East Flatbush Projects - ‘Hush’
yet to be released (10/30 Uproar, 2007)

When I recently wrote about a handful of producers whom I would love to have heard more from, I never expected any of them to get in contact. So when Spencer Bellamy, producer of the classic ‘Tried By 12′ dropped me a line in appreciation of the post, I jumped at the opportunity to ask him a few questions. Here’s the chat we had where we cover Spencer’s early exposure to hip hop in the late ’80s all the way through to his current projects with his continuing East Flatbush Projects series and an upcoming album release.

From Da Bricks: I just want to start by saying it’s a real privilege to talk to you. I’ve been a fan for a while now.

Spencer Bellamy: Thank you, thank you.

FDB: I got a bunch of questions I want to ask you, but let’s start at the beginning with Howie Tee. How did that relationship come about?

SB: Well, I knew Howie from the time I was 11 years old. I used to DJ with Howie, that is how I first got into just doing stuff. I used to DJ and Howie used to hear about me and I had this friend that lived down the street that was in this crew. After that, he took me by his house, he was watching me cut up and after that it was history: playing at block parties and stuff like that. So, after a while, Howie started getting into production and I was watching the stuff that he was doing for like Whistle, Special Ed and Chubb and other people like the stuff he was doing with Full Force. I was kinda like his apprentice.

FDB: Right, so at what stage did you make the shift from DJ to producer?

SB: Probably in ‘87/’88.

FDB: Did you find that to be an easy transition?

SB: You know what? It was funny because at first all I used to do was collect records, stuff I wanted to use, so no, the transition wasn’t hard at all. I guess when you have an idea of what you want to do and the ear to put it down, to get your idea across then it’s pretty cool. I started off with the SP-1200 and the 950.

FDB: As far as I’m aware, your first proper production credits came about on the preC.I.S.E. MC album. Is that right?

SB: Yea, that was the first major project that I was doing. I was kinda like dabbling in doing productions. That year, I decided to just start shopping beats. I already knew Special Ed and Chubb’s management, so all I had to do was slide through and give them something. Basically, they liked my stuff and wanted to get me on the project.

FDB: I know that Izzy Ice [member of Da King & I] had a hand in that album. Did you have any affiliations with him?

SB: Oh yea! Yea, I was cool with him. In fact I was more cool with his DJ, Majesty.

FDB: Cool. I’d say ‘Tried By 12’ must be your most widely known piece of work. Where did you find the ‘Sakura’ break and was it a straight loop or did you chop it up?

SB: I chopped it up a little bit.

FDB: And where did you find it?

SB: Just in some little, dusty record shop in Bedstuy where a lot of people used to dig. It’s not there anymore, but that was a place we used to go just to pick up records.

FDB: Were you surprised by the impact that song had? For example, there’s the remix LP put out by Ninja Tune with producers like Squarepusher and Herbaliser that seems indicative of how big it was at the time for a substantial audience.

SB: Yea. You know I never had any idea of who those people were, so I didn’t know the importance and what level it was, you what I mean? I didn’t realise the importance of having those type of producers on it.

FDB: Looking back on it now, does it surprise you how big the original ‘Tried By 12’ song was?

SB: Yea, I was definitely surprised. It was funny because, you know, when you hear a song you get a good feeling about it, but I didn’t know that it was going to get to that level where everybody knew it as a hip hop classic. People had it in magazines as one of the top hip hop beats of all time. It’s funny though, because there are people that have still never heard that song who are then like ‘yea, that’s hot’.

FDB: Moving onto the other East Flatbush releases. One of the things you’re known for is picking little known MCs to feature on those records. How do you go about choosing the people who go on those songs?

SB: Just knowing somebody that knows somebody. There are a lot of people out here who rhyme. The way I found Stress and Dox was through a producer friend of mine called Needles. He basically hooked me up with Dox, and he was rhyming with Stress, so that’s how I find those two.

FDB: All of the material on your 10/30 Uproar label was really high quality, but in some way I’m surprised that you haven’t amassed a larger number of production credits over the last 15 years or so. Is there a specific reason for that?

