DON'T MISS TODAY:

Back to DJs & Producers Section

5/29/2006 What's up? I'm feeling great. I feel like all my hard work is paying off. Before we get into what you do, how do you want to introduce yourself? My name is Mickey Knox and I have a real love for that real hip-hop and boom-bap. I have a real love for the new artist and I like to bring good music to the masses. I'm a man of different genres and I like to rip down clubs, and I sound good on the radio and the mixtapes. Our show on Sirius goes out to twelve-million listeners. We're also syndicated on the Dish Network. Who makes up the Bash Brothers crew right now? The crew is me and Concept. We also have DJ Rerok out in VA, DJ Seven out in Nevada, DJ Degree out here in New York, and we have two producers in the group, Shuko, who's doing a lot of projects with underground dudes, and Undefined, who just finished up on the Army of the Pharaohs project. How did you guys come together? Me, Concept, and Undefined have been doing music for the last five years. We're all from the same hood. You know how it is if you're in a certain area, you're going to run into everyone else in the area who's just as good as you. We stuck together and eventually our hard work paid off as. We linked up with DJ Rerok and DJ Seven. We were talking online and we found out him and DJ Seven were using the name Bash Brothers just like we were. We decided instead of beefing we would join forces to make us all stronger. What makes your show stand out against everyone else's? Our show stands out from all the other shows because we're not playing the same ten records every other DJ on Sirius is playing. We're up there with Clinton Sparks, DJ Muggs, Kay Slay, DJ Skee, we're up there with all the big dogs in the country, but the thing is, everyone is playing the same records. It's not that we stay away from those records, but we show love to the local or unsigned cats who have nothing going. We try to bring that to the masses. We break a lot of records. We also play the new shit that's out. We'll play Mobb Deep and Sam Scarfo, but at the same time, we're playing Planet Asia, Dilated Peoples, and Immortal Technique because they don't get a lot of love and support from DJ's. We grew up listening to Stretch and Bobbito. They set the standards for us. That's what we want to do. We want to bring people music that no one else is giving a shot. Why does it seem so many DJ's avoid supporting the underground? There is definitely a void in DJ's who are not supporting it. There's not a lot of support for the underground because a lot of dudes are scared of it. They don't know what to expect from a lot of these underground artists. It's a shame they're not giving the underground support. They forget that a lot of dudes like 50 came up from the underground. I guess they're just trying to put themselves in a good position with the labels and they don't see the benefit in supporting underground dudes, which is a shame especially when they're making such great music that everyone should be listening to. Who are you feeling in the underground right now? It's hard for me to pin-point just one. We get so much music and I give so much dudes love. One of the records I'm playing now, and some dudes might not even consider him an underground artist, but I'm loving is Lupe Fiasco's "Kick, Push" record. That shit is dope. Some people might call it geek rap, but he's saying something. You can't deny the kid. How do you go about listening to all the music you get? To be honest, I listen to every MP3, CD, and piece of vinyl I get, and pretty much, if I like it, it sounds good, and it's something I enjoy, then I'll play it on the show. If I feel people should be hearing it, I'll play it. We're not looking for payola. We don't support nothing wack. That can be hard to do when you have a lot of good music and only so much time. I know, and that is a problem. I do my best to try to bring it. We put records into rotation, too. If we have a record playing for four weeks, we'll pull it off to get some new music. We're trying to stimulate people's minds with new music that they've never heard. What can a new artist do to catch your attention? If you feel you're good, we'll see, that's the problem. Everyone thinks they're good. Go to my website and send me the MP3. If I like it, I'll contact you and let you know I'm playing it. If I don't like it, you probably won't hear from me. If people outside of your circle are telling you that you sound good, then send me your music. How did your mash-up show with Grandmaster Flash come about? Flash had the show already and they wanted a different element on the show. Flash was playing everything from '80's hip-hop to today. It was honestly one of my favorite shows. They needed to fill a void in his show. They were asking everyone at Sirius to do mash-ups. Nobody stepped up because it's hard to do, but I stepped up and sent them a demo and they chose me. That must be dope working alongside Grandmaster Flash. He's a real cool guy. We live in the same neighborhood. It was crazy for me when they told me I got the spot. Grandmaster Flash is a legend, dude. Who wouldn't want to work with him? He told me he likes what I do and I deeply appreciate that coming from a dude like him. Does Sirius dictate what you play? No. they have a lot of trust in us. They trust us to bring that new music to our audience. They don't ask us what records we're going to play and they don't tell us what to play. We love it. We can curse up there and play joints with curses. They don't have any problems with what we play because a lot of people love it. That's filling a fucking void. Definitely. Me and Concept are not as big as Kay Slay or Clinton Sparks, so we're grateful to them that we're up there rocking with these dudes. Your mixtapes are also starting to do well. What was your inspiration for your Best of Rawkus mixtape? I started DJ'ing around the same time Rawkus started putting out records. One of the first records I bought was Mos Def's solo single. Every time I saw the Rawkus name, that, to me, meant good hip-hop. I saw a couple of months ago they dropped their Best Of, and it only had ten or twelve songs on it. I'm thinking if you put music out for ten years, how can you only have ten or twelve songs? It was mostly Talib Kweli and Mos Def. What about Shabaam Shadeeq or Cage or that Kool G. Rap single? They had so much dope shit that I felt I had to recognize for them. How's the response been so far? So far, everyone who's heard it says they love it. That's good because I put my heart into it. A lot of young kids told me they'd never heard of Rawkus Records and I opened their ears. Isn't it crazy how some kids haven't heard of Rawkus? Yeah. I can't believe that. I can not believe that. There's kids out there who have never heard of our favorite artists. What responsibility does a new hip-hop listener have? They should jump on their computer and do internet searches and find out who we were listening to back then. I was listening to Nas, Kool G. Rap, and the Lost Boyz. '94 to '97 was my era, and people forgot about that already. It sucks. Kids should look back and see where what's out today came from. A lot of new producer's sounds are derivatives of old producer's sounds. It kills me when kids don't even know who DJ Premier is. Are you trying to tell me Dipset didn't invent rap? (laughs) Right. They're not the first dudes to do it, and it's a shame that that's all they know, even with all the good music that's out today. I blame that on the record labels and the media. What's your next project? Me and Concept are going to put out a mixtape album with original joints. We're going to mix it up. That's something we're really excited about. We're working out numbers with the labels. We got a few artists lined up, but I don't want to give out any names because it's not solid yet. We have a few mixtapes coming out this summer. I'm doing an old school series of shit from '94 that I grew up on. It's some of my favorite shit. We're just trying to conquer the mixtape scene. We're also working on the syndication of our radio show to commercial radio because a lot of people don't have satellite radio. Is there anything else you want to do? I would love to go on a DJ tour. I'm not a producer or a rapper. One day, hopefully I could own my own label and put out good hip-hop. I'm not trying to get into any beats. I just want to go down as a DJ legend like Premier and Jazzy Jeff. I want kids to pick up a Mickey Knox mixtape and know it's dope automatically. What do you want to say to everyone? Hopefully everyone is open to the music we're trying to push. Open your ears. There's more to hip-hop than what mainstream media and radio is shoving down your throats. There's a lot of dope shit out there. I just hope people open their ears a little more. Check out the Bash Brothers on Sirius Satellite Radio, Sunday nights, midnight to 2am EST on channel 40 (Hip-Hop Nation)

By Brian Kayser

[3] REACT TO THIS INTERVIEW