Interviews DJ X-Sinna

[Fade]

Sup, tell us about DJ X-Sinna!

Well man, my story is a study in extremes. I'm from Kansas City, Missouri. I'm a graphic artist by trade with a Bachelor's Degree in Commercial Art. I'm a husband to my wife and soul-mate of 12 years Pamela and father of two, my son John (8) and Debra (4). I'm a very passionate dude. I'm very passionate about my beliefs, my family and about my music. I'm a perfectionist, very introverted (at least until I get to know you). I also have a twisted sense of humor and I love to prank people. I wasn't always a funny guy though. I come from a VERY DARK past. I lived my life without purpose, then I heard The Sugar Hill Gang for the first time and I was awestruck.

But it was when I heard Run-DMC and Whodini when I fell in love for rap and hip-hop culture and decided that I wanted to rap, DJ and produce! I would spend hours at my best friend's crib because he had two turntables and a mixer and he showed me how to DJ. He was also a drug dealer. In fact, most of my friends were slangin' then. The only reasons why I didn't get caught up in it was because I had a praying mother and I felt so much love for DJing that that was all I wanted to do! I had finally found a place where I fit in!! I come from a very musical family anyway.

How does it feel to be a Beat This! Champion?

WOW!!!! What an honor and surprise!!! It's crazy too because this was such a heated battle. EVERYONE brought their "A" game on this one so it's quite an honor to be placed among other "Beat This! Champions". After I made the beat and submitted it, I started listening to the others and I was like, "I don't have a chance in this one! There's no way I'm even gonna place!". There was so much being brought to the table that is was silly! So, naturally I was really nervous and I felt like I had no chance of surviving that battle. It was bloody!

How did you put together that winning beat?

Well for starters, I LOVE John Coltrane and I have a lot of Coltrane records and this one cut in particular "In a Sentimental Mood" would always haunt me every time I would play it. I first heard it on "The Cosby Show" and then I realized that I had the record! Man, that piano was so sexy yet haunting at the same time. I kept telling my wife "I've gotta do something with that". I had planned to do it for several weeks before the "Beat This!" Competition came up. When it did, I decided I was going to enter and work on that track. Now, I originally sampled the piano riff but on the second bar of the riff, when the notes transpose, a sax kicks in and I really wanted that second bar of piano. So I decided to just play that riff myself and make it sound like a sample. I was blessed to find a real warm bluesy piano and went for it. I played it just a little different than the actual song to add my spin to it. Next I went for the drums. I wanted some bangin' crunchy drums with a lot of punch. I wanted something that Pete Rock would do. Next was the bassline. I used a nice Jazz bass for the intro and outro and a nice deep bass patch for the hook and verses. Coming up with the bassline took a minute because I had to play around with it to get what I was hearing in my head.

After feeling the drums a while then the bassline came. I always follow a rule that the bassline should follow and compliment the drums. So with this, the drums were bouncy so I played the bass patch going up and down and hittin' every beat of the drums. The guitar and woodwind samples came off a Wes Montgomery cut. The woodwinds sound like an ethnic sound because of the way I chopped the sample and played it. The only thing I sampled from the Coltrane song was the drum roll. The guitar was chopped into several pieces and played in a certain way. It was crazy because we only had two days to make and submit our beats so I had to really hustle to get it in. I like to make joints that evoke emotions. Songs that take you somewhere to another world, so to speak. Things that I've gone through in my life, I put that energy into my tracks.

When I make beats, I approach it like this: every song is a conversation between instruments, samples whatever. The topic of the conversation is the song title. Now the drums are leading the conversation along with the bassline. They never get off topic. Other sounds get in on the conversation say, keys. The keys are on topic as well but, they have their own unique ideas about the subject being discussed so it adds flavor and depth to the conversation. Now if you want this conversation between these instruments to go deeper, then you add samples, horns or whatever but you cannot get off topic! In other words, there must be unity and harmony between the instruments and the notes they play and they must follow the drums. Once you learn this rule then you can learn to break it properly. You can add elements to the conversation that are witty, loud and obnoxious but yet still on topic.

I think of it like me and my boys (4) sitting around talking about a particular topic and it's a serious topic. Now I'll say something stupid and silly to keep the subject from getting the mood down and we all start laughing but what I said was STILL ON TOPIC yet it was way out there. There was still harmony and flow in going the conversation. To me, that's all music is. Does that make any sense? I can tell right off the bat when a beatmaker/producer doesn't understand this concept. They'll have a sample of let's say keys, playing a riff in a particular key. The drums are doing their thing but the bassline is off key or played in such a way where you can't figure the song out. The bassline is saying something that makes no sense! You don't know what's going on! The track makes no sense because there's no harmony and flow in the music.

