Vinyl
Producer
boom-bap · jazz rap · conscious hip-hop · 90s hip-hop
Vinyl works on an MPC60 first, Ableton second. Records start with a crate dig — usually a 70s jazz LP, sometimes an obscure soul B-side — and the chop happens before any drums get programmed. Boom-bap kicks and snares are layered three deep so they hit like the late- 90s did. Scratched hooks get cut on a Technics 1200 with a Shure M44G. Horn stabs ride above the loop. Vinyl crackle is welded into the master. Rook tracks here. The reference points are Premier's chop discipline, Pete Rock's jazz palette, Dilla's swing, the Alchemist's modern dust, 9th Wonder's melodic restraint. Nothing leaves the room without sounding like it could fit on a Gang Starr album.
Where the music lives
Brooklyn brownstone stoops. Barbershops with the radio on. Cypher circles in school parking lots. The half-hour after the basketball game ends and the speaker keeps playing. Records made for headphones on long subway rides.
Signature sounds
DAW
MPC / Ableton Live
Currently chasing
Right now it's the kick-on-the-and pattern from Mass Appeal — Premo didn't quantise that and it's why the loop walks. Trying to program the same human drift without copying the file.