Uncle Pro Wants You!

In the Spring, taxpaying Americans collected their long overdue stimulus checks from Uncle Sam to help boost our slumping economy. Well, this Fall, buzzworthy Chicago artists have the opportunity to collect their hardship stimulus BEATS to help boost the slumping music industry courtesty of Uncle Pro a.k.a. Prolyfic.

Here's the get down:

In light of the recent recession, election, and soon to be removal of George Dub-ya. Chicago's own Prolyfic decided to give something back to the community, just as our soon to be former president did. So Prolyfic in conjunction with Fake Shore Drive & NoIDvsTraxster is giving out free "stimulus" beats to all of you citizens in the Chicago community that filed your taxes over the past year (i.e. made a worthy/notable buzz for yourself). If you meet the qualifications you may collect one free beat from producer Prolyfic in a timely manner. The catch is: you have to provide the sample that you want him to "hook up" for you. "I'll take the sample flip it, hell I might flip it twice give you back the track or tracks and you can do whatever you liiiiiiiiiiiiiike heeeeey" (c) T.I. (All rights reserved of course)

Sounds good to be for $Free.99 ($FREE.99?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?) (c) College Dropout

See if you qualify today!

http://fakeshoredrive.blogspot.com/2008/04/fsd-interviews-prolyfic.html

Chicago producer and true hip-hop head, Prolyfic, sat down with Fake Shore Drive to discuss his history in hip-hop, the early days of 1st & 15th Records, his work on Food & Liquor, and Pro clears the air on the Lupe Fiasco/Okayplayer e-drama that set the internet ablaze a few months back.


Your hip-hop roots run pretty deep. Let's talk a bit about your background in the culture

Well, at one point in time I did every element. Eventually though, I had to say this element is my calling, this element isn't my calling and I'm too old to be just learning how to do this, because I tried to learn breakdancing and I was 18 or something….I just needed to slow down and really focus on one of these (laughs).

Do you still write graf?

Every time I have a piece of paper and a pencil in my hand, I'll do a quick throwup and tag my name a bunch of times, but nothing serious. I don't draw elaborate pieces anymore. I think I'm starting to lose the talent, because I used to draw comics and I really can't do it anymore. I feel like art is kind of "if you don't use it, you lose it". So I found myself going to the comic book store and getting a Wizard book to try and retrain myself because I kind of miss it

Really, because I used to be in to drawing. I did comics and graf and I feel like even though I may be a little rusty, I can get back in my grove pretty quickly. It's nowhere near where I was back in high school, but it's still there, I stopped writing once I turned 18 though – I didn't need to catch a case as an adult

(laughs) I think everybody's attitude changed, with the exception of a few people, once they hit that 18 mark – "What, a felony?" (laughs). But before that, you wouldn't catch me anywhere without some kind of scratch rocks, a Sharpee, a paint marker, a streaker, some shoe polish….just getting up on everything I could. I'd have a backpack with at least 4 different Krylon colors, a ziplock bag full of caps. The fatheads, the wides prays, the liner caps.

The good old days…

The good old days! (laughs)

You used to rap too, right?

I started out as a battle rapper, I mean if you really want to go back, back. Back in 7th and 8th grade I was really into MC Ren and I wanted to be a gangster rapper. One time I wound up calling Ruthless Records – remember back in the days there used to be numbers on the back of the albums for you to contact the label – they don't do that anymore. But I ended up getting through to someone, and I got them on the phone and I just started spitting, you know, some lyrics that I shouldn't have even been saying at that age and my Grandmother heard it and shut it down immediately. Who knows what could have happened with that. But then once I got to High School, my school was in the hood, but there was this one lunch table that was filled with heads, like Bush Babee type of heads and they used to rap everyday at lunch. So I started hanging around the table and these dudes were like seniors and I was a freshman looking up to these guys. I started to come around and I slowly started to spit my raps and after a while I just became a regular, so then they graduated and I took their place and formed a crew. We would go to different parties around the city to battle people but we didn't really have any equipment or producers to work with us. At the time I was working at a bowling alley, being a porter, therefore I was the only person in my crew with any form of income. So out of all of the things I could have purchased, I went out and bought a karaoke machine (laughs).

You just wanted to have that microphone and the recording tape deck!

