DJ Evil Dee of Da Beatminerz:
Tha DJ...Backbone Of Hip Hop - Day 4
ThaFormula.com - So how did you approach making the new Black Moon album "Total Eclipse?"
DJ Evil Dee - First of all with this album I just made a bunch of beats and they picked what they wanted. I didn't sit down and say, "ok I'ma make this beat and it's gonna be called this record." That's what we did with the previous albums. With this album I was coming in the studio with four or five beats at a time. What would happen is instead of me just coming in with that one, we had different varieties to choose from. Another thing, when we got to the table, Buckshot had some songs that he did that was for his second solo album that were so dope that we wanted them for this album. So we got other producers on this album. We did most of the album and we executive produced it. I believe that this album is dope because me sitting back as a fan, I can appreciate it. Buckshot is hungry, I'm hungry. We recorded this album at Buckshot's new studio and at my house instead of D&D. On this album I stepped up and did a lot of mixing because on the last album I did engineering. This time I did mixing. For this album we just made bangers and at the end of the day we made the album for cats that appreciated the old work and for those that have an open ear for the new stuff. When a lot of people said they didn't like “War Zone,” I took that into consideration when making this album. I was just saying we got to make an album better then “War Zone.” I never will say I got to make an album better then "Enta Da Stage" because everybody liked "Enta Da Stage." I don't even say I got to make a "Enta Da Stage" because "Enta Da Stage" is ten years old. I will say I got to make an album better then "War Zone."
ThaFormula.com - Did you ever rhyme with Black Moon?
DJ Evil Dee - On the first Black Moon stuff I was rhyming when we first were working on our demos. One day I just woke up and said, "Yo B, I'm the worst rapper in the world" and said I'm not touching that mic. It's funny ‘cause cats was like, “nah your shit is hot.” But to me I took it upon myself to say that's not what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna be Evil Dee the DJ, Evil Dee the producer. I like making dope beats. I don't like being a star. I like being in the background because my music is gonna talk for me.
ThaFormula.com - What new producers are you feeling nowadays?
DJ Evil Dee - You know who I like? I like Madlib. Of course J-Zone. J-Zone is crazy. I like Jay-Dee but he's been around. I like 9th Wonder man, his album made me really start appreciating Hip-Hop again. There was a time when I was sitting back and saying “no one is appreciating what I'm doing so I'm about to chill for a minute,” and then Little Brother came out. I went to fat beats and bought it and I was like this is crazy. He made me go home and work hard again. Necro is dope too. Necro and Ill Bill was around with us when Black Moon was shopping our deal. I like Necro. He's crazy though, but he's dope.
ThaFormula.com - How did you end up getting down with Rawkus?
DJ Evil Dee - Well I was on Hot 97 at the time and Rawkus Records was one of the labels that I played on my show because I like what they were doing, and what happened was my boy introduced me to Jarred from Rawkus. Me and him started talking and he said he wanted to do a mixtape with me for a convention that was coming up. They wanted to make a sample tape of the stuff that's coming out on the label. So we went into D&D. I brought my 4-track up to D&D and we made a mixtape, a regular New York street mixtape for Rawkus records. Jarred listened to it and liked it so much that he decided to sell it. The tape was “Soundbombing 1.” The reason that tape is cool is because it wasn't made to be sold. It was made for people to hear what was coming out of Rawkus. I didn't make that tape from a sales point of view because I didn't know it was gonna be sold. Had I known it was gonna be sold, I wouldn't have spoke on it really.
ThaFormula.com - So when did the Beatminerz album come up?
