I’m currently listening to A Tribe Called Quest’s seminal classic, The Low End Theory. After this, I’ll switch over to Saul Williams’ The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust. Once I’m through that work, I’ll take in Jan Jelinek’s Loop-Finding- Jazz-Records. These are the albums that come to mind when thinking of one AshTreJinkins, a beatmaker, DJ, composer and overall dope creative.
I wanted to explore ‘scoring’ an artist profile, something that I’m a little disappointed took me so long to try. So, why these Artists and why these particular albums? Let’s start from the beginning.
THE LOW END THEORY
Back in the days when I was a teenager
Before I had status and before I had a pager
You could find the Abstract listenin’ to Hip-Hop
My pops used to say it reminded him of Bebop
I said well daddy don’t you know that things go in cycles
The way that Bobby Brown is just ampin’ like Michael
It’s all expected, things are for the lookin’
If you got the money, Quest is for the bookin’
Out of all the incredible tracks on Low End Theory, I think Excursions is the best and most important; It sets the stage for the whole album. Coming off the afro-centric positivity of their debut, Excursions opens with a sinister bass line. You already know you’re getting something different. Something darker, grimier and very in your face.
AshTreJinkins was born to create. Growing up in Cali, having a father who was a rapper and a mother constantly playing music in the house, it was kinda written in the stars he would be in this thing of ours. They say luck is when preparation meets opportunity. If so, then AshTre might be the luckiest dude alive.
After getting his own sampler and teaching himself production, he took to exploring Los Angeles and its newest movement, the Beat Scene. For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, the LA beat scene stands as one of the most important musical/creative movements in 21st century hip hop. Check out this Roland feature by Gino Sorcinelli; ‘nuff said.
“I found out the beat scene through Adult Swim via hearing Flying Lotus on there in 2006. I think it was 6th grade and I was already listening to Nujabes, Flying Lotus, Samiyam, Hudson Mohawk, Janeiro Jarell, all their early shit. So one day, my dad picks me up from school and has this CD by a guy named L-Dogg. And out of all the music I had heard, his stuff sounded, like, hand-made. My dad knew him and brought him over to my grandparent’s house where I was living at the time, and they installed Fruity Loops on the laptop. So yeah, that’s how I got hip to the beat scene and also how I started making my own beats, just taking from all those I was plugged into already and putting it together for the first time.”
In my opinion, to really grasp what was happening in the underground scene, you have to be familiar with Madlib, the GOAT producer. Hailing from Oxnard, Madlib took off with Lootpack and began gaining widespread popularity for his beats. As J Rocc says, legendary beatmaker in his own right, “it’s hard to compete with someone who makes 5 albums every week.” Madlib got bored with beats (wtf) and decided to make jazz, teaching himself all the instruments. There’s probably a dozen aliases and a similar number of albums; it’s truly some of the coolest shit you can listen to. I aided some dude’s quest who was getting into Madlib jazz here on Reddit for anyone wanting to explore.
Anyways, after meeting J Dilla, Madlib had that spark again for hip hop and returned with Madvillainy, his infamous collab with one MF DOOM, RIP. Add in a collab with Dilla, Champion Sound, and Madlib has truly taken over the underground world and was starting to cross over.
Elsewhere in the city, you had the founding of Dublab in 1999, one of the most important radio stations and now digital platforms that would help disseminate the music of the times. Later, DJ Kutmah’s Sketchbook Sessions at Aron’s Records in ‘04 paved the way for the founding of Low End Theory
in 2006, what became the epicenter of the beat scene; it was a “who’s who” of creatives across hip hop, beats, electronic and sample based music. All of the ingredients were there, waiting to be put together, but it wasn’t until Low End Theory, did everything come together, acting as the catalyst for this new wave of creatives.
“I met Zeroh when I moved to Compton and he was a short train ride away. I had already been to Low End a bunch, but one time we went with some other people and I remember giving Nocando a beat CD and then I got to perform like 4 times quick.”
The list of artists to cut their teeth here is too long, but some of the household names:
- Ras G (RIP the king)
- Flying Lotus
- Knxwledge
- Mndsgn
- Daedalus
- Dibia$e
- Jonwayne
- Samiyam
And one 18 year old, performing his productions for the very first time in front of people, AshTreJinkins.
“My parents and I moved back to Los Angeles and I remember seeing a flyer posted by Dibia$e for this thing in Leimert Park called The Beat Cypher, this is before Low End. It was an all ages show and basically, you pay 5 bucks and you get 5 minutes to play your music. I was 14 at the time, I think, met Dibia$e there, met Ras G there. My dad would drive me down from Santa Clarita to play my beats in front of these grown ass adults and pretty much I just never stopped going.”
