DJ Hellfire

Straight out of Trenton, NJ! I started making beats and rapping at the age of 13. At that time my main focus was rapping and developing my skills as an MC. Although I loved everything about making beats, I didn't have my own equipment to be able to get into it as I really wanted.

So I kept writing and recording songs myself using an Awai stereo with Kareoke cababilties. I would run the beat from a tape on deck A and rap over the beat while it was recording onto deck B. Once I did all the verses, I would rewind the tapes and then switch them. The tape in deck A would go to B and vice versa. Then I would play the tape in deck A, which now was the tape that had my verses on it, and recorded on to deck B (which had the beat on it) and record the hooks. Then I would do it one last time and adlib the verses and double the hook in one recording. The main problem with this method is that if I got all the way to the last verse and messed up, I had to redo the whole thing from the beginning. There was no punching in with this method, but I got it done.

Then when I was 17, my mom bought me a set of turntables. I was making mixtapes and blend tapes along with my own tapes that I was rapping on over other peoples beats and would sell the tapes at school. There were some days where I would make $35 a day just in school off these tapes.

Not shortly after that, I ran into DJ/MC/Producer, Arsen Pachino (AP), who had a group called Underworld Entertainment. To make a long story short, he heard my tape and invited me to his spot where he taught me how to use the Akai MPC2000 and put me down with Underworld. There about 10 of us back then. We all know how hard it is to have a 10 man group, so eventually, that number went from 10, to 6, to 5, and now there are 4 of us. Hellfire, AP, Deuce, and Alamaj!

So then I started making beats and rapping for Underworld. About a year later I got an MPC2000XL so I could do beats at home. But I have become bored with rapping and now my main love is producing.

We've done a few live shows in the past, but nothing recent. We were also once the opening act for a Nappy Roots concerts at Trenton State College!

Wu-Tang, Jay Z, Dr. Dre, Just Blaze, Kanye West, Hi-Tek (who is the most over-looked HOT producer out right now, but thanks to G-Unit for puttin him on some songs), Redman to name a few. There's not many rappers out to day that influeence me at all which is why I think I'm not into rapping anymore. It's like now there is a rappers guideline that every rapper follows today to be able to survive in the industry. Every album has the same layout!

I use: the Akai MPC 2000XL (pride and joy), a keybord, a JV 1010 and 1080, turntables, Mackie 1202-VLZ 8 track board, RNC compressor, Sony Mini-Disc recorder, Philips CD recorder...