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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, man, boo black Cat podcast, bout black Cap show.
(00:02):
We are here with the legend one of the greatest
of all time. I was just doing a podcast earlier
today and we were talking about the greatest producers of
all time, and I had to say, you man, you
want them dog you Yeah. JD's here, Jermaine Duprix. What's
going on, man? You got this Magic City documentary? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, So the Magic City documentary drops August fifteenth on Stars,
and we was doing the Magic City documentary, I had
on music along with it. Then I get a new
deal Social Death at Hive, and I decided to do soundtrack,
and it missed me trying to do the soundtrack Stars,
(00:41):
just like we won't really do soundtracks for documentaries. And
I had already got my wheels roll, and so I
was just like, you know what, I'm gonna just make
this a JEMAINEI pre album inspired by the Magic City documentary.
So on August fifteenth, I'm gonna drop a new JERMAINI
pre album that's inspired by the documentary with a lot
of you know, with all Atlanta artists.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Life in fourteen seventy two was ninety eight ninety nine, Yes,
ninety eight. Now is that? I mean, are you rapping
back in? Are you are? You're producing and you're just
putting people together?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, I'm just producing, okay, okay, putting records together. I
mean I want to make sure that, like one, I
never did this before. I never produced half of the
artist that's on the album, right, And then like you know,
I had a backdrop like this, so so conceptually it's
just you know, one GERMAINI pre album has Life in
fourteen seventy two has a concept instructions had a concept
(01:36):
just when it's the Magic City, you know right?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah? No, I mean both both conceptual for sure. Yeah.
Do you ever go back and visit that.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Album Life in fourteen seventy two.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I bought that motherfucker from the warehouse.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I was working with my man Books on shot of
the books Books from Chicago.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, that's my dog. I see him almost every day
in Burbank run say.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
So Books Books, you know me and Books.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Books helped me a couple of songs on this album,
and we was going through samples and he sent me
the sample of of me Bratt and Crazy Bomb and
he was like, man, it's time for you to bring
this back and I'm just like, bring it back and
he's like, what made you sample that? And for him,
you know books, he's a sample for Sanatic right now.
(02:24):
For him to say ask me about a sample, it
just you know, that's the only time we talked about
it was crazy because I wouldn't even like, I was
just looking for records that I just you know, I
wouldn't even I don't know what I was doing. I
just was trying to find stuff that I thought sounded good, right,
But to see that they resonate and he brought it
back to twenty twenty five, They're like, yo, you should
we should make a record off this again.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It's crazy, That's what That's probably my favorite, Like Mariah
hip hop song was the Sweetheart record. Yeah, that record
was crazy, Yo, So who were you? I know we
talked a little bit about it that BT weekend. But
it's the goal with this album to try to bring
two generations because there's a lot of people who, strangely,
(03:07):
you haven't worked with that. I think a lot of
people would have expected you to already have worked with.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Everybody on this album.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
For the most part, I haven't worked with I don't
have records with Quavo in my discography t I change chains,
trow so, I mean se low.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Man, you name it, a big boy kill. I don't
have I don't have records.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
That's so crazy.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, yeah, I don't have records with them.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Was like, was that because you know, in the Soco
Deaf Days, you guys were just like so because you
had you had your crew, right, obviously you're working with Usher,
you working with Mariyah later on, but the Soco Deaf Days,
I feel like, you know, you were like so locked
in on developing the brat, developing bow Wow. That was it?
Like at that time there was there's so many different
(03:54):
movements happening in Atlanta at the same time.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
No, I think it's just like, you know, one, I'm
not producer that like be trying to get on everybody's albums.
I always try to produce my own artists, And I
think that's what really, that's really how it happens. Like
a lot of producers they always be waiting on Who's who,
you know. I mean, I used to have this list
called Who's Looking lists, and producers used to be like, oh,
scramble and try to get on Nick's albums or whatever.
(04:18):
I've never been I never was doing that. I always,
like you said, I was trying to find my own artists.
So and I always felt like, you know, the producers
in Atlanta, I feel like they are good and the
artists is like they artists really go with them.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
So like artists that was signed to the Dungeon family.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, yeah, organized noise, It all made sense.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I never thought that them guys didn't need me, you
know what I'm saying. That's how I can I addwer
this this sy y'all need me. And I feel like
when you go into a situation like that where it's
already some people that really can do it, you you're
making your job that much harder because like the world
gonna look at it like, why y'all get JD?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Y'all need him over?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Like that would have made me have to work harder.
So I mean, same thing with t I. He had
he had his crew, you know what I mean. So
it's each person had their own thing. I never was like, hey, hey,
I I wasn't doing that. That's I think that's why
it happened like that.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, not for sure. Do you feel like because you know,
I think two albums that you worked on that are
important and it just time pieces too. I mean, obviously,
the Mariah anniversary of the emancipation of Me Me just happened.
And in Confessions, which one of those albums do you
(05:33):
feel like holds like the And it's probably picked between
your two kids, But if you had to pick one
of those albums that holds the strongest place in your heart,
in your legacy, can you pick one of those two?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
You'll always be my baby? I mean, well, no what
I'm sorry mascurpation of movie. And I say that because
during the mancurpation of Me Me, I was so hot
that I blocked myself from having another number one record
(06:11):
like I was I had I had, I had number
one and number two and number three on the Hot
one hundred for the first time in like I mean
records Shake It Off, We Belong Together and and baw
Wo and Sierra Crazy right, so so so that like
that period of time, like I never had that with
(06:31):
any other album, you know what I mean? And I
and I and and We Belong Together was so big
and like you were so big that it kept shaking
Off from getting into number one because Shake It Off
could have easily went in there, but I was blocking
it with two other records.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
That's so crazy to think about, like you're like, you're
competing against yourself.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
But I mean, I never you know, I mean I never.
I never even thought that I could ever do that,
Like to have number one, number two, and number three
on Billboard.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
I don't like anybody. Yeah, that's almost like an unfathomable
like dream to think of. And you you dreaming having.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
A number one, yea.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
To have one, two, and three at the same times crazy.
I actually made I've made T shirts. Now you're talking
about T shirt. I made a T shirt. I had
a hat I called people like y'a need a hat
that was funny because I was I was telling Mariah.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I went to see Mariah.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I think I went to h M the Childs and
we had number one, and I had I had a
shirt on that said number one, number two, number three
or something like that, and I had somebody make it
tied die like spray painting all that type.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I was. I was going crazy because I couldn't believe.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
It when you produce superstars like that, because we know
there's beat makers, we know that there's people who said
loops these days, there's there's so many different ways that
people can can quote unquote get a producer back, but
to like truly executive producer album, to truly be in
the studio and guide people, especially people with the reputation
(07:57):
of Mariah and Usher. These are legends, right like what
what where does your mind? Where did your mind have
to be to be in the studio with the Mariah
Carey and tell her, yo, you got to sing that
again this way? Or you or do you even or
does it even get to that point?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Yeah, they're very religives to that blood.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I mean, I think I think I know how to
not say something that makes them say something, you know
what I mean? And I I can't say I learned this,
but it happened when I was winning. I went in
studio with Aretha Franklin, and I guess I was so
I I won't even say excited. Aretha Franklin, can't you
know what I mean? So it's like I wasn't excited.
(08:34):
I wasn't so excited. I didn't want to say nothing.
I was in the Studioretha Franklin. Then what you can
tell Ritha Franklin, like you think she gonna hit.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
A bad note. Okay, try it out. Maybe let's see
maybe that's going.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
What can I tell you about singing?
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Right, So so she was in there singing and she
had did it. She did it past like twice and
I ain't never really say nothing. I was like, let's
do you want to do I kept saying, you sure
you want to do it again? Like sounds good to me?
Like she got back on the mic and she's like,
listen boy, that's the first time I met her.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
So she called me.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
She was like, listen boy, I would have not flown
you to Detroit for you to just look at me
and listen to me saying she was like, if you're
gonna if you're gonna be the producer produced me and I.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Was like, oh ship, Like okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And from that that session, it made me start realizing
like how important it was for me to say something
and how important it was for me not to say something.
So with Mariah, I just throw it in the air
sometimes like what we belong together? I kept saying, you know,
you know they want you to you know, you know
they want you to hit the I know that, damn right.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
And she's like, I'm gonna do that. When I get
back to New York, I'm like, all right, well you know.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Right, you know they want you to do that right
and not saying nothing, so like hopefully it registered not
like don't really like pushing it. So I just learned
how to like take my ego out give the artists
they wronged. They make sure the artist is most comfortable.
That's the thing. If artists is comfortable, they compositily be
in the studio. They'll give me exactly what I want.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
The results will be there. Can you talk to me
about One of my favorite songs on Confessions was Throwback,
which Just Blaze you brought like the just just Blaze
is on it.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
He did the beata.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
What was that like? Was that like a session where
he's there because he obviously had vocals on the song,
Like now, I.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Wasn't even in that session. That's that's what That's what
Jada and Just Blaze I think. I mean, you know
that the Confessions album was a collective of like the
ANA at the time was Mark Pitt's.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Pitts shout out the Mark Pitts.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
It was.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
It was just a good collective of people just pulling
their parts and doing what they had to do and
that record just you know, I actually think that that
song was actually made before I made Confessions, because Ush's
album was gonna be called Real Talk, and I think
that they talk they say something about that in the
(11:05):
beginning of that song.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yeah, yeah, I think. I think I think just Place
does say that.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah, that was the name of that was gonna be
the name of that album. It was gonna be called
Real Talk. So yeah, they made that song before I
actually made a confession.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
What do you prefer? Do you prefer the remix or
the original of Jagged Edges Let's Get Married?
