Interview w/ DJ Illegal of Snowgoons
By: Justin Rizzio

Germany is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The territory of Germany covers 357,021 km and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With over 82 million inhabitants, it has the largest population of any member state of the European Union and is home to the third-largest number of international migrants worldwide. Oh yeah, it’s also home to the Snowgoons, a production team that has released two solid albums featuring some of the most talented MCs in independent hip hop.
215hiphop: First off, introduce yourselves and tell us what you do and where you’re from.

Dj Illegal: Hi, I’m Dj Illegal of the Snowgoons. The Snowgoons are my producer crew and we are from Germany. Basically, I started with graffiti and listening to music in ‘88. In ‘92, I organized my first jam with some German artists. In the same night I became a DJ and took my name that they gave me from the graff scene as my artist name. In ‘97, I started with the beats and now I’m also working as a tour manager in Europe!

215: How did you guys hook up with Babygrande to put out your records?

Dj Illegal: It all started with Chief Kamachi and Jus Allah. I set up a tour with them and they both had upcoming releases on Babygrande at that time. So, Babygrande hit me up and sent me some promotional stuff for the tours. After we had the German Lugers album ready, I was talking to Babygrande because the contact was already there and they liked our stuff from the first second on.

215: Your first album, German Lugers, along with your recent release, Black Snow, features some of the most popular and well respected artists in independent hip hop in the U.S.. Being that you’re from Germany, how did you get involved with American music?

Dj Illegal: “The Message” by Melle Mel was like a telegram and since then I’ve been lost in hip hop music. In the beginning, I was working with German artists, and around 2000 I met Virtuoso from Boston on a Souls Of Mischief tour I did. On some off-days we hit the studio and that was the first recording with an artist from the U.S.. For some reason, it was so uncomplicated and easy going to work with U.S. artists. U.S. artists, they’re gonna tell you straight up how they want their vocals or the beat. That’s way different than the most European artists.

215: Also, as far as guest appearances go, you have a lot of MC’s from Philadelphia featured on your records. What’s the connection with Philly and describe your overall selection process of picking out MC’s for the album?

Dj Illegal: Like I said before, it all started with Kamachi and Jus Allah. When I came out the first time to Philly, Kamachi introduced me to Last Emperor. He also introduced me to his crew, JuJu Mob, so I meet Reef. Reef introduced me to DJ Stress The White Boy. That’s like a never ending chain.
I really like the “Philly sound,” and I speak for all the four Snowgoons members. We always discuss our latest beats, and we try to find the perfect artists for this kind of beat. At the end, we really hit the artist up to check out this beat. The final is that we, out of ten times, hit nine times the right artist with the right beat.

215: In comparison to Germany and the United States, what do you see as the biggest differences in hip hop as far as fans go?

Dj Illegal: To be honest, there is no big difference nowadays. Most kids are listening to the commercial sound like Kanye, or all that crunk stuff. Only difference is that a lot of the underground heads still collect vinyl, even if there are no DJs. Also, like most Europeans in general, we like to study everything we’re interested in.  Most artists that came over the first time to Europe are really surprised that the kids out here know their first records and all the background of an artist.

215: With your production, do you guys have a lot of American influences?

Dj Illegal: Yessir. Premier, Alchemist, Stoupe, RZA…just to name a few. I actually don’t have any European influences, producer wise. Its definitely more of the European sound we dig for as far as sampling.

215: What production equipment do you all use?

DJ Illegal: We’re working with a lot of shit. Mostly I use Logic and an Akai S3000.  We also use Sony Acid or a classic MPC. I like Logic because its got a lot of Plug-ins that I really use. Sampling is really important for us. Imagine a rock album without a guitar! That’s not possible. Hip Hop started with all the breaks and loops and that’s how we wanna keep it.
No disrespect to producers that don’t use samples, but, I like to dig for a sample and work with it the classic way.

215: Describe for us the hip hop scene in Germany.

DJ Illegal:  I guess it’s the same as in the U.S.. There are no more original and creative cats out there. Everybody copies the biggest ones on TV or on the radio. What I really miss on the German hip hop scene are some artists like Non-Phixion or AOTP. Everybody is on some gangster shit or on some dirty south. That’s mad corny to me cause most German artists don’t have the background for this kind of music. I don’t wanna dis the German scene, but, there is nobody with a real message. I mean it don’t have to be just controversial music, but, if you just got gangster music or crunk and party stuff, you would feel the same about all this.

215: Off the topic of music, how does the average German view The United States?

Dj Illegal: If we don’t talk about the music, then we’re talking about politics. Then we’re in the same booth again. Nobody likes Bush out here as is same for the rest of the world! But other than that, everybody loves the States because we still believe in the American dream. Especially when we take our strong Euros and flip them to dollars. We get 1.5 dollars for one euro. Even with the shipping and handling, we can get merch way cheaper then out here in Europe.

215: With two quality albums under your belt already, what does the future hold for the Snowgoons?

Dj Illegal: We love music, so we’re never gonna stop! Album number three is already in process, and for the rest of the year we have a lot of guest productions especially with the fam in Philly. Doap Nixon, King Syze, Outerspace, Reef, Godilla, Brainstorm, Adlib, LCOB, etc as well as on the new Brooklyn AC, Sabac Red or Main Flow. Also I’m about to do a collab album with Sicknature from Denmark. He is the dopest artist out of Europe now.

215: Last words?

Dj Illegal: Thanks for the interview, and peace to the city of Philly.

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