Emcee Lu Chin Chen and producer Daneja Mentale teamed up to create an album called “Dangerous Solution.” The albums’ title isn’t indicative of its sound. Dangerous Solution is a smoothed out and laid-back project from beginning to end, adding a new chapter in the book of Lu Chin Chen.
Dangerous Solution is an 11-track album produced entirely by Daneja Mentale. The release features appearances by O.C., Ida Divine, Dystrakted, TheoryMC, Le Zeppo, and Oscar Wilson.
Lu Chin Chen and Daneja Mentale spoke to The Real Hip-Hop about why it’s better to keep a small circle of friends, how America is becoming a rental society, and their new album, Dangerous Solution.
TRHH: Why’d you title the new album Dangerous Solution?
Lu Chin Chen: We were trying to think of a title and Daneja Mentale, Lu Chin Chen, and Soul Mafia has been his team for a long time that I was added to later, so, Dangerous/Daneja Soul-Lu Chin. We just kind of made a thing, but then we were thinking about it and it’s kind of like music is a lot of negativity these days. We were just thinking like the Dangerous Solution is a positive vibe. It’s a different way to go about it. What does it mean to you, Joby?
Daneja Mentale I mean, like you said with how music is so negative now, what we did was just a straight contrast of that. Instead of giving the hardcore we just gave you a more smooth, more laid back approach to Hip-Hop.
TRHH: This album is a different project for you style wise. Did you guys go into it with the mindset that Dangerous Solution was going to be different and sound different from everything else right now?
Lu Chin Chen: I mean, this album’s been in the works. Was it like 2018 I think you started sending me beats?
Daneja Mentale: I was sending the beats around that time, but we started to put it together back in 2020.
Lu Chin Chen: Yeah, so we took our time with it. As it was going I was working on NA Meeting at the time, I had L.A.D.S. going on, and he does his bass music and all that, he has a lot of other stuff going with his solo projects. The Weight project obviously was a way different sound than this one, I didn’t want to do a part 2 to that. I wanted this to be 100% different just to show versatility, and that I could do other things, and we think different. It’s not always going to be the same songs on everything.
Daneja Mentale: With a lot of what we were doing we connected throughout the years just through songs that we collaborated on, on each other’s album. So, it was a no-brainer that we would come together to do an actual full-length album.
TRHH: Daneja, your sound seems like you’re playing all of the instruments. How much of your production is sample based?
Daneja Mentale: A lot of it’s sampled, actually. I want to say at least 80% is sampled, but it’s the way I manipulate the samples. I would take drums from different break beats and just chop them up. When you hear the string arrangements that’s me, when you hear the basslines that’s me. Rarely do I ever sample basslines or strings from other songs unless I’m going to add more to them. So, it’s a mix of composing and the sampling.
TRHH: What’s in your production workstation?
Daneja Mentale: Of course, I use the FL Studio, but I only use two different versions. I use FL 4 and I use FL 8. And there’s a reason why I use those two, because with FL4 if I was to use the slicer I can merge the samples together without them sounding choppy. And then with 8 I can actually mix certain sounds better. I also go back to a program that I bought years ago and it really wasn’t created for producing music of your own, it was more like something that they already had these royalty free samples in and everything pretty much sounded the same. But what I started to do was import my own sounds into it and it’s called Hip Hop eJay.
If you remember, it’s just like the MTV Music Generator. But it’s basically computer software that I bought at Walmart years ago. I would take those samples that I would import and just make a skeletal pre-production beat in there and then I will import them into FL Studio and add more around it. So, a lot of it is like a mix between two different software programs. I also used another one called Dance eJay. There were ways I would manipulate the drums on there and make high energy Hip-Hop and dance music.
TRHH: One thing that stood out was how hard your snares hit on songs like Styles Upon Styles, Reach, and From the Soul. How do you get that punch in your snares?
Daneja Mentale: Honestly, I have a thing for loud snares dating back to how R&B in the 80s was produced. I’m a big fan of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis’ production and Kraftwerk. I always loved hard drums, but I would actually mix my snares a bit louder than usual.
Lu Chin Chen: Also, Mark, the guy that mixes and masters, he always beefs it up. He gives it beefy already, but Mark likes to really get as much out of everything as he can. He’s done all my projects, but I feel like he really put his foot in this one real good. He already sent it to me slapping, it didn’t even sound like it needed much and then he just added that extra bang on it.
Daneja Mentale: Actually, the drums from Styles Upon Styles came from some of the breakbeat records that I used to buy all the time. I just had them in my computer for the longest and I would just go through these kits and it was just random when I picked that one. Actually, the pad strings on there came from MTV Music Generator. So, actually, it’s three different programs I was using.
TRHH: On the song “Wash Away Yesterday” you say “My circle’s smaller every day, but getting stronger.” How is your circle becoming stronger while getting smaller?
Lu Chin Chen: It’s the quality of the people that are in the circle. When you’re younger you just want a big crew and a lot of people that are just gassing you and whatever. It’s different when you get older and you just shed them as you go. You figure out who’s real and who’s not and the circle is way stronger now. I know who’s who, and what’s what, and who’s not going nowhere and who’s bullshittin’. That’s how I look at it. As you get older I don’t care if it’s two people!
Daneja Mentale: I agree with that because back when I was in my late teens and early 20s I was constantly riding with a bunch of guys whatnot. Now I’m by myself pretty much 95% of the time. Even people that I had done work with in the past, I don’t do work with them anymore. It doesn’t mean I don’t care or don’t reach out, but priorities change, life changed. So, you tend to shed off a few people, it doesn’t mean that you don’t care. And then there are some that you have to let go because you’re not on the same page with that person anymore.