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Mmm?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
I mean, I guess I've learned to prefer the remix,
but I really was heavy on the original. But I
really started realizing people some people ain't even never heard
your original.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
You know a lot of people haven't heard the originally.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Yeah. Yeah, which makes it tough for me when I'm
doing remixes.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Because that, like, you know, for you to make a
remix that's better than the original, or make it where
people don't even hear the original, it makes it tough
for when people try to come and try to get
remixes from you, like they want you to do that
same magic and I don't know, you know, I don't
Actually I can't put a finger on exactly what was
done to make that remix that much.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Better because it's the same vocals.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
As the beat it and it's that that run verse.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
What I mean, all the elements. But you know, it's
just tough.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
And but by the way, I'm glad that that remix
did what it did because it was actually they were
mad at me because I did.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
The Sleeping in My Bed remix for Drew Hill.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So they thought that I had gave their competitors a
better record than I had ever given them.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
So you know, to hear you.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Talk about let's get married, I feel accomplished and.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
You and that, and then you can tell them like, see, guys.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
No, I never said that, but I did say that.
That's what I was saying at the beginning. When I
say I'm like, ahha, I did it, That's what I.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Pretty much meant.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
That's that's funny because you had to. I mean, back then,
I feel like all the groups probably had like a
light rivalry going. It was like one twelve Hill.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, yeah, so I ain't get the chance. I ain't.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Well, I did work with one twelve like on their
third album, but in the midst of it, oh, I
didn't get a chance to work with them. And that's
reason why I feel like because it was so much
of the battle.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, damn, I forgot you that they sleeping in my
speaking of man, I feel like remixes are just kind
of like I feel like it's a thing in the
past and true I mean true remixes, Like people will
get new verses, but when you turn on a remix
and it's different, the beats different, it feels like a
new song.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, but you know what that is is But one
is because a lot of people don't listen to radio.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
A lot of people don't understand.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Shot value in music period, right, People just and they
think that remixes, like you know, just like I said,
they think that you and they don't people not telling
them what the value of a remix actually does. The
remix actually used to be for you to get records
in spaces that they want. The original couldn't get you in.
So if you take the if you take Drew Hill
(13:54):
and Jagged Edge, both.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Slow versions, they might get played like Urban Ac yeah RC.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Stage yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
But when I did, like says the lessons a perfect example,
when I did Let's Get Married remixed, Jagged Edge was
never on Power on those six in La. Never, not
one time. When that remix came out, Jagged Edge became
a Power on th six main stage.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
And that song still is on the West coast. That
is a huge gold record.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
I actually feel like that remix actually kind of destroyed
the Jagged Edge sound mentally, because from there Jagged started
seeing a different success right because they got on bigger
radio stations, Power on those six KML these stations and
they start calling them to do radio shows and they
start doing this so.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Everything out after that.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
They was like, we want to make up tempo records
and I'm like what, So then I had to go
back in the studio and made so Then after that
I came right back with the party at with Nelly.
And that was the reason that we did that was
because he was trying to follow Let's.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Get like, yeah, we need some more of this, we
gotta come. Yeah where the party at? Man crazy. It's
funny too, because you know, I just saw that Jay
was they were in La doing press, and you know,
it's the one thing that kind of sucks about today's
music landscape, is it feels like groups are either they're
(15:18):
just dead or they're just they're just not as common
because I mean, people don't want to split up the bread,
and the ain't as much bread as there used to be.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Like people just don't kick it the same, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Like groups used to be like childhood child school friends,
you know what I mean, that did talent shows and
they had went through a lot of things before they
ever got to the industry.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
So what the industry could break them?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Now if a group was to come together, they just
gonna come together based on them watching something on TikTok.
They don't have no outside workings or things that they're
going through. So I think that that's where, you know,
that's where it's at a little bit. It's harder because
kids ain't really like outside like that, just hanging outside
kicking it.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
What you're you know. One of the uh vintage sounding
R and B albums that I loved recently was the
album you did with Division. I felt like you brought
a sound that has been missing back and now you're
working with them officially because they left Ovo and now
(16:18):
they're with you. Shouts to Division, Uh great, great, great, dudes,
Man what what what is like what inspires you to
be like, all right, because you've broken so many artists.
I mean, as an executive, you're putting together a whole
new album, you gotta documentary coming out, But what is
it about those guys in particular that inspired you to
(16:39):
be like, yeah, no, like I want to do this again.
I want to I want to work with you officially.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Because they want they want to be responsible for putting
R and B music back in a space that they
felt like R and.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
B music has removed been removed from. And I.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Believe in that spirit, like, if you know it, the
only way it's gonna get back is by people that
want to be that want to put it back in
that space. They ain't gonna get back by person just
saying I make R and B music. You gotta want
to take that responsibility. You gotta want to do certain songs,
you gotta want to do certain things that probably don't
go with the normal what's happening. So I'm into that,
(17:17):
you know what I mean. It's just because I've made
such big R and B records, I just feel like
it's part of my duty to, you know, at least
acknowledge those that want to do that.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah, for sure. Talk to me because you were a
part of two of the biggest I mean the two
biggest I would say child hip hop successes ever, bow
Wow and Criss Cross. What were the difference between those
two situations Because Chriss Cross they changed fashion for real
for a sec like it was like kids was really
(17:48):
rocking clothes backwards and shit.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
But then there's like bow Wow's Mister one or sixth
in Park and you know, has a whole other like
level of like stardom, like Mike movies all this shit.
Like what was what was kind of like those two
individual experiences.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Well, Crisscross weren't actually musicians. You know, I found these
kids and they was just kids. I actually turned them
into rappers. They weren't rapping before I met them. They
didn't never make a demo, they never wanted to be rappers.
Bow Wow was an actual rapper. He that wanted to
be rapper. He was talking, you know, he's he's the
(18:23):
kid on Snoop Dogg album and say my name is
Snoop hi Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's bow Wow. And
he was six years old on the Snoop Dogg album.
So he's been and I'm a motherfucking gangster. He's been,
you know what I mean, He's been in that space
since he was six years old, so you know, he
(18:44):
actually was more or less like a hip hop kid,
and Chris Cross was just like they was made to
be hip hop kids who actually became real, real hip
hop kids.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
But that wasn't the bloodline that they came from.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
That makes sense. That makes sense. Talk to me about
the time. You know, I vividly remember there's this time
where you and doctor Dre have this back and forth.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Yeah, it wasn't even know back and forth. I think
it was like one time.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Well, yeah, I want to say, because then Eminem gets
in on it, everybody gets in on that was I
want to say it was on Obi Trice's album. Am
I right wrong?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I think it was.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
It might have been a Obi Trice's album, but it
was also Ono mixtapes. Yeah, I mean everybody was saying something.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
But everybody was saying something. It felt like a lot
of people were like just like piling on the JD.
You know what I'm saying, what what for you? Like?
Did you did you? And Dre ever? And like how
did the hatchet get buried in that situation.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Because I mean, I always respect Dre, you know what
I mean? And here I think that, you know, I
think Doctor Dre's hip hop, you know what I mean?
And hip hop is is defend your your turf, regardless
of how you think.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Somebody feel about you or whatever. It is. Same thing
with me.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
I hated it because I like Doctor Dre so much
like Doctor Dre's the greatest hit. It started with a
magazine article, right, It started with a magazine article me
just saying, like defending myself.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Same thing.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Like it was, like, so if we put you in
Doctor Dre in separate rooms, who gonna come out with
a song first?
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Me?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I'm gonna come out with a full song.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
That's what I do, right, And you know, Drey didn't
like that, and like that, I said that I'm not this.
That's not a this, by the way, It's just I
guess what I feel like, you know. And as time
went on, I think it's crazy because a lot of
things I say, it be stuff that people have not
started to pay attention to. Right, People weren't paying attention
(20:33):
to Snoop writing Doctor Dre raps or eminem writing Doctor
Dre raps.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
So somebody else writing Doctor Dre.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
People weren't paying no attention to peoples, just like glorifying what
they thought the person was. And I was trying to
break this down to people back then, like, yo, listen,
I make beats, I write raps, I write songs. I'm
gonna go in there. If you tell me go in
there and make a song, I'm gonna write the whole song.
Might not be great, right, but I'm gonna finish the
whole song. I'm gonna record it too. I'm a single hook.
(21:01):
If it was singing hook, I'm gonna scratch someone. Do
whatever I gotta do, you know. And I was just
trying to let people know how skilled I am.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
That's all of this. It's you know what I mean.
It's not like this.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
You gotta but take yourself up.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Nobody else did nobody want me to big myself up.
That's what it was.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
So then Eminem said, you know, all you could do
is make kid rappers and that, and I say this.
I said this the other day about this, and like,
one of the things that people don't give me credit
for is I'm the person who ushered young rappers into
the rap game.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
For sure, it's not really. You know, Chris cross first
album sold eight million copies.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Bow Wow, Beware a Dog is at four million now crazy?
