Category: Interview

An EQB Interview Series | Part 2 Feat. @Darknightmusic

I appreciate all the kind words and comments following the first interview I completed with Savon. Once that ended, I already started brainstorming on who I would like to speak with for the next one and I approached Jared Azaziah (@Darknightmusic) pretty quickly and thought it would be a great fit, especially for the vast majority of Joe Budden fans. He has been a music producer for a number of years and in my opinion, was a huge part in the success of the Joe Budden ‘Love Lost’ series.

Enjoy.

1). You posted a conversation on your Twitter recently of a text thread with Joe when you sent him the “Poker In the Sky” beat that you worked on with 8 Bars. Can you describe the feeling when an artist reacts the way he did?

“It’s always humbling to see an artist you’re working with, like the work you’re doing together, especially when they admire it in that way. It’s always been a little different with Joe though because I’ve always been such a big fan of his, his music has always meant so much to me personally, and then on top of that we built a real friendship as well.”

 

2). When did you start producing music and what was the first big moment when you realized how special the music world would be for you moving forward?

“Music has always been an integral part of my life, but I started actually producing when I was 16. My older brother & 8 Bars have known each other since I was 12, and I was always around for their studio sessions before, and always found samples for 8 to use, but every time I tried to make a beat myself, I could never get the drums right. One day when I was 16, I was in between jobs for the first time, and I was messing around in fruity loops with the sample to Jay-Z’s “What More Can I Say”, I made a simple chop, and did a simple boom-boom-clap drum pattern on it, I sent it to 8 & he told me I finally got it right, and I was hooked ever since then. I knew all I wanted to do in life was make music after that.”

 

3). You’ve produced a handful of records for Joe Budden over the years, how did you two get connected and what was it like working with him? 

“I’ve been a Joe fan since the clue tapes before Pump It Up & his debut album, and he’s been my favorite rapper along with Hov since the first time I heard “walk With Mee”, so I followed him very closely throughout his career. I used to go on joebuddentv.com, I befriended a guy named Thugsy, who got the beats from Jared F to Killa BH for “Escape Route.” I asked Thugsy if he would do the same for me, he genuinely liked my work so he put me in touch with Killa BH and I started sending beats back & forth to Brandon all the time. Brandon always liked what I had, but Joe never liked anything until “Inception”. When they finally chose a song, I almost fainted, lol. I couldn’t believe my favorite rapper was actually gonna rap on my beat & release it. We didn’t really connect on a personal level until about a year later when he followed me on twitter, I got into his fantasy football league, and after that, we really built our friendship, but that was how it initially started. I don’t know where Thugsy is now, I haven’t talked to him since Joebuddentv.com ceased existence, but I will always remember him and be grateful for him connecting me with B, and then B connecting me with Joe.”

 

4). What was the first record you sent him that was used? 

“I sent a bunch of beats to Brandon for about 8 months, all of which he liked, but every time he took them to Joe, Joe shot me down. Then in the summer, when the movie “Inception” came out, I went & saw it with 8 Bars on opening weekend. I’m a Christopher Nolan stan so I see all his flicks right away, and I was blown away by both the movie, and especially the soundtrack. Hans Zimmer is the composer, he’s another one of my biggest influences, so I knew I was gonna be blown away by the score, but never imagined the impact it would have on me. I went home from the theater, immediately downloaded the score, threw together something in fruity loops sampling one of the songs & thought nothing of it. A few days later, Joe said that they were having a listening session on BlogTV, where they were gonna pick a beat from a fan for MM4. The night of the listening session, I sent Brandon the Inception beat, and I remember everyone on the chat on BLogTV was gassing the shit out of the beat saying Joe should use it, and I’ll never forget, Brandon said on the stream “Yo dark night, you fumbled the shit outta this, the intro was crazy, and then the beat dropped and you fumbled.” To this day I still don’t know what changed, but a couple days later, Brandon tweeted “hey someone sent me a beat called Inception a few days ago if you see this please hit me ASAP.” I saw the tweet, told Brandon that was me, and he DM’d saying he was in the studio right now with Joe, asked could I send him that beat again. I emailed him, Joe just so happened to be on BlogTV while this all happened, so I was watching the stream while DM’ing Brandon Next thing I know after I send the beat, Brandon gets on the stream, they mute it. I see Joe put headphones on, he starts nodding to whatever he was listening to, making the sickest stink face, and then Brandon emailed me back saying they were gonna use the record and asked if I could just make the drums more dynamic.”

 

5). Do you have a favorite of the ones you’ve helped produce in his career or one that you’re most proud of?

