Last night Just Blaze held the final goodbye for his legendary Baseline recording studio. Naturally, I found out about the evening’s festivities, which reportedly were a walk-through and tour sort of thing, super late. I wound up making my way over around 10pm, after leaving the ego trip film screening. Timmhotep came with. I entered the studio to see what looked like actual organized confusion in the lounge. Boxes everywhere, records packed up, gear laying around, sneakers, pool balls and assorted memorabilia. I’d once been involved with the closing of a major studio (Mystic Studios, in Staten Island, where a lot of classic material was recorded), and remember the disaster which became of the studio space when the equipment was broken down and storage spaces were cleaned out. It’s really a trip down memory lane.

I wish I could say I had a really close relationship with Baseline, but I didn’t. That’s not to say I don’t have my memories of it like anyone else. Here are a few that come to mind.

- My first time playing beats in the A room. This was around December of 2002. The Blueprint 2 had just come out, and somehow someway a friend of mine met Geda K at a party or something, and asked him for music for these DJ Storm mixtapes we were recording out of the Staten Island studio I had at the time. We wound up at Baseline that night, and playing beats for Geda K and the rest of the Get Low Records artists. That was the first time I met Just Blaze. I recall being ushered out of the studio super late that night- Mariah Carey had arrived and to the best of my knowledge they cut “Oh Boy” in that session.

- I would occasionally go back to check the Get Low Records rappers, and they cut a few songs to beats of mine, but nothing ever came of it. I didn’t get back into Baseline really until the Spring of 2004, when Matt Fingaz brought myself and my  then manager, Gello Jones, up there during a session with Ayatollah in the B room. During that session I met the rapper Smitty, who at the time was signed to J Records, and gave him a beat CD, but didn’t really get his contacts or anything. The results of me handing him that beat CD wound up being the song “It’s Alright” which somehow got miscredited to 9th Wonder when it was released on an independent Smitty album in 2006. Till this day I’ve probably had five conversations with 9th Wonder and have never once broached this subject. I don’t even think he knows about it.

- A few months later I wound up interviewing Just Blaze for a XXL article on Beat Society that never made it into the magazine. That was my first front of the book piece for XXL. At the end of our interview I asked if I could play him some beats. He obliged. He picked two that he liked. One he wanted for Saigon, the other he asked me to bring back so he could re-produce it. I remember dropping the files off at Baseline a few days later and exchanging some emails with Just about it, saying that I don’t give files out for anything unless money is exchanging hands, but that I trusted him. A few days later I was at the XXL office and Bonsu Thompson told me Just was talking to him about me. I think he embellished a bit and said Just might want to sign me or something as a producer. That was a nice pipe dream while it lasted. Ha!

- The next fond memory I have of Baseline is coming up there to play beats for Freeway. This was either December of 2004, or 2005. Caveman Rosario, who cut my first check ever for a beat (”Through My Rearview” on Freeway’s Ice City: Welcome to the Hood LP) in 2004, wanted me to get on Free at Last. Free had already recorded to one of my beats and I was there to play more. I waited hours for Freeway to arrive. Scram Jones showed up too. I ended up playing the tracks at like 2am or something. The interesting thing about this night was this was the infamous session Freeway claims he didn’t have with Just Blaze, when he said Just was too busy for him. In fact, Just spent hours working on this one beat for him. So that’s the end of that.

- We also did the Scratch Magazine feature (NOT the cover story with Saigon) with Just Blaze and Roland V-Synth GT that was in the last issue of the magazine ever (with 50 Cent and Timbaland on the cover). I remember Scratch’s Editor-in-Chief looking at me kinda crazy when I suggested Just Blaze to do that review. He was like, “Are you just trying to get the biggest producers possible for your section of the magazine?” I replied, “Ummm… yeah.” And sure enough, Just was down for it. And in that interview is where you first heard him talk about doing more electronic-sounding music, a la TI’s “Live Your Life.”

