Instrumental Intel - Ep 79 Roots, Rhymes, and Revolution: Why Hip Hop History Matters Pt.1 (11-1-25)

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Achickwitbeatz presents ⁠the Instrumental Intel podcast⁠, bringing you information instrumental to your artistic career including music industry news & tips, insights & interviews, and beats for your inspiration. Listen on Saturdays at 7 pm EST on ⁠⁠⁠Grander Radio⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Achickwitbeatz.com⁠⁠⁠.
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Instrumental Intel Podcast

Achickwitbeatz brings you information instrumental to your artistic career including music industry news, insights, interviews, and beats for your inspiration. Listen on Saturdays at 7 pm ET on ⁠⁠⁠Grander Radio,⁠⁠⁠ Achickwitbeatz.com⁠⁠⁠, and your favorite podcast platform.

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Transcript Generated by Riverside

00:01

Hey, thank you so much for tuning in to Instrumental Intel. I am your host, music producer Achickwitbeatz,  and I'm glad that you're here with me. Today kicks off National Hip Hop History Month. And in honor of that, I'm going to be highlighting conversations that I've had regarding Hip Hop history with  Daneja Mentale and Ultramag7. So I'm excited to be bringing this episode to you. And before we go ahead and get started, I got to give a shout out to my home station, Grand Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

00:29

I'm going to take a quick pause for the cause and then be back right after this. Keep it light.

02:25

Hey, I'm Achickwitbeatz, multi-genre music producer and strategist to indie artists and labels. Visit achickwitbeatz.com for resources for artists and instrumentals in various genres available for songs, vlogs, blogs, podcasts, themes, TV, film, commercials, and more. Once again, that's achickwitbeatz.com. That's A-C-H-I-C-K-W-I-T-B-E-A-T-Z.com.

02:54

Let's make something happen.  All right. Thank you so much for tuning in to Instrumental Intel. I am your host, music producer, Achickwitbeatz.  And I am so excited to announce that I have in the virtual building with me music producer, just all around artist and creative, Daneja Mentale.  And so, you know, real quick, you've been on music marvels before,  but now for this audience, if you could  just kind of give an introduction, like who is Daneja Mentale and how you got

03:23

kind of pull into music, if you will.  I've been known as Daneja Mentale for the past 20 plus years.  I started off as  MC Joby D and that was something that, you know, that's from the 80s. Every rapper had an MC at the end of their name or with an initial, you know, at the end. But  I pretty much just started off

03:53

um as like uh just helping with djs that were in the local area and i started to get more into Hip Hop around the age of uh 11 and 12 then got more serious with writing as i got older uh as far as production i started doing production at the age of 14 doing the uh pause beat tapes where you would take a cassette

04:22

that if you had a double cassette deck and you just continuously loop the same part over and over.  So I did a lot of that, in which I still have a lot of those cassettes to this very day. Wow.  Yeah.  So  I started doing that and then I started linking up with a few people around the area. uh guy by the name of Wanda Menaez and Harold Jordan.

04:50

who are known as the Hustlers back in the day and who they connected me with a couple of members from the R &B group Basic Black. uh Kelvin Bradshaw is one of my mentors.  Around the time they got out of their deal with Motown. So I've been doing beats for years  and became more serious as a writer around 95, 96. uh

05:21

Okay, that was an interesting era for music. Who would you say were some of your influences around that time? Oh man, around 90, I'd say around 94, 95. Even though at the time I wasn't a big fan as I am now, Nas is one of my influences. Lyrically, people like Lars Professor, Pete Rock, like...

05:49

to see who else at the time.  RZA was a big influence because I love the abstract sound.  And as far as uh R &B  or pop music, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, those are like,  Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis to me,  musically is up there at the top.  Even though they're not Hip Hop producers, they're at the top of production.

06:18

Yeah. general.  Yeah. they dabbed into every type of sound. They put everything into their music.  know, so they're at the top for me. Yeah. You know,  it's funny because even though you say like they're not Hip Hop per se,  but like a lot of that energy was still there, like even in the R &B and pop tracks somehow. Yeah.

06:46

Especially with a of the Janet Jackson albums around 89 and going forward.  You know,  you go back and you listen to Rhythm Nation. It's like more like the R&B version of The Bomb Squad, which is another favorite production team of mine.  Of course, Dre, DJ Premier, know, you know, I mean,  can't leave them out.  Right.

07:13

Yeah, so okay, when you had said that oh some of your inspirations like you're even more of a fan now than you were back then, I was just having this conversation recently, uh matter of fact, on this particular podcast about how when I was younger, you know, it was a lot of good Hip Hop and stuff while I was coming up.  And while I would listen to it and enjoy it,  you can only understand so much at certain ages. So it's almost like once you kind of

07:42

experience life a little bit more and then go back to reflect on it. It's almost like that music kind of hits a little bit harder because you're recognizing some of the stuff that they did that maybe, you know,  I guess being in the moment or too young to understand how impactful it was. It's almost like it's more fun to revisit it now. Wouldn't you say?  Yeah. I, as a matter of fact, I go back and  mainly I collect a lot of vinyl albums. I go back

08:10

and I listened to the old joints that I never got a chance to experience when I was a kid. A lot of it, I was always on punishment. So I didn't get a chance to listen to a lot of those albums. So I go back and I visit those albums and the albums I did have, I go back and revisit to absorb them a little bit more because like I said, you understand things more as you get older.

