Bulet Cap Podcast Special guests in here my guy Young Bird aka hit Makers. Yes, yes, welcome, welcome, welcome, Manni you have me. Of course, first of all, we gotta talk about this. Is this a new chain? Yeah, this piece. I ain't gonna lie when when I left Atlantic, I left Atlantic a lot of people like my peers and co producers, like it was a bunch of like people in close friends talking down like, man, you know he's going to empire, like it might not work out for him.
You know. Really, Atlantic was really the fume behind the fire that was keeping him going. And I put so much work in that. I just said it last year, like like around this time, beginning the summer last year, I'm like, yo, for every Friday for the rest of the summer, it's gonna be a new release and it's gonna rain hit some niggas and people were just laughing at me. And then I would put this emoji up and then literally every Friday for the rest of the whole summer, like I had a hit that came out
or whatever. So I'm like, fuck, I'm just gonna make it a change to love the chain. Yeah, bro, appreciate it. I feel like Tory Lanez might get emotional over your chain. Man. I don't know. Man, if he hears the story, now he got it's the contact. Yeah, but it's like it was. It ain't never know that. Sh It's hard. H toy is amazing. You know what I'm saying. What is what is something like that? Run somebody all together like two sixty Jesus man, that's a real uh you know Atlanta house? No,
for sure, it's like a Lamborghini truck. It's a Louisville real estate. Nice little four bedroom in Louisville, you know what I mean. Yeah, I've been working hard though, so in LA. That'll get you attend on the side of the mat four five nothing. I'm moving from LA. I'm almost done. I'm building my house in Miami right now. So that's where it's at. I'm almost done with building my crib. I'm moving in like August something like that.
No state tax man, that's gonna be epic. You don't have to face state tax I mean, I know the gun laws are way more. No, it is. You good, it's staying your ground. It's all that stuff, you know what I'm saying. So you ain't got to worry about that out here is ridiculous with like all the bs that's going on in LA, Like they got to figure out a happy medium with the gun laws in between, you know what I'm saying, how they're trying to play
it because Nigga's acting crazy right now. Yeah, it's crazy because like it's so hot in l A and they make it so hard for you to like defend yourself. So it's like, but don't you like if you had a gun in your crib? Like you straight though, right, like I listen, I'm not the expert on the LA gun laws. I just know that, like if you were driving around with your piece, you got to have your bullets separated from the gun and the trunk or some shit. And it's like, well, what if someone runs up on
me and tries to fucking purpose to kill me? Yeah, shout out to rants from fifteen hundred nothing. I think he had linked up with some of the the shriffs and deputies or whatever. I saw that. I saw that. I think that there there's some people trying to kind of, like, like you said, have a happy medium because you don't want to like because you know, there's obviously places where you could just roll around open carry and you know,
not to get into politics. People feel how they feel, but there has to be a happy medium, especially in a place like LA where obviously it's an issue people are being targeted. La not the same no more though, bro, Like I remember, like even before I think a golden era was like supper Club and all that. And then even before supper Club, like how I used to watch Entourage and be like, man, like you would go to the w you go to Roosevelt, you go to this
spot and it's popping. It ain't even that no more. Like I don't even know, Like if somebody came to visit me, like yo, ware to go get some chicks set, Like where should we pop out? I couldn't even tell you. People always hit me and they're like, yo, I'm in La. Where Where? Where where's it at? I'm like, bro, I don't I be at the crib? Bro, I don't go. I don't know. I'm like, yo, go follow Sean Dickerson. I'm sure he's his IG page will tell you. Light room, Yeah,
highlight room. Good luck getting in there, though exactly they don't be playing at the highlight Room. Good fucking luck getting in man. So obviously you signed your situation when Empire about a year and a half ago. Yeah, like a year and a half. It's on my contract almost up and marches up and through that. Obviously you've put out some dope music you got, you got artists that you've signed under your imprint. You've gotten some big red obviously shout out young Blue. You know. Yeah, I don't
know Blue. Yeah, but we don't know if this is We know it's bel Air. I bought it because it said Blue on it. Yeah, and we know that he's he may or may not own that A part of the blue, we don't know. But shout out to our guy Blue man. You know. Coming to Empire was was really dope. I really wanted to. Like I said, I had a little like hate, you know what I'm saying with me leaving or whatever, leaving a major label system.
