Category: Fat Beats

25 Years of Fat Beats: Behind the Scenes

In the final part of our series celebrating 25 years of Fat Beats, we take a look behind the scenes by talking with some of the key figures in the business about how the company has evolved as a chain of physical stores, online, and as a distribution arm that has proven to be a vital outlet for independent hip-hop. Read below, and if you missed them, read our other Fat Beats anniversary articles here: DJ Eclipse interview, Ill Bill, Q-Unique and J57 interview.

Joseph “DJ Jab” Abajian: Fat Beats Owner/Founder

Firstly, congratulations on 25 years! Could you ever have imagined a quarter of a century ago that what you created would endure for so long and have such an impact on hip-hop?

Thank you. When I first opened I didn’t know what to expect but after the first six months I felt I had something special and was planning on major expansions. It all started in 1996 and we were on our way to blow up until I had a life changing experience in 2001 and had a change of course in life. I know we had and continue to have a big impact in the music industry and the Hip-Hop culture. I attest today’s independent rap music scene to a lot of work Fat Beats Distribution has done. We’ve paved the way for artist to do different types of deals for their art/product and showed a whole industry of independent artist how to be independent.

It felt like Fat Beats was always destined to be more than just a record shop. Was the New York store becoming a cultural hub for Hip-Hop something you envisioned from the start and therefore nurtured, or did it happen more organically?

The store becoming a Hip-Hop hub happened organically and was planned but not on purpose. My initial plan was to open a store for deejay’s, graph writers, B-boys and emcees. The logo and motto, “The Last Stop for Hip Hop” was specifically designed for the Hip-Hop nation. But, the first location in the East village attracted everyone that would go to the village which included every other alternative type of lifestyle to your everyday average 9 to 5 worker. In 1994 the commercial world started hearing about Hip-Hop a whole lot more than prior years but there was still a lot of fear of the culture from non-participants. Fat Beats was a place where these people can come and experience Hip-Hop without actually being part of the culture or doing any of the elements.

Last year saw Fat Beats return to physical retail with the reopening of a store in L.A. It’s an incredible achievement considering the fate of most record shops. What was behind the decision to take a dive back into having an actual store?

Initially we were planning on opening a small office in L.A., because we felt we were losing out on meetings and deals because a lot of people didn’t want to take the drive to Canoga Park where our office is due to LA traffic. One of my former employees who ran the website wanted to come back and open a Fat Beats boutique. We thought this would work with the idea of an LA office. Since Fat Beats Dot Com had it’s own space we figured it would make sense to put that operation in the new store location because I wasn’t convinced that there would be enough foot traffic to cover the expenses of a retail operation. Plus most of the employees do not live in the valley and have to deal with the excess traffic in LA. This is another location they can work out off. So far it has paid off. Our online business saw an increase, we got some foot traffic and have been able to throw events again and we’ve had dozen’s of meeting there.

If you had to pick your absolute best moment from the last 25 years, what would that be?

I’d have to say the closing of the initial retails stores in NY & LA. We had week long celebrations and so many artist and fans came through during that week. It was like seeing every artist we impacted come back to pay homage and it was cool hearing what they had to say about Fat Beats and how they felt from artist and fans. It took a huge weight off my shoulder and allowed me to concentrate on what was actually making money in the company. The distribution center and website took off after the stores closed and we made big moves moving out west.

Bert Haine: E-Commerce & Retail Manager

Fat Beats moving from a bricks and mortar operation to a mostly online one a few years back was inevitable considering how much the industry has changed since the first store opened 25 years ago. Tell me how the company went about building an online presence.


When our stores closed, we doubled down on our online efforts as we knew that would be the central way we could still directly interact with our customers. From there we took advantage of our already well-known brand and artist connections and utilized our position as a vinyl distributor to develop direct exclusives and other limited-edition releases and grow our following and online business.


We’ve talked in our other recent Fat Beats interviews about how the physical stores had an aesthetic quality that went beyond the music. How do you capture a sense of that in an online store? Obviously, you want a website that’s professional and works well, but at the same time you still need something authentically hip-hop, right?

To a certain extent we still try to keep things authentically Hip-Hop, obviously with respect to many of the releases and in-stores we focus on, but overall we keep our goals the same as any other business that cares about its customers; we constantly aim to improve user experience, keep our customers educated to all the new music available and strive to offer the best possible human customer service, which I think makes us stand out from other big box chains and web-stores like Amazon etc.

We sell a wide variety of records in our store and our website now that, ten years ago, would be pretty unexpected from a business like Fat Beats, but trends have changed and streaming has broadened musical tastes dramatically and our aim now is simply to offer great music on physical format, namely vinyl, with of course a deep understanding, love and focus on Hip-Hop.

The “vinyl resurgence” has been driven a lot by re-issue packages of classic records and limited edition runs of new music, which sell well as collector’s items. Presumably these are the types of products that bring in the most revenue these days? 


Definitely, catalog releases and new exclusive limited edition runs of records drive much of the revenue but, whenever there is a hotly anticipated record, an LP like Freddie Gibbs & Madlib’s Bandana, or the first instrumental solo work by Daringer (Griselda Records’ go-to producer) we’ll do really well as has always been the case. On the whole there has just been a broadening of the base of people that consistently buy and listen to records over the last ten years, which has helped us gain back some of the ground we lost after DJs stopped really needing to buy records due to all of the controller/interface innovations.


