Killer Mike - My Chrome (Feat Big Boi) 2005

Organized Noize get their dues, deservedly. Andre and Big Boi get their props, deservedly, but there is a third member of Outkast, a three in Eartone III and he is, for me, the most exciting musical force in all of the Dungeon Family. David Sheats aka Mr. DJ.

The first Outkast album was wholly produced by Organized Noize according to it’s sleeve and it’s not known how much input Dre, Twan and their DJ had behind the boards. Sheats gets credited with the scratches at the least. By the time ATLiens rolled around Outkast and ONP were 50/50 on production duties and I’d imagine that included a certain amount of Mr. DJ influence especially on “Wheelz Of Steel” a track anchored by his trademark frenetic scratching.
With their third classic album in a row, Aquemini, Outkast took on the bulk of the production with Rico, Sleepy and Ray only getting four tracks on the album. Mr. DJ gets his first production credits here, producing the incredible “Da Art Of Storytellin’” parts 1 and 2 and the slept on “Y’all Scared”.
Previous to 1998 I don’t believe there was a single track in Hiphop that sounded anything like either part of “Da Art Of Storytellin’”. They are astonishingly fresh pieces of music in very seperate ways. Part one has a very unconventional rhythm for a Hiphop tune and those haunting synths. It also serves as the stage for the most starkly contrasting Dre and Big Boi verses ever on one track. When I first heard part two I couldn’t believe it. Played loud it’s like sitting in the middle of the apocalypse with the wind whipping you and fire falling from the sky. The piano, vocals and drum programming paint a picture so vivid you are almost surrounded by the track while its storm rages around you.

At the same time as Outkast dropped Aquemini the Goodie Mob dropped their excellent sermon Still Standing. The two best tracks on it are produced by Mr. DJ but I’ve never seen this mentioned amongst all the pages of Dungeon Fam coverage. “Black Ice (Sky High)” comes from the same place “Da Art Part 1″ came from, very soulful, wistful and very southern. There’s history in those grooves, a whole lot of pain, blood sweat and tears. Track down the extended version with the whole Goodie Mob on it alongside incredible verses from Outkast. The title track on Still Standing is a loping epic, home to the greatest Goodie Mob verses of all time with a scope almost unparalleled in Hiphop. Again you can really feel the south in this music. If Still Standing doesn’t quite match up to its predecessor Soul Food it’s because only Mr. DJ seemed to have really grasped what made that album so soulful. Cee-Lo’s verse is something else, it really is, the heat, the church, slavery, poverty, struggle, triumph, it’s all in this song and the music is clearly what inspired such candour from the Mob.

For Stankonia Big Boi, Andre and Mr. DJ formed the production trio ET3 (or Earthtone III). They probably worked in much the same way but it meant that all Kast and Mr. DJ produced tracks from that era read simply “Produced by ET3″, so it’s generally unclear how much to attribute to Sheats. I’ll certainly say that “Gangsta Shit” sounds like some Mr. DJ and Big Boi shit and that “I’ll Call Before I Come” is very Andre (3000). As an official trio they did make some incredible music. A lot of heads seem to view Stankonia as a low point artistically but I can’t see it myself. The energy of all three men on “Bombs Over Baghdad” and other tracks is overflowing even if it doesn’t quite gel as an album.
One Earthtone III track that I think deserves extra attention and has a very David Sheats style to it is “On & On & On” from the Dungeon Family Even In Darkness. The stuttering (Kraftwerk) beat and bass tones coupled with Cutmaster Swiff’s scratches create an immersion similar to that on “Da Art Of Storytellin’ 2″.
On the world-beating Speakerboxxx/Love Below album Mr. DJ was still down though the ET3 name was gone and Andre was working alone on his half of the album. My favourite tracks over the eight sides are “Knowing” and “Flip Flop Rock” both produced by Big Boi and Co-produced by Mr. DJ.

Now, the problem with finding Mr. Sheats to be the most exciting and inventive producer out there is that he hasn’t put a hell of a lot out there. Within the Dungeon Family he’s done tracks for Killer Mike and had one track on the third Goodie Mob LP. ET3 produced “It’s OK” for Slimm Calhoun and a number of tracks on the DF album. In the wider world of music Mr. DJ produced two tracks for Atlanta group Jim Crow and a few tracks for southern stalwarts Eightball & MJG at the end of the 90s. ET3 produced tracks for various southern cats including Mystikal and did a lot of remix work for pop acts like Lenny Kravitz, No Doubt and even the Backstreet Boys but I’m not sure whether they were buying all three ETs, or just Andre.

In 2005 Mr. DJ was back on the scene producing the stunning My Chrome for Killer Mike. The track was intended to be the lead-off single for Killer Mike’s second Aquemini/Columbia Records album but the album didn’t drop. With Aquemini disbanded (”All I know is Big here, Dre gone, moved on, changed name from Aquemini to Purple Ribbon”) Mike’s album is due to drop on Purple Ribbon/Virgin Records some time in 2006. Outkast’s Idlewild film and album may yet drop this year and in theory another album The Hard Ten is on the cards, but we’ll see.

Whatever happens to the slightly fractured Dungeon Family I’m hoping Mr. DJ has a lot of work coming his way. From initially seeming impossible to pin down he’s developed a style of his own while still innovating and surprising every time. His music is futuristic and progressive whilst channeling a century of southern music and feeling. The perfect accompaniment to this art of storytelling.

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