What equipment/software did you use for it?

I used the Ensoniq ASR-10 for my piano and bass sounds and the rest was all of the MPC 2000XL, plus the two Technics 1200s. That's all I ever use. I am gonna learn Fruity Loops, Producer Gyal is gonna show me how to work with that. That's my little sister right there!

Tell us about Sound Doctrine Productions.

Sound Doctrine Productions is my production company. Right now it's just me but I want to get at least one more person to join me. I see us like the Neptunes of Gospel Hip-Hop/R&B. I'm all about change man, I don't want to just make music, I want to make music that stands the test of time. What I mean is this, there are certain songs that when they first come on you know exactly what that song is. Whether you like that song or not, you recognize it as soon as it kicks in.

One song that immediately comes to mind is Guns-N-Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine". It's starts off with this infectious guitar lick that identifies the song and dictates where the music is gonna go before the drums and accompaniment come in. That's an 80's song but play it now - you'll know exactly what it is. Another song is Earth Wind and Fire's "Let's Groove". They employ the same concept. When the vocoder and bassline starts, everybody wants to get their groove on! Why? It's because of the identifying signature at the start of the song. People know what the song is, who it's by, they remember where they were when they first heard it, who they were dating at the time and so forth. I'm trying to create joints like that! Songs that make you feel you can't live without buying that CD. You would give up lunch just to have one of my CDs and bang your favorite joints. LOL!!

When did you start making beats?

I started back in 1986 shortly after learning how to DJ. I had no samplers or drum machines. All I had man, was a dual tape deck and 1 turntable. What I did for example was take Beastie Boys' "The New Style" and all I wanted was the part where the beat was slower and no lyrics so I could make an instrumental out of it for me and my boys to spit on. That segment was only about 20 seconds or so. That song would be on tape and I would have a blank tape and then I would record that segment - hit pause - rewind to a point where I could record again on beat with no skips and let up off the pause button and voila!!! I do that a number of times and I would have a nice loop. I would even do breaks & drum rolls man!! Extra snare hits and so forth. It was a pain to do but I loved doing it!!!

Later, I was able to get a Roland 909, Alesis SR16, two turntables, a Fostex 4 track tape recorder and an old Casio that had sampling on it. A piece of crap but I crafted some gems with it! What I liked about the Fostex was it had a speed dial on it. I could control how fast to record (which would slightly or dramatically change the pitch of whatever is being recorded). I would make deep 808 kicks with it. I would record me hitting the "rap kick" off the Alesis SR16 (a knock-off of an 808 kick which was madd weak!) and while I'm dong that, I've got the pitch set real high so when I played it back at regular speed, it hit deep and long! I freaked that Casio and Fostex 'till they died!!! LOL.

What/Who are some of your musical influences?

I'm very eclectic. I grew up listening to classic and progressive Rock and R&B. I love Classical music. My influences range from Van Halen To Bach to Johnnie Cash to Pete Rock. Curtis Mayfield and Earth Wind & Fire. My biggest rap influences are Run-DMC & Jam Master Jay (RIP), Whodini (particularly their producer Larry Smith). KRS-One, Public Enemy, Dr. Dre, Easy Mo Bee, Tupac, and the almighty Mantronik!!! That dude was SICK on beats back in the 80's! That's just a few. Organized Noise is ill! What they did on Curtis Mayfield's last album was sick!

If there's one thing you could change about your style, what would it be?

I have a few different styles actually. I wouldn't change a thing about them except this: Get piano lessons and learn to read music. Most people can't tell that by hearing my music because a lot of it is so musical. I play by ear now. My style is versatile and varies from track to track and that's the way I am yet I still keep it Hip Hop. I am all about change. My goal is to change the face of Rap/Hip-Hop and bring Gospel Rap to the forefront. I wouldn't even mind it going "Pop" if I can keep that "crackle" in it you know what I mean?

