It’s a lot easier to rap words together than it is to master the ceremony – and we can all see what that’s done for our culture. This past week, Hip Hop heroes swarmed to a stage under the Brooklyn Bridge to celebrate the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival. Along with iconic ceremony masters like Grandmaster Caz and Posdnous, Greg Nice – even in a brief 10 minute medley of hits, had the crowd at a pinnacle.
On stage and on record, the Bronx pioneer’s gifts to Hip Hop are many. His living, working and creating in his fourth decade with an energy and excitement not even found in today’s rookies. A brief conversation about Greg’s August solo debut Popcycle turned into a 90 minute discussion where one of the most recognizable voices in Rap dropped jewels – like paraphernalia. Nice explained that he’s always been about musical experimentation, and some of his biggest contributions (and royalty checks) have come courtesy of songs that core Rap fans may not even know he worked on.
The former Sleeping Bag and Def Jam artist also spoke about influencing Notorious B.I.G., befriending a stardom-hopeful Tupac Shakur, and breaking down industry barriers with Gang Starr. With a growing catalog of hits, Greg Nice is one of the greatest masters of ceremony Hip Hop will ever know, and he’s one of DX’s heroes.
HipHopDX: What’s going on, Greg?
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Greg Nice: Aw, man. Same shit, just a new set of problems. I’m a little tired, I just ran four miles.
DX: That’s four more miles than I ran.
Greg Nice: It’s like 85 degrees over here and shit. I didn’t realize it until I was into my second set, but I was like, “I gotta finish this.” You know?
DX: Have you always been a health nut like that?
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Greg Nice: Me, I’m very active when I perform. I ain’t 21 years old no more. I gotta stay on top of my game.
DX: We recently put up “This That Shit”
. This is a new sound for you. Tell me about that record, and where the sound and inspiration come from.
Greg Nice: Me, personally, I never really put like [to put] a title on myself. If you knew my track record really in and out, then you’ll know that I never really put a cap on me. As far as working with Lisette Melendez, a Freestyle artist, or Goody Goody, who crossed over into R&B and I did all Arsenio Hall [Show] and Soul Train with her, as far as the first Freestyle artist to be doin’ that. Then, we did [Nice & Smooth’s] “Hip Hop Junkies” and flipped it in Spanish, before Reggaeton existed. [It got to] the point of me bein’ on records with C+C Music Factory, records with Tricky, records with The Wiseguys, all the way to Big Daddy Kane. I was really just goin’ on to go on, so I never really put a cap on what I do. I just always have fun, and music was always about bein’ fun. Stevie Wonder did records with Bob Marley and all kinds of people, ‘cause that’s what it’s about.
DX: Absolutely. As you work towards the album, is the single indicative of the type of fun that you’re having on here?
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Greg Nice: Actually, [“This That Shit”] is not even on my album, just due to certain differences. [The Orchard] didn’t want to really go deep into clearing [samples] and doin’ things like that. They just put that out there to make it work, see if it sticks. On this album, I’ve work with the likes of a whole bunch of different deejays. So each record has its own sound, though it has me in it, being me. All of it is fun, everything that I did on this whole album is fun. I’m really happy about it [and] I don’t really be too happy about a lot of things. It’s refreshing to me, a lot of energy. The majority of the [songs are over 100 beats-per-minute]. I even got one that’s 154 BPM.
Look at Sleeping Bag Records, man. They were the biggest Dance/Freestyle record label during [the height of the movement], for three years in a row.
DX: I asked Mike from The Jungle Brothers this years ago, but you mentioned C+C Music Factory and Tricky. Do you find, that over the years, you’ve accumulated a lot of fans that are not traditional Hip Hop fans?
Greg Nice: Yeah. [I know this] because I’ve played with Tricky at [New York University]. When a Nice & Smooth fan walks down the street, they won’t even know I’m inside, [performing] with Tricky. That’s definitely a good look, to the point where doing “Dirty Dawg” with New Kids On The Block gave me a whole ‘nother genre of fans as well. They might playing at Radio City [Music Hall] [and invite me] to come out and just do that one song. Again, a lot of the Rap or Hip Hop artists want to be able to do that. A lot of them say, “Greg, you’re so crazy. I can’t even do that kind of shit. But you can do it.” I was in Japan not too long ago [with] Lord Finesse and Grand Puba, and we’re sittin’ around at soundcheck, I’m playin’ some records. They’re like, “What the fuck is that?” I’m like, “This is my new shit.” They [responded], “Yo Greg, this shit is crazy. I can’t do no shit like that, but can I be on one of the records?”
