303s and 404s: Mr. Dibia$e Pt. 3

(Via Green Llama)

This is the third and final installment of 303s and 404s with Mr. Dibia$e.  Make sure to check out Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 if you haven't already.

DJ Sorce-1:  Besides the SP-303, 404, and MPC 2000, what other equipment stands out to you?

Mr. Dibia$e:  One homie just got an SP-1200 as a gift.  I need to make a beat on that in my lifetime.  I have the SP-12, but the 1200?  Never.  The homie had one and I thought I was gonna make a beat on it.  I turned it on and tried to sample with it, and it wasn’t sampling.  His shit was broke.  He just had it sitting.  I should have bought it from him regardless and had it repaired.       

(Via A Peculiar Sprezzatura)

DJ Sorce-1:  That’s expensive though.  A working SP-1200 goes for a lot of money on EBay.  

Mr. Dibia$e:  How I got The SP-12 is a funny story.  I had a friend who lived in Lancaster.  He was like, “Yeah, I got a homie with an SP-12.  It’s just sitting in his garage, collecting dust.”  I was like, “Damn, see if he wants to sell that shit.”  This dude with the SP was on that gangster shit.  He wasn’t tripping on SP-1200s and didn’t know the history.  So he was trying to sell his SP-12 for $150 because it was broken.  This was in 2001, and I was ready to spend $500.  I was like, “Man, I’ll have the money tomorrow.”  

When I went over there the next day to buy it, he was still talking $150.  His cousin walked in and saw the SP-12 out.  His cousin wasn’t a numbskull; he was a hip hop head.  He said, “Oh shit, you got an SP-12?  De La Soul made 3 Feet High off of this drum machine”, and started dropping all kind of knowledge.  I was like, “Shut the fuck up man.” (Laughs)  So they went in to the corner to talk some shit over and re-consult some shit.  He came back like, “Yo man, I gotta sell if for $250 dog.”  In my head I was like, “That’s it?  OK.”  But I was like, “Oh man, how you gonna bump the price up like that.”  The price was still low.  I was ready to spend $500, maybe even $700 if I had to.  But it was broke; it was missing a fuse on the back of it.  I was like, “Fuck it” and gave him the bread.  

I drove back to LA, took it to this spot, and they fixed it for $100.  So I basically spent like $350 on the SP-12.  I just run drums through it.  But years down the line it fucked up on me again.  So it was sitting for like three years.  I thought it was a simple fix, but it was way more serious than that.  It was like $600 to fix.  But yeah man, it’s crazy; I’m addicted to the equipment.         

(Via Red Bull)

DJ Sorce-1:  As much as you like equipment, you seem to be able to make do with anything. You were able to rock an 8 second sampler, tape deck, and Walkman.  Do you have any other interesting sampling methods that you’ve used over the years?     

Mr. Dibia$e:  In ‘95 I was sampling from the radio station.  My homie had the little receiver with the antenna on the back and I’d sample from the Jazz station or whatever.  Sometimes the reception was bad, so I’d hold the antenna with one hand and use the other hand to press the button to start and stop the sample.  You might hear a little buzz in it.  But fuck it, it gives it character.  Sometimes I’d just put a tape on and record the station all through the night.  I’d wake up the next morning, listen to the tape, and sample from the tape.  

(Via Green Llama)

DJ Sorce-1:  Do you have any of tapes from those sessions?

Mr. Dibia$e:  Oh man, that was before I had the 4-track.  A lot of those tapes, nah, I don’t have them.  I still have some tapes at my mom’s in the garage.  Every time I go, I be going through, finding tapes, and bringing ‘em back.  Some are 4-track tapes, some are regular tapes.  Some of the tapes from ‘90-something are all warped.   

(Limited Edition Dibia$e Tape Release Via Green Llama) 

DJ Sorce-1:  Earlier in the interview you mentioned being self-trained when it comes to drum machines and samplers.  How much of technical understanding did you have for music when you started?  

Mr. Dibia$e:  I don’t play cords or nothin’.  I don’t read music like that.  I just go off of the feeling man, pretty much.  I said something online once about how my whole sound is imperfections.  Something could be technically off, but I don’t know, that’s what I was feeling at the moment.  I don’t know how to play drums or nothing, but I kind of understand the pocket and velocity.  Like with hi-hats, sometimes certain hi-hats shouldn’t all be at the same volume, it should have a certain velocity like a real drummer.  A real drummer, when he’s hitting the drums, he’s not hitting it at the same volume every time.  So I just try to have that approach.  It’s a certain pocket man, I can’t even explain it.  I know cats that actually play the drums, and they can explain it.  They know all of the time signatures and all of that.  I don’t know.  I just hear it and...(Laughs)    

(Via ?)

