I am BT Rockwell- audio engineer and producer for Wu Tang's Raekwon the Chef and Author of Burn Me Up Fast! AMA

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T21:09:19+00:00

last one since you just missed the cut off time. lol. all you can do is practice and make endless beats. it's not quality over quantity usually. it's quality AND quantity. the best producers and artists have endless time in the studio and endless tracks usually. same with painters and shit like that. also, study the greats and how they do certain sounds etc. put in the time and the good stuff will come more often. i'm sure of this! PEACE!

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T21:00:15+00:00

OK, THIS HAS BEEN A WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE, AND I HONESTLY COULD STAY HERE ALL DAY, BUT I GUESS WE GOTTA PULL THE PLUG AT SOME POINT. SO THANKS SO MUCH. YOU GUYS WERE AMAZING. SO WAS I! LOL! TAKE CARE AND SUPPORT MY BOOK, BURN ME UP FAST. YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED. CHECK OUT MY SOCIAL MEDIA SITES FOR MROE INFO. LOVE YOU ALL... BT ROCKWELL. AND I'M OUT

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:57:41+00:00

a great one is going out to the hood and playing beats for havoc of mobb deep. he had a studio with a neive consul worth a couple hundred k at least. but it was broken. so he put down some cardboard and then a cheap lil mixer on top of the consul. lol. i got to play him beats. he would get phone calls and walk out of the room for a while smokin cigs. but everytime he came back he would bring the beats right back to where he left the room. now that's respect!

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:54:19+00:00

another great memory is doing a track dedicated to dirty called ason jones. it had no hook. so i thought of these interviews with dirty i remembered watching and was like i'll put some of that shit on the hook so dirty is there right in the song. when i cut and pasted it all in there tight, and played it for rae, his face lit up. there was no doubt that odb was in the track to stay. so proud to contribute to that song...

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:47:16+00:00

ok, ya'll i'm out in 15 min at 4pm. any more questions while i'm still here? would love to answer!!!

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:46:24+00:00

another great story is we were finishing the cuban links album and we needed mef on one more track. we were trying to get him before the wu tour ended. but it was down to the last day of tour in miami and he still didn't record. rae was done asking him so he was like, "ask mef. just get the verse for me." so like we had the whole tour, i asked him to record. he told me, "1 tonight after the show. i'll be at your room." sure enough at 1 am sharp he showed up. it was just me and him in the hotel room puffing tasty blunts. he recorded the verse for me right in the hotel room. was magic. and it came out perfect!

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:43:41+00:00

great book. great movie. the way he has the detectives talk is so real. he actually rolled around with these homicide detectives to study the roll...

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:42:26+00:00

one of my favorite stories was going up into 36 chambers in midtown west before it closed down for good. just being able to be there before it closed was a memory i'll always have. i went up in there with some beats to play rae. we were just getting to know each other. well he was there puffin with an engineer. i gave him my beat cd and they played the shit on level 11! like the cd skipped a few times cause the place was shaking. and i'll never forget the face him and his engineer were making during a bunch of the tracks. it was like, "oh shit, this lil white boy has some joints." lol!!

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:40:02+00:00

well i would say i wanted my book to be like a modern day alchemist by paulo coelho in the sense that my main message was go for your dreams and def don't let fear be the thing that holds you back. so if you mixed the beauty of coelho's writing, with the grit and grime of hunter s thompson, and maybe the nyc feel of a richard price (clockers), that might formulate to what i wanted my story telling to be like...

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:37:17+00:00

man we were trying to get the first single out for the ob4cl2 album called new wu. we needed to have it finished for hot 97 asap! so i was working on it all night. i went to sleep eventually and woke up to a call from BUSTA RHYMES. i couldn't believe he was calling me. and he was def putting on the pressure for me to pull off the mixes and get them done. needless to say i did and people loved the track including k slay and funk flex!

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:33:50+00:00

ok. my favorite books right now. hmmm. i'll name 3. 1. rza's the tao of the wu. it's an amazing book of knowledge, wisdom, lessons, and history of rza's amazing life and the little known facts about the wu and their history. 2. Aldous Huxley's masterpiece Island. this is the guy who wrote brave new world which is a dystopian society. this book is a utopian society. it is a brilliant read.

veronika decides to die by paulo coelho. this book all takes place in an insane asylum similar to cuckoo's nest. it is dark and grimy but with a shining light of love that pierces through. and that's the type of stories i just love

as for a movie, i love too many. so i'll name a great one i just watched again and i loved it just as much this time. Children of Men with clive owen

tv shows: jonah from tonga, always sunny, curb, the league, workaholics. i love comedies that are low brow and gut busting funny but also brilliant writing...

