The Drama King
Open Labs Exclusive Artist Interview
- by Tatiana Ryckman, Open Labs Staff Writer
The thing missing from mixed tapes today is the tape.
Like many musicians, or kids who went through school in the '80s and early '90s, The Drama King spent hours recording to cassettes in junior high. Lying on the floor while carpet imprinted his skin, he'd create his masterpieces. Rocking giant yellow headphones on his little 8th grade cranium, he'd carry his cassettes in his backpack to sell to friends and classmates. At school dances and his friends' parties he'd play his first instrument: the turn table.
Learning drums was a small step for The Drama King, and a giant leap for his music. Learning to play a variety of instruments helped shape his music today. It's also made a difference in his choice of gear. The organic sounds he finds in the MiKo LX are exactly what he needs to make his beats. “When hip-hop started they used to use keyboards, they used to use drums – you know, real drums ... real guitars ... but times have changed where digital has taken over, but you can still create and recreate those sounds. A lot of the records that I've been doing lately have had those actual sounds to them.”
Mixed tapes, turntables, and drum sets aren't the only thing Ahmed used to make music in school, though. While his mouth would get him in trouble in the cafeteria, it wasn't for talking back. “I used to get into a lot of trouble ... 'cause I'd be sitting in the middle of class and start doing it (beatboxing), and the teacher would start yelling at me. We used to have competitions in lunch break and ... all the different guys would rhyme while we were doing the beatbox and bangin' on the table in the cafeteria and then we'd get kicked out.” He adds with an air of nostalgia and mischief, “Those were the good days.”
But when he wasn't goofing off and making music, he was being serious and still making music.
Ahmed Reed is so serious, in fact that almost nothing comes before his music. “It does ruin relationships. I just lost one because of it, but hey, I am trying to progress ... with my music and do everything that I need to do, and I can't necessarily put the time and effort into that with having everything else on the side. Music is my life and that's what makes me happy more than anything else – besides my kids.”
His kids are the first people outside his MiKo that bring him joy. Second are the artists that he can plug into the machine. And that list is growing. The Drama King has been working remotely across the country with artists from Philadelphia, Chicago, and closer to home with new Bay Area talent. He talks about some of the great acts he's working with, “Reed Dollaz, he's one of the best I can say that comes to freestyle battling. From East coast to West coast, I haven't run into anybody like this kid before. We've been working on a couple of different mix tapes, but we're trying to keep him from going too commercial because when you go commercial after ... being underground so long it's a hard transition.”
Another exciting up-and-coming artist that Ahmed is working with is Chosen, from Virginia, “He does R&B and he's actually trying to bring back the old dance house type the freestyle.”
When artists fly in from all over the country to work with The Drama King, he says it's convenient that they never have to leave his house. “I don't have to go anywhere to do get anything done to the large studios cause I have a studio at home it's isolated and soundproof and I do my mixing and mastering right through the MiKo,” and it's even easier than it used to be now that he's got a MiKo. “I would use an MPC 2000, 2500 and a Phantom, and M3, and M6, and two Motifs, and I had a Triton. They're all gone now.”
One of The Drama King's favorite aspects of the MiKo is its ease-of-use and flashy touch screen. He says, “I like to see what I'm doing, so with the MiKo it makes it possible because I can see it on the screen, or I could use my split screen ... as opposed to having a little five inch screen.” He laughed, “I got a screen in my car that's bigger than what's on the Phantom.”
The Drama King's new production station has given him the freedom to create in quality and quantity he'd never dreamed possible. In his first two months with the board he'd produced 400 songs, each a step closer to perfection than the one before. Like many Open Labs customers, The Drama King gets as much from tech support as the machine itself. “I think that's one of the best qualities about the keyboard itself is not the keyboard, it's the customer service – the people that are there at the office who handle everything.”
“Everything has changed completely. From being cramped up with a lot of different keyboards around to being able to just have the one setup that I need. My work flow has increased dramatically. The clarity of the sounds from mixing it down to mastering sounds totally different from the way that it's being done before. It saved me money and trouble from having to go to a larger studio to have it mixed and mastered. Like I said, I don't know what I would do without the MiKo or NeKo right now.”
Artist Q&A
Q: What is your Miko's primary function?
A: The MiKo is my primary function. Lol. I use it to sequence, edit, sample, mix down and master. One Stop Shop!!!!
Q: What is your favorite software on the MiKo? How do you use it?
A: I think Proteus is the hottest aspect about my MiKo. It makes it easy to find sounds and samples, and I can tweak all of them right there in the program. I can build new samples and banks on the fly.
Q: Which kind of keyboard have you owned in the past and how do they compare to your MiKo?
A: I previously owned the Fantom X6, The Triton TR88, and I just got rid of my M3 61 - of course after I mimicked all of them.
Q: How different is the composition process compared to the standard computer or laptop system?
A: It changed everything about it. I would lug around my laptop, my padkontrol, 02 and two 500GIG external drives everywhere and hated all the clutter and weight. But now with this (MiKo) I can have it all in one. I loaded all my sample cd's on my internal drives and that is all I need. It makes it easy to travel and to work on tracks in other areas because I brought my studio with me.
Q: Do you have any music produced on your MiKo that is in current rotation on radio, TV or film?
A: I've had a few remixes on the radio within the past year, but most of the work I've done is on underground mix tapes.
Q: Do you think the quality of your production now would be possible with another keyboard?
A: Open Labs was the first that did it and no one can top that. Just keep those minds at Open Labs spinning and making great new products and you'll continue to get my business.
Q: What artist have you produced or are you currently producing with your MiKo?
A: I put most of my time into working with a few new artists that I'm producing. I'm currently working with Teona Da Fabolous, Young Brent, who are both from VA, and AL-MALIK in NY.
Q: Have you had any experience with our Tech Support and how does it rate with you?
A: Tech Support is great!!! Even before I got my MiKo, I sent emails to Matt, and he contacted me the same day! They helped me set up new templates and build my own. Just plug the MiKo into a high speed internet line and Tech Support will just take over, not like some other companies who shall remain nameless. I waited almost two weeks to get an email back from another company and by that time, I had fixed the problem myself.
Q: What is next for you and your MiKo?
A: To keep making hot music and promoting. Hopefully with some of the true pioneers of Hip Hop we can bring back the real Hip Hop culture.
Equipment Used
Purchased MiKo LX (Gen 3)
Artist Links