08:36

And then there are some albums I have in my collection and I'm like, what in the world was I thinking? why did I think this was dope? But you know, I take it all in because I was just talking to somebody recently and they were talking about how good Hip Hop was back in the day. Yeah, that's true. But we also had some whack joints too. And we had our guilty pleasures back then.

09:06

So I look back and I was big on 2Live Crew back in the day. So that wouldn't bump half of what I used to listen to back then. But I still have those albums because that's a part of my uh coming up age.  Yeah. First of all, let me say I was way too young to be listening to those.

09:29

But I didn't even realize, I didn't even realize how much I knew until,  well, we had uh the rock, the series XM subscription and rock the bells.  One particular show they did where it was just pretty much like a homage. And I'm like, man, I know this one. I'm wrapping along to the words. I'm like, I know this one too. I'm like, man, I was way too young to be listening to this, but  I'm not gonna lie. Some of that stuff still goes hard.

09:58

when I was watching the Freaknik documentary and Scarred came on, I about lost my mind. yeah, mean, pleasures, but some of that stuff still hit, I'm not even gonna lie. Yeah, and rest in peace to brother Martis from 2Live. Yes, yes. We became Facebook friends about a year ago. And I didn't know he was living here in Alabama.

10:26

Oh, wow.  I was talking to Prince Rahim and he was telling me about that and I was like, wow. Incredible. It was definitely rest in peace there. Yeah, absolutely. And so, OK, you named all your influences like through the  90s.  And I mean, since you've been doing this for a while, uh what would you say?

10:52

try to find a way to where this where it's not so loaded.  are some of the biggest changes that you've seen happening in the industry from the time you started until present day?  The access to new music and the rapid pace of the releases now.  That when I was a kid, you know,

11:20

You waited for a new album to drop on a Tuesday. And there were ads that were posted in several magazines and some billboards. the anticipation of waiting to get that album was just like, I can't wait till this album drops. Now it's like you see an album dropping like, wait a minute, when was this supposed to come out?

11:49

And you're,  it's no, well, I put it like this. Some artists, it's a shock. Like, oh man, I didn't know what this drop, I gotta go cop that. And then there's some albums that drops as a surprise to me. Okay,  crickets for me, know? Yeah. But oh it's a double-edged sword to me because I feel with the ease of  access,

12:20

You have many artists that are out there,  they're able to put their music out  whenever they feel like it. They don't have to  wait on a middleman. They don't have to wait on  a label to tell them to put it out.  That's a good thing.  I took advantage of that as well. And I love Distro Kid. um Won't speak on Spotify too quick.

12:44

because that's pretty much has been like a mill in the coffin for a lot of people. Yeah. Due to the streaming sales, like you're making all these streams and you're only getting 0.03 cents per stream. Yeah. that feels very unfair. So the shady part of the music industry is always going to be there, no matter what. But it's going to have to take the artist and the consumer

13:14

to change that.  If they don't unite on that and change it, it's always going to be the way that it is the evil empire of the industry.  But ah I really loved, like when Little Brother came out for their last album and it dropped in the city, that was like, wow, we haven't seen that in years  because everything drops Friday,

13:41

or drops at midnight on a certain date. Yeah. And,  you know, I mean, it  builds up a little of anticipation, but it's  not as exciting as it was when we were younger. Yeah, I agree. And uh when you said that, that made me think of a tweet.

14:04

that Phonte done like some years back, they're saying like, know, Tuesday, you need the music to get you through the week. And, know, by Friday you already done. So it was like people haven't had enough time to sit with it, DJs and whatnot. So yeah, I totally agree with that. And speaking of artists that, you know, can do what they want and just drop stuff. I noticed that, so I do a lot of combing through Google alerts, all that stuff to find out what's happening in the music business.

14:33

And I recently came across just a flurry of articles, one after the other. Titles were slightly different, but all of it was, where's Beyonce? She dropped Cowboy Carter and we haven't seen or heard from her. And it's like, well, yeah. I mean, she just got done touring and she dropped an album.  What more do you want? Now people are actually expecting like, you know, you to just kind of come back to back to back. And like you said, we used have to sit with stuff and especially as a kid buying music.

15:02

You spend your little check, your whole check almost go to whatever CD or tape you might've purchased. If you don't like some songs on the track,  on the album, you're going to sit with it for a while because you're going to spend your money and you listen to it more. Well, nowadays, yeah, you don't have that. But yeah, just the entitlement to artists is just wild these days.  It's so crazy.  And it made me think of this dude that was on my friend list on Facebook.

15:33

uh, no cause name, but, um, he hit me up and  his thing is he likes to archive material from an artist that's like recorded earlier on.  And there's a lot of my material I will never put out because one, it wasn't good to the quality was garbage.  And three,

15:59

In my opinion, and maybe in many other people's opinion, it was whack.  So  if I don't like it, I'm not putting it out,  you know?  So he would hit me up and he would constantly say, well, yo, want you to send me some of your old stuff. like, no.  I'm not going to put it out for myself. Why would I give it to you?

