Sixshot.com: Hey! How you doing?
Scram: I’m good. How about yourself?

Sixshot.com: Great. How did you get started in hip hop?
Scram: Break dancing in elementary school, I used to listen to the Fat Boys and basically all my life…I just start following it and collecting it.

Sixshot.com: Okay…the name – I got to ask about the name…
Scram: (laughing) basically. Scram has always been my nickname. “Scram” is actually my name backwards. In elementary school do you know how you write your name down on your papers and like I was writing “Marc S.” you know what I mean? (laughing) and my dyslexic ass was writing that shit backwards… (laughing) I was writing “Scram” all over my papers….I was like in the 2^nd and 3^rd grade still writing that shit… so that was like…that sort of foreshadowed my nickname right there and then umm…when I was like 15 I started deejaying and they was like “DJ Scram” and after that “Scram Jones” just became an extension.

Sixshot.com: Okay. You did college radio, right?
Scram: Yeah.

Sixshot.com: Do you think that doing college radio pushed you to want to DJ on a broader level and to pursue production?

Scram: It was definitely just another level to get my music out….also another experience to show me what goes down with radio, like what goes on behind the scenes at radio stations; which p lays into everything, selling music, playing music…you know what I mean…so I did that for like 3 years upstate and you know, we had a show called “The Chop Shop” every Saturday night from 1-3:30am and we’d bring all the new stuff from down in the city to upstate, you know…so it was super exclusive to people upstate and you know we’d scratch it up, freestyle and take live calls….but yeah it definitely showed me the business behind the scenes…like it showed me….when I saw the type of records that were coming in the mail and showing how they set their play list….and like we were lucky we could play anything we wanted, but other people during the day…you know they had to go by the play list…it put me on to that if you’re not on the play list you’re not getting on the radio…

Sixshot.com: oh yeah...i know how that is.
Scram: so you know that you need that major label and that major song too.

Sixshot.com: One of the questions that I like to ask producers especially- how do you define your production style or if there was one word you could use to define your style what would it be?
Scram: Powerful.

Sixshot.com: and why?
Scram (laughing) Just cuz you know I think that the hardest beats are the hardest beats, you know what I mean…. like as hard as you can make it hit you know? It’s all about impacting the listener, so just as powerful as you can make it, as big as the drums you can make it, I think it’s important but also you know just being creative…you know… being original and being experimental also just not rally setting boundaries…just trying new stuff and umm….being different… you know?

Sixshot.com: What was your first major project?
Scram: umm….my first major….I don’t know…like I stuff for Tragedy but that…I don’t know if that was major, but that was the first time I really did some solid album even though it was independent but I did four songs on his album and I helped a&r but after that it would probably be the Lloyd Banks and the Terror Squad.

Sixshot.com: I know that you got a lot of hype off Terror Squad’s “Yeah, yeah, yeah”, did the jobs start pouring in like crazy or were you just staring at the phone, begging it to ring? (laughing)
Scram: (laugh) yeah…it’s not what people really think…like it’s not. I wish it was like that but you got to think it’s a bunch of other people making noise too at the same time, so I’m not the only one making noise….but it definitely opened a lot of doors for me, people are giving me the time of day now. So you know, I got all types of execs setting up meetings with me to listen to what I got… so it definitely opened doors for me and you know it’s good for the resume.

Sixshot.com: Okay I heard that your turntable skills are off the hook…I know that your production skills are off the hook…I also heard that your rhyme skills are fire…can you kick something for me off the top?
Scram: Laughing. Kick something off the top. Hold on let me turn this beat off… (laughing) ahh you put me on the spot.

 Spits wicked freestyle

Sixshot.com: Okay
Scram: I got rhymes…shit (laughs)

Sixshot.com: Out of the three things that you do which of the three do you like the best?
Scram: I like all three and that’s the problem…each of my interviews they’d be like “which one?” I’m not picking one because I can honestly say all three are my passion. Like I said earlier, I’ve been writing all my life…you know…rhyming is just like a part of me…free styling and you know just like you know I stay writing everyday whether it be therapeutic or what…but everyday I’m in my two way typing rhymes…you know what I’m saying and making beats…I’m making beats everyday and night, on the business side I’m going hard on that right now cuz that’s what people want and deejaying is where it really all started…you know scratching and I used to like to get into battles, do tricks, scratch with my mouth, my feet and behind the back…you know all those crazy tricks. I can still do all that shit…but it’s not like it’s paying the bills or anything (laughing) so I’m not really practicing that. When I am dj’ing…like…I love that shit…I could get into a zone for hours and not saying like dee jaying a party even though I do dj parties like crazy but I enjoy just using it as an instrument…just like blacking out….it’s like…you know someone who loves playing the guitar might just sit there and play…I really look at it as an instrument. I enjoy all three. How’s that?

