By: Bryant “B-Boy” Worthing @bboyworthing | Artist: Lord Haiti @LordHaiti
This week one of Chicago’s most funky underground producers is releasing a new track titled “It’s Alright” and The FLVR is one of the first outlets to share the brilliant sounds of Lord Haiti, a producer who’s artistry is breaking boundaries against the typical production in todays music. The track drops Tuesday 1/26/16 and can be heard at www.soundcloud.com/lordhaiti/its-alright and is a preview for the upcoming mixtape Oh My Soul that promises a game changing sound.
At the young age of 22 Lord Haiti is not like most producers his age based on the fact of his extended old school musical knowledge. Growing up on Chicago’s West Side in the Austin community both his parents musical taste rubbed off on him giving him a foundation that helps deliver a diverse sound in his production today.
“It started at the house, my mom was into motown, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye and my father liked a lot of Bootsie Collins and Bob Marley,” Lord Haiti explained. “I learned about the culture. It’s much bigger than beats and rhymes. I was even 13 years old learning about rock and roll. I am only 22 now I am a student of the game.”
The original plan was to become a DJ which started the process of it all for Lord Haiti, when the passion for DJing just wasn’t there in came the production focus and since then it has been the main direction for his music career. Even though he still DJs the occasional live show Lord Haiti started making beats with his biggest influences being the likes of J Dilla, Mad Lib, Timbaland, The Neptunes and Pete Rock. He mentioned that his eye stays on the composers of hip hop versus just popularity contests style of beat makers. The proof is in the sound and not the hype.
“Smokey Robinson is one of my favorite producers and song writers, people like Rich Jones, George Clinton and Quincy Jones,” said Lord Haiti. “I also like John Williams who did all the Star Wars soundtracks, thats a big deal.”
In the summer of 2015 www.thisis50.com featured Lord Haiti’s single “Tha City” which blew up across the country on various blogs because of it’s cutting edge beat and sound, he is what he calls a pioneer of the genre called “vibe”. The sound has a drum and bass meets EDM feel to it with sampled vocals and live instruments giving it a musical steez that is very strong instrumental wise. In a short description Lord Haiti is ahead of his time.
“I am still grinding everyday,” Lord Haiti said. “There were some people that hit my phone a lot of artists and local people asking about my production because of the This is 50 feature outside of getting calls from media outlets my closest friends though it was dope too.”
While going to school at Al Raby High School in Chi town’s tough west side the everyday challenges of gang filled streets and food stamps was nothing new for Lord Haiti, but the music was always the top outlet. Expressing himself through hip hop with his friends in the rich Chicago hip hop backdrop has done nothing but open doors. With no time to pout, the hard working attitude of making pure music is paying dividends now.
“Only way to make it out of the Austin is to have a decent nine to five, go to school or hustle,” Lord Haiti explained. “But when you hustle you know the risk you are taking.”
Follow this young talent on Instagram and Twitter @LordHaiti as he continues to be a trend setter, his beats speak volumes even if there are no words on them. It is refreshing to see a young soul create his own sound and stay confident in a world of followers, it’s only a matter of time before the script is flipped for the young Lord.
