THE WHITE SHADOW OF NORWAY: Mark Deez

WS: Mark Deez is an MC from Augusta, Georgia, USA who's signed to my label Uncut Productions, and drops his album "The Oracle" on my label on July 1st. - 2010. We decided to have a little chat about making the album cause the heads wants to know. First, real quick for people who don't already know. Who's Mark Deez?

MD: I am entirely myself. I don't try to be like anyone else. I try to keep it 100% at all times. There's so many cats out there that like to put on a front and act a certain way, whereas I'm just myself at all times, there's no act, no facade, no frontin'. What you see and hear is what you get. I'm just a very hungry, very motivated artist from Augusta, Georgia. An absolute product of my environment. I come from a very blue collar city, so I try to convey that in my every day life and in my music.

WS: Co-sign. You're a very hard working artist as well, I'm tempted to say the hardest working man in the Hiphop biz much like your hometown cat James Brown (RIP) was tha hardest working man in showbiz. So, what's your mission in Hiphop? Like, where do you see yourself in five years from now, and how will you get there?

MD: My mission in Hip Hop is to bring back the unity in the community. I feel like everyone is truthfully out for themselves instead of being ready and willing to build with other artists. So my mission is to bring back the art within the realm of music. 5 years from now, hopefully, I'll be alive and well, making the best records possible, and be a bit better off financially than my current situation. That's honestly what I'm striving for. And my plan to get there is by working with the best of the best and putting out quality music.

WS: I agree. If you go back to the early days of Hiphop when the Zulu Nation brought all the elements together to one culture it was about peace, unity etc. Of course it's always been competitive as well which is good for progress, but the way I see it is the Hiphop nation is ONE nation (under a groove). Let's talk about the records you've released, and some artists you've worked with?

MD: I've released close to a dozen mixtapes in my career, since my high school days. I currently have 2 albums released, The Cycle of Struggle and The Oracle, and hopefully will have a 3rd by the end of 2010. I've worked with artists from all over the planet. From local artists to some of the most known unknowns on the underground to some mainstream artists. Some of my favorite artists that I've worked with include Canibus, Kool G Rap, Craig G, Ras Kass, T-Rock, Fish Scales of Nappy Roots, Snowgoons, Sicknature, my Grindhouse Gang brethren, and of course WHITE SHADOW!

WS: Word! Let's take it back for a minute. How did you and I hook up?

MD: The first time I heard about you was the "Narrow Grave" joint on the first Army of The Pharaohs album. I thought beat was crazy and Chief Kamachi had my favorite verse on it. So from there, I did my research on you, found out who you are, where you were from, what albums you had released (Renegades, etc.) and I found you on Myspace and we went from there. So once again for the cats who say that social networking doesn't have merit, you better check your credentials! And from there we got to work on some tracks for your album, Victory, which is one of my favorite records from 2009 even if I hadn't been featured on it. That joint is crazy!

WS: Thanks fam, I definitely appreciate that as to me Victory is my best album, and networking is everything. Let's talk about The Oracle album. What can people expect? Who's on it?, etc...

MD: The Oracle is my 2nd official studio album. I have a special place in my heart for The Oracle because I feel its some of my finest work to date and I think its going to be difficult moving forward from this project to release something on par with the quality of the tracks that the album has. The Hip Hop Heads can expect a bit of everything from raw, aggressive Hip Hop to more soulful boom bap to the internal struggles of being an artist to a nuclear holocaust on a planetary scale. As far as features, you can expect production from some of the finest artists in the underground. Domingo is a legendary producer who has worked with a lot of big names, so its an honor to have him on there. Some of Europe's finest producers like Snowgoons, Sicknature, White Shadow, Brods, and Soul Theory. Then some up and coming producers that people may not have had a chance to hear yet like Archimedes and Powder, and those guys can really bring it! As far as emcees, there's a track on there with I believe 19 features on it, 9 minutes long, with artists like Godilla, IDE & Alucard of Creative Juices, Powder, Dr. iLL, and so many other great emcees. My artists from my label, Mr. Untouchable Music, Young B & Lil Loco, are also featured on a track called "Warriors" and we've been great friends since middle & high school days, so its fun to be able to work with your close friends.

