Canada, a place not really known for their music (mainly a country known for hockey fanaticism). Canada is not like the US or the UK; she is more rugged and peaceful. She's so close to NYC that she couldn't help but to sponge in some love for the Hip Hop culture. Being so close to the birthplace of the Hip Hop culture, it was only a matter of time before Hip Hop's wildfire spread into Canada (melting away the snow of the white draped cities of the eastern Canadian communities- places like Ottawa). And Ottawa in particular, just north of New York City, approximately 441 miles between the two urban environments. Consequently, fostering a kid from Ottawa (Jamaican too) who would come to be known as Majic Mike; a rising son in the Hip Hop world today. Or maybe it is more than that, let's find out...
Chapter One: The Beginning
It was back in the year of 1992, when he brought his first turntables from Rap Masters Magazine. He lived in Ottawa at the time, when he created havoc on some spinning turntables. In 1999, he got Fruity Loops and started to make beats. He then formed a group in 2002 called the O-City Committee. There (along with rappin'), he paid close attention to what was being cooked up on the engineering side of things (how the beats were made, how the vocals came together, etc.). He now does everything from mixing/mastering, producing, a live DJ/producer for a Hip Hop radio show (The Majic Show), videographer, and entrepreneur (CEO of Majic Productions/ Majic Ink).
Chapter Two: The Background
He grew up in Ottawa, Canada in the Ledbury Projects (south Ottawa). Both his father and mother are from Jamaica, a noted influence of the culture. His mother went to Canada to go to school and there she met his dad. They later went back to Jamaica for a time before moving back to Canada, where his parents chose to raise their children. During his childhood, he was always surrounded by music. His days began and ended with music. Him and his sibling's ears were always pointed at the radio. His dad (from Jamaica), was a DJ too. Majic Mike grew up liking all kinds of music; his homeboy went up to New York one summer in 1983, bringing back some demos (mixtapes). One featured LL Cool J, Grandmaster Flash, and Afrika Bambaataa (among others). In the mid-80s and into the 90s, he absorbed the rock movement coming out of that time period; Living Colour, Fishbone, Metallica, Suicidal Tendencies, and Bad Brains. In Canada, that is what was mainly popular during that particular timeframe. Therefore, this influenced his lifestyle in many ways, He became a skateboardin' kid from about 1985 to 1992.
Chapter Three: The Birth of Majic Productions
He later traded in the wooden skateboard for a new set of wheels, the turntables in 1992, which inspired him and a group of friends to start a group called O-City Committee. This also sparked the entrepreneur in him and he started O-City Records. They played shows at various venues in Ottawa up until he took a break from music to live a life that jumped to experiencing the darker side of things. He adopted a perilous life that included having run-ins with the local authorities. It was music (eventually) that saved him from this way of life, I can quote him from a message he sent me through Facebook, "Maybe I was born to do this...", so you can definitely draw from him a sense of purpose in his musical ambitions. These ambitions took him to where he is today, O-City Records later turned into Majic Productions, and his love for music and growing up listening to the radio brought him to being a radio DJ/producer (I'd say his father had a piece of this as well) on the 102thebeatfm (a worldwide Hip Hop and RnB station- Urban Music).
Chapter Four: Majic's Impact on the Hip Hop Culture
I chose Majic Mike as my first interview, not because he is the man who made this blog possible, but because I think people need to know the dynamics of what he represents in the music industry. A little bird's eye view into the gasoline of Hip Hop, hard work and struggle. Majic Mike is not a stranger to either aspect, therefore in many ways, he is a great example for those who aspire to be a part of this culture. Work hard and never give up, the struggle to climb for a position of success in music, is how music weeds out the less worthy voices. With that, let's get to the interview...
Chapter Five: The Interview
(Transcribed from a live cell phone conversation)
TMSB(The Majic Show Blog): "What's up ,man?"
MM(Majic Mike): "Not much, man. It's freezin' here up in Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. 30 below.
TMSB: "Yeah? That is some serious weather you are dealing with."
MM: "Yeah, that's what I'm dealing with.
TMSB: "What's up, ya'll? We doin' an interview here for Majic Mike, for the debut of his new blog, The Majic Show Blog."
MM: "Yeah, long overdue."
TMSB: "So, we got a few questions for ya. Some questions I came up with for the blog. Thanks for taking this time out to do this, my friend."
MM: "Not a problem, just relaxin' right now."
Question Number 1:
TMSB: "Alright, question number one, what was it like growing up in Canada and how did it influence your musical path?"
MM: "Well, you know up here in Canada, it is a little different than in the United States, you namsayin'? My parents got divorced when I was four. We lived in a big house until I moved to Ledbury, it's like a project up here in Ottawa, you know what I mean? After I moved there, I started to grinding and I met a friend of mine, you know what I mean? named John, he passed me a cassette tape. Now this cassette tape, this was back in 1983, it had LL Cool J on it, Run DMC, you know just a lot of old school Hip Hop on it. You know, back then, you didn't have a lot of Hip Hop on the radio, mostly rock music. It made me musically diverse growing up, you know what I'm sayin'?"
TMSB: "I'd imagine, in the Western Hemisphere, there was mainly just rock on the radio."
MM: "Exactly..."
TMSB: "Especially, in the United States and Canada."