So like I really was, like, you know what, I'm just in a position where I'm gonna show people that the hits are following me. They don't have nothing to do with what's happening inside the building internally or who what CEO I might be working with or whatever. Like the hits is following me. And my team. And as you said, the first record that we did that went crazy was the Blue Record with Chris and Changed Baddest. I wanted to come out the gate smoking with that,
and I really appreciate old guys everybody over there. That record was like a reoccurring record or whatever. The current Yeah, it gets played over. Yeah. Still the record was top ten for forty seven weeks out of the year last Yeah, it's still very much. Uh. I mean here in LA it still pops up as like a power every three weeks because it researches so well, yeah, that's crazy. So that was a big one and then shit, we ate
a bunch more after that. So your Atlantic situation, because you were obviously producing so much music for a lot of the artists on the leg, but also you you know, obviously put put your single it was a hot box stop box, stop box, hot box stop box close enough hot box. Yeah, I think the title kind of like kept it a little bit too. I remember there were some awesome promo items for that song. Yeah, like we had made a box that had like a little condoms
like whatever your vibe was supposed to be. Yeah, So would you say that like like when you were in Atlantic, did you have a song deal with them or you had to like give them a certain amount of music every because I know some producers have those situations like I got a Homemie Miners got one of those three hundred huh. So this is kind of my situation with my career at Atlantic. I had a label deal, I was vice president of A and R, and I had
a song deal of course. And then I'm gonna be honest at pretty much every record company and the music business. I have a song deal with them right now, yeah, right now. Still, I have a song dealer Empire. I have a song deal with Epic Records. I have a
song deal with Atlantic Records. Of something like that work when you create enough leverage for yourself and you just known for delivering records instead of positioning yourself to where it's like I want a hundredth grand a track, or I want fifty grand in track, or you might go in and say, all right, bet, I want thirty five granded track, but you got to get thirty upfront. You gotta get in bulk like costco so they pay you. So with me as the way I produce, if I
was one hundred percent of producer or whatever. Then I would just get all the money myself and they would pay me for thirty songs upfront, which that probably like a million dollar right there or whatever. But the way I produce is that I have a bunch of co producers that I work with. It's not just one person
or one man operation. So I'll go and then they'll pay me for half of the songs up front, and then they'll save the other half for my co producers or whatever, who realistically might not be getting seventeen to five a track, you know what I'm saying. So, and that's how it ends up being dope. So if my song dealers forty grand at Epic Records, then I meet a new producer, I bring them in, I produce something on Epic. They're slayd in the system at forty grand
for that record. So at the very least, if they like, all right, take me away. When it's like, well I got paid twenty grand for my record, you could be on your first beat and have a track record inside that building infrastructure. So if you keep working without me or with me, and keep your foot on the gas,
you at twenty grand and track. Yeah, I do notice like there are some producers that will not give the co producers credit or they'll be like the big name and then you'll hear the tag you won't like I do, notice that you give a lot of love and credit to the people you collaborate with. Hell yeah, because ultimately, like I programmed Beasts before, I've done all that or whatever. But I've done stuff on my album, I've done stuff
on other releases that have come out. But at the same token, it was like, I'm just so creative and I just work at such a high level with you know what I'm saying. I'm trying to make ten records at night, so like to actually have as many songs and have as many things going. I think I had two hundred and twenty seven placements last year, so it's probably not physically possible to make two something songs a year and maybe fire fire and react and get plaques
form and all the other stuff. I just saw. You just hit a milestone. Was it a one hundred million sould? Yeah? Yeah, I'm involved with one hundred million records sold that I've either produced or co wrote, and that's super blessing. Man. I think a year ago I was at seventy so you had thirty million in a year. Yeah, that's crazy. I mean two hundred and seventy seven placements will do that for You had the numbers kind of match up
to that, you know what I'm saying. So I think it's like eleven billion streams and one hundred million, so I get the plaque when two days. So you've been like active since you were a kid. Yeah. Now was Bloodline Records and DMX your initial introduction to I guess the industry. Yeah, pretty much. That was like my first record deal. And the crazy thing about that is that, you know the story, Like I started in Chicago with a bunch of guys that were like, well, it's people
that notable. So I can say bugs who works with Kanye's my brother? Yeah, I just saw I just saw him at the Push the show. Yeoh. He literally taught me how to be a producer. Robson, Yeah, Like he did everything with me. He produced my whole entire demo which got me signed the Bloodline and he was basically essentially what I am right now. But actually he was
programming and doing stuff like that then. But books basically had relationships with no idea with Kanye with different people, and my whole demo was produced by bugs no Idea so far, and he's a great guy and we still work together like he's still my mentor he's killing it right now. Yeah, so like me books and then back in the day, they were a group called L E. P which transitioned to Infrared and they were like the street guys behind us, and I had a bidding war
like that. Everybody wanted to sign me. Rockefeller wanted how old are you at this time? Fourteen? Yeah, so Rockefeller wanted to sign me, Tommy Boy wanted to sign me, Depth Jam, just the whole DMX everybody. And the crazy thing is how I ended up meeting DMX was Eve stylists introduced me to DMX or whatever at the time. And the crazy thing is we ended up on meeting at what these bitches want from a Nigga video set at at Paramount Lot in Hollywood still to this day
in LA and I remember it. It was like fucking Eliyah was there. Dragon, DMX met the man. It was like a two day they shoot a crazy vibe. I meet DMX and like DMX like they like trying to introduce me to X and like back then, I was like four foot four, like I was really like a little guy, and uh DMX, like it was shortly, I'm gonna go smoke this and and I'm all back. He had like a few chicks with him and like open his hand had a bunch of caliweed or whatever. So
he went smoked. I went out on the trailer and they basically was like rap. He was like rap for me, and I'm like, all right, bet so I rapped and I think I kicked like one of the Twister type flows. I said, like on that vibe and he's like, shorty, relax, I don't understand the fucking words you said. Give me a different vibe. So I ended up spinning another verse, which they went crazy for because I'm like a little
kid going crazy. But like I had so many bricks in my wraps and all those stuff, like I was talking super street shit and left my demo. The next day, I came back to the video set and like DMX was banging my demo out the trailer like loud, like going crazy to it, and it was bugs with me. It was all these same people, these same guys, and I remember Kevin Lous walked up to me. He was like, man, you ready for your life to change. I'm like, man, hey, you like your life by the change from this day.