Right, I didn't know nothing, I just wanted a mic and a place to record. My boy down the street had a Gemini starter kit, so I bought that from him for $100 and then I started going record shopping. I would go to Coop's Underground on 87th and Stony, or I would go to Gramaphone up north and I would get my wax and try to find instrumentals for us to rap on, so now we making karaoke raps on other peoples beats. Finally we realized we had to make our own songs over our own beats so I bought a Gemini DS 1224 sampler, a fifteen second piece of shit. I would find little sections of a rap beat, that I knew was underground, and not many people knew about, or at least I didn't think they knew about and the try to make a beat around that sample. For instance, I once used "At the Speed of Life" by Xzibit and just looped a part I liked and would play my music over it.

So around that time, I got recruited by this crew, they were called Ill Nature, and that started my battle career. Our crew was like Rap Olympics style battling. We battled Juice, we battled 'Fest [Rhymefest], we battled anyone who wanted it. The first All City battle I competed in, I battled Profound and I came in second place. The only reason I lost, and I had the crowd behind me the whole time, was because my mind was doing too much for me. I went so hard in the first round that by the next round I kept goin' back and repeating lines and I just couldn't think of nothing. But I was the runner-up in my first All City battle and then I won the next two straight. This was between 1997-2000.

But back to the production talk. One time Pugs [Pugs Atomz] called me out, because he had come over to do a track and he peeped the whole technique. We had just finished freestylin' and he called me out: "Pro, you still making beats out of other rap beats" (laughs). I was like awwwww! So I knew I had to do a little more at that point. My grandmother had a classic collection of records, like Beethoven and Roger Williams - stuff that you just don't sample. I started learning how to chop them up and I upgraded to an Akai S20 sampler for like $500 bucks, not knowing could have dropped the extra $250 and got something better, but I really didn't know that at the time.

I mean $500 bucks might as well have been a million dollars at that time

And those were the days when you'd save your money for months for a big purchase. Every allowance or whatever, I'm saving money in June to buy the piece of equipment I wanted by November, you know.

Then I started working on my craft and getting better and better and there was this cat named Boogz, who I hooked up with at the time. We used to always hang out at the Point over on 55th and Lake Shore – that was Hip Hop land. We'd be at the Point and then we started going to the Euphonic parties and Boogz looked at me as a smaller version of himself. Boogz decided he wanted to take me under his wing, so he kinda took me in. He saw that I had a good ear for samples, but he knew I needed help on certain things. He showed me how to chop the samples up, you know the formulated chop that we use now. The way Dion (No ID) and Kanye do it. He showed me that style of chopping. He introduced me to people like Icedrake, Kanye West, No ID and Dug Infinite. So Boogz is really the person who is responsible for bringing me into the circle.

I ended up going over to a label called Infrared Records with Boogz for a while. I started coming around there and at first they didn't pay me no mind, but after a while they noticed me and my work, so they offered me a contract. The contract was kind of janky, but I was moving further than I'd ever moved, so I couldn't let this opportunity pass me by. I wasn't doing nothin' at home so let me just go ahead and deal with whatever's to become later. Because at this point, I'm meeting people that I've always looked up to. I never in a million years thought I'd meet No ID! I grew up listening to Resurrection!

So fast forward, I was over at Infrared and we're doing the thing. Mind you, a lot of people don't know this –but Infrared is a small success story in their own right. You've got myself, you've got Boogz, you've got Yung Berg – who was originally Ice Berg, TeeJay, Twone Gabz, LEP – RIP to Larro, as one structured unit. So to see everyone branch out later on was kind of crazy to me. The structure of the company eventually began to fall apart due to death, prison, poor management, etc. So Boogz gets fed up and goes out to New York to politic with Foxy Brown's people. Boogz was out there because he was tired of sittin' so he was running around shopping beats in New York, and Anton [Foxy Brown's brother and A&R] said I have a partner I want you to meet back in Chicago. So they sent Boogz back to Chicago to meet up with a guy by the name of Chilly, who was forming a company called First N Fifteenth. So after Boogz left Infrared, I eventually became the man over there by default. However, Boogz always promised that he would come back for me. One day he called and told me he was getting a crib and I could move in with him, and it was perfect timing, because I was getting into it with my Grandma over doing the music thing, so I just left.

