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3/26/2009   You’re a hard guy to track down for an interview. Do you enjoy laying low?  Yep! (laughs) Hell yeah, man. You know, it eliminates the worrisome people, people who just want to get by to get by and people who don’t know what the grind is and don’t know how to grind and all that shit because they know they can get on quick. Nah. Uh uh. I can’t dig that shit, man.  A lot of producers, especially the younger ones, are masters in self-promotion. How do you think maintaining your low profile has helped you in the game?  Hmm…I don’t know. I really don’t know how it really helped me. I can’t even explain that. I’m just grinding, man, and people know I’m a grinder. They’re going to see me and they’re going to know what I’m doing. They’re going to know that I’m grinding it out. I mean, that’s basically it, man.  Do you think keeping a low profile hurt you in the past with getting placements?  In a way it did hurt me. But it goes back, man. A couple of homeboys I know, Pharrell and all these dudes knew me. They was going to a club and they were telling me how someone wanted them to hear their shit and he said to them, “You gotta get it like Nottz did.”  We’ve been grinding since day one and there’s a lot of dudes that’s underground like me and they ain’t really doing it like that. I tried to help some brothers out and put them on a lot of shit. There’s a lot of bullshit out here, man. There’s a lot of bullshit. And we’re letting it come in. We’re opening our arms to this shit. I’m trying to keep the real hip-hop alive, man. You got mad dudes that are still crazy like Pete Rock and Lord Finesse and Diamond D. And a lot of cats don’t respect that, especially the young generation. Those dudes don’t know what it is, for real. Those dudes are all about the dance and shit. I’m a real hip-hop dude. You know how that go.  Is that issue in the game today what inspired your single “Can't Hide the Truth"?  Yeah, man! Hell yeah! I mean, that right there, it’s from all these dudes coming out. You got your dudes that sound like Weezy. You got your dudes that sound like Jay. Dudes that sound like 50. You got dudes sounding like T.I. Dudes sounding like Snoop. Dudes sounding like Scarface. The older dudes, we know where that came from. The younger generation, they don’t know where that came from. They’re cool with it. Nah, man. We can’t let that ride, man. These dudes just started rapping yesterday and they’re making millions off of people who birthed that shit, whose shit that is, whose style that had stolen. That shit ain’t cool, man. That shit gotta be told, man.  And, you know, I’m not really a rapper. I can rap and I ain’t wack and I ain’t the hottest nigga on the planet, but I just feel like there’s some shit that needs to be told.  So getting some things off your chest is what’s inspiring you to rhyme as opposed to dropping a million freestyles and being known as opposed to being famous?  Right, man. I mean, the shit gotta be told. There ain’t too many dudes saying that shit, man. Nobody’s really talking about it and if they do, they probably say a slick-ass line in a verse, some crazy shit, and leave it at that and then they’re back to their bullshit. Nah, man. We did a whole song about that shit. That shit just needs to be told.  Why do you think MCs are avoiding talking about the fakeness that’s so prevalent today?   I have no idea, man. I have no idea. In one way, I’m thinking they don’t want to lose their fanbase, those young cats, those dudes who really don’t know. Grown niggas don’t want to hear that shit. Put that shit on a motherfucking record and put it in their face. Rap that shit. People know. Real hip-hop heads, they know. They know what’s going on.  How much does it bother you when you hear new producers biting the greats?  I mean, I don’t fuck with it. I’m not cool with that shit. That’s not cool to me. That shit is not fly. (laughs) And everybody’s blind to that shit and not understanding where that shit came from and how they came up with that fucking style. They’re just blind to that shit, man. And to let that shit in like that shit is fucking cool, it ain’t, man. That’s taking away from some of the cats that have been doing it for years. It’s taking away from their shit, man. And then you got some new cats sounding like you. We don’t need another somebody. We always need something fresh. The shit that’s coming out is not fucking brand new to me. Dudes done heard that shit before.  At what point did biting become acceptable to the younger artists and fans?  Shit, man, I don’t know, man. A lot of magazines, they hype that shit up like it’s cool. Especially you got shit in The Source and shit like that. There’s lending and the borrowing and shit like that and dudes read that shit like, ‘Okay, that’s where he got that line from!’ That shit ain’t cool, man. That ain’t cool. Write your own shit. I don’t consider somebody a rapper if somebody is writing this shit for him. If somebody has to write the shit for him, you’re not a rapper. I could see a dude telling him to say something about this and that. The dude ain’t writing it for you. The MC writes something to that, like a murder on the block or some crazy shit. You just write it the way you write it, not having someone write the verse for you. That’s not cool to me. That’s not rap to me, man.  