Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

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This week I'm sitting down with a guy whose name might not be as famous as the records he made, but whose fingerprints are all over some of the most important hip hop of the last 35 years: Scotty Hard.

Scotty grew up in Vancouver on a diet of classical guitar, jazz camp and free jazz shows, then fell hard for punk, no wave and the Ornette Coleman school of harmolodic funk before Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions convinced him New York was the only place left to go. He landed at Calliope Studios — the 24-hour home base for the Native Tongues, De La Soul, Stetsasonic and Queen Latifah — with almost no formal engineering training, learning by the skin of his teeth on sessions that ranged from editing Tone Loc's mink-coat 900-number ad to filling in on De La Soul Is Dead when the regular engineer didn't show. That one shift turned into a decades-long run with Prince Paul, which led him into the orbit of Gravediggaz, RZA and the Wu-Tang Forever sessions, New Kingdom, the Stereo MCs and PM Dawn.

We talk about how he found his footing as the guy trusted to give creative input rather than just push faders, the eleven-minute Lisa Stansfield remix that became bigger than anyone in the room expected, and mixing the second Gravediggaz record and Wu-Tang Forever in neighbouring rooms at the same time — including the day RZA walked in and asked him what exactly he was doing in there. We also spend a good chunk of the conversation on his long, deeply loyal relationship with Ka, one of the most singular and uncompromising voices in hip hop, and on the accident that left Scotty with a spinal cord injury and how he's kept making some of the best music of his career since. We close out talking about his new record with Steven Bernstein, Ultra Resonance / Resonation Trio, which takes the hip hop chop-and-flip approach and applies it to acoustic jazz.

This is a long one and every minute of it is worth your time. Topics covered:

• Growing up in Vancouver: classical guitar, jazz camp, and opening for Ornette Coleman
• The no wave and punk funk scenes that pulled him toward New York
• Landing at Calliope Studios and learning to engineer with zero formal training
• His first-ever session: editing 2-inch tape for a Tone Loc ad
• Getting the call to fill in on De La Soul Is Dead and starting his run with Prince Paul
• Making beats on the SP12 and S900 synced to 24-track tape
• Knowing when to offer a creative opinion and when to just be the engineer
• The Lisa Stansfield "Been Around the World" remix that blew up bigger than anyone predicted
• New Kingdom and being "too ahead of its time"
• How Gravediggaz came together and meeting RZA
• Mixing the second Gravediggaz record and Wu-Tang Forever at the same time in LA
• What actually made Gravediggaz sound so dark and eerie
• The challenge of mixing records you didn't record yourself
• His parallel life in jazz: Teo Macero, Medeski Martin & Wood, and Sex Mob
• Working with Ka on Days with Dr. Yen Lo and why Ka refused to compromise his art
• Remembering Ka and the Legacy Open Studio celebration of his life
• His car accident, his spinal cord injury, and adapting his life and work around it
• Surprising mic choices that worked for rappers who didn't have "perfect" voices
• His one piece of outboard gear he'd tell any beatmaker to buy
• His new album, Ultra Resonance / Resonation Trio with Steven Bernstein

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

This week I'm joined by KnowleDJ — and this is a slightly different one for the show. He's the first Canadian I've had on since about episode two, and he's built a career that doesn't really look like anyone else's. He grew up in Kelowna, a small city in British Columbia, started out as a hip hop promoter to pay his tuition, and got talked into DJing by a club owner who wanted him to do college nights. He was a "hip hopper for life" who couldn't stand the idea of playing anything else — until the money, and then the music, changed his mind. From there it's cruise ships playing to wildly diverse crowds, an economics degree feeding into how he thinks about the whole game, and eventually opening for the Backstreet Boys, Ice Cube and Ariana Grande, and running the after-parties for No Doubt's Sphere residency.

What I really wanted to get into was the thinking underneath all of that. We talk about cultural deference and why you have to prove you've done the digging before a crowd trusts you. We get into ADHD, diet and the idea of conscientiousness as a cheat code. He walks me through the worst gig of his life — a Vegas set he says was sabotaged, which blacklisted him for years — and the fate-tipping opportunities that came after. There's a genuinely moving stretch about Fat Man Scoop, who mentored him and passed away the very night Knowledge told him he'd played "Be Faithful." And we finish on the economics of it all: why he built himself a "category of one," what blue ocean strategy and ikigai have to do with DJing, and why, with his book The DJ Diaries on the way, he still believes music is the answer.