So you were FNF bound right after that…

Yeah I went home and moved out all of my stuff and I became a part of First N Fifteenth. At that time it was me, Chilly, Boogz and Lupe. That was right around the time that Stacks [Stack Bundles] was supposed to be signing, but I think his father had stepped in and decided they didn't want to do it. So Stacks was part of the family when he'd be in town. Before Boogz and I came along there were also two producers, Frankie B Nice and DJ Marbles. It turned out Chilly met Gemini (GemStones) at a studio session during the same week that Chilly met Boogz, and Gemini brought along this cat named Sport. Then boom, the whole company was formed in the matter of two weeks. Some people came later, like Soundtrakk came between the Arista and Atlantic deal.

So around this time FNF had just signed with Arista, correct?

Yeah we had that deal, Jermaine Dupri wanted to take over the project, but around that time Arista folded and we lost the deal. Around the time Arista folded we had released this sampler and we were blowing away everyone at the showcases and we had a feeling that Lupe was the next thing. The label was playing us Scott Storch records and Just Blaze records, but Chilly was very big on making sure that no other producers were over me and Boogz. So right before we lost the deal, Chilly got knocked and that's when Jay [Jay-Z] stepped in. Jay wanted to get Kanye and Just Blaze involved in the project, but then he heard me and Boogz and was "Okay, I guess we don't need the Kanye's or the Just Blaze's". So Jay stepped in and saved the deal with Arista because they were getting ready to drop us, and then Artista folds.

Daryl Jones, who was our A&R on Arista at the time, ended up landing at Atlantic and got us the deal over there. Let me just make this clear that this is like a two year story compacted into a few minutes (laughs).

So when Chill got knocked how did that shake up the company?

We kind of started to go downhill at that point, but we got back on our feet and we started to record the album for Atlantic, and they gave us full creative control. Daryl Jones was the overseeing A&R, but we had the final say so, which made it even better. It was much better than Artista where it was their way or the highway.

Having complete creative control on a new artist's project in this day in age almost seems unfathomable. Even four years ago…

Right, it was unheard of because basically the only person we had to answer to was Craig Kallman and that was pretty much it, and he was only involved so much…

So right around that time was when Lupe appeared on Kanye West's "Touch the Sky" if I'm not mistaken

Right. Which is funny because we tried to reach out to Kanye back in the Arista days and Kanye gave us an outrageous price. Then later on, once Jay stepped in, Kanye winded up getting involved. So 'Ye put Lupe on the "Touch the Sky' record and they did the video. And around that time we pretty much had Food & Liquor done. We recorded Food & Liquor like five or six times, actually. I mean, just in the course of a few years, we were on our own and it was mainly just me and Lupe working on it and constructing the record. We would record five records and the best of those records would make it to the next round to battle another five records. Then those records would become Food & Liquor – and then we had the leak.

The leak heard round the world as some called it…

When the leak happened, it was just kind of like "Ahh, you got to be kidding me", it was almost overnight and the completed Food & Liquor was on the web. And I don't know, there's been lots of speculation, whether it was inside or whether it was label affiliated…

So to this day you still don't know who leaked it?

We still don't know what happened. It put a monkey wrench in everything. And it was really crazy for me because most of my work was on the leak. See I got truncated down to three tracks on the album, when I originally had 7 or 8 tracks. I still think they should have used some of the records from the leaked version. Boogz left the company, so they didn't use any of the Boogz material, which I to this day don't agree with. He has a record that is out there but it isn't too wide spread it's called "Ghetto Story" – and it's an incredible record. Still one of Lupe's best records and it will never officially see the light of day.

I mean the buzz for that album was so crazy, that once it leaked it spread like wildfire throughout the internet. I can't lie, I had it.

Yeah – like crazy. I remember getting the call from Lupe and he was giving me the tracklisting of the leaked album, because we didn't think there was any way all of these could have leaked. So Lupe gave me the tracklisting, and I had never heard of any of the songs before, because whoever did it, was titling them whatever word Lupe said in the first few seconds – like "Pressure" was called "Trials & Tribulations" because Lupe said it at the beginning. So we downloaded the album to find out what tracks leaked – imagine downloading your OWN album. Like "what the fuck" and every song that we held for Food & Liquor was on there.

So the story goes as follows, and I question this myself, but it goes like this: we had creative control of the project and we weren't giving records to the label. Craig Kallman got pissed and said "Well, I need some music and if you don't, I'm going to find you breach of contract". So we gave some records to Craig and he supposedly gave them to some of his A&R's to work, and then from there it hit the web.