“I know it’s cliche, but they all hold a special place in my heart, I’d say the ones that stand out most though are “Inception”, since it was my actual first placement, “My Time”, since it was my first commercial placement, and then “Unnecessary Pain” because that’s my favorite song we’ve done together and what in my opinion is our best song together.”

 

6). Are there any other produced records outside of Joe’s music that you consider a favorite?

“Definitely my most recent placement with Jeezy & John Legend, “The Real MVP.” It’s a special record about mothers, and the response me & my brother Chigz got for it, was absolutely beautiful.”

 

7). 8 Bars and yourself have worked together for a number of years as well, how did you two get acquainted and what’s to be said about the chemistry you too have together? It seems a lot of the records you both touched during the “Love Lost” series really had an impact.

“8 went to high school with my older brother, so like I had touched on earlier, I met 8 when I was only 12. He was always over at the house, and he’s always been like an additional older brother to me. We’ve always been close, I consider him family. He’s a genius, like seriously a genius. Everything he touches he’s great at, but especially music. I have always tried to get on his level but I know I never will, he’s too great, lol. But once I started producing and actually became good at it, we just started collaborating on stuff, and we just worked nonstop during that “Love Lost” era for Joe’s albums. My only wish is that we would’ve gotten the opportunity to do a whole album for Joe produced entirely by us before he retired. I pitched Joe all the time on letting me EP an album for him, and to let 8 & I do a whole record, and we dabbled with the idea a bunch, but it just never came to fruition. Still holding out hope for the future when Joe returns to rapping tho, lol. I know that won’t be any time soon, but I believe Joe will rap again one day.”

 

8). What’s coming next for you? Who are you working with and is there anything to look out for in the coming months?

“Me & my guy Chigz have some stuff in the fire with a few artists. I don’t wanna jinx anything before it becomes official, because you just never know with the music industry, but we’re definitely working and I hope to have more stuff out very soon!”

 

9). Lastly, I appreciate your assistance with being able to push out the “Unnecessary Pain” version featuring Emanny. Hopefully, you have some pull in the future with other unreleased records! haha. Thanks for taking the time to do this. A lot of the behind the scenes work y’all did, made the songs incredibly special for many, including myself. 

“Haha thank you for listening & supporting always, and I will always advocate and do my best to get any unreleased stuff actually released. We have a bunch of records with Joe in the vault and I really hope they see the light of day sometime.”

 

You can follow Jared Azaziah on Twitter and Instagram: @Darknightmusic

View Part One of the EQB Interview Series with @Slvter here.

An EQB Interview Series | Part 1 Feat. @Slvter

With the first interview of the series, I wanted to get some insights surrounding my favorite podcast as well as his own. I wanted to break up the monotony of the blog a little bit and bring something different and new to it. I enjoy interviewing people in general in casual conversations and getting their thoughts behind the scenes. Everything is conducted and scripted by myself. I hope you enjoy it because I know I enjoyed listening to what Savon had to say. Hopefully, I can continue to do this moving forward.

How and when did you get started being involved with The Joe Budden Podcast?

Savon: “I started working with Joe for what has been about two years now and honestly I just reached out on Twitter. I was working at a warehouse, I just finished college and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I was a really big fan of the podcast just as a listener and there was a stretch where they kept saying they needed an intern on the podcast and I felt like there were a lot of holes that I might be able to fill. Just something small where I could contribute to writing the descriptions and doing the timestamps, that’s what it really started as. I tried to implement clips, get the social media pages going and there were just a lot of things I thought I could do for the podcast to help bring it to that next level in a sense.”

Was there a moment in time or story you can share when you realized how special the Joe Budden Podcast was to people?

Savon: “I can’t say that there was one exact moment when I realized how special it was to the people only because I viewed myself as a part of the people. It’s not like I have any of the industry connections or I met Joe through a label or anything like that, I was the people. When I realized that it was a really big deal even before it became super mainstream, it was when they would miss an episode or wouldn’t put out an episode and it fucked my whole day up! That’s where I realized I needed to hear what they were saying, I didn’t want to miss the content and even after I finished listening I was like damn I need more that’s when I realized it was a big thing to the people. As far as moments go, the tour sold out super quick last time and that’s where you just kind of sit back and say, damn… that’s crazy.”

After these last couple of years being able to work with Joe, Rory, Mal, Parks, Erikson, Ian, and many others with the JBP… What has been the biggest takeaway for you in what you’ve been able to learn from them and use moving forward?

Savon: “Damn, that’s a tough question. After the last couple of years working with the guys, I’ve really learned so much from all of them, to be honest. Obviously with Joe, him being a fearless leader, I don’t know if people really realize the commitment that he’s put in and not just him it’s all of the guys, but he sets the tone for us. When his mood is up, we’re up. When his mood is down, we’re down. When he’s in that spirit of “we’re gonna have a great show no matter what”, it gets done. I think that’s what I’ve learned the most from Joe. Being a leader is infectious and it’s not easy at all to lead a group of men who all feel different ways and have different ideas.

