Album of the Week: GonjaSufi ‘A Sufi and a Killer’

Album of the Week: GonjaSufi ‘A Sufi and a Killer’

12 March, 2010 | 12.01AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: album of the week, flying lotus, gonjasufi, the gaslamp killer, warp records

Sufism is a mystical sect within Islam, dedicated to the purification of the soul in pursuit of divinity. Stillness lies at its heart—a stillness embodied by the religion’s Whirling Dervishes, or semazens, who spin in place in trance-like worship. (If you’ve ever seen the film ‘Baraka’, you’ve seen them in action.)

The same stillness permeates the core of ‘A Sufi and a Killer’, the debut album from the San Diego-raised rapper GonjaSufi. Produced mainly by the Gaslamp Killer and Mainframe, and featuring one track by Flying Lotus, it’s a collection of hazy, psychedelic beats, mined from progressive rock and world music, that cradle Gonjasufi’s voice like a nest of moss and sticks.

GonjaSufi—aka Sumach Valentine—came up rapping with San Diego’s Masters of the Universe, but he doesn’t necessarily sound like a rapper on the record. He’s got a reedy singing voice that slips and cracks, grinding against the music like sandpaper—a bluesy, broken yawl somewhere between Jack White and a desiccated D’Angelo. But you can tell he’s a rapper from the way he uses his voice. Even in conversation, he’s performing—it’s not a showoffy thing, but a means of playing with identities, characters, putting meat on ideas, making words flesh. A surfer and a student of yoga, he channels stillness with every syllable.

Thanks for taking the time to talk, the record’s fantastic.

Thank you, man.

It has a real West Coast vibe to it.

You know, I’m from San Diego. I haven’t traveled to the East Coast yet. I’m a surfer, I don’t know if you can hear the ocean in the tracks. I’ve been attracted to the east; not just the East Coast but the Far East, so it’s kind of interesting that you say that—I never really thought it was a West Coast album or that you could feel the West Coast in it, but that’s a good thing, I think.

There’s a Mexican or Chicano influence in some of the guitars.

Oh yeah, definitely. I’m a West Coast fanatic, man. You know, I bang the West Coast all day, bro. Everything I learned, all the good things that I’ve learned, most of them, I would say, come from the east, the Far East, but I love the West, man. My mother’s from Mexico, so maybe you get some of that in there.

GonjaSufi ‘Kowboyz & Indians’

There seems to be an eastern influence in the samples in “Kowboyz and Indians” and “Klowdz"—are you into Indian music?

It definitely hits me. I haven’t really dived into it, it’s only a couple artists I really know from the east, like Turkish psyche rock. It’s just the different instrumentation, the different timing they were on. Not just the standard 4/4 sh*t that we’re always hearing. A lot of the music is real spiritual, you know. I think there’s more heart in the music, and less materialism, maybe because they’re living in a world where it’s not about the house they’re living in, and maybe a lot of those cats are recording a lot of that sh*t on the dirt. The environment is captured through that sound, so it has no choice but to hit me, resonate deeply, you know.

How did you guys make the beats for the album?

All the Gaslamp Killer’s beats are basically loops, like re-edits. If you heard most of his previous work, he re-edits a lot of songs. Ultimately he was sending me the sh*t, and I was like, this album’s kind of the callout for a band, bro. In my eyes, it was like, this is what I would record if I had the f**kin’ band that I want. If I could put together a band, this is how the band would smash it. So he would just send me the tracks, I’d lace’em, then I got a couple beats from FlyLo that I laced up, and Mainframe too. I was out here in Vegas doing it all. I recorded all the tracks by myself, just with all my equipment. I try not to tell people what I’m recording with, so heads don’t go out and try to buy the stuff. [laughs]

Are you making beats too?

I’ve been making my own beats. This whole record—that’s kinda why I call it ‘A Sufi and a Killer’. First it was ‘A Killer and a Sufi’. That was what him and me had put together, and we were going to white-label the album and just put it out, just because of all the samples. I didn’t wanna get sued. Then Warp convinced me to put the FlyLo track on it and a couple of Mainframe’s. I was gonna separate it—I have enough tracks with Mainframe that I was gonna put out another record of just me and Mainframe sh*t. I have a bunch of sh*t that I recorded just me, beats and my vocals. I played some of that on Mary Anne Hobbs’ show the other day, that was my production. I have my own stuff, but I’m into collabin’ with heads, man, I like the exchange, I like not having to focus on everything, and being able to focus on just one aspect. That’s why it came out a little different than it would if it were just me doing everything.

