Archive Easy Mo Bee Interview – Part Three (Originally Printed In Blues & Soul 944 / May 2005 )

Here’s the third and final part of  the interview.

BEHIND THE BOARDS WITH EASY MO BEE (PART THREE)

With almost 20 years of hit-making to his name, Easy Mo Bee’s place in the Hip-Hop hall of fame is assured. Having crafted some of the most memorable beats to ever blast from speakers, the Brooklyn-born producer’s work has helped propel the likes of The Genius, Biggie Smalls and Craig Mack into the rap stratosphere. In more recent times the Easy Mo Bee sound has been introduced to a new generation of listeners thanks to collaborations with Alicia Keys and Mos Def. In this final interview instalment, the self-confessed Hip-Hop junkie remembers his first and last meetings with 2Pac, the infamous East Coast / West Coast feud, and the tragic death of Biggie Smalls. Remember, there’s no future without a past.

It was during your time working on the early Bad Boy material that the trademark Easy Mo Bee sound really started to emerge. Did your decision to develop that sound have anything to do with the fact that clearing samples had started to become such an expensive and painstaking process?

 

“Even back when I was still with RPM my manager used to tell me to start cutting the samples in my tracks. Around that time the whole sampling issue was becoming a problem. De La Soul had problems with “3 Feet High And Rising”, Biz Markie experienced the same thing with his “I Need A Haircut” album and Hammer had gone through his thing with Rick James and the “Super Freak” sample. Producers weren’t getting away with using samples as much. A lot of companies were paying attention and suing Hip-Hop artists. What made me different with tracks like Craig Mack’s “Flava In Ya Ear”, which had the signature Easy Mo Bee sound, was that I was actually playing the samples. I didn’t want to stop using samples, but I wanted to use them in such a way that people wouldn’t be able to tell where I was taking them from. The famous sound from “Flava In Ya Ear” is actually just one guitar note transposed from low to high. Then I took that idea a step further on records like Busta Rhymes’ “Everything Remains Raw”. There were no samples to clear for that track. Why? Because I took a 1.3 second sample and turned it into a whole record (laughs). I really wanted to create a brand new sound.”

The mid-’90s must have been such a good time for you because you really were dropping hot records back-to-back?

 

“That’s true, but at the same time I was also doing records that a lot of people don’t mention as often which to me were some of my best beats, like King Just’s “No Flows On The Rodeo”. Then there’s the Lost Boyz’ “Jeeps, Lex Coups, Bimaz & Benz”. Even though I did a lot of other stuff, those records are important to me as well. But in terms of creative freedom, that period was definitely the best time for that. Right now it’s the worst time because there’s not a lot of room left to experiment. A lot of stuff right now is very calculated. Hip-Hop used to be about people just going with what was in their hearts and what they were feeling inside. But now with the growth of technology every kid with a computer wants to be a producer and because Hip-Hop has become so big everyone wants to be a rapper. But not everybody is supposed to be a producer or a rapper because they’re just not good enough. But Hip-Hop also needs other things like good entertainment lawyers and good A&Rs. We need more diversity right now. I’ve been in meetings where A&Rs have said they want me to bring music to them that sounds more like The Neptunes. But wait a minute? I’m Easy Mo Bee. I gotta do me. If you want that Neptunes sound then go get The Neptunes.”

I remember when I first heard that you’d supplied beats for 2Pac’s “Me Against The World” album. That seemed like such a big jump to have gone from helping redefine East Coast rap with Biggie’s first album in 1994 to then working with one of the biggest solo West Coast artists in 1995. How did you first hook-up with ‘Pac?

 

“There was a Budweiser Superfest that happened at Madison Square Garden in 1993 and Big Daddy Kane was performing. That was the infamous onstage freestyle with Kane, Biggie, 2Pac, Big Scoob and Shyheim. Rappin’ Is Fundamental used to hang out with Kane a lot and he’d asked us to come to the show. I was right there on the stage watching everyone rhyme and this was the time when Biggie and ‘Pac were really good friends. I’d already worked with Biggie but at that point hadn’t ever met 2Pac. I was backstage walking down the corridor and saw 2Pac coming towards me. He pointed at me and was like, ‘You’re Easy Mo Bee, right? I’ve been looking for you.’ I was like, ‘Whoa! You’re from Cali, formally of Digital Underground, a huge solo artist, and I’m on your mind?’ So I was like, ‘Cool, let’s get together.’ So we did “Runnin’” with Biggie, ‘Pac, Stretch of the Live Squad and one of The Outlawz, which was intended for the Thug Life album. When Eminem remixed that track recently I guess he was trying to capitalise off the Biggie / ‘Pac thing because he left the other people off of his version. When I first heard there were problems between Biggie and 2Pac I couldn’t believe it because when we recorded that track we were all in the same studio and everything was cool. They were real close. They laughed together. They drank together. They smoked together.”

What memories do you have of the way both Biggie and 2Pac would work in the studio?

 

“Biggie would just rhyme a lot of stuff to himself but you’d never see no notepads. I was like, ‘Damn! How do you keep all that stuff in your head?’ In the beginning he did write, but as time went on he just used to be able to spit like that. I’d play a beat in the studio and it’d be the first time Big had heard it so I’d know he couldn’t have already written something for it. He’d sit there with his hands folded over that big stomach and he’d just be mumbling. He’d do that for an hour or two, then he’d go in the booth and I’d be like, ‘Oh shit! Did you see that?’ Now 2Pac, he wrote. He’d be in front of the mic reading right off the page. But it had to happen immediately after he was ready. He moved at such a pace in the studio that everybody had to keep up with him. He was an animal in the studio and recorded at such a fast rate. But I’ll tell you one thing, after I worked with 2Pac, you didn’t really see me getting too much work at Bad Boy and I’ve always wondered if that was the reason why.”

Can you remember the last time you saw 2Pac?

 

“It was after he’d got out of jail and signed with Death Row. I’ll never forget it. I was in LA and went to this club where Dr. Dre was making an appearance. I was in the parking lot and ‘Pac rolled in with the Outlawz driving a black convertible two-seater. He got out of the car and had a real stern look on his face. He was real quiet and walking towards the club. Now I hadn’t seen 2Pac in a real long time, since the “Me Against The World” album. But what happened in that parking lot showed me just how much of an effect him getting shot in New York had on him. I was like, ‘Wassup ‘Pac?’ Now usually ‘Pac would start smiling with that big grin of his and be like, ‘Wassup Mo Bee?’ etc. But this time he was just like, ‘Wassup?’ and kept walking right past me. I said, ‘We’re trying to get into this club so we might roll with you?’ But he wasn’t really saying much, just walking. So we went with him anyway, but when we got to the door of the club they let him in but left us outside (laughs). 2Pac didn’t look back or try to help get me in or nothing like that. That’s when I realised that New York shit really did something to him. You could tell that he really didn’t trust people anymore. But I didn’t even get mad. I just thought, ‘You know what? I can’t really blame him.’ In my opinion though, 2Pac was one of Hip-Hop’s last political artists.”

