West Meets East: DJ.Fresh & The Musalini Coast To Coast

A mixtape legend with some two decades worth of recordings under his belt, the Oakland-based DJ.Fresh has played a vital role in giving the Bay Area its rightful shine. Formerly known as The World's Freshest, his projects under The Tonite Show banner in particular initially showcased homegrown rappers like Mistah F.A.B., Keak Da Sneak, and J. Stalin, before branching out nationwide over the years to include everyone from Freddie Gibbs and Trae Tha Truth to Curren$y and Jay Worthy. His discography is a veritable treasure trove of 21st century hip-hop, one made all the more impressive by his sleek signature production style.

Another example of DJ.Fresh's keen ear for talent, his latest Live And Let Fly due out this Friday comes co-headlined by none other than The Musalini, a bearded, debonair Bronx native with deceptively laidback lyricism and a customized flair for the cinematic. Their West-meets-East reunion on record should make sense to anyone familiar with the latter's prolific run of releases, including full projects with the likes of Cookin Soul, DJ Skizz, and 9th Wonder.

CABBAGES: How did you guys first meet up? 

The Musalini: I've been heard of DJ.Fresh, as an upcoming artist and student of the game. DJ.Fresh is a legend, so I've been seeing him drop projects after projects, working with some of the best people in the industry. I always just been a fan of the music though, his production. I had reached out many years ago, but it just didn't happen. Everything happens when the time is right. DJ.Fresh hit me up a few months ago. He was like, it's time to work, it's time to lock in.

DJ.Fresh: Initially I saw him on Cookin Soul's project [Mackaroni]. Once I listened to it, I went to go send him a DM. And then I saw that we had had prior conversations that I didn't remember from years ago when he reached out to me. I just didn't remember. We meet so many people, we work with so many people, but the thing that stood out to me, on top of his talent and the timing was looking at the old messages. Sometimes artists feel a certain way when you not ready to work with them, when they ready to work with you. The fact [is] that he kept working and then I just organically, naturally came back to him on my own. I always just be like, no, don't mean no, it just mean not right now. When it's time for y'all to work, it'll happen– greater or later. Just as soon as it was go time, it was go time.

Was this your first time working with a New York rapper on a full project?

DJ.Fresh: No, my first one was with Raekwon, years ago. That was legendary as well. But where I'm at today, the more you work for it, the more it will work for you. So I would say this is my first full blown production. That was kind of like a wham-bam situation.

But The Musalini has a lot in common with many rappers that you've been working with of late, this combination of really smooth delivery and tight lyrics. What can you tell me about the way you two collaborated for this album?

DJ.Fresh: So with this project, Kool G Rap and DJ Polo is one of my favorite groups, and particularly the album, Live And Let Die. The producer on that was Sir Jinx, from Los Angeles. He did a lot of Ice Cube's early stuff–Death Certificate, Kill At Will, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, all that. So that album, I listened to that album as a teenager all the time. It was so dope to me [that] he had a West Coast based producer with the super New York lyricist, Kool G Rap, one of the greatest. And so I had told that idea to Mus; I wanted do the same thing where I'm a producer off the West Coast and he's from the Bronx. I was like, let's just mix it together. So that was the concept for this, hence the name Live And Let Fly.

The Musalini: Like I said, I'd just been waiting on the moment. Once Fresh started sending beats, we knocked out that project pretty fast. I was just sending back records. He was sending me beats with ideas and concepts that I liked. He would be like, yo, this song go this direction and this theme, and I like that, you feel me? It made it easier for me. Everything flowed and matched perfectly, his style of production with my style of rapping. He's from the West and I'm from the East, but it just sound good together. I think the people going to love the album for real. 

Something else you guys have in common is that your projects, respectively, feel a lot like soundtracks. Is that part of your process? Are you guys trying to make these things feel like movies or TV shows?

The Musalini: Hell yeah.

DJ.Fresh: Listen, sir, Gary–I don't know what I be doing, but I know what I be doing, man. You know what I mean? I just get to doing it. If you even notice, look, look, I didn't tell him to put on the same color shirt as me. We just be in sync like that sometimes, man. I'm going to the gym, I'm hitting him. I hear him in the back, I'm here–clink clank–you in the gym, huh? So I don't know what I be doing. I just know what I be doing and I keep on doing it. 

The Musalini: It's definitely a soundtrack, man. I be telling people, if you listen to my music, I'm always rapping about what I do on daily, on my life. I'm trying to have it when people listen to my shit, it's like they go into a whole visualization and they seeing everything I'm talking about because they could relate to it. I feel like Fresh's beats gave me the canvas to go ahead and do that, you feel me? So yeah, we got some shit, man. It's definitely a movie.

DJ.Fresh: Me and Spitta did two albums back to back, The Encore and The Sequel. Off of that, I went right into this, so there's elements of that in there. We did this whole album, recorded it all to analog tape, so that plays a part in the sound of what you hear. We've heard it thousands of times before you heard it one time. I did things different that he's probably never done on his end. I ran all his vocals through a SSL, and so that gives it its sound as well, to make it sound, like you say, cinematic and really in depth.

You've got some solid guests on Live And Let Fly, not the least of which being Planet Asia on the single "Player's Ball." Given your history with him, can you tell me about how he got involved?

