Legend Conversation: The Alchemist
Legend Conversation #5: The Alchemist
Date: 7/14/22
Interviewers: Alexander “DJ RTC” Fruchter + Dave Jeff
Location: Dorian’s, Chicago, IL
Dinner: Beef Kebab, falafel over rice, Israeli salad, baklava, prepared by Chef Brian Fisher
Partners: Ciroc, Closed Sessions, Don Julio, Johnnie Walker, Jugrnaut, PHLI, Ramova Brewery
DJ’s: DJ Rude One, The Twilite Tone
Custom Apparel: Legend Convo x ALC 5-panel
Photo and Video: Jesus J. Montero with Gabriel Maldonado and KayoDidThat
"Bet. Sounds good."
The Alchemist is a man of few words. At least in email form. When you talk to him in person though, his stories and ideas are as prolific and varied as his discography. But on email, he can be a bit hard to understand and a little vague. My prior email experience with The Alchemist was as a journalist or DJ, and revolved around either attempting to interview him for a story, or trying to book him to DJ a party in Chicago. I recently found an old iPhone of mine that contained a 2011 text conversation about Al coming to Chicago for a Closed Session with us unfortunately never came to fruition. It’s funny though, because his last text in that decade old conversation pretty much matched the message he sent me confirming this Legend Conversation just a couple months ago - “Bet. Sounds good.”
Like most of my direct peers and my fellow Hip Hop Heads worldwide, I am a fan of The Alchemist (and all of our Legend Conversation subjects) before anything else. If you watch our interview above, you may catch me zoning out a few times. It may appear that I am daydreaming, but in reality what you’re seeing is me listening to one of Al’s stories and having a “holy shit, The Alchemist is sitting next to me talking about making beats on Black Sunday” type of moment. I’m sitting up there trying to be calm and professional, while 13-14 year old me is flipping the fuck out - respectfully.
I interviewed The Alchemist for the first time in 2005 or 2006 for SoundSlam.com. It was a joint interview with Stat Quo about the Shady Records mixtape, The Re-Up. A couple years later I met him outside The Double Door where he did this Freestyle In the Park for rubyhornet.com. For a few years since, he would greet me as “that kid with that site” whenever we would run into each other somewhere.
In 2020 I pitched him on doing a large profile for LL Cool J’s new-at-the-time, RockTheBells.com. In classic fashion, the interview was confirmed and setup over several brief emails. I finished the piece in early May and the article, “Take a Trip Inside The Alchemist’s Laboratory” was published in July of 2020. The article was my first big piece in a while, and helped me restart my journalism career. After this piece ran, I was able to do similar statement pieces on Fat Joe, Raekwon, DJ Muggs, and MC JUICE. Also right after I turned in my article, The Alchemist launched the ALC Records site and shop, dropped Alfredo, and began “crashing rap twitter” with vinyl and merch drops. If you never had an ALC Records drop in your cart but lost it before paying, then are you even a fan?!
2020 started a crazy run for The Alchemist that has seen him release critically-acclaimed LP’s with Freddie Gibbs, Curren$y, Conway, Armand Hammer, Boldy James, as well as compilations like This Thing of Ours Vol. 1 & 2 and solo material such as The Food Villain, and Phases. That would be impressive on its own, but what I think is most interesting and influential is the way in which The Alchemist approaches his music and product releases from the perspective of a collector, and a fan.
We are serviced new digital music every day and twice on Friday’s. The Alchemist has taken his music and brand way beyond the digital world by creating coloring books, action figures, hoodies, tees, limited edition vinyl, baby clothes, baseball bats, and baseball cards (he told me a bit about series 2 of his Bo Jackson series with Boldy James, and the cards are going be wild). The merch and vinyl are only available on his website, direct from the source, and it in that way he has built a community and a headquarters for his fans.
I got to see this community first hand when we hosted an ALC Records Pop-Up shop at Dorian’s, ahead of the Legend Conversation dinner and party. For 3 hours straight, I saw Al’s fans walk through the door and immediately light up. There was a pure enthusiasm and excited from so many kids in their teens and 20’s, some young producers themselves resembling young and wild Ninja Turtles first meeting Master Splinter. It’s something rare to see these days in the digital age, filled with bots, resellers, and - you know the rest. But the in-store instantly brought me back to when I was a kid just starting out, and how much it met to me to meet some of my musical heroes.
I was really excited to explore this part of The Alchemist’s career during our interview, the thread between his earliest experiences with Hip Hop to the current way he operates, in the studio, online and day to day as just a cool ass dude. Along with my co-host, Dave Jeff, The Alchemist weaved through that connection, sharing stories about the Cable Access Hip Hop show he hosted as a teenager, assisting on beats for Black Sunday with DJ Muggs, his transition from Mudfoot to The Alchemist, his relationship with DJ Premier, his highly anticipated new LP with Roc Marciano, why he doesn’t rap that often, and much more (so much more).
Watch the full interview above, and see Jesus J. Montero’s photos below. You can also sign-up for more information on the Legend Conversation series. If you enjoyed this conversation, please share it with your friends.
-Alexander “DJ RTC” Fruchter