Outside of that, I can remember meeting DJ Green Lantern at Baseline for the first time. I can remember Dan Solomito allowing me to come play beats for Naledge and Double-O of Kidz in the Hall during their 3-marathon recording session of School Was My Hustle. I remember giving Royce the 5′9 some beats outside of the studio one night. I remember playing beats for Young Guru one night when I was there for god knows what reason.

Let me not forgot, there was also that night I waited outside for something like three hours for Just to show up, just so I could play him some new shit. That was the grind back then.

To sum it up, it was a great place, a sort of crossroads for a lot of different types of folks in the music and media business. There used to be many of those types of studios in Manhattan. Now sadly many of them are gone, and we add Baseline to the list.

Just Blaze with the last call for alcohol

Just Blaze freestyling over Exhibit C

Pardon the terrible quality on these videos. I found out about the baseline closing event super late and was armed with only a blackberry camera phone.

Music is like the movies in that there’s only so long certain characters can remain in supporting roles. Ask the The Kickdrums. The Cleveland-bred duo, comprised of singer/songwriter/producer Alex Fitts and DJ/producer Matt Penttila played the background in the hip-hop world as beatmakers for a number of years, crafting tracks/remixes for artists like 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, Ray Cash (peep this XXL review from ‘06, where I was first drawn to their sound), Kid Cudi, Joe Budden and Little Brother, among others. But it wasn’t until 2007, when they decided to fall back from producing others, and start working on their own material, that they began to see the cameras shift in their direction (well, sometimes they still play the background). Earlier this year, The Kickdrums left Cleveland and settled in New York, and in June they released their debut project, Just A Game. The album was well-received and by September they were opening for Miike Snow at Mercury Lounge. Earlier this week, the group teamed with URB.com to release their second project this year, the EP There Might Be Blood. We recently talked via email, our conversation follows.

Your new EP’s title is a play on There Will Be Blood. What’s the story behind that?

Alex- Originally the EP was going to be called “no-fi” but after watching that flick I thought of that play on words and it stuck in my head. It ended up being a solid theme for us as the songs developed. Almost like a concept.

Matt- The name matches the tone of the album and definitely grabs your interest when you hear it. It sounds threatening and kind of reckless, like the music.

This record is noticeably darker in tone than Just A Game, the riffs are faster, everything is just more aggressive. A little more heavy metal than soul rock. What influenced that change in sonic direction?

Alex- After Just a Game we wanted to do something a little heavier and faster. Just to blow off some steam. I guess playing that fast in general will make the songs come out more aggressive. Just A Game had a lot of dark lyrics too. The music was just lighter.

You’ve said the project was inspired by trying to create something containing natural noises- reverbs, echos, distortion, feedback- an effort to use these things in a musical way, to have them be instruments unto themselves. Do you think that you achieved your goal, were you able to successfully pull this off?

Alex- I was always a big fan of Sonic Youth and the whole Lo-fi movement while growing up. They would build their own stomp boxes while recording to create weird effects and crazy distortion tones that would define each project. I thought that was the coolest fucking shit you could possibly do as a musician. I can’t really build my own stuff like them but I really wanted to try and create some signature tones for the album. I wanted everything to be somewhat distorted but still listenable. I also wanted to incorporate a lot of vocals that weren’t necessarily saying anything like “la la la’s” ect. That’s where a lot of verb and echo came into play.

I think I’m most proud of the guitar distortion I designed for this album. It was so intense that the second I stopped playing it would feedback like crazy but I kinda learned to control it and strategically cue it up. In my opinion it’s terrible sounding in a beautiful way lol. It happens through out the whole album but the best example might be the eight bars after the chorus in “Walking Dream.”

A song that really jumps out at me is “Watch for White Noise,” which doesn’t even have any real song structure from a lyric standpoint, but has these sort of repeated chants and the words “bring out the dead” taking center stage. I can’t even tell if that’s your voice or something you sampled. Talk to me a little about that song, how it was conceptualized and put together. It’s such an interesting piece of music, I feel like I can literally see it in concert while I’m listening to it.

