Ohio players

>> Getting a reaction from J Rawls of Lone Catalysts

by SCOTT C

Once again, it’s Ohio that is fully responsible for the laid-back, jazzy sounds of hip hop duo Lone Catalysts, whose reputation for introspective, settled tones and butta beats precedes them. With J Sands on the beats and J Rawls doing double duty on the mic and production, the two have managed to make a name for themselves with a slew of independently released material, and a great relationship with German label and distribution hub Groove Attack. Core members of the Ohio-based Wanna Battle collective, these two not only draw from each other, but from a pool of talent that’s growing bigger every day. The Mirror spoke to J Rawls, who, when not working as a computer programmer in Ohio, can be found touring Europe with the Superrappin’ Tour or in his basement, bangin’ out beats with the ASR-10.

Mirror: I was just listening to the 3582 record that you did with Fat Jon. You guys really don’t care about anything except making good music, and that’s very clear.

J Rawls: Pretty much. I mean, we just have fun with it. We grew up on this music, so we generally like to have as much fun with it as we can. 3582 is basically a side project that me and Jon did, and so far it’s been very well received.

M: I talked to Fat Jon a couple weeks back and he told me you guys shoot beats back and forth to each other all the time.

JR: Yeah, man. He was just here this past weekend because we did a show in Columbus, and I hit him off with some new beats. We’re just friends before anything. We met because of music but we’ve got a lot of other things in common as well, so we listen to each other’s stuff, critique and comment.

M: So what gets you open? I always wonder what guys like you are listening to while they produce their own sound.

JR: Usually, man, to be honest with you, I listen to a lot of Brazilian and Latin, a lot of easy listening. I also like to check BET or MTV to see what’s popular. I try to stay abreast of everything, but like I said, Brazilian is taking up a lot of my time.

M: It seems like house music has pretty much milked out the whole Brazilian thing over the last three years, but there’s not a whole lot of hip hop producers who try to get their style around that sound. Is that something that you’d like to do?

JR: A little bit. I’ve touched on it in “Great Live Caper” and some of the new things I’ve worked on, but I don’t know. I’d like to play with it for real and bring in this live band that I have and try to do some stuff with them.

M: Uh oh, a live band?

JR: Well, there are different cats that I work with—the Charles Cooper Quartet, and then my man in Chicago, Gerrard Harris. These are people I can go to when I get the budget and the opportunity to do something like that. There’s a time and place for everything. :

With MC Abdominal, Professor Groove and Static at Petit Campus on Friday, March 15, 8pm, $12