DX: Well this touches on the age-old myth of ghost producing and how the people who are involved in producing records alongside the bigger name producers get their shine too.
LRoc: Yeah, I mean I know my role and I understand the structure of the business. It is not about doing just a beat. You know seeing something that I have been involved in being put out there as "produced by Jermaine Dupri" doesn’t bother me, I have been in the business for a while and I know what I have to do. This is why I have a publicist doing my PR work. Jermaine encourages me to do that, but at the end of the day it is a production company and Jermaine Dupri’s brand. It’s the same with Lil Jon; you will see his name as a producer and mine as a writer. It is all business. I am signed to Jermaine as a writer and producer, I work with Lil Jon but I am not signed to him, but I get my writing and publishing from him so it works out.

DX: Working with both of these guys, is it easy to flip between the two, as I am sure they both have their own ways of doing things?
LRoc: It is easy. You know for me, because I have lived around the world and have studied music, I get inspired by the artist and what they are trying to do, so I haven’t had any problems switching from doing hardcore gangster tracks to R&B ballads, because I have been playing for a long time. From big band Jazz to Classical to Funk to Reggae to African music; to me it is like a language, its like you switch it up and you speak French or you switch it up and speak Spanish, that is all it is to me. Or you know it is like speaking in English but with different dialects. That is pretty easy for me to do.

DX: Is there one project that you have enjoyed working on more than any other?
LRoc: I am not going to lie; working in the studio with Jermaine is fun, but working with Lil Jon. [Laughs] We travel a lot down to Miami and it is a big party. We go to the studio from say 3 pm to midnight where we do our music and we are focused and then we leave and go to the club. I think that is the most fun.

DX: Is it still important for an artist to be in touch with what is being played in the clubs in your opinion?
LRoc: Not really, it obviously depends on if that is where your music is catered to. Some people are on the serious tip but as far as the party music, yes definitely and it works for everybody that I have worked with. Jermaine stays in the club, Lil Jon stays in the club and I like to go and feel the energy and watch people dance, and then you get in the studio it is all about making people dance and manipulating them to move. That definitely helps. It is a pulse you know what I mean. If I come over to Europe and I want to work with artists over there I am going to go out to the clubs to see what people are playing and how people are moving and incorporate that into who I am.

DX: What else do you do then to prepare yourself for working with a new artist?
LRoc: I just hang around with them; learn from talking to them and the direction they are trying to go in and what they are trying to do. A lot of times artists have a lot of personality like Nelly [click to read], you feed off their energy, then there are the ones that don’t and it is more methodical where they know exactly what type of record they are looking for. I go from having a discussion and that right there is the inspiration to going in and doing the record. You know it might take a few records to get that one, but my basic approach is doing the melody of what I think will fit what they are looking for, the chords, the melody, as different melodies create different moods. I approach it like that.

DX: Working on "Stepped on My J’s" was obviously quite a big track as it is was the lead off single from Nelly’s new album; did that track come easy to you or was it something that had to be thought out?
LRoc: I think we did that in about five minutes. [Laughs] We did that so fast, just like "Grillz" . You know he had "Air Force Ones," "Grillz," another product or accessory so we decided to go with "Stepped on My J's" and you kind of know what you are doing. I came up with the bass line and played a couple of melodies and of course Jermaine had an idea of what direction he wanted to go it. So we just went from there, Jermaine would lay down the drums and everyone would start dancing and then the hook starts. It is a fun process.

DX: You and Jermaine have your method figured out then.
LRoc: Yes we have and it has been like that since the first session.

DX: How easy is that or how difficult is it to find that someone who you can work with so cohesively?
LRoc: It’s tricky. It doesn’t work for everybody as personality too comes into it and chemistry. I knew from other people and other producers that work with Jermaine, as he has different producers he works with. I am used for more on the rap side and then there are the ones for the R&B side of things, so it is pretty easy. I have worked with some people and it can be harder, but I am an easy person to get a long with and I separate the business from the personal and it is a great fun atmosphere with no drama. You know we all get in there with the engineers and it all just flows. Everyone knows their role. When your role is defined and consistent so that every time I go in I know what my role is, that makes it better. Continued on page 3 »