That would actually be pretty sick, huh? I used to do a lot of field recordings, but I never got the chance to record a burning wave. I’m sure it would sound nothing like DJ Burn One though. You know, the sound of Yelawolf, ASAP Rocky, Pill, Starlito, and countless other notable hip hop releases of recent memory. Earlier this year Burn One dropped the much-slept on The Ashtray, which is just one amongst a slew of releases, but it also served as the singular marker for a very clear transition point. The Ashtray is Burn One’s first instrumental release, and after talking with him it’s clear that it’s a very calculated release that has involved much more than the music on it might suggest.

Burn One isn’t just a guy making beats. He’s a tireless hustler who’s first instrumental album is just one small piece of a very involved puzzle that has grown out of the space where his life and hip hop meet. Like many of us who grew up in the South, hip hop connected with him as much as he connected with it. And Burn One’s story highlights the difficulty in finding a distinction between how hip hop sounds as music, and what hip hop does as music:

“I think I had a unique experience growing up. I was raised in a city just south of downtown atlanta called Hapeville until I was 10. my family was one of a handful of white families in the area. after that we moved to the suburbs where there were just a handful of black families. it was pretty crazy because you would have these die hard rednecks with rebel flags hanging off their jacked up trucks banging pac to the fullest extent. it made no sense to me at the time but I realize now that music is one of the few things that translates to everybody, regardless of race or beliefs.”

And it would seem that the eponymous characteristics of hip hop not only informed, but also defined Burn One’s experience with this music, this culture, this vernacular of our nation. He got his start—you ready for this?—burning mix CDs in high school. He was THAT dude. The one who knew how to use a computer before everyone was rocking iTunes. But apparently he was one of the #Rarest versions of that dude type, because he also had great taste in music. And of course that led to working at a mom and pop, which lead to releasing his own proper mixtapes, which then led to making all kinds of connections, which then lead to projects of his own with various folks, which then lead to doin his own tunes and starting BLVD ST, which eventually blossomed into his label Five Points:

“I started my label Five Points Music Group about a year ago after I got together with my current team. Walt Live, Ricky Fontaine & The Professor play most of the live music you hear on my beats now. With them I can pretty much get out any sounds that I hear in my head. We work a lot of placement records and side projects with artists I believe have a chance to make it like Scotty & P. Watts. Ricky & Walt are also the first act I’m putting out on the label. they produce, write, sing, rap, record and mix all their own stuff. We just dropped a record with them and LE$ as the first single off the Cowbell Gang tape I’m doing with Taylor Gang producer Cardo. That’s going to be a double disc and hopefully it’ll be out by February. I’m also working on the soundtrack to an independent film that was shot here in ATL called Snow On Tha Bluff. We created the theme music for the trailer and have a few other songs in the actual movie as well.”

And running his label is exactly what he’s doing. From the top to the bottom Five Points is a brand under the care of a man with impeccable taste, a meticulous ear, and a connection to hip hop that is so intertwined with his life that you cannot separate the two. Burn One is in that unique transition point that comes between being part of the Wave, and being a self-sustaining enterprise. He exhibits everything that the Wave cultivates (honesty, humility, dedication to the craft, wisdom, tough tunes…), but he has outgrown the Wave. He has started his own sequel to the Wave, he’s a cloud, and he’s about to rain down an excellent example:

“at this point I’m the only one handling the administrative side of things on the daily. I have a very distinct vision with what I want to accomplish and until I find the right people to bring in that see my vision I’d rather just handle it all myself.”

And so, through Five Points DJ Burn One is not onyl able to release music, but also realize his relationship with hip hop on an even grander scheme. At this point he is undoubtedly a regional force, and unarguably an internet staple, but he has never released music as we commonly think of it. Burn One’s role in contemporary hip hop has led to the release of a lot of music, but all he’s ever done is live and breathe everything that this art stands for. He’s an artist in the purest form to quote Squadda B, and you can believe he is not only a name that we’ll be watching next year, but also a potent mind that we’ll be paying close attention to, and most likely looking to for inspiration.

- Zachg