MM: "Exactly..." "In the summer of 1990. I went down to New York and bought Kid and Play, "Funhouse" then after that, at the same time, I bought NWA, "Straight Outta Compton". I brought that back up to Ottawa and we just ate that up during high school. We started dressing like NWA, we had a little crew and everything, crazy...you know what I mean?"
Question Number 2:
TMSB: "Yeah, growing up in that time, you got a great mix of music, between the legends of Hip Hop and rock music, you probably mixed it all up to make your own brand. I wonder what was the first initial thing that got you started in music, you know? And what keeps you pursuing this dream, you know?"
MM: "It all started, in the late 80s, I was a skateboarder or whatever, I told you I copped the new NWA, you know what I'm sayin'? Going to school the whole New Jack swing came into effect, where everybody had high top fades (haircut style) and everything like that, it kinda changed my whole outlook. We had our own little dance team and we'd go to clubs having our own dancing competitions. You know, back and forth, but what caught my attention was the DJ, you know what I'm sayin'?
I started gettin' records and imitating it at home, and my mom was like, you're ruining my records, right? We gotta get you something. So you know, I did my own little paper route and you know, I did whatever I could back then. I was looking inside the Rap Masters Magazine, you know, if anybody knows Hip Hop, right? Rap Masters was around way before The Source. In the magazine, they had a little Gemini turntable starter package, you know what I mean? So you know, I got it and you know, I got a couple of records that came with it plus there was a couple of record stores out here, big ups to Downtown Records, they're not around Ottawa anymore but, I bought some records from there and started practicing and the whole neighborhood was lovin' it (he laughs candidly). It got to like 4am in the morning and they told me to turn it off so you know I was musically inclined from then on.
I put down the turntables from 1998 to 1999 and started my own rap crew and I started rapping, you know what I mean? We went to the studio and I saw how the beats were made and the beats were getting done and the recording, namsayin'? I saw how all that was getting done, right? So that got my attention. So I started doing stuff like that for a minute, producing and making beats. I started working with Fruity Loops 2.0..."
TMSB: "That is a very early addition (laughter)..."
MM: "Yea, yea, a lot of people started using it now and back then people were sayin', you can't make beats with that and now everybody is doin' it. You turn on the radio and 90% of it is Fruity Loops, ya know what I'm sayin'? So anyway, from there I started making beats and recording some of the members of the group and mixing down. But after that, I didn't do any music for a minute, about 5 or 6 years. I was gettin' into a bit of trouble, livin' that side of life, but eventually I came back into the scene.
When I got back, I was working for one of my friend's studios and one of the big projects we did that year was Clive Carson. Basically The Game left G-Unit, you know how The Game opened up The Black Wall Street Records, right? Well Clive Carson is from Oakland, CA and he was the first person signed to Black Wall Street. Clive knew some people out here in Montreal, Canada which is only 200 kilometers from Ottawa.
So before he went to Montreal, he passed by Ottawa and I met him, we chilled in the studio for a minute and I recorded three tracks, you know what I mean? And they were gold. If you go on my Reverb Nation, www.reverbnation.com/majicmike7725, you'll see those tracks from Clive Carson. Those aren't released yet, ya know what I mean? So go and check that out..."
Question Number 3:
TMSB: "Goin' back a little bit, what was the first project you worked on and uh, what was that like, you know? And what did you learn from it?"
MM: "The first project I ever worked on, realistically, was my first mixtape. From records to tape, or whatever..."
TMSB: "That must've been some reel to reel stuff as well, right?"
MM: "Yea, yea, exactly. I'll be honest with you, the first project was the mixtape. I had a bunch of records, I went down to Downtown Records and copped all the finest records, you know? Did my little tape (laughs), you know what I'm sayin'? It was really reel to reel. I made a few copies, just passed it out. It had a little cover, it wasn't really much but you know as an official project, "Exodus", O-City Committee. O-City Records was my rap group/label, I had LJ Sims, Dirty Harry, and Definite Denny. And uh, that was the first official one. We had like 15 tracks on it and the beats were all original on it. No dub plates, no freestyle or nothin', all the beats I did.
We rhymed on it, mixed and mastered, and got a cover for it. Back then, we had to put where we sampled it from, Scarface or whatever, Universal Studios. Now people don't even do that, right? So you know, making a CD like that from scratch, from the basement to the mastering studio, to pressing it on CD, and then selling it out of your car. That was it, you know? So O-City Committee was my first official project."
Question Number 4:
TMSB: "So what is the project you are most proud of that you ever did?"
MM: "That's a really hard one, you know? Every project is different. Well you know, in 2013, I came out with a project called "Cyborg", you know what I'm sayin'? And you know you heard that project of mine."
TMSB: "Yea..."
MM: "And you know that was really different, I didn't put any turntables on it or nothin' like that. I just straight automated it, ya nah mean? I just used straight up Pro Tools. I didn't want to spin this on wax. I actually just wanted to do this like an album, you know what I'm sayin'? So I put everyone's song together and at the end of the day, the artwork I did myself, namsayin'?"
TMSB: "That artwork is dope too..."
MM: "That took a lot of time, big ups to Alderaan from Denmark. Alderaan is into all this death metal stuff and he had this death metal thing he did, ya nahmean? He's in this death metal band up there, I forgot the name of it, but he's into Cannibal Corpse and all that, right?"
