[MAGAZINE] MEET THE PRODUCERS: BLACK MACK
Firstly, briefly introduce yourself. What’s your name? Where are you from?
My names Mack, I’m from the South East London and proud of that. There’s strong sounds emanating from this area at the moment and it’s important to appreciate that when in the past we’ve perhaps been underrepresented, when the North, East and West have had their shine.
What would you say are the most popular beats you’ve created?
The Sub Luna City beats we did are getting nice response since the tape dropped. The most popular individual works are the series of RATKING freestyles with Wiki and Hak over my beats. I’ve been putting out intermittently on SoundCloud and shit over the past 18 months and theres more in the archive. We record ‘em every now and then when a cypher pops off, NYC or LDN. So yeah, either those or the beats and tapes I done with PXSH6XD and Lofty of Metro Zu.
What is your favourite song you’ve worked on and why?
RATKING’s ‘So It Goes’ ‘cause it’s the title track off what I think is the coldest hip hop record to emerge in a minute. As a hip hop head, I’m hella proud to have been involved. It’s so original, so fresh. To have any input whatsoever was dope, I just tried to contribute that grimey edge ‘cause thats what we do best in London.
Do you think that production software becoming more accessible to just anyone is a good or bad thing for music? Why is that?
I think it’s brilliant. I’m currently writing my thesis on something that explores this topic a little. Without going too deep, I just think without that accessibility brought on by technology, we wouldn’t be enjoying half the incredible music that we do now; a key example being the grime music that inspired me to get producing way back when. That wouldn’t have been conceivable, achievable, transmissible, let alone nearly as innovative, if the kids pioneering it didn’t have the tools that were newly available to them and so readily accessible. That said, I do sympathise with the notion that just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should. There’s so many out there right now who just pick up Traktor and think they’re a selector, or crack a copy of Fruity [Loops] and call themselves producers. The same way I see these wastemen commandeer a point and shoot, start papping and suddenly they’re photographers! Where’s the art, the context, the vision? You ain’t done the education, nor the work. These cats just live off their image and their Tumblrs and it’s suffocating the field.
This is an extract from the Summer Issue of Viper Magazine. Read more from the magazine here. Buy physical and digital copies here.
