I conducted this interview with " King Shameek " in the beginning stages of " Hip Hop Battlefield "...If you missed it the first go-round, here is another opportunity to CHECK THE FUCK IN....
Big up to " Shameek " for the blessings....
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 rocked 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.......
{HHBF} ....Upcoming projects?
{King Shameek}...Working on a line of scratch tones {ring tones}...I'm also V.P. of a production company called Newark Illustrated that houses artist Miss Nana and Angel Inez coming real soon..I'm also working on hosting my own online radio show real soon..Get at me Myspace.com/KingShameek
{HHBF}...I am curious to know how you found Hip Hop Battlefield?
{King Shameek}...I found your site from my google alerts..So when I checked your site from my sidekick I thought it was dope..I was like this cat knows his music.....
{HHBF]...You mixed Hip Hop and House in a way that hasn't been matched since.....What was the Newark club scene like back in the day?
{King Shameek}...My cousin was a D.J {Mumbles} at Club Zanzibar during the disco era..I think they opened in the late 70's..Zanzibar has always been a landmark in Newark...Jokers would come from all over the tri state area to party there...Sad thing is I just drove by there last week and it's leveled to the ground....When my cousin stopped dj'ing in the mid 80's he gave me some of his records...You could say I was studying those records...
{HHBF}..."The Truth" , by L.P. caught me by suprise...Especially when I found out you did the beat...How did you meet up with L.P. and what's his current status?
{King Shameek}..I was introduced to L.P. by his mom....I won't say who, but he has family in the D.I.T.C. crew...We keep L.P's profile under wraps because the nature of that song...It's like when 50 got all that feedback from "How To Rob"......Funny thing is we put out "Truth", before "How To Rob"...Hmmmm...I wonder if they got the idea when we were playing the demo to D.Dot?....Hmmmm, could that be why he wanted to hear it over and over again? Shout out to Sway and King Tech for playing it first....L.P. is flying back and forth from China to Atlanta, running some type of clothing distrubution business now........
{HHBF}...Whatever happened to 'Nefatini" ?
{King Shameek]...That's a good question..I was just put on that project..Her and Romeo Black were really down with D.J. Cheese.....
{HHBF}..Why didn't you release more material in the mid 90's?
{King Shameek]....I was working more on T.V. jingles and dj'ing because of deals gone bad..Before that I was developing and shopping a group called "Zero Tolerance", that I got signed to Loud Records..That project never came out, and we asked to be released from the label when we seen 'Mobb Deep" who were signed after us, come out before we did...So things got me discouraged from the music biz a little bit at that time....But I'm back {LoL]....
{HHBF}...Who exactly were 'Hollywood Impact", and what recording equipment were you using at that time?
{King Shameek].....Hollywood Impact was a crew of artist, producers, dj's under producer Hollywood's guidance...He was a d.j. from Newark that felt he could impact the game with a fresh, new sound, and we did just that...King Sun, Tony Tone and Mick Nice of Style..Kid Seville, Romeo Black and Nefatini, made some of the Hollywood Impact.....We recorded at a studio that was fully equipped, but we prefered the SP1200..Hell there were times when we just looped up a drum beat on a Numark mixer with no sequencer and lay more samples on top of it...The same thing Rick Rubin is famous for with the 'Beastie Boys"..It gave it that live feel...
{HHBF}...Can you drop some jewels on us about your mind frame when you recorded 'Twin Hype's" first album?
{King Shameek}...1988 and I am fresh out of High School and I was back in Jersey...Madukes wanted me to go to college, but I wanted to test out the N.Y. music scene for a year or two...While in Jersey I met Hollywood, he played a demo from 2 brothers, we thought they were clever with the rhymes.....So we started recording at a N.Y. production studio called "Centerfield'....Hollywood was a d.j too, he had a lot of that house music we sampled from....Jersey has always been big on House and club music....So we recorded 'Do It To The Crowd", and that was the first single...There was a lot of smoking weed and drinking beer during the recording of the first album......
{HHBF]....Who were some of your musical influences growing up?
{King Shameek]...I was born in Newark, but moved to Cali in the late 70's...So it was Cali where I was first introduced to Hip Hop...Before that I had a thing for funk and RNB music like George Clinton, Marvin Gaye, and James Brown.....I was up on N.Y. when I would take trips back to see my family...I got tapes early of Supreme Team, Red Alert, Chuck Chillout....I remember most of the Cali Hip Hop like "Egyptian Lover'," Bobby Jimmy", 'World Class Wrecking Crew"....I would only get to play true school Hip Hop when I would spin on the "Drum" with "Kevvy Kev' on KZSU [Stanford} or with "KutMaster Kurt" in Santa Cruz....
{HHBF]...Favorite "King Sun" moment........
{King Shameek}......The time where he went into the d.j. booth where 'Funk Master Flex" was playing during a Ice Cube performance...Sun got on the house mic and called out Cube ....He claimed Cube stole a song called "Wicked" from him...Sun was like "Cube you are a biter"... Everyone was looking around, because they didn't know what was going on....So Cube stopped his show, and was like "so what I stole 'Wicked"....So Sun asked to battle, and Cube agreed....By the time Sun got to the stage security was called to stop him so nothing happened at all..........
*Word up my peoples...Thanks for checking out this piece....I also have a interview with a mysterious Chicago producer on the way so stay tuned JACK!!!!!!!
GBK/NS/HR/SOA
