Category: J Dilla

Interview: Blu

Blu Grown Up Rap InterviewBlu is constantly releasing new music, but 2018 has been a particularly busy time for the prolific LA emcee and producer. Fresh off the release of Godz in the Spirit, Titans in the Flesh, with Nottz, and The Blueprint with Shafiq Husayn; Gingerslim spoke to Blu about the diversity in his music, new projects, older albums and more.

You’ve always kept it pretty varied from project to project in terms of the overall sound and production choices. Is that important to you, to keep mixing things up like that? 

Yes, consistency is very important for each project, and diversity is needed for each project. I do not try to repeat myself or redo myself. I look at every album as another day in my life. Some of my fans can kick it with me for well over a week, depending on how many days out of my life they get familiar with.

Is that one of the keys to longevity do you think? 

No, not the key, but an option. The question is, is longevity my option in this game? Am I trying to be Duke Ellington with 200 albums, or more modest like a D’Angelo, who has just three albums in over 20 years.

And does each project come with a different way of working, depending on who you’re working with, or do you have a fairly formulaic approach to writing and creating them? 

What I really treasure behind most of the records I record is the joy of working with just one producer. It creates a certain diversity between each project, that you could pinpoint almost immediately, and you can bet on consistency from start to finish.

Your most recent release is The Blueprint alongside Shafiq Husayn. Can you give us a bit of background on the project? It’s a mixtape of sorts right? 

It’s an album, but it’s also a mixtape. It’s the continuation of my idea behind York. Over half of the production on that record was previously released by artists and their records. So I tapped into beats that no one else had access to, so it gave it a sense of exclusivity. But since the beats have been released, it could also be considered more of a mixtape. Me and Shafiq have always planned to work…this was our first jab at it and I think it’s gonna make an impact on quite a few of our listeners out there.

I remember reading an interview with you and Exile, where he said that sometimes you have to get rid of classic songs to make a classic album, in reference to making, Below the Heavens. That must take some vision and a lot of resolve, being able to see past the strength of the song on its own. 

Most definitely. Creating a record with that type of foresight is easier said than done, but a key part of how we work together. Like I was dying to put certain tracks on Below The Heavens that were dope, but didn’t quite fit the narrative or vibe, so we put ‘em to the side. That’s why we dropped, In The Beginning, which was a batch of gems originally recorded for BTH, that we never had a chance to release during its era.

I think for me at the time, NoYork was a very challenging and experimental album and the features made it seem like you were a co-star rather than driving force behind the album. Does that ring true with how you made the album? 

Nah, not at all. That album never came to full fruition. What was ultimately released was the demo’s for NoYork, which due to label complications we never had the chance to finish. Everyone featured knew these were demos. But at the end of the day, people liked the promo tape so we released it in demo form.

How hard was it to encapsulate the L.A. beat scene on a single record?

It was tough. But can you imagine if we actually created that record properly with the allotted budget, and everyone on gear?! Man! I don’t think people realized that we brought in the entire LA beat scene for that album. I wish we could do it again. The movie for it was crazy!!

There was another interview I read where you said you keep your experiences as a father completely separate from your art. I was wondering why you decided to do that, as a lot of art is inspired either directly or indirectly by what the artist is going through in life.

I feel I’m very open, or at least that I’ve grown to be in some of my newer records. I talk a lot about being a father and not being a father, it comes with the anvil of honesty in my art. I can never not be true, I’m Blu.

Is it hard to keep the two separate like that?

No, but I can imagine that trying to be someone you’re not, can become very difficult after a while. I’m me, so I do that until that doesn’t work. Right now, in Hip-Hop it’s working, so I’m doing Hip-Hop!

You never struck me as the sort of rapper who was out to achieve fame, at least not in the sense that you would be well-known and recognized. Would you say that’s a fair assessment? 

I already “blew up” in my mind. I been getting crowds of respect since high school so it’s a part of who I know I am, a part of my cool.

Is there anything left on your Hip-Hop bucket list that you would still like to cross off, dream collaborations and shows, or anything like that? 

Dilla, I just gotta say his name, cause he would’ve topped that list. DJ Premier and Prince Paul, G.

And what’s next for you? You’ve already got two releases under your belt this year, so you going to take a rest now, or are you already plotting the next move? 

