Producer, DJ Shok Interview

We tell you all the time, DO YOUR RESEARCH!. Producers Skill.com had the pleasure of sitting down with Mike “DJ Shok” Gomez, one of the main producers behind the Ruff Ryders sound of the late nineties.

Shok what’s going on? How’s everything?
Everything is real good, I am blessed and looking forward to the future and what it has in store.

At producers Skill. com, we try to ask every producer this question. How do you rate your production skills on a scale of 1 to 10 ( 10 being the highest)?

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Who are some of the producers you looked up to early on?

Kraftwerk, Man Parish, Rick Rubin, Arthur Baker & John Robie (Tommy boy & Streetwise record’s) , Pumpkin (Enjoy record’s & profile), Marley Marl, Pete Rock, Diamond, and Premo.

Who are some of the producers who do great drum programming?

Timbaland, Premier, Swizz, and Pete rock

You keep a low profile (which is a good thing) and focus on the music more than getting your face all in the cameras. People are familiar with your work but might not know it was you that did the production so please give us a run down of your impressive track record.

Hits are “Slippin” DMX, “Spit these bars” Drag-on & Swizz, “Imperial” Rah Digga & Busta, “Training day(dirty riders)”lox.  I have also worked with everyone from Kool Keith, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Teena Marie to Saigon, Fat Joe, and Eve and too many to mention.

You emerged on the scene in a powerhouse label that built from the ground up and formed a monster team. Ruff Ryders was a family that functioned so effortlessly. How did you get involved with Ruff Ryders?

Actually I started out on the underground. I had a label called Mass Vinyl and we had a Hit with an artist Hi-Tech, it was called “24/7”. We ran it from my dad’s basement and sold over 10,000 units of that single as well as put out some more records. I learned about radio, retail and how to make a dollar out of 15 cents.  A friend of mine brought me through to powerhouse studios (RR studio) in like 97 and that’s when I first got familiar with the whole operation. About a year later a friend brought Waah through to my dad’s basement and we kicked it and He invited me down to play some tracks.  When I came through I had a dat with about 12 bangers and the feedback from the camp was good and I especially hit it off with Swizz because he was familiar with my underground work especially the Shok Beats 1,2 and 3. They were beat albums he actually thought my name was Shok beats for a while. I waited like 2 weeks after that first meeting and then came back with around 70 tracks on a few dats and one thing led to another and I signed with RR.

Now you did a bunch of classic tracks but I personally remember picking up the Drag-On “Spit These Bars” single and seeing you produced it. However, a lot of people thought Swizz did the track because he was featured. I was disputing that with a lot of people and making sure I let it be known that Shok did the track! I was riding for you!

Ha… Thanks it’s nice when people read the credits, from a business perspective it was the first single and the company was investing in Swizz so they were not really interested in making that very clear to people.

As of recent, you’ve headed down the religious path and focused on Gospel rap/ music. When I took a listen to some of your tracks, it really reinforced the fact that music is music no matter what and the concepts don’t mean the beats have to change. You still have some grimey beats that work well with spreading your message.

Thanks, I believe that Music and art are primary ways of communicating within our culture. It is a language that transcends barriers and reaches to the heart.  When I gave my life as a living sacrifice to God it was a natural thing to use my gifts to bring Him glory. A lot of people have an impression about following God that it is all roses and smiles, but the reality for me is that the truth He spoke in His word to me ripped my life into pieces and as a producer I know those kind of lyrics fit into more “grimy” tracks but if I’m praising the Lord that track is going to be more musical and have a more uplifting feel to it. So it’s all about hitting the target as a song writer and producer.

So explain to all the readers what your set up is like in the studio.

MPC 4000,Logic, Roland 2080’s, triton rack, Kerzweil 2600 and vinyl.

Any weird rituals or habits you have when in the creative mode?

I call on God to use me as His instrument.

To dip back in to your history, you worked with Pun. What was that experience like? He seemed like a real cool and funny dude.

He was a funny dude and was extremely talented and had a wide range of musical influences. It was a blessing to have known him for the short time I did.

What advice would you give up and coming producers?

Take the money you make and save for a rainy day. Be one of the guys who do not change their lifestyle. If you’re good and work hard you may have a good run at some point but always put something aside for those low points in between projects.  You can have the biggest record out and be broke; that’s the reality of the business because of the pay cycles, agreements and the fact that lawyers tend to take a really long time to iron out agreements.  Don’t make music the focus of your life, people are more important, your family, who you are as a person and how you treat others and most of all put God first and everything will fall into place.

Interviewed By EP