Considering the huge presence you had on Biggie’s “Ready To Die” a lot of people were surprised to find out that you’d only produced two tracks on “Life After Death”…

 

“The way I remember it, me and my manager had to fight to get those two songs. At first they weren’t going to include me, but my manager at the time rah-rahed a little bit, although I still had to go through so many beats before they found the two they used. “Life After Death” took on a very commercial approach. There were still raw records on there as, but overall it took a more refined direction. A lot of good records came out of it, but to me nothing could ever beat that first album.”

Were you aware of what Biggie was going to do with the beat that became “Going Back To Cali”?

 

“I didn’t get to witness Biggie recording any of his lyrics for my tracks. I tracked both of those beats in one day with just me and Deric ‘D-Dot’ Angelettie in the studio. Finally Biggie came in with Jay-Z. They were walking up and down, pacing, writing rhymes in their heads for “I Love The Dough”. Then Biggie said they were going out for a minute but they’d be back. I waited for hours but they never came back. That was actually the last time I saw Biggie. But I told D-Dot to tell Puffy to call me whenever they were doing the next session and went home. Then without my knowledge they went and got Angela Winbush for “I Love The Dough” and put a Roger Troutman-style vocoder on what became “Going Back To Cali”. I didn’t witness any of that. I was like, ‘Why’d Puff never call me to go to the session?’ But like I said, I’ve always wondered if the fact that I worked with 2Pac pissed Puffy off. I don’t know. But I never got called for no more work with Bad Boy and I offered my services to Puff on several occasions after that, but nothing.”

But to set the record straight, was there ever any disagreement between you and Biggie?

 

“Never! Biggie wanted to do more work with me but, in my opinion, it was Puffy who steered him away from that. Maybe it was because I was rising to a certain level and needed to be stomped out? That’s how I looked at it because how could you all of a sudden forget someone who helped you kick in the door when you started out?”

So what was your initial reaction when you first heard “Going Back To Cali”?

 

“It drove me crazy! (laughs) I saw someone soon after the track was recorded and they were like, ‘Yo! You heard what Biggie did to your shit?’ I was like, ‘What? What?’ (laughs) When I heard it, it made my heart beat faster and I was like, ‘Whoa!’ He wasn’t dissing Cali at all, but the fact that he even mentioned it with everything that was going on made me wonder if we were starting trouble. I hate to say it but that’s how I felt. The East Coast / West Coast feud was something I never wanted to contribute to and I couldn’t help wondering if the track might play a part in helping it escalate. I just didn’t want people to hear that record and think that Biggie was taunting anyone because he wasn’t.”

It must have been extremely difficult for you when Biggie passed away?

 

“My heart dropped! Not to sound negative about it but the way everything was going I just had a feeling that something was gonna happen. You could feel it in the air. As soon as 2Pac got shot in New York and started talking all that stuff in his interviews about Big knowing about it, I was just like ‘Man, I hope no war don’t start.’ We really didn’t need that. I didn’t get into this Hip-Hop thing for that. We were all supposed to just be making records and having fun. And that whole thing put me in a strange position because I produced for both Biggie and ‘Pac. But I really didn’t want nothing to do with that. I’m just a music producer! There’s been a gloom that’s hung over Hip-Hop ever since then that’s taken a lot out of me. Hip-Hop used to be about being creative with the music, but now it’s been narrowed down to just being about having beef and being gangsta. Anything that doesn’t fit into that seems like it’s almost not worthy of any attention. What’s wrong with being happy? Does this music have to be dark and gloomy all the time now? We have to be aware of what we’re doing and the effect it might have on the generation that’s listening to it. This music is very influential and it touches so many people. My daughter is fifteen and I talk to her about these things all the time and I make sure she understands that some of the music she’s listening to should be treated like a movie. It’s not real. Let it go in one ear and out the other. You don’t have to be influenced by it and you don’t have to live by it.”

So what does the future hold for Easy Mo Bee?

 

“I definitely want to be more in control of what I do which is why I’ve set-up my own label situation. I wanna be able to do what I wanna do and work with like-minded artists. The music is so devoid of soul nowadays and I just want to bring that feeling back. There’s so much despair and hopelessness in a lot of what we’re hearing today. We need some old-fashioned soulful Hip-Hop right now.”

Ryan Proctor

Archive Easy Mo Bee Interview – Part Two (Originally Printed In Blues & Soul 936 / Jan 2005)

As promised yesterday here’s the second part of my  archive interview with Easy Mo Bee – the final part will follow tomorrow.

BEHIND THE BOARDS WITH EASY MO BEE (PART TWO)

 

In the first instalment of this in-depth look at the career of producer Easy Mo Bee, the Brooklyn-born music man spoke about his introduction to Hip-Hop, the experiences of his group Rappin’ Is Fundamental and his earliest work on Big Daddy Kane’s 1989 sophomore album, “It’s A Big Daddy Thing”. Having established himself within Hip-Hop circles, Mo Bee quickly rose to prominence outside of his core audience thanks to a Grammy-winning 1992 collaboration with jazz visionary Miles Davis. The New York native would return to his rap roots in the mid-’90s with unforgettable results, helping lay the musical foundations of Puffy’s then infant imprint Bad Boy by producing classic material for both Craig Mack and The Notorious B.I.G.

In this second part of our interview, Easy Mo Bee discusses how his input on the debut album of Wu-Tang’s Genius indirectly led to his partnership with Miles Davis, and how Big Daddy Kane almost ended-up being given a beat which would go on to become one of Biggie Smalls’ crowning moments.

Know your history.

Was the fact that you had an affiliation with Cold Chillin’ Records after working with Big Daddy Kane how you came to produce most of the first Genius album, 1991’s “Words From The Genius”?

