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Real life stars.

It ain't real life.

Real life street stars Know what time it is?

Real life street stars I'm back, Mr.

Curly park, man.

Welcome to Dallas.

Well and welcoming.

Oh, man, it's beautiful.

The Mavericks just won.

Come on, man, don't rub it in, man.

We've been sitting at home for about a month, so don't rub it in right now, dawg.

Yo, man, the man, the myth, the legend, man.

You did a lot for the city.

You might not even know we gonna go through there.

Okay, but before we go through there, you know, I want to take it back just a little bit, man.

Cause you were a dj, right?

Probably still are a dj, but you were a DJ in one of the most prolific cities for music, right?

So I just.

Me personally, I just had a question.

Cause, you know, everybody wants to go to Atlanta and recreate what y'all built.

You being a dj, seeing it firsthand.

What was that like, watching the city cultivate that music scene into what it is now?

Well, it's like watching your city grow.

You don't realize it in real time.

You just doing it because you love it.

You don't know how it's going to turn out at the end.

You don't know when you.

In the.

In the moment that ten years later you'll be able to look back and say, we created something historic.

You know what I mean?

So it was just life.

And growing up back then, we didn't know.

This was before LaFace.

This was before so.

So death.

You got to think Atlanta.

Atlanta was like the New York of the south, you know what I mean?

When they started, you know, with their parties in the park and all that stuff, they didn't know it was gonna turn out to what it became.

And that's just how Atlanta was.

We were just doing music.

Cause we loved it.

We wanted to be a part of what was going on.

And so that's it, man.

You know?

So what was that moment where you were like, all right, yeah, we onto something.

We got it.

For me personally, okay, I'm gonna put y'all up on the Atlanta music scene.

So I started out as a dj.

One of the first mixtape crews in Atlanta called the J Team.

Yeah.

King Edward J.

I don't know if y'all heard of a guy by the name of MC shy D.

He was affiliated.

That's how I got introduced into the music business, through DJing for him.

Now, who DJ with him before me was DJ Toon.

Oh, yeah, Tunk.

DJ Tunk.

Who's the Father of trap music.

Produced all the TI Stuff.

Oh, shit.

Grammy Award winner.

Did you know that?

He also produced I'm a Fool with it by Twisted Black.

He's in Fort Worth.

No.

Another Tuk got his hands in so much, man.

You never know.

He's what I like to call a sensei, you know what I mean?

Of the game.

And so back then, it was a label called Itchy Bun Records.

And Ichiban Records was on the north side of Atlanta, a city called Kennesaw.

And that was the home back then.

This was before outkast.

This was before any of that.

And you had artists like 95South with the whoop, that is.

You had MC Breed, who had the guy to get mine with Tupac, right.

Vanilla Ice was on Itchy Bun, but they didn't catch the Ice Ice baby.

Damn.

I don't know.

Some kind of way with the business.

And they had all kinds of music.

I believe Clarence Carter was on Itchy Bun.

So they had an array of music, but it was so underground and small.

It wasn't what music is now.

So it was like, you put a record out and you might get to Alabama, you might get to Mississippi, you might get to.

If you got to Texas or Cali or something like that, you really.

That was a home run.

Without even still becoming a major quote unquote artist.

Yeah.

So that was the whole music scene.

It was so small back then.

And the reality of us hitting it big to, like, I don't, you know, back in those days, I'll just say the run DMCs and, you know, the artists and the groups that everybody know that wasn't a reality for us.

So we were just doing it because we loved it.

And our outlet was Itchy Bond Records.

That's crazy.

So what would you say was the turning point of Atlanta to where you started noticing?

Oh, the world is taking notice to what we're doing.

That's a good question, man.

So my story gonna be a little different than everybody else's, because the type of music that I grew up on and that we were known for was more party and dance and freaknik type music.

So for me, me personally, when I literally, I went to school at Alabama A and m in Huntsville, Alabama, and in 94, I want to say, or 93, we brought a group to perform at our school, the DJ, who DJ in Magic City in Atlanta called D.C.

the Brain Supreme.

And they had a record called Whoop, there it is.

And they came.

They came to my school and performed.

They brought the dancers and everything.

And I swear to God, in about a few months, they was on national TV with that record.

So for me, that's.

For me personally, that's when I knew that it was possible for somebody who, you know from where I'm from and do the music that I do could make it out of there, you know, on the national scene.

Yo, I hope y'all liking this shit that we talking about right now.

So if you loving it, subscribe to the channel.

You mentioned Freak Nick.

Let's talk about it.

Let's talk about it.

Let's talk about it.

Have you seen the documentary?

No, I have not.

To be honest with you.

I have not.

I don't watch a lot of so you think you can dance and all these singing competition shows, because I live it.

And so I just had to.

When you have to live this and fight for it and work for years and years to get this, I just can't indulge in all that.

So I did not watch the Freak Nick movies.

That's no slight on the Freak Nick movie, because I love Luke, I love Jermaine, but I just did not.

But you were present.

Yeah, I was there.

Inquiry minds want to know what would you say your experience was during your time when Freaknik was having.

Well, so for me, my memory of Freak Nick.

Now, we all.

We ain't gonna talk about the personal side of Freak Nick, but for me, on the business side of Freak nick, I was DJing for MC Shadi at the time.

And that was a big business opportunity for us to promote our records.

So you had Daytona and you had Freaknik back then.

So in 95, which to me was the grand finale of the golden years of the Freak Nick.

That was the year I put my first record out as an artist, DJ Smurf called Ooh Lord.

I want to say Montel Jordan had this is how we do It.

And I think Tootsie Roll was out.

So back then, it was like battling who record was gonna be the record of the summer.

And that 95.

My memory of the Freaknik was just us hustling to promote.

That's all I remember.

And believe it or not, I'll tell y'all a secret.

Ludacris used to be an intern for Itchy Bun.

When O.

When.

And he was still in high school, I want to say.

Yeah.

And that that's just how we went to the same high school, Banneker High School.

And on the south side, College Park.

And so for me, outside of the personal stuff that I won't get into, it was like everybody came to promote their music.

The spring break in Florida and Atlanta was about promoting your music.

So it's true what they say, that records were getting broken?

