Interview
1. Cru cru Gaybeat, I already know that dancing naked to kick drum heart beats got you into music, so, I have to know which records of your Dad were scratched by you!!!!
Huey Lewis, Todd Rundgren, Stray Cats, Moody Blues and The Beatles' A Hard Days Night are some I recall.
Fortunately I didn't get into Led Zeppelin, Chick Corea, The Who, Jimi Hendrix or Yes until around 8th grade or so, well after I'd learned my lesson about not dancing or jumping up and down near Dad's turntable, and I could manage the needle with a steady hand :)
2. What is "Diamond Mic" and who's behind it?
Once Hookdiggy & I got to know each other a little bit Fall of last 2022, Hookdiggy’s voice fell upon my ears. He said the word, "Boom.", and got my mental wheels spinning. An old-school hip-hop beat had been sitting on my proverbial shelf for a couple years, and I immediately asked Hookdiggy to take a listen. I also referenced the first rap verse of ‘Gonna Make U Sweat’ by C&C Music Factory.
He took a listen and was down for the collaboration. We briefly discussed the idea of making the message about staying cool under pressure and then Hookdiggy’s first verse came back and hit the mark perfectly. After that, I then finished up most of the rest of the track and added an arrangement and a whole host of new sounds. I sent it back to him to get a second verse, an outro and a couple ad libs.
I then just gave the production some additional fine-tuning and enhancements, added quick mix and master and took it over the finish line. The cover art was then created by my Dad, based on an initial, very rough sketch I created for him with Hookiggy driving and me playing the music in the trunk.
3. Are you still doing online concerts?
Absolutely, but not every week anymore. That was fun, but I'd say about every few months you can expect a new livestream from me. In fact, I just had my overall biggest and best livestream just this last month.
I also do private livestreams with my Grayliens community and monthly Zooms with my top fans via the GrayBeat Mothership.
4. How do keep your creativity away from stress?
These two states of my reality are basically completely separated from each other.
When I started producing, I built a very tranquil space at my workstation that would help transport my mind into the asbstract, creative realms.
Even though my workstation has taken on a number of other roles, there is still a place I can go with my mind when I'm creating that allows me to work hours on end without tiring.
The product I create is meant to take your mind to that same stress-free dimension, in hopes you can listen to it for hours on end without tiring.
5. A little bird told me Spaceballs is your favorite film. What's your favorite joke from it? Did you see it in cinema when it was released? Why is it your favorite movie?
There are very few movies I want to watch more than once. Most of them are comedies. Grandma's Boy is another one in that category.
Being that Spaceballs as a parody of one of my other original favorites, Star Wars, it just seems to hit all the right silly notes for me.
There are hundreds of jokes in the movie, but since I have to pick one (a hard choice), let's go with the climactic lightsaber battle between Lone Starr and Dark Helmet (all the names and characters are so perfect, and Rick Moranis is perfect).
Dark Helmet: Before you die there is something you should know about us, Lone Starr.
Lone Starr: What?
Dark Helmet: I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.
Lone Starr: What's that make us?
Dark Helmet: Absolutely nothing! Which is what you are about to become.
6. Have you heard all the music released by Def Leppard so far?
Definitely not, though my inner child is still listening to Hysteria on repeat, waiting to turn the cassette back over to side 2, or back to side 1. By the time they came back with the single, "Let's Get Rocked" and the Adrenalize album in 1992, my musical tastes had progressed.
For the first part of that year, I had already been on a Top 40 Dance/R&B/Hip-Hop kick for a couple years, listening to my cassette of MTV Party To Go Volume 2 quite a bit when I needed to get some math homework done.
However, starting to learning to play the drums that same year (yep 1992) really changed how I listened to music, and that's also the same year when many of my musical friends started listening to Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Tool and Alice in Chains.
I ordered all those artists' albums on cassette for pennies from the legendary BMG music service and really just honed my ears on them and started visualizing all the drum performances from every song, so that I could learn to copy their styles and drum arrangements.
I was also just about to start getting into classic rock as well, including Yes, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Who. Then, I got into Jazz a couple years later and even performed in a West African group for 7 years.
7. Can you recommend us 3 hip - hop classics from the 80s?
Salt-N-Pepa - Push It (1986)
Run DMC - It's Tricky (1986)
Public Enemy - Bring The Noise (1988)
Definitely check out MC Lyte, Slick Rick, Kurtis Blow, NWA, KRS One, Erik B & Rakim, and Grand Master Flash & the Furious Five, just to name a few others.
8. What's your favorite release from Huey Lewis?
Well, that's gotta be "Sports" from 1983. I would have listened a bunch back then when it graced the turntable and the AM/FM airwaves. It includes 'The Heart of Rock n Roll' and 'I Want a New Drug'. The two tracks from the Back to the Future soundtrack, "Back in Time" and "Power of Love" are worth a shout out too.
9. What are the grooviest and funkiest songs of all time?
Prince. Oh, you mean a song? Check out the "Prince" catalog! That's P-R-I-N-C-E ;P
10. Do you still agree with the Pigeon?
Yep, you gotta listen to the Pigeon ;)
Review
"Diamond Mic" comes to us through triumphant synthesizers and funky beats that underpin the relaxing flows and genre-bending inflections of this rapper who exudes talent. But the brightest star of this show is undoubtedly the production loaded with countless details that make this banger even funkier, even more groovy... The mega playful and well realized production supports this anthem as a pillar of this hit that easily acquires epic properties. I feel like I've had the pleasure of listening to the first ever fusion between a gifted rapper from Earth and alien beats and I couldn't be happier!!!
Words by The Pigeon
Discovered via http://musosoup.com
This coverage was created via Musosoup