For those that don't know, of the tracks you produced, which ones made the official release of Food & Liquor

"Just Might Be Okay", "Pressure", "American Terrorist" and the bonus track, so for when I originally had 7.

I bet you can't even describe how tight you were over that

Man, because I had put my heart and soul into those tracks! Those records were like my babies. So then we set out to replace those records and that's when Kanye came in and Pharrell came in. We previously had Needlz and Nottz involved, but they chose not to use Nottz' record, "Failure", because it was already out there, and that was another track they should have kept in my opinion. Because Lupe's new fans don't know anything about the old, original material. Some of the stuff is available online, but only the real heads and hip-hop nerds have it.

I personally liked the leaked version better.

We all do (laughs). That's like a hands down type of thing. I haven't really ran across too many people who, with the exception of those who don't really know about the leak like that, that like the official better than the leak. There are a few reasons why the leak is better - the sequence of the album, it was years and years of songs that stood the test of time as opposed to what was on the official Food & Liquor, which was made in a rush.

Yeah but real quick, I just want to note that Lupe wasn't my first industry exposure – my first experience was Foxy Brown. But things didn't work out with her because she would, let's say, "take" my beats, make songs, and release them on mixtapes. If they weren't the right response then she wouldn't buy them from me.

Also, do you remember the infamous "Chaining Day" ceremony from the Kanye West "Through The Wire" video, where Dame gives Kanye his Roc-A-Fella chain?

Of course…

Me and Boogz was on stage with Kanye that night. I was there because I had sold "On & Poppin" to Oschino & Sparks for the Dream Tream/Paid In Full Soundtrack – that was actually my first official placement. So when they came to Chi we spent the day with them. I got to hang out and meet Jay and get a hug from Beyonce. We were backstage watching the show and you see everyone about to go on stage and walking through the hallway: Dame, Twista, Bleek all of them. That was another exciting moment at the beginning of my career.

Back then I was just the tag-a-long. Boogz was the man and I rolled with him, I was the little shorty he rolled with. Boogz would bring me around, so I would meet the Kanye's, the Icedrake's. If he wanted to go out to No ID's crib at 3AM, I'd take hin out there. I'd carry the crates – I was the intern (laughs). Nobody wants to do that anymore, people don't want to carry those crates anymore.

So now you're working with No ID, correct? I know you're contributing to the No ID vs. Traxster website

That's my friend, mentor, teacher on many different levels, and not just music. He gives me a lot of advice because some of the situations he went through were similar to those that I've gone through, so we connect on a lot of different levels. But on the music side he gives me a lot pointers, suggestions and stuff. Sometimes I don't catch them right away, I'll have to do my research and figure it out on my own. Dion's whole thing is he doesn't just sit you down and teach you everything. What he does is he gives you hints and clues, but at the end of the day you gotta get it on your own. He won't tell you where he got those records from, he won't tell you where those drums are from, but he'll lead you there.

I know a few months back there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding some comments you made regarding Lupe Fiasco and 1st & 15th's shoddy business practices. Has this issue since been resolved.

No. Everything I the same way it's been since the year before Food & Liquor was released. People think that this is something new – it's not. This isn't new, but I just didn't put it out there because, you know how people are from Chicago – for lack of better words – we're not bitches.

What happened with the Okaypayer situation was that since Food & Liquor dropped I constantly get attacked for the kind of beats that I make. So somebody got me so mad on the okayplayer board that I decied to set the record straight. So when I did so, people started asking me questions and it just got too widespread and I let some personal business that didn't need to be out there, out there. I don't take back a single word that I typed because it was all true. I didn't exaggerate a single word I typed. Truth be told, Lupe is the most disloyal person I've ever met in my life. He's loyal to certain people and that's where it starts and ends. The love I showed him as a person, not just a producer, I didn't expect what I got back. I kept it in for years, and I know for years and years to come everyone is going to ask me about this Okayplayer situation. Me and the company parted ways a half a year before Food & Liquor came out and I legally left the company the February after Food & liquor was released. So this was something that had been brewing for a long time. My contract was not fulfilled and finally I sought legal help – my legal issues were with the company and Chilly, as a business man. I like to use a quote I heard Mase use regarding Puffy from a long time ago: "I have no issues with Puffy, my only issues was that he did business and called it family". It was family to my face, but business on paper. I trusted that the business and the family was the same, but I got burned in the end. It has nothing to do with Lupe's music, it has to do with him as a person. Because if Lupe lived next door to me, we'd be fighting everyday. Lupe didn't show any loyalty or concern to a person who was in his corner from day one. When Chilly got locked up, we was broke making records. Boogz left. We was broke, eating bologna sandwiches, wearing the same t-shirts everyday making records. It was just me, Gemini, Lupe and Sport. Everyday. We had some people come and check on us from time to time, not financially of course. Then every Friday we would go to visit Chilly. Me and Lupe talked for hours on end everyday, but then once he started to get some attention and a little bit of stardom, he stopped answering the phone, he stopped coming around it was just like "Fuck Pro". I was more loyal to him than I was some of my family members. I thought I met a very good friend late in life.