DJ Sorce-1:  I feel like that’s inspiring for people who want to make music but don’t have classical training.    

Mr. Dibia$e:  I do want to learn though, definitely.  I want to learn the drums and piano, to understand the theory of it.  Once you know the rules, you can break the rules.  You know what you can get away with.  I’m not a purist, not at all.  I remember when I was rhyming; I wouldn’t even structure my beats.  I wasn’t tripping off of hooks or nothing.  Then I started structuring beats for the 16 bar and 8 bar hooks.  

When I started getting in beat battles, I started sequencing my beats a certain way to have different transitions.  I was trying to cram all of it into a minute.  In beat battles, you have a minute to play your beat, so I wasn’t trying to play a loop or nothin’.  I was trying to make certain transitions and have crazy change ups, like some surprise shit; some unconventional shit.  I don’t know.  It’s just experimenting, pretty much.   

(Via Andre Elliott)

DJ Sorce-1:  How do you think being from Watts/L.A. has influenced your music?  

Mr. Dibia$e:  When I was young, in elementary school, I was kind of the music dude.  One of my best friends, he had a brother who was way older than us, so he would dub all of the music for us.  I would have NWA, 2 Live Crew, and all of that controversial stuff on cassette in elementary school.  When the homies were dubbing all of those tapes for me I’d be sitting in the car with my moms listening to the tapes.  I’d have all of the tapes memorized and when the cuss word would come up, I would turn the volume down real quick, like a mute out.  It was like my signature mute out that I do now on the beat, but I was in 6th grade doing it on the car stereo. (Laughs)  At a certain point she wasn’t even tripping on the cuss words.  By junior high or high school it wasn’t no issue.  I remember when I went to YMCA summer camp in 6th grade.  Our councilors were in high school and they were coming to me and having me dub all the new music for them.  It was funny.  I was that dude back then.  A lot of that stuff was Geto Boys, X Clan, Ice Cube’s first solo album.

There are a lot of influences man.  My pops had a restaurant with a juke box.  Any time I would chill at the restaurant, I would be listening to the juke box.  A lot of times rappers would eat at that restaurant.  People like Ice Cube and Easy E would give him 45s to put in the juke box.  They would autograph them and all that.   

(Via CD and LP.com)

DJ Sorce-1:  Was he friends with those guys?

Mr. Dibia$e:  Yeah.  He knew a lot of them.  He had a restaurant by Freemont High in the 80s called McGary’s.  Basically every weekend, I’d either play arcade games at the Laundromat across the street or be inside the cafe listening to music on the jukebox.  I’d just be picking random stuff like Ray Parker’s "Ghostbusters", and of course I’d listen to the hip hop stuff that was in there all day.  There were also all kind of oldies, and as I got older and was familiar with that kind of music, I’d flip all of that stuff.  

(Via Amazon)

DJ Sorce-1:  You’re in Sacramento now.  It’s amazing how much the Internet has taught me about regional rap scene.  I check the website Rap Music Guide a lot and listen to the tapes put out by R8R & L-wood.  They had one tape that was all Sacramento rap.  I didn’t even realize people like Brotha Lynch Hung were from there.  

Mr. Dibia$e:  Yeah, that’s all I know about Sacramento rap pretty much, is Brotha Lynch Hung.  Back in the day I knew he was on that grimy stuff.  Odd Future before there was Odd Future.  Horrorcore.  I’m just super low key out here in Sactown.  I barely do anything out here besides making beats in the lab or going to work.  Most of the shows be out of town.  I don’t know what’s up with the beat scene out here, but they got some cats that rhyme.  Chuuwee is pretty sick.  I’m still adjusting to living out here and figuring out who’s who.

    (Via ?)

DJ Sorce-1:  Sometimes it’s good to move out of your comfort zone.   

Mr. Dibia$e:  Yeah.  It’s a mission though, sometimes.  I’m so used to LA.  Sacramento is cool; it’s slower paced out here.  I’m real laid back anyway, so I don’t like stuff to be too fast paced.  When LA got too fast paced, I’d just go in the lab.  There was a lot of inspiration in LA.  It’s tough to find inspiration out here, but we definitely try.  San Francisco is only 45 minutes away and it definitely be cracking there.   A lot of the homies that make beats live in San Fran and Oakland.  

