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Interview
by SashaS
18-9-2001
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| Adam.F |
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A Lesson in KAOS
Adam.F has attracted high praise, been called 'new Dr Dre' and scooped admiration from guests on this huge collaboration
Let's starts with few quotes: 1. "I think that (name) is one of the most blazin' upcoming producers out there on the hip hop side. He knows what he's doing. He's official. I think he has the potential to become a Dr Dre." 2. "When people hear this in a club it's gonna be like whoa, that s**t's bananas! It's like... it's over man!" 3. "What can you say about (name)? He's the bomb producer. 2001? It's over, believe it." These wisdoms come from 1. LL Cool J, 2. Redman, 3. Beenie Man; whom are they praising? Dr Dre, The Neptunes, P. Dildo, pardon - P. Diddy?
The cited hip-hop heavyweights are on about one guy, an Englishman named Adam.F who emerged in 1998 with hits 'Circles', 'Brand New Funk', 'Music In My Mind' and MOBO award winning debut album 'Colours'. Three years down the timeline Adam's come up with 'Adam.F Productions present KAOS - The Anti-acoustic Warfare', an album that is completely different to his debut. It is an American album, brimming with superstar collaborations: LL Cool J, Redman, MOP, Capone 'n' Noreaga, De La Soul, Beenie Man, Siamese, Pharaoh Monch, Carl Thomas and Guru.
"It all started with a handful of demos," Adam.F explains in the basement office of this studio complex behind London's Olympia, "that Def Jam liked and passed onto LL Cool J who asked me to produce 'Take It Off' that ended on his 'G.O.A.T.' LP. He obviously liked what I was doing and demanded the album's title track be re-recorded which meant the album's release was delayed three weeks."
The collaboration helped LL's maiden topping of the Billboard's album chart and Def Jam were so impressed with Adam that led to him working with Missy Elliot, Lady Luck and Mystical.
Defining the time
Aside all this work Adam was working on new tracks and one featured a 70-piece orchestra and a 60-strong choir singing the notorious emcee's name which Adam played for Redman after the rapper's gig in Los Angeles.
"He'd just come off stage, he had a towel round his head and he was smoking a blunt," Adam directs conversation from his management company's GM's leather-chair, "and he couldn't believe that this Englishman was playing him a track with people chanting his name. 'What the f**k they saying?' Redman kept on repeating together with 'How the f**k they know my name?! This s**t is crazy!'.
By the time the track was finished Redman knew he wanted it for a single on his new album 'Malpractice'.
For all its ambition the album's conception started without a masterplan or any real aim. Adam.F admits to listening to film scores just to be "able to get my ear away from the pop world, or anything that could pollute my hearing; my favourite was the 'Batman' OST, by Danny Elfman, because it was big, dramatic and dark. I looked at his album sleeves and saw which choir was used, which orchestra and at which studio it was recorded. We got the same people and after having translated some English lyrics into Latin, I recorded it."
"I thought it would be nice and mad if it then broke into a hip-hop beat. I got some guitarists to lay down a groove and then got the choir to sing 'Redman, Redman'.
Bet Eminem wouldn't have reacted the same way but he wasn't approached even. Adam admits to wanting to have him guest on the album but, "The problem is that artists like Eminem, Busta Rhymes and Jay-Z have so much money spent on them that their labels might request their names not to appear on my cover which would deafeat the point of doing it."
Defying the times
Pulling off such a grandiose project is a coup in itself with the whole creative 'Kaos' captured on a videotape - 90 hours filmed over 18 months of actual recordings that was completed a year ago but time had to be invested in getting all the clearances from other record labels/managements/artists - to be edited for a documentary. After all the compliments, has his ambition risen proportionally?
"I don't have any expectations, ever," Adam states firmly, "and always want to move forward. I could have repeated 'Colours' and probably have had ten-fold success but I didn't want to make another drum'n'bass album. All the praise, sales and Awards were greatly appreciated but I'd never let it go to my head."
"I make music from within, from my emotions and moods. And the way I see it, when you buy an artist's album, you buy into the last two or three years of that person's life, what they've been inspired by and how they want to express it."
To perform this live might prove nigh to impossible although Adam hopes to stage events in three American metropolises, then London, Paris and a German city. For live evaluation of music that is - something else.
"This s**is crazy! Adam.F be doing it! The 'KAOS' project is BIG!!" Rockwilder joins the chorus of appraisal. True, 'KAOS' is visionary stuff.
SashaS
18-9-2001
'Adam.F Present KOAS - The Anti Acoustic Warfare' is released 17 September by EMI:Chrysalis
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