The Business Behind the Beat with Nitti Beatz

On this episode of Butternomics, our host, Brandon Butler, sits down with the one and only Nitti Beatz, a foundational figure in Atlanta's music scene. Nitti takes us back to his roots, from his gospel radio upbringing with his mother to learning seven instruments by ear. He recounts the early days of Atlanta hip-hop, being inspired by local legends like Mr. Cool, and his big break producing tracks for 8-Ball. Nitti pulls back the curtain on the creation of the multi-platinum hit "It's Goin' Down" for Young Joc, sharing the creative process and the lessons learned about the industry. This conversation is packed with insights on the importance of music quality, branding, mentorship from figures like Jermaine Dupri and Diddy, and his passion for developing the next generation of artists.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And I just think that at the end of the day,
make sure that you got everybody head bobbing. As a producer,
if they hear it ain't bobbing and people go into
the bathroom, niggas going order chicks fil a man going
to get up out of there and start that thing over,
start something new, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
So I just try to make sure.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Man, if I ain't got your head, if my head
ain't bobbing and yours ain't bobbing too, then I done
make the wrong beat.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
We gotta throw that thing over here and make something else, man.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
So I just think as a producer, man, it's no
limit to what you can and can't do. Just do
your best as a producer, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Here, everybody, welcome to another episode of Butter Nomice Tommy Host,
Brandon Butler, FINANCYO of Butter atl And today we got
somebody special in the building, man, the one the only
nitty beats pulled up. Man, How you doing bro.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Hey Man, it's a pleasure man to be here. Man,
I finally get a chance to meet you.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Man.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
I've been hearing about you for years. Man, so it's
kind of like you done popped up. Now I see you.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Now, hey, man, I appreciate it. Look, we was in
there connecting. We're talking about the east Side. You know,
we got we got a lot of connecting points in here.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
You know what I'm saying. Yeah, of course you know,
east Side folks.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
We do it right, man, But you have to only
one way to do it.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Look, bro, you've been You've been doing this thing forever.
You've been killing it. Man. Just just don't know, man, Like,
how did you even first get involved in the music business?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Bro?

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Man, I would have to say, Man, my mother, We'll
start right there. Man, my mother, she was a gospel
program director in Atlanta, Georgia for like twenty years. So
she was on a station called WYZ Radio located right
by the zoo, and she did gospel radio. Man, So
she pretty much I would go with her to the
gospel concerts, to State Farm, Marena, whatever it be, concerts

(01:35):
and stuff. And I just noticed, you know that she
was a music head, and I was like, I want
to be that. And I would go to work with
us sometimes to the radio stations, man, and just sitting
in the radio station in the pre production room and
mess with the records and stuff and try to record
my voice. So you know, she motivated me, man to
get into the music business, and you know, I just

(01:55):
kept going.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Man, that's interesting, man. I mean it was funny for me,
the same thing I grew up wanting to be in radio.
You know, Ryan Cameron and somebody I looked up to
growing up in the radio space. He's actually been on
the podcast. I'm happy to say. You know, me and him,
we go out and we kick it every once in
a while.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Shout to Ryan.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
But it's kind of the same thing, right, I think
for a lot of people, like radios kind of pulled
everybody in because, especially growing up, it was a very
magical thing radio, right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
It was like, you know, I had a lot of
friends and stuff. You know, we would call to the
radio station early morning so that you could hear ourselves
on the radio. My mama she put us on the
air man, and that's how a lot of people started
knowing me. It was like, yeah, that's that's that's Chad.
His mother's on the radio, you know what I mean. So,
you know, just seeing that whole process of how it
goes and seeing the artists that I would see on
TV or healing the radio come to the city and

(02:38):
they would actually have a conversation with my mother at
the radio station. So you know, I remember I met
Al Green one day at the radio station and I
was like, that's the guy.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
From Soul thing, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
So, you know, I thought it was just real dope
man to see you know, a black woman, and which
happened to me my mother you know actually you know,
talk to people across the airwaves, and so I thought
that was dopere.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
The USIC part start coming in, like how did how
did it go from radio and your mom to start
actually getting like making music.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, as a kid man, you know, my whole family
played music. My grandmother and granddaddy was a singer. My
uncles and stuff, a lot of those quartet singers. So
my dad was a guitar player. So it was like
when I was a little growing up, as far as
I can remember, a lot of times during Christmas time,

(03:27):
my birthdays, a lot of people get tours. I would
get instruments. Every year I get a guitar. So I
did that growing up, man, And it was like I
was kind of bad, I would say back then, and
I woul get in trouble a lot. So I spent
a lot of time in my room on punishment. So
while I'm in there, I would say, Okay, let me
see what I can mess with. I'm always want to
mess with some Let mess with something. So I pick

(03:48):
up guitars and start plucking, start picking up keyboard, start plucking,
and I would play the drums real loud to try
to irritate my mother and my sister. So I just
ended up playing a lot of instruments and stuff. Man,
and I started figuring out, you know what I'm playing,
I'm making sounds like the records and the music that
I hear, you know what I mean. So I just
kept on messing with music from the age of four.

(04:10):
All the way up, I played drums in church. A
lot of churches around Atlanta. Played drums in the churches
and a lot of I met a lot of people.
So when you start playing drums and churches across Atlanta
back then, Atlanta church scenes real big yep. So you know,
I grew up playing for a lot of choirs. We
had to pay sisters. We had a lot of quartets

(04:32):
in Atlanta, you know what I mean. So I would
go to these concerts and see how they would put them,
how to they prepare, how they would perform on stage.
So I was like, you know what, I like this,
And then I got more into I was always nosy,
so I would always read when I'm at the radio
station and I read the back of the credits, and
I'm like, well, what does a producer do? What does
a guitar player do? What does executive producer do? You

(04:52):
know what I mean? So then I started, you know,
just start picking up books, reading, and I was like,
you know what, I think I want to go in
this direction, you know what I mean? So I just
always played music by ear. I played seven different instruments.
I don't read music, but you know I can get
in with any band and play whatever I wanted to
play with them, you know what I mean. So you know,

(05:13):
I always just what's the type of person. I love music.
I like to create a lot of original music. I
don't like to sample too much. But I just think
it's like drawing a picture, you know what I mean.
So I just I was it would relieve a lot
of stress too growing up, you know what I mean.
I didn't have a father growing up, so you know,

(05:34):
as a black male. You grow up sometimes with this
anger in you. My mother did everything that she could do,
but sometimes you need advice from another male that you know,
you can respect.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
So I didn't have that growing up, man, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
So, but the music was just one of those ways
that I just let out steam, you know what I mean.
And I just got to the point people started saying, Hey,
I like that, I like this, I like that.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
So that's what happened, man.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
And got into high school and to meeting other people
that went to school with me, and I went to
a performing arts school, Avenuel at high school, and I
just kept going.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Bro, just one thing led to another, you know. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (06:11):
Man, Look we were talking about offline man.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
I mean, look, Avondale, that was the spot I would
do so many so many legends have come out that spot.
We was talking about it before you got on here
from you know, the Donald Glovers, people like yourselves, right,
Like what was it like at that time?

