check out Emphatic, 1/2 of JM Production's solo project The Left Side below:
Also check out NoNDescript, 1/2 of JM Production's solo project Nondescription below:
other projects from JM Productions:
Friday, December 7, 2012
No Pussy Ass Drums!!!!!! Part One
On
November 10th of this year I had the pleasure of sitting with JM
Productions a.k.a. NoNDescript (Juan) and Emphatic (Mike) the producing
geniuses from Newport News to discuss who they are, what they have accomplished
and what the future holds. Below are excerpts taken from the interview verbatim
from an audio recording.
Bee:
How long have you guys been working together?
Juan:
“7 years started in 05 officially we were messing around in ’03, 04 bought
kinetic with laptop and headphones (terrible) from circuit city for fifty bucks
now using fruity loops for free.. bootleg.. getting into Pro tools now.”
Bee:
How do u think u guys mesh together?
Juan:
“It’s kinda funny cuz I think we bring the same things to the table for real
for real for the most part (laughs)
Mike:
“Juan is like more of a hip hop encyclopedia: he’ll have more depth into it. I’ll
be like ”yo I like this song, I like this
album I like this concept” and he’ll be like “well did u know that in 1995 this happened?” he knows the history
behind everything. I’m glad he has that end of it so I can do my thing and I know
I got him in my corner still.”
They
have known each other for 20 years and they make the same points differently
and mesh well on a friendship level as well as musically.
Bee:
Hip hop in its truest form. What does that mean?
Juan:
“hip hop in its truest form means...”
Mike:
as Juan is thinking chimes in, “one phrase basically no pussy ass drums”
Juan:
“taking it back to the essence, to where it started the foundation of it,
nothing too technical not over thought, straight to the point hip hop
especially with the production end of it. Just going and digging in the crates
finding samples digging for drums and breaks and things like that and the very
foundation of which it started it started with 2 turntables looping breaks,
break beats its kinda of phrase it comes to pay homage to that whole entire aspect,
the 80s 90s era”
Mike:
“there’s so much overproduction: people wanna have this formula ohh I gotta do
this 16 and the hook just bring it back to just a small loop, chop something up
and use that for 2 or 3 measures leave that and just focus on the drums and do
something basic u don’t hafta overproduce u don’t hafta have 10 keyboards in
the room and two guitars and a piccolo and an oboe.”
I
definitely chuckled at that one. Even though we all laughed, that is no joke
when it comes to hip hop. So I asked why this is important to artists on the
rise.
Juan:
“if u understand it, you’ll already have an appreciation for the history of it
so its like u gotta know about something if you’re really involved in it, u can’t
go into something and not know anything about it: u can’t fly a plane and know
nothing about flying a plane. You can’t drive a car, a never take a driving
class. U hafta understand how production
and hip hop started, u can’t take that away, you can’t erase it. So it’s like if
u respect that aspect of it then it’ll never die: the culture will never die. No
matter what changes and progressions it may have.”
Bee:
Do u think that rappers can be successful with just sticking to boom bap style
hip hop?
Juan;
“underground artists still do it.”
Mike:
“it matters as to what u think is successful.
My concept of being successful in what we do is working with different
artists that maybe we even grew up listening to, making good albums getting
placement, getting releases, dj booths getting out your people and artists in
different venues, just being heard.”
Juan:
“it’s all about the art”
Mike:
“we hafta be picky because we are stretched thin and it takes a certain type of
person to like what we do. It’s a different type of person that we’re looking
for.”
What’s
the creative process?
Juan;:“nothing for me (to get juices flowing) I don’t need to be in a certain
mood. I can literally sit down anytime
and make beats. I may be in a certain
mood and every beat I make that day may be depressing or very aggressive
sounding but my actual ability to make beats is hardly ever altered. Emotion doesn’t
have anything to do with it.”
Mike:
“it just depends, u may be sitting around the house, hear something on tv, you
may hear a sample or a cat brushing up against a wall a certain way, anything
that may inspire u to make a beat, get goosebumps, go upstairs and make a beat.
If u turn the machine, you’ll make something dope.”
Speak
for yourself lol so with all that being said, I wanted to know what the future
holds for these two eclectics;
Mike:
‘Take over the world lol but nah we really just want the recognition:
originally I think we wanted to kinda be known in our area, but at this point I
don’t care about that anymore, it’s about the people we respect respecting what
we do. Bunch a dope projects out, Juan interjects “we want the exposure but we
want to be respected amongst the people we admire look up to and respect and to
work with them is very important. My main goal is to be associated with good
music.” Mike: “I don’t wanna be doing the same thing I was doing 2 years ago this
year we’ve been doing different things like doing showcases and getting out on
the scene and being open to different things. Every year we want to
progressively do something diff and get better at what we do.”
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