DJ Evil Dee - Well Rawkus came at me and told me they wanted to do one and at first I said no because I didn't want to do one. Then I thought if I do a Beatminerz album, I get to do a album the way I get to do it. I can make records with my friends the way I think they should sound. So I decided to do it. After we signed to Rawkus we started seeing the real story with Rawkus. They really wanted that radio hit. They also ended up putting everything into Kool G Rap's album as far as promotion and money. So I took it upon myself to promote my album since I worked two and a half years on this Beatminerz album. I took $20,000 dollars of my own money, made my own clean versions, did my own mailings, and worked radio on my own. I had the M.O.P. record that was supposed to be on that album but Rawkus didn't want to fight for it. I had a cut with Rah Digga and Tash from Tha Liks, but Rawkus didn't wanna fight for it. I had Xzibit on the album on some real Hip-Hop shit, but they didn't wanna fight for it.
ThaFormula.com - That album was different then your other projects, It was not your typical Beatminerz production...
DJ Evil Dee - Yep, but at the end of the day everything had bass in it. It had bass and it had our signature hard drums. I took two and a half years off to do that album. I literally almost went broke doing that album. I stopped doing outside work just to do that album. I flew out to L.A. and started my Beatminerz album there. I flew my equipment out with me. We were really dedicated to doing this album. So I said “I'm gonna reach out to my friends and whoever comes through, comes through.” The cats that are on the album are my peoples.
ThaFormula.com - Did you end up making anything off of that album at all?
DJ Evil Dee - Rawkus didn't give us nothing. I'm $20,000 dollars in the hole. I didn't get no spending money or nothing. I spent $20,000 dollars of my own money.
ThaFormula.com - So who decided it was time to get the Black Moon album started?
DJ Evil Dee - We always stay in touch. We are always in communication with each other. We see each other all the time. Dru came up to me and said “Hip-Hop needs a Black Moon album right now and I think you guys need to do the damn thing.” So we said, “Let’s make this shit happen and create what we create.”
ThaFormula.com - That Black Moon track you did on the High Times compilation was ridiculous man, when that dropped on wax I noticed that it sold out right away…
DJ Evil Dee - I remember every underground radio show that I would listen to on the West was playing that record saying Black Moon is back. I just felt really happy ‘cause I was thinking in my head, “wait till I really sit down.” I shop at Fat Beats out here in New York. When I walked into Fat Beats, it's like they stopped and was clapping. Then we gave them “Rush” and that's when I felt really happy. But I never wanna settle. You can tell me I’m the number one producer and I'll say “thank you,” but that shit will erase from my head when I walk out.
ThaFormula.com - Is that what you were working on before you decided on the album?
DJ Evil Dee - The High Times people called Buckshot for a song. Buckshot said “let me get Evil Dee.” So it went from “let me get Evil Dee,” to “let's make a Black Moon record,” but Five was in jail. So we did the High Times joint. Then the people from Avatar called and said we want a track for a album they were doing called NVA. So we recorded "The Way." Then we recorded "Rush" after that. Then it was like “fuck this single shit,” and we started making the album. We started slow at first and then we just sped up the speed and that's how we ended up with the joint we got now.
ThaFormula.com - What keeps you going nowadays man?
DJ Evil Dee - Well you know we still got underground radio and the internet. I still got overseas. Being in the U.S. is dope but when I go overseas, that's what makes me continue. When I'm walking down the streets in Japan and a cat that does not know English, knows the whole Black Moon album or when I'm walkin’ the streets of Germany and cats are like, "oh My God it's Evil Dee." That's what makes me go “you know what? This Hip-Hop thing is alive and well.” I tell every Hip-Hop person, “If you get a chance you have to go to Japan and Germany.” When you got to Japan, that's like going back to 1987. There is record stores everywhere. Everybody’s out there DJ’ing. I’ve done my best record shopping in Japan. I have bought records in Japan that I have never seen in the U.S. I went beat shopping all around the world and Japan happens to be the best spot that I have been at so far.
ThaFormula.com - When the time came that you couldn't really sample like before because of the lawyers and...
