You have competed in the New Music Seminar DJ competition in the early 90’s. Describe that experience?
Back then Hip Hop in a whole wasn’t that large. The New Music Seminar was a way into the industry. All the big names & stars in music were at the events.
My first battle I literally went from the bedroom to performing in front of Puff & Russell Simmons. Back then you were a rapper, DJ or producer. The competition gave me thick skin and allowed me to meet people.
The industry is saturated with producers. What are you doing to set yourself apart from the rest?
I learned to follow my gut instincts when it comes to my tracks. I can’t listen to the radio and try to emulate what they’re playing. At the same time I like a lot of the joints that are out.
I try to draw from within and believe in the joints that I throw on a CD. I placed a lot more beats when I started doing joints I personally like.
Do you have a strategy for getting your beats placed?
75-80% of the times my joints are mixed by engineer Ryan West. I got a dope consultant in the industry that I work with. As producers we just can’t hand shit to our consultants and managers and expect them to run with it.
We got to do a lot of hustling ourselves. It’s about reaching out to the contacts that I have and getting music to people that are working. Stay consistent and in touch with people even if you have a CD or not.
A lot of times as producers we can get reclusive and disconnected to what’s going on.
How many beats do you get done a day?
I’m not one of them producers who can do 5 joints a day. I may do like 2 or 3 joints a week but they’re going to be Bangers. Quality over quantity is the way I work.
I found that at the end of the month I have a lot more keepers. I’m a one-man band and it takes time.
BIG K.O. has been knocking out competition with his street anthem ready Tracks.
His latest production efforts has landed him on joints with Tony Ya Yo, Jim Jones and legendary D112's PROOF.
We had an opportunity to chop it up with K.O. at ONE STOP BEATS own DANGER ROOM Studio.
How much do you rely on sampling in your production?
It is so the foundation of it that even my non-sampled joints I try to emulate the songs I love. The diggin’ is like the essence of it. If I’m not sampling and chopping shit up, I’m playing something that was inspired by the classic arrangements.
If you’re a Digger it takes time. It doesn’t come out of thin air. The Boom Bap diggin producers are my favorite because the shit is an art. It takes time to go out and find these records.
I hate when I hear keyboard cats talk about I rather orchestrate my own shit instead of just sample loops and throw drums over it. Yo! It’s not that simple. I’m not just looping it up I’m reconstructing it and making it my own. I can sit and listen to records for hours and get up and sit on the keyboard because that’s like mental sampling.
I want dudes to sleep on it because the ones that are doing it become true masters of it.
How would you describe your sample-based style of production?
I rarely sample directly into my MPC. I like to hook the turntable up to Pro Tools and listen to mad records.
I’ll record everything that catches my ear in my .WAV file folder. I’ll isolate the section I want and get it looping in Pro Tools so I can hear the elements that I want to attack. I’ll do some more Eqing.
I’ll bounce the Pro Tools file to a .WAV file and import it into Recycle. I’ll chop it up in Recycle and bounce the chops to my MPC 2500 because it’s USB compatible.
This process takes longer than sampling direct into the MPC but my goal is to get the best quality.
NEW DRUM SOUNDS
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