Episode 188 : The Craftsman

"My heart is a drum, art is my tongue..."

- Chalk

It's always a treat to have a guest in the studio, and we're starting 2025 by hosting one of the most dedicated artists in our local scene, the MC/producer/DJ Chalk! You may know him as a soloist or as part of some of the crews and collectives he's worked with, but for all but his closest circle you'll hear at least one thing about him and his craft that you didn't know before. We feature several of his tracks from the span of his career alongside some excellent recent releases and some venerable headphone favourites of mine. Enjoy the show!

Catch up with Chalk at his Bandcamp page which features his whole solo catalogue, or on Instagram.

Mastodon : @[email protected]

Twitch : @airadam13

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Playlist/Notes

Soch : Quest

One of those discoveries that I suppose I have to credit Spotify for, as I stumbled on this track completely by accident, the opening cut on his 2024 EP "I Don't Do Drugs, I Am Drugs". As I understand it, this is one of his first releases if not the first, and it has him off to a fine start. Lyrically he's got his own bell-clear style and the production has an airy warmness to it without sacrificing the bounce that makes you nod your head - it's often the first thing to go when the lean is towards the arty/lyrical/(insert adjective here). This New Jersey-born, Miami-based artist is worth paying attention to.

Chalk : The Crime Scene

I made use of the Serato Stems feature to remove the vocals from this while we spoke, but the full version of the track is part of the story on Chalk's latest release, "Death Knocks And He Shall Die", an audio-only murder mystery LP with the only voices coming from samples - while he got his start as an MC, this album is an end-to-end demonstration of his production prowess. Listen to the interview for more detail about how he painstakingly crafted this project!

[DJ Spinna] Old World Disorder : Never Minded (Instrumental)

We got so into the chat that we ran out of beat, so you get a bonus one - a bit of DJ Spinna work from the Beyond Real days, a suitably subdued head-nodder to keep the vibe going. You can get this and a bunch more beats on "The Beyond Real Experience Volume One Instrumentals", nice easy digital purchase.

Chalk : The Poacher

The first vocal track from Chalk this episode is a great piece of storytelling from his debut LP, "One For Being Me" - the story of a people living a quiet village life, until things go wrong...

Superbad Solace : Keynote

The "Sol Controller" series is an excellent trilogy of albums, and this comes from the second one (mistake on the voiceover there), with Mono en Stereo giving us a piano-drenched boom-bap beat which Solace laced with his strong, solid flow and lyrics. Pure, uncompromising Hip-Hop.

Pitch 92 & Essa : Run It Back

With the kind of lyrics that only an older emcee has the experience to deliver believably, Essa speaks on trying to rekindle the fire in a relationship where - as it does - life and responsibility gets in the way. You could easily imagine this Pitch 92 track featuring only the R&B stylings heard on the hook, but we get the treat of some real (in all senses) bars too. The new "Resonance" LP is polished, well-executed, grown Hip-Hop and definitely worth checking - all the other flavours on the album are done just as well as this.

MC Lyte ft. Common and Stevie Wonder : Change Your Ways

Big names all over this one, with the truly legendary Stevie Wonder lending his vocals - and his classic harmonica skills - to this new track by a Hip-Hop veteran who's been away too long. Nine years passed between the release of "Legend" and her latest, "1 Of 1", both of which are accurate descriptions of this Brooklyn-Queens MC's status. She's aiming for spiritual, grown-woman rap on this album and this Koncept-produced track very much embodies that, with Common providing Lyte some solid backup.

Zero 7 : One Arm Break

At the time of writing, this week marks 25 years since the release of Zero 7's debut EP, from which this headphone favourite is taken. Clean, smoothed out, and perfectly-engineered (which makes sense, as both members met as studio engineers), this track was a worthy inclusion on the release that introduced the world to their sound.

Rome Streetz ft. Meyhem Lauren and Daringer : Cadillac Smoke

Griselda mainstay Daringer is an expert at taking the kinds of samples people use for Roc Marc-inspired drumless beats and incorporating drum tracks that fit perfectly. This one is a great fit for this track from Rome Streetz' 9th (!) album, last year's "Hatton Garden Holdup" - named for the famous London diamond district, and a famous heist. Rome opens proceedings on the mic before Meyhem's feature slams in for the second verse, dripping in luxury talk.

