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Lil' John Roberts
(September 2005 Issue)
 Lil' John Roberts's name has been popping up more and more here at MD -
in interviews with other artists, in conversations with people in the drum
industry - and, most importantly, in mail from fans. It
seems everyone is talking about Lil' John. And after seeing him play, you'd know why.
By Billy Amendola
Not long after moving to Atlanta, Lil' John
became a favorite among the
hottest producers in that city's R&B scene. Prior to touring with
Janet Jackson behind
her Velvet Rope album, Lil' John funked it up with Monica, En Vogue, Xscape, and Goodie Mob. When Modern
Drummer
recently caught up with him, Lil' John had just completed touring with
George Duke and Al Jarreau and
finishing up new recordings with Duke
and Jonathan Butler.
MD: How was the tour with George Duke
and Al Jarreau?
Lil' John: Very cool. I played with Rachel Farrell too. Rachel
is from Philadelphia.
We've got a lot of cats in Philly - especially
younger drummers, who have watched us through the years. Now
they're
all playing with the major artists on the scene, like Jill Scott,
Jaguar, and Kindred. There are some bad
boys coming out of
Philadelphia. Some of them are eighteen years old or younger.
MD: It's scary
how some younger players absorb so much at a young age, isn't it?
Lil' John: Tell me about it.
There's a young guy in Philly now,
his name is Spanky. Nobody really knows about him yet. I think he's
going to
be the next phenomenon. He's just playing all kinds of drums.
MD: Who else is on the cutting
edge?
Lil' John: Eric Tribbet with Jill Scott. Man, watch out for him!
Chris Dave, who plays with
Mint Condition, is bad, very underrated. And
Tommy Pridgen is already killing. When he gets that seasoned thing down -
when he goes to school and learns all that - he's going to be sick.
And of course, Tony Royster Jr. has
already proven himself. [Among Tony's accomplishments is his knockout performance at Modern Drummer's 1997
Festival.]
He reminds me of when I met John Blackwell at Berklee. John came in
young and enthusiastic and just ready to
play. I see a pattern of all
these cats and how they're growing up, because I saw how John grew up.
I was watching him
the whole time at Berklee'seeing his style change
and just start blazing. And now I'm seeing these younger cats
coming up
the same way. Just like Dennis would watch us grow, that's how we're
doing it with the next generation.
I stay in touch with all of them.
They call me sometimes just to see what's up. Sometimes we don't even
talk
drums, we just talk about life. I feel like I'm like a big brother
to all of them.
MD: How did you hook
up with Wynton Marsalis?
Lil' John: My professor at high school introduced us. He was
putting
together a band for The Duke Ellington Orchestra. When I was
growing up in Philadelphia I was in a trio with two of the guys
who
were playing in the high school jazz band at that time - bassist
Christian McBride and keyboardist Joey DeFrancesco.
And Wynton pulled
the three of us into the rhythm section for The Duke Ellington
Orchestra. We traveled a little bit. It was
about twenty members from
different high schools.
MD: You've obviously got jazz &
R&B influences. How about rock?
Lil' John: At Berklee you couldn't help but go through
some
rock. I hung out with a lot of guitar players at Berklee. And the rock
cats were all listening to Joe Satriani, Stevie
Ray Vaughn, Steve Vai,
and Jimi Hendrix. So I learned some things just by hanging out. I
didn't play a lot of it, though
I'd like to. I like Blink 182, Tool,
and Fuel. And I love The Foo Fighters. I got a chance to see them in
Atlanta, and they
were blazing.
MD: Who are some of your influences now?
Lil' John: The
younger cats we spoke of. I really like hearing
their ideas, because - you know how every five or ten years there's
a
different groove? Like back in the '70s, we had disco and the more
upbeat stuff in the clubs. Then we started gearing
more towards
hip-hop, and then some different beats, like Timbaland. He has a
different approach to beats, which means the
musicians have to change
their whole approach playing-wise, because you can't keep playing the
same old beat for the
next ten years. You have to change up and be able
to make people dance. The younger cats are more open to what's
going on
in the clubs and the music that's out now. They're learning how
to play Timbaland beats - which
aren't easy to play. So a lot of these
younger players can play all these fast beats.
MD: Who are
some of the artists you're refering to?
Lil' John: Timbaland produced Aaliyah and Missy Elliott.
He
incorporated the jungle approach to R&B. Jungle music is really
fast - it's 300 bpm. Timbaland took that jungle
style, split it in half,
and made it into what they are using now as part of these hip-hop
grooves. You've got this fast beat
playing in between, but it's really
half of the jungle groove. You hear those beats overseas in London and
throughout
Europe.
A lot of players coming up now are learning that
stuff first. The other stuff is easy for them,
because they're used to
playing all those fast, double-16th-note beats. When it comes down to
just playing a little
quarter-note groove, it's like, "Oh, that's
nothing." [laughs] But remember, there's something to say about
just
laying down a quarter-note groove and making it feel good.
MD: One of your first records was DJ
Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (Will Smith).
Lil' John: Yeah, from Philly of course. They
weren't used to
using live musicians in the studio at the time. I brought a whole other
idea to them about using live
musicians in the studio, instead of just
programming stuff. Now Jeff has been using a lot of the live sounds,
like on Jill
Scott's record. We're getting back to the old-school
style. Everybody is kind of tired of drum machine sounds.
It's
consistent and it's cool, but if you want to get the soul of a real
drummer playing and bass player?. It's
about emotion. Drum machines
don't have emotion; they're too mechanical. They're not going to do
anything
other than what you program them to do.
MD: Do you think programmed music has hindered drummers?
Lil' John: Well, the technology is so much more advanced now.
Even if you're not a great
timekeeper, in the studio you can just throw
it into a computer and fix it. "Don't worry, we'll fix it in
Pro
Tools"'that's another can of worms. [laughs] You can hear somebody and
think, "Man, they sound good," but
you don't realize what took place to
get that going. The truth comes out when you play live. That separates
the boys
from the men - when you're out in front of thousands of people
and you've got to do what you did on the record.
MD: Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Lil' John: I don't know
how much drums I'll be playing in ten
years, because I'd like to do more on the production side. I want to
take the
ideas that I come up with as a drummer and take them to the
other side of the board. There are lots of artists that I've
worked
with who respect me as a musician, not just as a drummer. It's
a whole other level when you're
thought of as not just a drummer or a
bass player or whatever, but as a musical director or producer.
MD: You've worked with some of the best producers in the world. What have you learned from them?
Lil' John: How to make a record. Producers usually can't play
the drum parts they hear in
their heads, so they call Ricky Lawson or
JR Robinson. That's what producers do: They hire the cats who can paint
the
picture they want to paint.
For more on Lil' John, check out the May 2002 issue of Modern
Drummer.
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