(Via El Dorado Cocktail Lounge)

DJ Sorce-1: Earlier in the interview we talked about having to give up doing music as a full time job.  Do you think you’ll be able to do it for a living again with all of the responsibilities you have and your new location?  

Mr. Dibia$e:  I was doing it full time until about eight months ago; from like 2008 until 2013.  That was a good run and I could live off of it for a time.  But the thing is; most of your money comes from touring.  I can’t be gone on tour for months at a time.  I have a lot of homies who just be gone for months in Europe and crazy shit like that.  The most I could do is tour for two, maybe three weeks.  When I went to Australia, we went for two weeks.  It was cool man. 

If I was younger...when the beat scene started for me, I had already been doing it since ‘95.  The beat scene started cracking ‘07 and ‘08, when cats was traveling off of this stuff and making beat albums, like the original back in the day beat albums, like DJ Shadow.  For a while cats wasn’t making instrumental concept albums like they doing now.  Cats is touring all over the world off of that shit.  When I decided I was rhyming, I was doing a lot of shows with my old crew.  We were opening for cats like Doom, GZA, and J-Zone.  I did like 400 shows rhyming from like ‘97 to 2005.  

Once I started doing the beats I had to start from ground zero.  A lot of cats is young so they can still tour.  I can’t really afford to tour for months.  If there was a beat scene back in the '90s, I definitely would have tried to be on the road a lot more.  But it’s cool.  I’m just happy to make beats and put some stuff online.  Get out a little bit.  Travel a little bit.  It doesn’t have to be aggressive.    

  

 (Via CaligraphiVision)

Many thanks to Mr. Dibia$e for helping me to kick off 303s and 404s.  His epic live performances have made me re-think the possibilities of both Roland machines.  He is a one of a kind talent.   

I am a big fan of several Dibia$e albums, including Swingology 101 and Collectin' Dust.  As with all artists I interview, I strongly encourage you to support his projects.

I also recommend checking out his crew, Green Llama.  

303s and 404s: Mr. Dibia$e Pt. 2

(Dibia$e and Elaquent via AmheilLaxama)

During Pt. 1 of our interview,  Mr. Dibia$e touched on topics such as his life/music/work balance and the benefits mixing hardware and software.  For Pt. 2 of 303s and 404s, he breaks down his sampling method with the 303 and 404, gives insight into the beat making process when he had limited equipment, and reveals how he purchased his first MPC.      

DJ Sorce-1:  The SP-303 isn’t the most advanced sampler, yet everyone from Madlib and Dilla to artists like Beck and Four Tet have used it for recording and performing.  I had heard about Madlib  and Dilla using the 303, but I had no idea so many people used it before I started researching for this piece.  Have most people abandoned it now that there are more advanced Roland SPs and other samplers?  Or do you still think a lot of people still use the 303s?

Mr. Dibia$e:  I know I keep the 303 because I like the sound quality of it.  The difference between the 303 and 404 is that the vinyl sound compression sounds way different in the 303.  It has a grittier sound.  I know a lot of homies might make their beats on the 404 and then double compress it by dumping it into the 303, and then dumping it back to the 404.  There be a lot of bouncing back and forth. I’ll do some of the effects the 303 doesn’t have on the 404, dump it into the 303, use the 303s compressor and vinyl sound compression, and then dump it back into the 404.  (Laughs)  It’s crazy man.  That’s what takes all the time, but it gets a good lo-fi sound.  The lo-fi on the 303 sounds different than the 404.

Another feature that I wish the 404 had is the one I use on the 303 when I’m re-sampling to make beats.  You know the external source button on the 303 and 404?  When the external source button is lit up, it’s sampling the record you got going through the sampler from your turntable.  On the 404, say you’re playing some drums that you already got on the drum pads.  The record is playing, and you want to sample it all at the same time.  You can’t do that on the 404, but on the 303 you can.

(Via Tae Beast)

DJ Sorce-1:  So with the 303 you can play sounds over a record playing on a turntable and sample it all at once?

Mr. Dibia$e:  Yeah.  Say you already have a kick and a snare on the 303 on button 1 and 2 and you're playing the pattern out, and you have a sample on the record playing from the turntable directly into the external source.  You just hit record and you can sample that all in and play a live drum pattern over the record playing.  So you sample that, and then you can chop that up.  

(Via The Gully Life)

DJ Sorce-1:  That’s crazy.  

