J-$CRILLA FEATURED IN THE EXAMINER!!!

J-$crilla is the epitome of the obsessive, over-driven producer. To say he’s “prolific” doesn’t even begin to do justice to the work ethic this VA/DC-based DJ/producer has. Kid’s always got something going on; whether it is the myriad of mixtapes he’s produced or the beats he concocts. Since the late 90s $crilla has been out there putting in work without the benefit of any kind of major label support. His impetus is the relentless drive and passion he has for the music and the culture. He started by promoting parties and hitting up the college circuits; just putting himself out there and getting things done.

“I’m from the area known as the DMV; started off DJ-ing 14 or 15 years ago and kinda developed into a producer. The first record that I produced that went world-wide was a single I did with Elemental called “A Night in the Life of…” and it featured kids like Apathy and Celph Titled in 2001. I was known as DJ Hi-C back then; I changed my name to J-$crilla in 2003. I don’t even know why,” he says, laughing.


“In 2001 I had this party called ‘Battle of the Box’ and I had producers come and everybody flipped the same sample and battled it out live on stage. I think it was the first live beat battle ever; I know I went off the cuff, like it was brand new. I know a lot of stuff started happening at the same time, but I think I was the first one to do it. I grew into the idea of making beats and I been producing heavy since 2002 or so.”

You can’t really pin down his style or sound with just few deft descriptions; J-$crilla is the kind of producer that flows off the energy of the artist he’s working with. Some of his joints are crazy heavy (peep Guns-n-Butter uncut featuring XO and K-Beta). His nature is an easy one and is most likely the key to his ability to coax the best sounds from whomever he has in the booth.

“I think what my music encompasses is my spirit and energy. I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve really so if you listen to my music I think you’ll get a lot of the emotional type of stuff I try to put out there through my beats. It’s gotta’ be edgy, hard, soulful… anything along those lines.”

It’s why he is connected with so many different artists and styles; $crilla is one of those cats that is ingrained into all kinds of extended fam through crazy amounts of different collabos and side-projects, though his main affiliation is with his foundation team Guns-N-Butter and his label Inner Loop Records.

“Me and Chop-La-Rock started Guns-N-Butter. We put out some mixtapes hosted by Nature and Tragedy, Agallah and a bunch of other independent cats from New York. We just been getting work from a lot of underground heads from all over; people like JR Writer, Reef the Lost Cauze and most of the Jedi Mind Tricks/Army of the Pharaohs camp. We’ve also worked with a lot of kids from DC." The list of collaborations is long; names like Bloodsport, Lord Digga, NORE, Demoz, Smif N Wesson and N.A.I.L.S, just to name a few.

“In 2004 I started Inner Loop Records with my folks K-Beta and Overok. K-Beta had just gotten out of jail and we started putting out a couple of records. We let it go for a little bit but then around 2007 we resurrected it and went at it again. Now we’re one of the top labels out of the DMV. We market and brand artists, we have a roster. Pretty much what we’re going for right now is taking this ish world-wide, you know.”


The first major release coming from Innerloop is $crilla’s album Culture of Honor.

“My joint drops August 25th and it features mad underground, independent heads. All production is by me and I just got a ton of people on it; Reef, Cassidy, Oddisee, General Steele (Smif N Wessun), Slaine (La Coka Naostra), Block McCloud, JR Writer, Wordsmith, King Magnetic, Muggsy Malone, T.E.F.L.O.N., Ankh Amen Ra… just crazy amounts of really talented heads killin’ it over my beats. I got a DC posse cut on it with a bunch of DC cats doin’ it like Wordsmith, XO, Ra the MC, K-Beta, Oddisee… There’s about 35 artists on there. It’s 14 songs and I’m actually gonna be releasing it digitally, mainly, and it’s going to include 12 bonus instrumentals; so you buy the album you get 26 tracks on it. I’m also working on an album with an artist Sketch; he was featured in ‘Unsigned Hype’ and he’s got a real big buzz out here. Me and him are doing a whole album. That joint should be out by the end of the year. I got a lot of projects I’m working on and I’m always shopping beats; stuff like that.”

One of Guns-N-Butter’s most recent endeavor was done for Enemy Soil Records; the new upstart label run by Jedi Mind Tricks frontman Vinnie Paz.

“Yeah, Reef the Lost Cauze vs. Guns-N-Butter: Fight Music. Basically me and StU Bangas got up with Reef and we nailed this album out; it was like 2 years in the making and it should be coming out soon. We dropped the single at the end of June and it was Indie Spotlight’s Track of the week on iTunes and it got a lot of good looks. We’re looking at October or November for a release date.”


Until then, keep your eyes open for "Culture of Honor" dropping August 25th.

For more informationcheck out www.myspace.com/gunsnbutter or twitter.com/J_SCRILLA_DMV