The Bomb Squad’s Hank Shocklee is widely known for exposing the future of music. His slaughtered samples and layered tracking was the only thing plausible to match Chuck D’s booming voice on seminal Public Enemy albums. With timeless work also with Ice Cube, Slick Rick and Keith Sweat, it was Shocklee’s understanding of the past that allowed the ear of the golden era to so brilliantly forecast the future.
This proved to be pivotal in creating the source music for American Gangster. Shocklee helped sprinkle the patina in the music, set between 1969 and 1973 with original compositions made to sound like dusty relics from glory years of “blue magic.” The sonic icon also produced the Anthony Hamilton hit single “Do You Feel Me?” in an old world studio in Brooklyn. Will the motivation of another nation bring Hank back to Hip Hop for second go-round? Whatever the case, one of the kings of boom bap gets technical about his technique.
HipHopDX: Was your hand in American Gangster geared towards the soundtrack or the score? To my understanding, it
