From 1988 until at least 1993, if you lived in the North Chicago/Waukegan area, and you wanted to record a Hip Hop demo for free, I was one of the main people you could talk to. As of August 23rd, 1991, I was one of the only producers in the area with a SP-12 sampler and stacks of records also, as far as I knew. And, if you wanted to talk to me about a studio session, you came to my “office” at the Mcdonald’s in North Chicago on Greenbay Rd and 22nd Street, where I was a shift manager.
One day in ‘89, Black Man Zeke came in to see me about recording a demo. He had lyrics to a song “Phunky Phrase” written out for me, to show me what he could do. I read the lyrics, or at least attempted to, as his bugged out cadence wasn’t easy to follow. I told I was down to make some music together, so we started to arrange times for him to come to the Rage Cage.
I don’t think I ever made a beat for “Phunky Phrase”, I only had some rough ideas, and he came back to me soon after with a song called "The RhythmE" (I'm sure there was a theory behind the spelling but don't remember), and I never made a beat for this one either. Instead, I wound up putting a beat together for a song called “Deep Concentration”. We followed that track with “15 Minutes To Freedom”, which is still an amazing song title. And, he briefly joined an already existing local group, led by Deejay Bird, called Chapter 2, and in ’89, I co-produced one song for them called “Life In The Fast Lane”.
BMZ pulled influences from the Native Tongues, YZ, Ultramagnetic MC’s, Too Short, Ice-T, N.W.A, and stand up comedians such as Eddie Murphy, and he found a welcoming balance for it to all make sense. That’s why he was one of my favorites to make beats for, as I was able to push the limits of my creativity, particularly after those first two beats.
Those two beats in mind, after we worked on those two demos, I moved away to Atlanta for a short-while, then about 8 months later I returned to Waukegan, and moved in with Black Man Zeke and his Pops on 4-14-91. I had a bedroom, paid a little bit of rent, and in the Summer, when I got my SP-12, they let me set up my studio in the back room of the garage, which was perfect. Once I got the SP-12, I was dedicated to producing a whole project for BMZ, as well as some pre-production for his group project, 40 Thievz, with some MCs that BMZ met at Depaul University. I was originally gong to help with production on their two lead demos “I’m Audi” and “Dirty Laundry”, but that never worked out, but I produced a beat for their track “The Brown Hornet”, which they never recorded to, as far as I know.
“Lesson In Zekeism” is actually one of the first beats I made on my SP-12, as well as the first song we fully mapped out with beats and lyrics, AND the only one we ever recorded. He always had great ideas, but didn’t always come thru to commit them to tape. This song is an example of what a first real session was like with and most artists and myself. I asked him who his favorite MCs were, he told me, and I grabbed their records and made a beat. It was my way of making MCs who were new to the studio feel comfortable, by giving them beats they were already familiar with.
This next demo walks the fine line between predictable and brilliant, if I may say so. One day an inspiring MC came by the studio and wanted me to make something for him. It’s a story I’m sure I’ll eventually tell in detail, but for now, I’ll just say that he wasn’t a good rapper. He came with all these terrible ideas to make his beat too. I did everything he wanted, on top of the decent foundation I came up with, and in the end, it was a jumbled mess. We didn’t get anything done and he left. As noted, I was living with BMZ at this time, and he came home right after that session, and I was just sitting in the studio room laughing at this hideous beat I made. He’s peeping it and laughing too, but then he hears a small part of the foundation of the beat, and he goes, “But, that part is dope!” So, I hopped up and started stripping nearly everything away layer by layer, and when just enough was peeled away, and a little extra seasoning was added, we were left with “Waukegan Ill (Suburbanite)”, and this is nice musical marriage between Zapp, EPMD sampling Zapp, and Kraftwerk. I think it’s pretty engaging time in its overachieving, borderline monotonous, simplicity.
Zeke was one of the first, perhaps the first, in the Lake County Hip Hop scene to have dreadlocks. The song “Dreadlocks” was simply something to represent the Jamaican side of his Culture, and I grabbed stuff from a bunch of other Hip Hop songs that had a Reggae feel.
“Pause 4 Insanity” is one of my favorites on this project. It’s both minimal and manic. There’s something that I tapped into on these beats for him that was so stripped-down and overly obvious, but also off-kilter just enough to remain intriguing. At least, that’s my biased opinion.
“Ya Don’t Stop” is all about the bonkers panning, and offbeat loops and a hook that leaves Flavor Flav sounding more uncertain about the tempo as the song goes on. I like to think of it as alluring chaos.
