Been wanting to interview Hit-Boy for a while, such an impressive resume for sur a young producer. In this interview he describes the beginnings of the Surf Club, linking up with Polow da Don & Chase N Cash, getting on the Drop The World joint with Lil Wayne, AND linking up and working with Kanye and producing the beat for the Christmas joint. 

A year ago we interviewed Swiff D , the 4th unofficial member of Pac Div, and also the man who collabed with U-N-I, David Banner, Anthony Hamilton, Raekwon, etc.  At the time he'd dropped Basic Cable, now here's his new mixtape. S/O to Palmdale! DOWNOAD IT NOW

And Adult Swim x Flying Lotus Video: "Zodiac Shit"

Maaaaaan

PS: Peep Flying Lotus' rant about the Grammys

Fresh from the Internet SLNGBNGrs a track produced by maverick producer Diabia$e , a fixture on the Low End Theory beat scene as well as Red Bull Beat Battle champion. Whether this track will be on Blu's upcoming album No York remains to be seen, but it's certainly an indication of the new kind of sound one can expect.

Pic: Kasey Stokes

Here's a remix of Bilal's "Think It Over," by Exile brought by VTech & Plug Research. "Exile manages to update the track's original throw-back feel (produced by 88-Keys) with added kick-drums, chants, haunting echoes, and resonating baselines, while still capturing the overall essence of the original version. "

Check it out

Above a vid of Exile doing his thing at Boombox. I have tons of jewels like that that I should be posting. A big shout out to Exile and Bilal, two LA Stereo favorites.

Laughter just barely overtakes the beats tripping out of his house as Exile opens the door. He’s been working on his rap album, the one he’s been making since 2007, during the same time he and Blu were making “Below the Heavens.” Of course, with the exception of one beat, he’s also doing the production.

Exile lives both sides of the coin. Seeing him socially, you can almost imagine him as a happy-go-lucky fourth grader, playing some prank and then running off to hide and stifle his giddiness.  But in the studio, Fashawn, for whom Exile produced last year’s “Boy Meets World,” says Exile is all business. He agrees. “I know exactly what I want, and I know how I want it, and I’ll tell you.  First I’ll have to get to know you so you won’t hate me.  Or I’ll have to be quiet when I first work with you and let you do what you wanna do.  Even if I don’t like it, I can’t tell you right off the bat or it could fuck up the relationship.  It’s like getting to know a woman; you can be yourself, but you gotta do a little dance.” 

He walks into his lab, a small room with one wall almost covered in old black and white photographs yellowing at the edges.  “That’s my dad,” he says.  “I’m gonna take his reels, and I’m gonna make a whole album from that. And I’m gonna re-release my dad’s stuff.  It’s a great way for us to work together while he’s gone.”

The son of a musician, Aleksander Manifredi didn’t see his father from age six to thirteen—he was “fucking around with drugs, so it wasn’t the right environment”—but he’d give Aleksander drum lessons when he did see him.  His mother, who was in and out of mental institutions, partied with his sister, a “crazy goth chick” who did a lot of drugs, which left Aleksander to be the grown-up in the house.  His father passed away when Aleksander was only eighteen, and still bitter. 

He recalls a story about Blu: “I remember this one time, Blu was having family problems, and he really wanted to see his mom.  He was in Long Beach, so I went there and took him to his mom’s- he didn’t have her number, but he just knew he had to see her.” But Blu’s mother didn’t live there anymore, so Exile drove him all the way back to Long Beach. “At this point, it was like, five in the morning.  And this song by Johnny Cash comes on, about his father, and I’m just crying in the car. And I came home, and I made this song about my dad, and it’s one of my favorite songs on the album.”

It seems his past—the early responsibility, youthful resistance and retrospective reconciliation—has influenced his affinity for uncovering some of the best, and youngest, talent to emerge from the West Coast in the past few years.  Fashawn was 20 when he and Exile made “Boy Meets World,” and he and Blu began working together when Blu was 19.  Both albums they created are reminiscent of backsliding gospel-choir anthems, or lullabies a 1940s chanteuse might’ve sung in a sad, soul-soaked club—all overlaid with Exile’s signature MPC trickery.  

Exile envisioned replicating the sort of mentor relationships that early East Coast pioneers established.  “I wanted to help bring up the West Coast, find artists like DJ Premier or Marley Marl would do,” he says, “Blu’s style grew and developed before my eyes.  Back then he was an artist who didn’t really have any solid material, and I saw potential in him.”  But he aims for symbiosis in the studio, growing with and building a relationship with the artist. “I’m not religious but I definitely believe in putting what you want out there and it coming to be.  Sometimes I’ll pray to have a connection with the people I’m working with.”

With statements like that, you can’t help but consider Exile an embodiment of the 16th century origin of the word “artist.” Yes, he’s realistic, jokingly asking how he can get his name on everybody’s lips, but he’s also deliciously removed from the current commerciality and dizzying pace of hip hop. He hates the Internet because it demystifies so much. He’s not really sure what’s going on in L.A.’s concert/club scene.  He asks what Wiz Khalifa is “teachin’ the kids.”  

He began doing graffiti when he was thirteen, and just churned out a piece in Germany on his recent European tour. Scattered around his house are “found object” sculptures he’s made.  And his spirit has the youthful curiosity and buoyancy of an artist: He suddenly leaps up from the porch and lopes off to retrieve a little sculpture with which he wants to play show-and-tell. 

“All I want to do is to do what I do and make people have fun, a more positive time,” he says simply. Without a trace of arrogance, he completes the thought, “In every way, really, I’m doing exactly what I planned on doing, making classic records for the West Coast.”  Correction: He’s making artistic records for posterity. 

A very cool  "found footage"  video by Daniel Tes on a beat by Houseshoes. There's a character that looks like Shoes in it, and the whole cigarette theme is bang on! Enjoy.

Producer Dibiase was just featured in the LA Times with a bonus track "Lumberjack" from his upcoming album "Machines Hate Me" released on Alpha Pup. Dibiase is an all time favorite... watch out for more stuff including: free to download remixes of the tracks from various beatmakers friends around the globe.

Exile is one of L.A.'s most prominent producers having produced two masterpieces such as Blu's "Below the Heavens" & Fashawn's "Boy Meets World".  Here is a free Radio remix album featuring talent like DJ Rhettmatic, Dibiase$e, Mike Gao, Teebs, Donwill & more. Download here: http://www.thedirtyscience.com/dirty-news/exile-radio-remixes/

Support Exile, make sure to cop his album "AM/FM" that drops Aug 31st with features from Blu, Fashawn, Shafiq Husayn, Samiyam, Free The Robots, DJ Day, Evidence, Alchemist, Krondon, ALoe Blacc and many more.

In the meantime check out his new site http://www.thedirtyscience.com/

While we interviewed Aloe, he drew our attention to a track (Death is Fair) he'd worked on with Exile (together known as Cali duo EMANON) and how he'd linked up the lyrics to some of the subject matter he was alluding to: here on his site. It's pretty cool and instructive. It's safe to say that both Exile & Aloe are great experimenters, and I'd expect this really simple concept to be used ad inifinitum, once the multimedia technology enables it.

"Back in the lab with Exile working on new songs for the next EMANON album, Birds Eye View. I had some downtime came up with the idea to link the words in my lyrics to relevant articles and videos for you all to enhance the meaning of the song. It gives you a better sense of what I'm talking about."