Oh, most definitely.

Cause you gotta think people were coming from everywhere.

And whatever song that was popping at Freaknik, they took it back to wherever they were from.

And that's how you promoted it.

What record would you say that got?

What's the word, Stan?

Word?

You just said?

Broke.

Broke?

Yeah.

Broke.

Yeah.

All the booty records.

Like, for real.

Like the Tootsie Roll.

Tootsie Roll, Yeah.

You know, all those records in 94 and 95, those two years right there, whatever those.

That's the term.

It wasn't freaknik music back then.

We were just making music, but it was synonymous with that.

So that's when it became the sound of Freaknik.

It was all bass and Booty Shake.

Wasn't no gangsta shit or no New York shit getting played.

You know, girls weren't dancing to that shit back then.

So the Booty Shake music, we call it Atlanta Bass and Miami.

Yeah.

So those records was the soundtrack of that.

So that's how it became synonymous with freaknik.

Now, I gotta ask you, being a producer, like, at what point did you start making actual beats in tracks with Shadi?

After Toonk left, he kind of.

So he had two DJs at the time, DJ Toon and Mike Fresh, who did all the Poison Clan stuff.

Shout out to JT Money.

I'm a huge fan.

So when he left, he was using two DJs live on stage.

So I became the one DJ that had to do the things that both DJs was doing.

So I had two drum machines and two turntables on stage.

So some of those records that.

When the.

When the chorus would come in, I was scratching those samples in live.

Oh, shit.

Those samples, like, gotta be to all that stuff.

I was scratching that shit in live.

And so from that, I was just a young, hungry cat.

So I started producing and he showed me how to produce.

And my first placement was for him.

It was a record called Truth to the Game.

So that was my introduction into production.

Not the Truth to the Game, but.

Master P, is it?

No, no, no.

This was just kind of regional.

Oh, okay.

At the time.

But that was my introduction into it.

That was in the Atlanta scene, the Booty Shake scene.

And so I started writing and producing at that time.

This was right around 94 that's crazy.

Yeah.

So how many.

How long did it take for you to actually get where you would say you were just good?

I was good from the jump.

Oh, ditch right out the gate.

I mean, shit.

I mean, I think some people, when they say work ethic trumps talent, I think I had a little bit of both.

You know what I mean?

I had a little natural thing going on, but I was so hungry to do it because of my love for it that I think I just jumped right off into it and I was eager to learn.

Like, I'm watching your son.

I'm watching him when y'all handing pieces of equipment to each other.

He's like this.

He ain't watching y'all.

He watching the actual piece of equipment being handed over.

Yeah, So I saw that just now, right?

And that's how I was.

So when you.

When you.

When you.

When you a student of the game like that, you tend to go past a lot of people who ain't dedicated like that.

Now, I'm gonna fast forward a little bit, man.

Walk around the club.

Fuck everybody.

Yeah, yeah, bro.

You produced that?

Well, I'm gonna slow you down.

I wish I could take credit for that.

That was on my label.

So Throw it off is on Colley Park Music, which is the same label of the Yin Yang Twins and Soulja Boy, right?

So within my run, I produced records and I had a label.

So one of my producers, Mr.

Hankey, produced throwed Off.

Now, he also produced Good Love for City Girls.

He produced California for Captain.

What was his name?

Captain Loud, I think, and twerk it later.

So he's produced records, but he was up under me at the time, and.

Right.

We were about to let Trilly and Prince Rick go, and they came with that record, and that was the record because they had hit that hope when I signed them.

And shouts out to Bebe, by the way.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm gonna say take us through how you even met them.

Cause again, for us, from being from Dallas, we hold our artists in high regard.

And when we seen them sign to you for us, it was like they made it.

So how did you even get wind of them?

So, long story short, I heard a baby on the radio in Atlanta on the mix show one morning, and I thought it was Boosie.

I was like, what?

I said, boosie got one.

So I was in the car like, boosie got one.

So I called a friend of mine and asked him about the record, and he said, no, that's this kid Hurricane out of Shreveport, Bay Bay got Him, he said, you know, Bebe, I was like, baby Bebe out of Shreveport.

So I caught.

Me and Bebe met before I hit Bebe.

And like, that weekend, I flew to Shreveport and met Hurricane.

And that's me and Bebe reconnected.

And that's how the whole Bebe connection came through Hurricanes.

So we took Hurricane over to J Records, Polo Ground Records.

So he was up under me, too.

And so just from that, this was before Bebe came to Dallas.

So when Bebe came to Dallas, we all.

We already had that connect.

So we were promoting.

My brother was out here with Vic, who did the Wobble.

I produced the Wobble, by the way.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I produced the Wobble Get In There and Get Silly by Vic.

So.

So you made.

You made both of those?

So you produced both of them?

Yeah, yeah.

I always wanted angel to do a hit like that because that last for eternity, right?

Well, again, you don't know.

In the moment right now, Wobble was like, my team was involved in that.

You know, I ain't gonna be one of these producers that come up here and just take credit for everything.

That was a team effort, but who knew it was going to become what it became?

But so I did.

Me and my team did Wobble and Get Silly.

And so my brother was out here with Vic promoting, I want to say Get Silly, one of them records I don't even remember.

And that's when he ran across Trillian, Prince Rick with the.

With the hit that Hope.

When you.

When you make a song like that, it gets Silly or Wobble with it, or is that a different type of bag?

Or is that.

Is it because it goes on cruises and like, everybody.

Long, long term.

Long term, long term.

So when you handle your business long term, again, the Wobble Flop.

Vic got dropped because our deal was with Atlantic Records, right?

We were coming off a gold record with Get Silly into Wobble, which had, sonically didn't sound nothing like Get Silly.

So the label was like, you know, this ain't.

This ain't it.

So they dropped it.

And two, three years later, matter of fact, Tony Neal with the core DJs, called me.

He was DJing at some party in Milwaukee and called me and said, yo, you need to put this Wobble out for your next single.

I said, bro, we put that out two years ago.

He's like, what?

He said, man, they got a dance up here.

And he's the one that let me know that it was coming back with the Lion Dance, because the Lion Dance didn't even exist.

So fast forward to now.

