訪問/ Interview : Jordan C.
攝影/ Photos : DirtyDiggs & Luck E Shot
翻譯/ Translation : Jose Chu
Planet Asia和他的團隊Gold Chain Military 現在正處於一個階段是,他們可以找任何一個他們喜歡的製作人去造一個節奏…甚至一整個專輯。我的意思是,Durag Dynasty有一個由The Alchemist製作的項目,並有傳言指早前Pete Rock製作了一個完整的Medallions專輯。重點是,他們的內部團隊Dirty Diggs已經逐漸能媲美90年代的偉人們。這兩個來自菲律賓的兄弟JR和Noy One,正如他們的名字一樣,不要怕讓他們手中的塵土飛揚。他們翻轉爵士樂和靈魂循環的方式並不是不能學習的。
在過去九年,DD已經從生產幾首歌予Gold Chain的項目轉變成可以在全整專輯中與不同的主持合作。他們與Agallah合作的專輯“Flight of the Cranes”是一部沉睡中的經典作品。最近SPITGAN有機會和這些兄弟姊妹們見面,了解一下這核心中的歷史。
<< 中文譯本在英文之後 / Chinese continues after English below. >>
Planet Asia and his clique Gold Chain Military are on that level where they can reach out to any producer in the game for a beat…or a whole album, for that matter. I mean, come on, Durag Dynasty had a whole project produced by The Alchemist, and there has been rumors of a full Medallions album conducted by Pete Rock for a while now. But here’s the thing, their in-house production team, DirtyDiggs, have gradually become just as in-demand as any of the ‘90s greats. These two Filipino brothers, JR and Noy One, are not afraid to get their hands dusty, as their name suggests. And the way they flip jazz and soul loops is not something that can be taught.
Within the last 9 years, DD have transitioned from producing a couple songs on any given Gold Chain project, to partnering with a multitude of emcees for full albums. Their CD with Agallah, Flight of the Cranes, is a slept-on classic and last year’s Dirty Planet with Planet Asia was easily as ill as Anchovies, his acclaimed collabo with Apollo Brown. SPITGAN recently got a chance to chop it up with these sampling siblings and dig a little into their history behind the boards.
SPITGAN: What were yall doing before you got down with Planet Asia and GCM?
Noy One: We were making beats for about five years before we met them. We were releasing mostly instrumentals.
JR: Yeah, we did a couple songs with other people. We did a song with Percee P and we did a song with Roc C. Thta’s about it before we met Planet Asia and them.
SG: How did those collabs come about?
JR: I just hit ‘em up through Twitter…or whatever it was. Maybe 2010-ish.
NO: Might have been Myspace actually.
SG: How did you guys come into contact with Asia?
JR: I met Killa Kali through a mutual friend. We smoked a little and chilled, and we hit it off. And Kali, was like, yo, you gotta meet the rest of the homies. That’s when we started coming out to the studio sessions and just hanging out with everybody.
SG: Kali was telling me you even did some schooling together. Tell us about that.
JR: Yeah, I went to school with Kali for a little bit. It was audio engineering school. That was in 2012 or something like that.
SG: What was the first major thing you did with Kali, Asia and them?
NO: The Post War mixtape. That was the mixtape before the Gold Chain Military album.
JR: It’s a mixtape that features Sean P, Alchemist, Evidence, DJ Muggs, and a bunch of other people. That was our first work with Planet Asia and everybody.
SG: Yall are brothers. Who is older?
NO: I’m the oldest. JR is my younger brother.
SG: What got yall into DJ and crate digging initially?
JR: Breakdancing and shit. Everything I saw my bro doing [I did]. Breakdancing was our introduction to Hip-Hop. That’s when the DJ was super cool. It was hard to convince our parents to buy turntables but once they did… They actually bought one turntable and a mixer, then we had to get the other turntable.
SG: What is the project you are most proud of from over the years?
NO: Damn, I don’t know. I think it’s probably between Black Belt Theater and Rodman. Black Belt Theater because that was our first time on a big release like that with all those features. Rodman just because it came out raw as fuck.
JR: I’d have to agree. I like all of them, I’m not particular. But if I had to pick one, I’d say Rodman…Petty Tendergrass…I really like the Gold Chain Military album. I really like the Large Pro beat and The Alchemist beat, and just being on an album with those guys is pretty cool.
SG: You guys have become associated with The Winners too. How did that happen?
JR: Yeah, you know what’s crazy about that? Planet Asia asked me one day, you heard about Hus Kingpin? And I was like, nah, who’s that? He was like, my guy from Germany put me onto him. I was like, where’s he from? He’s like, from Long Island. I’m like, no way! So, I go to my Twitter and search Hus Kingpin and it [just] so happens he’s already following me. I messaged him and whatever. And he was already out in L.A. So, he comes through like a week later and I built it from there. He introduced us to Rozewood, and SmooVth, and Marvelous Mag, and Rosati, and all those guys.
SG: You guys have been doing a bunch of videos too. Speak on how yall got into doing that.
