Essential Jake One Videos

I love the variety of Jake One's production credits.  Check his catalog and you'll find tracks with with De La Soul, Evidence, G-Unit, Rick Ross, Scarface and countless other artists.  Jake's a versatile producer who isn't afraid to push boundaries and step outside of his comfort zone.  He also seems like a very approachable and humble dude, bringing refreshing honesty and openness to his video interviews.  I particularly like his Behind the Beat videos, where he has broken down Chance the Rapper's "Acid Rain", De La's "Rock Co.Kane Flow", Snoop and Wiz Khalifa's "French Inhale".  Using his weapon of choice (the ASR-10), Jake walks viewers through the process of each song from the initial samples to the actual construction of the beat.  Whether you are a aspiring producer looking to beef up your understanding of production techniques, or merely a fan of his work, all three videos are essential.  The "Acid Rain" track is a thing of beauty and I've had the Behind the Beat video of it running on repeat all day.  



While watching Behind the Beat, I stumbled upon a video of his appearance on the Do the Math podcast.  According to their iTunes podcast page, Do the Math is dedicated to "Telling Seattle stories...long form interviews with the creators, innovators and legends of our Seattle Hip-Hop community."  Their video with Jake One is exceptional, as they dig deep into various stages of his career.  He talks at length about how he was influenced by Seattle legends like Supreme La Rock and Vitamin D, his affiliation with Rhymesayers Entertainment, his Snare Jordan drum kit, and a variety of other topics that will get anyone reading this blog hype.  I learned a lot from watching this interview and look forward to watching future episodes of Do the Math and being further educated on the history of Seattle hip-hop.

To purchase Jake One's Snare Jordan kit, click here.
  
To read my 2008 Can You Dig It? interview with Surpreme La Rock, click here.

Howard B. Knoxz in the Studio with His iMPC

I was thrilled to see Gadget of Scratch Magazine TV post another great iMPC video of Howard B. Knoxz recently.  I wrote about Howard's iMPC car video this past summer and requested he post a follow-up video showcasing more of his work with Akai's production app.  Here we see Howard showcasing several iMPC beats of his and highlighting some of the programming for beats like "Bodega Stories" (9:00 minute mark).  As he demonstrated in the above mentioned car video, one of the most attractive features of the iMPC is the portability.  The most significant upside to the various beat making apps out there is that simplifying the transportation of gear gives producers the ability to tap their creativity in any setting.  Howard explains around the 12:00 minute mark that you can use the iMPC, "In the bed, chillin' on the couch, parking lot...wherever".  Viewers trying to master the iMPC will be happy to see that in addition to highlighting the portability of the app, Howard demonstrates some of the sampling and chopping features around the 13:00 minute mark.

As a fan of many of the DMV producers, I'm excited to see Howard continue to grow as a producer.  It is clear he has a lot of talent and great ideas.  I look forward to hearing more from him as he continues to master the iMPC and his various other samplers and keyboards.  

Skillz a.k.a. Mad Skillz Freestyle

(Via Press Rewind)

I've always thought of Skillz, formerly known as Mad Skillz, as an underappreciated talent in the rap world. While hist 1996 debut From Where??? seems to have achieved a sort of cult status since the Internet boom, it still doesn't get the recognition it deserves.  How can you wrong with two early Dilla beats, a Large Professor, Q-Tip, and Skillz posse cut over a Large Pro beat, and producers like The Beatnuts, Buckwild, and Shawn J. Period rounding out the production roster?  Add in Skillz' lyrical abilities and you have an extremely impressive rookie effort.

Since then, his sophomore effort I Ain't Mad No More was marred by label problems at Rawkus and he has yet to see any of his more recent albums find commercial success.  While his solo career may not have panned out the way some fans would hope, it is good to know that Skillz has had major success as a songwriter for other artists.  Skillz seems happy with this arrangement and has recently announced his retirement as a solo artist (check link in previous sentence).  I'm happy that Skillz is making a living off of music and enjoys working with other people, but I still hold out hope that some day he'll release a Frow Where-esque album.  

While I can't share any new Skillz albums with you today, I can share this great freestyle from the Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito show from 1997.  

This was posted on DJ Nes's Dirty Waters blog, one of the all-time great rap archive blogs out there.  Endless freestyles, mix tapes, and rare 12"s for rap fanatics to drool over.  Make sure to check it out.