1: How are you guys doing ?
A: Propo88': I'm chilling man. recording some sounds.
B: Blabbermouf:I'm doing great! good things coming our way :)
2: How did you guys meet each other ?
A:BlabberMouf:
Astronout (Het VerZet) met Propo when he was going to school in utrecht.Then Astro Introduced Propo to Het Verzet ,Propo came to Heerlen to cjill with us, we had a show with Het Verzet and thats when I met propo, we shared the same musical intrest and shared the same goal asin what we wanted to do music wise so we decided to form the propo'88 & blabbermouf duo and started making demo's together, eventually that grew into the From The Top Of The Stack album
A: Propo88' : We met each other the first time when i went to Heerlen to hook up with blabber's crew, Het Verzet. I knew one of the dudes from school in my city Utrecht.
3: What was the first Hip Hop single that you heard & what was your reaction?
A: Propo88': My first hiphop single was some dr dre with eminem shit as far as i can remember, i wasn't interested. haha.
B: Blabbermouf:The first hip hop single that put me into hip hop was definitly Put in on by Big L , there was no going back after that hehe :)
4: What was the first Hip Hop album that you bought?
A: Propo88': Gang Starr - the Moment of Truth
A: Propo88': Gang Starr - the Moment of Truth
B: Blabbermouf:
The first album I bought was a wu tang album I cant really remember which one it was...the one with pinky ring on it I believe
5: Propo88' Did you always wanna to be a Producer/Dj?
A: Not always, my first musical activity was playing guitar. shortly after that i joint a metal/punk band as the bass player. after a while i wasn't comfortable with it no more cause i found out i wanted to be a hiphop beatmaker. when i needed scratches and i found i was obsessed with playing tunes for people that i was loving to damn much, i started practising DJ-ing.
6: Blabbermouf Who inspired you to become a Mc & why that person?
A:I was inspired to rap by alot of emcee's in general but if i would have to name some-one I would say redman because his first three albums are a couple of my favorite albums to listen to
7: Propo88' where comes the name Propo88' from? / Blabbermouf how did you get your name ?
A: Propo88': Propo'88 means: Progressing Powermoves since 1988.
B: BlabberMouf:
My name was given to me by the producer of Het VerZet: MadScientist
it was about 6 years ago I started to grow into fast pace rapping because I was influenced by a lot of fast paced hip hop music , Mad gave me the name after a show we did where the crowd went crazy , mad came up to me and said....you know what man .....your a blabbermouf ...I was like yeah man ..I am....and I've bin blabber ever since.
8: Propo88' What was the first song that you produced & for who was it?
A: It's hard to tell when it was actual production, but the first track i did the beat for was one that never saw daylight, which had me and 2 dear friends from the neighbourhood rapping on it.
8: Propo88' What was the first song that you produced & for who was it?
A: It's hard to tell when it was actual production, but the first track i did the beat for was one that never saw daylight, which had me and 2 dear friends from the neighbourhood rapping on it.
9: Blabbermouf: Do you remember your first rhyme & how did that go?
A:haha I dont remember the actual rhyme but I do remember writing it....its a long time ago, almost 10 years I believe! back then I didn't even know how to flow properly haha I geuss I came a long way since then, but yeah we all gotta start somewhere.
10: What was your first single together?
A:I think the first real track me and propo did together was ''Hurry up''
11: Can you describe your sound?
A: Propo88': I describe my sound " vintage ", i like warm and dusty flavours, hiphop or not.
B: Blabbermouf:
I would describe our sound as dusty raw and dirty , some people describe it as being old school, but I rather call it true school....cause the style might be oldschool orientated but we put our own twist to everything we create
12: Blabbermouf you are also a part of the group "Het Verzet" how did that happend?
A:Me and Ellmatic were in the same school together but it wasn't until the 3rd year we ended up being in the same class.
A:Me and Ellmatic were in the same school together but it wasn't until the 3rd year we ended up being in the same class.
This was also round the time I was really getting into hip hop, we started to hang out and Ell had very easy acces to a big ass music collection because his older brothers already were listening to hip hop for years. So Ell gave me new stuff to listen to every week , basically schooling me in what was dope and what was not .
Later me, Ellmatic , his younger brother(Astronout) and a friend of astro who lived around the corner(Doop) started our own crew called TIPB which stood for Teksten In Perfect Balans.
Some years of performing and making demo's went by and then MadScientist, Marvel and Ntan joined the crew and Het VerZet was born.
we started working on our album entitled Greatest (s)hits which was released on the 27th of April 2012.
13: October 26th your debut album "From The Top Of The Stacks" came out how did that feel & what was the reaction of your fans?
A: Propo88': well it's hard to tell because your just running around fixing stuff all night, but i had a a lot of enthusiastic reactions, and the crowd went wild. so i guess we did good!
B: Blabbermouf:It feels great to have something you worked so hard on to finally be revealed to the world and have it being a succes, what more can you ask for as a underground artist?
when I see the reactions of our fans I get real excited to do more projects and I really can't wait to hit the road and start touring.
14: How long did you guys work on that album & how did it go & are you happy with the end result?
A: Propo88': well the production process of the whole album wasn't that long, but it took us at least 3 years to get it together. this is because we were learning in this process too, we had to find out what we wanted the track list to look like, and we took it really serious so we decided to take our time till we thought it was the way we wanted it to be
B: Blabbermouf:we worked on it for about 3 years in total but the set up of the album kept changing until we thought it was absolutly perfect thats why it took a long time, also planing everything is hard work, especially when you have no management and have to do everything yourself.
