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Content Under Pressure was DOPE. It was an amazing event to be a part of. BIG BIG ups to Kevin, Brandon, IPR, and everyone else for pulling this event off without a hitch. There were many things that could have gone wrong, but everything ran smoothly.

I got to IPR around 5:00, and was shown to studio 4, so I could start setting up. I brought my laptop, and about 20 beats that I’ve made in the last couple weeks. So, I get in the studio, get my stuff running through the board, and go check out the free food selection, ha. When I walk back out to the main room, everyone’s just standing around, talking about the MJ news. Kevin hands me a small cardboard box with the Red Bull logo on the side. I’m thinkin “free Red Bull? Cool…?”

Turns out, we all got a pair of the “Beats By Dre” headphones. Not bad. Free $300 headphones. Thank you.

Then it was time to pair up producers and MCs. Each producer was randomly assigned a number (1-7), and they rolled a die to see which MC they would be working with.

The first six matchups were:
O-D & Big Zach

Medium Zach & Carnage

X:144 & Felipe Chauhtli

Katrah Quey & St. Paul Slim

Blueprint & Manifest

Benzilla & Ab Rude

As you may know, there are only six sides on dice. That left Sims and Me as the two loser kids who didn’t get picked. Time to make a hit.

We took our prom photo (see below) and headed into the studio.

We spent about the first hour just listening to beats, trying to find a vibe we could work with. Do we want a banger, something more laid back, fast, slow, lots of changeups, something more straightforward, and so on. Everytime we’d narrow it down to like, 5 beats, Sims would want to go back and hear more. haha. We had to try and feel each other out real quickly. We got it down to 2 finalists, and then finally settled on a beat. Once we had the beat, we talked through how we wanted it arranged, and I started making the chages. Removed a lead part, changed up the structure, added a hook.

Once we had the structure and everything, we just put the whole damn thing on repeat and Sims started writing. The boy’s crazy. He didn’t want to use any pre-written stuff, so he wrote the entire song in about 2 hours. While he was writing, I spent my time mixing the track. Getting the bass/808/kick all agreeing with each other, auditioning other kicks, going back and forth between the mains and headphones trying to get the low end sitting right. Which turned out to be trickier than I thought. I kept turning the mains up, trying to get some low end out of them, but there was nothing there. Nothing. Which seemed really weird, because I’ve worked on those same monitors many times, and I know they hit, especially in the low end. So, I get up and go look at them, and on the back, there’s a hi pass filter switch that’s cutting everything below 87hz. haha. The body of my kick is sitting between 60-70. So, flip a switch and BAM, I have a kick drum again. Once I got all the bass shit in it’s own place, I started laying out my panning, clearing up some 3k bunching. And finally putting some weak mastering type stuff on it. AKA make it loud, and spread the stereo field a little.

Anyway, Sims wrote a really killer couple of verses and a nice hook to tie it together. I was really impressed with what he came up with in a couple hours. Especially not being able to go back and edit. I think our styles meshed pretty well too. He’s a dude that I’d really like to work with more sometime.

We went back out to the main common area to get ready for the performance part of the night. There were already crazy people there. We ended up with a really nice turnout. Big thanks to everyone who helped promote this event. Everyone came correct, and overall I was really impressed with the quality of material. Especially Benzilla and Medium Zach who made their beats on the spot. Talk about “Under Pressure”. Dudes had a couple hours, some samples and their ASRs. They both brought heat.

Anyway, great night. It was really and honor to be a part of the whole thing. Looking forward to Part II at 5th Element on July 9th.

Photos reposted from:   www.myspace.com/lastrecordbuyers

For the 12 of you that have heard my song “Monkeys and Apes”, you will understand why this makes me furious (george).
Also, it’s kinda funny.

I have some drawings and paintings up at Caffetto (Lyndale and 22nd) until the end of the month.

Go check them out, and if you want to contribute to the “Spencer has a home and food” fund, you can buy one. They’re pretty cheap.

New track. Jay’s raps are kinda eh, but the beat is nastiness.

check it. Listen here

LATE PASS!

Soundset was amazing. Got there early, 9 am, the full 3 hours before our set that we were supposed to be there. Guante and I were the first artists to check in. They didn’t even have our passes ready yet. Ha. Load all our crap in, track down stage manager Jordan. Found out we were the first act to go on (after a dj set by King Otto). So, it’s about 10:30 and we’re setting up on stage. We’re all ready to do a quick soundcheck, and it turns out my Numark CDX (POS) does not work. Will not read any cd. Well, all of the beats for our set are on a CD. Shitty. No one else that was there at 10:30 had a CD player, so we ended up using the soundman’s laptop and my mpc. Worked out fine.

Our set went super well. Played a couple new bangers. Had SeeMore hyping and dropping a verse or two. Brought up Chantz for a verse. I was a little worried that no one would be there to see us. I mean after all, we did go on at noon, and Toki Wright was playing about 200 yards away. The crowd ended up being pretty dang nice though. I’d say a couple hundred people. For all the technical difficulties, the set went very smoothly, and it seemed like people were feeling it.

After us, the amazing Just Live went on. Those dudes are something else. Incredible live show, really fun music. I mean, who brings girls from the crowd on stage during a 25 minute set at 12:30 on a Sunday? haha, awesome. I would love to get on a bill with them sometime. If you don’t know, go find out.

The rest of the day was just good fun. Ran into the homie Ice Rod and had a nice talk. Maybe we’ll all be lucky enough to get some Ice Rod shows this summer. Watched Sage and Bernard kill it on the main stage. Sold a bunch of cds. Got reprimanded by security for selling CDs hand-to-hand from the main stage sound booth. Gave about 40 beats to Sims. Watched several drunk girls bite it on the asphalt. Kicked it with the Tribe and D-Mine homies. Drank my show guarantee in water and Red Bull. I will get my money’s worth dammit! Watched Mictlan and Beak rock it.

Overall, good stuff. Kinda feeling dumb for not going last year. Really looking forward to next year.

Midwest Broadcast just dropped the “Flyover Land, Vol. 1″ mixtape. It features tracks from Guante & Big Cats!, Big Quarters, Muja Messiah, St. Paul Slim, Knonam, F. Stokes and Lazerbeak, Heiruspecs, and more.

You can download the mixtape for free HERE

The mixtape (featuring Guante and Big Cats!) will be released this Thursday, 5/21.
Pretty amazing tracklisting here. Lots of good stuff.

Midwest Broadcast