HHDX: I know you’re young, but how’s the technical side of beat making and production changed since you’ve been in the game?
DE: It hasn’t really changed much for me, other than equipment that’s made it easier. Like sampling, back in the day sampling was a challenge man, you got an mpc-60 which had maybe 3 seconds of memory stereo and maybe 10 seconds if your sampling mono, whereas now your using protocols and your have 4000’s and 3000’s and the even the 2000’s have hours of sampling time. They’re so many programs and plug-ins and programs for the computer that now you can kinda cheat a little bit, before you had to really start from nothing; now you have more to go from. But I’m old school: I like going into a room with my box, and a couple of drum sounds, and making a record.

HHDX: What’s the biggest difference in trying to put together a movie score versus working on somebody’s album.
DE: Movies are WAY different than an album because they’re visual. Scoring a movie is really kinda easy cause you have set times and set details that you work off of, whereas with an album you have way more freedom- as long as you fill in that minimum of 42 minutes of total running time. Usually you have more time on an album to do what you wanna do. They give you set scenes, and you do what you need to do.

HHDX: Ok, let’s say I’m a rookie producer, better yet I’m one of those guys that you mentioned before: I’ve got some equipment, I’ve got some ideas, maybe some beats or whatever… what is the first thing that I need to do in order to get people to take my stuff seriously?
DE: The first thing you need to do is look yourself in the mirror and make sure that you’re 100% comfortable with what you’re doing. Because I’ll tell you: if you’re not 100% behind what you do, you’re not gonna make it to step 2. Because the minute one person comes in and clowns your work (and I guarantee someone is gonna clown your work) whether it’s good or bad, you have to know that you’re the shit. Not cocky, but confident. That’s the most important piece of advice. I’m not gonna say “sample the right stuff” and “make sure you handle your drums”, because none of that matters. There’s a lot of producers out there who are making it real big because they’re confident. And there’s a lot of producers and songwriters out there who will never make it because they lack confidence. Don’t give a damn what most people say and what most people think; as long as you stay humble and you stay on your grind, you’re gonna get that shot. And I’m speaking from experience. There’s been quite a few times I’ve had to look myself in the mirror and say “You know what, I am good”. There were a lot of demos I sent out in my earlier days because I’m so left, and because I do different styles. Me and Pharell have had this conversation because he’s a little bit left. So that’s my piece of advice. You gotta have celebrity skin, that leather thick skin. Continued on page 5 »