“Everyone was cool with me man. Maybe because I was the youngest dude there, but like Dibia$e and Ras G linked me up with everyone. You know, Jonwayne, DevonWho, I was bumping shoulders with Dumbfoundead and Open Mike Eagle. At the time, Anderson Paak would do sets as Breezy Love Joy. This was my foundation for sure.”
I can’t stress how fucking insane this is. These are the artists that have shaped beat-making in the 21st century, influencing countless aspiring beatmakers along the way, and here’s this teenager chopping it up and holding his own with these legends.
“It’s crazy how Beat Cypher was kinda just like the Apollo of beats; if the crowd thought you were trash, they would chant ‘Pass the Beat! Pass the Beat! I guess since I was young, maybe people gave me a pass (laughing). Dibi and Ras G were so chill and supportive so it really calmed my nerves.”
The first time I actually became aware of AshTre was through Boiler Room, circa 2013/2014. I want to say Mndsgn was hosting a ton of cats in his apartment? At least that’s what it looked like. It was a vibe, basically just a house party with a little table for people to throw down. At this time, I’m a full-blown beat junkie. Madlib and Ras G are my idols, Klipmode was my shit. I inhaled those videos in college instead of studying. In the YouTube playlist at the time, I would repeat my favs to play while I was doing other stuff, working in the gym, walking around campus, smoking weed.
To my surprise, I had missed one. This dude with a Blockbuster-like shirt that said ‘Blockhustla’, an SP and a Korg Kaosillator. He freaked the shit out of that thing, unlike anyone I’d seen before. And thus down the rabbit hole I went, trying to figure out who AshTreJinkins was.
Excursions is all about setting the tone early. It’s about recognizing the past and crafting something new out of it. It’s about traversing some new paths and ideas. But really, it’s about making a statement by way of introduction. And what an intro I got.
NIGGY TARDUST
I’m fighting every war at once and I’m winning
You can’t think of me as you did in the beginning
Hey, you ain’t as dead as you seem, what the fuck?
Hey, but you keep living your lies
Hey, your life’s a bore but you dream
Bring yourself to be yourself tonight
I went to Oberlin College from 2012-2016. It’s this extremely liberal, progressive and slightly too insular, in my opinion, liberal arts school in rural Ohio, a juxtaposition of reality I always found funny. I lived next to some ‘townies’ who hung a confederate flag in one of their windows, to paint a very colorful picture for you. They were nice enough, no hate crimes were committed.
Suffice it to say, my college had a reputation for being woke. In my final year at school, the student body got to write in and vote on who they would want to be a speaker at our commencement ceremony, very much in line with the ethos of this fine institution. I was elated! I finally felt like I had something to contribute to the psychosocial meritocratic order that IS my leftist allies, this bastion of progressivism that certainly would NOT wear off once we left stage with our shiny piece of paper.
Anyways, the choice was extremely obvious to me. I wanted someone who can talk that shit and who can back that shit talk up with real action in the world. Someone who’s been subverting the very systems my fellow comrades loathed and bemoaned so eloquently at a high decibel. Someone that WE could recognize unanimously as living life in a way that many of my fellow Obies aspired to emulate; boldly, without fear, without hesitation.
So I wrote in and submitted the only person whom I thought could actually give my graduating class something useful as we set off into the world.
I wrote in Saul Williams.
And I was told he was too controversial.
WTF!
—o—
If it’s not obvious by now, I love Saul. I don’t know him, but of course, like any fan, I feel a sense of connection. His performance on Def Poetry Jam hosted by Yasiin Bey, fka the Mighty Mos Def, was my introduction. I didn’t know what slam was or that it could be such a spectacle; he literally brought out and unfolded a scroll that contained his entire poem, which was dope. By this time, I was already obsessed with Nine Inch Nails and anything Trent Reznor was doing. So it blew my mind/made me believe there might actually be some sort of higher power when hearing that these two titans of creativity were teaming up. And thus, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust was birthed into the world.
This is one of my favorite albums/creative works of all time. I love the nod to Bowie, I love the heavy dance vibes, the hip hop infused with electronics, the artwork, the “pay what you want” model for the release, but most importantly are the verses, lyrics and poems penned by Saul, seen through the eyes of this amazingly rich character he brought to life.
The album at its core is a treatise on removing any shackles placed on you. For Saul, this was extremely important as he was constantly being labeled; he’s a poet, he’s an actor, he’s a dancer, he’s a rapper, blah blah. The goal, successfully accomplished, was to buck any expectation or label one can place, much like Bowie did with Ziggy Stardust who was predominantly a folk artist up until then.
There are so many moments on the album to dissect, but the track that resonates and speaks volumes with me heavy is WTF! I’ve struggled, like many, to not live a life in fear. This can take many shapes and mean different things for people, but personally, it was about the fear of being creative and seeing if I had anything to say. The last of the chorus sums up the whole album beautifully:
Bring yourself to be yourself tonight
One thing I respect about Saul Williams, Bowie, Trent Reznor and of course AshTre, is that they are unapologetically themselves, always. That shit takes a lot of courage.