16:25

And then you get mad and then you use that as some form of leverage. No, I'm not going to do that.  It got so weird that it was this picture I put up. was me and my mom. One of my cousins sent it to me.  And I had seen this picture since,  gosh, since I was like 15 years old.  And at the time my name was D Leroy. And I changed it because I found out there was a rapper from, um I think from Miami.

16:53

His name was Delirical, spelled the same way, so I changed it to Daneja Mentale. But I had a cap on that had Delirical across it.  And all I did was just post this picture, and it's like back in my Delirical days.  And Duel was like,  man, you need to put all  that stuff out. And  I went to your web page, and I'm disappointed you didn't update anything. I'm like, who are you?  And why are you?

17:22

Why do you feel like it's important that I give you my old vintage material?  are you?  It's entitled to your art.  Oh my God. We ended up hitting Tifa from Infamous Syndicate. He hit her up as well.

17:41

And  she and I had a discussion about it. I'm like, who is this weirdo, yo?  So I'm going to block this dude right now.  Who was that crazy? uh I'm not going to put out this wack stuff.  am I, you know,  yeah. That is wild.  And, you know, it's always kind of hard.

18:09

the first time encountering people like that, because it's like, oh, cool, a fan. But then they go a little bit too far and it's like, all right, maybe too much of a fan.  You might need to put some distance here.  Yeah, and it's crazy.  One person that asked me about my bass music,  he realized I really wasn't putting out as much Hip Hop.  And I told him I'm kind of like...

18:36

shifting back and forth. But when I feel like I need to put out Hip Hop, I will right now. I'm just doing the electronica. And he was like, well, I guess bass music wins. Not necessarily. I was, I you know, I'm an artist that does what he wants to do. I'm not assigned to anyone's label. You know, so I do what I feel. I put it out because that's why I feel like doing. If you catch on, that's fine. If you don't catch on, that's fine as well because

19:05

it's going to be someone that's going to like it. There's going to be someone that's going to hate it. Either way, it's out there for you. But it was just crazy. And he was like, homie, well, I think you may need to do this and do that to the next album. was like, you know what? I took that advice one time and I paid a very big price for following that advice.

19:33

someone who never supported the album in the first place.  I  had  an album sitting out there and it's collecting dust because  I decided to take advice from someone who never supported it in the first place. Wow.  Man, that is a, well, first of all, thank you for sharing that because I think everybody in  music at some point has probably had some story.

19:58

similar to that to where they kind of feel bad, but yeah, the cautionary tale is real. You had mentioned about like, you you're being an artist and you're doing, you know, what you're feeling drawn to do. So with that being said, you know, what have you been drawn to lately? If you could tell us a little bit about what you may have been maybe working on or having the works are coming up. I'm working on an album, which

20:27

I've been doing this one for about four years. ah I've been dealing with a lot of personal things. So that's been kind of like the roadblock that I've been facing. Plus I have been trying to get back into photography a little bit more too.  But the name of the album uh was originally called the Come to Ground Experiment, which  I changed it because a lot of the songs I recorded for

20:53

had written were like very  somber, very sad. They dealt with  a lot of the subjects like on greed, oh pain,  know, pain, a lot of the sad things. And I'm like, I don't like this. And I decided to change it.  I kept some of the songs and I scrapped a lot of others. Like, oh, I recycle the verses from certain songs into a new

21:23

to new versions. So the album that I have now is entitled, It's Not Me, It's You, or Maybe It Be. Originally it was just, I first had it as, It's Not Me, It's You. And when I did the photography for it, really I didn't even plan this out. It was basically, it was basically me looking at the photos I had taken and they were like self-

21:52

portraits and all. And I like what I had done with the photo.  And the front cover is me just sitting on the floor with a boombox, listening to some cassette tapes and just like I'm minding my own business.  And then the back cover is me in the same room. But this time, it's like I'm screaming out.

22:20

That's where the other part, uh or maybe the is me part comes in.  it is now, it's not me, it's you, or maybe it is me. uh So  it's  a very personal album  and uh

22:39

It's going to deal with a lot  of personal situations I have experienced and  like I said, mental health, uh being aware in oh mental health month.  And  I didn't want to focus so much just on like Hip Hop, the topic of Hip Hop, even though there are some songs on there,  like uh Real Hip Hop Part II, uh

23:08

Don't let this rap-ish fool you. ah What's another one? Popularity Contest. That's another one I wanted to  talk about because with Popularity Contest, it's like you're looking at how people spend more time worrying about uh two rappers beating each other and all that, but you got all this other great music, know, just like with the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beat.

23:37

people focused on that so much that there were people actually saying Hip Hop is dead because of this. Y'all think y'all focus into two people when there's millions of rap albums out there that are great. I'm feeling this new Rapsody album. Y'all spent more time and energy on that. Y'all forgot this one dropped a dope album.

24:08

But I have songs like...