TMSB: "That's some serious stuff..."
MM: "Yeah, exactly. Well he sent me the outlook and I just photoshopped it and cropped it up. I think that project was really nice, but I really can't say what my best project is. I still got a lot of stuff but the project in 2014 that I did was called "The Golden Era". What that was is artists I worked with or whatever and the concept was today's artists over 90s beats, namsayin'? I had this idea before "Cyborg", namsayin'? That was supposed to come out before "Cyborg", but things happened the way they did, namsayin'? That came out in July 2014 and that was a hit."
TMSB: "Yeah, "The Golden Era", go check that out! Where can they go check that out at?"
MM: "You can check that out on Bandcamp, www.bandcamp.com. Once you get to Bandcamp, type in Majic Productions. You can see a few of my mixtapes there. You know, I'm not the type of person that comes out with 20 projects a year, just give me one. Maybe one or two, ya namsayin'?"
TMSB: "Yeah put all your effort into that versus half efforts in 20 projects, you know, that sound good."
MM: "Exactly..."
Question Number 5:
TMSB: "So you got all this experience under your belt, had your hand in numerous projects and what not, now you got your own internet radio show, "The Majic Show". What got you into that and what is your focus with the show?"
MM: "It all goes back, right? My parents are from Jamaica. You know, they met here in Canada. They went to school and went back to Jamaica and then they came up here and they had me, right? My dad was a DJ himself, you know? He had his own sound system down in Jamaica plus when he came up here, he brought that culture with him. So I've always seen that. Now, what happened was I started doin' mixtapes. I just posted a mixtape in a Facebook group and some guy came to me. I don't know if he was some guy whose tryin' to get DJs to have their own shows, you know what I'm sayin'?
I don't know who sent him from above, but he says to me, I like the way you mix your things, right? You wanna do a radio thing? It's just like a mixtape, you know what I'm sayin'? You just gotta do a bit of talking. So I put them all together and I got FM stations shoutin' me out here in Toronto and all over Canada givin' me respect.
Who knows how long I will be doing this and the internet radio is taking over the regular radio. So what I am trying to do here is have a format for underground artists and major artists to come and let their music be heard, you know what I'm sayin'? On a fair format, I'm not going to favor this guy because this guy is payin' me. Sure, I'll play your music, but I'm not going to overlook another kat, you know what I'm sayin'? These guys come from the street and work their asses off and come into the studio and do a track for me to play.
So you know, I just want the format to be big, I spin underground music that consists of Hip Hop (all genres), RnB, and Dancehall Reggae. You know, here in North America, Dancehall Reggae doesn't have the exposure that it used to have back in the day. I am hopefully doing this format to get this back out there, ya know what I mean? Any urban music, that is what we spin here. We want to use "The Majic Show" as an outlet so that people can listen to real music.
I'm not trying to degrade any pop music stations or anything but, after a while you get tired of that thing, you know? You want to go to a place where you can experiment with new music and new sounds, you know? We want to open up a big thing here in Ottawa, a huge media center, but that is in the future, you know what I mean?"
Question Number 6:
TMSB: "It is nice to hear a good show like yours that gives real urban music consideration versus what is popular. You put a spotlight on the underground music scene. I wonder why you chose the urban underground music to showcase on your show especially since you grew up in Canada where it wasn't a major part of the culture until later. Why is that?"
MM: "The key factor is this, you ever like, you know, back in the day, put on a CD and feel nice to it?"
TMSB: "Oh yeah, of course."
MM: "Well now, I'm sorry, I'll work with the pop artists and spin there stuff, you know what I mean? I totally get it, but we got to change the way people are; hearing music, doing music, seeing music, you know what I mean? Entertainment in general; we go to stop dumbing it down and bring it back to where things made sense, ya know what I mean? When you heard a track and bought it because it sounds good. You could wake up in the morning feeling good, jump in the shower, ya know what I mean? We just got to change the way people think about music and the world.
I heard this the other day, right? We live in a very serious time, right? Anyone to be ignorant now is just plain def, plain stupidity, ya know what I'm sayin'? If someone tells you about something, just get the info and find out, you know?"
TMSB: "Yeah, it's out there."
MM: "Well yeah, ya know what I mean? I'm trying to keep this Hip Hop thing alive man, cause right now, the way it is goin' man, if we keep going the way we are going mainstream-wise; I say in three years there will be no more Hip Hop. there will be this new genre of music and artists that built this foundation, will be forgotten about. You'll as people, whose Chuck D? I don't know. Whose KRS-One? I don't know, you know?"
Question Number 7:
TMSB: "Yeah, when it comes to music and Hip Hop and what not, I like what Common talks about, you know? Hip Hop has given people a venue that has given people an opportunity to make a living, you know? You don't need to get all flashy with it, let's just go out there and make real music, you know? With music, a lot of it comes from the business side and that kind of tweaks things a little bit. I know you are on the entrepreneurial side of it, you know, but you do it honestly, ya know what I'm sayin'? So I would like you to tell us a little bit about that side of things where you are concerned..."
