Jadasea and Laron's collaborative album The Corner Vol. 1 joins the dots from Peckham to Brooklyn, featuring artists from both the London lyricist and NYC producer's hometowns, including John Glacier, MIKE, Sideshow, and Wiki. The Corner Vol. 1 is out today, Wednesday 8th February, and available to stream here.
What song reminds you of your childhood?
Laron: When I was a kid, I used to listen to a lot of Dipset. There's a specific Juelz Santana song off his first album, called “Jealousy.” It was one of those tracks that as a kid, you know, the beat had something about it. It wasn't like an upbeat, happy type of song or anything like that, it was something that was a little more serious.
Jadasea: I need to check that one out, for real.
L: Yeah, you should listen to it. Honestly, that shit is fire.
J: I’m picking Mobb Deep “Win or Lose” for this one. I had that as my ringtone.
L: I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure that in London you guys had a mixtape culture growing up, right? Where you could buy CDs from a guy off the street?
J: Yeah, for sure. I lived two minutes down the street from the SN1 shop, which was Giggs’ label. In Peckham Market they had a little stall where they would sell mixtapes and clothes.
L: I miss that time, when it was all about mixtapes. Hopefully we can bring that back a little bit with [The Corner].
What was the first physical record you remember buying?
J: I remember being mad young and being in Tesco, and I bought a Tim Westwood compilation. I know it’s fuck Tim Westwood now. It’s low key been fuck Tim Westwood for a while actually. But that was on some mixtape shit, it was like 60 tracks. All US shit as well, because he wasn’t really pushing the UK ting back in the day. I remember buying that and not telling my parents, thinking “this is my shit.”
L: My parents come from a music industry background, so we would always have samplers and free albums in the house, but the first album I remember buying is 50 Cent, Get Rich or Die Trying, from the huge Virgin Music Store. I also got an NWA Straight Outta Compton joint from there. I was mad young, and that was like probably the most explicit album in the whole store! Just those two albums changed my whole everything. I was super deep into music production after that. I guess both projects come from the same person too, those are both Dr. Dre.
What song reminds you the most of home?
J: The house remix of “Days Like This” by Shaun Escoffery. My dad was a DJ. He was a housey guy, so that just reminds me of hearing it at home growing up.
L: My dad was a manager, and he had an independent hip-hop label. It wasn't like huge or anything like that, but he had artists. His niece, Lil Mama, was one of the offsprings of that label, so I’m gonna say any song by early Little Mama - pretty much “Lip Gloss,” basically.
What song reminds you of traveling to a specific place?
J: I have a few. I went to Spain in 2003, and I listened to the Bad Boys II soundtrack the entire time. That shit was fire as hell, I’m not going to lie. That shit was cold. I also remember going to India as a yute and I was listening to Lupe Food & Liquor the whole time. I remember sitting on the beach listening to Food & Liquor and thinking it was mad deep. So yeah, Lupe Fiasco and India are forever linked in my head, still.
L: That’s such a crazy feeling, hearing a song and being transported to that place. For me, I spent time in California so it’s 03 Greedo. “Tricc on Anybody” is the specific song.
Laron, is there a beat that you’ve ever heard and thought “I wish I had come up with that”?
L: I guess there's a lot. As a producer, I'm always gonna listen and have that appreciation, you know? You have those moments where you’re like, “That was just amazing.” I think that drives the creative fuel for me, too. It's like, “Damn, I gotta go crazy.”
When I was coming up, and I got into Madlib, Quasimoto, MF DOOM, all of their stuff was like, “What the fuck?” You know what I'm saying? J Dilla too. To this day, People are breaking down and analyzing his 30 year old beat tapes. As of recently, though, something more modern - there’s a Pi’erre Bourne track he did a few years ago for Famous Dex called “Day 2.” That's one of his best beats, and he has a lot of good ones.
And Jada, is there either a specific bar or track that you find yourself going back to?
J: You know, it's difficult. I think back to recently, and when I want to start writing again, or if I'm starting a new project and I want to cleanse my palette, I’ll listen to “The Prelude” by Jay-Z. I don't know if you'd say it’s the hardest shit ever, but that one's crazy. I'll go to that one a lot in the last few years, just to kind of reset. It's like a rap standard or some shit.
What is the best song to play at a house party?
L: In New York, drill has gone nuts, and it's getting younger and younger. I listen to SugarHill Keem, he's one of the ones that's like on the Jersey drill, club drill wave. He has a song called “Can't Wait,” he has a couple of songs that are like party starters I guess. Since I'm in Brooklyn and shit, I will play those and immediately get a response. And then there's a couple other ones, I guess if I’m playing for the homies, something maybe from Detroit like Babyface Ray, a lot of that gets played too.
J: For me, if it was my own party I just play some like bangers from back in the day. Some NERD, Neptunes, Jay-Z, “Frontin,” one of them. That's really my ting. Probably I’d be playing afro as well quite a lot. Yeah, if I'm controlling the ting at a party, it's probably not a good idea. Shit is sporadic, still. We're gonna go from afrobeats to hip-hop to house to whatever.
L: But that vibe is dope though! Especially because London has mad history with all that music, so you’re valid playing all of that.
J: And obviously dancehall also getting spun crazy.
You're abducted by aliens and when you wake up on the spaceship, they pass you the aux. What is the song that you're playing to convince them not to destroy Earth?
J: I’m just gonna play “Earth Song.” Make them think about what they’re about to do.
L: Jada, they’re gonna kill us dude. I would start off with something mad trappy, you know what I'm saying? If we can somehow get a little vibe established, I think, a couple more minutes is added, so I could play another song.
J: You’re going for the vibe, I’m going for the more deep side.
L: They really might push the button on you. But, if they hear Certified Trapper, then maybe a little Jay Critch, you know what I'm saying? Maybe they make a correlation somewhere, they'll be like, “Aight, this is cool,” and then we drop in “Middle of It.” That's like, the whole vibe.