I got eight albums unreleased under my belt right now, working on two more. It don’t stop, it won’t stop, it can’t stop.

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Godz in the Spirit, Titans in the Flesh, The Blueprint and In The Beginning: Before The Heavens are all out now. Follow Blu on Twitter here. 

Gingerslim has been a hip-hop fan since 1994 and has written for various blogs and websites since around 2006. During that time he has contributed to style43, Think Zebra, Headsknow and Front Magazine. His main interests in rap are UK hip-hop and the underground movement in America, with a focus on Rhymesayers Entertainment and the once mighty Def Jux label. He lives in Bristol and has a beard. All other details are sketchy at best. Follow him here. 

Interview: Nolan The Ninja

Nolan Main 2

Detroit producer/MC Nolan the Ninja speaks to us about the influence of old school legends – Redman, Tribe and JAY-Z – on his distinctive style, how Knxledge inspires him and the way his hometown continues to shape his drive. Words by Madeleine Byrne.

The word nostalgic is often used in relation to your music and you’ve used it as well. This surprises me, because I don’t think your work has got a “nostalgic” sound or feel. What do you think about this? 

You know I’m a huge fan of 90s culture, even 2000s culture. I was born in 1992, but a lot of my roots lie in that era, I am 26 so I don’t want to front like I’m a triple OG, I’m still fairly young, but I have appreciation for the new school, as well as the old. My music, I guess, shows the traditional edge, like, hey I like to dig records, you know what I’m saying? I make sure all this stays part of the music.

You said that JAY-Z’s Reasonable Doubt was a major influence on your record YEN from last year, can you expand on that?

Yeah, I mean not in a way like I want to do this album over, but the genesis and the way the whole campaign was set up for JAY-Z’s record, you know. You’re talking about a guy who was almost 30 years-old and hadn’t dropped his first album yet so that’s just really inspiring – that’s more the influence, showing that things take patience and take time. Just because it takes a while it doesn’t mean that it won’t happen, and then it may happen in a bigger way than you can imagine.

And the album is talking about the same things as me; it’s talking about when you’re young and all the things happening in the city where you live. It’s the same thing, a kid from around the way trying to rise up above his conditions, his current conditions.

You’ve mentioned that your favorite rappers are Nas, Black Thought, Redman and A Tribe Called Quest. Could you choose one, maybe one we wouldn’t expect and explain how he inspires you?

Ok, I’ll talk about Redman and his animated style. When I first started out my whole thing was to be fast. It was all about energy on the mic and on stage. Redman influenced me a lot, but I also love Black Thought for his delivery and how he puts stuff together. A Tribe Called Quest inspires me too, I’m influenced by the beats and the individual members of the group. And you’re also talking about a group that put J Dilla under their wing early, J Dilla is a real vital part when you come to talking about Detroit hip-hop and everything.

I listened to YEN  again today and what appeals to me is the way you are so speedy, so energetic. Your style is really distinctive.

Well, it all started because I used to be the rapper who was not too loud and then one time in a cypher around my way when I was a teenager, I went up on the stage and then when it was my turn the guy said, “yo, you got to get louder, you got to be more lively.” So ever since then, when I jumped on the stage I tried to be loud – not loud – but to project.

Added to that is the idea of being a ninja, well ninjas are like trained assassins, you don’t see them coming so that’s how I feel my music resonates, you know, it really simmers and takes you from different angles, expressions when you’re talking about lyrics and beats. It’s just different, but it’s me at the same time. You can ask anybody that knows me. I’ve always been hip to the same things. It’s not me trying to do anything, it’s me being who I am.

That’d probably be the only way I’d link you in with the 90s sound and culture, all those characters that were in groups like A Tribe Called Quest or Wu-Tang …

Yeah, absolutely. I heard a lot of Wu-Tang comparisons you know people want to connect to the ninja side of it, martial arts, kung fu. Wu-Tang is another influence when I started making beats I was trying to be like RZA, Tribe, Q-Tip and J Dilla, I was looking to these guys cause they really know how to make jams. Those are influences, they taught me how to do things musically, for one, they told me to innovate, all those people changed the game in a major way. None of them were here for a minute then gone.