How do you keep your sound fresh while still being Nottz?  I listen to my own shit. I stay in my own lane. Not just my own shit. I don’t listen to radio and shit because once you start listening to the radio, you start getting brainwashed. The radio will only play your A-side. They won’t play the B-side and I would rather hear that. It may be better than the A-side. I don’t listen to the radio. I don’t listen to that shit too tough.  How do you think living in Virginia Beach helps you connect with artists both in New York and south of Virginia?  We got Timb, we got Pharrell here and we got other cats here. There’s a lot of talent here and we’re not lazy. You can see that we’re not lazy. There are probably a million and one dudes out here that’s just as hot and got some real mean shit but they’re just lazy. Just get up off your ass and go get it. That’s what we did. We done got up off our ass and we went and got that shit. A lot of us probably excelled more than certain people but you know how it is. You gotta get up off your ass and go get it, man. That shit ain’t coming to you.  A few years ago your calling card used to be your work with Busta Rhymes, especially for “Pass the Courvoisier.” Are people looking past that now to your more current work like your music with Royce Da 5’9” and Snoop Dogg?  They look past that but they still recognize that shit. They all know that. They know that era and what’s going on. You can’t run from that. You can’t hide from that shit, man. At least the older cats know.  We gotta sell the young cats on it. But it’s hard to school the little, young boys about underground hip-hop when they’re stuck on that “We need to dance shit.” It’s cool to dance but it’s cool to tell a story and it’s cool to talk about your real life shit. There ain’t a lot of cats that’s doing that and the cats that are talking about some real life shit are the ones getting downplayed.  Niggas are getting dissed and all that shit like they’re some suckers or they’re faggots or some crazy shit. I don’t know where they line is drawn, man. It’s drawn where there’s some real shit said. Respect that shit. Don’t nobody respect that. Write some real shit. It’s kind of crazy. We let that bullshit in with open arms, man, and it’s in here and nobody’s trying to push that shit back out. That’s not hip-hop. We’re hip-hop. Underground dudes are hip-hop. We’re hip-hop. A lot of cats don’t even know where hip-hop is, especially young cats.  What’s the best way for the older generation to school the younger generation without alienating them and turning them off to that music altogether?  Man, make hotter records. Make hotter underground shit. It’s the radio, man. Especially there’s a lot of DJs. They play what they gotta play. It’s hard for underground dudes to even get their shit played. But we need to open up a lot more schools and school these cats, man. I’m pretty sure the majority of these young boys would sit down and listen and then you got your ignorant ones who want to be in the gangs and they don’t’ really know what that shit is about .They just heard it in records and in videos and they think that shit is cool. We just gotta school these dudes. Open up more schools, man.  When an artist is trying to get you involved in their project, at what point do you say working with an untalented artists is not worth the paycheck?  Man, the way this fucking recession is right now, you can’t do that because everybody doin’ it anyway. If you was to stop that shit today, you would never get work because everybody is talking about that same bullshit, especially the new cats. And the older cats, don’t anybody want to hear them no more. I would love to hear everybody else like a Rakim and a KRS-One. I want to hear that shit. But the young boys don’t want to hear that shit and all they talk about is the dope and the guns. You can’t get away from that shit, man. Everything is coming on the fucking radio, man, like it’s cool.  Everybody’s riding with it like, ‘Okay, that’s the next hot shit’ because the beat is hot but the lyrics are bullshit. I’m a producer. Of course I’m a beat dude but I still listen to lyrics to see what the guy is talking about or what the girl is talking about to see if it even has any substance to that shit. I’m going to listen to it but it’s some bullshit. Niggas ain’t trying to hear that shit. If you got the dope song and you ain’t really doing that shit, I ain't really trying to hear that shit.  Do you think a lot of rap funds drying up is a reason artists aren’t taking creative risks?   Hell no! They just want to do that shit because they see it in movies, man. They see that shit in movies. I feel like if you want to talk about a gun and you want to talk about dope, you want to be a tough guy. You see guys do it on TV and I guess you feel like you can do it on a record. A lot of people take offense at that shit and they will check they person for it like, ‘Okay, I see you a tough guy. Lemme see what you about.’ But you know, a lot of these dudes will talk about the dope or the guns on their shit and they got bodyguards and crazy shit. They ain’t really getting approached by other dudes like that. They don’t know what the real is. They don’t know what it is. I stay away from that bullshit. I stay in the lab every day and I’m away from that bullshit.  