What records are some of Fat Beats absolute top-sellers online since the e-commerce site opened?

I don’t have data over the lifetime of the business to know what have been some of our best sellers since we opened for business online way back in 2001, but I know when records like Madvillainy and Donuts dropped we were selling thousands of copies from the online store. But as of the last decade a few that have really sold above and beyond expectations have been; Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, Rev Shines & Conway’s recent exclusive 12”, JPEGMAFIA’s Veteran, and Blu & Exile’s classic, Below The Heavens.

Joe Dent: General Manager at Fat Beats Distribution

Outside of the physical stores and online retail, Fat Beats’ distribution arm has been hugely influential to the hip-hop scene over the last couple of decades. Tell me about how the service has evolved over the years.

Oddly enough, distribution is the largest division of our business and may be the one that is the least known to the average Fat Beats customer. Over the last decade we’ve seen major changes in the industry at large (the vinyl “resurgence” you often hear about) but as a company that has catered to the vinyl consumer since day one, we’ve strived to remain a go-to distribution option as more and more competitors have realized the viability of the format. In that sense, our evolution is ongoing.

By moving our headquarters from New York to Los Angeles five years ago, we’ve positioned ourselves in a great location not only by working with some of our favorite artists on a more face to face basis, but also within the vinyl manufacturing community in having several major pressing plants within 30 miles of our facility (right next door, in the case of Rainbo Records). Above all else, our goal is to be an extremely artist-friendly business in an industry that too often isn’t.

Of the many records Fat Beats has distributed, which are some of the ones you are especially proud of?

For me personally, the projects I recall most vividly are due to the people that were involved and the packaging or timeline challenges that may have been overcome in bringing them to life. That includes not only the artists or labels behind the releases themselves, but the pressing plants and printers as well.

Blu & Exile’s Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them, the box set reissue of Black Moon’s Enta Da Stage, and most recently Masta Ace & Marco Polo’s A Breukelen Story are some of my favorites.


You offer pretty much a full service to get an artist’s music created, marketed and available. That said, has the relative ease at which anyone can now get their records/tapes/cds manufactured and then self-distributed via their own site, or Bandcamp, made distribution less of a viable business?


Generally speaking, it hasn’t. But the distribution model is not a one size fits all approach and there are plenty of artists who are successfully selling exclusive releases in their own webstores and are satisfied with that. As a company born out of brick and mortar retail, we still wholeheartedly believe in the value of the independent record store on a worldwide basis in addition to various exclusive projects. And because in many cases we are absorbing the roles of a traditional record label, manager, designer, and PR team in additional to simply packing and shipping, we feel our value will always be there if we are willing to adapt to an artist’s specific needs.


Speaking of Bandcamp, a couple of months ago they started offering manufacture and fulfillment to artists. Is this something you see Fat Beats moving into?



Pressing, wholesale distribution and D2C fulfillment are among the core services we currently offer to our partners. But because we are a true independent distributor, we are focused on offering personalized attention to our growing artist and label roster rather than an open-door crowd funded service. But we’ll always have our ear to the ground as times change.

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Follow Fat Beats on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Interview by Grown Up Rap Editor Ben Pedroche.

25 Years of Fat Beats: Q-Unique, Ill Bill and J57 Interview

In the second part of our series celebrating 25 years of the iconic Fat Beats, we speak to Ill Bill, Q-Unique and J57. Each artist worked at the New York store, and here reflect on their time there. Don’t forget the Fat Beats 25th Anniversary show in Los Angeles takes place tomorrow – see here for tickets. And if you missed our interview with DJ Eclipse earlier this week, catch up now.

 

How did you wind up working at Fat Beats in the first place? I know that DJ Eclipse was the connection for a lot of staff there.

[Q-Unique] I asked Bobbito if he knew of any job openings and he put me in contact with Eclipse.

[Ill Bill] Yeah, E was my DJ, so he was the plug. I had a bunch of experience working in streetwear and skateboard retail and when I heard Fat Beats were hiring, I wanted in.

[J57] It was early September 2004 and I was at an event in NYC that the homie DJ Concept was spinning at with DJ Amore from Fat Beats. Concept came up to me towards the end of the event and was like, “An intern slot opened up at Fat Beats, would you want me to tell Amore you’re interested?” I was like, “Hell yeah!” And so he introduced me to Amore. She set up a date/time for an interview, and I came through (nervous as HELL) and bodied the interview. I started interning in late September 2004. I believe there were over ten interns in total fighting to get hired. I would come in early and leave late for each shift I worked. Amore and Maticulous took note of that and told DJ Eclipse about it. Eclipse was on tour for most of my first months interning but when he came back, I was rescheduled to intern on the days he was in the store, which lead to me getting hired in May 2005 once an opening came up. It changed my life forever. And I guess I wasn’t a shitty intern haha. Tremendous thank you to DJ Eclipse, DJ Concept, DJ Amore, Maticulous, and of course DJ Jab!

