Q&A SeSSioN WiTH GaMSHooTeR...

Got somethin` brand new for that ass.....LoL, a first for the blog, but I`m hopin` to make it at least a once a month thing. So what is it? I know I`m killin` y`all with the suspense so I`ll just come out with it.....LoL, it`s a Q&A session with Toronto producer Gamshooter. Visitors of this blog should be familiar with some of the work that he`s done with Angerville...

Get familiar!!!

Get Familiar!!!





Now in the words of Kardinal Offishall, "On Wit` Da Show"...

HeRBaN LyRiX:

First off thanks for taking the time to chop it up with me, truly appreciate it homie! I’ve got to be honest & let ya know that this is my first CRaCK at this whole Q&A ish so I’ll try not to make it somethin’ that you regret doing…LoL, anyways you know I have to ask – Gamshooter, how was this name bestowed upon you? Where are you from? Give us a little bio’. I’m curious & I’m sure a few folks out there are as well…

Gamshooter:

What up? The name well...way back when I was rapping in high school cats started calling me “Gambino” because I was Italian. I didn’t like it, but it stuck and got shortened to just Gam’. I tend to talk a lot...that’s where “Shooter” comes in, Gam’ The Shit Shooter...Gamshooter. I grew up in Brampton a.k.a. B-Town, moved around a lot there. Spent a good portion living off Kennedy strip and hanging out at all the spots there, but I am the type to make friends not enemies, so you could catch me all over the city…

As for a little bio’…just your average Rap fan/ producer living in Toronto, my first project was a full length LP titled “The New Wave” with my homie Bricks from North Carolina. I have also done production for Vice Raw and Foog of North Carolina, my main musical brother Koba from Brooklyn, New York and Phact from Idaho. Canadian~wise I have worked with K Dot, Nish Raawks of Monolith, Masia One, Slangston Hughes, Nifty, Bishop (Brigante), Hoox and Dutchy Bonez, Set2 and of course Angerville....others I can’t think of at the moment…

HeRBaN LyRiX:

No doubt, you’ve definitely worked with a lot of ReSPeCTeD katS. The first time I heard your music was on a track that featured two hungry soundin’ emcees Diabolic & KO titled “Hold Your Tongue Part 2” then it was a Bishop Brigante track titled “Spark That Fuego”, both DoPe joints by the way! You mentioned rappin’ while in high school, is that still something you do today? If not what made you switch up for the production tip? Or was that something that you were always doing???

Gamshooter:

The “Fuego” joint is a lot older than “Hold Your Tongue 2”, those are actually two tracks I really like that I’ve done...no I haven’t rapped since, wow...2003 I think, I spit 2 verses on the Bricks and Gamshooter “New Wave” album that came out in North Carolina back in 2004 and prior to that I hadn’t recorded a verse since I think 1999-2000. Actually one of the verses on that LP was recorded in that time period. I had a short track from then with this girl I was talking to at the time singing the hook (what up Pooh?!) and Bricks just added a verse to it. The other one, I was sitting at home all like blue and started to make this beat…it just was so depressing it spoke to me, and I wrote this verse about Jesus walking to the cross, his death and how it was something he had to do but he still felt a bit betrayed by it....strange eh?...And I am not very religious or anything! Sent the joint to Bricks and he jumped on it spitting his verse like someone watching this all happen. I started off as a rapper, made beats to rap on...I didn’t think I was a great rapper and I didn’t like to do it so I quit and stuck with the beats…

HeRBaN LyRiX:

You’ve got more than a couple years of work put in, numerous beats produced I’m sure…so we’re going to take it back to your very first beat, if you can remember, what was the vibe like when you were putting it together? How did it feel once you had everything complete? I know for myself being an aspiring emcee, the first time I had the chance to record some of my flows using a decent mic set-up at a friend’s lil’ basement studio there was like this rush that flow`D all thru me when I heard the playback. The ish was far from spectacular & just ended up in a box of my freestyle CDs, but that’s not the point. It was the whole experience, the energy that made it unforgettable – for me anyway. What was it like for you, how did it feel to hear the emcees spitting over your beat? What equipment were you using at the time???

Gamshooter:

The first real beat I ever made was very dark. It was a straight keyboard sounding beat, but it also had a stand up bass and violins. I made it for myself, right after I made it I wrote and recorded my first song ever. The whole process took around 30 minutes, the song came out not bad but not great. I wish I still had that…LoL, it was a rush...I loved to do music back in those days, also met a lot of my long time friends from doing music. Back then all we had to use was an old model Roland keyboard and a Tascam 4 track, real basic stuff but the music that came out from those studio sessions, although not always great, always sounded fun...the good ol’ days I guess…LoL

HeRBaN LyRiX:

Ah yes, the good ol` days ya gotta love ‘em! That’s when all the great music came out, at least in my opinion, from A Tribe Called Quest to Public Enemy, KRS-One & Boogie Down Productions…many of my influences, all CLaSSiC material & I find myself listening to it so much more now than ever. Not sure if it’s because that’s what I grew up on or if it’s just that now~a~days the music droppin’ isn’t all that impressive. Don’t get me wrong there’s a decent album every now & then, but it’s not like the good ol’ days…..LoL, folks sound all alike almost like they’re scared to be different – factory clones. Speaking on copying, as a producer how do you feel about sampling? Personally I don’t see anything wrong with it as long as it’s done in a creative way or in a way that BiGs uP the original creator…

