AG - ‘Underground Life’ ft. D Flow, Party Arty & Fat Joe & ‘Drop It Heavy’ ft. KRS One & Big Pun
taken from The Dirty Version (Silva Dom, 1999)

I just recently discovered this album which features production by Show, DJ Premier, Diamond D and Buckwild. It’s not the best album I’ve heard, but there are some highlights on The Dirty Version, including the two tracks for today. ‘Underground Life’ is a classic combination of dope beats and dope MCs featuring D Flow, Party Arty, Fat Joe and AG. The track is produced by Lord Finesse who’s still one of my favourite beatmakers out there. With two classic albums, he’s still one of the most underrated beatmakers when it comes down to the question of who’s the best producer.

‘Drop It Heavy’ is the perfect example of a dope track from the golden era. The formula is rather simple, a dope beat and some dope MCs. You just have to look at the names of the people involved to see that this track is some classic material. KRS One, Big Pun and AG spittin’ over a beat produced by Show. In my humble opinion, all these artists could be considered as hip hop legends. KRS One has taught a lot of people with his edutainment style, while Show and AG were one of the first crews diggin’ deep in the crates. I never was a big fan of Big Punisher though. Some of his tracks were amazing, while other tracks were just too commercial for my taste. I still don’t understand how Pun managed to spit these rhymes without collapsing in front of the mic. The beat is a classic Show beat, flipping a simple sample with some nice drums.

I’m still waiting for another D.I.T.C. album, but with recent crew albums sounding rather uninspired, I think it’s time to stop reminiscing about the golden era.

Ski Beatz - ‘Back It Up’ ft. Buff 1
taken from Half Man, Half Amazing (Redefinition, 2008)

Ski Beatz - ‘Pages Of The Past’
taken from ‘Ticket For Two’ 12” (Redefinition, 2007)

50 Cent - ‘That Ain’t Gangsta’ (Unreleased)

Ski Beatz - ‘jwatson’ (Unreleased)

Ski Beatz - ‘Ryders’ (Unreleased)

Ski Beatz @ Myspace

So, here it is: part two of the interview with legendary producer Ski Beatz. This time around we cover material from 2002 onwards, including upcoming releases from the man himself and Camp Lo. Included for your listening pleasure are a bunch of beats from Ski’s vaults that you won’t find anywhere else on the net. Just don’t say I don’t treat ya right…

From Da Bricks: 2002 heralded the Camp Lo follow-up Let’s Do It Again, which didn’t achieve anywhere near the success of the first album. How do you reflect on that record now?

Ski Beatz: There’s some songs on there I feel, but we were in a different place, we weren’t really together. When we did that album I hadn’t seen the guys for maybe a year, I was back in North Carolina, so when we finally got together… I don’t want to say rushed, but we didn’t really feel each other, we didn’t really know what was going on, we just wanted to do an album. You can kind of tell by the sound where we were when we finished that album. You heard Black Hollywood, right?

FDB: Yea, I was just going to say that it must have felt good to firmly re-establish that connection on the latest album.

SB: Yea, definitely. Black Hollywood is where we got comfortable again. The album that we’re working on now is going to probably be an equivalent to Uptown Saturday Night.

FDB: That’s Another Heist, right?

SB: Yea. That’s what we’re working on now and it’s gonna be crazy. They now live in North Carolina and we’ve been back around each other for two or three years. They come to the crib regularly and we in the zone, know what I mean? It’s like back in the day.

FDB: So is the ‘Ticket For Two’ track gonna make it onto that album?

SB: I don’t know. You like that track?

FDB: Yea I love that track. I was surprised it didn’t make it onto Black Hollywood.

SB: With Black Hollywood we was dealing with a different person, different distributors and we had already gave them certain records. ‘Ticket For Two’… yea, we might have to do that. You gotta hear ‘Black Connections III’, you wait ‘til you hear that.

FDB: Can’t wait. When you planning to drop that?

SB: As soon as possible man, I never have any official release dates. When it sounds good and sounds finished that’s when we’ll put it out.

FDB: How many complete songs are there so far?

SB: We probably got seven strong songs.

FDB: One thing that struck me about Black Hollywood was that it was quite short, are you planning to make this a longer record?

SB: I don’t know… I might give them fourteen this time (laughs). I could never tell you bra’h, we just do things on feelings. Not that there’s never a plan or a structure to it, but it’s just a case of how we feel; if it sounds good, then we’ll put it out.

