//Production Credits YOUNG JEEZY’s “MY PRESIDENT IS BLACK,” KILLER MIKE f/ ICE CUBE “PRESSURE,” R KELLY “HAIRBRAIDER,” LIL WAYNE & YOUNG MONEY “EVERY GIRL”
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riginally from Seattle, Tha Bizness consists of (above L-R) Dow Jones and Henny. Together, they have quickly built a diverse catalog and sound that has taken many producers nearly a decade to compile. They’ve worked with the likes of 50 Cent, R. Kelly, and LL Cool J. Most recently, having producing Young Jeezy’s historic hit “My President Is Black,” Tha Bizness is definitely going to be in the black for a long time to come. Start off by telling us where Tha Bizness comes from. Henny: Well, we’re cousins and we’re both from Seattle. We were basically doing our own things. Dow was DJing and doing mixtapes and I was pretty much a musician at the time trying to become a producer. We both moved to Los Angeles doing our own thing and we came together 3-4 years ago and started cracking from there. Being a team, how do you balance who does what? Dow: That is what has made us successful. We believe in each other’s talent, so if someone is better at something, we let them handle it. We never do one thing the same; we do whatever works the best. So if Henny has had a relationship with someone forever, why would I talk to him? Why waste time trying to do an introduction into some new shit? We all know this game is all about relationships. We didn’t come in the game just trying to get some money. This was our dream; we’ve been wanting to do this forever. We’ve studied the game, the contracts, publishing, and how the game works from the artist perspective to the label perspective to the producer perspective.
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Your production style isn’t really one that can easily defined or identified. Dow: Man, we just keep it real. Niggas be fronting like “Aw, I only listen to street shit.” Man, we listen to anything. It wasn’t until the 90s came around that niggas started labeling shit, like, “Oh, this is West Coast,” or whatever. That was a media thing. Luckily for us and how we were raised, we got to see different shit. If you can’t get out and see shit, you ain’t gonna know shit. Last year alone we [produced for] Ice Cube, Killer Mike, and R. Kelly, and right now we’ve got records with the Black Eyed Peas and Lil Wayne coming out. And we have the anthem of America with Jeezy’s [“My President Is Black”]. What other producer can you say has done a joint with an artist from every genre? Plus, we just did a joint with Norman Brown who is the most critically acclaimed jazz guitarist of our era. We’re touching so much shit. When you hear the melodies you’ll know its us. That’s why “My President Is Black” stood out on the Jeezy album. We gave you a Southern triumphant anthem but it didn’t sound like any other Southern beat on the album or Southern beat Jeezy has ever been on. We’re giving you something fresh. Some cats will get one hit and re-rock the same joint. We’re trying to be on some Quincy Jones shit. Some of our shit, artists tell us its too advanced for them at this time. Do you prefer being more hands-on in this age of emailing and IM’ing beats? Henny: We’ll do whatever it takes. When you get the chance to work with R. Kelly but you know that he only works out his house and he doesn’t know us like that yet, we have to send him the beat. We can’t have an ego, like, “Oh, he needs to come out and fuck with us.” So he’ll send us back his ideas and then after that he invites us to Chicago. You have to build relationships step by step. We work from the bottom up. It’s all about the little steps. // Photo by Marcus Henderson