- The Knitting Factory in Hollywood, CA / August 2nd, 2004

The Beat Society, a website/organization for producers based in Philadelphia, PA brought it's innovative live show to the Knitting Factory in Los Angeles for the first time on Saturday with much success, so much so that additional appearances, back in LA are in the works.

The live event is a round table of sorts where producers with varying styles bring out their equipment of choice from ASR's, to MPC's to Laptop computers, to Esoniq's and showcase material they've been working on.

After DJ Rhettmatic of the Beat Junkies warmed up the crowd with his DJ set, DJ Khalil of Self-Scientific, Illmind from New Jersey, founder and producer Hezekiah from Philly and DJ Babu of Dilated People's took the stage as the night's featured producers. 9th Wonder of Little Brother was scheduled to showcase his material as well, but an emergency came up and he was unable to make it. After the initial announcement, the crowd was obviously disappointed, however once the beats started the disappointment quickly resolved. DJ Babu who according to even organizers "had the most equipment on stage they have ever seen at any of the prior shows" set of the night with an incredible track that had the house in a trance. He added live scratches and cuts that took the track to a whole other level. "I'm fortunate enough to have projects with people like Defari, Dilated Peoples, and the Beat Junkies, but people know me as a DJ and I'm tryin' to let 'em know that I make beats too," said Babu when asked about the opportunities an event like this provides producers.

Aside from rounds of simply playing a random beat, there were rounds which included challenges of sorts. One of which was one where 2 weeks prior to the event, all producers were given an acapella by Nas and remixed it debuted their version live for the crowd to demonstrate the different kind of approach each producer has to the same rhymes. During another round, Rhettmatic spun an obscure sample and each producer played their track which they had made using the same sample prior to the event, further illustrating how different producers ears choose to interpret a track.

To keep things fresh and the crowd hype after two or three rounds of beats from all the producers, throughout the night MC's were brought out to add their element to the tracks. The scheduled performers were Chace Infinite and Murs but the night saw guest appearances and performances from Defari and Dilated Peoples. "I loved it, I told 'em I want to do it again," DJ Khalil elated, "I love what they're doing, because the beats, that's the foundation for me. If they had these back in the day with cats like Pete Rock, it would have been ridiculous!"

Hezekiah spoke about how Beat Society was started, "Production is such a hard game to get into so we came up with the website first, which is a non-profit organization where producers can post up your tracks up to the site, with no fee we don't ask for nothing. Your tracks are connected to your email, so we cut out a middle man of an agent or label." Taking the idea to the next level, the live show was created and has been widely successful throughout the East Coast and in December it will be traveling overseas to Austraila.

In the short time of its existence, Beat Society has already made many connections between producers and MC's that would have otherwise never happened. "Beat Society really helped and gave me a lot of exposure from doing stuff with Akrobatik, to linking up with Strange Fruit Project, Bahamadia (who's album he is currently working on) and working with El Da Sensei," said Illmind.

"I think it's dope because producers will only get doper if they start getting the respect they deserve, the focus is always on the rapper never the dude making the beats," exclaimed Murs, "Me as an emcee I like to come and just freestyle and vibe. It's just dope, it's a new form of Hip-Hop."

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