PureVolume

Keith Scarlett
“Kaulipepper Klik”

LOCATION: Columbus, Ohio
BREAKTHROUGH RECORD: P-Duble’s 1999 EP “Birth Uv A G.”
UPCOMING PROJECTS: P-Duble’s 2008 Full-Length release; “If I Die…”
TRADE SECRETS: “I actually listen to music, I see myself as a student.”

“I don’t make beats and try to shove them down artists’ throats,” explains one of the newer, but yet hotter, producers in the game when asked why he has beats on many projects, but is hardly even heard of. “I gauge by the project or the artist. I’m more about tailoring tracks for people.”

Taking that stance is obviously working many times over and over again. Growing up in Indianapolis, Keith has been observing the music scene for as long as he can remember. However, it wasn’t before he was college-aged that he began to be influenced he was being influenced by the sound’s coming from a dorm-mate’s room. What would eventually become a good-friend, mentor and musical group partner’s dorm-room, was constantly blasting sounds of funk, old-school and new school hip-hop that intrigued him into the early-hours of the morning.

“I was originally just an MC,” Keith says about his early days in music. “I had a little cheap Casio keyboard and was always trying to find ways to make different and newer sounds, but, it never quite worked-out the way I wanted, so I just stuck with writin’.” Soon, though, he would realize that he needed to learn how to loop records with the best of them. After a few critiques from his new friend (whose nickname happened to be “Luppy”), Keith began to learn the tricks of the trade at every opportunity.

When he and Luppy formed the hip-hop group, “Outsiders,” Luppy wanted to incorporate live instruments into his sound. Keith wasn’t down with it and that was the beginning of the end of their musical partnership as a group. The result that Luppy generated became a unique, hybrid, cutting edge, classic sound. Keith knew he was behind the times.

This helped diversify Keith’s sound and, by the time the 1990’s came to an end, Keith was doing free-lance producing for underground hip-hop, reggae and R + B acts. With no credits and no income coming-in from his work with these underground acts, Keith began losing his interest in hop-hop. That all changed when he linked-up with one of the hottest artists and producers in the Midwest, Ty Wills, almost 10 years later.

“Ty reinvigorated me to do hip-hop production again,” explains Keith. “There was such a split between underground and mainstream [Hip-Hop] and you had to be one or the other. So I stated doing things on my own…then me and Ty linked.”

These days he’s back in full-production mode. “I haven’t really been doing this for a long-time,” he says with a smirk. “I’ve been blessed with some success recently.”