As artists yourself, did you look at working at Fat Beats as a way of promoting your own shit, or more of just a way to get fully immersed in the hip-hop scene and community the store managed to cultivate?

[Q-Unique] To be honest I didn’t fully understand what I was a part of, so at times I took it for granted. And coming from the Rock Steady Crew and getting Zulu lessons from Bam in the middle of the Bronx River projects, I guess I felt there was no topping that as far as a Hip-Hop experience is concerned. Looking back now, I wish I would’ve handled the experience of being at Fat Beats better than I did. That isn’t to say that it was all bad. There are memories of being there that I will cherish for the rest of my life, and people that I got to meet that I normally wouldn’t even cross paths with. Looking at it now, giving it a definition, after becoming a member of the Rock Steady Crew, Fat Beats was the next best/incredible thing to happen to me as far as my Hip Hop experience is concerned.

[Ill Bill] At the time I didn’t really give all that much thought, but looking back now, probably a little bit of both. And also to learn the music business from the retail side of things. The marketing and promotions, the in-stores, the street teams etc. I just wanted to soak it all in, and that’s what I did.

[J57] I helped start Brown Bag AllStars around ’07. We started recording songs in September at my man Jesse Shatkin’s studio. He formerly went by Belief. We released a few loosies for us to put up on our MySpace pages. Back then, we went by JLOG1C (my name at the time) featuring The Audible Doctor & Soul Khan etc. A few of those songs later ended up on the first Brown Bag mixtape, The Brown Tape, which dropped in September 2008. Once Brown Bag became “a real thing,” I then started going absolutely ham promoting us subliminally to customers, by strategically not telling them I was in Brown Bag. We pushed hundreds of copies of our first project (which was a CD only release for the first year) out of Fat Beats and everyone always came back saying they dug it. That’s when I’d tell them I was in the group, who I was, our MySpace addresses to look up, I’d grab their email address, etc.

Did being around so much talent coming through the doors inspire you as an artist, and to keep pushing your own skills to be as sharp as the competition?

[Q-Unique] Yes 100%. It kept me on my toes. Not only the people coming through the doors but my coworkers as well. Think about it, I was working with Breeze Brewin’ from the Juggaknotts, Ill Bill & DJ Eclipse from Non Phixion, Mista Sinister from the X-ecutioners, Cypha Sounds, Max Glazer and a bunch of others that were super talented and well versed in hip-hop.

[Ill Bill] 1000%! The NYC underground hip hop scene practically lived there. For me, working there felt more like chilling in my living room at home then working at a job. DJs like Premier, Clark Kent and Funkmaster Flex were regulars. Anybody from LL to Snoop to Q-Tip to Pharoahe Monch to Eminem could be at the store on any given day. You never knew who you’d bump into when you were there. It was trippy and inspiring as fuck.

[J57] Absolutely. I started rhyming in late ’99 and making beats in early ’03, so at a young age I was around legends and big name artists that I idolized from so many years prior. It really made me feel like I could one day do this music thing for a living. It also made me put a LOT of time into sharpening my blade and honing my craft. I wanted to impress them with what I was creating. I was in a group called TNK/The Kill World prior to Brown Bag and we were working on a project and collaborative stuff within the group. We made tons of songs during that era that we had on our MySpace pages but many more songs that never saw the light of day, because we were really young and still learning how to create music; working on phrasing, double entendres, studying the art of the sample chop, etc. So me being at Fat Beats absolutely made me have to step my game up as an artist and a producer, before I could really tell people I was an artist or a producer. I respected the culture and the art form too much to not push myself further.

Working in a shop that’s stocking your own music meant you probably, and understandably, nudged customers towards that. Was it a buzz to see people buying stuff you helped create, and did you ever let people know you were involved in the records?

[Q-Unique] Sometimes I did, and sometimes I would pretend that the Arsonists was just a cool new record. I would do this to see what the real reaction would be with a customer listening to the song without the pressure of knowing the artists is standing right next to them. Get a true reaction.

[Ill Bill] Yeah, it was alotta fun turning people on to my own records and alotta my friends’ music too. I definitely met a ton of fans and signed a ton of records over the years I was there. I even ended up doing a monthly hip hop 12” singles column for Strength Magazine for a couple years. We were serving the community, and it didn’t feel like a job. Most of us would have done it for free! The only reason I left was that my music started taking off and I had to bounce, otherwise I might still be there now.

[J57] Ha! Well, I kinda answered that in question two but to answer the other part of the question: Yes. By 2009, it was insane to see people walk into Fat Beats and ask me to autograph their Brown Bag or Homeboy Sandman or even J57 vinyl that we had in stock at the store. Like I said, I started working (interning at first) there in ’04, so I went a solid five years where no one who walked into the store either knew, or cared about me as an artist in the slightest. I was “the guy behind the counter that always recommended dope shit to listen to,” which I was happy with being for the first maybe three years. It was extremely surreal in 2010 when I would come back from my lunch break and Eclipse would be like, “Jimmy, those people over there just bought a bunch of Brown Bag stuff and they want you to sign it.” I couldn’t even see straight, it felt like I was being Punk’d haha. Grateful as hell, man.

