HILARY RAWK: Hi. This is Hilary Rawk. We’ve been talking with Peanut Butter Wolf...

PEANUT BUTTER WOLF: The Wolf.

HILARY RAWK: ...at the Movement...,

PEANUT BUTTER WOLF: Movement.

HILARY RAWK: ...formerly DEMF at Detroit.

PEANUT BUTTER WOLF: It’s no longer DEMF.

HILARY RAWK: No longer DEMF. It’s now the Movement.

What are some of the first artists that you listened to when you’re growing up? Like what influenced you?

PEANUT BUTTER WOLF: I guess for me, my influences, I mean when I was really young, I didn’t even know the names, you know. I would just hear -- I was kind of hearing like disco music and stuff like that and then I guess I remember actually I just was reading this thing in Spin magazine about the song YMCA by the Village People. And that’s like when it came out, I was recording Casey Kasem’s Top 40 which was like a weekly show of like the top 40 songs, and I actually took a microphone up to a boom box and recorded it that way but, you know, like back then I didn’t have money for records. But I guess like when hip hop first came out with Rapper’s Delight, that’s when I first started buying records. So, it was like a really a good year to get started in 1979.

HILARY RAWK: So what was your first concert like the first one you ever went to? Like even if it was with your parents like what was it?

PEANUT BUTTER WOLF: Well, my first concert that I didn’t get into was Egyptian Lover. [LAUGHING]

HILARY RAWK: [LAUGHING] Yeah.

PEANUT BUTTER WOLF: I, you know, I went into -- I actually saw Kool & the Gang before that but Egyptian lover was something I was really excited to see back then, so I was really upset when I didn’t get in. [LAUGHING] But yeah I mean, you know, I was like at that age -- Actually, I opened up for this girl called Trinere who’s like she did kind of freestyle music. She worked with this guy, Pretty Tony back then, and like if people hear her songs, they know it but they just don’t know the name of the artist, but this was like ’87. That was the first time I was on the stage, and that was just interesting because we shared the backstage with her and she came, I remember like it was yesterday. She came in a pink Rolls Royce limo and she kicked us out of the backstage. She’s like, “Who are these kids in my stage!?” you know, in my area but...

SECURITY OFFICER: Excuse me.

PEANUT BUTTER WOLF: ...I didn’t really start going to shows until like I was a little older like until I was like 18 or 19, so.

HILARY RAWK: What was your first show that you actually picked?

PEANUT BUTTER WOLF: I think one of the early ones that I can remember well, and definitely when Run DMC and LL Cool J, they came with the Beastie Boys, and the Beastie Boys they didn’t have any albums out yet. They were -- they just had two singles out and no one knew them anywhere but I was like that geek white hip hop kid that came to see the white hip hop group too, you know. I mean I love Run DMC obviously like they’re -- I played some Run DMC tonight but I guess in ’86 like no one had known who the Beastie Boys were yet and everyone knew who Run DMC was so I was there to support the underdog more. But yeah, that was definitely one of my first show where I actually got in. And I also got to see Eric B. & Rakim and Biz Markie. This was like when they first came out. You know, that was like it was called the Fresh Fest. So, to be like a part of that like golden era, you know, like even like, you know, this MC that I worked with, Charizma -- rest in peace -- He was -- I was in a group with him and we got to share the stage with like Fireside when they first came out and Black Sheep.

HILARY RAWK: Who are some of your artists on Stones Throw?

PEANUT BUTTER WOLF: Some of my artists, Madlib is one that, you know, Madlib is like -- there you go.

HILARY RAWK: [LAUGHING]

BILL HOLLAND: Madlib is -- Madlib is really --

PEANUT BUTTER WOLF: Madlib is like five or six of my artists. He’s Quasimoto, DJ Romes, Jaylib, Madvillain, you know, half of Madlib, or half of Madvillain, half of Jaylib. Did stuff with Dudley, did stuff with Oh No. Oh No is actually a very, very underrated talented artist of Stones Throw as well. It’s just we have so many people. There’s a guy, Koushik that’s coming out soon. Guilty Simpson, we just put his album out. James Pants, sweet. We do a lot of different styles of music, so.