Ok folks, this Thursday is when it all starts. My good friend/fellow DJ and producer 7L will be joining me for a little 3-day Texas Top Notch tour. I recently caught up with 7L and asked him a few questions about his history in the game, production preferences, rap lifestyle and favorite tunes. I posted the interview below as well as a SLAMMIN’ boogie/R&B mix (this is a must download). Don’t sleep!
1. What first sparked your interest in the DJ game?
I first got into the idea of wanting to be a DJ after hearing Grandmaster Flash’s “Adventures on the Wheels of Steel” around ‘84. It was on a K Tel Break dance compilation that I had on cassette. I was already familiar with Flash’s “The Message” and other rap related stuff such as the obvious: Run DMC, Whodini, Sugarhill Gang, etc. I never cared for “Rappers Delight” at all and I still don’t. By then, I was already into Hip Hop pretty much full time. Nothing else mattered to me. I was never too big into rock like Van Halen, which I liked a lot. However, Hip Hop and whatever MTV was playing at the time had a real big impact on me. As cliché as it is to play that stuff now, the early 80’s stuff like David Bowie, Wham (pause), Depeche Mode, and Talk Talk are favorites of mine. Going back to hearing Flash, it was just packed with familiar elements like Chic “Good Times” and Blondie along with snippets of music I wasn’t familiar with at that time like the Hellers spoken word and Apache (which is going to be played at my funeral as it’s my favorite song ever made). I was just blown away by the idea of taking existing elements, putting them in a whole new context and making a collage/song out of it all. It just made sense to me. The Bladerunners stuff has the same ideology behind it. Aside from the more Latin Rascals side of the edits, the blends or remixes are sorta treated as a mishmash of other music.
To fast forward a bit, hearing “Peter Piper” further pushed me to want to buy Turntables. By ’87, I pretty much was obsessed with everything Hip Hop related like music, clothes, style, slang. By ’89, I finally got my first set of Gemini’s (belt driven) from Upstairs Records in NY. That pretty much set it off.
2. How long after you had been DJing did you get in to production? Did you start with a certain sampler or did you have a sound you were going for?
I got into production around ’90-’91. I had some break records that I acquired through DJing and buying records. Skippy Whites, a local Boston record shop with numerous locations throughout New England is where a lot of my schooling came from in those early years. I’d take the bus and then the train into the city being 30 minutes outside of Boston. I would spend the day and every cent I had on vinyl, sneakers, magazines and whatever else I could get my hands on. At Skippy’s they had all the Ultimate Break and Beats. Skippy had a print out behind the counter of each volume with the proper artist and titles because some of the actual 12″ were purposely mislabeled. By looking at that and trying to track down the titles on the list, I was mastering the foundation of Hip Hop. When I started wanting to make beats, I pretty much wanted to be like Marley Marl. All the Juice Crew stuff was Hip Hop perfection to me. Years later, Esoteric and I mixed our single “Speaking Real Words” with Marley Marl at his house studio, and it was basically my “if I die tomorrow, I wouldn’t care” moment. My idol was helping mix down a song that I had created. We went and got Wendy’s in his Benz, which if anyone knows me I pretty much eat everyday. It was amazing! His studio had all his gold and platinum records on the walls from Salt n Pepa and Heavy D to LL Cool J and Big Daddy Kane. He had sample records everywhere. I remembered him saying we had to be done by 7:00 because Pete Rock was coming over!! At that time, they were broadcasting some of their Hot 97 Future Flava’s show from Marley’s studio. It was too surreal for me to fully enjoy at that time.
Early on Equipment wise, my friend Karma and I would rent a sampler for a weekend and just make 3 minute loop tapes of beats, bass lines, horns, etc. We would then use them to layer beats on a 4 track. This was around ’92. After that I got an SP1200 because I found out that’s what Pete Rock and Large Pro were using. With the SP1200, additional samplers were needed because of its limited sampling time. From there I got an MPC that I still have to this day. I currently use both samplers, although I incorporate computer programs into making beats as well. Even though computer programs are a must these days, still nothing is better than physically hammering out a drumbeat on the SP. Clicking a mouse pad is sort of a bore. I was never trained to play an instrument, but I was raised with the understanding that samples and rare grooves are the number one component of all Hip Hop beats. Once sampling took a back seat, Hip Hop got way less funky. Kanye sort of brought it back for a bit, but everyone was making sped up soul sample rip-offs, and it just burnt out too quick. It’s easier for a dude to buy a keyboard and software program than it is to spend countless hours hunting down records. That was the fun of it for me and still is, although it’s more from a collector’s standpoint than trying to find drums and sounds. I guess the point of that rant was, my SP1200, MPC and srecord collection were all essentials in my production. I couldn’t make a beat with out my samplers and I couldn’t make a beat without my records.
3. A lot of people may know you from 7L & Esoteric fame. How did you guys link up? I know you have a pretty serious fan base. Tell us a bit about that journey, world tours, hip hop lifestyle, etc.
