While i was in college i played football, joined a fraternity (Delta Kappa Sigma), and was a dj at 107.3 WATC. I went to school for wireless communications but didnt understand what the teacher was talking about. Ohms law Watts law, who cares! Imade the decision that i was in college i was going to learn something. I focused all of my time on digital audio and my fraternity. I started making the intro to my shows from various samoles using wave lab. I played everything from hip hop to classic rock.
After failing out of S.U.N.Y Canton when i went back home to brooklyn and started buying software for music production. I started with Voyetra Hip Hop Ejay. It was a sample tank where i learned how to mix drums, melody and bass. After using all of the samples in the program i decided to step it up and buy cakewalk. I used general MIDI and a couple of single one hit drum samples to create tracks. I also used cakewalk to record vocals.
At that time i was working for UPS at night and i had the day free. I did a one year internship at Brownstone Recording Studio in Bed-Stuy. It was ther i learned cubase and the scorpion 32 track mixing board. Within three months of the internship i had my own room im the Old Papa Wu studio in Brooklyns Restoration plaza. I was working with more artists than ever but I was only recording Freestyles to mainstream artists beats. It was good practice for engineering but like my mentor Nuchay Alexander says "im a producer first and an engineer second."
While at ups a supervisor named Reuben "Sin" Townsley had talked to me about getting a record label started. The ball got rolling when Sins's brother Salih "Smooth" Townsley came home from "up north." The two brothers then gave me a MPC 2000xl, a roland tr 707 groove station, and a mackie 16 track mixer. That was the beginning of GTM "Get That Money" records.
GTM record had two djs, dj 911 (b4 the towers fell)
and dj Supa D. GTM records taught me more of the promotional and buissness side of the industry. We threw parties every week for six months straight and sold mix cd's. The street hustle is great it only takes 30 cents to make a cd with a cover. I learned that 100 cds is a $100. I had no problems selling the mixtapes but i wasnt selling my beats yet.
Another friend of mine from ups Jamel williams lived in breevort Projects and had connections with some of Fabolous people on the come up. Thats wher i met William "Big Man Jae D" Brown my partner in Morris & Brown Productions. Jae D had a project studio in his moms aprtment where it was one of the first studios that Fabolous recorded in.
The first session that i went to Paul Cain (Fabolous Brother) was recording a freestyle with Yung Zito. Jae D had padded up a closet in a back room and used a piece of plexi glass to make a booth. You could get pretty good sound but is was tight.
Jae D had an Ensonique Asr x, EMU proteus 2000, and a eight track analog cassette tape mixing board. Yung Zito was his artist and with my help we released his first mixtape "Welcome To Da Hood." After the response from the first mixtape we decided to work on Yung Zitos Album "The Foundation" and that is how Morris & Brown Productions Was started.
After finishing up the second Yung Zito mix tape "Me And My Talent" we went to south beach miami for Menorial Weekend 2004. We got on the plane with 2,000 cds. Im miami no body spends on music cause every one gives cd out for free so we sold about 100 copies and gave out 1.400 cds. Thanks to my prior experience with Gtm records walking fifty blocks in ninety degree weather wasnt a problem but i went back to my hotel dead ass tired every night.
When we got back Jae d made the decision to start his record label HMB ent (Hopson Morris & Brown).
We started doing shows three nights a week. Sundays and tuesdays we were at the Pyramid and wednesdays we were at speed. We won a couple of contests and were invited to perform at the Greek Fest @ jones beach in 2005. It was the start of a powerful movement but tragedy was heading our way.
After hitting up radio stations in boston and conneticut with Koch records one weekend two artists that i had done a mixtape for were the victims of a double homicide. The hood was hot. The studio was hot and i mean H.O.T!!! It was so hot that i had to pack up all the equipment an take it back to my house. The album is finished we are just waiting for the right deal. But things were never the same. Jae D and my self moved out of Bed-stuy and have been working hard at our jobs to support our families (btw i have no kids just a mom and and a sis) were just in a process of getting these beats in to the right hands. Its still M&B but i have to revert back to Ajax Beats untill we link up again. |
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