It's.

It's, you know, it's a classic record that will always.

We license that record all the time to movies, commercials, and all kind of stuff.

So when you.

It is a.

It's a.

It's a.

It's a legacy type situation that your kids will eat off of and you'll eat off of, you know, until you die.

How did you feel about the Dallas sound when you first heard it?

You know what I.

Any type of music that's fun for Colley park, that's what we were and still are affiliated with.

We never did the gangster street.

Because if, you know, any of my artists like Yin Yang to be.

To be from the streets don't mean you a killer all the time.

You know, these from the.

Who I signed were from Conditions like everybody else.

They just chose to make a different kind of music.

And they weren't those types of people to have to make gangster shit.

So all my music has just always been affiliated with fun and, you know, good feeling shit, and I think that's okay.

Speaking of Yang Gang, what happened to TVT rappers?

Bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy.

And, you know, shouts out to Steve Gottlieb.

He was the owner.

He was an asshole, but I learned a lot from him.

And he just fucked around with the wrong people and he wound up filing bankruptcy.

But TBT had us.

Yin Yang, Lil Jon Pitbull, who else is over there?

They had one of the.

One of them white boy groups they had before all of us.

One of the big ones.

Was it Nine Inch Nails or something?

Yeah.

Matter of fact, if you look at the Defiant ones documentary with Dr.

Dre and Jimmy Iovine, Jimmy had to deal with.

He got the group that I'm thinking of from tvt.

He did the deal with them.

So tvt, they're unsung, you know, they were responsible for that whole time period because John and myself was over there at the same time.

You know, between what we were doing with Yin Yang and the whole twerk shit and what John did with the cronk shit, and that was all up under the tvt, you know, umbrella outside.

Looking in, being a label owner.

Why do you think that Dallas artists don't have that longevity?

Like, they be popular for a little bit and then they're not just staying on.

Well, because I'm.

I'm not here.

I can't speak on it.

From a.

From an insight I know.

Let's just take Trilly and Prince Rick, okay?

Right when they came, when we got them with Hit that Hole, I thought that was the.

Cause that record was huge at the time, right.

They had to dance to it, everything.

So I thought that was the end all.

But it didn't work out.

I tried to take them over to Interscope where I had my label deal at the time, but they didn't want to do the deal.

So at the time I was going through some personal shit and so I was like, yo, man, I hate this shit.

Didn't work out.

And then they, through our producers and whatever came, found the Throw it off walk around the club record.

And we didn't know that that record would turn into what it is.

But I say all that to say it's the music.

I think for me.

And this is pre social media, right.

I think if you are grounded in this shit with the music.

Look at Jermaine right now.

Long as he been in here, he done had the number one record on the R and B side with money long for the last.

Right, right, right.

You know, Jermaine been in this shit longer than all of us, but he started from the music side of it.

So when you.

I think music fixes all of it, I think you can figure the rest of this shit out if the music is right.

So I don't know.

Most of the artists that I know of from here come off like one hit, right.

And not like, not.

I didn't listen to MO3 like that.

Right.

But he appeared to be like an artist, like a real artist.

And I just don't know if a lot of the artists that came out of here, you know, positioned themselves as real longevity acts.

But even.

Okay, but even to stay on that point, right?

Even though.

Right.

The Atlanta would have booty shaking songs too.

Right.

In our situation, we had kind of similar music, but Yalls music just went further.

Do you think it's the resources that might have played a part in that too?

Because for instance, they walk around the club, right.

I don't know where it did it over here.

That shit's like diamond in the streets, right.

They play that right now and it's still going crazy.

So is it just the resources?

Cause I'm like, well, they took the Dallas cast, they put them on, you know, some Atlanta producers, and it.

It just had a different type of spark to it.

So do you.

I mean, that's the part that we be trying to figure out.

Yeah, but you gotta think what you just said, it was it was.

It was a Dallas act over a different sound, so.

Well, so to me, when I.

When I listen to MO3, when.

When you compare him to the other artists, that wasn't the same thing.

To me, he sounded like an artist, like a real shit.

The other artist sound like a dance.

Well, let me ask you this.

You got Sexy Red, right?

Yeah.

She takes a producer beat from Superstar and it blows up, which is Dallas, and it goes.

Blows up in Atlanta, right?

I gotta.

Hey, you know, Shouts out to Hurricane.

You know, that came out, you know, up under us too.

So Shout out to Sega.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, That's Hurricane, right?

It's her.

It's.

It's Hurricane and Superstar, right?

No, no, but the business is handled, though, so.

It's not the business.

No, no, no.

The business is handled.

But the culture of it, when they're.

When they.

When they're dancing to Atlanta Moves, when it's a Dallas song, is that a problem for who?

For Dallas, for Atlanta?

You see what I'm saying?

Because why would it be a problem for Atlanta?

Well, it's a problem for Dallas because when we see it and we see them dancing to Atlanta, music, doing the dances.

Let me stop you right there, all right, let's go.

That's the problem within itself.

Y'all ought to be celebrating that shit instead of being mad about that shit and using that as a stepping stone as opposed to.

I think you looking at the glass half full versus the glass half empty.

You know what I mean?

For me, if I'm looking at that, I'm like, oh, shit, they own us now.

Let me go back in the lab and do some more shit, right?

So.

But if you got that crab mentality, you ain't gonna never get nothing good out of that shit.

So I can just tell by the tone of what y'all asking me that y'all whole city looking at this shit wrong.

Yeah, no, not everybody.

Okay, hold on now.

Okay, what it is, I think we got similarities.

You know what I'm saying?

I think it's some similarities, especially with.

I guess.

Okay, even when Yellow Beezy came out, when he came out, this might go with what Rook was saying.

His remix had nothing but Atlanta artists on there.

You know what I'm saying?

You know, the only person on there from Dallas was Trap Boy Freddy.

Okay?

You know what I'm saying?

I remember even when Lil Will, he had a remix to Bust It Open, he had shouted low.

You know what I'm saying?

But I think it was more of a we was always to Us, to me, we vibe with Atlanta.

You know what I'm saying?

So it ain't always like that, but Dallas do.

We feel like it's.

Some people in Dallas feel like we don't get our credit.