MM: "You just said it best, you have to be honest in this business, ya know what I mean? Just like you are seeing a person face to face, just because you are online, doesn't mean you can't treat a person the same way. You tell somebody you are going to do something, it is done. Ya know what I mean? People see that. Like ok, he's a hard worker; that's the thing about business, you have to see someone is a hard worker in order to put some money into it, you know what I'm sayin'? We got people watchin' us, you, me, or whoever. Why do you think people friend us on Facebook for?
And all these other social medias, we got watchers and they work for higher heads, right? So you start doing things that catch their attention, okay and they keep watching and watching. Some people say you got to make all this money and they will come see you, of course they'll come see you along the way, right? So I am looking for investors, not just for the money but ideas, you got something I can use. We can get this going, you know what I'm sayin'? We can work together.
Right now I am trying to build a foundation to where years from now the name still carries, you know? Like 20 years from now, people saying wow, your Majic Mike, you woke us up man. Who knows maybe there will be people in the music industry that will say, this Majic Mike guy, he makes sense though, ya know what I mean? Let's just change everything up. Not now but in a couple of years maybe five, if people don't stop listening to this dumbed down crap, there's going to be nothing left of this culture here, ya namsayin'? It's going to be illegal to listen to good music, like that Onyx and Wu Tang track, "The Worst"."
Question Number 8:
TMSB: "It's like in producing, some people say, "We've heard this all before". "Why you still sample?", you know? Well then, what do you listen to? "Oh well, I listen to those new kats from the south". And I'm like. ah man they probably haven't even heard of the kats from the Golden Era, like DJ Premier and Pete Rock. With that being said, who are your main influences?"
MM: "Oh man, you just said it. DJ Premier and Pete Rock, those are my two favorite Hip Hop producers of all time right there, ya know what I sayin'? I heard some Premier beats that no one else will hear, right. I know a girl that goes to New York a lot, Brooklyn specifically. This girl used to be with DJ Premier, so she knows where to get his stuff; where to find the rare stuff.
You know another one would be the Bomb Squad from Public Enemy. Public Enemy is one of my favorite rap groups, it would be between them and NWA, right? So the Bomb Squad is one of the greatest producers of all time, along with Dr. Dre. Most of the time when I was starting my beats with Fruity Loops, right? My influences were drawn from what I was listening to at the time, right? It was a lot of boom bap. I started at my mom's house, using her old records and I bought my own records at Salvation Army at 25 cents a record. I bought some from Vertigo Records and Downtown Records in Ottawa too, you know?
So I started sampling, ya know what I'm sayin'? You hear the record poppin' 5 second sample, loop that over, boom boom boom. I still sample now, ya know what I mean? When I'm making my beats, but I still play things out. People now, they go to the music store and buy their equipment for, I don't know, 200, 300 dollars; plus the get the laptop, right? Which is around 800 bucks. Then your on www.Youtube.com, k? Youtube teaches you within a week and you're makin' beats, ya know?
So on Youtube, you got a video of a 5 year old kid making beats (they laugh hysterically). Seriously, the kid has an MPC, right? He's sitting there pressing the buttons, I guess his dad taught him. Now the kid is making beats and it is sounding pretty good. When you see things like that happen, right? You know the world is going to end (they laugh some more). People out there are calling themselves producers and they use Fruity Loops or whatever, after a while, you are all using the same shit.
You can only tweak the synth so much, you know what I'm sayin'? Before everything starts to sound the same. I don't mind people coming to me and sitting down and asking me to make a trap beat, I'll make a trap beat, namsayin'? But my body, heart, and soul; I just can't do it, ya know what I'm sayin'? When I am in the lab, I dig through samples, ya know what I mean? I am big into samples, and whatever comes behind that sample, I may decide to put an 808 behind that sample, so be it, I still play things out. But, a lot of these producers man, they started to sound the same- stop sounding the same. Stop using the same synths."
TMSB: "Yeah everything is like that, Hey, hey, hey (he laughs)."
MM: "Yeah, you know what I mean? You take Otis Redding or something like that, you got the drums going and you take a snippet of each piece of the drums and put that in your drum machine, nahmean? Let things play out like that, that is the type of ish I am into, namsayin'?
TMSB: "Yeah, that old school."
MM: "I just hope that people realize that after a while, if people keep using the same things, their just killing off the culture. Email me and my staff and we'll look it over and consider it. If you hear back from us, we're going to put you on the show, if not, we won't be spinning it. You need some production done just contact me on my reverb and if you need a trap beat or whatever, just work with me and I'll work with you, ya know what I'm sayin'?"
TMSB: "Yea, don't be a waste of time, ya know what I mean?"
MM: "Exactly..."
Question Number 9:
TMSB: "It's 2015, now, there is probably a lot going on, you know, music-wise and business-wise. What can we look forward to as far as 2015 goes, do you have any projects to release this year, you know, what you got?"
MM: "Personally, last year, I only released one project with my name, which was "Golden Era", but I also released a couple of mixtapes with my name on it, Majic Mike, namsayin'? But this year, I got a few projects, I got "Cyborg 2", right? And that is basically a mixtape with some artists I have worked with and spun with (on the show), some will be sending me tracks. I'm going to say it is going to come out during the Fall of 2015, right? I also got "Majic Mike- Art of War Lite" and that is an album, all production will be by me. That will include various artists I have worked with throughout the years and some I am meeting now, you know?"