Mr. Dibia$e:  Yeaah.  But the 404 can’t do that shit and it’s supposed to be an upgrade. (Laughs)

(Via sunny_j) 

DJ Sorce-1:  It seems like whenever Roland made an upgrade to the SP series, they would drop some crucial features.

Mr. Dibia$e:   And that was the most gangster feature.  But that software Maschine has a feature like that.  I like Maschine because it does that.  If you have the beat playing in the 303 and you’re playing a bass line from an external keyboard, you can sample that on top of the beat live, but you can’t separate none of that stuff ‘cause it’s all on one pad.  That’s why you have to think about how to mix your stuff down all in one take and get a balanced mix.  Once you get it in there, there’s no lowering or raising the volumes up.  That’s why it sounds so raw.     

(Via AmheilLaxamana)

DJ Sorce-1:  Right.  The limitations of the machine force you to be creative.  I think a lot of people are surprised when they learn about who has used the 303 to make dope music.  And it definitely maintains a crazy, gritty sound.    

Mr. Dibia$e:  That’s my favorite stuff…some of my favorite to make.  A lot of people label me electronic, which is crazy.  I feel like I’m like a traditional boom bap head.      

DJ Sorce-1:  Do you think that’s because of the effects you put on some of your beats?

Mr. Dibia$e:  Maybe.  Some of the effects and some of the other albums I dropped like “Machines Hate Me” was more electronic.  Yeah, a lot of stuff gets put in that electronic category. 

DJ Sorce-1:  I would not classify Swingology 101 or Collectin’Dust as electronic.

Mr. Dibia$e:  Collectin’ Dust is a lot of my old MPC beats.

DJ Sorce-1:  To me, that sounds like vintage ‘90’s shit.

Mr. Dibia$e:  Yeah, that was close to ‘90s.  It ranged from 2000 to like ‘04.  My stuff from the ‘90s, those is on four track tapes.  I need to get a 4-track.  Matthewdavid digitized a few tapes for me.  Shit, I’m a little embarrassed to put those ‘90s tapes on the Soundcloud.  It sounds a little bugged out. 

DJ Sorce-1:  You had an eight second sampler back then, right? 

Mr. Dibia$e:  Yeah, I was using a yellow Sony Walkman and a single Realistic cassette deck that you can record on.  Basically, how I was making beats back then is how I make beats with the 404 and the 303.  It was a form of the same re-sampling method way back in ‘95 that I be using now on the 404.  The only thing with the 404 is, when you sample, you gotta do your drums for 2 or 3 minutes.  Then you loop the drums and add your sample on top of that for 3 minutes.  Then you go back and add a baseline and add mute outs.  You keep doing that and add it to a different button.  Instead of using the sequencer, that’s how I be making beats on the 404 or 303.  

When I was using the eight second sampler, I’d get a drum loop, record it to the tape deck, and let it ride for two minutes.  Then I’d take that tape out and put it in the walkman.  I’d sample some piano loop in the eight second sampler while the drums was playing in the walkman for two minutes and I’d play the piano on top of them drums.  Then I’d get another blank tape in that tape deck, and the piano and the drums would be going into the tape deck.  After that, I’d sample the piano and drums together into the sampler, and add something on top of that.  

Every time you layered something, you'd be getting extra air and tape hiss.  So I’d layer at least three times before the hiss was too damn crazy.  Back then, people were like, “Oh man, that hiss is killing me.”  Now they make drum machines that have that kind of hiss.  Now there are effects and plug-ins that do that kind of sound.      

(Via Pocket Calculator)

DJ Sorce-1:  Right.  Now people crave that dirty, dusted sound.  

Mr. Dibia$e:  Yeah.  I was just happy it was a beat with no lyrics on top of it; just an instrumental.  I couldn’t even trip on the quality of it.  I was just getting the thoughts out.  Later on I got a four track and that made it easier to get the thoughts out and track stuff out.  I’d record drums on track one, put some piano on track two, bass on three, and then you have your fourth track and I’d put something on there.  I’d bounce that all out, record it to a tape, and put that all on one track.  Then I’d have three channels left for raps and adlibs.  I was doing that for a minute.  There were ways to get around things.  You had to get crafty with it.  It kept it fun.    

Hardware and software have a different sound, but it pretty much does the same thing.  At the end of the day, you’ll get the same result if you’re creative.  You’ll make it work.  It’s way easier to figure stuff out nowadays with tutorials and stuff.  With a sampler, it was a mission just to get that equipment man.  It wasn’t like you could get it free all the time.  I would get stuff from pawn shops sometimes.  I wouldn’t even have a manual.  So I would have to figure it out.  I’d be like, “I’m going to make something before I fall asleep on this thing.”  It wasn’t like you could look at the manual online.  People who had that equipment back then didn’t want to tell you how to use it.            

