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Mr. Hill of Oldominion

A fixture of the Pacific Northwest’s emergent hip hop scene since the mid-90’s, Mr. Hill (nee Todd Gumke, of the region’s dominant crew, Oldominion) built a name for himself as an innovative, prolific deejay/producer the old-fashioned way: a tireless grind tempered by a true love for the work he does & the music he creates. What began at an early age as an avid appreciation for music of all genres bred a more specific passion for hip hop music after years shuttling back and forth between his home in Washington and his father’s house in the Bay Area. An ever-growing record collection led him to purchase his first set of turntables and in 1994, Hill tried his hand at deejaying and was hooked; by 1995, he was working as a deejay on the pirate radio station FUCC 89.1 with Putney Swope on their two-hour show, Hip Hop Drunkies.

It is Swope who first introduced Hill to the world of beat making when, in 1997, Swope acquired a Dr. Boss sampler and later an MPC 2000 (Swope & Hill would go on to form the now defunct production crew, Chapter 29, alongside DJ Kashun). He quickly became an addict, soon investing in his own arsenal of samplers & beat machines and in 1999 “Investigation Zero” off of Footprints’ Operation Raw went down in Seattle hip hop history as the first track to feature “production by Mr. Hill” in its credits.

Since then Hill has become independent hip hop’s ace in the hole, lending his considerable talents & signature sound to projects by notable Northwest acts Grayskul (Rhymesayers), Boom Bap Project (Rhymesayers), Cancer Rising, Onry Ozzborn, Sirens Echo, Myg, & Silent Lambs Project, as well as national artists Kool Keith, Canibus, Busdriver, Abstract Rude, Sonspot Jonz, & Casual. 2008 finds him working on tracks for forthcoming solo efforts by Oldominion’s JFK, Destro, Onry Ozzborn, & Candidt, as well as the follow-up to the Niteowls’s (Hill’s group with Barfly of Oldominion and Gatsby of Cancer Rising) 2007 self-titled release.

For a complete discography go to: www.myspace.com/mrhill