And then DMX ended up signing me the Bloodline Records. Wow, it was Bloodline through Death jam Yeah through Death. Shout to Kevin Lyle, stand up guy, Yeah Man, shout out to keV Man. Speaking of keV Man, I got song deal with three hundreds. Still look at this all these years later, to be it's crazy that I worked so closely with Tina Davis, who was like with depth Ja when I was a kid, and then now I worked Impament or whatever, and it is what it is. So
you met DMX ended up signing with Bloodline. Obviously the Bloodline thing probably didn't work out. I think it, like a lot of us had hoped it would have. Yeah, I think that X just wasn't ready to run his own company like that or whatever, Like he was just too big, like because that was like, uh, what was that before? That was like right before the Great Depression? Yeah, this is this is like cause and there was X was that was that was that? Was that that what
these bitches want was on that album. Yeah, So it was right after in the midst of that album and right out there, I think this What comes to mind is I remember being in Toronto when we were filming Exit Wounds with Steven Seagal and all that other you were there. Yeah, I stayed with X the whole time while he did Exit Wounds. That's crazy. Yep, I remember that. And wasn't Dragon in that movie. Yep, drag was in
a movie. Everybody was out there, like Toronto was crazy, and like that's how like another thing went viral when I was promoting thought Box. That's how dmxtle my first piece of pussy. When I was like a kid, like we had went to a club and like met a bunch of girls. We got back in a car, like I remember I was in the back seat feeling up the girls, she feeling on me. Whatever. We going to
my hotel room. I'm literally like putting my key in a hotel and like the man is like a dog in real life, Like he just opened up the door of his suite. Was like, yo, ma, I think you lover a person here. And she had never been to the hotel or nothing, and she literally left me and went in DMX room and got up purse DMX at that time, he is, you know, the biggest motherfucker on the planet. Yeah, Like, man, I don't know what we say,
like equivalent, what was he like? Right? You know what's crazy because when I was a kid going to like the Hard Knock Life Tour, I left, like, you know, I loved jay Z, but like I was there to see DMX. So DMX went on before Hove, which at the time was kind of crazy because DMX was the bigger artist at the time. You think they were like swapping headlining. No, because it was that was the I was a Rockefeller tour. It was a Hard Knock Life to Yeah, So I remember DMX performed and just destroyed it.
And you know, Jay's stage energy is different than DMX, so it's like night and day. DMX just got to praying, crying off stage and before that, Method Made and Raymond were flying around. I went to the concert. I remember that, Yeah, and when Hove went on, like it was cool, but like me and my cousin left, you know what I mean, shout out to Hope. But I saw Hope thirty eight times after that. But yo, what man, We got to stop the interview real quick to tell you about our
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blue choo dot com. Let's get back to the interview. Yeah, so now obviously you get through the bloodline thing and then you start catching a wave as a solo artist young Berg. Now that's like I was Iceberg then with in DMX era and then I became young Berg and your was your first, uh what was your first like big record as young Berg because you had a few. Sexy Lady was the big record that I started here? Who was on the hook? It was a guy named Junior.
Kind of like similar to how like I create a bunch well, you know, I've created a lot of records like in my career, like a bunch of the singers or people that were on my reference to Homi. Yeah, like they were just people that I were working with artist or that turned into artists that I will work with as well. And I still do that in my career right now, Like I have a bunch of people that are I meet his songwriters that I empower and their dream is to be an artist. So that ends
up happening. But Sexy Lady is a crazy story because remember club called Privilege, Yeah I heard of it. Remember TK who now works for Hypnosis. You remember the promoter TK that used to do Privilege, Well, man, he did every crazy Listen when Sexy Lady came out, I was like eighteen and is an intern in Phoenix. Okay, cool, so I was too. Actually I was going to say you and I did did some clubs together, some eighteen and up clubs in Arizona during that I was like
eighteen at the same time. And the funny thing is my weed man at the time was a club promoter at the club, and he ended up introducing me to DJ Echo from Power one six or whatever and Echo with just go and just like playing my record in the club. And I used to come in there like super young kid chin chill on, just wilding out or whatever.
And then we built like a group of people to where a community to where like my manager would hand out a clipboard everywhere, would get everybody's email, get everybody's number or whatever, and tell them it was for parties, but it turned into being a number for them to call for Power one oh six to play my record. Oh shit. So I went and Echo took me into a mixing meeting at Power one oh six. I didn't know nobody, and he went in there like, yo, this
record is reacting crazy in the clubs. This is this kid, and they brought me in at the end of the mixing meeting. I went in there, I told my life story pretty much. I cried through the water works on them for a little bit at the end of it. And then next thing I know, it started off at Mike Show. It was a light rotation and then before I even got a record deal out in Power rotation with that independent. Yeah, no, that's crazy. That doesn't happen. That was crazy. That was like one of the that
was a wild thing. I've never seen it happen like that. That's a very you. That's like a unicorn situation, man. And with me not being from l A as well, was even the kicks, Right, you're not from LA or don't have a label behind you. Yeah, that's a that's that doesn't happen, man. Yeah, that's a crazy story. So from there you get your deal. Yeap, that got you signed? Yep, that got me signed. An epic shout out to Charlie Walk Katie Welly, my bro Billy J who still manages
with me. Now. Basically my bro Billy J worked for John Monopoly and we like in the same age, and he literally hit up Katie he was looking for someone else that was working in epic. Katie Welly ended up answering the phone. Katie was an assistant at the time. Took me to Keith nafterly they came to like one of my performances that I did out here in La. It went crazy and then Ship I got a label deal from there. What was the other record that you had that all the bitches used to grind to? I
played Business the business, Oh my god. That was after c So it started with just love that still you can still play. You can still drop that Ship like as a oh wow. Yeah, niggas like you were Drake before Drake, like you were singing I'm like, bro, shut up, bro, no Drake and Drake I was me. But the crazy thing about it was that was after Sexy Can I. Yeah, Sexy Can I was a moment. So it was Sexy Lady, then Sexy can I. So look how I get the Sexy can I record? I think, you know, ray J
was legendary. I think it's like a little he was just he was a sniper back then. Like I loved ray J so real Coxsmith, you know, I put him on my ep and then from there we ended up being cool and he hit me out the blue and was like, Yo, I got this record. You know what Sexy can I? You got, you got the Sexy Lady. We do the Sexy can I. I'm like, bro, you want to be the sexiest nigga in the world. Yo, How I'm gonna go from Sexy Lady Sexy can I?