This issue may never be resolved. I really don't care, it was just a live and learn lesson type of thing. I still love his music, but as far as mending this – I just really don't know. I still think his music is dope though – probably a little too complex for most and I think that's his biggest vice. But I still think he's extremely intelligent and I think he has the capability of becoming something great, but his vice for striving to be too complex is hindering his growth. He's always trying to be that next, next, next. Always. Whether it be fashion, his music, whatever.

I know a lot of the fans would like to see you two work together again in the future – do you ever see that happening?

Well, I tried to reach out to him a while back, via email and also via Daryl Jones, trying to say "Look man, we don't have to agree personally, but we have fans that want to see us work together and we don't have to kick the bo-bo's, but let's just work, because at the end of the day the product is going to conquer the beef". But he shot it down. So I don't know if you'll ever see it again.

What upcoming projects do you have in the pipeline? What's next for Prolyfic?

On the hip-hop side of things we're doing a project with Elzhi from Slum Village. The project will be two tracks from the various producers involved: Me, 1120, Soundtrakk, Brian "All Day" Miller, No ID and when I last spoke to Elzhi he said he wanted to get Black Milk and Pete Rock on the project as well. I told Elzhi that we're going to shoot to have this album released by mid-summer, and I told Elzhi that the track he's doing with me is going to be a straight radio smash

I'm happy to hear that because I'm definitely an Elzhi fan. People have been waiting on his solo release

He has a lot of fans who have been waiting on some new material and an actual anthem because he has a strong following and so do a lot of the producers involved on the project. Also people may want to hear a producer such as myself, or Soundtrakk producing for someone besides Lupe. So it's a nice platform, it will open up a lot of doors from that point. And I think this band of producers kind of wants to start doing similar projects. I've thought about approaching Phonte about doing something in this fashion.

How did the project with Elzhi come about?

It initially started out as just an EP with me, Soundtrakk and 1120. I emailed Elz about the idea, doing six songs with two beats from each of us and put it out. He emailed me back and said he wanted to be down. So then I called Dion to see if he wanted to be down and No ID said he was with it. And we asked Brian to get down, and he admitted that he grew up on Elz, so he jumped in it as well.

On a lower scale, and I'm trying to get my crew, Ill Nature to make some good records. I also have a guy name Ras Rok who has been with me since day one – I'm always working on his project. Aside from that I have this chick named Bliss, she's out of New Jersey, but that's more on the pop side of things. Finally, the Thundercats who are singed to Murder Inc who are kind of a NERD meets the Gym Class Heroes.

I'm trying to get some songs done and then shop them, I've also been working with Dion on some stuff.

*If you're looking to reach out to Pro for serious production inquiries, you can reach him via Myspace, or his No ID vs. Traxster blog.
Posted by Andrew Barber at 5:44 PM

Don't judge a book by it's cover is what many people shouted when Lupe Fiasco came by on his skateboard. With all the build up, leaks, hype and cosigns for his first album it's no wonder alot of people really didnt get it. One person who did get it, really got it, and then left it, and then got it again. Prolyfic from the Chi, one of the original members of Lupe's production team 1st and 15th speaks on the real Lupe, his contributions to 'Food and Liqour' and why people can't be trusted in this business. As if we didn't already agree.

What's good Prolyfic? For those who may be new to the name, let them know the resume.

