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Mr Frankie Knuckles - Part 2

Author: michelle pirovich
Monday, March 3, 2003
In the second part of my interview with the 'Godfather of House' Frankie talks candidly about today's drought in quality music, Eminem, Michael Jackson's nose, societies ignorant and intolerant and the irresponsible club owners of New York.

Every DJ and producer today is only too aware of the current lack in quality music. I ask Frankie how he deals with these droughts, to which I receive a deep sigh.

'There is certainly another drought going on right now. What I have learnt to do though is to channel how I deal with it in a completely different way. There is a lot of music in my library that people have probably never heard, so when there is a drought going on I delve into my library and pull out these records. This means I can present it to them almost as if it's something completely new, so I'm ok because of that.'

Speaking of old records I wondered if Frankie still had his infamous speeding locomotive sound effect record. The one he used to play at the Warehouse in the middle of a set; all lights would be turned out and then the train would come screaming through the speakers, causing everyone to completely lose their minds.

'Actually its funny you should mention that. I was in New York last week trying to find a copy of it and I couldn't find it anywhere. I was so disappointed.'

The conversation turns away from music and we begin to discuss Frankie's concern for society's intolerance towards race and lifestyle choice, and the impact the entertainment industry has on people's views.

'It's a little difficult to say whether or not people's attitudes have improved. Some aspects of it have, a BIT. In the entertainment industry you have certain people who are out there purely for shock value and strictly for that particular reason, it is what it is. I think as long as people are going to be intelligent and responsible for what they do and what they say, then these things can actually help to make it better. However as long as the ignorance factor stays in place then it will never get any better. '

Frankie continues. 'So many people take offence to what Eminem has said, but lets back up here a little. First of all he is an artist; he has the right to create whatever sort of art he wants to and on top of that its entertainment, and if you're not entertained by his form of entertainment then you don't have to listen. Everyone has the option to not listen and the more that people want to argue and fight about it and voice their opinions about how wrong it is, then they are feeding into the ignorance only to make it worse than what it is.'

'Do you think Eminem pays any attention to what everyone says, he doesn't care, he is still going to make his music, he is still going to create his art and he is still going to make his money. It's a small matter what anyone else thinks. Granted you are entitled to your opinion but that's where it stops. The more you feed into the hype and the more the media feed into it the worse it gets.'

'It's like this whole Michael Jackson scenario that's going on, at the end of the day who really cares. This is something that is being done to sell TV shows and newspapers. It's a boring issue to me, there are far more important things going on in the world that how many nose jobs Michael Jackson has had. '

'I look at all of this as well as what is going on in the black, straight, white and gay communities. I live in the world and the coloured lines have been blurred in the world. The one or maybe two places that you will really see these issues as being an issue is the United States and possibly the UK. Everywhere else it doesn't matter. If people want to be together they will be and colour has nothing to do with it, neither does lifestyle. In other countries guys are not intimidated by another guy coming on to them they just back up and say I'm not into that kinda thing and its fi
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