http://www.thaformula.com/da_beatminerz_live_from_master_control.htm
thaFormula.com - When did you decide to get started on the new Beatminerz project?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - Last May. Me, Buck and Smif N' Wessun went on tour and I was talkin with my brother. My brother said he wanted to do another Beatminerz album and that was at the beginning of April. I told him yeah, but let me learn Pro Tools first. So I went on the road and learned Pro Tools. When I came back home, I knew everything I wanted to know and I was ready to record. So we started like that.
thaFormula.com - Why did you want to learn Pro Tools before starting on the album?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - It wasn't about learning how to work with it, but learning how to listen to it. Pro Tools is alot cleaner then tape. With tape you have more room to make mistakes. With Pro Tools you can't really make mistakes. I had to teach myself to learn how to work looking at a screen, instead of looking at the actual buttons to press. The way I record, I kind of treat Pro Tools as if it's just only tape. Because if I treat it as a studio, then my stuff is gonna start sounding electronic. I tried to make the album sound as analog as I could and we succeeded. People think that I used tape instead of using Pro Tools. Not only am I using Pro Tools, but I'm using the cheapest Pro Tools that you can buy. I'm recording with that, but that's hip hop though. In hip hop, you take what you can work with and work with it. So I'm killin' these cats that own $30,000 systems with $500 Pro Tools and a bullshit laptop.
thaFormula.com - What made you decide to really do this album seeing that you had such a problem with the last one, and how did you go about picking the guests for this album?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - This time what I did was a little different. Instead of reaching out to different cats because I like the way they sound, I just reached out to family for this album. Like me and Krs have done work before. J-Live, that's my dog. Wordsworth and Last Emperor is all family. Everybody came in and we just did what we do. We just came together and made magic. This album cost me nothing near what the last album cost. I didn't have the label politickin' in my ear tellin' me I had to make a certain record. This time Studio was tellin' me to go in and create a Beatminerz album the way I feel it should be. So they took care of us.
thaFormula.com - So how is the sound different on this new project, compared to the last?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - Well I went on-line to look at what people were saying about "Brace 4 Impak." One thing about myself is that I read peoples reviews whether bad or good and I take it to heart. If the majority is sayin' it, then I got to do it. Alot of people were saying that they liked when we got the samples rockin'. So I went diggin' for more samples this time around. Me and my brother dug for alot of samples. So the people spoke and I listened. I'm not making an album just for myself. I'm also making it for the people. So when you writing them things about me on those sites, I'm reading them.
thaFormula.com - Do you use keyboards at all when producing?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - I been using keyboards since "Enta The Stage." I use it to enhance the sample. This is one secret that I will put out there. Alot of the time when we have that deep bass, that's me playing the bass behind the sample. So I will play the bassline out on the keyboard and then smooth it out. You would swear that I'm playing the bass. I play a bunch of instruments. I'm the type of person that will sit back and listen to a sample and say, that violin in that sample needs to be enhanced. So I'll pull out the violin and play it. So that's how we work. This year I plan on putting out a DVD which will basically be a behind the scenes thing with me and my brother. Were gonna show cats how we work in the studio. That's something we plan to do in the near future.
thaFormula.com - So how has the response been so far and are you happy with how things been going with the album lately?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - I been reading up on cats reviews and so far the reviews are good. I could tell by the reviews that the people took time out to listen. I'm not saying that my album is the best in the world, but I tried to make an album that you could sit down and listen to at least.
thaFormula.com - Now how did the last Black Moon album end up doing for you guys man?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - It did pretty good man because alot of people liked it. They liked it better then "Warzone." It's good because it set up the next Black Moon album. We are gonna sit down over the summer and do Black Moon. I think that the next one will be all Beatminerz produced though. We are also coming with a all Beatminerz produced Last Emperor album and an all Beatminerz produced KRS-One album too. So it wouldn't be right for us to do that and not fully produce the Black Moon.
thaFormula.com - Will there be another Boot Camp album?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - Were talking about that too. Were talking about a Beatminerz produced Boot Camp album. Boot Camp likes to work with alot of people though, but we will see. Hopefully I could just make it Beatminerz and 9th Wonder.
thaFormula.com - It seemed like alot of people were really feeling the last Boot Camp album?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - It did pretty good man. One thing that kills all of us though, is the politics of radio. BET told us that we were old. MTV gave us more love then BET, which is crazy. We got MTV play, but no BET play. I think it was because we didn't have no girls in the video but I don't know.
thaFormula.com - How do you react to something like that man?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - It's to the point where Black Moon is being erased from history. Alot of people forget that Black Moon was there with Wu Tang, Biggie and them. We were part of the reason that it came to the East, but we wasn't on some East Coast shit. We was on some hip hop. The Source ain't talkin' about us when they talk about the 90's hip hop. XXL don't talk about us when they talk about 90's hip hop and Vibe don't say shit about us when they talk about hip hop, period. That's the wack part. I'm not trying to say that my shit is the greatest in the world, but it is classic. "Enta Da Stage" is a classic album, "Da Shinin" is a classic album. When they talk about the best records of the 90's, I don't hear them talking about that. They are totally trying to erase us. Maybe we was to dirty for them. Maybe I should have washed my hair more often.