But I think that we delivered the perfect hiphop album which will stand the test of time.
15: Your are guys are also part of the foundation "Da Shogunz" can you tell me a little about that?
A: Propo88': Da Shogunz is basically a collective that can also function as a group and a label. it was found by Corown Da Sensei this way, and it keeps evolving through the years. we grew as a group and we changed our minds about things a lot, but you can see Da Shogunz as a group/collective that produces and releases underground music.
B: Blabbermouf:Da Shogunz is a platfrom that me,corown & propo set up as a better way to put out our music we operate kind of like a label we do a lot for our releases that are label like.We come up with the concepts we take care of the promotion we got people setting things up for us we invest in hard copy products and we make a lot of connections.
the entire crew consists of Propo'88, Kick Back Corown da Sensei ,Truffel da phunky phaqir, Dj realize and myself ofcourse
16: What is your next project together or solo?
A: Propo88': right now i am just making tracks, also non hiphop things, diving into new challenges and just do what i get the inspiration for. i'm also starting up a new project, which is in a real early stage right now. but i'm always recording so expect a truckload of music in the future! haha.
B: Blabbermouf: probably a shogun project with the other producers of the crew and also me and corown are gonna do a lot of joints together
17: Propo88' who is your favorite producer / Mc / Group & why?
A: I can not name one producer as a personal number one, because i like so much different styles and any good or legendary producer got a style that he rolls with. same goes for mc's and groups.
when it comes to production, big heroes for me are marley marl, jay dee, mad lib, DJ premier, DJ spinna, pete rock, mark 45 king, quincy jones, james brown, kraftwerk, moodymann, kenny dope, to name a few. but i always forget to mention names that have been important for me ever since i was aware of music values and it never stops!
18: Blabbermouf who is your favorite producer / Mc / Group & why?
A:Its hard to say I listen to so much different groups and emcee's
I Think godfather don is really dope also diamond d lord finesse pete rock and those guys and basically a lot of underground stuff with unknown producers
19: Propo88' what is your favorite Hip Hop album & why?
A: This is the same story as the last question, so i'm just gonna name a few albums that been important for me: pete rock - soul survivor, gang starr - hard to earn, herbie hancock - man child, roy ayers - a tear to a smile, marley marl - in control vol.1, diamond d - stunts blunts and hiphop, and many many more.
A: This is the same story as the last question, so i'm just gonna name a few albums that been important for me: pete rock - soul survivor, gang starr - hard to earn, herbie hancock - man child, roy ayers - a tear to a smile, marley marl - in control vol.1, diamond d - stunts blunts and hiphop, and many many more.
20: Blabbermouf what is your favorite Hip Hop album & why?
damn thats a tough one, I got so many favorites, if I would have to choose I would say one of my favorite albums is the first lords of the underground album I love the beats and you can listen to it from front to back each track is very well done.
21: A lot of people saying Hip Hop is not anymore what it was what do you think about Hip Hop now & what does it mis?
A: Propo88': Propo88': It's definitely true that hiphop is not what it used to be. doesn't matter if you refer to the 70's, 80's, 90's, or the last 10 years. and it always kept changing each year so to me it's just normal. ofcourse i can't tell the difference in the vibe that hiphop had before 2000 and how it changed after that because i simply wasn't there, but i think there are sub-scenes in the underground for different styles and as long as there is a crowd for a certain style, people can do their thing. what hiphop misses nowadays if you ask me, is a little more discipline and the guts to work for want you want to achieve. i think for example DJ's and producers are a little lazy sometimes because technology let them, plus the scene is more friendly now, way more is accepted. so the level that people expect you to be on is lower, what causes that people start complaining about the quality of the music.
A: Propo88': Propo88': It's definitely true that hiphop is not what it used to be. doesn't matter if you refer to the 70's, 80's, 90's, or the last 10 years. and it always kept changing each year so to me it's just normal. ofcourse i can't tell the difference in the vibe that hiphop had before 2000 and how it changed after that because i simply wasn't there, but i think there are sub-scenes in the underground for different styles and as long as there is a crowd for a certain style, people can do their thing. what hiphop misses nowadays if you ask me, is a little more discipline and the guts to work for want you want to achieve. i think for example DJ's and producers are a little lazy sometimes because technology let them, plus the scene is more friendly now, way more is accepted. so the level that people expect you to be on is lower, what causes that people start complaining about the quality of the music.
B: Blabbermouf:
Hip Hop is not what it was anymore but just like any other music genre it evolves into different forms, for me personally the gritty mpc boombap sample beats and skill full emcees is just what works best for me when it comes to hiphop.
22: Did you guys like this Q&A?
A: Propo88': nice Q&A, good questions !
B: Blabbermouf: I did :D good questions! get good answers right haha
23: where and how can people stay updated what you guys doing ?
A: to begin with we both got our fan pages on Facebook, " blabbermouf " and " DJ prop'88 the insomniac " , we got our Da Shogunz Facebook fan page, and www.dashogunz.com .
Paul: Propo88' & Blabbermouf thank you guys so much it was a honor to do these questions with you much success in the future peace & one love
Propo'88: thanks back to you man !
Blabbermouf : Thank you for supporting us!