I'm at a place in my life man, where I know what I'm doing, I know what direction I want to go and I don't let the opinions of others hinder that. I'm not at all saying that I'm all that. This is what I'm saying: There are a lot of people who listen to music, that doesn't make them musicians. But some of them have a good critical ear for music and have valid opinions on what good, well produced music is. Those are the ones whom I listen to. Even if they are not into Rap, I respect what they interject because they have a good critical ear for music overall. They don't judge according their personal taste or genre. They just love music! If a person tells me that I need to incorporate more 808 claps and kicks in my music or it doesn't sound underground enough, I generally don't listen to those types of people; they are wanting me to be more Crunk or underground because that's ALL they listen too. They are not open minded to all the other forms of music and don't hear or appreciate what I'm trying to do musically. I still have so much to learn though.

What do you think of today's mainstream beats?

There isn't a lot of excitement in the music anymore. In other words, I haven't really heard anything that made me want to run to the store and spend my hard earned lunch money and go without eating to hear it. They are only a few that have that effect on me. Dr. Dre, Timbaland, some of the Neptunes joints. I like Kanye West. That "Jesus Walks" track was the most exciting thing I had heard when it came out. And not just because of the subject matter. But when I heard it I was like "What in the world is that??? Now that's what Gospel Rap should sound like!" And another thing, there isn't enough DJing on the tracks anymore!! It's just all beats and music. I think the DJ just pushes a boiling track to the eruption point and that excitement is just not there anymore. We gotta get that back! Bring the DJ back to the forefront of producing/beat-making! I'm trying to achieve that.

What's your ultimate goal with producing?

LOL!!! Some of y'all are gonna think I'm crazy but my ULTIMATE goal is to take Dr. Dre's title. Not outta disrespect!!! That's not the reason why. My reason is to be the 1st Gospel Rap producer. Rated above Dre, and Kanye as far as music and production goes.

How often are you in the studio?

Not often enough that's for sure! I'm currently working on Royal Priesthood's second CD.

Do you spend more time in the studio making beats or recording vocals/mixing?

Well, I spend more time at home making and perfecting beats. Like I said before, I'm a perfectionist so I want to make sure that track is hot enough to make me wanna spit on it. Once I get the track to the point that I'm satisfied with it I'll ask certain people I trust to listen and give input and go from there. After the changes are done (if any) then it's off to the studio to drop the tracks in Pro Tools. That's where the creative process stops for me. I can then relax and listen while our engineer Mike "Doc" Elwood works his magic. He's a master in Pro Tools!! He has worked with SEVERAL major artists including Mariah Carey so he knows his stuff! Also, we have worked with Asaph (Alex)ander Ward - a big producer in Gospel music. Both are here in KC. We all sit and get our mix on after we lay our vocals. Kevin & I will give our input as to what we are hearing and all that but Doc & Alex really know how to make the tracks bang! Our sessions go pretty quick because we go in knowing our lyrics and junk. We don't like to waste time in the studio trying to flesh-out issues that could have be solved before we stepped in the studio. Most of out studio time is spent on mixing. Time is money and these cats are EXPENSIVE!

What kind of tips would you give to aspiring producers/beat-makers?

Whatever you are using to make your tracks, know it inside and out and get yourself organized!!! Before you go to the studio, make yourself a chart of all your sounds, what they are coming off of (Keyboard, MPC, etc.) what effects you originally used (even though the studio might not have the exact effect you used, chances are they can match it) and your pans. This info can save you time and money when you go in to drop your tracks! Be passionate about your music. Don't just do it so you can make money. Passion pushes you to go further, work harder than others. It causes you to make sacrifices that others won't do. That right there will make you see if you are a producer/beat-maker or just a hobbyist. If you are a composer then do that and perfect it to take Hip Hop to the next level! You could be the Eddie Van Halen of Hip Hop!

Tell us about the MPC, why is it so good!?

Man, the MPC is so good for several reasons! For starters, those pads just feel so good! You want to bang on em'! Besides, it's more natural to bang drums sounds on pads than keys right? The sequencer is ILL!!! WOW!! It's so user friendly yet, so intuitive. I love the fact that you can make your tracks as loose or as tight as you want them by messing with the tempo & time signature. I love to give my tracks that "human feel" to them. Especially my non-sampled tracks. It's the "brain" in my set up. I don't do any sequencing on the ASR-10. It basically houses the sounds that I'm using off that board. I play all the MIDI information into the MPC. I like being able to see the WAV files when editing samples. I'm very visual and hands-on so the MPC is perfect for me.

What about Royal Priesthood? What's that all about?

