‘Butcher’ gets cookin’
The term "butcher" generally conjures images of meat cleavers and chain saws, or ham-handed attempts to improve on a finished piece of work by someone other than its creator, so DJ Vlad's alias of "DJ Vlad the Butcher," would seem to be less than flattering. But in overseeing the creation of a new mixtape, his process is closer to brain surgery than to what his moniker suggests.
The sonic components -- voices, melodies, rhythms and miscellaneous sounds -- meld so smoothly through mood and tempo changes that it comes together as a seamless suite.
'Angel Majik'
Featuring Don Carlos, Farenheit, Natural Vibrations, DJ Vlad, DJ Jah-Kno and Wicked YBWhere: Volcano's Nightclub, 1130 N. Nimitz.
When: 9 p.m. today
Tickets: $21; minimum age 18
Call: (510) 816-6225 or see www.jonathanmack.com
Despite the delicate and painstaking nature of his work, DJ Vlad sees the "butcher" label as a positive and appropriate description of his craft.
"I take pieces from here, pieces from there and chop it all up, (and) one day it came to me that I'm like a butcher. Then when I dropped (a mixtape titled 'Vlad the Butcher') everybody just took to it -- 'There's the butcher right there!' It kinda created a nice little aura around me," Vlad explained by phone earlier this week.
"I'm not playing live instruments (or) having a whole band doing stuff like that. I'm taking big pieces (of music) and chopping them up. Part of this song, and part of those vocals, and mooshing it all together," he said.
As for the name "Vlad," that's an equally proud acknowledgment of his ethnic Russian heritage.
DJ Vlad makes his Honolulu club debut tonight as part of Jonathan Mack's Mack Entertainment production of "Angel Magik" at Volcano's Nightclub.
Vlad's hip-hop roots go back to 1983 and his days as a breakdancer. He went from dancing to music production in early '90s before creating mixtapes -- original smorgasbord musical buffets of other artists' music that he flavors with ideas and input from other DJs and mixtape specialists.
Vlad moved from the West Coast to New York City in 2002 and started a new series of mixtape collections. He collaborated with DJ Dirty Harry to create "Notorious BIG: Rap Phenomenon," honored Tupak Shakur with "2Pak: Rap Phenomenon 2," and continued two more engaging projects, "Hot In Here 4" and "Vlad the Butcher."
"In the last couple of years things have been ramped up with the Biggie and Tupak tributes. They won every award they could possibly win."
Laying aside the "butcher" title for a moment, Vlad also describes his work as similar to that of old-time record producers like Phil Spector who utilized the talents of vocalists, musicians, arrangers and studio technicians to create something larger than the sum of their individual contributions. It's also a little like being a chef.
"To prepare that right thing you have to be going through a whole lot of material every day. People literally send me 50 to 100 songs a day. You're kinda going through it trying to find that one filet mignon piece, the center juicy cut, and you take a piece from here and a piece from there ... and if you do it right, it's like magic. It's incredible."
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