It’s scary being a young teenager in a very adult world, showing off your music. It’s scary to continue to show up day after day, putting your art, and thus your soul, into the world for consumption. It’s hard to stay true to yourself and your values at the cost of friendships, relationships, opportunities, money. It’s scary to be an artist.
AshTreJinkins is a real one. On his latest project Scission, He opines on the opening track, CloudsPart, where he draws the lines:
I’m here.
Ya’ll are over there.
Fuck the other side with all the bullshit.
Paraphrasing of course, he’s talking about the game. Essentially, come correct or don’t come at all. What are you even doing this for?
There are a lot of people that can’t answer this question. Or, their answer is some bullshit. If you’ve never seriously grappled with your purpose or motivation on an existential level, then you need to take a hard look in the mirror. Buy some shrooms, go to the beach or a forest and contemplate why you’re here.
Good music gets you there; film, literature, art, any medium meant for creative expression. When I hear these beats and bars from him, I feel it all over again, my own experience grappling with who I am and who I’m trying to be. It’s validating, now that I’m on the other side in some ways. AshTre’s music is like therapy for me, the score for silent and contemplative reflection. It helps me remove all the burden of labels and expectations, the shacks the system wants to put on you.
Just like Saul Williams’ whole corpus of work, but particularly Niggy Tardust, AshTre creates for the freedom it grants. He’s bringing his whole self to these works. What the fuck else can you hope for in life?
Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records
I feel like I know a fair amount of music. I’m not a walking Shazam or anything, but I feel pretty well versed outside of Top 40, which I’m ok with. One thing I do get asked a lot is “how do you know this?” or “how’d you find this?” and my response is always the same:
I have no idea. How do you find anything?
This is usually true, but certainly the case with Jan Jelinek, German electronic artist and founder of the acclaimed Faitiche label. For the life of me, I cannot remember how I discovered him or his classic, Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records.
I’ve always pictured my musical tastes across an XY axis. On the X-axis would be hip hop on one end and something like heavy Nine Inch Nails or metal on the other. The Y-axis might be jazz on one side and ambient/soundscape stuff on the other. Jan’s Loop-Finding, circa 2001 from ~scape, is a fascinating unification of my Y-axis. It’s kind of like a minimalist dance/techno album, somehow composed entirely of jazz samples, and an extension/evolution of some of the ‘cuts and glitch’ work of Thomas Brinkmann.
Still with some of the glitchy elements of previous works, Jan is able to modulate the samples in such an interesting way, that as a listener you have no idea this is sample-based music. He creates the sensation that you’re hearing what a music kaleidoscope would sound like or a prism that’s refracting and separating color into its constituent parts. It’s a truly unique body of work and a singular listening experience.
This skill or facet in his beat-making is what separates AshTre from his contemporaries. He’s a Genre Bender, the Avatar himself, able to fold musical styles into whatever soundscape he’d like to explore. At times, he gives you a master class in SP-production. Other times he’s blending deep house, funk, techno and dance into his beats. Still yet, other projects see him exploring sound design and film scoring. The common thread here is taking the listener on a journey. His projects have a lot of movement in them, each track its own world, and yet the final product feels like one cohesive thing, like finishing at the beginning.
On Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, two tracks that go together (They, Them | Them, Their) take up 13 minutes combined and I always feel the full range of emotions by the time it’s over. Similarly, there are countless examples in AshTre’s discography that accomplish the same effect. HOMETOWN THIZZMAIDS off 2025’s The Door is an 11 minute house/experimental cut that just keeps building while maintaining the groove. I’m literally dancing right now as I listen to it and plan these words out.
Or take his project 40 Acres And A Spaceship. 3 total tracks, roughly 10 minutes, yet he’s able to build such a layered and nuanced atmosphere. I’m not sure I’m supposed to restart my physics phd or go buy some weed?
In both Jan and AshTre’s works, there’s this ability to emote so much while seemingly doing so little. I know it’s not simple, I know there’s a lot going on, but these two masters make it look effortless. And less is more as they say.
RAW FRUIT
Influence is a funny thing. I look back on my life at things I was influenced by when I was young and have such a deep sense of nostalgia and reflection for a lot of them. I also look back and ask myself, “what the hell was I thinking?” for others. Life is all about the I/O in my opinion; you get out what you put in.
What I thought was so dope in getting to know AshTre a little was how many influences and reference points we seem to have in common. Our shared love of Nujabes, video games and The Boondocks are just a couple that come to mind. We’re both roughly the same age, 31 and 32 respectively. What I’ve noticed among a lot of artists of our generation is a shared love of cartoons and anime, specifically programs like Toonami and Adult Swim. Stateside, it was probably the first portal into anime for a lot of us, but also exposing the masses to different types of aesthetics, storytelling, art and music.
