DriveBy has a bit of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation with his music. The Jersey City producer has made a name for himself in the underground rap scene the last few years for his uniquely ominous beats, and he finds it hilarious that people are often shocked to find out he’s a pretty nice guy in person. DriveBy likes taking off kilter samples and distorting them as much as the machines will let him, to the point that even his soul samples tend to sound more like tortured-soul samples. For years he worried that his sound was too niche and too treacherous, as rappers would tell him that his beats were fire but that they just didn’t think they had what it took to rap on them. His closest friends and collaborators however, Xav of Roper Williams chief among them, always believed in DriveBy’s vision, knowing that the musicians who needed his otherworldly touch would find him out in time. One such artist was Raway’s Fatboi Sharif, with whom DriveBy shared not just a love of horror movies and darker production, but a deep reverence for the underground rap of the late 90s and early 2000s. The two worked on the first collaborative record DriveBy had a hand in, the yet to be released record Let Me Out, a project which the two have been tinkering with for the better part of a decade. While the project is still yet to see the light of day, working with Fatboi helped DriveBy find other artists who worked well in his sonic universe.
DriveBy and I initially linked when he DJ’d the first iteration of Do You Wanna Talk About It, GSC co-editor Josh Ramos’ and my mental-health focused comedy show, all the way back in April 2019. He killed the show both as a DJ and as our first couch guest in what ended up being one of the most fun and important nights of my life. A year later in late 2020 DriveBy hosted Josh and I at his Jersey City home so Josh could interview Fatboi, Roper, and DJ Boogaveli about their then recently released album Gandhi Loves Children. While DriveBy contributed synths to the record on tracks like “Murder Them” and was kind enough to host us all for the conversation, he laid relatively low throughout, not wanting to take the spotlight away from his friends. That has been his modus operandi for a while now, work diligently and quietly. If you are making good shit then the right people will notice.
Lately, the right people have been noticing. DriveBy had xoKeegan and I over to his Jersey City crib a month ago for both the interview you are reading and my interview with Keegan about their excellent collaborative tape Where the Water Takes Me. Keegan has a great ear for beats and the tape really shows off Driveby’s sonic and emotional range, from the booming foghorn fury on album opener “Mayday”, to the muted and sullen “Harbinger”, right through to the soul invigorating sample flip on “Come Alive”. Our meeting also happened to be right after the drop of Maxo’s new Zelooperz assisted single “PlayDis” which DriveBy co-produced with Roper Williams. DriveBy was especially hyped that Maxo did such a great music video for the track, and was eternally grateful to Maxo that he can now say he has a track on the same tape as The Alchemist. It is looking like it may become a bit harder for Drivey to work quietly come 2024 too, as he mentioned several one off tracks and as many as four fully DriveBy produced projects that may drop next year if everything goes according to plan.
He definitely has more music with his cousin OneShotOnce around the corner. DriveBy talked at length about how OsO was there for him in the doldrums of COVID, helping him stay sane and getting him back into making beats. DriveBy also mentioned that the sequel to his tape with OsO 4WD should be out in 2024. I for one am praying that DriveBy and Fatboi’s long awaited tape Let Me Out finally sees the light of day. When DriveBy hosted Josh and I for the Gandhi interview he played us “Swim Team Audible Function” the yet to be released single from Let Me Out that has become a staple of Fatboi’s live performances. I will absolutely never forget hearing that song for the first time, I mean Good Lord I felt like I was having an exorcism performed on me. That is the thing about a DriveBy beat, whether it brings you a shiver down your spine or tears of joy, they tend to leave an impression.
I talked with DriveBy about growing up in Hudson County, New Jersey, how his Father got him into crate digging, and how he cultivated his production style.
GSC: What is your name? What is your artistry of choice?
DriveBy: DriveBy is my moniker. Most people think it’s a negative thing, like dootdootdoot, but the way I came up with it was very positive. My motto is “in and out, make it dope, make it count.” That came from me and Roper having sessions before and after I’d go to work, we used to call them two-a-days. I would go to his house, he would have a beat, and I’d lay some synths over it with the goal to make sure it was hot. I would leave to go to work and then come back to see what he did, and work again. Eventually we called them drive by sessions. After a while I hated my old artist name, which was Oz, O-Z.