(Dibia$e and Sunclef Via AmheilLaxamana)

DJ Sorce-1:  Did you have a mentor or anyone showing you how to make beats or were you classically trained in music?

Mr. Dibia$e:  I just taught myself man.  It’s funny how I found out about MPCs.  Some of my boys, we would go to this one dude’s studio.  He had a 4-track and an MPC MIDI’d up to a keyboard.  I wasn’t understanding what MIDI was back then, but he was basically having the keyboard sounds going through the MPC.  I was like “Damn, I want to make some Premier type, chopping samples type shit.  What drum machine does that?”  I was having like these little Boss drum machines and Alesis drum machines that you couldn’t sample with.  I even had some Roland R8 drum machines.  With the eight second sampler you couldn’t micro chop nuthin’.  It was pretty much loops and that was it.  They had two second banks, like four two second banks.  It was crazy man. 

And those beats was sounding off because I was making stuff with swing back then.  When I had those drum machines, before I had the MPC, I didn’t know how to turn the swing feature off.  A lot of times I would do the drums live into the sampler instead of programming it.  I would sample it into the sampler with live timing and do the hi-hats live.  The homies was always trying to correct me.  This was in ‘95, before swing was a so-called Dilla thing.  The drum machine was sounding too mechanical to me.       

(Via Vintage Synth)

Anyway, I like my beats sounding like some Wu and shit; that grimy shit.  This dude was making these keyboard sounding beats and it wasn’t matching what I was rhyming.  So I was like, “Man, I need to start making some of my own beats.”  When I was seeing the MPC, I wasn’t sold on it.  It sounded like a keyboard, because he had keyboard sounds coming out of it.  I guess about a year down the line I went to one of the other homie’s house.  They was freestyling and this cat was playing some beats in the van.  The beats had samples and he was flipping some grimey, boom bap shit, and even some drum and base type shit.  I was like, “Damn, what are you using to make this?”  He said, “An MPC.”  I was like, “OK, I might need to do some research on this.”  This is around ‘97.  Then I went to another studio and this cat had a lot of vinyl in his garage.  He had an MPC and he was chopping up records.  Maybe a couple of months later I made a down payment on an MPC and my moms helped me get it from Guitar Center.  I was making payments on that shit forever.  This was even before I was working at the park.  Once I got the job I just started making payments on it forever.     

(Via TREEKEEPER)

DJ Sorce-1:  MPCs are definitely not cheap.  Countless well known songs have made using the MPC.  Besides the obvious examples like Madlib, are you aware of any well known songs or albums that were done on the 303 or 404?  

Mr. Dibia$e:  Shit, pretty much all of the homies were the ones using the 303 at one time.  No cats like Premier or nothing.  I have seen some of them having a 404 in their studios.  They had it, but they were mainly using it for effects and running a CDJ or turntable through it or some shit.  They didn’t even know how powerful it was.  I even saw Just Blaze clowin’ the 404 on Twitter before.  He said something like, “Man, I’m trying to give this shit away.”  It was a picture of a 404.  I saw like, “Wow.”  But what they think is junk is another man’s gold.  Madlib was probably the first one that I know who was using the 303.  I remember going to certain stores and seeing a 303 with a sign next to it saying, “Madlib makes beats using this drum machine”, trying to use that as a way to get people to buy them.        

(Via Stones Throw)

DJ Sorce-1:  I question why Roland has never reached out to you, Madlib, Ras G, Nick Tha 1nda, or anyone else who has utilized the 303 or 404 to do some kind of endorsement.  Other samplers like the MPC and Maschine go really hard at getting sponsored tutorials online with people showing what they can do with the equipment.  It seems like Roland has never co-signed videos showcasing the SP producers who seem to do the most with their product.  

Mr. Dibia$e:  I don’t know if they really know how crazy the movement is with the SPs.  They discontinued them, but they brought the 404SX back.  My wife actually got an email from one of the people at Roland.  I probably will get at them about something.  They should do videos like that.  I’d be down to do videos and tutorials on that shit.  

(Via AmheilLaxamana)

DJ Sorce-1:  I would love to see some Roland endorsed videos.  A lot of the stuff I’ve seen you do with the 404 in your live shows blows my mind.  I’d like to see a tutorial of you breaking it all down.  