Rory is the one who is the closest age to me. To see where he is at in his career and his business and how he juggles the podcast and D’USSÉPALOOZA, he never makes excuses. He is always on time and he’s just about his fucking business. I look up to Rory a lot and I want to model myself after how he moves in a businessman aspect.

Mal….. is the coolest nigga in the world. Simple as that. Not only is he cool, but he’s real. He’s gonna tell you how he feels, he’s going to tell everybody how he feels and he’s unapologetic with that and rightfully so. With him, I’ve learned how to kinda just coast sometimes and I mean that by him saying and showing that “Look, you don’t always have to speak on everything, just relax.”

Parks is just smart. Parks is smart in business, creatively… and he’s super detailed. I guess it kind of has to be that way in his profession but I’ve learned to pay attention to detail from him because he really does that.

Ian is just a genius. Ian is fearless and I guess that’s why he and Joe work together and work the same. He’s never going to back down and he’s always going to make sure Joe and the guys are pushing the needle forward, never going backward and trying to take it bigger. He does NOT stop working. I have never seen a work ethic like him, he is crazy. I tell him like “yo bro relax”, and he doesn’t. He’s nuts and never quits going, so that’s really what I’ve taken from him.

And Keeb! I could never forget about Keeb. He mentored me on how to navigate and be a better human. He was the greatest person I could’ve been placed with in life honestly. He’s real with his shit and he’s been around. He’s going to tell you the truth and tell you how to do things and it’s no excuses and no bullshit. Nicest guy in the world, but if you fuck with him he’s gonna let you know he’s not the person to fuck with. Keeb is my guy.”

If I would have told you five years ago that you would have your own podcast and be able to work with The Joe Budden Podcast, what would your response have been?

Savon: “Honestly… I wouldn’t be surprised. I’ve been working on my own podcast for a long time and I always believed in myself. Let me not say I knew I would be with Joe Budden, but I know I would be with somebody who is prominent in the podcasting game. I believe in manifesting things and the law of attraction, that’s a real thing. You put things into the air, you study, you work hard, you believe… And I am a product of it, it can happen. So, I’m not really surprised that it has happened but I’m more so surprised at how fast this has happened. It kind of happened overnight in a sense, but I was prepared for the moment. I put in all the work, so when I did get the opportunity I would be ready for it. Nobody had to teach me to work certain software, nobody had to teach me to upload a podcast because I had already done it. It was my own, on a smaller level and a smaller scale but I put in so much work up until the point of meeting Joe and the guys that I was ready when I had that moment. Again, I’ve always believed in myself so I’m not really surprised honestly, as cliche as that shit sounds. I’ve been working on my podcast for close to three, maybe almost four years now so that’s something that I’m also surprised with the success of it and how much it’s growing. Some of these things I’ve manifested and believed the last few years but let me not get it twisted, I am grateful for it.”

The Need to Know Podcast, how did you meet Alex and Steph? What were the early conversations like early on in wanting to start a podcast and how long did it take to come to fruition? How long did it take to get chemistry?

Savon: “I met Alex in college where me and him had a few classes together but I’m a little bit older so we didn’t cross paths too much. We worked on a senior project that he had asked me to be on and I know I asked him to be on one of my school projects and we just gelled. It was an instant mesh but when I had approached him about the podcast, he was more into film and TV so he dubbed me. He told me no, I’m not interested in doing a podcast and basically told me to get the fuck out of here. I ended up starting the podcast with some other guy that I no longer work with and then once I got the opportunity with Joe I felt like, damn it’s time to revamp my podcast and start it again because this could be a nice opportunity. Since I had gotten rid of my old partner, I asked Alex again if he changed his mind. He was on board, he was just as hungry as me, his work ethic matched mine, so it was a perfect fit.

We always knew we wanted a third voice on the podcast but we knew we didn’t want it to be another black man. We wanted a different perspective whether it was white, asian, latin; it didn’t matter. We just wanted a different voice who could break up a different viewpoint from me and Alex who are young black male millennials. We looked around for a little bit and then our previous/old videographer introduced us to Steph and she was just a guest. But based off that first episode, we knew she was the one. The chemistry was there, she was smart and witty, she wasn’t afraid to be opinionated and speak her voice in a room with two men and sometimes even more men depending on the guest. She just stood out and I knew she would be a star and be special.

Honestly, I still don’t feel like the podcast is where we want it to be. I don’t even know if I can say it is in fruition yet. I don’t feel the effects, or maybe I’m just ten toes down at the moment that I can’t see it. But, I feel like we still got some work to do before I can really say we’ve arrived with podcasting but hopefully we can get there.

