howard lloyd has hip hop in his blood.
 nile rodgers (rodgers wrote “Good Times”, the basis for the 1st rap classic "rapper's delight") is his dad's first cousin. he always knew he'd be doing this. a 70s baby, he grew up with all things hip hop. he was a breaker/popper in the early 1980s and by the mid-80s he started writing his own rhymes patterned after popular Run-DMC tunes. he also begged his mom, to no avail, to purchase him two turntables. lack of the proper equipment led howard to be creative; pause button style! sir lloyd’s father, a drummer/bassist, did purchase him synsonic drums upon his entry into 7th grade and alas a triple threat b-boy was born.
at 15, howard felt he was ready to begin recording and so he got a job at the local burger king and saved money to rent a local 8-track studio. he cut three tunes and was signed to a local production company. being there were in-house producers, HL concentrated on the art of songwriting and arranging. ultimately, he was offered a record deal with Mr. Magic’s label but turned it down due to creative differences with his production company (his contract had expired J).
sir lloyd graduated high school at the ripe old age of 16. he took most of his graduation money and poured it into the studio, this time a professional facility called “northshore soundworks”. most of the successful hip hop artist from suffolk county (epmd, jvc force, craig mack) used the facility. it was here that h lloyd got his feet wet producing beats using real beat machines (i.e. EMAXIII). after a deal with Jamaica, NYs RELATIVITY records fell through, h lloyd found himself working toward a dual bachelors of arts (psychology, africana studies) while still rhyming on the side. during his junior year he got a credit card and purchased an akai s-900. he focused on production non-stop until 1996, when a chance meeting with guru opened doors for mr. lloyd once again. he toyed with the idea of signing with guru’s production company, ill kid records, before deciding to go the independent route. he has since released two twelve inches, appeared on two compilations, one full length album and now the critically acclaimed “QUICKIE EP”
sir lloyd has been "co-signed" by numerous hip hop legends including (but not limited to) guru (of gang starr), dj spinna, prince paul, and craig mack. |
All damage is done with this |
Interview (from baghatvinyl.com)
Name: Howard Lloyd. After years of being Musa The Penultimate, Musa, Kid Chaos, MC Know How...etc I finally decided to use my government name... 2/3 of it anyway.
Area you represent: Currently Crown Heights, Brooklyn. My first 20 years were spent in North Babylon, Long Island.
What's the history of HOWARD LLOYD?
Howard Lloyd the emcee was turned out in 1979 when "Rappers Delight" came out. I think it really sparked me cause my cousin Nile Rodgers wrote "Good Times" which was sampled/played over by Sugarhill. Since I was related... I thought I can do that too. Later on I started writing... basically formatting myself after Run-Dmc (re-wording their rhymes). I just kept with it..... started making pause tape beats. When I turned 15, I got a job at Burger King and started paying to go to the studio. I got signed to a production company... where the mighty OX was one of my first producers. I would be in the hood and see Rakim, De La, Biz, EPMD and again felt I could do this. I started recording at North Shore Sound where EPMD, Das Efx, JVC Force recorded. Curt Cazal (JVC Force) was my engineer. I got my first sampler in '93. In late '95 I was in a group the "House of Reps". I met DJ Seanski (who was Guru's Jazzamatazz DJ) who introduced us to Guru and had us recording up in D&D. We were close to being offered a deal for Ill Kid, but I wanted to do my own beats. We ended up putting out a 12" Why it gotta be me b/w Smoke 2 many blunts and it bricked. We did zero promotion. I stopped rhyming after this and concentrated on beats 100%. House of Reps disbanded and Tres Best & I started DCNY. We put out a 12" (November 2001) Castle b/w Terrorism and we got alot of attention on the net because of the subject matter and the timing of the release. We dropped in 2003 Hip Hop for Dummies which was well received. I started having ideas and a desire to do my own project. I began as a solo artist so it's only right. I wanted to bring all my talented peoples together but just direct the concepts and so forth, basically be the glue to all the disparate parts. So I got a couple beats from E tha 5th. I got my cousin Sean to play guitar and bass on some of the songs. Ox was called in for lyrical reinforcement. Tre assisted on funny thing. DJ Shark absolutely BLACKED OUT on the cuts! So even though Howard Lloyd is the name on the QUICKIE EP its a collaborative effort. I kinda Quincy Jones'd the shit... so yeah... I guess thats the history of Howard Lloyd.
I first heard about you via "Sputnik Brown" and my man Oxygen... the sound you gotz coming out the speaker is what the world is missing right now. Ox Banger let me here the intro and i was hooked! How would you describe your sound?
I would say it's contemporary traditional boom bap.
What sets you apart from the other emcees out there?
I think I have hip hop pedigree. I grew up during the golden age. I think Iam as talented as some of the classic hip hop artists but I didnt get to shine yet... so I still have hunger. I have that hip hop purist in my blood from growing up during the late '80s/early '90s but my style has been allowed to grow and evolve naturally without any "market" pressures. I had time to learn from doing. The biggest thing I think is I have extremely high standards. Every kick, snare, bass has to be tight and no laziness. No stock drum sounds off keyboards. To me thats lazy. Me and E spend time finding proper sounds. I take my time.
Let's get into the "QUICKIE EP". It's in constant rotation right now at Baghat Vinyl my man. What's your main focus on the ep?
My main focus was to just make a good sounding record. Take the classic hip hop approach and try to flesh it out with arrangements and some live musicianship. I like keeping the songs short because a DJ only gonna play 2, 2 and a half minutes anyway. Me and E try to cut up the samples in a way that it sounds like a band is playing. Its almost the opposite of what the Roots do. Quest takes live musicians and tries to sound like breaks. I take breaks and try to sound like musicians.
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