Matt - When searching for samples you look for things that sound good or for things that make sense. In this case, it sounds good and makes sense, which is the best possible scenario. This record works in so many ways. It contains a sample of punk garage rock pioneers, MC5’s classic, “Kick Out the Jams.” Our album leans in that direction so it feels right to pay homage to the originators by respectfully flipping one of their cuts and adding our own Kickdrums twist to it. Besides, it just makes sense for The Kickdrums to flip a track called “Kick Out the Jams.”

Besides the obvious answer (”just something cool looking”), is there anything more to the EP artwork than meets the eye? It’s a very striking image.

Matt- I heard a quote once that if it’s not about life and death, it’s not worth talking about. I think Alex does a great job tackling the subject in his lyrics without spelling it out for you. I wanted the cover to be the same way. If you read between the lines, you’re staring Death in the face, you’re life and possibly your soul is on the line, and you’ve gotta make a move. There “might” be blood, or there “might” not be, depending the choice you make. What do you do? I kept it simple to leave more to the viewers imagination. On a lighter note, we were releasing the album on Halloween and we wanted something spooky looking.

Was the record’s release around Halloween a planned approach or was that something that just happened coincidentally?

Alex- That idea happened in one of those “light bulb” moments. It wasn’t planned very far out though. We we’re looking for a cool way to release it because it had been done since June and we hate hanging on to music (or even worse, potentially never putting it out.) With our next major album Meet Your Ghost slowly wrapping up the window was closing. Halloween seemed to fit just right for it.

How did you link with URB.com to present the project, and what went into informing your decision to go ahead and do it with them?

Alex- We were introduced to Joshua [Glazer] over there through Mick Boogie. We’ve always been fans of their magazine and thought it would be a good home for the album. I think partnering up with a site/publication is a win/win for everyone. They get some cool exclusive content and get to introduce people to a new act and we get exposure in a different demographic.

This is your second project that you’ve given away for free. What are your goals moving forward, will you be continuing to give away free music in attempt to get more shows and so on, or are you looking to start charging for the music at some point?

Alex- This project was kinda short and sweet. I guess we didn’t see the value in going super hard for sales on it. Although we did team up with a great distro company, Foundation Media to make sure it was on all the digital sites for the people who wanted to show us love or get the high quality WAVs. The plan is still to take a chunk of our first months iTunes sales and dump that into limited edition 10″ vinyl. To us that’s where an album like this belongs.

Meet Your Ghost will be our first pure retail album. We’re hoping that through these first two releases we’ve made a lot of fans and gained people’s respect. We’re gonna really step up the number of shows as well. It’s been so busy that we had to adopt a “one step at a time” approach to manage everything. So we’re just getting around to the full production of our live set. We’re putting together our performance like an album in itself.

Should people expect some Rik Cordero-directed videos from this EP?

Alex- Yeah we’ve talked about it! I guess the right answer would be “Walking Dream” but to be honest, I’d rather do “Merry Go Round.”

What’s going on outside of The Kickdrums as a band? You’ve both moved to New York, is anything in the pipeline production-wise?

Alex- Ironically, we really moved here to be a band. We’ve had a ton of people reach out for production but its just not as appealing as it used to be. We rather just keep building our own brand as artists. But I’m sure well end up producing a few tracks next year.

DOWNLOAD THERE MIGHT BE BLOOD

Jay and the Beans Talk from jeff on Vimeo.

Shouts to my buddies The Rosenthals. They echoed this perfectly.

I make an appearance at 4:05. I know that’s all you came here to see, right?

Yesterday I covered what an industry party actually is. Today, I’ll assume you made your way in the door. Now you’re looking around the room asking yourself, who the hell are these people? Don’t be ashamed. After seven years in the music/media/entertainment business, I still ask myself that every time I walk into an event.

Truth is, most people at events don’t know more than a handful of folks. And the ones who do seem to know everyone, well, that’s not always the sign of a winner. That’s just the sign of someone who goes out too much.

