Interview: Clif Soulo: I Wish These Were My Beats Vol. 1

On the eve of his mixtape release, 38th Notes sat down with Clif Soulo to hear about the project, his favorite tracks, and his musical vision. Check out what he had to say and download I Wish These Were My Beats Vol.1.


What is I Wish These Were My Beats?

It's the first in a series of mixtapes where I take beats that I wish were mine and I try to make songs out of them and show that I can rap. I'm just showing what I could do with the music if I had that type of production.

How this project different from your last?

Both Forever Be Hip-Hop and I Wish these Were My Beats Vol. 1 are Clif Soulo. It’s just that with the first mixtape my goal was to be really honest and display who Clif Soulo is as a person. Where as with I Wish These Were My Beats I want to show you on these tracks that these super star or mainstream artists put out that I feel that I could also do their production justice. and I could also rap with the same intensity as a T.I. or the same complex rhymes as a Lupe.

What are your four favorite songs on the mixtape?
"Illy Intro": It’s over T.I.’s instrumental to "I’m Illy" and that’s my favorite rapper. When I heard the beat I said, "Alright, I gotta make a statement. He came crucial with it so I gotta make sure I come with that same intensity." I picked the track in hopes of letting the listeners know right off top, this is what’s going down. Especially since this is transitioning from my last project Forever Be Hip-Hop.

"Oakland Girls": I heard Charles Hamilton's "Brooklyn Girls" and I was like this is a dope beat, cool concept, oh it has an instrumental I can easily flip this. That’s when I approached Beejus about collaborating with me. When I heard just the rough version I was like, this has some potential. We released it online and it started picking up momentum. It even turned out that some of the people supporting the music created shirts with the slogan "Oakland Girl" based on the song and so that confirmed my thoughts. When I performed at Luka’s Lounge I saw people singing along to the song- and that’s pretty much how I envisioned it.

"I’m Beamin": It kinda flowed. It came out of me in 15 minutes. Sometimes a song might take me two weeks or two months. I might write a verse and not be able to finish it for a couple of months and so it just sits there. That song in particular it just flew out quick. The second verse I got to go a little deeper than 'I’m the dopest rapper' bravado. I mean that’s part of who I am, but the more introspective meaningful lyrics are where my heart lies.

"Lost Ones":  When I wrote the verse I didn’t have an idea for a hook or any ideas about how to make it a complete song so I was just like, I’ll write lyrics until I can’t write any more. The thing about that song is it’s just me being honest. And that’s the one thing that led me to the most success, being honest. People always feel my honesty. So not to say that the other songs aren’t honest, but that one, I just talked about anything that I was thinking at that time.

How did you connect with artists from around the country for I Wish These Were My Beats Vol.1?

I have artists from Detroit with Young Scolla, Minnesota with Sig Nif, and Texas with Nick Pratt. Ice the Villain is from DMV and Beejus is from Oakland. I would connect to dope people and they would say, "Oh I work with this cat and I'd check them out." And with blogging in general and searching for some original content for TheHipHopUpdate.com, I'd run across artists. When it came to reaching out to people for music, I tried to allow the progression  and the collaboration idea to come naturally.

 

What is your goal with your music?

My vision is to be one of the new generation artists coming out of the Bay Area, more specifically Oakland, that represents a story that I haven’t heard. When you think of Oakland, you think of Mistah FAB,  E-40,  and Mac Dre, which is all dope music to me, but it doesn't speak to the story of how I grew up. I want to be one of the people showing a different side of Oakland and showing the rest of the world that we really have some dope hip-hop other than what the mainstream was pushing back in '06 and '07 with the hyphy movement. That was, and arguably still is, a part of Oakland culture, but it’s only one side. With everything you need balance so I hope to provide some balance with my music. It comes out in my MC name, Clif Soulo. Clif, which is me- I want to give you my life, my story. I want the music to touch your soul, that’s where the Soul part comes in. And I want it to represent Oakland, that’s what the O is for.  
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There it is, straight from the horse's mouth. And just to give you an appetizer before the entree, here is the intro to the mixtape.


DL: Clif Soulo: I Wish These Were My Beat Vol. 1