One of my favorite tracks of yours is the instrumental Elation. It’s the one song that  has a nostalgic feel with the vocal sample at the top, using the classic early hip-hop refrain.

Yeah, it starts with the Common sample from I Used to Love H.E.R the .. “yes, yes, y’all and you don’t stop.” That track was on a tape that was my introduction to the whole underground scene. Fat Beats put it out on cassette and it sold out. Dart Adams and DJ Soko helped me do the digital release, that tape was called Lo-Fi Loops and it was me making dope music, something for a head nod, to do a homework edit.

When I make beats that’s my goal, I look at guys like J Dilla and Madlib and see how their beats are still being heard in 2018 and one of them has passed away. I want my beats to be like that, heard all over the world. I just want my beats out there. With that release back in 2015, I got my name out a little bit more, then I dropped my first LP eight months later.

Now turning to your latest release – it’s one of two, the second is called $UD$ but we’ll just focus in on one – CRUD, that’s slang for dope, for marijuana in Michigan, right?

Yeah, but crud literally means unclean, filthy, or dirt, we also use it to refer to marijuana, but crud literally means filth, and CRUD if you listen to it is dirty, not smooth … Dirty and unclean that’s all it is. But it does also mean weed, a lot of those beats I made when I was high, so it makes sense.

What kinds of words would you use to describe this release?

Raw, traditional, gritty, filthy, different, refreshing, honest … Don’t want to say addictive because we’re talking about music that simmers, but those words I’d use. I’m just doing me man, the main thing I’m concerned about with my music is authenticity, I’m not really concerned about playing political games. I just want to do what I want. I’m just happy where I am, I’m excelling and my people are excelling.

Which track would you pick as the one you feel close to?

There’s a few, but my favorite beat on there is probably going to be Crud, Luh and then Chef’s Rap that’s got Raekwon’s verse on John Blaze by Fat Joe. I just took out Rae’s verse.

Nolan Body

Yeah, that’s something that interests me because a lot of the time on CRUD you have these extended samples from another rapper, Chef’s Rap is one example of this. Usually a producer takes a tiny snippet as a sample from another rapper’s track, here there are complete verses, but the tracks aren’t remixes. What’s happening here?

I tried not to overdo it, but I do like to remix records that I grew up with, I’m a fan of, but I’m not trying to recreate the song, just if there are ill moments. Raekwon is another MC I look up to in terms of lyrics, I loved his verse on John Blaze. It was real ill, so I just put it together. It’s trial and error, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I trust my instincts and if it comes out fresh, it’s cool.

This is something Knxledge does too. I saw that DJ Soko said you’re inspired by Knxledge, is that still true?

Absolutely, he is like the current person I look up to, I really admire his work. I love what he does with Anderson .Paak, but there are a lot of producers around now, Tuamie is a dope producer. I love his work, same with Knx, Dibia$e, ovrkast and more. Then there are the triple OGs that you have to give respect to like Pete Rock, or DJ Premier… It really depends what you want to look at, but yeah I’m heavily inspired by Knxledge just the way he moves. I met him once, Earl Sweatshirt had a show at a festival in Detroit, Knxledge was off in the shadows and I had a chance to chop it up with him. I’m the same way, I’m not like “hey look at me” I just want to work; that’s the vibe he gives me. I feel like Knxledge gets it, the introverted nature of the art, you put yourself in the work rather than being political with everybody.

The track Sleigh on CRUD  is a stand out for me. You’ve talked about the dirtiness of the album, but like any great hip-hop song it’s got the high and low end, there are the bell sounds, can you talk through the process of creating that track?

All of the stuff I used on that came from records, I literally got everything from wax. I made that beat a couple of years ago, but I knew that when I was making another beat tape it’d be on there, it’s real dope. I think it was a Tom Browne sample, I probably started with the drums first and built the beat around it, a lot of times it’s the other way around it. I just added the extra horns, I think the horns were from a Fugees record.

Thinking about YEN now, it’s such a Detroit record, with all the well-known Detroit MCs (Royce Da 5’9, Denmark Vessey, Quelle Chris) and Black Milk doing some production on it. How does it fit into the so-called “Detroit sound”?