What artists inspire you to keep producing?  You got Scarface and Snoop. Dr. Dre, he keeps me going. Hi-Tek, he keeps me going. There’s a lot of dudes out there that just keep me going. I was chopping it up with Lord Finesse a few weeks ago. He’s out here and he’s working and shit. He’s still got it! He was making beats before me. He’s still got it! That’s the crazy shit and people don’t recognize that shit, man. When people hear this new shit he got, come on, man. There’s a lot of dudes who still got it, man, and they keep me going. Real hip-hop is not dead at all. It’s still here, man. We just gotta dig that shit up and dust some of that dirt off, man. Wipe it off and keep that shit going.   You’ve been working on Snoop’s latest album. How’s that project coming?   Real good, man. I think I might have three or four songs on it. It’s real good though, man. It’s going to be different from that last one he put out.  That’s not the first time you’ve worked with Snoop. What’s it like working with him?  Man, he’s probably one of the coolest dudes you will ever meet, man. One of the coolest dudes you could ever meet and he’s a workaholic, man. When we first met dude, years ago, I met him when I did “Don’t Make a Wrong Move” on the Doggy Dogg All-Stars album, the compilation joint. I told my manager, I said, “D, you know what? He’s going to do it for us. We don’t know when but he’s going to do it for us.” But yeah. Then we put that record out “That’s That” with him and R. Kelly and that shit came out and it made so much noise that the phone was ringing off the hook. And I really appreciate that shit, man. I don’t know how to thank the dude just for giving me a chance. Just a chance. A lot of dudes, they’re scared to take a chance on an underground dude.  How have you been able to stay working with Snoop for the last seven years?  He knows what the real music is. That’s what it is! Real recognize real and he knows what real music is. He can work wonders, man. That’s it, man.  How do you adapt your production style when you’re working with someone like Snoop and then Royce Da 5’9”?  You gotta put yourself in that world, man. You gotta put yourself in that world. At the same time, don’t step out of bounds with your own shit. I change the drums up and make the drums kind of knock like that Cali sound but the bassline is still me. The sample is still me. If I’m playing it it’s still me. But the Cali shit, you gotta do it. I love Cali music anyway. That shit is just funky shit! That shit is funky. I love that shit! That’s the crazy shit. A long time ago, me and one of my best friends, that’s all he used to play, the West Coast shit, and I played the East Coast shit. That’s when we were kids, 13 and 14. All he used to play was MC Eiht and all Cali shit and I used to play all East Coast shit. And that’s when I really started fucking with the Cali shit. After that, man, I’ve just been fucking with that shit. That sound is fucking crazy! That sound is fucking crazy.  What always impressed me about your production is the epic feel your beats generally have. Does that big sound come natural to you?  It’s just the vibe. It just comes out like that, off feeling, for real. That’s all it is, man. It’s the whole vibe. It ain’t nothing that I work at. I’m used to doing that shit. I know what I want. I know what kind of sound I’m looking for. And I feel like everything got to be big like the world can’t hold that shit. You see how big this world is, man? We need some big shit. We need big records, man. I try to make big records, man, with big beats and make everything sound huge.  When you listen to the minimalistic beats that are so prevalent today, what goes through your mind?  Like four or five sounds? (laughs) I know what you’re talking about, with four or five sounds. I know what it is, man. We gotta keep this shit alive with all these new dudes fucking the game up. There’s a lot of new dudes fucking the game up.  Focus recently told me that he gets more props from other producers for his beats than from the fans. Do you find that’s the case with you too?  Yep. You know what? It didn’t used to be like that. I go back to the new shit that’s coming out. The more and more that new shit is played in people’s faces, that’s the kind of shit that they adapt to. They adapt to that kind of shit. Everybody has adapted to that bullshit. They don’t know real music when they hear it. Me, I used to get that shit all of the time. A lot of producers, they congratulate you on what you did.  When we did the Kanye joint, he had got the Grammy off the album and shit, they congratulate you for getting the Grammy and all of that shit but really, really don’t know his whole thing behind it. Everybody that was on the album that he worked with was people that he figured out that was hot at that time and didn’t get the one that they needed. And I thank that dude. That put a major push on stuff. He had Toomp up there and everybody he figured that was hot. He had fucking T-Pain on that joint and Dwele on that joint. Everybody that he had up there was people that he figured was hot. People are overlooking everything and he wanted to put these dudes on his shit and make a crazy-ass, killer-ass album. And you can see what he did. He did that shit.  