And I already had the song of Business right, so like I was thinking, like I knew where I wanted to go with my next record, and from there they they flew me to New York because I was like, I'm not doing the record Charlie Walker, I'll never forget it. I come in this office. He's a president of EPIC. He's dancing on top of a grand piano and Charlie walks like a little dude, like he probably like five five two. He's dancing. He's turned up to Sexy Cannot playing a song. I don't know if he was like
playing a trick on me or whatever. So he's like, Yo, it's gonna be the biggest record of your career. It's gonna be one of the biggest ones. D da da da, And I was just like, I don't want to do it. He's like, what's gonna take you to do this record? I'm like, yo, call Jason at Beverly Hills and buy me an epic record Shane right now. And he called Jason. It probably came out my budget or whatever, but they made me an epic record chain and then where's that now?
I gave it to one of the homies I used to wear it back in the day or whatever. That's such a random chain, Like I got an epic record chain. Literally have an epic record Shane with my face on the back of it in my album title and all that and shout out to Jason Beverly here. So in order for you to get on Sexy Canna, they had to provide you with the epic records chain. Yeah, damn, and Sexy Can I ain't gonna lie it still is.
It's like diamond or some shit like that, like if you kind of like, I don't even know how to equated to added up because the sales was so different. I think it probably sold like six million singles. But then you got to think about ring tones and then see whatever, it was a bunch of shit going on. Yeah, it was a different, different era where you actually had to ring back ring tone, you had to actually set I remember going to the store and buying like a
single on a CD like that. Shit was crazy. Yeah, they have the instrumental the remix. Yeah, so sexy Ken. I was like it was a blessing though, because I'll never forget when we did the final record. What year was that? Eight damn yep yep. So when we did when we were finalizing the record, I wrote my little
verses or whatever. I wrote my verses like in Miami, and I went to the studio with my friend at the time, the girl who sang the hook on the business, Casher, and I went with and and ray J. We went to Encore and ray J was there. It's like after he did this Vivid deal or whatever, so like he was on a different level, like he was we've all everyone' seen his dick by this time. Bro, he's in a different bag. So we go in there and like he's asking cash or like, yo, you mind if I play
these play these videos. He pulls out like DVDs and it's like vivid porns and ship or whatever, and like I'm like, bro, play that ship. I don't care, Like you know, this is different. It's my homie, Like this is my girl. Like it's just saying this ain't no super duper relationship. It's like my best friend. So Tierre Marie was there with him and I think that was his girlfriend at the time. While we're doing it crazy enough and he did that. We finished the record and
we went to Miami. We shot the video and upon shooting the video, like the first take of the video, I'm smoking up a blunt. It's probably like a roach. Were about to shoot the first shot in hell at once, and I throw it out the Lamborghini. The police that was securing us on the set came and picked up the roach and took me to jail before the first shot of the whole video on sex. Yeah, we was in Miami because you threw a blunt out. Yeah, they
took me to jail. On the set of Sexy Ken I I went into jail and the crazy to get Shaquille and Ray j was partners, and Shaquille O'Neil ended up bailing me out of jail and so I could come back to the video. I didn't get out of jail until probably wait, shaq bailed you out? Yeah, I didn't get out of jail until probably like I and PM. So it's from like nine am like it out to night jail. Yeah. Oh man, Yeah, I recently had a twenty four hour little jail sit down. That shit sucks. Ye,
that terrible. Using the toilet paper as a pillow. Yeoh bro, jail is not it? It is not it. Stay away, ladies and jentlemen. Damn that's crazy. Yeah, out shack man. And then obviously, like I feel like, at what point in time did you make a conscientious effort to start branding hit Maker and start kind of not being necessarily
the face of the music and working more behind the scenes. Probably, Like I mean, I was still after like because you were doing like love and hip hop and shit, right, I was put after that after that, so like but sweet, so boom, all that stuff happens, and my career kind of calms down as a rapper. I had the partner ways with Epic Records, and then I was just lost in the sauce for a while. I didn't know I
was on. I just kept doing mixtapes. I ended up meeting DJ ill Will and Different I Will Yeah, and then doing mixtapes. And then when I finally made like the Conscious Effort. The first song I think anybody ever heard me say hitmaker on was for a DJ Infamous who's out of Atlanta. He had he had like a collap album. And then I did it single with a song called double Cup. It was WITHJ I was doing the hook, performing the hook, g Z and Ludacris. I
remember that record, and that was a dope record. Time I said a hit maker and that was a record I delivered to him. That was a hard record too. I remember that ship. I think I was living in Tampa. Was that like twenty fourteen, way before that. I think that's like eleven in Vegas. That was yeah, that was when I was in Vegas. I was like, I remember the song though, Yeah, shout out to Infamous. That was like eleven. That was like mixtape Ara Juicy J. When
Juicy had the mixtape Ship. It was like Bads and make You Dance Jay Like he was going crazy. He was going crazy. So that's the first time you said hit maker, did you Because at a certain point in time, like you said, like things kind of started to slow down for you in terms of like the young Berg thing, Like obviously a bunch of shit happened. You kind of
had a stigma attached you. How hard was it to fight through that era of your career because some people aren't built to survive some of the shit that you had to go through. Yeah, it was pretty devastating, you know what I'm saying, because like all I knew was music, Like we just spoke, like I got my first deal at thirteen, I dropped your whole life. Yeah, I dropped out of high school in ninth grade, and so all
I knew was music or whatever. And then then go through that and it not be something like a lot of the trial trip relations I went through went personally my mistakes. It was about me being around the wrong people or me not surrounding myself with people that wanted to see me win. So to no, it was like it wasn't self inflicted, Like it hurt even more so. Luckily I had enough finances or whatever, and my dad
believed in me a bunch or whatever of it. And I just decided, like, man, one day, like they just don't want this shit for me, Like this shit is still fired, but they just don't want it for me. So then I just switched the whole player. That takes a lot of humility too, because we were just having a discussion about an artist that we both know who's a talented writer. But it's like egos a motherfucker, And it's very much like hard to take yourself out of