TMSB: "Are you going to spin that one old school style or what?"
MM: "nah, we're just going to do it track for track, you know? Um, "Cyborg 2" I might put it on wax, most likely yes, ya nahmean? Then we got "The Majic Show Top Hits" Disk 1 and 2, right? Disk one should be coming out in February, right? Basically, it is the hottest tracks from some of the guests and some of the music we played on the show, ya know what I'm sayin'? Those are my few main babies I am working on as we speak."
TMSB: "And you cut it off right there?"
MM: "Yeah, you know we just dropped T-Nyce's "Blood of a Slave Heart of a King", we'll be working on a couple of EPs after that, we got Lamborghini Law, we'll be spinning that. You know, T-Nyce is from South Carolina and people appreciated his mixtape, "Blood of a Slave Heart of a King" because he's bringing east coast Hip Hop down to the south. And the way we spun that, go cop that, that's on Bandcamp, www.bandcamp.com, when you get there type in Majic Productions and it should be there on my page. it is done on wax, a lotta cutting and a lotta scratching, and that is why it won an award down in South Carolina because people were like yo, that's like a mixtape from back in the day with Grandmaster Flash and Big Cap."
TMSB: "Yeah, there is something about Hip Hop created that way versus ones created today. They're just missing that energy, you know? Everything is just kinda blah and sounds the same. So anyway, thanks again Majic Mike, for coming on and doing the interview. I know you got a busy schedule, but I'm sure you got some shout outs so go ahead, yo."
MM: "I would like to shout out to anyone that has supported me and has been a part of the whole movement. You're not going to be big in a couple of months, I'm talking about years, you namsayin'? I'd like to also thank my mother for giving me birth, namsayin'? I love her to death. Ya nahmean? All my family, my brothers, everybody, you know? My friends, not just any friends, like real friends. Not the ones that go, oh hey Mike I see you on Facebook and I see what you're doin', let me know if I can help (he laughs). No I mean it, I would love to thank all of you for the support. Let's use 2015 to take back the streets, our movement, and our culture. Thank you so much!"
Chapter Six: The Conclusion
Thanks for reading this interview and I hope you stick around, up next we got Dr. G in an interview and then Grand Surgeon. So we got much more to come. Big ups to Majic mike for taking the time out to do this interview. Now you know what he and we are all about. Please join the blog and make comments. If you want to be a part of the show, just hit up Majic Mike or myself and we can get you on there. Here at The Majic Show Blog, we put a spotlight on real urban music! Peep the links below...
Email: Majic77725@gmail.com
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/MAJICMIKE777
Hulkshare (for some mixtapes): https://www.hulkshare.com/MajicMike
Bandcamp (for mixtapes): https://www.majicproductions.bandcamp.com
Reverb Nation: http://www.reverbnation.com/majicmike7725
Mixcloud (where you can find new and old episodes of the show):
https://www.mixcloud.com/majicmike5/
102thebeatfm (link to the main radio channel): http://tunein.com/radio/102thebeatfm-s220926/
MM: "It all started, in the late 80s, I was a skateboarder or whatever, I told you I copped the new NWA, you know what I'm sayin'? Going to school the whole New Jack swing came into effect, where everybody had high top fades (haircut style) and everything like that, it kinda changed my whole outlook. We had our own little dance team and we'd go to clubs having our own dancing competitions. You know, back and forth, but what caught my attention was the DJ, you know what I'm sayin'?
I started gettin' records and imitating it at home, and my mom was like, you're ruining my records, right? We gotta get you something. So you know, I did my own little paper route and you know, I did whatever I could back then. I was looking inside the Rap Masters Magazine, you know, if anybody knows Hip Hop, right? Rap Masters was around way before The Source. In the magazine, they had a little Gemini turntable starter package, you know what I mean? So you know, I got it and you know, I got a couple of records that came with it plus there was a couple of record stores out here, big ups to Downtown Records, they're not around Ottawa anymore but, I bought some records from there and started practicing and the whole neighborhood was lovin' it (he laughs candidly). It got to like 4am in the morning and they told me to turn it off so you know I was musically inclined from then on.
I put down the turntables from 1998 to 1999 and started my own rap crew and I started rapping, you know what I mean? We went to the studio and I saw how the beats were made and the beats were getting done and the recording, namsayin'? I saw how all that was getting done, right? So that got my attention. So I started doing stuff like that for a minute, producing and making beats. I started working with Fruity Loops 2.0..."
TMSB: "That is a very early addition (laughter)..."
MM: "Yea, yea, a lot of people started using it now and back then people were sayin', you can't make beats with that and now everybody is doin' it. You turn on the radio and 90% of it is Fruity Loops, ya know what I'm sayin'? So anyway, from there I started making beats and recording some of the members of the group and mixing down. But after that, I didn't do any music for a minute, about 5 or 6 years. I was gettin' into a bit of trouble, livin' that side of life, but eventually I came back into the scene.
When I got back, I was working for one of my friend's studios and one of the big projects we did that year was Clive Carson. Basically The Game left G-Unit, you know how The Game opened up The Black Wall Street Records, right? Well Clive Carson is from Oakland, CA and he was the first person signed to Black Wall Street. Clive knew some people out here in Montreal, Canada which is only 200 kilometers from Ottawa.
