DX: Like with any career though, you have to safeguard your shit.
DC: Yes you do, it is very important. The thing with Macs though is that they are so advanced in their technology that they have this program which I think is great for producers, called Time Machine, which will back up every five minutes so that if your computer ever crashes you can take it back to whatever date you want to take it back to and restore it back to that point. Producers need to have that.

DX: Has technology made it easier to produce with all the programs that are available today?
DC: It’s not exactly easier but there are a lot of things around that have made it easier. Let’s put it that way, all the programs available have made it easier but you still have to be skilled. You are not going to get these programs and become J Dilla or become Jazzy Jeff overnight. You still have to get in there and grind it out and make it what you want it to be.

DX: You were at the One Stop Shop the other week sitting alongside DJ Premier and No I.D. How did it feel to be sitting along side these guys who have educated so many of us?
DC: DJ Premier is my favorite producer of all time, and I grew up listening to him and I couldn’t believe I was sitting there beside him. I crafted my style from that and that was big for him to say I was one of his favorite producers right now. That made me feel like I was doing something. [Laughs] I work with No I.D. all the time, and with Swizz and Mr. Porter and I go back and forth all the time on the iChat. It’s good for us to trade secrets as you know as back in the day, people were fighting for the work, so they didn’t want to trade no secrets. Now there is enough work out here for everyone and now they don’t mind trading secrets all day. That is better for the industry.

DX: Did you have anyone guide you as you have come up in the game?
DC: I had cats like Focus, No I.D., Jazzy Jeff and that was it really. I really learned that stuff on my own and as I have grown on and I bumped shoulders with other people. But it is those people who have helped me a lot. I mean I have been studying a lot; I have studied every mixtape, as my dad passed away when I was 11, so Jeru the Damaga, Jay-Z and Nas were all like my pops, just as DJ Premier. These were who was sitting down with me at night when I was sitting on a machine as that was how I learned.

DX: Studying, no matter what the subject always yields better results.
DC: Well America is a slightly lazy world you know; if shit can be done in short cuts then that is what they want to do.

DX: Talking about mixtapes, what would you be your favorite mixtape of all time?
DC: Doo Wop's Live 95.

DX: [Laughs] Yeah Drama said the same thing to me.
DC: [Laughs] Yeah we talk about that tape all the time man. I actually had that tape, one of my fave tapes of all time; that and Trap or Die by Young Jeezy. That basically solidified mixtapes to the next level.

DX: Do you think mixtapes have helped producers as well as artists and deejays?
DC: Definitely. It is an ongoing struggle for producers giving away their beats and them getting on mixtapes as it is cutting off money but for the young producers that are coming out that is the best way to do it. People just need to shout out the producers when they get on it. I think producers are getting smart with that too, putting their own drop on beats so that when people rap over it they know where it came from.