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, No, I mean I think that not only did
you you know what you you did that. And that's
the thing is you and Dre have so many similarities
in terms of your trees.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Yeah, but me and Dre we we we we you
know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
We had a conversation about it, and I told him
like I told him, like, yo, you know, I ain't
want to beef with you.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I was about no beef. And I've told you know
I love him.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I love Doctor Dre music, everything he do. We became
good friends. He let me have a party in his
house one night.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Did you and Eminem ever talk?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
No, we ain't ever talk because I mean, like I said,
I think, I don't. I don't think. I think Eminem
was just doing what Crewman was supposed to do if
it was gonna get ugly. Eminem was the person that
was supposed to step up. He was he was the
rap god, right, so that's what was supposed to happen.
I never really paid no attention to it.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
I just like, this ain't really nothing you do realize that,
like eminem, if I go in the studio with you,
I'm gonna make a song before you, like.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I feel you know what I'm saying, Like I'm gonna
make the beat, I'm gonna I'm gonna do it all.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Yeah, that's just how I feel, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Can you talk to me about what it's like man
working with you know? Ninety eight ninety nine Hove, this
is you know money, ain't the thing is one of
the earlier records that I feel like got jay Z
real radio play too? What was what was that?
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Like?
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Video? Crazy? Racers crazy? But what What's what's jay Z
like back then? Like like like what? Because you always
hear he was one of the first guys who was
writing nothing down.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
He didn't write the rap for more than anything on
no paper that I saw. I he actually wrote the
rap in the car while we was driving back to
my house.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
I ain't even hit the beat. What jay Z does
is a little.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Bit disturbing for me as a songwriter because I I
could do the same thing. Well, I don't write it
on paper. I do that now, but I have to
voice it and him and Big never I'm setting the
studio one night with Big when we was doing My
Way album and Biggie was writing a rap for Little Kim,
(23:48):
and Biggie had ceas go to Branson.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
He used to be the spot up in Harlem, and
he brought back what's some jaws with some what the
what's the jaw called? We gonna call them jaws? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, he brought back a jaw full of weed and
he told he told, roll up, sees rolled up by
ten blunts, right, and he's smoking phillies and so it's
all Phi like just for him, just for Big. And
he sat there and he smoked at least five blunts
(24:23):
in front of me within like twenty minutes by himself
Boa and then something ready, and I'm like, what.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
The fuck you mean? You ready?
Speaker 2 (24:37):
And but he had to beat playing. Jay Z didn't
even hit the beat. We was in the car with
the idea. I just told him what the idea was.
Big at least was sitting there.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
With his beat playing beat. He's smoking the beat playing
beats playing.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
So I'm like, okay, that's what I can do. But
I still I still have to hear myself say it right.
Neither one of these guys is like vocally vocals out loud.
The big goes in there and does this one past.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
One take, one take, and this is a reference for
little Kid.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah, and I'm like, this is unbelievable. And by the
way this is and by I seen Biggie do this before.
Jay did it with money and a thing with me.
For me, I was just like, I gotta And it's
crazy because we as individual people, we all have this
same We all know how to do this because we
all memorize songs that we like without seeing lyrics facts, you.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
So if you like something, you memorize the lyrics. You
know what I mean, But you have to be able
to like it in your head before you hear it.
That's all it is. So I learned. I did exact
same thing with Confessions.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
I wrote the.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Song with no paper, driving down third and I saw
a Beverly Son in the front of me. And that's
why I say that in the song. Like every time
I was in LA I was with my ex girlfriend.
Every time be case you tell you, hey, I'm not
I'm working. No, I was out doing my work thinking
about you getting hurt handed hand in the Beverly Center,
like man not giving a damn who sees me all
of these lines? I wouldn't even wrote it like that
(26:05):
if I wouldn't have been in LA.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
You were in a car and you were just just
seeing it, Like I was just looking at what was
around me. So when when you're doing that and you're
in the car, how do you are you doing voice notes?
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Not that's what I'm saying. I wasn't. That's what I'm
trying to tell you.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I wasn't even I did exactly what they was doing.
You just have to be coming. You just memorized you
saying it in your head.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
So are you going to the studio? Meet? Like?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Are you on the way? I wanted to go to that.
I wanted to go.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
I had left the studio because I had a writer's block,
And that's the only reason I got in the car,
playing the beats playing. I got in the car, I
was like, I can't really come up with nothing. So
I start driving down the street on my way to Malibu,
and I'm going, like I said, I'm driving and I'm
thinking about like I started just starting to think about
all kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
There were confessions out in the air.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
No, okay, I had this conversation with my friend about
all Bad and we're talking about like he had a situation,
when everything that he was telling me about the situation
just sounded completely bad, like you doing all this with
the side girl and you got a girl and this
(27:15):
is not gonna end. Well, this is gonna be all bad.
And that's what I basically start saying that the song
was gonna be so. But I also felt like, this
is us.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Your third album.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
We gotta find something else to talk about, right, So
I'm just looking for I'm just trying to, like I
feel like when I was in La too. I'm in
La and I'm feeling like this ain't way I write
at I need to be in Atlanta. So I'm already
feeling like this. I'm in a space right here. I'm
uncomfortable and I get writer's block. So I'm just driving
and I start trying to say, Okay, well what would
(27:45):
Kaisin do?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Oh fucking unusual suspects? Man.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah, ka started looking around and start like saying like
Yellow Tech Bootleg camp was at the house, and then
you know what I mean, you just start saying what
you see, right, And I was like, let me try this,
And that's what I just started doing I just looked
at the Beverly Center and I was like, every time
I was in La.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Confessions, that's crazy. It's funny because as you being the
guy who writes the song, and then the narrative that
comes out of the song that it's about Usher's relationship
with Chili. Is that like, that's it's crazy, right because
it's it's it's like one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Has nothing to do with people still fully believe that
that's the Oh. I got an argument with her about it.
She thought I deliberately did this on World about her.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I'm like, yo, this don't have nothing to do with you.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Ki sated Chili, but don't know why.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Like by the way, me saying that, nobody wants to
believe it.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
They all want to believe that the story was about her,
and you know, she was a character in my story
writing like she was the girl that he was talking
to because that was his girlfriend. But the entire story
of it was all music video.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
It didn't help, by the way, Yeah music that was
the actress. The actress that was casting was I was.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Yeah, that that'll make it a little believable for sure.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
For you man talk about Magic City uh, you know,
shouts to mister Magic shots to you know, it's it's
a it's a it's a cultural just milestone and hip
hop man. And you know, I think about the careers
that have been made out of that place and and
just it's you know, so much significance to what it
means in a certain era of hip hop and just
(29:35):
Atlanta in general. Why is it? Why do you think
it's what's so important to help tell that story.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Because like you you know, you being in l A
and I feel like one of the things that's missing
from the Atlanta hip hop cloth is that the culture
of Atlanta is never really talked about. Right the artist
has talked about, Well, what happens in the city is
never really talked about. And the thing that happens most
(30:03):
in the city is strip clubs, and it's looked down upon, right,
It's looked down upon, like it's degrading women and this,
that and the third.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
So I feel like the right light hadn't.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Been shined on it to make sure that people lose
that space. Right, Like, even like gang banging in la
I feel like at some point in time people probably
thought gang bang was the worst thing that ever happened
in America, but then it became life, and it became
something that you just have to deal with and the
rest of the world has to deal with it. And
it is what it is. When you go to la
(30:33):
it's what it is. You go to a neighborhood, this
is what's happening. You gotta it's an automatic thing for
you to say this a blood neighborhood, that it's a
cript neighborhood. I just wanted people to be like the
same thing, like when you come to Atlanta, don't be
shy to talk about the strip clubs because so much
has happened in Blue Flame, the Gentlemen's club Nikkis, you know,
(30:54):
and like Nikkis Little Nikkis is where Tupac shot the police,
right and crazy like, but that's the image that the
club has as opposed to, like, yeah, as opposed to
being a place where we would go to and.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Have a good time.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
And I just feel like it's time for you know,
Atlanta hasn't only have one movie in this whole cultural explosion,
which was at l and atl didn't really dive into
the culture of Atlanta besides the skating ring. And that's
by the way, that's cultural as well. But we got
other things that that Atlanta holds onto. That's why did
Freaknick as well?
Speaker 1 (31:30):
What an era. It's crazy because I saw I saw recently,
like didn't a girl get mad that she was in
the documentary in Freaknik? Yeah? No, she was just she
was she like a lawyer now or something.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
She was she I mean, she was. She was one
of the girls that said she had a bad experience, right,
you know, and and you know like even that, we
can't we can't, we can't hide that because everybody's experience
at at at Freaknick was different.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Right, yo was there? I think about Usher as an artist.
I don't think a lot of people know like when
he was a kid, he was around Dungeon family a lot.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Uh yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
I mean, well he signed in the face, so anything
that was going on face he was, they was probably
putting him in.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
I think about like my way and as a as
a young kid, because I was probably nine or ten,
and that was the first song that I just remember,
like you couldn't turn on the radio without hearing that record,
and that was in that was in Phoenix, you know,
(32:37):
KKF R Phoenix, And I just remember that song was
just like I remember, I bought the single because I
couldn't afford get the album in the single days did
you have, like you have any idea, man, that that this,
this relationship with you and USh would be Like, I mean,
it's it's really it's really a one of a kind
dynamic you guys have when it comes to the history
(32:59):
that's been made, especially when it comes to just overpowering
a genre, like in the way that you guys' records
has studid test of time and the amount of you know,
hits on the board. Man, it's it's unprecedented. I don't
feel like we've seen anything like it since at least.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yeah, I mean I think you know, when we first
started working together, we wanted to I wanted to be
his Quincy, you know what I mean, That's what I wanted.