So before he went to Montreal, he passed by Ottawa and I met him, we chilled in the studio for a minute and I recorded three tracks, you know what I mean? And they were gold. If you go on my Reverb Nation, www.reverbnation.com/majicmike7725, you'll see those tracks from Clive Carson. Those aren't released yet, ya know what I mean? So go and check that out..."
Question Number 3:
TMSB: "Goin' back a little bit, what was the first project you worked on and uh, what was that like, you know? And what did you learn from it?"
MM: "The first project I ever worked on, realistically, was my first mixtape. From records to tape, or whatever..."
TMSB: "That must've been some reel to reel stuff as well, right?"
MM: "Yea, yea, exactly. I'll be honest with you, the first project was the mixtape. I had a bunch of records, I went down to Downtown Records and copped all the finest records, you know? Did my little tape (laughs), you know what I'm sayin'? It was really reel to reel. I made a few copies, just passed it out. It had a little cover, it wasn't really much but you know as an official project, "Exodus", O-City Committee. O-City Records was my rap group/label, I had LJ Sims, Dirty Harry, and Definite Denny. And uh, that was the first official one. We had like 15 tracks on it and the beats were all original on it. No dub plates, no freestyle or nothin', all the beats I did.
We rhymed on it, mixed and mastered, and got a cover for it. Back then, we had to put where we sampled it from, Scarface or whatever, Universal Studios. Now people don't even do that, right? So you know, making a CD like that from scratch, from the basement to the mastering studio, to pressing it on CD, and then selling it out of your car. That was it, you know? So O-City Committee was my first official project."
Question Number 4:
TMSB: "So what is the project you are most proud of that you ever did?"
MM: "That's a really hard one, you know? Every project is different. Well you know, in 2013, I came out with a project called "Cyborg", you know what I'm sayin'? And you know you heard that project of mine."
TMSB: "Yea..."
MM: "And you know that was really different, I didn't put any turntables on it or nothin' like that. I just straight automated it, ya nah mean? I just used straight up Pro Tools. I didn't want to spin this on wax. I actually just wanted to do this like an album, you know what I'm sayin'? So I put everyone's song together and at the end of the day, the artwork I did myself, namsayin'?"
TMSB: "That artwork is dope too..."
MM: "That took a lot of time, big ups to Alderaan from Denmark. Alderaan is into all this death metal stuff and he had this death metal thing he did, ya nahmean? He's in this death metal band up there, I forgot the name of it, but he's into Cannibal Corpse and all that, right?"
TMSB: "That's some serious stuff..."
MM: "Yeah, exactly. Well he sent me the outlook and I just photoshopped it and cropped it up. I think that project was really nice, but I really can't say what my best project is. I still got a lot of stuff but the project in 2014 that I did was called "The Golden Era". What that was is artists I worked with or whatever and the concept was today's artists over 90s beats, namsayin'? I had this idea before "Cyborg", namsayin'? That was supposed to come out before "Cyborg", but things happened the way they did, namsayin'? That came out in July 2014 and that was a hit."
TMSB: "Yeah, "The Golden Era", go check that out! Where can they go check that out at?"
MM: "You can check that out on Bandcamp, www.bandcamp.com. Once you get to Bandcamp, type in Majic Productions. You can see a few of my mixtapes there. You know, I'm not the type of person that comes out with 20 projects a year, just give me one. Maybe one or two, ya namsayin'?"
TMSB: "Yeah put all your effort into that versus half efforts in 20 projects, you know, that sound good."
MM: "Exactly..."
Question Number 5:
TMSB: "So you got all this experience under your belt, had your hand in numerous projects and what not, now you got your own internet radio show, "The Majic Show". What got you into that and what is your focus with the show?"
MM: "It all goes back, right? My parents are from Jamaica. You know, they met here in Canada. They went to school and went back to Jamaica and then they came up here and they had me, right? My dad was a DJ himself, you know? He had his own sound system down in Jamaica plus when he came up here, he brought that culture with him. So I've always seen that. Now, what happened was I started doin' mixtapes. I just posted a mixtape in a Facebook group and some guy came to me. I don't know if he was some guy whose tryin' to get DJs to have their own shows, you know what I'm sayin'?
I don't know who sent him from above, but he says to me, I like the way you mix your things, right? You wanna do a radio thing? It's just like a mixtape, you know what I'm sayin'? You just gotta do a bit of talking. So I put them all together and I got FM stations shoutin' me out here in Toronto and all over Canada givin' me respect.
Who knows how long I will be doing this and the internet radio is taking over the regular radio. So what I am trying to do here is have a format for underground artists and major artists to come and let their music be heard, you know what I'm sayin'? On a fair format, I'm not going to favor this guy because this guy is payin' me. Sure, I'll play your music, but I'm not going to overlook another kat, you know what I'm sayin'? These guys come from the street and work their asses off and come into the studio and do a track for me to play.
So you know, I just want the format to be big, I spin underground music that consists of Hip Hop (all genres), RnB, and Dancehall Reggae. You know, here in North America, Dancehall Reggae doesn't have the exposure that it used to have back in the day. I am hopefully doing this format to get this back out there, ya know what I mean? Any urban music, that is what we spin here. We want to use "The Majic Show" as an outlet so that people can listen to real music.
