Louis Den Beat Cypher 04 Spotlight - Ranx Diggla

The final installment of the Beat Cypher spotlights is on Birmingham's own RANX DIGGLA, producer and emcee for Birmingham supergroup MSI & Asylum; very legendary respected mic heavyweights, Ranx and his group are one of the cornerstones of Birmingham hiphop so it was an honor having him bless the beat cypher and his group take the stage..all this and Ranx has been supporting the night from the jump..respect due indeed!..

Peep game!.



Louis Den Beat Cypher 04 Spotlight - Ranx Diggla
Hey!!, please introduce yourself to everybody; let us know who you are what you do and how long you've been doing it!.
The name is Ranx aka Diggla. I am the producer and one of the MC's from the MSI/ASYLUM clique. I started messing with the beats when my mom got me a Yamaha DD10 for christmas way back in 1988 lol.

Was there a defining moment (event / hearing a record etc) that led you into making beats / becoming a producer?.
I have been beatboxing from as far back as i can remember. My brother and i used to clash on regular basis when we were kids. So it was a natural progression from creatin beats with my mouth to banging them out on my dd10. After i began rhyming in my mid teens the production was put on the back burner. That was until i met The Brooklyn Ripper (producer of the first MSI/ASYLUM album). He spotted my interest in production and borrowed me his Roland R-8. I programmed a few beats brought them back to his, we threw a some samples other them and the rest is history.


What was your first peice of equipment and what were those beats like?, any interesting stories about things were doing to begin with / finding your feet?
Although i had my dd10 it was very limited. The quantize on it was mad stiff and the sound that it produced wasn't that good. It wasn't until i got my hands on a Casio SK-1 which had a built in sampler but could only take four separate 1 second samples. I'd speed up anything i wished to sample to fit it in within the second and slow it down afterwards. It had a real gritty like sound to it and I came out with some really dark sounding beats. I borrowed that off an old friend named Olton and he never got it back. Sorry and Thanks Olton.

Whats the one bit of advice youd give to anyone starting out today?
Try to be different... bring something new to the table. There are a lot of good producers out there but their music sounds the same as everthing else at the mo. A lot of producers beats either sound like Dilla or Premier.

What can heads expect from you at LOUIS DEN BEAT CYPHER?
Serious bass and beats that make you feel compelled to spit on em even if you aren't a MC. Plus i might be pissed by the end of night so expect loads of jokes and laughter! Peace, love and prosperity to you all... see you on thursday Bitches!!!

FREE MUSIC
MSI & Asylum - Marvelous (produced by Ranx)