In this episode of Gems with Shom, I’m joined by Fleetgotheat — artist, producer, and one of the biggest voices breaking down classic drum breaks and production techniques on the internet right now.

Fleetgotheat built a massive following by sharing drum breaks and beat science without gatekeeping. From breaking down where iconic drums come from, to talking through chopping and sequencing, what started as research and curiosity turned into a global conversation — introducing new generations to the foundations of hip-hop, funk, soul, and beat digging.

We talk about growing up in Chicago, learning music through family record collections, discovering sampling through Nas, Kanye, and soul records, and why drum breaks — and understanding how to use them — still matter today, even in an era where “everything is searchable.”

This is a conversation about ear over equipment, curiosity over gatekeeping, and why sharing information doesn’t dilute culture — it amplifies it.

🎙 In this episode, we get into:
• The rise of Fleetgotheat’s classic drum break series• Chicago roots and early musical exposure• Poetry, writing, and the path into beat-making• Learning production through Ableton + early SoundCloud days• Anti-gatekeeping and knowledge sharing in hip-hop• Why information alone doesn’t replace taste• Drum breaks as history, education, and community

📸 Follow: instagram.com/gems.podcast
🎧 Watch / Listen: YouTube @GemsPodcast + Spotify / Apple / everywhere

#GemsWithShom #Fleetgotheat #DrumBreaks #BeatDigging #HipHopKnowledge #AntiGatekeeping #ProducerCulture #SampleCulture #DrumHistory #VinylCulture

This episode of Gems with Shom features J Scienide — Charlotte-raised, Washington, DC transplant, MC / producer, and a true student of music.

J Scienide takes us from his earliest days learning through pause tapes and digging through his father’s records… to pressing his first records… to becoming one of the most prolific independent artists in today’s underground.

It’s a story about music obsession and building a real career from passion — even when the path isn’t straight.

🎙 In this episode, we get into:

• Charlotte roots and early studio days

• First exposure to beat digging (drum breaks, grandma’s records, dad’s jazz/funk)

• Pause tapes, early beats, and the moment that made him start creating

• The first vinyl milestone - pooling money to press wax and getting an MF DOOM cosign

• The road to finding his lane

• Atlanta and DC chapters, rebuilding, and linking with Kev Brown + the Low Budget family

• The pandemic shift — setting up a home studio, locking in, and flooding the world with projects

• Major cosigns + momentum (Hot 97 / Flex, Rosenberg, global DJ support)

• Static King Records + Fat Beats distribution — turning the vision into infrastructure

• Flashes in the Dark — his latest project with UK producer Giallo Point

• Why the ear matters more than the equipment — and how limitations created his best work

This one’s for anyone who loves digging culture and the real story of how artists build something lasting from the ground up.

📸 Follow: https://www.instagram.com/gems.podcast/
🎧 Watch / Listen: YouTube @GemsPodcast + Spotify / Apple / everywhere

#GemsWithShom #JScienide #UndergroundHipHop #CrateDigging #PauseTapes #Beatdigging #FatBeats #StaticKingRecords #ProducerLife

This episode of Gems with Shom features Eilon Paz — photographer, world traveler, storyteller, and creator of Dust & Grooves, the iconic book that became a global celebration of record culture.

From a small desert town in Israel…
to hustling as a photographer in NYC during the 2008 recession…
to documenting over 300 of the world’s most passionate record collectors…

Eilon shares how a personal photo project transformed into a best-selling book and cultural time capsule. This is a conversation about creativity, community, risk-taking, and building something meaningful from scratch.

🎙 Episode Highlights:
• Origins of Dust & Grooves — how one idea sparked a global movement
• The 6-year journey — 300 collectors, 1,000+ pages, endless stories
• Travel adventures — Suriname, Guyana, Cameroon, Japan, France, Israel
• The turning point — Random House calls (after passing), Questlove reaches out
• Photographing private collections — trust, access & storytelling
• Survival mode → creativity — why risk shaped Eilon’s best work
• His next big project — a global deep dive with top collectors
• Passion, purpose & staying true to the craft

A must-listen for fans of vinyl culture, photography, creativity, and long-form storytelling.

