"All Hail The King' Part One {King Shameek Interview}

King Shameek has always intrigued me........The way he put together beats was unlike anyone I had heard before......Monkey's sampled intro's, House music infused with Hip Hop, Spontaneous breakdowns complementing heavy doses of scratching, and funky as fuck drum patterns.........His productions have managed to age very well.......He has worked with Naughty By Nature, Artifacts, King Sun, Twin Hype, L.P., PaceWon, El Gant, Style, Tony Terry, and even Peanut Butter Wolf {back in the day} ..........Hip Hop Battlefield salutes you "King Shameek", for being original, versatile, and most of all soulful......Check out this interview I conducted with Mr. Jose Matos {King Shameek}.......

{HHBF].....The first time I heard of you Shameek was the "In The House" 12 inch with the "Shameek's Groove" on the flip...Was this your first commercial release?

{King Shameek}....My first self produced release was "Make It Funky"...Seville featuring Jazzy J and Shameek on NVS/Cutting Records...Which was recorded on a 4 track recorder that my mom bought me in High School...Thanks Ma.....Before that I was just editing and scratching on freestyle records like Sweet Sensation ,Deniz, Tony Terry, etc...That work prepared me for larger studios.....

{HHBF}.....In 2006 there were talks of you and "Twin Hype" recording again, what's the update on that situation?

{King Shameek]....Most people know of the twins getting locked up from the" Source" article back in the day....So after they got released after 4-5 years we linked up 2 see if we could pick up where we left off..Things didn't really work out, I guess we didn't see things eye to eye..So another 4 years pass by, this time they recorded some demos and said they were ready to rock with me again....We recorded 4 hot joints..I was psyched about the joints we did....So I sent out a press release and set up meetings with labels...We then had another fallout, so I bounced before we heard any news about a deal...I have a lot of joints i did that never came out...I'm thinking about putting out a King Shameek lost tapes album with joints I did with King Sun, T La Rock, Twin Hype....For the most part I'm done with the twins though....I'd rather preserve my Hip Hop memories of us on tour and video shots and whatnot.....Nah mean?

{HHBF}.....Your recordings are always mixed down very well, are you more into analog recording devices or digital these days?

{King Shameek}....I had to make the change from analog to digital or get left in the dust...As a d.j. I made the change from vinyl to c.d. then serato.....I still love my vinyl, but I don't have to carry around a heavy ass crate...Unless I sell my house and move...As a producer I prefer to have a fatter and dirty sound on my beats that I got from analog, but recording and editing in protools is a lot faster...I found several ways to make my drums dirty in protools so I rock with that...When it comes to buttons and faders, I was always a hands on type of dude...It took me awhile to get used to rocking with a mouse, but for the most part I like to keep a tight mix and pan sounds so it bugs out the listener....I remember hearing "Buffalo Gals" for the first time and how they had all the scratching, vocals and sound effects paned to one side....And all the music and drums paned to the other side...I always took those kind of ideas in the studio with me.......

Part 2 Below...........