Allow me to offer full disclosure in terms of Gensu Dean’s debut project entitled Lo-Fi Fingahz. I am an Executive Producer on this project and I, along with Gensu, brought it to Mello Music Group to see if they wanted to put it out because I believe in it. Thankfully, Michael Tolle at Mello Music saw the vision of the project and was ready to move on it. I remember a quote, albeit paraphrased, from Evidence (of Dilated Peoples) saying there is nothing more satisfying than making music with friends. That is what this project is: a unified mission of like-minded individuals who have a bond beyond music. Will this project forever alter the course of Hip Hop? Who knows. I do know this man made an entire album with the SP-120o, not for the sake of being an elitist, but because that’s his ethos. Dean understands it starts with the music and it must have a soul to it. I feel this quote from W.E.B. Du Bois describes it accurately:
Thus all Art is propaganda and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists. I stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever art I have for writing has been used always for propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to love and enjoy.
This music is for everyone to enjoy. It’s a solid project from beginning to end and it oozes with slow-cooked, well-crafted songs. Please enjoy this excerpt from Michael Tolle (Director of Operations at Mello Music Group) and Gensu Dean and enjoy their commentary on the new album Lo-Fi Fingahz.
When you finish a record it is a natural point of reflection. The record is handed in, mixed, mastered, and ready for release. Now, you start to consider what it is the record in its entirety is really saying. It’s when you start thinking about what you are about to present to your fan base. What is it that the record is trying to accomplish? For Gensu Dean’s debut Lo-Fi Fingahz, the answer is both nuanced and simple: getting back to basics.
In today’s market everything appears interchangeable: Pop sounds like Hip-Hop, R&B sounds like Hip-Hop, and Hip-Hop sounds like Pop; everything is literally the same formula. However, with Lo-Fi Fingahz, Dean wanted to return to a distinctive sound that there was no confusing –straightforward, unashamed Hip-Hop and Rap.
The question was how to build that sound. With that in mind, Gensu Dean decided to turn to one of the Four Horsemen of Hip-Hop’s “golden age:” the Emu SP1200. Dean may have gone modern by using Pro-Tools for recording, but the music itself was created with a vintage SP1200. The significance of that machine is that it shaped the sound of countless Hip-hop albums. DJ Quik’s first album, Cypress Hill, Dr Dre’s work with N.W.A., Ice Cube’s Death Certificate, DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Large Professor, Easy Mo Bee, the Geto Boys, they all used the SP. So with that machine comes a subconscious recognition that Gensu Dean was going for –the lo-fi, yet ridiculously solid, warm sound it produces.
Dean admits, “The challenge was to use a vintage machine to create a contemporary record that doesn’t sound dated, that competes with what’s out today.” Creating a modern record with vintage tools is no easy task given the limited ten-second sample time of the machine. As Dean explains it, that’s the business of getting back-to-basics: “In essence, Hip-hop started with taking something small and making it big. DJs taking a four second break in a record and finding a way to repeat that funky moment and extend it. That ten-second sample time can’t be upgraded, can’t be extended. So, you’re forced to work with taking something small and reworking it into a new, bigger sound. That’s the creative challenge that pushed you to see what you can come with. Not to mention arranging it into something that is comparable to what’s made today, or even more important, that exceeds what is made today. It’s not even stereo sound, but we craft it from production to mixing and morphing it into something that’s bigger than what it is being made from –bigger than what’s made in million dollar computer-based studios. This is Hip-hop.”
The best part about Dean’s method is that it’s not an elitist thing; it’s a music thing. It’s not about finding a record from Japan that no one has and gloating about it. More so, it’s about being at home and taking what you have and proving you’re badder than anybody else on any type of equipment. Dean says it with conviction, “We cut drums, we cut loops, this is what we do.” It was that back-to-basics philosophy that original drew Mello Music Group to the project and they hope the fans gravitate to as well.
“For us it was an easy decision. Dean came with 17 tracks produced entirely on the SP. It was something magical to hear how he put the songs together. To hear David Banner, Large Professor, Roc Marciano, Prince Po, Brand Nubian, all these legends over an SP again, it was perfect. The sound was thick in a way we hadn’t heard in a while,” Tolle said. “Everything is cycles, and Lo-Fi Fingahz is the beginning…it’s a return to what’s next.”
Many thanks to Gensu Dean, Michael Tolle, Jonathon Kim, Al Lindstrom, David Banner, Extra P and all the artists that contributed to this project. Many blessings and much success. GOD BLESS
Gensu Dean’s Lo-Fi Fingahz album link:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/
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