FDB: You’ve got a solo drop coming up as well haven’t you, Half Man, Half Amazing?

SB: Yea that’s gonna be half beats, and half original songs with other artists. Royce, Skyzoo, Camp Lo, a new artist Pittsburgh Slim. There’ll also be a bunch of underground hot rappers who are ready to disturb the airwaves.

FDB: I’m feeling the track with Buff 1. I noticed you used the Mountain drum break, how do you feel about using breaks that have at one stage been quite popular?

SB: Well, you gotta think, we’re dealing with a whole new generation of kids who never heard ‘Funky Drummer’ or any kind of break, you know what I mean? They don’t even know what a break is! So to reintroduce those drums is brand new to them. Older cats might be like, “Ah no, he used that,” but you know, that’s the older cats. You gotta cater to a younger audience right now.

FDB: So is the fact that you recognise that new audience something that directly affects the music you make, or is it not something you think about too much?

SB: I try to keep it as current as possible. Sonically I use current sounds, but I keep the essence of hip hop in the track, I try not to sound too dated. There’s a real fine line between backpack hip hop and what’s acceptable to the masses. I’m not saying that stuff is wack or anything, but I want to be somewhere in between. I want the backpack, hardcore hip hop cats to think it’s hot but I also want the kid who’s listening to Soulja Boy to be able to fuck with it too.

FDB: I know you’ve been keen to push artists from North Carolina as well. Who have you worked with from your home that you’re trying to push?

SB: I got a company called Now City because that’s what we call North Carolina. Got an artist by the name of Hot Right who we’ve been pushing who has got a real good buzz down here, M.O.S. is another artist who’s got a good buzz, J Bully… there’s a lot of talented producers, rappers, singers from N.C.. N.C. is like an untapped goldmine, I don’t know why labels overlook this town because there’s so much talent.

FDB: Do you think there’s a specific identity to N.C. hip hop?

SB: We don’t really have our own distinctive sound. We call N.C. the Middle East because we got a lot of cats who do New York style of music, some cats do the Southern thing, Cali music… you know, anything, and that’s the thing about North Carolina. They’ll emulate any type of sound but we don’t necessarily have our own particular sound yet.

But you know, there’s me, Fanatic is a big name producer, 9th Wonder, you know what I’m saying. There’s a lot of producers from North Carolina that’s on some albums that are doing some real, hot shit. There’s a lot of hot shit in N.C..

FDB: Do you feel settled back down there now or do you have plans to move back to New York?

SB: Oh yea, I’m definitely ready to head back to New York. Matter of fact me and my wife are trying to get out of here within a year and get a spot back there. The reason being is that everything is right there, and it’s a bitch to move back and forth from N.C. to New York, it’s like a ten hour drive. It’ll just be so much easier if I go back and set up shop there again.

FDB: You’ve got your label as well, Redefinition. What’s the deal with that?

SB: Yea that’s me and John. We’re gonna try and release the Camp Lo as well as Half Man, Half Amazing. I might even fuck around and do an Original Flavor album since I’ve been fuckin’ with Tone, just to do it, just to see how it was taken. I know a lot of kids aren’t gonna know who the hell Original Flavor is, but there’s some loyal, original people who would pick the album up, I know for sure.

FDB: Do you think there is a viable market made up of people who are into the late ‘80s/early ’90s stuff or do you feel that it’s simply not enough to maintain a career in the industry?

SB: As a producer, your lifeline, the only way you can eat is that you have to stay current. If I wanna get all artsy and go back to the past and make something from the ‘80s or ‘90s then I could do that, if someone wants me to do that I can do it. At the same time I can do a track for a brand new artist that’s out right now. I think the reason I can do that is because I learned to appreciate the new sound as well as the old. I know a lot of old producers who just think that this rap shit is wack and hate the shit on the radio, but it’s not bad music, it’s just not the music that they’re used to. Once you learn to appreciate anything, and if you can wrap your brain around it and feel the vibe that the kids are feelin’, you can capture it and translate it into your music. If you go around like some dinosaur, stuck with these beats that nobody is trying to get then you basically just keep digging your ditch because nobody’s buying your beats and you hate everything that’s out right now. You gotta be open-minded to music because music is ever-changing.

