I mean, one album is an album where I'm literally doing what everyone knows me to do: me making beats, flipping samples, and playing instruments. Can you elaborate on what you mean by that? You mentioned that you were recently working with two very different kinds of artists. As we learned, saying Don’t Over Think Shit is one thing embedding it into your psyche so you can stay productive without losing your mind is another beast entirely.
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In doing so, he offers us a detailed insight into the creative and technical approach of one of contemporary music’s great orchestrators. This is the process which Blume is most eager to reveal to us over the course of our interview. It was just like, oh, find an 808 that knocks.” And there was never any talk about sidechaining and there was never any discussion about what you needed to do to the 808. They always had one kick and they always had one really sick 808 sample. I just learned from people whose 808s I thought sounded really good. You need to find something that is just sick to you instead of saying ‘this could be good if I sidechain it this might sound right if I put the right EQ on maybe it needs R-Bass.’ You shouldn’t be doing too much, in my opinion. My approach is pick samples that you really, really like and go through literally thousands and thousands and thousands of samples and only use, let’s say, the 20 to 30 that you love. Blume’s 808’s are voluminous affairs, enveloping the production while always leaving an appropriate amount of pocket for an emcee to carry the beat into oblivion. It is hip-hop’s great attention grabber a sonic entryway into the soul of the genre’s young listeners the key to a track’s bump in Feefo’s whip. “The 808"-shorthand parlance in hip-hop production for a sampled and processed 808 kick drum with a decay extending to the moon-is the ultimate currency for many a rap producer.
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And the D.O.T.S mantra has always just been kind of a slap in the head for me to kind of reset.” But it's just a reminder that sometimes you'll drive yourself crazy over one specific decision when there's a lot of decisions to be made, you know, and sometimes you just need a bird's eye view. It doesn't mean let something out in the world go that you're not proud of. I need to remind myself of that more than anybody. I'm always trying to draw some conclusion that isn't there, that's going to get me to a better way of working. “It came from my manager telling me, don't overthink shit. For Blume, D.O.T.S is less a campaign slogan than a meditative mantra, the philosophical underpinning holding his work ethic and creativity in delicate harmony. Every little thing I use says Don’t Over Think Shit,” he revealed over a video call from his recording studio in Los Angeles.
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My lighter says Don't Over Think Shit on it. “The rug underneath my feet where I look down all day says Don't Over Think Shit on it. Don’t Over Think Shit-“ D.O.T.S” for G-rated brevity-adorns his merchandise, the neon sign above his studio entrance, and, apparently, nearly everything else in his possession. Kenneth Charles Blume III, better known as Kenny Beats, has taken this idea and done with it what any entrepreneurially-minded millennial would do: he branded it. The secret to greatness, be it spiritual, physical, or creative, appears to lie in an individual’s capacity to relax their mind and trust in their ability to surf the pending waves of inspiration. You’ve just got to be ready.” It is a precept echoed through millennia and across cultures, from Tibetan Buddhist meditative practices, to the “Be Like Water”-minimalism of Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, to the “flow states” popularized by twentieth-century positive psychologists. You’ve just got to be ready for the wave, and when it subsides, wait for it to come back. When the late rapper and music producer Daniel Dumile (MF DOOM) was asked how he combats writer’s block, his answer was simple: “The way that creativity works for me, it comes like an energy stream.