Interview: Hip=Hop Duo Releases Exclusive Project “Dead Planets and Dwarf Stars” (@NEXTWON8141)

By MJ Savino • On Interviews ,

ds9

MJ here with I Am Hip-Hop Magazine Lon­don!  For those that know MJ know I am quite the music crit­ic and it’s rare that I really appre­ci­ate and become a fan of music that is sent over to me on the reg­u­lar.  How­ever, on one of those rare occa­sions Chica­go based pro­du­cer Nex­t­won reached out to me with a request to listen to “Dead Plan­ets and Dwarf Stars”, released by Hip Hop duo DS9.  My imme­di­ate reac­tions were relief, excite­ment, and feel­ing over­all impressed! Join­ing me for this inter­view is Nex­t­won and MC Trauma bet­ter known as DS9.

MJ:  I have so many ques­tions and want to learn everything about DS9.  Let’s begin with some his­tory.  We all know the chem­istry between pro­du­cer and emcee is crit­ic­al in the music industry! How did you two link up?  Talk a bit about the rela­tion­ship, some chal­lenges as well as the successes.

Nex­t­won:  I met Trauma a few years ago through anoth­er MC from NJ (Light) that I was work­ing with at the time. I was throw­ing him beats for a pro­ject that we were get­ting togeth­er and Trauma heard some of them.  He hit me up and wanted to jump on some tracks of his own.   We star­ted col­lab­or­at­ing and that’s basic­ally the begin­ning of DS9.  Although the whole concept of DS9 & “Dead Plan­ets & Dwarf Stars” did­n’t come until the pro­ject was almost com­pleted, it just happened organ­ic­ally. Being in two dif­fer­ent parts of the coun­try is not always an ideal situ­ation, but it works for us.   When I cre­ate a beat, there is always a vis­ion in mind.  Trauma has a way of bring­ing those vis­ions to life almost effort­lessly.  It’s almost as if we are vibing in the same room.   I have a yet to work with an MC that hits my beats the way he does.

MC Trauma: After we met through our mutu­al friend the rest has been his­tory! The chem­istry is undeniable!

MJ:  Why Hip Hop? What is it about the cul­ture?  What is it about the lyr­ic­al and instru­ment­al expres­sion that drew you both in, as emcee and producer?

MC Trauma: For myself, there was nev­er any­thing else for me I always loved Hip Hop.  It was a no brainier.

Nex­t­won: Hip Hop has been part of my life since a very early age.  I’m an older head (41), so I was around to see and exper­i­ence the begin­ning of Hip Hop becom­ing the force it is today.   From the first time I heard Run DMC, Eric B & Rakim, and Boo­gie Down Pro­duc­tions I was hooked.  It was so infec­tious and I just could­n’t get enough.  What intrigued me the most was the pro­duc­tion side of the music.   The dif­fer­ent breaks, the dif­fer­ent drum pat­terns, the scratches, the way the dif­fer­ent melod­ies drove the song, and the way the samples were chopped and looped.   I needed to be part of that.  I mean, I can appre­ci­ate a lyr­i­cist all day, but if that first note of a beat does­n’t grab me, I can­’t focus on what the emcee is try­ing to say.

MJ:  Share with us the evol­u­tion of MC Trauma to where you are right now in your career.

MC Trauma: A lot of prac­tice, hard word, and ded­ic­a­tion!  I wrote my first rhyme in like the sixth grade. I just kept work­ing on it every day!

MJ:  Nex­t­won as a pro­du­cer do you ever feel any pres­sure?  Like I men­tioned earli­er the chem­istry has to be there.  The pro­duc­tion has to flow in per­fec­tion with the track, hook, and lyrics.

Nex­t­won:  Although there is always pres­sure to make good music, I did­n’t feel it much while mak­ing this album.  It felt right and came togeth­er seam­lessly because our styles blend so well.  We hope that our audi­ence will feel the same.

MJ:  I salute DS9!  I’ll be hon­est I hit replay on “Dead Plan­ets and Dwarf Stars” quite a few times.  Util­ize this time to let every­one know the who, what, why, when, where, and how of it!  What expect­a­tions do you have with this album release?

Nex­t­won:   Thanks!  We appre­ci­ate that. We want our fans to hit replay on the album like you did.  We want them to be on that jour­ney with us.  We want them to be sub­merged in the stor­ies that Trauma is telling.

MC Trauma: I was really feel­ing Nex­t­won’s beats.  I did my thing, a few joints, and I thought it was a real ill combination.

MJ:  DS9 cap­tures a unique­ness where listen­ers and fans can not only feel the music but become one with it, as if on a whole oth­er hyp­not­ic uni­verse!  In your own words as a duo, what are you try­ing to con­vey to listen­ers through your clev­er delivery?

Nex­t­won: “Dead Plan­ets & Dwarf Stars” is jour­ney through space and time.   It’s seen through Trauma’s eyes and painted over my can­vas. DS9 was formed to tell the story of beats, rhymes and life on Earth while on a jour­ney to the oth­er side of the universe.

MC Trauma: I want to make some body feel the way I felt the first time I heard “Bring the Pain”, and “Time for Some Action” etc.
MJ:  I’m always curi­ous about industry names!  Where does the name MC Trauma and Nex­t­won derive from?