How did Kanye’s “Barry Bonds” come about?  We sent some beats over to him and I told him I could deliver that shit. We simply joined up and he was like, ‘Yo, that’s the shit right there!’ Then he took me over to Wayne and he did his verse and it was another hit! (laughs) I think that’s like one of the last records he recorded for the album.  Were you happy with the final version of “Barry Bonds”?  You know, there’s always some shit that you want to change or you want to take out or you want to add. It’s always that shit when you’re a producer. It’s never enough or it’s too much. It’s always like that as a producer. Producers don’t know when to say no. They don’t know when to quit. They keep on going ‘til it’s fucked up. But the song came out crazy! I fuck with it, especially off of the responses that we got from the record. Fuck it. Maybe it didn’t need to be changed. Everybody loved the shit.  What would you have changed, specifically speaking?  I would probably change the drums up a little bit, add a little bit to it. You know, there’s no sample in that record. I would add a sample to it. It was more like a skeleton when I first did it. It was a skeleton record and I knew I wanted to add some shit to it. It was the timing of the whole shit. I didn’t get a chance to add shit and take shit out. Everything happened so damn quick. I love the record. The record’s crazy.  Did you feel like that beat had that kind of potential when you first made it?  Nah. Hell no. You would be surprised, man. There are so many beats. You’ll think it’s some bullshit and you would never know who would want to fuck with that shit and who would want to make that shit more than it is. You never know. You might not like it but it may be the one that other people love.  How do you make sure you get the right beats to the right artists?  You know what, man? Before it was easy to do that shit because you could just pinpoint what a dude wanted. Now you don’t know what the hell anybody wants. Now we send the beats out. When we do send the beats out, we try to send as minimal amount as possible. We don’t send as much. There’s so much good shit out there that it’s hard to pick one beat. You try to pick the shit that you think the person would fuck with and sometimes it’s, ‘Nah, we ain’t on that shit no more. We’re on some other shit.’ It’s hard right now. I’m doing it like the average dude is doing it but it’s easier for me to do it because I know these dudes and they’re just a phone call away. Just pick the phone up and let me know what type of shit you’re on. I can try to send it to you instead of me trying to pick my own brain like, ‘On the last album he was like this’ so I would try to send some shit like the last album when that’s not the case. It’s kind of hard now though, man.  From working with Snoop to Kanye to Little Brother to Jay-Z to Scarface, you really run the gamut as far as styles are concerned. How do you do it?  I just love music, man. When you’re fucking with someone from Cali, you just get that vibe, man. That vibe just hits you, especially if it’s low-riders and that bounce that they got. It just hits you. It makes you want to do something with a Cali feel to it. It just comes to you, man. I don’t know how I do it. That shit just comes to me, man. It’s fucking crazy. I just do it.  What was it like working with Game on L.A.X?  The “California Sunshine” joint, I made that for Game. I knew we were going out there to play some shit for him and I knew I had the perfect joint for him. I put the record on and knew I was going to fuck with the shit and chop it up for him. I made it and played it for him the next day and everybody was going crazy in there and the chicks were singing it. That was it!  But the “You Heard” joint, what it was, man, was we was supposed to have did some shit for Lil’ Eazy. We were supposed to do some shit for him but he never fucked with it. It took him a million and one days to get back with a dude to say he would fuck with it. But shit just ain’t go down, man. If you play it for the right people, it’s a ballgame. Game heard it and it’s on L.A.X. and he made a hot record. It’s a hot record, man. It was supposed to have been a single. It was supposed to have been a single months ago but I guess it’s not. He’s working on another album now.  What kind of beats did you try to bring Murs when he was working on Murs for President?  Murs, he’s a real hip-hop dude. He’s a hip-hop dude. He’s a Cali dude but he’s a hip-hop dude, just like you got a Bishop Lamont. These dudes are hip-hop dudes and they’re hip-hop heads. All the shit that I heard from Murs, man, it’s real soulful kind of shit. Everything’s soulful kind of shit. I knew what to play. I knew what to play. I knew what to play, man. He’s a real hip-hop dude. And he knows what it is, man. You have to dig back in the crates for dudes like that. Way back in the crates. I told him I had some shit for him and to see if he fucked with it and he fucked with it. He fucked with it and some of these dudes probably don’t even fuck with the new shit I do but they fuck with the old shit I do, like five or six years-ago. They fuck with that. But he’s a real hip-hop dude, man.  