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DX: That’s funny in of itself. Fatboy Slim’s “The Rockafeller Skank” samples Finesse’s voice, and Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up” samples Kool Keith, two of your peers, who probably made good money from Dance music.
Greg Nice: The same goes for the joint I did with The Wiseguys, “Start The Commotion.” Have you heard that?
DX: I don’t think so.
Greg Nice: You have, you just probably didn’t know it was me. [Beatboxes] It was on all the Mitsubishi commercials. Zoolander soundtrack, all that. My Wife & Kids. It’s on so many things. The licensing [royalties] for that record were insane.
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DX: [Laughs] That was you?
Greg Nice: Insane. That one record, I made more money with that record than all my records. That’s a whole ‘nother point I’m makin’ right there: that’s a whole other fan-base I’ve made. I’m sitting at Benihana’s one day, eating food. I’m at the table with this family from out in the Hamptons. We just started talkin’ about music somehow, and the daughter was like, “You’re the guy from ‘Start The Commotion.” I said, “Ain’t that the shit?” She don’t know nothin’ about [Nice & Smooth], but she knew that. [Laughs]
DX: I’m not asking in a cynical light. Music is music, but for the Nice & Smooth fans that aren’t aware of Tricky, do you feel you have music on this album that appeases them as well?
Greg Nice: I got a record on my album with Tony Yayo – dirty as you’re gonna get. [Laughs] I also got a song with Flava Flav on my album. I also have a song with [DJ] Webstar & Young B on my album; we’re about to shoot the video in two weeks to that song. I did a lot of the Unruly [Records] crew: DJ Class, Scottie B.
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DX: That Baltimore sound.
Greg Nice: That whole shit. [Beatboxes] It’s goin’ bananas. They was real happy that I came down there to record it as well, ‘cause a lot of times when they do records, they were saying [artists email the tracks]. When I went to their studio, the whole community came through. Oh shit.
DX: You mention collaboration. You did a phenomenal collaboration with Nappy Roots in 2008 on “No Static.” You also did some stuff with Masta Ace. Tell me what you’ve learned about your stuff as a solo artist, prior to this album, outside of your work with Smooth B over the last 10 years…
Greg Nice: From the beginning of my career, I’ve been a solo artist – from being the human beat box with T. La Rock.
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DX: Good point.
Greg Nice: I’ve always been Greg Nice. He’s always been Smooth B. A good friend of mine introduced me to him, “I think you’ll hit it off.” He’s always been Smooth, that’s why his shit is smooth. I’ve been nice. It just complemented each other. We play a part off of each other, and that’s that. When do Nice & Smooth, I’m always going to [play my part]. But Greg’ll do any type of thing. I’ll talk in Chinese; I don’t give a fuck. I’m not doing this for Nice & Smooth fans at all, I’m doing this [album] for Greg fans, and the new ones that come along, the ones that don’t know about what Greg’s done with Nice & Smooth. That’s why I worked with the likes of Aaron Lacrate [and others]. Todd Terry mixed my album.
DX: When you’re doing your four miles or around the house, do you listen to a lot of Electronic and Dance music?
Greg Nice: Again, I’m from Sleeping Bag Records. Nocera, Juggy Gales, Will Socolov, Mantronix, baby. [Laughs] Robert Clivillés used to work in the stock room, movin’ boxes, at Sleeping Bag, before C+C Music Factory came. He did a lot of shit for Mantronix.
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DX: What are you up to day-to-day right now, getting everything in place?
Greg Nice: I do concerts every weekend with Smooth, from Chicago to New York to St. Louis to L.A., everywhere. We’re always somewhere. We just did Summer Stage in Brooklyn.
