I Make Music

Over the past five years that’s been something that I’ve been quiet about. Partially because for the past five years, I haven’t had access to my music making equipment, and partially because living where I live prior to this year all that I’ve come across are people who, and this may sound mean, thought they could rap and/or wanted me to give them some for free.

Since relocating, I’ve been interesting with new people who seem genuinely interested in what it is that I do; some who are shocked that I do so many things also. Because of this, I’ve been opening up a little bit about my music making. So I figured I’d talk about it here a little bit.

1997 is when I first developed an interest in being some kind of musician after someone at school gave me a cassette single of Young Murder Squad’s “How We Livin'” (with Sh’Killa’s “1-800 Got Yo M’n” on the other side). I’d never heard of Young Murder Squad or South Central Cartel at this point in my life; I was 100% a Bad Boy shinny suit music kid at the time, and hated Eminem for some reason that had nothing to do with him being white (I grew to love Eminem about two years later). I wrote my first “rap” around this time. in 2000, I became friends with someone who had a little makeshift studio in his bedroom and recorded a couple of song (that no longer exist, so don’t ask). Through this friend, I got a copy of Hip Hop eJay and started playing around with making beats on the family’s Windows 98 computer.

I soon convinced my father to buy me a keyboard that, to this day, think he got played on the price of at Music Unlimited. A Casio WK-1630. To me that thing looked amazing, and I made a few things on it before realizing that it’s not what I “wanted”, and was luckily enough to a surprise gift in 2002: an Akai MPC2000XL. An MPC at 15 years old made me feel like I was the man! I had no idea what I was doing with it. Luckily this time, my father had come across Leo’s Pro Audio (which is no longer with us), but they advised him in the right direction on what to buy. I almost got an MPC 4000 because it was the newest model, but they advised him not to buy that was because the firmware was buggy at the time. So here I am with an MPC2000XL, a Casio keyboard, and a Mackie 1202-VLZ PRO trying to figure out how to make music with it all and a computer. Up to this point, my friends and I had been recording all of our music in Cool Edit Pro (which would later become Adobe Audition) because we were also computer nerds and there was a serial number and EXE file floating around the Internet and mIRC, but I’d come across Cubase SX 2.0 and started trying to use that becase it looked a lot more professional to me than Cool Edit Pro did; and it probably was.

That MPC would sit virtually unused for about 4 years while I did a lot of my music production in something else new that we’d come across online, Reason 2.5, alongside now Cubase SX 3.0. Note: We were not paying for all of this software at the time. This is when I made the switch from rapper to full time audio engineer and producer. Prior to this, I had been featured rapping on about two dozen songs with various people I’d met during this time. In 2007, I bought my first piece of software, Reason 4.0 and started making music with that. I’d also finally figured out how to use the MPC, both alongside Reason via MIDI as well as for sampling.

2008 brought in a lot of new things because of a huge tax refund. I took what I thought was the next step to being professional and bought Pro Tools M-Powered 8, a Digidesign Command|8 to go with it, and later in the year an Akai MPC2500 (because I felt I was limited by the 2000XL). A lot of great music came out of this time, specifically, everything you’ve heard on Bishop Jackson EP; with Street Blue, New Day, and Suicide being made chopping samples on the MPC 2500, and The Shit being a weird coincidence that came from unintentially rewiring some equipment backward (I think I origianlly used the E-MU Mo’Phatt as the sound module for what was played on the MPC 2500, but it all got played through Reason when letting a friend hear some music). Bob Ross happy accident.

2006 through 2010 was me working at a record store and getting really deep into Madlib, J DIlla, and 9th Wonder, so the sampling took over the majority of the music I was making. And that’s when I really just switched to making beats for making beats sake and only working with or attempthing to work with rappers or singers when I made something that I thought a friend of mine would sound nice over. So I just started making beat tapes. That was my Raw Beats beat tape era. Between 2012 and 2015, I had some people come over and record a few songs sporadically, and that became Bishop Jackson EP 2; with THUG NASTii being made completely in Pro Tools, strangely, The Shit Part II and Keep It Movin’ on the MPC 2000XL (because I figured out how to use it more by now), If Only… being a combination of samples (and sequenced) on the MPC 2500 and sounds from the E-MU Mo’ Phatt, I Had A Dream being a sample loop and drum played on the MPC 2500, and The Shit 3 being made with Maschine Mk2 (that I borrowed from my cousin). After that, I went back into beat tape mode, while also trying to plot out a Bishop Jackson EP 3, but that never happened. I also ditched Pro Tools and started using Studio One during this time; that Command|8 that cost me $1,100 in 2008 just sitting in a closet going to waste because I can’t bear to get rid of it.

From 2019 to 2024, I took a break from music and focused more on photography due to my equipment being in a storage unit after a move and living in a family member’s spare bedroom a bit longer than I’d planned. So I’m trying to get back into it. Hopefully, I can pull some of my friends out of rapping retirement and make a Bishop Jackson EP happened by the end of 2025.

I didn’t know what this post was going to be when I sat down to write it. I did want to list out the equipment and software I use (and have) because I know a lot of people like that (I do, too, so I’m not judging you). So here that is:

Software:

  • Windows 10 Professional
  • Presonus Studio One 4 Professional (upgrading to version 7 soon)
  • Avid Pro Tools M-Powered 8.3 (backup DAW, probably won’t ever upgrade it)

Hardware:

  • Dell OptiPlex 7080 SFF (latest computer system)
  • M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R
  • Mackie 1202-VLZ PRO
  • M-Audio Studiophile AV 40
  • Akai MPC 2500
  • Akai MPC 2000XL
  • M-Audio Oxygen 61 (Mk I)
  • KORG microKORG
  • E-MU Mo’ Phatt
  • Roland JV-880
  • Stanton T.55
  • Fender Squier Bullet Strat
  • Fender Squier Bronco Bass
  • Rogue Acoustic Guitar
  • AKG K240 Studio Headphones
  • MXL R144 Ribbon Microphone
  • MXL 990 & 991 Condenser Microphone
  • Shure SM58 Dynamic Microphone (x2)
  • Presonus FaderPort (original grey and blue version)
  • Hosa 48-Point Unbalanced Audio Patchbay
  • Digidesign Command|8

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