By keepintouch2004
Wed Dec 24, 2003 3:53 am
Orlando hip-hop group Smilez & Southstar broke into the mainstream with the single "Tell Me," getting heavy rotation on radio stations across the country as well as BET and MTV. Shortly after, a song by Ja Rule featuring Ashanti, "Mesmerize," with a very similar beat using the same sample, was released. Ja Rule appeared on BET’s 106th & Park, claiming that the producer of "Tell Me," DJ Nasty of Nasty Beatmakers, had given him the beat.
Ja Rule didn’t mention you by name on 106th & Park, but he did say that the same person who produced "Tell Me" gave him the beat for "Mesmerize." What’s your side of the story?
The truth is that I don’t have any relationship with Ja Rule or Murder Inc. The only time I’ve ever seen Ja Rule was when he did a platinum party last year at Tabu, and even then I just met him briefly. I’ve never spent time with him in the sense of playing music for him. Normally, when I make a beat I would give it to my manager, Chaka Zulu, who shops it around for me, but the beat for "Tell Me" came straight out of the lab to Smilez & Southstar.
Why did you give it directly to them, without shopping it around to more established artists first?
I’d already given Dakari (the A&R and producer for their project) a few beats to hear, and he’d shot them all down. I wanted to give them a real banger. We’re both reppin’ Orlando, so of course I wanted to help them. I’d love to work with them again. We made history, being the first hip-hop group to come out of Orlando. #5 on Rap City!
Is it possible that someone affiliated with Ja Rule heard "Tell Me" and just created their own beat using the same sample?
That’s the one thing in this game that you aren’t supposed to do. Mad people hear beats before they’re used. For example, a lot of people, even Big Pun, passed on the track for "Whoa," but Black Rob jumped on it and it blew up. My man Alchemist did the beat for "We Gon’ Make It" for Ras Kass, but Ras Kass’ company never paid for it, so he let Jadakiss do his thing instead. People need to learn to respect the producers.
So would you say that Ja Rule "stole" the beat from you?
All I’m gonna say is that "Tell Me" was done more than a year and a half ago, and it’s one of the songs that helped Smilez & Southstar get their deal with ArtistDIRECT. I’ll let the readers decide. When Ja Rule got on 106th & Park and said that he got the "Mesmerize" beat from the same producer who did "Tell Me," he couldn’t have been talking about me. There’s only two guys in my production camp, me and my brother LVM. He either made up that story, or was talking about the wrong person. But, I’ve got nothing against Ja Rule, or Murder Inc., or Def Jam. And I’m not saying that they necessarily stole the beat. It’s possible that it’s a coincidence and another producer had the same idea, but if that’s the case, why would claim that I gave it to him?
Do you think that the controversy has helped or hurt Smilez & Southstar, and/or you?
We all know that controversy helps sell records, but "Tell Me" was doing fine before Ja Rule’s song came out. These guys were up to 3,000 spins across the country, and that’s a big number. The incident with Ja Rule just happened recently, so it wasn’t like Smilez & South needed any extra hype. As a producer, I’m getting work based on my talent and the people who are representing me – Ebony Sun Management, Chaka Zulu, DTP. But it doesn’t hurt to have a little hype behind your name. Nasty Beatmakers!
You’re a mixshow DJ on Orlando’s 102 Jamz. Major radio stations in cities like Miami and New York have "Tell Me" higher on their playlist than "Mesmerize." But on 102 Jamz, in Smilez & South’s hometown, "Tell Me" is no longer in heavy rotation. Why?
Nah, it’s not like that. It wasn’t taken out of rotation because of Ja Rule. See, we jumped on "Tell Me" way before the video even came out. The video helped make the song popular, so a lot of other radio stations didn’t start playing it til after the video started getting heavy rotation.
Anything you wanna plug?
Look out for Nasty Beatmakers on the new Ludacris album "Chicken & Beer," with the track "Hard Times" featuring 8Ball & MJG and Carl Thomas. Also, look out for the new Cam’ron album, we’ve already got one track recorded featuring Juelz Santana and possibly two more.