I’m sure the old school cats who we sample from was probably listening to rap like, “What the hell is this, I hate this, I hate this, I hate this.” But then you got cats like Ron Isley that stayed current, by messing with R Kelly or something like that, that were smart and realised they were old school, but he went ahead and did it and was accepted by the younger kids. Look at LL: how do you think he keeps coming back? He’s current. How does Timbaland keep coming back? He stays current.

FDB: Good luck with everything this year, keep doing what you do.

SB: Alright, thanks man. Peace.

Shouts go out once again to both John at Redefinition Records for organising the interview and Ski for being such a fantastic interviewee. I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I did doing it, more big hitters to come in the FDB interview series very soon…

Photo courtesy of John @ Redefiniton Records

The Bizzie Boyz - ‘Droppin’ It’
taken from Droppin’ It (Yo!, 1990)

Original Flavor - ‘When I Make It’
taken from This Is How It Is (Atlantic, 1992)

Jay-Z - ‘Dead Presidents (Instrumental)’
taken from ‘Dead Presidents’ 12” (Roc-A-Fella, 1996)

Camp Lo - ‘Feelin’ It (OG Demo Version)’

Ski Beatz @ MySpace

From The Bizzie Boyz to Original Flavor to Jay-Z to Camp Lo, the man who now goes by the name of Ski Beatz has built an astonishing career in hip hop that has remained remarkably consistent considering it’s nearly two decades since his first appearances on wax. I had the privilege of talking to Ski towards the end of last week, so here’s the first part of the interview where we cover all of the older stuff including his reflections on the early days with Jay, how he hooked up with Camp Lo and memories of a wealth of collaborations during the ’90s. Enjoy, part two to follow later in the week.

From Da Bricks: I thought we’d start off with a record that some people may not even now about. Tell me about those early days with The Bizzie Boyz.

Ski Beatz: The Bizzie Boyz… the first rap group I was ever in. Wow… we originated out of Greensborough, North Carolina. It was me, I was the MC, a producer by the name by Fanatic, DJ Mixmaster D and two dancers, Smooth and Groove (laughs). Basically that was my first real experience with hip hop. We put out records, singles on the radio down here in North Carolina. We had this one single, ‘Droppin’ It’ [that subsequently appeared on Ego Trip’s Big Playback] that caught the attention of disc jockeys like Red Alert, Mr. Magic, Marley Marl in New York and that was my break into the game. These cats heard the record and we started doing a bunch of shows with acts like Dana Dane, Whodini, you know cats like that, we used to open up for them. Whilst doing that I met DJ Clark Kent. He said if I was ever in New York I should look him up. When I moved to New York and looked him up he was A&R-ing at Atlantic Records, so the timing was beautiful. I told him I was working on a demo, so I gave it to him and came back to North Carolina. Later I got a call from him, and he was like, “Yo, Atlantic Records is loving your music, they wanna sign you!”. So I came back to New York, back down with him, and that’s how we formed the group Original Flavor.

FDB: So did you do any of the beats on The Bizzie Boyz album?

SB: Yea, I did a few joints. I did this new jack swing/R & B song, there was this reggae song I did, there was even this house song I did.

FDB: I was going to ask you about those tracks. ‘Closa’ had that reggae feel, ‘Pump Up The House’ had that house vibe… did you feel a freeness to experiment with the music at that stage?

SB: Yea, back then you didn’t really have to be in a cookie cutter type of situation, you could basically do what you wanted to do or whatever you felt. I always used to love LL’s song ‘I Need Love’, so I wanted to make a song like that; I used to love reggae, so I wanted to make a reggae song; I used to love Jungle Brothers’ ‘I’ll House You’, so I wanted to make a house song as well. There was no harm in that back then, it was all fun.

FDB: Some of those interesting sample choices made it onto the first Original Flavor LP. Is it sitars on ‘This Is How It Is’?

SB: Oh yea, yea, yea… I think that was Richie Havens. I sampled him, the sitars… whatever, gumbo. Whatever I liked, whatever I wanted to do, I just did it. I didn’t need any guidelines I just made what I liked.

FDB: Were you happy with the response to that record at the time?

SB: I was happy with the record. I mean, because we didn’t hit the charts at number one or didn’t sell a million records I wasn’t mad or disgruntled, I was just happy to be doing what I wanted to do and making a living. You know, music is first. We made the album, we made the music, just to see my face on a CD cover was amazing to me at the time. I wasn’t mad, it’s all growth.