DJ Evil Dee – I’ma have to cut you off on that because there is millions of old records to sample from. One of the myths that everybody says is that there is a sample law. There is no such thing as a sample law. You sample what you sample and then you try to clear it. I go record shopping so and to this day I find a lot of things that people have not used. I'm always shopping. I have and you know what, I will even say it. I have the best sample library. I have more records then a lot of people have and yes I said it. I have a lot more records then all these producers have. I collect records. If me and Mr. Walt put our record collection together, it's a wrap for everybody. I have records in my house I haven't even used yet because I have so many records. I don't have to go beat shopping, that's how many records I got.
ThaFormula.com - How do you feel about the second Black Moon album?
DJ Evil Dee - The second Black Moon album is the album that everyone hates. That's what I call it. The problem with the second album was that the chemistry as a group wasn't there. Five was there for the album then he went to jail. Buckshot was doing so many other projects and that's when he first started running Duck Down. That's the problem I see with that album. The chemistry wasn't there and it showed when people got the album. Basically I got it the Beatminerz cut and paste. As producers we had to sit there and make it into an album. I personally like the album. We have a cut on there called "Freestyle" where I took Buckshot's vocals and put them on wax and was scratching them up. We was doing different things but we was doing Hip-Hop shit on there. When the critics got the album all they could say was it's not “Enta Da Stage.”
ThaFormula.com - Do you think it makes it worse that your debut was a classic LP and for the rest of your lives people will always compare every album to your first?
DJ Evil Dee - That's one of the things I don't like. It's like I grow as an individual. Of course you’re gonna sit there and compare this to that but to say “I don't like it because it's not the first record,” is wrong.
ThaFormula.com - Do you think that Hip-Hop is 2 turntables and a mic and not a live band or do you feel Hip-Hop is both?
DJ Evil Dee - Let's look at the record that everybody thinks is the first Hip-Hop record, "Rapper's Delight." On that track they was rhymin' to a band playing "Good Times" over. So that's the band in Hip-Hop right there. Second of all, what was they talking about? They are telling stories and bragging about stuff that they don't have. I call "Rapper's Delight” a great story telling record and "Rapper's Delight” had the first biting MC on it too because Big Bad Hank bit Grandmaster Caz’s rhymes. He took Caz’s rhyme book and was saying it on record. The reason I know that is when you listen to Rapper's delight he's talking about the treacherous n*gga with the 3 MC's. Yo B, you have two other MC's in your group and you’re the treacherous with the 3 MC's? I don't think so. So at the end of the day Hip-Hop always had a band in some type of way. The music that we was cutting up was created by a band so you can't diss that live instrumentation of Hip-Hop as long as it's done right. Like the Roots. If you diss the Roots you might as well diss Stetsasonic. The Roots as a band are incredible. As a Hip-Hop band they are incredible to because they made the underground like Jay-Z again. The Roots are a Hip-Hop band. They are not a Hip-Hop group because there is no DJ in the group. Quest DJ's but in the Roots he plays the drums. So they are a Hip-Hop band where they incorporate Hip-Hop in their style of music. If you took a Roots record and made instrumentals versions to it and somebody sang to it, you would think it's the best R&B album you heard in the world. I respect the Roots for what they do. Now Stetsasonic was a Hip-Hop band. They had a drum player, a keyboard player and they had two DJ's. So that is a Hip-Hop band.
ThaFormula.com - So was the chemistry good for this Black Moon album?
DJ Evil Dee - This is the funny thing about Black Moon. I could be in Africa and Buck could be in New York. We don't have to see each other for five or six years but when we bump heads it's a continuation from the last time we bumped heads. Five is always around so when Five came home it was just like how it is with me and Buck. It was like “yo drop you’re verse on here.” We just go straight into work mode. Even with shows. I don't have to see Buck and Buck don't have to see me until it's time to do a show. We don't plan our shows. We go up on stage and we make it up as we go along. It's a talent to be able to walk up on the stage, not look at each other, but communicate without talking. When we doing a show you feel it, like “okay he's about to freestyle so let me get this ready.” Buck probably says, “Dee is gonna throw on ‘Who Got The Props’ now” and it comes on. We can predict each other. Five Feet is the same way. We can predict what we gonna do and no other group really has that chemistry.