We wanted to be Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, USh and JD.
That's that's that. That was what we.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Had in our mind.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
You know, we didn't know who he's gonna go there,
Like even when you hear you say my Way was
getting played like that. You know, that's the first album
that I ever produced the R and B singer Male
ever I never I ain't even had no experience to
do it, so I didn't even know what I was doing.
I just was doing it and going off my gut, right,
So to see that it was successful and hit people
was playing and all that, it's like, you know, that
(33:53):
still gets me excited because I didn't know what I
was doing.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Did you and Chris ever work like anything?
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Why did Shorty like mine for bow?
Speaker 1 (34:00):
But that's it, that's about. It was that something that
just for whatever reason, just because I feel like you
and Chris Brown, I mean, fuck man, it feels like
the kind of collaboration that's like twenty years overdue at
this point.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I mean for a minute that I stayed away from
being in that space because I'm very competitive and I'm
very true to my artists, and I felt like, you know,
him and ushers, they competition, little competition.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
So the hypothetical verses that always just thrown out.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
There, always out there.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
So I'm just like, you know, the thing that Chris
don't have that usher got is me m you know
what I mean?
Speaker 1 (34:33):
And you still feel that way.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, so, but but I'm past the point of like
how I felt about not working with him. I would
work with Chris Now do and give Chris Brown his
own space?
Speaker 3 (34:46):
And you know, would you have.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
To get the green light from Usher? Would you ask
him like, hey, No.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I mean, I'm sure it might be something, but I'm
saying I wouldn't even go into that space because, like
I said, I know what records I give Usher.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
We don't.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
We don't do this enough where I know what Usher
sounds is. I would have to find with what Jamainey
pre Chris Brown records sound like. I wouldn't get Chris
Brown or Usher song. That wouldn't be my goal.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
That makes sense, It makes sense. Talk to me, what's
the collaboration on this Magic City project that you're most
excited about that you were most excited to make it happen?
Speaker 2 (35:21):
The idea of me putting new and older artists on
the record together and it being accepted because that breaks
the monotony of people acting like this person ain't relevant
and like, I actually think that that kills that word
because relevancy and rap and hip hop is only based
(35:42):
on who you paying attention to, right, I'd be saying
people say Jermainey pre He ain't not relevant? Okay, Money
Long record was on the radio more than anybody else's
record last year. So what does that mean for me?
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Right?
Speaker 2 (35:55):
And that's just because you wasn't paying all attention to
it and you ain't hear me talk on the record, so.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
You ain't Yeah, you didn't hear yourself. Yeah, because I
think most people in their head, they think of JD
as like you're gonna say you're.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
So if that's what I'm saying, relevance comes from you
paying attention to it. And I feel like that's where
you know, it's gotten blown out of proportion in hip
hop because people just use it like you ain't even relevant.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
And that means I feel like there's certain people that
are always relevant. I think you're one of those people.
I think Snoops one of those people with nobody.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Says always relevant.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Snoop Dogg would be relevant until he's in the dirt.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
And that's what I'm saying. Relevant Ultimately, it's just you
being in the mix. It ain't got to do with like,
you know what I mean. So I think that I
feel like that's the most That's the thing that I'm
really excited about because me asking the artists to be
on these records. I haven't had anyone yet, be like, man,
I ain't don't want.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
To do no song with that.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
I'm actually asking the artists who they want on this,
Like who would they want to do?
Speaker 1 (36:49):
You got Belly Gang on the album. Yeah, yeah, he's tough, yo.
The days of I think I think of yourself. I
think we talked just Blaze a little bit. He would
talk on records obviously, I mean Diddy, Swiss Beats. Those
days are gone. It's all about the producer tag now. Yeah,
(37:12):
what Like it's interesting because you know metro Boom is
so big that tag like he don't got to get
But I miss the days where you would like know
the producer's voice, like I'd be like, oh shit, it's
a JD record. This shit's crazy.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
I get on it, and I stopped doing it because
I got.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Bored, Like you won't bust that out at all.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
I mean no, I've been doing it a lot, but
you know, like I got bored, Like I get tired
of him, y'all. I mean I get tired of you
even saying y'all know what this is like even on
this album right now, I'm producing every song and every
artist that come in there, and they're like, yo, I
know it ain't no hit till you put that.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Y'all know what this is is.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I'm sitting over there, sitting there like I wouldn't gonna
do it on this song, right, And then if I
don't do it on they song, they feel like I
ain't need I ain't trying to break they song. I'm
trying to break somebody else song. So it's just like,
I mean, it's.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Just gets annoying to me.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
After while, who was in the thought process of being
on walking to Atlanta that didn't make it that you
were like, yo, who are some of the names that
were getting floated around like just outcast? Just outcast? And
did that almost happen?
Speaker 3 (38:16):
No?
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Well yeah, but it wasn't Welcome to Atlanta. I didn't
have Welcome to Atlanta until I watched Ludacris video and
did the same thing, the Kains Ofsose thing again, because
Ludacris is upside down in his video and it's a
floor mat under him that says welcome to Atlanta, and
he's rapping under that.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
So I saw the floor.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Mat, and I saw Ludacris and I was like, that's
the song. I need to do it, And I called
him and I told him that, and then it just
automatically happened.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
That's fucking crazy, guys, are so say? Is that like
a big That's.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
My favorite That's one of my favorite movies. I just
feel like that's like to write a movie like that.
And then you start you, I start doing you start
using it as a method.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
I start using it about you know, it's a method
of life. Period. It's just crazy.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Yeah, So when when is everything coming out?
Speaker 2 (39:08):
August fifteenth is supposed to be. You know, the documentary
definitely drops August fifteenth. I'm trying to get these records,
you know, get their early records done, and make sure
that happens on that date. If it don't, it's because
you know, I didn't get everybody I wanted, and I
can't put out the record without me getting everybody I want.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
So you're almost done. Yeah, I'm just waiting for some
features to get over there over the fish.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
I just got to go get them. That's the difference.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
I gotta go actually physically go get thee Are are.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
You executive producing anybody's albums right now?
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Well, I'm working on Ari Lennox. I got Ari lynx
next single. Like we said, division signed a bunch of
new artists. I have a bunch of calls because.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Just when you're signing new artists, is it to Social Death.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yeah, so I got a new deal Social Death High basically,
and yeah, so I'm signed to do artists I'm doing,
you know, still doing what I do.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Man shouts and so so deaf. I think I told
you I told this to BT. Funk Devi is one of
my favorite albums ever. Female snoop Dogg. Yeah, y'all nailed that.
That was like the female Doggi style. Bro. And she's
from the Midwest and you're from Atlanta, but y'all nailed
the sound.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Like I mean, it's crazy because people we all talking
about that yesterday. I think that people just connected so
many different things to it because Funk the five was
actually not George Clinton. It's between the Sheets, but we
replayed it so a maga sound keyboard ish right, and
Draydam was using keyboards. So I think that that people
(40:41):
just connected it two but it wasn't like Between the
Sheets is the same record that Big Papa is, but.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
It don't sound funked out like right funk the five.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
So yeah, there it is, man. But look August fifteenth,
the documentary's out. Yeah, shouts to Magic City and then
hopefully the album will be.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
It's coming, It's coming on.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
You know.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
I'm you know, we got, we got. I just shot
the new video use Magicity Money and the single actually drops.
The new single will drop next frome J Money, Sean
Paul from the Young Bloods.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
You Never Heard of Week Sean Paul versus My Life.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Banna Bee and h bank Roll nine fire.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Last question, your thoughts on producer's using artificial intelligence. There's this, uh,
this controversy with Timbling going on right now. Is it
is like, what are your thoughts on the AI thing?
And is it anything that you would do?
Speaker 2 (41:33):
I don't even think about it because I feel like
it's like it creates a laziness to me, you know
what I mean. If you're gonna rely on somebody else
to make your beats, it almost go back to like
what we're talking about with the Doctor Drake conversation. I'm
gonna feel like I felt back then, like anybody that
do that, I'm not gonna be like you can't battle
me with no AI.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
Yeah, it's just yeah, man, it just feels like the
AI shit's getting icky.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
I'll just say, and I will say this, shout out
to YouTube because they just did something today saying that
is you are a content creator and you're using AI
voices and AI things to create content on YouTube, you
will not get paid. So shout out to YouTube.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Yeah, that you got to use your real voice. Yeah,
and they're gonna push dope shit into the into the algorithm.
Yeah yeah, because there's so many of these dormant YouTube
pages where they'll just type in a script and it's
they're fucking printing money off there.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
They're gonna shut that down. So I mean, I'm proud
to see people pushing.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
Back on Yeah for sure. Well listen, JD Man, you're
a fucking legend, one of the greatest of all time.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
I cannot wait to hear the album. I cannot wait
to watch the documentary on Stars August fifteenth. Yes, sir,
there it is Man three Yeah, boom fire
All right, man, boo black Cat podcast, bout black Cap show.
