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If there’s any producer that knows modern New York hip-hop, it’s definitely Dame Grease. He originally made a name for himself by producing hits like “If You Think I’m Jiggy” for the LOX and “Body In The Trunk” for NORE, but his defining moment came when he produced most of DMX’s debut album, It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot. Since then, Grease’s music has been turning up in some of the places that you might least expect, on movies, television shows, and even video games. Don’t get it twisted though. His grind in the rap game is stronger than ever right now. Recently he’s been producing tracks for Hell Rell, DJ Drama, Freeway, Styles P, Lil Mama, and one of the first artists to sign to his Lot Musik label, Meeno.

Although Grease may be the man behind the boards, he definitely has plenty to say about the state of the rap game. On his latest album, Sour Diesel, he plans to get most of it off of his chest. I caught up with Dame Grease and discussed his influence on the industry, some of the projects he’s currently working on, and how he enjoyed the initial success of the Ruff Ryders with his close friends, the LOX.

AF: First off, I wanted to ask you about this Sour Diesel album you’ve been working on. Can you give us any details regarding that project?

DG: Oh yeah. That’s the new album. I released the next single, “Sour Diesel". I’m not sure yet if I’m going to release independently or through a major, but I’m about to just go ahead and release that single independently to radio, for the DJs and all that. But this joint is a banger. I can guarantee that you’re going to be hearing that on the radio real soon.

AF: So you’re deciding between independent and major right now. Have you had any big offers yet?

DG: Well I’ve been independent for a while. I always do a lot of production for the major labels, but as far as my mixtapes and albums, I’ve always kept it independent. But right now, it’s a new day and age in the rap game. With everything I’m doing now, I’m trying to bring that wave of the future to the rap game and the business. I want to structure a deal, whether it be major or independent, where I can still help other independent artists put their albums out.

AF: Are you working on any albums like that right now?

DG: Yeah, well right now, I’m working with T6 and of course my artist Meeno. I’m working with Lil Mama. I got a couple joints on her album. It’s like, I’m everywhere right now. I’ll work with Lil Mama and then I’m in the South with Young Jeezy and T.I. Then, I’ll pop back up North to do a joint with Freeway and Jay-Z. So, I’m reigniting hip-hop like I did before back in 1997. The way I did it the first time was international. The music I made for DMX and them back in the day was for all coasts. So, that’s what I’m doing again right now.

AF: So do you have all of the tracks together for your album yet or is it something you’re continuously working on?

DG: It’s kinda hard to say. Everything I create could go on the album, but I’ve got like 80 joints already and I just keep recording until the streets is calling for it. That’s when I’ll just go ahead and seal it up though. I got joints with Styles, Sheek, JR Writer, the whole Dipset, Freeway, NORE, DMX, Drag-On. Then, I’ve got some top-notch people on there as well.

AF: Are you going to be rapping more on this album?

DG: Actually I was gonna rap on the first single but NORE and them just came so hard that I had to fall back and just let it do what it do. But, I got an underground joint out right now that’s kinda for the club too called “Drugs In The Club,” and I’m actually rhyming on that track. That’s the joint I leaked. It’s one of those joints that’s gonna come from the underground but could easily go mainstream.

AF: So can we expect that raw gutter signature Dame Grease sound on there as well?

DG: Actually, I ain’t even gonna lie. I’ve got a real treat for everybody on this album. I’m known to do whole albums like I did with DMX, so this is gonna be all me. I’m not trying to take it so much in the lane of It's Dark and Hell Is Hot, but it’s still gonna be classic material like that. It’s gonna be super colorful. I’m not gonna make it so hard that I’m gonna scare the girls and kids away. I know a lot of people say it, but I’m truly gonna have something for everybody on that bitch. It’s gonna be one of them joints man. It’s gonna be one of them all-around classic joints. You can tell from that single, “Drugs In The Club.” There’s never been anything like that before. So every song that I’m doing is gonna be nothing like anything you’ve ever heard before. It’s all going to be different and new styles.

AF: Let’s take it back to 1997 real quick. What do you consider your most important work from back then?

DG: For one, I’d have to say “We’ll Always Love Big Poppa.” That’s the shit I’ll never forget, because we were actually out in LA at the time that he got shot. So when we made it, we only made it to put on mixtapes and shit. But since the Lox and everybody was on it, we figured we wouldn’t send it to Puffy, because he would probably do some stupid shit with it. But we let Lil Kim and Puffy listen to it eventually, and they wouldn’t stop thanking us because there was a drought at the time. So that provided some healing for them and inspired them to go on and make “I’ll Be Missing You.” So, when they made that, it was just insane because that was one of my first records that ended up selling like 6 million worldwide. That was a big thing for me, because the rap game was so different back then. Everything was so sample oriented and I was the first producer to bring non-sampling to the game. I made 80% of It's Dark And Hell Is Hot without samples and that hadn’t ever been done with rap before.

AF: So what’s your relationship like with DMX and the LOX now?

DG: DMX is my brother man. Like, his kids is my nieces and nephews and shit. We a family...my son is actually about to go over to his house right now. Styles was here last night. We all live in the same neighborhood and I got my studio, so we all keep it tight knit. Sheek was up here the other day. Jada is running around out here, so it’s real cool. It’s all love. I speak to some people more than others, but it’s all cool. Real talk. Like, we was all in Cancun in 1996. Me, Mason (Ma$e), and the Lox in one mothafuckin room with one king size bed. Some of us had to pull the mattress off. Some of us had to sleep on pillows. We were all just broke as a mothafucka, happy to be in Cancun. This was before anybody blew up or got a dime for any of their shit, so we all have that same knowledge. Sheek used to make fun of me sometimes for being too hood and just blacked out. So here I am blacked out in Cancun, Mexico just burning up. He’d look over at me and be like “You hot ain’t cha nigga?” We go back, so through all this craziness, we’re happy to be alive and happy to see each other and our kids and stuff. It’s cool.

