“We Have To Prove Ourselves To The Newer Generations”

[With hitmaker Mr. Collipark back from behind-the-scenes to produce recent anthems for artists like the Ying Yang Twins, the man responsible for discovering Soulja Boy tells SOHH readers why he's back to producing.]

As a producer, I came out of the house and someone asked me, ‘What’s up with you and Ying Yang?’ So the biggest challenge for me is to not compete with the greatness that we already did. That’s number one.

When we put out records, we’re competing with ourselves because nobody did what we did. Number two, I had to make sure the record didn’t sound old. Going back into the studio, we probably recorded six or seven records before we came up with “Jump.” For me, I had to go see their live performance again to see that energy because I don’t get that in the clubs anymore. So I went to a couple of their shows and I captured their energy. That’s how the track came together for me.

What’s funny is as a producer, I really haven’t been producing and beat-making. So I’m learning all of the new software. I’m just now getting onto a lot of these new things. Within that, my whole thing is, I’m not going to say stealing, but a lot of these cats are taking from what we did five and six years ago.

I can’t take from anybody and I can’t borrow from anybody. So I’m asking myself, ‘What can I do to separate us because we started a sound and separate us from these young cats?’ Everybody is very 808-driven right now. Every track you put on in the club now is heavy on 808.

For me, everything comes around 360. I’m glad that everything in my career happened the way that it happened. But the only downside of getting behind a desk and signing artists is that you separate yourself from the music.

It’s hard for a producer to run a business and vice-versa. So I think I’ve had my taste of artists for right now. I’m cool with that for right now and the music is coming back tempo-wise. There’s a couple records out, tempo-iwise, and they have a set in the club.

It was hard, I’m not going to lie. But it was fun because you feel like you’re starting from day one. I never look at the past like we started from the bottom and now we’re here, it’s not on some “Just because”-type sh*t. I feel like we have to prove ourselves to the newer generations.

We don’t have to say it, but we’re going to show it through the music.