RESPECT. Interview: OnCue - Right On Time (Part 2) - RESPECT.

If you have not yet read part one of my interview with OnCue then I would suggest that you do that prior to reading part 2. You can check that out here.

In this interview we discuss everything from Angry Young Man to OnCue’s perfect moment. Enjoy!

RESPECT.: Another song that I feel like would have been very draining for you to write is “Broken Language.” I know you said that song was inspired by the movie ‘High Fidelity’. I actually just watched that recently, randomly! But what was the process of writing that? It’s a really cool song with the voicemail thing. And did you play the song ever for the girl? Did she tell you to take out certain parts?

Cuey: Yeah! I think you’re talking about that interview that I did for BestFromTheWeb, because I think they are the only other people to ask me about “Broken Language,” and I remember saying High Fidelity. But yeah, and I kind of touched on it in that interview, but essentially I was speaking about something that she didn’t want public. Not like for my fans, but like you know, her cousins. We grew up in the same town. It’s not like a small, small town, but it’s not a big town either, so her little cousins listen to my music, her aunt’s were very familiar with my music. We were very serious for a long time, you know? So she didn’t want that stuff public for her family to find out and she was like, “Look, can you take it out? I’m not going to force you to. I get it, it’s a song. But if you can find a way to take it out can you?” And I kind of just realized, it’s a long distance relationship and with the voicemail thing in particular, we spent a lot of time on the phone, so I was like, “What if this whole time it was like a phone call of some sort?” And that’s when the voicemail thing came into play. And that’s how we essentially creatively removed the line. I’m sure you know about it, it’s somewhere early on in the third verse, and I called her back and I was like, “hey! Look. I found a cool way to omit the line.” Cause I told her, I was like, “I’m not re-writing this sh*t!” * laughs * “ I’m not just going to edit it out!”

But going back to your original question, I know it was kind of a two parted question. But it honestly wasn’t really draining because all that sh*t is true. If I had to fabricate sh*t I feel like it would have been, you know, draining. It was more kind of weird. The song did start off like, I was going to do three different women or girls in my life, and then I was like, “You know… I don’t have time for that sh*t. I really don’t. You can’t fit years of heartbreak and pain into sixteen bars and then move on.”

RESPECT.: Yeah, and you don’t want to have a 200 bar song * laughs *

Cuey: I mean sh*t… “Broken Language” is long as is.

RESPECT.: That Miguel sample is pretty crazy too on it!

Cuey: Yeah, yeah! That was kind of a team effort between me and Brenton. Well not really, that was really Brenton, but I told him when Kalaidascope Dream came out, a couple months after, I found “P*ssy Is Mine” randomly on the YouTube worm holes, and I was like, “Oh sh*t! This song is fire!!” And I went and got the album. And I remember we were actually shooting a video to Just’s version of “Running” the same morning that I found the Miguel album. And uh, that video is never coming out…

RESPECT.: Yeah I was going to ask you why you never made a video for “Running”!

Cuey: Yeah, it just didn’t come out the way I wanted it to. And Just wanted to put it out, my manager at the time wanted to put it out, but I didn’t want to put it out. So it’s never coming out. Yeah anyway, I put Brenton on the Miguel album and him finding the live version of “P*ssy is Mine” was gold.

There are a lot of versions of that record. Actually, at that interview at BestOfTheWeb I played them one of the early demos of “Broken Language” cause I recorded the whole album there (in the studio the interview was done at). Totally different beat and totally different chorus. It was crazy. I actually totally forgot what it sounded like, because I was working on the album for so long. And I was showing it to them and they were like, “Oh sh*t!” So yeah, there is a lot of versions of that song that were just floating around.

RESPECT.: Well you probably have like a hundred songs that you made for the album right? Do you just have a sh*t load of songs sitting around?

