Chris Stout Official Winner Custom Akai MPC 2000XL Giveaway

For those of you who didn’t get the word… Big Noise and Alkota Beats hosted a joint MPC Giveaway that ran from February 1st to June 1st 2013. The contest offered the winner a Custom MPC 2000XL in two tone Bamboo with Fat Pads and the world famous Big Noise MC 2000XL Card Reader, as well as the entire Hiphop Drum Sample catalog by Alkota Beats. The official winner was announced as promised. Chris Stout turns out to be a young producer into the type of hip-hop music we love at Big Noise, who would have known… we asked Chris to share some insights with us so we could all get to know him.

What’s up world, I’m Chris Stout aka Stout Himself. I was actually born in Frankfurt, Germany while both my parents were serving in the US Army. We moved back to the U.S. while I was a baby, winding backup in Troy NY. where my mother was from. I still live in Troy to this day, it’s the home of Uncle Sam so if you don’t know… well… you gone learn today. I Currently have a studio at North Albany Studios in Albany NY. Man, me and Music go back… I’ve always loved and obsessed over music. From being in choir and band when I was in school, to just listening and being a fan, to rapping and finally producing. I listened to a lot of classic rock; Hendrix, Beatles, Zeppelin, Clapton. Jazz, Miles Davis- Kind of Blue changed my life. I love listening to Classical, in fact the only thing don’t like is country music.

What finally pushed me into making the music though was one time my oldest brother’s friends invited me over… They were completely immersed in the Culture, particularly DJing / Emceeing and luckily enough (for me) they had the gear too. At the time I was probably 13, I was fascinated. It was the first time seeing what went into producing Hip Hop. The experience changed my life completely. I think having some mentor-ship to build a good foundation for knowledge can be crucial too. It helped me to develop a love and appreciation for the craft. On a side note its worth mentioning I wasn’t able to get into music production at that time, my parents just weren’t having it. In turn I did the only thing I could do at the time, I started rapping. I’ve only gotten into the production side of things within the last two years.

I’m proud to say the MPC has been the nucleus of all that. I started with a broke MPC 1000 I copped cheap off eBay. I did my research on it and found out it had the OEM pad sensors; which not only reportedly sucked, but happened to be the root of the problem. I replaced them with the new pad sensors and I had a brand new MPC 1000 for $400 bucks. From there I sat on the 1000 for a while learning the fundamentals and saving money for future upgrades/gear. My current gear list is MPC Renaissance, MPC 4000, and a Dope ass Custom MPC 2000XL (Shout out, Noiseman!), an Arturia 49 Key MIDI controller (Keyboard), 2x Numark TTX Turntables and Numark DXM Pro mixer w/ NI Traktor A10 interface. For Software I run Presonus Studio One V2.5 as my DAW. I use Melodyne Editor, NI’s Traktor Scratch Pro 2, Arturia’s Analog Laboratory, and Native Instruments Kontakt, Guitar Rig, and Reaktor. I’ve owned 5 MPC’s at this point including the 2500… Ive loved them all… I’d love to get my hands on a 3000 someday.

When it comes to Hip Hop I’ve always considered myself much more of an underground head than commercial cat but don’t get me wrong I love to be entertained too and good music is good music. Like I said I’m East Coast and I think it shows pretty readily. I naturally gravitated towards the likes of A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Brand Nubian, Gangstarr, Mos Def and Kweli (just about everything Rawkus actually) as I dove further into the culture. On the topic of Gangstarr though (RIP Guru).. Im that dude that can probably adlib more Premo Cuts than Guru Lyrics over the course of an album. I think Premier almost owns the rights to my style, I’ve studied that dude unmercifully… then there’s J Dilla, if I ever move someone the way his music moved me, my life is complete.

I think its an exciting time to be apart of Hip Hop with that in mind, being there are so many Off-chutes already and audiences to reach. There’s a lot of artists putting a lot of work out and it can seem daunting but that,s really the beauty of it. You really need to be lost before you can find yourself and those bouts of anonymity are no greater way to define yourself. Because if real recognize real its about who you are when no ones watching (or listening). Shout out’s and Thank You’s to Noiseman @ Big Noise Radio / Big Noise MPC. Alkota @ Alkota Beats / Hiphop Drum Samples and MRC Promotions. You can follow me on twitter @Stouthimself you can listen to my music on Sound cloud & for production sales stouthimself@gmail.com