Dr. Dre Plugs Into Dallas' Sounds

Dallas, Texas hails as one of the top five markets in radio, but all to often I hear, “Can’t NOBODY break into the (music) industry outta Dallas!” Sounds cliché right?!?!  Well,

contrary to popular belief, Dallas has had some notable acts make quite an impact in music history.  Not to long ago, Garland native, Justin Mohrle, PKA Justus made the headlines as Dr. Dre’s newest protege. Now, we can add Dallas native and producer, Da Dreak to that list.

  

I came across an article that I just have to share with my audience.  There are times where accolades are given, however, they are not directed to the mass hip-hop audience.  This is where I excel…I have the ability to reach the masses: black, white, brown, or yellow….urban, hip-hop, music industry, males or females.  Being able to cross promote the “race” barriers, is an art.  One I am most proud of!  

Dallas Observer’s (D.O.) own Jeremy Hallock “snuck” this great news in, which I think should have been front page news on all media outlets including TMZ, The Breakfast Club, and Entertainment Tonight! Especially when “Straight Outta Compton” officially opens tomorrow!

@DaDreak (Twitter & IG) story begins A few months ago, when Da Dreak found himself in Dre’s studio, during a visit to California for his birthday. During this trip he found himself face to face with Dr. Dre inside Aftermath Studios. 

Born and raised in Dallas, Dreak, started rapping in high school. The beat making didn’t start until the late 1990s. Last March, Dreak met Denaun Porter at South by Southwest. Porter is well known for his work with D12. Porter’s no stranger to working with Dr. Dre and has produced songs for 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg. He also produced songs for Eminem and tours with the Shady/Aftermath artist as his hype man. 

According to the D.O., Dreak and Porter quickly started working together, meeting up in different cities to work on a beat kit and Royce Da 5’9’s next album, among other projects. In May, Dreak went to Los Angeles to celebrate his birthday and work with Porter. Porter took Dreak to Aftermath Studios, where he works as a producer for Aftermath Entertainment, Dre’s label.

When asked about his production style, Da Dreak says, “Either you were the hip-hop purist backpacker or you were the street.” From what I’ve heard of his tracks on Soundcloud, Da Dreak can touch all styles. Porter was immediately struck with Dreak’s production sound. “He has a little swing to his music,” Porter says. “He uses different chord progressions. With most people, you can tell what the next step is going to be. With him...I couldn’t tell what his next step was going to be. It’s not a traditional way of thinking.” Porter immediately wanted Dre to hear Dreak. He liked Dreak’s sound and noticed an attention to precision and detail that he thought Dre might appreciate. Porter isn’t in the habit of bringing people over to Aftermath. “But Dre’s like a brother to me and Dreak seemed really cool,” Porter says. Looking back, he was simply happy to bring new talent to Dre.

“I wasn’t expecting Dre to be there,” says Dreak. But Porter led him into the first control room and Dre was standing at the board. Da Dreak goes on to say of working with Dre, “You don’t want to say too much.” Even tho he doesn’t make it to the ‘Compton ‘ album, Dreak thinks of the possibilities, that the beats he worked on at Aftermath may be used on another project in the next couple years.” 

Read The Complete article on Dallasobserver.com

#LeslieMac

Headlining House Of Blues... AV The Great

He's known as the "Man In Da City" who is  proud to say "I'm from Texas."  He rocks the crowd with his lyrical abilities on the mic... he is AV The Great! @avthegreat

The House Of Blues in Dallas, TX had 2 major acts last night! AV The Great headlined "Love 4 My City" and  Ghostface Killa and Raekwon were on the other stage; both shows reached maximum capacity in no time! It was truly epic!! 

AV gave us a 40 minute stellar performance of nonstop entertainment!  Some highlights, he performed #LOD, produced by Velly of Timbaland's camp, had his breakers on point with Ball 4Eva, and finished with his signature double fisted beers and raised middle fingers.  

As It has been said before, you better learn the hashtag "No Fake Hand Shakes."  Follow AV The Great to stay up on the major moves being made!  @AVtheGreat

@n_rotation #TheDJmag #WeBringIt2Ya

AV The Great....Man N Da City

He's the "man n da city" Catch @avthegreat tomorrow at #HOB. Full article http://bit.ly/AVnrom #WeBringIt2Ya #Salute

Vivian Green's Interview w/ n'Rotation The DJ Magazine

n'Rotation The DJ Magazine had the honor of the exclusive interview with Vivian Green during the Texas Entertainment Summit.  She spoke about the release of her new album, Vivid, as well as the current state of R&B.  Be sure to get your copy of Vivid....it's dropping August 7th.  

If You Post It, I'll Share It...IF...

