Ahead of Connie Price & The Keystones' LUCAS HIGH, Dan Ubick Speaks On Various Rap-centric Collaborations (The Witzard Interview #3)

Dan Ubick has either played with, recorded with, backed up, or been sampled by everyone from Lily Allen to DJ Z-Trip. His own note-worthiest/most critically-acclaimed projects include Breakestra, Connie Price & The Keystones, The Lions, Rhythm Roots All-Stars, and most recently, The Mad Geezers & Night Owls. We've previously spoken with Dan Ubick AKA Constantine "Connie" Price on a number of occasions, over the years: once, in 2013 coinciding with the release of The Lions' This Generation on Stones Throw, again, in 2015 right around the time of The Lions' SOUL RIOT release, and just a year later, for Now-Again Records' 2016 re-issue of Connie Price & The Keystones' Wildflowers: The Expanded Edition. We were, also, fortunate enough to run an exclusive premiere for The Lions' music video for their cover of The Clash's "The Magnificent Dance" from their 1980 genre-eschewing 3-LP magnum opus, SANDINISTA! as well as various coverage these last six years. I've always heard rumblings from Dan about The Keystones fabled emcee/singer-assisted Lucas High album orchestrated in tribute to Doug Lucas... but, honestly, wondered when it would ever, actually, be released!

Back in 2013, Dan Ubick graciously gifted me a CD copy of pre-album warm-up, Lucas High EP featuring a few tracks from the album, but, then, silence. Wrangling paperwork for two dozen rappers, getting samples cleared, and doing it all independently, proved to be quite an undertaking, but, luckily, all is finally sorted and the LP drops next week! I've been hearing about this album nearly all the way through the process of its creation and I'm very excited for the rest of the world to hear it next Friday, June 21, 2019! Lucas High features an extremely talented cast of characters including Doug Lucas, Alex Désert, Malik Moore, John Bigham, Big Daddy Kane, Rapsody, Lady of Rage, Soup and Marc7 of Jurassic 5, Brand Nubian, Macy Gray, Kelly Finnigan, Kendra Morris, Talib Kweli, Nini Monroe, M.O.P. Jovi Rockwell (Major Lazer,) X-Clan's Brother J, and Wildchild. Pre-orders for Connie Price & The Keystones' Lucas High are currently available from FatBeats/A Man Called Horse Records. Dan Ubick has graciously agreed to speak with us again, this time, primarily, about his Hip-Hop/Rap-centric collaborations through his career, which, in part, have led to the aforementioned collaborations housed within Lucas High.


Sincerely,

Matt "The Witzard" Horowitz
Founder/Senior Writer & Editor

I. First off, how did you start backing different Hip-Hop/Rap artists? Weren't there a series of Scion A/V releases featuring Connie Price & The Keystones backing various emcees?

Well, I first started backing up emcees when I was playing with Breakestra. Miles [Tackett], our keyboard player, Carlos [Guaico], and our friend, Terry, were throwing a night in Los Feliz called The Breaks (later, morphed into Root Down) and Miles & [Mixmaster] Wolf were old friends with Cut Chemist & DJ Nu-Mark, Marvski, J.Rocc, DJ Babu, [Rhettmatic], and The Beat Junkies; so, different dudes would DJ each week and different emcees would get up and freestyle over live breaks. In LA, we had everyone from Freestyle Fellowship, Jurassic 5, Dilated Peoples, Black Eyed Peas, and Medusa, so they'd get up and rock with us; but, also, people like The Quannum Crew came from The Bay, so, there was Lateef [The Truth Speaker], Lyrics Born, and DJ Shadow coming down and hanging/performing, too.

Anyway, we did this for a good two years and it was a blast. We occasionally had bigger names come through... I remember RZA had his birthday there one week... huge guest list at a club that was already packed every week. Ended up playing "Nautilus" with a bunch of the Wu-Tang dudes... there were so many people on stage, our flute player, James [King's] flute got bent, drinks were spilled, etc. but it was a night to remember.

So, I started "backing... Hip-Hop artists" because of my time in Breakestra, I guess, and then, because of the stuff I started putting out with The Keystones, artists around town, like Madlib, Macy Gray, and will.i.am started using me for recording and such. One person, who is a dope DJ/collector that I knew and still love like a brother, Daniel Hall, had ties to Scion 'cause his lovely, Jeri, worked for them and they recommend us to Scion to be a touring backing band for these promotional runs they were putting together. That's where I started meeting folks like [Big Daddy] Kane, EPMD, Slick Rick, and Brand Nubian. It was a dream come true to play with all these folks 'cause I'd admired them for so long. And yes, through Scion A/V, we put out a really dope 12-inch with Big Daddy Kane, "Give A Demonstration, Pt. 2," on Side A and Percee P, "International Hustler," on Side B. One of LA's most gifted artists, [Augustine Kofie], did the album art in tribute to Lalo Schifrin's Enter The Dragon cover 'cause me and the guys were (and still are) deep into soundtracks.