I always remember one time in the only hip-hop record store that came close to having the same atmosphere as Fat Beats; Mr. Bongo in London. It was around the time Eminem dropped “My Name Is”, and a guy came in asking for a record he’d heard by someone called “Zam Zany”. The staff knew he meant Slim Shady but made out they didn’t, and he went away empty handed. I’ve heard similar stories of Fat Beats staff giving customers a hard time if they didn’t know their hip-hop shit properly. Was that true?

[Q-Unique] Yes at times, speaking for myself, I wasn’t always cool with customers. Not something I’m proud of or think is funny. I’d like a do-over on that.

[Ill Bill] We were worse [laughs]! We didn’t really give it much thought back then, but yea, we were a little heavy-handed with the customers at times. The biggest ball breakers in the world of retail anything were the homies at Supreme. And Fat Beats had a similar vibe in alotta ways. The motto of the store was “Either buy something or BOUNCE!” hahahaha. We ran a tight ship.

[J57] Was that true? Ummm…I wanna plead the fifth on that one hahaha! Nah, I’ll keep it a buck with you and I can ONLY speak for myself; if someone didn’t know their stuff but acted like they were “too cool” or that they were “Mr. Hip-Hop” and would try to school us (like this one guy we referred to as “Mr Detroit”) I would be happy to son them real fast, but I feel like that only happened maybe two or three times in total because almost all of the people came in to the store, walked in with a love and respect for the culture, which till this day, I will give people like that the shirt off my back if they needed it, because Hip-Hop music is my life’s purpose.

Quick backstory on “Mr Detroit”—this guy used to come in and ask to look at any CD that came out by a Detroit artist. He’d look at the back cover and hand it back to me or Audible Doctor saying, “Yo this is the homie, I’ll just get him to give me a copy.” We had to call him out on it by saying, “If thats your man then why don’t you support him and buy the CD?” [laughs]. Yeah there was almost no other cases of that, that I can think of off the top of my head during my time at Fat Beats.

Q-Unique; speaking of Eminem, I’ve always liked to the story of Paul Rosenberg hustling copies of “Just Don’t Give A Fuck” personally in the store, just before Em broke through. That must feel pretty weird looking back now?

It just gave me the example that if someone truly believes in something or someone, they’re going to do whatever it takes to make something special happen, and he did.

The last day at the New York story has gone down as being an epic event. What are your personal memories and highlights of that day?

[Q-Unique] The massive amount of people showing up and paying respect, all the Hip-Hop superstars coming through, getting the Arsonists to do a set with me, my album Between Heaven & Hell dropping so it was a part of the last releases for the store. And…my son making the final purchase, a Run DMC 12-ich of “Sucker MCs.”

[Ill Bill] It was a really sad for me personally. Like I said earlier, I practically lived there for years. Non Phixion used to rehearse for shows there after closing time. It was truly the end of an era. After Fat Beats closed permanently, I can’t say the trek from Brooklyn to Manhattan was as interesting to me anymore. For those that experienced it, there will never be another place like it. Hopefully we can keep that vibe and energy going in other ways though, like we’re doing right now.

[J57] Man…I’m STILL exhausted from working that day nine years ago [laughs]. I’ll put it this way, I’m covered in sweat in all of the pictures of me working that day, and with good reason. It was a long day. A bittersweet day. Real somber, honestly. Kinda nerve wracking for me because I knew that I was going to be a “full time” musician living in the most expensive city in the country. I was blown away by all the press, camera crews there, legends that came in to rock, etc. It was the perfect way to end such an incredible era.

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The Los Angeles Fat Beats 25th Anniversary show takes place this Saturday (August 10) at The Regent Theater, featuring Dilated Peoples, Elzhi, Tha Alkaholiks, Blu & Exile, J. Rocc and many more. Get tickets and find out more here. Follow Q-Unique, Ill Bill, J57 and Fat Beats on Twitter here, here, here and here, and Instagram here, here, here and here. Interview by Grown Up Rap Editor Ben Pedroche.

25 Years of Fat Beats: DJ Eclipse Interview

The iconic Fat Beats is currently celebrating 25 years in the hip-hop industry. As a retail outlet, label and distributor, the company has supported some of the finest independent music over the last quarter of a century, helping many of rap music’s biggest artists along the way. In the first of our series of features marking this epic milestone we speak to DJ Eclipse, who has worked for and been associated with Fat Beats since the beginning, ahead of this weekend’s Fat Beats 25 Anniversary show in Los Angeles.

It seems like everyone came through the doors of Fat Beats at some point in their career, from ‘90s veterans and indy rap icons all the way to Eminem and Kanye West. Give us some of your personal highlights from the in-store appearances and freestyle sessions you were there for?

One thing you have to understand about our scene is that maaaaaaaad people were nice! Obviously some better than others, but on a whole there were so many talented people that came through Fat Beats or just the indie movement that was happening in NYC in the ‘90s. Nine times out of ten who “made it” was less based on the individual’s talent and more based on the break they caught. If you would have asked me if I thought Kanye would have become as big as he is now based on his Fat Beats appearance I would have said my money is on Al Tariq or Black Attack (who Ye came with). There were too many people that were dope during that era.

