An afternoon at Atlantis Music Conference and Remix Hotel
Monday, September 24th, 2007Last weekend, the Atlantis Music Conference marked its 10th anniversary with a weekend of panel discussions, concerts and networking parties, most of which were centered at the CW Atlanta complex. Since it was the final weekend of the summer — autumn officially began Sunday, Sept. 23 — there were great events happening all over the city, and I only got a chance to spend Friday afternoon at Atlantis.
First, I took in “Get in the Van” Touring 101 at Vinyl, which featured my good friend Fiona Bloom, who promotes events and publicizes artists through her New York-based company the Bloom Effect. (Her Atlanta clients include Anthony David and Melissa Young.) Others on the panel included Greg Green, talent buyer at the Masquerade; and Greg Diekroeger, former chairman of the National Association of Campus Activities. It was pretty dense stuff, and you could see aspiring musicians diligently taking notes as the panelists talked.
I went over to “Beatin Up Da Block” Producers Panel and Beat Battle, which was held inside Center Stage Atlanta. Most of the seats in the theater were filled, and with good reason: Sitting at the dais were DJ Toomp, Focus, Isaac “Ike Dirty” Hayes III, Don Cannon, Khao Cates and Jaz-O. Save for Jaz-O, who hails from New York (and is famous for mentoring Jay-Z), these are some of the more successful producers in Atlanta.
The audience, most of them fledging MCs and producers, was almost obnoxiously reverent, and applauded loudly after each panelist spoke. Focus, an in-house producer at Aftermath Entertainment, said that his first meeting with Dr. Dre was like a scene out of The Godfather. Aphilliates member Don Cannon noted that “Go Crazy,” the song that established him as a producer, was originally a mixtape track for T.I. until Young Jeezy coerced Cannon to give him the beat. DJ Toomp, who’s blowing up for Kanye West’s “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” talked about making his first record for Raheem the Dream in the 10th grade, and subsequently becoming a “superstar” at his high school.