Lu Chin Chen: Yeah, you grow different paths. Some people want to keep doing the same stuff. I’ve changed every year. I’m a different person. I’m the same person as far as my thought process on most things, but I mean, I was crazy back in the day. There’s a million stories for that [laughs]. Swinging off the rafters, you know.
TRHH: The last verse of “Sorrow On the Rocks” sounds a bit paranoid. Why do you think a prison planet is coming and what do you see that is spoken of in the scriptures?
Lu Chin Chen: Oh, you could just see everything. The walls keep closing in tighter every year, everything is monitored, everything is totally under surveillance. That’s what I mean by that. We’re not headed to a prison chained up by the feet, but we’re definitely closing in on being in one where the future of electric cars, if they wanna have them set up to shut it down if you use too many miles this month or whatever, or they don’t allow you to drive to certain places, they can do that when everything is electric. They could probably do that now really, but there’s ways if you still have a gas tank that you could try to fix your car up different to make sure it still runs if you know what you’re doing.
It’s just like that, everything’s just closing in smaller and smaller and there’s more control over everything. It’s going to turn into a rental society. Everything is leased, whether it’s music, whether it’s movies, you don’t own anything. They don’t want you to own anything, the WEF said that, you’re going to own nothing and be happy by 2030, that’s the agenda. Own nothing and be happy, I don’t understand how they think that’s going to work for people, but that’s the plan — World Economic Forum — Klaus Schwab.
Daneja Mentale: That makes me think of two things — V for Vendetta and Dead Kennedys – Message From Our Sponsor.
Lu Chin Chen: That’s basically what I’m saying with that. It’s such a divided world, too. If everybody sees the real end game and as a people, I’m talking the human people, we’re going to lose to the vast minority of the world — the one percenters. The money is really controlling things and pushing us in the wrong direction.
TRHH: You have a song called “Remember” that’s about your children. Did they hear the song and if so what was their response?
Lu Chin Chen: That’s actually about my one child, but I wrote the first verse in 2012 when she was born and then I shelved it. I was going to put it on this album, that album, and nothing was working right as far as the vibe of the album. I was like, “I’ll wait” and when I got to this project I’m like, “This is the perfect project to put a song for my daughter.” So, verse 2 is going to be “12 years later, smart and beautiful 7th grader.” That’s why I’m saying in the beginning of that we’re 12 years later now.
TRHH: Okay.
Lu Chin Chen: Yeah, so that’s the whole thing. It’s just how I see her growing, the things that she’s trying to do, how she thinks, and she’s thinking about her future, and being her own boss and owning her own business. Going from being a dad just coming home with a baby to seeing this kid be her own person, I just thought it was a good idea, I’ll just do 2 verses from two different perspectives time wise. She’s 12 about to be 13, so, right now she don’t care about that song too much. She’ll care about that 15-20 years down the road probably right [laughs]?
TRHH: What do you hope to achieve with Dangerous Solution?
Lu Chin Chen: My perspective is, I hope people that hear it and they are artists and they do their own music, I hope they can step outside the box if they’re in one. If they’re like stuck in kind of a certain cycle of music that they don’t really know how to step outside of, just do what you do. Everything’s coming from the inside on that one. I want peace, that’s all I want, that’s how I was looking at it. And the beats that he was sending me was pushing me into that vibe anyway. It was like a turning point in my life, it just all worked out timing wise.
I’ve heard people say, “Oh, you’re kind of more melodic on this one, it’s more like smooth and whatever” and I’m like, “Yeah, I mean I listen to that stuff, too, so, why wouldn’t it be?” I listen to AZ and then all of a sudden M.O.P the next day. I’m not always listening to the same stuff, I’ll put on Devin The Dude or whatever. It doesn’t matter, I’m going to get in different moods. So, how do you look at that Daneja?
Daneja Mentale: I’ve always been on a more laid-back style as far as production, but I also have my hardcore beats on certain songs. This right here is the mood that I had started on years ago after going through a few life changes, so, it puts a lot into perspective for myself as well. Instead of being at war with the world all day it’ like, hey, let’s chill out, let’s cool out, let’s have some peace and just enjoy life to the fullest. So, it’s a beautiful connection through these 11 tracks.
Lu Chin Chen: The whole Dangerous Solution intro, that’s basically what I’m saying on that. Peace, love, tranquility, let’s get back to that.
Daneja Mentale: Plus, it was a long time coming because I tell anybody from day one before I even started working with Lu I started off as a fan, and I’m still a fan. I’m still excited for projects every time they come out. Ever since he was with NME wreckidz I have been a fan. I’ve been a fan ever since the first song I heard called “Money.” So, I’ve been linked ever since.
Lu Chin Chen: That was in like 2000.
Daneja Mentale: If Dili was here you could probably ask him how many times I bugged the crap out of him like, “Yo, man what’s up with that Lu Chin dude?” It was just so amazing how he got us together and here we are.
Lu Chin Chin: There’s a producer that I started off with, Mr.Diligence, salute Mr. Diligence.He linked me with Daneja. He told me, “This guy makes beats and raps and everything and he’s a fan of your stuff.” So, I just hit him up and we’ve been cool ever since and collabed here and there, but 24 years after you heard my shit, now we do an album. That’s pretty crazy.
Purchase: Lu Chin Chen & Daneja Mentale – Dangerous Solution