Tha DJ...Backbone Of Hip Hop - Day 4
ThaFormula.com - So how did you approach making the new Black Moon album "Total Eclipse?"
DJ Evil Dee - First of all with this album I just made a bunch of beats and they picked what they wanted. I didn't sit down and say, "ok I'ma make this beat and it's gonna be called this record." That's what we did with the previous albums. With this album I was coming in the studio with four or five beats at a time. What would happen is instead of me just coming in with that one, we had different varieties to choose from. Another thing, when we got to the table, Buckshot had some songs that he did that was for his second solo album that were so dope that we wanted them for this album. So we got other producers on this album. We did most of the album and we executive produced it. I believe that this album is dope because me sitting back as a fan, I can appreciate it. Buckshot is hungry, I'm hungry. We recorded this album at Buckshot's new studio and at my house instead of D&D. On this album I stepped up and did a lot of mixing because on the last album I did engineering. This time I did mixing. For this album we just made bangers and at the end of the day we made the album for cats that appreciated the old work and for those that have an open ear for the new stuff. When a lot of people said they didn't like “War Zone,” I took that into consideration when making this album. I was just saying we got to make an album better then “War Zone.” I never will say I got to make an album better then "Enta Da Stage" because everybody liked "Enta Da Stage." I don't even say I got to make a "Enta Da Stage" because "Enta Da Stage" is ten years old. I will say I got to make an album better then "War Zone."
ThaFormula.com - Did you ever rhyme with Black Moon?
DJ Evil Dee - On the first Black Moon stuff I was rhyming when we first were working on our demos. One day I just woke up and said, "Yo B, I'm the worst rapper in the world" and said I'm not touching that mic. It's funny ‘cause cats was like, “nah your shit is hot.” But to me I took it upon myself to say that's not what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna be Evil Dee the DJ, Evil Dee the producer. I like making dope beats. I don't like being a star. I like being in the background because my music is gonna talk for me.
ThaFormula.com - What new producers are you feeling nowadays?
DJ Evil Dee - You know who I like? I like Madlib. Of course J-Zone. J-Zone is crazy. I like Jay-Dee but he's been around. I like 9th Wonder man, his album made me really start appreciating Hip-Hop again. There was a time when I was sitting back and saying “no one is appreciating what I'm doing so I'm about to chill for a minute,” and then Little Brother came out. I went to fat beats and bought it and I was like this is crazy. He made me go home and work hard again. Necro is dope too. Necro and Ill Bill was around with us when Black Moon was shopping our deal. I like Necro. He's crazy though, but he's dope.
ThaFormula.com - How did you end up getting down with Rawkus?
DJ Evil Dee - Well I was on Hot 97 at the time and Rawkus Records was one of the labels that I played on my show because I like what they were doing, and what happened was my boy introduced me to Jarred from Rawkus. Me and him started talking and he said he wanted to do a mixtape with me for a convention that was coming up. They wanted to make a sample tape of the stuff that's coming out on the label. So we went into D&D. I brought my 4-track up to D&D and we made a mixtape, a regular New York street mixtape for Rawkus records. Jarred listened to it and liked it so much that he decided to sell it. The tape was “Soundbombing 1.” The reason that tape is cool is because it wasn't made to be sold. It was made for people to hear what was coming out of Rawkus. I didn't make that tape from a sales point of view because I didn't know it was gonna be sold. Had I known it was gonna be sold, I wouldn't have spoke on it really.
ThaFormula.com - So when did the Beatminerz album come up?