DX: I wanted to go back a little bit, and I wanted to ask you about a record that you probably don’t get asked about a lot. From the first, self-titled Nice & Smooth album, “Gold” is my favorite song you guys have ever done. The beat, the chemistry, the subject matter, tell me about that record…
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Greg Nice: [Recites] “G-O-L-E, G-O-L-E, Gold!” Man, that’s what everybody was doin’ at that time. Like how everybody sayin’ they “rock ice” today, everybody had a big-ass, fat gold chain back in the day. A big-ass hollow gold chain. We were sittin’ on the step one day, in front of the building, drinking a quart of Private Stock beer. I was like, “Yo, this shit’s crazy. G-O-L-E, G-O-L-E…” A friend of mine, he had passed away, he used to say that shit all day: “G-O-L-E, Gold.” We were like, “Know what, we’ll freak it [like that.” We just started flippin’ it. I had the track already, and eventually we put that to the track. It came out good and it worked.
I have a close friend of mine. He invited me to his crib one day. I come over. He says, “I got something that I think you’d want to see. I think you’ll like this.” It was a VHS tape. We put it on. I see [Notorious B.I.G.] in a car and shit. He has his boy D-Roc drivin’, and it must have been when [“Juicy”] had first comin’ it. He was ridin’ down the street in Brooklyn. They stopped and picked up Lil’ Cease. They’re on their way to go pick up Lil’ Kim. While they drivin’, they playin’ with the tape-deck in the car. [They skip through songs until they got to “Gold.” Notorious B.I.G. said,] “Yo, yo! Leave that right there. Biggie’s rhymin’, doin’ on my part.” [Recites] “I’m only 15 years old.” [Watching this], I was like, “Oh, shit!” When he passed away, I ran into Lil’ Cease. We were talkin’, he was like, “Biggie used to play me [your work] literally, everyday. He used to call me [Lil’ Greg Nice].” I told him I had [seen the VHS tape]. He was like, “You saw that? How’d that tape get out in the streets like that?”
DX: I’ve never seen that. That’s crazy.
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Greg Nice: [My boy told me] that somebody stole [the VHS tape] out of his house. Somebody stole it.
DX: I’m always interested when newer artists bring a veteran on to remake a classic. Like, Juice Crew, KRS-One, EPMD, they’ve all done it. But when you personally interpolated “Sometimes I Rhyme Slow” into “No Static” with the Nappy Roots, what let you know that they earned the right to access that sacred classic?
Greg Nice: I love that Nappy Roots song [“No Static”]. I got footage where [Smooth B] and I brought them on stage. We came to Atlanta with a nine-piece band on the Scion tour. We did “Sometimes I Rhyme Slow,” got to the “no static” part [Greg beat-boxes a transition, emulating a beat juggle of “no static / got an automatic.” The [Nappy Roots] ran out. Fans were going crazy!
You can tell when it’s pure from the door. That’s why, when I see guys, and I may be out, and they want to take a picture… “This ain’t no dick-ridin’, no homo…” First of all, I ain’t born just today, mothafucka, I’ve been doin’ this shit all my life. You ain’t the first dude I seen in the street. “What the fuck does that mean?” [So I explain], “First of all, you ain’t got to say that. If you want to take a picture, take it. I’ll take it with you. I’ll do whatever you want to do.” I’m not that other dude. Some dudes are all about that other shit, they crazy. A lot of ‘em, I used to drive around in my car – before they even had cars. They couldn’t even get inside clubs. I’d be in Miami, and I’d get [DJ] Khaled inside a party. He couldn’t even get in. He’d be standin’ outside, by a car, leanin’ like nobody even know him. I saw him recently [jokingly], “What’s up mothafucka, you the best, huh?” He started huggin’ me, I grabbed his fat stomach. “You the best, huh?” [Laughing] It can be whoever. Busta Rhymes, I used to pick you up when you lived at your mom’s house, in the back room, with your little brother. I’d take you to Bobby Brown’s house, when “My Perogative” was killin’ everything! All of them kind of times and shit…I come from a good time in life – the golden era. You learn to appreciate things. You did everything ‘cause you loved it. You’re always gonna meet somebody who’s an asshole. I tell fans and people, don’t ever be hesitant to approach somebody that you admire or that you want to experience something with. Once you speak to that person and you see that they’re an asshole, now you know. Just keep on movin’. Don’t feel nervous to say what’s up. You’re starin’ at me, I’ll turn and say what’s up.
