First of all I wanna thank my connect /
The most important person, with all due respect /
Jay-Z – Roc Boys (And The Winner Is)…
In this case our connect is the guys at the Loose Talk podcast, we have two thank yous. The first is for shouting out FilterFree on the episode titled “National Youth Service Crap” and the second is for having a truly insightful conversation with respected artist manager Bankulli the week before. Bankulli dropped so many gems in the interview that whoever swept the studio afterwards must have become wealthy just from picking them up.
This is the second part of the interview, head on to their SoundCloud page to hear part 1. Bankulli talked about navigating through the challenges of managing top-level artistes, how he got his start in the game and some of the things he’s currently working on with veteran singer Seyi Sodimu. However, a fan of the Roc will always be a fan of the Roc, I brought my ears a little closer when Bankulli started narrating the story of how he contributed vocals to “Illest Motherf**ker Alive” (and “Lift Off”) off the Watch the Throne album and also about how it felt to work with Kanye West’s go-to producer Mike Dean.
Mike Dean
Mike Dean is an American hip hop record producer from Houston, Texas. He’s worked with rappers for almost two decades, from 2 Pac and the Outlawz to Scarface and the Geto Boys. Mike Dean has worked so long in hip-hop that if you’ve never put a face to the name and you now go on to listen to his music, you’d actually think he was black. Listen to H-town rapper Z-Ro talk about the man.
My thing with Mike Dean is, when I heard him on “The World is Yours” (by Scarface), I thought the n!gga was black. I was expecting to see a dude who looked like Eric Campbell.
Z-Ro (Rap Radar Podcast), 2016
On the other hand, Bankulli didn’t even feel like Mike played music like an American at all, he had an even more interesting suspicion. According to Bankulli –
I shocked him when I told him that – Mike Dean, you’re not playing like an American. Every time I’m in the studio with you, there’s something that tells me in my heart that… You play like a Nigerian.
And he looked at me like this and said ‘Bankulli, I was taught how to produce by a Nigerian… A Nigerian taught me production, his name is Bido’
John Okuribido or Bido for short is considered by many to be a legend in southern hip-hop. That’s him on the left of the feature post with Bun B. After doing my Googles, I discovered that the man started up at Rap-a-Lot Records in the late 80’s and was responsible for producing hits for all the artistes on the label – Geto Boys, Scarface, Willie D, UGK, Pimp C, Bun B etc. He was among the pioneers of Texas hip-hop and helped the region create its unique sound that has been modified several times since then, but still largely retains its core. The success of Rap-a-Lot Records as an independent company created the blueprint that the likes of Chamillionaire, Slim Thug and Paul Wall still use today. You know I had to sneak in another Nigerian into this article, even though he doesn’t really rap anymore.
Mike first got to work with Bido on the Geto Boys projects and he’s also explained in past interviews how Bido taught him how to produce records. Bido has reportedly sold more than 50 million records in his career and has largely stayed away from the spotlight. He currently runs his own company Record Noize Entertainment. If you want to hear what his music sounds like these days, listen to his production work on former Def Jam rapper Big K.R.I.T.’s record “Lac Lac”. The record was released in 2014.
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