Rediculus is a producer based out in Chicago who is sticking to his guns when it comes to quality Hip-Hop releases. His new album ‘Masters Of Conversation’ has just dropped and its features a whole host of brilliant emcees, both new skool and old skool, including such talents as Ruste Juxx, Sha Stimuli, Emilio Rojas as well as Craig G, Sadat X, Chubb Rock and even British rapper Big Dutty Deeze. So with a whole bunch of things to talk on we got this exclusive interview.
First up congratulations on the album bro! It’s a future classic! You must be really happy with the outcome right?
Thanks man and thanks for taking the time out to chat with me!
Thanks again man! Yea I’m way more than the outcome, the project is amazing. Every MC that I reached out to delivered classic verses and really made the beats shine.
Eighteen tracks long and packed deep with guests this album must have took some time to make. How long did it take from your original first plans to actually finishing it ready for release?
This album is the culmination of almost 2 years of work. I finished the previous Masters of Conversation project ReVerb about 2 years ago and immediately went to work on this album. I knew that I wanted this one to be pretty big. I had networked a lot during the time reverb was being recorded and had forged good relationships with some more successful artists and knew that it was the right time to put out a project like this. Hip Hop is at a turning point, soulful intelligent music is making a comeback and I’m proud to be part of that movement.
It’s your birthday too right? Did you mean to drop the album at the same time or was it just coincidence?
Actually a little bit of both. The album is really about 8 months late to be technical but I’m super glad I made the decision to push it back. I wanted to drop it early in the year this year, but I wasn’t happy with enough of the work to put out more than 10 or 11 songs and I wanted this album to really be worth people’s money. So I really pushed the project back to the fall and recorded probably 10 more songs this summer for the final 30 or so that were recorded for the project, out of which 17 made the final cut with a special 18th track feat. Big Dutty Deeze and Craig G for a UK only limited edition physical CD copy that will be out later this year.
Let’s talk about the legends on the album. How did it all that come about? I mean Chubb Rock, Craig G, Sadat X… that’s serious business!
I travel to NYC probably 5 or 6 times a year so I’m always out networking and I’m always online networking trying to find new people to work with who are serious about this craft. I’d always been a fan of all 3 of them since I was coming up in the 80/90’s so when I saw the direction this project was going guest wise I started reaching out to some of the people who inspired me to do this and see if they would be willing to work together. It was actually pretty cool that all of them responded positively considering that they didn’t really know me. One at a time it just all kind of fell into place and before I knew it I had an album full of classic MC’s.
Let’s talk about your studio set up for a minute. What equipment and software do you use?
I make all of my beats in Maschine now. I was a HUGE MPC head for years, I owned at one time 2 MPC 2000’s and an EPS 16+ by Ensoniq but I gave all that up for Maschine. Its amazing the workflow you can achieve with all that it gives you.
I record mostly in Sony Vegas. I’ve been using it for man over a decade now, back since 2.0. Pro Tools, while its cool and everyone has it, was pretty limited in the LE versions 10 years ago when I built my first studio and Vegas was much cheaper and had a lot more features. I own a set of pro tools but haven’t really used it much.
I’m just now getting into plug ins and VST’s so check back in a few months and I’m sure I’ll have a ton that I use.
So the album is out on your label Knowledge Giving Birth which is distributed by Island/Def Jam which is a big look. Let’s talk about the label more. When did you start the label?
I started KGB back in 1998 and have run it ever since. At times it’s been a record label, at times its been a recording studio, at times it’s been a production company, at time’s it’s been all 3 lol. Right now its both a music production company and a small indie record label.
So how many releases have you had out now and being honest which releases do you think have been the best received by fans and music buyers?
As a label I’ve put out 4 Masters of Conversation albums and an instrumental album, as a production company I’ve produced NIZM’s debut album back in 2001, as well as a few mix tapes for Rich Malone, Prome and Pair-a-Dyce
So far I’ve gotten the best feedback from the current Masters of Conversation project by far. As far as sales go, we’re working hard on that part and support from folks like yourself definitely help in that so thanks again!!
Do you have any more releases planned for 2011 or 2012?
The rest of this year will be mostly promoting this Masters of Conversation project, but Prome might have an EP drop after Thanksgiving and Rich Malone has an EP done, just getting all the other crap done so it can come out.
In 2012 we’re kicking the year off with Big Dutty Deeze’s debut album which I’m producing, Prome’s debut album will be out after that and Pair-a-Dyce as well should drop in the first quarter of 2012. Kayser9soze and Gage One have projects slated for early 2012 as well and my newest distribution client 1Fifty1 should have their next project done and out before summer 2012.
So what is the main aim and mission statement for Knowledge Giving Birth as a whole?
I took the name from an old saying that goes “Knowledge gives birth to wisdom and understanding” and I try to keep that mantra up when running the company. We strive to bring forward artists who make good intelligent music for anyone who wants to hear it and make the best music possible for those who come to me for production.
Well listen, I better let you go and let you carry on mixing those hits down! Good luck with the album and all your other projects.
Thanks again for taking the time out to talk to me and for all the continued support!!
Interview by Stix
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