📸 Follow the show: instagram.com/gems.podcast

#DustAndGrooves #GemsWithShom #EilonPaz #VinylCommunity #RecordCollectors #PhotographyLife

In this episode of Gems with Shom, we sit down with Rob “Late Bloomer” Geddis - professional record buyer at the legendary Princeton Record Exchange, lifelong beat digger, and the man behind those late-night posts that make collectors everywhere say, “What is that record?!”

From buying thousands of records a week to navigating basement collections across the Northeast, Rob shares what it really means to be a full-time record buyer. We get into the chaos and magic of the Utrecht Record Fair in the Netherlands, the global digging community, and why taste, patience, and curiosity matter more than ever.

This episode goes beyond the crates — into identity, loss, discovery, and the lifelong practice of staying inspired.

In this episode:

• Life as a professional record buyer at Princeton Record Exchange

• Utrecht Record Fair stories: characters, chaos & long-lost grails

• Late-night Instagram digging posts and the art of sharing music

• Early years: skateboarding, MTV raps, sample hunting, college radio

• Evolving taste — jazz-rock, psych, folk, library, global vibes

• Knowledge vs. gatekeeping in digging culture

• Why “peace” is the thing he values most today

If you love vinyl culture, beat digging, hip hop, rare grooves, or just hearing two music obsessives talk with passion — this one is for you.

Follow the show: instagram.com/gems.podcast
Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@Gems.Podcast

This episode of Gems with Shom features Phonte Coleman — Grammy-nominated rapper, singer, songwriter, filmmaker, actor, and one of the most talented, diverse, and prolific voices of his generation. From Little Brother to The Foreign Exchange, from elite MC craftsmanship to deeply soulful compositions, to film and voice acting, Phonte’s career is a masterclass in evolution and risk-taking.

But this conversation is different.
Instead of a traditional interview, Phonte and Shom riff, reflect, and break down the music and life lessons that shaped his journey — creativity, growth, and why reinvention isn’t an act… it’s an intentional practice.

What emerges is rare: an honest, funny, deeply human look at an artist who refuses to stop evolving.

🎙 We dive into:

• Little Brother to Foreign Exchange — how collaboration shaped his sound & worldview• The Art of Reinvention — why your best chapter can still be ahead• Evolution in Real Time — music, acting, creativity & risk-taking• The power of being a lifelong student — entering new fields with humility and courage• His deep crates & love for old records — and his passion for DJing• DIY for life — how Phonte navigates the entertainment business on his own terms• The joy of rediscovery — why he still loves learning, listening, and being surprised

This episode of Gems with Shom features Doc Delay — DJ, producer, record dealer, and underground legend whose REM Sleep psych-rock mixtape series opened entire universes for a generation of beat heads.

From psych-rock symptoms to Middle Eastern rarities, Doc takes us inside the hidden corners of record culture — the sounds, stories, and chaotic adventures behind some of the wildest records on Earth.

This one is for the heads — the beat diggers, psych-rock obsessives, sample hunters, and curious newcomers.

• Psych Rock 101 — the symptoms, sounds, backwards guitars, fuzz pedals, tape tricks & stereo experiments that shaped the genre and influenced hip-hop
• REM Sleep — the cult-classic psych-rock mixtape series that producers & DJs literally sampled straight from the CDs
• Record store madness & dangerous digs — foreign imports crawling with insects, unexplained infections, home-based hoards & some of the craziest digging stories you’ll ever hear
• Beat digging in the 90s — DC streets, Richmond warehouses, early eBay hustles, shipping rare heat to Japan & Germany, and the dealer grind that funded his college years
• Middle Eastern & Turkish gems — Barış Manço, Erkin Koray, 45 heat & the cross-continental influences that shaped his ear

#GemsWithShom #DocDelay #PsychRock #REMsleep #BeatDigging #CrateDigging #RecordCollectors #VinylCommunity #TurkishRock #AnatolianRock #MiddleEasternGrooves #BarisManco #ErkinKoray #PsychFunk #RareGrooves #Breaks #SampleCulture #Diggers #VinylOnly #DJCulture #ProducerLife #UndergroundHipHop #DeepCuts #GemsPodcast #MusicCulture #StayInspired #Psychrock #Progrock

This episode of Gems with Shom features Andrea Galtieri — extraordinary beat-digger, Italian library and soundtrack specialist, and co-founder of Sonor Music Editions, bringing the golden era of Italy’s library and soundtrack music to a new wave of listeners.

