Interview with my Big Dawg "Shawty Redd" @ VIBE.COM

You Don’t Know Me: Shawty Redd (Producer’s Special)


Here's a lil bio type interview w/ my boss Shawty Redd. He's featured in Jeezy's single, "Who Dat!?" and is nominated for two Grammy's. Not really much that hasn't been said before about Redd, but still a good read nonetheless!

The hottest, under-the-radar producers stake their claim... In their own words.

My Name Is: Shawty Redd
Straight Outta: Memphis, Tennesee


This Is My Story:

My dad was a military man. So [as a kid] I was going back and forth…all over Memphis and Cali, then back to Memphis and back to Atlanta.

He wasn’t really around like that. I was with him probably until I was five. He and my mom separated when I was five or six. She married another military man.

I was at church in my younger days. My mom’s side, they like to go to church and everybody had to learn an instrument. They would make us play an instrument at church. It was just the kids playing an instrument.

I was the dancer at school. You know what I’m saying. C’mon: Most producers are really on top with dancing first. Everybody knew how to dance. That’s why we make the best beats. I thought I was MC Hammer.

I couldn’t really listen to music with a lot of profanity in it. I used to get out of my bed at like 3 o’ clock in the morning and then I have to go to school and sneak in my record tapes and listen to it and have Snoop Dogg on my walkman. When I was done listening to the whole album, I’d sneak back downstairs and put the tape back in the thing so you won’t know what was missing.

This Is My Influence:

My mom’s boyfriend bought me a keyboard when I was little. I wanted to play everything that I found on TV. I’d play it by ear. As I got older, I started creating my own beats.

I was depressed when I was a kid so my piano was my only savior. You know what I’m saying? I was in the room on punishment for the whole summer.

Redd continued on his love for crafting beats. Then one day he met the man who would change his destiny forever.

His name was actually Lil J at the time. I use to always see him at the club but never talked to him. Our mutual friend introduced us and we just clicked. We were partying hard. It wasn’t about the music, we just clicked as friends. We wasn’t really doing much music, we was going to the strip clubs making it rain before people even thought about making it rain. We weren’t really doing any music. We just liked girls. It wasn’t about music. We were homeboys. We didn’t even do any music for about a year. We were just kicking it.

He knew who I was.

“Lil J” became known as Def Jam recording artist Young Jeezy.

I had gave up on the music because I had some situations where people were taking advantage of me, taking my money. I was young and I was just buying cars and hanging out at strip clubs trying to spend money like Jeezy would. My money was nothing compared to his money. [So] I ran out of money. I was trying to get money and people weren’t giving me my check. I got a deal with MCA and I ended up getting some more money [but] that situation didn’t work. They didn’t promote me. They never really backed my project up. I was just sitting. I was on the bench. I was like, “Man, forget it.” There was too much going on.

I had this guy who kept bugging me for beats. They wanted to pay me like $15,000 for six beats. The day I had them coming over, my electricity got cut off. My electricity bill was like $600 and I didn’t have the money to pay it. At the time, I didn’t really have any homeboys that I could call but Jeezy. I was hoping that his number was still the same. When I called him, he was like, “What’s up, boy?” He was telling me, “I’m ready to rap. I’m ready to take it serious now.”

I said, “Man, I’m broke. I have some dudes coming over. But my electricity got cut off. I need about $600.” He was like, “I’m on my way. I got you. Where you at?” He came over and instead of him giving me $600 he was like, “Hey, I got $6,000 for you right here. How many beats can you do for me with $6,000?” I was like, “Man, I’ll do 12 beats for you.”

I ended up getting $6,000 and he ended up getting a deal.

This Is Why I’m Hot:

[After working with Jeezy] I got the title, “Dope Boys Beat Man.” All the dope boys came getting beats from me, twelve beats for $6,000. A lot of dope boys would come to me for that package deal and I ended up just producing everybody. I actually got Jeezy and Gucci Mane together. That’s how they ended up doing the “Icy” song. I was working on both their projects at the same time.

[But] I was not making enough money on these Jeezy type tracks… so I ended up doing a song called, “Drifter” and Snoop ended up hearing it. Because it was real hot in the strip clubs he wanted to buy the record from me.

At the time the heat came, Universal, Motown, JD, and everybody was trying to sign me for that one record. Snoop was like, “Can you make me a record? I don’t care if you write it or whatever. Make me a record.” I made the beat as soon as I got off the phone with Snoop. I sent him [“Sexual Eruption”] in less than an hour. I spent about twenty-five minutes on that beat. It’s just a gift that I got.

“Sexual Eruption” got two Grammy nominations. I just want to win because it will really put me in a situation where I need to be.

I want to be the Puffy of Atlanta. I want to be the Diddy.

[As a producer] the only thing I regret is I didn’t know the business side of music. If I would’ve known that, I would probably be in Diddy’s shoes right now.