What's up Hatch. Well…My very first (industry) placement was with Oschino and Sparks on the Dream Team/Paid In Full Soundtrack, titled "On and Poppin." After that, I didn't see the light of day (release wise) until Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor and everything that revolved around that project including the leak and some mixtapes that grew popular and MTV's My Block Chicago soundtrack … On Food & Liquor, I did 'Just Might Be Okay', 'Pressure' featuring Jay-z, American Terrorist, and Carrera Lu. On the Food & Liquor leak, I produced Theme Music To A Drive By (intro), Pimp Hand (Make Sure), And He Gets The Girl, Pills (Out There ), and Trails and Tribulations (Pressure). On the My Block Sountrack, I did Pills and Candy (by Gemeni). As far as the Lupe songs on mixtapes, I did Boss Playa and Mean and Vicious

You've been grinding for some time now homie, congrats on the Lupe records, how did that relationship start?

I was with a company called Infa-Red Records (Chi-Town's L.E.P.) and at the time the situation wasn't going so well. A (Big Brother Esq.) producer friend of mine named Boogz (who was the reason I was with the company in the first place), left Infa-Red to go to 1st and 15th. We'd talk and he'd tell me he was coming back for me, and sure enough he did. The funny thing about FNF is the entire roster from producers to rappers was formed in a total of about 2 weeks.

That album was dope, a lot of people didn't get it though, what was your take on Lupe's first go round, was it the label or the reaction?

A little bit of both ya know. It always is. You can never just put it off on the label without including the people and vice versa. I really just don't think neither was ready for it, and then when he got pegged as a "skate board rapper" it lost a lot of people because they wouldn't even give the album a chance just based off of their differences with the lead single. I mean I remember asking my neighbor to support me, and all he kept doing was talking about how he didn't wanna hear "no skate board rapper." I'd tell him that it was just that one song but you know how ya niggas are, they not listening. It wasn't until a month after he bought it that he listened to it and called me up like "yo dis nigga got some shit!" and I was like "see I told you." So overall F&L was a classic case of judging a book by it's cover. I also think going between 2 different deals while working on releasing the same album gave us way too much idle time to remove and replace songs, and sometimes that can be a double edged sword, because if you asked me, some of the best material didn't get to make it to the stores. Over that course of time, Lupe's image changed drastically, and certain records that did not fit the "new" image got the axe just plain because of the content and he didn't wanna put that type of stuff out to the world…But this was all Lupe's idea on his own, not the parent company .

I understand yourself and Lupes camp, 1st and 15th had a falling out and theirs some blogs and internet gangsta sh*t going on, what's your side of the story?

Well it is what it is. I'm sure most people who wanna know read what was typed. Nothing I said was fabricated or exaggerated. And to be truthfully honest…What happened was we let some personal business get out there that should've stayed personal. But look at it like this … Who doesn't have THESE types of problems in this game?? WELCOME TO THE MUSIC BUSINESS (slogan) right? But in no way am I trying to use that as a platform to project myself, and for those who speculate, this is not a current matter nor has it been a current matter since the end of 2006, which is when we LEGALLY parted ways . Everything people are reading are past emotions, but it's still facts. I mean this went on for over a year before I got legal help so you do the math. At the end of the day I was told and promised this, that, and the third … HOWEVER, I got the complete opposite … period. I trusted them, for good (family orientated) reasons, so who wouldn't be upset. But right now, I'm on me, and let that man do him. Just don't get out there and lie that's all. I mean like I said I don't have business issues with Lupe cuz he didn't handle any business. I have PERSONAL (loyalty type) issues with Lupe, like as a human being, fuck the music … That's why I speak of him and the company in 2 separate breaths, because all my business issues were with Chilly, and I really don't have any quarrels with Chilly other than what I already told him when we were parting ways which was: he did business and called it family, but in no way was any of the moves made, made in the best interest of anyone but himself. That's why when people use the word "family" it's like "c'mon man." You might as well be telling me to turn around and bend over. But like, I can still chop it up with Chilly… As for Lupe? Not sure if we can be in the same room…ya dig ? But I definitely learned some valuable lessons. You gotta get your shit together in this game. Get your management right, your attorney right, and the right people in your corner.

Enough of the industry BS, what made you want to follow the career path of a producer? Were there any mentors or special influences that drove your decision?