JR: Our first video we did was with Planet Asia a couple years ago. None of us went to school for that. We just had a camera and Planet Asia was like, yo, shoot this video. I was like, I don’t really know how to use it. He was like, fuck it, we’ll figure it out. We eventually figured it out on the Final Cut side. We just started shooting videos and developed our own little style, I guess. It started working out. People started liking the videos. Now, we’ve done videos for Madchild, Crooked I, Rozewood…
SG: Yall have a ton of joint albums on the way. I always love one producer for a whole album. Many of the best albums from the ‘80s and ‘90s are one producer (or production team) and one artist (or group).
NO: When we created DirtyDiggs that was our mission, to do full bodies of work. We wanted to put together full bodies of work rather than just having little loosies here and there with different artists. It’s also better to get your sound out, I think. When you hear a full body of work, you can hear an artist’s sound.
JR: It started with Killa Kali and Planet Asia first though. We have a countless number of albums with them. Having that platform with Asia led us to work with these other artists that are starting to bubble now a days. We have a bunch of albums [that are] about to come out. We have an album with Agallah called White Lotus. It’s a sequel to our other album Flight of the Cranes. We did lots of production on Planet Asia’s new album Masa Musa. That’s dropping on Cleopatra Records. We dropped an EP with Rozewood in December. We dropped one with Recognize Ali in February. We have one coming with Washeyi from GCM. We also have a bunch of stuff with Killa Kali. We’ve been talking to Big Twinz about a project for maybe a year now. So, we’ll see what’s up with that. What else we got?
NO: We got a project with Supreme Cerebral. We got one with Invisible Hand. That album is dope, man!
JR: He’s actually on MF DOOM’s King Gheedora album. We just like his style. He’s not really known anymore but we just like doing albums with people we think are dope. Oh yeah, we have another full album with Rozewood.
SG: How important is it to yall to actually dig in the crates?
JR: It’s like the most important…like all our beats are made from vinyl. Of course we have other style we play with but the style we try to showcase to the people is that style where we sample strictly from vinyl. We are hardly ever connected to a computer…unless we’re mixing down. That’s just keeping it true to ourselves. I doubt my brother even cares what other people are doing. That’s just what we like to do.
NO: To me that’s the fun part, is actually digging for the records, trying to find what you could come up on. I mean, that’s how we learned too.
JR: We started before Serato came out. So, for the parties we had to go to the record store to get the singles. And then just digging for old records…soul records, jazz… That shit is always fun because you can never have everything…but we do know one guy who literally does have everything.
NO: He’s called The Program down here. This dude created this program where he leases his records to Hip-Hop producers. He’s did some stuff for Dre for The Chronic. He’s got a big platinum plaque in his store. He showed me his credits on some of the Jay-Z albums just for providing records. He rents them out for a couple Gs. This dude literally has four copies of every record. There is records I have seen at his shop, that I have never seen anywhere else.
JR: And they’re like $300.
NO: Yeah, he charges an arm and a leg, man. You better come with between $200-400 to his store, or else you’re walking out with less than five records.
JR: If you befriend him, that $400 record will turn into a $300 record.
NO: Yeah, he’s a cool cat. He likes to give discounts if you show up at his store a lot.
<< 中文譯本隨後 / Chinese continues below >>
SPITGAN: 和Planet Asia和GCM合作之前,你在做什麼?
Noy One: 我們編寫和製作不同節奏大約五年了。基本上我們製作所有不同樂器。
JR: Yeah, 我們和其他人做過幾首歌。一首是和Percee P合作,另一首是Roc C的。大概遇上Planet Asia他們之前就是這樣。
SG: 這些合作是如何發生的?
JR: 我是在Twitter找他們的。忘記了是幾時…大約2010吧?
NO: 實際上可能是MySpace…
SG: 那是怎麼接觸到Asia的?
JR: 我通過一個共同朋友認識 Killa Kali。我們食煙、飲酒,一拍即拍。然後Kali說,你們應該要見下其他兄弟們! 我們就開始會去錄音室的聚會,開始和大家一起玩。
SG: Kali告訴我你們甚至一起有過學校生活,能講多點嗎?
JR: Yeah,有段時間我和Kali一齊上學的。那是個音樂程式的學校,好像是2012年左右的時候。
SG: 你們和Kali、Asia他們的第一件大事是什麼?
NO: The Post War 的混音。那個混音是在Gold Chain Military專輯之前的。
JR: 這個混合包括了 Sean P、Alchemist, Evidence、DJ Muggs和其他人。這是我們第一次和Planet Asia他們合作。
SG: 你們是兄弟吧,誰是大佬?
NO: 我是大佬,JR是我弟弟。
SG: 最初是怎樣成為DJ和找黑膠唱片的?
JR: 是霹靂舞，所有當時我見到我兄弟在做的事。霹靂舞是我們開始對嘻哈的認識。那時候的DJ很型，但我很難去說服我家人去買個轉盤機給我。但後來他們終於買給我了,他們買了一個轉盤和一個調音台。然後我們就要用去找另一個轉盤。
SG: 這麼多年來你們最引以為傲的項目是?