In this episode we get into:

• Growing up in Kelowna and going from hip hop promoter to open-format DJ
• Reading diverse crowds on the cruise ships, and learning that people hear music differently
• Showing cultural deference — proving you've dug deep before a crowd trusts you
• Rebuilding the No Doubt set from scratch, and the real story behind "Don't Speak"
• ADHD, diet, and conscientiousness as a cheat code (the OCEAN model)
• The brain science of doing hard things, and telling yourself a realistic story
• Learning the mic, the art of the warm-up, and getting over stage fright
• The worst gig of his life and being blacklisted in Vegas
• Opening for Ariana Grande, Backstreet Boys and Ice Cube — and reading GA crowds
• Fat Man Scoop's quiet, huge influence on hip hop — and a tragic full-circle moment
• The economics of DJing: supply and demand, a "category of one," blue ocean strategy and ikigai
• The DJ Diaries, what's next, and the idea of the "otrovert"

I thought I'd re-publish this one for any of the heads who missed it first time round.

He doesn't really need an introduction round here — one half of the production team behind Jurassic 5, and honestly one of the best DJs I've ever seen live. I got Nu-Mark on to talk about his new book Amunu, which is part Persian cookbook, part memoir, part travel guide, and really a celebration of togetherness — family, food and music all woven together. What I love is how much ground we covered getting there.

He told me about the mum who raised him with total freedom (and who, 24 years ago, told him to start making Middle Eastern beats — advice he's only just taken), about growing up half-Iranian in the States during the hostage crisis, and about buying 20,000 records for $500 as a teenager, a haul that ended up powering 85–90% of those early J5 productions. We got deep into the group: how it became Jurassic 5 when there were six of them, why he refused the single deal that everyone else signed, the fact that the UK recognised them before the US would, and the whole first EP being made on an eight-track. He's wonderfully honest about confidence too — something he says he's still working on — and about losing his father, and how it was putting his dad's old records on that finally let him cry. We finish on Lesson 6, two record collections meant to meet, and the kebabs-on-site book launch in LA. A proper one, this.

In this episode:

• His mum, Nowruz, and the Middle Eastern beats advice he ignored for 24 years
• Growing up half-Iranian during the Iran hostage crisis
• The alphabetised 35,000-record collection (and the $500 haul of 20,000 records that built J5)
• Making peace with a tough upbringing, and music as therapy
• Losing his father, and the records that brought it out
• Drumming, Brazilian rhythm, and house parties that ended on slow jams
• Bum Rush Productions, $2 on the door and the 40 ounce posse
• Why it's Jurassic 5 when there were six of them
• Turning down the Blunt single deal — and signing Kanye at Correct Records
• The chemistry with Cut Chemist, and the art-first philosophy
• Breaking in the UK before the US, and touring like a rock band
• Retaining the publishing, the long life of "What's Golden", and a surprise Pandora hit
• The whole first EP made on an eight-track
• The Interscope era alongside Dre, Eminem and 50 Cent, and the Scott Storch sessions
• Going solo with the toy set, and building his own ecosystem
• How Amunu came together — and the LA launch

Cut Chemist has been on my list since the day I started this podcast, so getting him on for Episode 85 was a real full-circle moment. He's someone whose records genuinely shaped how I dig and how I think about putting samples together, and across this conversation he traces the whole arc — from kicking along to a Bobby Darin concert in the womb, to a McDonald's straw on a snare drum, to Star Wars soundtracks, to the moment hip hop landed for him in 1983.

We get deep into the Hollywood scene that raised him, the Rhino Records parking-lot quarter bins where he and his friends amassed beats nobody had touched, and the Jungle Brothers album that made him realise he could make "a record made out of records."

From Unity Committee into Jurassic 5, sharing the production chair with Nu-Mark, the all-45s leap into Brain Freeze with DJ Shadow, the solo tightrope of The Audience's Listening, and right up to his candlelit listening parties now — this one's a masterclass in following the unfamiliar. It's long, it's nerdy in all the right places, and I couldn't have asked for more from a guest who's influenced me this much.

