Through thick clouds of weed smoke and a high-pitched, nasally voice that is both Southern smooth and West Coast California crass, Devin The Dude is back with Landing Gear, his fifth solo project to date. The LP was backed by Razor & Tie, a recent label move by Devin following a long life with Rap-A-Lot Records. Landing Gear cements Devin’s signature storytelling and introduces ’70s sounds with scintillating synths and previously unearthed samples. While stopped at a gas station en route to San Fransisco, Devin spoke with WW’s Sara Moskovitz about puffing, presidential policy changes and pussy.

WW: How’s the tour going so far?

Devin the Dude: Cooling, cooling, headed up to Frisco. It’s all been like a little party, it’s been pretty fun.

WW: How’s the feedback been on the new album?

So far, so good. We’ve run into people at the show who have the CD and a lot of people have hit me up on MySpace.

WW: I’ve heard from you in past interviews that you’re happy with the label move to Razor & Tie after being with Rap-A-Lot for so many years.

Yeah, a lot of it still feels the same. We go into the studio and have fun, doing the music and recording.

WW: On Landing Gear, you’ve got a couple previously unused ’70s samples on there: L.T.D.’s “Don’t Stop Loving Me Now” (1978) for “I Don’t Chase ‘Em” and Sylvester’s “I Took My Strength From You” (1978) used on “Thinkin’ Boutchu.” What you do look for in samples and how do you find them?

We have a couple producers that find them—DJ Damo found that Sylvester track—and we’ve been digging for a minute as far as in the crates, since 1992, ’93 with the Odd Squad looking for old samples in music, so that goes far back really but finding a sample that nobody has used is a kind of tough thing to do.

WW: You were featured on the Dr. Dre super-produced track “Fuck You” along with Snoop Dogg on Dr. Dre’s Chronic 2001—how did that collaboration happen?

I was at home and I got a call from my road manager who was working with Rap-A-Lot at the time and he gave me a phone call at like 6 pm and he said Dre’s working on a project and he wants you to be a part of it and I was like, Dr Dre? And he said, yeah and that he’d call within the hour so just stay tuned and I was like, yeah alright because I thought he was joking. So an hour passed and then another hour passed and I was like, yeah it’s a trick and then about three, four hours later, he (Dr. Dre) hit me up. And he was like, [starts singing] “What do you wanna do?” It was cool. He had a copy of my demo tape before we came out in 1994 and that was a really cool thing to hear that. It was a blessing to work on that project. We had a lot of things in common—we both listen to old school music.

WW: You’ve worked with high-profile artists like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg and Andre 3000 (Outkast). Are there other ultimate collaborations for future Devin the Dude projects that you’d like to see happen?

Yeah! Anybody I’ve never worked with! Anybody that wants to work with me and some of the people that I’ve worked with previously too. It’s always an honor to work with artists on your project that you admire and vice versa, you know?

WW: You’re known as being a happy-go-lucky weed-loving Houston-area MC. What were you like as a kid?

I loved to have fun, loved sports, I was curious about things, loved music—I started deejaying when I was in the third or fourth grade. We lived in front of a radio station in St. Petersburg, Florida and they used to throw a lot of records away so I used to go into their trash, dig them all out, take them home, play them. Used to love dancing—popping, doing the robot and all that. When the Jacksons were out, I used to go to the club and break dance and from there, started rapping and being involved with hop-hop in general.

WW: Your tagline is, “Your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper.” Who is your favorite rapper?

I’ve got so many! Wow who can I start with? There’s Run (DMC), MC Shan, Special Ed, Rakim, Whodini, Nas, Jay-Z, Black Thought, Audio Two—there was no coming back when I heard that song (”Top Billin’” in 1987).

WW: What are three policy changes you’d like Obama to make when he becomes president?

Health care, something towards solving the war on poverty so we can get these finances to the people who really need them and they have these penitentiaries going up like they’re a chain of Wal-Marts and I want him to try and put an end to that and finally, (starts to sing Peter Tosh’s “Legalize It”) legalize it, don’t criticize it [laughs].

WW: Rumors are that you’re allowed to legally smoke. Is that true?

Well yeah, I have a card here in California so I’m allowed to legally smoke marijuana, yes. Hopefully they’ll get the laws throughout the states to where you’re allowed to medically smoke marijuana.

WW: If you could put together a super pow-wow smoke session, who are you inviting?

Oh man! I have to name all the people I’d want to come…

WW: Okay, let’s narrow it to three folks. Yourself, plus three—who are they?

When it comes to smoking man, I guess it’d be, wow, it’d be me, Snoop, Redman—I’d have to get Red and Meth (Method Man) together though, that would be one and probably Cheech or Chong, they’d have to count as one.

WW: You have a track on Landing Gear called “Yo Mind” with the message to women not to throw their minds and bodies away but much of your music now and in the past refers to women as bitches and hoes.

“Yo Mind” was about people in general. The first track was about a guy, the second verse was about a female and the third verse was just (about people) in general. I’m not pointing out anything—it was for women, children, men, anybody. I don’t pick a track and say, okay, this one’s going to be for bitches, this is going to be for women. When I was younger, of course going in the studio, lyrically, you’re carefree, you don’t have that many responsibilities, you’re just kind of wild with it. Then when you get older, you start to think about what you’re saying before you say it. There’s less “bitches” and “hoes” on this one. I only think I said “pussy” one time. If I can’t say, “pussy” at least two times, than something’s wrong—you’ll have to check my temperature [laughs].

WW: I’ll go back and do a “pussy” count and let you know. We’ll see you tomorrow night Devin. Drive safe and best of luck with Landing Gear.

Devin the Dude plays at Berbati’s Pan, Thursday, Oct. 30. $8:30 pm. $15. 21+.

Links:
Devin the DudeSpace

Photo courtesy of Devin the Dude