FDB: I guess the second LP is best known for ‘Can I Get Open’. What are your earliest memories of hooking up with Jay-Z?

SB: I first met Jay on a video shoot for ‘Here We Go’. He was with Sauce Money at the time, Clark Kent brought him to the set to meet Dame [Dash] because he wanted him to manage him. We were just all stood around and Clark was like, “Yo, you gotta hear this kid rap, you gotta hear this kid rap.” As soon as Jay opened his mouth I knew I wasn’t gonna rhyme any more, I just wanted to produce him. I just felt like I had to give this kid beats, I didn’t even want to rap no more because he was rhyming so well, he was the best I’d ever heard in my life. After that we went back to the studio to make a song just for him and that was ‘Can I Get Open’.

FDB: Are you still in touch with T-Strong and Suave Lover?

SB: I speak to Tone almost everyday, I’m definitely in touch with him all the time. Suave Lover, I haven’t spoken to him in like three or four years. I’m still in touch with Jay and Dame as well.

FDB: Do you think it was that affiliation with Jay that catapulted your career onto that higher level?

SB: You would think that was the case, but really, not to take anything away from Reasonable Doubt because it’s a classic, but the one record that really catapulted me into the game was ‘Luchini’. A lot of people don’t know that… I had hot records, legendary records on Jay-Z’s album, but ‘Luchini’ was my first radio/club hit. Camp Lo are still on tour right now from that record.

FDB: It’s a great record: we’ll come back to that in a minute. What was the atmosphere like at D & D during the recording sessions for Reasonable Doubt?

SB: It was magic man. The whole crew, Dame, Jay, Clark, Jaz-O, Sauce Money, Memphis Bleek, everybody from the original Roc-A-Fella crew… in the studio we were always joking. Sometimes I made the beats in advance, but ‘Politics As Usual’ I made the beat right there in the studio. It was fun man. I can’t front, it was fun.

You know, I was in there the same time Primo was doing ‘Ten Crack Commandments’ with Biggie Smalls. There was always a battle, like Jay would say, “Go take that beat and let Biggie hear it.” So I would go in the studio and be like, “Big, check this beat out,” and they’d hear the beat and look at me like, “Agh!” They was always in competition, but it was friendly competition, know what I mean?

FDB: I guess that’s what drove those records to be such classics.

SB: Yea, you know at the same time there was DJ Evil Dee and Mr. Walt in the studio working with Buckshot and doing all that stuff. It was crazy: everybody was there.

FDB: I know the ‘Feelin’ It’ beat originally cropped up on a Camp Lo demo, what prompted the decision to give that to Jay?

SB: ‘Feelin’ It’ was actually my song, with me rhyming on it. I invited Suede from Camp Lo over and wanted him to get on the song with me, you know I was just making the song just for the sake of making it, not really to put it out or anything but because I like to make songs. I did the song, I rapped on it, Suede rapped on it then I took it to Jay and Dame and Jay was like, “Yo, you gotta give me this song, I love this song.” He even took the way I was flowin’, the same rhythmic pattern I was rhyming in, he took that too. Of course I said he could use it, it wasn’t a song that I was putting out, it was a song I was doing just to do, so I gave it to him.

FDB: You kind of cut ties with Roc-A Fella after In My Lifetime Vol. 1. Was that a conscious decision on your part?

SB: I kinda just ventured off, I moved to Jersey, I started Roc-A-Blok and got a label deal with Ruffhouse. From there we put out the Sporty Thievz, they had that ‘No Pigeons’ record, we had Pacewon… things was happening. I still did some stuff with Jay, I think the last records I did with him was ‘Who U Wit’, ‘Streets Is Watching’ and then ‘People Talkin’’ was the last record I did with Jay, but as I said we kept in touch.

FDB: Any chance of you working together again in the future?

SB: Hey man, he’s like if I got the heat then I should bring it to him. I don’t wanna sound dated, but I’d like to do something close to that original hip hop sound, but I still want it to sound fresh. I don’t want to sound like everybody else right now.

FDB: What did you make of American Gangster?

SB: There’s a couple of records I love on that album. I like it, it wasn’t Reasonable Doubt, but the flows were witty, the wordplay was good, some of the beats was tight, you know I felt it. It got rotation in my car.