 

 

“Yeah, that was the second project I worked on before The Genius became the GZA and before Wu-Tang. The Genius album didn’t really blow as well as it could have and I think the main reason for that was that, at the time, Big Daddy Kane was king over there at Cold Chillin’. So the Genius was not going to rise above Kane. People weren’t really thinking about the Genius like that yet. In 1990 Kane would have had his third album out, “Taste Of Chocolate”, and people were still big on him. But “Words From The Genius” was the first entry into the industry of any Wu-Tang member and what a lot of people don’t realise is that me and my brother LG produced that entire record, except for the single “Come Do Me” which was done by Jesse West, a homeboy of mine. I did ten songs, LG did three. After The Genius came other things, like a lot of people don’t know I remixed the last 3rd Bass record “Gladiator”, which was on the soundtrack of the film with the same name. But I did some interesting things with that record. I always felt that a rapper sounded funky when he doesn’t rhyme ahead of the beat. To lag is to be funky. It’s the difference between how Kenny G plays saxophone compared to Grover Washington Jr. Grover Washington has more soul because he’s more laidback and everything isn’t totally syncopated and perfectly on the beat. I always felt that a rapper’s voice is like an instrument and you gotta be funky with it. Big Daddy Kane did that. Rakim did that. To me, MC Serch and Pete Nice didn’t really sound like that on the “Gladiator” record. So we set their vocals back a millisecond behind the music so there was a delay which made them sound funkier to me. I did that to plenty other people and they didn’t even realise (laughs). I never even told ‘em. Then after Big Daddy Kane, The Genius and 3rd Bass, I started getting more work like the Miles Davis project and the remix of LL Cool J’s “Pink Cookies….”

How did the Miles Davis album “Doo-Bop” first take shape?

 

 

“Miles Davis was always riding the wave and trying out things that were brand new. One of the only things that he hadn’t done up until that point was Hip-Hop. The story that was told to me is that Miles went to Russell Simmons, told him he wanted to do Hip-Hop and asked him if he had any producers or beats he could use. At the time Russell had RPM, which was his management company for producers. So the whole roster at RPM was submitted to Miles Davis. I won’t say the names of the other producers because to this day I still respect a lot of them. I was just fortunate enough to get picked out. I was still living in the projects with my mother and one day she answered the phone and this voice says, ‘This is Miles Davis. Can I speak to Easy Mo Bee?’ He said he wanted me to go over to his house and we set up a little interview. I remember he asked me if I wanted anything to eat and out of nowhere I asked for some fried chicken. Miles called up his chef and was like, ‘Cook Easy some fried chicken.’ I was buggin’. This was when he was living at Central Park West in a real nice apartment. We started playing my beats and Miles was picking the ones that stood out to him, like the track that became “The Doo-Bop Song” single. But what actually made him choose to work with me over everybody else was a track I had on the tape that had been submitted that he thought sounded real ‘Public Enemy-ish’ and sampled Kool & The Gang’s “Let The Music Take Your Mind” (mimics beat and horn pattern). That track was actually The Genius’s “True Fresh M.C.”. Miles said, ‘I want you to do that on my album.’ So we started working on the project and everything just gelled. Never did we disagree, collide or clash in the studio. He even gave me the pleasure of naming every track on the album.”

What did you learn from working with a legend like Miles Davis?

 

 

“I learnt to respect professionalism in the studio. When he was ready to record you just had to be ready to go. He’d be halfway in the booth and would start complaining the engineer was taking to long to put the track on, like ‘What the f**k y’all doing? Let’s go! I wanna play my sh*t.’ He wasn’t angry, he just wanted to do what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it. Something else I learnt from Miles was that, while a lot of people might think of him as a perfectionist, he showed me that not every little thing always has to be perfect. It was amazing to sit back and listen to that “Doo-Bop” album because even though it had the elements of Hip-Hop in there, that really was a jazz record. I really couldn’t believe what we’d created. It sounded so beautiful to me. The album came under heavy criticism from both jazz critics and Hip-Hop critics, but I don’t care what anybody says, “The Doo-Bop Song” to me was the perfect marriage. And to think, I made a smooth jazz track that was originally derived from EPMD’s “You’re A Customer”. I always loved that record. But EPMD never changed the bassline, so when I made “The Doo-Bop Song” I wanted the drums to move the same way, but I wanted the bassline to change (mimics bassline pattern). We were the first to sample that record to my knowledge.”

You followed up that project in 1993 by working on Kane’s “Looks Like A Job For…” album and producing Biggie Smalls’ debut single “Party & Bullsh*t”. What are your earliest recollections of Biggie?

 

 

“DJ Mister Cee always used to tell me about this guy Biggie. He had two emcees he was checking out at the time. One was MC Outloud, who later became part of Blahzay Blahzay, and he also had a tape of Biggie. Cee was always telling me, ‘This dude is the next big thing. I want you to meet this dude.’ But I never actually met Big through Mister Cee, even though he played me the demo that had Big rhyming over various breakbeats. Now, Puffy was over at Uptown Records working with Andre Harrell and they were getting together the “Who’s The Man?” soundtrack. Before I even knew about the soundtrack my manager told me that Puffy had a new artist called The Notorious B.I.G. he was trying to put out on Uptown and he wanted me to play him some music. Puffy fell in love with my tracks and actually called my manager back after the meeting and said ‘Thankyou for hooking me up with that guy. I didn’t know he was so dope.’ It was funny how “Party & Bullsh*t” was made because the track was finished before the lyrics were ever put to it. I’d taken the track to Biggie and he liked it but I told him I had the idea of putting the Last Poets sample over the top from an old routine of theirs where they say ‘And you know, and I know, ni**ers love party and bullsh*t…’ Biggie was like, ‘Yo! So hook it up…’ I’d always wanted to use that sample on a track.”

I understand the beat that eventually became Biggie’s “Warning” was originally offered to Big Daddy Kane when he was recording “Looks Like A Job For…” but he turned it down…

 

 

“Kane’s probably not very happy that I let that out in an interview with XXL, but he knows it’s true (laughs). When I first made the track I had Kane in mind because he was someone who always used to love to embody that whole Isaac Hayes / Barry White thing. So I was like, ‘Okay, I got him now.’ When I played him the track he was like, ‘Play the next beat.’ I said, ‘Are you sure? That’s Isaac Hayes I’m sampling, man.’ He said, ‘Play the next beat.’ Then I went up to Bad Boy, played it and they wanted it.”

That’s crazy because “Looks Like A Job For…” did have a ’70s blaxploitation feel to a lot of its production so that track would’ve fitted perfectly…

 

 

“Right, which is exactly what I was trying to do because around that time, no disrespect to Kane, there was speculation about whether he was falling off. He was under heavy criticism. I felt like, ‘Yo! Take this beat and let’s put it back on track.’ That “Warning” beat to me is Superfly, Shaft, Black Caesar and all those movies wrapped up into one. I was trying to create that whole vibe. But Biggie picked it and I knew we’d made a banger as soon as I left the studio.”