SB: I’m surprised too! I don’t know why that is.

FDB: But you’ve been making beats the whole time?

SB: On and off. I think a part of it is me, and another part was frustration. I think when people shop beats, if you’re not known, people are going to be more critical. A good example would be Kanye West, when he started out shopping beats he was getting turned down. Once he got his first hit it all changed. Jay Z is an artist I have always respected because he gives a chance to new producers.

FDB: Is 10/30 Uproar still functioning? Is the new track ‘Hush’ going to be released on the label?

SB: Yea, that’s actually going to be on the album.

FDB: So there’s going to be an album?

SB: Yea, and another thing. There was some stuff that you would have no idea that I was putting stuff out all this time. From ’98, there was an East Flatbush song called ‘Everything We Spit Is Hard’ and then I put out a Ruste Juxx track.

FDB: Yea, I’ve heard those tracks. Wasn’t there the stuff with a crew called Live Wire as well?

SB: Yea, that was in like ’97. After that I put out something in 2001 with Ruste and Mirage Black called ‘Head To Head’. After that I put out ‘Head To Head 05’.

FDB: What about the ‘Inhale’ track on your MySpace?

SB: ‘Inhale’ is going to be something I’m going to release. I’ve been thinking about releasing that as a single with ‘Hush’ on the b-side.

FDB: That’d be great. You mentioned the album, any other projects in the pipeline?

SB: That’s all I have right now, working on the East Flatbush album with Stress, Dox and Fallon. It might be like one more person, but they’ll be the main three.

FDB: And how close it that to completion?

SB: It should be ready for early Spring.

FDB: Just to wrap things up, how do you feel about the changes in the industry now and the dawn of the digital era. Do you think that this has been good or bad for hip hop?

SB: In one way it’s good, as far as getting your stuff heard, but on the other hand it’s messing up album sales. Yo, Kanye sold close to a million in one week and then a week later he’s selling like 200,000. That’s like a 70% drop.

FDB: It’s crazy.

SB: That is crazy! Usually it’s like a 30% or 50% drop, not 70%. The same thing happened with Jay Z’s album, he had a big first week, then it dropped by 70% and it kind of just faded out. You know, those type of numbers, big to begin with and then fading out… I then heard that this coming week they may not even sell 100,000. How do you make a livin’?!

FDB: I don’t know man. I wish you all the best with the album and future projects, let me know when they’re going to drop.

SB: I will, I appreciate it man. Thanks.

Massive props go out to Spencer for taking the time to chat with me and for shining some light on a body of work that remains heavily slept on. Check out some of the new tracks at his MySpace page, ‘Inhale’ is definitely my choice cut out of the two he says will be released as a 12”.

Keep locked into FDB for more interview action in the near future. Feedback would be appreciated: I realise I’m no Robbie yet, so your thoughts and suggestions will be highly valued. Thanks in advance.

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - ‘Lots Of Lovin” & ‘Lots Of Lovin’ (Remix)’
taken from Lots Of Lovin’ 12” (Elektra, 1991)

Ohio Players - ‘Players Balling (Players Doin’ Their Own Thing)’
taken from Pain (Westbound Records, 1971)

Ohio Players - ‘What’s Going On’
taken from Climax (Westbound Records, 1974)

Don Covay & the Jefferson Lemon Blues Band - ‘If There’s A Will There’s A Way (Southside)’
taken from Different Strokes For Different Folks (Janus, 1970)

[Got to give a special shout out to my brother Tim on this post who not only loves this track, but who has also just joined the blogging game with a site devoted to his primary passion: Arsenal FC. P-Zone representin' to the fullest!]

Given that I am now precisely 49 hours and 32 minutes away from seeing Pete Rock live in London (but who’s counting), it will probably come as little surprise to you that I’ve spent the best part of the last week revisiting his vast discography with butterflies of excitement taking up full-time residence in my belly. Hyped? The word doesn’t even come close. However, in the interests of avoiding another lengthy ‘I love Pete Rock’ rant, let’s get straight into some beat deconstruction: sticking to what you know best is always a winner.

