HiPSTERWAVE

We got hyped-up when we found out that a world-renowned super-producer like Dame Grease, aka Damon Blackmon, would take time out of his schedule to interview with us. Not only that, it was fun talking to him because of his passion for music and the fact that we got to hear a clip from an exclusive track during the call. Dame Grease’s discography speaks for itself and his involvement in the rap game is what dreams are made of.

Dame Grease has been the man behind the success of so many artists we have listened to over the years. He’s an example of the American Dream and the fact that if you put your heart and soul into what you do, chances are, success will follow. In Grease’s own words: “It’s all work.”

Background

Dame Grease has created, produced and marketed an unprecedented amount of albums throughout his career. These albums have generated over $200 million in revenue for companies such as Def Jam, Sony Records, Universal, Rocafella, Interscope, Koch, Priority, Jive, Atlantic, So So Def and Columbia Records, just to name a few. A variety of these projects have surpassed the “Gold” (500,000) and “Platinum” (1,000,000) sales levels and earned industry recognition through Grammy Awards, Soul Train Awards, Stellar Awards, Billboard Awards, and BMI Awards. A plethora of other projects have been used by major networks and companies such as FOX Pictures, Sony Pictures and the Gaming Industry .

Grease production gained popularity amongst two of the most talked-about rappers today Max B, and French Montana. Akon has signed French Montana to his Konvict Record label, and Grease is in talks with the LOX for their next album. Jadakiss named Grease one of the Top Five producers he will be working with for his Dead or Alive album. Aside from ushering the success of such artists, Grease has been labeled “The Street Ambassador” for his overwhelming and anticipated “street Cd’s” and “mix tapes making waves right now.” Mixtapes In Motion: A.B. & Dame Grease – Cold World, DJ Seiko, Dame Grease & Max B, – The Bloomberg Series, Dame Grease, Max B & Big Mike – Goon Music 1.5 The Doomship. Dame Grease, French Montana, & Max B – Coke Wave, Allhiphop Dame Grease Presents Wave Gang.

Notable Facts

• 50 million records sold
• Scored 3 major films Never die Alone, Cradle to the Grave and Exit Wounds
• Mixtape Ambassador with over 50 mixtapes (Gold Status) on the streets
• Over 200 million video views worldwide via YouTube, OnSmash, WorldStarHiphop and countless others
• Spearheaded the career of established artists such as DMX, EVE, SWIZZ BEATS, THE LOX.
• Executive Producer for the next LOX album
• Established new virtual hip-hop Group “The Auto-Tunes”
• Dame Grease Software (in pre-production)

Holla at Dame Grease at,

Twitter: twitter.com/damegrease
Myspace: myspace.com/damegrease

Dame Grease also has a mixtape contest going on right now at,

Ning: damegrease.ning.com/

Interview

Hipsterwave: Is this Dame Grease?

Dame Grease: Yeah. What’s good baby?

Hipsterwave: Not much man. Okay, first question, what were your influences growing up and how did you wind up producing hip hop?

Dame Grease: My influence is my parents, you know. My mom was into disco dance, and my pops—before he passed away—he was in a band also. So, they were from the 70’s, so you know there were a lot of basses and guitars and live singing and stuff. So I was always influenced from that. They kind of lost me as I was growing up, so I got reintroduced to music, like let’s say in the form of gangster rap.
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So this post is a dedication to one track (with a bonus), more than focusing on multiple songs by an artist, because we feel that the track “Somebody’s Watchin’ Me,” is the best track to ever come from the 80′s R&B singer Rockwell, (born Kennedy William Gordy on March 15, 1964 in Detroit, Michigan). Rockwell is a former R&B performer who was signed to the Motown label.

The coolest part about this track, which you may or may not remember, is the fact that he got Michael Jackson to sing on the chorus. Plus, Jackson fit into the track really nicely. Of course, that’s just complimenting Michael Jackson’s ability as a musician, which is pretty trite by this point in time. However, we recently noticed that the track is featured in Geico commercials, which reminded us of the fact that we were revisiting this song way back in March 2007, so we were ahead of the curve on that one. That tends to be the case though. For instance, when Jaguar featured a track in 2006 by artist Prefuse 73 (a post with highlights forthcoming) from the Prefuse record “Surrounded By Silence,” we had first heard and actively listened to in early 2005. So, Jaguar can suck it.

“Somebody’s Watching Me:”

Prefuse 73 – “Bad Memory Interlude Part One:”

We just came across a handful of Ben Gibbard cover songs on YouTube today. Too bad we haven’t been able to find higher quality audio versions yet, but they’re still great as is. See? Even hipsters notice pop-icons for all those mainstream haters out there. It’s okay to observe mainstream things, or even like them. You can still keep your identity and uniqueness in the process. :-)

Ben Gibbard – Complicated (Avril Lavigne cover):

Ben Gibbard – All Apologies (Nirvana cover):

Ben Gibbard – Thriller (Michael Jackson Cover):

Ben Gibbard & Colin Meloy cover Blur’s “End Of The Century:”

Ben Gibbard rants about the Black Eyed Peas:

Death Cab For Cutie – All Is Full Of Love (Björk Cover):

Soulfire Sessions – Chris Su – All Is Full Of Love (Björk Cover) (just figured we’d throw this one in here even though it’s clearly not Ben Gibbard. Ravecore!):

“Chris Su – All Is Full Of Love (Björk Cover):”

Ben Gibbard and Red Bull for the win:

It’s Theophilus London baby, aka Thelonius Kapps. If you don’t already know, Theophilus is a hipster rapper–if you want to put him in a box like that–and his influences include Michael Jackson, Prince, KraftWerk, the Smiths, the Ramones, Coldplay, Quincy Jones, New Look, Lauryn Hill, Ace of Base, Post-Punk Era, Plaid, Boat Shoes, Disney World Paris, Camera Necklaces, Black Vintage Clothing, Red Stripe Beer and Chips Ahoy, Morrisey & the Flowers in his BackPocket. The music posted in this entry is all available on Theophilus’ Myspace page, but you would have to download and deal with .zip archives if you want to go that route. Besides, why not let us pick out the hottest selections from the digital releases for you?

On the label Normrex Records, the mysterious label which only has a Myspace page and a website that points to it. Also, we only know of a few releases from the label–and even though we have met the label’s owner, Travis Stewart–no word on when exactly in 2009 we will see some of the juicy releases we’re anticipating; for instance, the long-anticipated Machinedrum record, “Want to 1 2?” that has been discussed by fans since 2006.

At any rate, back to the discussion at hand. Theophilus is friends with Jimmy Edgar, Machinedrum, ie.merge and the whole Normrex crew. As a result, lots of the instrumentals on Kapps’ tracks were produced or mixed by our favorite Normrex artists. There are a few exceptions, but as a result of the Normrex relationships, Theophilus raps over a number of unique tracks (see below mixed with the photos. So, now it’s time for our standard photo and audio montage. Of course, some of these photos are press and others are taken by Jimmy Edgar, who is also a professional photographer as you might have noticed in our post about him.

“The Vault:”

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“Blindfolded (Preview):”

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“Invisible Man:”

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“Forever Begins (feat. Common):”

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“Die 4 You (Feat. Prince):”

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Photo: Daniel Warrington.

“Starscream (Feat. Theophilus London):”

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“Leader of The New School (Produced by EdIT):”

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“Call Tyrone:”

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Machinedrum (left), Kapps (right):