What were your first impressions when you heard Biggie rhyme?

 

 

“He was dope, but let me tell you, he kinda scared me a little bit because to me he was different to anybody else I’d worked with up to that time. Around 1993 what else was out? A Tribe Called Quest, Naughty By Nature, Leaders Of The New School, Redman. Biggie sounded, in my opinion, like the roughest thing in New York. Nobody else I was working with was rapping that way and talking about topics that to me, in the beginning, were sometimes a little too graphic. He was extra hard. When we were recording the first album I’d be like, ‘Yo! You mean to tell me that’s the direction we’re going in?!’ (laughs). Lyrically he was the hardest dude I’d ever worked with and it was kinda new to me.”

I don’t think anyone will forget the first time they heard the freestyle Biggie did for Mister Cee over the Casual beat where he’s talking about syphilis and ‘Ni**as say I’m pussy? I dare you to stick your di*k in this…’ Those lyrics were jaw-dropping at the time…

 

 

“Before then the meanest, roughest thing we had coming out of New York was Kool G. Rap. And let’s remember that at the time the gangsta style wasn’t completely accepted in NY because people thought anyone doing that was copying the West Coast. But do you remember Kool G. Rap’s “Live And Let Die” album from 1992? That was the hardest record out of New York at the time. He had records on there with titles like “Two To The Head”. We were like ‘Whoa!’ because we were used to hearing that sort of stuff from an N.W.A., but not from the East Coast.”

You can definitely see a connection between a cut from that G. Rap album like “Train Robbery” and something like Biggie’s “Gimme The Loot”…

 

 

“When Biggie stepped up like that it was kinda new and for him to get what he was saying across there had to be a certain soundtrack behind him. I heard they went through a lot of producer’s beats before recording “Ready To Die” but they picked me. From what I understand, I’m the first real producer Biggie went into a studio with. Before that he’d been making demos in people’s houses. So I had the opportunity to start at the beginning with him. He used to tell me all along, ‘Yo! This is my clique right here, Junior M.A.F.I.A..’ He always had these crazy wild young dudes in the studio with him. He told me, ‘Yo! I got Lil’ Kim to. I’m telling you we’re getting ready to do it Mo. I want you to produce all my groups.’ Unfortunately that was never able to happen.”

What was your reaction when you first heard “Ready To Die” in its entirety?

 

 

“I thought the album flowed well and that the combination of my tracks along with those from the other producers really gelled. But of course you know I sat there and listened to my joints over and over (laughs). I played “Machine Gun Funk” so many times. I was thankful for the Notorious B.I.G. project because after winning a Grammy with the Miles Davis album, people might’ve thought I didn’t have anything raw left in me. They might’ve thought I’d gone commercial. So to follow Miles Davis and come from leftfield with Biggie probably made a lot of people say, ‘Yeah, this dude got something.’

“Ready To Die” was an incredible album, but I’ve always felt that it was the tracks you produced that provided most of the project’s pivotal moments and really helped define its character…

 

 

“Yeah, and to this day, I don’t know why, but my name never comes out of Puffy’s mouth…

Which is hard to believe as not only did you contribute more tracks to “Ready To Die” than any other producer, but you were also responsible for Bad Boy’s other jump-off release which was Craig Mack’s classic “Flava In Ya Ear” single…

 

 

“It’s interesting that you say that because a lot of people don’t realise that Craig Mack came before Biggie. The “Flava In Ya Ear” single was released first. I shopped that beat around to a bunch of people who passed on it to (laughs). But I think that to this day I never ever got my proper respect at Bad Boy. For some reason my name just never comes out of Puffy’s mouth and I’ve always wondered why.”

Ryan Proctor

Archive Easy Mo Bee Interview – Part One (Originally Printed In Blues & Soul 933 / Nov 2004)

With legendary producer Easy Mo Bee having been a topic of online interest recently due to his on-off involvement in the upcoming Biggie flick “Notorious”, I thought I’d reach to the back of the stack and pull out an interview I did with the man himself back in 2004. After talking on the phone with Mo for five hours I had more than enough material to work with, but this is the first part of what actually made it into Blues & Soul magazine as a three part feature.

BEHIND THE BOARDS WITH EASY MO BEE (PART ONE)

 

Easy Mo Bee is extremely passionate about music. That is the first thing you notice when speaking to the producer who has worked with some of Hip-Hop’s true greats. Ask a simple question relating to something in his discography and the softly-spoken Mo Bee will not just give you a simple answer, but will talk you almost step-by-step through the process of how a particular track was put to together. It’s not that he’s showing-off, but simply that Mo wants people to have a proper understanding of what it is that he does.

With almost 20 years in the game, the Brooklyn-based beatsmith’s career has spanned three decades, from his early work in the ’80s (Big Daddy Kane, The Genius), to the ’90s (Lost Boyz, Heavy D) and more recently he has provided tracks for Mos Def and Alicia Keys. Mo Bee experienced mild success as an artist himself with the harmonising rap group Rappin’ Is Fundamental, but while music pundits probably remember him first and foremost for his Grammy Award-winning work with jazz legend Miles Davis, Hip-Hop heads know him as the man who helped lay the sonic foundations for Puffy’s Bad Boy empire.

In 1994 Mo Bee was responsible for producing both Craig Mack’s classic breakthrough single “Flava In Ya Ear” as well as key tracks from Biggie Smalls’ timeless debut album “Ready To Die” (“Warning”, “Gimme The Loot” etc). He is also the only producer able to say that he collaborated with both Biggie and 2Pac during the short lives of the two rap icons (Mo Bee created the original version of “Runnin’” which was re-released last year and remixed by Eminem).

In the first instalment of this in-depth interview, Easy Mo Bee recalls his earliest musical memories, while also recounting his initial forays into the rap business.

At what point did music become a part of your life?

 

“It all goes back to my father. He was always the king of the albums and 45s. He had a lot of music in the house when I was young and would play soul, gospel, jazz, rock & roll, all kinds of music. So I picked up the love of music from being around my father as a child. Then I got my own record-player, which was a Show & Tell. Remember those? It had a Jack & The Beanstalk nursery rhyme record with it and you’d watch the slides and it’d tell a story (laughs). But I never used any of those storybook records. I’d be looking at the pictures, but playing Johnnie Taylor’s “Who’s Making Love” (laughs). By the age of 12 I became a deejay and my first equipment was two BSR turntables and a microphone mixer. It was a set that wasn’t really even a set. I just put it all together. But then around 1984 that evolved into me actually thinking about wanting to make music.”

