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Joining the fourth quarter rush with Hi-Teknology 3: Underground, Cincinnati producer/rapper, Hi-Tek, chopped it up with SOHH about scoring the Nicky Barnes documentary, Mr. Untouchable, reuniting with Talib Kweli for a new Reflection Eternal project and working on his latest album.
For his upcoming disc Hi-Tek brought a bevy of all-stars into the studio including Little Brother, Raekwon, Ghostface Killa, M-1,Young Buck, Kurupt and longtime collaborator Talib Kweli.
Yet even in the midst of so many famous voices, Hi-Tek confessed that some of his more prized cuts feature newcomers.
"One of my favorites is called 'Life to Me,' featuring an artist called Estelle from London," Tek told SOHH. "She's a singer/rapper signed to John Legend. She's really good in the studio I really enjoyed working with her,"
Bearing his Ohio roots in mind, it should also come as no surprise that Tekzilla reps the Midwest proudly on Underground.
"There is another track called 'Ohio All-Stars' featuring a couple of my hometown cats, Cross, Showtime, my brother-in-law Mann and another cat from Cleveland by the name of Chip the Rippa," Hi-Tek said. "I always wanted to do a song with Natti cats that felt natural. I really enjoyed it."
In addition to holding Cincinnati down, Hi-Tek recently also did Harlem proud, providing the musical score for Mr. Untouchable, the Damon Dash-produced documentary about infamous New York heroin kingpin Nicky Barnes.
"The director of the movie Marc Levin, his office is right next to [the record label] Babygrande, literally same building, same floor," Tek explained of his involvement in the film. "One day I was walking through the hallway and they introduced me to him, he said he was working on the movie and was interested in getting a score and I offered to do it."
"I love that music," Tek continued. "That's the music I have in my crates, all the music I have is from that era and earlier, I grew up listening to that music.
With Hi-Teknology 3 and the score for Mr. Untouchable both completed, Hi-Tek is now turning his full focus to other projects.
"Now that I finished, I'm focused on finishing this Reflection Eternal album and focusing on Detox," Hi-Tek said.
"We haven't started officially, but it looks like its definitely going down," he said of the Reflection Eternal project. "Talib is always performing and doing shows and I'm working on a lot of projects but we are really trying to make it happen this time. We are trying to be done within the next 6 months."
As for Dr. Dre's highly anticipated Detox album, according to Hi-Tek, "It's a classic in the making."
"I'm just trying to do my part," he added about his production role on the project. "Just trying to impress Dre and make something he really likes that fits the project. Dre is a pure genius, it's like a dream come true to be acknowledged by Dre."
Hi-Teknology 3: Underground hits stores December 11 on Babygrande Records.