DJ Evil Dee - Well Rawkus came at me and told me they wanted to do one and at first I said no because I didn't want to do one. Then I thought if I do a Beatminerz album, I get to do a album the way I get to do it. I can make records with my friends the way I think they should sound. So I decided to do it. After we signed to Rawkus we started seeing the real story with Rawkus. They really wanted that radio hit. They also ended up putting everything into Kool G Rap's album as far as promotion and money. So I took it upon myself to promote my album since I worked two and a half years on this Beatminerz album. I took $20,000 dollars of my own money, made my own clean versions, did my own mailings, and worked radio on my own. I had the M.O.P. record that was supposed to be on that album but Rawkus didn't want to fight for it. I had a cut with Rah Digga and Tash from Tha Liks, but Rawkus didn't wanna fight for it. I had Xzibit on the album on some real Hip-Hop shit, but they didn't wanna fight for it.
ThaFormula.com - That album was different then your other projects, It was not your typical Beatminerz production...
DJ Evil Dee - Yep, but at the end of the day everything had bass in it. It had bass and it had our signature hard drums. I took two and a half years off to do that album. I literally almost went broke doing that album. I stopped doing outside work just to do that album. I flew out to L.A. and started my Beatminerz album there. I flew my equipment out with me. We were really dedicated to doing this album. So I said “I'm gonna reach out to my friends and whoever comes through, comes through.” The cats that are on the album are my peoples.
ThaFormula.com - Did you end up making anything off of that album at all?
DJ Evil Dee - Rawkus didn't give us nothing. I'm $20,000 dollars in the hole. I didn't get no spending money or nothing. I spent $20,000 dollars of my own money.
ThaFormula.com - So who decided it was time to get the Black Moon album started?
DJ Evil Dee - We always stay in touch. We are always in communication with each other. We see each other all the time. Dru came up to me and said “Hip-Hop needs a Black Moon album right now and I think you guys need to do the damn thing.” So we said, “Let’s make this shit happen and create what we create.”
ThaFormula.com - That Black Moon track you did on the High Times compilation was ridiculous man, when that dropped on wax I noticed that it sold out right away…
DJ Evil Dee - I remember every underground radio show that I would listen to on the West was playing that record saying Black Moon is back. I just felt really happy ‘cause I was thinking in my head, “wait till I really sit down.” I shop at Fat Beats out here in New York. When I walked into Fat Beats, it's like they stopped and was clapping. Then we gave them “Rush” and that's when I felt really happy. But I never wanna settle. You can tell me I’m the number one producer and I'll say “thank you,” but that shit will erase from my head when I walk out.
ThaFormula.com - Is that what you were working on before you decided on the album?
DJ Evil Dee - The High Times people called Buckshot for a song. Buckshot said “let me get Evil Dee.” So it went from “let me get Evil Dee,” to “let's make a Black Moon record,” but Five was in jail. So we did the High Times joint. Then the people from Avatar called and said we want a track for a album they were doing called NVA. So we recorded "The Way." Then we recorded "Rush" after that. Then it was like “fuck this single shit,” and we started making the album. We started slow at first and then we just sped up the speed and that's how we ended up with the joint we got now.
ThaFormula.com - What keeps you going nowadays man?
DJ Evil Dee - Well you know we still got underground radio and the internet. I still got overseas. Being in the U.S. is dope but when I go overseas, that's what makes me continue. When I'm walking down the streets in Japan and a cat that does not know English, knows the whole Black Moon album or when I'm walkin’ the streets of Germany and cats are like, "oh My God it's Evil Dee." That's what makes me go “you know what? This Hip-Hop thing is alive and well.” I tell every Hip-Hop person, “If you get a chance you have to go to Japan and Germany.” When you got to Japan, that's like going back to 1987. There is record stores everywhere. Everybody’s out there DJ’ing. I’ve done my best record shopping in Japan. I have bought records in Japan that I have never seen in the U.S. I went beat shopping all around the world and Japan happens to be the best spot that I have been at so far.
ThaFormula.com - When the time came that you couldn't really sample like before because of the lawyers and...
DJ Evil Dee – I’ma have to cut you off on that because there is millions of old records to sample from. One of the myths that everybody says is that there is a sample law. There is no such thing as a sample law. You sample what you sample and then you try to clear it. I go record shopping so and to this day I find a lot of things that people have not used. I'm always shopping. I have and you know what, I will even say it. I have the best sample library. I have more records then a lot of people have and yes I said it. I have a lot more records then all these producers have. I collect records. If me and Mr. Walt put our record collection together, it's a wrap for everybody. I have records in my house I haven't even used yet because I have so many records. I don't have to go beat shopping, that's how many records I got.