Some of the best sessions at the store were when fellow emcees came to hang out with people that worked there (like ILL BILL or Q-Unique). At any given time a cipher might start up with Bill, Q, El-P, Last Emperor, A.L. Skills, Breeze Brewin, etc. A lot of the Rawkus’ artists had great in-stores like Shabaam, Kweli and L-Fudge. Other dope ones were KRS-One (who basically gave an on-the-spot lecture to the crowd for the whole time he was there), RZA, Psycho Realm, Mix Master Mike & Non Phixion, Immortal Technique…..but the biggest in-stores we ever had were Gang Starr (twice) and Eminem. Lines for them were down the block and around the corner.

Being part of a place that gave so many talented artists a platform, is there a particular emcee who blew up thanks to Fat Beats that you are most proud of?

“Blew Up” is a hard word to use because although most probably didn’t reach Eminem’s status many have made careers out of music. And I don’t think Fat Beats can take any credit solely for anyone’s success, but Fat Beats definitely played a part in helping artists like El-P, A-Trak, Black Milk, Dave One (Chromeo) and ILL BILL just to name a few. But more importantly than even helping one person was the field that we created for everyone to play on. During that time everyone was still itching to get a major label deal. We started stepping to artists and telling them stop waiting to get signed. Let’s press up your record and distribute it. The profit splits for artists automatically became a whole lot better. We weren’t trying to own the music. That stayed with the artist. We turned all this energy into a movement and with the help of the artists and people like Stretch & Bobbito who were playing the music it took off.

On the flipside of that, are their any emcees or producers stocked at Fat Beats that you were surprised didn’t blow up?

Definitely felt like Last Emperor and Natural Elements should have gone further. They were and ARE so dope, and at that time they had a lot of people checking for them. Emp got signed to Aftermath and we were all rooting for him. But once Dre picked up Eminem I think Em became Dre’s focus and other signees were left on the shelf. NE went to Tommy Boy who were trying their hand at picking up indie artists, but just like Emp, NE’s album got shelved for whatever reason. But like I said, it’s not always the most talented that move forward. Sometimes the universe has it’s own plans.

Music aside, Fat Beats definitely appealed to rap heads on an aesthetic level. The shop was basically everything you picture an independent hip-hop record store should look like: racks of 12”s, walls covered with signed record sleeves, posters and flyers, music pounding over the system, and staff who really know their shit. Were you guys conscious from early on that people would see it as way more than just a record shop, and as such was it something you tried hard to capture?

Well the vision Joe had from the start was to build a home for Hip-Hop heads to come shop. As far as how it all came together I think that was more organic and just part of our own personal makeup. We were all DJs or MCs or B-Boys. We all collected stickers, posters, vinyl, etc so when you walked into a Fat Beats store you were literally seeing our stash on the walls (in the beginning). And as the store started getting more of that stuff more went up on the walls and ceiling. The first Fat Beats location was basically like a DJs bedroom set up. Except there was vinyl for sale on the walls. And the floors. And anywhere else we needed to stock it to fit.

One Fat Beats story I’ve always loved is the ones about Percee P, there on the sidewalk selling tapes outside of the store. It was dope how that situation ended up giving his career a second wind. I’m curious about how you guys felt about his consistent presence right outside the store?

I love Percee, but never liked him or anyone else selling music in front of the store. I’d always tell all of them go down the block to the corner or even just move to the sidewalk by the curb. Standing directly in front of our door turned so many people away from coming into Fat Beats towards the end. It wasn’t just a digital revolution that killed Fat Beats it was the numerous “artists” that basically harassed people coming in and out of the store to get them to buy something from them. I had people tell me that they would cross the street to walk past Fat Beats if headed in that direction just to not be bothered by them.

It feels as though Fat Beats caught a moment in time that we’ll probably never see again. Downloading and streaming happened and record shops died. There’s a resurgence for sure, but pop-up shops and a lot of these new stores seem too clinical and gentrified, and the even the records are often just overpriced re-issues. Do you think we’ll ever see something like the original Fat Beats again?

Nah, that era is gone. The brand lives on to deliver the goods to the people via fatbeats.com and Fat Beats Distribution, but the era of physically going out to a store and hanging out and networking is a lost pastime. You have to remember we were in our 20s then. This was pre-internet. You HAD to do all this stuff. You had to go to a store to buy music. You had to go to an event to see/hear the music you were into. You had to go see your friends to catch up with them. Our generation is too old now to have the free time (or money) to do the things we did then and the younger generation is coming up with access to everything at their fingertips so they don’t have the need or want for that same experience we lived.

Lastly, tell us your top five 12”s that Fat Beats have distributed over the last 25 years.

Big L – “Ebonics”
Missin’ Linx – “M.I.A.”
Mos Def – “Universal Magnetic”
D.I.T.C. – “Day One”
Bumpy Knuckles – “A Part Of My Life”

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The Los Angeles Fat Beats 25th Anniversary show takes place this Saturday (August 10) at The Regent Theater, featuring Dilated Peoples, Elzhi, Tha Alkaholiks, Blu & Exile, J. Rocc and many more. Get tickets and find out more here. Follow DJ Eclipse and Fat Beats on Twitter here and here, and Instagram here and here. Interview by Grown Up Rap Editor Ben Pedroche.

