Beatnuts

Juju chillen inside Rival Skate Shop
Photography: Chad Griffith

With Juju of the Beatnuts
Words by Adam Gianotti

Stone Crazy is one of the few albums in my collection. For those of you younger readers who arent familiar with the Beatnuts, like this little idiot in Rival today, you should definitely check out Stone Crazy. This is the album that made Big Pun blow up, and when you listen to it, youll understand why. At the time, the only other track he was really on was You Aint a Killer from the Soul in the Hole sound track album. This was before Capital Punishment came out. The single that debuted was titled Off the Books. Juju, Les, Pun, and Cuban killed that track! In a way, I feel bad for the little dude who didnt know this group. Come to think of it, I wonder if he knew who Big Pun was. Either way, all the Beatnuts albums are good. Thats why Im so psyched to bless Focus with an interview of Juju in continuation of our column of genuine, good hip-hop. Enjoy the history lesson.

Whats up Juju? Its been a long time coming! (We had been missing each other for the interview for weeks; we finally got up at Vinny Pontes store, Rival, in NYC, a local chill spot of ours.)
Yeah man. I was at Vinnys til late, and knocked out as soon as I got home yesterday.

Are you still out in Brooklyn? I know that you had moved from Corona, Queens.
Nah man. I was in Greenpoint, but I moved out to Jersey and bought a house. I have four kids, so I had to do it for their sake. My son got hit by a car when he was outside playing. We lived in a building , you know, so there was nowhere for them to play safely, no yard or nothing like that, so this was better. Its also a smarter investment, too. When I was in Brooklyn, I was paying all this money, and the shit wasnt even mine. At the end of the day, the landlord could kick us out, which he ended up doing anyway.

Its definitely a better investment. But you said you got kicked out of the spot after all that?
Yeah, the landlord sold the building, and you know I had the illest spot on the top floor. So that was the first one to sell.

Shit man. Well, its better anyway now that you own your spot. So before we start for real, I have a quick question about Musical Massacre. There was a track on there called Spelling Beatnuts with Lil Donny. When I used to work over at Ecko, me and my boy Fulvio used to kill it with that track. He even had a dollar taped to the wall that said Donnys on it.(laughing) Was that you doing that voice, or was it someone else?
That was actually Lord Sear. It came from him and Les when we were in Florida. He actually said Dennys, but when they made it into a skit for the album they called him Donny. He wanted a dollar to go to Dennys!

Word, thats crazy man, Ive been wondering that for a while. So tell us what you have been up to these days.
Well. weve been doin' a lot of traveling. We pretty much been all over the world twenty times over, with the exception of Alaska. I take advantage and pick up as much (vinyl) rare grooves as I can. Record shopping is still priority numero uno for me.

Youre still collecting records? I know you used to produce the tracks on the Beatnuts albums. Do you have a new project coming up?
Right now Im multi-tasking because Im working on an instrumental LP, my solo joint called The Junkyard Music Project, as well as a new Beatnut LP that we just started. Updates on all these projects can be found on www.myspace.com/jujubeatnuts. Im also featured on Marco Polos upcoming release Port Authority (SPAZAM/Rawkus) and on the new DJ Babu album, both coming out this year. Its funny cause people dont see you, they think you stopped workin. We ain't been seen cause were workin' harder. Nah mean?

Tell me about how it was to work with Big Pun. Actually, how it was for Pun back in the day to get the chance to work with you, being that Beatnuts were already big before Pun got there.
I met Pun while workin' with Joe (Fat Joe) in the studio, and we clicked instantly. He was a big fan of the music, reciting lines from Reign of the Tek and stuff like that. Once I heard him rhyme, I knew the world was in for a problem. After that we became closer. I would go over to his house from time to time with beats and we would just build along with Cuban and Seis (Triple Seis). He was the most prolific MC that I have ever met. The perfect blend of personality and skill in a hardcore MC. Shortly after that, we began to record Stone Crazy, probably my favorite of all my albums because I recorded the whole thing in my house on a 1 24 track Tascam reel-to-reel. It was an exciting time for us. Me and Les were chillin. He had just bought a house and I had the crazy loft in Greenpoint with the studio, tons of money and nothing to worry about but making music. This was the time we put down Off the Books featuring Big Pun. Its funny cause he had picked two beats from a tape I gave him. One was some real hardcore shit, and the other was what came to be known as Off the Books. He said, Ju, both beats are crazy. But if we do this one, we will blow up! And man, from his mouth to Gods ears, thats exactly what happened. The day we recorded it I went with my boys to pick him up and bring him to Brooklyn. He wasnt as big back then, even though we had to pull out the middle seat of the MPV so he could fit in the back comfortably. It was a crazy day of beers, blunts, and lyrics in the studio. At one point, my son came to the control room where I was, and said that Pun tried to take his hamburger away from him on his way to the vocal booth. How real is that? Of course when I approached Pun about it, he steadily denied it classic Pun. I miss that dude so much man. Im still devastated by his loss.