My Top 5: DJ Concept

DJ Concept is a DJ & producer from Long Island, New York. He is the co-founder of The Bash Brothers DJ Crew along with DJ Mickey Knox. Concept is well known for his creative use of obscure samples in his mixtapes. He gained a loyal fanbase through his nationwide hip hop show, The Mix Chronicles, on Sirius Satellite Radio. He has been DJing for 15+ years and brings much hip hop knowledge to the table.

DJ Concept has released tons of mixtapes, as well as, a few albums including The BYOB LP, Heavy Smoke (Limited Edition Amsterdam Version), his last beat tape M99: a Dexter themed instrumental album. 

DJ Concept is on the verge of becoming one of the most sought after producers in the game, his latest masterpiece "Flight Patterns" is garnering nationwide as well as international attention. Enough of the talkin'...check it out as DJ Concept lets you in on his favorite 5 and more.

Your Favorite Five Producers:

I hate doing favorite lists because I listen to so much music and it’s really hard to narrow it down to just 5. If I had to pick right now, in no particular order: Statik Selektah, MoSS, Alchemist, Evidence, Madlib.

The Favorite Beat they Produced:

Let me preface this by saying each of these producers has so many dope joints so 'a favorite' is really tough - but these are dope tracks from each.

Statik: "Critically Acclaimed". That shit is so well put together & Lil Fame setting it off just sets the tone perfectly.

MoSS: It's a toss up: "Black Moon- Down The Barrel" because how the hell can you take a sample like that and make it so hip hop! & the other is "Proof & Chino XL- Our Time". One of my favorite Proof verses ever.

Alchemist: "Smile". Sick track, not really what you would expect from ALC but its a classic.

Evidence: I gotta go with "Defari - Bionic". I remember when that shit came out I was buggin. I wore both my vinyl copies out so bad.

Madlib: I'm not even gonna try. How the fuck can you pick one song from someone who produced like 900. Haaaaa.

Why or what do you like about their skillz behind the boards?

Statik: Besides his drums knocking hard, I like this mans work ethic. He's a non-stop grinder but he keeps the quality high.

MoSS: I like his use of unrecognizable samples and dirty drums. To me, I know its a MoSS track as soon as I hear the drums. And also that fact that this dude knows more about records and digging than anyone I know.

Alchemist: I like that his beats don't sound that same but for the most part, when you hear one - you could be like "yeah that's ALC".

Evidence: Ev did a great job at creating a signature sound. Even if he uses samples or loops, he layers other elements in a way that makes it unmistakably his sound. Plus he's ill on the mic.

Madlib: He's a master at finding dope loops. And I like that fact that he just decided one day that he wanted to make Jazz music, so he did. Most hip hop producers couldn't pull that off.

How have they influenced or inspired you?

I wouldn't say that these particular producers inspire me each in a specific way. I make music, I'm a designer so I'm inspired all day by a whole bunch of things: The people I surround myself with, an old rock record, the weather, the way an actual 35mm print looks - I could go on forever. Inspiration is everywhere in my life. That's not to say that I haven't been listening to a Statik album in the past and been like "I need to make beats right now!".

What producer would you like to collabo with?

I tend to work alone as far as making music goes but I definitely wouldn't mind doing some kind of producer colab album. Just not sure who. Definitely wanna put something together with the producers from my crew the Bash Brothers. So it would be Undefined, SupaDave, Shuko, Sickness ThoroTracks & Myself. Right now I'm just concentrating on puttin out good music with dope mcs. I literally have 8-10 albums in the works that will most definitely come out. That's one thing I can't stand is when people say they are grinding, but I don't see anything! Best believe my albums will drop.


DJ Concept - Flight Patterns Teaser from Frank DeMaria on Vimeo.

Is it true that the concept for Flight Patterns came about on an airplane ride form JFK to LAX?

Yeah, it actually came together in a really organic way. I had always wanted to make an "in-flight" album but never did. I got to JFK at 5am & had been listening to some Parliament on my iPod. I drank 4 cups of espresso and boarded the plane. I'm a pretty motivated dude to begin with but give me that much caffeine and I go into beast mode. When I got to my seat I noticed it had a power outlet. Game over. The second it was OK to use computers I started chopping samples. When we landed in LAX I had 8 beats.

What was the inspiration behind Flight Patterns? 

I'm always trying to do something a little different. Since I started DJing I knew I wanted to do innovative shit. With so many DJs and producers out here, I feel like you need to really do something original as an artist to get noticed. With Flight Patterns I set out to make people be like, "damn he made that all on 1 flight?"  The response has been great so far.

Any final words or thoughts?

Yeah man, first off, thanks to you for doing the interview & supporting my music - its much appreciated. Besides that, I just would say go check out my site www.execute1200.com for mad free mixtapes, joints & albums. If you haven't already grabbed Flight Patterns, go do that! And also my last beat tape called M99 which was a Dexter themed album. And lastly, look out for the deluxe version of my album Heavy Smoke on iTunes real soon. The label is Deep Concepts Media & It's a greenery themed album for all my smokers out there featuring Chaundon, Joe Scudda, Nature, The Kid Daytona, Termanology, Treach, Roc C, Chuuwee, Wais P and many many more.  Respect!

More Information on DJ Concept:

DJ.Concept
execute1200.com
aim & twitter: concept1200
youtube.com/bashbeez