FDB: We’ve already mentioned about some of the earlier stuff with Camp Lo, how did you hook up with Cheeba and Suede?

SB: I was living in the Bronx and Suede was living in the building adjacent from me and he used to see me and be like “I rap too, I rap too, you should hear me rap.” So he came to my crib and he rapped for me, and when he rapped he was wack. At the time when I met him he was like thirteen (laughs), he was young. I told him he needed to work on it more, come up with some concepts and then I lost touch with him for three years.

He came back to me, and he had Chee with him. He was like, “I got a group, this is my partner Chee, we don’t have a name for the group but we want you to hear us rhyme.” I didn’t know what the hell they were talking about, it was crazy… it was bananas, the whole style, the ‘70s throwback. I could see what they were doing. So I had ‘em in the crib everyday for hours, we would do three or four songs a day just to cultivate their style. The slang and the whole swagger started to come out. When they came up with the name Camp Lo I gave a demo tape to T-Strong and he took it up to Profile Records, to Will Fulton the A&R at the time. He was like, “This is amazing, we wanna sign ‘em.” When they signed them we didn’t have ‘Luchini’ at the time, we had ‘Coolie High’, it did its thing, it was pretty good, but then in the clutch I came up with the beat for ‘Luchini’. I called up Suede and he thought it was bananas, I came up with the hook and they did it. Next day, it was a wrap.

FDB: When you first came across the ‘Adventures In The Land Of Music’ break did it instantly strike you as something you wanted to use?

SB: Nah, I mean I loved it, I was thinking, “Has anybody used this?! This is crazy!” I didn’t even do anything, I just looped it, threw some drums on it, a little piano and that was that, I just let them rhyme.

FDB: Any chance that YouTube video about ‘Luchini’ is going to get done? [Check the breakdown of ‘Dead Presidents’ here]

SB: Yea, that’s definitely gonna get done. I should be with the guys in a few weeks actually, I might do it while I’m working.

FDB: You’ve already said that you see that song as your big break, and Uptown Saturday Night is now considered classic material, so you must have been pleased with how it was received by a genuine hip hop audience.

SB: Yea man. That first Camp Lo album, when I listen to it I can’t really believe I did it, know what I mean? The sound was so crazy to me, the whole texture, the whole feel, where we was as at… it was just crazy to me.

FDB: After that of course you did a lot of production for other artists, Fat Joe, Lord Tariq, Lil’ Kim etc. Did you work directly with those guys or was it just a case of shopping some beats?

SB: Um, with the Fat Joe, the track ‘John Blaze’, my man Reef the A&R at Atlantic he called me to come in to do a remix. So I came into the studio, Joe was there and I made the beat on the spot, I called in the violinist girl and she did the little intro for it. But Nas, Raekwon and Jadakiss, they weren’t there, but Pun was there. All the stuff I did for Lord Tariq I was always in the studio with him, we were both in the Bronx and I would just run across there and I did those tracks on the spot.

Lil’ Kim was kinda different, I just shopped the beat. They heard the beat and liked it, I went to the studio and she was there but she didn’t really say anything to me, I never really had any words with her, she was just over in the corner talking to Big and I just laid the beat down and left. That was a strange… (laughs) you know, I never really been in a situation like that.

FDB: You did a lot of the production on the Sporty Thievz drop, whatever happened to that affiliation?

SB: Like I say they were signed to my label Roc-A-Blok and the first record was ‘Cheapskate’ and that did pretty well in the clubs but of course what catapulted them was the remake of ‘Scrubs’, ‘No Pigeons’. That single actually sold over 100,000 copies and the album did pretty good, but the label kin of backed up off them for some reason and everything went downhill when Brando died. The group just fell apart and I lost touch with the guys and everything. The other artist I had was Pacewon, you ever heard ‘I Declare War’?

FDB: Yea, I think so. [I subsequently remembered that this track cropped up on the Beats, Rhymes & Samples retrospective mixtape by DJ Raize. Get it on Ski's MySpace page]

SB: The video’s on YouTube, listen to that track and tell me it’s not crazy. Actually 50 Cent took the track recently and rhymed over it. He was doing a diss record and he used that beat.

FDB: I can’t remember if that made it onto an album.

SB: Nah, Pace never came out. We actually did the album and the video, the video was hot, Eminem was in it. Eminem was of course a part of The Outsidaz with Pace, it was hot.

