DJ House Shoes has become a household name, with a dope podcast and his constant travelling back and forth from Cali, Detroit and New York Shoes it not only trying to mold the ears of Detroit but the nation, which seems to be in a state of anarchy thanks to the big machine we call corporate America. I had the chance to catch up with Shoes and rap about beats, Dilla, finding your own lane and the who he feels are the next up and coming producers.

Scheme: What were the first pieces of equipment you started making beats and things like that?

Shoes: The first piece of equpiment I ever used was a rock n’ play and I can’t remember the company that made it but it was a little small hand held video game sh*t. A little plastic 16 second sampler that ran off a nine volt battery. Also the four-track, I would loop some drums up with that. This was like 93′, 94 so these were Beatminerz type grimey, Black Moon type sh*t. That was the birth of House Shoes on the beats,

Scheme: Were any of the beats that you made from that equipment used?

Shoes: Yeah it was pretty much crew sh*t. I was f*cking with a couple of crews back then. 31 Flavors was the first clique I f*cked with. The second crew I worked with was Laswunzout and by that time I had started f*cking with the MPC60 and I started moving on up on other machines.

Scheme: What is the one sound that you must have in your music?

Shoes: Well the drums are always your most important thing. Your drums have to snap but other than that I like for my sh*t to sound real angry or real beautiful with the undertones or hard ass drums on it. Pretty much when I’m going through drums I’m looking for filthy sh*t to open my ears up.

Scheme: Is there any reason why your music has to be either of those two extremes and not anything in the middle?

Shoes: I couldn’t really tell you, it’s usually just one or the other. When I get on the beats I like to do something thats going to create an emotion out of you so thats why I’m probably so polarized.

Scheme: Explain what your process is when you dig?

Shoes: A major piece of digging for me is when you catch that feeling when you see that ill ass album cover and that makes you gravitate towards it and then you turn the album around to see what instruments cats were using. For me it’s album covers and then I would say instruments. Then producer’s, record labels and time periods those types of things that all go hand in hand. Also I would say there are certain songs like every version on the Look of Love is retarded, every version of We’ve Only Just Begun is retarded so there’s certain songs no matter whose playing with them they’re always going to come out on some crazy sh*t.

Scheme: How do you create your beats do they come from a place within or do you sit in the studio and wait for the beat to come to you. How does that process work for you?

Shoes: It’s kind of a balance between the two because I’m not a work horse producer by any means at all. At the end of the day I make beats for myself, I have a real critical ear when it comes to music coming up under Dilla, Wajeed and all these other cats from the D (Detroit). Usually I catch a vibe and I just sit down and start going through records and usually I find the drums first and find the samples and other things to lay on top of it after that. Basically the inspiration comes to sit in front of the machine and then I have to inspire myself after that.

Scheme: You spoke of angry and beautiful when describing your sound. What colors come to mind for you when you think of your music from that perspective?

Shoes: Mud (laughs) mud, gravel and concrete. Hard physical sh*t, charocoal, ash, weed smoke.

Scheme: Do you feel like when you go into the studio although you want to carry on the Jay Dee legacy do you find it hard to stick to your own path and not delve to deeply into his sound?

Shoes: Nah, with me, like the first time I played a beat tape for Jay, he picked the last two joints on that beat tape but I would never…I’m the student and that’s the teacher. One day I went over there with a tape and he was like the reason he picked those two joints was because they were dope and they didn’t sound like my sh*t. I keep getting these beats that sound like my sh*t. Just like he said in the interviews you don’t imitate your inspirations, that’s not how you pay a compliment. A compliment is paid when you create your own forms and do them to the best of your ability.

Scheme: What producer’s are you looking at as peers that are creating their own lanes and not allowing themselves to fall under certain umbrellas?

Shoes: Of course Black Milk, Sam from Ann Arbor has some crazy joints. I f*ck with Kev and Pete but upstart cats, my boy Quelle this cat is retarded he does rhymes and beats and he f*cks with a punk rock band, he’s retarded. My boy Marvwon from the Phat Killahz he has beats. 14KT from the Labtech Crew, his sh*t is about to pop out of all the up and coming artists he’s the closest. Smokey got some sh*t and illa J got some sh*t, he’s having growth spurts every other weak.

