Polow Da Don and Bangladesh discuss motivation and getting involved in production at a T-Pain party in Beverly Hills. Also features a cameo appearance by David Banner.
Atlanta producer DJ Toomp speaks on the benefits of working with one artist, working with Kanye West on Graduation, and being honored at Sha Money XL’s One Stop Shop Producers Conference. He also addresses the rise of southern Hip-Hop and working with T.I..
Ski Beatz sounds off on the Ice-T vs. Soulja Boy situation, most lyrically creative mc’s, and the current state of Hip-Hop. Respect to Nah Right.
JD lets us take a look into the scoring of the Tag Records commercial using an Akai MPC 60II sampler/sequencer and live choir. Along the way he gives insight into the philosophy behind making a commercial, footage of interactions with the studio engineer, and even a plug for the soon to be released Beats by … Read more
As told to JNOTA of Redefinition Records
On the SSL mix board, on getting started, and the equipment he used prior to making the switch to computers:
At the House Of Hits; Marley would stick me in there on the SSL. Mind you, he was the only cat that had one at the time… Well, Dre had one, Diddy had one in his house, but Marley was the first to have the SSL in his house. So, there was a lot of stuff in there, on the SSL, that you usually went to school for. I never went to school for it, so there was, like… pressure. The Lords were there, all these different artists. I remember Keith Murray was there and we were doing a song, the "What I’m After" remix. Keith Murray was rhyming real real LOUD, and I’m like, ‘yo, Keith, why you so loud?" and he said, "cause I wanna be heard, Def! I wanna be heard." Now, you’re not supposed to be able to record with all this distortion, so I had to find another compressor to limit him down with his yelling an all that stuff, so there was a lot of pressure.
DJ/Producer/Turntablist A-Trak speaks briefly about production trends and working on his Running Man project w/ Nike. [via h.e.r]
Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson talks about the Roots, their process for creating tracks, mixing skills, and specific recording techniques used to attain the sound of Rising Down. There’s even info given of Quest’s use of the Neve compression plugin- by URS where he reveals that, "I probably got obsessed with using it for the same reason that Erykah Badu did, which she pretty much got from J Dilla, who got that idea from Madlib."
Surely many of you have seen the Dame Grease/Ron Browz video clips making the rounds lately. The short web clips are actually part of a much longer version compiled and distributed by Fullhub Entertainment as part of their ever growing series of Check The Credits DVD’s. Check The Credits is a Smack inspired DVD magazine … Read more
Producer Hi-Tek talks about sample issues with previous projects, production deal, early days of Rawkus, and the importance of forming groups and creating a signature sound.
Zoom-In just dropped their latest Rehearsal Space segment w/ Erykah Badu speaking on the making of New Amerykah, Logic Studio, Garageband, and how technology has impacted her work. Check the video.