Speaker 4 (06:21):
Like did you you know, did you kind of like see.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
A vibe, like the energy that was kind of coming
out of there, did you like not this is a
special place?

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah? I did, man.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
It was like a lot of the students that I
think a lot of us met in the performing arts department,
and I wasn't technically signed up for performing arts. I
was sneaking in there. I was skipping classes. So it
was a guy me and a guy named Leonardo. We
played drums for the gospel choir. And that gospel choir

(06:49):
man like they were like to be some kids. They
were dope, you know what I mean. So it was
like doing that, just seeing that, you know, we sounded
good together, getting recognized and stuff. And then it became
one of those things where hip hop was taken off
in Atlanta at that time, you know what I mean.
So once the hip hop started taking off, then we
started hearing about people like TLC getting deals. Then we

(07:11):
started hearing about these other rappers. Then we heard about outcasts.
Then we heard about Dungeon family, you know what I mean.
So you know that motivated us that we can do
it too, you know what I mean. So I just
was like, you know what, now, I ain't gonna lie.
It was hard to get in the door. It was
hard as hell, man, you know what I mean, because
I'm all the way out of Decatur. But then we
had this other side of town called Swats right, man,

(07:33):
I'm swats boy. They were like the mafia. They wouldn't
if you ain't even they click. If you weren't Dungeon
family or none of that, you ain't getting in no circle,
you know what I mean. So after about twenty years
and after bottom Me records later, they finally said, hey,
what's up, Nitty, but shout out to the.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Whole Dungeon family.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
Man.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Those boys they're pioneers, man, and I'm always respect them
and salute them.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
Yeah, man, I got to do it. It's funny.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
About two three years ago, I did an interview with
the It was me Jocelyn Wilson. She does music. She's
one of the music and culture teachers at Georgia tex
She's a professor. And we did an interview with Rico,
Sleepy and the rest of them. Man Like, it was
you know, rp Rico, man Like, it was just we
did it at the Dungeon. You know what I'm saying.

(08:17):
It was just, you know, it was. It was an
amazing experience, especially me growing up as an outcast fan. Yeah,
I mean, I was like, outcast is number one. Me
and Big Boy do some stuff together. Me and Killing
Mike have done some stuff together, you know what I'm saying.
But like to be invited to the Dungeon. Yeah, I
think it was for like the twenty fifth anniversary of
at Aliens or something like that. Yeah, like interview those
guys right there where that stuff happened. Man, it was
an amazing time, bro. Like what do you remember about

(08:38):
like the Atlanta music scene kind of in that because
I think about it too, right, you just think about.

Speaker 4 (08:42):
Them the kinds of mid nineties, you know.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
I remember when Hot when it was NIGHTE seventy five
first came on and they just played straight hip hop
all day long. You know, that was before they even
had radio DJs, like you know, before Chris Love of Love,
Ludacris and Poon Daddy and everything else. Like what do
you remember about that time? You know, like the mid
nineties early two thousands of music in Atlanta.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
I just remember back.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
In the mid nineties, man, you know, we was always
going to a lot of talent shows and stuff like that.
I think the dancing and stuff that came out around
that time, a lot of the bass music. So we
had to show a club called Sharon Showcase Indicator. So
we would go to Sharon Showcase, Man, and you know,
you got to go with a bunch of people because

(09:23):
you know, it was kind of like the East Side
meets the West Side right there. So of course it
was a lot of tension and stuff, you know what
I mean. But I remember back then, man, like the
whole base thing was real big back then.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Kelo Yeah was.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
Like the one that was popping back that Kelo versus raheem.
Then we had a little bit of Sam and Sam
in there, man, But the Kelo I think he was
the one that put Atlanta really really.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Into that position to work. They was like, what's next.
We see Keylo, but what's next? And by the time
Outcast came, it was a rap yeah you know what
I mean. So we was like, oh, yeah, we owned something.
Yeah you know. So then we had Edward J.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
So Edward J was like the record label before the
place came. You know, he was putting out the mixtapes
and stuff.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
Man.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
You know, he had the whole J teen, Smurf, Kizzie
Puncho Bonet and all them boys, you know what I mean.
So you know, we grew up, you know, going to
edw with J tape when we get when we get paid,
you know, what I mean. So every Friday we going
up to the J shop kender Roll, you know what
I mean. So I grew up in that era, man,
and you know, I was like, you know what, I think,
it's a place for me to be. I didn't know

(10:29):
what I was going to do, but I did know
that I love music. And a lot of people thought
that when I started making beats. They thought that I
started doing it at that time. They didn't know that
I had been doing it since a litlegit, you know
what I mean. So I always knew music, man, and
a lot of people don't know what I knew.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Gospel music better than hip hop.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I think for a lot
of us, I mean the same way. Man, I grew
up kind of in that same space. Like my look,
he was a young thing. He was either at church
all the time with your mom and them. And I
know I was at church all the time.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
Mom.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
I didn't play any instruments, you know what I'm saying.
But I was there all the time. And I see
a lot I see a lot of people though that
have again kind of came up through that same way.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
To your point, they were playing in the band, they
were playing the drums.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
They were doing different things because that was that was
You got so much practice in there too, right, like
you just because it's interesting. Like I have kids now,
and like I was telling my daughter because she's in
school and I was telling her. I was like, yeah,
like she was like, I want to get she plays
the drums actually, and she was saying, you know, I
want to get drum lessons. I said, baby, Look, I
said what I was up. You learned to play drums
at school and the band are at church. So before

