Interview: Ox The Architect aka Oxygen
First interview here and guess who is in the house.... That's right my man Oxygen.
Correct me if i am wrong Ox but we know each other for nearly 10 years or so. He is the most calm person i know and always giving the right advice. He helped me getting in my hands on a lot of good music, much appreciation yo!
Enough said, Ox was good enough to answer couple of my questions. His career was on my radar for quiet few years now, and i always supported his music.
Here we start!
1. Tell us a bit about who Oxygen is?
Peace!
I’m Oxygen the emcee/recording artist, DJ and vinyl collector
originally from Long Island, NY and currently living in the Atlanta, GA
area.
2. How did everything start, who inspired you?
I
started off as most kids with an infatuation for Hip Hop in the 80’s as
a B-boy rockin’ on cardboard and linoleum in my hometown of North
Babylon, NY. I was also writing graf a little under the moniker Sinister
One. The love for vinyl and DJ’ing came before the emceeing actually.
My main inspiration came from an older guy in the neighborhood named
Greg Rawls (RIP) who was one of my older sisters best friends. He taught
me how to mix and blend records and also to begin putting words
together into rhymes. Our town bred so many influential artists such as
Supreme Force (Freddie Foxxx’s group), Bolaji, Too Poetic, Tone Kapone,
House Of Reps and a young Todd Smith before he moved to Queens and
became LL Cool J. Our neighboring town, Wyandanch, is home to Rakim,
Groove B Chill, Sid & B-Tonn, Brotha Life, Molecular Beats Squadron
among others. The area also boasted the mightiest of DJ’s and DJ crews
too, so nonstop inspiration was there. Long Island in general has always
been a hotbed of talent. It just took the world a minute or two to
catch the vibe.
3.We know you had been involved in many projects, including your solo career. Would you share with us anything about it?
Photo credit - Melissa Alexander
Sure.
Well taking it back to the 80’s, we had a crew of about 7 guys from our
hood called Dominating Force. One of the guys in the group was one of
my best friends to this day DJ Cut Wizard Albee. After DF kind of
dissolved, Albee and I continued on with this music thing and started
creating basement demos. We called ourselves Hype Sound Productions. My
rap name then was MC Just Divine. In ‘86, we had another partner who
moved to the area from Patterson Projects in the Bronx known as EZ Gee
(later known as King Takeem). So he, Albee and myself formed a crew -
Takeem and me on the rhymes, and Albee on the cuts. Flash forward to
1990, what we were doing caught the ear of a local DJ/producer known as
Elbee Bad and we began doing some work with him. Albee and him were
doing stuff under the name ‘The Wizard & The Prince’, and I started
recording under the name Jonzhaft The Psychopath and dropped some 12”
releases with Larhon Records and Red Heat, both distributed by Apexton
Records. From there, I worked with DJ Smash Hunter and was part of a
group Jazz Not Jazz in ‘91. This was very early “acid jazz” stuff and we
helped launch Eightball Records & New Breed Records back then. I
stopped recording for many years and returned in the mid 2000’s with our
group Sputnik Brown (shouts out to Musa). That situation led to me
connecting with Soundsci, The Rampagers, and a very lengthy underground
solo career working with some extremely talented producers. It’s been an
amazing ride!
4. Recently we've seen a dope production called Masterminds In Effect. What can we expect?
Masterminds
In Effect (MIE) is my partner in rhyme, Audessey and myself together as
a production team. You can expect nothing less than some fly,
innovative production - PERIOD! We’re both long time students of the
culture and we come with different flavors to add to the pot. Right now,
we’re just in the lab building up a catalog of instrumentals and will
see where it all leads.
5. Gone diggin', we know about your digging passion. How and why did you become a vinyl veteran?
Yes,
I’ve been known to find a record or two out there in the field. Back in
the mid 2000’s, I also had a college radio show out at the University
of Stony Brook, Long Island called Chemical Breakdowns. I was on
midnight to 3am, and the show actually streamed online. This was during
the time MySpace was big. Through that network, I was starting to
connect with all these DJ’s and producers from all around the globe.
Majority in the UK, as they were just waking up there in the morning to
tune into my show. Many of them were also Sputnik Brown fans and also
part of a crew called Vinyl Veterans. They basically adopted me into the
crew as a U.S. representative and I haven’t looked back since. No
matter what I’m involved with musically, the name Vinyl Veterans will
always be attached somehow.
6. Where can you be supported?
You
can catch me on IG at @ox_the_architect. There’s links there in my bio
for my Bandcamp, Big Cartel & my Discogs page where you can purchase
used vinyl, cassettes and CD’s. The Masterminds In Effect page on IG is
@mastermindsineffect, or you can visit our website at miepros.com
for more info.
I would like to add THANK YOU for this interview, sir.
You have been in my corner for many many years now and it was a supreme
honor to be called upon. I appreciate you.
Much Respect for taking the time and effort answering my questions Ox, i am sure many people will appreciate your honesty and humbleness. Until next time Big Bro!
1 LOVE
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