Funkin’ It with Cut Chemist

Cut Chemist Turns A Creative Corner

Turning 40 wasn’t the catastrophic event Cut Chemist assumed it would be. The Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli DJ (real name Lucas Macfadden) was too busy touring the world with a recently reunited J5 and preparing for the Renegades of Rhythm tour [with DJ Shadow and Afrika Bambaataa’s vinyl] to notice. It wasn’t until a few years into his 40s that it really hit him.

“The only thing turning 40 changed was my metabolism,” Macfadden says with a laugh. I don’t think 40 really hits you until you’re a couple years in. When I turned 40, things were cracking; J5 was happening and the Bambaataa tour was on horizon so I wasn’t really tripping because things were really active. Now I’m just focused on how my legacy is going to continue.”

At 43-years-old, questions like, ‘What are you doing?’ or ‘What mark do you want to leave on the world?’ have flooded his mind, but Macfadden isn’t lounging around his Los Angles home watching reality TV. He released the Funk Off Megamix in November 2015 while putting the finishing touches on his upcoming sophomore solo effort.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself,” he admits. “I want to keep doing what I’ve been doing, but also evolve. I think this mix is a great springboard. It’s fun and it’s dark, but there’s some lighthearted things, too.”

As with many of his mixtapes, including 2004’s The Litmus Test and 2010’s Sound of the Police, the Funk Off Megamix has a theme. This time, he takes his love for French outfits Pacific 231 and Vox Populi! to make an emotionally vacillating album that swings between light and dark. His love affair with the ‘80s French groups started in Italy in 2004.

“I love their music so much I wanted to make my next album out of their material,” he says. “Their records are so cutting edge; they had elements of electro and psychedelia. They were right up my alley as far as conceptual musicians. They sample a lot, which was very rare in the ‘80s.

“I think doing mixes is one of my strong suits,” he continues. “When I do a mix, there’s things to expect and I deliver. This is another feather in the cap. Sound of the Police focused on ethnic sounds from Africa and Latin America. This one is all about French stuff. Just as much as I love ethnic stuff, I also love new wave, cold wave and minimal synth stuff.”

Much of the album was written during a period when Macfadden was in a darker place. It took J5 getting back together and the Renegade of Rhythm tour to pull him out his funk. It unexpectedly took his music in a new direction, as well.

“Those two things happening at the same time brought me back to my roots just enough to where it made me want to take a look at what statement do I want to make,” he says. “I want to make people dance and that kind of got away from me for awhile. I always like to make weird stuff, but as a fan of what I do, I would expect myself to make something funky and something danceable. That started to get away from me because I started experimenting so much. Things were getting weird. I think the Bambaataa thing and J5 getting back together made me look at my past and where I come from. It brought things into perspective into the new things I do.”

Suddenly, he realized what his upcoming sophomore album had been missing. It soon became more about having fun and less about flexing his cerebral muscle. There are glimpses of that on the Funk Off Megamix. Recorded in LA at his studio, A Stable Sound and another LA studio, Comp-ny, it features guest spots from Mr. Lif and Edan, who appeared on “Storm” from his debut solo album, 2006’s The Audience is Listening. The mix is one step closer to Macfadden’s second solo album, due out in 2016.

“The expression on my upcoming album changed from inward to outward,” he explains. “It’s a little bit more accessible and this new direction makes me want to smile. Before the Bambaataa and J5 stuff went down, the album wasn’t delivering. But having those experiences took me back. My original recipe for hip-hop sank into my subconscious so much I was needing to hear that in my next album. Now I think it’s implemented enough to where that’s represented.”

Although J5 is touring again in the summer, Macfadden is clearly happiest when he gets to make his own brand of music as he figures out how to operate as a solo human being in the world.

“There was a certain point in my life that all of this stuff was created from and it was leaning on it too much,” he says. “That was five years ago now. It’s not representative of where I am now, which is a good thing.”

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About the Author

Kyle Eustice Regular contributor to magazines like Thrasher Skateboard Magazine, Ghettoblaster Magazine, Wax Poetics, and RAPstation.com, curated by Chuck D of Public Enemy.