Well, it’s very hip-hop oriented with traditional standards. Following people like Black  Milk, J Dilla, Royce da 5’9 that’s probably where I fit in. In that sense, absolutely it’s a very Detroit record, every shop I’ve been in in Detroit stocks it which is dope because that’s never happened for me before, at least not with my release before it. But I also tried to branch out and connect with others, you know you see how Blu is also on the album: I try not to keep it too Detroit because I still want to touch other places.

As for the sound it’s just very rugged, very gritty, just really hard, cause you’ve got to look at Detroit, the city where we come from. It’s not sunshine and palm trees like on the West Coast, nor is it known for all this famous stuff like New York.

The community of MCs here, it’s like we’re for the opportunity, we just go hard, we’re non-stop hustlers making anything happen, we don’t give a fuck. Thinking of someone who shows both sides and is from Detroit, I’d say someone like Danny Brown. I like the way he maintains his originality and who he is as a person with where he comes from.

But until we get businesses down-own, until in Detroit we get the same offices or resources as New York or L.A. we have to hustle three times harder from jump, but nobody’s complaining about it, you know. I enjoy the challenge. Having to do more makes it all more worth it in the end, cause you know nothing was handed to you.

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CRUD and $UD$ are out now. Buy from Nolan The Ninja’s Bandcamp. 

Paris-based journalist Madeleine Byrne writes on music and politics for her site, . Her reviews, interviews, articles and essays have appeared in Passion of the Weiss, The Wire, Okayplayer and Ambrosia For Heads. Follow Madeleine on Twitter here.  

Interview: Dave Cooley

DAVE COOLEY STUDIOStones Throw Records followers and liner note junkies will probably recognize the name Dave Cooley from albums like Donuts, Madvillainy, Champion Sound, The Further Adventures of Lord Quas, and Ruff Draft. Cooley is a world-renowned and well sought after mixing and mastering engineer, audio restoration specialist, and producer at Los Angeles-based mastering studio, Elysian Masters. He’s currently working on a number of “top-secret” projects and audio restorations/re-issues with the assistance of Elysian Masters’ recently attained and newly-restored Neumann VMS66 lathe-cutting machine, of which there are only a few left in existence. Matt ‘The Witzard’ Horowitz recently interviewed Cooley about everything from Paramore to Silversun Pickups, J Dilla to DOOM, and everything in-between.

How much does the overall sound (to the common ear) of an album generally change and progress from when you first get it from the artist to when you’re completely done mixing and mastering?

Well it can change quite a bit in terms of where the focus is being drawn to within the tune. Ultimately my goal is to honor what the intention was, the feel that the artist was originally shooting for… but just more of that same feel and more energized. By the time things are mastered, the listener’s ear should be drawn to the interplay of all the different sonic registers and events, so that the music sounds more dimensional, huge, and sort of animated in presentation. That might be done through pressurizing the sound (compression), highlighting or separating things (EQ), smoothing the high frequencies, or spatializing the mix. Spatializing means handling the depth from the upfront leading edge of the sound all the way to the “back wall” or deeper image of the sound.

Now some people will say mastering is just getting things “loud” which is somewhat true, but it’s not that easy. You’ve got a limited amount of canvas, and to maximize every square inch of it with the least amount of degradation to the signal…. it’s knowledge that takes a long time to develop. A lot of easy processes that people have access to at home are either the wrong choice… or overcomplicated and tricky to simplify. Knowing which parameters on a piece of hardware or plugin to not touch on an album, or to take out all together… again, not easy… takes years of experimenting. I compare it to surfing. Looks easy but it’s a lot of muscle memory built up over time. No way are you not wiping out first 10-50 attempts.

How much hands-on or face-to-face interaction do you typically have with artists like Madlib & Freddie Gibbs, DOOM, Silversun Pickups, Paramore, Electro-Acoustic Beat Sessions, Washed Out, etc?

I’ve been lucky enough to work with some amazing artists and really enjoyed being there with them during the creation of the music, mapping out songs and performances. That was in my producing days with bands like SSPU and others. There’s so much face to face when producing that it’s like you’re in a mountaineering base camp together; making a record with a band really does feel like climbing a mountain. On the other hand, when it comes to mastering we have a no attendance policy while doing EQ (Equalization). It’s a one day process usually and I find that almost nobody expects to attend anyway. It’s both a technical and a meditative process; it doesn’t help the music if we’re trading war stories or jokes while I’m working. I take that very seriously and I need to zone in and listen deeply to the tunes. Sometimes the artist will come in at the end of the record and work on spacing/sequencing with me in the studio and I really enjoy that, but even that’s rare these days… most people just fire off notes or tweaks, if any after listening.