AF: Are there any other projects that you are excited about working on right now?

DG: Everything, because I’m a 100% confident in my shit. Every track that I play for someone, they want to make it their single. It’s like the sound and the things that I’m doing right now are so fresh, compared to all of the things we’re used to hearing like the same three drum kits and stuff that people have been using for the last few years. The stuff is so fresh and it’s just got people jumping on my tracks. If I play someone one or two tracks, they might want me to do half of their album, you know? So it’s crazy, but not crazy at the same time because my shit is real. Niggas been cookin’ up fast food for years. Dame Grease is back with soul food. I’m back with classic material, stuff that you can pop in and feel at any time of the day. This isn’t shit that you’re gonna be tired of after two weeks or nothing like that. I’m trying to bring back the Golden Age of rap because this is what the game needs right now. The first ten years of my career was like a fingernail compared to what I’ve got to come. I was only like 23 back then and had already made a million by the time I was 24 or 25, so what the fuck was I supposed to do? But now I’m 32 and I have a whole new game plan. I still make every last one of my own tracks. I play all the keyboards and the strings and make the arrangements and I’ve been doing that for the past ten years.

AF: That “Big Spender” with Freeway and Jay-Z is one of the hardest beats I’ve heard in a while. Did you really sample some kind of musical or something for that?

DG: Yeah I took that from a Sammy Davis Jr. play called Sweet Charity. When I heard the record and what they were talking about, I thought it was talking about me. But it’s my job to match those kind of things up with things in the rap world.

AF: So you think the production game has gotten a little watered down over the past few years?

DG: Yeah and I think that’s probably why sales have gone down, because nobody wanna buy none of that shit. So what I’m doing is a key part of the music business. I’m making shit that people will want to buy.

AF: Do you have a secret weapon for bringing that flavor back as far as when you’re in the studio?

DG: I’m not gonna lie. I get asked that question a lot and it’s hard to answer because I use everything man. I’ll make beats on the computer sometimes or on Fruity Loops sometimes. I might use the 3000 for my bass and then use some live players or some strings on top of that. I’ve done three movie scores so the shit that I do is unlimited and it’s hard for me to pinpoint any specific thing. So I would have to say all of the above.

AF: Have you been scoring any new movies lately?

DG: Well right now my agent has about three films lined up for me. I have an independent film, soundtrack, and score that I’m doing for Lot Films, which is my company. We’ve been moving a lot of different joints to video games and things like that. I did all of the music for DMX’s reality show and I’m doing the music for this new football reality show which I can’t think of the name of right now. So I’m into all aspects of producing for films, video games, TV, all that shit man.

AF: Wow so you’re producing for everything right now. Did you ever feel like falling back?

DG: Well I had to sit back and regroup because there’s a lot of hot mothafuckas in the game right now, you know? You got Kanye. You got Pharrell, who I’m actually supposed to be working with next week. We’re doing some songs for Rosco P Coldchain’s album. Swizz is on fire. You got all the new cats, Polow Da Don, Don Cannon. So I had to sit back and figure out what I was going to do. I know what I’ve done, but it’s what I’m gonna do that matters.

AF: Who are some of your favorite producers of all time?

DG: Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.

AF: So you mentioned a couple new producers that you’re fond of. Are there any rappers that you think are going hard right now, particularly New York rappers?

DG: Real talk. Lil Mama is reppin’ New York. Webstar is reppin New York. I’m not gonna lie. I don’t like any of that “I’m bringing New York back” bullshit. That shit embarrasses me, being from Harlem and living in New York. In my opinion, that’s not what this music is about. You ain’t never gonna hear any of that shit on any of my beats, because I will kick a nigga off that shit. That shit is corny. You don’t bring New York back. What you do is make good music. When you have all of this music built up with frustration and everybody is battling each other, it makes the consumer not want to buy that shit. It’s not about what we like really, because we’re in the business. It’s about what the consumer likes and if the consumers want to dance and have a good time, then they don’t care where it comes from.

AF: You think that’s why people are jealous that the south finally got its shine?

DG: Yeah, but I fuck with the South and they’re having a good time. That’s just as much a part of the music as reality rap or gangster rap, which I’m a huge part of. But at the same time, that music still has to have a message in it. Nobody wants to hear that corny shit, so that’s the reason that DMX popped off because we’ll talk shit and smack a mothafucka, but we also gonna tell you what it really is. You play with fire, you get burned, so that gangster rap with a message is really substantial, especially what we were doing at the time. And I don’t agree with Oprah.

AF: Aside from your average rich white lady, I don’t think many other people do either.

DG: Real talk. Gangster rap brought crime rate down from the 1980s man. Check the statistics if you don’t believe me. It’s due to hip-hop, every realm of it. It gave mothafuckas something to do. It’s like the voice of the young people. So they better thank us before they bomb it, because I’ll smack the shit out of somebody. They don’t want me on Oprah, because I’ve got some things to say. And I ain’t gonna disrespect Oprah, because she’s a woman of power and came a long way her damn self, but you have to understand that everybody else doesn’t take the same path.

Source: HHNLive

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