It finally looks like Big Boi’s much anticipated Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty is coming out. There has been a Listening Session, Big Boi’s on his twitter grind and a barrage of dope songs have been leaked/released. According to iTunes, I’ve played “Shine Blockas (f/ Gucci Mane)” 17 times in 2 days and “Fo Yo Sorrows” 39 times in 7 days. Though the album was supposed to be released well before Obama was elected, I ain’t mad at the wait. I understand that marketing Big Boi’s solo ventures in the shadow of a group as great as Outkast is no easy feat, especially with the group having such a yin/yang chemistry, and from the sounds of things so far we’ve got a well rounded album that deserves to be digested by many. With Gucci Mane’s strong buzz and radio presence (still amazed he made it onto a Mariah Carey record, but then again she put Ol’ Dirty on a single once), it seems like the latest leak will be enough for the label to pull the trigger.

I was fortunate enough to slip in a few questions to Big Boi at the end of a phone interview that my homie Morgan conducted for Montreal’s Mirror weekly paper (full article). Read on further to listen to Big Boi’s new songs and check out what he has to say about his musical experience, and working with legends, past, present and future:

1) Growing up in Georgia/the south, I’m sure you were exposed to many different styles of music: Soul/Funk/Bass/Booty/Rock… Who were your musical influences as a youth and who made you want to get in the booth and put it down?

I’ve been hearing music ever since I was a baby boy, man. My grandmother use to play records every weekend cleaning the house. She was a big time Bob Marley fan. Bob Marley is my all-time favorite. I got all the albums; I got damn near every song, the unreleased and some songs people don’t even know about. She would send us to the store to go buy 45s for the player. She listened to anything from Anita Baker, to the Police to U2, to Billy Ocean, and all types of soul music.

But what made me wanna get into music? Me, man, I’m a people person. I love to meet people and sharing information and being a man of God. My thing is all about positive vibrations, I don’t deal with negative energy. It does nothing, I never have. Music was always one of the things that made me happy. I guess that’s where the love started. But I actually started rhyming in like I guess 6th grade or whatever. Kool G Rap was the first. I also had a Fat Boys tape. As far as rap stuff, these are the guys I started listening to. Of course Run-DMC was my all-time favorite. I remember like it was yesterday. My dad came home from the service on break one time he had just bought a Camaro IROC. The first time I was in the car alone with him, he let me sit on his lap and he was singing “Rock Box.” It’s one of those memories you can never ever get out of your head. My father, God bless him, past away two years ago and that’s one of the fondest memories I ever have of him. I was like “OK, my dad is Superman.” That’s why the new album is an ode to him.

2) Solo and as part of Earthtone 3, you’ve produced a lot of music for many different artists. Do you have a favorite in-studio production experience and is there anyone that you currently want to get into the studio to do production for?

Every session to me is magical. You just gotta catch a vibe and put your ideas down. The best experiences are really when you get some stuff done. For a long time, it’s been a dream of mine to work with Sade. She’s always been one of the people I definitely wanna do a song with.

3) Your new single “For Your Sorrows” marks the second time that you’ve collaborated with George Clinton. How do you approach working with a living legend?

That’s Uncle George man, you know, the Granddaddy of the Funk. The originator of the whole spank, boom, you know. It all goes back to him and James Brown. We had already done the song “Synthesizer” on Aquemini. George has been a big fan and we’re big fans of his. I got “Fo Yo Sorrows” from Organized Noize. I wanted to get George on it so I called him, he was like “yup”, and I just gave it to him like two days later. We wanted to see if it was right so he put a whole bunch of stuff on there, you know, we did some Frankenstein stitching together and at the end, it sounded great.

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Released so far are “Royal Flush”, “Something’s Got To Give”, “Ringtone”, “Dubbz”, “Fo Yo Sorrows” and “Shine Blockas”; all are strong cuts. Below are the two latest. You can count on hearing them if you come to one of my shows. Support good music and grab that Sir Luscious Left Foot album when it drops. Big thanks to Big Boi for the time and the music!

Tonight we’re giving away a Limited Edition Skratch Bastid tee (see image below) and guest list spot over at the Skratch Bastid Facebook Fan Page. If you’re in Halifax, head over there for a chance to win. If you’re not, sign up to become a fan and you’ll have the best chance to win future contests. It’s a token of my appreciation for your support.

One of the biggest projects that I’ve ever been involved with was producing Buck 65’s 2007 LP Situation (Warner/Strange Famous). It started out as a mini side project that Buck and I were making for fun and turned into his next full length album. The entire album was created with sampled beats, and when it was decided it would come out on a major label, I had to recreate a lot of the music (with help from some great session players in Halifax) because we couldn’t afford to clear everything. The original version of “The Rebel” was one of the songs that I didn’t think needed to be cleared (I sampled a learn-how-to-play guitar record), but we recreated it anyway and it turned out to be one of my favorite songs on the album. That’s Charles Austin on the guitar and me on the keys.

Yesterday I stumbled upon a great fan-made video for the song over at Buck65.com. I’m a little late on discovering it, but this isn’t one of those you-had-to-see-it-when-kanye-said-that-thing-that-day type of videos. Great work by Ben Logsdon, an American artist/teacher living in Japan. The attention he paid to the instrumentation and lip-syncing is striking. Well done!

I’ve been talking about this for a while, and now it’s time to tell you some details!

Saturday, November 14th at Revival Bar in Toronto will be the first show in a series entitled SKRATCH BASTID PRESENTS. This will be a quarterly night based around mixing and matching musical styles and ideas while staying conscious of the party atmosphere. A collaborative DJ experience.

The first line-up features myself, Scratch (beatboxer from The Roots) and DJ Starting From Scratch. The DJs will be going on 4 turntables and Scratch will be live on the mic with his effects unit. Some of it will be mildly rehearsed, but for the most part it will be off-the-top and in response to the vibe of the room. Visuals will be provided by mixMotion, who will add an interactive visual aesthetic to the live performance.

Scratch and I met for a rehearsal last week and I taped some of it for this site. It was the first time we ever performed together and all I can say is this night is going to be STOOPID dope. Don’t be caught with a late pass. Here’s a taste:

Stay tuned for more goodies as the date approaches! I’ll tell you where you can grab tickets and all that good stuff. Sign up for the mailing list or check back soon, y’all…..

My good friends The Rub are re-kindling their great multi-DJ mix CD Series with the release of It’s The Mot#&rf@ck!ng Remix Vol. 3. My Wale f/ Lady Gaga “Chillin” Remix made the cut, along with many other awesome remixes from some of the hardest working DJs on the circuit. Check it out and share it with friends. Keep it coming, dudes!

Sidebar: I believe that’s symbol for British pounds, not an ‘F’, on the cover. Hi mom!