(11:28):
you get me out here and go, pay somebody to
teach you how to do it. Yeah, there you go.
You go, son, you go either in school or we
can take you to church. You can involved in that band.
You know what I'm saying, because that was how a
lot of folks learn back in the day.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
Man.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, man, it was like that was the college. Yeah,
that was the way to go.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
Man.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
I remember one time, me and my mom we laugh
a lot. Man, just had a birthday two days ago.
We laugh a lot.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
Man.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
It was a It was a Now I want you
to go back and google this guy. His name was
Raymond Miles. He was out of New Orleans. He was
a musician, big gospel musician back in the eighties, and
rest in peace to him.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Man.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
But Raymond Miles would come to Atlanta and he would
come play at our church sometimes. And he came one
day and I was like, you know, I thought I
was a bad I thought I was cold.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Man.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Listen, Raymond Miles came to the church and I done
hopped up on the drums.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Wasn't nobody there to play but me. Man, I hop
on the drums.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
I might have got off beat real quick, and Raymond
stopped the organ, got up, stood up and looked at
me and started clapping his hands like get on beat,
young nigga. And I was so embarrassed to see all
them little old ladies with them wigs on, and the
deacon board looking at me, the pastor tempting his head
real quick. And I had to get on beat in
front of everybody. So that right there was a breaking

(12:43):
point to me that in this life I'll never get
embarrassed like that again, you know what I mean. So
that's what taught me, you know what I mean. So
shout out to Raymond meles Son, you know what I mean.
But that was something that I learned, man, And from
that day on, I was like, I got to make
sure that my music is almost as close to perfection
as possible.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
You know what I mean. So yeah, I had to
learn it the hard way, man.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
And so how does that how did that start to
transition from from playing the drums to nitty beats and
actual like making Like what do you remember about that first? Like,
because I feel like everybody wants me to jump to
like it's going down, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
I'm like, but I feel like there was some stuff
that happened.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, there was a whole lot, man. I mean, like
I said, I started in high school. I started making
local beats. It was a guy that went to school
with me by the name of mister Coop bro Born Threat,
Born Threat. Let me tell you something, Let me tell
you something. Born Threat my homeboy, shout out DJ Wally Sparks.
You know, anytime I see him, he know Brandon is
one song you gotta play, and he playing for me

(13:52):
every time I see him. He played Born Threat and
that is my song. Listen, no, no, no, let me
tell you that. Let me tell you you really want
to know the start of what really got me into it.
I used to have a bunch of my partners at
the house. I stayed right by a city cous Scott
Dam mister cool with the avenue there with.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Me, and I used to cut his hair, okay, And
he all of a.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Sudden went to the studio one day and made this
song called born Threat, your lives in danger, killing this society,
and man, he set the whole city on fire.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
And I was like, you know what.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
I seen the attention that he was getting, and I
was like, you know what, I can do it too,
you know what I mean? Until this day we still cool, man.
But I was like, when he made born Threat, that
made me start making beats. So the first beat I
ever made in my life was the Indicator remix for
Get on Mafia. Okay, So I went back and replayed
I Can't High Love by earth wind Fire and I

(14:52):
replayed that ooh, and we went and got Silk to
sing on the hook.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
So that was the first beat that I made.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
And from that point, I would say, I started working
with some other local artists. By the time I got
to I say, I went into this mode where I
started producing and learning how to work equipment and stuff.
That's when we was going from tape to digital. So
I learned, and by the time ninety nine two thousand came,

(15:23):
I had a homegirl named Jazz out of Memphis, Tennessee.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
She introduced me to eight Ball.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
So I had been going up to the face record
shout out to it was my homeboy kp and Kate Phillips.
I would go up to the Face. I would get
a ride up there my girlfriend at the time. We'd
be fussing, like hell going up there. Man, I'm tired
of taking you up here. You ain't doing nothing. I
was like, NA, just keep taking me. So I would
go up there every Friday. K One Kate Phllips would

(15:51):
take my meetings. I would try to submit to get remixed,
because I know I ain't no way I'm gonna get
on no pink album or outfit.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
I already knew I wasn't gonna get that. I just
want to get in the game.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
So I would go up there all the time, man,
and they listen to my beats and never got a
placement up there. But I would say around about two
thousand I met eight Ball Ball. I met him at
Magic City parking lot. He can't he pulled up because
you know, back then that's when eight Ball and MJG

(16:21):
they had it on lock Affall.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
Man.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
You know, that was like the Atlanta Bible still to
this day. You know what I mean, you play lay
it down, man, it's popping off. So yeah, So when
out by the time I met balling them make a
long story short, mit Ball, I gave him a CD
with like thirty two beats. He called me the next
day he started wrapping beats in my ear and wrapping
records that he wrote to my beats, And from that point,

(16:46):
I think Ball ended up buying eight beats. I sold
eight beats for like thirty two thousand, and that was
my first time I quit work. I was like, I
ain't never had thirty two thousand liquid cash in my hand.
So I was like, you know, I'm let me try something.
So I said, you know what, let me take a
break from working the nine to five and let me
just see how this goes. And that was the start

(17:07):
of me launching Playmaker, you know, And you know, back then,
you know, I was like, you know, I started off
another company, and of course I had some partners and
you know how that goes sometime, but Playmaker was like
solely my company, and I wanted to start it just
to make it a production company, you know what I mean.
So with the Playmaker, we ended up doing the album.

(17:28):
It's called the single Stop Playing Games featuring Diddy Oh
the eight Ball record second.

Speaker 4 (17:36):
Solo, Yeah, I Stop Playing Game.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah. OK.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
So I produced that and that's how I met Puff,
you know what I mean. So the album went goal.
I produced seven records on the album, and we think
we put Ludacris on the album back then, Carl Thomas
and more people and stuff. So after we did that album,
then I just kind of started building my relationship with
different people in the industry. So it went from you know,
to stop playing games to just doing a lot of

(18:03):
production for people. By the time we get to two
thousand and four, two thousand and five, me and my
homie Block, Block used to always come up to the studio.
We had a studio on cant Road, so he had
always come up there. Man, we just be talking and
kicking it, you know what I mean. That's always been
to Homie a long time. And Block was like, man,
you know what, Man, I want to put together a group,

(18:25):
and I want to say first he wanted to put
Trick Daddy and some more people all together, but that
didn't work out. So then he was like, we know what,
I'm gonna put Boys in the Hood. I'm gonna get
people nobody know. And by the time I was like,
you know what, that might be something hot, So I
gave him some beats. Next thing, you know, we put
the whole Boys in the Hood project together, and I