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DX: I remember when I first bought turntables, Blazing Hot, Volume 4, was in the first crate of records that I acquired. I know that’s not your most famous album, or your best-selling, but it’s Nice & Smooth’s last album to date. How do you look back at that, because being one of my first vinyl records, I know it very well, and consider it special to me…
Greg Nice: I look at it like it was something to do. I didn’t get to produce any of the records on that album, and I produced all the other Nice & Smooth records. What we did, we had did a favor for a friend of mine that was a longtime attorney of mine. I met him during the Uptown Records days. He was like, “I got this situation: I can get this kind of money if you’ll do this for me, man. You don’t have to be signed to me, or stay nowhere, whatever.” I was like, “Aiight, cool.” We knew Nice & Smooth wasn’t gonna make no more records together. Not at all, right there. We were ridin’ the wave, we’ll do these gigs, but the feeling is not the same as when we were kids, and we’d rather not do it. So we did [Blazing Hot, Volume 4]. That’s why, if you look, none of the [songs] were produced by Nice & Smooth. A lot of [the producers] were guys that I knew. It gave them an opportunity to do somethin’, and it gave them an opportunity to have some money in their pockets. And that’s what we did. [Scotti Bros. Records] went bankrupt during the time that the album was out.
How soon we forget [Jewel of the Nile]. That’s where a lot of the feedback is at. Everybody loves for me to do “Old To The New.” They love to hear [“Blunts”]. When you go overseas and different places, they want to hear other shit. Whatever they feel, that’s what they want. They’re not monopolized by the system. They’re not monopolized by that everyday, nine records on rotation situation that’s goin’ on in America. There used to be 31 records on a [radio] playlist, now there’s nine. I just listened the other day to the radio, and was like, “Is this for real? Oh shit!” These kids, they missed the golden era. They missed when New York was the shit!
DX: One of the things I feel people get misconceived about 2Pac’s legacy is how much he knew about Hip Hop. You guys had a special relationship. As a pioneer of east coast Hip Hop, can you tell me about 2Pac the Hip Hop fan?
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Greg Nice: [2Pac] loved everything. He loved everybody’s music. The last 30 days of his life, I lived with him in his crib. I was out there, in L.A., at the crib. I was actually with him when he got the crib.
This is some real shit right here: I was actually sittin’ in my crib, in the Bronx. I got on the phone, called Information. “Please give me the number to Death Row Records in Beverly Hills, California.” They gave me the number, I called. “My name is [Greg Nice] and I want to leave a message for Tupac.”] Fifteen minutes, my beeper’s beepin’. I’m lookin’ at it, “3-1-0? What’s 3-1-0?” That’s a new area code out in California. Everything used to be 2-1-3 and 8-1-8. [I call and say,] “Somebody paged me?” [The voice on the other line says], “Yeah, mothafucka! What’s up, my nigga!” He asked me what was goin’ on. I said, “Right now, ain’t nothin’ goin’ on. Actually, [the industry] is actin’ like I [haven’t] done shit.” He said, “Are you crazy? Get over, right now.” I said, “’Pac, I ain’t got no $1,000 plane ticket.” He goes, “I don’t want you to pay for no mothafuckin’ ticket. Write this number down and call it in five minutes.” Call back and a woman tells me they’ve got a plane leaving that night. There was a friend of mine in my crib then. It was [his idea] for me to call [2Pac]. I said, “You know what? He’ll take you [too]. I want you to meet my boy.” The next morning at [L.A.X. Airport], there was a sign with a lady holdin’ it with my name on it. Walk to the limousine, get in. She asked, “Do you want to go [by way of] the freeway, or do you want to go to the hood?” I asked her what she meant. “Well, Mr. Knight has me ask all the passengers which way they want to travel.”
[We were headed] to Pasadena to the [Gridlock’d] movie set. I was [teasing him] that my man’s a movie star now. [Because the last time I saw 2Pac, we had to judge a bikinin contest in San Diego in the early ‘90s, and he was still getting on.] There was security, there was [Fruits of Islam] there, there was gang-bangin’ dudes there, sheriffs there, all that shit. By the time I get to the holding area, who comes runnin’ around the trailer? [2Pac, going] “Ahhh! Greg-mothafuckin’-Nice! You came? Ahhh! I love you, mothafucka!” All those bodyguard dudes that was havin’ stone faces start gigglin’. [We started talking about business. He asked] “How much you get for your last album at Def Jam? … Oh word? I’ma get these mothafuckas [at Death Row] to give you $30,000 more! Fuck that! Let’s start a new album today. We’ll start tonight. Your first single, let me do the hook. We’ll bug the world out.” I was like, “Aight, let’s get busy.”