Mr. Dibia$e:  Man, that shit was an accident.  The first beat set I did was Boombox in LA in ‘07.  I did a few little beat shows at Project Blowed with an MPC and 8-track, but Boombox was the first club.  One of my homies always said, “Make sure there is no dead space in your set, you want it a constant flow of beats.”  So I made a mix because the 303 couldn’t hold that much time.  I had a laptop and I ran it through the 303.  I was doing the effects live and I had certain sounds on the 303 that I was triggering over the mix I made.  It was a 15 minute set.  That night it was Flying Lotus, me, Exile, and Cook Classics.  That was pretty much the first set I did.  

I didn’t have the 404 then, so I was like, “Man, I need some more time.”  This one cat I knew wanted to buy some beats from me.  He came to the crib and he wanted some spaced out sounding shit.  I had made some beats and he was like, “That’s the shit I want.”  I think we were talking about equipment and I mentioned how I was looking into getting a 404.  He was like, “Yo, I actually got one.  I’ll trade you the 404 for this beat and $50.”  The only thing it needed was a memory card.  That’s how I got my 404.  And I still got it to this day.      

(Via Roland Clan)

  

DJ Sorce-1:  Just one beat and $50?

Mr. Dibia$e:  Yeah, and once I started making beats on there I realized it could hold over an hour.  I was like, “I can do hour long sets just on this?  I’m good.”

DJ Sorce-1:  If I just gave you a 404 and a bunch of records to make a set, how much can you do with internal sequencing if you don’t have a laptop and software to help with multi-tracking?

Mr. Dibia$e:  There are different compact flashcards for the OG 404 that can hold one gig.  But the 404SX can do more than one gig.  One gig is quite a bit.  I’ve done over an hour before, and sometimes when I’ve had two 404s I was rocking two hour sets. 

(Via Harmony Central)

Click here to read Pt. 3.

303s and 404s: Mr. Dibia$e Pt. 1

A few years ago, my sister gave me a Roland BOSS SP-303 Dr. Sample as a gift.  I was thrilled.  Unfortunately, I immediately realized that the memory cards required for this sampler were difficult to obtain and very expensive.  Additionally, I found the Dr. Sample to be limited and was frustrated with it.  I consulted with my sister, and upon receiving her blessing, decided to trade it in and upgrade for an SP-555. 

After trading in my 303, I discovered Nick Tha 1da on YouTube doing one of his 303 tutorials.  Watching him play the 303 like an instrument made me re-evaluate the tiny sampler’s potential.  I did some internet research and discovered a large community of people who used the limitations of the 303 to their advantage to create some amazing music.  I also discovered that many 303 users were avid supporters of the Roland SP-404.  I wanted to understand why these machines resonated with so many talented people.  I decided to start an in depth interview series with 303 and 404 users titled 303s and 404s. 

The first member of the vast 303 and 404 community to reach out to me is also perhaps one of the most well know.  Mr. Dibia$e, a member of the Green Llama crew, has reached legendary status in the LA beat scene through his victory in the Los Angeles Red Bull Big Tune 2010 beat battle and numerous impressive live shows.  Dibia$e has captured the attention of countless fans and the respect of his beat making peers through his un-quantized beats, expert chops, and distinctive mute-outs.  I am honored to present my first entry of 303s and 404s with Mr. Diabia$e.       

(Via Okayplayer)

DJ Sorce-1:  I saw in an interview that you got your first sampler in ‘95.  Have you been doing music non-stop since then?

Mr. Dibia$e:  Yeah, pretty much (Laughs).  I started out rhyming.  I was needing beats, so I started looping up stuff.    

(Via Abdullah Saeed)

DJ Sorce-1:  What made you decide to focus on producing?

Mr. Dibia$e:  Once I saw how active the beat battles were, I was like, “Man, I don’t even have to break a sweat rhyming.”  Then the beat scene grew and it was pretty much a wrap.   I saw the homies traveling off of beats so I thought, “I better put everything in one basket instead of multi-tasking.”  Sometimes I get the urge to rhyme, but I’m not that focused with the writing.

(Via Knocksteady)

DJ Sorce-1:  How many hours a day would you say your spend working on beats?

Mr. Dibia$e:  Now that I’m working again, not that much.  Sometimes I take the equipment to work.  I probably spend like three hours a day on beats.  But there was one point where I was like all day pretty much.  I was doing the music full time from 08 until maybe eight months ago.   

