David Blake started as a mobile DJ working Compton house parties and talent shows before he ever picked up a mic, selling homemade mixtapes that got him signed to Profile Records in 1990 as reportedly its first six-figure signee. What set him apart on record was that he approached production like a musician rather than a beat-chopper — learning instruments as he needed them and playing much of what you hear himself, layering live bass and keys under buttery talkbox hooks and wheedling synth leads. His 1991 debut Quik Is the Name went platinum off a run of self-produced Top 20 R&B singles, and his reputation as a mixing engineer got him pulled in to help mix and engineer 2Pac's All Eyez on Me at Death Row. Widely considered one of the most complete musical minds — rapper, producer, mixer — the West Coast ever produced.