What inspired you to make “Better than the Best”?  I always wanted to fuck with that record, man. I always wanted to fuck with that record, I just didn’t know how to do it. There’s a lot of records but I just didn’t know how to do it. It’s like the “You Heard” joint on the Game record. I didn’t know how to flip that shit. I had the sample years ago and knew I would fuck with it one day. I was standing there and having that producer’s block. I had to try it. I had to try it, man. “Let’s try this shit.” And then it comes out the way it comes out and you’d be surprised, man. There’s so many records that I want to fuck with that I don’t know how to fuck with them. If you give it to another producer they can probably do it the way they do it but it probably wouldn’t even be the way that I would fuck with that shit. I have to really sit down and fuck with that record. That’s what it is, man.  What sample gave you the most trouble when you were trying to chop it up?  Damn, man. Hmm, damn. I don’t really have nothing. Now that you have Pro Tools, you can flip that shit in any way. You can play it fast or slow in certain spots. I try to stay away from that chopping shit up in the computer. I don’t chop shit up in the computer. I chop shit up on the keyboard. When you throw it in the Pro Tools you can do that shit so fucking easy. But there ain’t too many records now that I can’t fuck with. I can chop it up in the keyboard and put it in Pro Tools and that shit comes out in a whole new way. Every record that I wanted to fuck with was a challenge and I’m with the challenge, man. I’m with the challenge, man. Give me a record. Give me any record and I’ll fuck with it. I don’t give a fuck. I don’t care how hard that record is. I will challenge that shit. Fuck that! (laughs)  What other benefits do you have working off your keyboard than an online interface?  ‘Cause the shit is in your face, man. A lot of that shit comes from feeling versus the shit where you just put it in Fruity Loops or some crazy shit and you’re just chopping that shit up. I just like the hands-on shit, man. I just like to punch these buttons. I like to press these keys. I like to do that, man. I like to really, really get into that shit and chop it up and try to get in the mindset of whatever sample I’m fucking with and try to get in the groove, man. I try to get in that little vibe that they got, especially when it comes to samples. You gotta chop the basslines up and crazy shit like that. I just gotta get in that vibe.  Once I play a hard-ass sample and I fuck with that shit, I just have to get in there and vibe. Once I get in there and vibe and you start playing a sample that sample over and over again, you know you’re going to chop it up this way. But every sample I chop up, I try to keep it on the same kind of vibe for whatever the sample is. If it’s a slow sample and it has a little Cali bounce to it, I try to chop it up and make it have a Cali bounce.  Me, I try to chop a lot of samples up in many ways and when I do chop them up, I do try to make three or four beats using the same sample. I’ll do it a whole different way. I’ll make the shit sound like some crazy-ass hard shit or just some shit in the same sample that sounds like some real soft-ass shit. It could go both ways, man. I just chop that shit up so many fucking ways, man, because you never know what people want and what people like, man. I try to keep myself open to everything.  Has any artist ever caught you using the same sample twice?  Yeah. But you know what, man? I have never sold beats like that where I used the same sample and chopped it up two different ways. I never sold some shit like that. That’s some crazy shit because all the beats sound different and you figure somebody will fuck with the other shit. Me, if I had sold that sample to somebody else, I don’t really get into selling that other shit. I always have that shit in my catalogue and I probably won’t fuck with that shit no more. I’m not with a lot of shit when people think it sounds like the last joint I put out. I’m not with that shit. This is when somebody asks me that they want something that sounds like that. I’m not with that shit! That’s like the corniest shit on the planet! I try to make everything new. I don’t want none of my records to sound the same so nobody can say that my new shit sounds like the last joint I put out. Uh uh. I ain’t trying to get by like that. I want to do all new music.  Have you been incorporating more live music and less samples into your music because of publishing costs for using samples?  I mean, yeah. It’s hard to use samples that don’t get in your pockets so you’re gonna have to play some shit or get musicians to come in and play shit for you. You’re gonna have to do that. That’s if you want to make some money. But I do it all, man. I do the samples, chop it up, use live instruments, add some hi-hats and do all that. Except for the kick and the snare and the basslines, all that shit is me. The hi-hats, I have live hi-hats and I play them shits over my beats and I change it up. I didn’t start doing that shit until 2002 and you gotta do it, man. You gotta change with the times but don’t go adrift and leave your own fucking lane, man. That’s what they know you by, especially basslines and all of that. You don’t want nobody else playing a bassline for you. That’s what these people know you for. You don’t want them playing hard drums for you. That’s what they know you for. You gotta keep that shit in mind. That right there, that’s what made you. You change that, you’re done.  