Sibling rivalry never seems to raise its ugly head in music. Talking to Bless, one half of the Souldiggaz production brethren hailing from New Jersey, brotherly love is pretty much all around.

Prominence is something Bless and his brother K-Mack have to literally work their asses for. Not because they don’t cut it in the studio; but because their circle includes names like Timbaland and Missy, tough people to impress.

But to cut a long story short, they have and they still do impress. Tim snapped them up for an imprint deal on his Mosley Music label, Missy has them with fingers crossed for a credit or two on her forthcoming album. Life couldn’t be better for the Newark natives.

HipHopDX caught up with Bless for an impromptu nose into their history and had them break down their aspirations. Talking artists, respect for both music and the craft and just how leaving a DVD playing led to a hit for bad girl Cheri Dennis, Bless gives us the 411 on a duo that are forever paying dues.

HipHopDX: Being that y’all are brothers, does that make it easier for you to work together?
Bless: We actually have a certain way that we work together. In the beginning it was kinda hard as it was like a "big brother, little brother" thing. But now we have a certain flow with each other.

DX: Can you even imagine working with someone else besides your brother?
B: Not really, it is just a connection. We are like left and right.

DX: You have quite an impressive resume. You have an imprint with Timbaland, you have worked with Missy, and these are two of the production legends. Taking it back to Missy, how did that come about?
B: Basically our other partner Corte is Missy’s cousin and she just happened to hear some music and she wanted us to come in and work with her on some stuff. Then a month or two later, she asked us to work with her on a production situation. We were signed to her for three years or so and from 2003 onwards. The majority of everything she did during that time, we did with her.

DX: You all still cool?
B: Yeah we were just at her house the other day; you know she was showing us her new video.

DX: Is it important for you to have the respect and advice from your peers when you are coming out of an area rich in Hip-Hop history?
B: I think in general, it is important to have the respect of your peers. We just try to bend for the new generation of producers. Me and K, we set examples and we try to learn from other producers, the Missy Elliot’s, the people we are around. We try and listen from everyone, even if it might be people that are on our level, we try to listen and learn and move accordingly.

DX: You mention being part of the new generation of the producers, define just what that means as you have serious credits?
B: Honestly, we are still of the new generation because we always refresh, we will always be fresh and are always going to be part of that next trend and we never think that we are too good enough. You know even with your resume, you always feel like you have to get more. I guess we will one day decide we have got more but all we want to be in the best at what we do. We like to let everyone see for themselves, allow them to appreciate what we do.

DX: Do you feel that it is easier for a producer to constantly re-invent themselves as opposed to an artist, even if a producer is known for having a distinct sound?
B: For some, it's not. For us, it is a little different as again, we are always trying to look for the next thing ahead of time. That is one of the things we learned from being in camps with certain trend-setters. You always have to look for what is going to be the next thing or the next sound and what is going to make something a hit. You might not get it at first, as you know good music is timeless.

DX: Do you think it is good to change your sound, is this something you are always going to do?
B: I think it is good to change your sound when you hear a hit record. You always have to look at the trend-setters, but that doesn’t mean you have to follow what everyone else is doing. It is just good to switch up.

DX: Everyone wants to make a hit, what do you think determines a hit nowadays?
B: Honestly you can’t determine a formula for it, but me personally? I look for big choruses that are timeless and the first 15 seconds of a song is going to let you know whether you like it or not and the chorus is going to put the stamp on it. For a hit record, you got to have a strong chorus, where it either has you making love, having fun or dancing. If it doesn’t make you do any of those things then it is not a hit record.

DX: If every record a producer was to put out became a hit record y’all would be very rich. How do you know when you personally get a hit, say with the Bow Wow and Omarion joint?
B: I think it comes along when you are getting several calls for the joint. We have people wanting to place that joint in movies and TV series. When you get those calls wanting to place the song, you know it is a hit. You get a smash, smash hit when you get one of those ring tone companies wanting to use your song or redo your song. There are lots of things that can determine a hit. We were one of the first groups to do ringtones with beats. There are different types of hits you can get. You know you get a hit and you get a super global mega hit. That’s what we are looking to get.

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.

DX: Now you have your third member, which is Corte Ellis, a songwriter. Do you think this is something producers should have on their team so to speak, a songwriter?
B: Yeah that is something that a lot of people are missing, however a lot of producers are wising up today and are getting their go to people. One of the things that I actually learned, was I went to Miami a few weeks ago with Diddy for the Making of the Band thing. Diddy flew in every writer that has had a top ten hit and he sat everyone down and introduced everyone and he did something by doing that, which I haven’t seen in years. I heard Berry Gordy used to do that and it was really inspiring. To have the top writers and the top beat makers working together, you know you are going to come up with some hits.

DX: Isn’t that the perfect equation though?
B: Yeah exactly. That is one of the things that we try to do. We pull in the right writers and pick their brains. We are trying to write more also.

DX: Coming up what have you got coming up?
B: Besides Izza Kizza, we have Donny from Making the Band, [his] first single. We also have tracks with the boy band from Making the Band 4. We are waiting for Missy to get back to us, as we may have one of her next records also. We are working and we are trying to focus on getting a video for the Kizza record and we have a Rock artist we are also trying to work with.

DX: Is this like your alter ego working with the Rock artist?
B: Yeah kinda yeah. You know what I like? I like to do different music that allows me to express myself. With another Hip Hop artist I tend to stay in the same boundary until I get that mega hit, and then people don’t care what you give them. You know you can give them a bird chirping over a drum track. We are still grinding and still trying to show that music is only going to survive unless you make some changes.