Cosmo Baker on Letting Records Breathe with His Classic Soul Mix “Love Break”

“I really think that the art of selecting has been overshadowed over the past few years, especially with the advent of Serato. Everything is readily available, therefore DJs have a tendency to burn through records really fast.”

Gino: The sequencing and song selection in Love Break are perfect. What made you decide to take a minimalist approach with mixing the soul classics you chose?

Cosmo Baker: It’s funny how the first Love Break came about. I had a gig in Philadelphia and had to drive from Brooklyn. Me, DJ Eleven, and DJ Crooked decided we were all gonna drive down to Philly together and hang out at the gig while I spun. Knowing that we had a two hour drive ahead of us, I decided to put some songs on a CD that I’d really like to listen to while driving. I did a rough version of Love Break as a CD I was just going to listen to for my drive to Philadelphia. We listened to it in on the way to Philly and on the way back. By the time we got home Eleven was like, “Yo man, you gotta put that out as a mixtape. That’s a really thorough mix.”

After I decided to make an official version, the response was kind of overwhelming. First I put it up as a free download on The Rub site. Literally, within an hour and a half of putting it up, it had so many downloads that it crashed the site. We had to revamp it and put it up again as two separate MP3s. Again, it crashed the site. I decided that I needed to put it out as physical product. People started buying it, the response was good, and as a result I put out Love Break 2 and Love Break 3.

“You gotta let a lot of those songs breathe man.”

Gino: It’s funny you made it for a road trip. During the summer of 2008 I broke up with my girlfriend at the time. I took a road trip at the end of the summer and loaded up my CD binder with music for the drive. Love Break was one of the CDs I brought and it was in rotation the entire trip. It’s perfect ride music to just think about life and reflect.
 
Cosmo Baker: It’s definitely good driving music. There have been tapes before of original songs that were sampled. For the most part, with a few exceptions, all of them were somewhat scattered. They’d play seven seconds of one sample, and then throw in 15 seconds of another, and so on. I always felt that didn’t do the songs justice. You gotta let a lot of those songs breathe man. We’re in a day and age when people’s attention spans are so short that they want instant gratification, and as soon as they get it they’re on to something else. That kind of runs contrary to my philosophy with playing music. With some records, you have to give the whole presentation. With that in mind, with the sequencing of Love Break, I wanted to make it like a perfect arc. That’s the thing with mixtapes, there’s a certain arc to it that has to happen. Have you ever seen High Fidelity?

Gino: Yeah, I love that movie.

Cosmo Baker: Well, there is that scene where he’s talking about the art of constructing a mixtape. He talks about highs and lows and reaching certain crescendos. All that stuff really rings true in the process of making mixtapes and I always try to keep that in mind while working on a tape.

“We’re in a day and age when people’s attention spans are so short that they want instant gratification, and as soon as they get it they’re on to something else.”

Gino: That’s one of the interesting things about Love Break. You didn’t do anything over the top with scratching or blending, but you can tell you put a lot of effort into the mix just by the way it flows.
 
Cosmo Baker: Actually, on the original version of Love Break, I did a doubles routine of The Supremes “It’s Time to Break Down”. That isn’t on Love Break, but it was on one of the original versions. It was the only song where I did doubling or cutting. It kind of stuck out like a sore thumb. After realizing the routine didn’t fit, I decided in favor of letting the songs breathe over doing any complex mixing or blending.

I really think that the art of selecting has been overshadowed over the past few years, especially with the advent of Serato. Everything is readily available, therefore DJs have a tendency to burn through records really fast. It’s almost like some DJs aren’t really considering what they’re playing. I once made a Valentines Roll mix, which in all honesty, wasn’t even blending records, it was just playing records. In essence, with certain songs, the blending and the mixing can detract from the songs themselves, especially with these slow jam love songs. It’s almost appropriate to not mix the records.

“With the sequencing of Love Break, I wanted to make it like a perfect arc. That’s the thing with mixtapes, there’s a certain arc to it that has to happen.”

Gino: I love soul music, but I don’t necessarily have a deep knowledge of it. Your mix really sparked a desire to know more about classic soul. I remember when I bought your tape I told one of my friends that the music on Love Break might be some of the best music ever made. The lyrics are so honest and the songs are from a time when people were actually singing in the rawest form without the help of technology.

