Today we welcome MG! to the interview room.

Tell us who you are and what you do..

​Matthew Gore, but I like to go by MG! musically. Im a producer/remixer from Charlotte, NC.

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How did you come up with your name?

​Coming up with my name was easy, it's just my initials and an exclamation point to enhance my awesomeness!!!

What do you use to produce your music?

How did you get in to producing?

​Well in my teens I used to make beats for my friends to freestyle to using ACID Music and loops, but that fell by the wayside for almost ten years. Then I happened to get a copy of Synapse Audio ORION Pro, not a bad little DAW on its own, and started making beats again. I realized I no longer wanted to just make beats, I wanted to actually become a producer and remixer. Soundcloud was pretty much my way into that, I started reaching out to people I thought were dope rappers like Conflict and remixing others, and I've been going strong since!

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Who are your biggest influences and inspirations?

​Producer wise my influences would have to be from when I was younger. I loved all the sampling west coast dudes were doing, turning those bad ass P-Funk songs into hot beats. Also loved what was going on in NYC at the time, people like RZA and DJ Premier were using such unorthodox noises and time sigs to make those bangers!

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​What do you think about the music industry and independent hip hop at the moment? Where do you think things are going in the next few years?

Im not too happy with whats going on mainstream, It seems like the radio is promoting rappers and singers to 'go big' and make music about cars and mansions, things that the broad majority of us dont and never will have. What happened to songs about food, songs about girls (and I dont mean club hoes), songs about places we've been and seen, and so on. If you refer to my answer above tho, I see things, at least underground, making a change back to the way things should be!

 

What encourages you to carry on with music?

Well besides being a hobby that I really enjoy, I think the biggest thing keeping me in music is twofold but from the same group: I see the love and support I get from my fellow underground artists, and at the same time I can see these people I know and work with can bring HIP HOP back, and that If we all keep showing each other love and working together, giving tips, etc, we can have the bboys and bgirls of the world breakin', sprayin', and battlin' just like the good ol days before RADIO RAP took over our airwaves

What have you been listening to recently?

Been listening to alot of my friends on SoundCloud, I think all 3 albums by conflict are dope, especially liking his new Resolution one. As gangster as he may seem I been listening to ASAP Rocky alot, really like the guy. One of the heroes I see bringing hip hop back is Kendrick Lamar, you gotta check him out. Def been enjoying hip hop from the other side of the world such as Conflict, Rasmus (who I discovered from our collab), and Ted Dunn of Australia. You gotta open your ears up to music from other countries, they deal with different issues and situations and its good to get different perspectives.

What is your biggest music achievement?

​Haha one of my biggest personal achievements was my first international song, with yours truly Conflict ft Shyna. I hadnt worked with anyone outside the US up to the point and was a really really cool feeling to know our music had crossed each others waters!

Tell us about any big projects you have coming up

I have an AMAZING (yes i'm biased) album coming out in a week or two with a good friend of mine Baus (pronounced BOSS). It will be the first album I've had pretty much main production credits, I learned alot from doing it, things like treating vocals, arranging songs better, switching up hooks, just all kinds of stuff I will use more and more of in the future. I plan to do MUCH more the 2nd half of the year, would love to do a remix album of some of my favorite mc's.​

Any last words?