In this episode we cover:

• His earliest musical memories — parents, live drums, Carpenters and a deep sci-fi soundtrack obsession
• Discovering hip hop in 1983 via KDAY, breakdancing, graffiti and the elements one at a time
• Public Enemy, Bomb Squad and why Main Source is his production template
• The Jungle Brothers album that turned him into a sampler
• Learning gear the hard way — reel-to-reel, Roland S10, MPC, the Pro Tools learning curve
• Forming Jurassic 5 out of Unity Committee, and the east-coast heart in a west-coast city
• Pre-internet sample sleuthing and the legendary Rhino Records quarter bins
• First DJ gigs at 15, learning to cut, and the up-and-down fader style that became his own
• Qbert and the 1996 X-Men vs Scratch Pickles battle
• A digging philosophy: is the juice worth the squeeze?
• Sharing production with Nu-Mark, building Lesson 6, and breaking in Europe with Mr Format
• The Rare Equations mix, the Number Song remix and the all-45s origins of Brain Freeze
• Ozomatli, Brazilian and African digging, and constructing a set like a composition
• The Audience's Listening at 20, The Garden in Brazil, and the Italy trip that changed everything
• The Good Life Cafe education and record shopping with Biz Markie
• Stable Sound, the Bandcamp subscription, and his candlelit psychedelic sound baths
• On Keb Darge, on Edan, and the Expert of None shows coming next

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

This week I'm joined by Eddie Otchere — a name that might be new to some, but his work absolutely won't be. Eddie is the photographer behind some of the most iconic images of 90s hip hop, jungle and drum & bass, garage and grime. He was Metalheadz's official photographer, shot Wu-Tang Clan, Aaliyah, Biggie, Jay-Z, So Solid Crew, Estelle, Chronixx, and pretty much every rapper you cared about coming up. His work is currently exhibited at the V&A East, and he's spent the last 30 years documenting London's black music and dance culture.

Eddie grew up in Brixton, Stockwell and Vauxhall, falling into record collecting at Groove Records in Soho when he was so small he couldn't see over the counter. He picked up his first camera in the late 80s — a Praktika left behind by a friend's granddad — and went on to build one of the most important visual archives of UK club culture. This is a long, deep, wide-ranging conversation, and one I came away from genuinely feeling like I'd learned something. I hope you do too.

Topics covered:

• Growing up in South London and the village mentality of the area
• Early days at Groove Records, Red Records, Dub Vendor and the record shops of Soho
• Getting online in the mid-90s via Direct Connection in Stockwell — and how hip hop became the global language
• Picking up a Praktika camera and falling into photography alongside record collecting
• Why being analog matters in a "post-fact" world of remastered records and retconned history
• The Canon EOS 10 and learning to shoot in pitch-black clubs
• Shooting jungle raves, Metalheadz, and protecting young people from tabloid demonisation
• How Red Bull, smoking bans and changing crowd behaviour shifted the look and feel of clubs
• The art of the loop — Alchemist, Dilla, No I.D. and chasing perfect samples
• Working with Wu-Tang as teenagers and learning to build a body of work
• Photographing Aaliyah, Biggie, Jay-Z, Estelle and Chronixx
• Around the early days of grime and why he gravitated toward So Solid in South London
• Drum & bass being run by women, and the importance of Chemistry and Storm
• The General Levy "cancellation", gatekeeping, and protecting a culture
• The V&A East exhibition and the tension between DIY scenes and academic curation
• Lee Scratch Perry, dub museums, and what music history should look like
• Meta glasses, AI as a personal agent, and digital asset management for photographers
• His advice for new photographers: intention is everything

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

This week I'm joined by Carl Loben, Editor-in-Chief of DJ Mag and a man who's spent more than three decades chronicling dance music — from blagging his way into gigs as a freelance writer for Melody Maker in the early 90s, to running DJ Mag for the last decade. I wanted to sit down with Carl because he's seen the whole arc from a vantage point most people haven't: Two Tone gigs at Hammersmith Odeon (where everyone had to leave their DMs at the door), an acid house epiphany at Glastonbury, the drum & bass evangelism that defined his 90s, and a publishing career that's covered the rise of the superstar DJ, the bottle-service era and the digital revolution from the front row.

We get into Carl's own DJing journey — the false start, the freestyle rooms in Hackney, the international gigs that came with the editor's chair — and the labels he's built along the way: Westway with Barry Ashworth from the Dub Pistols, and Jack Said What with Irvine Welsh and Steve Mac (the underground house Steve Mac, not the pop one — there's a great story in there). He's also really frank about the shifting cultural landscape: the whitewashing he and Ben Murphy set out to address with their book Renegade Snares, the wellbeing reckoning that's reshaping what DJ life looks like, and the sea-of-phones problem that's quietly killing the dancefloor.

