Art of Rhyme - HMD Interview

HMD: I started off DJ'ing and I bought my first turntables when I was fourteen. Around 2004 I started working with an MC named Ganj in Philly. We did an album and also put out a free mixtape, so that's how it started. I started getting up with a lot of MC's. It was a free mixtape so I started trading verses for beats. I then started doing a lot of shows in Philly, getting up with whoever I could. From there I started working on my album. I did pretty much everything myself. When I first started out I didn't really know any DJ's or MC's so I just tried to get up with as many people as I could.

HMD: Pretty much Philly was just getting old. It wasn't the best place to live. I know I didn't really want to raise my family there. I just wanted something new and of course you can't beat California. I just wanted to get away and be somewhere I could work and not be surrounded by all the stuff I grew up with, all the distractions and all that.

HMD: It comes from the abbreviation of my last name. Philly is a big graffiti city. People are always shortening things to three letters. I used to do graffiti so I used to write that and pretty much everyone calls me HMD.

The Cali lifestyle is more laid back than Philly. How has your transition in the Cali scene been for you? Have you found it difficult?

HMD: For me, I'm pretty much sticking to my style. I haven't gotten up with too many MC's out there because it's a different scene. They are more into synth beats and stuff like that. As far as my music goes I've definitely been finding a lot of different records out here to sample so that definitely changed my sound.

That leads perfectly into my next question. How much influence has Cali had on your sound?

HMD: Pretty much just from the records and things like that. I'm in San Francisco so there's a lot of history in the music. A lot of the stuff that I sample is coming from out here anyway so that definitely helped.

The title of your album is One Pursuit. Can you tell why you chose that name and the vision behind it?

HMD: I wanted to pick a song that was on the album, something that was getting my point across. There's this track on there called "One Pursuit" by my man D-Rellz. I thought that track pretty much summed up what I was about and why I wanted to make the album and why I'm doing this in general. Since I'm a producer I wanted something that would get my point across through an MC. The song came first so I named the album after the song.

HMD: I have Masta Ace and Wordsworth on there. I have R.A. the Rugged Man. We had a mutual friend that had worked with them. I was actually working on an album with an MC and he was on my beats and another MC. Those guest tracks were going to be on that album. That fell through and we didn't finish the album so we had those two tracks. That's why the Rugged Man track was so short. I didn't want to just throw another MC on there and have it seemed forced. I have Baby Blak on there. That's my man from Philly. He's on my first mixtape and we've done some shows. He's a real cool guy. Then I have Jehst and Micall Parknsun. They are from the UK they are big over there.

Basically one of the guys from the label PHILAsofikal Records had his contact. I never really knew of him. He put me on to him. When I heard him I definitely wanted him on the album. He's probably one of my favorite MC's now and he's also a producer. We have Reef the Lost Cauze. You have to have him here in Philly. Digs Dark lighter, that's my man from just living in Philly. Same with Adam 12. I have Catastrofiks and Sam Doom on there, same thing with them. I meet them through just doing music in Philly and I've been rolling with them for a while. I think that's pretty much everyone who's on there.

You mentioned PHILAsofikal Records is putting the project out. How did that all come about?

HMD: I had gotten up with Catastrofiks around 2003 or so. We had both done music with Mr. Eon from The High and Mighty. He put us in contact since we we're both in Philly. So I got up with Catastrofiks and did some shows and a bunch of songs with them. They were part of PHILAsofikal Records and that's who I actually moved out to Cali with. They were moving out here and I saw an opportunity so I jumped on it.

HMD: I know Baby Blak told me he was shooting a video for it. So I expect that to get done. The other thing we were thinking about doing was the track with Reef, Adam 12 and D-Rellz. So if I was going to shoot a video I would pick that song because I think we could do some ill shit in Philly with that.

HMD: Yeah definitely, he's one of my favorite MC's too. We already have a couple of songs done and a bunch of beats. It's just a matter of time of when we get it done. I definitely want to put a lot of work into that.

HMD: I'm always working on instrumental stuff and stuff that's not necessarily Hip Hop. I want to get up with some singers, possibly a female singer. I have a lot of slower trippy stuff that I think would be dope for a singer. I'll definitely be doing another "Presents" album. A few weeks ago I had gotten a tv and movie deal, so that's for a year or so. I just want to work on a lot of original stuff for that.

HMD: I've DJ'ed here and there but I haven't had my MC's and stuff with me. So I haven't been really pursing it. I actually started talking to a drummer a couple of days ago. He wants to do some live drums and DJ sets. I think we are going to get up sometime this weekend and start doing that. I do go back to Philly every couple months or so and do some big shows.

HMD: Yeah, usually in the summer I stay in Cali cause usually in Philly it's harder to do shows cause people are out of school or they go away. So usually in the fall I come between every two to three months and do like two to three shows.

HMD: myspace/HMD, www.philasofikal.com. I encourage everyone to check out all my top friends of MC's I work with and all the people that you don't know about that you should.