24:12

Monster part two, his pain, because when I did me and my music back in 2018, I  had this song called Monster, which was focused on uh physical or sexual abuse towards women and the pain that they go through going with this in their lives. So when I did part two, I wanted to focus on the pain that men go through that

24:41

many of us are afraid to even express because society has it where we're supposed to be strong, macho, we're supposed to just have this rough around the edge mentality at all times. lot of people don't realize the strongest men in the world are the ones that got to show their emotions, the ones that got to bring it out into the open. That's a strong man. He express what he feels in his heart.

25:10

That man cries and get it out of his system. That's a strong man. But being the way society is, it's hard to express that. But I've never shied away from the topic.  I express it no matter what. I don't care what people think. So I'm going to talk about that.  That's what's up. And it's definitely needed. um So for anybody that might be out there listening now,

25:38

What kind of advice would you have to offer them if, you know, they kind of have stories that they want to share, but they're afraid to just kind of be vulnerable and pour it into their art?

25:51

I can't say I'm the best advisor, but I will say this. Find your happy space. Find the things that make you happy and put your all into those things. You know, don't use it as a mask.  Use this as your platform, your palette to create and invent. uh A lot of times I will write stuff uh that you'll see posted on Facebook  and

26:22

It's not even for a song, it's just I write in rhymes in most cases and that's how I get out where I'm, what I'm feeling.  And you you might see it be random,  no title to it.  And that's just how I get out. A lot of times I don't talk to anybody because I hate for...

26:45

I hate for what I'm going through to pull them down. They may be going through a good day.  I don't want to pull their energy down or they may be having a bad day and I don't want to make them feel worse. So what I do, I pour it all into my music. And if anybody wants to know what's going on with me, that's their, that's their resource right there. And that's just the way I do it.  I'm sure there are other alternatives, but that's just how I get it out.

27:16

Hey, what's up? Just put your heart into the things that you love and express through there. If you paint, you know, you draw color, whatever, put it through that. You write, put it through that. You know, and just it's just like going to the altar and leave it there.  that's how I get what I Yeah, I love that. That's excellent advice. You know, I've had times where there's been some stuff that I've

27:45

recorded or performed or whatever the case may be and somebody said something to me later like,  hey, I was in that exact situation, know, it felt really good to hear this.  And, you in my mind, thinking when I'm making it, like I'm probably the only person in the world that's ever had these thoughts, but so often you find that you're not. And just by having the courage to go ahead and do it, you never know who you could be helping. Right.  And you never,  you  should never feel like

28:15

uh that you're being weak by doing that is strengthen all of that so  um when you when  you put that out when you express what you feel you're showing the world your strength even though they may look at it  opposite and to be honest it don't matter what they think it doesn't matter

28:38

Because this is what you have to live with and this is how you get through it all. Right. Man,  that's a sound bite right there.  So yeah, noticed that uh time is definitely staring us  right down  smack dab in the face.  Right.

29:01

Before we close out, I want to make sure that people know exactly where they can follow you, uh social media, uh platforms,  whatever you use so that way they can keep up with what you got going on. Well, you can find me on Facebook, of course.  You can find me on the Daneja Mentale or you can find me on the Bad Joby.

29:25

That's my uh alternate page.  I'm on there every now and then posting the content that I usually don't post on my main page.  I'm on every uh streaming site right now.  And I'm on Bandcamp as well. So if you want to get the downloads directly from there, you can get it as Danger Mental or as Quad Control Station. If you're into the electronic music. uh

29:54

There are some other,  and I'm also on YouTube and YouTube music. So I'm also working with a few other people to expand what I'm doing. Hopefully I'll get back into selling merchandise again.  had a little drive run, but hopefully, you know, I'll be back on it. Okay. All right. Well, that's what's up. Make sure.

30:18

that you check him out everywhere that he mentioned. And before we close out, I just want to know if there's any kind of final thoughts you want to leave with the audience or any special shout outs so you can do that at this time. I'll take a quote from Jazzy Jeff joint. Love what you do and do what you love. think.

30:45

listening to that song, The Love of the Game, it has the greatest advice ever. Love what you do and do with your love. Right, that's what's up. I mean, it doesn't get any better than that. Right.  I appreciate you bringing me aboard and it's always a pleasure, you know, chopping it up with you.  Yes, likewise. And I hope that we can do this again sometime soon. This is just part one.

31:14

No doubt, no doubt. All right. Thank you so much for sharing your time, story and wisdom with us. Appreciate you. All right, no doubt. Peace.  Hey, I'm Achickwitbeatz, multi-genre music producer and strategist to indie artists and labels. Visit achickwitbeatz.com for resources for artists and instrumentals in various genres available for songs, vlogs, blogs, podcasts, themes, TV, film, commercials, and more. 

31:42

Once again, that's achickwitbeatz.com. That's A-C-H-I-C-K-W-I-T-B-E-A-T-Z.com. Let's make something happen. Thank you so much for tuning in to Instrumental Intel. I am your host, music producer, Achickwitbeatz, and I'm very, very excited to say that I have in the virtual building with me today,  Ultramag7. I mean, we've been connected on Instagram for a while.

