The Undeniable, Trox
Portland producer and DJ, Trox talks making samples, TeamBackPack, and landing beats on 50 Cent mixtapes
“I’ve never had anyone want to write an article on me before,” Trox says with a mixture of glee and apprehension. We stand around the marbletop in Tron’s upstairs room. Trox and Tron live in the same house, and have for the past two years. Portland rappers Maze Koroma, Slick Devious, and Dre C are also there. Trox and Dre C have met to make beats in Trox’s bedroom, which also doubles as his laboratory.
Trox and I have scheduled an interview for the following day. Admittedly, I don’t know too much about Trox, born Samuel Troxel. We’ve crossed paths at shows and at the house countless times before. Despite the fact he’s a fixture in the Portland hip hop scene, I’ve just never really gotten to know him. I tell him I’m going to bring a tape recorder, but that he shouldn’t worry about it too much.
We meet up the next day in the early afternoon. Trox has spent most of the morning digging for samples on Apple Music. Adrian Younge Presents Something about April is open on the screen. He plays me a track from the album called “Midnight Blue,” he wants to flip, but says he probably won’t because DJ Premier already did so on PRhyme. “I look for samples everywhere,” he says, “from records, from online, shit, sometimes we even make our own samples.”
Like so many others, Trox has found success making beats from his bedroom. In 2010 he emailed beats to Tony G, A&R at the time for 50 Cent’s label G-Unit. “He hit me back just like an hour later and wanted to hear more,” Trox recounts, “I sent them more, but didn’t really hear back from them for like a year later, and then they asked for more.” A month later, while soundchecking a show, Trox got a phone call informing him he had a track of 50 Cent’s The Big 10 Mixtape. The song was “You Took My Heart.”
“[You Took My Heart] really changed my life,” Trox says. There’s still a tinge of shock and disbelief in his voice as he recounts the story to me now, nearly five years later. “Yeah,” he says again, “that shit changed my fuckin’ life.” On The Big 10 Mixtape, Trox found himself among other producers from the likes of Seattle’s Jake One, to Jahlil Beats, DJ Khalil, and Scoop DeVille.
Six months later Trox would land two more tracks with 50 Cent on his 5 (Murder by Numbers) mixtape: “New York,” a track 50 filmed a video for, which currently has well over two million hits on 50’s official YouTube; and the track “Leave the Lights On.” This time, on 5 (Murder by Numbers), Trox was joined by producers Hit-Boy and Mobb Deep’s Havoc, but was the only producer on the project with more than one track.
Following placements on multiple 50 Cent projects, Trox found himself producing tracks for some of the biggest names in hip hop. Emcees like Xzibit and Cypress Hill’s B-Real hopped on a track called “Lost Control” with Demerick, Top Dawg’s Ab-Soul graced the Asaad track “Alejandro Jodorowsky Flow,” and Ty Farris and Detroit’s Royce da 5’9’’ bodied “I Promise.”
Trox’s ties to classic, golden age hip hop come through, especially on his tracks with 50 Cent, as Trox cites his influences as Dilla, Just Blaze, Jake One, Premo and especially Dr. Dre. It’s no wonder this is where Trox’s strong opinions on the culture come from (just ask him about mumble rap), and what makes him such a great fit with the Bay Area institution TeamBackPack.
TeamBackPack’s mission statement on their website describes the organization as “the truest platform to showcase talented artists across all spectrums of hip-hop culture globally,” and they proclaim to be “the soapbox for hip-hop.”
After a fellow producer and friend of Trox’s suggested he send some beats to TeamBackPack, he soon found his beat used as a cypher track for Mission Underground Los Angeles (MULA) featuring rappers Jarren Benton, Cyhi The Prynce, and Joell Ortiz. A little over a year later, Trox would provide the beat for another TeamBackPack cypher—their Legends Cypher with Twista, Ghostface Killah, and Cassidy.
“TeamBackPack is family to me,” Trox says, “they’re one of the few institutions in this industry that are actually willing to support and preserve culture and make it sustainable. That’s why I roll with them. They actually care about the culture, for real.”
Along with producing beats for TeamBackPack, Trox is also working with Detroit emcee Ty Farris on a collaborative project called ROOM 39. The first single from the project titled “Feel Nothing,” dropped in July and features Kid Vishis. The project, entirely produced by Trox, is set to release sometime early next year and will have another feature from Royce da 5’9’’.