GSC: In reference to your real name.
DB: Exactly. Me and Roper were coming up with names to replace that. One was Lonely Caveman, Big O was another because of the anime. Then he goes, “you should go by DriveBy” and that solidified it, but I always like to let people know my name has positive, and even productive, connotations in my mind.
GSC: Who was playing music in your house growing up?
DB: Pops played a lot of soul, a lot of funk, but mostly what he played was reggae.
xoKeegan: Really? Hell yeah.
DB: And I’m talking about old school reggae, roots rock reggae. He’s a big fan of dub.
xoKeegan: Any Steel Pulse?
DB: Yes, he got me into Steel Pulse, a lot of Gregory Isaacs. One of my favorites he got me into is Sugar Minott. Obviously Bob Marley. He got me onto a lot of the deeper stuff. Steel Pulse is catching on now with people our age but it took them some time.
xoKeegan: They probably get sampled like crazy too.
DB: “Roller Skates” was the song that got me into them. It’s literally about this dude who got robbed for his roller skates and he’s just trying to get them back. Their storytelling was crazy on point. Shoutout my pops for getting me into reggae so heavy.
GSC: Have you sampled any of those reggae tracks your Pops got you into?
DB: Yea, anytime I need to find a reggae sample I check his collection. My Dad has such a big record collection in general though. Me and Roper will go up and just play record roulette, blindfold ourselves and just pick random shit and see what we can find. It is such a blessing honestly.
GSC: Music is really in the family then. Did he play?
DB: He played sax. He got bored when he was in the Air Force so his brother sent him a saxophone to kill time and he figured out how to play it. He had to stop playing sax maybe seven years ago, because he got sick with COPD, which puts heavy pressure on the lungs. That’s why COVID was crazy. I was making sure he didn’t get sick at all. That’s why I have always been masked at shows and events since COVID, at one point I had gloves on too which was maybe OD. This painting here was painted by his brother. It is of my dad with the saxophone in the corner in the 80s or 90s.
GSC: Is he like a legit painter?
DB: My uncle? Yeah.
GSC: Wow. You got an artistic family!
DB: On my Mom’s side we have two singers too. My Dad’s side of the fam is all artists, either painters, sculptors, or musicians.
GSC: Are they based in Jersey?
DB: They were, the whole family lived on this block. The brick house across the street there was once filled with 11 kids and my grandparents.
GSC: Who were the figures or things in your life in Hudson County or wherever that pushed you to want to make music?
DB: It was when I was a kid in the projects. I used to live in Hoboken projects for like 12 years, then I came to Jersey City. As a youngin my older sister got me into a lot of r&b and hip hop, like Tupac, Biggie, Total, 3LW, Wu Tang. I think when I got introduced to J Dilla I knew I wanted to make beats like that. I’d heard Dilla before with Tribe and Pharcyde, but realizing that making beats can be an art into itself like that really pushed me. Before that I was making beats on Reason at the Boys and Girls Club. There was a dude that worked there, Steven, he taught me Reason, which I am still so appreciative of. I got into making music there, but I was a big sample hater at the time, like everythings was legit. Realizing how much Dilla sampled is what opened me to sampling honestly.
GSC: Your record collection here is crazy, when did collecting become a big thing for you?
DB: My Dad has always had the craziest record collection. I used to do a ton of record digging with my Dad at Tower Records, JNR Records, and also the Salvation Army here in Jersey City. I got into MF DOOM by accident at Tower Records. My Dad pointed out a Last Poet’s album and next to it was Nostradoomus Vol 1, and I fell in love with that cover. That was expensive too, like $25 imported from London. I remember being hyped for Madvilliany when it came out and finding Madlib through that. Funnily enough too, the only record I’ve ever stolen by the way is DangerDoom because it was the last copy at Tunes in Hoboken, sorry Tunes. That record got me into DangerMouse.
