From Rapper's Delight to Producer's Delight with Beezie2Slaps
Photos provided by Beezie2Slaps
By Emma Schwichtenberg
Fred Byrdwell, also known as Beezie2Slaps, is a Seattle-based music producer and DJ. He’s been a part of the Seattle music scene since his pops first bought a record in 1979, though he might not have known it just yet.
The record was a surprise for Beezie and his brother. His father brought them into the living room and put the record into their stereo system — it was "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang.
“This song just hit me differently than any music I had heard before,” Beezie said. “It was something I related to. The beat of the song was familiar yet different, and the way they were delivering these lyrics over this beat was just incredible to me.”
Beezie began trying to figure out how to make hip hop beats. With no advanced technology, the thirst for knowledge was intense, but acquiring it was difficult. All Beezie had were magazines and word-of-mouth advice from people who knew someone in the field.
At the time, Beezie was a drummer who had been drumming since he was five years old. At eight, he got his first professional drumming gig at a church where his father was an assistant pastor and his mother was the Minister of Music. His mom played the piano, and his dad played the organ.
"Music's always been around, but it was about the kind of music," Beezie said. "While I was drumming at church, I gained some musical background from that. Then Hip Hop came out, and it completely changed my thinking about music and its possibilities. It wasn't just about church music anymore."
Questions about how to make hip hop beats and rap over them without any equipment began to swim in Beezie’s mind. Although he didn't have anything to record on, he started picking up some DJ equipment. He got some speakers from the neighbors and a mixer as well. From then on, throughout middle school, he focused on figuring out how to make beats.
"My teacher allowed me and two of my friends to come over; he had a small recording setup," Beezie said. "I think it was a four-track recorder. He had a couple of keyboards and some mics, and he let us come over to make our first hip hop song using these archaic methods. The first song, I believe, was called 'Bust the Bass,' and it was about us liking the bass in music and that sort of thing. It was kind of rough. That was in '85 or '86."
At the time, Beezie listened to DJ Nasty Nes's radio show on K Fox, an R&B station. The show aired once a week and featured fresh tracks. DJ Nasty Nes mostly played new hip hop from New York and some from California, but he would also occasionally feature local acts.
"We sent our stuff in, and lo and behold, he played our song on the radio. It was the first time I'd ever heard my music on the radio," Beezie said. "We were, you know, bugging out. It was just crazy. That was the hook— that feeling of accomplishing something, making a song, and then hearing it on the radio."
He was able to get access to more DJ equipment thanks to a friend's father who invested in them. It was the gear he needed to kickstart his DJing career. He and his band, The School Boys, began offering their services to middle schools, high schools, and even weddings, which became their primary source of income. As they started earning money, they used it to purchase additional recording equipment from pawn shops in downtown Seattle. Their first acquisitions included a drum machine, a four-track tape recorder, and a Roland Juno keyboard.
"I started experimenting with recording using two tape recorders," Beezie said. "I'd hit record on one, play the beat on the drum machine, rap, and add something on the sampler keyboard simultaneously to maximize what I could capture. Then I'd transfer that tape to another deck, record on top of it, and repeat the process, despite the poor sound quality and tape noise. It gave me a platform to practice, create different ideas, and complete songs from start to finish."
After high school, Beezie started a record store on the corner of Broadway and Jefferson with his partners, called Def in the Phamily. They sold CDs and tapes, and had a studio in the back. For Beezie, this was where he began selling beats.
"Artists would come from all over the country, not just the Seattle area," Beezie said. "They'd visit Def in the Phamily to check us out or record something in our studio. Many stories about Seattle Hip Hop have left us out, likely because it was so expensive to cut a record back then.”
Despite The School Boys being popular in the neighborhood and in Seattle, they didn't have any material out or a record label deal. Everything came out of their own pockets, but everybody knew their music at the time and still loved them because they performed all over the place.
Beezie started making beats for artists he admired, such as E-40 and B-Legit, along with many other West Coast artists who traveled to Seattle to buy tracks from him and other local producers like Funk Daddy. These collaborations helped both parties develop their sounds, contributing to a versatile musical style in Seattle. Unlike a single, distinct "Seattle sound," their music was influenced by the diverse range of genres they heard on MTV, which featured limited hip hop at the time.
He went on to join No Good Therapy under Ramos Records in 1999. The group released five albums and secured a contract with Universal Records, leading to nationwide tours. During that period, Beezie DJed intermittently at various events due to his enduring passion for spinning records and gauging crowd reactions. The dynamic interaction between selecting tracks and feeling the groove always thrilled him, and he felt connected to the community.
“I try to surround myself with the youth right? Because it's the generations that will keep that music going,” Beezie said. “It's really the roots of digging in and figuring it out is the part that I love to do. That has also morphed into TV and film and commercials.”
For years, Beezie did commercials for Azteca Mexican restaurants and various other companies. With the advent of social media and other new technologies, it has allowed him to connect with people he never thought he would.
Now, Beezie is a part of the group Blackberry Bush, alongside Jaguar James, together they are working on their upcoming album, which they expect to put out in the following months.
"I vividly remember my mom and others saying, 'Hip hop will not last as a music genre. This is not it. This is not something that's going to stick around,’" Beezie said. " Knowing now that I've been able to make a living and more off of hip hop is incredible. The production aspect keeps me anchored to this music because it's always changing and forever evolving."
Keep up with Beezie on Instagram @beezie2slaps.
