The memory is as vivid as any 4K video. And I can clearly picture C.J. Plays making a beat for me and some high school friends and associates.
More than two decades ago I was a member of a youth organization called Campus Life. They had a teen-driven TV show we appeared on. Its theme music was unenthused to say the least, so I asked CJ to create a new one for us.
I knew he created music because he played some for me. Heck, I even rapped to a track or two. His use of lush chords, crispy drums, and reinterpreted samples was, to younger me, the best I’d ever heard. Dr. Dre, DJ Premier, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis are all legendarily incredible, but CJ became and remained my favorite producer among them all.
He agreed to make us new theme music and I got to sit in his basement bedroom and watch him do it. CJ was using a Rolland workstation, or something like that, sampling bits of A Tribe Called Quest and Minnie Riperton. He chopped a bit from this and cut a little from that and leaned on chords and timed drums to create a composition that made our show, that was shot in very low quality, feel ready for HBO.
The best part of being there with him was the conversation. We talked about possibilities and our hopes to just be given a chance. CJ so desired and dreamed to produce music for artists signed to the major labels that released the music we listened to. It was an aspiration of vivid, visible 4K dimensions that seemed so far away.
Yet, time passes quickly when you’re watching your favorite show.
More than 2 decades later CJ has done what he’s wanted to do since those days of producing beats in his basement bedroom.
Today Epic Records, a division of Sony Entertainment, has released the single “I Am” by alternative singer, songwriter and hip-hop artist Alex Harris. It’s produced by C.J Plays!
And it’s my favorite. |THIS.
[By Mr. Joe Walker]
