He also took part in our massive Louisden meets EOW beat clash back in Feb '09 and has been itching to get on the boards in Brum since the cypher started out; so we got him and the crew onboard!, find out some more info below.
1) Hey!! Please introduce yourself to everybody; let us know who you are what you do and how long you've been doing it!
Yes yes y'all, i'm ed strong, i'm an mc/beatmaker from south london. I've been doing the music with my crew IRS since 1998 so i'm feeling pretty old right about now.
As a beatmaker i've done a bag of work for other people, the likes of skandal, sonnyjim, manage and few wasteman that can't pull there finger out n put their tracks out, you know how it goes... uk hip hop isn't a very productive genre.
2) Was there a defining moment (event / hearing a record etc) that led you into making beats / becoming a producer?
I've always been into music. I played piano n drums as a kid. My mum was pretty pushy and into music herself so she made sure i was making noise from early. My older brother is my main inspiration for actually making beats though. He bought an AKAI s1100 sampler when i was about 13/14 and showed me the ropes. Luckily I was already schooled on sampling and hip hop, my brother also shared all his music with me so i got exposed to de la soul and tribe before i'd even reached double figures haha
3) What was your first piece of equipment and what were those beats like? Any interesting stories about things were doing to begin with / finding your feet?
The Akai 1100 was my first bit of kit i used regularly. I had a bernard perdie drum record that got rinsed out, bare of my beats had the same drum loops in them. As far as music samples, I didn't really know where to start. This is pre internet blogspot and dinner money times so i used to raid older family member's record collections and hit up the charity shops for whatever i could find on the cheap. I remember finding Manuel 'music of the mountains' and other instrumental stuff and going mad for it... I went through a serious latin stage in my late teens, pretty much any record with spanish guitar or a foxy latino girl on the cover got bought haha
Since then and now i've been trying different bits of hardware and software as technology has got better. Fruity loops, acid pro, reason, cubase etc... I had an mpc2000 for alittle while but then I got my hands on a mac g4 and logic with the ex24 and I haven't really changed up since then. I use logic 8 and some hardware processors and FX these days.
4) Whats the one bit of advice youd give to anyone starting out today?
1] Don't go out and buy an mpc for early kool herc points. They cost alot and in the early stages you will probably get better results using software.
2] Don't get caught up in the 'this is real hip hop, only use samples' BS. If a track bangs, it bangs regardless of what/who/how it was made. Just have fun with it until you find your feet
3] once points 1 and 2 are covered and your getting some nice beats on the go, learn to mix [especially drums] it can make or break a track.
5) What can heads expect from you at LOUIS DEN BEAT CYPHER?
From me.... I've got some heat for this I hope, we'll have to wait and see how it goes down. There's some strong beatmakers doing this with me so it could be crazy. From my team IRS... we got a bag of new material and anyone that's seen us knows we don't do live shows by half... I'm very much looking forward to it.
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