GSC: It is funny to think you ever hated sampling when you had the stockpile of records you were collecting anyway.
DB: It was funny both loving digging and hating sampling. Honestly it was when Roper introduced me to the MPC 1000 that I really started loving sampling because that made it fun as hell.
GSC: What is in your record collection here that Pops doesn’t have upstairs?
DB: The top, these are all my favorite hip hop albums I got on my birthday, or I bought for myself. I don’t sample these, this is just a little collection. The shit I grab to sample down here though, a lot of movie scores. I love to sample those. This pile right here is all Brazilian. My Dad doesn’t have Brazilian records like that so he’ll come down and borrow from time to time. We’re always fighting like “Why didn’t you tell me you took this?” I also mess with a lot of German jazz.
GSC: I feel like you have seen both Hoboken and Jersey City change a lot in your lifetime. Is it for the better or the worse? How do you feel about Hudson County in 2023?
DB: Money wise, it sucks. Rent wise it sucks. Buying something from the corner store is double what it used to be. Does the city look better? Yes. The city looks 10 times better. They’re working to cultivate the arts in Jersey City which I appreciate. My only thing is money and gentrification. I get it, you want the city to thrive, but it sucks when you push people out who’ve been here the whole time. I would love to stay in Jersey City for the rest of my life but I imagine it’ll get too expensive for me eventually, which sucks. I love Jersey though, you can tell someone I love you and fuck off in the same sentence and they don’t bat an eye. Everyone is a character but also down to earth. The food is sooooo so good, every different type. So much stuff is accessible, I can go down the block to Iris Records and dig for like three hours and then I can hit up Helen’s for a chicken parm. I can hop on the PATH to the city and hit homies in Brooklyn or be at the beach or the forest or the mountains or Philly in a short drive.
GSC: When did you first link with Roper Williams?
DB: This one other friend was into music with us in Hoboken. He told me you should go work with this guy, he’s always down to work and he stays up late like you. Our first session, Roper probably doesn’t remember this, but he fell asleep by accident and had me waiting outside for like 30 minutes. I was on my way back home and he texted me “Yo, my bad, I just woke up. If you want to link still we can, but if you already went home I understand.” At first I was tight like this dude wasted my time, and then I was like nah lemme go over there I’m gonna be up till 5:00 anyway.
GSC: And thank God you did!
DB: Thank God I did. He used to call me the one man band because when I’d get out of work I would go home to pick up my equipment. I would have a big ass keyboard, a piano stand up, a backpack full of MPC shit. I’d walk in the studio at eleven at night to work on beats till five or six in the morning. I was just laying synths and creating sounds for him to shape into beats basically. The Open 24 tape Roper did with YL, “Dwele Song” all those keys were me for example. I was always behind the scenes and Roper encouraged me to work with artists myself and drop my own projects.
GSC: Who were your favorites as you were getting into rap?
DB: I was heavy into experimental hip hop when I was in high school. Rawkus Records, Stones Throw, El P, I loved Fantastic Damage. When you bought that album it came with the actual album and then the second CD was the instrumentals. This dude Safari Rah who was running an after school program I went to gave me the second CD because he knew I was getting into making beats. I didn’t even know it had lyrics till he gave me the first CD weeks later. That’s why me and Sharif got along from the jump, he has such a deep knowledge and appreciation for that school of hip hop.
How did you first connect with Fatboi?
DB: Roper connected us. I was making crazy dark beats where I’d show them to a rapper and they’d be like, “uhhh this is giving me anxiety” or “this is cool, but I don’t think I can rap on it.” Roper said “I think you should connect with Sharif” and I didn’t know his music at the time or care because I figured he’d react how the other rappers did. Once I started playing him those crazy shits, you know how Sharif is, he started pacing around yelling, “THEY didn’t wanna rap on THESE shits?? Fuck that, give me ALL these beats.” That’s how our record Let Me Out got birthed, the first album I ever did with a rapper. He was the first rapper to believe in my crazy ass beats, almost a decade ago at this point. We’ve been spending a lot of time perfecting that one.