In my experience, you’re going to meet different types of folks at every event you go to. They will most likely be one of the following:

1) The Networking Jerk- I borrow this term from the book Never Eat Alone, by Keith Ferrazzi. This is the type of person who talks to you with their eyes darting around the room, looking for the next important person to introduce themselves to. They’ve always got their blackberry out, pretending to send important emails (nobody’s sending important email in a club, particularly mid-conversation), then they’re handing you their business card before doing their 1, 2 step like Ciara on to the next person. This jerk will leave the event with 100 new contacts, and will most likely never get a return phone call or email from any of them. Think of this person as the email address that keeps spamming you with MP3’s and invitations to an event you wouldn’t attend even if your own mother was being buried at it. I’m not saying you should ignore them, just don’t let it be you!

2) The Industry Chick- this is pretty self explanatory. These are chicks who work in the business. They’re typically attractive, dressed cute, with a nice smile and a “happy to meet you” attitude. Industry chicks are bubbly bastions of beauty, and they know everyone! If you get in good with them, you’re home free. They will introduce you to all their pals. Just give them the rhythm they give you.  If it looks like the chick’s trying to make it more than a casual thing, then take it where it needs to go. You remember how Tom Cruise lucked up with that broad in Cocktail, right? That could be you. Just don’t brag about it. This is a small business and word spreads quickly.

3) The Do Nothing Guy- this person is sort of an oxymoron. In fact, it’s not that he does nothing, it’s that he does everything. He’s the 30 year old guy who started out in the business as a rapper, then became a manager, then an A&R, then wound up in marketing. Now he runs his own company called Get Bucks Entertainment (or something equally as silly), which is sort of a multi-tiered company with artists, producers, recording studio, marketing company and event production all in one. Not one of these ventures yields income, so that’s why he’s at this event, handing out free Vista Print business cards, in hopes of landing a client. Hey, a sucker’s born every minute!

4) The Aspriring Artist- *sigh* It’s not that you don’t want to talk to artists, it’s just that they rarely approach in a respectable way. Instead, they try to shove mixtapes in your pockets. That said, some aspiring artists are great to talk to. In five or ten minutes, if you’re asking the right questions, you can get their whole story and the reason why they do what they do. A lot of times artists who are “on their grind” wear their hearts on their sleeves, and for industry folks- generally a pretty jaded bunch- it can be rather inspiring to see the fire in their eyes, to see the passion with which they’re selling themselves, and to feel the energy they’re expending just trying to get in the game. This is not just limited to rappers or singers. It can be anyone trying to make it in entertainment. When it’s coming from an organic place, their energy can be very contagious. Embrace those moments.

5) The Employee- what, you thought everyone at this event was going to be LA Reid status? Get real, there are regular people who work in the industry too. It’s an industry like any other, filled with accountants, HR folks, plain jane sales and marketing people, tech support… etc. Don’t believe that everyone in real life wants to get rich or die trying. There are people in this game with real jobs, who go to work 9 to 5 (ok, more like 10 to 6), have significant others and families. They just want to let loose, shoot the shit with their coworkers and grab a few drinks at an open bar. They’re not looking to network or connect or really do anything other than chill the f*%k out. Because of this, they are some of the best people to party with. When in their company, just relax and let the good times roll.

Part 3 “How Do I Act?” coming tomorrow!!!

Over the weekend I attended Dallas Penn and Combat Jack’s first annual Bring Your Own Blogger BBQ. It was a grand event, filled with positive vibes and good energy, people looking to show love to others, and overall I had a great time. But I had one conversation, with an aspiring rapper, which put a slight damper on things. In the midst of our casual conversation, said rapper- clearly not knowing who I was- asked me to “sell myself” to him. Confused as to why any human, specifically a rapper without a glimmer of a buzz, without any money, and furthermore without a record deal, would resort to such tom foolery in a convo, I chalked it up to one thing, this dude just goes to too many “industry” parties.

Ah yes, parties. The supposed lifeblood of the music industry. Everywhere you turn there’s an “industry” party to go to. But what’s an industry party anyway? Why should or shouldn’t you go to them? How should you act there? And what should you take from your experience?

