2 years later, A.T.B. Recordings was back with a second 12", with Lil' Joon featuring Shorty Black on the A-side and Don Complete on the B-Side. Both of them deliver 3 tracks each, with Carlo and Kev still behind all the productions.
As usual, no info about those kats on the internet.. so I had to talk to one of the persons involved... the producer and label owner Carlo. Here is what he told me :
Carlo : "We were all from South Jamaica Queens... 50 Cent, all of us... You all know the hood as 134 Guy R Brewer ! We all lived in the back blocks, and mine was the Jamaican block. Me, Joon and Kev share a common Jamaican heritage. Lil' Joon was the lil homie back then and Don Complete lived on my street but on another Ave.
We dropped Lil' Joon debut 12" in 1994 so I'd say that I started producing a year or two before. My production partner Kev is my best friend, he is my brother from another ! Everything was recorded in his basement where was based our studio. We were both DJs first... I decided to go into production because my mother kicked my dj equipment out because of the noise. We produced the Lil' Joon single and that kinda of blew us up in the hood. Freaky Tah (RIP), Fif (50 Cent), Tony Yayo, all came through our doors in the short time.
Don Complete bugged out after the single which was released in 1996... Lol... He thought he was Jay-Z before Sean was Jay-Z. He was from the generation before me actually, he came up in the Supreme Team era... Gangsta fo real ! I don't know what happened to him. Me, Joon and Kev moved to Atlanta after that.
We lost a lot of history from another friend's basement. We trusted my friend to keep the records safe because of the person he is but we lost everything when the block got flooded...We had some Joon's unreleased material on some cassettes. We had 50 Cent's first 3 demos... smh. I wish I had those today... lol
When we first did Fif demos, we thought about dropping Fif first but we were already moving forward with our lil homie from our block. Fif was always fire. If you listen to Joon and listen to Fif you'll hear the similarities... the smooth flow. Pleasant to the ears... that's what I like !
A.T.B. was Around The Back studios because everything came to the back of house to the basement. We pressed 500 copies of each 12". We had no idea of the business, and Joon didn't like the limelight. Fif, as we can see, bathed in it. You gotta want to do it to get it done."
Both 12" are still rare and for sure won't be reissued from the original masters. So if you see a copy for sale, specially Joon's debut single from '94, you should jump on it !
Mad Props to Carlo, thanks for your time.
No comments:
Post a Comment