GSC: You two have really grown as artists in the time since.
DB: Sharif has been a big part of that too. He was the person that told me I should do more performances, he actually alley-ooped my first performance at Freddy Stone‘s place, which is how I got cool with Freddy. That’s why I love Roper and Sharif so much, those two are my brothers for real. They always saw the bigger picture: keep making these crazy unorthodox beats and the people who need them will find them. Sometimes my goal explicitly is to fuck the beats up as much as possible, and eventually it’s gonna come out beautiful. The lowest people go with pitches on samples and beats is probably like negative four, negative six. I’ll go to the depths of negative twenty-two sometimes. People think I am nuts but you find whole new sounds buried under there.
GSC: Gotta find the shit under the surface.
DB: Exactly. Where The Water Takes Me the tape with Keegan and me, a lot of those pitches are that low. So I was hyped when Keegan loved em.
GSC: What goes into making a beat that edgy outside of the pitches?
DB: A lot is in the sample, finding those off kilter sounds and bringing them to a new context. That is why I love movie scores, especially horror movie scores, there are some wild sounds you can find. The synthesizers still play a big part, me and Roper will go for days on the synths. The Near Death XP we released last year is mostly synths.
GSC: I woulda guess those were samples from a spooky record.
DB: Nope. It’s funny too, people meet me and they’re like damn you are a chill guy with these sinister ass beats. But I like when shit is about to redline, musically at least.
GSC: Teetering on the edge.
DB: And sound dudes hate me for that. They’ll try to lower my shit and I’m like, Nah. I get where they’re coming from but respectfully, fuck you. I gotta warn them now it’s meant to be loud.
GSC: You were the first DJ and guest for Josh’s and my stand up comedy show, Do You Wanna Talk About It back in 2019, that was a fire show. What kind of shows have you been playing and what is the ideal DriveBy show experience from your view?
DB: Shoutout to you and Josh, that was such a fun one. I don’t necessarily DJ like Kohai and Boog do for other people’s parties on the regular, they know how to set the party off. When I’m performing it’s my beats preferably. I try to have a good variety. Some soul, some crazy ass dark shit, some wavy bossa nova stuff, maybe some synth stuff. I usually start my performances off with a synth loop playing on my Nintendo DS before dipping into the SP and whatnot. One pet peeve though, I like going through a straight 20 to 30 minute set with nobody rocking on my shit. I hate when rappers get on the mic and start freestyling while you’re performing. Because like, I don’t do that at your performances. And I get it, you’re feeling good. You wanna freestyle, you’re inspired by the beat. But at the same time, this is my music.
GSC: Yeah, you’re spraying over my graffiti here.
DB: There was this one show, you can ask Sharif, Roper, or even Dylan Green, they all saw how mad I was. There was deadass a monsoon of rappers coming on stage during this set **Keegan and I crack up** Son at least seven rappers got up and kept passing the mic to each other. I’m tryna get Sharif to take the mic hostage, and then I start fucking the beat up on purpose.
xoKeegan: Yeah, like rap over this dog.
DB: And it nearly backfired. They were like, he’s going nuts!
GSC: I’m sure rappers might be like, “You should be grateful that I want to rap on this.” And it’s like, I would be grateful if you paid me and we made something happen, but you’re not like just showing up and making my set your set.
DB: Exactly. The better half of the time when I’m doing my set, I get lost in there, I forget there’s a crowd out there. When I’m done and I look up at the crowd cheering sometimes it almost feels like I am waking up, it can be surreal.
GSC: I love Armored Mewtwo Has No Friends. One of the best named tapes ever.
DB: Thank Roper for that name.
GSC: How did that tape come about? It is quick, and atmospheric, and Fatboi’s presence on the tape is very interesting.