[Later on], one night we were sitting at the crib. He said, “Greg, I can’t believe you used to let me hang out. You didn’t know who the fuck I was, man.” I told him, “Real recognize real, baby.” He remembered everything. [He paid for me to stay in a room at the Ritz Carlton, and bought all our food, drinks, weed.]
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2Pac was the kind of guy that’d be leaning against a wall on 145th Street in Harlem. Chillin’. I seen him one day, just like that. I’m drivin’ by. “What are you doin’, mothafucka?” Boom. He’s in the car, we’re drivin’. That was the second time he did that. The first, I was drivin’ by the [loading] dock at The Apollo. Digital Underground [was in town]. 2Pac was like, “Yo Shock, I’ll see y’all later, at the hotel.” He jumps in the car, and we’re goin’ to the Bronx, White Plains Road. 2Pac said, “Yo, pull over there. I used to live there. I went to school right here. My moms lived in that building.” Shit like that, all day long. He was dying to meet my man Vance Wright, Slick Rick’s original deejay. He was [at Vance’s house], buggin’. When [2Pac] passed away, Vance came to see me. “Yo Greg, I got something for you.” He pulled out a picture of me and ‘Pac on the couch at his house [taken] when Juice had just come out.
DX: 1991, 1992…
Greg Nice: If you look at the Juice movie, at the beginning, when they’re walking down the street, Omar Epps and them dudes, and the guy was robbin’ the bar. You know he’s rhymin’ right. You remember what rhymes he said, right?
DX: I don’t.
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Greg Nice: He said my rhymes from “Funky For You.” Look at Poetic Justice. There’s this room where [2Pac’s character’s cousin] has the equipment at. Look at the wall, over the bed: there’s a poster of me and Smooth. I was on the soundtrack for that movie too. I got four other records that haven’t even come out, that I’m on with [2Pac].
DX: From One Nation?
Greg Nice: Yep. All of that One Nation, I brought everybody. Everybody he wanted to see, I’m like, “You want [DJ] Premier to come up with you?” [2Pac] was like, “What? Hell yeah!” I called ‘Preme. [He was like], “Hell yeah!” I called Fat Joe. “Hell yeah!” Buckshot and [the Bootcamp Clik], “Hell yeah!” Everybody started comin’.
DX: All those names you just mentioned, were they able to come out?
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Greg Nice: Yeah. The only who didn’t come was Joe.
DX: So Premier and 2Pac actually had the opportunity to work together?
Greg Nice: Yeah, and [DJ Premier] loved [2Pac] as well. To the point where that’s all he talks about. “Man, 2Pac came to my fuckin’ house!” Showbiz too, “Greg brought 2Pac to my living-room, man, sittin’ with me, chillin’.”
DX: I have to tell you, Greg, that’s a crazy story, man. I’m glowing, man. Nobody knows this. You worked on those four records. Do you personally want to see them release, or are they better left to mystery and memory?
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Greg Nice: It depends on how it sounds. It depends on how it’s mixed. I assume, if it were to be mixed, it’d be mixed with a different flavor now. It would be a whole new sound. One is actually on this Pac’s Life [release] that they did. One of those songs [“International”], I got the publishing credit on the record, ‘cause they took different inserts of records we did and made that one song. They put [Nipsey Hussle and Young Dre The Truth] on there, rappin’. [Afeni Shakur] sent me the paperwork, saying, “My son would’ve wanted his friends to get that money. I want to take care of it the right way.” That’s what she did.
DX: For all these years, people always knew you were involved, Busta Rhymes was, the Boot Camp Clik, but even down to what you just said about Joe and Premier, that’s stuff that people have never spoken about…
Greg Nice: Because a lot of people wasn’t around, and I was the dude on the phone makin’ it happen.
DX: Because this is history, who else was on One Nation?