The Musalini: Shit, it's crazy. Fresh had sent that in the pack as one of the beats, and Planet was in New York one day and we was just in the studio. But he ain't get to lay his verse down in New York with me. I don't know, I think we had to make some moves. But when he got back to Cali, he sent the verse back, and then the rest was history. I mean, Planet Asia is a OG. I didn't even know Planet Asia and DJ Fresh knew each other. When I seen Planet Asia, he was telling me, like, yeah, I know him since back in the days and shit. So it's the universe; it's organic.

DJ.Fresh: Me and Asia go back. We did a Tonite Show too, in 2015. He remembers me when I was young, 16, 15. I used to DJ for Common when he was Common Sense. He would come to the Bay with my brother, DJ Dummy, and my brother would always let me do the shows with him. Asia, he remembers me from that time, before I even did a Tonite Show, when I was just doing real mixtapes on cassette tapes out the truck in 1999. I'm old, y'all! You know what I'm talking about? It all comes full circle. 

You've both been around long enough to know that success used to be narrowly defined by major labels. But in recent years, obviously there's been a lot that's changed in favor of independent artists such as yourselves. How has that been for you, in terms of opportunities but also challenges? 

The Musalini: I tell people, being an artist or being a producer is harder than just having a regular job. A nine-to-five, you get up, somebody tells you what to do, and you got money coming in every week, you good. But as an independent artist, I tell people, if you don't work, you're not going see the sunshine. You not going to really eat. It's definitely a lot of hard work but, at the end of the day, it pays off because you get to learn the business. You get to learn the behind-the-scenes, actually do it how you want to do it, versus just letting somebody just tell you, yo, you should do this, you should do that. I feel like it's just more authentic. But it's ups and downs. I do feel like maybe a major push would be cool, but the underground right now is thriving and it's booming so much and people want to listen to what they want to listen to. It's just a matter of you just got to give them that good stuff.  

DJ.Fresh: You got to be consistent. All I know is the independent, especially where I'm from–we invented the independent scene, for real. I've done both. I've done records through the majors and I've done plenty of records independently, obviously. I always say stay the course, and also, the long way is a shortcut. 

Given the pace you release at, how do you stay inspired, creative, and, yes, consistent with it?

DJ.Fresh: I mean, for me it's habits. I've been doing this for so long, I don't know what else not to do. I'm always working, I'm always recording, repeat, always working, always recording, repeat. I got archives and the archives of music, some done, some not done. Again, like I said, the more you work for it, the more it'll work for you. I like to call it HQ of HQ, high quantity of high quality. 

The Musalini: Facts. I just stay motivated. A lot of the shit that's happening now is kind of shit that I was envisioning back then when nobody knew who I even was, when nobody was listening to me. I've been a fan of Curren$y, I've been a fan of Fresh, you know what I mean? I've been a fan of Smoke DZA, DJ Skizz, 9th Wonder, Pete Rock. I'm working with all these people right now. All these people I grew up listening to or I listen to on a daily, I'm working with them. That should just be motivating me to keep my pen going. So we going to keep the run going because we stay cooking.

Imani Nichele, MERRY&RUE

(buy it / stream it)

Detroit-raised and Chicago-based, Imani Nichele offers an astute alternative to the otherwise reliable modern model of menacing Midwest spitters. With fellow Detroiter Nolan The Ninja seated behind the proverbial boards, her compact MERRY&RUE goes further than the 2024 Dramaqueen EP to establish her irreverent, serrated style of rapping. Starting from the Seinfeld brick wall on "haha," riddled with comic shout-outs, her voluble verses lead to densely packed flows worthy of replay on "Call & Response" and "Mani-logue." She subdues the jazzy boom bap backing "Chall" with a near-breathless stream that thematically hinges upon our relative smallness in the grand scheme, dodging micro-aggressions from critics along the way. She keeps the guest list small, with indie canon standouts like Homeboy Sandman on "Bark!" and Vic Spencer and WateRR on "Merry-Andrew." But off the strength of the romantic "Walkman," Nichele clearly doesn't need anyone's help.

Snotty, The Blue Carpet

(buy it / stream it)

We're well past the point of defining New York hip-hop as strictly within the five boroughs with exceptions for select sections of Nassau and Westchester counties. State-assembled crews like the Umbrella Collective are precisely why. One of its core members, Snotty keeps it raw and real on his latest, the Goodphella-produced set The Blue Carpet. The narco chatter of intro "Don Juan Demarco" strips back the grimy glamor typically associated with this sort of rap, with his vivid fiend imagery and the specter of loss setting an unsettling tone. From there, he conveys harried hustler's perseverance on "Give It My All," shares streetwise musings on "Messy," and cautiously moves with money motives on closing highlight "Nobody's Safe." A handful of his Umbrella associates also come through, with Pro Dillinger reflecting on his reality "After Hours" and Mvck Nice regaling with tales of that "Fast Lyfe."

Three new tracks to snack on...

Drill Scott Heron & Morriarchi, "Everything You've Never Been"

Plaza718, "Cold Cuts & Noodles (feat. Bub Styles)"

Jimmie D & Nicholas Craven, "Laser Focused"