DB: Our first collab tape is on SoundCloud, it’s called Captain’s Log, where we sampled the 1960s animated version of Star Trek, but me and Roper hadn’t put out a tape out a collab tape since way back then. We were tinkering with the Mewtwo beats for a while. Then in 2021 when Roper was living in LA, he said it felt like the perfect time for us to drop this tape and I agreed. Sharif had been bothering us for this one beat that he wanted to rap on, and when Sharif is persistent, he’s persistent. Eventually I was like fine rap and we’ll put you as a feature. Then Sharif ended up rapping on a bunch of those at the studio, and I was like this is dope actually, good thing he bothered us. Then me and Roper came up with the idea of trying to make it sound like we were throwing him further into outer space. The mix starts nice, but Sharif’s voice starts getting more saturated and more distorted.
GSC: Yes I definitely hear that.
DB: The Mewtwo thing, Roper came up with that name. I was like, that’s hard. He and I are big Pokémon fans, so once that happened we went back and forth with the on theme track titles like “Giovanni’s Son” “PsyStrike” “Status Check”. It was a fine line though doing a tape like that without being corny about it, we were very careful.
GSC: When I interviewed OneShotOnce, I realized you two were even closer than I realized.
DB: Yeah, yeah. That’s my brother. I mean we’re literally cousins, but he’s like a brother to me.
GSC: Is he cousins on your Dad’s side or Mom’s?
DB: Mom’s side. We were always connected like as kids, always family gatherings and holidays and whatnot. When we were in the old studio though, he had a studio across the hall from us. He would always come over, we would go to his studio. Eventually, he joined our studio. He had worked with Roper for years. He fucked with my beats, I fucked with his raps, it was wild organic honestly. Our first tape we made together is still not out, we’re still trying to perfect it. Then that’s how 4WD got birthed, as a prequel to that tape. OsO has another installment in that series coming out next year too.
GSC: What is your relationship with OsO like in and out of music?
DB: He’s a big inspiration and factor into my music in general. During COVID I was very paranoid to even step out of the house. I left my job, I was collecting unemployment, and I would stay here in my security blanket and not do shit. He would come to my house every day to see how I was doing and encouraged me, AKA he got on my ass about making beats. He would come to my house and bring these movie scores cuz he knew I loved them, The Three Amigos or The Wiz.
GSC: That’s the one with Michael Jackson right?
DB: Yes it is. He got me off my ass and back to making beats. Without him there is no way I’d be going as hard as I am. Him and I are working together on a daily basis just about.
GSC: “Cantu” off Enduro with him is one I really love. The vocal layering on the sample is so crazy. How did that track come together?
DB: I made “Cantu” when me and him went to LA to visit Roper. I think I made it off my MPC 500 if I’m not mistaken. Enduro is part of OsO’s car series, as a two track with me and Roper. I made that in Cali and he recorded it in the hotel room. I did some layering on the vocals and some drum layering and I was about to go further when he stopped me like no this is perfect, so that is how you hear the song today.
GSC: Another guy you’ve worked with is the legend Pootie, who just killed it on this year’s fire Roper tape Infinite Victory Loop. On Bermuda Duffles, the beats are fire, the raps are top notch, and it had some of the best merch of any project I’ve seen, I use that duffel bag and towel all the time still. What was it like working with Pootie on that record and what were your goals?
DB: It was easy. I remember Pootie being in a funk at that time, but I felt like he had a lot to bring to the mic because of it. I showed him these beats and he was really fucking with them. He was like let’s make a tape and it was effortless on my end from there. When Pootie likes a beat he’ll write immediately and get it done quick as hell, it’s impressive to witness. Then we talked about tape names and merch, we had the Bermuda Duffles theme and the early summer timing was perfect, so there wasn’t so much back and forth with that one. I did tell him that I hoped he’d rap about some serious things on the record and you can hear on the tracks he talked about some real shit. He’s such a talented writer and storyteller and just a hilarious dude, always love being in the studio with him.
GSC: So your newest beat tape Bibi is dedicated to your Mother, it opened with a lovely voicemail from her. I know you’d done a tape dedicated to your father previously called Baba, how did each of those come about?
