L'Orange quickly became one of my favorite producers in 2011. When i first heard his Manipulation EP I was immediately hooked. His beats to me are like a art form. Every beat has a story to tell. Here is my interview with him.
Cratez -Where you from and grew up? How long you been a producer? and who were your influences coming up?
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L'Orange -I'm from North Carolina. I grew up there and that's where I found
my sound musically, growing up with influences from Little Brother and
the Justus League. I was also heavily influenced by the scenes from
DC, Detroit and New York- Kev Brown, Kon Sci, Oddisee, J Dilla, Pete
Rock, DJ Premier, Dan the Automator, etc.
I've been writing music since I was ten; I've been producing hip hop since I was sixteen.
Cratez -What is your weapon of choice when your cooking up
beats?
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L'Orange -I'm exclusively an MPC guy. I mostly use an MPC 2500 and an SP303.
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Cratez -From your samples ,to layering, and piecing together a beat is true
craftsmanship Take me through your process of creating a track?
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L'Orange - I first create what I call skeletons- basic versions of beats to get an
idea of the direction. This usually doesn't take much time, but it helps
me weed out good ideas from bad ones. Not every beat is meant to see
the light of day. From there I develop the arrangement and textures,
building on the original idea, then I go into mixing. I usually have a
story I create while this process is going on and try to express that as
best as I can through old radio samples off
vinyl.
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Cratez -Lets go back to "The Manipulation EP" from 2011. Tell me about that
Instrumental EP and the meaning behind it? Oh and btw the" Rainy Night"
joint goes hard .
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L'Orange - That was my first project. It was an effort to separate myself from my
influences. I had been making beats that felt good to me, but nobody
around me understood my direction. I put together a dark and quirky
story about a man who loses a love in his life, then goes through the
process of finding himself. It's a dark story, but I think it's as funny
as it is dark.
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Cratez -Now to the "Mad Writter "Album.Dope cover, beats, and guest mc's. How did you link up with YU,Blu,
and Has lo ?
L'Orange -Those MCs are three of my favorite MCs on
the planet. I was really excited to be able to work with them. I
reached out to see if they'd be willing to, and they agreed. It was an
honor to share tracks with three of the best.
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Cratez - Tell me about your connection with the legendary Billie Holiday? and tell me about the Old Soul tribute.
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L'Orange -I've always loved Billie Holiday since I was a kid. Her music always
resonated with me. She's so beautiful and imperfect. That's exactly what
I wanted my music to sound like. When I started Old Soul, I wanted to
pay tribute to my favorite musician of all time.
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Cratez -Your release on Mellomusicgroup with Stik figa for the album "The City under
the city" hands down is one of the best hiphop albums of 2013. How did that album come about with stik figa? and what's the meaning behind the name of the album?
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L'Orange -That means a lot. He and I had connected before on a remix for MMG, so
when they were looking for a producer, I was honored to be asked. He's
such an incredibly talented and underrated MC. He and I are so
different, but we connect musically in a dichotomous way. We complement
each other. He is as fun as I am melancholy, so I wanted to create a
world where we could both do what we do best, going back and forth
between a smoky, sad world above to a vibrant and fun world under
ground.
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Cratez -What's in the future for L'Orange ?any current projects your working on?
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L'Orange -I just released the Orchid Days- a love album. I'm currently working on my next project, which should be out early 2015.
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