Styles:  Whenever I do an introductory type of interview, I always start with the background questions. So, give us the background on yourself.

LB: I’m LB Fitted from Long Beach, CA – born and raised. I started producing in 2004. Nobody really taught me, I just learned on my own by practicing. I did get a few pointers from a mentor named Sega and I just kept at it.

Styles: Ok, so what made you start producing in the first place?

LB: Somebody had showed it to me and it looked interesting. What happened was my mom ended up catching pneumonia and ended up in the hospital for about two weeks – on her deathbed basically. Right when she got out, she bought me a computer for my birthday. At that time I didn’t really want to go anywhere because it was depressing for me, so I sat at the house most of the time. I ended up getting the Fruity Loops program on there and started developing more and more. Music has always been my life so I just focused on that aspect and it caught me.

Styles: How long did it take for you to pick it all up?

LB: It took a while. At first everything looked like the Matrix [laughs]. I had worked with a producer who was also using Fruity Loops and we co-produced a track together. When I sent it to him, he looked at it and was like “damn”, because everybody who uses Fruity Loops always has a different method. There is so much to learn and I still feel that there is still much to learn for me. You will probably never have it really mastered.

Styles: How long did it take for you to become comfortable enough to start sending beats out to artists?

LB: I would say probably two and a half years. When you start off you might think that your shit is the hottest stuff ever – but the public can kind of tell that the person isn’t quite there yet. I might think something was hot and then I would realize that it wasn’t. Basically I had a camp that was on some real shit – there wasn’t any yes men that would just tell you your stuff was hot. They would tell me, “You are getting there but you still have a long way to go.” When I first hooked up with Glasses Malone, he saw the potential in me. He was like, “You are getting there. Just keep working.” I felt more or less that I didn’t have to release stuff. I could just keep on developing because I had nothing but time. I wasn’t in a situation where I needed to provide product “now.”

Styles: That definitely takes the pressure off of you when you can just sit back and work on your stuff without having to worry about providing anything in the meantime.

LB: Definitely.

Styles: Now that you are comfortable enough to send your music out for artists to rhyme over, what have you been working on?

LB: Right now, we are pushing the Monster’s InK of course.

 [Styles Note: The Monster’s InK street album WILL NOT be released on Oct. 7^th. It will be released after the November release of Glasses Malone’s Beach Cruiser album. I will have more on that later this week!]    

Pretty soon after that, we will be releasing Glasses Malone’s “Fuck G. Malone” Mixtape [Styles Note: The Fuck G. Malone Mixtape WILL NOW be dropping on Oct. 7^th in place of Monster’s InK].  I did a track on there called “Number One.” Outside of that to build my buzz, I am doing two production albums. One is called “The Hero-Win Era.” It’s all samples from like the sixties and seventies. The production album after that is going to be called “The Zodiac.” It’s based on the late sixties/early seventies music. I was watching The Zodiac movie and I really got inspired to do that after listening to music during the movie. At first I wanted to do it with a Bay Area artist being that the Zodiac killer was from the Bay. I thought that it would be a real good thing but then I decided to be more open and have a different flavor of artists on it. I already started working on the production for that album.

Styles: I was really impressed with the track that you did for Conflict called “I’m Fly” off of the Monster’s InK album [CLICK HERE TO LISTEN VIA STREAM] . You sampled The Candyman horror movie theme, right?

LB: Yeah. The Monster’s InK album in general was slated to come out a year ago. We were going to start it a year ago but we just got caught up with other stuff. When Glasses told me that he first wanted to do this album, I went to his house to go online to search for samples. I got a hold of The Candyman theme and I did what I did. I didn’t want to add too much to it but I wanted to throw it in to a whole different level. I like to put my imprint on a track because you never know if the artist is going to bring out your vision for it. I didn’t have to worry about that with Conflict because I already knew what he could bring. When we were going through the different beats Glasses was like, “I see Conflict on this one.” It really wasn’t one of my favorite beats that I made for that album. At first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to release it like that. After Conflict did it, I felt more comfortable with it. Now after I hear it more, I realize that I do really like it.

Styles: Why didn’t you like it?

LB: I do now. I didn’t really dislike it. It’s just that I thought that I had better tracks for the album. I’ve learned that your one opinion isn’t always the best opinion. Your team will have your best interests at heart. If they believe it, then you might as well go for it. If one of my non-best beats made it then my other one’s will be up there as well.

Styles: The drum pattern that you used for “I’m Fly” complimented the sample so well.

LB: Every time I make a beat I always like to have the melody first – and then I make a drum pattern for it. I don’t like to do the drums and then the melody over it. I feel like certain drums go with certain melodies and certain tempos. For that beat it came real natural. It didn’t take much time to make that beat at all. When I am in a zone, I really get in to it. If I get a hold of an oldies CD and if there are 12 songs, I might sample 8 that night just because I am so in to my zone. I don’t like to force my music though. If I hear something and I don’t feel like doing anything with it at the time, then I won’t. It’s more of an inspirational type of thing. If I am not inspired then I am not going to force it. I’ve spent nights trying to do that – make one beat – then wake up in the morning and not even like it.

Styles: Are you more of a sampling producer or can you rock stuff on your own?

LB: I have a few original tracks but I think that sampling is my strength. I’ve been told that I do sampling a little different then others. I don’t over-chop or under-do the sample. I hear a certain sound and look to create it. I like making conceptual music. I don’t want to make beats that will inspire the artist to make some bullshit. I want the artist to be challenged to make a song. For an oldie, I like to bring in a certain part of the song and have the writer write about that situation.

Styles: With today’s strict sampling laws are you at least concerned about doing tracks that are mostly sampled?

LB: Not the least bit. If they can clear it then it will be cleared. If it can’t get cleared then we’ll put it on a mixtape. It’s all about the music. Money is cool but there are other avenues to get money. This is more of a love for me.

Styles: That’s cool. I can’t wait to hear more stuff from you.

LB: I am trying to work on a mixtape right now with Dj Raze One. I am also working on one called “City under Siege” with J.U. - that’s like my brother, and with Techniec and his producer L’s. I am doing half of the production and L’s is doing the other half. I think we are like 6 or 7 songs in to that.

My thing is just patience. I’d rather get the right stuff out there as opposed to getting stuff out there right away. The one thing that I have learned from Glasses Malone is patience. Things don’t always go your way and sometimes you have to wait for that right moment. It’s better to be right than to just get it out there. Another thing I’ve learned from him is to not chase record labels – let them chase you. No matter how much you chase them, they are not going to pay attention to you if you are not doing something for yourself. They will definitely come after you if you are making noise. Glasses wanted me to put out a production album for Blu Division, but I told him to let me make some noise first. I don’t want to put out an actual album and not have anybody know who I am. I want to build a buzz and make people want to get that album.  

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment

---