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Greg Nice: Busta wasn’t on that project. It ain’t Busta [that you’ve heard on the leaks], it’s a guy named L.S. I knew L.S. from Busta, that was his boy. When I picked up Busta from his house, that was his boy. He’d be with him everyday. Eventually, as time went down the line, they had a falling out with each other, and I didn’t stop bein’ his friend just ‘cause you don’t talk to him no more, Bus’. He was tryin’ to make amends with Bus’ and do everything with him. For whatever reason, he didn’t want to see eye-to-eye with homeboy. Then I brought my man Asu to California. He was a rapper from New Jersey. I remember when Buck and them first got there. Snoop [Dogg] was on a record with us too.
DX: You need to write a book, with these stories…
Greg Nice: Shit, I can remember I told [KRS-One] to play piano on “The Bridge Is Over.” It was me and Ced Gee from [Ultramagnetic MC’s]. We took the subway from his crib, downtown, took the shuttle across 42nd [Street] to Times Square, walked up the street to 48th Street to this studio called A&R, which is now the Music Union Building. Right there, this was before [digital equipment]. Everything was manual. No fuckin’ automation. They had one Roland keyboard synthesizer, and KRS was on it, tryin’ to fuck with it [mimics the keys to “The Bridge Is Over”]. I told him, “Yo, try that fuckin’ beat-up piano over there, it’s all out of key. It’ll probably be dope that way.” He went to the piano [mimics experimenting with the keys to the song]. Then he went on the fuckin [Esu] SP-12 and [added the drums]. Fifteen minutes later, he was in the studio, [recites] “Roxanne Shante is only good for steady fuckin’!” The next day, he made an acetate, ‘cause that’s what we used to do, metal plates. [DJ] Red Alert played it the next day. After that, they had to go and down a clean [version], ‘cause it was gonna be a record after that. B-Boy Records put that shit out. If you were outside of New York, you didn’t hear the real one, the same way people didn’t hear the real “The Ruler’s Back” [by Slick Rick]. It began it as a tape. Jam Master Jay [remixed it], but it was raw, the way him and Vance did it.
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DX: I’m not gonna be that guy that’s gonna say, “Okay, now tell me about Guru.”
Greg Nice: [Bursts out laughing] You know how many motherfuckers call me about that shit?
DX: It has to be ridiculous. What I want to know though, is you guys were a duo. Gang Starr was a duo. In the early ‘90s, two duos working together on a single was unheard of. That was not an era of features and whatnot. Tell me how you guys saw that, because “DWYCK” is a classic record, but also a groundbreaking act…
Greg Nice: We recorded the record in ’91. That’s how we knew it was gonna come out in ’92, [recites closing lines] “’92, one year later / Peace out, Premier, take me out with the fader.”
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I remember, WC from The Maad Circle, he was there when we recorded that record. He was layin’ on the floor of the studio. That’s Premier’s boy. All them west coast boys, him, King Tee, MC Eiht.
[Collaborating with Gang Starr], it was a big issue. They were on Chrysalis Records, we were on Def Jam. Premier was like, “That should be the single.” Chrysalis was like, “No, no. We don’t do that. No group that can be on another label can be on [our group’s] first single.” Today, that’s all they do. I used to tell Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen, “Look B, we’re doing two videos for one price.” Ralph McDaniels [was our go-to guy]. This dude did our videos when we only had five dollars, let him get that budget. Ralph would flip it so we’d do the video on the weekends. We’d keep the cameras the [automatic] second day, and we’d just go shoot. The Spanish version of “Hip Hop Junkies,” bam. Everybody would run home on Friday to see Video Music Box. MTV couldn’t even fuck around, BET couldn’t fuck around. Rap City was getting ready to start. All the information they was gettin’, they was gettin’ from Ralph McDaniels.
DX: All this said, you say “that’s the way it was.” Let’s bring it full-circle, Greg. Your solo debut is coming in September. Do you draw much parallel to working on your new project to walking down memory lane?
Greg Nice: Hell yeah! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I’m doin’ the same shit I been doin’. I get on the airplane, go where I gotta go, do the concert. I’ll be on the airplane the next morning comin’ home. I’ll be at my house, sit down and create this record. That’s it. This project, I’ve been real free about it, due to the fact that this so-called Hip Hop world that’s going on today, they don’t know what’s real anymore. If you go back from Rockmaster Scott & The Dynamic Three to the Public Enemy to Big Daddy [Kane] to the Sugar Hill Gang to The Boogie Boys, you get all these different things – all kinds of music and things with their records. All kinda tempos! Everything is one pattern and one sound today, all out of a fuckin’ keyboard.
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