Method vs. Madness

DABRYE SHEDS THE NUANCE AND AIMS STRAIGHT FOR THE STREETS

Text by Alex Barnes

Photography by Ben Grieme

“I was always trying to do hip-hop albums,” explains Dabrye, just one of the many aliases of the Ann Arbor, Michigan based producer. Visit you local record shop and you will find much of his work filed away under various micro-genres of electronic music: from the jungle-ragga productions of SK-1, to the acid house of James T. Cotton or the electronic experiments recorded under his government name, Tadd Mullinix. Not the types of sounds one would expect to hear blaring out of the speakers of the typical hip-hop fan. While these projects display the producer’s strong musical connection to Detroit’s techno tradition, Dabrye (pronounced DAH-bree) builds a bridge into hip-hop with a no-frills, bass heavy production technique inspired by another D-town legend, the late J Dilla.

Mullinix first unleashed Dabrye in the summer of 2001 when Carl Craig, another Detroit techno pioneer, invited him to perform at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival. Later that year, Dabrye released his first album, the all-instrumental One/ Three on the Ann-Arbor based label Ghostly International, followed by the 2002 release of the Instrmntl LP on Prefuse 73’s Eastern Developments label.

Both albums were well received, noted for their unique sounds that combined futuristic electronic production with classic hip-hop techniques, earning Dabrye the distinction of falling into a whole new musical category- Glitch Hop. This slightly awkward label however did not quite match up to Dabrye’s initial goal of making solid, straight-ahead hip-hop music for the streets.

“Before, I did a lot of shows where I was bundled with other electronic acts,” he explains. “There is definitely a cross-over there, but I felt that I wasn’t getting to the audience that needed to hear what I was doing.”

Looking to steer further into classic hip-hop territory, Dabrye began putting together a wishlist of MCs whom he felt would be a proper fit with his production style. The list included rappers such as MF Doom, Vast Aire, Guilty Simpson and Kadence, all of whom appear on the 20 tracks of Two/Three, Dabrye’s latest release on Ghostly.

The momentum for Two/Three was established early, when J Dilla expressed an interest in working with Dabrye after listening to his previous releases. This interest eventually materialized into a studio collaboration between the two artists, the first session to go into production for the new album.

“Jay Dee is a huge influence on me, and being able to do that track as my first project for the album gave me a lot of confidence.”

“Game Over,” the album’s tough-as-nails first single, is distinctively Detroit– a razor tongued lyrical assault from Phat Kat and Dilla that blends perfectly with Dabrye’s rising synth lines and propulsive beat. The track sets the tone for the rest of the album.

“I didn’t want to be confused with someone who was listening to a whole lot of backpack-style hip hop,” Dabrye explains. “I wanted a lot of street delivery on my album because that’s what I really like.” With tracks like “Game Over” and “Air,” featuring MF Doom, Two/ Three loudly proclaims that Dabrye has undoubtedly arrived into the realm of the giants of hip-hop production.