   (Via sunny_J)

DJ Sorce-1:  What made you decide to go back to mixing work with your music career?

Mr. Dibia$e:  I was kind of like you, doing the coaching and all that and working at a park.  With that job, the schedule was flexible, so it was kind of easy to balance with the music.  I wasn’t really travelin’ to other states or even out the country, so it was easy to do some shows and then drive to Hollywood after I clocked out of work or go to San Diego or The Bay.  But once I started travelin’, a little after Red Bull, that’s when I stopped working at the park.  I had a booking agent and tried a few of them out.  Now my wife does my booking.  Once I got a booking agent, that’s when the shows started really picking up and I started going out the country a little more.  

But the beat scene, it fluctuates sometimes.  I had to get a little job on the side for the times when it’s like a dry spell.  You know, you want to be comfortable.  Sometimes I would stress out from chasing down money from selling beats.  It would always come through, but the stressing out for years, I was over that.  So I just got another job.  Plus, when I moved out here to Sacramento, I had to get something.  I was pretty much starting over because I’m from LA originally.   

(Via Patti Miller Photography) 

DJ Sorce-1:  How is the re-adjustment to balancing work with music going?

Mr. Dibia$e:  The job I have now is similar to the park work I was doing, like a city job.  I’m basically at a person’s house looking out for them while they’re sleeping.  I have my equipment and I pretty much just make beats.  It’s kind of a chill job.  I was trying to get something that wasn’t too stressful so I could balance the two.  They’re pretty good on the schedule and I get time off, so it’s cool.

(Via Polaroid Gang)

DJ Sorce-1:  I’m glad to hear it hasn’t been a negative experience.  Work can definitely consume your drive to be creative.  

Mr. Dibia$e:  I’m getting older now, but when I was younger, when I was working at the park, shit, it didn’t even matter.  I would write rhymes, make the beat, record the song, go to work, and come back at night.  I’d do the same thing, stay up, and repeat the process.  Then on my off days, the homies were living in Fullerton, so I’d crash out there for the weekend and go on a beat binge.  I’d knock out 20 beats in a weekend and call it a day.  That was like 07.

(Via Lifelounge)

DJ Sorce-1:  If you have a weekend with free time, can you still churn out 10, 15, or 20 beats in a weekend, or is that hard to do?

Mr. Dibia$e:  No.  I was single at the time.  All I had was my job and I’d be at the homies house so I could afford to lock myself in the lab.  Now, I have a lot of responsibility, so I can’t lock myself in the lab on some all-day shit.  But sometimes I’ll crank out like five or six beats on a good day.

(Via IllSociety Magazine)

DJ Sorce-1:   I know you still use the Roland SP-404 a lot.  When we spoke before this interview, you were saying that for the last couple of projects you used programs like Ableton.  Are you using more software these days?

Mr. Dibia$e:  Swingology101 was done with Reason 5.  I’ll make a beat on Reason and then run it through the 303 or 404 for its compression to dirty it up.  A lot of times I combine stuff.  Back in the day I just had the MPC and 303 and that was it.  I had a cool workflow because I was using the MP for so long.  Now that I’ve learned all of this software, sometimes I’m combining three different things and running it through the 303, just re-sampling stuff, and it be taking some time just to get certain effects.  Back in the day I wasn’t doing all that.  I would just make a beat and record it straight to an external CD burner.  I wasn’t even messing with computers back then.      

   

DJ Sorce-1:  Which sampler has a better workflow for you, the MPC or the 303?  

Mr. Dibia$e:  I like the MP but I felt limited at the time.  I wanted to have effects and filters with certain beats I made on the MP.  If I wanted filters, I had to sample the MP through a 303 or a CDJ just to get the wah-wah effects.  With software the effects are built in already.  All you do is add the little auto filter, then map your knobs and you got your instant filter.  With the hardware, it might have been harder, but it kept you occupied, and it kept you thinking.  

(Via Impose Magazine)

DJ Sorce-1:  So using a combination allows you to grow a little bit and become more layered?

Mr. Dibia$e:  Yeah.  Combining the two is like the best of both worlds.  I hear a lot of people clowning Fruity Loops and all that.  Back in the day I used to be like, “I’ll never mess with software.”  I was holding myself back all those years.  It’s good to use both.  Once I started doing that, that’s when stuff started getting serious.  I started entering the beats battles and winning them.  

(Via Monochroma)

DJ Sorce-1:  What is your proudest accomplishment from the time you spent doing beat battles?

