Funky DL first started music production at the age of 12,trying out in Kingsland Secondary Schools C-Block Music department in Hackney, east London where he used programs like Pro 24 and early versions of Cubase to learn sequencing and the manipulation of MIDI.

DL slowly begun to understand that the Casio Keyboards and Tascam 4-Track cassette recorders were good enough to produce demo's but didn't quite match the authenticity of sound that a sampler and a batch of old vinyl could create.

By the time DL was in his teens, he was sampling using the Akai S1100 at his Uncle's "In Yo Face" recording studios in east London which was being frequented by Vocalist "Sanchita Farruque, Jazz musician Ronnie Laws and even the late Smiley Culture. DL begun learning how to use programs such as Creator and Notator run via the Atari 1040 STE.

During this period, DL also invested in the Commodore Amiga home computer and familiarised himself with a sampling and sequencing package called "Pro-tracker" which allowed the simultaneous running of up to 4 samples at a time.

Spending many years making beats on the Amiga and using a television screen as a monitor, DL began hooking up turntables directly to the computer to snatch breaks and beats. As Pro-tracker was only an 8-bit sampler, it obviously it had its limitations so it was not before long that DL looked towards the next stage of advancing.

Eventually, Funky DL had landed his first record deal and went into the professional studio environment where he used the Akai S1000 sampler and Cubase to construct the beats for his debut album "Classic Was The Day" and his creativity excelled from strength to strength as there was always an engineer (Dillon Gallagher) on board tp help DL further is Audio vision.

But it wasn't until Funky DL purchased the original Akai MPC2000 in 1997 that he found that the groove and the manoeuvrability with each sound was second to none and since then all of Funky DL's music is programmed using the Akai MPC2000.

DL's begun to trademark and stamp out his sound using an unusual manipulation of bass notes by using the pads for programming which he insists provides greater groove of a percussive nature. The choice of samples and the filters used to give them the warmth and the resonance needed to compliment the rest of the music is a huge factor to getting the right sound.

DL says "I think production is one of the most influential ingredients to hip-hop and hit making. Look at producers like Pete Rock who were and still is able to paint vivid pictures and mood through just his music alone! Songs like 'They Reminisce Over You' were classic anthems because musically it took your breath away and what made it even more special was the fact that it didn't even have a vocal for the chorus, it was just a saxophone but still to this day that song is played in clubs all over the world"

"When I make a beat I try to capture some kind of mood and feeling in just the music alone because firstly when you do that, you defeat any language barrier internationally and secondly music for me is about feelings whether good or bad, high or low".

From producing 1997's 'Classic Was The Day' right through to the todays "Blackcurrent Jazz 2", DL has insisted that production is as much a part of him as rhyming and if he were to rhyme on an album which he had no production input whatsoever it'd be like the fans would only be getting half of him and not Funky DL in his entirety. However he does remark "rhyming over beats produced by others allows you to further push your ability as an MC"

Funky DL remains as one of the most experienced and respected hip-hop producers form the UK. With an astounding knowledge of music production and the audio engineering skills attained in his early days, it comes as no surprise that he is able to make records sound the way they do... and that only comes with years of being dedicated whole-heartedly to your craft as a producer, which Funky DL has always been.

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