(00:02):
We are here with the legend one of the greatest
of all time. I was just doing a podcast earlier
today and we were talking about the greatest producers of
all time, and I had to say, you man, you
want them dog you Yeah. JD's here, Jermaine Duprix. What's
going on, man? You got this Magic City documentary? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, So the Magic City documentary drops August fifteenth on Stars,
and we was doing the Magic City documentary, I had
on music along with it. Then I get a new
deal Social Death at Hive, and I decided to do soundtrack,
and it missed me trying to do the soundtrack Stars,
(00:41):
just like we won't really do soundtracks for documentaries. And
I had already got my wheels roll, and so I
was just like, you know what, I'm gonna just make
this a JEMAINEI pre album inspired by the Magic City documentary.
So on August fifteenth, I'm gonna drop a new JERMAINI
pre album that's inspired by the documentary with a lot
of you know, with all Atlanta artists.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Life in fourteen seventy two was ninety eight ninety nine, Yes,
ninety eight. Now is that? I mean, are you rapping
back in? Are you are? You're producing and you're just
putting people together?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, I'm just producing, okay, okay, putting records together. I
mean I want to make sure that, like one, I
never did this before. I never produced half of the
artist that's on the album, right, And then like you know,
I had a backdrop like this, so so conceptually it's
just you know, one GERMAINI pre album has Life in
fourteen seventy two has a concept instructions had a concept
(01:36):
just when it's the Magic City, you know right?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah? No, I mean both both conceptual for sure. Yeah.
Do you ever go back and visit that.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Album Life in fourteen seventy two.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I bought that motherfucker from the warehouse.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I was working with my man Books on shot of
the books Books from Chicago.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, that's my dog. I see him almost every day
in Burbank run say.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
So Books Books, you know me and Books.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Books helped me a couple of songs on this album,
and we was going through samples and he sent me
the sample of of me Bratt and Crazy Bomb and
he was like, man, it's time for you to bring
this back and I'm just like, bring it back and
he's like, what made you sample that? And for him,
you know books, he's a sample for Sanatic right now.
(02:24):
For him to say ask me about a sample, it
just you know, that's the only time we talked about
it was crazy because I wouldn't even like, I was
just looking for records that I just you know, I
wouldn't even I don't know what I was doing. I
just was trying to find stuff that I thought sounded good, right,
But to see that they resonate and he brought it
back to twenty twenty five, They're like, yo, you should
we should make a record off this again.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It's crazy, That's what That's probably my favorite, Like Mariah
hip hop song was the Sweetheart record. Yeah, that record
was crazy, Yo, So who were you? I know we
talked a little bit about it that BT weekend. But
it's the goal with this album to try to bring
two generations because there's a lot of people who, strangely,
(03:07):
you haven't worked with that. I think a lot of
people would have expected you to already have worked with.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Everybody on this album.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
For the most part, I haven't worked with I don't
have records with Quavo in my discography t I change chains,
trow so, I mean se low.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Man, you name it, a big boy kill. I don't
have I don't have records.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
That's so crazy.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, yeah, I don't have records with them.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Was like, was that because you know, in the Soco
Deaf Days, you guys were just like so because you
had you had your crew, right, obviously you're working with Usher,
you working with Mariyah later on, but the Soco Deaf Days,
I feel like, you know, you were like so locked
in on developing the brat, developing bow Wow. That was it?
Like at that time there was there's so many different
(03:54):
movements happening in Atlanta at the same time.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
No, I think it's just like, you know, one, I'm
not producer that like be trying to get on everybody's albums.
I always try to produce my own artists, And I
think that's what really, that's really how it happens. Like
a lot of producers they always be waiting on Who's who,
you know. I mean, I used to have this list
called Who's Looking lists, and producers used to be like, oh,
scramble and try to get on Nick's albums or whatever.
(04:18):
I've never been I never was doing that. I always,
like you said, I was trying to find my own artists.
So and I always felt like, you know, the producers
in Atlanta, I feel like they are good and the
artists is like they artists really go with them.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
So like artists that was signed to the Dungeon family.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, yeah, organized noise, It all made sense.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I never thought that them guys didn't need me, you
know what I'm saying. That's how I can I addwer
this this sy y'all need me. And I feel like
when you go into a situation like that where it's
already some people that really can do it, you you're
making your job that much harder because like the world
gonna look at it like, why y'all get JD?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Y'all need him over?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Like that would have made me have to work harder.
So I mean, same thing with t I. He had
he had his crew, you know what I mean. So
it's each person had their own thing. I never was like, hey, hey,
I I wasn't doing that. That's I think that's why
it happened like that.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, not for sure. Do you feel like because you know,
I think two albums that you worked on that are
important and it just time pieces too. I mean, obviously,
the Mariah anniversary of the emancipation of Me Me just happened.
And in Confessions, which one of those albums do you
(05:33):
feel like holds like the And it's probably picked between
your two kids, But if you had to pick one
of those albums that holds the strongest place in your heart,
in your legacy, can you pick one of those two?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
You'll always be my baby? I mean, well, no what
I'm sorry mascurpation of movie. And I say that because
during the mancurpation of Me Me, I was so hot
that I blocked myself from having another number one record
(06:11):
like I was I had I had, I had number
one and number two and number three on the Hot
one hundred for the first time in like I mean
records Shake It Off, We Belong Together and and baw
Wo and Sierra Crazy right, so so so that like
that period of time, like I never had that with
(06:31):
any other album, you know what I mean? And I
and I and and We Belong Together was so big
and like you were so big that it kept shaking
Off from getting into number one because Shake It Off
could have easily went in there, but I was blocking
it with two other records.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
That's so crazy to think about, like you're like, you're
competing against yourself.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
But I mean, I never you know, I mean I never.
I never even thought that I could ever do that,
Like to have number one, number two, and number three
on Billboard.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
I don't like anybody. Yeah, that's almost like an unfathomable
like dream to think of. And you you dreaming having.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
A number one, yea.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
To have one, two, and three at the same times crazy.
I actually made I've made T shirts. Now you're talking
about T shirt. I made a T shirt. I had
a hat I called people like y'a need a hat
that was funny because I was I was telling Mariah.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I went to see Mariah.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I think I went to h M the Childs and
we had number one, and I had I had a
shirt on that said number one, number two, number three
or something like that, and I had somebody make it
tied die like spray painting all that type.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I was. I was going crazy because I couldn't believe.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
It when you produce superstars like that, because we know
there's beat makers, we know that there's people who said
loops these days, there's there's so many different ways that
people can can quote unquote get a producer back, but
to like truly executive producer album, to truly be in
the studio and guide people, especially people with the reputation
(07:57):
of Mariah and Usher. These are legends, right like what
what where does your mind? Where did your mind have
to be to be in the studio with the Mariah
Carey and tell her, yo, you got to sing that
again this way? Or you or do you even or
does it even get to that point?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Yeah, they're very religives to that blood.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I mean, I think I think I know how to
not say something that makes them say something, you know
what I mean? And I I can't say I learned this,
but it happened when I was winning. I went in
studio with Aretha Franklin, and I guess I was so
I I won't even say excited. Aretha Franklin, can't you
know what I mean? So it's like I wasn't excited.
(08:34):
I wasn't so excited. I didn't want to say nothing.
I was in the Studioretha Franklin. Then what you can
tell Ritha Franklin, like you think she gonna hit.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
A bad note. Okay, try it out. Maybe let's see
maybe that's going.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
What can I tell you about singing?
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Right, So so she was in there singing and she
had did it. She did it past like twice and
I ain't never really say nothing. I was like, let's
do you want to do I kept saying, you sure
you want to do it again? Like sounds good to me?
Like she got back on the mic and she's like,
listen boy, that's the first time I met her.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
So she called me.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
She was like, listen boy, I would have not flown
you to Detroit for you to just look at me
and listen to me saying she was like, if you're
gonna if you're gonna be the producer produced me and I.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Was like, oh ship, Like okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And from that that session, it made me start realizing
like how important it was for me to say something
and how important it was for me not to say something.
So with Mariah, I just throw it in the air
sometimes like what we belong together? I kept saying, you know,
you know they want you to you know, you know
they want you to hit the I know that, damn right.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
And she's like, I'm gonna do that. When I get
back to New York, I'm like, all right, well you know.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Right, you know they want you to do that right
and not saying nothing, so like hopefully it registered not
like don't really like pushing it. So I just learned
how to like take my ego out give the artists
they wronged. They make sure the artist is most comfortable.
That's the thing. If artists is comfortable, they compositily be
in the studio. They'll give me exactly what I want.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
The results will be there. Can you talk to me
about One of my favorite songs on Confessions was Throwback,
which Just Blaze you brought like the just just Blaze
is on it.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
He did the beata.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
What was that like? Was that like a session where
he's there because he obviously had vocals on the song,
Like now, I.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Wasn't even in that session. That's that's what That's what
Jada and Just Blaze I think. I mean, you know
that the Confessions album was a collective of like the
ANA at the time was Mark Pitt's.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Pitts shout out the Mark Pitts.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
It was.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
It was just a good collective of people just pulling
their parts and doing what they had to do and
that record just you know, I actually think that that
song was actually made before I made Confessions, because Ush's
album was gonna be called Real Talk, and I think
that they talk they say something about that in the
(11:05):
beginning of that song.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yeah, yeah, I think. I think I think just Place
does say that.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah, that was the name of that was gonna be
the name of that album. It was gonna be called
Real Talk. So yeah, they made that song before I
actually made a confession.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
What do you prefer? Do you prefer the remix or
the original of Jagged Edges Let's Get Married?