I'm not trying to degrade any pop music stations or anything but, after a while you get tired of that thing, you know? You want to go to a place where you can experiment with new music and new sounds, you know? We want to open up a big thing here in Ottawa, a huge media center, but that is in the future, you know what I mean?"
Question Number 6:
TMSB: "It is nice to hear a good show like yours that gives real urban music consideration versus what is popular. You put a spotlight on the underground music scene. I wonder why you chose the urban underground music to showcase on your show especially since you grew up in Canada where it wasn't a major part of the culture until later. Why is that?"
MM: "The key factor is this, you ever like, you know, back in the day, put on a CD and feel nice to it?"
TMSB: "Oh yeah, of course."
MM: "Well now, I'm sorry, I'll work with the pop artists and spin there stuff, you know what I mean? I totally get it, but we got to change the way people are; hearing music, doing music, seeing music, you know what I mean? Entertainment in general; we go to stop dumbing it down and bring it back to where things made sense, ya know what I mean? When you heard a track and bought it because it sounds good. You could wake up in the morning feeling good, jump in the shower, ya know what I mean? We just got to change the way people think about music and the world.
I heard this the other day, right? We live in a very serious time, right? Anyone to be ignorant now is just plain def, plain stupidity, ya know what I'm sayin'? If someone tells you about something, just get the info and find out, you know?"
TMSB: "Yeah, it's out there."
MM: "Well yeah, ya know what I mean? I'm trying to keep this Hip Hop thing alive man, cause right now, the way it is goin' man, if we keep going the way we are going mainstream-wise; I say in three years there will be no more Hip Hop. there will be this new genre of music and artists that built this foundation, will be forgotten about. You'll as people, whose Chuck D? I don't know. Whose KRS-One? I don't know, you know?"
Question Number 7:
TMSB: "Yeah, when it comes to music and Hip Hop and what not, I like what Common talks about, you know? Hip Hop has given people a venue that has given people an opportunity to make a living, you know? You don't need to get all flashy with it, let's just go out there and make real music, you know? With music, a lot of it comes from the business side and that kind of tweaks things a little bit. I know you are on the entrepreneurial side of it, you know, but you do it honestly, ya know what I'm sayin'? So I would like you to tell us a little bit about that side of things where you are concerned..."
MM: "You just said it best, you have to be honest in this business, ya know what I mean? Just like you are seeing a person face to face, just because you are online, doesn't mean you can't treat a person the same way. You tell somebody you are going to do something, it is done. Ya know what I mean? People see that. Like ok, he's a hard worker; that's the thing about business, you have to see someone is a hard worker in order to put some money into it, you know what I'm sayin'? We got people watchin' us, you, me, or whoever. Why do you think people friend us on Facebook for?
And all these other social medias, we got watchers and they work for higher heads, right? So you start doing things that catch their attention, okay and they keep watching and watching. Some people say you got to make all this money and they will come see you, of course they'll come see you along the way, right? So I am looking for investors, not just for the money but ideas, you got something I can use. We can get this going, you know what I'm sayin'? We can work together.
Right now I am trying to build a foundation to where years from now the name still carries, you know? Like 20 years from now, people saying wow, your Majic Mike, you woke us up man. Who knows maybe there will be people in the music industry that will say, this Majic Mike guy, he makes sense though, ya know what I mean? Let's just change everything up. Not now but in a couple of years maybe five, if people don't stop listening to this dumbed down crap, there's going to be nothing left of this culture here, ya namsayin'? It's going to be illegal to listen to good music, like that Onyx and Wu Tang track, "The Worst"."
Question Number 8:
TMSB: "It's like in producing, some people say, "We've heard this all before". "Why you still sample?", you know? Well then, what do you listen to? "Oh well, I listen to those new kats from the south". And I'm like. ah man they probably haven't even heard of the kats from the Golden Era, like DJ Premier and Pete Rock. With that being said, who are your main influences?"
MM: "Oh man, you just said it. DJ Premier and Pete Rock, those are my two favorite Hip Hop producers of all time right there, ya know what I sayin'? I heard some Premier beats that no one else will hear, right. I know a girl that goes to New York a lot, Brooklyn specifically. This girl used to be with DJ Premier, so she knows where to get his stuff; where to find the rare stuff.
You know another one would be the Bomb Squad from Public Enemy. Public Enemy is one of my favorite rap groups, it would be between them and NWA, right? So the Bomb Squad is one of the greatest producers of all time, along with Dr. Dre. Most of the time when I was starting my beats with Fruity Loops, right? My influences were drawn from what I was listening to at the time, right? It was a lot of boom bap. I started at my mom's house, using her old records and I bought my own records at Salvation Army at 25 cents a record. I bought some from Vertigo Records and Downtown Records in Ottawa too, you know?
So I started sampling, ya know what I'm sayin'? You hear the record poppin' 5 second sample, loop that over, boom boom boom. I still sample now, ya know what I mean? When I'm making my beats, but I still play things out. People now, they go to the music store and buy their equipment for, I don't know, 200, 300 dollars; plus the get the laptop, right? Which is around 800 bucks. Then your on www.Youtube.com, k? Youtube teaches you within a week and you're makin' beats, ya know?