In this episode we cover:

• Growing up between Beatles, Buddy Holly and Two Tone, and his first gig at 13 (Madness, Hammersmith Odeon)
• His acid house epiphany at Glastonbury and the unsung heroes the history books missed
• The Hackney freestyle rooms, becoming a drum & bass DJ, and almost painting himself into a corner
• Blagging his first reviews for Melody Maker and what life was like as a 90s freelance music journo
• Why Melody Maker went down the toilet and how he ended up at DJ Mag full time
• International gigs in Brazil, Ecuador, Poland and China — and learning why touring DJs burn out
• The cult of the superstar DJ and the hangover from rock and roll
• Westway Records, Jack Said What, and the realities of running a label after the vinyl crash
• Renegade Snares, the whitewashing of drum & bass, and the genre's reckoning with diversity
• Why digital was a blessing and a curse, and what happens when 20,000 tracks a day hit Spotify
• The wellness shift, the sea of phones, and his advice for new DJs trying to break through

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

This week we're heading to the West Coast to sit down with Debo (Ivan) — the man behind Funk Freaks, one of the most authentic funk communities operating anywhere in the world right now.

Born and raised on the west side of Costa Mesa in Orange County, California, Debo's story is one of music as lifeline. From breaking a needle on a Sesame Street turntable at five years old, to getting his hands on a beat-up pair of mismatched Technics at age 12 — after his older brother borrowed them from a friend who was heading to prison — to teaching himself to mix at 4am before school every day for six months straight. The obsession was always there.

We talk about what makes Orange County's relationship with 80s boogie and funk so deep-rooted and distinct from LA, the lowrider culture that kept this music alive for generations, and how Funk Freaks went from backyard boogies and house parties to a nine-year residency at the legendary OG Mics in Santa Ana — and eventually to chapters across Europe, South America and beyond.

Debo also opens up about the blood, sweat and tears it took to break the stigma of "cholo music" in bars and clubs, his year living in Barcelona, touring European funk bars with nothing but a tourist visa and a crate of records, and how all of that led to opening the record shop and launching the Funk Freaks label.

A genuinely inspiring conversation about community, culture, creativity and the power of music to change the direction of a life.

In this episode:

Growing up on the west side of Costa Mesa and how the environment shaped him

Learning to DJ on a borrowed mismatched pair of Technics and a busted crossfader

The Stanton DJ-in-a-Box moment and the mother who matched his first paycheck

The Beat Junkies influence and applying hip hop technique to funk records

Backyard boogies, house parties and the stigma of "cholo music" in venues

OG Mics — the Santa Ana residency that became the capital of funk in Southern California

Living in Barcelona, buying Euro funk pressings for cents and building the international network

How the Funk Freaks chapters work (think: graffiti crew ethics applied to record collecting)

Digging road trips from New Orleans to New York to Baltimore and why California is slim pickings now

The Funk Freaks record label — limited pressings, DJ tools, and the story behind the Colors movie recreation

Why there's no such thing as overpaying for a record that means something to you

What the DJ's job actually is — and why Europe gets it right

Links:

Funk Freaks Instagram: @funkfreaks

Remote Control (production): http://www.remote-ctrl.co.uk

The Bronx legend responsible for Dusty Fingers and Schoolyard Breaks, a true scholar, a man with some great stories, Danny Dann Beat Mann, rest in peace.

He was a north start for me from day 1 so it was great to get him on the show.

RIP a true king of digging.

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

Dan't IG: https://www.instagram.com/danlish1/

The first ever live Once A DJ — recorded at Canopy Menswear, Derby

Dan Lish is an illustrator and lifelong hip hop head whose work sits right at the intersection of culture, art and memory. In this special live episode — the first Once A DJ has taken out of the studio and in front of an audience — recorded earlier this year at Canopy Menswear in Derby, he tells the story of how B-boying and hip hop found him at exactly the right moment — and never really let go.

He opens up about a difficult childhood, moving between families and a stint in boarding school, and how the battle culture of B-boying gave him a platform to express things he couldn't yet put into words. From erecting coat hangers around his bedroom window to pull in the Capital Rap Show on pirate radio, to catching second-hand American records in tiny Suffolk shops thanks to nearby US Air Force bases — Dan's path into the culture was shaped by scarcity, which made it all the more precious.

He eventually made it to New York, where he spent around seven years immersed in the grassroots scene: practicing in the Bronx, attending block parties in Queens, linking with Spike from Zulu Nation, hanging with original writers like Stay High 149, and entering battles despite — by his own admission — being stiff as a plank when the nerves hit.

Back in England, his illustration career took off through a series of portraits of hip hop icons drawn during his train commute — work that went around the world, got bootlegged onto mixtapes, and caught the attention of Rakim, Pete Rock, Paradise Gray from X Clan, the RZA and De La Soul among others.

He rounds out the episode talking about his upcoming illustrated book Wonder Love, a love letter to Stevie Wonder's classic 70s albums, published by W.W. Norton.