Nex­t­won: I used to tag Nex­t­won with my crew, Out for Fame, back in the day in Chica­go.  S/O to Felen, Irok, Rome Merc, Sever & Flu­ent R.I.P. (he passed on a couple years ago). The name just stuck with me when I began dee­jay­ing and producing.

MC Trauma:  Well, after I battled this one cat I heard some­body say, “Damn you trau­mat­ized him.  I liked the way that soun­ded, always stuck with me, and hence MC Trauma.

MJ:  I’m a huge fan of the visu­als!  DS9 brings to light and dis­poses some harsh truths about the world we live in.  Talk about some of those visuals.

Nex­t­won: Trauma could answer this ques­tion bet­ter than me, but I will touch on it a bit. The main visu­al is police bru­tal­ity to people of col­or in this coun­try which Trauma touches on in “Blu Swine Social Club”. Also in “End of The Day” Trauma tells a story of right and wrong and the con­sequences you face from your actions.

MC Trauma: Prac­tice!  I have a lot of rhymes!  If nobody ever heard Nex­t­won’s beats, you can just listen to them with no vocals.  I just add to it like the whip right off the lot, but add some rims and it’s a little better.

MJ:  Fans always like the fun facts, so play along!  Name 3 artists in your per­son­al playl­ists.  Name an inter­na­tion­al hot spot you would like to tour in the future?  If it wasn’t music what would Nex­t­won and MC Trauma be doing?  Who are some influ­ences in your careers and your lives?

Nex­t­won: 3 artists in my playl­ist are Thun­der­cat (my favor­ite non hip hop artist right now), Tribe Called Quest (my favor­ite group of all time), Run The Jew­els (El‑P and Killer Mike are killing it right now, best in the game), and hon­or­able men­tion to DS9 of course…  We would love to rock Ams­ter­dam and see what kind of party that would be, and a tour of Europe would be dope… Well we haven’t made it yet.  We both still have day­time gigs…My biggest influ­ences in my life have been my wife and my son.  They keep me groun­ded and help me see the big­ger pic­ture in life.  Music­ally I would say RZA, Prince Paul, Pete Rock, Q‑Tip, and JDilla.  I’m a fan of all genres, good music is good music.
MC Trauma: RTJ, Ds9, and Eyes Low are in my playlist…To tour any­where would be dope but I would say Eng­land because they show me so much love… As far as music GZA, Red, Meth, and Pharaoh.  Per­son­ally my grand­fath­er is a huge influ­ence in my life, he is a hard­work­ing man!

MJ:  What’s next? What upcom­ing pro­jects are devel­op­ing for 2018?

Nex­t­won:  We def­in­itely will be work­ing on a fol­low up to “Dead Plan­ets and Dwarf Stars” with­in the next year or so. I’m plan­ning on head­ing to Wash­ing­ton State to work on some tracks with Trauma in his neck of the woods. For myself, I have sev­er­al pro­jects in the works with WOLM, Light the Emcee, Reign Supreme, Byrd­ver­sion 1, & Man­kind. I also am work­ing on a fol­low up to my solo album “Ghosts” which deb­uted in Feb­ru­ary 2017 on Col­lect­ive Res­on­ance. S/O to Dami­en Con­nell and the whole Col­lect­ive Res team!

MC Trauma: I’m focused on work­ing on this fol­low up to “Dead Plan­ets and Dwarf Stars”.  It has to be epic!

MJ: As we wrap up is there any­thing else you would like the world to know about DS9?

Nex­t­won:    Check out DS9’s debut pro­ject “Dead Plan­ets and Dwarf Stars” out now thru Col­lect­ive Res­on­ance.  You can find it on Band­camp, ITunes, Spo­ti­fy, Google Play, Sound­Cloud, and most oth­er digit­al music platforms…Just one click away  https://fanlink.to/deadplanetsanddwarfstars.  I want to give a spe­cial s/o to Mis­hap, Ren­Rok, Sug­gie Sug, and Memory Loss for their con­tri­bu­tions to the album, much love to y’all.  Also a spe­cial thanks to Dami­en Con­nell for his con­tin­ued sup­port and wel­com­ing us into the Col­lect­ive Res­on­ance fam!

MC Trauma:  For those out there that don’t know us remem­ber this.  Ds9 is Hip Hop, not rap mixed with this or that, just straight up Hip Hop!

MJ:  Thank you both again for tak­ing time out for MJ, much suc­cess to DS9!

Nex­t­won & MC Trauma:  We thank you MJ and I Am Hip Hop Magazine for the inter­view, much appre­ci­ation and love!

Dead Plan­ets and Dwarf Stars Album:

https://fanlink.to/deadplanetsanddwarfstars

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MJ Savino

MJ is Hip Hop Blog­ger, Pub­li­cist, Book­ing Agent, Act­iv­ist, but fan first and fore­most. “Hip Hop saved my life, it is only right I give back to the culture”!

About MJ Savino

MJ is Hip Hop Blogger, Publicist, Booking Agent, Activist, but fan first and foremost. "Hip Hop saved my life, it is only right I give back to the culture"!