DJ Vlad Presents Sizzerb Mixtape Vol. 1

Collection Contents

#		Title	Length
1		Intro	0:31	Play
2		Angels (Djurdjevdan 2005)	2:15	Play
3		Rose Gold	3:34	Play
4		Blowout	2:16	Play
5		Sinovi	2:50	Play
6		Acropolis	2:19	Play
7		Never	2:31	Play
8		Grind Out	3:49	Play
9		Phenominal	1:04	Play
10		Catch Up (Freestyle)	1:02	Play
11		Venost	4:01	Play
12		China White	1:57	Play
13		Kill Like America Interlude	0:37	Play
14		Kill Like America	2:42	Play
15		Bang (Freestyle)	1:17	Play
16		Corner	3:17	Play
17		The Struggle (Chamelee Remix)	4:47	Play
18		The Belly	1:13	Play
19		Get Paper	2:41	Play
20		Outro	1:17	Play

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Description

As appeared on Allhiphop.com:

Serbian import Sin, is representing his war torn country royally. Having landed as a refugee in Canada from what was Yugoslavia thirteen years ago, his heritage lives on undeniably in his lyrical content.

Claiming that Canadians have a tendency to try to mimic their American counterparts and fail miserably, Sin is stepping over that stereotype with his simplistic approach to music. He states he cant rap over beats with too much going on in them but with his domination on the Mic, the beat really plays a secondary role.

Having gained recognition from fellow Eastern European DJ Vlad who hosted the first of his five mixtape series, Sin continued to attract attention from other top dogs in the industry. He collaborated with CamRon on the featured track "How Gangstaz Do" and read here

how this isnt the first Dip Set artist in which he has done a collaboration.

With a talented team of producers and a full functioning company behind him, Sin hopes to take them to a higher place and with the drive, ambition and talent this guy possesses, that shouldnt be too hard a challenge. Giving the AHH readers a lesson in Eastern European history, Sin here talks about family values, what he avoids when it comes to production and how that hard earned money should be spent.


AllHipHop.com: How long have you been in Canada?


Sin: We came here in about 93/94.


AllHipHop.com: You are from Serbia, which was once Yugoslavia; did you move here because of all the trouble going on back in your country?


Sin: Yeah exactly. We lived in the part of the country where the civil war started and people from our ethnic group got pushed out because of the conflict over there and different countries started taking in refugees and a lot of them went to either Canada, united States or Australia.


AllHipHop.com: Was this you and all your family?


Sin: Well me and my immediate family, my grandparents and other family, like cousins are all still living back there.


AllHipHop.com: What sort of a Hip-Hop scene does Serbia have?


Sin: Well right now its getting better, you know it is not like France or England or those other European countries but it is getting really strong and some of the artists are amazing and we try to work with as many of them as we can. You know we are really trying to push it as much as we can, you know besides the rap we do on the English side we try to push Serbian rappers too. I mean its got a way to go before it catches up with some of the bigger countries in Europe. Some of the countries out there get their trends form here but they are a little slower, but we are hoping to change all that because there is some hot talent, both producers and MCs.


AllHipHop.com: So you are still very much involved in Hip-Hop back in Serbia, do they show you a lot of love back there?


Sin: We actually just dropped a mixtape with VIP, who is the biggest rap group there.


AllHipHop.com: Keeping ties with your mother country and knowing what's going on over there in Hip-Hop is really important then?


Sin: Yeah as that is at the end of the day where we are from and a lot of people who help me here are also Serbs, you know my manager and a bunch of other people involved in the label are form there. So yeah it is important for us to promote and show people more than just the stereotypes they talk about, you know the genocide and everything, we just want to show everyone the lighter side of our people.


AllHipHop.com: Because of the troubles in your country this is obviously a big inspiration in terms of your lyrics?


Sin: Yeah I use it in a lot of my songs but it is not like I want to glorify it or anything. A lot of people lost their lives in that war, in a bunch of wars, you know we had the one in 99 with Albania and Kosovo. Other violence you might hear in rap songs you hear because people can relate to it, because everybody raps about what they know and what is real to them, for example Eminem will tell you about his Mom having a habit of prescription pills or whatever, you just rap about what is real to you. You know you want to rap about things you know about.


AllHipHop.com: Did you ever come up against people who didnt get what you are talking about in your rhymes?


