Bring Me the Remix of Zilla Rocca Week 9 - Griff from J-Direct (Chicago Hip Hop):
This week's edition of Bring Me the Remix of Zilla Rocca, the ongoing musical extravaganza in which Clean Guns emcee Z.R. has reached out to his favorite producers to remix the songs from his solo mixtape Bring Me the Head of Zilla Rocca, features a whole lot of names that should be familiar to long time readers of this site. There's the man of the hour, Zilla Rocca, with his partner in rhyme Nico the Beast rapping alongside Triple Nickels. Most importantly for the purposes of this whole remix thing, the track was put together by Chicago producer Griff, one half of J-Direct and co-founder of record label Rhyme City.
I've been looking forward to this remix since Zilla first mentioned the project, and it doesn't disappoint. Griff's been down with this site for a long time and I don't get as many opportunities as I'd like to showcase his talents. He's one of the few producers I've heard with the ability to put together a beat that can satisfy the musical cravings of both hipsters and backpackers. Case in point, this remix throws in some video game samples, a bassline that may have came out of an 80's sci fi flick and a minimalist beat that sounds like it was ripped from a TR-808, which all comes together to form something that could be described as both futuristic and old school.
Zilla's take on Griff:
Griff's my dude, yo. I been cool with him for a while now -- he was one of the first cats I linked up with on MySpace. I always try to work him into whatever project I have on table. We're both Bears fans, and he's been cool enough to bring me on Yo! Football Radio with Mr. Lif a couple times. He got us our first show in NYC and we brought J-Direct [Griff and emcee Fitzgerald] to Philly for our first Money Folders event in late '07. We've done a bunch of remixes together, and "Big Guns Upstairs" is the first to get out there to the people!
I really like Griff's sound because it bears no resemblance whatsoever to anyone else I work with. He's synth heavy and makes dope club songs with some 80s samples thrown in there. I love getting beat tapes from dude, cause there will be like 15-20 joints and I automatically grab the best 2 and knock them out QUICK! His sound remindes me of the Neptunes ala The Clipse's "Hell Hath No Fury" -- minimalist, big drums and bass, dope drops and arrangements. "Big Guns Upstairs" was one of the first joints we recorded with Triple Nickels in like late '06-early '07, so I wanted a complete overhaul for the remix since the original track I produced was mad old. Griff's version is like the Transformers going to see Mantronix drunk off of Balentine ale!
(As with yesterday's post, Griff's remix does not seem to work well with the media player on this site. I'll have to investigate the cause of the problem. Just download the mp3 and it will sound fine when you play it on your own computer.)
J-Direct's Fitzgerald recently put out a new mixtape, For the Loser In Us All , which features production from Griff. I'll be doing a post on it in a few days, so check back early next week for that. In the meantime, links for further listening:
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