HOP-HOP SESSION ACE STONE MECCA TALKS GEAR, WU-TANG CLAN, SNOOP DOGG AND THE MERITS OF BEING ENTIRELY SELF-TAUGHT
By Andrew Daly
TUNE-UPS
WHILE GUITAR ISN’T often associated with hip-hop music, for Stone Mecca, changing that narrative has been a critical element to a career spent flipping the script. Dating back to the Nineties, Mecca has appeared on albums by Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Wu-Tang Clan and RZA, becoming a go-to session player whenever the best of what the West Coast had to offer needed six-strings added into the mix.
Steeped in hip-hop as he is, it was rock music that first caught Mecca’s ear. “I loved rock,” he says. “But I always listened to hip-hop, too. And then, after I learned to play guitar, I got to do a session with Ice Cube, and that’s when the whole hip-hop guitar thing out on the West Coast kicked off for me.”
It’s an interesting dynamic, given that most within the hip-hop community forsake the guitar, which can be frustrating. When asked where the disconnect comes from, Mecca says, “A lot of these guys were sampling this music first — and they didn’t know anything about this stuff as it pertains to the guitar. They didn’t know anything about instruments or scales, so there was a misunderstanding. A lot of hip-hop guys know about guitar based on what they think they’ve seen, but they don’t understand where the distortion comes from, for example.”
Despite the challenges, Mecca’s passion reigns supreme. His desire to inject subtle flourishes, twangy riffs and heavy metal structure into hip-hop is endless. And it’s a good thing because, despite his understanding of the rigors, things can get dicey.
“I remember going into a session with Ice Cube where he wanted me to remake an entire song,” he says. “I’d play a guitar part, and they’d say, ‘That sounds like some kind of country thing.’ And I’d say, ‘No, it’s not; it’s within the song, and it was always there, you just couldn’t hear it.’ They wanted it out, but it’s only because their understanding of the importance of guitar wasn’t there. Most samples have guitars; they just don’t know it. So I’ve got to be able to play different types of guitar things. Whatever it is, I’ve got to be able to show up and do that each night.”
What piqued your interest in the guitar?
I started on drums when I was around nine. Then, when I saw Eddie Van Halen playing alongside David
