workaholics anonymous cords up, so it’s amazing how everything happens for a reason.
“I’M JUST GETTING STARTED. I AIN’T EVEN TAPPED INTO MY FULL POTENTIAL YET AS A PRODUCER.”
Where do you get your work ethic from? Is it money or success that motivates you? I just look at it like a job. I’ve got a job to do and I’m really focused on what I’ve got to do. Even though I’m tired, I just suck it up and don’t complain and get the job done. I don’t really know where I get it from. Like I said, Rob had got on me one time. I really can’t remember the details but I know that’s one thing that stuck out in my mind. Rob had just got on me cause I was really just a lazy ass muthafucker. And then, I don’t know, I guess whatever he said kinda kicked in and helped me get on point. I ended up training myself how to work. Did you ever have a real job before you got into music? Nah, I never really had a real job. I used to work at this little skateboard shop renting out roller skates, and after that I started DJing. Before that I was throwing newspapers with my daddy. When was the last time you took a day off? Whenever I come off the road I try to take a day off and turn the phone off. Over the Christmas holidays I didn’t work, I was chillin’ at the house cookin’ and shit. Usually I cook, or my girl and my son will sit on the couch with me and watch DVDs all day and night. Or me and my son play video games. Do you ever feel like your work causes you to miss out on anything as far as your personal life? Yeah, because anybody who has a workaholic spouse will tell you that it’s gonna put some stress on your relationship. I was watching this special on Bob Marley, and one of his girlfriends was like, “If he had to go
to the studio, oh yeah, I was gonna suffer.” Like, he put his work first. That’s what workaholics do: they put work before anything. Of course you put your family up there as a priority, but you know you’re not gonna see ‘em much. Since I’ve made it a little better now, I can afford to take off for my son’s birthday or my girl’s birthday, but sometimes I would have to sacrifice doing a club date for some of those things. You’ve just gotta give your family time. If I’m gone for three or four months, I gotta take off a couple days or weeks. I just have to make time once in a while, cause if you’ve got a good person in your corner they’re gonna understand that you’re doing what you have to do, and you gotta do it while you’re hot. Otherwise you’re gonna miss out on a lot of opportunities. And you’re definitely hot right now. I’m just getting started. That’s how I look at it. ‘Cause I ain’t even tapped into my full potential as a producer ‘cause I’m doing so much shit. I’m not like a normal producer that sits in the house and makes beats. I do shows, I gotta run a company, we’ve got the energy drink, so I can’t just focus on beats. Do you plan on ever focusing solely on production instead of being an artist yourself? Yeah, I basically want to just produce because the artist thing is hard. It’s hard to constantly make a hit. It’s easier to produce a hit than it is to come up with a concept and write the shit. It’s easier to just do a beat for somebody than for you yourself to be the artist. So that’s why you’ve started to focus more on artists like Lil’ Scrappy and Trillville? Yeah, I’m tryin’ to spread it out.
alone.
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OZONE MAGAZINE MARCH 2004
Are you looking for artists? Nah, we not really looking for new artists right now cause we’ve got a lot on our plate. I’ve gotta do about four or five albums this y e a r