ThaFormula.com - How do you feel about the second Black Moon album?
DJ Evil Dee - The second Black Moon album is the album that everyone hates. That's what I call it. The problem with the second album was that the chemistry as a group wasn't there. Five was there for the album then he went to jail. Buckshot was doing so many other projects and that's when he first started running Duck Down. That's the problem I see with that album. The chemistry wasn't there and it showed when people got the album. Basically I got it the Beatminerz cut and paste. As producers we had to sit there and make it into an album. I personally like the album. We have a cut on there called "Freestyle" where I took Buckshot's vocals and put them on wax and was scratching them up. We was doing different things but we was doing Hip-Hop shit on there. When the critics got the album all they could say was it's not “Enta Da Stage.”
ThaFormula.com - Do you think it makes it worse that your debut was a classic LP and for the rest of your lives people will always compare every album to your first?
DJ Evil Dee - That's one of the things I don't like. It's like I grow as an individual. Of course you’re gonna sit there and compare this to that but to say “I don't like it because it's not the first record,” is wrong.
ThaFormula.com - Do you think that Hip-Hop is 2 turntables and a mic and not a live band or do you feel Hip-Hop is both?
DJ Evil Dee - Let's look at the record that everybody thinks is the first Hip-Hop record, "Rapper's Delight." On that track they was rhymin' to a band playing "Good Times" over. So that's the band in Hip-Hop right there. Second of all, what was they talking about? They are telling stories and bragging about stuff that they don't have. I call "Rapper's Delight” a great story telling record and "Rapper's Delight” had the first biting MC on it too because Big Bad Hank bit Grandmaster Caz’s rhymes. He took Caz’s rhyme book and was saying it on record. The reason I know that is when you listen to Rapper's delight he's talking about the treacherous n*gga with the 3 MC's. Yo B, you have two other MC's in your group and you’re the treacherous with the 3 MC's? I don't think so. So at the end of the day Hip-Hop always had a band in some type of way. The music that we was cutting up was created by a band so you can't diss that live instrumentation of Hip-Hop as long as it's done right. Like the Roots. If you diss the Roots you might as well diss Stetsasonic. The Roots as a band are incredible. As a Hip-Hop band they are incredible to because they made the underground like Jay-Z again. The Roots are a Hip-Hop band. They are not a Hip-Hop group because there is no DJ in the group. Quest DJ's but in the Roots he plays the drums. So they are a Hip-Hop band where they incorporate Hip-Hop in their style of music. If you took a Roots record and made instrumentals versions to it and somebody sang to it, you would think it's the best R&B album you heard in the world. I respect the Roots for what they do. Now Stetsasonic was a Hip-Hop band. They had a drum player, a keyboard player and they had two DJ's. So that is a Hip-Hop band.
ThaFormula.com - So was the chemistry good for this Black Moon album?
DJ Evil Dee - This is the funny thing about Black Moon. I could be in Africa and Buck could be in New York. We don't have to see each other for five or six years but when we bump heads it's a continuation from the last time we bumped heads. Five is always around so when Five came home it was just like how it is with me and Buck. It was like “yo drop you’re verse on here.” We just go straight into work mode. Even with shows. I don't have to see Buck and Buck don't have to see me until it's time to do a show. We don't plan our shows. We go up on stage and we make it up as we go along. It's a talent to be able to walk up on the stage, not look at each other, but communicate without talking. When we doing a show you feel it, like “okay he's about to freestyle so let me get this ready.” Buck probably says, “Dee is gonna throw on ‘Who Got The Props’ now” and it comes on. We can predict each other. Five Feet is the same way. We can predict what we gonna do and no other group really has that chemistry.
