“B-Max” / “Nerdy B”
Ben Saunders
Rapper, Producer, DJ - Brothers Of The Same Mind
Ben Saunders, known in Seattle’s early hip hop scene as DJ Nerdy B or B Max, helped shape the Northwest sound before it was widely recognized. From the mid 80s through the 90s, as the city searched for a musical identity beyond grunge, he built a distinct energy through turntable skill, crate digging, and a producer’s ear.
As a core member of Brothers of the Same Mind, alongside MC Class, DJ Swift, Mellow Touch, and Sin Q, he represented Seattle hip hop when national attention rarely reached the region. The group toured with Run DMC, MC Hammer, DJ Quik, and Ice Cube, and their 1991 video “Cool Drink” captures a rising, inventive scene.
As a producer and DJ, Ben created the beats, cuts, and textures that defined that era, with his aliases appearing across Discogs as traces of a movement built through community and experimentation.
Photo by Rachel Crick at Crackle and Pop! Studio
Transcript
Okay, 1987, the Music Source Studio.
I remember five of us going to the studio in fall/winter of 1987. Chelly Chell, CMT, Supreme La Rock, Fever One, and me piled into Supreme's Audi, along with our equipment and records, and drove to the Music Source on a cold Saturday morning to record me and Chelly Chell's song "He's Incredible."
We had just got the entire Ultimate Breaks and Beats library from Lenny Roberts and wanted to use the drum break on Melvin Bliss' synthetic substitution. We chose to record at the Music Source because they had a new Kurzweil sampling keyboard that we could loop the Melvin Bliss drum break on.
The studio engineer had definitely never worked on any hip-hop record, and when we told him what we wanted, he said that they had just got the Kurzweil at the studio and the loop of the drums would take much longer than the 10 hours we booked. So CMT glanced at the manual, messed with the keyboard for a half hour or so, and had the drums looped and ready to track to the two-inch tape.
Chelly Chell recorded her vocals, I did my cuts, and collectively the five of us, all pretty much kids, recorded "He's Incredible." We wound up getting Carlos Barrios of the Hit Squad in New York City to edit the song. The song led to a record deal with Ever Rap. The entire LP was recorded but never came out.
In 2010, Jake One put it on his Town Biz mixtape in Supreme La Rock. Mike Clark and myself put it out on 45 in May of 2021. Nearly 35 years later and it still sounds dope and unlike anything else from the 206.