the spotlight. Like it's like it's still your shit, You're still getting your money off it, but it ain't your face attached to it. But I think at that point, man, I did all the craziest things that I wanted to do. Like you got that out of your system? Yeah? Like bro, like I've literally like entertained seven women at one time or just like you had an eight suit, yes, like wild out, bugged out stuff. You gotta breakwall first of all seven women and you Yeah, that seems like it
could be stressful. It was just a party. It was a party, yeah, like everybody was it really? Like are you like lining them up? Like I think everybody had attention on everybody. Okay, okay, it wasn't like specific to one, you know what I'm saying. Like, it wasn't no rules on it. It was just like we were all in, you know, like bang bros. Like they'll stack like ashes on top of it. Did you do that? I ain't do that. I was still young though. I was still like,
you gotta think this sexy lady, sexy? Can I raise a eraror like you gotta remember I was like eighteen nineteen on Explosive on the Chronic two thousand and one one riding Dick one. Look at my toes, and what's this the case for you? I'm not really a feet type of guy. I'm not fun neither am I neither of my I'm not touching your feet. No, no no, no no, no no. I'll I'll suck at my wife's feet. But I would feel kind of strange if she wanted to suck on my feet. I'd be like, I'm a grown
ass man, why are you sucking on my toes? I'm good off both. I don't want to suck no toes. You gotta suck myne So you had eight sims. You you kind of got a lot of shit out of your system. So you start running the behind the scenes plays and it's so crazy because I remember I might have been talking to it might have been like Geasy or somebody maybe in like twenty sixteen seventeen, where like I finally realized that hit maker was you the g and I did that. I think that was around the
time I did nineteen forty two for G Easy. It was before that. It was before that, because I remember him bringing you up and I'd already know who you were in that right, because that was a later record. But yeah, you did such a good job of like because I'm you know, at the time, I wasn't living in LA and I wasn't like going to studio sessions like I do now. I wasn't as like entrenched in like the industry side of things, So I just would hear your tag and shit, and I had no idea
that it was. I'm like, oh shit, that was yeah, that was that was interesting. I used to do like different tags or whatever. That was also a struggle too, because a lot of people, like when you're coming up, they didn't want my tag on. They shit, you know what I'm saying now, People will pay me to put
my tag on they shit like approach me. I don't do that, but I've had massive people approach me and be like, you put my tag on the package, I'll get like thirty grand, thirty grand, But I don't do it because it's hard to like not be able to explain a record. All these records, I'm pretty much I'm involved from the birth to the end. I'm the guy that has the demo, that does the demo with the co writer, that does everything, and then I'm the guy that mixes it and turns it into the labels. So
I think, man, I was trying to sneak in. Another time, I got the hit maker shit off. I did my hoes they do drugs, a record for King Louis, Juicy J and Push your Teeth And that's when Push Your te found out that I was young berg still and I was hit making at the same time or whatever, and that was another sneaky one, and infamous one came out.
And then after that I moved back to LA and I actually end up beating Vincent Herbert and this is when like he had God got and he was over an in the Scope and Tamar Braxton I ended up working with her and did a record with her, and I signed my publishing deal with Mike Karen based off that, and that's what brought me back to LA and it's I was, so I'm so connected from the love and hip hop shit that was twenty fourteen. So that was after you moved back to LA. Yeah, So I moved
back to LA. I produced a couple cuts, and then I was working with a few different people doing the whole APG Mike Karen move and then from there I was at APG. Well, some life changing shit happened in those moments. I ended up meeting Jeremiah. Like during that time all you guys have had countless Yeah, Like I ended up meeting j and then damn, Like before Love and hip Hop, I didn't know Jay and I was just doing my cuts and like nobody knew that, Like it was no way to be like man to associate
me with that or whatever. So I actually was like, fuck it, I'm gonna do love and hip Hop because I wanted to like let people know that I that I was doing shit. And now in the process of starting doing the love and hip hop, that's when I meet Jeremiah that's when I was at APG at Mike Karen Studio and popping. Okay, I stumbled across some of that beats and I went and I did a hook to it, and I named it Nicki and hit Maker, and I'm like, yo, I'm gonna meet Nicki Minaj. I'm
telling you I'm gonna start working with it. Well, I was just talking shit, hyping myself up. And then one day I go to Glenwood Studio and a guy named Sounds who's like a producer, friend of mine or whatever. I was with him, just chilling with him and found out my boy was like, Yo, Nicki Minaj in the other room. I'm like, oh shit, go tell I'm here.
I want to play some shit. When they came and got me, I played it some shit and from there, like, I got really close with Nicki and just was locked in. So then I'm doing love and hip hop and I'm like, okay, it's gonna really we ain't start shooting yet, we were about to start shooting. I'm like, okay, this shit makes sense for me to start shooting this shit becuz I could just go and tell everybody I'm working with Puffy.
I'm working with Nicki Minaj whatever, and I was so cool with them that they wasn't mad at me saying it on TV? Was it like? Because I feel like the love and hip hop think can be good in a bat like it could either be good for your career or it can negatively affect what you got going on because there is a stigma to love and hip hop. Like, how did you how do you feel like it affected your ship? It was drama, you know what I'm saying. But that just come with the love and hip hop ship.
But to me, honestly, like because who I was on that show on the show at the same time you run ray J. Was that when like Molly mal was on there and Molly Mal Soldier boy, little Fish Jesus ship. That is pretty little think about it. That's what that would omarion. So yeah, that was that first season and it was it was cool. I mean, you know ship at that point, I didn't have ship, you know what I'm saying. I was trying to get my exposure. I was somewhat trying to regroup. I had a couple of cuts.
But you know how it is when you're a producer and a songwriter. Initially You'll have a couple joints that were like when a bona fide hit, It wasn't like a holy ship moment, you know, and it was just like, Okay, you got a single, you got a couple of placements or whatever. And then from there I ended up. After that, I left, and then that's when Nikki came out. And which records did you do for Nikki? Shit? Want some more?