Sin: You know there are some that wont know about the situation, because they dont know about it. But then there are those that definitely did know what I was talking about, you know we are not loved by everyone over there and there is always two sides to every story, so some are not going to like what I am saying as well.


AllHipHop.com: What I noticed listening to your music is that the balance with the beats and your lyrics is pretty much on point, when you look for a beat what is it you look for?


Sin: With beats I try to do something completely unique, like for example a lot of the stuff we sample, going back to Serbia again, we sample old Serbian songs, like melodies.


AllHipHop.com: Like in your track "If God Close The Gate" the vocal in the back is that an example of a Serbian song?


Sin: Yeah that was from some random record called Village Music, you know no-one will ever sue us for that. So what I do is I try to find something really unique because everything has already been done, the Southern thing, the West coast style, so I get a really rare sample like that then I will get one of my producers and have him sample say five seconds, put a snare there, drums there or whatever and then just like you know I try to get a sample relevant to what I am going to rap about and I am happy with the way they turn out.


AllHipHop.com: Your beats are so simple yet so effective, you know we were at a point where the beats overshadowed the lyrics but with you the beats truly compliment your flow, everything. Did you have to work at this or was it just something you have always been fortunate in creating?


Sin: I cant rap on beats when they are too complicated, I have producers that send me amazing beats and they will send maybe ten beats but some of them there will be too much going on in them. You know I like the beat empty and I am not trying to make a decision to put a focus on my raps, I just cant write to it. So when they send me these beats and I pick the most simple one they are like What the hell is wrong with you? (Laughing.)


AllHipHop.com: What producers do you work with?


Sin: Most of the production comes from a dude who I have been working with the longest and his name is Chamelee and he executive produced all the mixtapes we put out. You know he is Chinese so when I want to use one of the Serbian samples I have to translate the words for him, so I have to be right up there in the studio with him when he is making the beat, but he does most of them. Then we also have State Fam which is our in-house production team and Mr. Hotbeatz. We work with a lot of producers, but my production team is amazing.


AllHipHop.com: Yeah you have your own production company right?


Sin: Yeah Sizzerb Productions, we have seven or eight producers that are just our in-house producers and I give a lot of credit to them and a lot of people compliment them, because I mean you can like or not like my music but I have never had anyone say anything negative about our production.


AllHipHop.com: Did you find that Hip-Hop was in the stage where the beat was over-riding the rhymes yourself?


Sin: Yeah most definitely and no disrespect but since the Southern music took over its all been about beats over rhymes but thats not necessarily a bad thing, everything goes through trends but myself I prefer like other rappers such as Biggie, Nas, Tupac, it was all about their lyrics, you dont remember them for the beats, just the lyrics. You know the southern stuff you remember for the beat or for the catchy hook and that is how it gets on.


AllHipHop.com: You feature on a the track "If God Close The Gate" with Camron, how did that collaboration come about?


Sin: What happened was my manager Khalid Al-Askar, he is from Kuwait and is also Co-CEO of the record label we started, he went out to NY, he got at Tom Gists manager, I am not sure if he was with the Diplomats or about to sign with them last summer, so my first collaboration was with him and eventually we just went up the ladder and ended up with Cam and I think that was something he worked out with Duke Da God. It turned out to be a good track, I mean not one of my favorite tracks but, the one that got the most buzz because of the names on it.


AllHipHop.com: So nowadays to get ahead you have to have that co-sign?


Sin: Unfortunately as that is probably one of my worst verses ever.


AllHipHop.com: Is there a future for you with the Diplomats?


Sin: Well right now we are just talking to a lot of people, you know how it goes. I want to sign with a major but it has to be under the right circumstances like we have had a lot of offers and really anyone can get signed to a deal, so until we get a real quality deal we are happy with the amount of units we move by ourselves in terms of mixtapes but then on the other hand we are doing the whole business by ourselves, we are doing our own promo, duplication, distribution, every single thing I personally have to be involved in. Its like if we wanted to put out a major album we would need at least distro from a major and that is what we are looking for right now. You know and then I can put all my time into the music as right now I am 90% business and 10% music. You know I give a lot of credit to rappers that do it all themselves and dont get me wrong I do a lot of work my self.

AllHipHop.com: What is the name of your label?