Show notes:

1. Dan Lish's work: danlish.com (verify current link)
2. Velocity Press: velocitypress.uk
3. Canopy Menswear Derby: canopyonline.co.uk
4. Book mentioned: Brakesploitation series
5. Upcoming: Wonder Love — illustrated Stevie Wonder book, W.W. Norton

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

DJ Super Dmitry | Dee-Lite, Nauti Siren & The Sound of a Life Lived in Music

This week on Once A DJ, Adam is joined by DJ Super Dmitry — one third of Dee-Lite, the group behind one of the most joyful and enduring records in dance music history. But Dmitry's story goes far beyond 'Groove Is in the Heart', and this conversation goes all the way back to the beginning.

Dmitry grew up in Soviet Ukraine as a third-generation musician. His grandmother — unable to afford a piano during the disruptions of the Russian Revolution, Civil War and World War Two — cut piano keys from paper so she could practise by hand. That love of music carried through the family, and Dmitry began lessons at five, was attending a conservatory music school by seven, and was already writing his own compositions in the style of Gershwin and Scott Joplin by eight.

Western music was tightly controlled. Records could only be obtained on the black market — for around $50 each — and were copied onto reel-to-reel before being traded on. A track from Jesus Christ Superstar introduced him to something funky he couldn't yet name, and the search for that sound would shape the rest of his life.

At 14, Dmitry and his family left the Soviet Union — the first in their town to do so, and treated as traitors for it. After periods in Austria and Italy, where he discovered punk (the Pistols, the Damned, X-Ray Spex, Iggy Pop), the family arrived in New York in 1978. On Halloween. In a Black neighbourhood in Brooklyn. Having never seen Black people before.

From a 50-cent bin in a record shop, he picked up 'The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein' by Parliament because the cover looked insane. That was the moment. 'There it is,' he thought. 'That's the sound I've been looking for.' He's been a funkateer ever since.

New York in the late 70s and early 80s was extraordinary — punk, disco, hip hop, and house all converging in the same sweaty rooms. Dmitry became an elevator operator at Danceteria, practising guitar in the lift between floors while Sisters of Mercy and the Sugar Hill Gang did soundchecks below. He ran into the pre-fame Beastie Boys regularly, worked at the Pyramid Club (run by drag queens, and a real education in showmanship), and played for Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash at block parties in Harlem and the Bronx.

Dee-Lite formed as a direct attempt to bridge the gap between house and funk. They built a following through monthly shows drawing up to 1,500 people, which caught the attention of a Billboard writer and eventually sparked a label bidding war. They signed to Elektra — choosing them because their A&R, Nancy Jeffries, had signed Iggy Pop and Bjork, and that felt like the right kind of open-mindedness.

Elektra didn't believe 'Groove Is in the Heart' had any traction. They let Dee-Lite do the video anyway, and Dmitry remembers the precise moment he knew it had crossed over: standing in a grocery store queue when it came on the radio and the cashier started dancing at her till. 'That's my jam,' she said. 'That's my jam.'

Q-Tip turned up to the studio, listened for 15 minutes, jotted notes, and nailed it in two takes. Bootsy Collins casually mentioned he had 'some friends' who might be able to play horns — those friends were Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker, who arrived as near-strangers to each other after five years apart and immediately played like they'd never stopped.

Their first proper gig with a full live band was in front of 300,000 people at Rock in Rio. The second album was recorded expensively in a big studio; Dmitry considers it their weakest. The third, Dewdrops in the Garden, went back to basics and home recording, and he's proud of how well it still sounds.

The band broke up when Dmitry and Kier's relationship ended, and he eventually made his way to Berlin — partly drawn by its thriving club culture, partly pushed out of New York by Giuliani's crackdown on clubs. He played Tresor, won a Best Techno DJ award at Ibiza despite not really being a techno DJ, worked with Julie Cruz, remixed Chaka Khan and Ziggy Marley, and kept making music.

Then during the pandemic, a friend sent him a vocalist called Jessie Evans. He sent her some dub tracks that had been sitting on his computer for years. She recorded them one by one, sending back a finished song every couple of days from Brazil — while caring for two young children. Before they had ever met on video, they had an album's worth of material. That project became Nauti Siren. She moved to Germany, they got married, and they now have around five albums' worth of music ready to release. The first, 'Rising', is out now.

This is a remarkable conversation with someone who has lived inside the history of popular music for fifty years — and who still has plenty more to say.

Find DJ Super Dmitry:

Instagram: @superdjdmitry

Nauti Siren 'Rising' — out on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms

Once A DJ

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