Gamshooter:

I am 90% sampling myself; I loop, I chop. Whatever sounds best to me...some samplers chop everything just for the sake of saying....“ya but I chopped it!” A good loop is a good loop, however I think a good sampler should be able to do both well. Also chopping doesn’t all have to sound like Premo. Get creative; do some layering, mess with the release and attack of the sample, try different approaches to it…

HeRBaN LyRiX:

Beautifully put, keep it ORiGiNaL – I like that! I’m sure you remember a while back when DJ Premier got a lil’ vexed about katS releasing compilations/ mix tapes like the Dusty Fingers series as if the samples were some highly classified ish. I thought it was a lil’ funny myself…how do you feel about it???

Gamshooter:

Well the thing with the samples is that people are sharks and will try to redo your beats and shit. So I see why some cats would be mad at having their sample info` leaked, but if the songs are already released the sample info` is in the credits anyways so it’s not a big deal…

HeRBaN LyRiX:

I always DiG hearin’ from a producer’s perspective, used to read Scratch Magazine (R.i.P.) until that joint became ELViS….LoL, really enjoyed hearing about what the producers were using equipment~wise, what samples they were using, their influences, etc. Found it real interesting because the emcees tend to get most of the light, it was almost like some behind the scenes type ish….LoL, anyway when it comes down to beat creating for you what are you influenced by? Is it the artist, your mood, certain types of music?? Or is it a combination of things???

Gamshooter:

As for me being influenced, I usually tend to have a darker sound in my personal taste. Not all my beats come out sounding dark because you can’t just keep repeating the same process and making the same sound over and over, but a lot of the times they come out dark and depressing. I love that shit because I feel that way a lot. I am a very moody cat....also I am a huge DJ Muggs fan, the king of dark. At the end of the day everything is a factor; if it’s for a specific artist, if it fits in to an album theme, my mood, my day, what samples I have dug for, conversations I’ve had with friends, movies, TV, anything and everything. Some of my favorite beats came from me feeling like shit and tryin’ to get my mind off of stuff…

HeRBaN LyRiX:

DJ Muggs definitely has some DoPe music out there. I really DiG the early Cypress Hill stuff that he did, that & the “Soul Assassins” albums – real grimy ish! Alright, so I’m gon’ switch things up… 21….LoL, without the court or a B~ball. Good thing too, since I have no game like an N.B.A. lockout…..LoL, so first up name 7 emcees that you’d love to work with. Second; say if E.T. came back to Earth & wanted to get an understanding of what HiP HoP is all about which 7 albums would you give him to listen to & why? Third; give me 7 songs, from other producers or ones you’ve worked on, that have beats you really DiG…

Gamshooter:

Those are some interesting questions, as for 7 Emcees; Evidence, Jo Jo Pellegrino, Nas, La The Darkman, Joel Ortiz, Immortal Technique & Ludacris. All very different, all unique…

7 albums, wow this might be a tough one…

Beastie Boys - License To Ill
EPMD - Business Never Personal
Cypress Hill - Cypress Hill
Nas - Illmatic
Redman - Muddy Waters
Ghostface - Ironman
Evidence - The Weatherman LP

And those don’t even tip the iceberg as far as trying to show the progression of Hip Hop music to someone who’s never heard of it. I would need 20 albums for that, from Electro-Break, to Kurtis Blow, to all the production trends: i.e. Wu (RZA) sound, Ruff Ryders sound (Swizzy) etc., but those albums I think are all solid start to finish and show the different sounds of Hip Hop music…

Other Producers…

POW - Sick Jacken [Prod. by DJ Muggs]
I Love You - Evidence [Prod. by Evidence]
Nas - New York State Of Mind [Prod.. by DJ Premiere]
Joel Ortiz - The Bio [Prod. by Moss]
Big Noyd - Shoot ‘Em Up Bang-Bang Pt. 1 [Prod. by Alchemist]
Tragedy - Permanently Scarred [Prod. by??? Unknown to me but one of my fav’s]
Mobb Deep - Trife Life 1 & 2 (tie) [Prod. by Havoc]

Myself, in no order…

Fuego - Bishop Brigante
Nobody Cares - Angerville {ft. K Dot}
Yeahhhhh - Esjay & Scorsese
Everyone Says - Phact
Rise Up – Koba
Sleep Tight - Nish Raawks
Hold Ya Tongue Pt. 1 – Diabolic

HeRBaN LyRiX:

Some iLL selections right there! Ya actually gave me some bonus answers, but it’s all to the good…LoL, more material for the readers. Anyway, Fortunato of Angerville was down in the O~Double T (Ottawa) yesterday (March 1^st) & I was able to kick it with him for a lil’ bit. We smoked a blunt & talked about Angerville’s newest release “Rebellion”, his crew & just Life in general. So ya know I got a copy of the album! Haven’t given it a thorough listen yet, but what I’ve heard so far I’m really enjoying – especially that “Nobody Cares” track. I know you handled the production for the album, give me the 4-1-1 on the project. Sell it to me homie…..LoL, what was the whole process like? What future projects do you have in the works???

