Bomb Shelters to Blockchains; DJ Lethal Skillz
Article by Sean Gardner
I’m going to make an argument that DJ Lethal Skillz is the most OG figure in the Blockchain Music Community, having survived four platform transitions, the journey has not been without challenges and of course, the rewards!
In 2021, we are welcoming Hussein Mao aka ‘DJ Lethal Skillz’ to the Emanate team as our Distribution Systems Manager making him the first person to be promoted from Community Rep to Emanate Team.
I asked Mr Skillz about his life journey, since before he first laid eyes on a pair of turntables until now. This is what i found....
Growing up
My musical journey began in the 80’s when I was a little kid. Living in shelters with my mom and dad in Beirut during the civil war, my parents would play music to distract us from the bombing and sound of the war going on outside.
The impact of these childhood experiences affected my relationship and approach to music. It became my escape. At the age of 8 I began breakdancing, messing around and dancing with some kids on the streets, I was influenced by movies such as “Breakin’” and “Turbo and his Broom Dance”. Until one day, I caught Herbie Hancock’s “Rock it” on TV and saw Grandmaster DST moving a record on the turntable back and forth and I thought to myself that the sound was FRESH! That moment was the spark for me wanting to become a DJ.
From the age of 11, I started as a school DJ using tapes, playing at house parties, and eventually becoming one of the youngest radio DJ’s in the city at the age of 13. Though I was too young to work in the nightlife scene at the time, I used to slip into clubs through back doors at the age of 15 to DJ. Inspired by the greats, I learned the art-form using turntables to manipulate the music and found that it was a way I could fully express myself.
My experience with production stems directly from my experience as a DJ and Turntablist. It taught me how to reproduce sounds live, using the records by juggling and scratching and such. In 1995, I got back to Lebanon after a trip to Africa and hooked up with some local talents and we started imitating Western Hip Hop music, until we started representing our sounds, issues, and culture in our music. We were growing up in parallel and learning more and more about the power of Hip Hop and what it can do, beyond the kicks, snares, and heavy bass lines.
Throughout my musical journey I have been blessed to collaborate and perform with Hip Hop legends — Opening up for the likes of Pharoahe Monch and M-1 of Dead Prez at The Forum, Kentish Town, in London, England; as well as playing alongside Grand Master Flash, DJ Jazzy Jeff, De La Soul, Dj Q-Bert, Rob Swift, Dj Akakabe, Co-ma, DJ Tony Touch, DJ Vinroc (5th Platoon / Triple Threat), DJ Shortkut and DJ Apollo (ISP / Triple Threat) World DMC Champions among many others, including mainstream acts like Timbaland, 50 cents, Whokid, Big Ali, Missy Eliot, Sean Paul, MIMS, Coolio to mention a few!
Disruption
Along that journey, I’ve seen Vinyl become Cassette, CD become MP3, and MP3 transform into streaming services. With the shift in formats, royalties have dwindled to the point that artists are willing to sacrifice their true sound and art for plays and views.
That’s why when Blockchain caught my attention in 2016 I could see what the future had in store for artists and wanted to be a part of it.
When was the first time you ever saw something about the intersection of blockchain and music?
I first learned about the Blockchain through my good friend and partner in Hip-Hop, Vandal, who introduced me to a Beat Battle on the blockchain-based blogging Steemit, which rewards its users with cryptocurrency for publishing and curating content.
I joined for the producer battles, but when I won, I started making lots of new connections. I was hooked! Because of the community and the massive amount of new doors that it opened, I started learning about the power of decentralized platforms as a content creators, and the opportunities it provided to monetize and spread my music to a wider audience.
What have been the most interesting moments and developments over the last 4 years?
Over the last 4 years, I’ve witnessed the rise and fall of Blockchain music streaming and creative platforms. It began with Steemit, extending out to Dsound & DTube. I participated in the first Cohort of Sndbox by Creative Crypto and around the same time was put on to Musicoin I was also involved in a project called Hip Hop The Blockchain. After being heavily involved in Musicoin, EOS had just launched and I became interested in a number of their projects. Oh and of course I can’t forget falling victim to a Crypto Mining Ponzi, I think we’ve all been there at some point in time. But that takes nothing away from my experience of community building and empowerment through merging music and Blockchain.
Tell us about all the blockchain music platforms you have used and how it is all developing
Through my involvement in Steemit, I was introduced to DSound, where I would post my older music and new beats for upvotes and feedback. It wasn’t long until I got involved in the Musicoin community as an ambassador began utilizing competing platforms like Choon. That was all until I learned about Emanate!
Tell us about the NFT you sold on rarible.
My partner in crime, Vandal, was just launching his new record label concept and had envisioned a new way of connecting music to NFTs. Of course I’d already experienced NFTs with a litter of Cryptokitties, I was on board with the idea and we minted a Cover Art Collectible for Vandal’s song ‘Toss A Coin’.
DAO Records
Vandal has always been on the cutting edge of things and we’d been working closely together for over 10 years already, it was only natural to support his endeavours. He invited me to become one of the founding members of DAOrecords and I fully support the initiative as it creates a bridge between the traditional music industry and the revolution that is Blockchain and decentralisation. Effectively, DAOrecords is reinventing the record label and democratising the music industry, not to mention all the great strides in innovation and support for artists we are facilitating.
Being an Emanate Rep
What’s not cool about being part of the dopest team and most innovative platform in the space to date?!?
The community is awesome! We continue to explore and discover new artists and music daily, making valuable connections, and experiencing the cutting edge of music and technology as it happens. I get to do what I love, be a part of the future of music and get paid for it.
Starting work formally with the team in 2021? That’s straight-up awesome!
You’ve earned some money on Emanate for your streams
In the first 12 months, I’ve managed to earn $1200 on Emanate for about 20,000 Streams I think. Compare that to over 180,000 streams earning me $400 over 12 months on Spotify, you can do the math and quickly you see the obvious potential and power of Emanate! I push Emanate heavily to my followers but imagine all those were streamed on Emanate? That’s what I’d like to see next!
Ok so, what IS next?
With the explosion of NFT’s and the new NFT platform Atomichub on Wax Blockchain and with the help of Emanate, I am releasing my upcoming single and NFT with Dookie Brown a dope rapper and poet who I also met years back via Steemit, our track is called ‘Trees’ a spiritual uplifting Hip-Hop track produced by myself, written and performed by the dope Dookie!
The NFT will be minted on Atomichub, we are only minting one exclusive NFT and the owner of the NFT will have 10% of the music streaming revenue for life via Emanate smart contract on the eos blockchain along with an exclusive physical signed poster by Dookie and Skillz of the single and a T-shirt that will be shipped to the owner anywhere around the world.
https://eos.atomichub.io/market/auction/22
Moving forward, really it’s just a continued evolution of my journey combining all the things I love. I get to experience the innovations in the space in real-time and being a part of it at the core.
I’ll continue making music, crafting my skills as a producer and composer, engaging in collaborations and exciting projects that pique my interest. It’s a crazy world we are living in and with everything happening around us, community is more important than ever! Although my first love will always be Hip Hop, I continue to be fascinated by technological progress and hope to continue to be involved with a multitude of dope initiatives. Here’s to a decentralized future!
BONUS VIDEO
If you made it this far, that means you care. Here is DJ Lethal Skillz in his 1998 video clip which he claims is the first Arabic Rap Video in the world.
If you enjoyed this article, hit Twitter with a message ‘Congratulations DJ Lethal Skillz’ in the next 24 hours and DM our twitter inbox with your EOS address and we will drop you 100 EMT to help kickstart your own journey.