II. Where exactly did you play when The Keystones were backing up Big Daddy Kane? And any memorable stories from this period?

We backed Kane for a good 3-4 years off-and-on, so, we played all over the place. He took us to Japan to play two nights at Tokyo's Billboard Live with Kurtis Blow in tow, both nights sold out. We got to play "The Breaks" with Kurtis and rocked it with Kane, while all these Japanese B-boys got down on the floor. Muro came, it was super-fun.

Man, what else? We played The Brooklyn Bowl in Prospect Park with Kane and Scoob, Scrap, Master Ace & Craig G performed with us in front of a huge crowd. I remember, Tommy "TNT" Brenneck and some of The Budos Band dudes and Lord Jamar came out and hung backstage. Perfect Summer day, BBQ in the air, and cool people loving a free show by Kane and a full band.

We, also, played B.B. King's in New York off of Times Square for the Cold Chillin' Anniversary party—got to do "Just Rhymin' with Biz" with Biz [Markie] & Kane; Busta Rhymes showed up in a fancy car (a Maybach, I think?) wearing some big, crazy fur and I got to meet Roxanne Shante & T.J. Swan.

So many shows with Kane, though... He came and did Root Down at Little Temple with us, which was crazy fun. We did "Lung Collapsing Lyrics" with Percee P that night and it KILLED. We played Sunset Junction [Street Fair] here in Silver Lake, Los Angeles; turned out to be the last year they did it. It was The Keystones with Big Daddy Kane & Soup (Zaakir) from Jurassic 5, Fishbone, and then, Bad Brains.


III. I remember, late last year, when a Big Daddy Kane track called "Act A Fool" Feat. Busta Rhymes, which, also, featured Connie Price & The Keystones. Now, there's a full unreleased/shelved Kane album with The Keystones, correct?

"Act A Fool" is super-dope; glad that one made it out there! As far as the shelved Big Daddy Kane stuff... I wouldn't say there's a "full LP," but definitely some SICK singles that I hope, one day, see the light of day. We did one with our dearly departed Sharon Jones that is so good. Another kind of fast, funky Willie Hutch-meets-Dennis Coffey-type thing. I'd say, there are a 4-5 [songs] that would make a SICK EP.

IV. You, also, backed Slick Rick, EPMD, M.O.P. Brand Nubian, De La Soul, and Redman on those Scion tours, right? Any crazy stories?

I don't know about "crazy," 'cause I was always working and band leading, but, man, so much fun. Those tours were great 'cause we got a nice per diem and [Dan] Hastie and I would bee-line to record stores all over the country, when we pulled into town. Pull up to the hotel, drop our bags, and then, head to the record stores before soundcheck lol. Big up to Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis and Friends of Sound that used to be in Austin.

So, stories... uh-mm, Slick Rick was super-cool and let me wear his patented "Gold Ropes" with an eagle pendent for a pic we took.

We got to play the famed Metro Theater in Chicago with Billy [Danze] & [Lil'] Fame (M.O.P.) and I think, that might have been one of the most wild and amped shows we ever did. When we went into "Ante Up," the place just erupted... people in the crowd were waving their arms wildly, while holding onto their beers, so beers went everywhere lol. Had to towel down my pedal board afterwards. The Beatnuts were a super-close second, in terms of crowd response. When we did "Turn It Out" with them, people lost their sh*t.

Redman, I just remember being cool as Hell and wanting to stay and play all our instruments after rehearsal. He sat at Danny [Hastie]'s Rhodes, sat at the drums, and tried my guitar. Super-pro dude and a cool hang.


V. So, what exactly is the story behind The Sand Dollars' coveted 2003 "Get Thy Bearings" 45 Feat. Chris Manak (Peanut Butter Wolf) released on Now-Again Records. What's its relationship to Donovan & Biz Markie?

Well, it's been a while, but I feel like it was Egon's idea 'cause he knew Chris loved that song. When he found out I was, also, a huge Donovan fan, he was like: "you gotta do a version and have Wolf sing it!" So, Todd [Simon] and I went to work. My friend, Jeremy Ruzumna, has this KILLER old 60's Rheem compact organ—kind of like a Farfisa, but with fuzz bass—that I had been borrowing, so we went super-Pysch on our version. The guitar parts at the end of Donovan's version, Todd re-wrote for horns and then, I played drums, bass, and guitar. Soon after, Lily Allen used it for her song, "Sunday Morning" and her producers tried to tell me they "re-played" it, but that's horsesh*t; they lifted our version and didn't want to share! lol

VI. What was your favorite experience working, recording, playing with, etc. an emcee/group? And what's the craziest story (you're able to tell!) from said experience?