Sin: 1389, which was a pivotal year in Serbian history and I am going back to this again. What took place that year was the Battle of Kosovo and you might know about it as they had the recent warfare going on with the Albanians that was on TV a lot. 1389 was the year the Ottoman Empire, the Turks came to invade our country and even though their army was ten times as big as ours, all the other countries surrendered to them right way but we were the first country that basically stood up to them and fought them and a lot of Serbs are proud of that. We won that battle but after that Serbia was conquered and for 500 years was slaved by them so that was such an important year and that was why we decided to name our label that.

AllHipHop.com: Are you the only artist on your label?

Sin: We have a couple of producers signed for the Sizzerb Productions, Chamelee and Hotbeatz and we are looking to sign a couple of artists.

AllHipHop.com: In your track Vision you make references to the ice machine referring to diamonds, coming from the background that you do, how important is it to promote wealth?

Sin: Looking at it from the outside when there are hungry people in the world like its crazy someone spending $300,000 on a chain, you know but you have to understand that in the culture, having things that shows you are successful and the work you put in, the cars, the jewelry is to show yourself and I understand that. Me personally, I would not like some of these rappers are doing, spend so much money on jewelry, I cant say I would do that myself when you see the situation in some countries.

AllHipHop.com: So what would you do with your money, you know say you get a label deal for two million?

Sin: I would definitely buy a house for my family; I mean that money could feed my family for many years. I wouldnt spend it on jewelry.

AllHipHop.com: Family values are very important to you then?

Sin: I mean definitely, you know other rappers may have grown up in households where family values may not have been that strong, but I dont have that problem at all. My parents are still together; my Mom still cooks for me.

AllHipHop.com: DJ Vlad hosted your first mixtape right?

Sin: Yeah he hosted Sizzerb Volume One which dropped last July. He is also from Eastern Europe, the Ukraine, so he was really feeling what we were trying to do and back then we were unknown completely, I was just going to do a demo and people told me that people dont care about your demo, people want to see you move units, so I decided to do a mixtape, so I showed it to DJ Vlad and he co-signed on it and that was really big. Shout out to DJ Vlad.

AllHipHop.com: You see you working with him in the future?

Sin: After that happened we went back to our international movement again and we talked about doing a mixtape with the biggest rap group in Russia which hasnt materialized yet. That is something different. I definitely think we will be doing more projects together in the future.

AllHipHop.com: Your last tape is Nu Jerzey Devil, Big Mike and Dj Watts, more big names?

Sin: Again we have been really fortunate, especially right now living in Canada, people are trying to do stuff, you know Kardinal Official and Khaos but for some reason they cant find their own style like the South have, Chicago, LA or New York, they are trying to do their best impression of American rappers in Canada and it normally fails really miserably, no disrespect but they have to be original and that is why Kardi is doing it, you know he was on the Clipse album because he has his own style, but in Canada they have to do their own thing and if they have to blame someone they should blame themselves.

AllHipHop.com: So the future for you?

Sin: Just pushing Sizzerb Volume 2, the mixtape which came out in Serbia with the group VIP that I mentioned earlier and then I am working on Sizzerb Volume 3 with Chamelee and I really wanted him to show off his beats and we are going to drop that in about three weeks and then we are dropping State Fam Sizzerb Volume 4 and then I will do my final mixtape, Sizzerb Volume 5 and that will be out in June and that will be the last one. Then I will get cracking on my album finally. You know talking to labels, trying to get a distribution deal, securing distribution independently is absolutely crazy and I wouldnt wish that on anybody. That is what we have got coming on.

AllHipHop.com: Was this strategic planning with the five volumes of Sizzerb?

Sin: Yeah actually not strategic, more superstitious as that is my number, I was born June 5th so if you see all my releases they are always on the fifth of the month or they add up to five, and when that happens it is normally because we have had to push it back. Yeah just superstitious, not strategic at all. You know as people think we are pushing them too soon and too close together so no strategy there.

AllHipHop.com: Any shout outs?

Sin: Khalid Al-Askar, Chamelee, Nap, Sasa Jovicich, Crood, G, 4AM, State Fam, Mr Hotbeatz, VIP, Dystinkt, Track Bangas, Laz, Geolani, Gist, 354, Tommy Knox, Milimax, Doe Boi, Nu Jerzey Devil, Big Mike, Watsman, "Kosovo je Srbija"