Cosmo Baker: That brings up a point that I was thinking about recently. I’m just as much a fan of contemporary R & B as the next guy, but I think that a lot of contemporary R & B lacks a certain honesty and vulnerability which is conveyed in the lyrics and music of R & B from a few decades ago. Those elements are sorely missed.

Gino: Agreed. When I talk to people about this CD, I always bring up the song “Wichita Lineman” by The Meters. It’s like the song is being told by an everyman with an amazing voice. The lyrics are something a lot of people can pull meaning from.
 
Cosmo Baker: That’s such a beautiful song. Originally, it was a Glen Campbell song. It was a pretty big hit for him when he released it in the early 70’s. Lots of times artists during that time did cover versions of big hits. There is something about the way The Meters do their version that is so heartbreakingly beautiful. Not just the instrumentation, and not just the way it’s sung. It’s the total package. That’s a common thread that I tried to find with all of the songs I selected…a certain overall intensity of each record.

“It’s a never ending process and there is so much music out there to discover. I learn new shit every day and I don’t plan on ever stopping.”

Gino: I’ve also used the phrase “heartbreakingly beautiful” to describe numerous songs on this mixtape. Another song that really hits me in the heart is Heatwave’s “Star of the Story”. That’s one of my favorites.

Cosmo Baker: I used to play that song incessantly. Many, many years ago I was with a girl for a while and then we broke up. I was distraught. I would play that song all the time. It totally conveyed how I felt. I felt like I didn’t need to express myself at all because I could listen to that song and they were expressing themselves in a perfect way that matched where my heart and mind were at. That song always strikes a cord and makes me think about…shit (laughs).

“I felt like I didn’t need to express myself at all because I could listen to that song and they were expressing themselves in a perfect way that matched where my heart and mind were at.”

Gino: One song that is really interesting to me because of the use of string instruments is William Bell’s “I Forgot to Be Your Lover”. On some of these tracks it’s easy to overlook the instrumentation because of the power of the singers’ voices, but if you listen to the background of that song it’s very powerful.

Cosmo Baker: That’s such a beautiful record. I first heard it on a mixtape Soulman put out years ago. After hearing it for the first time, I became obsessed with finding that record. I eventually did find a copy of it in a dollar bin somewhere. William Bell was signed to Stax and that record is a perfect example of just how tight the studio band was for Stax. All the elements of the instruments are really powerful and at the same time really subtle. They never overpower his voice. The music is a perfect compliment to his voice and the lyrics.

It’s funny because that song has been sampled a bunch of times by people like Dilated Peoples and Ludacris, but when you listen to the original you’re just like, “Holy shit, this is the next level.” The R & B singer Jaheim did a cover of it years ago. Although it was definitely different because it was a contemporary R & B song, it still kind of conveyed the same energy with a more updated feel. To me, that’s a testament to its power and how well written a song it is. That’s what makes classic records. Not if it gets a lot of airplay, not if it does well on the charts, but because somebody like you or I can listen to it thirty years after the fact and be struck by the power of it.

“That’s what makes classic records. Not if it gets a lot of airplay, not if it does well on the charts, but because somebody like you or I can listen to it thirty years after the fact and be struck by the power of it.”

Gino: When you bring up the lasting power of these songs, it puzzles me that when I look at the Love Break track list, many of these artists are unknown to the average American music fan. 
 
Cosmo Baker: There are definitely artists on there that are huge like The Isley Brothers, Aretha Franklin, and Nina Simone. Then there are some artists who are not as well known like Ethel Beatty, The Dramatics, William Bell, and Samuel Jonathan Johnston. I think one reason might be that for so long the music world was just as segregated as the real world. So where you would have an artist like The Dramatics selling out mad records in the black community, they wouldn’t cross over to the pop charts like a contemporary pop singer today.

“For so long the music world was just as segregated as the real world.”

Gino: From everything you’ve said during this interview, I get the sense that when you listen to a song, it often puts you back into a certain time and place.
 
Cosmo Baker: Word up. One of the things that I’m most proud of with the Love Break series is that I was able to present music that a lot of people are unfamiliar with and spark their interest. In your case, you said that you didn’t know a lot about classic R & B and soul and my mix set you off and made you want to check for that kind of music. That’s kind of how it works. At least, that’s how it worked in my case. I’d listen to records and want to learn more. It’s a never ending process and there is so much music out there to discover. I learn new shit every day and I don’t plan on ever stopping.