Pete asked me to blog about my new BEAT MACHINE CD I did for Scion A/V. I figured if I’m gonna go in I might as well really go in so here is a complete liner notes / behind the beat type thingy on the 14 track compilation.

WARNING: BELOW CONTAINS THE VERY SELF-INDULGENT, OVER ANALYSIS OF MUSIC THAT I USUALLY TRY TO AVOID. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

The people at Scion initially asked me to make a hip hop CD cause they do a lot of hip hop tours and they cant really be giving out Kitsune & iHeartcomix CDs at those. I told them the only rap like stuff I was feeling enough to fill a whole CD right now is this new post-Dilla beats movement that’s been thriving so hard thanks to parties like LA’s Low End Theory and releases like Beat Dimensions Vol. 1. Scion was with it and to their credit they never mettled in my process (I’m the only one to blame). They simply gave me a budget and let me do what I wanted.

One big catch though, these beats all had to be sample free. To me beats and samples go together like rock and guitars, so this was troubling to say the least. Luckily the producers I worked with were just as apt at freaking a synth as they were with records. Plus I love synthesizers!

TRACKLISTING

Intro – Spindles is one of my best friends since high school. We were just driving around one night and he was playing this beat and I knew I wanted it to set off the CD. It’s like some NYC in the dead of winter shit. Also I was partly responsible for his ASR getting stolen by a crack head coming thru his window in Oakland back in the day, so I kind of owed him.

Sandwich Terror – Dorian Concept is from Austria. I first heard him at Benji B’s monthly Deviation party. He freaked the MicroKorg live like this and I was instantly a fan.

Keep It Tidy – This is my favorite track on the CD. Bullion first came under my radar cause Kutmah would play this Pet Sounds / Dilla remix like every time he DJ’d. Bullion must have sent me almost 10 versions of this track before he settled on the one your hearing. What’s crazy is that each version was so dope and different they could make up a whole other album. We also went back and fourth on the name of the track and I eventually lost.

Extra FUNK – Exile’s the homie and I always liked how he has a really strong signature feel to his drums (which is pretty much how I judge beats). He was the first person I hit up for a beat and I got this, done and done. I kind of thought the whole project was gonna take a week to finish cause this went so easy. Durrrrrrrrr.

Heat Wave 2 – When I first moved to LA I would hear Lotus beats here and there floating around. I always thought they were dope, but like most beats at that time (especially in LA) I thought they were a bit too derivative of the Jaylibs. Maybe I wasn’t listening close enough cause by the time his first album dropped it was clear to everyone that Lotus was inventing a whole new style of beats, flipping his laptop beyond the way his predecessors flipped samplers. He’s clearly running this beat shit and if you’ve seen him live you know that that’s a fact.

Boxed In – Mike Slott is in a crew called LuckyMe with Hudson Mohawke, Rustie and a bunch of other artists and musicians based out of Glasgow. If you need some inspiration they’re little outfit is a treasure trove. The original version of 'Boxed In' on Mike’s beat tape was a lot more stripped down than this one. When he handed in this master I was almost contemplating asking him to dumb it back down. Glad I didn’t cause that would have been retarded (I think the A&R power was going to my head). This one has the perfect balance of busyness and bangingness.

Tetris – I was trying to get something from Waajeed from day one and had pretty much given up when I randomly ran into him at an ALLIDO showcase. He gave me some “I was in Europe” excuse but it was all good cause by the time I got home there was a .zip in my inbox that made me go back to Scion and ask for more budget. The way the beat changes up at the end wasn’t on the og version, so I like to think I got two beats for the price of one. Good looks Jeedo!

The Jawn – One reason I really wanted to get Jay on the project was that he was one of the dudes who put together the Beat Dimensions album and I felt a little guilty for biting the concept (honesty game). When I emailed him about getting something he ended up forwarding my email to a million hungry producers, who started flooding my inbox with beats. I remember I was working on MOBRODER and Naeem and Hoff couldn’t understand why I had all these beats that apparently used the same drum break (aka beat stutter). I did get a lot of dope shit though and if your reading this and you sent me something thank you, I only had so much room.

Viberian Twilight Part 2 – Dr. Who Dat? AKA Jneiro Jarel AKA too much shit for me to keep up with. He’s s kind of like a dude from the 90’s who’s not stuck in the 90’s (I mean that as a complement). I met Jneiro for the first time at that show GLK, Lotus and I did at Cargo. I threw on ‘Do Your Thing’ during my set and JJ came up and started rapping along with it. We were all a bit out of our minds that night, so I guess that’s why Gaslamp all of a sudden came out of nowhere, snatched the mic and started selling CD’s to the crowd. WHAT? It was the greatest thing ever. Sorry Will you knew that story was gonna end up on the blog eventually.

Rough Copy – This guy Samiyam. First time I met him he was chilling in front of the Lab after destroying an in store with Lotus. He had one of those bags with a mesh pocket and mad porno mags hanging out, no shame in the game. His beats are crazy and he was also one of the first dudes I approached to get a track. I think he’s the next big thing or something, we’ll see.

12's in 8 – Like everyone else I first read Riggins name on the Welcome To Detroit album credits. It wasn’t until I got that Roots track ‘Quills’ that I realized how dope he was. I think the name of this track has something to do with it's time signature (try to freestyle to it, it’s like a waltz). I had to really wheel and deal for this one, but I needed some straight up beat shit since I was getting so many busy tracks from the youngsters.

Diurnal Insomnia – Ge-ology is a close friend. Next to Ronson, djing with him taught me the most especially when it comes to record knowledge. If you don’t know about his track record as a producer and artist google him or something, he’s had his hand in a lot of shit. On the down side, Geo I love you but you move mad slow! I was waiting so long to get this from him I even tried going over to his crib one day and playing one of his million synths to get him to finish like “what about just adding this?” I find that technique works well, if you show someone what they don’t want to do they all of a sudden know exactly what they do wanna do.

Almost There – I really wanted to put a beat on this CD (dur…) but of course I waited till the last minute to work on anything and then had to come up with something in the middle of moving from LA to NYC. I called it Almost There cause it’s like almost the sound I was looking for, but not quite there. Kind of reminds me of some Keyboard King shit.

Broken Language – AJ from SEED, described Onra to me as a Parisian kid who dresses like Justice but makes beats, ok. He sent me a lot of real hard beats but I picked this break beat lounge track cause I wanted something a little bit more up beat so dance djs might have something to play on the CD. Not sure if I achieved that goal.

Thanks to everyone involved in this thing & on & on & on. Especially the unsung hero’s like J.Kim, AJ, Jamie Strong, Nasty Nate, GLK, Jake Jefferson, Raj, Alex Chase, Jason, Dana, Haul and of course Jeri!

Most importantly I can’t thank FREEGUMS enough for the art/cover design. You killed it!!!

THESE CD's ARE PROMO ONLY. YOU CAN ADD THEM TO YOUR ORDER HERE OR STOP BY THE LAB IN NYC OR LA TO SNATCH ONE UP.

OR come by Savalas tonight or 87 Ludlow Saturday and i'll sort you out!