(18:46):
think I produced bout three on there, and then Boys
ended up being a single, and then that's how I
met Jeez and we put GZ on the take it
too long to lock up all that. Then after that
we ended up puff, we up doing some more business together,
and the next year after that, two thousand and six,
we came right back with Block and we did the

(19:08):
Young Job project, you know what I mean. So I
co executive produced that album. Man ended up with a
single which was just going down, and I just kept working. Man,
it's branding myself and stand out of trouble, you know
what I mean. So it was like, you know, Atlanta's
one of them cities, man. You know, if you're not careful,
you're getting some trouble real quick. Yeah, you know, And
that's you know, I think, what's going on right now

(19:28):
it's real easy to get into, man. But I just
tell everybody coming up, stay focused and just keep doing
what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
And you know, if you're getting in, if you're in jail,
you can't work, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
So that's why I always was like, let me stay
out the way, let me not get into too much,
you know, politics of the music entertainment game.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
So and then we're here right now.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
So look, so let me ask you, mancas No, I'd
love that rundown bro again, you dropped mister Coop in here.
So I'm just saying, Bro, a lot of people don't know.
I tell people threat to your point, that's what we
used to ride around the East Side, coming out hard,
all that, all that and all that.

Speaker 4 (20:03):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
But then like like we'll talk about the young jock
in the second, but I want to know because I
remember that whole you know, the boys in the hood
and you know Blockie and Tea and all the kind
of stuff they were doing. Like, yeah, when did you
start kind of branding, just like where the name nitty
Beats come from.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
The nitty Be's thing came. Man, when I met Jermaine
du Prix. Jermaine the Prix came to me in two
thousand and four gave me on production situation. So I
did a production situation to joint venture with JD to
where I would sign acts and produce records and the
whole nitty Beast thing. Man was one of those things
were it was a joke, you know, got a little

(20:42):
kid to get on there. I was like, say, my name,
Nity Beat, this knity beat. So I was like, you
know what. And at the time, JD was working on
a little compilation, so I started putting it on these
little records and stuff. I think it was called Young
Flying Flashy.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
So by the time we did that, I put it
on some records, and then by the time people started
hearing it popping up a lot, I was like.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
I might be on something.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
So then someone it might have been might have been
I don't know who it was, someone said, you know what,
you should put that on all your records. I'm like,
I don't know why, but let me try it.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
So then I kept doing it, man, and then the
more I did.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
It, the more people would look forward to hearing what's
gonna drop after the nitty Beat tag?

Speaker 2 (21:23):
You know, what I mean.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
So I just always said, well, you know, I'm gonna
put this on a record. I got to make sure
I come with some heat after that thing, you know
what I mean. So I just always put it on
a lot of records.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Man.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
Then I just started branding the whole nitty beach thing.
And by the time I got with JD, you know,
just to be real, when I did to deal with him,
I was like, well, JD got a name, but my
name ain't big as his. So I learned a lot
of the game from JD. And then I would say,
in the four years, I might have spent about a
half a million dollars just branding my name, you know,

(21:52):
club and parties and all that type of stuff. So
I knew the importance of branding because you know, he
taught me the importance of that too. I mean, so
we would go out of the country in the country
and he was like, nitdy, you gotta do this, nitty
you got to do that. You got to do that.
So I learned a lot from him, and then Puff
taught me a lot too. I can't say, you know,
I know, you know, he you know, he went through
a lot of stuff, you know, in the last whatever.

(22:14):
But at the end of the day, I learned a
lot of game from Puff just teaching me how to
He was the first person that told me I was
a producer, you know, because by the time I met him,
he was like, you got to tell me what to
do in the booth and I was like, nigga, I can't.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Tell you what to do, you Puff, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
So for him to tell me that, I was like,
you know what, that's a big statement, and you know
what I mean. So and he told me again he
was always a fan of my work, so you know,
for him at that status, and you know, that was
the height of bad boy, you know what I mean.
So I was like, I was I was honored, you
know what I mean. So just being people telling you
people don't understand, just small words like that can take

(22:51):
a person a long way, and it motivated me to
want to do so much more. And you know, I
was like, you know what, that's something that I needed
in my life life because I knew what I was doing.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
But when you're doing music.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
And stuff, sometimes you spend a lot of time isolated,
so you don't really know the effect that you're having
on people.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
So, like I told Ball when I first met him,
I said, man, you guys don't know how many nights
we would just listen to y'all's music and we would
just go to sleep. We sit in the car and
play it back to back to back, and you know,
you guys told.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Us, you guys kind of raised Atlanta.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, you know what I mean, a lot of people
don't want to give it to him, but I'm gonna
tell them, Yeah, y'all raised Atlanta.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
Man.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
We didn't we we was we was growing up early.
It was early, man. Yeah, so it was just one
of those things, man. So I'm appreciative.

Speaker 4 (23:39):
Man.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
Look, I'll be the first one to argue at anybody
and tell them space Age Pimping is a love song
and you.

Speaker 4 (23:44):
Can't change my mind. I don't care when nobody.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
If I get married, man, they gonna play Space Age
Pimping at my wedding.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Man.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
My mama she heard space Age Pimping one day and
because I was trying to tell how I was like, listen,
I said, everything that you hear on records, don't take
it serious. Look at it like you gonna have a
Denzel movie or something. It's acting, it's entertainment. So bo
she heard. She said I couldn't listen to that though,
but I told her, I said, Man, Space pimping. They
should play it at church every Sunday. Man, that's a

(24:11):
love song.

Speaker 4 (24:12):
Right, can't convince me any differentness.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
That's a love song. Man, shout out the ball in
g tho man.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
Bok.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
There was definitely a time again where like so much
of the Atlanta sound was like emerging, like it was
still kind of starting to figure yourself out because it
had a lot of that Miami based influence and it's
still and like you know, Outcasts and Dungeon Family was
kind of just starting to pop up. But yeah, man,
we had hit Man, Sammy, Sam Camp, you know, Smurf,
all them guys, JD and everything. Like I think the
Lamb was kind of trying to like figure it out

(24:50):
a little bit and figure out like what our sound was.
And so to your point, like, yeah, man, I remember
growing up bro all that stuff, that stuff, every scene.

