redemption songs Connected by a Social-Justice Nonprofit Org, Soul Clap’s Eli Goldstein Brings a Poetic Voice from Prison

By Jim Tremayne

The Producer: Soul Clap’s Eli Goldstein

DJ LIFE: First, why did you get involved with Give a Beat?

Goldstein: I had read a few books that opened my eyes to the prison systems in America, such as “No More Prisons” by William Upski Wimsatt and “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander. I learned that our criminal-justice system is designed to oppress black people and people of color in the U.S. So, I was aware of the problem and I happened to connect with Lauren Segal [of Give a Beat] at some point at a party about our shared interest in using the power of electronic music and culture for activism. She told me about Give a Beat and I pretty much immediately signed on to support the organization.

DJ LIFE: Obviously, recording the album with vocals from behind bars was a challenge. What was the actual process?

Goldstein: The process started with Russell recording these vocals over the phone from solitary confinement when everybody in his facility was put in solitary for a COVID outbreak. So, he recorded these nine a cappellas with Christie [Ninerell of Give a Beat] over the phone, and then they got sent out to a few of us who had been in contact with Russell.

At first, I listened to them how I listen to promos as a DJ, quickly flipping through music, and initially I thought they were cool, but really, poor quality audio. Some time passed, and then I was thinking about

Russell and decided to honor him by listening deeper. I lined them up with the beats that he had written the rhymes to, just free YouTube beats. Then, I could listen to the a cappella over the beats that he was originally listening to in his headphones while he was recording. And it started to really connect in my head and I was like, “Wow, this is really incredible.”

The quality being over the phone obviously is not ideal for recording. And that was the main reason why, originally, I was a little skeptical. But the emotion and the power and the depth of his lyrics came through, regardless of the media for recording. So, at that point, I was kind of like, “Wow, this is a body of music that is cohesive and we should put out as an album.”

DJ LIFE: What’s in your studio and how did you use the gear for this project?

Goldstein: The new beats were all produced and recorded by Taylor Bense at Hyperballad Studios in Brooklyn. He’s a producer that I’ve worked with a bunch over the years. He’s more on the electronic-music tip, but super-talented musically and in the studio – and I knew we had a shared love of hip hop. Everything was recorded on Ableton Live with a slot of samples and plug-ins, but also a few synths and samplers and drum machines.

DJ LIFE: Obviously, there’s an intensity to Russell’s current situation and his ongoing struggle. From your point of view, how did he convey that into compelling artistic expression?

Goldstein: Russell has been writing prose and poetry for a long time – I think close to a decade – but the rapping is more recent. And so, he’s already a wordsmith. He knows how to use his deep vocabulary, metaphors, alliteration, all the important tools for a skilled MC. But what really, really grabbed me on this project was the raw emotion of his vocals. Each song kind of touches on a differ- ent subject, and goes into depth on his experience related to that in a super-eloquent way. But what really pulls you in deeper is the emotion. He is able to use his experiences to capture universal feelings and understandings and paint a picture with words. It just really, really brings you in.

DJ LIFE: Obviously, you’ve had more experience than Russell in making records. Was there any artistic back-and-forth between you two?

Goldstein: It’s really hard to have artistic back-and-forth when you’re not in the same place, and even harder when one of you doesn’t have the normal freedoms of a musician to create. Russell and I get to talk at most a couple of times a week for short periods of time. There was a system that we could use to email each other, but earlier this year they switched the systems in the prison and the email got way, way worse. So, it’s much harder for us to communicate via text and email at this point, and just a reminder that all these systems are set up by private corporations – all for profit, right? So, any communication you’re having with somebody in prison in the United States, somebody’s making money off that, a corporation is making money off that communica- tion. That’s just insane.

But we were able to talk a bunch and share ideas. And we generally talked a lot about his artistic ideas and process, and I give him feedback and direction. It’s really hard, though, with not being able to share music to inspire each other. That’s something I can’t really do. So that’s something that’s going to really be an amazing step when he does get out, to be able to share our inspirations and musical directions. A lot of this specific collaboration came from the beats he chose originally, and the quality of his vocals, and being able to kind of tap into that and try to recreate the feelings of those beats in new ways that connected with his voice and with his lyrics and his emotions, the vibe of the tracks.

Then obviously sharing the music with him, when it was recorded, was incredible. There was this moment… he’d never actually heard his voice on the song before. So, the first time I played something back, the first beat with his voice on it, you know, was just like this super-emotional moment for both of us – and that was really special.

DJ LIFE: On the hip-hop side of things, which producers do you admire and why? Did you and Russell have a conversation about how this record would sound?

Goldstein: Russell’s of the kind of newer generation, mostly influenced by trap – whereas I grew up in the ’90s. So, I was really influenced by that Golden-Era hip hop like A Tribe Called Quest, Gang Starr. DJ Premier is one of my favorite hip-hop producers, if not the top. But all that jazzy stuff from the mid to late ’90s when I started DJing is really important to me, too, like Hi-Tek and Shawn J. Period. And the more instrumental beats by DJ Shadow and Dan the Automator were big influences for me growing up, too.

More recently I’d say Terrance Martin, who produced the Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly album, is a major influence because he’s super funk and jazz. And then all the G-Funk and adding funk to hip-hop beats is really important to me, too.

For me, that’s part of why this has been a really interesting experience, learning more about how trap beats are produced. It’s not like we just made a trap album for Russell, right? A lot of it was bringing in our influences. There’s trumpet and guitar and Taylor was able to bring his musicianship to this as well. We had our longtime collaborator Greg Paulus on trumpet on one of the songs. Bringing in our [Soul Clap] sound, but we’re trying to make it modern in a way that’s connected with Russell’s.

DJ LIFE: As Soul Clap with your musical partner Charlie [Levine], you make great electronic-dance music and you play amazing parties and festivals – so, you see the very hedonistic side of dance music. But this record is a very different kind of endeavor. Do you think we could see more socially conscious efforts from DJs and dance-music world?

Goldstein: Yes, we need to see more socially conscious efforts from the dance-music world! House music and techno were born as subversive music for marginalized people. It is the heart of the music culture, and an essential element that producers and DJs should be exploring and understanding, if they want to know the history. They should try to understand how they can also make a positive impact on the culture and the world as well.

I’m also very involved in climate work through electronic music with an organization called DJs For Climate Action. There is actually a lot of work happening across the industry for climate and the environment, as well. We also helped organize a get out the vote initiative called Rave That Vote with a number of artists, our management company 2plus2, and Infamous PR. This is something that goes hand-in-hand: music, politics and activism. They are connected, they are inseparable. Thinking about American music and the 20th Century – from jazz to folk music to hip hop and disco – it all has a social-activist streak at its heart.

For me, it’s an easy transition over into something that’s more thoughtful, political, and thought-provoking. And that’s something that me and Russell talk about a lot is the power of music and, especially the power of his music, because he’s so talented with words and can reach people in their in their hearts and their minds.