Dem Southern Folkz
Open Labs Exclusive Artist Interview
- by Carson Barker, Open Labs Staff Writer
If meditation is the act of concentrating on one's own thoughts, by mentally blocking out the sounds of our physical world, then Thomas Benjamin is a Zen master. While other hip-hop producers around the globe are working inside insulated sound booths, Benjamin is trying to mentally defuse the sounds of car bombs blasting in the streets outside his studio. That, and rapid gunfire from M-16 and AK-47 automatic weapons showering the city in which he dwells. When dealing with this kind of static noise, the only soundproofing that Benjamin has is his inner sanctuary.
"You don't necessarily have to see it, you can hear it. I mean it's happening," says Benjamin. "We have hollow walls so we can hear the booms. But when I got those headphones on, I'm in another world anyways."
Benjamin sits in his walk-in closet sized studio fully decked in desert camouflage clothing. A pistol is strapped under his right arm, and within the general proximity are various rifles, grenades and other weapons, because right outside the door he maybe under immediate attack. Currently stationed in Tikrit, Iraq, Sgt. Benjamin has been all over the war-torn country (including Baghdad) on and off for the past five years. Those same years, he has also been the rapper/producer for emerging hip-hop act, Dem Southern Folkz which includes Dallas, Texas residents Jack Kinfoke and Saturday Alridge. Though the trio is divided onto separate hemispheres, they put out their debut album in early 2008 while Benjamin was still serving his country overseas.
"I did all the tracks on the album here in Iraq," Benjamin says. "I'd email MP3s and tracks over to Saturday and Jack. Every time I had a little vacation or something, we would go to the studio and knock some music out. I'm going on four years total here in Iraq, this is my fourth deployment."
Dem Southern Folkz name stems from where Benjamin was raised. A native of South Carolina who shuffled around states as a child, Benjamin was inspired by God's music coming to him through his family. Combine that with the influences of Dr. Dre, Public Enemy and other rap hit makers of the 1980s and ‘90s, and you've got the ingredients of Benjamin's spiritual internal beat maker. Though growing up a gospel lover himself, the South Carolina boy had to listen to his biggest influences in secret, on account of his strict upbringing.
"Gospel music; that's all there was in my house growing up," says Benjamin. "When I was in the 4th or 5th grade, I had a Public Enemy tape, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back. I had to sneak it into the house so I wouldn't get caught with it. A lot of people from the Carolinas migrate to New York and vice versa. Everything that New York had, it eventually came to South Carolina. Wu Tang, Biggie, all that stuff."
Now all of the gospel, rap and hip-hop is fermenting in Benjamin's conscientiousness, as he creates his beats in a famished, 115+ degree land. Hunkered down in his studio/army bunker, the gospel man hovers over his Gen4 MiKo, streaming his imagination into the machine as sweat drips down his forehead like liquid concentration.
"It's been six months since I've seen rain," says Benjamin. "The first year that I was out here, in 2004 we didn't have AC. We lived in an underground garage that got so hot, the plastic in between the cement bricks would melt and burn up while we were asleep. Not much rain came down this year, so we are having a lot of dust storms. But the music is my escape, so when I finish with a mission or my work or whatever I'm doing, I just go to my room with my MiKo and lock the door, and I'm in another zone. I try to dedicate at least an hour or two every night to go in and work on music, just block everything else out and work on music."
But the heat, bomb blasts and separation from his band hasn't slowed down Dem Southern Folkz on their blazing path. The D.S.F. campaign is, and has been, going stronger than ever. Thanks to the pristine production style of their album, The Message, their mass Internet marketing that includes Skinny Deville of the Nappy Roots in one of their videos, and other tools like Benjamin's MiKo that make their international collaboration process a smoother operation.
"Things have been moving," Benjamin says. "I'm using Protools on my MiKo now. I mess around with all of the VSTs that it came with. It came with so many I just haven't had a chance to go through everything yet. The Truepianos VST is definitely something that I use a lot. The MiKo works great, it's the same setup that I had with my computer with more added to it, and more compact and more convenient. I started messing around with the video thing, I plan on doing a couple of projects with that as well. There's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that went into this project."
Though he's currently fighting in the war in Iraq, Sgt. Benjamin and his crew are also fighting a war here in the U.S. that will continue when he returns from active duty. Sgt. Benjamin may pack a gun to his side every day, but Thomas Benjamin's personal policy on violence and greed is cease and desist.
"Music is a powerful tool to reach people," Benjamin says. "If you choose to lead them to destruction, then that's a bad thing. We've got to come here and bring some integrity, inspiration and good messages back into the music. A lot of people have been tearing it down, it's not even about the music to them. We want to come to them and give them something back."
"Keep me in your prayers and we're gonna make this happen, you're gonna hear from Dem Southern Folkz."
Equipment Used
Purchased MiKo LX (Gen4)
Artist Links