She's still got a good voice, too.
Yeah, and at 71. . . She's a little comedian as well. She was completely. . . She was saying, "I hope I don't sound like a frog and I hope you aren't just saying that you like it."
(laughs)
I'm like, Yeah, I really like it. We'll make sure it sounds great when it's done.
That track actually stood out to me when i listened through the album the other day. It's kind of like a hip-hop and soul version of the hymn, "It Is Well."
Oh, yeah. Exactly, in a way. Hip-hop, soul and funk version. The way I put that one together there's a little twist. The funny thing is too, there's an interlude right before her where I caught her talking about how she'd never done anything like this and that she hopes we're happy with how it turns out, but she'd never sung a song like that before. I thought that was pretty crazy to hear as well as cool at the same time. Well, you've heard it.
Yeah.
So, I'm just trying to think. This is probably for those who haven't heard it. I think, bottom line, [the album] just covers a lot of things as well as the feel good times. The kind of song I did with "Dedicated" where I'm just giving shout outs to my friends and then there's other songs that are just hip-hop songs.
Yeah. It's good. And there's a lot of nice collaborations on there as well. How do you choose who to collaborate with?
Usually, I don't. . . Well, once I start working on something, when I get it, a lot of times it's people who are close within reach and I like what they do or I hear them on it. With some people it's like, man, it would be great for us to do a track together, so let's just do it and make it turn out right. I know what they can do. Collaborating with all the guys, which primarily were from Breakestra on "The Platypus Strut", that was just fun. But those dudes, it was like, these are guys that I have within my reach who are friends as well as great musicians that can fit the vision of what I want to get done.
Then Tita Lima was on the track "Adaptacao" which means "adaptation." She was here in the states from Brazil and I ended up meeting her - at least through cyberspace, through email (laughs) - and getting together with her through her label, Kajmere, to do a remix for one of her songs. I did that remix and in turn, I heard her music, heard her voice and thought that she had a great voice and that we should do something. So, I did that for her and then managed to get her on my record as I was working on it at the same time that I did that remix. It was cool to do that because I have a big affinity and love for Brazilian music. I like the styles and rhythms, the sounds and sambas, just the overall way that the music is created and the feel to it and movement. But again, that track has a hip-hop twist to it mixed in with live elements as well as her singing. So, it was cool to go that route and expand on the features, making it a little more international.