Speaker 4 (24:59):
I still don't words of not.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
Hey you put that nine milimeter on man. I mean, man, listen, bru,
you gonna hear like that's it touched your soul. I
can't even explain to you sound crazy, man, But if
you ain't grow up in Atlanta around that era, man,
you won't even understand where we're coming from right now. Man,
But that's like history, man, like, and you know, it's
like to this day. That's why I'm real concerned with
a lot of the new artists that are coming out,

(25:24):
and I'm trying to explain to them, Hey, you want
to make records that are gonna be here, that are
gonna impact real hard. Don't make microwave temporary music. It's
cool to do it sometimes, but think about, you know,
the quality. Think about and that's something that you know
we're gonna touch on a little bit later on.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
But yeah, that's why I was always like, you know,
my mixes back then would cost three four thousand dollars
because I was like, I want them to sound a
certain way, because I got to compete with you know,
Puff told me, hey, listen, you want to be a producer,
you got to compete with the other producers that I hear.
You got to compete with anybody's ever produced the record
prior to you. So I'm like, okay, well I got
to go and find the best engineers. I got to

(26:02):
go get the best musicians and all that type of stuff.
So that's why I learned, man, and I'm still learning,
you know what I mean. So it's just one of
those things where I'm just appreciated that I'm in Atlanta,
because Atlanta's one of those cities where you could bump
into I remember when I first met Jazzy Fade.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
He was in the atrium.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Yeah, he was using the bathroom and I ran up
on him and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned
around like, man, let me get through PN Man. I'm like, no,
you got to meet me, you know what I mean.
So I met Jazzy Man and Jazzy was one of
the ones that he was over at noontime at that time,
and noontime was popping man, and I want to be
a noontime producer.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
So bad Man shout out to Terry Ross.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
He took a couple of meetings with me Man, and
I think I actually could have got into that situation,
but I think I started getting a little bit more like,
you know what, I think, I want to be a
little bit more independent. And at the time they had
Brian Michael Cox over there. They had Teddy Bishop, they
had Anthony denty Ate up, they had a lot of
producers over there, so I'm always studying producers and stuff, man.

(27:04):
But I was like, you know what, let me just
try to network and get to know people and hopefully
they'll like my music and respect it one day. And
you know, but like I said, I would try to
get on with a lot of people in Atlanta, but
I couldn't get inside those buildings and stuff until I
made a name for myself and then I came back
to the city.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah, you know, so that's what it was. Man.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
It was no malice behind it where I had hater.
I'm glad that they did me like that, you know
what I mean, because I was like, Okay, y'all made
me work to make y'all speak to me. I appreciate
it because if that's what I had to do, I
take that.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
Yeah, and you built it up and you made it happen,
and I mean I got to ask them. So now
we're now we're to that point.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
Yeah, man, I got to ask about this going down
because even to this day, man, you know, like we
actually just we were talking about again off before we
started recording with like four or four days, an event
that we do with Butter and Trapman's Museum and aie
and finished first.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
We do this big thing every year and so actually
even this year.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
We we do an event every year at the city
at City Hall, and so this year they honored young
Jack along with some other people. I was on stage,
he was on stage, and then he kind of performed
like he performed us going down, and again you got
everybody in the audience just said, like, what do you
remember about that that time, that moment, you know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
I mean, it was a good moment, man.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Like you know, I've had to tell the story a
couple of times, and you know, I try to get
right to the point because I know a lot of
people want to know about it, and a lot of
people thought that, you know, me and Jacques we had
this big riff thing or something. Me and Jock never
had an argument in life, you know what I mean.
I think at the time when Jock, when I met him,

(28:39):
I met him through a guy named Chino.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
So. Chino was a guy from he used to be
in the East Side.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
He had a wingstand and I met him through some
mutual friends and stuff, and he was like, Man. At
the time, I had a female artist whom Jock was
cool with, and Jock ended up coming on the road
with her as her hype man.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Her name was ms B. So by the.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
Time when I met when I met Job, I was like,
he was like, man, listen, then I just want you
to work with him. So it took me about three
months before I actually worked and went took him in
the studio, and I was like, let me just think
about it, you know, because I'm like this guy, you know,
he he dressed a little different he was when Hi
was Sachi type stuff back then, so you know, he
was a real flamboyant type guy.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
So I didn't know what to do with him.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
But I was like, listen, I don't want to mess
with him as an artist, I said, but as a producer,
let me brainstorm and see if I can come up
with a record that would match his image all that
type of stuff. So make a long story short. Man,
you know, said, hey, just do it one time for me.
I said, okay, I said, just pay for the studio time,
you know, so I can you know, take care of

(29:42):
enginey and whatever whatever I said, And then we come
up with a head then we'll go from there. I
took him in the studio, made the beat about five minutes,
and he wasn't as much of a writer back then,
so we co wrote It's going Down together also, just
me and Job. And once we went in there and
recorded it, he had this hook on there and going down.

(30:05):
When it loops on the hook that wasn't the hook.
He had another part of the hook say somethingbody, we
can do it, do it, do it, And I took
that off and loop that is going down Now.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
He got mad about that. He was like, man, why
did you take it off? Blah blah blah. I was like, listen,
I started to say.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Puff told me, I'm the producer, you the artist, So
you the artist can't tell the producer what to do,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
So yeah, we ended up doing that record. Man, we
leaked it out.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
A couple of DJs got the record and stuff, and
I'll never forget the day Block caught me and said, hey,
Jock and Chino over here, they want to They trying
to get me. They want me to sign Because you know,
he knew kim Port at the time, Like he said,
you're not trying to sign him? I said, no, I said,
go ahead and sign I said, I'm just the producer.
I said, well sign him that way, at least we
know it's in Atlanta. Yeah, and I think at the

(30:50):
time JD wanted to sign him too, But it was
like back then, you know, I didn't understand the way
the game go. You know, I didn't understand about the
meetings that go and you're not there. So I didn't
didn't care because I knew that I had read so
much about as long as you know that you own
the beat and all this stuff you business contain. So anyway,
we ended up doing the record, the record get out,

(31:12):
and next thing you know, everybody's starting to do the
little motorcycle dance and it just went crazy, man.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
And that was one of those things.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Shout out to Kevin Loves because at the time, you know,
I think all of us had a little bit of
we all thought we had to say so on the
record and blah blah blah blah blah. So Kevin Loves
was the guy that got me to clear that record.
And just to be honest, Kevin Lows gave me I
think I told him at one hundred thousand dollars for
the beat. He gave me seventy five thousand, and I

