20 Questions with The Fixxers

Section: Talent

By: Greta Cabrera

Quik and AMG on the philosophies behind their rhythm-al-isms.

Quik and AMG are back in action: purveyors of Compton classics and legends of West Coast g-funk, the dynamic duo are finally joining for their first-ever collabo: The Fixxers' The Midnight Life, which features artists such as Yung Joc and Rick Ross, drops this summer.

Yeah, you know their pedigree. But do you know how they feel about life, love, and Prince's mansion? VIBE.com went in for 20 Questions with DJ Quik and AMG. And what we discovered... may surprise you.

When are you releasing your new album?
QUIK: As soon as this phone call ends, it's coming out.
AMG: As soon as we get off the phone... Nah, we lookin' for a summertime release. DJ QUIK: We've never done an album together before, so that would be the twist. This is more of a collaborative effort. In the past, it may have been a G-track and I rap over it or vice versa and he'd help with the hook and all that. We've never taken it all the way to that level of a team. Now we've grown. I extended my wish to do this years ago and we talked about it. But if you talk about it and don't put any energy behind it, then it doesn't get done. So it got delayed. I think it was more AMG asking me to pull it together and see if we could do it. It got me open.
AMG: We gonna bring some of hip-hop's finest out here, some of the new cats, we gonna grab some a couple of old cats. We got Yung Joc on board. We have a guy from Miami called Ricky Ross on board. Whoever we feel, really is gonna complete the concept of making this album work. We don't wanna do no collaborations with anyone just because.

Any new artists you wish you would have worked with or are hoping to work with in the future?
QUIK: Wish list? Yeah... Beyonce Knowles, Rhianna, Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson, Nelly Furtado, Prince. Prince is number one on my wish list. I'm gonna make that happen - mark my words. He invited me to this party on January 16th, 2006 so I got a chance to vibe with him.

What was his party like?
QUIK: It was one of the best parties I'd ever been to in my life. Over the top, avant-garde, I'm-a-superstar, eccentric, extraordinaire party. "$80,000 a month house mortgage, elevators in the house" type of party. Caviar wontons, six bars all open, beautiful women who all looked like Appallonia in Vanity at your beck and call.

How is it working with Interscope? You guys like it?
AMG: I've worked vicariously in the system through a lot of other people indirectly and I've always been amazed at how ahead of the curve they've been. Their artwork is always the best ever - no one can compete with it. Their sound was just instance with Dr. Dre at the driver's seat. You pretty much can't touch them. Jimmy Iovine is just a great person.
QUIK: Yeah, we love it.
AMG: The company we have, though, is Dirty West. It's gonna be like a joint venture situation.

Quik, why did you drop the DJ part?
QUIK: When I heard that they had a DJ academy, I felt like they sold the farm. They got a DJ academy where you can just go and learn to be a DJ. That sucks. That's not what it's about. It's about your initial spark that had you in your room with your own records and your own turntables, learning to do it from the ground level. Now you can go pay $300 to go spend six weeks in somebody's studio. They're getting over like a fat rat. They're pimping creativity and I just don't think that's fair. If Jam Master Jay would have had a DJ academy, I would understand it, but it's just a bunch of weirdoes trying to get some money. I think it's a bastardization.

Who came up with the name The Fixxers?
QUIK: AMG and [my manager] Greedy Greg did.

What does it mean?
AMG: It implies that we're gonna fix music.
QUIK: Say it! Don't be scared of it! We are. It's already working. We're fixing music out here. We're interchanging our LA people. Right now. Where it was all dry before, we're giving them a breath of fresh air that's homegrown.

What do you feel is wrong with music?
QUIK: Right now I think it's just away from the growth of music. It sounds like it's snatch and grab. Coming up with a catchy hook and an 808 beat and people keep doing the same thing over and over and over again. And that's OK.

