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Critical Beatdown Round Three
Article by:
Melanie J Cornish
 One common denominator with the three beatsmiths up for this round of Critical Beatdown is they all started out as DJs but went from the booth to the studio as Hip-Hop marched on. Needlz, raised in Lansing, Michigan produced possibly the rawest joint on any album last year; 'Hurt me Soul' which featured on Lupe Fiascos 'Food and Liquor'. With a discography that includes names like Young Buck and his boss man 50 Cent, Fabolous and Game and with a heavy schedule on deck for 2007, we were fortunate to get Khari Kane’s input on this column.
Jim Jonsin is a Miami staple that attracted the attention of Jamie Foxx for credit on Unpredictable and has blessed the notorious Miami royal family with beats. Trick Daddy, Trina and Pitbull have all worked with Jonsin and as the year turns the Brooklyn born Miami raised producer is developing and working with an artist who may just be the new voice of the south, B.O.B.
Finally we called upon the opinion of K Salaam. This DJ/Producer made a real name for himself with partner Beatnik in the Summer of 2006 with the compilation album The World is Ours. Deftly crafted beats and the element of consciousness that the project enveloped caught the attention of some of reggae and Hip-Hops finest and K Salaam made a name for himself beyond that of just DJ. So once again here we have three tracks that may have been hits or may not be considered the producers best work, but are still very much in the minds of many.
EPMD & DJ Scratch – So what You Saying
Needlz : That track was crazy for a couple of reasons. One DJ Scratch was killing it on that track and at that time I was a DJ, the track itself, I heard it the other day and it still sounds current, I can see the video. You know sometimes in Hip-Hop you may hear a good track or hear a good song in general you can go back and remember exactly where you were. In terms of production, there are two or three different samples going on in there and at that time some of the samples weren’t even on cue or anything but they just sound right. I was definitely a big fan of that track and that album.
Jim Jonsin : I used to DJ and I used to use that album a lot. Personally I loved EPMD and I looked up to DJ Scratch. The way he sampled, you know down here in Florida we had a huge movement of bass music and that was one of the few records that broke through that era and back then, playing Hip-Hop in Miami was two separate sides. There was the people who listened to this sort of music, who was me and all my people who all DJed and produced but it was all bass music; but that was one of the records that changed the tempo and helped make it more grimy and a slower New York type style of Hip-Hop. That was a huge influence for us. One of my partners used the same sample on his album but added his own edge, but that track was pretty big for us. EPMD did a show at the Miami Baseball Stadium around the time that song was out and they tore it down.
K Salaam : I mean when that came out I was young. It was way before I started DJing and producing, I can’t say that that joint had an impact on me as a producer or nothing but I can say that song was real hot. It was a raw Hip-Hop sound, the back in the days sound that you could still play now in a club and people would still dance to it. It had all the elements of Hip-Hop in it; you know the scratching, the sampling was crazy and then they put another sample, the George Clinton sample on the hook. It was just dope, just straight up raw Hip-Hop and if you were to play it right now in a club at the right time you would get people dancing because it is a classic song right there. It has that cross over appeal that you could play it in front of any type of crowd and it is going to make you want to dance, the B-Boys can dance to it, you can break to it, it just has that vibe and Scratch is one of the best DJ/Producers ever and he got a lot of respect for that. That is the impact it had on me as I heard that way before I thought of being a DJ or a producer, just a kid listening to Hip-Hop. They used to play that when we would go roller-skating and they would say that all the slow skaters had to get off the floor when they would play that. That had a huge impact on Hip-Hop music and you can still to this day make a real song without it being a contradiction and people who don’t listen to Hip-Hop, it can still make them dance.
Mobb Deep - Shook Ones Part Two
Needlz : That shit was crazy. Damn man, that was the record that brought a dark sound, you know menacing. That was Havocs signature sound, the dark sounding samples and that was from the Golden Era; Wu was out, Nas, RZA all came out about that time and that was definitely Havocs signature sound. Those old, real scratched up record sounds that Havoc is known for man, that just paved the way and I am a big fan of Havoc, but after that I got into it a little more.
Jim Jonsin : That record played a billion times in the club. That was huge for their career and I think that was bigger than they ever got as I think the song itself totally blew up. I wasn’t a huge Mobb Deep fan but I loved that song as it was one of their earlier records and it has been used by a couple of people since and it showed how R&B and Hip-Hop can really merge and come together.
K Salaam : Wow when that whole album came out that had such a dark sound to what else was going on at the time yet everyone was still feeling it. I know Q-Tip was involved in a lot of that album, which had everyone going ‘Damn Q-Tip was a Tribe Called Quest,’ but Shook Ones, that was way before I was producing but I was DJing at that time back in Minneapolis. But it wasn’t until later that I learned how he flipped the sample and they were real good at taking sounds no other producer would think about sampling and using them so they would have the dark sound that they have. That was one of the hottest songs in Hip-Hop period. As dark and as gangster as it is you could play that anywhere in front of any crowd, maybe not the youngsters, but any crowd of people who have listened to Hip-Hop for a while and they are going to know all the lyrics in that song. It just brings that out in people. I am not sure if it changed Hip-Hop but it was a classic song. It was just after Nas had come out and Queensbridge was really taking the crown at that time with Nas and Mobb Deep holding it down.
Dr. D.R.E – Next Episode
Needlz : How can you pick that over Explosive? I mean I liked that track, but I don’t think it changed the game. I mean Dre has done stuff like that before as that is his kind of signature sound with the guitar, the drums are hard. It was dope, but I don’t think that was a Dre track that changed the game, I just think it was a Dre track that was really hot. Dre has access to the best musicians in the world, so when you think about the strings on his joints you wouldn’t expect anything less. He set his bar really high. But I can list ten tracks that he has done that are better, like Deep Cover, Explosive, G Thang; I think they changed the game more than that track did. My favorite track out of the three would have to be Shook Ones though if I had to pick one.
Jim Jonsin : Anything that Dr Dre has done from World Class Wrecking Crew up to the Eminem stuff has always inspired me. It taught me how to mix records better and that song in particular; I sampled the snare from that song and used it in a couple of tracks so that must have been something it did for me. That album was so incredible, I mean that influenced me in a lot of the ways I mix and in the placement of music and I am sure it helped a lot of people that way as Dr. Dre is an amazing engineer also. His sounds always comes out so clear and phat. But I am not that crazy about that particular track.
K Salaam : That was a tight song, but I mean Dre is one of the best producers if not the best producer ever and that is just another dope Dre joint. I mean the track was hot but I don’t think that it had the same impact as the other two songs [mentioned.] It didn’t really change the game, but I will say this from a producer standpoint, the song came out when I was producing, but I will say that it showed you don’t need to make something from scratch, you can just straight up take something and loop it and if it is hot it is hot. Dre showed that, he made so many beats from scratch, you know he can make them new or, he can take something and just re-do it just a little and it sounds hot, hey no one can be mad at him. That song definitely was a hot track. I can’t say it had a huge impact though.
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