(31:43):
co executive produced that album and the rest was history.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
Man.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
And like I said, all us to this day, you know,
I've seen Jock, seen Block. We all you know, have
cool relationships and stuff. It's no never being any type
of bad energy or anything like that. So that record
was a blessing to the city. And I think the coach, yeah,
you know what I mean. So I would just appreciate
that I was a part of that record man, to
be honest, yeah, I think.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
You know, I think in everybody's career there's, like I say,
like moments and inflection points, and I feel like that
was definitely kind of a moment and an inflection point
for you, right, because that's that was a huge album,
you know, a yeah, everybody's doing the dance and again
it was huge even outside of Atlanta, right, And I
think for a lot of times too, people kind of
like people don't understand how like regional music used to be,

(32:27):
you know what I'm saying, and like, you know, kind
of geting respect. But it like popped off. Like my
question for you is what changed after that album blew up?
Because it just for the just for the record. That
album is how many times platinum now, like roughly.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
It's a lot, man, you know, I mean it did
real good man.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
I could just say that that's a record that just
watching how it keeps going and it won't die. But
like I said, it's it's it's up there man, it's
multi platinum. Yeah, man, Like I said, I knew that
I wanted to make a record that could go on
the in the South and the no in the West coast,
in the Midwest. So that was my plan. So I

(33:03):
was trying to make a universal beat. That's why I
try to tell a lot of producers and artists, don't
make songs just for your area. Shoot for the world,
because it's a bigger world than just Georgia.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
So we just it did with it dead man, and
you know, like I said, you know, it got so
big and it was so it was so much going on.
I wish that we could have did more records at
that time, but because you know, Jack and Chino and
everybody being new to the business, because they wasn't in
the business at the time. And I've seen a lot

(33:35):
of artists make those mistakes, like no disrespect to them,
but I think that sometimes you know us as you know,
just people in the entertainment business. When you're new to it,
you think that, oh, I got it now, I don't
need to go back and see rich Keller.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
I don't know to go back and see Leslie.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
That the engineers to mix these records, they don't realize
that the ingredients that we bring, that different people bring
to the table sometimes need that, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
So, same thing that happened with rachromy Korn.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
I hate to this day that I only did one
record with rachrom m Korn. I produced that and it
was called Flex. I did that with my homie DJ Spins.
We did that record together and that was the first
and last record that I did, and it ended up
being the biggest record of richrom m Korn's career according
to you know, the numbers. So I think that sometimes,

(34:27):
you know, you have to remember that if you made
this product with these ingredients, sometimes you have to go
back to those ingredients, man, you know, because I remember,
I remember when when even when the Job album came out,
you know, I went and I think they went and
did a record with Pharrell.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
They went and did a record with this person that person.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
I was like to myself, I was like, well, Forrell
didn't give you it's going down, why would you go?
And I know Forrell was busting Yeah, he was busting
heads at that time, you know what I mean. But
sometimes you know, people you know, go through those situations,
but where you have to learn that. You know what,
We wasted a quarter million dollars paying for real for
a beat, you know what I mean. So it's a

(35:06):
learning process. But I think it was a learning process
for all of us. But I think we all had
little little bits of egos back then because the record
got so big so quick, you know what I mean.
So you know it was a learning process, man. But
like I said, the record still lives and hopefully to
keep living forever. Man, And you know we could maybe
one day do some more.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
Who knows.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Yeah, And you know it's in too when you talk
about like quality and the ingredients you know we had
you know Curtis from patchworking here, Yeah, you know, and
that was a big thing he even talked about. It's
just like, you know, I want to make sure that
there's a certain kind of sound that comes out of
patchworks people coming here, you know what I mean? Like
people will recourse of other places, but like it ain't
gonna just hit like that. Or he talked about, you know,
when he was working with Gez and just like this

(35:43):
base is gonna hit a certain kind of way when
it comes to just quality and sound, Like, what advice
would you give to producers and engineers because now it
seems like the bearer entry is kind of low you
know what I mean by that? Like, no disrespect, A
lot of hits come out a lot different places, right,
But like if a lot of folks they can just
make it on the computer, they can do something really quick,
you know what I mean, And like they don't necessarily
and they might not necessarily have the music training and
the music backgrounds. Like when you talked about quality and

(36:06):
just the ingredients, what advice would you give the kind
of up andcoming producers that are making music now to
make sure they're approaching the same way as you all did.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
I mean, I would tell them, you know, go back
and listen to some of the albums that you see
that sol Platinum are better. I used to go back
and listen to a lot of the Quincy Jones production
where he would bring in guys like Rod Temperton and
Greg Philler gangs and stuff. And when he made Thriller,
he went and got brothers Johnson and he went and
got those guys to play all the bass instruments and stuff.
So I would listen and see, Okay, well let me

(36:35):
read and see who mixed this, who mastered it, you
know what I mean. So I think being a producer, yeah,
we can make beachs real quick, but the mixing and
the quality of how people hear it when they hear
it is what really matters. So I tell people it's
all about the quality of the music, because you can
have a hit record, but if that mix come out
or that master's not right. I was listening to Quincy

(36:56):
Jones talking about when they made Thriller, and when they
made that album, he was saying that one song they
had up to like sixty different mixes of one song,
you know what I mean. So it was like, I
think the quality is the key to anything. Because you
can have some of my records, man, I might have
three sounds in them. I actually did a record called

(37:18):
go Ahead with Gucci Man. We did that a patchwork
shout out to Kurt, you know what I mean? That
record I put one sound on the some drums, and
Gucci came on the shout and got her his on Hud.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
I'm like, okay, we're done, no more sounds.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
And Kirk he made sure, you know we had their
base hitting so hard and stuff.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Man, And I think Mike was engineering or something.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
And I just think that at the end of the day,
make sure that you got everybody head bobbing. As a producer,
if they head ain't bobbing, if people go into the bathroom,
niggas going to order Chick fil A, man going and
get up out of there and start that thing over,
start something new, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
So I just try to make sure.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
Man, if I ain't got your head, if my head
ain't bobbing and yours ain't bobin too, then I done
made the wrong beat. We gotta throw that thing over
here and make something else, man. So I just think,
you know, producing this stuff, man, like you know, I
can produce forever, you know what I mean. I got
a record. I hate to talk about it right now,
but I'm gonna go on and drop it. But I
got a record that there's nothing but comedians on there.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
I just talked to I was with Daisy Banks last
weekend and he heard the record. He wants to get
on the record, but I got it's it's gonna be
a record that's gonna I think people are gonna talk
about it, you know what I mean. So I just
think as a producer man, there's no limit to what
you can and can't do. Just do your best as
a producer, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
You know it's funny you say this stuff too. And
you know, we've had some other folks on here that have,
you know, done music. Mister Hanky is a good friend
of our you know what I'm saying. He actually made that.
He actually made the beat for the Buttonmic song, you know, Congress.
And you know, my dad was in the business a
little bit, and I remember growing up and it's kind
of a funny story, but I remember we're talking to
Barry Gordy, okay, and I remember Barry Gordy said something

