Story ALVIN BLANCO | Photography JAY THOMAS
FIRST IMPRESSIONS ARE everything. Fourteen years ago, Dat Nigga Daz made the most of his—debuting via lyrical and musical contributions to Dr. Dre’s masterpiece The Chronic. Daz’s stay at the doomed Death Row Records outlasted Dre’s and the Long Beach native asserted himself as an accomplished producer in his own right, crafting hits for the late Tupac Shakur and his own Dogg Pound clique, keeping Death Row afloat in the interim. Soon he too escaped Suge’s house and garnered strong indie success but found himself in the midst of feuds that included a tiff with his former accomplice Kurupt. Nevertheless, it’s been a year since Tha Dogg Pound reconciled and now Daz is prepped to drop his So So Def debut, So So Gangsta, and prove an old dog still has a gang of tricks.
What came first, rhyming or producing?
DAZ I started off as a DJ. I was DJ Young Jedi. I was like 15, 16. I was doing hood parties and stuff, going to the rec where we played basketball at. Just bring my turntables up there to the park, making my own tapes and all that type of stuff.
So when did the rapping kick in?
That was something I always did because I was good with words and putting things together. I was sneaking [into] SOLAR Records. [Dick Griffey] owned Solar Records. We’d been using their studio. So I was hotwiring the elevator and taping over his two-inch tapes, like The Whispers and Shalamar. I was taping over their shit with my music.
When you came to Death Row were you signed as just a rapper or were they aware of your production skills?
I was doing so much shit over there. Only reason I got into producing was ’cause Dr. Dre said he wasn’t going to produce our record. He was doing Snoop and RBX. That’s how I learned to work that thing, ya know what I’m saying? I came together and made Tha Dogg Pound. Me and Kurupt, that’s where we was living at, we called our house the Dog Pound. We came out [on] the Poetic Justice soundtrack. “Niggas Don’t Give a Fuck” was our introduction.
What equipment did you start off with?
[The] MPC60. I spent $3,000 on that motherfucka. They thought I was crazy [laughs]. Three thousand for that thing? Warren G taught me how to use the drum machine. Dr. Dre taught me how to put what I made from the drum machine to tape, and add shit to that. Playing live instruments and making it sound clear, quality. It’s all about the quality.
What are you using now?
I’m using an Akai MPC 3000. I got a Motif, I still got this [Roland] Juno-106 that I took from Big Griffey. I got all kinds of keyboards. I got Reason, ReCycle. That Reason thing, Logic and all that, I’m just learning all that, but I’m getting into it though. That’s where the money at, that computer shit. And a bunch of old school records.
Do you sample a lot?
I noticed on “I Love When You,” [Dillinger & Young Gotti] it sounded like a replayed “Wind Parade.” I played it over. That’s what good music is, making it sound tight. I liked that Donald Byrd record. I play keys, me and my cousin Ivan. I pick it out, he perfects it. It’s all about making an album, not just making songs.