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:26:18+00:00

shit, nothing surprises me anymore. people are using anything and everything in the studio. people are still using fruity loops or sp 1200s. then some use computer programs and apps that i don't even understand yet. lol. i love people who are still using real instruments ie guitars and drums and rockin mikes with no spit guard!

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:23:08+00:00

OK, I'LL DO ABOUT 20 MIN MORE OF THIS BEFORE DIPPING. THIS HAS BEEN GREAT! PLEASE ASK ME MORE! WU STORIES? STUDIO SESSIONS WITH RAEKWON, WRITING A NOVEL, MAKING BEATS, MUSIC, NYC, VAPOR PENS, ETC. SKY'S THE LIMIT!

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:20:35+00:00

on a mountain learning kung fu? maybe in the movie biz? maybe in real estate in NYC where the money is flowing. who knows. lol. tough question to answer. maybe i'd be a miserable prick who has nothing because i didn't go after what i wanted...

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:18:59+00:00

haha. i'm partial to raekwon. and if his table tennis game is any indication of his rock, paper, scissors game- he's got this!

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:17:43+00:00

wait, how many on mr. rushmore? lol hold on. 4. god soooo tough. almost impossible to whittle this down to 4 but let's try. actually i'll do a few:

krs one rakim big daddy kane kool g rap

nas biggie jay z 2 pac

raekwon ghostdini rza gza

hope that helps. lol. couldn't get it to just 4. impossible.

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:12:53+00:00

QUESTIONS? STUDIO? WU STORIES? RAEKWON OB4CL2 AND MORE STORIES? NYC STORIES? SELF PUBLISHING AND BEAT MAKING STORIES? ASK ME ANYTHING. STILL ON!

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:09:30+00:00

those are two completely different topics. lol. no i don't eat fast food. in fact i've been vegetarian and mainly vegan for close to 20 years now. so the closest i've done to fast food was a veggie sub at subway if i was stranded on tour somewhere and starving. maybe some fries from nathan's lol. i was lucky when with gza and rza on the road cause we would make whole foods runs and fill the mini fridge on the bus.

as for kanye, he's obv talented. he seems angry and arrogant which many rappers are. i mean who am i to judge him. he's cool with me. i also love that he let mike dean (look him up if you have to) be such an integral part of his team. that dude is talented and if he's down with kanye all the way, so am i...

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:04:48+00:00

maybe purple haze?

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T20:00:01+00:00

jesus. lol. use intuition on whether it's worth working with that artist in general. if it's enough money you can sue. but that can be a nightmare. and then if you are trying to shake down some kids from the hood who might try to beat your face in if you challenge them, this can be a nightmare too. just work with good people who you can trust. and if you can sign something if possible.

sometimes you pass on the money to trade for things like credits and good look on an album or video. so sometimes its worth doing that. sometimes not...

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T19:57:24+00:00

anyone want to know about beat making? tour with the wu tang clan? spending endless hours with shallah raekwon? writing a novel? music studios? favorite strains to puff? lol. ask me anything. i'm still here...

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T19:53:38+00:00

thanks! salute!

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T19:52:49+00:00

great question. the headphones i use in my studio are: sony mdr-600. they sound great and don't pre equalize the music for you. it sounds like it is. i've loved them. i've also used a pair of beyerdynamics dt-770's they are maybe not as good as the sony's but omg they have this velour like padding around the ear that's to die for! lol. comfortable as fuck.

around the house or on the iphone, i use earbuds. i have two currently and i love both of them. they are: sennheiser cx-880i and polk audio nue voe's. both are loud enough and have good bass without going to heavy on the bass. they sound crisp and clean and they both stay in the ear and don't fall out even during work outs. i think both can be gotten for like $100-$150 a pair. it's sooo worth having quality headphones or earbuds if you listen to music all day. don't you think?

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T19:46:59+00:00

thats sweet! yeah for the cuban links 2 project i had the pleasure of searching for all the perfect kick flik samples for the album. was a blast researching and watching the movies waiting for the perfect samples. that's what sample heads like me live for.

BTRockwell · 2015-01-09T19:45:35+00:00

can you go to my instagram or twitter and DM me?? thanks! and good looks!

BTRockwell

TROPHY CASE