Listen to DJ Burn One's New Compilation 'Greenwood'

A footnote to DJ Burn One’s resume: he introduced Gucci Mane to the concept of mixtapes as albums. When they crossed paths, Gucci had a hit single (“Icey”) and requisite label drama. Burn One helped him realize he didn’t need a label to put out music, and a mixtape didn’t have to be a collection of hit singles from various artists. The immediate result was 2006’s Chicken Talk, but the long-term effects on Gucci Mane’s approach to recording revolutionized the rap game.

But as I said, this is a mere footnote. Over the next decade, Burn One’s impeccable ear and instincts would guide rappers like Starlito, Rittz, Yelawolf, and Pill to national acclaim. And when he got frustrated with the limitations of picking other people’s music, he started making his own lush, country rap production. He works closely with his artists and makes relatively short, focused projects with incredible cohesion. Meanwhile, his solo work has gotten weirder and more expansive: last year’s The Highlands album sounds like Pimp C, Tortoise, and Keys N Krates.

These days, Burn One heads up Five Pointz Music Group, a label and studio collective featuring Atlanta veterans Walt Live and Go Ricky Go, plus a rotating cast of artists. This week, he drops GREENWOOD, a thirty-track sampler of the 5PMG sound. It features the expected New Atlanta stalwarts (Rome Fortune, Scott ATL, Trinidad Jame$), some similarly-minded out-of-towners (Roc & Yella, The Outfit, TX), and a few big names (Big Gipp! Starlito and Don Trip! 8Ball & MJG!). But it also stretches genre, featuring the Stankonian soul of iNDEEDFACE (Burn One, Walt, and Ricky’s live project), sound palettes from Monochrome Sweatsuit, and lowkey rock from Couleen Lagon.

As you stream Greenwood below, read our interview with the Atlanta master discussing his journey, his influences, and his direction for the new project.

Noisey: You're known for these concise, focused projects so this sprawling album with a lot of different styles on it is kind of a departure.
DJ Burn One: Yeah as we've been working over the past four years, we just been on this journey, experimenting and coming up with different sounds and stuff. So this is really just the culmination of what we have coming out. It just kinda felt right … like I hadn't done a mixtape in a long time, like a tape with just a bunch of songs that wasn't an album with one artist. I just wanted to have fun and just try a bunch of different stuff.

Tell me about Monochrome Sweatsuit.
He's a guitar player we met … he's got this real spacey, big, different sound. He's a music student, he went to Berklee and he's playing all that stuff live. It's crazy to watch him do it … he builds these loops. He wanted to do some records so we helped him tighten them up. We’re putting out like a seven song EP in a month or so.

He put me on to this book about harmony… [Ed: Tonal Harmony, with an Introduction to 20th Century Music] He said at Berklee the first two years were just on harmony. It's mind-boggling… and this book is like the culmination of that. It’s like… cheat codes.

And what’s up with Couleen Lagon?
He's a guy I've known for a while. I met him as a producer originally, he produced a record for Cee-Lo's girl act and it was kinda big [ed: Sophia Fresh - “Super Bad”]. I ended up getting him on Scotty ATL’s second album, Georgia Dialect. We'd just been going back and forth and came up with some stuff I really liked. We got an album by him coming up too. It's just something different.

I come from a generation where everybody listens to everything and likes stuff being mashed up … like … Paris Hilton doing reggae or whatever. If it doesn't make any sense but it sounds good, that's tight.

What have you been listening to in terms of rock music?
I been listening to this band called Junip from Sweden … they got a song called “Rope and Summit” that's my jam right now. I like Connan Mockison … "Forever Dolphin Love" and all that, he's got some crazy stuff. We saw him at the Fader Fort at SXSW. I didn’t know who he was but he had this crazy flower hat on and was just killin’ the guitar. He was super swagged out. He didn't even move the whole time, he just stood there.

I like Glass Animals, they're pretty tight. I like Phantogram a lot.

Is it a good time to be an independant artist in Atlanta?
Absolutely. All eyes are on Atlanta, and with the internet anything is possible now. As soon as somebody likes you they can tweet about you and now you're poppin’. There's a lot of cool spots and dive bars and different venues that support the community. I'll be on tour in places that only have arenas or whatever, and they don't really have a scene. But we have a real thriving scene where people can come out and see shows often. Nobody has to wait three months to see a live show, they’re performing two or three times a week.

That can still backfire, with someone like Trinidad Jame$ (who you have on Greenwood) being the cautionary tale of local buzz not translating nationally.
I think if people would have accepted where Jame$ wanted to go or the label had, it would have been more appreciated. I've heard a lot of the music he's done that's more leftfield … I could see how Def Jam signed one thing and people wanted that one thing but you have to let him grow!

It's like you were saying about me, just trying stuff out. Some stuff works and some stuff doesn't and you have to work through it to get to that next phase. Otherwise your growth is gonna be stunted.

You’ve been around a while and touched a lot of important careers. Do you ever feel like your dedication to your own creative impulses has caused you to miss out on some potential fame or money?
I've just always followed my passions … there's a lot of time I could have just made the same type of beat or kept the same type of style, but I've always just gone with what I felt was dope. I started out doing mixtapes, just picking records and putting them on the tape. It was people coming for my taste, you know? So I learned just to trust what I was doing.

And I didn't like the thought of blending in. I liked when a song was on the radio and you’d be like "what the fuck is that?" … like when I heard Young Bleed’s "How Ya Do That" for the first time on the radio … (sings opening lick) … that was amazing!! I want to make that type of shit. If we can put a message or a meaning or something positive behind it or whatever, that's just the icing on the cake.

At times it does get frustrating, but the ends pay off because I can kinda go anywhere and people respect what I've done. I haven't whored my name out or done anything totally out of character.

Speaking of which, I saw you mention you might be going into the studio with Big Boi in an interview from like 2012.
You know it's funny, I never ended up getting in with them. But the other day, SL Jones got up with Ray Murray from Organized Noize and played him the album we did … it’s called Cuz and it’s coming out in February, it’s definitely weird. But Ray went crazy for it, so he wants us to come in and possibly work on the next Big Boi album. That would be really tight.

Now that I’m talking about it, it probably won't happen but … [laughs] it is what it is.

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