One Year Later...

My “Nowhere to Run” video was released a year ago today. It probably has more listens than the CDs I’ve put out over the last few years. People have asked me questions about it (and still do) but never quite fully understand what I’m talking about when I answer – sample clearance, mixtapes, beats, jackin’ for beats, hip hop references, etc. When I get the blank stare, I kind of wrap it up quickly. But I felt compelled to explain it in detail here. Frankly, I think those who read this blog would understand.

The original idea for this video was supposed to be the intro for my next CD, the one after The Last Amateur. The overall concept of the entire came from Danger Mouse’s legal issues from releasing The Grey album and the arrest of DJ Drama. I thought to myself, “I’d never get caught. I would take off running!”

The skeleton of the intro was to be composed of Ghostface’s “Run”, Cappadonna’s “Run”, Kool G. Rap’s “On The Run” (both versions), Public Enemy’s “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”, K-Solo’s “Fugitive” and some movie dialogue from the movie Primal Fear.




Because of the whole running thought, I wanted to also use N.W.A’s “100 Miles and Runnin’” but it didn’t seem to fit, as it was far more up-tempo than anything else I was planning to use in the intro.

So while all these ideas were milling around in my head, I found myself recording less and less because of the daily pressures of my job. Then I got laid off.



When I was issued my blue work uniform at my current job (10 days after being laid off!), I laughed to myself and thought of the "100 Miles and Runnin'" video.

A couple of weeks later, it was announced that Scribble Jam was being cancelled indefinitely. I shelved the idea of another CD and decided to put together a video as my music project instead.

I didn’t know what to use as the base for the track at first – I ended up using “100 Miles and Runnin'" because I had ideas in my head of how I wanted to flip the concept of the track. I remember seeing the video sometime after I had bought the album on cassette (!). The running scenes in the beginning of the video looked so hardcore and intense. I wanted somehow to replicate that intensity, but in a way more relatable to me.

I started with the beat – I had a copy of James Brown’s “Give It Up or Turnit Loose”, but it was really staticky and didn’t sound very good looped up. Plus, I was going to be inserting verbals from the N.W.A song, so I wanted the levels and sound to be consistent.

There was no open beat in “100 Miles and Runnin’”, and I didn’t have the 12-inch (was there even an instrumental for this?), so I looped up one bar from the intro (you can actually hear remnants of the siren over the beat) and laid down 48 bars to tape.



Started going through the actual song, listening closely to all the inserts that Dre used. The one sample I couldn’t find was the multiple stabs at the end of Dre’s first verse. I kept thinking it was from an MC Lyte song, but my search was fruitless.

I hesitantly called Dibbs and he snorted and referred me to Kevin Beacham, whom I wasn’t able to get hold of. And to be honest, I only tried once, because it felt like such a stupid question to ask.

A few lines from other songs that I incorporated:

“Gotta go…” and “Started packing the Gucci bags like I was going on a world tour” (the “Award Tour” sample insert just came to me – yes, I realize it’s “Award Tour” and not “a world tour” haha) from “On the Run”

“Do me a favor, don’t try to catch me…” from “DWYCK”

“I leave clue after clue, but they can’t catch me yet” from “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted"

There was one really dope line from Main Source’s “Fakin’ The Funk (original version)” that I really wanted to use, but it just didn’t fit: “When the shit hits the fan / I never run and never ran / ‘Cause that’s not part of the plan…” Maybe I'll use it somewhere else in the future.

So I mapped the beat out and composed in the same manner I do my mixtapes:



My brother-in-law Dante and my homie Aaron agreed to help out by filming some of the initial running scenes. I had a rough storyboard (really rough, don't laugh), but those scenes would be filmed later:



Dante's brother Glenn is a professional film editor who lives and works in New York. He was going to be in Cincy for a few days during Thanksgiving, so we scheduled some time when we could shoot some scenes if he wasn’t doing anything.

We spent about 4 hours shooting the work/running/driving scenes. I was honestly exhausted after all the running I did. The McRib scene was breaktime!

In a nod to Eazy’s Compton hat, I wore a black and white Cincinnati Cooperstown New Era, with the Olde English "C."



I went up to New York a couple of months later and Glenn and I edited the entire project together, second by second.

Kind of funny - I never liked the title "Nowhere to Run." I have this habit of being somewhat linear with naming things: Most track titles on my CDs are movie titles, my CD titles are references to book titles, and my blog posts are either song titles or lines from songs (the more recent ones, anyway).

Glenn was right about to finalize the file and said, "What's the title?" I thought of the Martha and the Vandellas insert and it happened to be a movie title, also.

