emcee and I people call me milk when I'm busting up a party I feel no guilt even
though you know you sending out the records and you're starting to see the
feedback and you're doing the interviews and stuff like until you see a bunch of
kids go apeshit right you you don't really get it oh we're gifted and we're
going far down the road but it was really striving to be unique and you
know his biting was way they knew the time what had skills and that's what
happened with audio - I think they were fresh their voice was different but they
still could spit well we get got it good since you understood would You in 1987
milk D and his brother Giz also known as the Audio Two smash the hip-hop world
with the record Top Billin a single with the beat that was never heard
before in hip-hop
KRS-one and then here comes Audio Two the Brooklyn duo along with their dad
launched an independent rap label called first priority music now we were
basically doing everything anyway right we're taking it to the record stores my
father's paying off the DJ's we were doing a lot of the legwork for the
single and that inspired us the start like yeah we might as well start our own
label early 80s was very R&B it was good times
you know just looped up and then Run DMC was the first real group I remember
putting out it was just Beats to the Rhymes you know Top billin was like Oh
straight beats to the rhymes kind of record it was like it was the next
generation Run DMC for us so we shopped when we did top billing and I cram to
understand you we shopped it to all the labels which they all denied us they
said Oh like a girl that's just a beat.
what
happens is milk runs upstairs say's y'all gotta come downstairs and hear
this we go downstairs he plays it and he raps the whole thing , and then we
sitting there silent when we done and he thinks it's cuz we're gonna say it's
wack and we say you know it's crazy but that's that's what happens right when
you when you're innovating and you're you're being creative you know it could
go either way with the success of Top Billin Audio Two
will released their debut album in 1988 entitled what more can I say
now rap stars they were also going to introduce an unknown female artist by
the name of MC Lyte who were going to be a rap star herself her Latin quarters
Iran in the Latin quarters at home and they used to come in here to perform
just about every weekend and that's when Top Billing was on this aid game they
had to bring them in there cuz that was one of the songs that blew up in New
York City back then and probably still going on to this day the music is
timeless right so you could listen to her right now and walk out and I think
that's a good test to what good music is it was it was everything we wanted
hip-hop to be it was like it was braggadocious it was it was hard body
you know I mean but it was sing along it wasn't people don't realize how huh top
billin is a really hard record I don't think there's no curses in it it's like
yo we used to go to Latin Quarter kats to be getting beat up when that record
came on it was like one of the hardest hip-hop records ever and then ain't even
a bunch of curses if I had a label and I had an artist I'm gonna tell them what I
think they should do right so I could make money for my label it makes sense
but if I sign the artist something that I couldn't see right but then they made
it work then I jump on the bandwagon then how do you regulate that right it's
just so for a while there'd be like a righteous do your thing
right and you give them records and they be like they don't know but then you get
to a point where they start saying okay what they were saying to me
was okay we need you to do a song like Heavy D. this is the untold story of
Audio Two the late 80s was an intricate time for music in New York City strong
island had a strong hold on hip hop from artists like Rakim De La Soul EPMD
Public Enemy and Biz Markie hip hop music was also expanding beyond
the East Coast and started to gain momentum across the country rap music
became a way for young black kids to live their dreams and get paid and full
through making music the audio two were two teenage brothers from Brooklyn that
happened to have the right formula to become a household name but their road
to success was not an easy one I started rapping this good story um when I was in
the fifth grade I heard the Kool moe Dee verses Busy Bee from the cold crush with
three my man la sunshine and the place to be we gonna get a little something
straight here in the place to be don't worry about it be gently on the
place to be the place to be yeah but if y'all noticed it or not you know I heard
a lot of shit you know busy bees popping shit Saying he will take out any MC and all
he know how to rock the crowd when it comes to having Ron no way you can fuck
around imma prove that right now
Music and Rapping)
mixtape it also had the cold crush brothers on it and when I heard that
that's when I knew I wanted to rap so after being inspired milk and Giz
decided to hit the studio and record a record for real not quite ready for the
major leagues of music they did convince a friend to take them to the studio to