DB: I wanted to give Moms a good Mother’s Day gift and I thought the music would be a good way to show my love for her. When I was in my Brazilian bag I was making a zillion beats, and a lot of those reminded me of my Mother. The soft guitars and dancing vibe reminded me of my Mom on Sunday morning cooking breakfast and getting everybody to clean the house so we could then go out to have a good time. The song titles were inspired by my discovery that Puerto Ricans had their own native language, Taino. Those song titles are dying Taino words. BiBi means mother in Taino and Baba means father. All the other song titles are Taino words whose English translations I put in parentheses. I wish I could speak the language with her, but this was my way of helping preserve a piece of it. Many of those beats that I’m dedicating to my family, I cried while making them, at the very least teared up. My Dad’s tape, I cried a lot when I was making that shit because he was in and out of the hospital. Those two tapes hold special places in my heart, shout out to my Mom and my Pops.
GSC: You produced “DREAMFIRST” the new THE i OF A GENIUS single which I really enjoyed. Is that part of a larger project? Is he a Jersey guy?
DB: He is a Jersey guy. That is part of a project he’s putting out that I did a couple productions on, him and I are also working on a separate thing that’ll hopefully come out next year or the one after. He’s been coming over to work a lot lately, we’ve been having a lot of fun making some shit. He’s a beast, and a talented engineer too.
GSC: The Maxo and Zelooperz track you co-produced with Roper “PlayDis” was so fire. What was putting that together like?
DB: I met Maxo a few times before that beat through Roper who he is closer with. He is the coolest dude, man. How we made that beat, me and Roper will make like 20 beats in one night, like a batch. On that one, I was doing the sample chops part of it and Roper came up with the drums. I always love Roper’s drums. I remember him telling me a year ago, “We might have a Maxo song coming, you remember making this beat right?” I didn’t remember the beat till he played it funnily enough. Then he told me for sure a week before it dropped. We didn’t know Zelooperz was gonna be on there either which was crazy, and I think a third producer did some work on the beat too, this dude Nico Oroc who also recorded the track on their end and whatnot. The video was even crazier too. I have a big respect for music videos and think they can bring a unique aspect out of a song and help people further identify with it, Roper is big on this too. So seeing that the track had such a hype video, damn man it made me hyped as hell.
GSC: I am a big music video guy too.
DB: I was also so happy I got on the same album as Alchemist. Like Maxo, thank you dog. Sincerely, thank you. The idea that I have a beat on the same album as him is so wild to me.
GSC: How was it working with this guy Keegan on your project?
DB: I first connected with Keegan at a Freddie Stone show I did. He took a video of me and he liked the beat that he took the video of. Then we got to talking online and eventually I rolled through to his crib to show him some beats.
xoKeegan: I was like I wish I could shazam this shit, your outfit was fire too I remember.
DB: I had just come back from Cali and I was rocking this highlighter yellow North Face and my big DriveBy hat. Sharif made a rule that I can’t go to events or performances without the hat. One time we were at the Pet Shop, like around the corner from here and I didn’t have it on. Sharif was like “GO GET THAT DAMN HAT” so he helped make it my thing.
xoKeegan: This is the first time I am seeing you without the hat I think.
DB: But working with Keegan was dope. I went over there to his crib and showed him some shit and I felt like he was feeling all of it, and a lot of shit that I was surprised by. It was wild too because the music of his that he showed me was mad different. I was there for probably three hours, just talking about each other’s music and how we worked and whatnot.
GSC: Sounds like a great first meeting.
DB: He wrote a blog post about my performance at the Freddie Stone show too. I think he was my first review.
GSC: How do you beat me to the punch fam?
DB: I’d always see Keegan at shows too and I’d give him words of encouragement and make sure he was making progress, cause I was hyped off the rough drafts. That’s when he started connecting with Eddie King too, that is my major major homie. That’s partially how me and you connected too Brendan.
GSC: Eddie King! St. Peter’s Prep’s finest, he shot a beautiful cover for Where the Water Takes Me and did some great promo work there too. He took some fire photos for me too that were supposed to be for LinkedIn that I’ve been using for stand up comedy.
