PARIS HILTON BFF
BRITTANY FLICKENGER
THE FUNKY TECKNICIAN
MS.TRINITI
X.O
T.I.T.S
DUB.Z INTERVIEW
The Boy Hollywood
CHAMP MAGAZINE
CHAMP: What's goodie Dub Z? What are you up to at the current moment?
DUB Z: Nuthin much man…chillin…Multitasking like always. Just saw Lost and I love every minute of it, just did my daily web browsing, and I just started listening to some samples on my pc.
CHAMP: Now you got some bangers on both of Stat Quo's recent projects. Definitely wanna know how long you've been making music for?
DUB Z: I started dabbling at the end of 96 when I bought my own equipment. I couldn’t keep it at my crib when I bought it so I kept it at a friend’s house until late 98. Once I had the equipment in my room I started honing my craft so I guess it’s been about 11 years now.
CHAMP: Where does the name Dub Z originate from?
DUB Z: It originated from an old friend who told me a story of his once. He was at his girls house without her moms knowing and he had to sneak out of her fire escape late one night because her moms was about to come in. He said he had to pull one of his double o missions. I adopted the double o name from that story because I’ve felt like I’ve been on many 00 missions like that and I liked the whole 2 zeros thing (00 not being a number but still being a number). It’s kind of like people (or yourself) not acknowledging you or your value yet it’s still there and incalculable. Double O turned into Jef00 for my early work (which someone once misquoted as jef infinite because the two 00s looked like the infinity sign which to me was both funny and ironic). Jef00 eventually became Dub Z but I used Dub dot Z for my Ghostface placement. It eventually became Dub.Z with the dot in middle for pronunciation (people were calling me dubs when I wrote dub Z without the dot and dub dot Z felt long like I was giving my first middle and last name when doing introductions).
CHAMP: I also noticed you did some production on Stats earlier work. How did you guys initially hook up and what's the chemistry like between you two?
DUB Z: I met Stat through a mutual friend back in 98. He met Stat while at college. My friend wanted stat to be part of our group at the time (we were putting out independent records at this time round 99). After hearing him rhyme and talking with him for a bit we let him record with us and join the group. He always had high aspirations and after a year or so he wanted to work on his solo thing. He was always a huge fan of my music and wanted me to do most of his production (which I did at the time). He started recording songs over my beats and he eventually did an albums worth of material he was planning on releasing if he didn’t get signed (this is around 01-02). I produced a large majority of that. The best songs we recorded were used for his demo, which got him a lot of interest from labels before Aftermath came into play.
Musically the chemistry between us is great. We’ve known each other for years so we know what the other person is capable of. Stat and I are cool in general. He is hilarious, quite the character for sure. We don’t speak as much as we use to but things are good between us.
CHAMP: Do you think him leaving Em and Dre was for the good or the worse?
DUB Z: It was for the best. Stat being on the Shady shelf wasn’t helping him or them and it wasn’t Stats fault he was on their shelf. With Stat they were waiting for the right song and the right time and they let both of those pass on a few occasions.
CHAMP: Your beats are definitely off the chain but I feel your catalogue ain't as big as it should be. Which artist have you been working with to get that Dub Z name out?
DUB Z: In the past I’ve worked with Ghostface (“Tush”), Sean Price (“I love you b!tch”), Consequence (“Motivators” remix). More recently I’ve worked with Donny Goines, Emilio Rojas, Rain, Amanda Diva, and of course Stat Quo. Recently, artists like Donny Goines, Stat Quo, and Emilio Rojas artists have helped my web presence because they have a strong web presence. Regardless, I always feel like my name could be more out there and that comes with more songs and even more promotion.
CHAMP: What are the tools we can catch you working with when chefing up a beat in the studio?
DUB Z: With a sample you will probably catch me with my pc and black MPC1000. If I’m doing sample-free music I’ll collab with my boy DJ Static and we use the MPC1000 with reason, the xv 5080 and the motif.
CHAMP: Your sample selection is off the chain. Do you find a lot of your samples through torrents/online, or do you actually do crate digging?
DUB Z: Thanks man. I use to dig all the time up to a few years ago. Then I started “e-digging”. It’s changed everything. It’s a different type of digging for sure. It’s still about finding less known samples but now you have to make sure the sound quality is up to par and you have to have many spots to take from. Nowadays I get almost all of my samples online from various forums and blogs. Every now and then somebody will give me a record to hook up for them. I never use torrents.
CHAMP: Now I always wanna see how current cats are in the status of hip hop, so what's your take on the whole situation bubbling with 50 and Rick Ross? Do you see this creating a south vs. new york thing?
DUB Z: I don’t see the whole south vs. NY angle in this beef. It’s really just promo for both of them but it’s really benefiting 50. He won this “battle” easily. His tactics are hilarious and they don’t involve much music.
I don’t see this creating a south vs. NY thing because they don’t invoke that type of reaction from people. It’s more of a one on one thing between them. The climate for beef in hip hop is different now anyway. If Game vs. 50 didn’t restart the old west vs. east beef then this is definitely not starting the south vs. NY.
CHAMP: What projects are you currently working on?
DUB Z: I’m about to start working with Donny Goines again for his second album. I should have one or two beats on Stats next album. It’s a project called 2010. I have a song on Wordsworths next album. I know Amanda Diva did another song on one of my beats which might be on her next release coming in March or April. I’m working all the time with my group Smash Mechanics, an emcee out the BX everybody should check for called Phase One, and a singer/songwriter people should check for named Tess. All very ill in their own right and you will be hearing many things from all of them soon enough.
CHAMP: What else can we expect from Dub Z and where can cats get at you for beats or to peep some of your production?
DUB Z: You can expect more. More sample manipulation. More sample-free collaborations with my boy under the name staticndub. Hopefully more name recognition. Definitely more music, more great hip hop…continuing tradition. Anybody trying to reach me should check for me at my myspace page (myspace.com/jeffersonjacksonmusic). Add me as a friend. Send me a message if you like what you hear. If you’re interested in hearing more let me know. I update my myspace page with new content every couple of months so you can always check for that. Thanks again for this opportunity.
Other Niggas - Stat Quo (Produced by Dub Z)