My guys are all about intimidation, you know, and I found a way through yoga—I was intimidated by them growing up, a lot, but when I started to do yoga I found a way to use that fear and channel it and realize there’s nothing to be intimidated by.

In the Pitchfork interview, you said you got into music through early ‘90s hip-hop and N.W.A. I thought that was interesting, because neither your songs nor your voice or delivery seem to have a very obvious connection to classic hip-hop. Did you rap more traditionally before?

I still consider myself a rap artist, man. First. I have more rap joints—I been lacing the rap sh*t, right now I’m working on another rap album. That’s been my first love. That’s how I developed all that singing sh*t. I would go from recording rap joints and then right after, lace these other joints because I wore my voice out. My rap approach is pretty aggressive, you know. I’ll rap ‘til I’m hoarse and my voice cracks.

The stuff I’m recording now, I’m recording all the puhhh and the bhhh coming through [makes breathy sounds], like what the popper stoppers are supposed to protect you from. I don’t even use that stuff. I like that feel. The new stuff I’m putting out, heads might say, “He needs to get a better mic,” or some sh*t, but I’m just doing what I want and what I feel, and not what has been expected. I don’t care about format or what the industry says. At the end of the day, I have to be content with what I’m making, man.

All that rap sh*t, you know, my crew is Masters of the Universe from San Diego, and we’re all, we’re beasts, bro. We can hang with the best of ‘em, bro, I don’t care who it is. My guys are all about intimidation, you know, and I found a way through yoga—I was intimidated by them growing up, a lot, but when I started to do yoga I found a way to use that fear and channel it and realize there’s nothing to be intimidated by.

How did you get into yoga?

Through one of my lifelong friends, Christian. He went and trained and was practicing yoga for a while. I was working at the airport, pumping gas with the airlines, and he was taking a flight, he came out on the runway and smelled all the fumes, and he was like, “Man, you’re killing yourself, bro, come work the desk at my yoga spot.” So I worked the desk, getting paid the same amount, $8 an hour, and I started hopping in the class on my own, in between work. I just went into the training headfirst. That sh*t changed my life, man. It’s the best thing I ever did, and everyone else around me will tell you that. After that yoga training I went through, Bikram, my life changed, just like everyone else who’s gone through that training.

GonjaSufi ‘Duet’

What is it that yoga does for you?

There’s three things: you got strength, flexibility, and you find the balance between them. A lot of heads say, “Well, I’m overweight, and I’m not flexible.” That’s the exact reason you should be in that room, bro. I’m tight as f**k! My flexibility isn’t sh*t, really. I’m one of the strongest people I know, but I know that my strength can buy my flexibility. I can use my muscles to find flexibility. It’s basically going into the room and being honest with where you’re at, where I’m at today. Not judging myself, but checking in with myself, knowing that I put myself in these postures—you know, it’s not only a form of worship. A lot of people go in there saying, “I just want to lose weight.” All that’s going to happen, man. What they don’t know is—if I told you, look. Go buy a six-month package at any yoga spot. I guarantee you, bro, on everything I have, if you were to do that, six months from now, your life would change, 180 degrees. Everything you’ve been chasing will start chasing you, man.

What it does, is it kind of brings a stillness amongst you. For me, it’s brought the ability to be still and to allow everything else to start chasing me again. What I learned from my gurus, we’re chasing what’s chasing us. We’re like a split second ahead of it. We’re like a dog chasing its tail. We just need to be still and chill the f**k out, let it catch up with you. That’s what yoga’s done. It’s allowed me to be still, and allow everything that I’ve been seeking to seek me out.

How does that find its say into your music and your writing?

It’s just allowed me to channel a higher frequency, man, and to not really worry about my thoughts. You think less. The people who practice yoga, who really understand it, think less, like they empty their heads. It’s a great place to be to sweat out all your thoughts and all the f**king demons inside my head. It allows me, when I record, to not think about sh*t and just be present in the moment. Just like the big wave surfers. That’s why surfing to me is the biggest form of realized people on the planet, because they’ll drop into a wave that’s like a 50-foot face, and they’re so present and so in the moment, and you’re dealing with the fear of death, you overcome it. As a result, you get the biggest high and adrenaline rush that life has to offer. It’s basically getting out of the f**king head, man, and stepping into the heart.

That’s what life’s about. Yoga and surf.

It’s interesting what you were saying about surfing. One of the things that makes surfing so powerful is that you have to wait. You have to summon your energies for the right wave, and wait until the time is right.