32:09

but it's really great to be able to have this conversation uh semi and face to face.  But if you could,  maybe just tell the people a little bit about who is Ultramag7 and how you got into doing what you do. uh Ultramag7,  I guess I would be a Instagram content creator and what I do,  I like to call culture clips. So I like to take...

32:38

ah songs that have  Hip Hop culture in them. And I like to take clips of pop culture, so culture clips. So movies, cartoons, uh commercials, anything nostalgic, know, uh something from yesteryear.  Trying to put it together to see  if it makes sense.  I  mean,  I guess  a lot of times it makes sense to me. I don't know if it makes sense to anybody else.

33:08

But I guess what some people would call mashup, but I like to make it my own. I like to call it culture clips. I got started during the lockdowns when the pandemic happened. And it's two things. was boredom and jealousy. So boredom being locked down. And there's this 24-hour cycle. And I'm not going to sit around and watch TV.

33:38

I don't want to read this book that I read 72 times.  And so,  you know, creative juices started flowing and then  I would go on Instagram and my page was kind of curated for Hip Hop. You know, I liked a lot of Hip Hop pages and I would see all these people coming out with cassettes  and records and tapes and t-shirts. And that's where the jealousy comes in. Cause I'm like, I got some of that stuff.

34:07

So how do I, I guess what I envisioned was this,  you know, online Hip Hop space.  And I was jealous and I wanted to be a part of it.  And how do I do that in my own unique way?  And as I said, I had, you know, a lot of these,  you know, tapes, cassettes, but I didn't want to do that. I come from the age of not biting. So I was like, I don't want to do it.  And so,

34:36

When I first started, I  took two songs that had maybe like a bridge,  something that connected them,  but they both had videos and I would cut the video right in the middle of one and then it would sink into the other.  So it seemed like seamless. And then  I soon realized a lot of these songs that I wanted to do didn't have videos and I was gonna run out of material.  So... uh

35:04

I recall a friend saying to me, know, Hip Hop has a lot of pop culture and references. And when I heard that, said, ah, well, let me make my own videos. So that's where me doing my own think rapping, you know, material from all these places started.  OK. I mean, that's a really dope way to get started. I think  I kind of want to talk a little bit about something you just said there. It came from boredom and jealousy. But so many people.

35:32

have those emotions and they do nothing with it.  But the fact that you're like, okay, no, I'm going to get in this space. How do I fit instead of, like you said, biting? Cause you know,  we see a lot of that these days and  I miss that yesteryear era where, know, that was frowned upon.  But yeah, I just want to commend you for that. Cause like I said, a lot of people just sit in those feelings and don't actually get active about it.  So.

35:58

One, thank you for getting active about it because what you do is so entertaining.  And I think  for me as  a Hip Hop enthusiast and also as a producer,  it feels like the same thing that we do with sampling.  So like you take pieces here and there to create something totally new. I love,  you know, anytime I'm just kind of mindlessly scrolling.  And then when you come across and like, man.

36:23

I would never make that connection. Like it just makes so much sense when I see it, but it never would have occurred to me. And so, yeah, how do you kind of get in the zone for that? Cause  I mean, it's really,  it's masterful.  it's artful.  Yeah, it's weird. And, um,  like actually,  all right. I'll walk you through one. just did, I think I just did recently.  So it was the, m

36:51

Beastie Boys song is called Professor Booty.  I  was,  I think I saw on Instagram or somewhere on social media,  there was this old cartoon, Sherman and Professor Peabody.  And I'm like, oh, I haven't seen it for while. I'm like, oh, okay. But I remembered that, you know, the dog is the professor, you know, it's a cartoon and Sherman's this little boy.  And so I saw that and I'm like, oh, that's Professor Peabody.

37:20

And my mind goes, Professor, Professor, Professor, Professor. I'm like, oh,  Professor Sabooti. Then I'm like, wait, can I make a video out of this?  So  I went and grabbed like just one of the cartoons. I looked at a few, but just grabbed something.  And as I'm doing it, I always listen to the lyrics. So I try to make the lyrics take me somewhere.  So I started doing it, lip syncing it up.  And then there's a part where they go looking good like that. And that's from

37:50

uh rest of these Freddie Prince. uh You he did he died in the late 70's yet people may know his son Freddie Prince junior but I'm.  He had a show Chico in the man and that was his catchphrase so then there's a part in the cartoon where the professor has a book and he opens it up so I think you know let me superimpose you know you know uh something of Freddie Prince and looking good and then there was a part at the song what did they say.

38:20

Don't touch me because I'm electric and if you touch me, you'll get shocked. And it just so happened in the same cartoon that I think, who was it? This is horrible because I'm near Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin, sorry. Sorry, my Philadelphia people. But Benjamin Franklin is sitting there and you obviously know with the key and the lightning, so he gets shocked. So it just happened to fall into place and I could use

38:50

all of these pieces.  the inspiration comes from something as simple as that. Like it's just something I'm not even thinking about, but  I guess, I guess because  I've listened to Hip Hop so long and I know a lot of different songs that'll just make me think of titles and oh, this will work for this or,  know, like  I'll watch a movie and see a sequence and say, hey, that kind of sounds like this song or I hear a song and be like,  you know, vice versa. And then I'm like, oh, that could be

39:20

you know, moved into this. there's loads of different inspiration and it's not the same every time basically. Okay. So yeah, you can get inspiration from one or the other at any given moment. Wow. Absolutely. That's really cool. So, okay. Now I've noticed that it's typically a lot of old school Hip Hop. Are there any greats that kind of drew you to the culture? Like to begin with that you can think of off hand, should say.