Gamshooter:

Well, I wish there was a more interesting story behind it all, but there isn’t. I just did what I do and for the type of feel that fits their style. That “Nobody Cares” joint is one of my fav`s as well! I played that all out, I took a Rhodes type sound and EQ’d the shit outta it and put a lil’ flange on that bad boy…LoL, and was just like hittin’ the keys like

**Da-Da-Da`n` Da, Da-Da-Da`n` Da** <--- Why did I even attempt to type out a musical melody in da’s?...LoL

Anyways, ya everything just comes together...process usually is; I load a sample in a channel and in a slicer-channel in FL….I hear it looped and if I like it looped I’ll just keep it like that. If not I pitch it up in the slicer, set my slice marks and usually adjust the attack so you don’t have to bang on the key to get the sample chop to play fluent you can just kinda move from chop to chop with a slighter tap, add bass, drums, or filter the sample for the bass, maybe add something else and done…

Future projects well…

I have a mixtape coming out end of March called “Gamshooter Presents: Obligatory Rap Music For Kids In XXXXL T-Shirts”…

I was just gonna release a complete album, but I decided to go the mixtape route because I wanted to use some remixes and some older tracks most people haven’t heard, you know. Right now there are like 27 tracks I could make it well over 30, but it will probably end up being around 25. There are only like 2-3 remixes on it, but I liked ‘em enough that I want the people to hear ‘em, Got tracks with Nish Raawks of Monolith, Vice Raw, Bricks, Koba, Miles Soley of Outernational, Esjay, etc. etc…

July 11th Koba is releasing his first solo album titled “Culture War”, I got 3-5 joints on that depending on the final track listing. That’s my bro right there, it’s that funky revolution, climb mountains music…

After that, nothing I am retireddddddddddd…

Oh and I think a joint I did with Masia One is going on her new album, but I am not 100% sure about that. If not I’ma throw it on my mixtape, it’s a hot joint!!!

Oh and Quake from Halifax just sent me a rough mix of a joint he did over one of my beats, its flamesssssssss! I think that’s going on his album, so get that when it comes out…

HeRBaN LyRiX:

I’m lovin’ the title of that mixtape G, definitely lookin’ forward to hearing that! So ya know you’re gon` have to hit me up with some exclusives or something off that joint....LoL, gotta let the headZ check it out! So you’re gon` retire huh? Are you serious or was that more of a joke??....LoL, ‘cuz now~a~days Rap/ HiP HoP & retirement are pretty much just somethin’ to laugh at (i.e. Too $hort, Master P & most recently Jay-Z). Anyway, I think I’ve rambled on long enough...LoL, it’s time to bring things to a close. Thanks again Gamshooter, best of luck with everything! Hopefully we can do it again when your mixtape drops. If there’s anything else you’d like to say before we wrap it on up go `head & let the folks out there know...

Gamshooter:

Here is a joint that may or may not be on the final mixtape..

Gamshooter Beats - Sun Zoo - Not For Sale

As for the retiring, yes I was pretty serious…I mean it’s not like I’ll never do music again, but you know it’s time to move on. It’s long overdue...although I guess to retire you really had to have a career in the first place...I’ve probably contributed production to, I would say around 20 releases, fully producing 4 and really have nothing to show for any of it but a few bucks that came and went…LoL

Big up to all the artists to ever fuck with my beats, and of course the heads that supported me in music and on the streets; Bricks, Koba, Angerville, KDot, Craig Max, Buck-Fidy, Yardy, Ran, E-Bizz, Pnut, Prototype, G-Man, Philly, Pigeon, The Dude, Bone Killa, Juice , Rye Dog, Jermaine with a capital J, my familia and Diddy and er'body from P.V and C.G…

Like Point Blank’s slogan, “Fuck the rest!”

Just kiddin’ always wanted to say that, peace…

Well that`s all folkS, hope y`all enjoyed the lil` Q&A session. Feel free to leave some comments, I wouldn`t mind reading some feedback. If ya want to holla at Gamshooter for some of his iLL beatZ just hit hit up THiS SiTe, he`s got a nice list for ya to sample. Those of you interested in previewing Angerville`s debut album "Rebellion" can do so HeRe, just click on the 'Music' tab. If ya like what ya hear & you live in the Toronto area you can pick up a copy at Smash/Rockwell at 100 Bond Street, beside the Hakim Optical on the north side of Dundas across from the Easton Center. It`s also available at Play De Record (357 Yonge Street), Mixtape Maniac (1824 St. Clair West at Old Weston Road...just around the corner from the Flea Market) & Da Corner (256A Queen Street West, inside The Black Market (downstairs) across the street from Much Music). For those outside of Toronto, y`all can get it 2 ways. You can get the digital download from Itunes or you can get it thru mail order for $8, send orders to rebellradio@gmail.com...