Whos on the beat

Is Ne Yo's Miss Independent an R&B version of Flashy Lights or what? I like it a lot though. And my favorite joint right now is John Legend and Andre 3000 with Green Light. That's a jammy. Chris Brown's Forever is tight too, but it sounds a lot like Please don't stop the music from young Rihana...maybe its just me.

Flip side, I dont know man Scott Storch isn't doing it for me lately... the new 50 Cent jump off called Get Up is deso but not like 50's other club bangers. By the way; house music is back in full swing just about.

Stay tuned...

Uncrowned King

I was at the release of Mikkey Halsted's mixtape Uncrowned King last night; listen the kid is back! The tape is dope opening with a joint called My Life using Jay-Z's Lost Ones beat...the vididness of the lyrics over the Dre beat is so cold and got you feelin like you grew up right there with him. Last night he performed a joint off the Chicago Photo Album which will be his debute LP i believe, I don't know the title of the song but he rocked two verses and Ms Criss jumped off the last verse, its crazy. I think he said NO I.D. produced in Hawaii with Kanye i'm not sure, but it is crazy sick. I think its called Fresh or something...madness. yes sir...oh yea, watch out for the joint Churches too.

Live shows

Aight so last night I went out to see Shala aka Naija Boy...the show was dope. I heard his tracks on myspace the day before and really felt like whoever is producing him, is putting in crazy work because the sounds were banging. When I gets to the show, he also has a bass player, drummer and DJ playing with him. The played along with the tracks, it was cold. He also had a really hot background singer I think her name was Dacia. She was dope and the concept of the show really got me hyped. The band that was on before Shala was called Hey Champ; they were playing some electro dance stuff that was tooooooo sick. And this brought me back to what (Chicago) hip hop is and should be. Good music, fun times, lots of dancing without degrading ourself or our sisters.

On a down note, I missed DJ Falcon of Daft Crew spinning at Debonair Social Club last night....ahhh i'm gonna hate myself in the morning....wait, it is the morning I still love me. Big ups to Amunbeatz!!!!!!

DJ GQ

Chicago Music Producers

Chicago, nested along the great lake Michigan has one of the strongest musical histories that can compete with any city.

Until Kanye West, Chicago hasn't really received any notoriety for its musical producers. Which is a shame because Chicago is the home of Mike Dunn, Glen Underground and the Strickly Jazz Unit, Fast Eddie, the Molemen, NO I.D., 1120, and countless others who have laid some of the most classic house and hip hop tracks down. Needless to say, there is some difficulty being a music producer from Chicago.

For many of us, there are a variety of musical influences in our lives that shape what we like and create today. However, it is hard to be from Chicago and not listen to House music. I remember days of listening to WBMX and the crazy mixes although I cannot claim to be a House head because I was the kid that was listening to every single music that was out there. From what i'm told and hear from big name producers that is key to becoming a successful producer. Here are a few tips from me:

1. Listen to everything-some of your favorite tracks of all time are samples by artist nobody probably remembers let alone even know of. Example, how many people are well aquainted with the artist Kanye sampled in Jesus Walks? What about Xplosive by Dr. Dre?
2. Know your industry: crowd or target audience/know what's popular
3. Learn to DJ-This is important because it will help you find grooves and stuff that works musically. Also its important for your timing, and what sounds you use. You can have the best and most rare sample ever but if you have the sounds of a Casio from 1988 you probably won't go far.
4. Be you: get inspired but don't bite! Its perfectly fine to throw on some J Dilla, Rza, Dr. Dre or who ever to get you inspired to make music but don't get to the point where you just steal their ideas and steal their style. It always suprises me as dissappointing as it may be, when I hear a track on the radio that i've sampled before; it just lets me know to continue to do what I do and when my platform presents itself, i'll be ready.
5. Learn an instrument or at least how to read music. Obvious reasons...
6. Update your equipment when you grow out of your old equipment.


Question of the day; who's making hotter music in Chicago; north side, south side or the west side?