39:49

I know there's many.  Yeah, well,  number one, you know, the name is Ultra Mag 7. So my favorite Hip Hop group is Ultra Magnetic. So my name comes from that group name and my favorite number seven. So,  you know, when you get on Instagram,  you got to come up with a tag. And that was just something I put together.  If I had to go back,  I guess, you know, when I started or knew.

40:14

that this thing might take off, I wouldn't have chosen that thing.  I'm stuck with what it is, what it is, but I  don't know, Ultra Magnetic,  I'm a little bit older, like,  know, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Cold Crush,  Crash Crew.  There's so many, Beastie Boys, obviously, with that song. um Yeah, there's so many groups. Like,  I could go on  for days.

40:40

Okay, so with some of those pioneers as, uh you know, your favorites that you mentioned,  from that timeframe to now,  how do you think technology,  well, I should say specifically the internet  has kind of changed things as far as music goes?

40:58

Well, you know,  I talk about this with friends.  think the Internet,  especially now, if you see what's going on, I know you always talk about what's going on in the industry and I love hearing that,  is uh right now I think the Internet and everything is taking away the middle man.  And  people don't really need labels anymore. It used to be, you know, you make a record and it might not come out for another year,  you know.

41:26

You can make a record in your bedroom and then 10 minutes from now you upload it and if you have the following or you know people Oh, they're here your new song. So I think it's really taking out the middleman I think there's a lot of independent artists now that have a greater voice because they don't have to get behind that machine Anymore, so yeah. Yeah, absolutely You know, you mentioned a lot of the stuff that you work with

41:54

is out of the nostalgia.  So what would you say would be like maybe the greatest thing out of the era,  know, where the golden era, when everything started taking off from  what, 70s to like mid 90s. What do you think kind of defined that era?  I think the diversity.  There were so many different groups and style, know,  so we had female MCs, a plethora.

42:23

and they didn't have to take off their clothes and shake the booty.  got, know, Salt and Peppa who were super sexy, but didn't have to show their body. You have  ultra magnetic or on some  scientific outer space stuff, Public Enemy, Pro Black, uh know, KRS-One. He's teaching, he's the teacher. So he's explaining all these things that we didn't,  maybe didn't dive into or didn't even know about.  So.

42:52

I guess it's really the  diversity and  I think on the top level of Hip Hop that you hear on radio or what people might call Hip Hop,  I feel we don't have that. Like, best to go back to biting. Now it's,  oh, you did that? I'm gonna do that too. I'm gonna do that. Then there's 50 people doing that and,  you know, who's doing this? We don't need you to do that.  Let Drake do that.  You don't have to sing and rap.

43:20

Let, let, you know, let somebody else do that and just do what you do. Be the best you, can be.  Yeah. Um, I  wholeheartedly agree with everything that you just said.  Um, I feel like that's part of the reason why we're seeing so many of the changes, uh, within the music industry. Like all these companies are letting so many top people go.  They're dropping artists. And I think it's just because so many are just regurgitating the same thing over and over again. And it's rare.

43:49

uh now that I can actually listen to radio music and be able to tell who it is.  Like there's a handful of artists where I can actually recognize their voice,  but so many others sound the same. So like that individuality piece, think  is kind of imploding from the inside right now, what we're seeing. Cause I mean,  these labels,  yeah. I think we're about to go from the big three to probably like the big two.  And it's going to be,

44:19

It's pretty soon to be a big one that does everything. Yeah, exactly. uh Yeah.  Again, you know, with that originality,  could you talk a little bit more about how you're able to, I guess, maybe put yourself into what you do? Because I've seen people do different things. Like maybe where they're trying to do what you do, it is not quite there. So like, how do you make sure that you put yourself into everything that you do?

44:49

I think one of, something I like to do is in the little time that I'm allotted, you know, to make the videos, I like to tell a story. So I'm going back to like school and you have, you know, the intro, you know, the middle conclusion. I, you know, I always go back to those days. So I try to make it have some type of an arc or tell some type of story. And then just for me,

45:18

I'm African-American.  try to put as many,  I try to find as many things with black people in it as I can, you know.  And a lot of it is if the character fits.  But if the character fits and it could be a black character or if it's to, you know, a show that I grew up with,  I'm gonna do that.  That's one of the things I always like to have, you know,  show black people in a light and also let people know that we've always, know, sometimes we think, oh, we're not on TV or this.

45:47

A lot the stuff I showed them, like we were here. It might not be as prominent as other people, but we've been here. So I always, I always like to do that.  Yeah, that's powerful.  Um,  so yeah, through everything that you've been doing, I noticed that,  you know, you've got some greats that appreciate you would shout you out frequently. Can you talk a little bit about that and how that feels to be recognized for what you do?