Exactly, man. Knowing that waiting on the wave is just as important as catching the wave. You’ll be out there, and if there’s a bunch of people out there, they’re all competing for the same wave. Sometimes the best thing to do is let that person get the wave. Because usually there’s a bigger wave right behind it. That’s why the surfers, man, everybody’s just f**king throwing up the chakras and high-vibing it, and people are happy, bro. They understand, like, life comes in sets. Waiting on the wave is just as beautiful as catching that wave. You know your set’s coming, and then when you get it, bro, you just charge it, drop in it, you can go over the falls, or you can catch it and get f**kin’ tubed, but either way, you charged it. That’s what life’s about. Yoga and surf.

Do you miss the surf in Las Vegas? What took you there?

Just cheap rent. Big house. What I pay here, I couldn’t get an apartment in California, so I’m able to get a big house here. Because I’m a loud dude, I’ll shake the whole neighborhood. But I rode the biggest waves of my life out here in Vegas, bro. All that sh*t I recorded. That’s what I’m saying, because I’m so fiending for the ocean, I’m able to channel it, and I appreciate it more here. I’m working to get back to the ocean, but this time, have a home right next to the motherf**ker. As opposed to a lot of heads that live in L.A. or San Diego, but they don’t give a sh*t about the ocean. I travel all the way from here to the beach, these cats don’t even know Malibu breaks, who live right there in f**kin’ Malibu. I have more appreciation for it living here in the desert, since I love the ocean—I’ve actually spent time going to the ocean, bottling it up in gallons, bringing it back over here and pouring it on the desert sand, bro, just to see the earth start breathing. I’m wondering, how long has it been since salt water from the Pacific Ocean touched this earth, right here.

I never imagined music like yours coming out of Vegas. Is there much of a scene there?

There is, but not really, man. Vegas is a place where everyone is escaping to, like leaving California, who’s either running from the f**kin’ law or can’t afford California. There is a small scene, but I haven’t stepped into it. Mostly it’s people doing cover songs. I got a neighbor across the street, she’s making some sh*t every day. I think she’s a cover artist or something. She mad-dogs the sh*t out of me every day, man.

As far as the music scene, it’s a horrific environment, bro. The strip and the people here—I’ve met some of the most beautiful people here, but I’ve also met some of the most demonic people, man. Not to, like, shoot people down, bro, but even in the yoga community out here, man, I’ve dealt with more bullsh*t and hatred from yoga teachers out here that you would believe. The environment, it’s all about show. Like, the spotlight, you know. Everyone’s competing for the spotlight out here. I’m not about that, I could give a sh*t, man. I told Will [Gaslamp Killer], “You say you sang on the f**kin’ songs, I don’t give a sh*t, man.” I just want to make sure I can get enough money to get over to Bali, bro, and take care of my family. It’s a very horrific environment, but it’s like a f**kin’ hurricane: if you can find the ability to be the eye in it, that’s what I’m trying to do out here, be that calmness out in this f**kin’ horrificness. Then it’s served its purpose.

Where does the name Gonjasufi come from? Do you follow Sufism?

Yeah, I have. It hit me in college. I study everything, man. I study all religions. I try to go into the places that people are afraid to go, all the dark spots, and just sit there until I can find some light. It’s all the same sh*t, man.

A couple of times you sing about “the price of fame.” Is having a public persona something that troubles you, or that you struggle with?

It has been. When I make it about me, yes. Like when ‘Testament’ came out, that was the first song that came out on a label—I wasn’t part of that mixdown, and to be honest with you, I’m not content with that song at all. I just put it in with FlyLo, and I didn’t realize the magnitude that he was on, how many people were going to hear it. When I heard it and I started reading the comments, you know, someone was like, “This sh*t sucks,” and all these critics, I was ready to blow my head off, bro. Like, I was going to change my name, and all this crazy sh*t. Now, I really don’t give a f**k, man. When I worry about me, I can get caught up in all this sh*t, and I can take the fame and all the accolades, but it’s bigger than me, man.

I’m not worried about all the fame. Of course people will think I’m a certain way. Like when I went to Japan and did a show, I think they thought it was going to be on some jazz sh*t, all calm, and I came out and did some f**kin’ punk rock. I think I scared some people, but I’m f**kin’ me, man, and I’m just gonna do me. Some people are going to like it, and some are going to hate it, but at the end of the day, I have to be true to my heart in order to bring people to another spot.

I try not to get caught up in fame, that sh*t is a drug. Look at all these cats O.D.’ing, that sh*t is major, bro. I tell you what, man, I have more respect for artists and movie stars now than I did a couple months ago, man. Because I know the scrutiny they’re under, and what kind of judgment takes place, and what strength you have to have, and team you have to have surrounding you. Plus, I think a lot of people, all these actors and sh*t, I think everybody’s starting to more yoga or something, bro. Heads are like, coming down to earth or something. Maybe it’s because I’m getting some exposure and I’m looking at them differently, or maybe they’ve gotten back into the yoga, I don’t know. Whatever, man, I just keep rolling. I just focus on my family and try not to worry about all that sh*t.