Interview: DJ Rhettmatic

One of the most respected DJs and producers in hip-hop, Rhettmatic has been a fixture of the L.A. scene for decades through his solo work, as part of the Visionaries collective and as a member of the Beat Junkies. He recently talked to Matt Horowitz about projects new and old, production technique, touring with Dilla and more.

Following your 2011 collaborative mixtape/remix album/live EP, Bobo meets Rhettmatic, what’s next for your group, Cypress Junkies with Eric Bobo?

It’s been a hot minute since Bobo and myself have had a chance to work on new material.  The last joint production we did together was for Rakaa’s (of Dilated Peoples) solo album, Crown Of Thorns, called “Rosetta Stone Groove” featuring Noelle Scaggs of Fitz & The Tantrums. We also toured Europe a few years ago but Bobo has been really busy with Cypress Hill since their new album dropped and has been touring mad crazy. But we’ve been talking still about doing some new music and getting back on the road, doing some spot dates in the near future.

How did yourself and Bobo initially meet and decide to form Cypress Junkies?

I met Bobo along with B-Real in the late 90’s when I was one of the DJ’s spinning on their Soul Assassins Radio Show at a local radio station in LA called 92.3 The Beat. Babu & Melo-D were also the other Dj’s; we would do their mixes live in between guests and comedy skits. This is around the time of the Cypress Hill IV album days. If you don’t know the history of Bobo, he is the son of the legendary Latin percussionist, Willie Bobo. He also used to play for the Beastie Boys (he even had a song named after him, “Bobo On the Corner” on Ill Communication before he became the 4th official member of Cypress Hill), as well as doing production for Psycho Realm. Anyways, he was working on a solo album called “Meeting Of The Minds” and he always wanted to do a DJ/percussionist song. We’d become friends already because of my stint on the Soul Assassins Radio Show, but I was honored he asked me. The song was called “Bobo Meets Rhettmatic”.  When we performed the song at his release party, we realized that we might have something here. Then we were asked to perform for a benefit show in Los Angeles, and ended up being the headliner. We restructured our show to be more of a live element with more emphasis on the synergy between a DJ and a percussionist, and as we performed, we were really surprised by the response we got. Hence, “Bobo Meets Rhettmatic” was born; which eventually changed to Cypress Junkies (Cypress Hill/Beat Junkies affiliation). It was a big honor with B-Real giving  us the official blessing.

I’ve heard rumblings a new Visionaries album is currently in the early stages of creation, correct? What can you potentially tell us about your upcoming return?

Yes, the Visionaries are working on a new album. It’s been 13 years since our last album “We Are The Ones”, which dropped in 2006. A lot of our core fans have been asking us to make a new album but everyone got busy with their own individuals lives and music careers. Both Dannu & Key-Kool have families, LMNO has a couple of solo projects out along with having a new baby, as well as 2Mex & Zen having their own projects out. Plus 2Mex had his own health situation that he needed to take care of; he had one of his leg amputated because of diabetes a few years ago. Now he’s still moving forward with full force and living life. Me personally, I got really pretty busy with the Beat Junkies. The Visionaries have done shows here and there but we never really worked on a new group album just because whether we realized it or not, we needed a break as a group (or at least for me personally), even though we’re family.

As for the new album, we are tentatively calling it “Vintage”, as a return to our roots of just making music for fun and not overthinking things. The difference between this particular album and our other albums; I will be doing all of the production, where it used to be Key-Kool and myself being the chief producers and having our regular family of producers such as J.Rocc and Babu, to name a few. I like to think in the last 5-10 years that I’ve grown and improved as a producer compared to my past production. The guys always wanted to make a new album, but for me personally, I wasn’t really ready just because I was burnt out and wanted to expand more as a DJ, an artist, a producer, as well as a person. So to be transparent, the guys were really waiting on me to work on new material. Besides me growing as a human being, a DJ and a producer, a lot of family, friends, and even our heroes were passing away as well as dealing with our own situations separately. We were all getting older. In 2017/2018 is when we started working on new material and just learned how to record as a group again with no expectations, and have fun making music together. We’re almost finished….hopefully it will drop by the fall/winter of 2019, God willing. If not, at least some new music this year to set up the new album for the top of 2020.

In adittion to Cypress Junkies, Visionaries & Beat Junkies, you’re also, part of The Joint Chiefs with Frank Nitt (Frank n Dank.) What’s the current status of this project?

Frank is my brother! I met Frank n Dank at the Jaylib “McNasty Filth” video shoot. We’ve became real good friends during the time since I DJ’ed for Dilla in Europe for his last tour ever. It was really fun when we made the Joint Chiefs album; basically Frank just crashed at my crib for a whole week just to work on music. Each day, I would work on beats in one room while he was playing Nintendo in the other room, then when I finished with a beat, I would show it to him, he’d start writing then we would record. After the session, we would get “enhanced” while listening to the finished product, then go out to the clubs just to take a break, then we would repeat again the next day. We basically would record two songs a day. We’ve talked about doing a follow up but we both are busy with our own schedules. The last joint we did together is a song called “Classic” that I produced for his solo album Frankie Rothstein on Delicious Vinyl in 2015. Besides his own solo projects as well as the Yancey Boys and Frank n Dank albums, he’s currently in charge of the California chapter of the James Dewitt Yancey Foundation as well as still being an artist on Delicious Vinyl. We’ll definitely going to work on new music soon in the near future.

