Haystak – Interview

A car fulla white boys. come on and ride with haystak!

Been busy?

You know, you can be in Bermuda, but you aint on vacation. But seriously, I feel really blessed. Its just a blessing for a big ol white boy from Tennessee to be in the business, but rap music has paid for me to be in New York on business and that says a lot. If I never make it any further, Ive come a long way.

How did you get in the game?

Me and a partner of mine had a label and we put a cd out. That cd became my demo when my partner got indicted and was put away for six years. Hes still gone. I signed with Street Flavor and we put out a cd called Mak Million, and to be honest with you it didnt do shit. It was a solid cd to me and it didnt do shit for like six months. It did start to pick up and that gave us a reason to make another cd. Hence, Car Fulla White Boys. Then Koch heard it and scooped it up. Were just moving on up.

What was your goal going into the studio for Car Fulla White Boys?

Well, I think the first album didnt do that well because of lack of promotion and the fact that I was in country music USA. That was going to be a hard thing to overcome. Im young and I have several years to devote.

How do you write?

I never really write poetry. I usually write to a metronome that is either silent and in my head. I know how many BPMs (beats per minute) that there is, so Ill come back later and find a beat that I think captures it. I can write however, but if I was doing a song with you, Id want to hear your beat and verse. Sometimes on my own Ill write to a beat or without.

You have a knack for storytelling. Are these planned out ahead of time? Like what you want to talk about?

I freestyle, and that is my coldest skill but I dont freestyle at work. When Im in the booth, its written. Its premeditated instead of spur of the moment.

Who influenced you?

Being from the south, you get exposed to everything because all you have is videos and magazines to guide you. I was influenced by everything and I influenced myself in a way. I think everyone influences themselves. But I have my alter egos. Haystak is an unedited version of Jason Winfrey. Haystak is Jason Winfrey without manners.

Allowing you to say what you couldnt otherwise.

Exactly.

I saw you worked with live instruments. Had you worked like that before?

Actually I hadnt. I always aspired to do that. I didnt want people to attribute my success to live instrumentation or lights and smoke, because the first album had no live instruments. So that is my frame of reference. If someone says Stak got on because hes got this or that, I say Buy the first disc, bitch. And thats it. Ill always have that as a reference. We may never do it again or maybe well do more of it. I dont know.

Now you have the freedom to do what you want musically.

If it all ends tomorrow, its been fun. Ive traveled the world on other peoples expenses and have enjoyed it. Id have no complaints.

What music got you into hip-hop?

Run-DMC, the Beastie Boys and Grandmaster Flash.

Public Enemy?

I love Public Enemy. “My Uzi weighs a ton.”

I kind of miss that era. The party hip-hop.

Yeah. The variety is missing. Now everyone is a baller. There is no variety. You had Fatboys just rapping about eating.

Beasties.

Yeah, rapping about partying. Variety. Now everyone is a hustler.

Now its all guns.

We are trying to bring the ass-whooping back into popularity. I don’t know what happened to that. Nobody fights no more. I miss that shit.

If you couldnt take it, you couldnt take it.

But you didn’t have to kill nobody.

+ charlie craine