Khrysis Started Making Beats With a Dual-Cassette Boombox and Some Records — Plus a 40-Track Playlist
Pause-tape production might be one of the most under-reported and important parts of beat making and production history. In the 80s and 90s countless producers used the incredibly limited setup of dual cassette decks, records, and their imaginations to experiment with chopping, looping, and even layering if they had access to more advanced decks.
In addition to serving as a training ground for countless producers both famous and unknown, pause-tapes were also used to create several heralded rap songs and albums. Hank Shocklee and The Bomb Squad used pause-tape production to construct “Public Enemy NO. 1”. Q-Tip made most of Peoples Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm with pause-tapes at age 16. The Beastie Boys used pause-tape battles to inspire the sound on Check Your Head. And according to DJ Premier, Q-Tip used pause-tape production to achieve the crazy sample flip on Nas’ “One Love”.
The list goes on and on, with modern-era beat scene favorites 14KT and Ohbliv also giving nods to pause-tapes for helping them develop their styles. Beyond KT and Ohbliv, Grammy-nominated Soul Council producer and Away Team member Khrysis — known for his work with Little Brother, Talib Kweli, Sean Price, Rapsody and a slew of artists — is also an important part of the pause-tape production story.
“I had a little Casio keyboard with a drum set it in it. I would hook that up with the pause-tape loop and hook it up to another stereo and make beats like that.”
Before he started using tape decks to make his own loop-based compositions, the Durham, North Carolina native’s fixation with music started at a very young age. “I was always fascinated as a little kid by music, plus its in my blood,” he told the website HipHopGame in a 2006 interview. “I had a gang or relatives that sang and played instruments.”
With his extended family providing Khrysis with some initial inspiration, it was his father’s record collection that gave him the final push to make his own music during his early teenage years. “My dad had mad crates of jazz and R&B records,” he told HipHopGame. “I used to sneak and make pause loops when he wasn’t home.”
Many pause-tape masters used home stereo cassette decks to loop and chop up vinyl records, but Khrysis started with a slightly different and more portable mode of production. “If you wanna go way back then it was some records and a dual cassette boombox,” he told HipHopGame while describing his first setup.
“My dad had mad crates of jazz and R&B records. I used to sneak and make pause loops when he wasn’t home.”
While pause-tapes provided Khrysis with a skeleton model for his tracks, he also added some secret sauce to his beats with a mini keyboard/drum machine to help give them some additional texture. “I had a little Casio keyboard with a drum set it in it,” he explained in a 2012 interview for Gadget’s Behind The Beat series. “I would hook that up with the pause-tape loop and hook it up to another stereo and make beats like that.”
Once he outgrew his boombox beats, Khrysis converted to an early DAW program as his preferred setup. Once again — despite the program’s ridiculous limitations — he found a way to make it work. “When I was 16 or 17 I ran into this computer program called SAW,” he told HipHopGame. “It’s kinda like Cool Edit or Pro Tools. There was no metronome or nothing like that. I’d have to cut and paste the hi-hats and all that shit.”
After transitioning to SAW, a watershed moment presented itself when Khrysis first connected with 9th Wonder. “I met him (9th Wonder) when I was using a program called SAW back in like 2000 and and 9th was making beats straight off Cool Edit,” he told the website ThaFormula.com in 2007.
“There was no metronome or nothing like that. I’d have to cut and paste the hi-hats and all that shit”
Khrysis later re-connected with 9th in the early 2000s when he went off to college. The two producers saw an opportunity to collaborate when they realized they were both using FL Studio, then known as Fruity Loops. Khrysis and 9th were soon living together for a brief stint and cranking out beats at breakneck speed, marking the beginning of enduring creative partnership that still exists today. “We started staying together for a minute, fighting over the computer, silly shit like that,” Khrysis told ThaFormula.com. “It was damn near a factory over there, the music didn’t fuckin’ stop. It kind worked out because I preferred to make beats at night, he liked to make beats first thing in the morning.”
In addition to having opposite work schedules, the producers also found that they would sample the same records and come out with vastly different beats. “There was this one record in particular that we just went to town on,” he told ThaFormula.com. “The one he did ended up being an R&B type joint and the one I did was a real hard ass, loud ass beat — a kind of an MOP joint. They were both from the same song, but you would never know the way we both chopped them up.”
Based on more recent beat making videos, it appears that Khrysis has since moved on from FL Studio and is now using Native Instruments Maschine as his main weapon of choice. He continues to work with 9th Wonder on a regular basis, with the two producers playing central roles in the impressive eight-member Soul Council production crew.
““We started staying together for a minute, fighting over the computer, silly shit like that. It was damn near a factory over there, the music didn’t fuckin’ stop.”
It seems fitting that Khrysis has figured out a way to make producing his life’s work after earning his first album credit 15 years ago. His impressive resume is both a reflection of his dedication to the craft and lifelong love affair with music. “I’ve always been intrigued and memorized and into sound and the way it makes people move and the way it makes you feel,” he explained in his Behind The Beats episode.
To celebrate the creative journey of Khrysis, I’ve hand-picked 40 choice productions from him into one exclusive Micro-Chop Spotify playlist. Featuring a mixture of album songs, mixtape cuts, instrumentals, and other goodies, I hope you enjoy it. Make sure to give it a follow and share it around if you do.
Connect with Khrysis on Instagram, his website, and on Twitter @KHRYSIS.
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