted to do and just fuckin’ typical [laughs]. The song after that is called “4 Digits” and it features Eric Bellinger and Fabolous and you’ll get the whole thing once you hear it.”
DJ Mustard Wanted To Diffuse Bay Area Tension
DJ Mustard Says: “And then I did a song with [Iam]Su! and this dude named AKA Frank from the Bay. They always think that me and the Bay don’t get along because of the bullshit. So I wanted to do a song with somebody from the Bay. This song is called “Can’t Tell Me Shit.”
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“It’s just something to do for the Bay, man. There’s always controversy about do I get along with the people from the Bay. Me and [Iam]Su! got a cool relationship. I feel like it was time for us to do something, so we did it on my album.
“We worked on that song probably like three or four months ago. Probably a little longer than that.”
Ty Dolla $ign and Tinashe Are Featured On The Interludes
DJ Mustard Says: “The next skit is Ty [Dolla $ign]’s version and where Tinashe was talking about having side bitches, Ty’s talking about how it’s okay to have side bitches, typical. [Laughs] And then after that is a song which ends the album, it’s called “Deep” and it’s Rick Ross, Wiz Khalifa and TeeFlii.”
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Selecting Interludes Delayed 10 Summers
DJ Mustard Says: “I don’t want my albums to be skits all the way through. I just thought I’d switch it up and that’s what slowed my album down really ‘cause I was thinking of it as a club aspect so when you in the club you can’t just play a slow song right after a fast song. Something has to be in the middle of that to break it down so that was like my translation to breaking everything down.”
DJ Mustard Is On Lil Wayne’s Upcoming Project
DJ Mustard Says: “I went crazy. To have Wayne on anything that I’ve ever done, it was ridiculous. I sent it to Mack Maine and Mack Maine set it right back to me. I’m like, ‘Damn, that’s crazy.’ I did something for his album too, so [you] should be looking forward to that too.”
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Additional Reporting By Justin Hunte
Justin “The Company Man” Hunte is the Editor-in-Chief of HipHopDX. He was the host of The Company Man Show on PNCRadio.fm and has covered music, politics, and culture for numerous publications. He is currently based in Los Angeles, California. Follow him on Twitter@TheCompanyMan.
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