DJ DAHI: I didn't buy a rap record until I was probably in college to be honest.
My mom was heavily influenced in the church, and she was always ministering to folks.
Anything with profanity couldn't be in the house really.
The main thing I could listen to was just Christian gospel music.
RODNEY CARMICHAEL: In hip-hop, sampling is like alchemy.
It’s an art form that rearranges space and time.
And the producers who build on the tradition use sonic DNA from the past to cook up the future.
Even when you know how it works, it can still feel like magic.
DJ Dahi may be understated, but his work speaks volumes.
Especially when he deconstructs vocals or manipulates his own voice
in ways that show just how far the craft of sampling has stretched.
A producer who wasn’t allowed to listen to profane music growing up,
Dahi found church in the wild and made texture his own sonic ministry.
DAHI: My understanding of sampling is kind of– I put it in three categories.
Number one is the perfect loop.
You find that loop that is just incredible that doesn't really need to be changed.
Another one is the chop.
You move parts and melodies and grooves and drums to a certain kind of new interpretation of that.
Then the last one is kind of like the reverse.
Start spinning it backwards and see what it sounds like.
When it comes to beats for Pusha T, I felt like I wanted something that felt kind of scary but still felt kind of spiritual.
The sample that I made I created from vocal loops and effects and started to just
build some drums around that created a groove or a pocket of some stuff.
[Plays DJ Dahi’s demo]
It puts you in the clouds somehow, someway.
It sounds kind of ghostly, sounds like some spirit singing type of thing.
[Plays DJ Dahi’s demo]
I use a lot of my own sounds that I make up, you know, basically from my voice, hands.
I guess I don't really feel like I have a particular sound, but I have a kind of a texture.
Reverb is kind of like a huge part of that:
how the 808 fills up the bottom. Reverb fills up the top.
[Plays Pusha T’s “Drug Dealers Anonymous”]
One of my favorite records is called “Money Trees” off of Kendrick Lamar's “good kid, m.A.A.d. city” album.
I produced it with the sample ”Silver Soul” by Beach House.
[Plays Beach House’s “Silver Soul”]
With this particular one, as soon as I heard it, I just liked the sound of the crackly sound in the beginning
and just the way it kind of built in.
I tried a couple little things chop-wise, and I was like, ”Yo i just liked the sound.”
I don't want to break it up so let me try to reverse it.
[Plays Reverse Track]
The idea behind reverse records being this satanic devilish experience is straight ridiculous.
If they hear something they don't understand or something that sounds foreign,
people are quick to claim it as bad.
[Plays Kendrick Lamar's “Money Trees” ]
Kendrick, when we first started talking about “DAMN.,” we started to just
have man-to-man conversations about the Bible.
I think we just kind of came to a conclusion where–
at least what we’ve been taught– even with me going to church, we’re all sinners.
We are still beings of the physical, the flesh and bone.
We still have needs and desires that we can't even explain.
You're damned if you do, damned if you don't so you might as well just do you.
All those conversations created a narrative for this album.
[Plays Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic”]
When I first heard “24 Karat,” that part was like,
“Oh. That's the best part to me on the record.”
I had the original sample come from my boy Sounwave.
It's a sample, reverse, chop, slash– it's all the elements I talked about earlier of chop, reverse, melody, loop.
It all comes together on that particular thing. It’s almost like a coded language.
You got to dig a little bit to figure out how we did it.
[Plays Sounwave’s beat for Kendrick Lamar]
Kendrick gave it to me.
He was like, “Wave’s chopped the sample. It's really dope. Can you mess around with it?”
I started just mumbling melodies. I like this kind of energy.
[SINGS] “Geeked up. Fired up.” I liked that pattern.
He was like “Yo, that's dope. That's really dope. Let me write the lyrics, and you just sing it.”
[Plays Dahi’s Vocal Part ]
It was funny. At first, I just thought it was going to be a reference.
I was like, “OK. Keep it as a reference. You can see if you can get someone else to sing it. Whatever.”
I wouldn't say we all have demo-itis, but when you first hear something,
it's something about that first idea that sticks with you.
The first voice you hear on the record is my vocals.
[Plays Kendrick Lamar’s “Loyalty”]
Sampling records to me is a really dope thing because it’s like digging for gold.
You find that nugget, and it's like, “Oh wow. This is dope. This sounds fresh.”
I want to kind of break sound.
I want to break the barrier of what people are kind of used to and say, “I want to give you this.”
It's all about the texture.
[Plays Kendrick Lamar’s “Loyalty”]
CARMICHAEL: Do you ever think of music as your ministry?
DAHI: Wow, I never– I stopped going to church.
I stopped going probably when I was 18.
The structure of religion kind of lost me.
Music is probably the closest thing I am on a level of spirituality.
I think it is holy. I think it is godly.
Man, you hit me with the God-level questions.