Who do you think is doing that?
QUIK: The new uneducated cats that don't...
GC: You feel like they're just making a beat, saying some words and everybody loves it.
QUIK: No. That's not fair. That's their premiere situation. Nobody's really taking it seriously anymore...
AMG: Not when you can get your beats in a box.
QUIK: Yeah, it's microwave music. It's like Hot Pockets.
AMG: There ain't no thinkin' involved. A lot of these new guys don't got no new records, they don't know no records. The essence of hip-hop is to dig in the crates or dig in your CDs.

Who do you think isn't doing that?
AMG: Can't say.
QUIK: I'm not gonna pinpoint that. Everyone has a learning curve. Everyone has to learn the business and themselves. I'm not gonna say nothing like that. It ain't a diss. It's just the commercialization of what we did. When anything gets really big, it gets out of whack and you know… But then at the same time, they don't know the rules. The new NBA guys, they don't have the same rules, they don't play that same way them other dudes was playing. A lot of them dudes was all heart. They never made a million dollars. These niggas got 50, 60 million dollars and they just ballin… doin what they wanna do. That's what happens when things get big.

Do you guys think you're victims?
QUIK: We are. We're huge right now; we just gotta get the dough and pimp the world to get it. Honestly, I got plaques on my wall 'til days end, upwards of 75 millions records sold. But because of the way the business was back then, the dough I got from the business didn't reflect that.

How did you first get into music? First - first? Before you even started making it?
QUIK: Listening to all our favorites records, all the Motown stuff, all the Atlantic records, all the stax, even the independent stuff. Tommy Boy (?), Profile, you know, looking at these brands. We're brand kids. We wore Nikes and shit. We like brands. We like to see 12 inches on a rack, on these funny racks, on this little cushion board in this record store. And if we saw a good label like Jive, we bought that shit just because going off the strength that sometimes we didn't even have to hear it and know it was a good records because back then people were doing real music.
AMG: Def Jam.
QUIK: Yeah. How could I forget Def Jam? LL, sorry about that!

When you guys were creating music, what was your inspiration?
QUIK: Girls… [laughs] We wanted girls to shake their booties. No, I get my inspiration from the tempo. G got me on the tempo thing. He was like, rock the tempo again. I would come up with some ideas and he would slap my hands on the damn machine like -
AMG: That ain't what they want!
QUIK: 'Cut that shit out.' I got more into the tempo of it and I'm diggin' it.

What do you say to people who think your lyrics are offensive?
QUIK: Fuck 'em. Turn the CD off. Put in another CD. Put in your gospel records.
AMG: You know... Change the channel, man. It's not a big thing. We all got choices. You got choices to listen to anything and do anything you wanna do.

What's the best part about making your music?
QUIK: Girls. [laughs] Creativity. Freedom of speech.

Do you think there's anything negative to it?
QUIK: Everything. Sometimes we got people around that you don't want around. It's negatives to everything.

What do you feel is your biggest accomplishment?
AMG: Being part of hip-hop history.

Is there anything you wish you would have done differently?
AMG: I think everybody does. As far as I can say, I think I'm pretty cool right now. I learned a lot, know a lot, and got a lot to do.
QUIK: Me personally, I think I should have been a little less selfish. I should have been more selfless.

More giving?
QUIK: Well, no, I was giving too much. I'm a philanthropist. So I gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stuff. Cash and prizes... I was like a game show. Open checkbook. But as far as being creative, I thought that because I had some money, that my ideas were golden. I probably stroked my dude's fur backwards or got under his skin and made ways hard for myself. When I really needed everybody I was rockin' the boat.

Do you have advice for aspiring artists out there?
QUIK: What they shouldn't do is take themselves too seriously. Don't buy beats out of a box. If you want to set your own goals, then research the records. Three records mandatory to listen to, even if they don't like the music: In rock and roll, they should probably listen to a Beatles record, any one of them. In R&B, they should listen to Parliament, Aretha Franklin, a little soul music, some Curtis Mayfield or whatever. For hip-hop, they should mandatory listen to a PE record, an NWA record, they should listen to an early Quik record, a G record, they should listen to Ice Cube's solo first record, America's Most Wanted, and Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt. They should listen to real records if they wanna do this.

Do you have anything else to say to your fans?
AMG: Thanks a million.