I was the epitome of a backpacker in my teenage days so you know I had a crew right? We were a bunch of battle rappers. Anyways, long story short, I was the only one with a job and a source of income so I bought all the equipment for us to record. I mean, from that point its pretty much common sense how the next few years went. We got tired of rapping over other people's tracks so I "attempted" to do my own thing with a tascam 4 track and a Gemini DS 1224 sampler … Over the years, I kept upgrading equipment and getting better and better (still wack tho). Boogz pulled me aside one day and told me he seen the potential in me and begun to mold me and bring me into the circle.

If not for Boogz, I don't know if I would've ever gotten to where I am today, so I owe a lot to him … I'll never forget the day I sat in my room and weighed the two, rapping vs producing, and what had the higher probability of failure or success compared to the amount of people that was doing the 2 fields (at the time). I choose to fall back on rapping and go hard on production. Not that I wasn't good in rapping because I won All-City twice, and was runner up in the very first All-City I entered, but because I felt (as in back then) like I had a higher success rate in a field that actually cost money just to register to enter, as opposed to rapping where it don't take no money to start writing raps…

As far as influences goes, it's different time periods of my life that I listened to different things so I would morph periodically. Anyone will tell you I'm a very diverse person, but to drop a few names , I'll say Rza and all his understudies, Premo, Pete Rock, Timbo, Dre, Company Flow, and a lot of alternative … But honestly once i got in the Chicago family circle, we gave/give each other all the inspiration we need. And it's about at least 10 definite members: from Ye' to Dug Inf to s.c. to Soundtrakk to Boogz to Ice Drake , to No i.d. - which is my mentor also (all of us for the most part) - the list goes on.

9 times out of ten if you hearing about them and they from the Chi, then they are with, or was with us at some point or another. No i.d. is like the Godfather of all us Chicago producers that are a part of "the circle" .. him and Dug Inf started all this, and we are products of them.

I heard you helped Kanye pack and move out of the Chi, did you ever think that he would be one of today's biggest music icons?

Well, I didn't help him "move out" the Chi, but I did contribute to some of the earlier packing, and I was around trying get him to come off a few records lol … As far as Ye' goes, we always knew it. It was undeniable . The very first time i heard his shit, I would think to myself "what is the problem, why ain't this dude gone (huge)?" And the funny thing is, is that some of my peers ask me the same questions when I play tracks today. I guess we all got our time.

Now, I tell you what's even more interesting is when you have a beat CD and you slowly watch every single beat on the CD (as in with Kanye) turn into major placements and/or hits, it's so encouraging because you get to see what is was and what it becomes.

I know that you rock with Riggs Morales, VP of AR for Shady record, who in my eyes is one of the realest dudes in the game, how did it turn out the started to manage you?

I was just finalizing my release papers from FNF when No i.d. told me he might have a situation for me. He had been speaking me up to Riggs, and Riggs was looking for a new producer to break, so after a few conversations, it seemed like a perfect fit. And then Riggs was talking to his boy Josh about me in the office one day, when I called up to check in…I was heading to Atlanta for the weekend to see Groove at Tree Sound Studios, and it turns out Josh was heading there too. Josh was out there with one of his producers, Frequency, and we wound up clicking, going around town playing beats for everyone from Raekwon to Lil' Mama to Don Cannon. Long story short, I'm now co-managed by Josh and Riggs.

Aside from the Lupe album, what other projects have you and are you working on?

Well, I really had to rebuild ya know? So I left FNF on some Dr. Dre shit, with nothing … So you'll hear a lot more from me over the next year as opposed to last year. As of right now, I'm working with Mikkey Halsted. He's in the process of finalizing a deal with Jive. I'm also doing work on a real dope artist out of jersey named Bliss. She's gonna generate a nice amount of fans once she gets out there. Other than that, I'm chasing the rat race like every other producer out there. A lot of tentative projects, but nothing concrete, and I'm not one to boast about things that could possibly never materialize. But God willing that might possibly be changing very soon **winks**

What do you think are some of the biggest misconceptions about the music industry that producers tend to experience?

That it's a cash cow. And all I ever hear people who don't know say is: "man people are stupid they'll go for anything." Well, if so why is it that when you make an attempt to just do "anything," they don't go for it then? Those simple records ain't as easy as they seem. IN FACT, they are actually harder, which is why a Jermaine Dupri is number one for the most 1 hits and the only person even close is Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis … Look it up if you like .

How can serious production inquiries be made on your behalf?

