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ou’re here at T.I.’s studio in Atlanta – what are you working on? This guy I’m working with right here is JR, Tip’s artist. From there, I’m going to be working with B.G. I just finished T.I., and tomorrow I got Young Dro. So I’m working with everybody in their camp while they got me here. What else have you been working on? Beats for a lot of different artists? Yeah, for real, the underdogs. If you’ve been paying attention to BET, [I produced the tracks for] a lot of the little videos where them dudes are trying to get discovered. It’s partly me redefining myself, too. Sometimes you gotta start from scratch and build your way up. I still want to have that feeling that I can make a new artist. It’s easy to get in there with somebody that’s certified already and give ‘em a hot track. That’s easy because that’s what the record company is going to get behind. It’s not easy to get behind that new cat and make a new song. It’s more of a challenge and it’s a rebirth for me because that’s where I started from. I always want to be in touch with what’s going on in the streets. I’m not that dude where you can’t reach me. If you’re on a major label, yeah, I’m going to try to [charge] an arm [laughs], but if you’re not on a major label, I’ll work with you. A lot of people have said that it’s a production-driven game now. What percentage of an artist’s success would you say is attributed to their beat selection and the producers they work with? I mean, it became a production-driven game. Everybody’s not that. Some dudes still inspire me. But I ain’t even gonna lie, it’s been certain situations where I’ve been in the studio where it all falls on the producer. I ain’t gonna say no names, because I might not get business with them again. They want all your ideas. They want you to write the song, produce the song, arrange the song, and make [the artist] looks good. It makes you feel like, dude, you must know somebody. [laughs] For real. I’m not sayin’ this to be fucked up, but a lot of Hip Hop is bullshit right now. So you’ve got a new situation with Def Jam. Is it a label deal or do you have an executive position at the actual record label? It’s all of that, because I don’t really have a title. I can go sign whoever I want. I get to work outside of the Def Jam umbrella. I can bring artists to them, and I get to voice my opinion. I went with Def Jam because they didn’t ask me to do nothing exclusive. They were like, “We know how you eat. Do whatever you do, and when you have time for this, cool.” And I feel like I can deliver on that. It’s not a strain on me. I can sign acts, I can consult, I can produce those acts, and I can also produce for artists outside of what’s going on at Def Jam. Are you involved on the business end as well? Yeah, because my [financial] splits with Def Jam are crazy. I’m not going to say them, because I don’t want nobody else to go try to get a deal like that. But you know, if I bring something there and I produce it or whatever, my splits on the album are crazy. So it’s a big incentive for you to bring an act to Def Jam. Yeah, exactly. So even if I just put my input on somebody else’s album, it’s still a paycheck for me, so that works for me. A lot of labels have started a “Southern” branch, tagging that “South” title onto an existing label, but in most cases it doesn’t seem to work. Do you think they just don’t have the right people in place? Yeah, that’s super important. If you think about it, when you meet most of the people that run record companies, it makes you feel like it’s a family business. You feel like they must have inherited their job or something. They have no idea what’s going on. I think Def Jam’s approach is to have people that know what’s going on. If I want to sign [an artist], it’ll be easy for me to sign them, as opposed to somebody that’s in a suit and doesn’t have no idea about their song. Somebody handed him a piece of paper that shows how many spins you’ve got and told him that it’s a buzz. I think an artist should be listened to creatively. [Most executives] just see dollar signs. Will this situation also involve you working with the existing Def Jam roster? Yeah, if they want to work with me, I welcome them. My dream for Def Jam
is this: It’s a label where you have a lot of artists and they don’t really know each other. They know of each other, but I want to really bring everybody together in unity and say, “Let’s take over this. Let’s be the next movement.” It hasn’t been a label since the old school days that’s done that. Def Jam, they got a powerful roster. They got Ludacris, Rick Ross, Jeezy, Jay-Z – so if we could all get together collectively and go out there and get it, that would be some shit. Even with Jay-Z being in an executive position, there’s been some criticisms of some of his business moves. Do you think it’s hard for yourself as an artist or a creative mind to make that transition to working in a more corporate environment? Or is your situation not really structured like that? Nah, it’s not that different. And dude [Jay-Z], he’s experienced, you know? Look at what he’s done with Def Jam. A lot of the moves are his moves. It’s his call – go get this dude, go get this dude. I’m trying to put this team together where nobody is bigger than nobody. I think I’m kinda like the middleman. It’s a different thing, how we get down in the South. We’re more family oriented than New York, to make a long story short. Are there any new artists in particular you’re looking at signing? Not at the present time because my plate is full right now. I’m trying to finish producing a few things and then I’m going to breeze through them little towns myself and check out what’s going on. For an artist that’s trying to get on, is there a way they can send you material or would you rather just hear about them? More than somebody sending me a CD, I’d rather find somebody that’s making noise. If I was visiting Miami, I’d rather just ask around and say, “What’s the buzz?” I’d rather put you on the spot and see what’s going on with you. I bet you have a lot of people coming up to you freestyling. Yeah, all the time. [laughs] As far as raw talent, what impresses you most about a new artist? The biggest thing I could ask for from a new artist is creativity. And I’m always thinking about longevity. When I hear a song, I want to know, what else do you have after that? I’m looking for longevity, for real. You have a lot of major labels that are signing them ringtone songs. That’s what I call ‘em. You know them songs – it’s gonna be a big ringtone, and after that, your career is over with. I’d rather have somebody with longevity. You told us earlier that you had some things you wanted to get off your chest. Recently when you were doing a radio interview at Q93 in New Orleans, Baby called in during a commercial break and made some threats towards you. What exactly happened? The interview was basically about what’s going on with me. And some of the statements I made, apparently dude [Baby] didn’t like. I think he just called at the wrong time. He called when we went on a commercial break. I was like, “For real, you could’ve called when I was on the radio.” I welcomed him to call back when I was on the radio and we could’ve discussed it man-toman. I even promised on the air, I was like, “I’m not going to curse. You don’t curse, let’s just discuss what problems you have with me.” I told [Baby], “I’ll give you the first three questions free. Ask me the first three questions.” And he never called back. Do you feel like those issues should be discussed in a public forum? Or have you already had those conversations behind closed doors? I mean, I buried that. I left it behind me, but he called and brought it back up. I don’t have no hate for them. I don’t feel nothing bad about [Cash Money]. I moved on; I’m doing me. But it’s just funny how whenever they get in articles or do interviews, my name is smeared. And I’m like, dude, I didn’t do nothing to you. You did something to me. What did Baby do to you? It was all-around bad business. If what I’m saying wasn’t true, he wouldn’t have been found guilty of nothing. I ain’t gonna air out everything that was done, but the point I made is this: Every artist that was on Cash Money is not there [anymore] except Wayne. Is everybody wrong? Why do you think Wayne is still there if everyone else was unhappy? Honestly, I have no idea.
YTHING THAT R E V E T U O IR A A N N NESS... I AIN’T GO ARTIST THAT WAS ON CASH SI U B D A B D N U O R A IS: EVERY “IT WAS ALL TH IS E D A M I T IN O BODY WRONG?” P Y R E E V TH E T U IS B . , E E N N Y O A D W S T A P W E [ANYMORE] EXCE R E TH T O N IS Y E N O M OZONE MAG // 91