Cuey: Actually no! There’s probably about 45 rough ideas, but I’m not the most, and I guess it sort of comes back to me not rushing things, but I don’t really come up with a lot of ideas, it’s more like I’ll rework the same idea. Like for example, the “Stories to Tell” concept, which veered away from what it originally was, but it’s still kind of there, It’s playing on a feeling of being more or less a crack baby, and that used to be called “Hell Baby.” And there’s like four or five beats for that record. And so, I don’t know, it’s just my process I guess. I kind of look at that as, it still ended up being “Stories to Tell,” even though there ended up being different versions, you know, with different choruses. CJ made a beat for that idea, Brenton made two. And I ended up running with the one that’s on the album produced by Manikan Party. So yeah, I don’t know. It’s more like I think of song concepts and then I kind of go from there.

RESPECT.: I think it’s better. I think people waste their creativity on spreading it out onto 80 different songs, but I think it’s better when you conceal it to one thing and kind of master that. And I think it really came out perfect on that album. Like, I was listening back. The classic test I do is if I can listen to it two years after the project and still feel what I was feeling when I first heard the project or whatever. And I listened to the album again the other day and I still felt it.

Cuey: Thank you, thank you!

RESPECT.: You mention your mom on a lot of songs, does she ever listen to your songs? Because you mention your d*ck quite a bit on songs * laughs * how does she feel about those lines?

Cuey: * laughs * My mom is kind of like, she doesn’t understand rap music that much. Not like she doesn’t understand English but she’s an older mom. She is like 63 so it’s not like, even though I’m older than you cause I remember about you saying about when you found Can’t Wait, but my mom is kind of even old for people my age. So when she hears my music, she doesn’t really understand like the verses, but then the chorus comes. She definitely understood “Alive” off of Can’t Wait because that was slower, and it was piano, and it was very open and so I guess when she heard “Alive” I know she cried. But I guess for the most part, yeah I mean she listens but it’s not like… she’ll be like, “Oh let me listen!” But she doesn’t even really know how to use a computer, so either a friend shows it to her or I show it to her willingly. I remember playing her a rough demo of “Role Play” * laughs * because I figured she wouldn’t really get what it was about and yeah it was sing–songy. And I remember she was like, “Well, what do you mean putting costumes on?” Even though that’s a double entendre, I remember playing that for her in the kitchen, so that was funny.

RESPECT.: Yeah it is! That’s hilarious. I know what you’re saying though, it’s a different generation. Speaking of older songs, my favorite song honestly is “DSFM.” Did you come up with that acronym randomly, or you had the song written? Cause I think that’s dope and also what I like about it is the beat. Cause the beat kind of sounds like Ratatat or something like that. Where’d you get the beat from?

Cuey: It is Ratatat!!!

RESPECT.: Really? Wow!!!

Cuey: Yeah! One thousand percent Ratatat.

RESPECT.: That’s crazy! Cause I was like, “This sounds like something I’ve heard!” Like I remember older Cudi was influenced a lot by Ratatat. How did that song come to be? Because that’s one of my favorites.

Cuey: You’re going to actually laugh. So Brenton has come up a lot in this interview. We just finished “No Way” (which) was the final piece to Angry Young Man right, and we just finished. Or me and Maki were finishing it out, because Brenton gave me a rough skeleton of what ended up being “No Way,” and Maki kind of turned it into this monster. We just finished it, and I was feeling very inspired, and I just did “Closer,” and Brenton was like, “Yo, you should rap over this ‘Cherry’ record by Ratatat!” He’s like, “I just think you would sound so good on it.” After I wrote it, I jokingly was gonna call it “Brenton’s Song” you know, like Brian’s Song the movie? Anyway, good thing I didn’t.

After this we talked pretty in-depth about his new project Perfectly, Tragically Flawed that will be releasing soon.

RESPECT.: What can you tell me about Perfectly, Tragically, Flawed? And what can the fans look forward to? What sort of sound or vibe will it be?