thaFormula.com - When did you decide to get started on the new Beatminerz project?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - Last May. Me, Buck and Smif N' Wessun went on tour and I was talkin with my brother. My brother said he wanted to do another Beatminerz album and that was at the beginning of April. I told him yeah, but let me learn Pro Tools first. So I went on the road and learned Pro Tools. When I came back home, I knew everything I wanted to know and I was ready to record. So we started like that.
thaFormula.com - Why did you want to learn Pro Tools before starting on the album?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - It wasn't about learning how to work with it, but learning how to listen to it. Pro Tools is alot cleaner then tape. With tape you have more room to make mistakes. With Pro Tools you can't really make mistakes. I had to teach myself to learn how to work looking at a screen, instead of looking at the actual buttons to press. The way I record, I kind of treat Pro Tools as if it's just only tape. Because if I treat it as a studio, then my stuff is gonna start sounding electronic. I tried to make the album sound as analog as I could and we succeeded. People think that I used tape instead of using Pro Tools. Not only am I using Pro Tools, but I'm using the cheapest Pro Tools that you can buy. I'm recording with that, but that's hip hop though. In hip hop, you take what you can work with and work with it. So I'm killin' these cats that own $30,000 systems with $500 Pro Tools and a bullshit laptop.
thaFormula.com - What made you decide to really do this album seeing that you had such a problem with the last one, and how did you go about picking the guests for this album?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - This time what I did was a little different. Instead of reaching out to different cats because I like the way they sound, I just reached out to family for this album. Like me and Krs have done work before. J-Live, that's my dog. Wordsworth and Last Emperor is all family. Everybody came in and we just did what we do. We just came together and made magic. This album cost me nothing near what the last album cost. I didn't have the label politickin' in my ear tellin' me I had to make a certain record. This time Studio was tellin' me to go in and create a Beatminerz album the way I feel it should be. So they took care of us.
thaFormula.com - So how is the sound different on this new project, compared to the last?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - Well I went on-line to look at what people were saying about "Brace 4 Impak." One thing about myself is that I read peoples reviews whether bad or good and I take it to heart. If the majority is sayin' it, then I got to do it. Alot of people were saying that they liked when we got the samples rockin'. So I went diggin' for more samples this time around. Me and my brother dug for alot of samples. So the people spoke and I listened. I'm not making an album just for myself. I'm also making it for the people. So when you writing them things about me on those sites, I'm reading them.
thaFormula.com - Do you use keyboards at all when producing?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - I been using keyboards since "Enta The Stage." I use it to enhance the sample. This is one secret that I will put out there. Alot of the time when we have that deep bass, that's me playing the bass behind the sample. So I will play the bassline out on the keyboard and then smooth it out. You would swear that I'm playing the bass. I play a bunch of instruments. I'm the type of person that will sit back and listen to a sample and say, that violin in that sample needs to be enhanced. So I'll pull out the violin and play it. So that's how we work. This year I plan on putting out a DVD which will basically be a behind the scenes thing with me and my brother. Were gonna show cats how we work in the studio. That's something we plan to do in the near future.
thaFormula.com - So how has the response been so far and are you happy with how things been going with the album lately?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - I been reading up on cats reviews and so far the reviews are good. I could tell by the reviews that the people took time out to listen. I'm not saying that my album is the best in the world, but I tried to make an album that you could sit down and listen to at least.
thaFormula.com - Now how did the last Black Moon album end up doing for you guys man?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - It did pretty good man because alot of people liked it. They liked it better then "Warzone." It's good because it set up the next Black Moon album. We are gonna sit down over the summer and do Black Moon. I think that the next one will be all Beatminerz produced though. We are also coming with a all Beatminerz produced Last Emperor album and an all Beatminerz produced KRS-One album too. So it wouldn't be right for us to do that and not fully produce the Black Moon.
thaFormula.com - Will there be another Boot Camp album?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - Were talking about that too. Were talking about a Beatminerz produced Boot Camp album. Boot Camp likes to work with alot of people though, but we will see. Hopefully I could just make it Beatminerz and 9th Wonder.
thaFormula.com - It seemed like alot of people were really feeling the last Boot Camp album?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - It did pretty good man. One thing that kills all of us though, is the politics of radio. BET told us that we were old. MTV gave us more love then BET, which is crazy. We got MTV play, but no BET play. I think it was because we didn't have no girls in the video but I don't know.
thaFormula.com - How do you react to something like that man?
Evil Dee Of Da Beatminerz - It's to the point where Black Moon is being erased from history. Alot of people forget that Black Moon was there with Wu Tang, Biggie and them. We were part of the reason that it came to the East, but we wasn't on some East Coast shit. We was on some hip hop. The Source ain't talkin' about us when they talk about the 90's hip hop. XXL don't talk about us when they talk about 90's hip hop and Vibe don't say shit about us when they talk about hip hop, period. That's the wack part. I'm not trying to say that my shit is the greatest in the world, but it is classic. "Enta Da Stage" is a classic album, "Da Shinin" is a classic album. When they talk about the best records of the 90's, I don't hear them talking about that. They are totally trying to erase us. Maybe we was to dirty for them. Maybe I should have washed my hair more often.