100DBS & Ryan O’Neil: International Boom Bap Part 1

I was able to catch up with the busy producer Dan Brenner aka 100dbs one half of the international duo that represents Jamaica and Israel respectively. Since Ryan O’Neil(Emcee) is in school I had to speak with him later. I spoke to the man behind the boards who is heavily influenced by Prince Paul and is to this day impressed by his production on De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising. Playing music since the age of 13 and being raised from a international prespective the Beatles and Lee Perry are a part of his foundation that you can feel and hear in his craft. The University of Maryland graduate that almost dropped out because of his pursuit of the music, Brenner finished what he started and just like his partner Ryan O’Neil the ability to complete any work of art from the soul only makes one push the boundaries further. With their first debut The Adventures of the One Hand Bandit and the Slum Computer Wizard the hip hop community and music fans alike will want them to finish everything they start at their own pace.

Scheme: How did you and Ryan O’Neil meet?

100dbs: We and Ryan met through a mutual friend that I went to high school with and somehow Ryan ended up teaching at a summer camp and he met this kid that I went to high school with. The first thing I ever heard him on was a freestyle he sent me over the 21 Questions beat and he was alright lyrically but his voice was really dope. So I started sending him a few beats here and there and he didn’t do anything with it until a year later. So after I graduated I went back to Jersey for the summer and then I moved to Brooklyn and we started working on an album.

Scheme: What was the process for you creating this album?

100dbs: First I was working on this mixtape called Brenner’s Breaks and that was supposed to come out a year earlier than it did. On the strength of my production Ryan came down all the way from Queens to Maryland on the Chinatown bus and we damn near missed each other because we didn’t know what each other looked like. He came down to record a few for Brenner’s Breaks and that sh*t came out pretty good so I proposed to him to do a whole album because I’m not a singles type dude I like to make albums. We did a bunch of songs and threw out a lot of sh*t, so we have a bunch of b-side material that will never see the light of day. It took us about a year and we started last summer. He basically just picked sh*t he wanted to rap over. I remember at one point he said, “I don’t know how to write hooks.” Then he started writing hooks out of nowhere. When I first met him he was really raw, but by the time we finished the whole album he understood the full vision.

Scheme: So how long did it take to create the whole album?

100dbs: From when we started until when we finished, a year.

“…it’s good you can hear the history of it but I don’t want anyone telling me I sound like Ali Shaheed.”

Scheme: What’s the biggest thing you learned during the whole process about yourself and Ryan?

100dbs: How to accommodate an emcee because before we did Brenner’s Breaks which was a bunch of remixes, I did a remake of the Black album like everyone else. With that it’s like you’re building around an acapella that already exists so you’re restricted a lot and now all of the sudden the dude is in the studio with you and if you want to tell him to change a word (without him getting mad at you, laughs) then you can do that. You can tell him he can come hard on a track or change it around. The biggest I learned was how to accommodate an emcee and keep sh*t simple and make sure that they have a pocket to flow in. I know a lot of producers that can make real nasty beats but they don’t imagine a person flowing on it so they don’t imagine what it sounds like for an emcee to hear that sh*t; and even if its really good for them to feel like they don’t know what to do with it.

The biggest thing I learned about Ryan is that sometimes he needs a push to complete sh*t. He won’t think that something is anything but I’ll be like let this chill and don’t discard it right away, until a couple of months later he’ll think it’s dope and we’ll do something else to it. The other thing I’ve learned is that both of us are f*cking crazy stubborn. We had a lot of disagreements but there was one song in particular that I loved his lyrics on this beat but that beat was left off the album because he chose another beat. At first I really wasn’t feeling it and I was like you’re making a wrong decision here. Eventually I was like you might be right and I re-did the beat he picked and made it harder and that one ended up making the album.

“Everyone’s talking about rap music now being attacked by the mainstream media because of misogyny and violence. But to me, if we write shitty lyrics, and we make sh*tty music, we’re leaving the door open. Of course, I’m definitely against censorship but I think we have a responsibility to make sure the dirty things we talk about are put into context.”

Scheme: Listening to your music, I can hear the history, what were some of the influences you have that we hear in your music?