Do artists ever disagree with decisions you often have to make during the mastering stage, especially those who are producers themselves? You really must have gone to-to-toe with some sizeable egos, over the years, plus plenty of perfectionists like J Dilla!

Very occasionally, but less and less… and if there’s a redirection after the first listening it’s always for the best because it’s almost universally a project preference thing and not a technical thing at that point. They want it brighter or less bright, that’s pretty common. But often times I’m taken aback by how quick we get through a record, one pass in many instances. Ironically Dilla… the perfectionist… signed off on everything almost immediately with very little second guessing. Madlib too. I would say experience = less indecision. Both on the engineer’s part and on the artist’s end.

The names of engineers often only get noticed by crate-diggin’ liner note junkies, but when you read histories of classic Hip-Hop studios like Callipe, Power Play, D&D, and SugarHill Recording Studios, the engineers always get their proper shine; would you say that Hip-Hop is a genre that really appreciates and respects the skills an engineer brings to the table?

There are times that we engineers are acknowledged and it’s appreciated: a shout out in a rhyme to Mario Caldato or Bob Powers, etc. I was very grateful to be included in much of what’s been written about J-Dilla’s story and legacy as another example. And then conversely, there are times when we’re plainly written out of the historic narrative. Not every single record necessarily; It’s more like when you see a body of work or a true contribution to a sound or label that engineers should be given their fair share of acknowledgement I think.

What album(s) have you contributed to that you’re most proud of and which album (if any) would you go back and approach differently knowing what you know now, in retrospect?

My favorite mix was for These New Puritans’ Hidden album, if only for how wild it was sonically, and just surviving the sheer track count with orchestra, programmed drums, and live band. I think I have Stockholm Syndrome on that one. My favorite mastering jobs I’ve done, probably the two M83 records and our recent Bob Marley: Exodus 40th Anniversary reissue. And Madvillainy because it’s pretty reckless and punk in spirit.

As far as what I would approach differently today… probably all of them done pre 2017! Not that they should have been done different, but I prefer to keep evolving. If my skills and techniques remain the same then I’m not honoring new ways of looking at things, or I’m not trying to do my best sonics yet. The early Stones Throw records, some of the techniques on those… I wouldn’t default to now. But they became part of the sound of those records. It fit the music, and people liked what it was contributing as far as the aggressive and disorienting sound. Sometimes I get requests to run things like that (which is retro at this point) and I do it if it’s right for the record. No absolute methodology, just whatever supports the vibe of the record.

How exactly did you go from playing in Rock bands to producing for Silversun Pickups to mixing for J Dilla and Madlib to mastering records for Paramore and Jimmy Eat World to doing audio restoration and working with the Neumann VMS66 lathe? Your musical career path really sounds like it’s been one hell of an exciting journey!

It was borne out of necessity. When I got in, it was the tail end of the music industry as it was previously known. We went from a Pangea major label land mass to a broken up world of independents. To survive, you needed to be able to translate between the differing cultures and sub-genres, and navigate between all the newly minted indie labels. You needed to be a jack of all trades too because budgets were scant. Lastly, I spoke “record collector”, which was the equivalent of a rosetta stone… and hard to find in an audio engineer in the early 00s. That really helped me lock up with Light In The Attic, NowAgain, Stones Throw, Dangerbird etc. I guess things have only gone further in that direction since. For my clientele I still need to know the difference between zamrock, beach goth, and next gen new age… what those sound like. I don’t think most mastering engineers do.

What was it like being right there in the studio while Madlib & DOOM crafted and recorded Madvillainy? Do you happen to have any particularly crazy stories you’re able to mention from those fateful sessions at The Bomb Shelter?

Well the beat making all happened at Madlib’s Bomb Shelter before I was brought in; he had hundreds of 2 track beat snippets on CDs. In one month of reclusive producing he had a CD made up called “100 beats”. Two weeks later, he had another CD made up called “Another 100 beats”. He had Jeff Jank (in house designer at Stones Throw) make custom album artwork for these CDs which were only used internally at the label and to shop beats to MCs. DOOM would go through those to pick out his faves. Most (if not all) of the material for Madvillainy, Jaylib’s Champion Sound, and I think Dudley Perkin’s first album was sourced from that one month’s worth of Madlib beats!.