This music is a beat digging treasure box — heavily sampled and rediscovered by legendary producers like The Alchemist, Madlib, and Oh No, who have turned Italian library records into a new vein of modern hip-hop.

From Goblin’s horror-funk soundtracks to Piero Umiliani’s jazz-psych masterpieces, Andrea breaks down the DNA of Italian library and soundtrack culture — how these once-obscure studio projects shaped global sound, inspired generations of producers, and continue to thrive through sampling and modern reissues.

Artists like JJ Whitefield, The Natural Yogurt Band, and Sven Wunder — inspired by the history of library music — continue to bring new life to the sound today.

Andrea’s journey bridges culture, curation, and community, preserving history while pushing the art of beat digging forward into the future.

🎙 We dive into:
• Sampling culture: how hip-hop producers like The Alchemist, Madlib, and Oh No turned Italian library records into incredible modern beats
• Crate-digging philosophy — from NYC’s Sound Library & A-1 Records to Italy’s record fairs
• Goblin & Dario Argento — from Suspiria to Profondo Rosso to Roller, the sound of cinematic fear & funk
• Incredible Italian library artists — Piero Umiliani, Augusto Martelli, Akada Abali Ba, and the rediscovered master tapes
• The infamous I Marc 4 — Italy’s baddest library session band
• Andrea’s personal connections with the original musicians of the era

🏷 About Sonor Music Editions
Founded in 2013 by Lorenzo Fabrizi, joined by Andrea Galtieri, Sonor Music Editions reissues lost Pop, Jazz, Cinematic Lounge, Funk, Easy Listening & Psychedelic gems from the ’70s/’80s — and builds a new production-library series with emerging artists, keeping the analog spirit alive.

🎧 Listen & explore the soundtrack:
Curated Spotify Playlist

📸 Follow: instagram.com/gems.podcast

🔖 Hashtags
#GemsWithShom #AndreaGaltieri #SonorMusicEditions #ItalianLibrary #ItalianSoundtracks #Goblin #PieroUmiliani #IMarc4 # #StelvioCipriani #AlessandroAlessandroni #EnnioMorricone #DarioArgento #ProfondoRosso #Suspiria #Madlib #OhNo #TheAlchemist #JJWhitefield #TheNaturalYogurtBand #SvenWunder #CrateDigging #VinylCommunity #BeatDigging #LibraryMusic #CinematicFunk #JazzFunk #MondoGroove #RecordCollectors #Italy #Milan #Sicily #SampleCulture #AnalogAesthetic #GemsPodcast #MusicCulture #StayInspired #LibraryRecords

This episode of Gems with Shom features Nashiem Myrick - legendary producer, record collector, and key member of the Hitmen super-producer collective. Also known as your favorite producer’s favorite producer.

From crafting timeless records like The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Who Shot Ya,” Capone-N-Noreaga’s “T.O.N.Y.,” Lil’ Kim’s “Queen B,” and Scarface’s “My Block,” Nashiem helped shape the sound of ’90s hip-hop and R&B.

Born in Jamaica, Queens, raised on a deep record collection, and forged in New York’s studios, Nashiem represents the perfect balance of ear, emotion, and engineering - a producer who could find samples, build drums, and elevate every artist he touched.

🎙 We dive into:
• The making of Who Shot Ya - from the Keith Murray promo to Biggie’s version• Teaching Havoc the 950 sub-bass trick that shaped Shook Ones Pt. II

• Creating T.O.N.Y., Queen B, and What You Want with Total & Mase• Digging in Sound Library, A-1, and digging with Pete Rock & Large Pro• Sending Kanye the “Blood on the Leaves” through Carlos Brody• Working within the Hitmen’s collaborative system - the supergroup of sound• His relationships with other Queens hip-hop legends

🌍 Featured artists & crews:
Mary J. Blige | The Notorious B.I.G. | Capone-N-Noreaga | Lil’ Kim | Scarface | The LOX | Mobb Deep | Pete Rock | Q-Tip & Tribe | Large Professor | Kanye West