Man, so many fun experiences. Playing EPMD's set was fun 'cause we go to do some things we didn't do with other acts. I got to play the [Zapp "More Bounce to The Ounce"] talk box guitar on "You Gots to Chill" and [The J.B.'s] "J.B.'s Monorail" loop with the guys for "Let The Funk Flow"—that is the closest to my dream of being in James Brown's "band" as I'll ever get. Coincidentally, that Beefs show (Quincy Jones' nephew QD3's doc. series) had on the EPMD episode, while we were on our tour bus between gigs, which was surreal, to say the least.

One memory I'll treasure is getting to hang with Heavy D soon before he passed. We did a show at the old House of Blues on The Sunset Strip with Kane and Heavy D was on the bill. We were gonna back him, as well, [but], for some reason, it didn't work out. I think, he realized he should have used The Keystones after we crushed it with Kane 'cause he invited me to a studio he was working at in North Hollywood [to] hang. We connected over Jamaican music, so [we] sat there for a couple hours chilling and playing each other different songs, as well as the Reggae LP he had just finished (won a GRAMMY, I think?) and The Lions stuff I had just finished. Super-kind dude. R.I.P. Heavy D.


VII. I know you've known DJ Nu-Mark (Jurassic 5,) Method Man, and "fifth" Beastie Boy, Money Mark for years... but how did it feel finally working together on Nu-Mark's recent Record Store Black Friday single, "Zodiac Killah?"

Well, I've known Nu-Mark for years 'cause Breakestra's first tour was the West Coast run of their Word of Mouth Tour (J5, Dilated [Peoples] & The Beat Junkies,) but I have never met Meth. Would love to, of course. Mark knows him from the TV show they do together [Drop The Mic]. So amped he jumped on board 'cause the result is just FIRE. As far as Money Mark, I just, finally, got to meet him face-to-face at Shawn Lee's movie premiere and he was super-chill. So, yeah, he played the KILLER organ lead on "Zodiac Killah," but I didn't meet him until recently.

I, actually, also, got lucky enough to meet Mario "C." Caldato a few months before that, as well, 'cause he DJ'ed a night with my buddy, Danny Holloway. I just say that 'cause [it's] such an honor to get to "rub elbows" with guys like that who have inspired me so much and find out that they are just cool dudes, who, also, love making music.

VIII. Who are Doug & Zach Lucas and how did they help directly influence and create The Keystones' Lucas High?

Well, Matt [Fife] wrote a beautiful little history inside the new LP, but the short story is that Doug Lucas was a bada$$ musician (trumpet player,) song-writer, and member of incredible groups, like Chakachas, Plus, The J.J. Band, and The S.S.O. Orchestra and is the muse for this entire record. My partner on this record, Matt, has known Doug's sons, Zach & David, for years and we were lucky enough to have Zach play horns and keys on almost every track on the LP.

All of the tunes on Lucas High have either a sample from one of Doug's LP's, lyrics based on his life, or music inspired by his legacy. My job as producer was to craft these samples and samples I created with the band into cohesive Hip-Hop tracks and in the case of "Gimme Some More of That," just re-do one of Plus' classics, but a little heavier and with Kelly Finnigan (The Monophonics) & Kendra Morris singing their behinds off.


IX. How would you say, working with all of the aforementioned emcees and artists over the years has led to The Keystones' long-awaited sophomore album, Lucas High? Happen to have any particularly "wild" stories from the making-of the album?

Well, I just kept in touch as much as possible, is all. I'm just so lucky they were feeling the tracks and decided it was worthwhile to add their flavor to this new LP. I am grateful to all the artists for trusting and working with me and I'll let any "wild" stories I know stay in my memory; don't wanna blow people up lol.

X. Finally, yourself and some of The Keystones, also, played in a band called Rhythm Roots All-Stars (RRA-S) backing Ghostface Killah, Rakim & Aloe Blacc and then, ended up recording And The Anonymous Nobody with De La Soul after touring with them, correct?

Yeah, RRA-S is a group started by my bro, Davey Chegwidden, who plays with every group I've ever done. Anyway, a bunch of us Keystones—as well as Philip "Fish" Fisher, the drummer from Fishbone—played in that group, backed up Ghostface, Rakim, Aloe Blacc & De La Soul. I played one wicked SXSW with Ghost & Rakim and went all over Europe with De La Soul doing their 20 Feet High & Rising Tour with that band, played Coachella, Bumbershoot in Seattle with Os Mutantes, and many more. I moved on to other things right as [the And] The Anonymous Nobody LP was being made, but that is all my bros on that LP: Davey, Jordan [Katz], James King, Dan Hastie, [Dave] Wilder, Ethan [Phillips], Josh Lopez, etc.