What are some of your earliest memories of Hip-Hop?

 

“My earliest memories are from my block. I lived in Lafayette Gardens in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. They used to have these street parties and would bring the equipment out into the park. This would be around 1975 and the deejay would have two copies of “Dreaming A Dream” by Crown Heights Affair and be running them back-to-back making the break section longer. I’d be like ‘Wow! That’s cool’. In Brooklyn at that time we were emulating what was going on uptown in the Bronx and Manhattan. But I missed seeing that because I was too young and my mother wouldn’t let me go up there. But I used to hear live tapes of the Treacherous Three, Grandmaster Flash, Cold Crush Brothers. When I was in high-school, around ‘79, the seniors used to break the rules and bring their boomboxes to school. I’d hear these tapes while I was sitting in the lunchroom and be like ‘Wow! Yeah!’. After I heard that I was like ‘That is what I wanna do’.

At what point did you actually start making beats?

 

“Well other people will probably say the same thing, that as a deejay you play music for so long that you end up wanting to make music. So circa ‘85 / ‘86, enter Marley Marl and the Cold Chillin’ crew, Biz Markie, Big Daddy Kane, Roxanne Shante, Kool G. Rap. When Marley came along and took that SP-1200 and was lifting a kick from this record, a snare from that record, that to me, along with a couple of other records out at the same time, like Ultramagnetic MC’s “Ego Trippin’”, that was what influenced me. Anything that Marley Marl did, I worshipped it (laughs). I always had a deep appreciation for soul and jazz, and I felt that what Marley was doing was in line with what I wanted to do. There’s a lot of things that people like Marley Marl don’t get enough credit for. For instance, the big heavy bass sound, that sub-bass sound, we owe that to Marley. He introduced that sound to Hip-Hop and later you had people who came up and enhanced that sound, like Pete Rock and myself, but we got it from Marley Marl. So that’s where a lot of my musical influence comes from. Also at that same time I was being influenced by Hurby Luv Bug, who did all the early Salt-N-Pepa and Kid-N-Play material, and before that Larry Smith who worked with Run-DMC and Whodini. It’s those influences that make up Easy Mo Bee. I always like to remind people that anything we do, we got it from somewhere else. In order to be a better producer or a better artist, go back and study those who came before you. If you’re a producer today in 2004 you owe it to yourself to go back and find out who Larry Smith was. Find out about Arthur Baker. And if you’re talking about ‘boom-bap’ then there’s no way you can forget Jazzy Jay. Those are the dudes that we’re still emulating today when we use our MPCs and all our drum sounds. You, I, everyone from that era who was a part of this music, we were rebels because no-one understood this artform. And to have seen it grow into a billion dollar industry is amazing to me. But there’s not a lot of music out there now to equal the feeling of the first time you heard MC Shan’s “The Bridge” or Big Daddy Kane’s “Raw” and stuff like that.

But I think that’s because everything was so new both musically and lyrically back then. You really were hearing revolutionary things for the first time….

 

“A lot of people making music today really need to go back and do their research. It’s the blueprint of this music. Fortunately enough people like me and you, we were there to witness all of that. But can you imagine, a 14-year-old kid getting into Hip-Hop today, everything he does or wants to do musically is influenced by what’s out now. That’s all he has to go by because he’s not being told to go back and listen to anything else. Do you understand that we had the privilege of being there in the beginning?”

How and when did your group Rappin’ Is Fundamental come into existence?

 

“I was working at Con Edison, a power company here in New York. I always lived in building 4-11 in my projects with my brother LG and then these two other brothers used to live in the back building, 4-33, JR and AB Money. They knew that I deejayed and was messing with music so we started hanging out, just sitting out on the park benches or on the staircase in our buildings. We started out just as a singing group with the doo-wop sound. We used to sit on the staircases, drinking 40s and singing Stylistics songs into the night until people got aggravated and didn’t wanna here it no more (laughs). Now JR and AB both rapped and I was the only one who didn’t. AB kept trying to influence me to rap, but I was like ‘Nah, I’ll let you handle that. I’ll just do the music.’ Then there was this one night when I was in my projects and outside it just sounded like chaos – you heard bottles smashing, sirens, people started shooting, everything. I was like ‘Yo! This is madness. It’s crazy.’ And I wrote a rap about it. I just got so frustrated with what I heard going on that I wrote my first rap. I was kinda ashamed of it, but JR told me to keep writing. This would’ve been around 1986. So that broke the ice, which meant that now all three of us sang and all three of us rhymed. We all loved soul. Things like The Delfonics, The Stylistics, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, all of the famous doo-wop groups. So we thought, ‘What would people think about us rapping and singing?’ We decided to put it all together and that’s how we came up with the name for what we did – doo-hop.”

Do you feel that concept confused listeners when R.I.F.’s debut album was released?

 

“We were released on A&M Records. Sometimes because the machine doesn’t necessarily understand what they have, they may not put a lot of effort into marketing it. But often what people are not ready for at a certain time becomes the biggest thing later. Rappin’ Is Fundamental never got it’s true due, but there’s a lot of things we did that people took and ran away with. We had people telling us that because of the singing it wasn’t real Hip-Hop. We went through all of that. I just don’t think people were ready for what we were doing.”

The first time I became aware of Easy Mo Bee was when you produced for Big Daddy Kane on his second album in 1989. How did you hook-up with Kane?

 

“Well AB Money and Big Daddy Kane used to go to high-school together in Brooklyn. Biz Markie used to cut school and come and hang out up there to. That was the closest thing I had to someone who was in the business that I actually knew. Rappin’ Is Fundamental actually had an independent single out before the A&M deal and AB Money kept telling Kane about me, telling him I had beats and that he should check me out. Finally we went to Kane’s house one day to play him some beats and he found some stuff he wanted to use. So we ended-up doing “Another Victory” and “Calling Mr. Welfare” on his second album “It’s A Big Daddy Thing”. “Calling Mr Welfare” sampled James Brown’s “The Chicken” and “Another Victory” was a straight lift of Booker T & The MGs’ “Melting Pot”. I always loved that record. After working with Kane a lot of people saw my name on the record and I starting getting calls for work.”

Was the fact that you now had an affiliation with Cold Chillin’ Records how you got to work on the first Genius album “Words From The Genius”?

