DocDaMindbenda has been a staple in the Chicago scene for quite some time. He stays quiet, and has no desire to be in the spotlight. He loves to make music, collaborate, use dusty instrumentals, samples, and even remixes Doom. Doc has worked with the best of the best, providing beats for Lucki’s classic Alternative Trap tape, and even linking with Consequence. The beat smith is way behind the scenes, but has a hand in an incredible amount of dope music.

I was introduced to him waaaay back when his Back On That BULLshit EP dropped. I was captivated by his unique way of giving each instrumental a personality, which, at that time, was the starting players on the Bulls. His Doom Remix EP blew me away, and from that moment on I kept up with his work. That Doc allowed me to pick his brain was on my bucket list, and I am eternally grateful to him that he agreed to it. No pictures are included here – just a few of his tapes featured throughout. The first one you see is his newest project with Sulaiman released in the beginning of August. Get educated with the Chicago OG below.

Hey Doc! Thanks for taking the time to speak with us. 

Thank you for having an interest in my work.

To start off, give us a little intro on yourself. 

Well I’m a producer and recording engineer. Originally from Waukegan, Il. Moved to Chicago about 6 years ago to pursue music full time, so far not a bad move. 

I’d like to get my fandom out of the way…I’ve been following your music for some time now. Fakeshoredrive put me on, but I kept up to date on my own afterwards. Tell us about your beginnings. How did you get into the Chicago scene?

Haha, thank you. We producers don’t usually hear those things as much as rappers but that what we do. As far as my beginnings, I’ve always been into hip hop since a kid but didn’t discover I had a talent for production til I was about 18 or 19. Spent the next ten years just making beats in the basement with my friends, recording songs on our own. Thats also how I got into engineering as well. Nothing was happening for me in Waukegan so I made the move to Chicago in 2011 to work with my cousin on a studio, The Grindhouse. This is where I quickly met many of the artists that are currently stars of todays scene. Produced for many of them as well which help me get the attention of Andrew Barber at Fakeshore. 

You’ve worked with a hell of a lot of artists. Freddie Gibbs, Lucki, Dally Auston, and many more. What were some of your most memorable collaborations?

I’d say some of most memorable collabs came from Consequence. He was the first big artist to give me a shot. I produced like 4 songs for him on two mixtapes. That really gave me the confidence in my beats that I could work with these guys. Also working with Vic Spencer for all these years, we have countless records and those recording sessions give me that back in the basement with my old homies feel. The songs we have with Sean Price I hold dear to me. Those are probably my most prized productions to date.

Back On That BULLshit was my intro to your work. There was a concept there. How did you develop it?

That came about on some producer problems shit haha. We all have problems when it comes to naming beats. I usually go with the first thing the beat makes me feel or what I’m doing at the time. I just so happened to be watching the bulls playoff run while I was making most of the beats that would become “Back On That BULLshit”. I saw I had a concept laid out, made the last two with that in mind and boom.  Just something quick to support the bulls. Fun fact, all of those players are no longer on the bulls today haha. 

I was overwhelmed with the MF Doom remix EP. What made you put that together? 

That was just something I did while I was really baked at like 2 in the morning. I just wanted to remix Vomit and just kept going. Did all those in one night. Put it on soundcloud, didn’t even promote it. If you happened to stumble upon it, cool. Just something I wanted to put into the universe and let it manifest. A legit “Doc Da DOOM” project would be my magnum opus. 

Which producers are you most influenced by?

DOOM, Madlib, Alchemist, old Ye, Blaze. Cats with the crazy loops and sample game.

We have to go back to your contributions on Lucki’s Alternative Trap. How did ya’ll initially link, and what were those studio sessions like? 

I didn’t meet Lucki until well after that project came out. I originally gave that beat (48th-49th) to Monster Mike. We had done plenty of records together at this point. I just remember him saying “I’m gonna let my homie Lucki get on it, he bout to drop his tape and he gonna blow.” I was just like “aight, cool” haha.

You are a member of GrindHouse & Treated Crew, legendary groups in Chicago. Tell us a little about GrindHouse and how both collective’s started. 

Grindhouse is the studio we built, the crew just came about from all the producers and rappers that hung out at the stu together, not an actual group in that sense. Treated was already well established when I came into the fold.

How did you get introduced to producing? How did everything start?

I got into production more so out of a necessity for beats. Back in high school, the internet wasn’t what it was now, so instrumentals where hard to come by. Like you had to go to a store and by these things called “singles” haha, they had 2 songs and maybe both instrumentals. My homie brought a sampler to school one day, convinced him to let me borrow it, and I was hooked. 

What have you been working on? What can we expect for the rest of 2017?

Right now I’m working with several different acts, some newer to the masses and some bigger. Also working on a full length album with Vic Spencer. Some of my best work to date, in my opinion.

Any parting words?

Just tryna Let The Work Show!