Peanut Butter Wolf Gets Nostalgic During BIGSOUND Keynote

“He has a label, he can put your shit out,” yells J Rocc, summing up how Peanut Butter Wolf runs Stones Throw Records.

A keynote with Chris Manak, better known as Peanut Butter Wolf, and Beat Junkies’ J Rocc is like a sit-down at the back of a record store diggin’ through the Stones Throw crates dating back twenty years. Bumping joints from waay-back with Charizma, Quasimoto, J Dilla to Mayer Hawthorne, Dâm-Funk and Stones Throw’s new spinners Nx Worries, MNDSGN and Australian hero Jonti.

Before opening his own label, Stones Throw Records, Peanut Butter Wolf was signed to Hollywood Basic which came down to his having the right look, as he describes: “I looked like the guy from 90210 and Charizma looked like the French Prince” - this from a label who had previously passed on Cypress Hill and Naughty By Nature.

Wolf described his relationship with the late producer J Dilla and the super duper famous track Whip You with a Strap off the Donuts LP and how his demise two days after the album’s release on Stones Throw suddenly threw him into a new stratosphere of legendary. J Rocc alluded to Pitchfork reviewing Donuts and giving it a six out of 10 initially and then shortly thereafter his death, stamping it with a 10.

After jamming out to 7 Days of Funk, Wolf and J Rocc spoke on Dâm-Funk’s first album release selling how good Stones Throw is with, “what other label lets you put out a five-album box set for your very first album?”

The diversity in the label’s catalogue was not lost at this BIGSOUND sit-down with Mayer Hawthorne to Gary Wilson and Australian singer/songwriter Jonti finding a home at what is essentially a hip-hop label, which basically comes down Wolf’s personal taste in music and having an ear for what shit is dope and should be on record.

They finished up on what’s hot right now with Stones Throw throwing up records from Nx Worries and MNDSGN showing the bridging of generations that Stones Throw has across its twenty-year spanning catalogue.