Photo by Emily Berkey
Other than staying up late watching documentaries on Netflix – which Stewart Villain admits regularly keeps him up until the early morning – Villain has been branching out and adding highly respected emcees to his production resume.
Earlier this year he teamed up with DJ Fatboy and released the Lean Team project – one of our favorites – and recently he’s found his production on tracks with both Kurupt and Danny Brown.
“It was super random to me. I was at The Bulle’ Classic grand opening, my phone was about to die, and my homie Dan Lafferman called me all flustered,” Villain said. “I answer ‘what’s good Fam? My phone is gonna die’ and he was like, ‘I don’t have time to worry about that! Danny Brown is coming to town and I need some beats from you!’”
Another fellow Portland producer Trox introduced Villain to Lafferman – who operates the Tigard recording studio Bass and Booty.
“We had been talking about getting Danny Brown on a track for months, so they had been talking through emails…At first I thought it was too good to be true.”
Villain said the plans for the track are currently a secret, but left with this advice for fellow producers, “Don’t undercut yourself. If you feel like a beat is worth $5000, sell that shit for $5000.”