If the rhyme book is the blueprint, and the emcee is the architect, then the producer has to be the foundation that any song, or album, is built upon. Darius “Deezle” Harrison has been that foundation for many of the hottest artists in music today, and he plans to continue building on his sound and his brand. Born and raised in New Orleans, Deezle became a part of the integral musical heritage that the city has been built upon. Birthing an eclectic array of industry luminaries, from Louis Armstrong and Mahalia Jackson, to Harry Connick, Jr. and it’s newest favorite son, Lil Wayne, Deezle is the newest recipe in the simmering, mellow pot of goodness that is boiling over in the Big Easy.

Classically trained in music since childhood, and studying the greats who have come before him, Deezle displays a complex mix of humbleness and confidence that is sure to continue to propel his career. And that career will only rise higher, as he and the afore-mentioned Lil Wayne have concocted the biggest album in the world right now, Tha Carter III. Not limiting himself to any specific genre of music, Deezle has been lending his Midas touch to scoring movies (Right to Return by Academy Award winning filmmaker Jonathan Demme) and producing artists, including old school songstress Teena Marie, Queen of R&B Mary J Bilge, Hip Hop young gun Flo Rida, and fellow New Orleans native and Jazz phenomenon Donald Harrison. Deezle is very fond of his relationship with Harrison, who also mentored another young musician while living in Brooklyn in the late '80s. His name was Christopher Wallace.

The road to stardom hasn’t been easy for Deezle. As he and his family survived the tragedy that was Hurricane Katrina, the producing wiz had to start from scratch. He created Drum Major Music, a movement he feels will help ignite a faltering music industry, and shed light on unheralded talent. Evidently, BET Networks agrees, as it has teamed with Deezle and his management company, The League, to produce Blaze the Stage. The event, which will be held August 9th at New York University, will officially launch the Drum Major brand, and begin finding artists to develop. While Deezle is content traveling the road to the riches, he is gearing up for his ultimate drive: the road to being a legend.

HipHopDX: Give us a little bit about your beginnings, and how that influenced your choice to create music...
Deezle: My family was like street musicians, and I got involved with music at the age of nine. It was kind of troublesome for me because my family were musicians, my dad didn't think my interest in music was serious, and he didn't want me to do it. At nine years old, I had to stand up to a grown man for the one thing that I loved in my life at that time, which was music. Finally, he conceded and brought me a saxophone which I played for 13 years, studying classical music and playing in symphonies and my high school marching band.

My high school band played at the Super Bowl when I was 15 years old. After that, I ended up becoming the drum major of the band my senior year, and that's obviously why my company is called Drum Major Music. That's where the influence came from, because I held that leadership position, and I feel like that's what my company's going to do for these next few years in the music industry. We're going to be leading the band.

DX: Do you remember what Super Bowl your band played in?
D: It was like '90 or '91, it was in New Orleans [Editor's Note: Super Bowl XXIV]. I'm not a football fan man, so when I was there, I didn't realize the magnitude of where I was until a few years ago when that whole Janet Jackson thing happened. I realized how big of a thing it was to the world, then I was like, man, I was on that stage too! I can't even remember who played [San Francisco 49ers defeated the Denver Broncos], that's how much attention I paid to the game.

DX: Growing up in a musical rich city such as New Orleans, how did that affect your musical style?
D: It gave me options musically. I'm able to embed Caribbean rhythms into R&B, and it doesn’t come off as a Caribbean song, or I can put Funk in a rap song, but it's still a rap song, it doesn’t turn into James Brown, you know, things like that. It gave me a lot of musical tools, not necessarily physical tools as in instruments, but it gave me tools as far as mentally. I can put Jazz in Hip-Hop, and it doesn’t come off as Jazz, it comes off as a new sound for Hip Hop.

DX: Who was the first artist that you worked with while trying to break into the industry as a producer?
D: The first artist I ever worked with was a guy who was doing Country music in the studio. That was the first project I was able to be a part of in a major studio for a session. I was in training, and I saw a bunch of instruments I had never seen, because at that point, I had never played Country music. It was a learning experience for me. But the first artist I worked with that you would probably recognize or could look up that I worked with is Aaron Neville, from The Neville Brothers. They probably have been recording music for close to 50 years. Then after Aaron, it was Donald Harrison. Donald and I met because the guy who was the chief engineer [at the studio] didn't want to do the session. He was like, “It's a session coming in, do you want to do it?” I was like, “Yeah I want to do it, but who is it?” He was like, “Some dude named Donald Harrison.” I was like, “What you mean, some dude named Donald Harrison; you don't know who that is? This dude is a legend who played with Sarah Vaughn and Miles Davis, toured with Art Blakey. The New York Times talked about this man. If I couldn’t walk, I'd make it to that session." When Donald and I met, he loved me, and then he found out my last name was Harrison too. We really started to research where our family is connected at. The relationship grew and developed, and we became like brothers. He mentored me in a close fashion like he mentored [The Notorious B.I.G.]. He was really integral in Biggie's early career. He had this cat learning Charlie Parker solos, and he was doing me the same kind of way. It's been really interesting, man. Continued on page 2 »