An industry party is an event that will usually draw a large number of people who work (or in this day and age, used to work) as professionals in the music business. I want to hone in on that word professional, because it’s a very loose term when applied to music, and the amount of professionals who attend an event will most likely correlate with the value gleaned from attending the event in the first place.

In Part 1 of The Essential Guide to Music Industry Parties, the answer to the question, “What Is A Music Industry Party Anyway?”

1) Listening Session- This is an event where an artist’s record label marketing department gets a whole bunch of tastemakers (journalists, DJs, bloggers, media personalities… etc) in one room, usually a studio space or an intimate lounge setting, and plays the artist’s new album. The purpose is to draw attention to the body of work that the artist just spent the past year of his/her life working into the wee hours of the morning in a dark secluded recording studio to create. More often than not, industry folks use it as an excuse to chit chat while getting free food and liquor before heading on to another event. Usually by the day of the listening session, a bazillion people who make no money on the periphery of the biz have found out about it, and they swoop down on the location like vultures, in some misguided attempt to “get on.” Unless you’re a tastemaker, stay away from this type of event. You’re not wanted, needed or accepted here.

2) Album Release Party- Typically, there are two types of album release parties. There is a party that goes on in the early part of the evening, some time around 7ish, and then there’s a party that starts around 10, at a nightclub. Before you go to either event, you need to ask yourself who you are and who you want to be around. At the earlier party, you will most likely be surrounded by more professional people. You will drink and eat for free, and the artist in question will be receptive, jovial and appear genuinely appreciative of your support, no matter who the hell you are. At the later party, you will encounter a long line outside the club, groupies (depending on who the artist is), pay for drinks… hey, you may even have to cop a bottle or two just to get in the door. Here, you’ll fix your eyes on the VIP section, where the artist will be posted up with weed carriers, clearly ignoring you. Even if you do get a minute to chat with the artist, he’s so drunk and fixated on groupie pussy that he won’t remember you in the AM anyway.

3) Networking events- parties that are put together for the sole purpose of having people meet one another are the gift and the curse. People in positions of influence are generally too busy to attend events like these. Rather, you find a collection of meandering middle men, aspiring CEOs, artists and executives, people who are self-employed and just a melange of folks who you may never call after meeting them. Still, every now and again someone of importance strolls through, and maybe meeting that person for five minutes is all you need. Then again, there are dozens of other people bending their ear thinking the same thing. That’s one of the reasons why so few people who really work in the industry attend these things.

4) Charity Event- A large number of the people who attend charity events are those fortuitous enough to be charitable in the first place. That means either a) they’re just flat out rich or b) successful in whatever it is they do. Regardless, charity events draw a different type of crowd and vibe. People are at the event for a good cause, they’re around many of their peers, they want to drink and be merry, but look respectable at the same time. It is rather easy to bend someone’s ear at a charity event, hold their attention, and have a real conversation. But you may want to swallow your pride and throw a blazer on instead of that Stop Snitching t-shirt.

5) Product Launch- Usually accompanied by a red carpet and paparazzi (note the paparazzi), product launches are  great for meeting people provided you show up before everyone is too trashed to talk. Come late and you may wind up having 16 conversations in 30 minutes and not one of those people will be even remotely sober. But since red carpets tend to draw high profile celebs, the lists at the doors are usually more strict, and if you can finagle your way in, you’ll probably be around some pretty official people. At the very least, you’ll be able to tweet that you’re at such and such’s red carpet event. And that’s worth something, right?

In Part 2 of The Essential Guide to Music Industry Parties, we’ll tackle the different types of people you meet at these events.

A few weeks ago, XXLmag.com reported that Alchemist was paid 350k for producing “You Ain’t Got Nuthin” Lil Wayne’s Carter 3. When I caught up with Alchemist last week, he admitted that he was joking in that interview.

Al says:

I can’t front, I was lying. Because the truth is, they really paid me 1.5 mill. 750 was the first half…. I was joking. I guess 350 was believable. No, I don’t get paid 350 grand for a beat.

The Lil Wayne/Travis McCoy collabo for Chemical Warfare that ended up on the cutting room floor leaked earlier today. Listen here. I think this joint should have made the album.