Sixshot.com: I mean I guess I’m gonna have to settle for that….I’ll take it. (laughing)
Scram: Did Alchemist give you a free style? (laughing)

Sixshot.com: No, I might have to call him back and get one (laughing) but he had a great aura and he did give me a great interview (laughs)
Scram: That’s my boy.

Sixshot.com: There still has to be one that you kind of dip towards a little more…that’s like having three women and you can’t have three women!
Scram: Why not? (laughing) no, I’m just playing…you trying to set me up! (laughing) no, umm…so wait… you asking me what I like the most or what I put the most time into?

Sixshot.com: okay. good let’s flip it like that. What do you spend the most time on?
Scram: probably the beats…yeah definitely the beats…but I squeeze in writing rhymes if I’m not doing nothing, if I’m taking a break from making beats, but obviously I want to take full advantage of these doors open right now you know what I’m saying, so I just do that everyday which are the beats and the thing is the I got all my stuff in my living room. So it’s like waking up to it everyday.

Both: Yeah, right in your face.
Scram: so it’s like okay and knowing that I have all these connections, I could just email this person a beat at this label and email one over there…you know…I got to take advantage of that.

Sixshot.com: exactly… since we know that you are an equally talented emcee does that help with your production.
Scram: Yeah. I think so…I mean sometimes it doesn’t even matter, cuz sometimes when I’m making a beat…I’m not even thinking of a rapper, I’m not even thinking of words. You know what I mean? I’m just thinking of sounds and making an actual beat then I’ll step away…sometimes I need other people to put me on I’m like “who you hear on this?” and they’ll be like “oh, I hear this person” and I’d be like “word” but like other times if you rap it’s like you know what type of beats you want to rap to and you know what a rapper might sound good too …so it definitely helps you know when you set the whole beat out…when you lay it all out and the breakdowns then you can picture a rapper RAPPING over it (laughs)

Sixshot.com: Lets get into this mixtape. Why did you name it “Loose Cannons”
Scram: cuz, it sounded ruff rugged and raw (laugh) I mean I’ve got mad different rappers…everybody’s just beasting on it…I mean you know, going for the jugular…you know…just like right now our mixtape is named “beast mode” if I didn’t name it “loose cannons”, I would have named it beast mode. But “loose cannons” is just people that spitting crazy and just ready to be dangerous…you know dangerous, crazy…deranged.

Sixshot.com: How long did it take to put together?
Scram: Basically, I mean…it’s like a collection of stuff that I just…I mean I got archives of songs of different rappers and I had to like snatch a couple…stuff that’s just been sitting in my computer all this stuff that’s been out in mixtapes and other stuff that’s brand new, so I mean…some of the stuff on it I don’t want to say it’s old cuz then people will think “ah he’s just putting out old stuff” but it’s new to the world, a lot of the stuff I’ve had for a while…you know it’s new, it’s like a year or two worth of material, but I just mashed all together and put it out.

Sixshot.com: What’s the formula for a good mixtape in your opinion?
Scram: I think a good balance of songs….something for everybody…to hit all the sections, you know whether it be east coast west coast down south, whether it’s underground or mainstream…you know stuff like that and for it to be the least amount of screaming over it.

Sixshot.com: did you do all of the production on this project?
Scram: Yeah, all 26 songs!

Sixshot.com: Whoa !
Scram: Quality and quantity. There you go!

Sixshot.com: Yeah, you can make a motto…rhyme skills, turntable skills all with quality and quantity..(laughs)
Scram: Hey! I like that. (laughs)

Sixshot.com: Anyone you didn’t put on this tape that you might put on a part two?
Scram: yeah, there’s definitely a lot of other people I was working with, that you know I couldn’t just get something exclusive or you know maybe there was some “luggage”…whatever, but like you know on the next one, I’m definitely gonna have a bunch of people that I’ve been working with…. No body specific.

Sixshot.com: what’s in the works? You got big production projects coming up? I heard you’re supposed to be working w/ Mariah Carey.
Scram: yeah, I did something for her and NORE…she’s umm…on her album she put NORE on the song. I got something on NORE’s album and on Beanie Seagal’s, that’s basically the two concrete things that I have for right now…oh and Freeway’s album.

Sixshot.com: Well thanks for your time and I wish you much continued success.
Scram: Ah thank you