 |
 |
|
|
15 Anniversary- Dave Friedman
From Murder Dog Vol.15 #2
When did you first hear about Murder Dog
Magazine?
I think it was back in 1999 or 2000. Murder Dog
was the only magazine that would cover Insane Clown Posse. And there was a
cover with Esham and Natas. That made me want to read the magazine and check it
out. As a journalist, I was working for a newspaper and I still do where I
interview artists of all different genres of music, I wondered how could I get
to interview Insane Clown Posse. So I contacted Murder Dog and pitched some
story ideas and got a chance to do some stuff like that.
Before that you hadn’t done interviews with
Esham or ICP?
No. I was a fan of their music since like ’97,
but I’d never had a chance to actually interview them. Because of Murder Dog I
got that opportunity for the first time in 2000.
You were probably very excited.
It was great. I remember the first time I
interviewed Insane Clown Posse and talked to Alex Abyss over the phone, who was
their manager at the time. He wanted to make sure they got a certain number of
pages and a certain number of photos and a good spread. He was a tough guy. But
it was very cool to interview them for the first time. Esham, the first time I
interviewed him I didn’t know what to expect because he’s got different moods.
He was pretty cool for the most part. But at one point I asked him a question
about his brother James who owns Real Life Production and is in jail now.
Esham, he made this screaming noise into the phone. I was literally shaking by
the time I got off the phone with Esham that time. I also asked him a question
about TNT and he put TNT on the phone to answer the question. TNT was all up in
arms and angry. It was crazy. But I’ve talked to Esham since and he’s a really
cool guy. That first time I really got a dose of what Esham can do to a
reporter.
What newspaper do you work for? How did you start your journalistic career? How did you first find Murder Dog? You bought it
somewhere?
I think I read about it on message boards on
some websites, like Esham’s old message board and a message board for the
Juggalos, the fans of ICP. People would say there was a story on Esham or on
ICP in Murder Dog. Circus Magazine and AP Press were the only other magazines
that ever put ICP in there that I know of. Murder Dog would cover the groups I
listened to, that’s what drew me to it.
Were you surprised that all these artists were
not in any magazines at that time? You’re one of the only professional journalists
that’s writing for Murder Dog. But you really came to Murder Dog as a fan,
wouldn’t you say?
I’d say so. A little of both. I definitely got a
chance to meet a lotta rappers that I wanted to meet. One time you guys sent me
to Detroit and I got a chance to meet people like Dice and Evol and Proof from
D12, Prozak. I got to meet some of the artists that don’t do a lot of touring
outside of Detroit. In that sense I did come to Murder Dog as a fan, wanting to
be a part of what you were doing.
When you came to Murder Dog you brought in a
whole different world that we didn’t know. We knew about ICP and Esham, but you
came with a very different side of Rap.
I realize that and I totally appreciate that
Murder Dog has always been open to me pitching stories as well as assigning
stories. I got to do cover stories on Master P and Nas and St. Lunatics and
Warren G. At the same time I got the chance to write a story on Project Born,
which was the first group signed to Psychopathic other than ICP. That was
probably their first magazine story. Dice who was like a Detroit veteran, that
was his first magazine story. I was able to help some artists who I had found
out about through listening to ICP and digging deep into the Detroit music. I
was able to write a story on Wolfpac in 2001. It’s been great.
Another thing your brought in was coverage of
more mainstream artists. We would hardly ever cover big name rappers, but you
started doing interviews with a lot of major artists.
That’s cool too. Being a White guy from
Connecticut, what I listen to is probably different from what somebody in the
inner city would listen to. The first exposure I had to Rap was when I was in
college, kinda late in life.
Listenin to Cypress Hill and Digable Planets, artists who maybe didn’t have as
much street cred as some of the artists that Murder Dog had covered in the
past. And I got to do another project, a section on Hip Hop. We did an
interview with Talib Kweli at that time, who was doing conscious Hip Hop. For
me being a fan of the music and a writer, I got a chance to interview people
like Nas and Cypress Hill, Warren G, Master P. I’m glad you were open to all of
the music I brought.
That has always been our way, we keep it open.
If readers start telling us about a particular artist, the way you did about
Detroit Rap, we’re going to cover it.
Totally. There are entire areas of the country
that have never been featured in a magazine. Like you asked me to do a feature
on Pittsburgh Rap. It’s a great thing to expose talent that’s going on in some
of these areas that have been ignored. I’d never heard of Gary, Indiana until
you did that cover on Grind Family. That opened my eyes to the whole Gary
sound. Murder Dog took a lot of risks doing stuff like that.
When you first came to Murder Dog did you think
we’d last this long?
It’s amazing I’ve seen magazines shut down and
other magazines where the ownership has changed. The following probably changes
when the ownership changes. It’s great that Murder Dog’s been able to cover so
much underground Hip Hop and still survive all of these years.
I think that’s why we survived. We survived
because we covered people like ICP or we covered Gary, Indiana. That’s what
makes Murder Dog popular. Every day we get 100-plus new subscribers. People
come to Murder Dog for the stuff they don’t get in other magazines.
I remember reading about Tech N9ne in Murder Dog
way before any ICP fans had ever heard of him. Now the ICP fans love Tech N9ne.
He’s like another group within that realm. Another thing that’s good about
Murder Dog is we give a lot of rappers a voice that don’t have a voice through
mainstream publications. We give them the time of day when most other
publications won’t. You can read about ICP, which you can read on various
websites, but this is the only print magazine that will cover ICP. So many
underground artists don’t have a choice to say what’s on their mind, but in
Murder Dog they have a chance. It’s not just limited to one little page for all
the independent artists.
Because it’s all straight interviews in Murder
Dog, the readers can hear what the artists are really thinking about or
feeling. It’s not all through the writer’s eyes.
Exactly. When you read a Murder Dog interview
you’re basically gettin the transcript. Instead of getting few small quotes
from the artist and mostly an angle of what the writer saw, you’re getting to
see the entire conversation. You’re getting as much as will fit of what went on
between the writer and the artist. If the artist has a lot to say we’ll put his
words out there. And if it gets too long, we’ll print the rest on the website.
Do you think you’ll be with Murder Dog for a
while? What makes you such a great journalist is that
love you have for the music.
Totally. I keep up with so many artists. I have
a list of all the releases that are coming out that I’m interested in, so I can
plan to do interviews. It goes beyond Psychopathic and Suburban Noize. I’ve
recently gotten more into Wu Tang Clan. I know Cappadonna’s got an album coming
up in June and RZA’s got an album comin up in July. I look forward to the new
stuff. I also see it as an opportunity to hopefully get a chance to interview
them for Murder Dog.
If there’s an artist one of our writers feel
strongly about, we say go ahead and do the interview.
That’s the best way to do it. What’s you get
then is the writer who’s writing about Ice Cube is probably the one who’s the
most knowledgeable about Ice Cube and really wants to talk to him. The writer
who’s writing about Insane Clown Posse is extremely into Insane Clown Posse.
Definitely having writers who are interested in what they’re reporting on
brings out the best in the artists and brings out the best in the publication.
We now are planning to start a Murder Dog
digital magazine alongside that. We’re also developing murderdog.com so there
will be a bigger archive section so people will be able to access interviews we
did over the last 15 years in our website. There will be also be reviews,
prison letters, everything.
Excellent. I look forward to that.
|
|