Loops, Chops, Beats & Vibes (VOL. 2) was recently released in honor of your 50th birthday. What’s the significance of said release to you?

I’ve been releasing music for free on my Birthday (May 10th), whether an album or a mix, for the last 10 years as a way of saying thank you to everyone that has been following my DJ/producer career, and just as a way to promote my catalog and progress as an artist/DJ/producer. With Loops, Chops, Beats, & Vibes Vol. 2, I wanted to a little something different when I dropped this on my birthday this year. I wanted to actually treat it like an official album versus giving something away for free, so I actually sold the album instead and made an official music video for the project. I made a video to the joint called “West Coast Vibrations (An Ode To Souls)”, which is a flip of the original sample that was used on Souls Of Mischief’s 93 Til Infinity, hence the tribute to Souls Of Mischief. I even wanted to shoot the video in the same vibe or essence of 93 Til Infinity, except highlighting Los Angeles and some of the cities that make up Los Angeles County. The video was shot and edited by Dj Underkut of Open Format LA, and he did a great job! I was really surprised and honored by the response for both the album and the video – it really meant the world to me that people went out and supported this album. That was definitely a great birthday gift to me for turning 50, and it tells me that I’m still doing something right. So everyone that purchased this album, I truly thank you from the bottom of my heart!

How would you say your process, approach, sound, style, etc. for Loops, Chops, Beats, & Vibes Vol. 2 differs from that of 2018’s Loops, Chops, Beats, & Vibes Vol. 1?

The approach to Volume 2 in terms of how the production was done is a combination of how I made the beats on Volume 1, by doing a cut & paste style strictly using Pro Tools only and making beats on the Propellerhead Reason program like I did on my Rhett Got Beats album. When I made Volume 1, I originally wanted to challenge myself and go back to making beats on my MPC2000 but it wasn’t working; so when that wasn’t working, I tried to turn on my SP1200 machine, but that wasn’t working either. I didn’t want to make beats on Reason because that’s what I’m currently using right now, but I still wanted to challenge myself for the fuck of it. I decided to try make beats on Pro Tools by doing a lot of cut, paste, and layering. I went digging for records for a good month and just basically pick any record from the stash I bought, record it on Pro Tools and just basically start chopping away. It was more tedious but I had a lot of fun doing it.  With Volume 2, I wanted to continue the tradition, but I also have been making beats on Reason that I really liked and I didn’t want to put them to the side; plus I was also on a time constraint. So I decided to put some of my Reason beats that I liked a lot (plus the Nipsey Hussle tribute track that I made last to finish up the album), made a few tracks with the same Pro Tools procedure, and arranged them together so I can beat my personal deadline. I’m very proud of the end product, if I do say so myself! [laughs].

I know you were J Dilla’s touring DJ for a string of shows through Europe with Frank n Dank and Phat Kat; happen to have any particularly memorable stories from your time spent on the road with Dilla?

When Dilla was still alive and living in LA, I always told him if he ever needs scratches from me, I got him. And we actually talked about doing some work together. He always had love for the Junkies, especially for J.Rocc.  J.Rocc is the 3rd member of Jaylib so it makes sense that he was Dilla and Madlib’s DJ. Dilla had a real small circle of people that he would hang out  with and trust in LA; I was very lucky to be considered to be part of that circle in his last years. Originally Dilla asked J to go out with him on tour to Europe, but he couldn’t make it because he was scheduled to go out on the road already with Madlib. When I got the call from Dilla that he wanted me to go out on the road with him, Frank n Dank and Phat Kat, I said let’s go. I hit up J to thank him for recommending me for the job, but J said he didn’t even say anything to him – that was all Dilla’s idea. I was shocked and honored. Around this time as well, I knew he was sick, but I didn’t know to what extent until we met at the airport. To tell you the truth, the whole tour was memorable to me because Dilla personally asked me to be his tour DJ, plus I was able to bond with him, Mama Yancey aka Ma Dukes (Dilla’s Mother), Frank N Dank, Phat Kat, and Dave New York (Dilla brought him along as well). We all didn’t know this was going to be Dilla’s last tour ever, but I think he already knew and he wanted to do it for the fans regardless of his health. I also think that this was his way of saying this is our chance to work together….I will never forget this experience for the rest of my life. Thank you, Dilla!

What’s the current status of your long-time crew, The World Famous Beat Junkies or any of its affiliated entities?