You know what I'm saying?

And you know what I think?

So let me tell you my own personal story about not feeling like you don't get credit.

It was real close to home with Lil Joan and Yin Yang.

Yin Yang was a big part of that crunk movement, but they didn't brand.

I had an album called dead crunk in 94.

So the term crunk was around forever.

Yin Yang was the embodiment of crunk.

They were crunk before the sound got coined.

The term was already there, but the sound wasn't coined.

John, the great businessman and producer that he is, had the vision to take something that was so popular and package it right.

But Yin Yang never got the credit.

Now I'm like Jam Master J for Yin Yang Twins for y'all who don't know.

Jam Master J was a DJ for Run dmc.

So I was like the silent third member, right?

So the fact that that whole twerk sound.

Cause John was known for the.

For this before Get Low, after Get Low, that's when the Freakalik and the Goodies and that's fine, but it was like, okay.

They knew and we knew what our role was in that hole.

Because that tempo is what commercialized it.

It wasn't the mystical I don't give a fuck and all that.

That rowdy club shit.

It was the dance that commercialized it.

And the dance Yin Yang, still to this day is a part.

Get Low is the biggest, you know, record of that movement that still goes to this day.

When I travel abroad, I don't hear nothing from John.

But Get Low and turn down for what to this day?

So the inspiration was, okay, if we did that, we do something else.

The Whisper Song.

Yeah.

That was the most creative shit we ever heard.

That was some creative shit, bro.

They still whispering this song.

Yeah, but I'm just saying.

Same thing I'm telling y'all.

Hey, honestly, when you hear.

When you.

Who the fuck out of here.

But I'm just saying.

The same brain trust that did that.

We said that when we did that, we can do this, right?

And we.

We're in control of our own destiny as opposed to complaining and get mad now.

That don't make it not true.

It don't make it cool or whatever.

But don't mind Wanna hear that shit.

Yeah.

At the End of the day, nobody want to hear that shit.

Where has it gotten anybody?

Yeah, you gotta put points up.

Look at.

Look at Ant Man.

Ant man just went home.

Yeah, he did.

You gotta put the points up.

Yeah, right.

But see, I think.

Okay, so I think the biggest complaint.

It'd be really more like frustration, right?

I think it'd be more so, like, damn, how do we get to the point where we have these level of resources where.

When we have us, bro, I promise, if you produced a lot of these artists that was out here at that time, we probably would have had more superstars.

You see what I'm saying?

And that'd be our frustration be like, damn, we know we got the talent, but for some reason, we're putting our effort into it and we're making hits, but the hits are only going so far.

So that's where.

So that means you weren't doing something right.

Right.

Some wasn't right.

So to me, me personally, I look inward instead of outward.

Right?

And who knows the answer to that question until you find it?

Yeah, I mean, that's where the work ethic and that just.

That, to me, that's what.

That's that coal right there.

You know what I mean?

You gotta turn that coal into diamond.

So once you.

If you.

If you knew the answer to that question, that's the key.

Yeah, but y'all gotta find that answer.

No, I.

I'm just saying, bro, just hear me out.

I ain't gonna give you what you're looking for.

No, no, no, I know, I know.

Just.

Just hear me out, bro.

Where's the person to be like, hold on, bro, wait a minute.

This is a dance that they were doing in Dallas.

Where is Superstar at?

Why is he not in the video?

Where's that person to say, hey, at least let us play, pay homage?

That's all I'm saying.

And we've all been a victim to that.

And I just tell you like this.

When you selling them songs and shit like that, if you don't work that shit out on the business, that's it.

You have no voice when you sell that song, you don't say, look, I'll sell you this song, but I got to be in the video.

I got to stay on the hook.

I got to do this.

I got to do that, Then you have no power.

Because even the dude who did the deal with you, they answering to the.

To the big boys.

So the big boys if one of their raps on the video set, and the nigga who made the record ain't got nothing to do with nothing.

He come, he in the shot, and they like, man, who the fuck is that?

He did the record.

Well, we don't know nothing about that.

He got the.

And if.

If you don't have the power then to say, look, it's in the paperwork.

I get to be here.

Then you gotta get your ass out the camera shot right now.

We've had Superstar, we've had Hurricane Chris, and we've had Duro on here to all speak about how it went down with the record going from Duro and Superstar to Hurricane and Superstar.

I just wanna hear your side.

I don't.

So for business reasons, me and Hurricane wasn't really Dylan, okay?

But he was still.

I was still involved in the situation.

So when that whole After Players Rock for Hurricane Chris, I kind of stepped off and started doing the Soulja Boy stuff.

Gotcha.

And so I don't know the particulars of how that went down, but it's no different than, you know, we've done deals and did songs with people who had songs that didn't necessarily make it regional songs that didn't necessarily make it out the region to where we saw that the song had potential.

And we go, like, why don't you give it to our artists and let us do that?

Or whatever.

And there's only so much, you know, because you taking something.

It ain't that Right now when I come to you for this song, it still ain't that.

Right.

We gotta enhance.

It becomes that when I take it and turn it into something so I can't treat you like you Michael Jackson, you know, ahead of time.

Right?

So that.

That is kind of fucked up.

And that's what I'm saying.

You have to take those situations if you the artist, and from that, you have to figure out how to kind of flip that into something bigger for yourself.

If you don't negotiate and you don't have no negotiating power.

Right.

When you're doing the deal.

I hate to say it, but what do you do?

You know, that's just the harsh reality of the shit.

But you can't then be mad and go and talk shit about the nigga you did the deal with.

Right, right, right.

Cause you still got some money.

You did the deal.

Well, even if you didn't get no money, you did the deal.

Yeah.

So how can you then turn, you know, get up, get out, get on social media and all this shit, say, fuck them, nigga, old fuck, nigga took my shit, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But you signed off on it.

Yeah.

That's why superstar said he was strong armed.

But he was saying that was his label.

Yeah, yeah.

It wasn't him.

Yeah, I'm just saying.

But I was just saying, like, sometimes what is what.

Explain what is a strong arm.

So a make you do something how?

Yeah, maybe grabbing your hand and making you.

I don't think that's what's happening.

