DJ Biggah is here with HM. That is good enough. But we are
going to ask him some questions too. Stuff y'all don't
know. But some of you do. Anyway, let's cut to the
questions:
Q: There
is a rumor that around 1986 you really pissed off John
Schechter at the Source. What happened?
I was young then like 15 or 16. That was when he put out his first
single. "Big Man on Campus" or something like that. It wasn't on
purpose, just joking around, being immature. John took it more
personally than I thought, like I dissed his moms. Dave Mays was good
about it. He just laughed. It was the single with them at
Harvard with baseball bats on the cover. I took a marker and drew
flies and heat stink coming out of their armpits. I was just
being a funny guy. It wasn't a master copy, just one of a mass
production. John must have thought I was saying the music
sucked. He just took it bad. I was like wow. Me, I
would have just laughed at it. Like "You got a lot more time on
your hands than I do."
Q: Who did
you roll with back in the Forest Hills studio days.
I remember working over there with Mike (Clowny
Clown). He was one of the few people working real
hard on beats. I gave him mad praise. I DJed with MC Quest
(Manuel), Jam (Jermaine). He goes by Moty now. FOA Crew.
Q: I
remember the first FOA studio tape. You cut that
nice. Transform Scratch. "You got the tieeeme...."
That was dope. It made me want to cut. And that wasn't even
released. It was taped over some other tape with tape on it.
Ha ha! Yeah I should have invented crab scratching. It was almost
the same thing. That was mad perfectionism. I think that
was 87 or something like that. Mike used to pull out mad old school
riffs. Some of it was
garbage, like it would go against the beat. But he had so many
ideas and maaaad archives of records that most of it would be
dope. I remember we used to work with KT too.
Q: When was that?
I think KT was like around '92-'93. And then there was that year,
'93. Mike didn't want to do it anymore. Trying to strive to
do something, and everbody was losing ambition and focus. I felt
that pain too. Givin' dudes free studio time. Dudes with
personal problems who couldn't finish their work. And lots of
distractions from the outside world.
Q: When
did you get your Techs.
'89-'90. Man if I had those in the 80s, I would have been more
dope. They got stolen in '94. Dudes were using s-arm tables
back in the late 80s. I didn't have the discipline to save up for
those. A teenager trying to conjure up $400? Come on!
Those 1200s made a big big difference, boy. I got 'nuff respect
for Technics, boy.
Q: When
did you meet Da Bulldogs?
I started hookin' up with T and them [Bulldogs] in '94. (DJ) Cruz
recommended me as a DJ. Then I hooked up with you. I
suppose that's editorial bias, but that was about the same time.
But we didn't all collaborate until a little while later.
Q: Did you
know Da Bulldogs as FTI (Fresh To Impress)?
Nah. I had heard of them, but that was when I was a kid in the
early 80's. I met them after they were blown up.
Q: Who was
the biggest the biggest MC in Boston Area in 89?
I would have to ask other heads from back in that time. There
were a lot of other crews. Who was on the scene? I'm sure
enough there were other crews. Everybody was trying to rap.
I was focused a lot on my own stuff that I was trying to
accomplish. There was another group that got signed to
Profile. Homeboy from FOA knows their name. They were
pretty decent. Coming out of Boston and getting a deal without
getting killed was a lot. I remember some singer from Brockton
got killed after signing to a major. Dudes put Boston on the map
and get murdered. That was common. And there was a lot of
talent from Ed. O., the original Gang Starr Keithy E. aka Guru..., RSO.
Q: What
about car parties?
Those were the good old days man. Making a little cash and
stuff. Doing a house party with the car sound system.
Mostly on recommendation. People who had faith in your DJing
style. A lot of DJs sucked, but they had their supporters gassing
them up. It was that kind of scenario. I'm not so special,
but I always tried to perfect my skills before showing them to the
world. Unlike DJs now. Bring your "A" Game.
Don't
slack. Bring it. That's how you get more business.
People will ask you for your card.
Q: You
also make beats. And you have a reputation for some
of the loudest and cleanest mix tapes in the area. What do you
use?
What do I use? Cleanliness is next to godliness. And one of the
problems is hiss. I tried to be a perfectionist. Tried to
be clean. Have a real good EQ. I used an Alessis EQ.
And back then on a hi bias tape you only had two chances to record on
it before the sound quality started to suck. I would always do a
live unplanned mix for a two 45 minute routines... On the spot
MCs rhyming... Filling up the whole tape. I would make the
tape, then listen to it for clarity. Look out for peaks and
drops. Not too much treble. Bassier, but not too much
distortion. Everything even. I would never respect the threshold
light on the tape deck. I would go against that to make it loud
but not distorted.
Q: That is
essentially normalizing gain before it was invented.
Yeah cause a lot of the systems were primitive. The older ones
used to burn out quicker. Like mechanism jams. Demagnetizer
would not work on the tape heads anymore. etc. When I
bought a demagnetizer that thing didn't really work.
Q: You
have a rep for blending hip hop and dancehall with r+b
basslines, and also with making pure dancehall or hip hop tapes.