WS: Any fun stories from making the album?

MD: The entire experience was fun. White Shadow and I had an excellent time making this album. A lot of the tracks on the album and some of the lines that I spoke on the album were in reference to conversations that White Shadow & I had while brainstorming on the project. I guess a fun story to tell the people out there is how my studio computer died and I lost just about EVERYTHING from the album and basically had to start over from scratch. There were several songs that I recorded at Dr. iLL's studio, iLL-Legit Records, he was a big help to me, but eventually, I got my priorities in line and got a new computer, and finished up the project.

WS: Yeah, I had one computer die on me, and another still strugglin' from overheating after makin' this album, and some of my online accounts were hacked creating a small mess for a sec, so sometimes I felt we had some people or powers against us that we had to overcome in order for this album to drop. lmao. Also, a lot of special, and not so good stuff happened during the making of it. My dad died..RIP, and so did some cats in Hiphop that I had the pleasure of knowing back in the days, such as Roc Raida (RIP), and some other strange going on's like that weird shit in the sky up in the north of Norway that's only happened once before in like Japan I think. All that stuff was inspirational to me one way or the other while workin' on The Oracle.

WS: Let's talk some about how we hooked up with so many dope producers and MC's for the album?

MD: The entire album was done for free and out of love for HIP HOP. Its a true testament to the culture and the art form, and its a pleasure to be able to work with all of the great artists on this album. Especially Sicknature and Snowgoons, they really came through, so shout outs to them, especially DJ Illegal, he really helped me out in a lot of ways, so I have a great respect for him and hope to continue working with them in the future. As far as the emcees go, most of these artists are friends of mine or artists that I build with on a regular basis, or even artists that I'd had a close eye on for a long time and wanted to get on some tracks. Also I'd like to give a special shoutout to the good people at Spitboss.com - this is a private online Hip Hop community where a lot of great artists work together on their craft, and several of the artists featured on "Build and Destroy" are Spitboss members that I reached out to. If you're not familiar with Spitboss, I suggest that you look into it. Its basically the "Myspace for Hip Hop" and its a great way to build with artists, both up and coming, and established. Canibus is one of the great minds who spearheaded the Spitboss operation and helped to get it up and running, and its an honor to be a part of that community.

WS: Yeah, Spitboss is dope, and Canibus is better on the mic than ever, and so is a lot of other cats from back in the days who are still in the game but you know how this biz sleeps on artists that's been around for a while for no apparent reason. Me too, I'd like to give a HUGE shout out to The Snowgoons, Illegal, Sicknature, Brods, Soul Theory for hookin' us up with free beats for the album all for the love of Hiphop. What's your favorite songs on it, and why?

MD: My favorite song is "The Four Seasons" which is not to be confused with the 5 star hotel, HAHAHA. The concept for the song was cultivated by myself and White Shadow after having a few conversations about our lives and how life is like the four seasons. So there's 4 verses that represent the experience of life. Spring (birth/childhood), Summer (adulthood/prime of your life), Fall (middle-age), and Winter (elderly), and it really came out beautiful, I think its a really beautiful track and it couldn't have been done any better on our behalf.

WS: Or not to be confused with the classical piece either though it is a beautiful track like that. Also my favorite on the album. I wanna thank my best friend from childhood, Helge Ronny, who talked about life being like the four seasons when at a drunken late night session at my house. That stuck with me, and became the inspiration for the lyrics that you wrote like a true grandmaster. Also, I actually wrote the hooks on this one, and BIG thanks to my cousin Line as well for singin' them. My other personal fav's on it is "The Oracle", "Build & Destroy", and "Striking Gold", but the whole album's sick, and every song a banger, but at the end of the day it's up to the heads to decide. Do you think they'll love or hate it?

MD: It all depends on what the people want from me as an artist. If you're expecting a project similar to my first album, The Cycle of Struggle, then you probably won't like it. This album is more cohesive, more concrete. Its really in your face and isn't as mysterious as my previous release. The production is a lot more energetic and aggressive. So if you like dope lyricism, banging beats, and some of the best scratches that you will ever hear on a Hip Hop track, then tune into the album and I promise you won't be disappointed.