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Mmm?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
I mean, I guess I've learned to prefer the remix,
but I really was heavy on the original. But I
really started realizing people some people ain't even never heard
your original.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
You know a lot of people haven't heard the originally.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Yeah. Yeah, which makes it tough for me when I'm
doing remixes.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Because that, like, you know, for you to make a
remix that's better than the original, or make it where
people don't even hear the original, it makes it tough
for when people try to come and try to get
remixes from you, like they want you to do that
same magic and I don't know, you know, I don't
Actually I can't put a finger on exactly what was
done to make that remix that much.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Better because it's the same vocals.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
As the beat it and it's that that run verse.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
What I mean, all the elements. But you know, it's
just tough.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
And but by the way, I'm glad that that remix
did what it did because it was actually they were
mad at me because I did.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
The Sleeping in My Bed remix for Drew Hill.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So they thought that I had gave their competitors a
better record than I had ever given them.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
So you know, to hear you.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Talk about let's get married, I feel accomplished and.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
You and that, and then you can tell them like, see, guys.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
No, I never said that, but I did say that.
That's what I was saying at the beginning. When I
say I'm like, ahha, I did it, That's what I.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Pretty much meant.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
That's that's funny because you had to. I mean, back then,
I feel like all the groups probably had like a
light rivalry going. It was like one twelve Hill.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, yeah, so I ain't get the chance. I ain't.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Well, I did work with one twelve like on their
third album, but in the midst of it, oh, I
didn't get a chance to work with them. And that's
reason why I feel like because it was so much
of the battle.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, damn, I forgot you that they sleeping in my
speaking of man, I feel like remixes are just kind
of like I feel like it's a thing in the
past and true I mean true remixes, Like people will
get new verses, but when you turn on a remix
and it's different, the beats different, it feels like a
new song.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, but you know what that is is But one
is because a lot of people don't listen to radio.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
A lot of people don't understand.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Shot value in music period, right, People just and they
think that remixes, like you know, just like I said,
they think that you and they don't people not telling
them what the value of a remix actually does. The
remix actually used to be for you to get records
in spaces that they want. The original couldn't get you in.
So if you take the if you take Drew Hill
(13:54):
and Jagged Edge, both.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Slow versions, they might get played like Urban Ac yeah RC.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Stage yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
But when I did, like says the lessons a perfect example,
when I did Let's Get Married remixed, Jagged Edge was
never on Power on those six in La. Never, not
one time. When that remix came out, Jagged Edge became
a Power on th six main stage.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
And that song still is on the West coast. That
is a huge gold record.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
I actually feel like that remix actually kind of destroyed
the Jagged Edge sound mentally, because from there Jagged started
seeing a different success right because they got on bigger
radio stations, Power on those six KML these stations and
they start calling them to do radio shows and they
start doing this so.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Everything out after that.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
They was like, we want to make up tempo records
and I'm like what, So then I had to go
back in the studio and made so Then after that
I came right back with the party at with Nelly.
And that was the reason that we did that was
because he was trying to follow Let's.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Get like, yeah, we need some more of this, we
gotta come. Yeah where the party at? Man crazy. It's
funny too, because you know, I just saw that Jay
was they were in La doing press, and you know,
it's the one thing that kind of sucks about today's
music landscape, is it feels like groups are either they're
(15:18):
just dead or they're just they're just not as common
because I mean, people don't want to split up the bread,
and the ain't as much bread as there used to be.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Like people just don't kick it the same, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Like groups used to be like childhood child school friends,
you know what I mean, that did talent shows and
they had went through a lot of things before they
ever got to the industry.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
So what the industry could break them?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Now if a group was to come together, they just
gonna come together based on them watching something on TikTok.
They don't have no outside workings or things that they're
going through. So I think that that's where, you know,
that's where it's at a little bit. It's harder because
kids ain't really like outside like that, just hanging outside
kicking it.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
What you're you know. One of the uh vintage sounding
R and B albums that I loved recently was the
album you did with Division. I felt like you brought
a sound that has been missing back and now you're
working with them officially because they left Ovo and now
(16:18):
they're with you. Shouts to Division, Uh great, great, great, dudes,
Man what what what is like what inspires you to
be like, all right, because you've broken so many artists.
I mean, as an executive, you're putting together a whole
new album, you gotta documentary coming out, But what is
it about those guys in particular that inspired you to
(16:39):
be like, yeah, no, like I want to do this again.
I want to I want to work with you officially.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Because they want they want to be responsible for putting
R and B music back in a space that they
felt like R and.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
B music has removed been removed from. And I.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Believe in that spirit, like, if you know it, the
only way it's gonna get back is by people that
want to be that want to put it back in
that space. They ain't gonna get back by person just
saying I make R and B music. You gotta want
to take that responsibility. You gotta want to do certain songs,
you gotta want to do certain things that probably don't
go with the normal what's happening. So I'm into that,
(17:17):
you know what I mean. It's just because I've made
such big R and B records, I just feel like
it's part of my duty to, you know, at least
acknowledge those that want to do that.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah, for sure. Talk to me because you were a
part of two of the biggest I mean the two
biggest I would say child hip hop successes ever, bow
Wow and Criss Cross. What were the difference between those
two situations Because Chriss Cross they changed fashion for real
for a sec like it was like kids was really
(17:48):
rocking clothes backwards and shit.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
But then there's like bow Wow's Mister one or sixth
in Park and you know, has a whole other like
level of like stardom, like Mike movies all this shit.
Like what was what was kind of like those two
individual experiences.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Well, Crisscross weren't actually musicians. You know, I found these
kids and they was just kids. I actually turned them
into rappers. They weren't rapping before I met them. They
didn't never make a demo, they never wanted to be rappers.
Bow Wow was an actual rapper. He that wanted to
be rapper. He was talking, you know, he's he's the
(18:23):
kid on Snoop Dogg album and say my name is
Snoop hi Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's bow Wow. And
he was six years old on the Snoop Dogg album.
So he's been and I'm a motherfucking gangster. He's been,
you know what I mean, He's been in that space
since he was six years old, so you know, he
(18:44):
actually was more or less like a hip hop kid,
and Chris Cross was just like they was made to
be hip hop kids who actually became real, real hip
hop kids.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
But that wasn't the bloodline that they came from.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
That makes sense. That makes sense. Talk to me about
the time. You know, I vividly remember there's this time
where you and doctor Dre have this back and forth.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Yeah, it wasn't even know back and forth. I think
it was like one time.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Well, yeah, I want to say, because then Eminem gets
in on it, everybody gets in on that was I
want to say it was on Obi Trice's album. Am
I right wrong?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I think it was.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
It might have been a Obi Trice's album, but it
was also Ono mixtapes. Yeah, I mean everybody was saying something.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
But everybody was saying something. It felt like a lot
of people were like just like piling on the JD.
You know what I'm saying, what what for you? Like?
Did you did you? And Dre ever? And like how
did the hatchet get buried in that situation.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Because I mean, I always respect Dre, you know what
I mean? And here I think that, you know, I
think Doctor Dre's hip hop, you know what I mean?
And hip hop is is defend your your turf, regardless
of how you think.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Somebody feel about you or whatever. It is. Same thing
with me.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
I hated it because I like Doctor Dre so much
like Doctor Dre's the greatest hit. It started with a
magazine article, right, It started with a magazine article me
just saying, like defending myself.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Same thing.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Like it was, like, so if we put you in
Doctor Dre in separate rooms, who gonna come out with
a song first?
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Me?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I'm gonna come out with a full song.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
That's what I do, right, And you know, Drey didn't
like that, and like that, I said that I'm not this.
That's not a this, by the way, It's just I
guess what I feel like, you know. And as time
went on, I think it's crazy because a lot of
things I say, it be stuff that people have not
started to pay attention to. Right, People weren't paying attention
(20:33):
to Snoop writing Doctor Dre raps or eminem writing Doctor
Dre raps.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
So somebody else writing Doctor Dre.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
People weren't paying no attention to peoples, just like glorifying what
they thought the person was. And I was trying to
break this down to people back then, like, yo, listen,
I make beats, I write raps, I write songs. I'm
gonna go in there. If you tell me go in
there and make a song, I'm gonna write the whole song.
Might not be great, right, but I'm gonna finish the
whole song. I'm gonna record it too. I'm a single hook.
(21:01):
If it was singing hook, I'm gonna scratch someone. Do
whatever I gotta do, you know. And I was just
trying to let people know how skilled I am.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
That's all of this. It's you know what I mean.
It's not like this.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
You gotta but take yourself up.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Nobody else did nobody want me to big myself up.
That's what it was.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
So then Eminem said, you know, all you could do
is make kid rappers and that, and I say this.
I said this the other day about this, and like,
one of the things that people don't give me credit
for is I'm the person who ushered young rappers into
the rap game.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
For sure, it's not really. You know, Chris cross first
album sold eight million copies.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Bow Wow, Beware a Dog is at four million now crazy?
