Dub Da Mac is a label owner, who started out of Central California's beach destination well known as Pismo Beach. He has a interesting life story, and has a knack for producing for different artists. Read up on how he started his company Eighth Dimension Entertainment.
ABM: Tell us the story behind your stage name "Dub Da Mac", how did it come about?
Dub Da Mac: Back in '08 people knew me as K-Dub, I was attending Berkeley University for music production while I was interning at a local recording studio with a few different well known rap artists from the city. One of the artists that I was engineering and producing for at the time had been working with Too Short and bringing him through the lab to record and listen to his music, and I was always bringing 2 or 3 bad lil females to the stu with me to just chill and hang around to party with us. Around day 3-4 of the project Too $hort had made a quick lil joke and said "you're not K-Dub anymore from now on I'm calling you 'Dub the Mac'", and everyone that was in the room stuck that name to me like glue. People started introducing me as Da Mac, or Dub Da Mac instead of K-Dub. From that day forward I never asked to be called Dub Da Mac, it's just who I am haha but for real tho it is what it is.
ABM: What age did you start producing and making music?
Dub Da Mac: That's a great question, see at the age of 5 I was adopted by my grandparents, and my grandma Lovetta wanted me to grow up learning as much as possible including music so I started playing the piano and keyboards at the age of 5-6. By the age of 12 I was beginning to compose my own music and expand into new instruments such as the guitar & saxophone and when I got into middle school I joined choir and band classes. By high school I had got my hands on my first copy of FL Studio and had 2 close friends named Dan Green & Tim Madonna that taught me how to make my first few digital instrumentals. From there on I did whatever I could to find new sounds, download samples, create my own guitar riffs and drum and bass lines to create a style of production unlike any other type of hip-hop producer. I've never been on soundcloud or soundclick or youtube with my production — in order to work with me you need to contact me and book me with a studio and get in some live production or work with something I've got in my database of over 6000+ untagged original instrumentals.
ABM: Did your parents play a role into you becoming a musician?
Dub Da Mac: Yes & no, I don't have any musical background in my family. I'm the first musician on both sides, but a huge deal of the inspiration for a lot of my songs come from my mother and father. My dad was a bank robber in the early 90's that took down a bunch of banks from Santa Barbara to Fresno CA. My mom was deported for drug transportation and attempted murder. On my new project Audioography, I have a couple of tracks where I'm speaking through the eyes of my parents explaining what they went through, having me as a baby, and being career criminals. My life has been nothing less than a rollercoaster, and a fucked up Tarantinoesque movie to say the least.
ABM: Who and what inspires you as a producer?
Dub Da Mac: First and foremost right now my #1 inspiration is my son Dublin, without that boy I dunno where i'd be or what i'd be focused on doing with my life. Most of the things that inspire me as a producer are true to life situations and being able to work with truly dedicated lyricists that know how to turn one of my instrumentals into a masterpiece. Right now I honestly get a lot of inspiration from my boy Charley Brownn who's been by my side with me through this music business the past few years, I mean really if it wasn't for Charley I wouldn't be sitting here talking to y'all today.
ABM: What are your early influences?
Dub Da Mac: Man the subculture of hip-hop itself is my biggest influence, growing up I listened to a lot of different music and artists from Limp Bizkit to Eminem. I was a Juggalo in high school, I loved the stage show the Insane Clown Posse and Twiztid had and I wanted to fuckin have that same presence on a stage, I wanted to be able to make the fans feel like my family. By 2002-2003 the Thizz movement had grown huge all over northern and central California and I got huge into Coolio Da'Unda'Dogg, Mac Dre, J-Diggz & all of them, I was still in high school then so that became the only shit I was listening too. All these artists influenced me to do one thing and one thing only and thats be myself.
ABM: What is your favorite instruments and what do you currently use to make music on?
