The RE:GENERATION MUSIC PROJECT produced in association with The GRAMMYs® and presented by Hyundai Veloster examines the history of different music through the eyes of five of the most influential electronic producer/DJ’s in music today. For the project, Mark Ronson, DJ Premier, The Crystal Method, Pretty Lights and Skrillex each take a specific musical style and explore it by writing and recording a brand new track with a grouping of influential collaborators in that genre. The entire experience comes to life in the RE:GENERATION feature documentary directed by award-winning documentarian Amir Bar-Lev (“My Kid Could Paint That,” “The Tillman Story”) and due in theaters nationwide this February.
Tomorrow night, Wednesday December 7 at 8pm PT/11 pm ET, you can catch a 10 minute sneak peak of the film in addition to Q & A with DJ premier, Skrillex, The Crystal Method, Erykah Badu, and Director Amir Bar-Lev hosted by Jason Bentley.
Friday you have boundless energy. Saturday you’re crisp from the sun and mildly hoarse, but you’ve still got your legs underneath you. Sunday, however, is when the battle is won or lost; when true heroes are made (or broken) on the grassy proving ground of the Indio desert. It’s Day Three. Do you know where you parked your car?
The rotten apple has been in the firm grip of a sizzling heat wave for the last two weeks – and as any New Yorker will tell you, when it starts to really bake in Gotham, it’s something serious. It probably has something to do with all the skyscrapers holding in the heat and the concrete pavements emitting it so offensively to the city’s denizens. So anyways, it was a welcome pleasure to walk into DJ Premier’s “Headqcourterz” studios on the west of Manhattan for the Ill Bill/DJ Muggs listening session and see a nice spread of very-chilled Heinekens, Coronas and bottled waters set out for the invited guests. After cooling down with a few long sips of cold beer and ingesting a quick pizza slice, reality set in that I was actually lounging in the confines of hallowed rap history. “Headqcourterz” studios was formerly known as D&D, and this is the same location where rap gods like Jay-Z , Nas and Biggie recorded key cuts with DJ Premier for their classic debut albums: Reasonable Doubt, Illmatic and Ready to Die respectively. It’s also where Primo’s own group, Gangstarr (R.I.P. Guru) recorded classic albums in their extensive collection – epic albums like Hard to Earn, Moment of Truth and Daily Operation. No one has to tell you how special this place is – the gold and platinum plaques on the wall tell the story all too clearly.
Built within the sprawling, 100,000-square-foot industrial park that has recently become the new home to Red Bull Headquarters, the company’s own Red Bull Studios is barely two years old and already boasts not only the latest in state-of-the-art recording technology, but also the perfect amount of expertly-designed studio space.
Planning a world-class recording facility which could match the industry’s best was no easy task, so Red Bull wisely enlisted the help of two giants: Troy Germano and David Bell of Studio Design Group, the same masterminds who honed their skills at New York’s legendary The Hit Factory, once recording home to John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, and Michael Jackson. It’s a studio that has already earned the 2008 TEC award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in design, as well as acclaim from MIX magazine and some of the industry’s biggest critics. And with good reason: not only does this 3,500 square-foot studio boast an immense tracking room, the latest in Pro-Tools recording technology, an Exigy Monitoring system and top-of-the-line analog gear, but its designers know quality sound is invaluable—thus their custom red-and-blue SSL K-Series mixing board, the last of its prized kind. In addition to this, bands and artists have access to Red Bull Studios’ helmsman/engineering guru Eric Stenman, who has worked with everyone from Dashboard Confessional to Anthrax to Saves the Day.
Remaining relevant in hip-hop is arguably tougher to do than in any other music genre/culture, but Queensbridge-bred rhymer Nas makes it look easy. When he made his debut on Main Source’s “Live At the BBQ” in ’92, potent lines like, “When I was twelve I went to hell for snuffin’ Jesus,” quickly made Nas an MC you purposely sought out. Like many hip-hoppers in ’94, I remember listening to his debut, Illmatic, on repeat that summer in awe. On top of the first-class productions from DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and Large Professor heard on this classic, Nas’ vivid street narratives and raw metaphors unfolded like moving, gritty cinema that you just refuse to stop watching.
It has to be surreal going from making beats in your grandma’s basement one year to working with hip-hop mainstay Nas the next. But C-Sick, the winner of the Red Bull Big Tune 2008 beat battle, doesn’t come off as nervous about being a part of this landmark collaboration. Instead, I see this 18-year-old newcomer as quietly confident and eager, not wanting to draw attention to his own anticipation.
Humbleness is underrated in hip-hop. Despite what some say, ego does not automatically equal talent and 18-year-old rookie producer C-Sick is proof that even the most quiet hip-hopper can capture a crowd.
Watching the then 17-year-old beatsmith face off with the competition at the 2008 Red Bull Big Tune Chicago battle, C-Sick was clearly not only one of the youngest in the competition, but he was also one of the most reserved. Still, as the skinny kid from Chicago’s South Side modestly shuffled his arms along to his own bouncy beats, the audience responded loudly and I knew he was on the verge of doing big things.
When I got word that C-Sick won the Red Bull Big Tune Finals at the Highline Ballroom In New York, it was good to know that East Coast heads embraced the emerging Midwest producer. Earlier this year I caught up with him via e-mail to talk about his victory and he told me, “Since I was the representative of Chicago as well as the runner-up Rob Bates, I had to put my best into it and show the public that Chicago has a lot of talent.”
Since holding it down for Chicago last Fall at the finals, C-Sick didn’t try to jump right into the industry and I commend him for that. Still finishing up his senior year of high school, he has no problem keeping things low-key while continuing to collect samples and knock out beats on his Toshiba laptop. And when he has time, he keeps his ear to the rap game. “Not a lot of people heard about me, but I did still keep in contact with many record labels,” he says.
Coming up to April, with school coming to a close, and young C-Sick finds himself in L.A. working with Nas as part of his Red Bull Big Tune prize. After two years of quietly building his skills, I have a feeling this is just the beginning for the burgeoning beat maker.
The RE:GENERATION MUSIC PROJECT produced in association with The GRAMMYs® and presented by Hyundai Veloster examines the history of different music through the eyes of five of the most influential electronic producer/DJ’s in music today. For the project, Mark Ronson, DJ Premier, The Crystal Method, Pretty Lights and Skrillex each take a specific musical style and explore it by writing and recording a brand new track with a grouping of influential collaborators in that genre. The entire experience comes to life in the RE:GENERATION feature documentary directed by award-winning documentarian Amir Bar-Lev (“My Kid Could Paint That,” “The Tillman Story”) and due in theaters nationwide this February.
