No Trends, Just Heat: Hazardis Soundz on Grumpy OG's | Drink Champs Network

TL;DR

Producer Hazardis Soundz discusses his work on Noreaga's new album, Gunplay's comeback, and the state of hip-hop on the Grumpy OG's show.

Key Points

• 1.Hazardis Soundz is a Grammy-nominated producer and the audio engineer for Drink Champs. He handles all audio, sound engineering, and writes the 'Quick Time with Slime' segment, with the show approaching its 10th anniversary.
• 2.He has four joints on Noreaga's upcoming album. The project features Yoatti, Nelly, Capone, and Dr. Dre, with Hitmaker potentially executive producing and Hazardis handling mixing and mastering.
• 3.Gunplay's new album 'This Time Is Personal' drops in March. Hazardis engineered, mixed, and mastered the entire project, describing it as more introspective than Gunplay's usual street content, written during a period of house arrest.
• 4.Hazardis is also working on a new project with rapper Rex from Boston and doing production with Webs out of Miramar, whom he describes as heavily underrated.
• 5.The crew critiques the current state of hip-hop radio, arguing top-40 stations push garbage while quality hip-hop from Alchemist, Griselda, Larry June, and Clipse still exists but requires active searching.
• 6.Hazardis defends some newer artists by noting the 'off-beat flow' has artistic merit when done correctly, saying as an engineer recording young acts he learned the best ones go off-beat but snap back on rhythm, which is genuinely hard to execute.
• 7.Eddie 'the Ass Eater' Giggs shares a chaotic dating story involving a woman who smoked crack mid-encounter, followed by an offer for a parking-lot transaction for $40, which he declined.
• 8.The hosts discuss Miami's 'crabs in a bucket' mentality as a reason Hazardis hasn't broken through to mainstream despite his talent, contrasting it with Texas and Atlanta where artists collectively elevate each other.
• 9.The five elements of hip-hop are debated, with Hazardis correctly naming DJing, MCing, breakdancing, graffiti, and knowledge of self, with the group noting beatboxing and fashion as alternate fifth elements and the original four as non-negotiable.
• 10.The crew shares nostalgic stories of recording hip-hop off the radio in their youth, with Hazardis dubbing MTV Raps onto cassette in Queens and the Miami crew recording off 88.9's 'Saturday Night Funk Box,' cementing their authentic hip-hop roots.