Fade
The Beat Strangler
Administrator
illest o.g.
Michigan to Illinois damn, from one cold ass state to the next, you 're making it hot baby! It took a while to lock this interview down right! LOL yea it takes a special producer to get featured on Ill, so tell us, what's been going on Slot-A?
Yea. I lived in NY in BK for a short minute, too. I guess I have an affinity for cold places, haha My name is Slot-A, originally from Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor, Michigan. Currently living in Chicago. My name is an acronym, meaning, Second Letter Of The Alphabet. In high school, my best friends Adam & Rasheed, called me B. I got started producing when I was in the 8th grade, trying to mess with computer DJ Software with already programmed loops. I later found out I was just making beats. Haha so, after a little coaxing from my big brother, Smurf I took my 120-150 bpm cluster fucks of noise and slowed them down a bit to make hip hop. Outside of that, I've executive-produced the last 3 Add-2 Projects (Vol 2 - Vol 4), received quite a bit of movie and TV placements with my homie Mr. Robotic, recently had 2 joints with him on Stomp The Yard 2 & Skyline. Another artist I executive-produced his project is starting to pick up steam and is releasing a video coming soon for his single, "Silent," Gerald Walker. I'm currently working on beat tapes and EP's for this coming year. So keep an eye out.
Before we go in too deep and I forget, congrats on your TV placement with MTV's Jersey Shore "Earth Girls Remix".
Thank you. Big s/o to Mr. Robotic and to his attorney Ajay Gosain. Mr Robotic is an artist that I've been working with and we developed our sound from me basically experimenting with House and Trance sounds, just a lot of different influences and homie believing, seeing the vision and later started to find his own lane. Dude has an amazing work ethic, I owe all of those placement opportunities with homie. Real talk. We've had placements for theme songs on E!, MTV, ESPN, CW, the list goes on.
You've picked some great household names in the Hip-Hop producer section that you study closely. Dr. Dre, BattleCat, Jay Dilla and Just Blaze. But there's one that's new to me, BattleCat. Can you school me right quick?
BattleCat is a West Coast legend. Dude did tracks like "Cali Is Active" by DPG, "We can Freak It" by Kurupt. The thing about his music in particular and a lot of West Coast music is it reminds me of my childhood. Homie's basslines and chord progressions are so soulful and reminds you that classic P-Funk, synth bassline, hugging the subwoofer, with the kick punching through it, snare or clap, cutting through the speakers. Sonically it does something to me to be honest with you. I have this theory about movement and music. Some of the best, most memorable, the things that stick to you. When you heard West Coast music like C-Bo, Dr. Dre, E-40, Brother Lynch Hung, DJ Quik & Ice Cube, you know there is culture of dance that goes with those records. A lot of that music is connected to a visual, like when you saw Crip or Blood walking for the first time. Going to house parties or barbeques and you heard Snoop's "Doggy Dog World". The music just has such an sensory response to it. For those who love it, the West Coast's music is powerful.
So you're an infamous college drop out huh? LOL. By no means am I condoning lack of education, but a lot of famous, rich and successful people were either college or high school drop outs. http://www.collegedropoutshalloffame.com/ did you know that?
Yea, I dropped out of college. Honestly, it was probably the silliest shit I've ever done. Just college wasn't for me I was really using college to get out of Michigan to be frank, haha. Dropping out helped me a great deal but the stuff I went through after dropping out of college was just out of control. Being homeless, getting evicted in the projects in NY, and a whole list of things I wont get into. But it's all worth it at this point, I guess. haha I went to Columbia College Chicago, for music business management with a minor in marketing. I just didn't do school well, I was too distracted by making beats and trying to learn how to flip samples the fastest, haha. I want to go back but more so for classes to sit in learn something so I can apply it quickly. Accounting, marketing, six sigma - business performance improvement, etc. I want to learn about other things so I can start creating businesses to take care of my family down the line, you know?
Back to the music, please talk about "Better". Salute to Buff for blazing the track and more salutes to you for putting that heat together.