WS: Thanks again fam! On to the unavoidable question: What's the deal with ughh.com deleting all the album ratings, and comments, and how do you feel about the situation?

MD: I honestly don't know what the deal is. They've sent me several e-mails threatening me saying "70 5 star ratings in one day, yeah right!" - I guess they think I put together some sort of coalition to comment and rate the album, when I honestly didn't. I might've known maybe 15-20 of the people who rated the album, the rest were from fans who either bought the album directly from me, heard the sampler online, or are just genuine fans anticipating the release. I'm not really mad at the situation, I just think its kind of ridiculous that all I did was post a purchase link to the album on my social networking pages, to bring business to them, and then they get heated because they're getting promotion out of it. It honestly makes no sense to me and I think they have an agenda against me, for reasons unknown. I hope that the situation will die down because I've been a supporter of their website for years now, but as they, "one monkey doesn't stop the show!" so we'll keep it moving, regardless.

WS: Yeah, I mean ughh.com I've always supported too so I don't like having this misunderstanding with them, but we'll keep it movin' regardless of who's down or not as no one's in full power of Hiphop or whatever. Any artist, store, position, etc can be replaced and that goes for all of us, like, you're loved one day, hated the next, and so on, and I don't think they're hating on any of us as they are a business, so I think it's more about bringing hits to their site like they've probably been paying attention to the way we've promoted this album for months now, and know we hang out online, so they knew it would piss us off if they deleted everything. Proof to that is that you've been on the top searches on their site for a while now which ultimately is good promo like any promo is good promo, and I think they make a lot of money on people buying ads on their site, so anything that even smells of free promo is banned there, and also they didn't believe a fairly new artist could get more honest 5 star ratings off the album snippets alone than most established artists do in months, without it being a set up. They think it was fixed by us which I swear to the almighty it was not as we don't do shady biz, but they don't know us on a personal level, so they don't believe us. I've always respected Quest, and ughh.com, and they always been good with me on biz matters before now, so I must admit that kinda behaviour from them was disappointing, and unprofessional. I can only hope it stops there, and that they at least get the release date right.

WS: When, and where can people buy it?

MD: The album drops 7/1/10 - July 1. If you want a physical copy, you can buy it off UGHH.com, HHV.de in Germany, Sick-O-Store in Germany, and its also available directly from me via my myspace page (www.myspace.com/markdeez) - If you want a digital copy, then you can get the album via iTunes or AmazonMP3

WS: Sounds good, and should be easy to get. As for promo, any shows coming up stateside, or overseas?

MD: I have a show coming up July 24th in New Jersey at Dingbatz with my group, Grindhouse Gang (myself, Dr. iLL, and Powder), we're opening for Cage. After that, I'm not really sure. I'm hoping to go on tour in Europe sometime late 2010 or early 2011, but I don't have any concrete details on that as of right now. If any booking agents are interested in booking me or GHG, you can contact us directly at grindhousegang@gmail.com

WS: What's next for Mark Deez?

MD: I have another album dropping late 2010 on Famous Records Corp/Universal Music Group with a producer from Canada named Big G. There's a lot of dope features on that project, so stay tuned. Also Militia of Emcees is completed, just trying to get the mastering and mixing completed in the coming months and get that to the fans. We're working on a Grindhouse Gang album as well. Other than those projects, I have a collaboration project with one of my Mr. Untouchable Music artists, Young B, that we're just beginning work on. Me & Powder have a project entirely produced by Powder that's completed, we're working on releasing it through Chambermusik but nothing is 100% right now. Other than that, I'm just building with as many artists as possible. If you're interested in collaborating, just hit me up.

WS: Sounds good fam. Let's wrap this up. It's been a pleasure working with you, and all the great featured artists, and producers on The Oracle, and best of luck on the album sales, and in the future! Finally, anything you wanna add that I forgot to ask?

MD: You've pretty much covered it! But I do want to tell everyone to get the first album to be released on my label, Mr. Untouchable Music, by Young B & Lil Loco. The album is called My Life on A Beat, its been out since June 15, and you can get it on UGHH.com, its got features from myself, Dr. iLL, JR Black, Downpour, and guest production from Pen Pointz, Powder, L-Don, and many more!

www.markdeez.com
www.myspace.com/mruntouchablemusic