Beat Studies

I caught up with 4-ize at Studio 8 where he was shooting his video for “Classic Example”, track 1 off his hot new release “Illuminated Animals” (over 1200 downloads in the first week!). Click here if you haven’t downloaded it yet.

When I finally got a chance to ask 4-ize some questions, the first logical one to come to mind was, “What species makes the best lover?” “I think llamas make the best lovers.” 4-ize answered enthusiastically. “Michael Jackson knew what he was doing… he kept a llama on the Neverland ranch. Llamas make the best lovers, for real, on my mamma.” After hearing his album, I can’t knock beastiality any more, not at all.  What ever it takes to inspire an artist to make real hip-hop at this high level of quality is cool by me.

On first listen, I heard track 4 and thought damn, that sounds familiar. Then I remembered recording some vocals for it right here in our lab. Here is 4-ize featuring Punchlyne and Numba 2 with “Ultra Beast“.

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I asked him about the beats, because the production on this album is stunning. “We did jack Raekwon for the classic example joint but Rasta Root chopped up the end of it and we jumped on it. That’s why we’re shooting the video now for that.” As for the rest of the tracks he said, “This is an exclusive project as far as me keeping it private. Floyd Da Locksmith produced like 9 joints and DJ Rasta Root did like 3 joints and its all just nuthin’ but that good soulful substance that we need right now. Atlanta, for it to be the focal point of music we need to have something along the lines of hip hop that really represents music on the total spectrum, ya dig.”

Two other rappers really stood out among the MC’s featured on this release, Senor Kaos and Punchlyne. I asked 4-ize how he got involved with them. “Kaos is doing it real big and I’ve been messing with him since he was like 17. He’s a young dude and he is supergrindin’ and we all on the same mission out here. I just came and snatched him and Punchlyne up and was like ‘yo man, jump down on this, and it all started with the “classic example” joint. We all snapped on that and I was like man, we gotta do that again over some real good beats. So we took some Rasta Root Beats, took some Floyd the Locksmith beats and started makin’ some original classics.”

Here is another sample of the album,”Classic Example Freestyle” featuring Kaos and Punchlyne.

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As 4-ize and collaborators prepare to shoot a music video under the direction of our friends of Studio 8, I asked him how he felt about working with them. “We are still building a relationship, and it’s good synergy man when you can work with people that are good and you just got the good energy with them where everything ya’ll create is just dope.  I’m like… you can’t go wrong with that, so we just went full speed ahead.”

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4-ize is also featured on 16 Bars of Gold vol. 2 and will be among the performers at its release party. “I’m lookin’ forward to Dec. 4 because I know there’s going to be some shenanigans for that 16 Bars of Gold release demonstration”, he said. “We’re gonna recreate the mix-tape live on stage. Please believe I’m going to be draggin’ a female goat up on stage. Im’a have sex with somthin’ with antlers. Antlers are normally difficult, cuz you know if you hit em’ in that right spot… they get to buckin’. But for this show, I’m bringin’ out somthin’ with antlers for real.” We look forward to this display with eager anticipation.

Tags: 4-Ize, Atlanta, Classic Example, DJ Rasta Root, Floyd Da Locksmith, hip hop, Illuminated Animals, Numba 2, Punchlyne, Senor Kaos, Studio 8, Ultra Beast

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