I don't think that's what happened.

Well, he said intimidation.

How?

Whatever.

They had a sister tied up or they said, nigga, fuck that shit, we ain't gonna use this shit.

You was he.

I would have to ask him.

I don't know.

But that's what he said.

I'm asking you some real shit because sometimes they'll take the deal off the table.

That's a strong arm.

If you don't agree to these terms, nigga, fuck it.

He wasn't alluding to that.

He was actually saying strong arm.

Like street.

Street stronger.

You sure that's what.

That's how he was eluding it on the scouts.

I mean.

But see, I know I be wanting to know though.

Yeah, see, I should have asked him deeper, so.

Exactly.

But a lot of times just be thirsty, right?

I'm not saying that was his situation.

Right.

But a lot of times be thirsty because they ain't got nothing else.

So if I offer you something, you got this big opportunity, but you don't want to do it my way.

And I say, well, it.

If you don't do it my way, it ain't no way.

Yeah, that's the strong arm.

And you gonna do it cause you thirsty.

So with all that being said, right?

The Drake, another Drake reference league track.

Track got dropped, right?

And so now everybody's opening their eyes up to how the music industry actually works, right?

And I think it's kind of throwing people off.

Is that a normal business practice?

Because again, I've traveled with a Grammy award winning producer and I've seen him go in there, make a beat with a writer and then the artist, the big artists will come in, listen to it and just kind of.

You sell songs like that's just.

People have songwriters, I think because it's rap, they look at it different, right?

If you look at R and B, then that shit, that's just the way it's done.

None of these R and B artists write their own shit facts.

But for.

For rap, is there an unwritten rule where, yeah, you can get you a hook, but if you're writing the verses, is that like a.

Do you look at It.

It used to be.

Right.

Because this is an art.

Right.

And that was not accepted in this art form.

Rap was not R B right.

Back in the day.

But when you making this kind of money.

Rap wasn't making R B money in the beginning.

Yeah.

But it has surpassed a lot of genres.

And so when.

When you.

When the.

When the money get involved.

Yeah.

I mean, so.

So.

So for those listening, it's okay.

Just get.

Go out.

There it is.

You know, I think I was just having this discussion the other day.

I think the fact these niggas be lying about the shit, that's where the problem coming in.

That's where the problem coming in.

Yeah, these niggas lying.

So don't lie.

If you.

If I mean, shit, if you ain't write the shit, they don't care.

These people don't care.

Now that I tell you, they'll.

They'll talk about it for a day, then the next day, it don't even matter no more.

So if you didn't write the shit, just say you didn't write the shit.

Say, yeah, that's my nigga.

Or I heard that shit.

I was in the studio, that shit was jamming, I took the shit, and that's what it was.

Just tell the truth, man.

Now, you have produced arguably my favorite era of music.

Okay.

And you have a new artist now, right?

You're working with new artists now.

What is it that you look for in an artist now when you're going out to make producing now?

Right?

Because the sound has changed so drastically from back then to now.

But as a producer, you can always adapt.

So what does your new sound sound like and who are you working with?

So for me, any artist that I signed that I actively sought out and signed, I didn't know I was gonna sign them.

I just heard the shit, and the shit knocked me off my feet.

I've never signed somebody who ran up to me in the parking lot, tell them I listen to my music super hard.

What if he goes super hard, though?

I mean, that ain't been my experience.

You know what I mean?

So I never know what it is.

I've never.

And for most people, they're sought out.

You know, when you handle your business, when your shit is right, people gonna seek you out and they gonna, you know, want to be in business with you.

But for me, it's always been something that's to the left, something that, like, now shit is so crowded right now.

I step back from this rap shit because to me, and I don't Want to sound like the old.

Don't say it, bro.

Mad nigga.

The art form of.

And it gets fucked up because I made dance club music or whatever.

But my artists have always had talent in their own unique way.

Right.

It's not the same talent that your artist got or his artist got.

It's their own talent.

Like, for instance, Soulja was a.

The most genius marketing ever, ever, that I had.

And so the music matched that for him.

So it was.

It just went Yin Yang.

Just them two on.

On Wax together.

It just.

It just.

Same thing y'all hear is what I heard when I first heard it.

They weren't even a group when I signed them.

Really?

No.

Oh, that's crazy.

Cain was helping Drock write.

Drock was a solo artist.

What?

Yeah.

So Kane was helping Drock write.

But they got on one of my records together.

And that's when I heard the chemistry.

You created the union.

Well, not crazy, but you helped.

I never heard.

Don't say that.

Nobody asked me like that.

Real life street stars.

I guess.

If you put it like that.

I guess, kind of, you know.

So you pushed him to be a actual musician, the writer.

Drock?

No, Drock.

I mean, not Drock.

No.

Kane was always a genius writing, so he was helping Drock write.

But Drock was a solo artist.

So Drock was getting on one of my projects.

Cause we were on the same Ichiban Records.

We were both on Itchy Bun.

And so I asked Drock to do a swap out.

I gave him a beat.

He was coming to get on my record.

He got Cain to get on the record with it.

Who came up with the name?

They did.

Okay.

Okay.

They did.

And I was like, I don't know what the fuck y'all doing, but this shit right here, that's it.

I didn't have no label or nothing at the time, so that's crazy that.

A nigga just hop on the song for the first time.

And then it'd just be like.

But they were boys, so they was used to, you know, whatever they was doing.

They just wasn't no group but that.

If you.

I had a.

I had an album called Dead Crunk that came out in 97, and the poster said, introducing Yin Yang Twins.

That was the first time that they had ever done a record as a group.

I just got it.

I just got Answer.

From the window to the wall to the sweat Drip down my ball.

They came up with that.

When you heard that song, did you know.

You knew that was out of here, right?

So I Did a booty shake record called to the walls back in 94, and it had that hook on it, man.

Now you just bringing us gems, man.

Now Kane and Drock did that.

I was not in the studio when they did that record with John.

Wow.

So.

So that.

That hook got put on that record, and it was just some shit, you know what I mean?

But when I heard that record.

So when I first heard Get Low, the music wasn't on it.

It was just a drum track.

It was just a drum track.

So came to me, the record sound like a pimp rapid.

