DX: But a lot of people don’t understand that.
MP: Well yeah but that’s because they are afraid of the next person taking their job. I am not scared of that. Dre could turn around and say to me, "Thanks Denaun but I like this guy's stuff more, great knowing you," but I would be like, "That’s what it is." I am not scared of no one taking a job that I have as it happens. You have to be really good at what you do.

DX: Detox...dare I mention it? [Laughs]
MP: You know what I don’t even know what I have on there now. [Laughs] I mean he might like a song one day and then hate it the next.

DX: How hard is he to please?
MP: What? [Laughs] How many records does he put out a year that is how hard he is to please? It is all worth it as when you are doing something for him if he doesn’t want to use something then he will pass it on to the next artist. You have to take it in your stride, he is the hardest person to please, but when you hear him ask for you to give him some shit, you just think, "I really must be good," because if he didn’t like what I was doing he wouldn’t be taking it from me.

DX: That has to be the biggest accolade for any producer to work with him.
MP: I get a lot of flack for it as a lot of people say he doesn’t do this, and he doesn’t put records out and he is weird, you know what I am saying. But what these guys don’t realize what he does. I mean I am on two sides of the fence as I am an artist and I am a producer. When I am a producer I hear, "Fuck D12, they are the wackest group ever." Yet we have sold plenty of records and it’s not because of Eminem like people say, as he never went out on a tour with us, we always did our own tours and our own work. So does that make us wack or is it a case of just that person saying that not liking us? Then when it comes to being a producer people say,"Fuck that you work with Dre, he don’t put out enough records," but these are the same people that tell you in the same breath that they don’t like you because you don’t put out enough free music. Why do I have to put out free music? I thought this game was about doing what we do from the bottom of our hearts. You have these rappers that put out a million mixtapes and then wonder why their albums don’t sell. If you put out so many mixtapes why would anyone care about your album? But then you have these producers that do the same beat over five or six times or they will sell themselves short for a dollar. I still haven’t sold myself short.

DX: Is it because there is no balance?
MP: Well you have to work and then you have to have fun. I know for a fact that when I watch Swizz Beatz do a beat, that nigga be having fun when he makes a beat. That makes me want to make sure I have fun when I make a beat. If people don’t like it then so what, because I will come back and bust your head with the next beat because I am the real deal. I am not a fly-by-night producer, I do something and then I might go away again for a year and then come back and do something else. Just because I haven’t had a number one hit single, doesn’t mean I haven’t done anything else. I mean I have worked with Sting, I have worked with Burt Bacharach, and I have scored a movie and done commercials. I love what I do and some people out there are in the game for the wrong reasons and all they do is make beats. They think it is about wearing a gold chain and driving a car. All I want is to be respected in what I do as I have fun, got a girl, have a chain and drive a car. I just want to get better.