iHipHop Admin We, at Crackspace.com, pride ourselves in breaking the latest news, as well as delivering exclusive interviews with the people who are currently molding the infrastructure of Hip-Hop music. So it is only right that we continue that tradition by getting you familiar with Amadeus.
Amadeus, born in the BX, entered the production game at the age of 16, landing his first production credit for Foxy Brown on the “Cradle to the Grave” soundtrack which went platinum. Since that time, Amadeus has taken on a full head of steam landing more production credits for the Dipset, 50 Cent, and Talib Kweli.
In 2007, Amadeus has his musical hands on a few highly anticipated releases including Mike Jones sophomore album, Papoose’s debut album and the return of Freeway. In this Crackspace.com exclusive, Amadeus will put you up on his style of production, his year to come and why you should respect Mike Jones…
If you can name 3 songs from your previous production catalog that you’d like for the listening audience to know you by, what are those 3 contributions?
Amadeus: That’s a good question… the first one I would have to say is Cam’ron’s ‘Take Em to Church’, which was the diss record towards Ma$e. I believe that it was a big record in Hip-Hop being that they grew up together, same hood, same basket ball team, etc. I would have to say the second song is ‘Grandma’ which was on the first Mike Jones album. ‘Grandma’ was the song that meant to most to Mike on that album. If you know his story, you know how important is grandmother was to his life and his career. She was the one who pushed him to use his real name and to make sure that people remembered it. And finally, the third song would have to be ‘Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’ by Lil’
Who are you currently in the studio with?
Amadeus: I’ve recently worked with Fabolous, Talib Kweli, 50 Cent, Joe Budden, Young Chris, Ceelo, Red Café, Jae Millz, Remy Ma… I just found out that I made it on the new Freeway album. I did about 5 records for Papoose. I did about 4 records for the Smiles & Southstar album. I’m out there right now…
What was the vibe that you received from the press a few months back during Mike Jones exclusive listening session for his “American Dream” album?
Amadeus: I felt that the overall review of the album was positive. I know that we’ve shocked a few people this time around with his product. Yes, he still mentions his name a lot on this record, but that’s Mike’s signature – a gift from his grandmother. The media gave us amazing feedback, saying that there were a lot of heavy bangers on the album.
Talk about your chemistry with Mike and how many songs do you have on his new album?
Amadeus: I felt that Mike and I really clicked on this album. I originally started off with 9 songs on his album, but due to some sample clearance issues and some of the features that he wanted on the album weren’t able to be a part of the songs in time for completion, I only have 4 now. I’d still be happy if I only had one song on his album, because it’s not about quantity to me, it’s about quality. I feel that the songs that I’ve completed with Mike are some of the best songs on his album, due to the fact that we’ve built universal music that can relate to both the males and the females.
What can our readers be looking for to from you in 2007?
Amadeus: I feel like this will be a set-up year for me. Papoose, Fabolous, Mike Jones , Smiles & Southstar, Lil’ Mo, Freeway and hopefully Joe Budden are all albums that will be dropping this year with my production stamp on it. And I just signed a deal with ESPN to produce tracks to be played during SportsCenter and ESPN News, so that is a good look. I’ve been in this game for 10 years, since I was 16 years old and now the world is starting to recognize my god given talent. If you like what’s going on right now in music, I am going to make you love what is going on in music.