Oh, okay.

If you listen to the flow, Kane got on that move to the left, but you ain't by Fetty.

That was some pimp shit.

But when that music got on that, it turned into to what it turned into.

So what people don't know about Yin Yang, the reason why they songs stick around, it was the chemistry of Kane actually really spit Kanga.

Actually really rap.

Rap, right?

So his raps was really some spitting shit.

But what he was talking about was like some real.

Some game with some dance shit mixed, and Drock would just come on top of him with some ignorant shit.

Right.

You know what I mean?

So when you put all that shit together, you don't know why you like this shit.

It.

Shit just jammed.

It sounds so good.

But Get Low, it was totally Yin Yang at first, and then John came around them.

But that's why I say that whole what they meant to that movement.

Yeah.

All right.

I got.

I got an artist question real quick.

Okay.

Should an artist Lisa beat?

I don't know about that.

I don't know about leasing beats.

I don't come from that.

I would never do that.

So never do that.

Okay.

What the.

Is leasing a beat?

I don't know.

Yeah, I didn't get it either, but they charge you $50.

I quit like, a thousand.

All right, so did you ever.

Did you ever.

And keep it real.

There was an era where niggas was going on SoundCloud and SoundClick.

Nope.

And okay, not me.

I ain't never did none of that.

Got you so.

Damn.

That's.

That's crazy, bro.

So let me ask you this, man.

With producing, what are some of the things that young producers should avoid doing.

When they're coming up this arrow right here?

I can't even answer that question, to be honest with you, because I could.

You know, I'ma sound like an old I.

I come from an era where we got paid for our work.

Like, we got paid what we were worth.

Now these just happy to be a part of something.

You know what I mean?

So now if you.

If you can't afford to pay me, the way I deal with people now, like, for real, that's why I don't do a lot of.

I'd rather just do it for free.

Seriously.

If you came to me and said, yo, you used to paying these little niggas who at least a beat to you, you don't even know what I'll even charge.

So I would rather do now this only if I fuck with you like that.

Right, Right, right, right, right.

So if I fuck with you like that, I'd rather say, look, man, I'll just do it for you.

And if you get a situation off of it or whatever, if it turns into something, I'd rather do it to you like that rather than.

Because I truly feel.

I don't want to even feel that insult that I would feel if you offered me some shit that you would pay a nigga who leasing a beat.

Yeah.

And you know the interesting thing about now, right?

When a big song comes out, right.

Yeah.

There's a Nigga on YouTube breaking down exactly how to make that beat.

Right?

And now then you have 30 niggas making the same type of beat that you made.

Do you think that's the reason why shit is so watered down now?

Yeah, dad.

And splice.

I know about splice.

That's cheap.

They cheating.

Have you ever made a beat that you wanted to hold onto that you just wouldn't let go?

I know I have.

Damn.

I'm sure I have, Dan.

Hold on, let me think.

I know I have.

Damn.

I can't think of one.

Right.

But I know I have.

That's a great question, by the way.

I wish you had emailed that to me before I got here.

So I got there.

Yeah, we appreciate.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

I used to be a producer, right.

So tell me about the time where you got in a session with a nigga, right, and you pulled up your beat folder and you playing the beat, and the N ain't heading out, and the nigga just looking at you like, this shit is trash.

I ain't never really.

So for me, I never got to that point.

Got you right to where I never for.

Because I had.

Well, I had.

So I had my own label, right.

So I heard.

I read an interview with Dr.

Dre early on about him not producing for other people back then, and that stuck with me for some reason.

So most of my production was in house at the time.

So by the time I started producing like David Banner.

I had a affiliation with David Banner because he was working out of the studio that me and Yin Yang was recording him.

Bone Crusher at the studio called the Zone.

So when I gave him the beat for Play, it was kind of like.

It wasn't like I sent a beat CD off to a nigga.

I ain't know.

So you know, I ain't never sat in no studio with a nigga like, hey, man, here go 30 beats.

Let's go through it.

I ain't never play the beat for a nigga.

And he just like, you feeling it, but you over there and you looking at the nigga, the nigga over there like, yeah, next.

You ain't never been through that at all.

Don't make me lie.

You a wrong nigga, bro.

I just don't know.

You gotta understand, like, when I started producing for other people, there was a short period of time before I started, before I did my deal with Interscope.

Yeah.

And so I went into CEO mode, right?

So, like, after I came out of Yin Yang, my thing wasn't to take the sound that I did for them.

Cause that was my sound and give it, try to force it on the world.

That's just how I thought.

So I only did a couple of beats outside of Yin Yang with my sound, which was probably dropping Give Me 50, which was another nigga song.

Fifth Ward.

Not 10th Ward.

10th Ward, Buck.

10th Ward.

Buck had dropping.

Gimme 50.

So when we was in the studio recording that, they started saying the hook.

I didn't even know what the song came from.

So they told me that that was a song.

So we had to go do the business with him.

So I'm just giving you a couple of songs.

Wobble kind of had that tempo and sound of Yin Yang, Bubba Miss New Booty.

So, I mean, it was only a couple of.

Did you ever get one?

He was like, that's not it.

Somebody hopped on and be like, that ain't it.

Oh, man, that happens to a lot of like, yeah, yeah.

Like you chose this.

But the make a smash on a bullshit beat.

Like, you really.

It really was a throwaway, but really.

Killed that hole, I ain't gonna lie.

So the throwaway kind of that that got done was hit the floor with.

With Twister and Pit Bull.

Oh, okay.

Get down.

Hit the floor.

Get down.

So that's why I was just in my bag then.

I was just.

Just in a zone.

I was on.

On my Pharrell at that time.

And that that particular beat I just thought it was a.

That was just on the CD that I sent.

And he didn't.

He.

They liked the beat, but they didn't know what to do with it.

So I sent it down to Pitt, and Pitt came with the.

If I.

If I remember correctly, Pitt came with that record first.

And so most of my beats was kind of close to home.

Because if I didn't have Pitt put the hook on that beat for Twister, Twister probably wouldn't have used that beat.

So.

Nah, I ain't just sat in no studio and N telling me my shit was trash.

Nah, it was just me, y'all.

Nah.