GonjaSufi ‘Ancestors’

Did the song ‘Ancestors’ come from any particular experience?

Yeah, that was just me admitting that if I was to die today, I would pray that I’m worthy of getting to the place that I want to get. Just knowing my ancestors are watching over me. I dream of them, and they let me know when I’m f**king up, or when I’m doing right. Just a bridge to them, man, and being honest. A song of repentance and that my flesh has got the most of me, every f**kin’ day of my life. Hopefully, through this admission, I can get into that place I’m really trying to get into after I die. Yeah, that was a pretty personal song.

Tell me about the mixdown—I guess you spent more time mixing than you did recording the music.

Yeah, I was with AGDM. What took the longest was just us getting to know each other. I didn’t want to just pay some dude to mix it real quick, say, “Here, here’s some dollars, just mix the record, it’s gotta come out.” It was more like, me and Alfred just getting to know each other, spending nights going to shows, and going partying. I wasn’t satisfied. The first night I was mixing down, I thought I was going to mix the whole record in one f**kin’ night, man. We started the session, and the sun came out, and he’s like, “All right, man, I think that’s good for today.” I started crying, bro! I was like, “Bro! What do we need?” And I brought out, like, a couple grand and threw it on the ground, I was like, “I’m in this sh*t for life, bro, let’s keep going!” And he’s looking at me, and he’s like, “Bro! Just chill the f**k out, man! I’m tired, man. Our ears are kinda f**ked up, we’ve been here for 12 hours straight, bro, we’re not gonna be mixing right. Come back fresh.”

Plus I was living in Vegas and he was in L.A., so I would come for a couple of weeks and then come back to Vegas. Then drive back for a couple more weeks. The process was like, we would mix down all night, then maybe about four, five in the morning, he lived in Silver Lake, and I’d hop in my car and drive out to Malibu and crash out in my whip, some street by someone’s house, because you can’t sleep out there on the beach. Then I’d wake up, hop in the ocean, surf, do some yoga, and then come back and meet him, about four o’clock, 4:20, and we’d get busy. That sh*t was beautiful times for me, man. That was probably the part that I enjoyed the most out of making this record, was the mixdown.

It’s where you put your final vision on it. It can go some many different ways.

It was hard to pinpoint what songs I wanted, because I’ve got so many—as I was bringing songs to the table, I heard other songs, and I was like, “Oh, wait a minute, maybe we should do this!” We’d go off on a tangent for a month, and then we wouldn’t use any of those songs. I have probably 10, 15 songs we mixed down that didn’t even make the cut. It was some heavy sh*t.

GonjaSufi ‘SuzieQ’

The one thing I wanted, I wanted the common denominator to be the mixdown. Like, how could I make ‘Holidays’ and ‘Candylane’ and ‘Ancestors’ tie up with ‘SuzieQ’? Since they’re so sonically different. We didn’t want to overdo it with the same sh*t, so with ‘Holidays,’ I spent a lot of time on that song, just trying to figure out what to do, and then I said, “F**k it, man, I’m just going to put this one out, like, innocent, as it is, no effects, nothing. And it’ll balance off the sh*t that’s in ‘DedNd’.” Just knowing that it’s ok to bunch the different sh*t together, different colors to make up the full spectrum, and not just focus on the color green the whole time.

I was going to say, I was really surprised at how cohesive it all feels.

I knew what I wanted to say with the record, from the get-up, and I knew how I wanted to end it, and I knew how I wanted to start it. The middle part was the hard part. I knew I wanted to end on ‘Made’. I knew I wanted to start with ‘Kobwebz’ and hit ‘Ancestors’. I wanted it to give thanks at the beginning, then all the trials and tribulations and the madness that I’m going through, and then ‘Ageing’ is towards the end, it’s like, symbolic—"once a man, twice a child,” and then at the end of my days, I made it. I wanted people to feel like they were living through that, you know.

GonjaSufi ‘Kobwebz’

You put everything in there. Like, if this was going to be the only record you made, you wanted to get it all in.

I gotta do it, man. I’m not about quantity. I’m about quality. Every record I mix down, the next record I’m mixing down, I’m doing it like it’s my last record—and my first. I can’t even listen to this f**king record that’s out right now, bro. I can’t stand that f**king sh*t, man. Right now, this [new one] is the only record that matters, bro, on the whole f**kin’ planet. That’s where I’m at. My whole focus is on this record. And what I have to do to get this record, is I gotta lay a bunch of rap songs, bro. That’s what I end up putting out, all these rap joints I have on the side come out as a result of me seeking out this one record.