Buy a hard Shanghai? I don't know. I think like five records on a pink remember, Yeah, that was like twenty fourteen. Yeah, that's crazy, man. Do you remember your first like the first record that kind of changed things for you as quote unquote hitmaker, like that first plaque, well plaques, I guess it was that. But the record that changed my whole career probably is Big Sean Bounce Back. And I was working this after Love and Hip Hop.
I went on tour with Jeremiah and he was on tour with j Cole and Big Sean and YG and like, I went on the whole tour with Jay and then we got off tour and then I was just working with Jay, continually working, and then I formed a somewhat of relationship with Big Sean. So I was like, yo, like I want to get you records like I've been already vibing with Sean. Ended up getting him that record. Me and a lot of people don't know me and Jeremiah came up with the hook to bounce back or
whatever like. We just did it at my crib up basement. I had like a big ass crib in Chatsworth. I bought like a seven seven thousand square foot crib in it by myself. I didn't have much furniture. I was just in that thugging with girls every day, and I set up a makeshift studio. J came to my crib. We did that record. I played it for Sean. He did it and he was like, yo, like I don't I don't know, like I like this record, A lot
of people like it. Let's just throw it out there, like I don't know if it's a single, I don't think this, And I'm like, yo, this shit is out of here, and there metro booming that added on the record shot to Smash David, who also co produced the record with me, and then from there he threw that shit out and it was out of here, stupid, and then it was in all types of Super Bowl commercials and licenses and sinks, and then I think it was it performed his biggest record of his career, like sololy
By hisself. I think it went number two on Hot one hundred, and the shit was like, no, it was a huge even time flying something like yeah, no, no, what is what was that twenty seventeen or eighteen? I was like, twenty sixteen wasn't it? Was it? What album was that was that on? No? No, it was twenty seventeen seventeen going into twenty eighteen, and then right then from there I end up becoming a vice president an
R and Atlantic Damn. So when you're a vice president of an R, because like I get really I think I got a good grasp on the importance of an A and R. But I feel like most people who just hear that word don't really understand what an an R brings to the table, what they do, what the job description is, because I see a lot of people out here call themselves an rs, but they're they're not there. I don't know what the fuck they're doing but taking
pictures in the studio session exactly. So what would you say is like the key role of like what an A and R, like a good an R brings to the table. To me, I think it's like it's one
of two things. Like for me personally from what I've seen, Either you're a person like me who's a creative who's going to come in that if necessarily not gonna make the record with you or whatever, but it's going to be able to call a hit maker, call a metro booman, call of this person, whatever you need, whatever, you're the right people in the room together with you in the right place for this shit to happen for your shit
to be good creatively. Or you could just be a guy that just knows the building and just gonna champion you in a building and knows how to connect all the dots. That's not creative, you know what I'm saying, So linking me with the right video directly, you know what I'm saying, Just putting all the the in the building type of shit together. You know what I'm saying.
That's staying on a Guazi or standing on a Craig Calman and in a line raised face or in a teen of David's face, like yo, this is my art. You know what I'm saying like championing you inside the building. There's just kind of like two different types of an rs. Yeah for real, because like we think of like what you do right, You'll probably be like, Yo, I got this young artist that would sound dope with this writer that might sound dope with this producer, set up a session.
Shit me personally, Hell now, if i'm your A and R, I'm making the songs with you. Yeah, but then you're the producer that Yeah, so I'm pretty much your producer. If you get me a an R, I'm your producer. Damn yeah. Because I always feel like, you know, we hear people say what the fuck does an an R do? I'm like, it's there's a lot of shit, but it's
also like some people are just holding titles. I feel like, yeah, but if you and some people, that's because it's just a big revolving door in the music industry as far as like positions and shit like that or whatever, because people have relationships. But to me, I would empower all the young producers like myself or whatever like that, don't be scared to get in a building. Being a building
has been super beneficial for me. I talk to a lot of people a lot of people be like, man, like it might stifle me creatively, and I'm like, hell no. When I work with Atlantic, shit, they bought my studio for me. They paid for me to be in a studio twenty four to seven. So like I really I went to the A and R meetings and I did all the different stuff or whatever, but it was just like empowering me. Yeah, you gotta. It's like any situation
you got to figure out. How Like I don't use the word finesse, but kind of finessas in it like, if you can have Atlantic pay for your fucking recording studio, imagine how much more money you're gonna get out of that studio. And my deals are not exclusive with only one company. I've never I've yet to do a deal to where it's just like, yeah, I'm only making records for this company and no other person can pay me for a record. How cause you know, nowadays, I feel
like the producer market is more saturated than ever. It's kind of like DJ's Once Serrado came out, everybody could be a fucking DJ, right, And I feel like nowadays with production, it's kind of the same with Splice and you know, shit like that. You know. So, if there's like up and coming producers, how like, what would be the advice you would give them to stick out and to just kind of break through? Because I feel like there's once you break through a certain ceiling as a producer,
it seems like things just start coming to you. What up, y'all? Hey, we gotta stop the interview to tell you about our partners, the presenting sponsor of the Bootleg cav podcast, our family at odds Socks. Man, they're dropping so much heat at odd socks right now. Go to odd socksoficial dot com. Use the promo code bootleg keV. One word bootleg keV. You will save twenty percent off of checkout Listen. They got the socks, you know what I mean, shout out
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be selfless. You know you don't sign help me as many people as possible change their lives, you know what I'm saying, Like, put as many people in position as you can. That's why I work with anybody. I don't have like a souper like, oh no, you can't come make a record with me. Like if you hot and you dope, like and you a co writer and you a co producer, I'm gonna welcome that in because it might be a point to where I'm not HoTT and
you could throw me a bone. I think it's just creating a whole community around yourself to where you can look back and you change so many people lives and like a circle of successes like Dame and like they talking about it, because like somebody can pull you right up or and make sure you keep your relationships good with all the people that you work with if you