Who would you say was the hardest artist to work with?

Whether it be timing, getting a record on out when it was supposed to be in studio sessions?

Who do you feel like was the hardest?

No, the realest nigga I worked with or the N who made me just, like, kind of back down off my.

Was Jeezy.

And I've told this story before, because I wasn't in the studio when he actually recorded Trap Star.

But when we were mixing it, I went to the mixing session, and them horns going through the whole shit was not how I programmed the beat.

But he wanted them horns going through the whole shit.

And I was like, yo, the horns gotta come out doing the verses.

And he was like, nah, man.

I was like, hey, man, that shit, I don't know, man, that shit, I don't know.

Cause sonically, from a song structure perspective, I wasn't really up on Jeezy shit.

Cause again, my sound was that Yin Yang shit.

So we in the studio at the end mixing Trap, started the shit banging, but he got these goddamn horns playing through the whole record.

And something told me I was not feeling them horns going through that whole goddamn song.

But some told me if I leave out the studio, he was not gonna use this record if I stood on my heel.

And he stood on his heel.

So I was like, fuck it.

Cause one thing I do know about artists who know what they want, you gotta follow that.

A lot of artists don't know what they want.

But when the artists know what they want, that means they are in control of their destiny and their vision.

I follow that all day, every day.

All right, so we gonna step away from music and talk about fame right now.

Talk about who?

Fame, fame, fame.

You know, they bring me in and.

Ask the juicy questions, okay?

Fame.

So today, in today's entertainment industry, music industry, the producer, the engineer, they're stars in their own right outside of rappers, you know, they're seen on the streets.

Oh, my God.

It's such and such for you.

When you were beginning or even once you kind of reach your height in your success, what was fame like for you?

And when I say that, I mean groupies, ladies, like, did they recognize you in the street?

Were they all on you?

Did you have the name Drop yourself?

How did that go?

Nah, because back then, you know, you didn't have the Internet and all that shit, but if you got on, bet you was the shit.

So when I.

That little run where I got into the Bad video with Mike Jones and Yin Yang, I was in the Ms.

New Booty video.

And then when I dropped Soulja Boy, I was at the front of that video.

That time period was crazy.

And it was a gift and a curse because every kid and every parent with a kid that rapped after I signed Soulja Boy and the way we did that video, they thought I could sign any kid and turn him into a superstar.

So that shit was.

I.

I hated that shit.

I still, like, go to the grocery store every day and walk around and flip flops, so you can't do that when people fucking with you all the time.

You seem like a classy man, so I ain't gonna get too deep into your business, but what's one of the craziest things you seen, like, a female doing your presence?

Like, the wildest, wildest thing.

I'm the wrong person to ask a question like that.

Cause you right.

I would like to think it doesn't.

Have to be personal to you.

Like, oh, I saw a girl take her panties off and throw them on stage.

Or I.

You know, it doesn't have to be.

Like, damn, you making me.

Hold on now.

Nothing.

Nothing comes to mind right off.

And you would think I would have a good one, right, with the shit I've been through.

But I tell you what, the first girl who I saw rolling on appeal was in Shreveport.

Now, at the time, Eyes in the back of their head now, now, now, now, now, now.

This is all relative to the right.

Cause this.

This shit was not coming at the time.

And I.

I just.

I just.

I think I was at Coco Pellet.

Oh, hell.

And I want to say that, no, the club had emptied out, and she was just sitting there.

And I just remember she was just sitting there and got there rubbing on herself on the empty club.

Yeah.

Just.

Just sitting there like everybody was gone.

And it's like, yo, yo, so I.

Never took you out.

We.

No, no, I'm there.

I'm.

I'm There with.

I'm there with the.

Yeah, no, don't put me out there like that.

No, no.

So.

And we going to stop right there.

But that.

Yeah, yeah.

I told you why I'm here.

That.

But Yalls era was the M era, bro.

The, like, the ecstasy.

Was it Ecstasy?

The Club Blue era.

That was like the xcr, right?

That was the Pill era, bro.

The music.

Yeah.

I'm just saying, the first time I saw that shit was something to remember.

Damn.

Yeah, yeah.

Shreveport, I believe.

I believe you if you never was in that scene.

So, for real, when I went to go sign Hurricane, Real talk, that was one of the most magical nights of my life.

Real talk.

Because that night at Coco Pellet, which if you never went to that club, you can't to me.

I got to experience what.

When niggas talk about how New York was.

You know what I mean?

How hip hop was, how the energy of that was in the south, and it came in Louisiana, in Shreveport.

I had never experienced that kind of energy in the club.

Because that night.

I want to say Big Papa.

Oh, yes.

So y'all know.

So you know.

Yeah.

I wanna say Big Papa jumped up on the speaker, and Hurricane jumped up on the speaker and started freestyling in the middle of the goddamn club.

They did that when I went to.

When we went, they did that same shit.

This shit was like fucking Beat street or some shit.

And, yo, that.

That shit right there, man.

So, yeah, I'm sorry.

I just had a flashback.

So I asked Hurricane the same question.

If you were to update the Halle Berry song, because Halle Berry was the encumbrance of y'all.

Don't be letting go.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

What I'm saying is, who is Holly Berry?

75 years old.

Who is the new Holly Berry?

Is what I was gonna ask you.

Like, for you, like, in this day and age, who is that, that girl that you'd be making a song about?

This.

This is skewed now.

Cause everybody getting you was born with that back then.

Now you can go.

So it ain't no standout like that no more.

I'm serious.

You tell me who's the standout?

Cause if you tell me the standout, I could tell you somebody who look just like her, right?

And Instagram fucked it up.

Ruby Rose.

Nigga, back then, it was one Halle Berry nigga.

Let me tell you how fucked up the shit was, nigga.

Anita Baker was something back in the day.

What?

Oh, yeah.

That's how up, but not up.

But you know, I'm just saying that's the sign of the times is ain't no individual standalone.

Cause if a young, if somebody daughter sees something that she want to look like, she can go get it.

Auntie outside though.

Shouts out to Mike Clark, man.

Shouts out to Mike Clark, man.

I hate Mike Clark.

Couldn't be here today, but he had some personal stuff to go on with him.