They say, “You’re only as good as your last record,” but I always thought that it’s more like, you’re only as good as your next record.

I recorded that sh*t in ‘06 and ‘07! F**k, bro. We’re hitting 2012.

The rap stuff—do you do that under the same name?

I do it under Sumach. Now that I’ve mixed down, all that old sh*t I’m listening to differently. I need to do another mixdown. I’m actually not selling any of my old rap sh*t any more, until I go through another mixdown and grime it up more.

What was the San Diego rap scene like?

Man, it was unbelievable, bro. It was just raw, bro. In the ‘90s, when all that Project Blowed and L.A. sh*t was going down, we were slept on. Everyone was focused on L.A., but L.A. heads were coming to Dago, man. Ab Rude was coming to Dago and hanging out with us. It was just brutal, bro. We had this spot called the Underground Improv every Sunday, and just showcased all the talent in Dago. You know, the ‘90s, that was the truth, bro. In all music, whether it was rock, whatever, I miss that, man. I didn’t realize how blessed and special those moments were ‘til now.

What is it that you miss?

Just the meaning, man. The struggle to make a f**king tape, bro. We were slinging tapes, man. We were going down to the tape spot, buying a bunch of tapes, we’d do our own artwork at Kinkos, we had the four-track, we had to make our own beats, and there was no internet. It was hand-to-hand out the trunk, we were out on the streets with boomboxes. Now, one day, bro, you can snatch a bunch of beats offline, off MySpace, you got a good mic, get the computer, make it sound like you’re the sh*t, and you press “Send,” and people are buying it online.

There’s no struggle, man. There’s no hand-to-hand communication. There’s no Basquiat sh*t any more. Anybody can do it, dude. If you started rapping in 2000, I don’t wanna hear sh*t. You can’t tell me, I’m sorry, bro. You missed the boat, man. If you were rapping in the ‘90s, all right, we’re good, but all this 2000 MC sh*t, I’m sorry, I’m just not down with this new generation of rap. Anyone in my crew, bro, will smash anybody on the planet. I’m starting a label, it’s called Air, and I’m putting all that out. I’m getting ready to take over the world with that. It’s just the lack of understanding the movement behind it—it was a movement, a conscious movement, it wasn’t about money.

What other singers influenced you, outside of hip-hop?

I would say, Nina Simone, Massive Attack, I was into Tricky a lot, Portishead. Bob Marley, the most. A lot of reggae, Hugh Mundell. And then I got into Radiohead in like ‘98. I was recording sh*t, and people were telling me, “You sound like Radiohead,” and I didn’t know who the f**k that was, man. And then I heard ‘Amnesiac’, and I was like—I swear, bro, one of those songs on there, I have a four-track tape that if I brought it out, it sounds identical, man. I was just like, holy f**k, bro. Now, right now, I love anything Thom Yorke‘s doing, I like Jack White a lot. Beth Gibbons is doing it for me. That ‘Out of Season’ album, that’s one of the hardest sh*ts ever.

You like people that take their voices to their limits.

Yeah, you know, you can hear that they’re not classically trained, it’s more just emotion. There’s some notes that are off, but that’s the beauty in it, the honesty in it. Like Billie Holliday. In ‘Out of Season’, it sounds like Beth Gibbons smoked 46 packs of cigarettes, and inhaled and pressed record, and on her exhale would sing it, and there was just smoke coming out. Some of those notes, I’d like to see her hit some of those notes again. That’s kind of how my album is for me, bro. Like, ‘Ancestors’, I don’t know if I could ever do that again. ‘DedNd’, some of those songs—f**k, man, it’s going to be hard to translate that live. If people are expecting me to hit that note exactly the same, there’s very few cats—the only people I’ve seen do that live have been Beth Gibbons and Thom Yorke. When I saw Beth Gibbons live, I was blown away that she was actually better live than on her recordings.

How are you going to be touring the record?

I don’t know, man. I just got asked to open up for Gil Scott-Heron in Rome in May, with Giles Peterson and Jamie Lidell and Nosaj Thing. That’s pretty much going to be my first European show. I got another show they’re asking me to do in Poland on September 1 with Heliocentrics and Mulatu Astatke, a couple heads I need to meet up with. I don’t have a band yet, so I’m just going to soundboy the sh*t, Jamaican style, figure out a way to play it, either off of reel-to-reels, or something weird, man. I’m going to keep it simple, man. Just smash it up. Hopefully I can get a band. Maybe some guys will be like, “This dude needs a band, bro, what’s up.”

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