record a song to enter into a citywide talent contest according to milk I
started writing then and you know started trying to put stuff together but
when I was 13 .they had this clean up New York rap contest and I was like I
wanna enter, imma gonna win this contest or whatever and king of chill
he took me does the first time I ever went to a real studio he took me to the
studio which was that Richard Lee's house Richard Lee is from a group called
clear you know they had that song intimate connection so we recorded it
there so I sent it in of course I didn't win I am but me and king of chill cut
school and went to shop it at the different labels when milk was going
into high school he moved from Brooklyn to Staten Island to live with his father
and he used to take the boat to go to Brooklyn Tech and I used to take the
boat to go to Murray Bertram so we used on a ferry together talking about music
talking about hip hop and we just became friends and brothers
according to milk D he always felt he had what it took to make it he always
knew he was a star waiting to be discovered
and once he convinced his dad it was game on they used to have to show it
mega of his college you send in your demo and they were play the demos and
people would um you know call and you know so I sent it in and they played and
it was like number one for like you know forever eight weeks and I just telling
my father like you're they playing it on the radio
they're playing on the radio so finally when he finally got a chance to listen I
think that's when he started taking me seriously
he said I have a friend Elmo the magic Christian he has a label let's you know
go over there see what you know so that's what we did and they've released
I'll be released Elmo magic Christian music released our first song which was
a Christmas ride after things didn't pan out with the Christian label their dad
the businessman he is decided to take his son serious which resulted in him
launching a family-owned rap label called first priority music well we we
had a we we did a one one song deal with MCM for the Christmas record which they
did play Chuck chillout used to play it so you know it was exciting you to hear
yourself on the radio on the real radio station but you know it wasn't I don't
think that that song really represented what I felt creatively it wasn't you
know it's my voice but it wasn't my song so and gives us voice we both rapped on
it so but you know that inspired me I'm like okay I got a start trying to put it
down the way that I hear it in my head yeah hard-working um the whole family
basically hard-working like I said to this day this here no matter where we go
everybody still recognize this symbol the notion of the independent label the
black owned independent label you know me they were one of the first you know I
mean I mean obviously Russell but Russell's still had Rick you're still
Russell and Rick but the black owned family-owned you know Do It Yourself DIY
label create your sound in-house producers I believe they were one of the
first to start just basically have a street team and really do promotions
like that and putting up posters and putting up stickers and doing things of
that way they contributed a lot of those things that they don't always get credit
for you know you know book their own tours
did you know really do it yourself this is 86 you know say they do they
really doing it themselves and and without at that point major distribution
or major backing eventually they got a deal to Atlantic Records but they spent
the first couple of years just do it at themselves I think that's it was it was
an important way you know to come in and sing at a lot of times the West Coast
cats like the two shorts and them get the credit for that kind of that kind of
energy but first party was over the next year milk D and gizmo had worked on
their skills and finally understood what they wanted to bring to the table as far
as being new artists milk figured out the sound of his voice would be a good
way for his fans to identify him from any other rapper at that time it was it
was it was such a signature sound one of the main things you know everybody loves
their era that they came up in hip hop one of the greatest things about our era
hip hop is that everybody was really striving to be unique and you know his
fighting was wet you know if you got caught biting you know and matter of
fact in a bite romp if you dare you don't say milks voice is one of a kind
you know the execution rock the crowd the music comes on you everybody's
dancing to it okay so my thing was starting with my name I always wanted to
do something different right so well I I had another name and I was like you I
wanted I want a name that's different something that nobody else has you know
I was and thought about this for a long time but my uncle and my aunt which
they're from Queens over here day one day when I was small it was in the car
we were in the car my uncle jumped out the car to go in the store but he took
the keys to the car and she couldn't roll the windows down but she wanted him
to get milk so she started they funny anyway but she started banging on
