Excellent Interview with Haj by the one and only John Book.
No, not (just) one. I have always been amazed by the connection between musician and instrument. The way a musician can channel emotions through his instrument and transmit those emotions to a listener: I think it is one of the few true forms of magic that exists in our world. I want to be able to do that. Of course, the music I have released isn’t exactly along those lines (ha ha). But that is prolly what initially drew me to music. As far as the sample based music: I would say I am mostly inspired by Prince Paul, MF DOOM, Madlib, RZA… it would be a long list.
As with anything hip-hop related, it has to be asked: did you have aspirations to become a rapper?
(Laughter) Nah, I know my limits. Aside from a few drunken freestyle sessions… nah. Rappers do have all the fun though.
People might ask the guys in Tanya Morgan “who is Tanya?” In your case, what exactly is a “Dumhi”?
Depends on who you ask I guess. At its most simple form, Dumhi is a state of mind. Smoke and listen to (or better yet make) some music. I wanted to have everyone who was interested involved in my early projects. In fact 2005’s Vote Dumhi was initially going to be a compilation of various MC’s laying vocals on my beats. The first two MC’s who came over to record wound up staying all weekend and recording over nearly half of the project. Two more projects would also be put together with those same MC’s doing the bulk of the rhyming. So to many people, ShamelessPlug, MashComp, and myself are Dumhi. To me.. everyone who has ever contributed to a Dumhi project (from the creation to the enjoyment) is Dumhi.
I hope that doesn’t sound coy…
Read the rest of the interview here
Here’s some posts you’ve missed involving Haj and Dumhi.
