DJ RONDEVU ON THE TRACK – DAS EFX – HOW WE DO
I had become the dj for the group Das Efx and we recorded some songs together but we had not released any of them. At this time Das didn’t have a record deal and a platform to release music. We were constantly recording new music and trying to negotiate a situation with a label. One day we were together and I gave them my latest beat cd. There was one beat that strongly caught both of their attention. However, there was one problem. Un Pacino had heard the beats and picked the same one and he had sketched out a song with Mic Geronimo to it.
I had put together a unique sound kit for this beat and at this time producers were going with a signature sound. From Timbaland to DJ Premier to the Neptunes, most prominent producers had a similar sound to a lot of their tracks. Das suggested that I use the same sounds but play them differently and make another beat for them. I went into the lab and loaded up the MPC and flipped those sounds into the beat for “How We Do”.
From the first time I played it for Dray & Skoob we knew we had something. They even thought it was hotter than the original. Shortly after we recorded the song in the studio and not long after that we had a single deal with Landspeed Records. The record did pretty well. With no promotional budget, subpar mixing and mastering and no video the record began to sell out globally in record stores. It would climb the underground and college charts and even hit #1 for a few weeks. It didn’t make it into regular rotation on the radio stations but it did get spins on the mix shows. I can still remember the first time I heard it played on “Future Flavas” with Marley Marl, Pete Rock & Callie Ban.
In its limited Landspeed release it did well enough to be parlayed into an album deal with west coast record label “Fome”. The album would also be called “How We Do”. Unfortunately this deal didn’t pan out so well and with no videos, budget issues and minimal promotion for the album it disappointed. After it’s release Das Efx decided to go on hiatus and it was then that I began my all out assault on the mixtape game. I had given up any hope or desire on signing a major label record deal but instead would approach mixtapes like I was an independent record label and run it as such. Years later Das Efx would reunite and we would continue to tour the world. In our later travels we would find the song “How We Do” to be the favorite of many of the younger fans and not the platinum hits of the early years. One can only wonder what could’ve happened if the situation was different but I guess it’s like they say, “Everything happens for a reason.”
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