[Si] TV

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Your guy’s production puts you into that elite category alongside, in my opinion, Alchemist, and Havoc, who make that soundtrack to murk to..to ride to and ride on. Tell us about your individual history and how you joined forces.

SR: Both of our mothers are singers, so we grew up surrounded by music respectively. When we met in the 7th grade, our favorite thing to do was post up in the crib and play the latest and greatest Hip Hop tapes and records. We were fiends for the music. 13 years old, mystified, we would talk about how it might have been put together. We were really just 2 kids completely flipped off of the beats. We got our hands on our first sampler 2 years later, and started making loops and triggering them with no sequencer on to a 4-track cassette recorder. These years were us just trying to produce what we were hearing. When high school ended, Bravo moved out to the east coast to attend NYU and Chav stayed in LA. We gained a lot of experience individually until 2002 when we re-united out in NY.

You guys are from Califas right? What were some influential years and what events shaped your views on music, culture?

In Cali, it was hard not to be influenced by the different cultures out there. Skater/surfer culture, Chicano culture, graffiti culture. They all coincide throughout the LA basin. We were listening to NWA, King Tee, CMW, WC, Cypress Hill and all them, and also bumpin’ early Hiero and Freestyle Fellowship. But we mostly got stuck on east coast music. The classics were RUN-DMC, Slick Rick, EPMD, Gang Starr, Rakim, Native Tongues, Mobb Deep, Nas and so on. We’re mainly products of that early 90’s sound as far as what influenced us most.

Who or what inspired you to begin producing?

Well, first off, hip hop music from that era was so different from everything else out there so it was inspiring just in its essence, but again, we were mystified. When Quincy Jones’ son, QD3, moved into the neighborhood when we were like 14, he welcomed a couple of us eager youngsters (Evidence and Alchemist as well) into his garage-turned-studio. This was our first encounter with a production studio. It was like we were seeing a spaceship, for real. Although we had no idea what was actually going on, we knew this was what we wanted to dedicate ourselves to!

Who is Sid Roams?

Haha… We get this one a lot! One proper full name for two dudes throws some people. But we have always played this name game in our circle of friends. Making up cool-sounding names of characters who don’t exist. We would give names to each other, and actually refer to that person that way. So when the time came to choose a name for our production work, we felt that the team name was corny or cliché and how can you follow acts like “The” Neptunes or “The” Bomb squad in title. So we choose to go a different route. And we love it! We gotta laugh when we hear feedback like “who is this Sid Roams guy?” Sid Roams is our mythical beat guru.

If you could pick one movie to describe your production, what would it be?

We like those dark 80s movies from when we were growin’ up so I’d have to say “Escape from New York” by the god, John Carpenter.

Top 5 records?

This is an impossible game ‘cuz it’s inevitable that you forget something essential. Also, there’s no way to cover all the different genres. But just for the readers, here’s a list of random non-hip hop LP’s: The Police- Zenyatta Mondatta, Sun Ra- Lanquidity, Marvin Gaye- Troubleman, Les McCann- Layers, Michael Jackson- Thriller. See that’s already five and we didn’t even get to the Beatles or Prince… its too hard.

What do you think about the border walls, the Minutemen and this election madness?

Its fuckin’ insanity. The backwards colonial madness that the US demonstrates is baffling. There are so many aspects to it that don’t make any sense, and now, more than ever, nations need to be thinking on a global humane and diplomatic level. Didn’t we learn anything from the Berlin Wall? And since when is it acceptable to serve vigilante justice? I don’t know, we’ll see what happens in November but its all getting pretty scary. I mean, ultimately, you inherently cant trust any politician but I kinda want to see Obama in the white house. Then at least it wont be Hillary or, god save us, John McCain…

For the rest of this interview, go to www.illuminati2g.com