Mik Lezan is chilled for someone with so many projects on the go when Beats gets hold of him. At home at his place on LA’s beachfront, he’s on his way out to shoot some hoops (“I’ve gotta get at least four days of b-ball in a week,”) before working on a new house track. Apart from holding legend status in the chronicles of old school electro, the man that co-founded N.W.A. with drug tsar Eazy-E and the little known Dr. Dre, also directs a film special effects and animation studio in Korea in tandem with making regular DJ tours.
When asked about the early N.W.A. days, a posse formed in the now canonised LA ghetto of Compton by gangsta rap staple, Straight Out Of Compton, Lezan plays down the cult status. “We were just telling the story of our hood where we grew up and really didn’t think at the time that it was something groundbreaking,” explains. “We just wanted to put out dope banging tracks. And that’s what we did.” What they actually did was create the original gangsta rap album and one of the most seminal albums of all time, representing the lives of marginalised black American males on the edge.
Lezan’s most recent work as Professor X is a far cry from those disaffected sentiments – polished house with a slight electro feel; hardcore it is not. “I’ve always liked up tempo music, being an old school DJ from the 80’s people forget that there was not much rap back then, just up tempo electro, house, new wave, funk and pop.”
Having released two such EPs last year after a four year hiatus, Lezan says he likes to marinate on perfecting his art. “I got a lot of requests to do new Professor X songs, but until I was happy with the sound I just kept making beats, I create all new sounds for each song so it takes a while to design something new and innovative and I don’t like making songs that use the same sounds as other artists.”
His DJ set incorporates live elements mixing up old school electro funk, house and hip hop. “I don’t plan my sets, I feel out the crowd and let them guide my music, but at the end of the night everyone is sweating. Even when I DJ I’m still performing and try to create new music live on the fly when I play out, I think it is the responsibility of a DJ to make sure he gives the audience his all.”
BY JO CAMPBELL