the window and she starts screaming milk milk and I just thought that was so
funny I was just laughing cuz she was bugging out so every time they would see
me they'd be like milk and out so when I was trying to come up with a name I was
like mmm baby milk so that's where I kind of got the idea for and I was like
that's different nobody else would nobody else would do
that so that's what I did and it's the same with the concepts for the songs
every song I was trying to do something left of whatever anybody at that time
it's like I didn't see the purpose of trying to imitate or duplicate what
anybody else was doing and and then the voice it's like my voice you know back
then you know melody Mel and with my voice is like the voice is already
completely different I was just trying to do different stuff so that's why I so
many bugged-out concepts and ideas because it was just like okay nobody
nobody else nobody nobody would make a song called get your mother off the
crack okay milk D started the fun his way around
the studio once his dad purchased some equipment most of the songs he recorded
off the classic first album was done on a four-track recorder around the same
time he will be introduced to daddy-o I stepped aside the two will go on and
create some classic music that came off the album daddy-o was down with Lumumba
Carson and we was doing some stuff with with Lumumba he was helping us when we
first started you know market the records and stuff and he introduced us
he took us to some stat shows introduced us to all of them um you know we kind of
just clicked with daddy-o and he became my mentor like yeah he come over and we
would make beats and he'd be like yeah that's good that's not good show me how
to work stuff or whatever we just clicked
so I was making a record on day on the audio to call make it funky and I'm milk
and them had that machine the drum machine the sp12
and it only sampled I think a second and a half or something crazy like that
something real small and minimal we go upstairs we meaning mean at Robinson his
dad and his brother gifts we go upstairs we having a conversation upstairs milks
downstairs in the basement in studio what he does is he loads impeach the
president the machine but the triggers off for the pattern that I had made for
what I was doing and that ended up being top villain this is a question I always
get and you got and people have to understand that you know this diff
people have different definitions of production right people think if you
make the beat then that's produced me you don't have to make the beat or do
the music to produce the song Quincy Jones produced thriller right he wasn't
making the you know he the produces old-school producer is the person that
oversees it and makes sure that it comes out right you know they may or may not
be the writer of the music or the writer of the lyrics they could be both so we
produce it together as far as the beat goes I made to be MC Amaya people call
me milk when I'm busting up a party I feel no guilt
gizmo's cutting up for the suckers that's down whitney said the basis
whenever i started i was my intention was always to do something that nobody
else did so it's just really my whole production style is experimentation i'm
not a you know i'm not a musician like that i just keep trying different things
and and then if I hear something I'd be like oh that's like nobody else to do
that so it was like milk voice ramen over that beat the way they chopped it
it was just it was a unique a unique record so a few other innovations in
that song that um that only certain people realize is funny I saw famed mo
peep a few weeks ago and he was like yo he said how did you do that
verse delay on top Billy he's like y'all heard I heard that shit euros pays like
you did it on this song you did it and I saw I was like oh you heard that I like
a lot of people never noticed that but inside villain if you if you listen
to it but it has what we call a reverse delay so instead of saying milk is
chilling chilling chilling it'll say milk is milk is chilly it comes before
so this engineer had showed me this thing that they were doing where they
would record they would record vocals and then they will flip the tape over
and then record the reverb so the reverb what it would sound like a swishing into
the vocals and he showed me that and I was like yo Wow what what happened if
you used a delay so that's what I did I recorded it then I flip the tape over
and recorded the delay and then when you flip it back over it comes before the
words you know what I mean so you print your trigger words and then you set the
delay then you flip the tape over and record it you know so when you listen to
his go Zoop Zoop but then when you turn it back over you hear the actual words
outside of becoming a famous rapper milk D can also take credit for production on
their first album along with his brother gears milk can also be credited for
production for other artists on the first priority music in their earliest
stages of their recording process most notably MC Lyte on one of her first rec
is released called cram to undeceive
you