Solid as a Rock
May 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Anthony Roberts
STICKING WITH WHAT HE KNOWS BEST, PRODUCER 88-KEYS MEETS UP WITH KANYE AND FRIENDS AND USES NOTHING BUT HARDWARE FOR HIS DEBUT SOLO ALBUM, THE DEATH OF ADAM
IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE HIM…
“88-Keys has a great ear for music; that's coming from me being a musician,” says Winston Nelson, who played piano, bass guitar, organ and keyboards on The Death of Adam. “He knew how to sing melodies and bass lines to get exactly what he wanted. As far as melody, chord structure, he heard the finished product from the beginning, and even I was like, ‘Wow, that's great.’ I was able to give him that live feel, and when put on top of the sample, he made it sound realistic, like there were 10 people playing instead of two. He made it bigger. The way he programmed his drums…it all fit musically.”
88-Keys may not be a household name like some superstar producers, but his collaborators see that changing with time. “I see him going far because I think he's very underrated,” Nelson says. “Like even before I got the chance to work with him, I thought he had the same light as Kanye or Just Blaze, and when people hear this album, they'll know, too.”
Planning to whet the appetites of potential listeners with a 15-song mixtape titled Adam's Case Files, which will serve as a prequel to the full-length offering, Keys plans to insert the original parts of the records that he sampled from and feature them on the tape, just to show that he's “no slouch” when it comes to digging in the crates. But above all, he's showing that he's growing up in his production style, something that the people around him feel privileged to witness.
“I think 88 made a bit more of a change to making music for a larger audience as opposed to making music that other producers could appreciate,” says Daniel Glogower, 88's manager. “He listens to music differently and hears the musical bed underneath. He's now making music to catch everybody's ear. I think he stopped chasing the industry and allowed them to catch up to him. And when he did that, that's when the music underwent a transformation.”
GOOD, CLEAN FUN
On this February afternoon, 88 is enjoying that transformation, and more importantly, he's accepting it. The man, who occasionally takes trips to the [Ralph Lauren] Polo mansion in NYC when he gets “beat block” and needs a quick dose of inspiration, says that he wants to follow in one of his biggest musical influences' footsteps and “get as much love as the great J Dilla got.” 88 is realizing that he could very well be the future of the hip-hop aural landscape. With that thought looming over his head, he spends hours in the studio — not for himself, but for the people, preparing to keep heads satisfied with an ever-increasing body of work. And if he has his way, he'll be serving the masses with classics for calendars to come.
“I got seven albums, concepts and titles, all ready to go in my head. I might just blindfold myself, put 'em on a dart board and say, ‘I'm gonna do this one next,’” he boasts.
“I'm just hoping to become more flawless than I am now and keep putting out good, entertaining music. Everything I do, I try to have the maximum amount of fun that doesn't require drugs or alcohol. And I'm getting there.”
Not bad for the first-generation Cameroonian sonic savant. He hopes that those who are nodding their heads to his thick, layered, creative concoctions will appreciate the road that has allowed him to arrive in their iTunes or CD decks. After placing their headphones over their ears or blasting it out of their Kenwoods in the car, 88-Keys is hoping that fans will become intoxicated from his 200-proof mix of drums, keys and synths served on the rocks — shaken, not stirred. Ask Chloe Yoshe. She already knows how her daddy gets down, and the hip-hop world is next.
“I want to bring people back to buying and listening to whole albums,” 88 says, “starting with mine.”
Word to Dilla.
HARDWARE ASSEMBLY
Akai MPC3000 sampling workstation
AKG C 414B-ULS microphone
Fender Jazz Bass (borrowed from Bilal), Rhodes keyboard
Numark DM1180 mixer
Roland VS-2480 digital studio workstation
Samson Servo 150 amplifier
Tascam CD-RW700 CD burner
Technics SL-1200MK2 turntable, SB-A26 3-way cabinet speakers
Yamaha Motif 6 keyboard
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