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, No, I mean I think that not only did
you you know what you you did that. And that's
the thing is you and Dre have so many similarities
in terms of your trees.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Yeah, but me and Dre we we we we you
know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
We had a conversation about it, and I told him
like I told him, like, yo, you know, I ain't
want to beef with you.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I was about no beef. And I've told you know
I love him.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I love Doctor Dre music, everything he do. We became
good friends. He let me have a party in his
house one night.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Did you and Eminem ever talk?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
No, we ain't ever talk because I mean, like I said,
I think, I don't. I don't think. I think Eminem
was just doing what Crewman was supposed to do if
it was gonna get ugly. Eminem was the person that
was supposed to step up. He was he was the
rap god, right, so that's what was supposed to happen.
I never really paid no attention to it.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
I just like, this ain't really nothing you do realize that,
like eminem, if I go in the studio with you,
I'm gonna make a song before you, like.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I feel you know what I'm saying, Like I'm gonna
make the beat, I'm gonna I'm gonna do it all.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Yeah, that's just how I feel, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Can you talk to me about what it's like man
working with you know? Ninety eight ninety nine Hove, this
is you know money, ain't the thing is one of
the earlier records that I feel like got jay Z
real radio play too? What was what was that?
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Like?
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Video? Crazy? Racers crazy? But what What's what's jay Z
like back then? Like like like what? Because you always
hear he was one of the first guys who was
writing nothing down.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
He didn't write the rap for more than anything on
no paper that I saw. I he actually wrote the
rap in the car while we was driving back to
my house.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
I ain't even hit the beat. What jay Z does
is a little.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Bit disturbing for me as a songwriter because I I
could do the same thing. Well, I don't write it
on paper. I do that now, but I have to
voice it and him and Big never I'm setting the
studio one night with Big when we was doing My
Way album and Biggie was writing a rap for Little Kim,
(23:48):
and Biggie had ceas go to Branson.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
He used to be the spot up in Harlem, and
he brought back what's some jaws with some what the
what's the jaw called? We gonna call them jaws? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, he brought back a jaw full of weed and
he told he told, roll up, sees rolled up by
ten blunts, right, and he's smoking phillies and so it's
all Phi like just for him, just for Big. And
he sat there and he smoked at least five blunts
(24:23):
in front of me within like twenty minutes by himself
Boa and then something ready, and I'm like, what.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
The fuck you mean? You ready?
Speaker 2 (24:37):
And but he had to beat playing. Jay Z didn't
even hit the beat. We was in the car with
the idea. I just told him what the idea was.
Big at least was sitting there.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
With his beat playing beat. He's smoking the beat playing
beats playing.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
So I'm like, okay, that's what I can do. But
I still I still have to hear myself say it right.
Neither one of these guys is like vocally vocals out loud.
The big goes in there and does this one past.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
One take, one take, and this is a reference for
little Kid.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah, and I'm like, this is unbelievable. And by the
way this is and by I seen Biggie do this before.
Jay did it with money and a thing with me.
For me, I was just like, I gotta And it's
crazy because we as individual people, we all have this
same We all know how to do this because we
all memorize songs that we like without seeing lyrics facts, you.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
So if you like something, you memorize the lyrics. You
know what I mean, But you have to be able
to like it in your head before you hear it.
That's all it is. So I learned. I did exact
same thing with Confessions.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
I wrote the.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Song with no paper, driving down third and I saw
a Beverly Son in the front of me. And that's
why I say that in the song. Like every time
I was in LA I was with my ex girlfriend.
Every time be case you tell you, hey, I'm not
I'm working. No, I was out doing my work thinking
about you getting hurt handed hand in the Beverly Center,
like man not giving a damn who sees me all
of these lines? I wouldn't even wrote it like that
(26:05):
if I wouldn't have been in LA.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
You were in a car and you were just just
seeing it, Like I was just looking at what was
around me. So when when you're doing that and you're
in the car, how do you are you doing voice notes?
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Not that's what I'm saying. I wasn't. That's what I'm
trying to tell you.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I wasn't even I did exactly what they was doing.
You just have to be coming. You just memorized you
saying it in your head.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
So are you going to the studio? Meet? Like?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Are you on the way? I wanted to go to that.
I wanted to go.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
I had left the studio because I had a writer's block,
And that's the only reason I got in the car,
playing the beats playing. I got in the car, I
was like, I can't really come up with nothing. So
I start driving down the street on my way to Malibu,
and I'm going, like I said, I'm driving and I'm
thinking about like I started just starting to think about
all kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
There were confessions out in the air.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
No, okay, I had this conversation with my friend about
all Bad and we're talking about like he had a situation,
when everything that he was telling me about the situation
just sounded completely bad, like you doing all this with
the side girl and you got a girl and this
(27:15):
is not gonna end. Well, this is gonna be all bad.
And that's what I basically start saying that the song
was gonna be so. But I also felt like, this
is us.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Your third album.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
We gotta find something else to talk about, right, So
I'm just looking for I'm just trying to, like I
feel like when I was in La too. I'm in
La and I'm feeling like this ain't way I write
at I need to be in Atlanta. So I'm already
feeling like this. I'm in a space right here. I'm
uncomfortable and I get writer's block. So I'm just driving
and I start trying to say, Okay, well what would
(27:45):
Kaisin do?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Oh fucking unusual suspects? Man.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah, ka started looking around and start like saying like
Yellow Tech Bootleg camp was at the house, and then
you know what I mean, you just start saying what
you see, right, And I was like, let me try this,
And that's what I just started doing I just looked
at the Beverly Center and I was like, every time
I was in La.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Confessions, that's crazy. It's funny because as you being the
guy who writes the song, and then the narrative that
comes out of the song that it's about Usher's relationship
with Chili. Is that like, that's it's crazy, right because
it's it's it's like one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Has nothing to do with people still fully believe that
that's the Oh. I got an argument with her about it.
She thought I deliberately did this on World about her.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I'm like, yo, this don't have nothing to do with you.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Ki sated Chili, but don't know why.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Like by the way, me saying that, nobody wants to
believe it.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
They all want to believe that the story was about her,
and you know, she was a character in my story
writing like she was the girl that he was talking
to because that was his girlfriend. But the entire story
of it was all music video.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
It didn't help, by the way, Yeah music that was
the actress. The actress that was casting was I was.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Yeah, that that'll make it a little believable for sure.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
For you man talk about Magic City uh, you know,
shouts to mister Magic shots to you know, it's it's
a it's a it's a cultural just milestone and hip
hop man. And you know, I think about the careers
that have been made out of that place and and
just it's you know, so much significance to what it
means in a certain era of hip hop and just
(29:35):
Atlanta in general. Why is it? Why do you think
it's what's so important to help tell that story.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Because like you you know, you being in l A
and I feel like one of the things that's missing
from the Atlanta hip hop cloth is that the culture
of Atlanta is never really talked about. Right the artist
has talked about, Well, what happens in the city is
never really talked about. And the thing that happens most
(30:03):
in the city is strip clubs, and it's looked down upon, right,
It's looked down upon, like it's degrading women and this,
that and the third.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
So I feel like the right light hadn't.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Been shined on it to make sure that people lose
that space. Right, Like, even like gang banging in la
I feel like at some point in time people probably
thought gang bang was the worst thing that ever happened
in America, but then it became life, and it became
something that you just have to deal with and the
rest of the world has to deal with it. And
it is what it is. When you go to la
(30:33):
it's what it is. You go to a neighborhood, this
is what's happening. You gotta it's an automatic thing for
you to say this a blood neighborhood, that it's a
cript neighborhood. I just wanted people to be like the
same thing, like when you come to Atlanta, don't be
shy to talk about the strip clubs because so much
has happened in Blue Flame, the Gentlemen's club Nikkis, you know,
(30:54):
and like Nikkis Little Nikkis is where Tupac shot the police,
right and crazy like, but that's the image that the
club has as opposed to, like, yeah, as opposed to
being a place where we would go to and.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Have a good time.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
And I just feel like it's time for you know,
Atlanta hasn't only have one movie in this whole cultural explosion,
which was at l and atl didn't really dive into
the culture of Atlanta besides the skating ring. And that's
by the way, that's cultural as well. But we got
other things that that Atlanta holds onto. That's why did
Freaknick as well?
Speaker 1 (31:30):
What an era. It's crazy because I saw I saw recently,
like didn't a girl get mad that she was in
the documentary in Freaknik? Yeah? No, she was just she
was she like a lawyer now or something.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
She was she I mean, she was. She was one
of the girls that said she had a bad experience, right,
you know, and and you know like even that, we
can't we can't, we can't hide that because everybody's experience
at at at Freaknick was different.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Right, yo was there? I think about Usher as an artist.
I don't think a lot of people know like when
he was a kid, he was around Dungeon family a lot.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Uh yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
I mean, well he signed in the face, so anything
that was going on face he was, they was probably
putting him in.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
I think about like my way and as a as
a young kid, because I was probably nine or ten,
and that was the first song that I just remember,
like you couldn't turn on the radio without hearing that record,
and that was in that was in Phoenix, you know,
(32:37):
KKF R Phoenix, And I just remember that song was
just like I remember, I bought the single because I
couldn't afford get the album in the single days did
you have, like you have any idea, man, that that this,
this relationship with you and USh would be Like, I mean,
it's it's really it's really a one of a kind
dynamic you guys have when it comes to the history
(32:59):
that's been made, especially when it comes to just overpowering
a genre, like in the way that you guys' records
has studid test of time and the amount of you know,
hits on the board. Man, it's it's unprecedented. I don't
feel like we've seen anything like it since at least.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yeah, I mean I think you know, when we first
started working together, we wanted to I wanted to be
his Quincy, you know what I mean, That's what I wanted.