The music was then imported to Protools at my place, and then DOOM tracked all the vocals. We had a great mic sound and workflow, everything got pretty well cinched up. DOOM took the semi-final material home and upon review decided that he had put everything down with “too much energy” in the vocal takes. So all those takes were scrapped! He ended up re-recording the vocals with a super laid back delivery, on a rough mic, and those became the finals… I think to the betterment of the record. It just had a better dichotomy to it. Madlib’s beats were so day-glo intense; DOOM’s casual delivery worked well against that. I also remember loaning DOOM a book: Tao of Physics. Every time I saw him he wanted to talk about that; he was really into the the idea that quantum physics was a manifestation of the ancient Tao teachings. So some of that super-consciousness you get from his rhymes, it’s informed from places other than psychotropic substances. He was more of a hip-hop Tim Leary: well-read in addition to being a cosmic explorer. Also, we probably went through about 8-10 differing album sequences for Madvillainy… over a period of 2-3 months. Peanut Butter Wolf and Jeff Jank were grinding out how it was strung together, there were probably 50-60 snippets of audio scene changes that needed to be put in a particular order, to create that audio-meets-comic-book feel.

While recently perusing your Discogs profile, I noticed you’ve had a hand in nearly every Adrian Younge (Linear Labs) release since 2013, including Adrian Younge Presents The Delfonics, Ghostface Killah’s 12 Reasons to Die I & II, Something About April II, and The Electronique Void (Black Noise). What’s it been like steadily working alongside Younge as his career rapidly progresses and evolves? How did it feel being part of what most would quite arguably call Ghostface’s recent “Rap career resurgence”?

Adrian is a really heavy artist in that he’s a multi-instrumentalist composer/arranger. And he cranks out consistently great records. He and I have worked closely together over the years to get a finished sound for his records that people recognize immediately, and he’s great at getting me input on what he needs the mastering to sound like. Working for his projects is right in my wheelhouse (historic record presentation mixed with hip-hop/breaks). He’s also probably one of the most gentlemanly dudes I’ve ever worked with, a savvy businessman, and a great friend. As far as 12 Reasons to Die, I was a fan of Wu-Tang Clan of course from way back. While I was mastering, I was trying to get it where I felt like I was listening to a classic Wu record for the first time all over again. Am I getting that record buzz I remember from being a teenage rap fan skipping class? If so, move to the next song. Sweat, repeat.

How did you go about attaining your fully-restored Neumann VMS66 lathe-cutting machine now housed at Elysian Masters? I remember you’ve said you and your crew used it to cut Ariel Pink, Betty Davis, and Paramore’s recent records… but what exactly does it do, for those who may not be familiar with such a machine?

Well this particular vinyl lathe was rescued from the backyard of a DJ in Boston who didn’t have the time or resources to restore it properly and get it running again. We spent about a year with four people working on it, and 10s of thousands of dollars, to get it cracking again. It is now cutting amazing records, just amazing. We went nuts making sure that the lathe was restored to the condition it would have left the German factory in 1966, which was truly a painful process. Then we took it miles further by improving the electronic components and wiring, shortening signal paths, and optimizing the computer that handles the groove placement.

DAVE COOLEY LATHEWe got it to the point where we were benefiting from the fantastic original discrete designs by optimizing them with new component choices, but also benefiting from certain modern upgrades that could only happen within the last couple years. The result is a lathe that cuts a lacquer master for vinyl that is really efficiently cut. And super musical and high fidelity. The running times can be longer, the depth of cut can be deeper for more volume and better signal to noise, and lead outs at the ends of sides are long. This puts most of the music on the outermost diameters where it sounds the best. We feel it’s the best cut for the money out there and possibly at any price point. So once our clients have a 14” lacquer master from our shop, then that is sent out for electroplating to create the metal parts and then the stampers that will handle the production run for a vinyl release.

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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, Dan Ubick, Career Crooks’ Zilla Rocca & Small Professor, Kool A.D., 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 fiance, 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.