“Lay Some Funk” flirts with trying to be a commercial Hip Hop beat, but the jarringly loud vocal sample renders it far too awkward for such aspirations. Plus, I was thinking of this as more on interlude than a song, so commercial success be damned. And, as for the break approximately half way in, it is lazily bold with intention.
There were a few other songs that were supposed to be on this project that I never finished beats for, which were “Face 2 Face” and “Mr. Jingles, both which I don’t remember anything about. Plus, “Prince Of Peace”, which was his tag name (a la Black Man Zeke the Prince Of Peace a.k.a The Blowed Genius) and “Pissin’ In The Wind”, which was supposed to feature a Chicago group called Madphace, later known better as Whatnoxic.
“A Different Type Of Science” was produced by my production partner, DJ Madd Maxx of Wildstyle. This was originally listed as a Chapter 2 song, but when they recorded it, only Zeke was on the song. They got this demo, with the ill Jimi Hendrix sample, about 97% complete.
Whenever I listen to these beats, which is pretty often, I always wish that BMZ actually recorded his vocals to all these songs, and we would have finished the album as planned. In my head it sounds like a great piece of art. And, anything you hear that sounds off, weird, or improper, trust me, it was absolutely unflinchingly intentional…for better or worse. Although, we didn’t finish much together, shortly after these demos, he hooked up with Grav, freshly moved to Chicago from Harlem, and they formed the group, Indigenous Theory, recorded a few demos, did some shows in and out of state, including New York, and were part of the legendary Elements of Nature crew in Chicago.
Lastly, one thing I like about these beats is that it showcases that in ’91 I was already willing to be experimental. I certainly still had a lot to learn, but I was interested in taking some chances, while at the same time also breaking unwritten rules, such as sampling from rap records, because I didn’t have a production mentor. But, in ’91, I was already pushing the limits with imperfect sampled loops and offbeat vocal samples, quantizing be damned, and other forms of slight sound manipulation. I continued this line of thinking with some other groups I produced around this same time, namely Brain Leakage and Black Toast. I’ll be sharing those instrumentals sometime soon…
credits
released November 24, 1992
All Tracks Re-Produced and Beat-Jacked by Kevin "AMC" Beacham of Savage Intellect for Rage Cage Productions (Except...)
Tracks 1, 4, & 6 Additional Production Ideas By Black Man Zeke
Track 7 Produced By DJ Mad Maxx (of Wildstyle/Rage Cage Productions)
Tracks 1-5: Produced using the SP-12 (5 seconds of sample time and no disc drive), Quadraverb, Tascam 688 8-Track Recorder and various records and tapes for sample sources.
Track 6: Originally Produced on the SP-12, then main samples were loaded into the MPC-60 and built upon from there. Using a Sansui 6-Track recorder and whatever other treats KBATE had at his home studio, well as a sample sources that reflected some of the various influences of BMZ; Black Sheep, De La Soul, Ice Cube, Ice-T, etc…
Track 7-9: Produced using a Roland TR-808 with samples added manual with the Casio SK-5 sampler*, recorded into a Tascam Porta One Ministudio 4-track recorder, and various records and tapes for sample sources. Shout out Meat Beat Manifesto!
*Ok, ok, the often offbeat manually samples added here were not intentional, but simply proof of my less than perfect sense of timing.
Track 10: Produced by the great (largely) unknown DJ Madd Maxx using the Alesis HR-16 Drum Machine, with samples added manual with the Casio SK-5 sampler*, recorded into a Tascam Porta One Ministudio 4-track recorder, and various records and tapes for sample sources. Shout out Jimi Hendrix!
*Madd Maxx was infinitely more precise with adding samples manually than I was, and here is one of several demos full of the proof such.
Shout outs: Black Man Zeke, Pops for the studio space and letting me use the Jazz and Blues records. Black Man Willie and Black Man Raymond, the dancers and crew, along with the homies Nelson and Choice. Oh yeah, shout out to KBATE for the use of the MPC on “Lesson In Zeke-Ism” and DJ Madd Maxx! And, of course, love to the rest of Rage Family circa ’89-‘91; D.B.I. Lethal Weapon, DJ/MC Reese, Wildstyle, Brain Leakage, Black Toast, S.P.O, L.O.D, Twice Born, Detonator, Undaground Soulution, D.O.P.E (Deadly Organized Poetry Experts), Cueball, Zulu, and ISpi!
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
This debut album from rappers Defcee and CRASHprez and producer knowsthetime explores grief and growth over compelling production. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 21, 2023
Defcee and BoatHouse's collaborative album gets a much-needed reissue featuring remixes and new guest collaborations. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 23, 2022