just start, and it would be dope. And my thing is like if you could catch one artist that you feel like is somebody that has the same driving mentality as you and y'all blow up together. Then that's super beneficial to build an artist sound. And that's one thing that I really didn't have the opportunity to do as a producer because I was already operating on such a high level once I was in a position that I was just working with everybody. But I didn't really like, well,
I'm doing that now. I feel like with Tink or whatever and all the stuff that we got going on, But I didn't really come up with one guy like how also, and you didn't come up with Tink she already for years. Yeah, But I'm just saying, like doing a whole album like how a Metro would do Future or south Side, you know what I'm saying, all the different you know, you kind of did that with the I mean I just in terms of doing the whole album, the Jeremi Tie record, yeah, which, by the way, that
shit was so criminally slept on. You know why I was fucked up two labels. Yeah, that's all every time it happens. I think that Depth Jam was kind of like in a weird space at that time too when we put it out, and because I don't know if anybody was at the seat, you know what I'm saying, remember like of that moment where nobody was actually the pressure. It seemed like for a while def Jam was very what the fuck are they doing over there? It was
an interesting time. And then I be honest, the record that we use is a single. The higher ups at Atlantic didn't want it to be the single on the group album. They wanted it to be the single on Ties album. And I'm like, nah, like Tye already got hits, we got Pineapple, we got this, when we got that one or whatever, like let's leave this for the group. And I think that they just both were uninterested on pushing it like how it was and that shit is
a fire great project. And it's crazy because I feel like any time that happens where there's like two labels, somehow it gets like it just happened with them. The six tape two with being on Black. I just talked to Blast about this. I was like, Yo, there was like hits on that album. It's just two labels, two men cooks in the kitchen. Man too many cooks in the kitchen, and like you know these motherfuckers, they're like, well, what about your ship? Yeah, And they didn't what we
said they wanted it to tie. You know what I'm saying, Like everybody, when you think about two different labels and two different artists on two different labels, their intentions is to keep the smash for them and their building, you know what I'm saying, more so than share a smash with another label. I saw. I think it was last year you had uh brought up a versus against Mustard potentially, and a lot of people thought you were absolutely crazy. I know it didn't just him, well, he thought you
were crazy. And it was funny because when I was talking to I was like, you know what, like, wow, Mustard has bigger records. I mean, you know in terms of like uh, the Rihanna, the fucking I'm not saying you don't. What I'm saying is I just thought that, like people didn't really dive enough into real like realize like what records you could bring to the test, Sleeper records that people don't even know. I was involved with John by Rick Ross and Lil Wayne. I'm involved in
that record. Shot to al a producer Orlando like bro like he can what is it twenty records? I have three records as me at our points, he don't have any of those I have three records as me that our points. You just said the business like people like, come on, I still have three records as me, Like that's easy. I just think I don't think people were giving you enough respect when you brought that up. You
know what it was. I think that, you know, me and him have a personal relationship and we've worked together and collaborated before, so I think that it probably may have rubbed him the wrong way just for somebody, like because he's been DJ Muster the whole time and I was I was burg a nigga that was just in
the studio bringing him records, writing records. We have plaques together, like I put Nicki Minaj on his single, like I've done records with him, but we had a fun It's because it was some bad business that was done behind a record and he just has had it which record record, the Whatever you Need Record meets Meek featuring Chris Brown and Ti dollar Sign, And I came and brought to him that record first, like it was my record. I
had to hook done Aaron Ray. Shout out to Aaron Ray. Yeah, he me and him wrote the hook on that record. The whole young lad who's a producer that works for me right now. We had the same beat, same samples, same everything or whatever. I gave Mustard the record and me and Mustard to stopped working at the time. He went and sold the record and did it. You know what I'm saying. I remember, like fast forward the time.
I'm sitting at the ASCAP Awards or whatever, and I'm sitting next to Meek and all them, and I won my award for dangerous or whatever I think, and then like they called me back up there for whatever you Need, and I'm like, what the fuck, this is my song whatever. So I ended up hitting up the powers that be and shout out to rock Nation. We ended up getting the squared away. So he just don't fuck with me. He just got to distaste for me anyway, so he wanted to go and do that. But it's kind of
like yo, like fam like we all multi millionaires. So that record Whatever you Need was a record you brought to him. It's my record. It's not even you brought to you. It was your record. And then he sold it without giving you any of the credit of one thousand percent Me and Aaron Ray. That's crazy. That seems like a wild thing. To do in twenty twenty, twenty nineteen. What was that? That was twenty eighteen? Yeah, eighteen. Yeah, it seems like a wild thing to do. I feel
like there's so much transparency. Like now it's like, dude, I have the session. Bro, Like this shit is dated and I got love for Musting Man, I ain't gonna yeah, Mustards are collaborated, We've done great work together. Whatever. He a cool guy. I don't got no bee for him or whatever. But my thing was just funny to me because it's like, oh, like you're really bothered by this, you know what I'm saying, Like, who am I supposed to say I'm gonna do a versus with? Like it's
only a few different people. Like what I'm gonna say that make rap music and R and B music at a certain level that I make it. So I was thinking, what Mustard London on the track? Who can I really say that's in a tier to actually be in a versus that does both of those. That's my type of you know what I'm saying, Rain, Yeah, that makes sense. So I mean he took it personally, but I know him, so I know why he took it personally and it's just funny to me, like it tickled me a little bit.
I think the Versus thing, man, I really think it's they got to figure something out because they've lost some steam because I totally did not even realize the ugk ape on m j G shit was happening. Yeah, by the time I realized that happened and it already happened. Yeah, they got to reinvent it, you know, they got to reinvent it. I feel they got to take it back to the gram man, or they might have just got the bag, you know, like, hey, we had a two
year run. Every business meant forever, and there's only so many verses you can do. Last time I checked, the whole game plan is to start a business, crank it up, excel it. Yes, I think the only thing they gotta they gotta try to do Usher versus Chris Brown, or they got to get like Kanye, right, Drake Usher verse Chris Brown. But they just did Kanye and Drake said, We're not doing a versus sell out of the whole stadium. Yeah, that's not happening. Drake walked into it versus not knowing that.
