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Fokis: A Struggle Documented



By Jay Williams

Life as a rapper, with dreams of stardom and fortune, isn't easy. These days, some of the most prolific lyricists do not even make it off the shelves of your favorite record label to get their shine.


Fokis, is making the most of that struggle. The aspiring rapper is documenting his passion for a record deal through a reality series, Road To The Riches. The webisodes deal primarily with the New York MC's travels to different states, radio interviews, and his overall journey to succeed in a industry that is pinching pennies.

Despite the outcome of his budding rhyming career, Fokis doubles and triples as a accomplished producer and engineer for many established industry heavyweights. Adamant that his career does not depend on his microphone finesse, the Lower East Side New York artist is cementing a solid name for himself in all facets of music production. Fokis gave a few minutes of his busy schedule up to speak with BeatDynasty.com about everything from his new album, to his choice in production tools Read on, and learn how to hustle.



BeatDynasty.com: Let's talk about this reality show you have going on. What gave you the idea to do something like that?

Fokis: I said to myself, "This is real stuff." I've been doing music for a long time and for an artist it gets frustrating because you know you're nice and you know you got it, but they're not letting me in. I got three kids as well, and my wife, so it's difficult and I can't be an aspiring artist forever. So I basically told myself I'm going to give myself a time limit and I'm going to leave the job and sink or swim. I'm going to put it all on the line and just make it work. I always felt that if people could really see how hard I work and my whole story and struggle, I know people would feel me and could relate to it.

BeatDynasty.com: So you gave yourself one year to get a record deal. Where are you exactly in that year?

Fokis: It [will be] finished up officially in July. That's when I'm going to make my announcement. When you're filming, a lot of these shows are already done, they already have the outcome. With me it was kind of different. Episode one is basically giving you a brief summary of what I had done, and that came out around March or April ( 2007) but I really used that time to try to promote. In summertime, in July (2007) , is when I got really started.

BeatDynasty.com: So you actually know the outcome as we speak?

Fokis: Well it's very close to the end, but as far as the show, it's in the middle. In reality, I'm very close to the end right now, the story is almost done. So it's reality for real because it's still going on.

BeatDynasty.com: You do other work in the industry also, so you're aspirations do not really end with rapping do they?

Fokis: No, not at all my brother. I actually started out as a DJ. I was following my older brothers, and a legendary DJ from my neighborhood, DJ Herbie Herb from the Lower East Side. But back then it wasn't no MP3s, it was records, so that got kind of old fashioned to me, trying to find a record every week. I couldn't keep up, so I left that alone. Then, I started with the rapping. My production partner now, used to make all our beats, but he was not making beats fast enough. So I went and bought my own MPC. From there the production really just started. It was a love, it's like a different side because you can do whatever.

BeatDynasty.com: Besides the rapping, you also have some major production credits, who are some of the artists you have produced for?

Fokis: I'm a producer as well. Me and my partner J.F.R. go by the name of The Acoustic Chefs. We've done work for the Diplomats, we've done work for Canibus, with song called "I Hate You Too." [We've also worked with] Tru Life, Kool G. Rap, and numerous amounts of acts, and a lot of up and coming people as well. We're really looking to work with some hot MCs and get our name out there where it needs to be. That's not in the one year thing, that's a whole other beast in itself. I'll never stop making beats. That's going to be forever.

BeatDynasty.com: You also have a third talent as well correct?

Fokis: I'm also an engineer as well, so I've gotten the opportunity to work with tons of artists like Bubba Sparxxx and Cuban Links, and Killah Priest. I think what's cool about it is that all of them are related to one another. The sharper I get as an engineer, that's going to help me as a producer as well because it's really about the sounds that you use. That's going to help me with the rapping because I'm learning how to get into the rhythm and the swing, so they're all connected.

BeatDynsty.com: You have engineering and mixing credits with Focus ( Aftermath producer) from the West Coast, and also others like Joe Buddens from the East Coast. How do you get that wide variety of artists from across the country?

