In October of 1990, I went to Gand Music in Northfield, IL and financed a SP-12 (5 seconds of sample time), Quadraverb, and a Tascam 688 8-Track Cassette Recorder for $3798.50 via Yahama Music.
Due to a mistake made by the person processing my order, this purchase eventually became the first thing to damage my credit, as he incorrectly charged me. Even after years of fighting it, I was never able to get it changed, so I eventually refused to pay the amount I knew I didn’t owe.
As frustrating as that was, the time I spent in my studio crafting beats/songs for myself and numerous MCs and singers who came thru, were some of the best times of my life.
You'll notice the credits say "beat-jacked and re-produced by AMC", because I mainly considered myself an MC who made beats out of necessity, although around this time I was really starting to fall in love with making beats, and also beginning to understand more about chopping samples. That said, I didn’t have a production mentor, because I only knew a couple of people in my area who had samplers. I didn’t know about the “rules”, so I simply used what I had and did what sounded good to me. I thought about production from a DJing aspect, where I would hear DJs use a mix of famous breakbeats and Hip Hop instrumentals as the foundation for MCs to rhyme over. From there, I would seek to be creative by digging in the few crates I had for samples from Jazz, Blues, Rock, Soul, Funk, Gospel, and Children’s Records.
Specifically, in 1992/1993, I fully planned, wrote and self-produced a album for my new “group”, Savage Intellect, where I was technically the only member, but the plan was to have different developing artists be short-term members for one project each. This was a way for me to work with young talent on that I felt had potential on artistic development, and I could groom them for a solo career. The other main part of the concept, which was reflected in the group name, was to be able to show the different sides of my personality, particularly speaking from a perspective of someone who had long loved Hip Hop and wanted to celebrate it, but also vent my many frustrations with not only Hip Hop, but the many things I was experiencing in life during my my early twenties. The contrast of the lyricism was akin to the devil on one shoulder, angel on the other concept, except for me, it was an irrational human on one shoulder and a philosopher on the other, and me, the Hip Hop lover in the middle; Skitz, Formless, and AMC.
I’ll eventually do some posts that go deeper into the MCing and writing side of this project, but I didn’t really record vocals to most of these songs, although nearly all of them were written and almost all of the beats were done. And, this sequencing is pretty close to how I originally mapped it out.
However, I’ve recently been listening to a lot of my production circa 1990-1995 when I stopped making beats, and decided I would start releasing some instrumental projects of that work, and I wanted to start with that Savage Intellect album, “Journey Thru The Mental”.
It contains 18 beats, which include mostly full songs, but a couple of interludes also. Some are fully arranged in song mode with the hooks, and others are simply the basic loops, as they were never fully completed. These are nearly all the songs originally intended for the album, but there were a few others I never did (EX: “When Push Comes 2 Shove”, “Strictly Hardcore”, and “Hot Butter On Popcorn” (which was an acapella). Plus, there are three Bonus Tracks of Raw Loops and/or Alternate Versions. I hope you enjoy! -AMC of Savage Intellect
credits
released March 23, 1993
All songs Beat-Jacked and Re-Produced by AMC of Savage Intellect
-Co-Production on "Unnecessary Ruffness" by KBATE of Undaground
Soulution
-Intro Scratches on "Batter Up" by DJ Pumpin' Pete
-Album Photo By S.P.O, shot in Highland Park, IL on 11-8-92
-Album Cover Text Layout Molly Glasgow
-Shout Out To The Savage Intellect Alumni: Crypto & DJ Dread (’92/’93) & Chris Holloway aka Ill-Logic & DJ Stizo (’94/’95).
-Shout to the album’s intended guest vocalists: S.P.O on “Censor This” and King of Excellence from Brain Leakage on “Unnecessary Ruffness”. Crypto was supposed to be the hype man/secondary MC of Savage Intellect for this album, and planned to rhyme on “101 Things…”, “Survival Is…”, “Batter Up” and possible others. DJ Dread was going to do all the cuts and scratches. However, Pumpin Pete does the intro cuts to “Batter Up” because he happened to be at the studio at the time I was laying vocals.
Power to the ’92 Rage Crew: Savage Intellect, Black Man Zeke, Black Toast, Brain Leakage, Crypto, DJ Dread, DJ Enot, Undaground Soulution, Ispi, D.O.P.E, Rhythm Mafia (S.P.O, L.O.D, Zulu, Detanator, Twice Born, Cueball, Thawfor, the Tribe X Dancers), 40 Thievz, Gib Nhoj aka Big John, Niko, & Choice. And, the RAGE Hotline!
Time Capsule '92/'93 Shouts: Insane Poetry, Shakespeare the One Man Riot, Nastymix Records, Mav at Darkhorse Mgmt, Ron O (WEFT), Troy Guy, Pendulum Records (Charles Dixon), Papa Chuk, Posse Up TV, Twilight Tone, Duro Wicks (WGBL), The Flypaper, and all the early '90s underground Chicago DJs/MCs/Crews rippin’ at spots like Alcatraz, Avalon, Lower Links, Vic Theater, Estelles, Red Dogs, etc…
Click "info" on each song to get details to that track!
3Wisemen Entertainment is the brainchild of Kevin Beacham, and is the over-arching brand for his various ventures of the
past and present; Stories About Songs Podcast (Coming Soon!), Time Travel Radio, RedefineHipHop, Redefinition Radio, Caught In The Middle Magazine, etc......more
