Mats Nileskär uppmärksammas i amerikansk media – efter Kendricks sampling av Tupac-intervjun 1994

Hyllningarna fullkomligt haglar över Mats Nileskär, musikjournalisten som i nästan fyra decennier välsignat oss med intervjuer och reportage om amerikansk hiphop, soul och R&B i radioprogrammet P3 Soul. Härom veckan hyllades han av Questlove från The Roots som gissade rätt på vem det var som egentligen gjorde den där intervjun med Tupac Shakur 1994, jo Mats Nileskär. Den intervjun som samplas under slutspåret ”Mortal Man” på nya skivan ”To Pimp A Butterfly” där Kendrick Lamar går in som intervjuare.

”Mortal Man” blev även startskottet för nya, välförtjänta hyllningar till vår alldeles egen Nileskär. I den färska intervjun berättar han bland annat om hur han, en novemberdag, fick telefonsamtalet från Top Dawg Entertainment (K.Dots skivbolag) med en förfrågan att sampla intervjun. Nileskär berättar även om hur Kendrick redan då velat ha den ”i flera månader” och hur han själv reagerade på den oväntade frågan. Kampen för att få till intervjun med Tupac (som stod högst upp på hans ”wanted-lista”) och dagen det skedde, utan förvarning men som blev till en succé, finns även att läsa om i intervjun.

Hela intervjun med Tupac sänds återigen söndagen den 5:e april kl. 22:05 på P3. För första gången med tidigare osänt material inkluderat i programmet, uppger XXL Magazine.

Läs utdrag från intervjun med Mats Nileskär (felaktigt omnämnd i XXL Magazine som “Mats Nileskår”) nedan:

XXL: When did you find out that your interview with Tupac was going to end up on the Kendrick Lamar album?

Mats Nileskår: Well, it was actually a call from the Top Dawg boss in late November and he said something like, “Finally I caught you, Kendrick has been living with this interview for a couple of months and it’s sort of the final piece of the puzzle to go through with the album.” And that was it; late November, a phone call in the middle of the night and we connected. [Laughs]

What did you think about him wanting to use the audio?

Well, of course I was happy and it was sort of a little bit surreal to connect them in this way. But to some extent it wasn’t a surprise since I’ve been doing interviews in the African-American music scene since 1978 and artists have been aware of my work and my mission. So sooner or later somebody of Kendrick Lamar’s status could end up doing something like this. But of course it was a surprise, but at the same time I’ve been doing this for such a long time, so it’s also a natural thing, maybe. I’ve always felt like I give something back to the artists, some type of inspiration coming from Europe, with a love and knowledge of the culture in maybe a little bit different way than American journalists. A little bit of a different angle on some things. It’s surreal, but it’s a great honor. It’s like breaking the boundaries of life and death like that. [Laughs]

Do you have any specific memories about that day with Tupac? What can you tell me about that time?

It was during one of my length trips to the States. At that time I was [going] for five or six weeks doing 200, 300 interviews over six weeks all over the States. And Tupac was on my most wanted list, but he was very tough to get a hold of; it was one of those real tough ones. It was before cell phones and Internet and everything, so when I checked into my hotel I got a message from reception from, I think it was Atlantic [Records]; it was when he released the Thug Life album. “Tupac’s in the office, come now.” So without having time to go through it in my head—I had the research in my head, but no time to do real research, which I do for lengthy [interviews]—so I just went out to the Atlantic office. He was sitting there, we kicked it for one hour. Without any sort of… I wasn’t prepared, we just did it and it went great.

Hela intervjun hittar du här.