How have you noticed your sampling techniques changing over the years?  Them checks! (laughs) Shit! When you get them checks, you need it like you should. It’s like everything started changing. You need to start doing something and start finding records that you know you can sample, that you know they’re not going to hit you in the head for for that publishing like that. You gotta get into that shit, man. And go digging, man. You gotta look for these records. And it’s hard to do it because there’s so many people, man. They’re just fucking greedy. So many people are fucking greedy. You done made millions. Let us shine off of this shit! We’ll give you points and shit. They’re charging over $100,000 to let you use their record. It’s like, ‘Damn, bro!’ I’ll bring my bass player or my keyboard dude in and whatever and we’ll get it cracking. If you want to play like that, we’ll replay some shit and we’ll change it up and we’ll do what we do. We’re coming with some crazy shit. We don’t need it. We’re capable of doing anything. Dudes are amazing.  All producers, I guess, that have been in the game and who sampled, man, we go through that same shit with clearing samples. I know ‘Ye goes through it and I’m sure Hi-Tek goes through it. Of course there’s going to be a sample that you can’t clear. But sometimes it’s up to the artists.  There can be samples that you want to use, man, and once you take it to these publishing companies, that shit triggers some shit. Now they know we’re looking to use this record and if you play that shit over, they’re coming after you because they figured out that you already went to the publishing company to try to get it cleared and shit. Do what you can do with it at first. If you can’t play it over then try and get it cleared. If you can’t get it cleared, then do something else. But there’s a lot of records like that, man. There’s a lot of records like that where they just don’t clear. We all go through it.  Your drums have always stood out in your beats. How do you program your drums so they stand out like that?  Man, you know, it’s how I EQ my shits. I EQ my shits before I lay them down anyway. I EQ my shits and I boost them up and I do what I can do to them first. I make sure them drums fucking knock. Then you can add the samples and the crazy shit like that or if you already have a sample in mind, just keep it in deck and don’t fuck with it yet and just get the drums up. That’s all I look for – hard-ass drums. I got a shitload of hard-ass drums. The kick is going to fucking be knocking or the bassline is going to be knocking. It’s either or. You know, the snares will always crack.  What’s the first thing you do when you start a new beat?  It depends on how I feel that day. It depends on how I feel that day. If I’m feeling good I’m going to make some happy-ass shit. Not happy-happy, but I’m going to make some happy-ass shit so you know what kind of mood I’m in. If I make some hard shit you know I’m fucking pissed off and that I’m going through it. I make a lot of beats off feelings, man. There really ain’t no formula to this shit, man.  How much time a day do you spend working on beats?  I’d say I do anywhere from four or five in the afternoon and I leave sometimes at four or five in the morning and sometimes it takes me to leave at eight in the morning. That’s it for me, except for Sunday, man. I’m in here every day.  Rapper Pooh talked about working with you and he said you had an amazing archive of beats. How many unreleased beats do you think you have?  Oh, man! Like, man, I couldn’t even tell you. I don’t even know. I got so many beats. I got thousands and thousands of beats. I couldn’t even tell you. It’s crazy. I couldn’t even tell you. I don’t even know.  Do you try to get the majority of your new beats placed?  It’s half and half, man. I got a lot of shit. Some beats, I just love and I don’t even want to dish it out. But yeah, it’s just half and half, man. Some shit I keep and some shit I dish out to certain people and shit. Yeah, that’s what it is.  What’s going on with your official album at this point?  I’m still working on this album, man. I’m really just getting started with it, man. Every song is going to have some substance, man. I’m basically talking about shit that ain’t nobody else talking about and shit that people are afraid to talk about. Real shit, man. Real shit. You can’t hide the truth. Ain’t nobody talking about it. You can’t hide the truth.  And we’re not sure what we’re going to do yet, man. It’s either an EP or an album, man. We’re not sure how we’re going to do it but it’s going to be crazy, man. We’re going to get some features together. it’s some real hip-hop shit, man. Some real hip-hop. We’re trying to bring this shit back, where it’s supposed to be. I’m trying to address a lot of shit that’s never been addressed and that’s basically it, man.  