H.I.S.D. WEEK: Get To Know King Midas

We wrap up HISD Week by having a talk with 1/3 of the production team, King Midas. Thanks again to Flash Gordon Parks for the footage. Come meet the gang in person tonight at The Standard.

Catch The original “Get To Know HISD” and more after the jump.

Get To Know… H.I.S.D. from Ethos Music Group on Vimeo.

Some time during the making of his Taster’s Choice album, D. Rose emailed me a track called “The Caper” that he wanted Big Mon and me to hop on. No problem. We wrapped it up in about 24 hours and got it back to him. When I asked him who made the track, he said “This kid named King Midas. He’s one of the producers for H.I.S.D.”

Again with these H.I.S.D. cats! I still hadn’t officially met the crew, but they were definitely making their mark on the scene. A few months later, I receive a call from Midas, introducing himself and askig if I’d be willing to write to a track that he just created for their Summer Sessions EP. I’m always down to write, and i’d heard nothing but good things about him, so I said YES with no hesitation. I wouldn’t discover until months later that Justin “8 Months” Lewis was the one that referred him to me. Midas was looking for guest spots on the song, and after running through a laundry list of talent, 8 Months suggested that he let me take a crack at it. The rest is history. “Summer So Good” was created.

In the time since, i’ve probably spent more time around him than any other musician around here. King Midas is a fascinating study, because he epitomizes the term “student of the game”. It isn’t simply enough for him to know whether something sounds good or not; he needs to understand WHY. I’ve only seen 2 or 3 other producers that are as meticulous at music creation as he is. One of them is DJ Cozmos, who he aligned himself with to form King Coz. It’s amazing to see how these two, nearly a generation apart, seem to have been cut from the same cloth.

I don’t think Midas ever takes a day off. He’s always working on music. Sometimes working on tracks just for practice. Not too long ago, he worked on a track for about 12 hours, only to discard it at the end of the day. He understands that some of your greatest lessons are learned from failures.

His home contains “The Gold Room” where the HISD collective meets every week to write, record, and debate. It’s a haven for creativity, and they’re all fortunate to have a place where they can tap into that synergy and bring ideas to life.

A simple blog post won’t give you an idea of how far-reaching his talent is. I’ll let his body of work over the next year or so speak for itself. And yes – i’m documenting every move. He’s one to watch.

-Damien-

By the way, he co-produced the KO “Willie Turner” project with DJ Cozmos. Here’s a taste:

The Legendary KO “Ch 2 – Laid Off (Snippet)” from The Ballad of Willie Turner

[audio:http://k-otix.com/koweekly/02%20Laid%20Off%20Snippet.mp3]