📸 Follow: instagram.com/gems.podcast

🔖 Hashtags
#GemsWithShom #NashiemMyrick #Hitmen #WhoShotYa #TONY #QueenB #MyBlock #MaryJBlige #MyLife #TheNotoriousBIG #LilKim #Scarface #CaponeNNoreaga #TheLOX #MobbDeep #PeteRock #LargeProfessor #KanyeWest #HipHopHistory #BeatDigging #CrateDiggers #VinylCommunity #QueensNY #ProducerLife #SampleCulture #MusicCulture #CreativeJourney #StayInspired #GemsPodcast #ClassicHipHop #KanyeWest

This episode of Gems with Shom features DJ Amir — DJ, producer, record collector, lecturer, and label owner at 180 Proof Records. As one-half of the iconic Kon & Amir, he redefined the art of beat digging through the On Track mixtape series, inspiring generations of collectors.

From growing up in Boston to working at Fat Beats and Wax Poetics, DJ Amir’s journey runs through the heart of beat-digging culture. Amir has become a cultural historian and global ambassador of vinyl — reissuing rare, incredible jazz through Strata Records under his label 180 Proof Records, collaborating with Jazzanova, and lecturing worldwide.

🎙 We dive into:• Creating the On Track series with Kon — and shaping an era of digging• The global competition to be Kings of Diggin’ with DJ Muro• Stories with beat-digging legends • Reviving Strata Records and unearthing Detroit’s deep jazz archives• Digging scenes from Japan to Berlin• Reflections on J Dilla
📸 Follow: instagram.com/gems.podcast

🔖 Hashtags (Optimized for YouTube + Instagram)
#GemsWithShom #DJAmir #OnTrack #OnTrackSeries #180ProofRecords #KonAndAmir #FatBeats #WaxPoetics #StrataRecords #Jazzanova #JDilla #BeatDigging #VinylCommunity #CrateDiggers #RareGrooves #DiggingCulture #DetroitJazz #SoulJazz #UndergroundHipHop #NeoSoul #HipHopHistory #WaxPoeticsMagazine #ProducerLife #VinylCulture #BlackMusicHistory #MusicDocumentary #CreativeJourney #StayInspired #GemsPodcast #MusicCulture

This episode of Gems with Shom features Dan Charnas — bestselling author of Dilla Time, award-winning music and business journalist, record producer, television creator, and Associate Arts Professor at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute.

From his early days working in the mailroom at Profile Records, to shaping hip-hop journalism at The Source and authoring the definitive hip-hop history The Big Payback, Dan’s fingerprints are all over music culture.

We discuss his life’s work and the creative ethos behind Dilla Time — his landmark biography of J Dilla, which explores how Dilla reshaped rhythm, time, and feel in music. We also reflect on the recent passing of D’Angelo, his connection to J Dilla, and the spirit of soul that ties generations together.

🎙 We dive into:
• The emotional aftermath of D’Angelo’s passing
• J Dilla’s rhythmic genius and the making of Dilla Time
• The birth of hip-hop journalism
• Life inside Profile Records & Def Jam’s golden years
• The rise of Chino XL, The Pharcyde & Slum Village
• Dan’s evolution as author of Work Clean and The Big Payback
• What he cares about most today — creativity, community & conscience

📚 Books by Dan Charnas:

• Dilla Time

• The Big Payback

• Work Clean

🎧 Listen everywhere: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube @GemsPodcast
📸 Follow: instagram.com/gems.podcast

#GemsWithShom #DanCharnas #DillaTime #JDilla #TheBigPayback #WorkClean #BeatDigging #HipHopHistory #MusicJournalism #DefJam #ProfileRecords #TheSourceMagazine #ChinoXL #ThePharcyde #SlumVillage #RaphaelSaadiq #DAngelo #NeoSoul #SoulMusic #MusicDocumentary #ProducerLife #VinylCommunity #CrateDiggers #AnalogAesthetic #MusicCulture #UndergroundHipHop #RareGrooves #HipHopLegends #StayInspired #BlackMusicHistory #CreativeJourney