I’m trying to knock it out, man, and we’re still fucking with the Dre album and the Snoop album and the T.I. album and Asher Roth. We’re trying to do it, man. We’re trying to fucking do it. We got so much shit that’s jumping off and we’re still trying to balance how to work with album, man. There’s so much shit, man, we gotta concentrate on. That’s it, man. I’m in here everyday trying to knock this record out. We’re coming out with some hot shit, man.  Will you catch some fans off-guard with your MCing?  Yeah. I know I am. And I know a lot of dudes are going to hate me. Well, there ain’t too many. They say, “Rapping ain’t never been his forte” and shit like that. My thing is, I told you, I’m not a rapper. I can rap and I’m not the hottest nigga but I’m not wack. I can rap. But I’m not a rapper, dude. I’m a producer first. I’m a producer. I started out rapping but I was like, ‘Fuck that.’ I think producing is me. But I know a lot of dudes are going to hate this shit and some people are going to love it. They’re going to say, “I didn’t know dude can spit like this.’ I can do it. Somebody gotta do it. Somebody gotta fucking talk about something instead of just creating a dance.  Will you be MCing on all the songs or treating it more like a compilation?  I’m damn-near on all of them joints, man. We still gotta go through those shits and see the ones that’s really going to stick. But I’m on all of them so far. We’re still working and going in and tweaking what needs to be tweaked and which ones we’re not going to keep and which ones we’re going to keep. It’s going to be some crazy shit. It might be the first and last album. The only album. You never know. We’ll see how this one rolls.  You released the D.M.P. compilation back in 2005. Would you ever do another project like that again?  You know what? I would never do an album like that again, ever again, only because of the situation, period. With that shit, the way it happened, they picked the records. The label picked the records.  And that label was Koch.  Yeah. They picked the records. A lot of those records were old. Come on, man. It’s the positions that dudes were in. It was cool and we had a deal and we had to work it and it might be some bullshit, but still, then you gotta look at it like it’s the first impression for dudes. This is your first impression. is this what you give them? Come on, man. Everybody who knows me knows that ain’t how I get down. I make some shit! Come on, man. That’s what them dudes picked. That’s a bunch of old shit that they picked. Come on, man. But people still rock with it. They bought it off the shelf. They took it off the shelf. We was at Hollywood. Where was we at? What’s the big, big record store? We was in there and tried to see if there was D.M.P. in there and the D.M.P. vinyl was right there but there wasn’t no CDs and I asked the dude where the D.M.P. CDs were and he said they sold out. Dog, we’re in Hollywood and selling CDs out. This is where a lot of dudes would love to be at, especially in Hollywood. Come on, man. That’s fucking crazy, man.   Why do you think no one from the album ever went on to do anything else after the mixtape dropped?  Because, man, you can’t be lazy, man. I always told these dudes and I wasn’t on no bullshit. I was always on some real shit. I told them I was where I was supposed to be and now they had to go and get where they were supposed to be. I didn’t make those dudes pay for none of the tracks because they’re my niggas. They’re my homeboys, man. I didn’t make them pay for none of the tracks but these dudes, they feel like it’s easy. It ain’t easy, man. You have to go get up off your ass and get it. These dudes didn’t do shit. They sat on their hands. They did nothing.  Did their attitudes discourage you from working with other up-and-coming MCs in Virginia?  Nah. Hell no because I know there’s a million and one dudes that would love to be in that position, especially out here. I know there’s a million and one dudes that would love to be in that position. Hell no. But as long as these dudes who do approach me on some shit like that, at least have something together. You have to really mold these dudes. If I do I would rather mold together and create a whole new sound. If you’re trying to do that, I’m with it. I’m all for it. This is what this hip-hop shit is about, just creating some new shit. Everybody wants something fresh. Everybody wants something fresh but we’re just not getting it right now. We got to get it.  What new artists are you working with?  We got an R&B singer. She was on Scarface’s Emeritus album on “Still Here.” Her name is Shateish. She’s a young girl, man, and she can sing. She can really blow, man, kind of like the Tina Turner type shit. She’s mean though. And her mans keeps putting the buzz right in my ear and telling me that we need to get on her project. There might be some deals on the table for her. You never know. She’s good, man.  There ain’t too many dudes that I’m dealing with. I got a couple of artists that I fuck with but there ain’t nothing concrete yet. Still, dudes ain’t ready. They’ve been doing it for a couple of years, two or three years, and they feel like they’re straight. Nah, bro. I done worked this shit for more than 10 years and I’ve been doing music for almost more than 15 or 16 years but in the game for, like, 10.  