(39:08):
to me that I never forget. He was like, the
best songs are the ones where the hook is a
complete thought. And I don't know why he told me that,
bro I was like ten years old. Probably I have
no idea why he said that, But it's just well,
you know those things like it sticks with you. And
so it's funny like as you kind of talk about
different songs, I always kind of think back to that,
and then I even think about like some of the
music that kind of comes out today where it's like

(39:31):
yeah like that, Like it's like yeah, like all these songs,
like the chorus was like a complete thought, and I
think a lot of the stuff that comes out now
is just like just words, you know what I mean,
they just kind of throw it together. Like I don't know,
like have you ever seen any kind of advice or
anything similar like that?

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Yeah, I mean, I it might sound crazy. Man, like
this guy. When I met this guy, my cousin brought
him to my studio. His name was Sugarfoot. He At
the time, I didn't know who the hell Sugarfoot was,
but come to find out, Sugarfoot was a guy that
was in a big group from the seventies called the
Ohio Players.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
So he came to the studio one day.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
He came in there with some you know, he just
came in there and he was talking and he said
he seen a guitar.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
He said, can you play it? He said, I can't
play it. That good.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
And he looked at me and said, shut up. I said,
what you mean? He said, don't never tell nobody you
can't play a guitar instrument. He said, you play what
you gonna play, and ask them did they like what
they hear? And from that point I can say that
he made me say it might not sound good to me,
but do I got ten out of twenty heads bobbing

(40:36):
in here?

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Do they like it? That's what matters.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
So we make music for other people, not for us.
And that's what I had to realize as a composer
and producer. I was like, it ain't about me. I
got as satisfied the people that got to listen to it.
I'm not gonna I don't even like going to clubs
that much, you know what I mean. So I just
think that something like that was something that I can
say that I can remember someone told me, you know,
and then like I said, puff, he always told me
to work with a artist that I thought could sell

(41:01):
the record. Don't just work with my cousin. Don't just
work with my homeboy, because that's my homeboy and I
grew up with him and he always had a life
dream of rapping, you know, what I mean. So you're
to treat it like a business man, you know what
I mean. So now I ain't gonna lie. I've had
some people get mad at me about that, even now
when you know I want up with my production company.
I signed a lot of artists. Some artists did better

(41:24):
than others. And the one thing that I've seen in
common is when any artist that you ever mess with,
when they're going into a decline as far as the popularity,
it's like it's like a cat in a corner, you
know what I mean, Because and it's a sad sight
to see because you know, you see him when they
getting you know, ten shows a month, but then they

(41:47):
don't understand that your attitude, your demeanor, all that place.
It goes a long way, and once they're going down
that heel from being up there on top. It's a
bad sight to see, man, So I try not to.
I don't like the witness that, to be honest, you
know what I mean. I try to keep it business
with anybody I do business with, and you know that

(42:08):
way because sometimes I can give you advice but you
might not agree with it. And as a grown person,
you don't ever have to take my advice. But I
can tell you this. A lot of producers, songwriters, artists
that I worked with, I know, when they lay down
at night, they could say, you know what, Needy was
right about a lot of stuff that he told me.
And you know, they might have had lashes out and say, man,

(42:30):
I don't like niddy ohy bye bye blae bye. But
the end of the day, they know that the only
thing I did with their lives was change their lives,
and you know, I try to make sure that they can,
you know, at least try to fulfill their dream, you
know what I mean. And you know when I first
got hurt one song on the radio, I was happy.
I didn't care if I made another record at all,
you know what I mean. Shout out to Greg Street.

(42:51):
But I just was at that point to word like,
as long as I can, my dream is done. I
always want to help other people through my production and stuff.
So that's it, man, that's all I want to keep doing.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
If you if you kind of put it's going down
over here in the side for a second, not the dishability,
and that's that's such a huge hit and everybody knows it.
Like my question was would have been some of your
other favorites, like if you had if there's another, is
there another beaching in another another song you made that
you produced. It's like I just whether again whether it
blew up on Crazy nightm I just like that was that?

Speaker 4 (43:21):
Was it right there? Like is there anything like that?

Speaker 2 (43:23):
Man?

Speaker 1 (43:23):
I think yeah, it was a it was a couple
of them, man, because I think that a record that
I liked, and it wasn't the biggest record, but I
would think it could have been.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
Could have been a record like.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
Probably the Rich Only Korn Man, because it was like
that record it took off so quick.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
That was one of the records that took off the quickest.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
I think I liked that record because it went, it
went nationwide, and I think that with Kan, he knew
exactly how to sell the record, you know what I mean.
But then I had other records like you know, the
the Gucci Man's those records, and I had records that
came out that I put out, like the Micro Montana's

(44:12):
and stuff to do It all that type of stuff,
and I just was trying to keep Atlanta going, you know,
the Atlanta culture going at that time. So I was
signing different acts. The first act that I ever signed
was a little guy from the East Side the k
named Ray Rai. His name was Jan Kapone when I
signed him. Yeah, so when I signed Jan Kapone, he

(44:33):
was like fifteen years old. I took him over there
to my situation I had with Soso death, and you know,
it was a lot of politics going on at the time.
And you know, at that time, we just couldn't really
get the hit record that we needed.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
To go nationwide.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
But that taught me a lot about the business at
that time, because I didn't really know about the business.
I knew that, Okay, I made beats and I can
go in there and get them sounding good, but I
didn't know.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
Marketing and all that type of stuff.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
Radio promo. Didn't understand all of that stuff, you know
what I mean. So, but I did learn that everybody's
not gonna have the same outlook on things like I do.
I look at people and I think of longevity. How
can I make this artist be here for the next
ten to fifteen years. Some artists think about I just
want to be here to Christmas and get some money.