In some ways, ‘Lots Of Lovin” was an anomaly on Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth’s towering full length debut. In the midst of all the uptempo, neck-snappin’ madness, Pete still found time to smooth the groove out a little, and the result was nothing short of extraordinary. A hip hop love song of the highest order, few other artists have been able to pull off a style that verges so dangerously on the corny with such class and finesse: ‘Lot’s Of Lovin” is a certified banger.

One of Pete’s trademark beat skits precedes the song on the album, a straight jack of about five or six bars from the Ohio Players’ track ‘Players Balling (Players Doin’ Their Own Thing)’ from their 1971 LP Pain. A funky little riff with tinkling keys and hand claps is the perfect appetiser for the beat that drops at the 0.22, which incidentally finds its main theme from the same band’s cover of Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’. The two bars in question can be found at the 5.42 mark, and as well as sampling the melody from this glorious four seconds, The Chocolate Boy Wonder keeps the skipping drum track in as well to form the percussive spine of ‘Lots Of Lovin”. There’s an exceptional glow to the break itself that translates perfectly into its newfound audio environment, generously providing a smooth, sumptuous, soul-enriched pedestal on which C.L. Smooth can deliver his proclamations of love and desire for the lady in his life. I’m not sure where the other layer of samples comes from, but the combination of keys, flute and vocals extends the scope of the song significantly, only to be masterfully stripped away during the verse sections. It’s rare that you can state that a hip hop song is beautiful in such a traditional sense, but ‘Lots Of Lovin” is just that.

The remix is a treat as well. With signature remix adlibs firmly in place, the cut has a more traditional Pete Rock vibe about it which, of course, is no bad thing. The break can be found on the song ‘If There’s A Will There’s A Way (Southside)’, performed by the equally extensively named Don Covay & the Jefferson Lemon Blues Band. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no knowledge of the artists in question, but the song has encouraged me to dig a little deeper into Covay’s back catalogue as the song is excellent. It’s the first couple of bars to check for in this case, a silky blend of electric piano, guitar and drums that serves the remix well, although for me, it could never surpass the original. It’s interesting to note that C.L.’s lyrics are decidedly more raunchy in the first verse here than at any point on the original: I guess the remix brought the beast out of him.

47 hours and 57 minutes. Yea, I’m still counting.

One of the significant changes in my music listening habits since starting this blog back in December has been an increasing hunger to know more about music from the past, particularly from genres that have helped give birth to the culture of hip hop (my personal favourite, in case you hadn’t guessed). I’ve touched on Gil Scott-Heron at FDB before, but I’ll be the first to admit that I still know relatively little about a man whose legendary status endures as incontestable. So, when I was contacted by Sky Arts recently to see if I would be interested in a copy of Black Wax, a documentary film in which Scott-Heron is the key subject, I was excited at the prospect of learning more about an artist whose influence on hip hop is clearly tangible.

Originally released in 1982, Black Wax was the brainchild of director Robert Mugge, a man who over the course of almost 35 years has committed his professional career to documentaries that deal almost exclusively with music-related content. Composed of footage of live performance, direct talk to the camera and Scott-Heron’s musings in between songs at his birthday concert in ‘82, the film is an insightful look at both American society as well as being a valuable documentation of his career around the time of his Reflections LP. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to pose a few questions to Mugge over the internet in relation to the film and he graciously replied in such detail so as to make my ramblings on the film inconsequential: his views on the subject are far more educated and eloquent than mine could ever hope to be. With that said, let’s get into it.

ESG - ‘UFO’
taken from A South Bronx Story (Universal, 2000)

ESG - ‘UFO’ @ 33rpm

My recent journeys through sample sources have opened my ears to a wide variety of incredible music from the past that I feel excited to have discovered, but no break that I have come across has intrigued me as much as ESG’s ‘UFO’ taken from their self-titled debut EP from 1981. Made up of three South Bronx dwelling sisters and a close personal friend, Wikipedia cites the band as an ‘art-funk ensemble’ that could also be considered ‘post-punk’ or ‘post-disco’. To be honest with you, I’m not even sure what these terms are meant to mean, and I don’t know enough about the band themselves or music of that period in more general terms to fully gauge where they would fit into the wide spectrum of music of that era. However, from a hip hop enthusiast’s perspective there is an element to their song ‘UFO’ that is nothing short of mind-blowing, pre-empting a sound that would dominate hip hop during its most creatively productive and downright bangin’ period. Boom bap in 1981? You betcha.

