Michael Shok Gomez — the Yonkers, New York super-producer known as DJ Shok — is the oft-overlooked genius behind one of the all-time greatest hip-hop songs: “Slippin’ ”.
As the lead single off Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood — the certified triple-platinum second album from thrice-Grammy nominated legend DMX, “Slippin’ ” is simply one of the rawest, emotion-driven songs ever created, regardless of genre. Three verses of authentic vulnerability from X over an incredibly poignant instrumental created years prior by Gomez — then an in-house producer for Ruff Ryders — with back-up vocals from future American Idol contestant Tamyra Gray.
The certified-gold “Slippin’ ” and it’s accompanying video will forever remain imbedded in the minds and hearts of all who’ve heard and seen it; a beacon of inspiration and glimmer of hope delivered by one of the realest to ever do it.
With the track nearly twenty years old yet relevant and passionate as ever, DJ Shok recently took the time to speak about his process in crafting the classic.
ON BEGINNINGS
Since I could walk, I was either playing drums and breaking cassettes or needles on turntables. I started to DJ when I was around ten years old and started producing music in 1992 when I was eighteen. My first release was in 1994 — a song with Raw Breed, Kool Keith, Melle Mel and Godfather Don called “Rampage”. After that, I had some notable underground hip-hop releases like Hi-Tech’s “24/7” and a bunch of others that did pretty well.
In 1998, I signed with Ruff Ryders and went on to produce hits for everyone from Snoop to (Big) Pun to DMX.
ON INFLUENCES
Production-wise, my main influences would be De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest (Q-Tip), Pete Rock, Buckwild, Marley Marl, DJ Muggs and DJ Premier. I also need to add DJ Red Alert in there even though he is not a producer, because his show on KISS 98.7 was what made me truly love hip-hop music.
ON SLIPPIN’
I was going through a difficult time when I wrote that beat. I was living with my parents in 1994, looking for a job and pursuing my dream of making music. I was thinking of giving up and wondering about my future at the time. I was working hard trying to break into the music business but nothing was panning out the way I wanted it to. I would listen to that track “Moonstreams” by Grover Washington, Jr. and I loved the emotion in that track — especially the piece that I sampled. It really hit home for me.
I used an Akai S950 as my sampler, Roland MC-50 for sequencing and the Korg X5DR for all of the percussions besides the kick and snare drums which were sampled from vinyl. The sample was from a CD because my vinyl copy had too many pops — which works sometimes but I wanted a cleaner sound for this track. The Korg percussions were so clean that the gritty vinyl sample didn’t really match the track, so I re-did the beat with the CD sample instead.
I did that track and never expected anything from it because it wasn’t the kind of boom-bap track I usually made; it was a really mellow, deep track that I never thought would work in hip-hop.
I liked it, but had little hope it would become a classic.
At that time, I would make maybe three-to-six beats a day and it was not the kind that people were looking for, in my mind. Also keep in mind: the track was four years old when I played it for X.
ON CRAFTING A CLASSIC
I had recently signed with Ruff Ryders to a production/songwriting deal as an in-house producer. About a week later, they sent me off to California to work on Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood. I had a DAT (digital audio tape) with a bunch of beats that I thought X would rip; mostly aggressive hard tracks.
I reluctantly put the beat for “Slippin’ ” on there because of my friends’ and wife’s insistence.
The limousine ride to the airport was tense. I was with PK and (Dame) Grease — who had produced almost the whole It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot album between them. They were really surprised to see me and were already rightfully upset, because they were just now finding out that Swizz (Beatz) was with X in Enterprise studios for the previous month; they had almost finished the album, so there were only maybe four or five slots left to place.
When we arrived, we went straight to the studio. There was a lot of activity and I rushed in to play my tracks for everyone there. They had gotten used to me playing DAT’s full of beats at this point and this was finally my chance to have a placement. Swizz came in the room and when I played the beat from “Slippin’ ” he stopped me and said, “Hold on — I will be right back.”
He came back with DMX and it seemed like they had been looking for the right track for those vocals.
I could see him mouthing some of the words quietly and then he looked at me and said, “How soon can you lay that?” I said, “Right now.” Back then, we laid the track down to 2" tape before recording the vocals.
Once I laid the track, X went straight into the booth. At that point, I was just happy to have a placement. I would be lying if I said I thought it would be the single that carried the album because I didn’t — I was disappointed because I thought a slow mellow track from X would get overlooked. But in goes X and lays the vocals all in one pass, then doubles, then adds and…
I kid you not: everyone there knew something special had just happened — including me.
Def Jam was already clearing the sample while we were listening back. That song took literally about an hour-and-a-half from him hearing it to becoming a song — and most of that time was me laying the beat split out to the 2". The whole studio was talking about that song. I still remember mixing it down the next day with Rich Keller on that giant SSL with the movie screen in the room at Enterprise. Rich said everyone was asking who the hell I was… “This the guy who just walks in and makes the single.” Grease walked in, listened, nodded and did the drop on the second verse. He didn’t say a word, but I took that as a gesture of respect; he was giving me props.
It was a turning point in my life. X spoke to my wife and told her how talented I was and how powerful the song we had just made was.
This was extra-special because I had just quit a good job and my wife was supporting me in my aspirations at the time. I went out there with no money, I ate off the food budget at the studio and bummed rides to and from the room I was staying at. And with this song, I went from an indie producer to a hit maker. It changed my life.
ON EMOTIONAL IMPACT
The emotional impact of that song was tremendous for X and his fans alike. I remember I went to a mall with X once and a woman walked up to him, hugged him and said that song had gotten her son through the worst time. X pointed at me and said, “That’s the guy who did that beat right there.” She gave me a hug as well; that was something I never forgot.
ON CURRENT PROJECTS
These days, I’m working on raising my boys Daniel and Noel to be the best men they can be. I have a day job at the United Nations as a broadcast technician, but I write music all the time because it’s a big part of who I am. I recently put an instrumental album together called New Wine if anyone wants to hear my most recent tracks:
