Melt Exclusive: Squadda B on His Wonderful World

Squadda B, who is one of the primary originators of the modern era of rap with his seminal duo Main Attrakionz, never truly ceased his grind over the decade since he has gone solo. However, through his work with Danny Brown’s Bruiser Brigade collective, he’s gained a new set of collaborators as well as an audience for his current work. 

While his first project with the Bruiser Brigade, 3rd Shift, featured Squadda mostly as a producer, his newest project, The Wonderful World of Squadda B, features, in addition to a host of new verses, a return to the sound he is known for as well as the sounds that have been unlocked through his work in Detroit.

In this exclusive interview, Squadda B discusses his new project, his evolution since Main Attrakionz, his similarities with Lady Gaga, and J.U.S’s unique role in the musical output of the Bruiser Brigade.

Read below:

The following transcript has been edited for the sake of brevity and clarity.

Tell me about The Wonderful World of Squadda B. At what point did you decide you wanted to do a larger project? How long has the buildup been? 

There's a lot of songs in there that came up really quick, but the whole idea of The Wonderful World of Squadda B came from J.U.S and we ran it past Danny [Brown]. And from there, it just took off.

I really wanted to do 3rd Shift, the second one with J.U.S, and it went from being kind of like a Bruiser album to just recording to have fun. And then from there, J.U.S was like ‘We might as well just turn this into something for you’.

We started assembling songs that I had just recorded over time and over the past; it was probably like four to five months of music. We just took the best and worked around that.

What has it been like getting back in the studio in that capacity, having been primarily a producer on your last project?

It's been fun. I always rap, but, when I came [to Detroit], I didn't know what people wanted from me.

I didn't know if people wanted beats or raps, so I always rapped out here, but people wanted my beats. So I just turned into a producer. I make beats every day, if not every day, every couple of days. 

I think it's weird to present my raps to everybody like that. Recording it is cool, but showing it to everybody out here is a little different. I'm not really out here pushing my stuff; some people know who I am, but there's some people who don't know nothing about Main Attrakionz and nothing about me.

So it's like, I'm not out here to introduce them, but this was the introduction. This album has been the introduction to a lot of people out here on who I am.

3rd Shift, in some ways, felt like a departure from your usual sound. Would you consider this a return?

So what happened was [J.U.S] picked beats from my hard drive. All the beats on 3rd Shift were my beats. They were beats for me; I didn't make any of these for him. 

We weren't even supposed to be working on an album. I was recording out there, and he pulled up and I knew him from the Danny Brown song.

So I was like, ‘What's up?’, and we ended up recording and he went through my folder of beats and picked the ones that he liked. It's definitely a natural thing. He definitely picked sh*t that I wouldn't pick, but they're all ones that I like.

If I would have rapped on all the 3rd Shift beats and put that out, what do you think people would have said? Main Attrakionz’ last album was 2015, and that's what people know me best for. So, in the past 10 years, my sound has completely evolved, but I never really had the opportunity to have a proper platform for it to be shown.

So I think the cool thing about J.U.S, and Bruiser in general, is that they’ve been real receptive with my projects. The cool thing with him is that he's a natural platform for me to get my new sounds off. 

=Whereas, you know, The Wonderful World of Squadda B, like you said, has a lot of the original cloud rap type sounds. I just, I'm tired of trying to change the world, man; people not gonna get it. I'm gonna give people what they want, what they expect. And if I have new ideas, I'll maybe wiggle it into my sh*t too.

How do you feel about returning to that sound? As an originator of cloud rap, you must have an interesting relationship with the sounds of that era.

This is something I'm starting to understand; once you’re already established, you’re established. Unless it's your thing, like Beyoncé, to come out every time and do something new, people are gonna doubt it. People have an idea of what Lady Gaga does, so even if Lady Gaga did an acoustic album, which I think she did, or a movie or whatever, it's still not gonna be the Lady Gaga sound. So it's like, I gotta just respect that people see me for my Lady Gaga sound and just rock with it.

There’s a lot of weird commonalities and sh*t like that between me and her actually.

My first record label that I was on with my Main Attrakionz was Mayhem Entertainment, and I always wanted to get Mayhem tatted on my stomach, kind of like Tommy Lee did from Methods of Mayhem. But next thing you know, Lady Gaga's new album, Mayhem, came out.

It's just little things like that where I'm like, “Man, we’re on the same wavelength in some sort of way, even if we don't agree.”

It still feels like you’re working with a lot of new sounds on this project. How did you find that balance between what you’re known for and your current evolutions?

I did something for YouTube Music Audio, and they only wanted original beats. I could have lied to them, but they didn’t want no samples.

So I really did the best from 2017 to 2020 to make a gang of beats with no samples, or just sampling myself. “Mood Shifter” is that type of sound that came out of that, and it's pretty cool to give it to people.