K-Def - Real Live Gangster

I feel like I’m continually saying it at the moment, but things really are hectic around my way, hence the lack of activity this week. I got a couple of very exciting interviews coming up, but in the meantime I wanted to do my bit to help K-Def on his way to world (OK, internet) domination. Voting is now going on over at Hip Hop DX for the best of the American Gangster remix projects, so get your sorry arse over there and vote for one of the greatest producers that ever did it. If you haven’t got a hold of it yet then just hit the link above and enjoy.

Be sure to check in tomorrow for something a little special… my lips are sealed. Enjoy your Friday night festivities: the weekend is laid out before us people!

Y Society - ‘Colorful Storms’
taken from Spare Time (Redefinition, 2008)

[Audio remains active: cop this shit] 

I mentioned towards the end of last week that you’d be hearing more from Damu The Fudgemunk here at FDB, and here it is in interview form. I was particularly pleased to get to talk with Damu because I genuinely believe that he is one of the most exciting and refreshing producers in the contemporary game, and if you’re still sleeping on either Y Society’s Travel At Your Own Pace or his recently released beat retrospective Spare Time then you need to remedy the situation immediately. Deeply rooted in boom bap aesthetics but with enough complexity and texture to demonstrate that he has more than a few original ideas of his own, Damu deserves to hit it big in 2008 after the successes of 2007. Here we talk about his early experiences of hip hop, the Y Society release and dispel a few myths about Tres Records.

From Da Bricks: Let’s start with a little background. You’re from D.C. which isn’t a city particularly well known for hip hop. What were your experiences of the culture like growing up there?

Damu The Fudgemunk: Since I came up as a child, I came up during the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, and I was still relatively young, you know, elementary school and junior high. Most of the hip hop that I’m influenced by was on the radio back then. It wasn’t until I got around to high school that it started changing. You could distinguish the difference between the traditional and the commercial rap and I noticed when it switched up.

Overall, I really wasn’t a part of the scene, not that it didn’t exist, but I was just too young to be a part of it. Most of the influence I have was just gained on my own, through my own curiosity.

FDB: I believe you started as a DJ, but how long was it until you started producing beats?

DF: Well, to set the record straight, I actually started out rhyming first. I was an MC in junior high and high school, I had a little duo with my man. We needed beats, and I started buying records and tried to loop them up long before I had a sample. I just had a turntable and a mixer. That grew into what I am now. I got my turntables at 16, and then at 17 I went out and bought a sampler. That’s when I hung up the mic, it was just so much fun, and I became a record nerd. (laughs)

FDB: Did you start out always replicating stuff you liked, like on your Youtube videos, or was it always in conjunction with your own original material?

DF: I guess it was just like the influence of what I had been listening to. As I already said, I could definitely distinguish how the music had changed, how people weren’t making the kind of music that had stuck with me, the soundtrack to my life. After a while of just diggin’ and finding samples, just making beats means you understand the production process, how things are done and edited. Most of the remakes I’ve done have just been out of sheer appreciation for the music and the producers. A lot of time it’s just beats that never had an instrumental release, and I didn’t have them on wax so I just remade them for the fun of it.

FDB: You obviously know your way around an MPC. How do you get around the standard 2 meg of memory?

DF: One thing is that I don’t sample CDs, I only sample records. That’s one way of getting around it. There are a lot of ways to do it, I could sample tapes or CDs but most importantly I do it the old school way, speeding up the records, pitching it down on the MP and then editing things, chopping them up into little beats and then reassembling them to make the loops.

FDB: You’re still active on the turntables as well, having done all the scratches on the Panacea album.

DF: Yea, I’m still in that group. It’s funny, because I read a lot of stuff that says the group has disbanded or that I’m no longer with them but we still hang out and make music, all together. Right now, with our label situations the way they are, the politics mean we’re not able to perform and record together as much as we’d like.

FDB: Was it K-Murdock who showed you around an MPC?

DF: Kinda, sorta. When I met him I had my first sampler which was an SP303, I had that for a couple of months. When I met him he had the MP. Around that time I was still learning how to make beats in general, he had just got his MP, so we would just go back and forth and have one on one beat battles, playing tapes and CDs, and then after I’d learnt how to use my sampler then I would just go into the studio when he wasn’t there and fool around with his. Once I graduated high school I bought an MPC a few months later. I’ve had it since 2003.