(45:21):
Give me that advance, go on the coup that check
for one hundred thousand or whatever, and I'm good, you
know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
So I've had some artists, man I signed. I had
one artis.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
They're gonna call it the name out, but I might
have invested a quick thirty forty thousand and SOIL got
them to their first show and they told me they
don't they scared the crowds, and I'm like, we done
did a whole mixtape and all that type of stuff,
and I was like, man, you know what, I couldn't
even get mad. So at that point, I was like,

(45:51):
you know what, let me just treat all this stuff
like business and let me make sure I know what
they're doing and know that they're ready to become an artist,
because being artist, man, you know, it takes a lot
of energy and you got to be special to be
a star. I can tell you that when people see
the Beyonces and the Chris Brown's shot out, Chris brown

(46:12):
Man and his whole team, they showed me love when
they came to Atlanta and just watching that guy on stage,
I was like, you know what this guy is. He's
the closest thing we got to Michael Jackson. And I'm
telling you that, you know what I mean, I don't
care what nobody says, you know what I mean. So
I think when we see the artists like that, you

(46:32):
know what I mean, it makes me say, well, it's
got to be some more of those. Maybe it's some
more in Atlanta, you know what I mean. So I'm
always looking, man. People say you're looking for a new artist. Yeah,
all the time, you know what I mean. But make
sure you want to be an artist. Make sure you
got your business together, make sure you got a team together,
make sure you got an attorney, you know what I mean,
all that good stuff.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
Man.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
So I just try to just keep my name clean,
stay out the way, and just keep doing.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
What I do, man. And I don't plan on stopping
no time. So you know.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
Yeah, man, Look, Lenna's a very small, big city. Yeah,
and you know, relationships matter. And again, once you start
moving in certain circles, everybody knows each other, has something
to say about it. And so you know, your reputation,
your name just gonna go in those rooms.

Speaker 4 (47:13):
Before you do.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, no it is man.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
And I've learned, man, you know, because I have a
lot of people say, well, you know, and now the
hardest part about it, because I'm a man. First is
to hear someone speak on your name and say stuff,
because my first initial reaction is to do something else.
But I said, you know what, I don't want to
scare corporate America either, because they gonna I'm gonna be here,
and those people who said something about me, they're not

(47:38):
gonna be even relevant, you know. So I just had
to learn how to separate it too and say, hey,
everybody's not gonna like you in this world, but whatever
reason is, and they have that right. But as long
as we respect each other and we can be professional
whenever we do see each other, you know, we just
keep it moving, you know what I mean. And that's
just you know, you know, my thing right now is

(47:59):
just to do more stuff for you know, the city
and the culture. And I think that there's so much
more that has to be done that I think that
some of the ones that may have came before me
may not have done for whatever reason.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
I think it's a lot of work to do in Atlanta.

Speaker 3 (48:14):
Yeah, No, there's definitely a lot of work to do.
I think, you know, it's interesting. No one will go
to down trying to wrap the hole. But me and
my friends talk about it especially like in the political
space you know you had there was a time when
you know, people who were making a difference, they also
made sure to kind of pull up and bring up
and kind of train the next group of people. And
so we even talk about now from like a cultural standpoint, right,
it's like, you know, you've got people that made it,

(48:36):
that made their money, that made their name, but you
know that they really kind of like groom and start
to like build and bring in the next group. And
that's where you kind of see starting to disconnect to
come in. So I mean, I think Atlanta definitely needs that.
But man, look, this is this is this is a
good conversation. Man, We're gonna get ready to wrap this up.
But I gotta ask you though, like if you were
coming out today and you you know, it was getting
this whole thing started over, Like what what would you

(48:58):
approach how would you approach break into business? Differently if
you were coming out today.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
Coming out today, I would just make sure that my team.
I have a good team. You can't do any everything
by yourself. And that leads to word, you know what
I'm about to do October eighth. I have a thing
called create the perfect song and what that is is
basically one of those things where I'm gonna show the
people that have those questions like that, like what do

(49:24):
I do?

Speaker 2 (49:24):
How do I make it work?

Speaker 1 (49:26):
And I'm just gonna show them like the stuff that
I went through because some people think that the only
way you can make it is if you go to
college and you go to music school and you go to.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
I'm like, that ain't how I did it, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
And no disrespect to the people that went to those
schools and stuff, but a lot of them that I've
talked to, they tell me, hey, school didn't really do
nothing for me like that, you know what I mean.
So I want people to understand that it's a new
world now and you got to do different ways of
getting things done now. So I think that as long
as you just do the best music, get keep good
positive people around you, and I think if you stick

(49:58):
to those you know things right there, I think you'll
be all right, man, because you know, it's it's a
lot of talent and you never know who's gonna be
that next star, you know what I mean. So and
you know, like I said, I'm fine with signings. Some
one hit wonders. I don't care, you know what I mean, Like,
as long as we'd impacted the culture some type of way,
that's what makes me happy, you know what I mean.
So I think that we just gotta as the producers,

(50:19):
I think we got to just make sure that we
work with the people that you know, can have that
impact and longevity.

Speaker 4 (50:25):
Okay, Yeah, So.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
What y'all hearing is is gonna be a butter atl
mixtape coming out. Oh yeah, produced by Nity all day. Man,
we're gonna get it done, man, done right.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
Inside before a four day. It's gonna be the bet.
We're gonna get it done.

Speaker 4 (50:36):
Brother, No man, but yo, niddy man.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
I appreciate you pulling up man like you know again,
it's always interesting. You know, I didn't grow up in
the music business. I grew up you know, consuming getting
appreciative of it, and so meeting and connecting people like yourself,
they really like, you know, did things I think are
just foundational to the culture. That bringing that the moments
I had growing up, bring my friends back is always amazing.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
Man.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
So we appreciate your contributions to the culture, all the
stuff you do, and man, can't wait to see what
happens next as you continue to do this thing up
for the next twenty thirty years.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
Brother, I appreciate you. Brother. Yeah, man, definitely man. But
that s it.

Speaker 4 (51:08):
That's the pot of we out.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
Y'all. Peace.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
You've been listening to buttteron Nomics and I'm your hosts
Brandon Butler. Got comments, feedback? Want to be on the show?
Send us an email today at Hello at butternomics dot com.
Butter Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by
Ksey Pegram, with marketing support from Queen and Nikki.

Speaker 4 (51:25):
Music provided by mister Hanky.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
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