The Beat Junkies are still going strong. We celebrated our 20 Year Anniversary in 2012 by doing shows in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco as well as in Europe and Japan. We were really surprised how many fans, young and old were still excited to see us perform and how much people are still checking for us even though we never stopped.  Because of that, we decided to get serious in terms of building our own business by relaunching our merch such as shirts and hats, and launch the Beat Junkies Digital Record Pool (www.beatjunkies.com). From there, we were able to launch our very own radio station, Beat Junkie Radio in conjunction with Dash Radio, a free app that was designed and founded by Dj Skee (www.dashradio.com/beatjunkieradio). I actually have my own radio show on the station called “Soundcheck” that airs live every 2nd & 4th Tuesday. I’ve been lucky to have guests such as Diamond D, Agallah The Don, Blu & Exile, MED, Defari, as well as Dirty Diggs, Supreme Cerebral, & many more. When we celebrated our 25th Anniversary in 2017, we were figuring out what would be our next business venture. From there we started our own DJ school called the Beat Junkie Institute Of Sound in the City of Glendale, Ca. (www.beatjunkiesound.com). We’ve been open for 2 years now and the school has been slowly growing. If you asked us 5-10 years ago that we would have our own DJ school & become instructors, we would’ve looked at you crazy. In January 2018, we officially launched Beatjunkies.tv (www.beatjunkies.tv), our online DJ school, which is an extension of the Beat Junkie Institute Of Sound. Everything that we teach at our school, we also teach online; it’s for those who want to learn how to DJ from us, but either cannot make it to our school or live very far, or for those who want to learn at their own pace. We’re still working on other projects, either as a crew or as individuals, but by the grace of God, hopefully we can keep on going till the wheels fall off.

I’m personally a big fan of your 2016 release, Circa 2004: Blaccmatic with Aloe Blacc! Although, I’ve always been curious: how exactly did this collaboration come to be?

Thank you very much, that means a lot. As the title suggested, the Blaccmatic album was made in 2004. A lot of fans of Aloe Blacc, the singer, don’t know that he’s a talented MC as well, and is in a group called Emanon with producer extraordinaire Exile (Blu, Fashawn, King Choosey). Around this time, Aloe was branching out working on his own material while Exile was in the beginning stages of working with Blu. For myself, nobody knew me really as a producer except for my work with the Visionaries, and I wanted to expand and work with different artists. Aloe and myself talked about doing some work together and then finally he said “just give me a beat CD”. Then one day while I was working at Fat Beats LA, he stopped by and gave me a CD with “Aloe Blacc & Rhettmatic” written on top of it. When I got home to listen to it, I was blown away because he practically made a whole album of all the beats I gave him. One of the songs “Find A Way”, had someone singing, me not knowing that it was Aloe singing himself. When I asked him who was singing, he told me it was him….I was so blown away. Then right there, this was a star in the making. That particular song was supposed to be featured on his Stones Throw debut album Shine Through but didn’t make it, but it did make it on the B-Side of the “I’m Beautiful” 12″ single. On a side note: I also let my dear friend and producer extraordinaire Dj Khalil (Self Scientific, Aftermath) hear “Find A Way” and he immediately asked me who the artist was. He also bugged out when he found out who it was….”You mean, Aloe as in Aloe Blacc from Emanon?? I need to work with him!”. I was able to connect them both and then a couple of years later, they collaborated on a song you might’ve heard or seen on a Beats By Dre commercial called “I’m The Man”.

We never got to officially put the project out because eventually Aloe got signed to Stones Throw and I started working on the Visionaries’ We Are The Ones album. Over the years, we have talked about putting it out but then eventually, Aloe became the talented and respected singer that he is now. When I decided that I wanted to put it out, I asked Aloe permission first to see if he was down with the idea of releasing the project, he said yes, as long it was a free download. He still wanted people to hear our project. When I released the project in 2016, we had such a positive reaction. Fans of Aloe Blacc the MC were happy to hear an unreleased project with him spitting bars; fans of Aloe Blacc the soul singer, didn’t even know the history of Aloe as an emcee and were blown away. Really glad that people got to listen to this project and the positive feedback was the icing on the cake.

I know you’ve worked with everyone from Guilty Simpson to Ras Kass… but do you have any currently vaulted/unreleased collaborations you’re looking forward to the hip-hop-loving world hearing one day?

Who knows, that’s a good question. I do have some joints in the vault that I did with J-Ro of Tha Liks and Defari, K-Solo, an unreleased Key-Kool & Rhettmatic song & some other artists that I worked with in the early 2000’s that never came out officially. If my small core of fans really want to hear some old/unreleased material of mine, then I might put it out….or maybe redo it over. But I do know I have more work to do….

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Buy Rhettmatic’s music here. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Read our oral history of Key Kool & Rhettmatic’s Kozmonautz album from earlier this year.

Matt Horowitz has been a hip-hop fan ever since he first heard Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) back in the mid-90’s, which positively or negatively changed his life ever since, depending on who you ask. He single-handedly runs online music publication The Witzard, and has been fortunate enough to interview Eothen ‘Egon’ Alapatt, Guilty Simpson, Ice-T and Mr. X, Dan Ubick, Career Crooks’ Zilla Rocca & Small Professor, Cut Chemist, and J-Zone, amongst countless others. He enjoys writing about and listening to hip-hop, Punk/Hardcore, and Indie Rock on vinyl with his lovely wife, while drinking craft beer, red wine, or iced coffee. To paraphrase both Darko The Super and the Beastie Boys: “Already Dead fans, they want more of this… I’m a Witzard like my man Matt Horowitz!”. Follow Matt here.