 

“Yeah, that was the second project I worked on before The Genius became the GZA and before Wu-Tang. The Genius album didn’t really blow as well as it could have and I think the main reason for that was that at the time, Big Daddy Kane was king over there at Cold Chillin’. So the Genius was not going to rise above Kane. People weren’t really thinking about the Genius like that yet. In 1990 Kane would have had out his third album “A Taste Of Chocolate” and people were still big on him. But “Words From The Genius” was the first entry into the industry of any Wu-Tang member and what a lot of people don’t realise is that me and my brother LG produced that entire record, except for the single “Come Do Me” which was done by Jesse West, a homeboy of mine. I did ten songs, LG did three. After the Genius came other things, like a lot of people don’t know I remixed the last 3rd Bass record “Gladiator”, which was on the soundtrack of the film with the same name. But I did some interesting things with that record. I always felt that a rapper sounded funky when he doesn’t rhyme ahead of the beat. To lag is to be funky. It’s the difference between how Kenny G plays saxophone compared to Grover Washington Jr. Grover Washington has more soul because he’s more laidback and everything isn’t totally syncopated and perfectly on the beat. I always felt that a rapper’s voice is like an instrument and you gotta be funky with it. Big Daddy Kane did that. Rakim did that. To me, MC Serch and Pete Nice didn’t really sound like that on the “Gladiator” record. So we set their vocals back a millisecond behind the music so there was a delay which made them sound funkier to me. I did that to plenty other people and they didn’t even realise (laughs). I never even told ‘em.”

Ryan Proctor

Part Two To Be Posted Tomorrow.

In The Lab – Micall Parknsun

UK artist Micall Parknsun working on new material for his forthcoming album “First Second Time Around”.

On The Grind – Black Milk

Black Milk talks about his career aspirations during  a recent trip to Toronto.

Universal Magnetic Column (Originally Posted On StreetCred.Com Nov 7th 2008)

BROTHER, BROTHER

 

Following in the large footsteps of a talented Hip-Hop sibling can be a daunting task for any upcoming artist. Just ask Warren G, Lil’ Daddy Shane and Jungle. So with that in mind, all eyes are on 21-year-old Detroit native Illa J, whose late, great older brother J Dilla is cemented in the consciousness of the global Hip-Hop community as one of the best producers of all-time. Having stamped his trademark sound on releases from the likes of The Pharcyde, A Tribe Called Quest, Common and Busta Rhymes, Dilla’s next-level studio techniques influenced a long line of impersonators and his passing in 2006 left a gaping hole in the music world, along with the sense that a true creative visionary had been lost. So, no pressure on the young Illa J then as he releases his debut album “Yancey Boys”, a project that finds the Motor City MC / producer rhyming over beats provided posthumously by Dilla himself.

The story behind the recording of “Yancey Boys” could easily sound like a clever marketing ploy to ease Illa J into the headphones of hypercritical Dilla fans were it not so filled with pure coincidence. Released on Delicious Vinyl, the label for which Jay Dee produced cuts on Pharcyde’s 1995 album “Labcabincalifornia”, the project came to life following Illa’s relocation to Los Angeles and a chance meeting with DV’s head-honcho Michael Ross, who courteously offered Yancey Jr access to the many unused beats Dilla had recorded for the label during the mid-to-late 90s. Upon immersing himself in his brother’s unheard material, Illa J knew exactly what he needed to do, and got to work on what would become “Yancey Boys”. But whilst the tale behind the tape (or in this case, the CD) is the stuff that Hip-Hop folklore is made of, the burning question is, has Illa J done justice to his older brother’s music and, ultimately, his legacy?

The first thing that strikes you about the album’s opening tandem of “Timeless” and “We Here” is the sense of energy and celebration, a feeling that comes not just from Dilla’s mastery behind the boards, but also from the way in which Illa J has approached the music, singing and rhyming his way through lyrics laced with positive vibes and genuine optimism. As Illa croons, “I spent so much time just thinking about nothing, Now it’s time to turn that nothing into something”, it’s clear that “Yancey Boys” is musical therapy for the upcoming talent, an opportunity to work through the emotional baggage of his brother’s untimely death and turn tragedy into personal triumph.

The instant neck-snapper “R U Listenin’?” features a typically swaggering verse from fellow Detroit resident Guilty Simpson, whilst the carefree b-boy breeze of “Showtime” blends airy jazz pianos with Illa’s likeably cocky rhymes and playful boasts.

The fact that the majority of beats contained on “Yancey Boys” still sound fresh and organic regardless of being approximately a decade old is a testament to just how ahead of his time Dilla was as a producer. Whilst the chime-laden groove of the girl-chasing “DFTF” sounds like the best cut A Tribe Called Quest never recorded for their 1998 swan-song “The Love Movement”, it still knocks hard in 2008. Similarly, the space-dust soul of “Sounds Like Love” finds Dilla combining Hip-Hop’s raw, basement ethics with subtle, spine-tingling melodies, resulting in a sound that is simultaneously retro and futuristic.

If “Yancey Boys” represents Illa J being publicly passed the musical torch from his elder brother, it’ll be interesting to see in which direction the youngster runs with it on his next proper solo outing.

Illa J ft. Debi Nova – “Sounds Like Love” ( Delicious Vinyl / 2008 )

BEAT FREAKS

 

All of you producer types out there might want to check out the recently released “King Of The Beats 2″ DVD. Directed by UK-based Hip-Hop junkie Pritt Kalsi, the film features a variety of beat-heads taking up the KOTB challenge, which involves each producer being given a limited budget to go digging for records, which they then have to take back to their respective labs to sample, chop and mutate into a finished Hip-Hop track. All of which seems straightforward, until you realize that the entire process has to be completed within a 24-hour period. Nevertheless, as the old saying goes, pressure makes diamonds, and here you can witness crate-diggers such as DJ Pogo (UK), P Body (Australia) and DJ Priority (USA) each displaying how they approach the craft of producing.

“King Of The Beats 2″ Trailer

FRENCH CONNECTION

 

“Changes Of Atmosphere” from Dela is an album that truly spans Planet Rock, with the project from the French producer featuring an impressive line-up of Stateside artists yet seeing a release on Japan’s Drink Water label. Obviously inspired by such studio greats as Pete Rock, Dilla and Large Professor, Dela’s sound revolves around a strong foundation of crisp drums, jazzy, soulful samples and intoxicating instrumentation.

J. Sands of Lone Catalysts fame offers poignant words of wisdom on the hypnotic “Live The Life”, whilst current subterranean favorite Termanology kicks some street knowledge over the soothing mid-90s style beats of “Stress”.

Dela puts a haunting horn sample to good use on the Talib Kweli-assisted “Long Life”, and North Carolina’s Supastition recounts the constant struggle faced by underground artists on the ethereal title cut.