Despite all these big name placements, Trox still works regularly with numerous Portland artists. You can find Trox collaborations with PDX artists like Cool Nutz, Illmaculate, Donte Thomas, Slick Devious, Cassow, TOPE and more. Trox has a project coming out soon with North Portland’s Vinnie DeWayne called Duality, and has a track with Mic Capes on his highly anticipated album Concrete Dreams, set to release September 22nd.
Trox also holds down Portland as DJ for the monthly hip hop showcase Mic Check. Put on by StarChile, DJ Klyph and Miss Lopez Media, Mic Check takes places every last Thursday of the month at White Eagle (836 N Russell). Started in June, the monthly show has already hosted such names as Mic Crenshaw, Mic Capes, Jon Belz, Serge Severe, Stewart Villain, Rasheed Jamal, HANiF, and more. The show this month features The Last Artful, Dodgr and Portland rap legend Libretto.
“I want to be more than just a producer, I want to be a community member,” Trox says.
It’s undeniable Trox’s place in the community. He’s always out and about, taking part in local functions, going to shows, and supporting the community he’s helped to raise up. Who knows what he’ll pop up on next, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Trox produced tracks on albums from local emcees, to the nation’s biggest and most influential artists.
I cross the Glenn Jackson Bridge and roll up to Vancouver the next morning to meet with Trox and fellow producer Samarei to sit in on a sample making session. Samarei has also produced for numerous northwest artists including Illmaculate, HANiF, XP, and most recently Glenn Waco’s track “Assata” feat. Neka; as well as producing tracks for Open Mike Eagle, Watsky, and nerdcore artists Mega Ran and MC Lars.
Together the duo, Trox and Samarei, produce under the moniker TWOSAMSCAN, where they create sample tracks for fellow DJs and producers to utilize in their respective beat making. Simply put, they’re making samples to sample.
When I arrive at Samarei’s place, he’s just beginning to lay down some piano on a track him and Trox have just created. The piano, Samarei’s late grandmother’s, is nearly 100 years old. Over the next hour the two will add some organ, more piano, and a guitar line to the track. When the track is finished the two sit down and talk with me about the process of making sample tracks.
With the dread a producer can face coming from a copyright lawsuit, the process of making sample tracks has become much more common. By producing their own sample tracks, Trox and Samarei are able to make sure there are no legal complications when it comes to putting out a track once a producer is finished making the beat. “You get to a point where you’re kind of at the mercy of whoever holds the rights [to the sample], because you either have a record at the end of the day, or you don’t have a record,” Samarei tells me.
Where some producers may only make a fraction off of a beat due to sample clearances, using a sample track from TWOSAMSCAN is a straight 50/50 split of the profits, 50% to be beatmaker and 50% to be split between Trox and Samarei. “It gives you a guarantee that you can put the record out when it’s done,” Samarei says. “It’s less like a business transaction and more like a collaboration. It’s more authentic.”
On a good day, Trox and Samarei will make three or four sample tracks. They have sent out over fifty tracks since April to producers like J. Rhodes, The Olympicks, Lone Starr, and Cardiak who have all flipped their sample tracks into beats of their own. “It’s really surreal to be working with cats of their caliber,” Trox admits. “It’s for us to preserve the culture. Preserve that essence of hip hop. That sample based hip hop. That gritty, grimy sound that everybody loves.”
After sitting idly for some time, talking to me about making samples, Trox begins to get antsy, and begins to wander around the room. Soon enough Samarei joins him and they each end up at an end of the piano—Trox on the low notes, Samarei on the higher octaves. After playing a couple measures of high notes, Samarei asks for a low D note from Trox, who provides the accompanying keys. Samarei half jokingly refers to what they’ve just played as a trap beat. “We could make a sample out of that,” he suggests with a laugh, “screw it, let’s do it.”
“Fuck it, let’s do it,” Trox agrees.
Samarei adds some keys via a Minilogue, some bass, and lastly Trox adds some bell tones from a 1970s era blue-snakeskin upholstered Rhodes piano. The piano “trap beat” has transformed into something that sounds like it could be out of an Italian mafia film, and then again into what ultimately ends up sounding like something that could replace the Stranger Things title music. The entire process takes no more than thirty minutes.
“That’s just how we do!” Trox says triumphantly.
Two days prior, standing around the marbletop, Trox tells me he’s “an asshole when it comes to quality,” and that quality he speaks of is evident from a local to a national level. Both as a producer and a DJ, Trox has become an integral member of the local Portland hip hop movement, a movement that is stronger than ever. If you listen to hip hop out of Portland, you’ll undeniably hear Trox’s influence. As Trox puts it, “Undeniable shit, man, that’s the type of music I try to make.”