46:14

Man, listen. uh let me just,  real quick. So uh shout out to my friends over at It's CDOC again. So that's a show that we're on every Tuesday and we talk with Hip Hop greats,  but it's overseen by Chuck D, a public enemy. So when I got brought on to the show,  I'm in the presence of Chuck D  and he knows who I am. And I'm like,

46:43

This is crazy.  I'm the kid that would,  you know, I remember being in high school and leaving six period lunch and going to the local record store and getting Fear of a Black Planet and coming back to school and showing it to everybody. Like, how did you get it? We didn't get out of school yet. you know,  being able to talk to Chuck D and him giving me props and,  you know, I've gotten calls from like

47:11

Fab 5 Freddy wanted to do something. He's calling me up and we're talking on the phone and  Fab 5 Freddy explained to me who he is. I'm like, sir, uh I know who you are. I remember change the beat and  Freddy, I know who you are. it really, for me being the Hip Hop fan that I am,  it's amazing. Cause it's these people are larger than life to me. So for them to  give me these accolades, I'm like,

47:41

Really? So yeah, it feels great. It's,  I don't know, I just love it. And I love talking to all the artists. Like, you when I get a chance to talk to artists, I love it.  Wow.  Yeah. I mean, that's gotta feel incredible, especially to think that Fabri and Freddie is like, oh yeah, this is, yeah.  Do you know who I am? Just a case. know, I on some major shows.  So yeah. I mean,  I think that it's awesome that,

48:09

you're being acknowledged for what you do. Cause a lot of times, you know, it's a labor of love. Sometimes you don't get the things that you necessarily deserve. So yeah, that's so awesome. So if you could, you mentioned the show that you do every Tuesday. You can talk a little bit about that and let people know like where they can find it and subscribe, whatever they need to do. Okay. So the show is called it's C-Doc again. And so C-Doc,

48:37

You know, he's the host of the show and he produces for Public Enemy. uh He's a filmmaker. uh He makes beats. uh He raps. it's his show and it's him,  myself,  a friend, Jennifer O'Jenny, who used to work at K-Day in uh LA. this was like the first  24 hour Hip Hop station. So she worked there.

49:06

Yeah, she worked there back in the day. she has her,  you know, the LA OGs come on the show and, ah yeah, we know Jennifer, that type of thing. um And then Flatline, so he works the music division of what Chuck does. he's uh actually on Instagram, he's Hip Hop gods. So he does that and people have new songs. He plays all the freshest Hip Hop, the newest stuff.  And, uh you know, we just get on every week.  Every Tuesday we have a uh new guest.

49:35

and we talk with a plethora of  MCs, DJs, uh whatever is part of the Hip Hop culture, graffiti artists, dancers, know,  whatever it is, we talk with them every week.  And it's on channel zero, uh channel zero on YouTube. So it's Public Enemy's channel.  So you go to channel zero and you'll see the line up and you'll see it's C-DAC again.

50:02

Awesome. So yeah, y'all make sure that y'all check that out. Um, you know, I've caught some of the clips from Instagram and yeah, it's, funny. You know, it's, they say that our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, but every time like when your videos pops up in my feed, I always got to slow down like, okay, let me see what's going on here. So yeah, it's really great to tap in. Thank you because you're feeding the algorithm. I thank you. Absolutely. Yep.

50:31

I'll definitely signal, yeah, you got to push this out to more people.  OK, you know, you're a storyteller.  Do you have like any favorite storytellers? Like, for instance, I'll just say  Slick Rick's children's stories thing that kind of grabbed me into  Hip Hop. So like, do you have any uh top notch list of storytellers?  Well, you said it right there. uh Slick Rick is probably  my top

51:02

Yeah, Slick Rick is that guy. Everybody loves his one album, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick, but my favorite album is his second album. What's it called? Is that the one with the Behind Bars on it? No, no, that's the third one. It's something about the king or something. I don't know, I forget what the title is. I got too many Hip Hop songs. But that album, really love.

51:32

because he told, like his stories were great. He tells a story from,  you know, the vantage point of a cat.  you know, he,  you know, even going back to the first time he's Kit from Knight Rider.  But like  Slick Rick, just think he is so great. uh I think there's a song on a later album.  He was like,  you know, a slave in Pharaoh's times. Like he just sets you in.

51:59

Yeah, I love that stuff. He just sets you in that mode,  but it's still like this B-boy thing. Like, all right, I'm back then,  I'm going to use these slick words, but he sets you in that mode.  I would choose Slick Rick. He's my number one storyteller.  OK. Yeah, I mean, I think that that's an art form that I wish kind of had more exposure in present day. oh We got a lot of the greats.

52:29

legends, the veterans still doing it. But like from some of the newer artists, I would love to be able to see more of that. I mean, a storytelling is just, it's nice to be able to listen to something and just be transported and kind of get,  you know, what they're seeing from that viewpoint. Like you said, the cat's view, but yeah. Yeah.  And that's, it's genius. like,  you know, I mean,  how do you think of that? then the thing is you can think of it, but you have to make it.

52:58

creative and slick and you know, for people to want to listen. Like if you just told the average person, yeah, he's going to be a cat and he's going to run out and you're like, what? So yeah, I appreciate the storytelling. Yeah. Well, you know, it's obvious in what you do that you are one for sure. So do you have, I mean, I know you say it just kind of comes to you, but do you have any like...