With further appearances from respected lyricists such as J-Live, Surreal, Blu and Dynas, “Changes Of Atmosphere” is a thoroughly satisfying listening experience that contains substance in both its beats and rhymes.

Dela ft. Naledge of Kidz In The Hall – “It Is What It Is” ( Drink Water / 2008 )

ON THE WHEELS OF STEEL

 

Once considered the backbone of Hip-Hop, it’s no secret that in recent years the DJ has had to fight to remain relevant in an industry increasingly dominated by ego-crazy rappers and producers. Eager to do his part to support the turntablist movement is UK scratch assassin K-Delight, an individual whose many years behind the decks ensure his latest album “Audio Revolution” is a superbly crafted slice of sonic mayhem.

Aiming to encompass all four of the key elements of Hip-Hop culture, this long-player has something for true-school representatives everywhere. Graffiti heads are covered on the educational “Shake, Rattle N Throw”, which features LA-based female MC Shin-B offering a brief history of the artform’s origins, whilst b-boys are given some up rock theme music in the form of the old-school flavored “Wildstyle Dream”.

Elsewhere, the self-explanatory “Forever Hip-Hop” finds Stateside lyricists Skitz The Gemini and Shinobi Stalin paying homage to arguably the most influential cultural movement the modern world has ever seen, whilst “Scratch Club” is a posse cut with a twist, as the likes of NYC’s DJ JS-1, the UK’s DJ Woody and Scotland’s Krash Slaughta team-up with K Delight in a formidable display of deck-wrecking skills.

“Audio Revolution” Live Album Sampler

PRIME TIME

 

Chicago-based crew The Primeridian makes a welcome return to the underground rap scene with their sophomore album “Da Mornin’ Afta”, featuring the former duo of Simeon and Tree now being joined by talented wordsmith Race.

Coming out of the All Natural camp, the trio has a strong line in head-nodding, thought-provoking Hip-Hop, and “Da Mornin’ Afta” finds Primeridian matching their lyrical substance with beats provided solely by producers from Europe and the UK (including Netherlands maestro Nicolay of Foreign Exchange fame).

The opening “Change The Meridian (Hard Rock)” announces the group’s comeback in no uncertain terms, offering three-minutes of raw, breakbeat-driven braggadocio, whilst the blaxploitation boogie of “Bucktown (City Of Wind)” features Naledge of Kidz In The Hall addressing Chi-town’s social underbelly.

The pulsating bass and swirling synths heard on “Takuthere” (produced by France’s DJ Steady) provide a soothing musical backdrop for the social commentary of featured artists Iomos Marad and The Pharcyde’s Uncle Imani. My personal favorite here though has to be the beautifully understated “Melodic Healing”, a lush mix of live bluesy guitar, spine-tingling flutes and life-affirming lyricism. Music for the soul, indeed.

Primeridian Freestyle

Ryan Proctor

I Got A Story To Tell – Deric “D-Dot” Angelettie / The Notorious B.I.G.

Producer D-Dot discusses working on Biggie’s “Life After Death” album.

Safe & Sound – DJ Quik

Arguably one of the most talented yet under appreciated producers in Hip-Hop, DJ Quik talks about Dr. Dre’s “Detox” album and clearing Michael Jackson samples.

On The Run – Large Professor

HipHopOfficial’s Shani Kulture kicks it with Extra P about his legacy in the game and his current album “Main Source”.

Just Hangin’ Out – Large Professor

Footage of Extra P on Cipha Sounds and Peter Rosenberg’s Juan Epstein podcast speaking about working with Eric B. & Rakim and Nas.

Get In The Van! – Brother Ali

Rhymesayers affiliate Brother Ali talks about his involvement in Jake One’s forthcoming “White Van Music” project and the underground / mainstream divide.

Jazz T Interview (Originally Posted On UKHH.Com Oct 1st 2008)

As a founding member of Surrey’s Diversion Tactics crew, Jazz T has more than proven himself over the years as both a talented DJ and an astute producer. From the dusty-fingered beats of DT’s debut 2002 album “Pubs, Drunks And Hip-Hop” to the unapologetically raw tracks heard on T’s new solo project “All City Kings”, the former UK ITF DJ champion has consistently remained faithful to the true-school Hip-Hop blueprint he first discovered back in the 80s. This unwavering approach to his craft has led to Jazz working with a diverse selection of like-minded individuals, from Bronx-bred underground icon Percee P to gifted homegrown mic-wrecker Kashmere.

Currently keeping busy supplying the beats at London’s respected open-mic event End Of The Weak, Jazz T recently tore himself away from sifting through old sci-fi soundtracks for new sample material to talk about his new album, production techniques, and future plans.

It’s been six years since the release of the first Diversion Tactics album “Pubs, Drunks And Hip-Hop”. What are your thoughts looking back on that project?

We didn’t initially intend on doing an album at all. We’d dropped the original Diversion Tactics EP and had got together a tour with J-Zone and one of the guys who booked us for a show was Rob Luis from Tru Thoughts. Our manager passed him a copy of the EP and he was really interested in our music. Rob wanted to put us out as one of the first Zebra Traffic releases, and he already knew me from doing cuts on Mark B’s first EP with MCM and Big Ted.

After the tour we had a proper meeting with Rob and he told us that, at the time, he wasn’t really up for doing just 12″ singles and EPs, he wanted us to do a whole album. So we really had to get it together. Fortunately, me, a guy called Optiv, who was from a drum & bass crew called Cause For Concern, and Zygote had all been making a lot of beats together for quite a long period of time. So we gave the beats to Chubby, Barron ACJ and Squeaky and then talked about the direction of the tracks.

We’d already been doing a lot of shows together so we had a strong chemistry as a group, but I’d say the whole album was kinda thrown together, but I think that gave the project a real spontaneous feel. I think when you plan too much it can take away from the natural vibe of the music you’re making. We never actually thought we’d ever have the chance to record an album, so a lot of energy went into “Pubs, Drunks And Hip-Hop”.

At what point did you make the transition from being a DJ to considering yourself a producer?

I started DJ-ing when I was 15-years-old. I originally lived in Watford, then I moved to Birmingham, then I came to Surrey. I had a couple of mates at school who had turntables, not Technics or anything, they were just straight-up hi-fi decks, but I got into DJ-ing through that.

I soon started doing pause-button tapes and multi-tracking using a couple of cassette decks, which is really when I’d say I first started trying to produce. At the time samplers and studios were extremely expensive, so I really had to work with the equipment I had. I’d say I was about 16-years-old when I actually started thinking like a producer in my head with the intention of going somewhere with the music.

