London-based Producer & DJ Turkish Dcypha Flips Early 90's-2008 Stones Throw A Cappellas Into Innovative New Throw.sTones Remix Project (Bandcamp, self-released)
Turkish Dcypha is a producer and multi-genre DJ hailing from the UK, who co-owns a small boutique (or Indie) record label called Dcypha Productions, which was founded by fellow producer Sway DaSafo around 2004 under Akon's Konvict Muzik imprint. Turkish Dcypha has released a multitude of projects remixing and re-working the likes of Prince, Kanye, 2pac, Biggie, and JAY-DILLA (Jay Z over J Dilla beats,) as well as his own instrumental music and original production work for Awate and Mr. Bigz. Turkish can count Yasiin Bey, DJ Premier, actor Idris Elba, and J Dilla's Estate amongst his famous fans; "Actually, I was listening to this kid Awate recently. You know him? He’s from Eritrea, I think, but now in London. It's produced by Turkish [Dcypha.] His beats are old school and very influenced by Dilla, Pete Rock, etc. I was super impressed..." Elba gushed within a 2014 taste-making interview with Noisey. I recently started following @BeatTapeCo_Op, "a site dedicated solely to producers and beat-makers," upon BLKrKRT's recommendation and just the other day, I stumbled upon Turkish Dcypha's latest Throw.sTones mixtape. I have to admit, its iconic Stones Throw logo-flipping cover image caught my attention first and foremost and then, the infectious and incredibly accurate beats had me hooked!
"I'm a big fan of Stones Throw Records and the projects that they release; so, when I saw that they had released an a cappella archive on [their] online store, I grabbed it and started thinking about how to approach it. I was in a used vinyl store in Church Street in North London with a friend. He was digging and taking a very long time doing it. They had a table stacked with old 45's and I grabbed as many as I could hold in both arms and went to the counter to pay for them. I didn't even check to see what they were. Then, I got straight to work..." Turkish Dcypha explained within a recent statement exclusive to The Witzard. He readily lists MADVILLAINY, Ruff Draft EP, Champion Sound, Donuts, and Mos Def's quasi-Stones Throw album The Ecstatic (Downtown) as his favorite Stones Throw releases. "I really made Throw.sTones just for myself to listen to. It then turned out I started playing some out in my Hip-Hop DJ sets and sharing it with a few close friends. The concept was clear to me from the start: the songs I remixed had to be released on Stones Throw and I HAD to get the artwork to look legit. That was the inspiration. I wanted something that the label/artist might hear and think, "this is dope!" Turkish enthusiastically continued, via email. Throw.sTones features, in addition to its logo-flipping cover art, inventive flips and remixes of 90's-2008-issued originals by guilTy.simpson, charizma & peanuT.buTTer.wolf, quasimoTo, percee.p, j.Dilla, oh.no, meD.meDaphoar, Dooley.o, and maDlib; with assists from label friends and affiliates chali.2na, mr.porTer, vinnie.paz, prince.po, Talib.kweli, corn.breaD, frank.n.Dank, and planeT.asia. Throw.sTones is currently available for download at a Name-Your-Price basis, much like the bulk of his discography, from Turkish Dcypha's Bandcamp page. I would strongly recommend anyone interested in Stones Throw, Golden Age Hip-Hop, or even just remix and mash-up culture, mosey on over and give Throw.sTones a spin!