 While the rest of the city was sleeping Dirt Work Productions was making moves. Morburn got a chance to chat with the super-producer to find out what Dirt Work is all about.
A. I’m feeling great right now; we had a good and productive year in ’09, time to start 2010 with a bang. I got a lot of work coming up so I’m just trying to stay level-headed and motivated.
A. 2001? Wow, that’s the year I actually started producing so I don’t know if I was putting in working like that lol. I was 17 in 2001, so I was probably still trying to rap or become a basket ball player lol. I really started taking the music serious at about 19-20 but I always had a good ear for what’s hot and people would always tell me that even my skeletons were way better than most of the stuff other local producer were coming with at the time. I got tired of looking for original beats to spit on so I took it upon myself to start producing, gave up rapping and it’s been history ever since.
A. For me, it all starts with a vibe, I might be listening to some old soul joints and catch an idea or it might just hit me when I’m walking down the street and a melody pops in my head. I don’t usually start with the drums though, I like to hear to orchestration first and base my drums around it. Back when I first started I used whatever I had at the moment to make beats, I used to 2 tracks my karaoke machine, stop and pause tapes, and my first beats came off this program called “Music Generator” for Playstation 2.
I wouldn’t tell anybody though lol. The sound was horrible and I couldn’t get any wave files out of it so I would record them from my TV onto a tape deck and sell them on cassettes. That must have been back in 2002. It became a problem when I couldn’t give anybody the individual files and I missed out on a couple of album projects therefore I missed out on money so I had to upgrade my equipment. My first piece was the Roland MC 303, I still actually used it for certain things today. I’ve been upgrading ever since but I think I found my formula now so I’m gonna stick with it.
A. I worked with everybody that’s doing it in MTL on the English scene at some point or another, but I mostly keep it in-house with my Revolver Muzik team. I did a couple joints for Jay Bezel back when he was with Dipset. I was working on a project with Planet Asia called Laws of Power so I got a couple of unreleased tracks from him. I did 3 joints on Bad News Brown’s album (Born 2 sin). I did Sans Pression’s title track for his last album.
I recently produced a song for Wordsmith out of Philadelphia which features like 7-8 artists from out there (Jack Frost, Philly Swain etc…). I did all the original joints on Magnum’s first 2 mixtapes and also Novakane’s first mixtape. I’m sure I’m missing out some names that I can’t remember right now but basically I’ve been putting in work over the years. I’m currently working on Mayhem Morearty next single called “Go DJ” which will be bananas. These days, I’ve been branching out to Toronto a lot because they have an actual industry and budgets over there. So far the response I’ve been getting is nothing but positive so I gotta keep it up and stay focused.
A. Yeah, I manage Magnum 357, so right now that’s my main focus and I don’t want to take on other artists careers until I succeed with him. However, I always keep my ears open for new talent and I do help out other artists with the direction they are trying to take.
In this game these days being a rapper of a producer isn’t enough, you gotta multitask to reach the next level. I play every position when I have to from Producing, Managing, Engineering, DJ, Writing to being a hypeman at shows. We’re a 3 man team at Revolver Muzik Records and like to keep everything in-house so whatever needs to be done we handle ourselves. I always had plans on starting a management company with Dutch from Escape Entertainment, so that’ll take place in the near future.
A. The scene is definitely building and developing itself these days. A lot of fresh talent is popping up and I’m glad to see MTL grow artistically. The thing we lack is resources to take us to the next step, we don’t really have any serious investors nor do we have a 24/7 urban radio station which has been a problem forever.
The French scene is great but for the English cats trying to make it’s a huge challenge due to the language barrier and it’s nearly impossible to get any video grants for an English artist in this province.
The support just isn’t there from the higher power, that’s why I can’t even name any English rappers that ever made it out of MTL. Bad News Brown is the closest one, he’s toured most of the US and Europe but he’s an exception because I don’t consider him a rapper.
We still have a lot of growing to do and it will take time but I do think that MTL will eventually get its respect due.
