Mountain Brothers - Ain’t Nuthin’ 98 1998

Snoop Dogg f. Pharrell - Drop It Like It’s Hot (Chops Remix) 2005

Online promotion of hip-hop may have been virtually non-existent during the first half of the 1990s, but that didn’t prevent a few pioneering heads from politicking across America and the Atlantic, exchanging opinions and music. The same usenet newsgroups that spawned this here weblog, alt.rap and rec.music.hip-hop (now archived by Google Groups, but best read with a newsreader), were meeting points for hip-hop’s early online community. One act that could be found promoting its sonic experiments were D.O.A., short for Da Other Asiatics. They were a trio hailing from Philadelphia, of Taiwanese and Chinese descent, who had formed at Penn State. But it was under their new moniker Mountain Brothers that Styles, Peril-L and Chops began to make noise in the music industry. In 1996, they won Sprite’s nationwide Rhymes From the Mind contest, resulting in a nationally aired radio commercial. One year later, they were the first Asian-American hip-hop act to sign with a major, but they split from Ruffhouse/Columbia after the promo single “Paperchase.”

Determined to make it happen, they released their debut “Self: Volume 1″ in 1998. It took them 5 years to follow up with “Triple Crown” in 2003, which also saw the release of producer Chops’ instrumental album “Food For Naught.” Last year, Chops, who also raps, put out “Virtuosity,” enlisting the help of acclaimed MC’s like Ras Kass and Raekwon. With the Mountain Brothers project apparently gone back into hibernation, it looks like Chops (born Scott Jung) is making his career as a producer a priority. Suddenly, he’s promoting his own mixtapes hosted by Paul Wall and Bun B, puts out break records on Brick Records, drops unsolicited remixes and is sure to let you know that it’s a “Chops remix, motherfuckers,” when before he did the occasional beat for the likes of Bahamadia, Mystic and Grand Agent. There was even an announcement that Chops, who has already worked on Nike commercials in the past, secured a deal with Reebok. Quote: To tap into the growing Asian hip-hop market in the US, as well as the rest of the globe, Reebok’s urban division RBK is currently designing the S. Jung sneaker.

Whether we’ll ever see that happen or not, the man is making moves. Personally I wasn’t too impressed with the three tracks he had on ODB’s “Osirus Mixtape,” but the “Drop It Like It’s Hot” remix he did for the “Gunner Palace” mix-CD was almost as daring as the original. Known for steering clear of samples since the Mountain Brothers days (check his verse on “Ain’t Nuthin’”), the new and improved Magnificent Butcher may be on the verge of producer stardom, and with this we hopefully secure the rights to a big fat “Told you so!”

Artist website
Interview at www.HipHopGame.com