Lethal Weapon’s Danny Glover recently completed a hip hop project with West Coast rapper/producer E-A-Ski which surprised everyone on my staff at The Hype Magazine. We were able to get an exclusive interview with both stars and we are sharing an excerpt of it here with permission of the magazine publisher and our contributing writer Chad Kiser…its very special, enjoy!
E-A Ski just unleashed the mega-popular, star-studded, “Cruise Control,” short-film video featuring Award-winning actor Danny Glover and long-time Ski collaborator, rapper Ice Cube. The Rock Jacobs-directed visual has already garnered more than 4 million views through a variety of major media outlets; MTV, Vibe, HipHopDX, AllHipHop, VladTV, among others. The single is the follow-up to another Cube-assisted, equally infectious, joint entitled “Please,” with both songs taken from Ski’s long overdue, highly anticipated 5th of Skithoven, due out early next year.
Before that, however, the Oakland, California native musician is planning to drop an EP, 4th of Skithoven, as a precursor of sorts to his next solo LP, just to tide over his legions of fans worldwide. In addition, E-A-Ski was recently nominated as Producer of the Decade at the 2012 West Coast Hip-Hop Awards.
As if that isn’t enough, “Mr. Ski” is staying very busy in the lab behind the boards contributing his sample-free unique style of live instrumentation’s for a who’s who of A-list artists; including, Ice Cube, Kelly Rowland, Nelly, former Dr. Dre protégé Slim The Mobster, and many more soon-to-be announced.
E-A Ski is also in the midst of expanding his I. M. G. M. I. empire by serving as current spokesperson and consultant for Native Instruments’ new groove production studio, known as the “Machine,” as well as Akai’s new “MPC Renaissance,” which was first unveiled at the NAMM [National Association of Music Merchants] Show in Anaheim, California, in January ’12.
About Ea-Ski: The musical roots of E-A Ski can be traced back within the concrete history of Bay Area soil — where you can find his musical fingerprints with Spice-1 before — and during — his tenure with Jive Records, and Master P’s early success with No Limit Records, where Ski served as an original member of The Tank’s TRU collective, alongside P, King George, Big Ed and Rally Ral. E-A Ski dropped his debut offering, “1 Step Ahead of Y’all,” through In-A-Minute/No Limit back in 1992.
5th of Skithoven, which also contains appearances from Freeway, Tech N9ne, B-Real of Cypress Hill fame and Locksmith, to name some, will finally be unveiled in early 2013…
E-A-Ski & Danny Glover Interview
A Hype Magazine Exclusive
By: Chad Kiser
E-A Ski has been holding it down for the west coast for years through a myriad of ways, whether it was kick-starting fellow bay area legend Spice 1’s career, or getting Master P and the No Limit tank rolling from Richmond, CA, serving up heat rocks for the likes Ice Cube (“Penitentiary,” “Pros vs. Joes”), Spice 1 (“Trigga Gots No Heart”), E-40 (“Quarterbackin”), or by collaborating with some of the west coast’s finest like Dr. Dre, WC, Nate Dogg, Locksmith, Crooked I, Montell Jordan to lay down some serious heat for not just the west coast, but for music lovers on every coast. E-A Ski has been one of the west’s best ambassadors.
As well, Hollywood legend and award-winning actor Danny Glover has also been one of California’s most revered icons. Danny Glover’s distinguished career is filled with memorable roles like Sgt. Murtaugh in “Lethal Weapon,” Det. David Tapp in “Saw,” Col. Isaac Johnson in “Shooter,” Bob Goodall in “Switchback,” and even a turn as President of the United States, Thomas Wilson, in last 2009s blockbuster “2012”.
Now, fresh off the release of his latest visual from “Fifth of Skithoven,” the uber-popular “Cruise Control,” Hype Magazine talks with west coast super-producer E-A Ski and award-winning Hollywood actor Danny Glover. In this exclusive interview these two bay area legends sit down with Chad Kiser to discuss the making of the “Cruise Control” short film, how E-A Ski was able to get Danny Glover to appear in his first-ever hip-hop video, and what it was like to work with each other on the set of the video. We also get in a few questions with Danny Glover about his career, the possibility of another Lethal Weapon installment, and his thoughts on his “Weapon” co-star Mel Gibson.
Danny, I’ll start this off with you. How did you and E-A Ski become acquainted with each other?
DG: We kept connecting with each other really at the Club One. It was a wonderful chance that we connected, and we kept saying let’s do something, let’s make something happen. He finally said he was trying to put something together and we did the first video in L.A., which came out really well because he was able to kind of move to another level in terms of his work. And that’s what it was about, seeing what I could do to help him move to that next level and let people see his work. So, we did that video, “No Problems,” which Ski won an award for. He approached me and asked me to do it, he’s my little brother, and I said ‘hey, let’s do this again.’ I had a great time!
Ski: A lot of people don’t know that me and Danny have done stuff before this. I don’t know if Danny remembers, but we were doing some activist/fundraiser type stuff for BET with Sinbad. So we’ve done stuff before, so that’s how the chemistry just worked and we got down.
Ski, what was like working with such an accomplished actor of Mr. Glover’s magnitude on “No Problems” and the latest release “Cruise Control”?
Ski: You always think you can act until you get in front of a real actor. It’s very humbling because you see, Danny did improv parts that were so cold without even thinking about it, and it was so on point, no takeover’s, but I’m doing take-over’s. It was just dope man, I learned a lot from him like how to pull yourself into that role, and I’m honored to have worked with someone that’s iconic, and we were able to give the rap world a look that goes beyond just the typical rap video.
Danny, what was it like for you working with Ski on these short films?
DG: Working with Ski is really easy; to play off of him because it’s a certain kind of vulnerability about him, and he gave in to that vulnerability in the videos as well, particularly this one. It was really easy, and I’m not in any way minimizing the work that goes in to doing this, to work on his parts and to do some things really out of his framework that he usually does as a rapper and producer, but he was really easy to work with on this. He had a great sense of what he wanted to do.
Nobody would think of the distinguished and iconic Danny Glover doing a short-film, rap video.
DG: [laughs] Look here, man, I got a 22 year-old and a 19 year-old son, you know what the hell kind of music they listen to and what’s on the radio station, you know what it is! 106.1, 94.9 out here! You know what I’m saying, it’s like that James Brown bit — Papa’s got a brand-new bag! [laughs]
What do you think about this being this is your first rap video, Danny?
DG: [laughs] Hey, look here, man, I can’t wait to let my grandson see it, my daughter see it, and my two boys see it! That’s who’s going to be the judge right there, they’re going to be the judge and the jury on this one.
Read the full article on The Hype Magazine website.