Now I feel like I've explained everything without cutting it short.

Thanks for reading, and I'll be uploading a new track soon.

John

And I'm a Nikehead, I make tapes that excite the feds

With all the hype in the past couple of weeks about the Jordan XI retro release and the upcoming release of the IV in February…



I couldn’t believe that these were still boxed in my basement. I should probably just get rid of these at this point, they've been worn to death and are over 10 years old.

On another note, I've been spending time in the studio working on another short track. I hope to post it up here soon.

Hope everyone had a Happy New Year!

John

Might not know what I’m talkin about…

Years ago, before Dibbs blew up and became a Rhymesayers affiliate, we used to do a radio show together weekly at WAIF-FM here in Cincinnati. We also used to hit the record shows and garage sales on the weekends looking for vinyl. It was during one of these times when he had the idea of doing a “Tapes Skills Techniques 98.”



The original 1200 Hobos tape, “Tapes Skills Techniques” was a huge influence on the way I approached putting a mixtape together. And to this day, it still is. I hadn’t released any material yet back then, so I was geeked at the possibility of working on a mixtape with Dibbs.

We never got around to doing it. He started doing a bunch of out-of-town gigs and then before you knew it, he hooked up with Atmosphere. He was never in town much after that and I rarely saw him.

I recently thought about that concept we talked about, and wondered what it would have sounded like if we recorded it back then. Being as I don’t keep up on current music, this was a great chance for me to pull out some classic favorites of mine and give it the treatment.

This is what I think the first few minutes might have sounded like:



The “Mad Izm” part from the original “Tapes Skills Techniques” mixtape was one of my favorite parts ever, especially the use of the line, “I’m doing it for the love so now I’m doing what I want…” which is exactly how I was feeling when I started recording this.



I pulled out the Channel Live 12-inch and really listened to the song, the way I listen when I’m working on a CD. So many dope lines from them and from KRS.

For “Mad Izm” – I wanted to cut up the Black Moon record for the chorus, but in a different way, since I don’t really spark the izm. I ended up cutting “…all we do is spark…the type of ill shit to make the mind feel tight…”

Backwards, going into “Mad Izm” I used “I Gotcha Opin” and then preceded that with the remix. The vocal intro is DJ Red Alert, who was on the vocal intro for the original "Tapes Skills Techniques" mixtape.

Going forward from “Mad Izm” I used “Pain I Feel” by Blahzay Blahzay. I always wanted to cut that “pain I feel” phrase off of “Looking At The Front Door” but I didn’t want to follow with the Main Source song, as I’ve used it in some form on my previous mixtapes.

I gravitated towards the line “without skills you better check for your own survival…” and while recording the TV track (there is no instrumental for “Pain I Feel” on the 12-inch), the words “…you know who is it…” came out which was perfect for the next insert which was…

“The freshest DJ from the state of Ohio, I remember winning battles, cutting up Survival…” from Tha Alkaholiks’ “Let It Out.” Yes, I know that Dibbs used this line already for the first Hobo tape, but he also used “Mad Izm.” Who would even remember at this point?

After E-Swift's couplet, went into Annette Peacock’s “Survival” which was sampled by J-Live for “Braggin’ Writes” and then follow it with “Braggin’ Writes" cut up.

I always thought about ending a mixtape or a piece with J-Live’s “…but you best believe I’ll have the last laugh…”, so I did. But I still wanted to include lines from the flip side of “Mad Izm”, which was “Reprogram.” Nice lines in there, too. I found a spot for them over the Annette Peacock drums toward the end to wrap it up.

It took a little under a month for about four and a half minutes of recorded material. I have no idea how I ever finished 60 minute projects this way.





Why did I type all this out? I saw some article online recently on how to make a mixtape. It explained how to select your songs and mix them in the right tempo and then how to edit it using software. I always thought there was more to it. I guess I’ve just been wasting my time all along!

On another note, today is my born day, and I’ve never made a big deal about it (because it’s so close to Christmas), but I wanted to give this out as a little something for those of you who take the time to check out my blog. Thanks for reading!

John

Mostly the voice (or not)

I was at the post office yesterday and the clerk asked me, "Are you a DJ?" For a second I was slightly embarrassed, wondering where this random middle-aged woman had seen me DJing.

And then she said, "...because you really have a good radio voice..."

I laughed and said, "Oh no, I'm not a DJ or anything like that. I'm actually a chemist."



Believe it or not, I never really told people outside of my music circle anything about my involvement with music. Especially when it came to work, I kept DJing separate from my job. At my previous job at a corporate laboratory, some of my coworkers were so damn nosy about me, probably because I didn't tell them much about myself.

