Sampler Platter: A double-header of Roland SP-404 tribute shows at minibar, Replay on 4/04
MC d’Jawnz // Photo Courtesy of Artist
404 Day celebrates the culture of live beat makers, producers, and emcees within the Roland SP-404 community. Throughout the world, 404 days showcase the music and community on April 4. Event co-producers Stacy “d’Jawnz” Smith and Clarence “Vertigon” Draper bring the celebration to the Kansas City scene for the first time.
Various local producers and MCs grace each event. The matinee show is 3pm at miniBar, followed by a 9pm-to-close show at Lawrence’s Replay Lounge. Cover is less than the cost of any modern beverage, at a mere $5.
The original Roland SP-404 was released in 2005, providing a versatile new tool to the sampling community. Its lightweight and instant workflow contributed to a new and streamlined way of producing music live and without digital software. The device is in its fourth iteration, with the recent model MK II, now containing an OLED digital display showing simple waveforms.
The year before the first Roland SP-404 came out, Stacy Smith, co-organizer of 404 Day, released his first album, Joys, Disappointments and the In-Betweens, under the moniker Reach. He’s created many albums since and now emcees as d’Jawnz in the city.
Smith says he’s newer to the Roland 404 community with five years of experience using the device. With his foray and continued production of live performance sets, he sought a solution to bulky technology such as his digital turntable. The 404 gave him flexibility and versatility.
“I wanted something more portable—something that gave me more opportunities to manipulate the sound with different effects. And so the 404 is just perfect for that. It’s something you can hold in your hands. It’s battery-powered—you can take it wherever you need to go. The portability and the capability of it really opened up a lot of possibilities for me as a performer,” Smith says.
Culture built around the Roland SP-404 across the years. “There’s a very rich history,” Smith says. “It’s been a little bit like trading baseball cards. My co-organizer, he bought the original device. He traded it. Three other people owned it and it eventually came back to him.”
Clarence “Vertigon” Draper // Photo courtesy Stacy Smith
Vertigon // Photo courtesy Stacy Smith
Co-organizer Clarence Draper, aka Vertigon, part of hip-hop trio The Delazers, speaks to the communal nature of the event. It encompasses an experience for those new to the Roland 404 and those immersed in it. He says, “It’s a sign of culture that’s been building in real time…We as musicians are just waiting to be experienced. 404 Day is about community, discovery, and giving the music a place to actually live.”
Smith uses the device as a live performance piece to manipulate existing songs and sounds. Other artists create beats on the spot. One artist he tells me about builds out drums live with the fifteen buttons allotted — just as a start. To an outsider, it looks like a giant calculator, but to the minds who know how to influence it, it contains multitudes. Smith says, “That’s one of the beautiful things about 404, there’s so many different ways you can use it.”
Draper and Smith hope to highlight the interconnectedness between the Kansas City and Lawrence music scenes as well as showcase a unique way to create music outside typical bands and DJs. With a global, worldwide celebration brought to the KC, showcasing homegrown talent, Smith says, “Our event is really just one of a broad spectrum of things that will happen in a lot of different places and so we’re just excited to be one place where we showcase the talent of different producers that use this piece of equipment.”
