DX: On the artist side, how does the typical record deal work?
M: It’s different kinds of deals. Sometimes you can have an artist where maybe they only have one song that you like. As a business man, you would want to do a singles deal maybe with an option. Most singles deals come with options. In other words, if you come with more material, then the label will continue to process you and your music. Sometimes the artist comes in and they’re already together, and you do a full deal. You look at different artists different ways. Some artists are ringtones. Some artists are real blown artists. You just don’t know. It just depends on the vision of what that artist is, or what the artist could be, so you structure it around that.

DX: Talk to me about your own label, HiTz Committee.
M: It’s different, but you know I’ve had a lot of training. People that I came under…L.A. Reid, Mark Pitts, Jermaine Dupri, you know, Puff. I just see all of them doing things, and they kinda took me in as a little brother. So I see them running their own companies. So kinda now that I’m having those issues with my own company, I’m glad that I was around those types of guys. Even though every artist has its own situations and stresses, it’s like I’m a counselor. Making sure that they’re not doing crazy things, making sure budgets are right, making sure they got money in their pockets… It’s almost like a family oriented high school for artists, almost like X-Men. Every artist has their own talents, their own hits. So, it’s stressful, but I’m ready for any challenges come my way. If I couldn’t handle them I’m sure God wouldn’t have gave it to me.

DX: Compare your Jive days to your Arista days. What was it like working with both of those powerhouses.
M: Arista…even though I was still proving myself at both of them, Arista was more like my vision didn’t really count. Nobody wanted to hear what I wanted to do with my life. It was more like my slave days. I was just proving to everybody that I’d go through anything just to get a shot. Arista was more of like proving myself; Jive was like my work at Arista paying off. I got more privileges now, my opinion counts all the time. And its like, I look back on my Arista days and those are the days that got me to these days. At Arista, I had a lot of responsibilities, but it didn’t really mean anything to anybody 'cause I was just a slave and an intern in everybody’s eyes.

DX: You’ve been involved on some pretty big projects. Could you shed some light on what it was like watching Bun and Pimp C work together?
M: It was almost surreal to me. I grew up on their music for so long. In the south, they’re like our Jay-Z, or our Nas. They talk about real life situations, and they party and they talk about things that the south could relate to. And the south is pretty big, so they affected a lot of people’s lives. And then I got to work with them, in the same room, to hear them joke around with each other and joking with me and telling me things about the game. They were at Jive so much longer than I was, so they were kinda telling me things about how Jive was back in the day and how it is now. It was crazy. It was one of the experiences for me that was almost like a fairy tale. It’s like when I’m actually in the room with these people I’m listening; but I’m also thinking about how just yesterday I was watching these people on TV or listening to them in the car. And now I’m actually having conversations with these people. It was crazy for me.

I was just about to be the A&R on Pimp’s solo album. I co-A&R on the UGK album that went Number One with Chris Lighty, but this one I was about the be the main A&R on Pimp’s project. It’s just sad that he had to leave that young, and we just got nominated for a Grammy. So all this time they been trying to get on, and then finally in the game with them, and we’re doing big things, and then he had to go. I guess when it’s time to go, it’s time to go, but it’s still kinda messed up. Everybody is still in shock.

DX: Talk about the projects you’re working on now, and how important it is for you personally to rep for Memphis...
M: We’re still working on Huey we just did the video with Huey and T-Pain, and I actually did a verse on that one. I loved that one 'cause I actually signed both of these guys and I’m in the middle of them doing a verse. I said I wasn’t going to do a verse until I was the boss. Now I’m the boss, so I kinda went ahead and did it.

DX: [Laughing] How real is that?
M: That’s super hood for me. [Laughs] I told people when I left home that’s what I was going to do, and a lot of people thought I was on crack rocks, but I ended up doing exactly what I told them I was going to do. Huey, T-Pain working on another album. I got my new girl Asia Cruise, she’s like Pop, a 17 year-old. I got a clock on her, its one of my little marketing schemes. The album is WhoIsAsiaCruise, [click here] so it’s just a silhouette showing, so nobody gets to see her, until the clock gets down to zero and the album drops. Should be around January 23 or 24th. Hopefully its one of my marketing schemes that people will remember for a while to come. I just signed a new artist rapper out of Dallas, Trey-D who’s got this record called "Gutta Chick." That’s coming out soon, he got an album coming out that’s untitled right now…and my last artist I signed is Chip Da Ripper. He’s out of Cleveland. He’s super dope too, but in ‘08 I’m going to start shelling out all this stuff, 'cause I just feel like its time for a change man. Some of these older cats need to move over and recognize that it’s a new wave coming, and I hope to be one of the leaders of the new wave coming.