The instrumental mixtape game is on lock right now, and the only one with the key is DJ J Armz. Born in Brooklyn Armz has been surrounded by music since before he could even walk. His father was a jazz music producer and wanted his son to follow suit in his career. A young Armz began taking music classes at the ripe age of 4, when it became clear to see that his father's musical talent had been passed on to his son.
After dabbling with a few different instruments from childhood to his early teenaged years, Armz decided that his true passion was in hip-hop. With only a dream to make it and a deep appreciation for music, the talented J. Armz started making his own beats for himself and his crew to rap over. He realized what a gift he had in beat making, and soon after, diverted his full attention to production. His unique sound created a small buzz for him in his neighborhood, and he quickly found himself supplying beats for many underground artists.
Hungry for more, J saw that the mixtape game was sweeping over New York City with a vengeance, and decided to hop on for the ride to hopefully get even more exposure out of the phenomena. Yet instead of approaching the mixtape game like every other DJ in the market, Armz saw that the most important aspect of hip-hop had been neglected, supplying the beats. "Instrumentals are the foundation of hip-hop. I mean hip hop all started when Cool Hurk was in the park and just threw on a break beat one day," emphasizes Armz. He wanted to create a mixtape series that supplied rappers with instrumentals from all of the latest, hottest songs so that they can then use them for their freestyles and mixtapes.
Starting out, Armz wasn't cut much of a break from the artists because he was new to the game, so he had to go about getting the beats his own way. This is where his musical background and talent came into play. If the artists didn't want to just hand him the beats, the ever-creative Armz would just listen to the beat and then re-create it from scratch, a talent that very few DJ's are capable of mastering.
A chance meeting with established DJ, Lenny S soon brought J. Armz to be able to network with the right connects. While in the Def Jam offices one day with Lenny, J was introduced to Harlem Diplomats A&R, Duke Da God. Shortly after, Armz found himself supplying beats for Duke and the rest of the Diplomats, and in turn, they were helping him with his grind by giving him instrumentals and first drops of hot new records. Armz quickly became the one-stop shop for instrumentals and his mixtapes are now sought after by every up and coming MC, not to mention established rappers as well.
Today the instrumentals are handed to Armz before some songs even hit the streets, but he still occasionally has to revert back to his roots and re-create a few on his MPC. "I've come a long way, but I still have a long way to go," the ever-ambitious Armz says.
With a budding company filled with the hottest up and coming producers called Armory Productions, his entertainment company Bless Entertainment thriving, and his now famous instrumental mixtape series called How To Be An MC, the future is looking real bright for J Armz.
All hail the Instrumental King.