Dub Da Mac: My favorite instrument is the bass guitar and the alto saxophone, its a duel between the 2 in my mind. I play the keys a lot and I think the piano will always be a true passion of mine. Right now I use a combination of Logic & FL Studio to make instrumentals along with some live production. Currently we've been recording all our music at Paramount Recording Studios in Hollywood CA, working with our new engineer Matt Anthony who has worked with artists like Wiz Khalifa, Ty Dolla $ etc. At that studio we are currently working on Protools and a Tascam 5000 to record the vocals for all our upcoming projects!
ABM: Who are some of the artists you have produced for?
Dub Da Mac: I've produced for so many people I dunno where to begin this lil list of artist shout outs lol. Currently I'm producing for my artists Charley Brownn, Cincinnati Savage, Lil Bit, Tripl3 B, Sean Conn & Kage but some of the big names I've produced for include Spice 1, Brotha Lynch Hung, Triboro, E-40, Glasses Malone, X-Raided, Wiz Khalifa, Lil Durk, I could go on and on honestly.
ABM: Tell us about Eighth Dimension Entertainment, how did that come about, who is the owner?
Dub Da Mac: In high school I was working on my turntables and scratching skills and I found a spot on a 2Pac album where he mentioned 8D, and I was like whats 8D haha. So I did a bunch of research and I found out that the Eighth Dimension is everything that could possibly and can possibly exist at once, it is the sight of sound and the stars in the sky, its one of the hardest math equations in the world. So I built a team up behind a record label that I created named Eighth Dimension Ent. I only work with artists that are here to tell you a story or paint u a picture that you can relate too. I am the current and only owner of the record label and publishing rights for it. Eighth Dimension Ent. has been an LLC since 2008 and in the past 8 years we have had many artists come through these doors but very few have been able to deal with the real shit that goes on behind the scenes in this business. You can learn more about the label and artists on it at www.8thDimensionEnt.com
ABM: What projects are you currently working on?
Dub Da Mac: I am currently working on my 7th album Audioography, its a 39 song project I've been working on for a long time. The story behind Audioography is to tell everyone about my life — the trials, travels, triumphs, tribulation and the trip of living vicariously through the streets and music throughout my life. We just wrapped up my partner Charley Brownn's latest album +Vol. which has award winning music on it. Back in April we walked the red carpet at the Akademia Music Awards and Charley received a plaque for best Rap/Soul song for his single "Livin" and we're nominated for another award for our hit song "Aww Yeah" ft. Tripl3 B as well, make sure you go check out that music video on YouTube today!
ABM: What is your ultimate goal at the end of your career?
Dub Da Mac: I want to be one of the next great talent scouts and record labels. I want to be known for the artists I discover and help grow and build with, besides my own personal achievements my ultimate goal is ultimate success and I will not stop till I achieve it!
ABM: How can people reach you if they want beats or to do business?
Dub Da Mac: Email the label at eighthdimensionent@8thdimensionent.com or eighthdimensionent@gmail.com or DubDaMac@gmail.com, get ahold of me on twitter @DubDaMac or @8thDimensionEnt or on instagram @Dub_Da_Mac or @8th_Dimension_Ent, u can snap me at DubDaMacc or you can get ahold of us through our FB pages or website www.8thDimensionEnt.com. Of course you can look my music and everyone else on my team up on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon MP3 and everywhere else music can be digitally downloaded!
ABM: Any shout outs?
Dub Da Mac: Well first i'd like to thank you Ian Jackson and All Bay Music Magazine for featuring ya boy Dub Da Mac in another issue, I greatly appreciate the spread bruh! Secondly i'ma shout out my team, all the people that have been working with me like my day 1 partner Drastic who's sitting back in Corcoran right now in the middle of a 20 year sentence #FREEDRASTICC. I gotta send a huge shout out to Charley Brownn, Tripl3 B, Big Tay, Cincinnati Savage, Lil Bit & O Soo Clean. S/o to my fans friends family, Martika for all the support and believing in me, my new agent Kate she's the absolute best and of course a special lil shout out to my son Dublin!