Man, I had reached out to Buff when I was coming back to Michigan from New York after we got evicted out the projects. He later introduced me to 14KT. We all knew each other because of my friends older brother, Levar. KT and Buff are apart of this group called Athletic Mic League along with DJ Haircut aka Mayerhawthorne. When I was in high school, I used to look up to them dudes, still do. But the "Better" record, came from me making a beat tape and blasting it out to my people on Twitter and through email contacts. I had a beat where I sampled this rock group called, Pheonix, their single,"1901", and the beat was called "Falling". Buff wanted the beat but it was still in limbo with another artist. So I told him I'd make something similar to that beat and it was a sample from Pheonix they had a song called "Fences." I went ahead and flipped that and dude loved the record. Recorded it about 2 or 3 months later and here we are. Big s/o to the homie Buff.
What software and equipment do you use, do you prefer one type of production tool over the next?
My software of choice since I started was Fruity Loops, but as of recent I've been working with Ableton Live. So I've been bouncing between the 2. I have some pretty CPU-hungry plug-ins for sounds and effects. Ableton took the mixing and sounds a lot better and it's limitless on what you can do. That's something I love about both programs, it's about as limitless as your imagination and sound library. I use the Korg padKontrol and M-Audio 49 key, I'm pretty much all software. But In the past, I used hardware like the MPC 2000XL or anything that was put in front of me. One thing you learn being broke is that, when there aren't many options you get creative and make what you want do, what you want it to do.
Something else interesting that I read when doing my homework about you Slot, was you mentioning "pop-esque" rap music. What exactly is that?
To be honest, the pop-esque rap music I make is basically just saying I can make song huge records in a not so cocky way. More electronic/synth heavy stuff that I've done with Mr Robotic, The Ko Stars, etc. The more and more I learn instruments and how to tweak sounds the more you learn the options of what you can do are absolutely limitless. The whole thing process for me, in making dance music is to understand the aesthetic and seeing women dance. I go to clubs and just sit behind the DJ booth or somewhere where I get to feel the speakers the best in the club, hear what the sounds are doing etc. But most importantly thinking of how my beat is going to effect the girl who came out to dance with her girlfriends. Is this going to be her favorite song, when the break down goes half time how's her dancing going to change, do these chords make sense, is this going to be the part she's going to sing at the top of her lungs. etc. or maybe how's the chick in college going to respond when she's in her dorm room with her girlfriends getting ready to go out? Is the hook strong enough for her and her girls to know it after one play? Are they going to jump, is someone going to wild out and grab a hair brush? Even more, is she going to get in trouble with her R.A. because she plays loud as shit in the morning? I make music to the following and the records speak for themselves.
I notice that you do a lot of remixing, although you have an extensive collection of original tracks, I'm curious as to why remixing turns producers on? Is that a little DJ sneaking up outta you? LOL.
I seriously love making remixes. It's different from making a beat. The performance is already there, all you have to do is respond to the emotion. Seriously, I want to be a DJ, I want to take my records to various clubs and see how they compete and creating new blends, etc. My homie, Mullato Patriot, allowed me to borrow is Serato set up and i just about lost my mind. Mixing "Red Bottoms" by GhostWridah (Ghost What up!) and Taking a beat of mine and cutting the low out of his song and blending them and looping sections. It's a hell of feeling.
Right, am I right? I mean word, how thin is the producer/DJ line?
I mean the line between them is pretty thin. We as producers, particularly if you sample and what not, you're basically beat matching and adding sounds so that they mesh. Blending, taking different songs and sound textures, music knowledge, knowledge of the harmonic scales. It all factors into how songs will play into one another. My favorite producer/DJ is Twilight Tone & DJ Jazzy Jeff; their music knowledge is absolutely out of this world. I use to watch videos of DJ Jazzy Jeff do sets with DJ Am; by far the most inspiring visual I've seen. Add & I went to Santo's when we were out in NY a year or two back, and Twilight Tone is playing a lot of soul music, stuff that I like now, but at that time had never heard before. I'll never forget that night we met Grand Puba that night. It was wild.
Incredible cuttin' it up with you sir, tell Add-2 I said "holla"! Slot give us your final drops and I'll see you on the remix!
You already know, I'll make sure to pass the word along to him asap. I want to give a big shout out to my brother Smurf - welcome home, the homies: Adam, Rasheed, Lottery, Vanysh, Mark Marshall, Louis Gee and the love of my life Violet. My mom for never discouraging me from my dreams and always telling me to go get it. To everyone that told me that I'd never amount to nothing, the tenants who called the police on me because the music was loud. Shout out to you pinkCookiz and IllMuzik for the interview! "It's Bang Hot".