NO: Damn, 我不知道…我想大約是Black Belt Theater和Rodman之間吧。Black Belt Theater是我們第一次大型的發佈所有的合作,而Rodman就是很自意地出現了的作品。
JR: 我都同意,我喜歡所有我的作品,沒有特別一個喜歡。不過如果一定要選一個我會說Rodman…Petty Tendergrass…我真的很喜歡Gold Chain Military這個專輯。我很喜歡Large Pro和The Alchemist的節奏,和這些人合作的專輯都很酷!
SG: 你們和The Winners也有些聯繫了,是怎樣發生的?
JR: 對阿,你知道這最瘋狂的地方嗎?有日Planet Asia問我你知道Hus Kingpin嗎?然後我說,我不知道。他就說是一個來自德國的男人想介紹我認識。我就問,他是從那來的?他說是長島。然後我就上Twitter搜尋Hus Kingpin並發現他已經在跟隨我了。所以我就發個訊息給他不過當時他不在L.A.,所以一個星期之後我們認識了。他也介紹了Rozewood、SmooVth、Marvelous Mag、Rosati…這些人給我們。
SG: 你們也做了很多視頻。說一下為什麼你們會做那些視頻。
JR:我們第一個視頻是幾年前和Planet Asia的的。 我們沒有一個人讀過這方面的技術。就是有部相機然後Planet Asia就要拍這個視頻。我就說我真的不懂應該怎樣…他就是,隨意啦!我們會搞得掂的! 我們最後在Final Cut中找到了去路。我想我們才剛開始拍片和發展自已的風格吧。它開始吸引到別人了,現在我們有為Madchild, Crooked I, Rozewood…做過視頻。
SG: 你們有很多專輯進行中。我總是喜歡一個製作人做一張專輯。很多在8,90年代最好的專輯都是一個製作人(或團隊)和一個藝人(或組合)的。
NO: 當我們建立DirtyDiggs時,這是我們的宗旨,一個完整的製作。我們想集中去完成一個完整的創意而不是很鬆散地和不同藝人工作。我認為很值得讓你的聲音走出來，當你聽一個完整的作
品,你是可以聽到藝人真正的聲音和信息。
JR: 這是從Killa Kali和Planet Asia時開始的。我們和他們的合作專輯實在是數不盡. 和Planet Asia的平台帶領我們和很多正冒頭的藝人合作。有一堆即將推出的專輯。我們有一個和Agallah合作的專輯“White Lotus”其實是我們另一個專輯“Flight of the Cranes”的延續。我們在Planet Asia的新專輯“Masa Musa”中做了很多製作。還有Cleopatra Records,12月會有Rozewood的一隻EP推出和一個是2月的Recognize Ali。我們還有一個將出現的合作是GCM的 Washeyi。我們和Killa Kali也有很多不同的東西。這一年我們一直在和Big Twinz討論一個項目。 所以,我們可以留意到時有什麼事發生… 我們還有什麼?
NO: 我們還有一個和Supreme Cerebral的項目,一個 Invisible Hand的合作。那個專輯超級好!
JR: 他實際上是 MF DOOM’s King Gheedora的一個專輯。我們很喜歡他的風格。他不是很有名不過我們喜歡跟我們欣賞的人合作。對了,還有另一個Rozewood完整的專輯。
SG: 這些黑膠唱片有多重要?
JR: 這是最重要的吧…好像我們的節奏全部都是由黑膠唱片而來的。 當然,我們可以玩其他風格, 但我們想展示別人的風格是我們嚴格地從黑膠唱片中抽出的樣本。 我們幾乎沒有用到電腦……除非之後的混音過程。 這是要保持我們真實的自已。 我想我的兄弟甚至會在乎別人在做什麼。 這正是我們想要做的。
NO: 這對我而言很有趣,是真的從別人的專輯上抽取一些東西,然後看看你可以如何去轉化。這也是我們學習的一個方法。
JR: 我們在Serato出現之前就開始了。所以如果有派對,我們要去唱片鋪買隻單曲。然後就從舊唱片中抽都不同元素…靈魂音樂、爵士樂…這永遠都會很有趣因為你永遠都不會擁有所有東西,但我們會知道誰會擁有這一切讓我們去發掘。
NO: 他叫The Program。 這個人創造了這個平台去租他的唱片給Hip Hop製作人。他和Dre和The Chronic做過一些合作。他有一個大鉑金牌在他的店內。他向我展示了他在某些Jay-Z專輯中的作品提供了唱片,應該租了幾千塊吧。 這傢伙的唱片每張都有四份。在他店中見過的唱片,我都從未在其他地方見過。
JR: 好像是大約$300。
NO: 對,他的收費很要命。你最好帶$200-400到他們店內,否則你不能租到超過五張唱片。
JR: 如果你和他做了朋友,一張$400的唱片可以變成$300。
NO: 對的!他是個很酷的人。如果他認得你經常來會給你優惠的。
喜歡這個訪問的話可以睇埋DD最愛的五個時裝品牌 / If you liked this article check out DirtyDiggs TOP 5 Fashion Labels.
Speak Your Mind