Its funny because when we go out of town everybody knows Magnum and shows him love just based on his mixtapes and internet videos, just think if we actually had big budgets, real investors or grants backing us In MTL we also need to get off that “Crab in the bucket” mentality, Montreal doesn’t really have a big hip-hop scene right now and everybody kind of knows each other one way or another, therefore people don’t want to pay to get into local shows or buy mixtapes. Everybody feels like they already made it because Don Smooth or Mike Mission played their song on the radio or they were featured on 514smoke and now they’re too BIG to support other local artists.
We gotta set a hip-hop standard in MTL, we need a committee. There’s too much bullshit out there and it’s over crowding real talent. If everyone learns to support each other then we can keep all the money in a circle and actually generate fans and potential investors, that’s how the south took over hip-hop. That’s how artists down south can actually sell 30,000 mixtapes and have sold out shows in their own regions.
A. A true artist spits about his experiences and what he goes through rather than what he sees on TV. I respect artists that stay true to what they know, if you lived a street life and have to go through it everyday then that’s what it is. But the truth is most of these MTL rappers that spit that gangsta shit have 9-5 jobs and live in the suburbs.
Everybody wants to come off hard and think that just because it sounds good on the mic people will take it in and respect it.
When in reality MTL is small and people know who actually puts in work on the streets. Sooner or later your card will get pulled and your career is over.
I love it when rappers spit about ballin’ and making money because I get to pull their cards when it’s to buy beats. Like how you gonna rap about driving a Bentley and flying G5’s but you can’t come up with 500$ for a beat lol. C’mon son!
A. Obviously, this might sound biased but I feel like Magnum is carrying the torch right now with all his accomplishments over the last couple of years. He’s well respected outside of MTL and I haven’t met anybody that had anything bad to say about him. I really like the direction Badnews is going right now; I believe he’ll become an international artist real soon. I’m feeling what Milli Millz is doing right now, Iblast is killing the streets with his latest mixtape. Mugz is doing it right now, I like the fact that he stays true to himself and is keeps it real.
Novakane is gonna have a sick project dropping soon, I used to like what Justice (Northern Lights) was coming with but he fell off the radar. Troy Dunnit is on that different shit but I respect it. DPC (The NDG one) are pretty consistent with projects. I actually really liked Narcy’s album and he’s got a crazy live show. Loe Pesci is probably the best battle rapper in MTL right now. I know I’m forgetting some names so don’t catch feelings if I didn’t mention you; it’s been a long day.
A. In actuality in been about 5 years that I’m taking it serious, I was signed to Round Da Clock entertainment as an in-house producer for 3 years. My contract just expired last summer so it’s been about 2 years that I’ve been focusing on building my own brand. In the next 5 years I just want to make sure that I become an established producer in the biz. We seen it happened almost over night with Boi1da from T-dot, he’s nominated for 2 Grammys and we were featured in the same magazine as next-up producers so the motivation is there.
I definitely want Revolver Muzik Records to jump-off and become a house hold name in the urban market. After Magnum’s album drops we’ll be looking to recruit new talent and build careers. In the next 5 years I wanna make sure that MTL blows up and people recognize me as one of the heads that made that possible. I also haven’t had a real 9-5 job in my life so I hope to keep living off of music and not have to worry about anything. I also became the director of operations of Montreal for Creamworld Magazine (www.creamworld.ca) based out of Toronto so I’ll be focusing on that and try to make something out of it.
A. Look out for Revolver Muzik Vol.3 droppin’ real soon that will be the final one with end off the trilogy. We’re currently working on Magnum’s debut album as well as some videos.
If anybody wants to get at me for production the email is dirtworkproductions@gmail.com or hotmail.com if your serious about your craft its time to invest into yourself, we can always work around your budget.
Also check out www.Revolvermuzik.com for constant Magnum updates. And shout out to Morburn for reaching out to me for this interview. 100.
Dirt Work Productions
Interview by
MrHookupz
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