D&D Studios was legendary for the sound that came out of that place.You couldn’t duplicate that for anything,with anything and I’m glad to have been a part of the era that was the Golden Era of Hip Hop and to be where alot of it went down,and even more so, to be a part of the process on a lot of those classics.A question I get asked a lot of times by Hip Hop cats,”What Was It Like Working In D&D?”.I tell ’em..”D&D was like high school,and hazing was a must for everyone..EVERYONE!”Believe me clients weren’t immune to the pranks or getting in on it.They were worse than the staff half the time.If we had camera phones back then..well let’s just say the D&D antics put “Animal House”(that’s a movie for some of you who don’t know) to shame.I was quickly schooled by everyone at D&D..”Don’t Sit In The Back Ground And Say or Do Nothing..We’ll Murder You If You Do That!”. Through out my ten years over at D&D,I got to do,see and be a part of alot of things most engineers never did or can say they did.I mean it’s not every day you get to work with people you looked up to and inspired you to get in the game.Alot of names are gonna be mentioned when I really get Blogging but all can say for now is..I met Donald Byrd and Roy Ayers there…WHAT!…a handful of people can say they walked into a Hip Hop studio and saw Donald Byrd sitting in the room with a collection of original quarter and half inch tapes of his master recordings…try and find em..I’ll be here.And he was sooo friggin’ cool.Said to me once and I’ll never forget this..”Some Stuff He Did Had No Real Plan,Just An Idea..We Just Went With The Vibe At The Moment.We Just Wanted To Make Good Music”..how many of you so called artists can say that?…

First Day..11:30 am..I didn’t really know who was gonna be walking through the door.Yeah they told me who was gonna be having a session that day,but one of the other interns said that anybody could show up at anytime.So here it is..first day,in the A room session Nikki Nikole..working with Nefertiti from LA.Never heard of ’em,but they were both sweethearts and great people,lots of fun to be around.Frigging door bell rings,sounded like a old school bicycle bell.Somebody yells “GET THA DOOR!”..(sidenote;yelling was mandatory at D&D,you got yelled at for not Yelling)..I open it..there’s Guru,Lil Dap and BlackStar.I’m like (to self)”WOW..Guru!”..he’s like “Whuddup Yo You New Here?”..me..”Yea Man First Day…”I snap outta it quick.Not cause the initial shock of meeting one of my favorite HipHop artists has faded that fast but because of what dude asked me to do right after kinda introducing himself.I say kinda cause he never said..”I’m Guru”..he said.. “Whuddup Yo..”Anyway my dude instructs me to go to the store for him and get four Phillies and two forties of Budweiser.OK…it’s 11:30 in the morning…and you already have a forty in your hand and you want two more…all I could think was..”WOW!…This Dude Is A RockStar!”..Lil Dap was like ..”Yo Son By The Time You Get Back That Shit He Will Be Done With This One!”.And that did turn out to be the case.Really doe!

Back from the store,had to finish up my shit detail(dudes didnt know how to flush after themselves half the time..no joke)..the dammed bicycle bell rings again.”GET THA DOOR!”..”AIGHT I GOT IT!”..didn’t take long to get into the yelling over there..door opened..tall dark skinned dude standing in the door way..walks past and turns to face me..”SUP,I’m Evil Dee”..me..”Sup I’m Dex”..him..”I Got A Session In The D Room”..me..”OK Lemme Get Somebody To Help You Out”.I’m walking away thinkin to myself that’s a big dude..why his voice so high pitched? He must have laryngitis or something.I get his engineer,tell him Evil is here..the engineer says..”You Met E?”..me..”Yeah”..engineer..”He’s A Mad Cool Dude And Yeah His Voice Is That High”..me..”OK Then”..engineer..”Come Sit In On This One,It’s Easy..He’s Doing DAT Copies For A Show Black Moon Got Coming Up”.Evil is in there talkin about the last show they did some friggin where and how somebody got punched in the face for doing the most when it really wasn’t that serious..I’m dying laughing cause E is real animated for a big dude.Trust me when I tell you Da Beatminerz along with a few others have become my big brothers in the game,we’ll get to that soon,along with other lil gems from my years of working at the Infamous D&D Studios.Till then..

Written by Dexter Thibou