Royal Priesthood (RP) is my brother Kevin Blanco and myself and we are a Gospel Rap duo, group, whatever you wish to classify us. We talk about life and its problems but we don't just rap about problems; we present a solution. Right now, we are working on our 2nd CD. We hope to have it done and released by the end of the year. We've done shows in Miami, West Palm Beach, Chicago, and our biggest and best was Naples, Italy!!! We were there for the second time in Sept. 05. Man, it was so TIGHT!!! That was a dream come true for me. We made such a huge impact there and we didn't speak any Italian!! I loved the food, culture, architecture and people. I consider myself a black Italian! They showed us so much love there that it was overwhelming! We did a show for 5 nights straight and after we were done, we were mobbed by the crowds. We had an audience of about 2000 people.

I guess with all the religion, that would explain your name!

LOL! Yes, that would explain it! I want to give a BIG shout out to you Fade, for letting me join IllMuzik and putting up such a hot site and bridging the gap between our basements and the rest of the world - allowing us to showcase our talents. I've learned so much from so many people here. Shout-outs to the IllMuzik moderators and staff: Cold Truth (I loved your interview man! Now that's passion!), Andreas, Wings, Agent Smith, Afriquedeluxe, Stresswon, and Freakwncy and all those who voted for me. I can't even begin to tell you how honored and humbled I am by that. I've got send a HUGE shout out and thanks to my Lord because He's the reason why I do what I do. I send a GREAT BIG shout-out to my beautiful wife of 12 years Pamela for being my encourager and strength. If it wasn't for you I would have given up years ago! You believe in me when others don't, including myself!!! I love you so much!

Shout-outs to my beautiful children John and Debra who always listens and dances to my music and always asks "daddy, did you make that?" Shout-out goes to my homie and March's "Beat This!" Champ Hardboiled!!! I love that track!!!!! Man, you are so talented!! I've got nothing but respect for you. You are true people! Thanks for your friendship and support. You know you've got my support and friendship. That's on the real. Keep bringing that HEAT!!! I gotta send a fiery shout-out to my dogg DJ360!!!! Man, you keep coming with serious FIRE with them tracks!! It's scary. Thanks for your calls, props and encouragement. You have no idea what that has done for me. I am so blessed to know you and have you for a friend! Let's keep bangin!

Shout-out to Spanish Harlem, wow!!! Thanks so much reaching out to me with the PM! That was so encouraging! I really appreciate you fo' sho! I am feeling those beats homie!!! "Criminal" is HOT!!! Whew! Shout-out to my Bronx homie, Supa Produza!!! Thank you for your words of encouragement and your time. Let's connect dogg!

A shout-out most def goes to my little sista, Producer Gyal!! Dang sis, what can I say? Your music brought back that excitement to producing. You are the reason why I got on IllMuzik. Hearing your winning track "God's Victory" blew me away!!! And to know that a female did that??!! Your friendship is such a blessing to me. I don't even take that for granted! I see you doing great and awesome things with your talent. DON'T EVER LET THAT DIE!!! Your ear for music is incredible!!! You are such a dear friend and sister to me. Thanks for ALL your prayers and encouragement. I appreciate all the comments and congrats from my Ill-Fam!! Word! Shout-outs go to ALL those in the competition! You all came bloodthirsty this time out!! WHEW!!!!

Do you have any projects coming up soon?

Well right now, Royal Priesthood are currently working on our second CD titled "Trial By Fire" featuring a HOT track produced by a fellow member of ILLMUZIK (I can't say who it is yet) so I'm real excited about that. This CD is going to be so ILL. We are doing some creative things musically and trying to push the envelope in Gospel Hip-Hop. I believe that this one will be the "one" that gets the attention of the world and will propel us and Gospel Hip-Hop into the main arena. We plan to have this project done and ready to release by the end of the year. Plus, I am planning on adding a production partner to Sound Doctrine Productions! We will be to Gospel Rap & R&B what the Neptunes are to Rap & R&B. This guy is real sick on the keys!! Very talented so we should seal the deal here shortly. I'm working on a track for this cat in Chicago named King David. He's a real cool brother. So I'm staying busy and getting busier!

You already gave your shoutouts, so I just want to say thanks for doing the interview. Any last words?

Once again, thanks to you Fade for all the awesome work that you are doing with this website to unite and educate up-and-coming beatmakers/producers from all over the globe. And also, blessing me with an opportunity to showcase and share a little bit. Thanks again to my ILLMUZIK fam, I will rep y'all to the fullest!!! Peace!