This was when I recording The Last Amateur, so I was staying up late into the night, working in the studio until about 2:30 in the morning. Did I mention I had to meet up to carpool at 6:30?



So I would understandably be tired and fall asleep in the car if it wasn't my turn to drive. Of course this led to a barrage of questions:

"What do you mean you go to bed at 2? Are you watching TV? What are you doing? Why do you go to bed so late? What do you DO?"

And then when I started bringing boxes home from work to mail off extra records I sold on eBay:

"What are all those boxes for? Oh, eBay, huh? What kind of stuff are you selling? Records? Do people still buy those? Do you have a lot of records? Oh, you collect them. You know, if you were a good DJ or something, you could start your own business. Wedding DJs make good money!"

After that comment, I felt that I had to say something. I mentioned that yes, I did DJ, but I didn't really go into detail.

So the questions from more coworkers the next couple of days:

"So I hear you're a DJ? What clubs do you DJ at? Are you DJing at a rage this weekend? (seriously, she called it a "rage" instead of rave! haha) Do you do weddings? My sister's turning 18 next month, are you available? Will you DJ the Christmas party? You make CDs? You should bring one in so we can listen to it..."

Those might be normal questions for a DJ, but I'm probably the furthest thing from a club/party DJ, which people just don't understand. And even though I've played out many times (usually showcases or performances with MCs), I've never even DJed a wedding. And I shuddered at the thought of my coworkers listening to Popular Fallacies.

I don't know what it is, but I feel awkward talking about DJing to people who aren't hip-hoppers. Especially now, since being a DJ is nothing special anymore.

Just a ramble of a post. My apologies for not posting any music yet. Still working out the kinks.

Oh, and like most people, I can't stand the sound of my own voice.

John

Back in the lab

As you might have guessed, I haven't been recording anything in awhile. Since I have a regular job and a life outside of DJing (as well as friends with no involvement in music), the drive to work on music sometimes just isn't there anymore.

I went into the studio a few days ago just to scratch and started thinking about the first 1200 Hobos tape (which was a huge influence on me). Before you know it:



Just like old times. The pens and composition books came out, Post-It Notes, records all over the floor...

I hope to have something to share in the next few days.

John

This is for the homie...

If you're reading this, you've probably already heard the news about my friend and crew-mate, Mr. Dibbs.

Dibbs was recently diagnosed with cirrhosis and needs assistance with his medical expenses.

If you can contribute or help out in any way, check here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/PayItForward2MrDibbs/231083543618198

(for some reason, can't insert the link above correctly)

Stay strong, Brad!

John

We got too...too...too much pizza...

As you might be able to tell from some of my previous posts, I'm a huge pizza fan. I can put pizza away like nothing, I've actually gone through a whole large pie in one sitting. And on top of that, I tend to eat really fast.

I've recently become aware of some pizza challenges in the Cincinnati area. The first one I heard of was at a place called Ramundo's in Mt. Lookout. Their pizza challenge is a 28-inch two topping pizza, two people, 10 minutes. Mathematically speaking, if I could finish (with another person) 3 16-inch pizzas in 10 minutes, then I would give Ramundo's a try. After a pre-training session, I figured it would be impossible, at least for me.

Then one night, my wife and I found this pizza place in Sharonville:



And I saw this on the back of the menu:



My wife said, "I bet you could do that challenge, you eat so fast..." Almost everyone I asked to partner up with me was on some "Oh, I can only eat like two pieces of pizza" type-response.

A couple of weeks later, my brother Mikey was the only one agreed to step up to the challenge with me. I called ahead to get the order in and on my brother's suggestion, took a shot of Absolut before we headed to the Roc.

Here we go:



First slice, nice stuffed pie, tasty crust, lots of cheese, pepperoni, sausage, bacon, and ham:



T-minus 28 minutes:



T-minus 20 minutes, believe it or not:


A customer came in to pick up an order heard us ask for the time left.
"Are you guys doing the challenge? Oh yeah? 20 minutes to go? (Looking at what's left on the table) You totally got it!"

T-minus 8 minutes. I hit the wall and had to stop. I had 3.5 pieces. Mikey had 2.1. I told the guy behind the counter to stop the timer. I was done.



The agony of defeat:



Could have showed you this pic and told you we beat the challenge (leftovers are boxed up out of frame), but the looks on our faces say otherwise.



If you're ever in the area, see if you can do any better.



John

PS> Tried to put some links in, but Blogger was acting funny when I tried to do it. Go to sharonvillepizza.com for more info on Roc-A-Fellas.