LOS ANGELES (www.stlhiphop.com) - What's ups and hellos abounds as I enter Wally's crib slash studio. Handshakes and Dabs follow. I kick off my shoes before I pull up a seat. House rules BB says. Wally Beamin' and J.E. are setting up some studio equipment after relocating from St. Louis County to the quite tranquility of it?s' neighboring county.
"Man, KoKo's in LA doing some promotion," Wally apologizes for one-third of BB's absence, "but it's all good." Wally comes off as a cool dude. It's easy to see why this guy has made some noise in the music game. He has flavor, is very confident, yet he gives you the pound even if he doesn't know you.
"I could retire now," Wally Beamin' says when asked his outlook on the future, "but I love the music too much and there's nothing else I want to do."
"Ten years from now," I said to Wally, scuffling with my pen and pad, "Country Grammar is going to be considered a classic album."
"It's already a classic," Wally retorted, dusting off the MPC3000 he uses in those sometime middle of the night studio sessions.
Now, J.E. has a quiet confidence about him. No less cool than Wally B., J.E. is tattooed up, with jet black hair and a goatee to match. He too, is welcoming in his answers and seems sincere in etching his stone in music versatility.
"(New talent) has to 'wow' us," J.E. says when asked about working with artist outside of the Lunatics. "They have to come to us with their shit pretty much developed. They gotta have an open mind and come in here willing to listen and let us help, you know what I'm saying?"
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One such crew, J.E. boasts, is Project Stead-Fast, a rock group straight outta St. Louis.
"We're in the process of selecting the best outta like 26 songs," J.E. says, adding that once the album is complete music fans can catch the group live in concert at venues all around town.
When the question of why rock music comes up, J.E. is philosophical in his answer. Helping Wally connect speaker wires with studio monitors, he says getting into rock music is just like any other thing that you do in life; it?s the challenge that moves him.
"If you work at an auto assembly plant," J.E. says, "and all you do is a press hood, after awhile you are going to get sick of pressing hoods. You have to separate yourself from that and do something different, youknowwhatI'msaying?"
Wally was a bit more straight-forward. "It (change) makes you appreciate the other shit you were doing before even more."
But, don't get it twisted, BB is not going to stray to far away from its' formula of success, Wally says, because a project he is commandeering will be out on the streets soon as well.
"It's definitely going to be an hip-hop project," he says, "but not the type of hip-hop everybody else is doing. It's going to be a hip-hop album that reflects they way we live. It's a lifestyle that's missing from hip-hop right now."
As I make my way to the front door at the conclusion of the sit down, I reach for my shoes. Wally has made his way to the trunk of his whip to hand me a couple of promotional CD's off their mix-tape "What Comes Down Must Go Up"
"What's up?" Wally says to his thirty-something neighbor. Before Wally can get out another word, the neighbor offers his opinion on yet another Basement Beats' project, a KoKo produced artist named Kenny Knox.
"I listened to that Kenny Knox CD you gave me," the neighbor says with a Cheshire cat-like smile.
"Oh, yeah?" Wally counters, "whatta ya' think?"
"Man," the neighbor laments, "dude is tight."
Could this be the start of another prosperous five year run for Basement Beats? Only time will tell.
For more information on Basement Beats visit basementbeats.net
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