Right about now in the music industry with a sales up and down and some people calling back for that late 90’s music feel, there’s no better production team that can accomplish that. The J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League has definitely worked there way up in the game and made believers out critics. Now looked at as the go to producers in the music industry after making magic with Rick Ross on his second album “Trilla” on records such as “Maybach Music”, “Luxury Tax”, “Billionaire”, and the albums “Intro”. So now there’s no questions that Tampa has a face for the city when it comes to music!
24: Since we last spoke you guys were just finishing up working with Young Buck for his second album and then you guys have definitely made a name for yourself by making every artist to A&R in the game take notice, so what would you guys say has been some of the keys to you guys success so far?
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Rook): I think one of the keys in being consistent with us is keeping it all about the brand. Making sure its all about our sound and how we can make our records sound better.
24: Before working with Rick Ross you guys had already worked with a whole bunch of artist such as Young Jeezy, Juelz Santana, Shareefa, B.G., Blood Raw,Young Buck, Mary J. Blidge and actually won a grammy as well. But I feel like after you guys did the bulk of Rick Ross “Trilla” album and produced some of the best work on it that the every day music lover as well as the streets compared to the heavy music followers started taking notice of J.U.S.T.I.C.E League do you guys feel the same way?
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Colione): I think the average person don’t really look at the credits to see who produced what and you must have a certain amount of huge singles that take off for them to really take notice it seems. So a lot of our music are real musically and they don’t really turn into singles. So for us to get the attention from underground music is a great accomplishment because we are trying to bring music back to the forefront. Were trying to put good music out their and just continue out brand of creating complex compositions.
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Kenny):An I also think people always took notice, the ones the pay attention to what we was doing because we always had stand out tracks that stick out on their own but as far as when “Trilla” hit it was hard to miss what we did and I agree that when “Trilla” came out it kind of put our names in peoples ears around the industry to the streets.
24: How did you guys end up hooking up with Rick Ross in the first place?
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Kenny): We’ll we were living in Tallahassee and a t the house just working on a few beats and we get a call from Ivan who is one of our managers saying that Ross is going to come over and listen to some beats. So were in this little college neighborhood and Ross comes through with the crew in the black tinted van deep. He sits down on the couch and we started going through some beats and he was just loving them. That was the very same night he came up with the concept for “Maybach Music” he picked out that beat and I believe “Luxury Tax” too. It was crazy because here we are living in a little small house in Tallahassee on the come up and here comes Ross looking for beats.
24: You kind of took me into my next questions because I was going to ask you guys did you hand craft those beats for Ross or did you have them already with no one really in mind?
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Rook): We had those records before hand but we did craft them for him like for example the original “Maybach Music” that you have heard does not sound anything like the one we first played for him that day. When we played it for him there was a sample now we replayed it and there is no sample in there at all. “Billionaire” was hand crafted for him and really while we were mixing that record he came in and was like he needs a big drop right here so while in Patchwerk studios in Atlanta we took out the keyboards and went to work right there on the spot.
24: Tell me about the new single you guys did for Ross “Magnificent” and how that record came about and who idea was it to get John Legend on the hook which came out perfect?
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Colione): We was out in Atlanta and we was kind of inspired by the movie “Notorious”. So when we got home we were like if B.I.G. was alive what type of music would he rap too? An thats one of the tracks that came out after that night of watching the movie and as soon as Ross heard it he had an idea for it. We were working with Ross at the time and we presented it to him and he loved it. An as far as John Legend is concerned Ross had a real good ear for music. Since we played “Maybach Music” for him back in Tallahassee he already had the concept of “MaybachMusic” in his head and who he wanted on the song. He’s got a great sense of who would sound good on a certain record so as soon as he heard that he knew he was going to put John Legend on it. He’s a genius with that!
24: I know you guys have been working with Ross on this third album so tell so more tracks you guys did and who else have you been working with?
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Rook): Lil Wayne for his new Rock album, Mary J. Blidge for her new album, Drake, Plies, Fabolous, and Yo Gotti.
24: How did you guys ended up working on the 2Pistols project and is he signed to you guys production company?
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Rook): Yeah, actually 2Pistols is an artist from Tampa, FL where we are from and we actually went to a Hip Hop Award show in Tampa and we were presented an award and we knew 2Pistols since he was younger as well and he always wanted to rap. He had a song but he wasn’t making any moves with the song and we heard the potential of the song so we actually called him and flew him up and started working with him. As soon as we seen how he worked we decided to do a production deal with him and then we signed a deal with Universal and put his album out.
24: I’m sure a lot of up and coming artist and producers will be definitely trying to get the attention of you guys so I wanted to know what does J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League look for when your looking to sign or not sign an artist or producer to bring up your wing?
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Rook): As of now we don’t have any producers under us, I don’t know if thats a pride thing because there are a lot of producers out there that do that and its nothing wrong with it but we just like to be real has on with our stuff, we even engineer our own stuff as well. As far as artist we have Prime and Supa Show out of Tampa and Slim-E out of Orlando right now so were working on there projects.
24: A lot of producers sample but I always here about you guys going in the studio and replay them so do you feel thats one the things that separates you this production team from the rest?
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Kenny): I think that fact that we play instruments does not separate us but the fact that we pay attention to details when we do replay these samples does separate us from the rest. Because a lot of time when you here the stuff we do its not really replayed it more like rearranged and we make thin into out own compositions!
24: Outside of each other who influences you guys?
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Rook): That’s a good question because you said outside of each other and we all have different influences, I can get influenced from different artist and different types of music from here in the states to outside of the country.
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Kenny): going back to the last question a bit because we all have different influence and they all range so widely and that makes us so different and when we come to the table everyone puts in something new. I grew up listening to Jazz breaks and the first CD I bought was from Miles Davis so I had that influence as well as fusion and Rock.
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Colione): I listen to a lot of underground bands and different things of that nature.
24: I remember one of you guys were actually an artist so are you still working on your own solo project?
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Colione): That would be me but I retired from being an upfront man but I still use my skills to help out with hooks etc for which ever artist we are working with.
24: Tell me a record that you guys do not produced that you wish you did?
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Rook): What’s the number 1 record out right now, that one(lol)!
24: Good answer……..
24: What’s next for you guys in 2009?
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League(Rook): Wait for that “Maybach Music 2” its going to mess a lot of people up. I’m not trying to toot our own horns but trust me!
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