And here’s Al talking about the new electric, up-tempo sound of urban music.

Al says:

“It’s quite electric. It’s like you gotta plug in. CDs come with a plug now. I just wired a special switch now to all my equipment. It’s a swag switch. When you hit that shit, boy, a disco ball comes out… you start doing John Travolta moves.

Download Trife “The Project Pope”

You might want to listen to track #1, “I’m Sayin it Now,” produced by yours truly.

You all remember Trife, right? He’s the dude who’s been (pause) holding Ghostface down since Supreme Clientele dropped in ‘99. He appeared on Toney Starks next LP, Bulletproof Wallets, making a name for himself with his verse from “The Juks” (produced by, go figure, Alchemist). Since then he’s basically been seen as the Wallabee Champ’s right hand man. One might argue that Trife became the Ying that Raekwon once was to Ghostface’s Yang.

Trife’s always been looked at as the Theodore Unit’s most well-rounded member. He displayed that on the group’s compilation project compilation 718 (Sure Shot Recordings) back in 2004, then again on Put It On The Line, a collabo CD/DVD that dropped with Ghostface in 2005. Later, he’d put in solid appearances on Ghost’s solo projects Fishscale (2006), More Fish (2006), and The Big Doe Rehab (2007), respectively.

I merely cite all of that info because it needs to be understood that Trife is not necessarily a new artist. The guy’s been on more albums and rocked more stages in more countries than your average blog rapper. He’s getting ready to drop a proper solo LP in late July called Better Late Than Never, but as a warm-up to the project he just released  a mixtape with Tapemasters Inc. called The Project Pope.

Now honestly, some of this music’s been floating around the net for a while, or appeared on various LPs, so to those in tune with the guy’s catalog, I guess you’ll just have to wait for the new album to drop to hear newer songs.

As for the particular tune produced by me, I think that was cut some time around 2005. That beat came out of a batch of tracks I cooked up after spending some time hanging out with Jay-Z’s former producer Ski Beatz. A lot of people referenced that beat (True story: that’s just a 2track, no mix), but what nobody has ever really detected about it, which is one of the reasons why I’m not so crazy about it in retrospect, is that it’s in mono. Such a crazy sample, but it’s not even in stereo!

The Alchemist’s 2nd LP, Chemical Warfare, finally drops next Tuesday, July 7th. Just think, two years ago (two!) Will Johnson and I sat in Alchemist’s living room talking about this very same project for Scratch Magazine. But as the saying goes, timing is everything, and the hands on the clock weren’t aligned properly back then. So here we are. Having gotten an early listen, it’s truly been worth the wait. As hip-hop veers towards electric slide territory, the ALC’s new LP is a healthy dosage of sample-based hardcore hip-hop. Heavy drums, deep bass grooves, and lyricists spitting like they’ve got something to prove.

I’ve got a bunch of interview clips with Alchemist that I shot last week in the Koch E1 Music offices. I’ll be rolling them out over the next week or so, but for now, check out what he had to say about touring with and DJing for Eminem, now that the Detroit rapper’s gone sober on us.

Al says:

“We play a lot of Uno on tour with Em. He enjoys my Uno game. Now that he’s sober, it’s a little bit different these days. Not many tequila parties before the show. It’s more like 80s music and Uno, and we’re ready to rock. Private jets, Uno, pizza, 80s music… Air Supply, “Fast Car” Tracy Chapman, Hall and Oates. That’s basically what we do.”

Then check Alchemist talking about how differently he gets treated as Em’s DJ vs. being The Alchemist.

That’s some truly funny stuff right there.

More to come

Well, I’ve been hyping this kid Will Roush for months. His mixtape is finally here. I’m going to write a separate post very soon about why I chose to get involved with Will’s project, but for now, check out the work.

Know My Name Vol. 1 is a conceptual mixtape, themed around the idea of Will Roush, who’s a new artist, traveling back in time to learn all about hip-hop’s incredible history before moving forward with his own burgeoning rap career. The tape is split between him rocking over classic instrumentals which tie into the project’s theme, and original music.