I have an advantage of having Jamaican parents in terms of having a
sound system and mixing. You can always mix for two types of
crowds that way. Back in the days dudes were mad jealous of DJs
having the flexibility of both worlds. Some hated on reggae for
the dialect. I would say "It's just broken English. You
just gotta expand your mind.".
Q: You
have always had a very loud sound system. How do you
do it?
Some of my equipment was not really mine. I borrowed speakers
from my cousin when he wasn't using them. The outputs were bare
wires, not jacks. He had swapped the speakers in the cabinets.
Some 12 inch box speakers, two 12 inch speakers and a tweeter. I
don't know the wattage, but I was rocking without an amp, just a
receiver. The whole world changed in '93 though. A
lot
of dudes used receivers in those days.
Q: I know I did. I gutted a JVC boombox
for a receiver.
Everybody was broke then. My older brother let me used a
Realistic receiver. That was a monster! Wooden case.
The front had a dial, and a black plastic grate. This thing never
shut down or overheated. I never used it to it's full
capacity. It could kill people on "2." I never even mashed
it up. It never burned out.
Q: Did you
use a 4 track.
Nah. A lot of technology for that was garbage back then. I
used
one as an ASR line mixer output once.
Q: Let's
discuss the ASR-10.
I didn't get one of those until '94. I wanted to get either an
MPC
or an SP-12. One of my boys advised me to get an ASR. I
used to use Roland keyboards and MPC-60. I went halves on the ASR
with him. We got one at Wurlitzer. There a lot of word of
mouth on how to use that. I was too lazy to read the
manual. [Ed. Note. True Fact.]
Q: What
did you do on that machine?
Well it had keys, so you could up or down tune the samples with a key
shift. Low pass and boost bass. RZA was the true master of
the ARS-10. Hi bit resolution would let you do stuff without
fucking up the sample too bad. We used to split the beat at the
kick and snare. Mike was the first I saw do that on a Roland with
a Wild Style riff from 2 separate sections of song to make a whole 2
bar loop. Then you did that on the ASR. I was always trying
to use that 4 second maximum sample. Of course they are cracking
down on length now to destroy hip hop.
Q: What do
you think of local MCs?
I regret that more MCs never followed through on recording and
distributing. Still, some MCs did turn into a monster with their
emceeing skills. Like one time KT spat like a monster at the
Middle East.
Q: Who are
you listening to now?
As far as like... I try to listen to MCs that stimulate your
mind, stimulate what you believe in. Like the opposite the way
society is going. Supporting the righteous fight. MCs like
Immortal Technique, Dead Prez. Conscious reggae, Junior Kelly,
Richie Spice, Damian Marley, Stephen Marley. Who else?
Capleton, I-Wayne, Warrior King. What else is hot. P.E.,
Masta Ace, Common, Li'l Brotha. Who else I got?.... Just real
good hip hop in terms of lyrically and beatwise. Not one over the
other. I ain't gonna lie, I listen to Sean Paul too. Not in
the way of most people cause of the commercialism, but just for
creativity. Li'l Kim.
Q: Too bad
about her nose.
Yeah I don't agree with that shit. Altering your face. I
got her new album though. It is pretty well put together beatwise.
Q: Did you
get New Whirl Odor.
NAH! Not yet. Did you get it? I still have to.
Newbury Comix is gassing up their price to wholesale rape prices.
What's the excuse this time?
Q: Did you do
any DJ Battles
I refused to do them after seeing that most of the routines are like
memorizing homework. Quantizing a 5 minute routine?! I've
done such routines freestyle, but to be doing the same routine over and
over and over again? That's boring! Also, I didn't learn to
be
ambidextrous until 1990. I was a right handed DJ before then, but
I broke my hand, so I had to learn the other side while I healed.
Q: That
was when you punched that white dude in the face.
Ha ha!! I told you about that? I was 12 and he was
19.
I was walking down a side street, and this kid just said something
bad. I didn't say anything, cause I didn't know him, but when I
walked by I lunged for him, and he ducked. So I said ok. So,
another time later on I seen dude and I said "oh yeah.. remember
me?" And I said BOWWWWWW! -- And you know the head is
harder
than anything-- so I broke my knuckle. He had his head in my
stomach, so I hit him with my elbow like BOOM BOOM until someone broke
it up. A while after that my hand swelled up, and looked deformed. I
thought I had punched him wrong, but the doctor said I punched him
right, just real hard. Then a couple of years later play fighting
with my nephew I rebroke it. It was throbbing
like it had it's own heart. Being stubborn, I thought it would
heal by itself but it didn't. So I called in sick to work and got
it taken care of at the hospital. I had to learn to DJ the other
way while I had the cast on. That white dude was actually my
brother's nemesis. But he wasn't mine cause I got him good.
HA HAAAAAAA!
Biggah is a DJ from Cambridge MA. Aged 35. He started DJing
in 1985.
He got his first tables in 1984-85. He has done a ridiculous
amount of
free and paid parties and shows. He has DJed for a lot of community
crews. Haitians, Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Puerto Ricans, Africans....
No joke he can cut a fucking doily. He's worked on
numerous never released studio routines. He has DJed cuts on Flipside
The People of Paradise.