“I’m not so much introverted, but rather like a hermit. I like being at home, spending time on the stuff I like spending time on. When I was just learning Fruity Loops and starting to make music, I was watching a lot of Toonami. The shows were dope, but the score, the music on these shows was crazy; they had a lot of Drum and Bass, liquid stuff. Similarly I’d watch a lot of MTV2 religiously and that was my exposure to more house/electronic stuff; I heard Daft Punk’s Revolution 909 and had like an awakening. If this beat stuff doesn’t work out, that’s my Plan B, whatever they were doing.”
One thing that I feel fortunate for in my life is that I’ve been able to connect with people who inspire me and who’ve shown me the ropes or exposed me to things, people that have more experience than myself. When I was younger I was too nervous or too cool to recognize that I needed help or wanted something and so would never ask. This is lame.
Kids, don’t do this. Ask.
Having a community you can depend on, connect and grow with, is one of the joys of life. AshTre found that in the beat scene obviously, but also with Ras G, the Space Alien himself.
I don’t know how to describe Ras G for those that are unfamiliar. I would say go and listen to his music and that will tell you a lot. Raw Fruit is probs the best introduction. AshTre actually knew the guy pretty well.
“Before I got to know him, he was this mystical figure on the scene, like a man of few words, a silent giant. We did tons of shows together and he looked out for me when I was starting. People don’t know it, but he’s such a jokester. Like he disarmed me with that sense of humor.
One time I went over to his house, The Space Base, for the first time and he treated me to Ethiopian food. He was smoking these gorilla-thumb size blunts and playing some real trippy shit in the studio. While that’s going on, like these crazy far out productions, he’d just have these old videos of white people dancing really badly to hip hop playing in the background. It was a whole vibe for sure!”
For me, these like older sibling relationships or friendships were some of the highlights of my life so far. We’re not stagnant, we’re constantly evolving and having people who can see you through that evolution, support you, is key to keeping your sanity, especially as an artist.
“When I realized I wanted to move on from the beat scene stuff, for various reasons, Ras was actually the first person I told about transitioning to House stuff. He was like, ‘Oh word?’ and then gave me some records and put me on. He’s just always been extremely supportive. He’d hit me up to play at his shop, Poo Bah Records, that’s how I actually met K-Town Oddity and we’ve been cool ever since.
Every time I doubt myself, I just remember Ras G wouldn’t book me at his spot if I was ass. He taught me the act of not being bothered by shit. He was a master at that, just leveling out. He really messed with me and supported.”
RIP the legend, Ras G.
AI
A lot of what we do here at Neutone is to create software and tools for creatives to explore with Artificial Intelligence. But let me keep reiterating that we are not trying to automate creativity or take away from the magic that is music creation. Quite the opposite.
Our goal is to show that AI is just another tool, when used correctly, for artists to explore with.
And then there’s Suno.
“So far, it seems like Neutone has the approach that I can get behind, which is using AI as a tool, as an instrument. Suno and things like that are fucking trash and I think they shouldn’t exist. It’s just a bastardization of the craft and of what I do and what a lot of other artists, like me, do.
Making music is a sacred process. We have to respect that. It’s straight up alchemy, we’re manipulating frequencies and it does something to our bodies and spirits that other things don’t. We need to treat it as such.”
There’s always a fine line to strike here because of the access of AI and its widespread adoption, permeating every facet of life it seems. Who becomes the arbiter of these things, when something is crossing a line vs not? These are tough questions to ponder and while it’s nice to think about the philosophical implications, they have real world consequences.
“AI as a tool or used as an instrument is something I’m more comfortable with. But it can be double-edged for sure. While it makes my life easier as a bedroom producer, maybe it’s taking away from an engineer’s ability to make a living, mixing and mastering stuff in the studio.
AI makes things easy and provides ease; anyone can start creating stuff. If people can look at an AI based VST or software using AI audio models in some way and make that experience look/feel like a Eurorack, I think that’s the move. Like I’m all for ease, but we should make it way less inviting. People have to put in the time to get good at the thing, is how I feel about it.”
What he said.
—o—
It’s been a true honor and privilege getting to write this profile and share AshTre’s story. I think there are so many avenues we didn’t get to explore, but hopefully we’ll have time for this off record. I already went too deep in his bag. If you take nothing else from this, remember:
Don’t stop creating, music is alchemy, avoid the noise.
And long live Ras G.
AshTreJinkins has a ton of stakes in the fire right now. He has a handful of Techno EPs coming out as well as a full LP on the way. His latest tape, Please, ThisIsWhatYouWanted, is out on Nina Protocol. He hosts Buried Light on NTS monthly since 2016 and is hopefully touring/traveling soon to show you what’s up.
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