We wanted to be Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, USh and JD.
That's that's that. That was what we.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Had in our mind.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
You know, we didn't know who he's gonna go there,
Like even when you hear you say my Way was
getting played like that. You know, that's the first album
that I ever produced the R and B singer Male
ever I never I ain't even had no experience to
do it, so I didn't even know what I was doing.
I just was doing it and going off my gut, right,
So to see that it was successful and hit people
was playing and all that, it's like, you know, that
(33:53):
still gets me excited because I didn't know what I
was doing.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Did you and Chris ever work like anything?
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Why did Shorty like mine for bow?
Speaker 1 (34:00):
But that's it, that's about. It was that something that
just for whatever reason, just because I feel like you
and Chris Brown, I mean, fuck man, it feels like
the kind of collaboration that's like twenty years overdue at
this point.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I mean for a minute that I stayed away from
being in that space because I'm very competitive and I'm
very true to my artists, and I felt like, you know,
him and ushers, they competition, little competition.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
So the hypothetical verses that always just thrown out.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
There, always out there.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
So I'm just like, you know, the thing that Chris
don't have that usher got is me m you know
what I mean?
Speaker 1 (34:33):
And you still feel that way.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, so, but but I'm past the point of like
how I felt about not working with him. I would
work with Chris Now do and give Chris Brown his
own space?
Speaker 3 (34:46):
And you know, would you have.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
To get the green light from Usher? Would you ask
him like, hey, No.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I mean, I'm sure it might be something, but I'm
saying I wouldn't even go into that space because, like
I said, I know what records I give Usher.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
We don't.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
We don't do this enough where I know what Usher
sounds is. I would have to find with what Jamainey
pre Chris Brown records sound like. I wouldn't get Chris
Brown or Usher song. That wouldn't be my goal.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
That makes sense, It makes sense. Talk to me, what's
the collaboration on this Magic City project that you're most
excited about that you were most excited to make it happen?
Speaker 2 (35:21):
The idea of me putting new and older artists on
the record together and it being accepted because that breaks
the monotony of people acting like this person ain't relevant
and like, I actually think that that kills that word
because relevancy and rap and hip hop is only based
(35:42):
on who you paying attention to, right, I'd be saying
people say Jermainey pre He ain't not relevant? Okay, Money
Long record was on the radio more than anybody else's
record last year. So what does that mean for me?
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Right?
Speaker 2 (35:55):
And that's just because you wasn't paying all attention to
it and you ain't hear me talk on the record, so.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
You ain't Yeah, you didn't hear yourself. Yeah, because I
think most people in their head, they think of JD
as like you're gonna say you're.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
So if that's what I'm saying, relevance comes from you
paying attention to it. And I feel like that's where
you know, it's gotten blown out of proportion in hip
hop because people just use it like you ain't even relevant.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
And that means I feel like there's certain people that
are always relevant. I think you're one of those people.
I think Snoops one of those people with nobody.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Says always relevant.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Snoop Dogg would be relevant until he's in the dirt.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
And that's what I'm saying. Relevant Ultimately, it's just you
being in the mix. It ain't got to do with like,
you know what I mean. So I think that I
feel like that's the most That's the thing that I'm
really excited about because me asking the artists to be
on these records. I haven't had anyone yet, be like, man,
I ain't don't want.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
To do no song with that.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
I'm actually asking the artists who they want on this,
Like who would they want to do?
Speaker 1 (36:49):
You got Belly Gang on the album. Yeah, yeah, he's tough, yo.
The days of I think I think of yourself. I
think we talked just Blaze a little bit. He would
talk on records obviously, I mean Diddy, Swiss Beats. Those
days are gone. It's all about the producer tag now. Yeah,
(37:12):
what Like it's interesting because you know metro Boom is
so big that tag like he don't got to get
But I miss the days where you would like know
the producer's voice, like I'd be like, oh shit, it's
a JD record. This shit's crazy.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
I get on it, and I stopped doing it because
I got.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Bored, Like you won't bust that out at all.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
I mean no, I've been doing it a lot, but
you know, like I got bored, Like I get tired
of him, y'all. I mean I get tired of you
even saying y'all know what this is like even on
this album right now, I'm producing every song and every
artist that come in there, and they're like, yo, I
know it ain't no hit till you put that.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Y'all know what this is is.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I'm sitting over there, sitting there like I wouldn't gonna
do it on this song, right, And then if I
don't do it on they song, they feel like I
ain't need I ain't trying to break they song. I'm
trying to break somebody else song. So it's just like,
I mean, it's.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Just gets annoying to me.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
After while, who was in the thought process of being
on walking to Atlanta that didn't make it that you
were like, yo, who are some of the names that
were getting floated around like just outcast? Just outcast? And
did that almost happen?
Speaker 3 (38:16):
No?
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Well yeah, but it wasn't Welcome to Atlanta. I didn't
have Welcome to Atlanta until I watched Ludacris video and
did the same thing, the Kains Ofsose thing again, because
Ludacris is upside down in his video and it's a
floor mat under him that says welcome to Atlanta, and
he's rapping under that.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
So I saw the floor.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Mat, and I saw Ludacris and I was like, that's
the song. I need to do it, And I called
him and I told him that, and then it just
automatically happened.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
That's fucking crazy, guys, are so say? Is that like
a big That's.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
My favorite That's one of my favorite movies. I just
feel like that's like to write a movie like that.
And then you start you, I start doing you start
using it as a method.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
I start using it about you know, it's a method
of life. Period. It's just crazy.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Yeah, So when when is everything coming out?
Speaker 2 (39:08):
August fifteenth is supposed to be. You know, the documentary
definitely drops August fifteenth. I'm trying to get these records,
you know, get their early records done, and make sure
that happens on that date. If it don't, it's because
you know, I didn't get everybody I wanted, and I
can't put out the record without me getting everybody I want.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
So you're almost done. Yeah, I'm just waiting for some
features to get over there over the fish.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
I just got to go get them. That's the difference.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
I gotta go actually physically go get thee Are are.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
You executive producing anybody's albums right now?
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Well, I'm working on Ari Lennox. I got Ari lynx
next single. Like we said, division signed a bunch of
new artists. I have a bunch of calls because.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Just when you're signing new artists, is it to Social Death.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yeah, so I got a new deal Social Death High basically,
and yeah, so I'm signed to do artists I'm doing,
you know, still doing what I do.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Man shouts and so so deaf. I think I told
you I told this to BT. Funk Devi is one of
my favorite albums ever. Female snoop Dogg. Yeah, y'all nailed that.
That was like the female Doggi style. Bro. And she's
from the Midwest and you're from Atlanta, but y'all nailed
the sound.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Like I mean, it's crazy because people we all talking
about that yesterday. I think that people just connected so
many different things to it because Funk the five was
actually not George Clinton. It's between the Sheets, but we
replayed it so a maga sound keyboard ish right, and
Draydam was using keyboards. So I think that that people
(40:41):
just connected it two but it wasn't like Between the
Sheets is the same record that Big Papa is, but.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
It don't sound funked out like right funk the five.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
So yeah, there it is, man. But look August fifteenth,
the documentary's out. Yeah, shouts to Magic City and then
hopefully the album will be.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
It's coming, It's coming on.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
You know.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
I'm you know, we got, we got. I just shot
the new video use Magicity Money and the single actually drops.
The new single will drop next frome J Money, Sean
Paul from the Young Bloods.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
You Never Heard of Week Sean Paul versus My Life.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Banna Bee and h bank Roll nine fire.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Last question, your thoughts on producer's using artificial intelligence. There's this, uh,
this controversy with Timbling going on right now. Is it
is like, what are your thoughts on the AI thing?
And is it anything that you would do?
Speaker 2 (41:33):
I don't even think about it because I feel like
it's like it creates a laziness to me, you know
what I mean. If you're gonna rely on somebody else
to make your beats, it almost go back to like
what we're talking about with the Doctor Drake conversation. I'm
gonna feel like I felt back then, like anybody that
do that, I'm not gonna be like you can't battle
me with no AI.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
Yeah, it's just yeah, man, it just feels like the
AI shit's getting icky.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
I'll just say, and I will say this, shout out
to YouTube because they just did something today saying that
is you are a content creator and you're using AI
voices and AI things to create content on YouTube, you
will not get paid. So shout out to YouTube.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Yeah, that you got to use your real voice. Yeah,
and they're gonna push dope shit into the into the algorithm.
Yeah yeah, because there's so many of these dormant YouTube
pages where they'll just type in a script and it's
they're fucking printing money off there.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
They're gonna shut that down. So I mean, I'm proud
to see people pushing.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
Back on Yeah for sure. Well listen, JD Man, you're
a fucking legend, one of the greatest of all time.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
I cannot wait to hear the album. I cannot wait
to watch the documentary on Stars August fifteenth. Yes, sir,
there it is Man three Yeah, boom fire
Hosts And Creators
James Andre Jefferson Jr.
Bootleg Kev
Brian Baumgartner
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