We linked up during my freshmen year in college. Seamus (Esoteric) had a radio show on the college radio station. I was a faithful listener because he would play all the new dope shit, and it was refreshing to hear that we had similar taste. I had called the station a few times and talked to him. We developed a friendship that way. I was aware he was a rapper and I made beats, so it was a great fit! We were originally in a group with 5 members: Shay, Trevor, Karma, Lionel, and myself. Karma now runs Brick records and is a head designer at Traffic Distro. Lionel (DJ Elliot Ness) is part of the Deck Demons DJ crew and Trademarc. He went on to do an Album with WWE wrestler John Cena on Sony Records, who’s theme song and solo albums I produced. Around ’96-’97 it got down to Esoteric and me. We released “Protocol” and “Be Alert,” which was also known as “The Transformer Song”. It was produced by fellow Bladerunner DJ Beyonder. From there we just continued releasing 12”, started doing more shows, traveled a ton and we even got Inspecter Deck on a song. Basically, we just grinded it out for 2 or 3 years working up to our debut in 2000, which was titled “The Soul Purpose”. During that time we were also doing shows in Europe with 500 – 800 people a night. This isn’t a grandiose amount, but keep in mind that this was before the internet explosion and our music was only available on vinyl. It was an eye opener. We were playing the same venues where a lot of bigger acts like Redman and Jeru were rockin’ the night after. ‘94 to 2000 was really my favorite time. It was just us: Mr. Lif, Miguel (Virtuoso) and Beyonder just sorta living in that moment and having a blast. I think for me the more known we got, it became more stressful than fun. I was driving myself mad trying to buy every record I’d see on eBay or from specialty shops so noone else would use the same samples as me.
The birth of the message board came about and pretty much ruined it all, as far as I am concerned. Kids with zero Hip Hop knowledge and little hermits who never leave the confines of their shitty little urine infested bedrooms all the sudden get some sort of weird celebrity status for their views and opinions, which is more or less what blogging is now. By our second album “Dangerous Connection,” which by all accounts was way more focused than our first, the internet was in full swing. The gap between underground and commercial was getting bigger and bigger making it frustrating for me at times. Hip Hop for me has always been under one umbrella. There’s always going to be dope shit and there will always be wack shit. It didn’t matter if it was on Bad Boy or Fondle’em – Dope was dope. Commercially, the music was getting cheesier though. Indie stuff was becoming less funky and just sounding like depressing suicide music. Over time we signed with Babygrande, which was one of the big Indie labels. They had great distro. They were able to open doors in a lot of markets that we couldn’t get prime space in before. We got more exposure in stores like Best Buy, Virgin and so on. In theory, it was an uphill battle that totally soured my experience with the business side of music. The label was run by a few retards (#noshots) but then again most labels are. Look at them now, run by fucking dinosaurs who have no idea what the hell is going on. They’re lacking originality and people are dying for something new. All this R&B shit sounds the fucking same. In the market today most labels are lost and honestly pretty useless at this point. There are very few valid labels today, with the internet changing the way people find out about and buy music. The power has been returned to the artists themselves. Unfortunately most artists are fame driven, and everyone is chasing a radio hit. Anyways, in ‘06 after the Babygrande experience and the Main Flow record I fully produced, both which I feel is the climax of my best work, I was a bit burnt out on it all. Around this time Esoteric got more into production and at the same time had plans on releasing a solo record. That was a personal record “Saving Seamus Ryan”. It was a perfect time for me to sort of take a break from it all.
From ’93 up until now, I always DJ’d out. I had always done either parties or clubs. So it wasn’t like once I chilled a bit on the 7LES stuff, I started wanting to do clubs that I had always done. The difference is now I just had more time and energy to put into getting gigs and traveling. Before I had always allow myself X amount of time to be able to make beats and be in the studio. We are currently working on a new 7L & Esoteric record. Obviously I still enjoy making beats, and working with Seamus is always fun. So I never plan on completely abandoning that aspect of the game alltogether.
4. You are now part of a DJ/production trio known as Bladerunners (*AIR HORN!) How did this come about?
Bladerunners consists of Steve “The RaZor,” DJ Beyonder and myself. It came about around ‘04. I had linked up with Steve “The RaZor” through a mutual friend we had from the record pool I was in at the time. He was like “Hey, I know this guy who does sick freestyle edits.” So he gave me his number and we linked up. I was curious to check his shit out. Initially I had done some recording at his studio, mixing songs down and what not. He had a nice set up and a great ear. I did a Tragedy and Havoc Remix there that came out on the “Still Reporting” album as well as the Outerspace “151” record I mixed down at his spot. In between these sessions, he’d always be like “we should do a mix. You can bring over all your crazy records and let me just edit the crap out of them.” It all sorta started that way. Beyonder and I both have similar tastes, and we’d always DJ’d and done production together. When I started working with Steve, it was only natural that Braun got down, and from there we sort of just started with the Bladerunners name. We initially did a mix and that was called “The Bladerunners”. We had no official name but then people started referring to us as such. So we ran with it. The first person to ever request a Bladerunner edit was Stretch Armstrong. Sean C (Vinyl Reanimators) had played him a segment of that initial mix we did. It hadone verse of Madonna’s “Physical Attraction,” and he asked if there was a full version. He was DJing some big party that weekend and wanted to play it out. That was the first time we were like, “Oh shit, maybe people would want to play this stuff in the clubs.” At that point, we were just making mega mix type cd’s, throwing as many songs in as we could. That’s when we decided to release our first 12″ in 2005.