FDB: You mentioned before there are certain issues constraining your collaborations. Are there any plans for anything different, say a K-Murdock/Damu production project?

DF: Not that it wouldn’t happen, it’s not something that we’ve talked about… it’s possible. Right now, he’s definitely got a nice archive and I’ve done a lot of remixes for him, but as far as us doing a project together we haven’t talked about it. I’m sure it would be something that would come out nice.

FDB: I bet. You’re down with Grap Luva as well aren’t you?

DF: Yea, that’s my man. I met him back in 2003/2004 and that’s a long story but basically ever since we met he’s been like my biggest critic or my biggest ear, so he has my archive. Whenever I make beats I send him like 20 or 30 beats, so although I slowed down a little with the release of the album, he’s got a lot of my beats. That’s why I give him so much respect because when nobody was listening down here, he would definitely listen to anything I make.

FDB: So do you know Pete Rock as well?

DF: I’ve met him quite a few times, but I can’t just call him up on the phone like Grap.

FDB: Cool. I see you as an artist who is clearly embracing shifts in the industry. Is YouTube and free downloads something you’ve been keen to address directly or has it just seemed like the natural thing to do?

DF: I guess a little bit of both. Honestly, I wish things could go back to the way that they were, before the internet, before YouTube, before everybody rushed to the internet to get everything. But you do have to shift with the industry if you want to remain dominant in the field of doing music.

Everybody goes to the internet to get their news, to find out what’s cool, what to wear, what to listen to… that’s just where the people are, that’s where the market is, that’s where the records are. That’s where you need to go if you really want to do anything business-oriented. It’s just a sign of the times. Hopefully one day I won’t have to rely on the internet to make a name for myself but right now there are some pros and cons with the online marketing and videos. I’ve definitely gotten a lot of opportunity from some of the things I’ve done.

FDB: Let’s move onto the Y Society album now. How did you initially hook up with Insight?

DF: I met him back in 2004, he was on tour with Edan, Procussions, it was the Don’t Sleep tour. I met up with him, I was too young to get into the club, but when he came out I was playing my beats outside and I gave him a CD. One of their promoters had a show the next day which was 45 minutes away from D.C. in Baltimore, and the promoter snuck me into that show and we got a chance to build. Me, him and Edan just talked and everything and ever since then we kept in touch. The album came about when I started working with Panacea. Tres came to the video shoot to talk business with me, I wanted to do an instrumental album but they didn’t want to do any at the time; it was all business. I had some instrumental records and they just said I needed to get with an MC and then they’d talk. I called up Insight.

FDB: So had you done all of the beats for the album before Insight had done any of the rhymes?

DF: No. Some of those beats, most of them, were made in 2006. ‘Peace I’m Out The Door’ was done in 2004, ‘Puzzles’ I did in ’04. ‘Puzzles’ was actually from our first album, we had one album we did for Tres that got shelved that hasn’t come out yet. Travel At Your Own Pace is our official debut but we have one that we recorded before that. The reason we did Travel At Your Own Pace was because they shelved the first album.

FDB: Any chance of that seeing a release?

DF: Um… we haven’t negotiated with any other label, we’re just sitting on it right now. When we made that, that was really where our heart was. Travel At Your Own Pace is definitely something that we’re proud of but when we made that first album our minds were in a completely different place. A lot of the beats that were on the first album were a lot harder than the ones currently on the market.

FDB: I’d love to hear that.

DF: Yea, I mean originally we recorded about 21 tracks and then we narrowed it down to 15/16. On Travel At Your Own Pace we did about 15 or 16 and then narrowed it down to the ones that made the album. From our first album we kept ‘Puzzles’ and ‘Scientist’, other than that, everything was stuff we came up with to make the release for October.

FDB: What’s it’s like at Tres Records, it’s run by Thes One isn’t it?

DF: No. A lot of people perceive it that way, but Thes is more like a consultant. It’s actually run by Chikamaranga of Giant Panda with his partner Sausen. They’re two Japanese cats that started a label and then when they first created the label Thes One definitely had a big hand in a lot of the music and production, but he’s kind of backed away as he’s real busy. He doesn’t have as much say in what’s going on and that’s his idea.

FDB: I read elsewhere on the internet that you had a possible project with O.C. lined up. Is that true?