But yeah, man, I’ve been doing it. I’m not with the dudes who don’t know what the game is really about and don’t know what the hustle is and can’t respect the hustle. I’m not with that shit. You gotta show me something, bro, in order for this shit to happen. That’s why I fucked with the D.M.P. dudes and then when they got the deal they fucked that shit up. But I know there’s a bunch of dudes that would love to be in that position right now.  Do you get the props you deserved for what you accomplished in the game?  Um, nope. Hell no, man. (laughs) Hip-hop heads do. They give me the shit. But I feel like I’m still under that ground, man. I’m underground and don’t nobody know who the fuck I am. You can ask some people and some cats don’t even know who the fuck I am. They heard the music but they don’t know who the fuck I am. They’re like, ‘Nottz who?’ A lot of cats don’t know who I am but they heard that music and they love that music.  And that’s when we go back and we talk about all the interviews and shit. But you know, it hurts you in a way, man, but you try to stay out of that fucking bullshit, man. I try to stay away from a lot of bullshit, man, but either way, you can’t escape that shit. It’s going to come to you anyway. I just ain’t got that shit out of my system yet. I’m going to start doing a lot more interviews and being in videos and crazy shit like that. I’m not going to be doing shiny suit dances and crazy shit like that. Nah. But you know, I need to show my face more, man.  What equipment do you use when you’re working on beats?  The ASR-10, a Motif and Pro Tools. That’s basically it. We don’t get into all of that plug-in shit that we don’t need, all that fucking studio props and shit. We don’t get into that, man. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. When people come to our studio and see what we got, they’re like, ‘Damn, this is all you?’ Yeah, just to let them niggas know that you don’t need all that bullshit to make records, man, to make good records. You don’t need all that bullshit. Come on, man. This is what you see on the TVs. People get all of this equipment because they got the money to do it. We got the money to do it but we don’t do it because we’re like, ‘Fuck all that.’ We don’t need it.  Do you have a song that you produced that you’re most proud of?  Shit. “Everybody Ride.” (laughs) “Everybody Ride.” That Busta shit. I’m proud of that. There’s a lot of records, man. A lot of records. Even the first joint we did for the Detox album. I’m proud of that. For that dude to even ask me for a track, that’s crazy. For him to say that I’m one of his favorite producers, that’s crazy, man. I’m proud of a lot of shit. I’m proud of “Barry Bonds” and all of that. I’m proud of that. A lot of these have stories behind them and I’m proud of that shit. That’s what makes me, man – real shit.  You’ve been working on Royce Da 5’9”’s upcoming album. How involved are you in that today?  Me and Royce talked on the phone a couple weeks ago. They’re doing the Slaughterhouse group and I don’t know. We’ll see how it’s going to play out, man. You know, when you want to work with an artist and shit, you figure you’re going to be like the sole producer of that album and we’re going to do that but when an artist starts doing an album with such and such and is doing an album with such and such, I don’t get into that. I’m not the second dude. I ain’t too cool with that. A lot of cats that I was supposed to do an album for, we never did it and they hopped on the joint with someone else and then they came back and wanted to do an album together. That shit just don’t work with me. I’m not saying that’s with me and Royce but a lot of artists do that. I’m not cool with that. But me and Royce, we’ll have to talk rap about it and we’ll have to talk about that shit right there.  What do you see happening with that album?  I’m not going to distance myself from it. I’m pretty sure we can knock something out, something crazy. We always do. I’m sure we can come up with something crazy for the people to hear.  You’ve also given Royce some of his best tracks throughout his career. What’s your chemistry like with him?  Man, the boy is crazy. Everybody knows that the boy is crazy and he’s a workaholic, man. There ain’t nothing like a hot artist and they’re open to suggestions, man, and vice versa. If I need to change a part of the beat, cool. If he’s telling me he needs some shit changed like that, cool. Evidently he’s doing that for a reason and when he goes back and works his magic on that shit, I can see why he wanted it changed and now it’s crazy. I can tell him to write the shit about this. It’s crazy, man.  That chemistry right there, it just goes far with any producer and artist. You need that chemistry where you’re both on the same fucking page. If one don’t fuck with it and the other does, there ain’t none of that. We’re on the same page where we agree on how we do it. Then we do the next joint like that. Everybody gotta agree on something, man. Everybody always wants to be the head honcho. Nah. It ain’t like that. It’s about getting that work done.  What should we expect from Nottz in the next couple of months?  Real hip-hop. I’m coming.

By Brian Kayser

[11] REACT