For many Hip Hop heads, Jedi Mind Tricks’ 2000 album Violent By Design is one of the crowning achievments of the then-burgeoning underground scene. Now, in a recent interview with Unkut, JMT frontman Vinnie Paz recalls the recording of the group’s seminal sophomore release.
Paz recalled the lo-fi ethis and extremely limited budget on which he, producer Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind and fellow emcee Jus Allah record the LP. He expalined that they actually recording the entire LP in Stoupe’s bedroom, which lacked any form of sound proofing, let alone a mic booth.
“Any little money we got back from The Amber Probe [EP], we were just using it to buy anything we needed for the studio. We bought a beat machine and an ADAT for Stoupe’s crib. A lot of people don’t know – we weren’t even in a fuckin’ real studio until Visions of Ghandi in 2003,” he said. “We recorded and mixed that in the bedroom. We didn’t even have anything sound-proofed and we had no mic booth. We just had to be quiet! It would be a fuckin’ 100 degrees outside and Stoupe would fuckin’ shut all the windows and turn the fan off so the mic wouldn’t pick anything up. It was like a thousand degrees in there bro! And we were smoking and drinking 40’s! You look back at those times and you think, ‘We were fuckin’ idiots!’”
RELATED: Jedi Mind Tricks Elaborate On Stoupe Departure, Beats Were Submitted
Yall Were Geniuses.
I Remember That Record.
Dag I Wanna Hear It Right Now….
Vinnie Paz is one fat ass honkey.
but knows how to spit on the mic better than most rappers!
I still don’t understand how there is a JMT with members missing. First Jus left & they were still JMT, ok…then Stoupe leaves & Jus comes back & they are still JMT. I guess it’s actually VMT then since Vinnie thinks he’s the only one who matters for JMT. In other fucking words there is no JMT without Stoupe, that last album was just 2 emcees & various producers.
its over vinnie paz made it they didnt
i dont believe stoupe ever left, he just went to do a side project or somethin an they decided to use other producers…like how raekwon dont want rza production anymore,doesnt mean either one left wutang
Agreed, Jedi Mind without Stoupe is like having Gang Starr without DJ Premier.
Violent by Design is a classic!
Haha, one of the most slept on albums. I believe it is classic, but it’s not a widely known album
Damn never had a clue that VBD was recorded in such an amateur environment (not speaking of the rhyme skills of course). That’s where the hungriest shit comes from I guess. That album is just purely classic.
Violent By Design is and will always be one of my favorite albums and should be considered one of the best albums of all time! It’s purely a CLASSIC!!!
JMT avaient infiniment moins de moyens que certains artistes mainstream et pourtant Violent By Design surpasse en qualite bien des albums. Comme quoi l’argent ne remplacera jamais le talent. Et pour moi Stoupe n’est pas la pierre angulaire de JMT alors les polemiques sur son depart ne sont que de veines paroles. Vinnie Paz peut tres bien s’associer avec d’excellents beatmakers de la trempe de Stoupe et produire de la musique de qualite. A ce titre Violence Begets Violence a ete trop descendu . Certes C-Lance n’est pas du niveau de Stoupe mais ca reste honorable, ce n’est que mon avis.
JMT had far less resources than some mainstream artists and Violent By Design yet surpasses many quality albums. Like what money can never replace talent. Stoupe and for me is not the cornerstone of JMT then polemics on his departure veins are only words. Vinnie Paz may very well be associated with excellent beatmakers of the caliber of Stoupe and produce quality music. In this respect Violence Begets Violence was down too. While C-Lance is not level but it remains Stoupe honorable, it is only my opinion.
stop using google translation. that is not correct lol
vinnie paz hip hop legend. the man has given everything to his music. god bless him and stoupe. would love to see stoupe and paz link back up. they built this together. they’ve come a long way in this world. there’s no quit in paz. haven’t heard anything from stoupe in a long while hope he’s well.
Remember the time (2001), when friend of mine gave me dat record + Dilated Peoples’ The Platform, J-Zone’s Music For Tu Madre and Tony Touch’s Power Cypha Vol.1. Mane the whole year I was listening just these 4CDs… Classic shit
Still bumping this album JMT never lets me down
Absolute classic; easily in my top 5 albums of all time. The production by Stoupe on tracks like Sacrifice, Trinity, and Deer Hunter are of a complexity that 99% of producers just can’t comprehend. And Jus Allah was FUCKING good back then.
i remember the first time i heard that album, the track after the intro was blew me away i was on some….what da fuck is this? and years later it still sounds as fresh as ever. i love hip hop not Drake.
Stoupe’s beats > Vinnie Paz rapping
Vinnie Paz is wack like Immortal Technique