Trying to figure out who we were as people was the harder part than the on-air chemistry which was almost immediate, maybe 2-3 episodes in. We knew it was special but I think since I didn’t know Steph and didn’t really know Alex, some of the behind the scenes conversations we had to figure out who we were as people. Once we were able to do that and once I understood who Steph was and who Alex was and vice versa, that’s when the on-air chemistry was able to blossom a little bit more. I would say when we really hit a stride when we got into the episodes in the ’40s and ’50s. The chemistry is getting better every week and we haven’t really looked back since.”

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Is there a challenge for you three daily to come up with different and creative ways to discuss topics that the JBP or other podcasts may speak on?

Savon: “It’s a little bit of a challenge sometimes depending on the news week, but I think I’ve made it a conscious effort of implementing certain things that Joe doesn’t do or that he doesn’t want to do such as engaging with the listeners on a weekly basis. We do a relationship or advice segment. We embrace guests on our podcast and most of our guests are sort of unknown so we really don’t pull from high profiles or anything like that. There’s a lot of subtopics that go by the wayside that Joe doesn’t touch on or even some political topics that we feel confident in talking about. At one point it was really tricky, but now we’ve all figured out this is what Joe has touched on and went in-depth with. If it’s a big topic we’ll obviously discuss it but we’re not going to make it the main focal point because it’s always tricky when people are going to listen to his content and hopefully trickle to ours, you don’t want it to be the same topics and opinions. So yeah I would actually say it’s a bit of a challenge when you think about it.”

Where do you envision yourself, Alex, and Steph and The Need to Know podcast two years from now?

Savon: “Man, in two years I’m hoping we’re doing live shows and we get some merch and a bigger team and we get signed since we’re independent right now. Shit, I hope for all of this in the next year but definitely in the next two years to have a lot of these things that some of the bigger podcasts have established. I want to put out more content instead of just doing podcasts. Eventually, I would like me, Alex, and Steph to get to a level like the Migos. Meaning, we’re a conglomerate when we get together. We are the foundation of what we do with the three of us together but I want all three of us to be able to do our own things as well; But the foundation of who we are and what we do in this business for the foreseeable future, will always be together as The Need To Know Podcast.”

What would you say have been the biggest challenges for you in the past few years?

Savon: “Scheduling. I think especially during tour time it gets really tough I have to miss a lot of episodes for The Need To Know Podcast. I live really far too which sucks and it’s nobody else’s fault but mine. I’m working on trying to move out but it’s just about trying to create enough income to take that leap. I live about an hour away from pretty much everything so I think my biggest obstacle is my location. It’s been tough but also scheduling gets rough. Right now I’m in a good space but I know when tours kick back up, the traveling, the jet lag and remaining healthy. Health has been something I’ve been conscious of because when you’re on the road you can eat like shit easily without even knowing it because you’re just familiar with certain things. I think now that I’ve done one tour and have been to a few other places, trying to perform while running around backstage… There’s a certain level of preparing yourself for those situations.”

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start their own podcast?

Savon: “I get asked this question a lot and it really depends on the type of podcast you want to do. There are some that do podcasts that are a singular host. If you’re doing a podcast like that just be ready to invest your time, your resources, and yourself but at some point, you will need a team whether it’s someone who is good visual effects, or maybe someone who provides artwork and graphic design. You just always gotta have people who are on the same page as you. I think that’s been the biggest thing for me. I was doing a podcast before I got with Joe and I just didn’t have the right people around me and they didn’t take it as serious. Maybe they didn’t see it or whatever the case was, but once I met Alex and Steph and some of the other people who help me do the podcast it’s been easier and it’s been a relief.

Anybody who wants to start a podcast, make sure whoever you start the podcast with whether it’s on-air or behind the scenes, make sure they take it as seriously as you and they believe as much as you because that is pretty much the only way these things can be successful. There is not a lot of income involved with them. If you’re doing a podcast faithfully, it’s because you believe in it and you love it but just make sure the people you work with love it just as much as you. It gets daunting. It’s not easy, especially if you’re trying to put out content every week and on a regular basis.”

You can find The Need To Know Podcast on Spotify here: https://spoti.fi/2MSePD4
Follow The Need To Know Podcast on Twitter and Instagram at @NeedToKnowPod

You can follow Savon on Twitter at @Slvter along with Instagram @SavonSlvter
Alex from The Need To Know Podcast on Twitter and Instagram at @balltillwefall
Steph from The Need To Know Podcast on Twitter and Instagram at @StephStyuhls

The Joe Budden Podcast Exclusively on Spotify can be found here: https://spoti.fi/2nYnqMm

-EQB