DF: That is true, I did do an album for O.C.. I did a lot of beats for an unreleased album and I actually remixed parts of those songs three or four times so I used a lot of beats. Who knows, it’s basically a respect issue right now, I would love for people to hear the stuff I had done, whether it’s free or people pay for it, just the fact that it gets heard. Otherwise, I could give the beats to other places which I have plans for, but it’s a case of ‘don’t show, don’t tell’ and that’s what I agreed to. Right now, the project is lost. Who knows… I can’t do much about it.

FDB: What other projects have you got in the pipeline?

DF: I have so many beats, I would prefer to release just instrumental albums. But then again, like you said earlier, being keen to what’s going on… I look at the internet and the industry and I can see how much that can pay off. Of course I want the respect, but mainly it’s just going with the flow at this point. Shopping beats, which I’ve been doing, working on the new Y Society album. I want to go into the archive and release some beat CDs, some instrumental albums rather. But I change my mind everyday! (laughs)

FDB: I know you’re a big vinyl junkie, so I’m assuming that everything you do is still sample based.

DF: Oh yes, if it’s on a record I’ll sample it. There’s nothing wrong with sampling CDs or anything like that, but for my creative process that’s what works for me. It just adds to my aesthetic of making beats.

FDB: Original pressings only then?

DF: I don’t have any reissues, all originals. As I said, there’s nothing wrong with it, I don’t knock anybody for doing it, but then again I do it the way that they did it. I don’t sample any reissues. Music is music, beats are beats, a dope producer can sample reissues and be dope, or you can have a dude with thousands of records and he’s wack, so in some ways it doesn’t really matter.

FDB: If your house was on fire, which one record would you save?

DF: (laughs) I think about that every day! I don’t know, it would have to be a couple. I’ve got two copies of ‘Impeach The President’ or Melvin Bliss, you know just the breaks that I’ve been looking for. I don’t know, I really can’t tell you. I have a lot of records.

FDB: I read you were still trying to track down Kool & The Gang’s ‘NT’ break.

DF: Oh no, I have that. You know, actually, I used the ‘NT’ break on our first album, but of course you won’t have heard it. I’ve had that record for a couple of years.

There are still records that I don’t have like Skull Snaps, there are a lot of things on my want list but I have a lot of breaks that other people don’t have and other people do. That’s just a part of diggin’: one day I’ll get them. Like, I don’t have the Lafayette Afro Rock Band records, I have a couple of David Axelrod records but not the full collection. Anything dope, anything funky… The Whatnauts I still don’t have.

FDB: So in terms of contemporary hip hop, what releases got you excited in 2007?

DF: Gosh… I was definitely excited about the Panacea record. What else did I buy? I bought the Percee P album… honestly, I’m trying to remember what came out. The releases were so scarce last year and I was in the house working on the album so I can’t tell you exactly what records I bought.

FDB: Were you a fan of the Marco Polo album?

DF: Yea, it was good. I guess I’m very picky about production in what I buy. I did like the album, it was a solid release but in all honesty I didn’t buy it. It was a better year for hip hop I think.

FDB: Anything you’re particularly looking forward to in 2008? What about the Pete Rock album?

DF: I’ll buy it because it’s Pete Rock, but I can’t say I’m really looking forward to it. I’m just being honest… I haven’t made beats in months because I’ve been promoting the album and I’ve been in New York so much, I’ve been away from home and I’m really just looking forward to just making beats again.

FDB: Cool. I checked you in the bow tie and stripy socks on your MySpace. Is your personal sense of style important to you?

DF: I guess it’s not to the point where I’m looking in the mirror all day and I can’t leave the house a certain way. It’s definitely fun to have my own style and be different but not try too hard at it, the bowties and the striped socks… believe it or not they’re not socks, they’re tights! I have a nice little hefty collection of both. It’s fun, and it’s kind of a calling card when you walk around the city, people know you for wearing that and can draw you out of the crowd.

FDB: And finally, have you got any plans to come over to the UK at any point?

DF: I’d like to but right now there aren’t any shows or tour dates lined up, that would be dope. I definitely look forward to it one day, but right now I’m just keeping my ear to the street and to my heart, doing what I feel like doing instinctively. As far as Y society goes, I probably did about 20 beats that I scrapped that I think I’ll put out before we put out the next Y Society album, that’s what I’m feelin’ right now.