To get tracks hit Riggs or Josh at joshuakamen@gmail.com…or worse come to worst, hit me at myspace.com/prolyficfnf and I'll direct you to the proper channels…Or if you know him, hit No.id.

Any shouts?

Yea, to the team … 1120, Soundtrakk, No.i.d., Boogz, and last but not least, Fas, my ace boon coon. To the business team: Josh, Riggs, and Scott Mason (thanks for getting me free)…and to Byron "Urkel" Crawford (the Geek who sat at the lunch table by himself in high school) …Yo, eat a dick homie. I think everyone liked it better when you couldn't control the slob from running down your mouth while laughing. Don't front like that wasn't you homie, we seen the video of you.

original link > http://www.hoodgrownonline.com/online/?p=744

ok movie heads try this one on for size

let's play a movie quote charades game ..

i'm gonna start off with a quote from a movie ....
(now people don't go poppin' in random movies just for the sake of finding spur of the moment quotes these need to be some of YOUR favorite movies in which you should pretty much know the movie by heart)

.... the only way you can list your own quote is to post a quote from a movie previously listed .
what i mean is i post a quote the next man post another quote from my movie , and then they can post a quote from their own movie and so on and so on ...

DO NOT PUT THE TITLE OF THE MOVIE IN YOUR POST OR RESPONSE UNTIL THERE IS AT LEAST 3 QUOTES FROM THE MOVIE SITTING THERE . so for you people that have no clue what the movie is , u'll just have to wait ...
after that if someone wants to just keep adding nice little sections from that movie for the sake of "check this line out" then that is fine.

Break the rules and your post will never make it to the blog

ok here's the first quote ...


"I wanted to put a bullet between the eyes of every panda that would'nt screw to save it's species ."




Have Fun People

btw let me know if the very first quote is too hard

one last notation ... ras & josh great comebacks to get the ball rolling , but for future references can you all put your own quotes separated from the responses , that way your movie can be replied to on it's own section (so to speak)

If you'd like to submit music you can do so by emailing it to >> thisatest123@gmail.com << Please don't bombard me with questions after you submit it as to if i listened to it or not bcuz i can't possibly go thru everything all at once ... this is a email that my entire team goes thru so if one of us likes the music then we will contact you ... BTW VERY IMPORTANT.... IF YOUR MUSIC IS NOT IN MP3 FORMAT IT WILL NOT GET LISTENED TO ...AGAIN ... IF YOUR MUSIC IS NOT IN MP3 FORMAT IT WILL NOT GET LISTENED TO ..thank you

I WANT TO ADD THAT IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO GET AT LUPE , YOU'VE COME TO THE WRONG PLACE ... JUST MAKING SURE YOU ARE AWARE OF THAT !

AND PLEASE DON'T SEND ME WHAT YOU THINK I MIGHT LIKE OR WHAT YOU THINK IS SOMETHING THAT I WOULD DO BCUZ IF YOU GOING BY WHAT'S ON MY PAGE THEN YOU ARE PROBALLY WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY OFF ... I CAN'T STRESS THAT ENUFF

I Have alot of potentially BIG PROJECTS on the table, and I'm lookink for a few writers that can play a major role in the placement of some records I have . I know you all know me from the Lupe stuff , however that's not "exactly" the lane i'm in right now ! I'm more so looking for the type of writer that is HEAVILY IN-TUNED with the Charts and understands what it takes to satisfy millions of people. If you feel like this is you then feel free to drop a link below , where me and my management can take a listen to some of the stuff you have written . be it for yourself , or others . Also , if you are an established writer , and your resume checks out ( you are who you say you are ) , then please know that you will be on the top on the list to contact !! Note that this IS NOT A SEARCH FOR AN ARTIST , so if you don't have the look or whatever , but you can write your ass off , YOU ARE NEEDED !! At the same time if you are a WELL GROOMED artist and you write also , it''s a very strong possibility that I can get you/us , a situation . If you have the ability to reference and then email after you are finished , it's makes all the difference in the world , so keep that in mind .

so to the people that know me.... spread the word.

writers ..... Drop a Link , looking forward to hearing what you got !! and please ... be honest with yourself !!!!!

btw if it's A ACTUAL LINK then you'll prolly get heard before the urls that i have to copy and paste , and remember this is mainly for R&B / Pop .... I have rappers , so if you rap be exceptional !!