Though the ranks of Dipset collective have dissolved into the realms of mixtape rap and VH1 reality television, Harlem World is still throbbing through the fingertips of 22-year-old producer Abraham Orellana.
Orellana is known to the blogosphere as araabMUZIK. Armed with an Akai Music Production Center, keyboards, drums and a computer, he singlehandedly rose through the ranks of sought-after hip-hop producers through his infectious viral videos.
His two-handed assault on the MPC using a combination of sampling and rapid-fire drums earned him millions of combined views on YouTube as well as a production deal with Dipset's Duke Da God Productions at the tender age of 16.
He has earned nicknames such as "the MVP of the MPC," and rightfully so; Orellana sees these skills as a tool to merely create rather than compete against other producers.
"I never think of battling someone to see whose better," Orellana says. "That's just a skill that I have, that's extra to what I do. I never really see myself always competing with someone."
However, Orellana has remained focused on creating his own lane for the music he does without the Dipset presence creating a misconception when presented to new audiences.
"I should be known for more than what I did with [them]," Orellana says. "I'm branded as araabMUZIK. I'm not labeled as a Dipset producer. I'm way beyond that... I'm more of a performer now. That was years ago."
With the Summer 2011 release of the popular instrumental album Electronic Dream, Orellana has ventured into influences of trance and electronic samples while maintaining the same gritty hip-hop sensibilities of dominating drums and snares.
"That's always been my style of music," Orellana says. "I don't really do music for people who are trying to make a new way of hip-hop. I'm just doing music because I love making music. Whoever feels it, that's them."
As the current hip-hop landscape pits the rebellious youth against the elders of the "golden era," Orellana remains centered in his own lane by crafting music that he enjoys. Citing Swizz Beatz, Alchemist and Dr. Dre as a few of his influences, Orellana does not find himself categorizing his sounds under any specific subgenre or label you could find within tomorrow's Twitter hashtag trend.
"I'm just making music because that's what I love to do," Orellana comments. "I'm not trying to change hip-hop or the way people see music. I always try to merge a lot of different styles together and just create."
Critics ranging from Pitchfork to The New York Times have lauded Orellana for the experimental styling found on Electronic Dream as well as his intense live sets which are comprised of him mercilessly pounding away at his MPC through sample after drum kit with rapid speed and precision that can only be truly experienced and appreciated in the live setting. Being present at an araabMUZIK show may be compared to an extended acid trip, but Orellana emphasizes that he neither creates nor performs under the influence of any substance.
"I don't smoke anything," Orellana clarifies. "I don't drink anything to get myself in the zone to create music. I'm naturally nice and that's what it is. If you get there and you're talented, you don't need to take anything to create music. A lot of people think that I get high or whatever to create because the beats are too crazy... my mind's crazy because I don't do anything."
Orellana has been on tour all this Winter in promotion of last summer's Electronic Dream release and is on the bill to play Summer 2012's Coachella festival alongside contemporaries such as Flying Lotus and SBTRKT. Six years deep in the hip-hop scene, Orellana is still youthful in age yet professional and seasoned in approach. Even at age 22, an approximate age where many artists find themselves beginning to break, Orellana sees no end in sight for the one-man wrecking crew mentality his araabMUZIK brand provides listeners.
"There is no limit for me," he says. "I'm trying to take a lot of time with instruments, scoring movies and taking it everywhere."