53:25

Concrete plans that you might want to share that people can be looking out for from you.  I  get  hit up from some artists nowadays and so uh  They hit me up and want videos. So  Things like that happen. So there'll be videos coming up and  actually I used to Long time ago.  I knew it

53:54

But I had retired.  since,  you know, getting in cahoots with uh C-Doc, uh I guess at the top of the year,  there'll be an album by  Enemy Radio, which is an offshoot of Public Enemy.  And I'll be doing a song with Chuck D. So people, you know,  you'll see Ultramax 7  trying to rhyme against Chuck D.  Not rhyme against, rhyme with Chuck D.  So that'll be coming.

54:24

I think, I don't know, I  may come out of retirement if uh that's favorable, people like that. Maybe  I'll continue doing that. um things like that, I'm thinking of trying to come out with some merch.  just don't want to do,  not to say it's just regular, I don't want to just have t-shirts. I want things that are specific to what  I do, that brands things towards me.

54:52

brainstorming with ideas for that, just, um,  you know, just creating,  um, actually,  I, you know,  I got into podcasting also through, you know, not just it's see that, you know, I have a podcast called people's distinctive travels,  um, that I do and talk to Hip Hop artists. So it's so many things that just came out of doing these videos that  I would, I would have never imagined.

55:17

Okay, yeah, you know, cause I kept thinking, especially as we were talking, I always kind of thought just from watching your videos and seeing what you do, I'm like, man, he's got so much love for the culture. There's no way he hasn't rapped before. Like  I knew it. I didn't want to put you on the spot here, but yeah.  Oh, no, no.  It's actually, I used to,  I used to ride with a female named Princess Superstar out of New York.  And when I got with her, she had a big hit.

55:47

called Bad Babysitter in the UK. So I was on planes, I was on doing festivals,  buses,  reclosed TV shows. So  I got to see the life and then afterwards I'm like, right, I'm cool on that. it was fun when it was happening.  Okay, that's so dope. Okay, now for your podcast with the name,  I'm a Tribe fan,  sincerely. What made you choose that?

56:18

We were thinking, so shout out to my partner, Overlord Refresh, he's my partner in doing that. We were both Tribe, we're both Tribe fans, and we were just trying to think of a distinctive name, well, people's distinctive travels, a name for us. And we were brainstorming because we were thinking of all these Hip Hop references, and it was like people's, not instinctive, distinctive travels. And then we talk with artists and they give us

56:46

their kind of history. um think the latest episode has Devine and Styler and we got a lot of good feedback from that because people hadn't heard  Devine in that kind of way.  And, you know, he doesn't give a lot of interviews. He's kind of, you know,  he's hiding, not hiding, but he's behind the scenes doing things. So,  and then,  you know, with us, we like to be, you know, we're knowledgeable about who.

57:12

we interview and talk to. So we both were huge Divine Styler fans. So we're asking him this very intricate things and he's appreciative of it. Like, oh, you guys are really, really fans. And, you know, he appreciated that. But yeah, that's where we got it from tribe, you know, people's distinctive to switching up distinctive travels. That's so dope. Okay. So where can people check out your podcast? It's streaming on all platforms, you know, Spotify, Apple.

57:40

But wherever you would listen to podcasts, your favorite platform, it's there. Okay, dope. Well, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to come out and talk. You shared so much wisdom and information. I'm excited for the listeners to hear this conversation because yeah, totally dope. So yeah, before we kind of wrap things up, I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for showing up and sharing.

58:09

And yeah, is there anything that you kind of want to leave the people with,  you know, where they can follow you,  any platform you want to shout out, and especially keep up with music tip.  I'm excited for that. Yeah.  Yes. On Instagram, just ultramag7, at ultramag7, U-L-T-R-A-M-A-G number seven. uh Every Tuesday, check us out on It's C-Doc again.  We'll be,  you know, talking hopefully to your favorite artists.

58:39

And also, I just want to add, every Sunday, we play the music of the artists  that we're going to have on Tuesday. my homeboy, DJ Solbuck, he does the mix. So that's called at C-Doc, again, the mixtape. So that's on Sundays at 8 p.m. um Again, the podcast is People's Distinctive Travels. You can find that  on any streaming platform.  And it's probably maybe in other things I do.  We'll be here though, next week.

59:09

Well, I hope this is just the first of many and I get to have you back on the show again. So that way, yeah, if you think, man, I should have said this, you can always come back on and say it. I thank you and appreciate your platform and love everything you're doing. I've been following you. So keep it up. I love the elevation of what you're doing. Thank you so much. All right, until next time. Appreciate you.

59:34

Alright, thank you.  Alright, and that's a wrap for this episode of Instrumental Intel. I've been your host, music producer Achickwitbeatz,  and I want to thank you for tuning in. Once again, as always, I appreciate the guests for coming on and sharing their insights. And I'd like to thank my home station, Grander Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Make sure you come back next week. I got more goodness lined up for you. So till next time, you know where to find me. Tune in, tell a friend, and I'll see you then.  Peace.