DB: Shoutout Eddie, gotta see him soon.
GSC: Who are the artists that motivate you, where you are like “damn, I need to keep up?”
DB: First and foremost Roper. Lungs also inspires me a lot. His production and his raps are so impressive. I like working with him a lot too, on top of his shit being fire. Benji Socrates is a monster. He’s always teaching me little tricks that I’m like, “What the fuck? How’d you know that?” NoFace is another one.
GSC: His tape with Sharif is crazy.
DB: He’s one that makes me go fuck, I gotta do better because his experimental game is crazy. He makes me wanna go harder listening to his music. TenTen is the homie, I love his soul and his funk stuff, listening to that brings something completely different outta me.
GSC: The tape he did with Jazzz is among my favorite of the year.
DB: Wavy Bagels beats for sure. He’s never not working. Iblss is another one for sure too who I am so impressed by, not just the beats but every project he works on is impressive. Mike Digi too.
xoKeegan: Short for Michael Digital?
DB: Yea, he works with Jah Monte Ogbon a lot. He’s got some crazy beats man. He’s the homie too, he’s always showing love. Whenever we get to work on beats its a pleasure. Steel Tipped Dove too is another crazy ass producer who makes me wanna make crazier shit.
GSC: Do you have any dream collaborators?
DB: Definitely billy woods and ELUCID. Blackstar has always been a dream, Mos Def and Talib. Amani is crazy. Ka would be another dream.
GSC: I could see that working, I think he’d fuck with your beats.
DB: I don’t know how you’d even get in touch with dude honestly but it’d be a dream come true.
GSC: You just gotta find the right pigeon to give the USB drive to.
DB: Curly Castro, he’s on Let Me Out but I want to make more music. Prem Rock too, he’s on the upcoming LIFE tape. I am appreciative of the tracks we have together but I’d love to do even more. I will say Starker too.
GSC: I’m shocked that hasn’t happened yet.
DB: I have songs with YL and I would love to do more tracks or even a project with YL, but I’d love to tap in with Starker for a tape. I love his energy and I feel like his crazy ass raps would sound fire on my crazy ass beats.
GSC: I could definitely see that working.
DB: Phiik and Lungs I respect so much too. I have some music with them as is and I would definitely love to make more music. I love the way they rap. I mean I wanna do my version of Another Planet, or some kinda tape in that stratosphere with them for sure, which I tell them every time I see them.
GSC: You’re like bro lemme get one of these planets!
DB: Planet X that just came out with NoFace too, that shit is crazy fire man. I got so much respect for what all of them are doing, how they came together on that tape is crazy.
GSC: It is a very cool underground community going on right now.
DB: I also want to get more music with S!lence. He’s like me where we’re both mad chill and then you hear his raps and you’re like “Damn! He’s going crazy.”
GSC: S!lence couldn’t be a cooler dude, I definitely could see you two having a similar edge working together.
DB: I want to do more music with Gam too. I love the Earth to Gam tape, especially that track with Homeboy Sandman. He always shows love too
GSC: Didn’t he tour with Wavy and Gam too?
DB: Yes he did, and the album he did with Quelle Chris he recorded in our old studio. Quelle Chris is another rapper I’d kill to have more work with, dude is so nice.
GSC: Did you see Cillian Murphy was playing Quelle Chris on his radio show?
DB: Yea that was wild, my man is tapped in.
GSC: One question that I always like to end on is what is something outside of music that brings you a lot of joy that people may not know about you?
DB: I love being in the woods and hiking. That’s why I am always rocking the Columbia and whatnot. Not just cause it looks good but because I love being out there in nature
GSC: You got any favorite spots out in Jersey?
DB:One of my favorite spots is Stokes Forest. It’s on the Appalachian Trail. Towards the middle of it, there’s a 80 foot fire tower and when you get onto the top of it you can see the entire forest. There’s some trails by Turtle Beach I love too. There is a place out in Point Jarvis I’ve been meaning to go to that apparently has hella waterfalls. Hiking and hacking are my two hobbies outside of music.
