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Back in the day on the boulevard of Main Street the members of Five Deez were hungry. Literally.
But rather than steal or sling rocks to make ends, they would freestyle-rap about their circumstances to take their collective minds off their hunger pangs.
That was then, this is now.
Today there's the microwave in the Main Street digs (no one's a cook), that serves as home to Patrick Johnson and Jon Marshall, half of Five Deez, which was formed in 1993.
It is also the group's recording studio and home base for Dimensia Recordings, their home-brewed label where Marshall concocts beats that are the backdrop for their current releases Blue Light Special, Dope back with Beat and Table Noise Volume One, all 12 inches.
Johnson (DJ, MC, percussionist and turntable instrumentalist), "Fat Jon the Ample Soul Physician" Marshall (MC, producer, trombonist, flautist and tuba player), Corey Brown (producer and engineer) and Kyle "the Lyrical Miracle" Smith (MC) have all the trappings of any young, renaissance Hip Hop entrepreneurs.
But don't call them Sean "Puffy" Combs. Collectively, they're more like Moby with soul; Goldie without the rough edges; Roni Size with even more vision. All Trance-based, sure, but that's where their sound is headed
Sound tricky?
It's even a little slippery for them to define themselves.
"(We're) just an embodiment," Johnson says. "We accomplish everything—just a Hip Hop establishment with a Hip Hop base, but we're not limited to doing just Hip Hop."
Heads need only listen to Five Deez Presents Maurice Galactic in Humanoid Erotica, the Soundtrack, a disc slated for a July release. If that doesn't mesmerize you, check out Kool Motor, a Five Deez joint scheduled for fall.
Both are funky, hypnotic and hip- and head-shaking soundscaped masterpieces. Marshall says the group has provided music for several locally produced commercials, and Five Deez has been included on nearly a dozen Hip Hop compilations.
Hey, art is fine for art's sake, but it don't pay the bills. These boys are prolific.
"Let's just say we got financed," says Johnson. "We've got investors and our distributors back us." Landspeed Distribution handles America and Japan and Groove Attack covers the European market.
Marshall explains it less cryptically.
"The money that you make from sales doesn't come that often, that's why you want to do as much as you can because you can (get paid). And it helps that we live in our studio," Marshall says.
Though Hip Hop mad professors, they also know they need to take to the live stage more often.
"We hide out way too much, and we're trying to get out of that," Johnson says.
Not only has the lifestyle of couches (no one has a bed), records, turntables, a 64-track digital studio and recording equipment afforded them the opportunity to help establish Cincinnati as a Hip Hop hub on the down low, these brothas have grown to become like brothers.
"We came up at a time in Hip Hop when you had to be a lot more protective and things have changed in Hip Hop," Marshall says. "It's more of a community. We're kind of trailblazers in the Cincinnati Hip Hop community. We've seen groups come and go and people lose their minds over Hip Hop," he says. "For the most part we just stay in the studio and create based on our love for each other."
Brown echoes that love and it is rare that such young men—Johnson is 22, Marshall is 24 and Brown and Smith are both 25—can speak unabashedly of their admiration for one another.
"I work with Jon because he's the best in the city—the best in the Midwest," Brown says. "Everything I've learned I've learned from him. He's expanded my horizons musically."
"I feel fortunate to produce for the Five Deez," Marshall says. "The MCs don't tell me what to make—they just let me flow. They don't impose anything on me." ©