How would you say your production style has developed over the years?

The Diversion Tactics album was the result of fifteen years of being into Hip-Hop, so the sound of the album reflected the music we came up listening to. But if you listen to tracks like “Hong Kong” and “Yanking Off”, you can also hear the beginnings of the music we’re making now.

In terms of the beats, we’re still using breaks and always will use breaks. On occasion we’ll sample Zygote drumming, but we’re still using that live drum sound that you’ll find on an old break. We were heavy on the jazz tip on the first Diversion Tactics album, whereas now we’re sampling stuff from anywhere.

Obviously my production techniques have become more advanced, but we’re still working within that boom-bap true-school sound. We’ve got a lot better as producers and engineers and we’re able to do a lot more, so that’s apparent in our sound now. But the motivation behind the music is still the same.

You just mentioned that you’ll always sample from breaks in your music – how much is digging for old vinyl still a part of what you do?

Digging is still a very large part of what I do. Basically, whenever I see a record shop, I’m in there. I actually work in a record shop in Guildford, so I’m surrounded by records four days a week anyway (laughs). We’re lucky enough in Guildford to have two collectors record stores, which I spend a lot of time in, so we’re kinda spoiled. If there’s something that I know I want and I want it quickly, then I’ll buy it off the internet. But the excitement of actually digging for records and finding stuff no-one else has is still a big part of it for me.

Where do you stand on the debate surrounding producers downloading material to sample from the internet rather than going out and digging for it the traditional way?

A lot of people just haven’t got the patience nowadays. A friend of mine who makes drum & bass was telling me the other day how he’s just downloaded thirty gigs worth of samples. I’m of the attitude that I’ll always dig, so personally I don’t download stuff to sample. I’ll always sample from either live instruments that we’ve recorded or breaks that we’ve found. I won’t limit myself from only sampling from vinyl though, because if you find something on CD that’s worth sampling you should do. But at the end of the day, if you’ve got skills, whether or not you’re able to go out and dig shouldn’t really hold you back.

Is there a particular idea or concept behind your new album “All City Kings”?

Well, a lot of people don’t really know who I am and I’ve never really pushed for people to know me on a certain level. I’m not the type of person to boast about what I’m doing, so I’ve always kinda been in the background doing my thing. I felt that maybe it was time for people to know a bit more about Jazz T and for me to develop myself more as an artist.

I wanted to use the new album to showcase the artists I’ve worked with in the past, either through producing or touring as a show DJ. So that’s why you hear everyone on the album from Percee P and Tim Dog to Kashmere.

“All City Kings” was a way of me showing what I’ve achieved in my career so far while also making a tight Hip-Hop album and defining myself as an artist in my own right as opposed to just being known as a DJ.

How much input did you have on the lyrical direction of each track?

To be honest, I just let everyone do their own thing really. I felt that the tone and sound of the project had already been set by the beats I’d chosen to use. Because I’d already worked with everyone on the album previously, I was confident that I could let them all do their thing and it would come out the way I was hoping it would.

Considering the mainstream popularity of Hip-Hop today, have you even been tempted to take your music in a more commercial direction?

I make music because I love music, but at the same time I also make records to sell records. Now, in terms of me making something that’s formulated to appeal to the masses, it just wouldn’t work. When it comes to making pop stuff that the masses love, that’s a skill in itself, so even if I tried to produce those type of records I really don’t think that I could do it.

Although a lot of people knock the more commercial stuff, to make something that appeals to everyone across the board does take something. So I don’t think that’s a direction I could ever go in, not just because it’s not something I believe in, but also because it’s a skill I don’t think I have.

Plus, I think producers who do flit between whatever’s trendy at a particular time cut their shelf-life as they end-up not really standing for anything, as they alienate their original fans and the newer fans are only interested for a short time until the next trend comes along.

What advice would you give to young producers getting into the game today?

I’d definitely suggest that they take the time to study music and listen to what’s come before them as that can only have a positive effect on their own production. I also think any young producer should spend some time digging, looking for breaks and old records, not necessarily to limit themselves to only sampling from vinyl, but just to have that experience. Also, as a producer you really need to have a picture in your head of what you want the end result of a track to sound like. It’s no good going into making a track with absolutely no idea of where you want to go with the music.

An obvious question here, but if you could produce your ultimate posse cut, which artists would you want to collaborate with?

I won’t mention any of my own guys as they’re obvious choices, so we’ll leave them out for the time being (laughs). But I’d definitely have Bionic of London Posse on there, Kool G. Rap, Godfather Don, Freddie Foxxx, Roots Manuva, EPMD and MF Doom. I think that’d be a nice little line-up.

So what’s next for Jazz T?

The plan with Diversion Tactics has always been to do another album and we’re now about halfway through recording the new project. It’s sounding nice and I’m really happy with it. All the tracks are done so now Chubby’s just working on the lyrics. We were trying to get the album out this year, but then Chubb started writing for another Bobba Fresh project, so we’re looking at next year now.

Me and Zygote are doing a project with Kashmere, which as a piece of music is some next level business. We’re also doing a Boot compilation, as a lot of the singles that came out on the label have never been released on CD. So we’re putting out an album that will include previously released Boot tracks from artists like Robot Boy and HUG, plus some unreleased stuff from Kashmere, Verb T and Louie G.

So right now, I’m definitely staying very busy.

Ryan Proctor

Behind The Music – Bronze Nazareth

Wu-Tang affiliate Bronze Nazareth discusses his production techniques and favourite beats.

King Of The Decks (Episode 3) – DJ Revolution

Rev breaks down the studio science behind the title track of his dope new album.

I Want To Believe! – The Beatnuts

Brief promo clip from Psycho Les for the forthcoming Beatnuts project “UFO Files – Unreleased Joints”.

Bass Man – Egyptian Lover

The West Coast electro pioneer speaks to PyramidWest.TV about the impact of his trademark 808 drum machine on Hip-Hop.

The Tronic – Black Milk

Studio footage of Detroit’s Black Milk recording “Give The Drummer Sum” from his forthcoming album “Tronic”.

White Van Man – Jake One

Promo clip for producer Jake One’s forthcoming album “White Van Music” featuring the most diverse list of guest artists you’re likely to see this year.

New Joint – The Foreign Exchange

The Foreign Exchange ft. Muhsinah – “Daykeeper” ( Nicolay Music / 2008 )

Dope lead single from producer Nicolay and Little Brother emcee Phonte’s second Foreign Exchange album “Leave It All Behind”.

Breaking Atoms Again – Large Professor

Extra P drops the science on his forthcoming album “Main Source”.