The originWAY BACK
Wearing out Run DMC's debut album and Just-Ice's Back To The Old School tapes, Mark Seventyone was so inspired he wanted to create his own music. Starting in the late '80s, he would dub tapes to tapes to make pause-edit beats, then run the tape deck through a DJ mixer to mix his vocals to his basic instrumentals.
Eventually, he learned about multi-track recording and used a Gemini DS-1224 sampler along with a Fostex X18 to loop drum breaks, add samples, and rap over the top. With inspiration from producers like Marley Marl, Kurtis Mantronik, and Erick Sermon, he would go on to upgrade his studio gear and sharpen his beat-making skills.