Category: Producer

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.