There's not too many one-producer rap albums. There are lot of one-producer rock albums... and country albums.
We're very historically tried and true when it comes to our albums. We pick the best songs; we get rid of the songs we feel don't fit on the album, and we don't work on remixing or remastering albums.
First of all, I've been having a wonderful run of luck with cover albums, songs I didn't write. I had five pop cover albums and two Christmas albums, and they were all very successful.
I listen to all the top 20 songs, and top 20 albums, even the rap albums. But I don't like negative messages. If somebody is putting a lot of ego out there, I don't like it. When I make my records I want it to be sincere.
I'm heavily influenced by European and American cinema, but the further I get in my career, the more I find myself looking back East for inspiration.
I started running to different albums, and I was starting with the short albums and moving on to the longer albums. I was interested in how they built up, in tempo and intensity. it made me interested in albums again, too.
A lot of incredible rap albums over the past couple of decades have deserved Album of the Year. 'To Pimp a Butterfly' is an extension of those albums.
I find the fact that so few people buy albums to be strangely emancipating. There's absolutely no reason for 99% of musicians making albums to think about actually selling albums. So as a musician you can just make an album for the love of making albums.
I did albums for Cash Money. I didn't do singles - I did whole albums for Cash Money - and at the end of the day, I'm saying I wasn't paid for albums, so its like you're doing 10 songs, and somebody pays you for 1.
One of the first albums that I remember, rap albums I remember really listening to, was LL Cool J 'Mama Said Knock You Out.'
There is something about live albums that I enjoy so much more than studio albums from all of my favorite artists. When I am listening to them live, I get to connect so much more to their truth than in studio albums.
Truth is, you make albums, and some of those songs are hits, and some of the greatest hits albums have songs that weren't hits. You have a career, the reason why we're still around 10 years is that we do have successful songs.
The average rap life is two or three albums. You're lucky to get to your second album in rap!
When you make albums like I do, and it's based off fanfare and based off touring - I make these albums, and I get on the road. It's not really a radio-driven thing. I get on the road, and I see my fans, and I touch each and every last one of them.
When I listen to a band like Pink Floyd, I don't know the names of the individual songs, I know the full albums. That's what we want for our albums.
There are albums that I like because of specific songs, but then there are albums that I like as a complete body of work. 'Ghetto Fabolous' is an album I lived with daily.