SameOldShawn: I feel like there is one name that is really key to the label, the relationships with artists, the sound of the label, who is not the first name on people's tongues when it comes to Rawkus is Hi-Tek

Brian Brater: Yes! Well, it's not just Hi-Tek, it's Ayatollah, Sean J Period... There's quite a few producers that really had their hands on everything. So it wasn't just Hi-Tek, but Hi-Tek... He had that sound. It was like the evolution, to a degree, to what No I.D. was doing, to what Premier was doing, what Pete Rock was doing. You know, repping Cincinnati the way he did. Hi-Tek was definitely the engine. The Black Star engine, the Reflection Eternal engine... Did tons of stuff for us on Soundbombing, Lyricist Lounge... Just had this organic thing about his production where it was so natural sounding. He had a swing and just like a - he really knew how to program drums at the end of the day