From The Vault: Phoniks

At the start of 2014 I interviewed Don’t Sleep Records co-founder and beatsmith, Phoniks. It was one of many discussions I would go on to have with the Portland, Maine producer. The interviewed occurred on the heels of releasing his critically acclaimed 2013 album with his Don’t Sleep partner, Awon, called “Return to the Golden Era.”

Phoniks had just released a remix album called “Autumn in New York” where he laced 90s era East Coast Hip-Hop with his signature jazz samples. Phoniks remixed tracks by artists like Mos Def, Mic Geronimo, Lord Finesse, Big Punisher, Ak Skills, Street Smartz, Artifacts, Fugees, and the Notorious B.I.G.

Phoniks was also prepping for the release of his first joint album with Houston rapper Anti-Lilly titled “Stories from the Brass Section.” The Real Hip-Hop talked to Phoniks about the success of Return to the Golden Era, his upcoming album with Anti-Lilly, and his remix album, Autumn in New York.

TRHH: Why’d you decide to go the jazz route with this project?

Phoniks: Jazz based Hip-Hop has always been my favorite style. It’s my favorite genre to sample and everything, but I’ve never done a project that was a full jazz-based project. It’s always been jazz, soul, and funk mixed together. I wanted to do something that had more of a theme to it than what I’ve done in the past.

TRHH: Do you mostly dig for jazz records?

Phoniks: Yeah, definitely.

TRHH: Is it difficult to find acapellas to make these kinds of songs?

Phoniks: It’s a little frustrating because you can’t always remix the track that you want. There is a limited amount of songs that come out with acapellas, especially newer songs. It’s an old school thing with Hip-Hop singles. All of the classic Hip-Hop singles for the most part came out with acapellas, so it’s not too bad.

TRHH: Do you get that stuff on vinyl or mp3s?

Phoniks: I have a website called acappellas4u.co.uk and they have pretty much every Hip-Hop acapella that’s ever came out.

TRHH: Really? That’s awesome. I’ve never heard of it. 

Phoniks: Yeah, it’s crazy. They even have obscure stuff like the type of stuff I had on my album.

TRHH: What’s your favorite song on the album?

Phoniks: I like the Lord Finesse remix probably. I’ve been messing around with xylophones and vibraphones samples a lot lately and that has this really dope vibraphone loop on it.

TRHH: Explain the title of the album, Autumn in New York.

Phoniks: It might seem a little funny at first because I’m not from New York; I’m from Portland, Maine. Every artist I sampled from the album is from New York – I guess the Fugees are from New Jersey. I wanted to do something that had more of a clear theme than the remix records that I had done in the past, so I chose jazz remixes of New York artists.

TRHH: Have any of the original artists ever heard your remixes?

Phoniks: [Laughs] I hope not.

TRHH: Really?

Phoniks: Yeah, I don’t want them to sue me or anything like that [laughs]. I do really wanna get into doing legitimate official remixes for artists though. Everything I do is kind of an unofficial remix.

TRHH: Were you pleased with the reception you received for Return to the Golden Era? 

Phoniks: Oh yeah. That blew away all my expectations because before Return to the Golden Era I was just making beats in my bedroom. The fact that I came out with an album and it was the number one selling album on Bandcamp, and some people called it one of the best Hip-Hop albums of the year – I think you did actually. The fact that people had a reception to that just blew my mind. Before that came out I didn’t know people would want to listen to my music. It was a crazy eye opener.

TRHH: Are you doing a follow-up to that album?

Phoniks: Yes sir. The follow-up is going to be pretty much the same type of theme. The 90s sound isn’t really a gimmick to me. That’s all I know, so any project with me is going to have that sound. This time around we’re bringing along Dephlow who was featured on two tracks on the original LP. He doesn’t have any material out right now, but he’s seriously one of the best rappers on the planet. People are gonna go crazy when they hear these verses that he has on the album.

TRHH: Tell me about Stories from the Brass Section.

Phoniks: Stories from the Brass Section is a project I’m doing with an emcee out of Houston named Anti-Lilly. We linked up through an article in Respect magazine. It was about younger guys that are trying to bring back the 90s New York sound and they mentioned a mixtape that Anti-Lilly did and my album, Return to the Golden Era. I read the article and just decided to reach out to him ‘cause we were like-minded musically and he ended up really liking my beats. We did a single together and it naturally happened, so we just kept doing songs together. I was like, “We just have to do a whole album at this point.”

TRHH: How long did that process take?

Phoniks: Probably about three months. We were sending music back and forth through e-mail before we were satisfied with the project.

TRHH: How was it different from doing Return to the Golden Era?

Phoniks: It was a pretty similar process. With Return to the Golden Era me and Awon kind of made that whole thing in three weeks. It was a little more drawn out of a process. We weren’t in this crazy locked-in zone like we were with Return to the Golden Era, but it all happened really quickly and easily with the Anti-Lilly album.

TRHH: What do you have on deck for 2014?

Phoniks: Hopefully before the end of 2014 I’m going to drop my solo debut album. I want to get a compilation going with all the emcees that I’ve worked with and the emcees I’m going to work with, and hopefully some cool old New York rappers on there, too. I’ve been reaching out to people for features and people have been pretty receptive. I plan to do a big debut album. I’ve got a couple of tracks coming out with C-Rayz Walz that was really crazy — some of the craziest beats I’ve ever made. That should be out in a month or two.

Purchase the Phoniks Discography