What can I say about the week we’ve had? First I want to give a big shout out to Denton, Texas. Hailey's once again was the spot for a great night of music. DJ Spinn Mo provided the music and the performers rocked like this was their first and last show, but I doubt that it’s any of their last. The night ended with a great show by Houston’s own Po-Up Poet…Paul Wall @paulwallbaby. I can definitely see why the DJs in the Mixtape issue of n’Rotation love Texas music!

If you have been under a rock, you’ve missed the monsoons that rolled through Texas last week, damn…it rained! That didn’t stop me on the second day of filming for “The Needle To The Record,” documentary ironically with a Denton, Texas native, AV The Great. On this rainy day we were not filming the artist, we were filming his alter-ego Chris Cole. Chris Cole is his on-air personality for Dallas’s K104 FM. The weather may have not stopped us from getting to him, but it did make the time we spent there to be a very short one. At the end of our visit our iPhones held some great footage. 

On Sunday, good news is didn’t take the day off, and I’m glad it didn’t. 4 weeks ago Instagram announced their @music profile. Now we’ve all heard and seen plenty of artists post their 15 second sounds or video edits. This has made Instagram the place for artists big and small to promote. The six degrees of separation theory allows for new fans to find music via a friend of a friend of another on to the 6th degree. This type of music spectrum creates a direct to fan network that is unmatched anywhere else online. With that being said, I have been added as a music influencer to the Sounds.app @music community. This isn’t an add for ’Sound,’ but a invite for artist to submit music to me, for fans to discover and share music. Theres no excuse now for your music not to get heard unless you’re hiding it, and why would you wanna go do that, huh? Sounds is free to download for Android and iPhones. If you have music content online, now would be the time to be sure your artwork, info and tags are up-to-date. While you wait for 6.2.15 to get here so that you can read n’Rotation’s ‘Mixtape’ issue, go ahead and download the Sounds.app follow @iGotContent on Twitter & Instagram and watch us promote and share. 

We do take all your music links and mp3s at iGotContent@gmail.com 

#LeslieMac

The D.O.C., Justin Night (JT Mohrle) & Dr. Dre

It's a fact! Dallas has a Hip-Hop scene! AND it's a fact that Dallas Hip-Hop is under rated. Well… as I sat down to listen to more music in my inbox, I got a text from T, "check this link out. It's classified G-14 lol". After digging and researching, I found out about, "The D.O.C., Justin Night (JT Mohrle), and Dr. Dre.” 

Thanks to the staff at Dallas-based D Magazine, I have what some will scratch their head to. I went to JT's Instagram and let me tell you he's not missing a photo op. His studio sessions include the likes of the Aftermath team, Xzibit, BJ The Chicago Kid, Gwen Stefani, and more.

 

Read this now and believe me later… Network with like minded souls! Dallas native D.O.C. put JT in the hands of Dr. Dre. Straight Outta Garland to California, this 23-year old white rapper seems to be the industry’s next biggest mystery. Yep, now everyone knows his name and will see his Instagram, but music...you'll have to wait on it. The boys have erased him from the net except for a few tracks that still won't give you a definitive answer to why Dre is making JT his goto guy. 

Mohrle has been in the lab mirroring the studio ethic of Tupac when he first landed on Death Row Records. JT has moved to the west coast and is grinding out 13-hour sessions at Record One. The Sherman Oaks, California studio has been Dre’s second home for the past decade and JT considers it to be his second home as well.

What is Dre currently working on? One can only speculate. In his interview all JT can admit to is that he's spent nearly every minute since touching down in L.A. writing lyrics in the studio. But he can’t revel where these lyrics will end up. One thing is for sure...The Triple D has another claim in Hip-Hop history, and it's by the way of a 23-year old white rapper. This could open up the door for the hidden heat that pounds through the speakers of the DFW metroplex.

A message to all artist...Open-Mics means that a stage is open AND you're never too big for a new fan. JT has been touching stages around the metroplex and beyond amassing a following that grew into a snowball that caught the attention of the people who propelled him into the right direction. Some of my Dallas readers will scratch their heads and say, "I ain't heard of this cat". Well, pride didn't stop him from going where some won't go. #IJS

The running theme in the Triple D is, 0 to none "real connections", which leads to, a lack of exposure. “I think that from top to bottom, Dallas as a city has been lacking in the unity that it takes to push one another forward,” The D.O.C. says, in the D Magazine interview. He goes on to say, “When I drive around California, I hear my shit every day. When I’m in Dallas, I very rarely hear any of my stuff. [The mindset in Dallas] is like, you don’t love yours. You’d rather hear theirs. And that’s not to say that theirs is no good. But there’s a lot of people in Dallas that deserve airtime.”

All I can say is hmmm! Currently my spotlight is on a few DJs and you know who you are because we talk socially on social media ;) and the artist you see me with and a couple who I'm proud to be a part of their movement. We Love music around the office and my office is everywhere. So keep on sending material to alesliemacevent@gmail.com and let's put every music market on the map!

#LeslieMac

Photo by Anthony Blue Jr.