Hip-Hop has always been about egotism. Like it or not. In some ways that made for great, boastful rhymes. On the other hand it led to the culture of today, where individuals can talk about nothing more than what they've acquired in the past year. This egotism is was amplified by grandiose titles and aliases, some bordering on absolute stupidity. To simplify things, I choose my real name. Not very complicated.

I'm not much into the party environment, so the answer to that would be no. However, I am open to radio or television appearances and have hosted my own programs in the past.

The Internet has made big media gatekeepers largely irrelevant. Want to film a documentary or short film? Put it on YouTube. Want to distribute your album? Create a torrent. The trick is self-promotion, and I don't claim to be a master of that.

That would depend on the conditions.

I started out as a DJ in 1991 or 1992. During that time I sold mixtapes, hosted and guest hosted radio shows, and began the preliminary journey into beat making. Around 1997 I sold my equipment and called it a day, largely due to my disappointment with Hip-Hop's state. For about ten years I took a hiatus, but always collected rare grooves, and dabbled with production -- never really releasing my material to anyone else. Recently, I've decided it's time to dust off the turntables, stack up the vinyl collection, and work on my craft in a unique, original way.

If you pick up my iPod you'll find every genre except country on it . . . actually I take that back, there's a Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson song on there. I like anything soulful. Anything that puts across strong emotion. More specifically though I was heavily influenced by Grandmaster Flash, DJ Premier, Pete Rock, DJ Shadow, De La Soul, Prince Paul, James Brown, Kraftwerk, David Axelrod -- and I could go on, but you get an idea.

I don't know if I have one. I mean, every city in the US is the same. Same McDonalds, same Holiday Inns, same 2 bedroom townhouses. It's pretty pathetic. I'd have to say some of the best times of my life were in the deserts of Saudi Arabia.

DJ Related

A Technics SL-1210MKII with a Shure M44-7 cartridge (for scratching/mixing) and an Ortofon Arkiv OM (for sampling/listening). Vestax PMC-05 Pro III mixer. Boss RE-20 "Space Echo." 2 Pioneer CDJ-800s.

Hardware Production (the think tank)

A Casio RZ-1 sampling drum machine. Oberheim DX drum machine. Boss DR-202 drum machine / groove box. Korg Kaossilator. Casio VL-1 keyboard. Akai MPC 500. E-Mu Drumulator, PreSonus Firebox.

If I could have nothing else let me have my turntable, vinyl, and MPC.