Easy Mo Bee Produced Songs for Big Daddy Kane with a Casio SK-1
In addition to handling the lion’s share of production on Biggie’s Ready to Die album, Easy Mo Bee crafted songs for 2Pac, Alicia Keys, Busta Rhymes, Miles Davis, and countless others. Though he has not been as prolific in recent years, Mo Bee continues to make music today and his Instagram account is a treasure trove of information for the detail obsessed rap connoisseur. The legendary producer uses IG to play instrumentals from his storied career and showcase his equipment and workflow.
In a July, 2016 post Mo Bee revealed that he used a Casio SK-1 to make entire songs before he owned his Emu SP-1200 and Akai S900, most notably “Another Victory” and “Calling Mr. Wellfare” from Big Daddy Kane’s It’s a Big Daddy Thing.
If you look at the specs of an SK-1 keyboard sampler, this is mind-blowing. Released in 1985, the affordable and very portable Casio keyboard boasted and embarrassing 1.4 seconds of 8-bit sampling time and had no MIDI to speak of. As Mo Bee said in his post, this is “unheard of and completely laughable in today’s era of digitally advanced technology for sampling.”
“It ain’t what you got but how you use it. I used it. And then some.”- Easy Mo Bee
Despite the limitations, Mo Bee figured out a clever way to work around the limited sample time of the SK-1. He would sample records at a faster speed of 45 rpm instead of 33. Once the sample was ready to play on the SK-1, he would play the sample back at a slower rate, create a loop on the keyboard, and record it to tape. Then, using tape dubbing, he would layer samples on top of the loops. Reading his description of this labor-intensive process should make today’s producers realize how lucky they are to have access to modern technology.
It should be noted that much like Public Enemy and their early pause-tape productions, some additional studio work was needed to get “Another Victory” and “Calling Mr. Welfare” album ready. Mo Bee took to Twitter in March of 2018 to explain that the SK-1 sampler was used to compose sketch versions of tracks for Big Daddy Kane, while a more elaborate synthesizer and sampler of the day was used for the final versions. “I made demos with the Casio and I’d show my ideas to the artists that way,” Mo Bee said in his tweet. “Then I would go to the studio and do it on real equipment. The final ‘Another Victory’ & ‘Calling Mr. Welfare’ was done on a Synclavier, believe it or not.”
Despite the fact that the SK-1 was only used for sketch versions of these songs, Easy Mo Bee gives us all a reminder that you can do something great with limited resources if you put in the time and effort. He produced the rough versions of songs for Big Daddy Kane with a cheap keyboard that few producers took seriously when the rapper was at the peak of his career. As he says at the end of his Instagram post, “It ain’t what you got but how you use it. I used it. And then some.”
You can connect with Easy Mo Bee on Instagram and Twitter @Easy_Mo_Bee.
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