That's kind of how it felt on TV I was on vacation watching that shit, and I was like, oh, but you got it. So I wasn't in my you know what I'm saying, Like, I wasn't in a way and I wasn't meaning no disrespect with that whole versus shit or whatever. But you gotta really, this is a commentary what's going on in our culture right now. I work every day and I'm busting my ass for this shit.
So it's kind of like dall like for the last six years, like there's not been a summer off, there's not been a not plaque had like for six years straight. One hundred million records. Man, it's a big deal. Yeah for sure. So are you getting back to getting on the mic? No? Okay, so you got new music coming though? New single on the Way Down Bad is my new
single off my producer album Still. That's about the drop shot to the ladies with the first single, thought Box and the homies that jumped on it, and then this new single. Like how we was talking about me working with songwriters that might empower to be artists or whatever, that's just so fired of me. I got Ivory Scott, who I brought into the session. I was able to help him do a couple of things that was big
with Empire. One we did Baddest together and then we did he did Peru and fire Boy, you know what I'm saying. So that's another way you could be an a n R two. Technically, I put Ivory in a room to go do Peru for that record. So from there he's on the record, Jeremiah and Fabulous on the record. He's my normal collaborators. But man, I ain't gonna lie like. This is one of the one summer smash video shots. Beautiful, The women were beautiful, had like thirty girls with me. Man,
it was just good vibes. Thirty Yeah, you gonna see it. It's a nice it's a nice mix. Nice. Not quite the eight though. Yeah for the seven Nah, Nah, I ain't know that no more. That's over them days over. Yeah. I mean I feel like we got a shout out to my wife. You know, I got all that crazy shit out of exactly man. Yeah, super executive time. It's executive time. Man. Do you feel like do you do
you feel like nowadays? Man? Like because you're in a position that I think people look to you as like a leader, as like somebody who could change an artist
or songwriters, like do you feel that weight on your shoulders? Nah, it's happening organically, like man, like I've seen an interview with Dame Dash or whatever, and like I used to like I literally used to be saying this shit on my gram, Like, Yo, the name of my company is not trying records or not trying LLC because like literally, like me and my homies and my team, we go to the studio and it's not like we're trying to make a song, you know what I'm saying, Or let's
make a song for Beyonce today, or let's make this, or let's make a song with Taylor's. We just going there, have some drinks, smoke a little bit, and just let you have activity flow. And like that just turned into ten songs a night, ten songs a night. You do that for years straight and then you just able to load everybody up. So I don't know, like I'm just what was we talking about again? What was we saying?
What was the question again? I'm just saying, do you feel like the weight on your shoulders that like you're kind of happening organically like all the stuff that I'm doing or whatever, like even with me, like I think I was, well, I don't even think I know that. I kind of like I set out maybe four years ago, five years ago, six five, six years ago, and I'm like, yo, I'm gonna flip every record that I love from my childhood growing up, and I'm gonna make this sound. I'm
gonna be the puff Daddy of this generation. I'm gonna bring all these sounds back. And I really did it. And then now you see, like ever, but it's turned into a thing now, you know what I'm saying. So I just I was like, damn, well, I just need to follow my first instinct. So whatever feels good and whatever my my initial like reaction is, I just go with it for real. That's stuff, man. Well listen, when's the single drop? Oh? The single seventeenth this month? June?
Next Friday, Yeah, next Friday. Fin the seth of Something on Fire. When's the album coming out? The album's coming out in September. It was supposed to come out when I sold one hundred million records, but thank you God, that happened a little bit faster and I thought it was gonna happen, so like shite, it comes out in September. Man, it features everybody, the whole game, and salute to everybody that they ever made a produced album. Salute to cal It.
Like I said, I just seen an interview with south Side, Salute to him doing a produced album. Shooting man. Anybody to try to ship man, This ship is a nightmare. It is so many different moving parts, different labels, different legal teams, management, because Yo, you might know the artists and the artist is like, yeah, of course I got you, But then you got to talk to their fucking people, and then that's when it's just really political. You know
what I'm saying. It's just getting everybody on the same page and a lot of moving parts. So I salute anybody that does this type of album. It's a great body of work. We already got one gold single with thought Box. I'm about to put out this next single, get another play. Wait, thought Box isn't gonna been the album, is it? Yeah? I took it off. I took took the records from Atlantic. Oh Ship, Yeah, shout out to Atlantic. Did you do like a remix with like fucking ten chicks? Yeah?
I did a remix with dream Doll, Mulatto, Chinese Kitty, Dreazy and Young Young in May and the ship went super do remember man, it was bigger than a record, my initial record. But the guys was a Buggie Meeque, two Chains, the Mirror, and Tiger. I had them all on the record, all five on Damn. Yeah, it didn't work out. I think it was because the title was called thought Box and you got five guys on the record.
You know what I'm saying. That might move. But when I was literally in Vegas just turned up on a fucking We were working this back when the Poems had the studio on the Palms and we were just did they get rid of that? Yeah? Yeah, that was a great studio. That shit was amazing. We was in there working, just turned up and I'm like, man, Yo, the singles not moving like I wanted to move. Fucking I'm gonna go put all girls on the song. But I'm not gonna go reach for like Nikki or Cardi or the
top tier usual suspects. I'm gonna come get all the up and coming any girl that got over a million Instagram followers that I like and I fucked with their music. I'm gonna go put them on a song, and I felt like that way when they all press go at the same time, it could turn into pandemonium and just it became a thing, and that's what happened there. It is Man album coming out in September. Yes, single out next Friday. Appreciate your time, bro for pulling up Man my guy