Cuey: Like the aforementioned conversation, I think I’m finally hitting that stride. I can’t explain it. In the last I don’t know 6-8 months I feel like I’ve changed. Inside, I’ve changed. I see everything now. I’m in such a zone, (completely opposite to AYM), I feel like… I don’t know liberated. Making “Time” helped. But I will say this, “Perfectly, Tragically, Flawed.” is different from all my other projects. Yes, it’s a little shorter but it genuinely feels different. Maki played a huge role in closing out Angry Young Man, if it wasn’t for him I’m not sure if it would’ve been finished to be honest. So it only made sense that he took the wheel for PTF. And before any music was made, we had multiple discussions of where the OnCue sound should go next. I don’t know man, like I’m hella excited. It’s a little happier — which is an easy feat coming off AYM. The whole sh*t is like a new Cue. It’s current sounding, but still absolutely 1000% me. Purposely, it’s stripped down and more current — but by doing that I realized how much I actually have of my OWN sound. It was a huge confidence booster. Maki touched every record on the project — it was both our vision combined. Just is apart of it. And some new people. And a very special surprise that when I found out this person was willing to work on the project — I literally felt high for a week. Not sure if that makes sense but. Cloud 9 high. It was a dream of mine, now it’s real.

RESPECT.: Your fans are so patient. You could have waited until 80 and dropped an album, and they would have still listened. It didn’t seem like people even questioned it. Like, you were gone, maybe people were hitting you here and there, but when it came out everyone was just like, “oh it’s dope.” So for your next release, I think they’ll just be happy to get new music.

Cuey: Yeah, well we decided to do the EP, just with CJ being out of the picture, at least for the time being, you know, I can really only rely on a few producers that totally get me know. And at the end of the day that’s what really holds it up. I’m super picky. Like, I turned down beats from Just for Angry Young Man. It’s just certain things that are hard to come by, so with that being said we’re just like, “Nah, we’re going to put out an EP. So there’s no hold up, no wait.”

RESPECT.: Personally, I’m a fan too. I would be happy to get new music and I think that it will be dope that it will be sonically cohesive. Whether it’s an EP, album, mixtape, I don’t really care, as long as it’s you and it’s cohesive that’s what matters. And that’s what you’re giving so…

Cuey: Oh it’s super cohesive!

Then he talks more about the first single (which sounds incredible by the way) and gives some details about the new EP that are still under the radar.

RESPECT.: Last thing. My buddy actually wanted me to ask you this, but Bradley Cooper walked out to your song at the MTV Movie Awards! Did you know about that or did you see that?

Cuey: Well yeah, and no. Okay so legally, MTV has to reach out to me to get the rights to use the song anyway. So, I was doing a mini tour at the time. Brenton was DJing the mini tour, and we were with my merch-guy in a hotel room, and the last thing my manager knew was that they might use the song. And I was like, “Okay!” And you know Brenton co-produced the beat so he was like super-hype. And I was watching it live and I still didn’t know! And I said to Brenton and my merch-guy at the time, and I was like, “yo. If they don’t use it for Best Male then they’re not using it, because it’s too aggressive of a song.” It was just funny because I totally blanked. They were loading up the best male sh*t and I resort back to normal Geoff, and I’m just like, “Who do you guys think is going to win?” * laughs * And I feel confident that they may or may not play the record on it, you know. Millions watching. And then all of a sudden they go “BRADLEY COOPER!!!!” And then all of a sudden I was like, “Holy sh*t! That’s ‘No Way’.” It was a cool moment.

RESPECT.: What’s the moment that you felt most accomplished in your career then?

Cuey: I don’t know if I’ve hit that yet, but there was this moment in time I can say that I felt the most at peace career wise was… It was a while ago. I was on tour, it was right before Can’t Wait came out, and I was also a lot more naïve back then, so it’s kind of like, I don’t know if I can ever be that at peace again. Because it’s kind of like, okay I know how this game works and I’m way further along then I was back then now. But like, just in that moment in time I was like DMing with a playboy bunny, and I was working with Just, and at that moment I was driving up the highway headed to my show in LA, and I was in a van with some of my closest friends, getting paid to travel the country and perform, and every record label was calling at the time, and we were listening to M83’s “Midnight City” and I just remember that. And that was probably my most peaceful moment of my adult (life), like past eighteen, you know I just remember I just sat back and I was like, “Wow this is so dope.” You know what I mean?

RESPECT.: That sounds like a perfect moment. That’s the dream.

Cuey: Yeah, and I was a lot more naïve. Just literally with wisdom and experience, I don’t ever think I’ll be at peace again. But no it was a really nice moment. Well no, until things drastically change, it was a really dope moment. I can give you that.