So on Youtube, you got a video of a 5 year old kid making beats (they laugh hysterically). Seriously, the kid has an MPC, right? He's sitting there pressing the buttons, I guess his dad taught him. Now the kid is making beats and it is sounding pretty good. When you see things like that happen, right? You know the world is going to end (they laugh some more). People out there are calling themselves producers and they use Fruity Loops or whatever, after a while, you are all using the same shit.
You can only tweak the synth so much, you know what I'm sayin'? Before everything starts to sound the same. I don't mind people coming to me and sitting down and asking me to make a trap beat, I'll make a trap beat, namsayin'? But my body, heart, and soul; I just can't do it, ya know what I'm sayin'? When I am in the lab, I dig through samples, ya know what I mean? I am big into samples, and whatever comes behind that sample, I may decide to put an 808 behind that sample, so be it, I still play things out. But, a lot of these producers man, they started to sound the same- stop sounding the same. Stop using the same synths."
TMSB: "Yeah everything is like that, Hey, hey, hey (he laughs)."
MM: "Yeah, you know what I mean? You take Otis Redding or something like that, you got the drums going and you take a snippet of each piece of the drums and put that in your drum machine, nahmean? Let things play out like that, that is the type of ish I am into, namsayin'?
TMSB: "Yeah, that old school."
MM: "I just hope that people realize that after a while, if people keep using the same things, their just killing off the culture. Email me and my staff and we'll look it over and consider it. If you hear back from us, we're going to put you on the show, if not, we won't be spinning it. You need some production done just contact me on my reverb and if you need a trap beat or whatever, just work with me and I'll work with you, ya know what I'm sayin'?"
TMSB: "Yea, don't be a waste of time, ya know what I mean?"
MM: "Exactly..."
Question Number 9:
TMSB: "It's 2015, now, there is probably a lot going on, you know, music-wise and business-wise. What can we look forward to as far as 2015 goes, do you have any projects to release this year, you know, what you got?"
MM: "Personally, last year, I only released one project with my name, which was "Golden Era", but I also released a couple of mixtapes with my name on it, Majic Mike, namsayin'? But this year, I got a few projects, I got "Cyborg 2", right? And that is basically a mixtape with some artists I have worked with and spun with (on the show), some will be sending me tracks. I'm going to say it is going to come out during the Fall of 2015, right? I also got "Majic Mike- Art of War Lite" and that is an album, all production will be by me. That will include various artists I have worked with throughout the years and some I am meeting now, you know?"
TMSB: "Are you going to spin that one old school style or what?"
MM: "nah, we're just going to do it track for track, you know? Um, "Cyborg 2" I might put it on wax, most likely yes, ya nahmean? Then we got "The Majic Show Top Hits" Disk 1 and 2, right? Disk one should be coming out in February, right? Basically, it is the hottest tracks from some of the guests and some of the music we played on the show, ya know what I'm sayin'? Those are my few main babies I am working on as we speak."
TMSB: "And you cut it off right there?"
MM: "Yeah, you know we just dropped T-Nyce's "Blood of a Slave Heart of a King", we'll be working on a couple of EPs after that, we got Lamborghini Law, we'll be spinning that. You know, T-Nyce is from South Carolina and people appreciated his mixtape, "Blood of a Slave Heart of a King" because he's bringing east coast Hip Hop down to the south. And the way we spun that, go cop that, that's on Bandcamp, www.bandcamp.com, when you get there type in Majic Productions and it should be there on my page. it is done on wax, a lotta cutting and a lotta scratching, and that is why it won an award down in South Carolina because people were like yo, that's like a mixtape from back in the day with Grandmaster Flash and Big Cap."
TMSB: "Yeah, there is something about Hip Hop created that way versus ones created today. They're just missing that energy, you know? Everything is just kinda blah and sounds the same. So anyway, thanks again Majic Mike, for coming on and doing the interview. I know you got a busy schedule, but I'm sure you got some shout outs so go ahead, yo."
MM: "I would like to shout out to anyone that has supported me and has been a part of the whole movement. You're not going to be big in a couple of months, I'm talking about years, you namsayin'? I'd like to also thank my mother for giving me birth, namsayin'? I love her to death. Ya nahmean? All my family, my brothers, everybody, you know? My friends, not just any friends, like real friends. Not the ones that go, oh hey Mike I see you on Facebook and I see what you're doin', let me know if I can help (he laughs). No I mean it, I would love to thank all of you for the support. Let's use 2015 to take back the streets, our movement, and our culture. Thank you so much!"
Chapter Six: The Conclusion
Thanks for reading this interview and I hope you stick around, up next we got Dr. G in an interview and then Grand Surgeon. So we got much more to come. Big ups to Majic mike for taking the time out to do this interview. Now you know what he and we are all about. Please join the blog and make comments. If you want to be a part of the show, just hit up Majic Mike or myself and we can get you on there. Here at The Majic Show Blog, we put a spotlight on real urban music! Peep the links below...
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Mixcloud (where you can find new and old episodes of the show):
https://www.mixcloud.com/majicmike5/
102thebeatfm (link to the main radio channel): http://tunein.com/radio/102thebeatfm-s220926/
Til the next episode...
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