The song’s allegiance with this particular sound actually came about by accident. In its original form the track is a high tempo instrumental number permeated by distorted guitars and prominent drums, but the simple act of selecting 33rpm on your 1200s instead of the intended 45rpm changes the nature of the song and heralds its transformation into a very different beast. Sampled heavily over the course of hip hop history, the whirring guitar track that opens the song becomes more like a siren with the change in the song’s speed, a noise that you will find remarkably familiar through its incorporation into banger after banger over the years. At 33rpm, you could be forgiven for mistaking ‘UFO’ as something Buckwild put together in his heyday such is its similarity to the sparse, gritty soundscapes that define the era in which he was at his most prolific. A musical accident it may be, but it is a delightful one that will leave you aghast at the fact that something produced in 1981 could have such a close proximity in sound to a phase in hip hop that would not come about until almost a decade later.

A Taste Of NY’s Finest - ‘914′

Pete Rock - ‘914′ ft. Styles P & Sheek Louch
taken from 914 12” (Nature Sounds, 2007)

The ‘UFO’ break leads me conveniently on to some of Pete Rock’s latest material, the only piece of vinyl I copped whilst over in NYC whose a-side uses the sample to great effect. I realise that I’m a little late on this one as the single has been out for a while, but it surprises me that it hasn’t received more exposure on the blog circuit given both Pete Rock’s legendary status and the quality of the 12” as a whole. Both sides of the wax are highly enjoyable affairs that adhere closely to Pete Rock’s signature production style, and if these songs are an indication of the quality that will be found on the upcoming album, NY’s Finest promises to be killer.

‘914′ is a bouncy, hard-hitting number that relies on its simplicity and sense of momentum to succeed. The use of the ‘UFO’ sample is a bold statement that almost seems like a message to those less established in the game, Pete’s way of affirming that he really is the finest that New York has to offer. In eschewing the tendency to avoid often used breaks Pete successfully attests that quality hip hop needn’t be contrived or overly complicated and ‘914′ is his proof: it’s simple, it’s clean and it’s bangin’. The verses from former LOX members Styles P and Sheek Louch are nothing to write home about, but the rhymes are decent enough to ride the beat and inoffensive enough so as not to detract from the slammin’ instrumental track below.

I don’t think there is an official release date for NY’s Finest yet, but believe me, when I know, you’ll know. Although there have been some quality album releases this year, none of them have roused anywhere near the sense of excitement and anticipation that I have felt by the thought of a new Pete Rock album. Maybe it’s just a case of being an over-excited fanatic, but I hold a confidence that NY’s Finest could be something special: let’s hope this sentiment isn’t misplaced. Bring it on… I’m ready Pete!

Since starting in the blog game back in December, I have always held Oh Word in the highest regard: it’s unarguably one of the pillars of the online hip hop community. So, when Rafi Kam contacted me recently to see if I would be interested in contributing regularly to the site, I was stoked to say the very least. My first drop over at Oh Word is now up in all its glory, so if you’re tired of the pedestrian pace of activity around this way at the moment (post-summer comedown, the fallout from the return to work, blah, blah, blah…) make sure you check out my look at Jean Jacques Perrey’s classic break ‘E.V.A.’ and a trio of under-acknowledged cuts that have found inspiration in his work over at their spot now. Believe me, the privilege was all mine.

Although it’s a little pathetic, the various validations I have received recently with regards to FDB have made me feel really good about my little hobby. Thanks for all the feedback and props from various corners of the globe of late; know that it is always greatly appreciated. I’ve got some special things in the pipeline as well at the moment, so stay locked into FDB for further elevation in the future. Onwards and upwards!