Mr. Dibia$e:  The Red Bull definitely.  Just getting accepted to it was an accomplishment.  And I was lucky enough to win it and be runner up.  I used to enter mad battles in San Francisco and throughout L.A.  Sometimes I would just catch a Greyhound from L.A. to The Bay and I would end up winning it.   I was taking a little chance man.  If I won it, I won it.  If not, all good.  I was getting a place to play some beats on loud speakers.  That was the cool thing.    

(Via Redbull)

DJ Sorce-1:  You were getting to introduce a new audience to what you were doing.  

Mr. Dibia$e:  Yeah.  The battles there were kind of challenging because they would give you samples and sometimes they had challenges where you had to flip a remix.  It was fun.  The battles in L.A. were called the Hotel Room battles.  They used to have MC battles, and then they started having the beat battles.  Pretty much everyone used to enter them.  Mike Gao, Tokimonsta, P.U.D.G.E…all kinds of beat cats in the scene were entering them.  It definitely kept your sword sharp going against everyone.  This was around 08 or 09.

(Mr. Dibia$e and P.U.D.G.E Via Carmen Luceno)

DJ Sorce-1:  I’ve seen a lot of YouTube footage of you rocking the SP 404 live.  Were you using it at all in those battles?

Mr. Dibia$e:  No.  They weren’t live battles like that.  You would just make the beat at home and then bring your CD.  In 2006 or 2007 they did have battles in L.A. at this record store called Rehab and you’d have to bring your MPC.  They would have performances in the beginning of the night with cats rhyming, and all of the producers would be at the back, like 16 cats with they MPs.  Everybody had two hours to flip the same record and get they drums from a breakbeat record.  After all of the performances was over, everybody would come to the back and plug they MP up to the monitor speakers.  That was the first beat battle I was in where I was making the beats under pressure.  

(Via CrayonBeats)

DJ Sorce-1:  What's the atmosphere like in that situation?  Is there any talking or is it really competitive?    

Mr. Dibia$e:  Those battles were cool.  Some of the homies in my crew were in it as well.  I was in a crew called Missing Page back in the day, like 2005.  Pretty much everyone rhymed and made beats except for a few cats.  We were all entering the beat battles.  One of the other homies from Japan, BudaMunk, was living in L.A. at the time, and he was entering them battles too.  So he was in them and my homie who was in Fullterton was in those battles.  It wasn’t aggressive or nothing.  

Some of them Red Bull battles seemed aggressive.  A lot of egos.  I was in a few beat battles in San Diego back in the day that was kind of aggressive and cats bit my style.  Just like bold face bit, came up to me before we battled and said, “Yo, I got something for you.  I made something just for you.”  Then they would flip a beat that I’d flip, the same samples, like some video game shit, and play it against me.  I was just like, “Wow, OK” (Laughs).  Dude ended up winning.  We went to overtime.  I thought I got ‘em in the first round, but they had judges that night.  It went in his favor and he ended up winning the whole thing.  Other than that I don’t be taking losses too serious.   

 (Via Redbull)

DJ Sorce-1:  That could be seen as a good thing.  If other people are making stuff specifically for you, you know they’re considering you one of the top producers in the battle.   

Mr. Dibia$e:  Yeah, I guess you can see it that way.  I’m pretty much retired from the battles now.  It was fun for a while.  I get the itch to enter some, but I’m just on the live shows now.  I’m trying to build that and improve on that.   

(Via Empower Network) 

DJ Sorce-1:  In a lot of the footage of you that I’ve seen you’re using one or two 404s.  Is that your weapon of choice for live shows?  

Mr. Dibia$e:  Sometimes I’ll use the MP, but I haven’t used that in a minute.  I use Ableton as well, and sometimes I’ll use Ableton and the 404 together and go back and forth between the two.  But yeah, I’ve mixed it up throughout the years.  I was using the 303 with a laptop, but I couldn’t get enough sampling time on it.  With live shows, you could get maybe 15 minutes.  It’s funny; all of the homies like Ras G and Sam were rocking the 303s back in the day for shows.  I remember when Ras G went overseas for the first time.  He had to use my 303 when he went so he could have at least 30 minutes of sampling time.  He didn’t have a laptop, he just had the MP and a 303, so I let him use my 303 because I had a 404.  I was telling him, “Yo, you can fit hours into a 404.  It’s pretty much the same as a 303 but it got more effects.”  They were sticking to the 303 religiously, until the 303s started breaking down.  Then they started getting the 404.  

(Ras G Via Culture Remixed)

Click here to read Pt. 2.