Mannie Frizzle

By: Sirion "Industry Insider" Sewell - sirion@seaspotmediagroup.com

Q: Now, a lot of people respect y'all car game, do a lot of people respect your car game out here?

MF: Oh, yeah. This is a car city, these dudes are wild with it. It's the way we were brought up. If u wanna see some fly sh*t, you just come to the club out here. If you go to the projects, you're gonna see some sh*t sittin' on some dubs, 22's, all that.

Q: What was Mannie Fresh like in High School?

MF: I'm the same way I've always been. How you get me right now, that's probably me in High School. I've been doing music since Jr. High School so I lived and breathed music. This is me. It was just on another level. The way I look at it now, is that I'm just getting paid for it, because I love what I do.

Q: What can we expect to hear from new Cash Money artist, Tina Marie?

MF: Tina Marie is like a legend and somebody like that is a legend in her own right. When I do songs for Tina Marie, I do them as a fan. It won't be nothing close to a Cash Money sound, you can't touch her. You gotta leave Tina the way she was, the way everybody knows her. So, don't even look for Tina Marie to be on some o'l "Bling Bling" type stuff. Like I said, she's a legend in her own right. It's kind of like a challenge to me because when you think of Cash Money and Tina Marie, it really doesn't fit, so it's like, we gotta make that fit.

Q: Looking at the Billboard Charts, seeing all of these down south artists on the list, why would someone want to pick up the "Birdman" album?

MF: The south is love. The south is family. You have consumers that look at it like, "oh, it's just too much stuff out there." I think down south, they don't look at it like that. They support it. Not to knock anybody, you can have a good start and fall off. You can step out on Billboard at number one and go down hill. I don't look at anybody as competition, I really don't care who's out right now, I'm just doin' my thing.

Q: How did you feel about Baby working with different producers on his album?

MF: It was mostly my idea. I was like, "man, people is hollerin' at you, go get it." Besides that, it's time for Cash Money to do different things anyway. In order for us to be a business we gotta change and people gotta change. You can look for that from here on out. We're probably gonna have different producers and feature artists. We ate, just within our "family" for 4 or 5 years, so its time to do different things.

Q: What type of equipment do you use to create your beats?

MF: I use a lot of old stuff, man. Sh*t older than you: Moods, SP1200, I'm not really up on too much new stuff. I also use Junos and a lot of old keyboards, I always did. If it's not broken, then I don't fix it.

Q: How much do u usually charge someone to produce a track?

MF: It depends on, what's my relationship with you. If I like you and I'm feelin' you, it might not cost you nothing 'cause I'll get it on the backend. If your work ethic is there, it might not cost you nothin'. There are a lot of kids that are trying to get somewhere and that are hungry like, "I'm trying to do it" and maybe they got screwed in their deal. I'll help you out. But if it's strictly business it could be anywhere from $50-100,000 and if I can get away with getting $100,000 from you, I'ma get it.

Q: What advice would you give someone looking to do what you do?

MF: My advice is: You gotta think, if you're in this industry, how many people approach you everyday and ask you to take their demo or to listen to their beats. To me, that's not a good idea. So if everybody is closing the door on you, my thing is to just do it. You ain't gotta wait for nobody and the way things are right now with technology, its really nothing to cut a record. Everything is digital these days, so just do it. Stop waiting around for somebody, put it out independently, if need be. You're responsible for yourself, so if it don't go good, you can't blame anybody but yourself.

Q: What do you do in your free time?

MF: Steal cars. Naw, I'm just playing. In my spare time, I'm probably messin' with cars. I love cars.

Q: Who are your favorite artists to work with?

MF: I don't know man. I don't really work with nobody. Probably just myself and Jazze Pha.

Q: How did you hook up with Cash Money?

MF: We've been knowing each other for forever. Everybody in this city knows everybody. Basically, I was in a bad deal and I was working for a record company at the time and I got tired of being beaten and just said, "I quit". So we got together and said, "lets start a record company, lets be serious about it, leave the streets" and the rest is history.

Q: What made you want to start rapping?

MF: The world. Our fans. I wasn't really bent on rapping. We started out doing intros on everybody's album. They said, "yall got something" and everybody liked it, so I just took it and ran. I wouldn't say it's rapping, I kind of just speak my mind. It just so happens to rhyme, that's all. I'm not a rapper though, all that takes skills. I'm just doing me.

Q: What projects are you currently working on?

MF: Birdman Vol. 2, TQ's album, Tina Marie, Boo & Gotti, and Mikkey, I got a lot of stuff.

Q: How long does it take you to produce a track?

MF: Anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour.

Q: What artists would you like to work with that you haven't had the opportunity to work with yet?

MF: Give me Grandmaster Flash, somebody like that. Gimme the old school cats and I'm cool, like Run DMC or somebody like that.

Q: What elements do you need to have a successful label?

MF: Definitely teamwork. If you don't have a team, it'll never work. A lot of labels get caught into, one person makes the label; it'll never happen like that around here. It's kind of like, what you put your label as, when you speak of Cash Money, you don't speak of Lil' Wayne of the Big Tymers, those are the groups, but overall, it's Cash Money. That's what you get, then you get the groups. It's teamwork. Dedication, patience and prayer, that's it.

Q: There's a group in New York that is trying to help artists get better contracts. Can you have a successful label and still be fair to your artists?

MF: Yeah, but you gotta have a good relationship. Just from us growing into a label and coming into this, you live, learn and you improve. I think anybody that gets signed on as a new artist, should have to go to a class. Before you even get signed, you should have to attend a class, so you'll know what to expect, know what you get and know all the breakdowns. At the end, you should know exactly what's going on. When we first came in the game, we were so hooked up on friendships, that nobody was worrying about what I was making, opposed to the CEO, and that causes problems. In corporate America, you could never even get to hangout with the boss, that's just not gonna happen. Opposed to hip-hop, your CEO might be your friend as well but at the same time, it's his company and he's gonna make more money than you. So, somebody needs to tell them what's going on right then and there because then the jealousy factor and all that come into play. So, I think that when a new artist signs on, there should be a class first, before you even do anything, letting you know, this is the deal, this is what goes on, we hangout and all that but this is your percentage and all that.

Q: When you create a track, do you ever do any pre-production? How do you figure out where the drums and the horns come in?

MF: I basically just make up tracks on the spot. That's the way I work. I never do pre-production or anything like that, I just make'em right there on the spot. My thing is that, I listen to a lot of old music and one day I might be feeling Marvin Gaye, so the song may come out sounding like Marvin or Michael Jackson or something. It just depends on my vibe that day but I get a lot of ideas from just listening to songs.

Q: Where do you think your love of music comes from?

MF: I think it came from my dad being a DJ, me always seeing him so into music and always being surrounded by it. Seeing him made me want to do it.

http://www.CashMoney-Records.com

http://www.Umusic.com

*Some questions contributed by Mike James (Plush Magazine) & Felecia Johnson-LeBanc (Murder Dog). Thanks guys!