It's cool to see how people feel about sh*t, but it's just weird, I ain't gonna lie. It's fun, but it's weird. Because, as an artist, I don't want to recreate the old sh*t, but people need the old sh*t.

I try to find that balance between the two because otherwise it just becomes a job, which is good. It's a blessing; this is a fun job. But, at the same time, I'm scared really to put out some bullsh*t, and I also feel like I'd be bullsh*tting if I wasn't pushing myself to do other things.

So, was starting the album with “Mood Shifter” an intentional choice in that regard?

That was all J.U.S; I put together a track list, and he put one together, and both kind of ended the same, but J.U.S put the tracklist together and he chose to do “Mood Shifter” first.

The way he put the track list together was a different pace for me. I remember talking to him about it. Danny Brown didn't have much to do with the track list. My track list for it was a little, in my opinion, just a little more shocking; it had a little shock value to it. Whereas J.U.S’s was, I can't even put a detail to how he did it, but the way that he did it is classic. I love the way that he put it together. It flows perfect. 

My engineer said the same thing immediately, because the engineer was going through it with me while I was putting the track list together, and then J.U.S sends his over and the engineer was like, “Yeah, this is it.”

I'm very happy about it. That's why I give him the credit for executive producer, him and Danny Brown.

I gave him that title because his work behind the scenes is f*cking crazy. He has a track list that nobody knows and nobody will know about because a lot of the people who are putting this sh*t together for real, we’re not really worried about telling people. Speaking for myself, I feel like the people will know, without somebody going to tell somebody that I had something to do with it.

I'm not going to jump in the forefront. I won’t say I started cloud rap, even though I didn’t, but like, I'm not going to jump in the forefront and be like, “We did this first. This sound, we was doing this sound back then.” It don't matter for me. 

So I think J.U.S has that same sort of mindset where it's like, “Who cares? Who knows what I'm doing behind the scenes?” He’s engineering, he’s producing, he’s doing a lot of sh*t for Danny, he was recording a lot of the Bruiser stuff at one point. He was a real integral part of doing that. 

I don't want to speak out of character or wrong on any of his positions, but I think an interview with J.U.S would be life-changing historically because people don't know that.

How do you feel about how the dynamics of the tracklist ultimately developed?

Once we started formulating this album, in my brain, I kind of looked at it as a DJ Khaled album; I was just going to produce it. And even with the name, The Wonderful World of Squadda B, it's still my world. I'm going to show y'all who I'm f*cking with; I'm going to show y'all how I produce. 

But, once he got to it, he was really able to showcase my abilities. There’s real rap-heavy tracks in the beginning; my solo songs are in the beginning, and then they're sprinkled throughout. I think J.U.S really went through it with an analytical, fine-toothed comb.

There's some interesting things, too. There's a song featuring Fatboy Sharif, then one featuring Danny Brown, then one featuring Kevin Bailey.

For some reason, those three right there, they're completely different rappers, but they all really rap. They all have different sounds, but similarly can do the same thing to the same sound. If you gave all three of those dudes the same beat, Fatboy Sharif might come off a little different just because of his voice, but I feel like Kevin Bailey and Danny Brown, they can get into the same pocket. We're using different paint brushes, but we're making the same strokes. 

I like that he showcased my sounds first to make it an album of mine and then brought in the homies with it. 

How do you feel like your involvement with the Bruiser Brigade played into your creative process?

I mean, just making sure that I'm not letting nobody down. You know what I mean? It's my music, but, at the same time, like, I don't wanna make them look crazy. It's my first solo with them; my first ever album with them was 3rd Shift, so we came out kind of strong. So on the solo tip, it's like, I didn't wanna make myself look crazy; I don't wanna make them look crazy. 

And so, especially with putting Danny Brown's name on it, like, I didn't want nobody to look crazy, so I think just like the peer pressure, if anything, pushed me to be better.

And how do you plan to continue finding that balance between the sounds you’re known for and the new ground you’re pushing into?

My plan, to be completely transparent, is I'm gonna just walk both lines. I'm gonna jump on one wave, I'm gonna jump on another wave, I'm gonna jump on one wave, I'm gonna jump on another wave.

So, y'all just got The Wonderful World of Squadda B, but my next album, as of today at least, it's gonna be Dr. Squadda and Mr. Beach. The next album that I have with Dream Beach is a real storytelling, fun, party-esque album. I feel like Wonderful World was traditional more so than anything, but the Dream Beach album that I'm gonna put out next is a little more experimental: different tempos, different subject matters, different flows, a little singing on there.

I had to put out my traditional sh*t first, and then I'm gonna get freaky with the next one. 

So I think I'm gonna just keep going back and forth. Keep diversity going on too because I don't wanna just overdo my sh*t; I don't wanna overdo any subject. I just feel like for my longevity, I need to be doing a lot. 

So we'll probably jump on one world and jump to the next world. Then we'll jump on one world, jump to the next world, and hopefully everyone will be happy.