Littles : New York, New York

A little awkward to mix with, with it repeating in groups of five bars rather than four, but this noir-esque street mixtape killer from 2003 is worth it. Riding a familiar sample with an almost hat-less drum track (not sure who produced it), Queensbridge's Littles sets out his street credentials - highlighted by the sample of Prodigy mentioning him on Mobb Deep's "The Start Of Your Ending". "The Feeding" is a mixed bag but does have a few gems I play to this day, with this being the pick of them all.

Le$ : Custom Made

Le$ is in that Curren$y lane right now, which is to say that every time I turn around he has something new out - not that I'm complaining! "Gourmet" came out at the tail end of 2024 and if you like Le$' style, you won't be disappointed hearing speak, as he often does, about the grind needed to get to this point. This was a digital-only release, and as such, not easy to get credits for, but a bit of clicking around on Spotify leads me to believe that this smooth, refined production comes from frequent collaborator Tavares Jordan, which makes sense. 

Chalk : His Own

There's not much I can say to do this deeply personal track from the "Growth" LP justice - the story is all there, and Chalk speaks about it in the episode. Not many could lay out their story like this - it's really quite something.

[Buckwild] O.C. : Jewelz (Instrumental)

Nothing too pounding or aggressive after the last track, just a reflective piece of production from the DITC crew, with Buckwild crafting this guitar-led beat for the title track of O.C.'s second album. Funny to think now, but I remember this LP being badly-received in some quarters, as it was felt not to be close enough to "Word...Life". In my opinion, it stands in its own right as one of the great releases in O.C.'s catalogue.

The Natural Curriculum : Cultural Equity

The final Chalk selection is from the The Natural Curriculum catalogue, specifically their most recent album, "The Best Fertiliser Is The Gardener's Shadow" - which as Chalk says, was originally an Aver project, with his production style on full display on this cut. TNC are always a group ready to go deep with the lyrics and concepts, and while Chalk may only be on a handful of the tracks, he makes his presence felt every time, including here. 

Pitch 92 + Sparkz : Genius

Mr Pitch again! Killer cut from a couple of artists who've done Manchester proud in their own fields, coming together for the new "Full Circle" album. The drums are snapping as they drive the track along and provide that bed for Sparkz to give you some rapid but still controlled flows. The arrangement of the beat and the rhyme pattern changes play off each other for a track that I wouldn't have minded getting an extra verse of!

Busta Rhymes & Q-Tip : The Abstract & The Dragon

The title track from the 2014 collaboration between two legends is a nice treat if you've somehow never heard it before, bumping along with plenty of body courtesy of Q-Tip (I've always been unsure whether he, Dilla, or both produced this), while Busta growls his bars over the top. "The Abstract & The Dragon" is one to have in the collection, made up of a handful of brand new (at the time) tracks alongside some remakes and rarities. 

Black Milk ft. Melanie Rutherford : Bond For Life

One of my favourite tracks from the "Tronic" LP, with one of Detroit's finest on both the mic and the boards - the rapped verses are shorter than you might expect, but that just leaves space for fellow Michigan native Melanie Rutherford to complete things with her vocals. I'm not sure whether the "mistake" towards the end was written in for effect or a real recording flub that they worked around, but either way I think it adds a little extra live, human touch!

[Opio] Souls Of Mischief : Medication (Instrumental)

Easily one of my favourite Souls beats, this instrumental was on the "Medication" 12" I picked up on release at Fat City Records back in 2000. It's a lush track but absolutely not at the expense of hitting the way it needs to. The vocal is of course on the single but also on the album "Trilogy : Conflict, Climax, Resolution".

Nicolay ft. Kay and Sy Smith : My Story

We finish with an old favourite of mine which felt like it either needed to open or close a show, so here it is, closing proceedings as it does on the original version of the "Here" LP! Nicolay's production is relatively simple and beautiful, replaying a classic jazz bassline and augmenting it with Dilla-like drums and gentle keyboards. Sy Smith glides over the hook, while Kay of The Foundation takes centre stage, telling the story of his upbringing in Houston. As good as the whole album is, this is by far my favourite track, played here right to the very end of the extended outro fade.

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