5. You guys have a deep catalog of remixes, re-edits, and exclusive tracks as well as the top DJs in the game playing and hyping your tunes. What does the future look like for the Bladerunners?
Hmmm…right now, we’re just staying busy making edits, remixes, and Djing. Trying to stay consistent with all three can be a bit tough. We usually send out our edits to various DJ’s and friends. For everyone else select tunes are available on Crooklynclan.net. We don’t release too much of the simple blend/mash up stuff we do because we don’t want to be known as a “mash up team”. Plus, we more or less make any of that blend/mash stuff for just us. Who wants to buy a 50 second song for $3.99 or whatever anyway? With the edits, there’s a lot more time spent and they are full tracks. We can stand out a bit more and offer something different this way. The support we get from DJ’s and the general public has been fantastic! I really couldn’t be happier. Aside from Stretch, Mike B. was a huge supporter early on. As was DJ AM (R.I.P) – He was just the nicest guy ever. Z Trip, who I had actually met years back when he was a tour DJ with us in Europe, reconnected with me recently working on the Bladerunners stuff. It was just like picking up where we left off. He is a cool and grounded dude. When he came by Steve’s studio, he pulled out his laptop and was all excited just playing us mad shit. He’s just a mega music fan. It was like when you were younger, meeting up with your boys and playing the new EPMD album or whatever and everyone just huddled around the stereo with all your attention on the music. I remember he played Stevie Wonder’s “Beats to the Rhyme” edit and all our jaws dropped. It was like “ohhh shit”. Shouts to him and Spider as well. It’s just been a cool experience. It’s fun, the way music should be.
6. I know you are a true music head. Give me 5 records you like to bump on the regular. They don’t have to be DJ related; just stuff you enjoy bumping in the whip, at the crib, or just timeless joints.
That’s a tough one! This might not be my all time top 5, but in my car, more often than not I’ll frequently have the following:
1. Kool G Rap & DJ Polo – Wanted:Dead or Alive. It’s probably one the best Rap albums of all time. Brilliant production AND lyrics.
2. Any of the Jay Z albums.
3. A Ton of Mix CD’s or radio mixes. Anything from Kid Capri, DJ Riz Live from Brooklyn to “50 Cent is the Future,” and all those early ones he had before “Get Rich or Die Tryin’.” I got this double mix cd that Benny B did Live >From San Francisco. It’s all dance classics with songs by Candido, Deodato, Gwen Guthrie and more. I always like throwing that in. That Holy Ghost mix cd has been on repeat lately. It’s of all their remixes or whatever. Umm…man…it’s just too much. I drive a lot so it’s like really anything old school. Rap Radio is big on my play list, Mr. Magic Rap Attack shows (shouts to Will C), Marley Marl In Control, Chuck Chillout, Red Alert, Awesome II, Stretch & Bobbito and Halftime Radio. A lot of late 90’s to early 2000s Hot 97 shows such as Stretch’s XL Radio, Clue and Flex’s shows. I have a ton of tapes I still need to digitize. All of those shows were everything to me. I would bug friends of mine in New York to send me tapes. Anytime I was in New York, I would try and record shows. That was part of the excitement for me, just searching it out and taking the time to get the shows. Now it’s all a clcik away.
4. Anything Stax: Rufus Thomas and Booker T. Good shit to listen to on the way home after DJing.
5. At home I like to listen to old Soundtracks and Library records (which is pretty much just like soundtracks). “Three Days of the Condor” is one of my favorites along with “Beyond the Door.” I mean there is too many to mention but if I am cleaning or doing laundry, I’ll put those records on.
I’ll skip the shout outs cause I am sure I’ll leave some one out but BIG shout/thanks to you and Decade for bringing me out! Cant wait, Texas is always a blast!!!
Track List ::
1. Peoples Choice – Do it Any Way U Wanna
2. Unlimited Touch – Searching to Find the One
3. Raw Silk – Do it to the Music
4. Fonda Rae – All Night Long
5. Indeep – When Boys Talk
6. Kasheif – Stone Love
7. Denroy Morgan – I’ll Do Anythng For You
8. Fatback Band – I Found Lovn’
9. Conversion – Let’s Do It
10. Inner Life – Caught Up
11. Thelma Houston – You Used to Hold Me Tight
12. Junior – Mama Used to Say
13. Howard Johnson – So Fine
14. Kleeer – Intimate Connections
15. Gwen Guthrie – Seventh Heaven
7L – TIMING FORGET THE TIMING :: DOWNLOAD