Fokis: Shout out to Focus, the producer from Aftermath because he is a beast behind the boards, and it was a pleasure working with him. Basically how that worked out was he had reached out to me sometime ago because we have the same name. He was real cool and humble and was like "Yo I like your music," and I told him I loved his, and we connected from there. He produced about two songs on this mixtape we did together called Fully Focused. Basically instead of me letting another engineer mix the songs that he did for me, I mixed them. So basically, I get to have the credit of engineering a Focus produced track. The same with Joe Budden. I got a song with Joe Buddens that I did for my new album coming up and I mixed it. To me the rapper, and I hate to say this, is like being at the bottom of the totem pole. The great thing about being an artist is that you can market yourself and get the attention, but then you have to turn that into other things. So I like to turn it into trying to get more production work, or get more engineering jobs. To me it's all music. I could be rapping for a thousand people today and tomorrow, I'll be the engineer for whoever. As long as people are serious about their work, I'm right there with them.

BeatDynasty.com: Let's talk about your album..is it finished?

Fokis: The album is done. We're releasing the official heat rock called "Pandemonium" featuring Joell Ortiz this week. I dropped a single before about two or three months ago called "Get It Together" which I did a video for as well. That beat was produced by my homies called Da Hardy Boys. It's Gansta Beats and Mr. Hardy. They provided about seven beats for the album and they motivated me so much. I have been itching to get on the beats and start tearing it up again. I kind of had to put the production on the back for a minute, just so I could really concentrate on the rapping thing. Now that I got that done, I'm tapping my veins, I"m fiending to get behind the boards. They just introduced me to the Logic ( Music Program). At the end of the day, the album is insane.

BeatDynasty.com: So you didn't produce most of the album?

Fokis: No, Acoustic Chefs actually only produced three songs. I got a song by DJ Absolute, produced by him, about seven from Hardy Boys and a couple others here and there. The album's dope, I love it. It's almost like a soundtrack to the reality show.

BeatDynasty.com: Let's talk more on the beat side. Describe your sound to the people.

Fokis: My sound, to sum it up, The Acoustic Chef's sound is "Street Melodic." That's the perfect way we like to describe it. I love the hard piano, and the strings and the sinister sounding strings, but at the same token, being a producer allows you to venture off into doing all kinds of weird things. I have a song called "Ring Master" where I sampled the circus and made a beat and it's one of my craziest records. I can just make straight keyboard tracks or sampling, it really doesn't matter.

BeatDynasty.com: What things do you have in the works now production wise?

Fokis: As far as production, I just got the Logic program and I'm learning that. We are trying to work with talented individuals. We're really just trying to just brand the name. Once you can get a demand for yourself and brand the name, people are going to start coming to you. As long as you love what you do, you'll make money at some point.

BeatDynasty.com: Everything with you is connected and that's a good way to approach it. What can you offer to our community on the concept of branching out into other areas of music?

Fokis: When you do something because you're passionate and you love it, you're going to excel. When I get the Sam Ash magazines and the computer magazines, I look at that stuff and it's like a candy store. I look at all the new plugins and I get fascinated by that stuff because I want to learn everything. You hear a Dr. Dre mix and you're like ,"Damn how do they make is sound like that? What are they doing?" So you're busy searching and trying to get greatness. If your really into your music as a rapper, you should be concerned with getting a good mix down. If you have hot lyrics, and a hot chorus, and a hot beat, but the engineer is not so hot, you're gonna have trash. Rapping is really a stepping stone and I think artists should use it that way. Life in general is about growth. You can be anything you want to be, but you should not put your eggs in one basket. So I said I'm going to learn the rap, I'm going to learn the production, and it just fell into place like that. I could not rap anymore and just be an engineer, and I'm great with that. As long as I'm making a living, I'm going to be the best engineer I can be.

BeatDynsty.com: You mentioned learning Logic. Are you more of a hardware type of producer right now?

Fokis: Now, honestly I use my MPC 2000 as a trigger box and I'm using Reason. As far as sampling and sequencing, it's in reason. What you can do on there is ridiculous. But, I believe I'm gonna make the switch to Logic.

BeatDynasty.com: Why do you want to switch?

Fokis: Well because Logic is what I wish Reason was and you can actually use Reason inside of Logic. Logic is set up like Pro Tools, but you can open up various other applications, VSTs, and as well as if I want to use my MPC or a Triton. It gives you the freedom to use everything. With Reason it's dope but, let's say there's a hot new plugin, I can't use it with Reason.

BeatDynasty.com: Any last words to add on?

Fokis: I want to tell people to join my mailing list by going to myspace.com/fokis2k. Make sure you download my Fully Focused mixtape. One thing that I always live by and that's, "If you do nothing, you'll get nothing." With that said, we're good.


Fokis' "Get It Together"

Funny S***...