But to jump to that, that's what I'm.

I'm fucking with the Southern soul right now, which, which reminds me of the music from my, my region.

Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, before it became commercialized.

So I'm getting to see it again.

And in this era of social media and all this access to everything, YouTube, it's very rare that you see something with this kind of groundswell that has not been tapped into yet.

So Southern soul, the.

The king of that shit is King George right now.

Yeah, I mean, he's like God in that thing right now.

If you don't know who King George is, he got the one Monkey don't stop no show, Keep on rolling.

That's King George.

But that whole scene reminds me of Crunk, because I remember before when Crunk, Yin Yang Twins was strip club music.

Who thought and who knew it could become what it became.

So Mike Clark Jr.

Is the song, the artist that I signed recently.

And you asked me, I ain't know shit about Southern soul, but when I heard this record, Auntie Outside and I heard him sing, he was 18 at the time.

He sounded like a grown ass man.

And he had a real talent that I have not heard in this era of fabrication.

And no, for real, like, it's very rare that you see or hear a natural talent.

Like, you just don't see it every day.

And so that's what jumped out at me like a natural talent that hadn't been stepped on.

And so I sent it.

When I.

When I heard the record, I.

I sent it over to an OG of mine who sings blues music by the name of Willie Clayton.

And because I ain't know nothing about the shit, I said, yo.

But the tempo of it was on some Booty Shake shit.

So the Atlanta bass music, I sent it to my OG and I was like, yo, is it what you think about this?

He was like, hey man, you got something.

So that's not.

I reached out to Mike and signed him up.

But just to have a niche of music that ain't so crowded where, you know, I mean, that's to me, the most disheartening.

Well, not Disheartening.

The thing about rap that makes me hesitant to mess with it.

Now, anybody can do it now, and anybody does do it now, you know, so there's no.

It's the wild, wild west now, but in Southern soul, at least, you gotta be able to.

All them niggas can't sing now.

I'm just saying.

I'm gonna be honest with you.

But at the same time, whatever the rules are, they exist.

And anybody can't just come over here and just do it because everybody ain't even willing to do the research and get down.

Because I have to go to Mobile, Alabama.

I have to go, you know, to these hole in the walls, the country, because they don't live on the Internet like that, you know what I'm saying?

So that's.

That's what I'm doing now to answer that question that you asked, you know, a couple of.

About an hour ago.

That Southern soul, if you're not up on it, I see it about a year or two when.

When it's figured out of how to package it, because I think that's what Colley park is good at.

Finding something that you could see it, she could see it, he could see it.

But they like, man, I don't fuck with that shit, but I see it as like, I see what it could be.

And that's what I'm doing with Mike.

Clark Jr.

You mentioned the strip club.

Now, it is fair to say that you are king of the booty beat.

Really?

Yeah, I think that's fair to say that you king of the booty beat.

I'll take it.

So I am sure you have seen your fair share of knights in the booty club.

Okay, what's the most money you've ever seen thrown?

I ain't never spent no bunch of money in the booty club.

What?

What's the most money you ever seen thrown in the booty club?

I wasn't counting.

It wasn't mine.

Hey, true story.

I had a partner of mine that hit the lottery.

No, no, no, no.

This.

This a real true life story.

Hit the lottery for $30 million.

God damn.

And after he hit it, him, he was the friend of a dude that was in my studio that we were working with, but he was like the partner of the.

They would be walking to the stove, sharing quartz a beer together.

So you go from there to the overnight.

This hit the lottery for $30 million.

And when he hit that, that money was burning a hole in his pocket.

Shout out to.

He ain't with us no More, but shout out to him.

But he was begging me to come to strip club with him.

And I was married at the time.

I was like, dawg, I do all that shit.

And it's funny.

He got.

He rented out the strip club on a Friday during the day, just us.

Just went in there.

And so we was in there, and I'm in that bitch.

I like, okay, I done came in here, whatever.

I'm just seeing how he rock or whatever.

And we was in that bitch about an hour.

And after that, the nigga just brought out briefcases and started slamming them on the goddamn stage and popped them open and started doing this.

That's exactly how we gonna act.

He started doing this.

Now, mind you, I don't.

I don't partake in this kind of shit because I ain't gonna spend another nigga money.

I just.

I just don't do it like that.

And I ain't gonna spend my money like that.

But he started doing.

So I'm like, so I'm taking the shit.

And after about a couple of.

I threw all I felt like I should throw.

And after that, I was just standing there like this, and I went home.

Yeah.

I just say I ain't giving back.

Would you say he probably threw over 50,000?

Yeah, most definitely over a hundred thousand.

I don't know about a hundred, but yeah.

That's nasty work.

Yeah.

Yeah.

On a Friday afternoon.

Well, it's funny think, because of the type of music that I make.

Yeah.

Ms.

New Booty.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But we.

You know why.

Why those songs were so relatable?

Because they the everyday man.

They ain't the.

With money like that.

That's the difference.

Yeah.

You know, so we live like that.

We don't.

We ain't live like the other shit.

Have you seen, like, a change in, like, from back then to now?

Right.

And you just look at how everybody's moving.

It seems like everybody's moving around like they rich.

They putting on this facade like they rich.

Everybody wanted.

I hate that shit.

You don't know why I hate that shit.

For real.

Cause it affects our kids.

Yeah, they think that's what it is.

Yeah.

And I hear my.

I hear my kids because they believe everything they see on the Internet.

Yeah.

They see some and they think that's how.

That's what it is.

And then you have to fast forward to when some really go down with a.

Or.

Or.

Or they couldn't even pay for his funeral or.

You know, just.

To me, that's.

That's the.

That's the problem.

It's okay.

But I get it.

If you want to play this game, you got to play this game, and it's the facade game right now.

So I ain't on here to sound like the mad nigga, because that's what the game has become.

But just.

But that's the part of it that I hate about it, because a lot of some of these niggas do have it like that, but most of them don't, right?

And our kids can't tell the difference.

As an artist, producer, or anybody in the music industry.

Like, what are some of the ways that they.

What are some of the things they should be doing to keep the money coming?

Like, you know, should people be focusing on making movies, soundtracks?

Should they just be focused on their art?