100dbs: First let me say thank you for recognizing that. The thing that I was most scared of, of putting this album out there was that people were going to call it throwback rap and when I saw the okayplayer.com piece I was happy that people weren’t calling it throwback rap. El(Keter) from okayplayer said, “don’t mistake this for throwback rap.” It’s a whole bunch of different sounds mixed into one. I really don’t want people thinking that this is backpack bullsh*t because I’m not down with that. I go into the studio and if I want to do something I do something and whatever comes out it comes out. So it’s good you can hear the history of it but I don’t want anyone telling me I sound like Ali Shaheed. My favorite producer of all time is Lee Perry. A lot of the sh*t I learned about production when I was about 13 or 14 f*cking around with a four-track. A lot of the things that people talk about when it comes to originating production and fusion happens really comes from Jamaica. As far as hip hop producers my favorite is Prince Paul, the way he mixed everything up and had no mercy when it came to sampling. I mean you listen to 3 Feet High now and I’m like holy sh*t I don’t know where half of these records are and that sh*t is nasty to me; the re-contextualization of previously found elements. I like when people flip different breaks in different ways.

Scheme: So what’s the plans for you guys are you trying to do this full-time? Where do you guys see yourself by 2009?

100dbs: (laughs) The goal for the next month or so is to sit back and chill for a second. Like when I say we damn near killed each other I’m not even joking. We’re all good now and better friends because of it. Ryan actually went to school for music, I didn’t, but I’ve been playing so long I know theory and all that sh*t. So when you have two musicians really trying to make some dope music it gets really hairy to come to a conclusion sometimes. I was trying to do three releases this year but I ended up only doing two. I can’t say if we are or not but given the response that we’ve gotten from this album. I think there is a strong possibility that there will be a second album but I’m working on a beats album that should come out early 2008 then probably produce another mixtape of remixes and all that.

Scheme: Being as though you have a very international background and cultural as well. What were your parents take on the career you pursued?

100dbs: They’re real proud now but when I was in school it was a big hastle because I was trying to do both at the same time because in a sense I was half-assing music and the same with school. I damn near failed out and almost dropped out but I decided to stick it through for an extra year and finish. My mom was the one that actually got me into music when I was younger but we didn’t really get along until I left for college. She always understood and thought that I was talented. My dad thought I was talented and he supported me a lot but he viewed it more like a hobby like it was going to die off at one point. So when I told him I was going to move to New York and try and get this sh*t off the ground and all that he was like your crazy…and then I did it (laughs). It’s cool now but when I was in school it was really a conflict of interest.

“I think it’s more important to make dope music and don’t worry about what section it’s going to be in when you go to the store.”

Scheme: Let’s talk about a couple of the songs, the first one I wanted to talk about was Get Down, how did that track come about?

100dbs: I made that beat in a laundromat while I was waiting for my clothes to dry. I went to the Laundromat with my laptop. So I had this Sam Cooke sample that I wanted to chop up and then I had this James Brown sh*t and a whole bunch of breaks that I wanted to chop up. The song by Sam Cooke was Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen and there’s a part where Sam Cooke says, “…to the ground” and I thought I about putting that with James Brown “down” on Pays the Cost to be the Boss. So I started chopping that up and I got the drums going and it all started coming together. I showed it to Ryan the next day and he freaked the f*ck out and he was like I know exactly what I want to write to this. So really it was an exercise in seeing how you can flip vocal samples together.

Scheme: What about Tribal Clap because that one is crazy?

100dbs: Nobody just feels okay about that track, some people hate it and some people love it but nobody is in the middle. That was not even necessarily going to be on the album but then Ryan and he wanted a crew track and something that would be hard, no hooks and straight verses. I think I had that one lying around and I just beefed it up or whatever. The drums are an Eddie Kendricks sample.

Scheme: What side of the fence are you on when they say hip hop is under-attack?

100dbs: Of course it’s under attack, it’s been around long enough. If anything it’s legitimizing it as an art form. The minute there’s a backlash to something you know that it’s big sh*t. It’s really an extension of the backlash it got in the early nineties and it keeps coming back every once in while. Us as musicians if we don’t do our job and put out not just sh*tty lyrics but sh*tty music and messages and no art to the whole thing than you open the door and you’re like come in and attack me please.

Scheme: So what are you guys ultimately trying to do?

100dbs: It’s bigger than hip hop rap is not my only love. Ryan and I were talking about doing some crazy sh*t on the next album. We did the boom-bap album and we’re getting our props. We’re thinking about going a little crazy with the next album because Ryan can sing and I want to do more compositions and complete sh*t and personally I just want people to understand that you don’t have to categorize yourself and put yourself in a certain pigeon hole. I think it’s more important to make dope music and don’t worry about what section it’s going to be in when you go to the store.