Scheme: What’s that like seeing that happen…

Shoes: Ahh man it’s crazy, he really didn’t start doing this sh*t until about two years ago. It’s crazy to see when he gets in front of that machine. It’s crazy when he plays over the Moog joint.

Scheme: We talked about the equipment you first started out with, what are you using now?

Shoes: Now I’m on the 2000XL it’s okay, it’s not my favorite machine. Originally I went from the four-track to the 3000 and then I actually sold my 3000 to Karriem(Riggins) back in the day. Right before I moved out to Cali my sh*t had a meltdown so Denaun(Porter) laced me up with one of his extra joints.

Scheme: What’s it like for you living in Cali? I’ve spoken to some artists and they always talk about their minds being more open and free when they’re in Cali?

Shoes: It’s a box in Detroit and when you haven’t been outside your own town you tend to not think outside of the square as much. When you relocate it’s like 360 degrees and your open to all new sources of inspiration and surroundings. I think stepping away from home you just look at everything in a different sense even all the way down to the sh*t you’re f*cking with on beats.

Scheme: What is it about the current beatmaking that you love and what is it about today’s beatmaking that disgusts you?

Shoes: I think a lot of the new cats, a lot of that sh*t sounds like it’s off of the same beat cd. I heard an online radio show out here and it was like a beat showcase oriented show and they were playing all different producer’s sh*t and it all sounded like one beat cd. Cats really aren’t finding their own way, don’t bite muthaf*ckas, be you and find your own path. The sh*t that gets me excited is hearing cats f*ck with sh*t thats already been f*cked with and flip it on some whole other sh*t. Like the old Gangstarr sh*t was retarded but Kev Brown murdered that sh*t. Like on some rhyme sh*t when Jay Electronica f*cked with the Nas joint and did the My World joint…come on man! For real these cats though get on some new sh*t and that’s all they f*ck with for like six or seven months. Keep it movin man.

Scheme: How important is travelling to your music and what you do, we discussed you getting out of that box how important is the travelling aspect to any up and coming producer as well as yourself?

Shoes: Well you can get real bored f*cking with these cats over here in the states. When you go over that water and cats know the words to all the songs you play and have respect for that real sh*t. That can be a major source of inspiration.

Scheme: What’s House Shoes definition of real sh*t?

Shoes: Having the ability to listen to your sh*t on the same level as your influences,
and not just being satisfied that you made a beat. F*ck yes men.

Scheme: Do you ever find yourself wanting to infiltrate that big “Machine”?

Shoes: Hell no. This game has done so many of my people wrong I’m really not trying to get involved man. I’m trying to do my sh*t from a distance I’m not even trying to jump in like that. I feel like the more you can get involved with the music you can lose a lot of love for the art. I’m not trying to do something that makes me hate what I love to do.

Scheme: Talk about your podcast and how that came about?

Shoes: The podcast thanks to Max, Ced and Tyler over at hvw8.com and they have this podcast they do every sunday called Live at the BBQ. I mean I had always had offers to be on the radio but always without the freedom to play the sh*t that I wanted to play. People can listen to it at www.shoeshouse.podomatic.com.

Scheme: Having the Jay Dee’s and the Wajeed’s around you when did yo find your niche?

Shoes: Since I got my platform in St. Andrews which was like the spot for hip hop in like 94. I get kicked out of school and I was blessed to mold the ears of the city at St. Andrews. Thank God through the St. Andrews platform I’m known as the voice of the city on some hip hop sh*t and for the record Detroit is not a hip hop city.

Scheme: Are we ever going to see an House Shoes instrumental?

Shoes: I’m actually working on a solo joint with everyone I f*ck with from the D’ and a couple of cats from out here. That should be out late next year some time.

More information about House Shoes, his music, and his DJ schedule, visit www.myspace.com/djhouseshoes.