DX: Are you hoping to get that hit with your artist Izza Kizza?
B: He is going to be the trend-setter for Hip Hop. He will be loved worldwide, from the ghetto and the hoods. That is my goal to make sure everyone loves him.

DX: What was it about him that appealed to you for you to get involved with his project?
B: It was my sister who put me onto him. He rapped for me over the phone and seriously, there was just something about him that was so unique. He has been through certain situations with labels but we wanted to build him differently to your conventional rappers. This comes from being around Missy and everybody. We want him to be able to be known and not just in a niche market with one sound. He is one of those rappers that can be either hardcore or fun with everybody.

DX: Now he is signed to your imprint with Mosley music, how did that imprint come about first of all?
B: Well with Tim, a mutual friend passed a CD over to him and when he heard it he wanted to sign us, not knowing it was us. He gave us a call and said he didn’t realize it was our artist. He just wanted to move forward with everything. It was a great situation as everything just lined up and panned out for us.

DX: When will we be seeing anything from Izza then?
B: Well right now we have him on Ashlee Simpson’s single that Timbaland produced and he has a few other features that he will be coming out with. You can check out his Myspace and check out his music. We are really are reinventing real Hip Hop with him.

DX: This is something I have touched on in a lot of my interviews, producers working with their own artists; is this showing the labels how things should be done?
B: That is definitely what we try to do. We want to show labels by releasing Izza Kizza, they see the vision. You know a lot of times people don’t get it.

DX: As a producer with a history does it bother you that there are no budgets available for that kind of one on one relationship with an artist when working on an album?
B: Yeah it sometimes bothers me. But in some cases we have been blessed that an artist who is out there that we want to get to, we are able to get to them at this point. A lot of times when you tell the labels that you want to go with an artist they will set something up for us.

DX: You have worked with Cheri Dennis on her "Portrait of Love" joint, which has been getting some serious spins here in the UK.
B: Has it? Man that was something where we tried to do something different; mixing the Prince-feel with just some new kind of direction. What was crazy was when I was working on it before I brought it into the studio I was watching Purple Rain the night before and you know how when the DVD stays playing and the music keeps looping, I think that was what inspired me as the next morning I went in and made that. Then when I got into the studio, me and my brother finished it up.

DX: With so much music sounding pretty repetitive, is it important to think outside the box today?
B: I think it is so important and I think that is why music right now is a little crazy; everyone is doing the same thing. I think it is just so important with everyone doing that same thing that you should do something different. If you take it to back in the day when radio wasn’t so segregated, you know everything was so mixed up together. That is what is what I am talking about with the new generation. You have Rock kids liking Hip Hop, and vice versa, so there is a need to mix this stuff up. People are not happy with just hearing the same thing. You are starting to hear Hip Hop with different vibes and new arrangements than what we were used to before.

DX: What has been the biggest advancement for producers in the last decade?
B: You probably know what I am going to say, but I would say Timbaland. He just brought music to a whole other level. He made a mash up of everything okay. That is what I love about our situation as he made it okay for guys like me and K to come with our sound which has always been a kind of soulful mash up. The one thing which is different with me and K is that we are producers that can stand strong and diversify. We can do a Rock record and you would think that a Rock producer has done it, or do R&B and Hip Hop, cover all genres at the same time. We could even do some Bluegrass. [Laughs]

DX: Beyond being aligned with big name producers, you were also linked with Mary J Blige at one point too.
B: Yeah around 2001 we were under the same management and we did this joint called "Chasing Lies," which was made for the No More Drama album. We did a ballad for her which she did with Chaka Khan, which was supposed to be for both their albums, but the file got erased and they didn’t know we still had a copy. That might still get used and we are hoping to be on the next Mary record. Continued on page 3 »